New Releases Spotlight: Week of June 1, 2015
This week in The Music Lounge, music director Paul Abella takes a look at new releases from a current Chicagoan, a former Chicagoan, and a guitarist who has long been a Chicago (and WDCB) favorite:
That guitarist is Joshua Breakstone. Through the years, he’s put out plenty of tasty albums, and now we can add another one to the list. 2nd Avenue is his latest on Capri, and it features Breakstone with a unique quartet made up of guitar, bass, drums and…cello. The cellist, Mike Richmond, only pops up on a few tracks, but it’s such an unusual sound that he makes his presence known immediately. Jazz fans have a lot to like, with songs from the pens of Lee Konitz, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Clark and Dexter Gordon, alongside a couple of nice versions of standards. "The Lamp Is Low" really stands out nicely here.
Kurt Elling may be living in New York these days, but he’s still beloved here in Chicago, so I’m assuming that there will be a lot of talk about his latest release on Concord Records, Passion World. This new disc finds Elling stretching in some interesting ways. He sings songs from Scotland, Ireland, France, Cuba, Brazil and even Iceland. I’ve long been a fan of jazz interpretations of Bjork’s music, and that continues here with one of the high points of the disc, "Who Is It." The arrangement of "La Vie En Rose" is truly a treat.
Finally, Chicago mainstay, saxophonist Frank Catalano, has a new disc out with drummer Jimmy Chamberlin called God’s Gonna Cut You Down. For those of you not familiar with Chamberlin, he started off as a jazz drummer before joining the Smashing Pumpkins, who were world-conquering rock heroes throughout the ‘90s. He’s back to his jazz roots with Catalano, and I can’t imagine a better pairing. Catalano’s huge sound and manic energy are a perfect match for a drummer used to playing intricate grooves with a fair amount of muscle. As they did on their last disc together (Love Supreme Collective), there’s more than a slight nod to Coltrane, but the feel here is straight up late 60’s/early 70’s Chicago jazz – Gene Ammons’ "The Black Cat," George Freeman’s "Birth Sign," Eddie Harris’ "High Voltage"…they’re all influences worn right on Catalano’s sleeve throughout God’s Gonna Cut You Down. And if you dig the funky, earthy, gritty sounds off those albums, well, then, you’ll have an awful lot to love here too.
Paul will have more new releases next week from Lorin Cohen, The Bad Plus and Joshua Redman in The Music Lounge. ‘Til next time… keep your ears open!
