New Releases Spotlight: Week of March 23, 2015

First…   a big THANK YOU to all for supporting WDCB during our Spring Pledge Drive!  Your support ensures we keep bringing you the best in jazz, including new releases.  This week in The Music Lounge, music director Paul Abella takes a look at recent recordings from Dave Stryker, Omer Avital, and Michael Wolff/Mike Clark.

If one wants to make a genuinely hard grooving jazz album these days, it you want guitarist Dave Stryker along for the ride.  He’s just put out a stellar tribute to Stanley Turrentine, Messin’ with Mister T, and he’s invited a bunch of great tenor players to help: Bob Mintzer, Chris Potter, Jimmy Heath, Houston Person, Don Braden and a guy with Chicago ties, Eric Alexander.  Stryker was Turrentine’s guitarist for about a decade from the mid ‘80s to mid ‘90s, so this heartfelt tribute is personal.  Turrentine classics abound, including "Sugar," "Salt Song," "Gibralter," "Let It Go," and of course, "Don’t Mess With Mister T."  It’s a fantastic disc, and you’ll be hearing a lot of it on WDCB in the coming weeks.

Bassist (and sometimes oud player) Omer Avital has been on the New York scene for a couple of decades now, and with his latest release, New Song, he’s poised for a big breakthrough.  Avital’s writing style blends Arabic, Israeli and Jazz rhythms together in ways that make their fusion seamless.  The front line of Joel Frahm (tenor) and Avishai Cohen (trumpet) is on fire throughout this disc, and the music here is breathtaking.

 

Finally, Michael Wolff and Mike Clark have released their second volume of their collaboration, Wolff & Clark Expedition 2.  Wolff was one of Cannonball Adderley’s last keyboardists, and Mike Clark famously drove Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters on the second album, Thrust.  Between the two of them, the disc generates an awful lot of imagination and funk.  That.  Their combined imagination is evident in some pretty curious readings of "In Walked Bud" and "A Night in Tunisia," and the funky side is present on Prince’s "1999" (and more).  There’s a lot to enjoy on this disc, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you on WDCB!

Next week, Paul will be back in The Music Lounge with new releases on the jazz label Posi-Tone Records, and the latest from Chicago vocalist Keri Johnsrud.