What's New on WDCB... with Paul Abella

If you still haven’t done the Christmas shopping for the Jazz fan on your list, head on over to your local independently owned record store and pick up one of these. Or all of these. Better yet, buy one for them and one for you! Merry Christmas!

Keith Jarrett At The Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings (Verve/ECM)

Originally, Keith Jarrett at the Deer Head Inn was a single disc, in the trio format, with Gary Peacock on bass, playing standards, but with a unique twist: It was the first time that Jarrett had played with drummer Paul Motian since their days together in the “American Quartet” of the 1970’s. The results were spontaneous and intoxicating. And so it made sense that a second volume was made available in 2024 with the release of the CD The Old Country. Now, both of those albums are together, on vinyl, spread over four LP’s, back when standards-era Keith Jarrett was in his prime.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Vibrations in the Village: Live at The Village Gate (Resonance Records)

This is yet another one of those super deluxe Resonance Records deluxe releases with amazing photos, informative essays, and of course, some knock-out music, this time from Roland Kirk, in his pre-Rahsaan years. Kirk, as always, is on numerous wind instruments both familiar and not, and he’s joined by either Horace Parlan, Mel Rhyne or Jane Getz on piano, depending on the track, Henry Grimes on bass and Sonny Brown on drums. You get Roland Kirk on standards like “Falling in Love with Love,” “Laura” and “All the Things You Are,” alongside Kirk classics like “Kirk’s Delight” and “Three for the Festival,” but most importantly, you get Rahsaan Roland Kirk that you haven’t heard before!
(see also: Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Seek and Listen: Live at the Penthouse)

Horace Silver - Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (Blue Note)

Over the past few years, you might have noticed that The Penthouse in Seattle had a lot of their sets recorded, recorded quite well, and that Zev Feldman has found the tapes. Well, thank the heavens for all of the above, because we’re blessed with this collection from Blue Note Records, Silver in Seattle. And, y’all, this band…Woody Shaw’s on trumpet, Joe Henderson’s on tenor, Teddy Smith is on bass, Lex Humphries is playing drums, and I’ll give you three guesses as to who the piano player is. That band is pure molten lava, and hearing them on “The Kicker,” “Sayonara Blues,” and of course, “Song for My Father” is revelatory.