Jazz April: week 2 listening

Plenty more jazz sounds bouncing around the apartment this week.
Yusef Lateef: 1984 (Impulse)
I had been on the lookout for this one for a while now (due to the presence of Mike Nock) and picked it up as part of a 2-for-1 reissue paired with The Golden Flute. There's a lot of variety here - straight up blowing of "Soul Sister," oboe and flute exotica of "Try Love," the juxtaposition of "One Little Indian," the balladry of "Warm Fire" and the searching title track - makes for a very interesting album.

Quest: Circular Dreaming (Enja)
For those unfamiliar, Quest is the long-standing group of David Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure and Billy Hart and here they focus on tunes of the 60s quintet of Miles Davis (with two thirds of the tunes coming from Wayne Shorter). And while it may be a tribute album, Quest have developed a band sound (over the past 35 years) that places a personal stamp the music. Later in the week I gave some of the tracks back-to-back listens with the original recordings by Miles' group.

Sal Mosca: Too Marvelous for Words (Candence)
This week it has been disc 3 as I make my way through the 5 disc set. I think solo piano is my preferred setting to hear Mosca - and he's really on form throughout this entire set. We're lucky he made a number of solo recordings (Sal Mosca Music, A Concert, For You, Trickle, Recital in Valhalla). Check out the opening chorus of "There Will Never Be Another You" - too marvelous indeed.

Marilyn Crispell & David Rothenberg: One Dark Night I Left My Silent House (ECM)
A very nice set of 13 improvisations between bass clarinet/clarinet and piano (with some percussion). I got this on a whim recently mostly due to my interest in duos. While I'm somewhat familiar with Crispell (having heard her live and on a few albums), I hadn't heard Rothenberg before and found the two paired well. The improvisations contain strong melodic content and a nice amount of space making for a very enjoyable album.

Charlie Haden & Hank Jones: Steal Away (Verve)
I felt like something mellow and melodic, and this album of spirituals, hymns and folk songs hit the spot. If I have one complaint about this album, it is the way the piano recorded.... it seems muted or watery.

Lenny Popkin is a favorite of mine (great sound and lines and so relaxed) and this week I had a session listening to a selection of tracks from his trio albums (LP on tenor throughout with bassists Rich Califano, Eddie Gomez and Gilles Naturel and drummers Peter Scattaretico, Carol Tristano and Philippe Soirat).

317 East 32nd {originally released on Choice as Falling Free} "Dreaming" and "Everything Reminds Me of You"

Lenny Popkin (Lifeline Records): "Trio" and "I Surrender Dear"

New York Moment (Paris Jazz Productions): "Origin" and "Another Time"
Live at Intone Festival (PAO): "Out of Nowhere" and "When You're Smiling"
Time Set (Lifeline Records): "Call" and "Circular Logic" (the latter features multi-tracked solo saxophone)