New Releases Spotlight: Week of August 10, 2015

This week in The Music Lounge, music director Paul Abella reviews three new and exciting releases.

Let’s start off with one of my favorite organists, New York’s Mike LeDonne.  He’s been playing with former Chicagoan Eric Alexander for a while now, and those two are joined by Peter Bernstein on guitar, Joe Farnsworth on drums, and on a couple of tracks, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and saxophonist Vincent Herring.  His new album, AwwlRIGHT! is exactly what you want out of a groovin’ organ record.  The title track is funky mid-tempo organ blues that hits the spot nicely.  LeDonne always seems to have a penchant for picking less than obvious pop and R&B tunes for his discs, and he doesn’t disappoint here, doing very tasty (and unexpectedly bright) versions of "You Are So Beautiful" and The Spinners’ classic, "Love Don’t Love Nobody."

It’s pretty rare that new vocalists stop me in my tracks.  But that’s exactly what Indra Rios-Moore has done with her debut, Heartland.  Boasting a band of young talent from Denmark and the US, Rios-Moore is making some interesting music.  The easiest comparison is with Cassandra Wilson, at least in terms of feel, where she melds jazz with a decidedly country sensibility.  There are a couple of early Ellington gems on the disc, "Azure" and "Solitude," that get really nice treatments.  But for me the standout track is her version of David Bowie’s "Heroes."  Taken at a glacially slow tempo, she milks the words for everything they’re worth, and the results are breathtaking. 

Finally, it’s not every day that we get to mention one of our own, so I’m glad to tell you about the newest disc from the Jeff Benedict Big Big Band, Holmes.  Saxophonist and leader Jeff Benedict picked players from all over the country in assembling this album, and in the trumpet section is none other than College of DuPage’s director of jazz studies Tom Tallman.  The band has great arrangements covering a wide variety of music, from Sting’s "Seven Days" to Pat Metheny’s "Jaco" and a nice version of the standard "Easy Living," to a gorgeous take on John Coltrane’s "Naima."  Dr. Tallman gets to blow on the title track, "Holmes," and he sounds fantastic.  I think you’re gonna like this one!

Next week in The Music Lounge, I’ll review new releases Nick Finzer and Donald Vega.  ‘Til then… keep your ears open!