What's New on WDCB... with Paul Abella

Joe Clark Big Band – Black and Cardinal (self-produced)

Chicago based musician, composer, arranger, bandleader and even comic book writer Joe Clark has been busy over the course of the last couple of years. His latest project, Black and Cardinal was recently released, and this band is a phenomenal who’s who of Chicago’s best Jazz musicians. Through its six movements, it looks at DeKalb, IL (home of the prestigious NIU Jazz program), Duke Ellington, who gave his last concert in DeKalb, and activist Fred Hampton, who gave one of his last speeches in DeKalb. The writing here is thoughtful, evocative, and swinging. My favorites are the two portraits at the center of the suite: “The Duke and Mr. Ellington” and “Fred Hampton,” but the music throughout is top notch. I usually use this space to tell you what you’ll be hearing on WDCB, but with this one, I’ll go one step further and tell you that you should seek this one out and get it for your own home collection. You’ll be glad you did. Black and Cardinal is that good.

Milton Suggs – Pure Intention (Imani Records)

One-time Chicagoan Milton Suggs is now based in New York, and he’s making some lovely music, as is evidenced by his latest disc, Pure Intention. Joined by pianist Michael King (also a former Chicago resident), Suggs largely showcases his new lyrics to some Jazz classics both new(ish) and old. Suggs’ biggest success here is the fact that these lyrics don’t feel out of place, even on stalwarts like Benny Golson’s “Along Came Betty,” or Kenny Garrett’s “Sing a Song of Song.” Two Horace Silver compositions, “Pretty Eyes” and “Sunrise in Malibu” both fare quite well. “Change Your Mind” is fully composed by Milton, and I hope it is a hint of things to come, because Suggs acquits himself well, both as a lyricist and as a composer.

Zaccai Curtis – Cubop Lives! (Truth Revolution)

Pianist Zaccai Curtis has been playing on some excellent Afro-Cuban and Afro-Boricua Jazz albums as of late, and it’s fantastic to see him making his own album in that realm on the aptly named Cubop Lives! Joined by his brother Luques on bass and the three piece drum section of Willie Martinez III (timbales), Camilo Molina (congas & pandero) and Reinaldo DeJesus (bongos & small percussion). Curtis and company play exceedingly well on a program that includes originals, rearranged classics from Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, a handful of songs from the amazing Noro Morales, and even an excellent reinterpretation of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” In a year that has seen some fantastic Latin Jazz releases from the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective, Oscar Hernandez, Conrad Herwig and others, Cubop Lives! stands as one of the best and brightest of the year, with its strong grooves, tight solos and excellent choice of music.