New Releases Spotlight: Week of November 21, 2016

This week in the Music Lounge, our music director Paul Abella’s reviews have an “All Chicago” focus!

This week in the New Releases Spotlight, I have three Chicago-area releases from Alyssa Allgood, JoAnn Daugherty and Mark Colby!

Vocalist Alyssa Allgood has put out her first full length album, Out of the Blue.   She’s joined by organist Dan Chase, guitarist Tim Fitzgerald, saxophonist Chris Madsen and drummer Matt Plaskota on a program of songs from the Blue Note catalog.  Some feature Allgood’s lyrics, like "Watch Me Walk Away" (Hank Mobley’s "Dig Dis") or "Noticing the Moment" (John Coltrane’s "Moment’s Notice"), and others feature great lyrics from Horace Silver ("Peace") or Jon Hendricks ("Moanin’").  My favorite moments are on the songs, such as Joe Henderson’s "If," where Allgood provides excellent wordless vocalizations.   There’s a lot to like here, and congratulations to Ms. Allgood on a fine disc!

Mark Colby’s no stranger to the Chicago Jazz scene.  His latest, All or Nothing At All, is an excellent album filled with a bunch of nice standards given new life by a great quartet – Colby on saxophone, Jeremy Kahn on piano, Eric Hochberg on bass and Bob Rummage on drums.  Monk’s Dream is excellent, as is one of my favorite Ellington tunes, Angelica, but a real treat is the arrangement of Cole Porter’s "Get Out of Town."  Likely, you’ll find treats that you like here, too!

Finally, in this “All Chicago” edition of New Releases Spotlight, we hear from pianist JoAnn Daugherty, whose new disc, Bring Joy, is wonderful!  Most of the disc features a trio with Daugherty, bassist Lorin Cohen and drummer Ryan Bennett.  They groove nicely.  Abdullah Ibrahim’s "Water From an Ancient Well" is excellent, and Stevie Wonder’s "The Secret Life of Plants" is a great pick, and it features guitarist Neal Alger as an added bonus.  This is a great disc.  I hope you dig it as much as I do! And be sure to join JoAnn for her CD Release Party (sponsored by WDCB) on Monday November 28 from 9pm to 1am at The Green Mill!

Drop by next week, and we’ll talk about new music from The Fat Babies and Larry Coryell! ‘Til then, keep your ears open!