New Releases Spotlight: Week of August 1, 2016

This week in the Music Lounge, our music director Paul Abella reviews three new releases!

Let’s start off with guitarist Peter Bernstein. He has a new one out called Let Loose.  As one would expect from Mr. Bernstein, this is a solidly straight ahead affair with some stellar sidemen – pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Bill Stewart.  These four guys weave their way through 9 tasty tunes with tons of taste.  There are some boogaloo-ish moments, such as on "Cupcake" and "Sweet Love of Mine," and some gorgeous ballad work on "Resplendor" and the classic "Tres Palabras."  The most swinging moment on Let Loose is the closing track, with a rousing version of the standard "This is New."  This is a really nice disc, well worth spending some time with.
 

I’m always looking forward to new Charlie Hunter albums, and his latest has a great title to go along with its great tunes: Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth (you can thank Mike Tyson for that quote).  Hunter’s latest is decidedly more mellow than past albums, but, as usual, it’s packed full of grit and grease and funky jams.  The title track is great, but for me, the best track on here is "The Guys Get Shirts."  Hope you dig this one as much as I do!

 

For those of you who are Blakey fans among us, you’re going to love The Black Art Jazz Collective’s disc, The Black Art Jazz Collective, Presented by the Side Door Jazz Club.  While the title might be a bit unwieldy, the music is anything but.  Wayne Escoffery, James Burton III and Jeremy Pelt make up a potent front line here, and both the writing and playing here is awesome.  "Going Somewhere" and "Double Consciousness" both feel like a cross between Blakey’s three horn front lines (think the Shorter – Hubbard – Fuller edition of the Jazz Messengers) and Wynton Marsalis’ band with Branford, Kenny Kirkland and Tain.  The ensemble work is muscular and exciting, and I, for one, would easily call this one of the best discs of 2016, so far.

…more to come soon, in The Music Lounge.  ‘Til next time, keep your ears open!