New Releases Spotlight: Week of December 5, 2016

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

Hey everyone!  Let’s check out three grooving new releases that we’re playing on WDCB these days…

Mr. Alto Madness himself, Richie Cole, has a new, and beautiful record that’s just made its way to us.  Richie Cole Plays Ballads and Love Songs is about as straight forward a title as you can get, and the music inside doesn’t disappoint.  Joined by guitarist Eric Suseoff, bassist Mark Perna and drummer Vince Taglieri, this is a disc of well-played standards that we all know and love.  "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," "Alfie," "Emily," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" are all classics, played lovingly by Richie.  It’s a nice disc to turn to when you just want things to be mellow for a while. 

One of my favorite trumpet players on the scene, Dave Douglas, has a new disc out with his quintet called Brazen Heart.  Douglas’ band is stacked with talent, Matt Mitchell is a great pianist, Linda Oh is an outstanding bassist, and drummer Rudy Royston (who has been on too many great records to count lately).  Jon Irabagon, who spent some time in Chicago, is the current tenor saxophonist in the band.  On a disc made up primarily of Douglas’s material, there’s a real Monk-ish feel to a lot of the tunes, especially on "Inure Phase" and "Variable Current."  "Miracle Gro" is a fantastic jam that goes through multiple feels in (a too short) 8 minutes.

Finally, The Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra has put out a second volume of the music of David Baker, the legendary head of the jazz program at Indiana University who passed earlier this year.  Listening to the album, Basically Baker, Vol. 2, we hear the influence of some of the great big band writers in jazz history, especially Don Ellis and Thad Jones.  "The Georgia Peach" and "Terrible T" are personal favorites, but there is a lot to like here.  I am sure you’ll be hearing this one, not only on ‘DCB Jazz, but on New Vintage (Sunday nights with Bill O’Connell) as well.  I hope you’re as impressed with this one as I am!

Next week, we’ll talk about three new holiday-themed releases that we’re playing this year, including the latest from Kurt Elling! ‘Til then, keep your ears open!