Opening the mail, I glanced at the hype sheet in one package, and found myself reading a desperate cry for help. From Luke Kaven, at Smalls Records:

September 2009 finds the label surviving, but just barely. The state of the international jazz record market has reached a critical state where we feel that independent jazz record labels can no longer be run according to a traditional for-profit formula. New ideas, and new sources of funding will have to be found in order to survive. [ . . . ] The sad thing is that those of us who perform the mundane tasks cannot afford to sacrifice any further for the artistic well being of others, and that expenses are likely to be passed back to the musician. Feel free to offer your suggestions for how we might survive the next year.

Now, I'm in no position to audit Smalls Records or any other label. I do know that the number of small labels like Smalls has actually grown since the mid-1990s, as has the number of working jazz musicians. I don't doubt that most are marginal as businesses, fueled more by passion for the art than greed. At least some are subsidized by other jobs. But when I look at the bottom line for my little writing business, Kaven's letter strikes me as whiney. Still, it's worth noting that the forty-some records Smalls has released since 2004 include quite a few gems and only one dud I'm aware of, and that most of these records would never have been released but for the efforts of Kaven. The most obvious example is Frank Hewitt, a pianist who died in 2002 with nothing under his name. Kaven's released five albums of old Hewitt tapes, all pretty good. He coaxed Teddy Charles back into the studio after a 50-year absence. He released a couple of records by a saxophonist who immediately left New York for the greener pastures of Armenia. Again, there are other labels doing the same sorts of things. If Kaven has a handicap it's that he focuses on the subtlest details of mainstream postbop, territory that most others have beat to death. On the other hand, anyone with a taste for 1950s bebop, which is still the mother lode of jazz (other claims from New Orleans to Norway notwithstanding) will be comfortable here.

Anyhow, one thing I can do is to pull out the Jazz Consumer Guide archive of Smalls Records. Since July 2004 Smalls has placed five records in the A-section, including one pick hit (Chris Byars: Photos in Black, White and Gray), plus two Honorable Mentions. Below you'll find all of them plus a bit more: Zaid Nasser and Fat Cat Big Band have two records each that didn't make my space cut last time, so are planned for the next Jazz CG. I've also included the "off list": records I've prospected but haven't yet reviewed in Jazz Consumer Guide.

Omer Avital: The Ancient Art of Giving (Smalls) The second installment in Avital's archives, Room to Grow, starts to make the case for the Israeli bassist as a catalyst for cutting edge postbop in the late '90s, but this is the album where the payoff comes clear. His quintet is structured for hard bop, but he lets the rhythm slosh around, and once they get warmed up, Mark Turner's tenor sax and Avishai Cohen's trumpet, break loose. A-

Chris Byars: Photos in Black, White and Gray (Smalls) Referencing Gigi Gryce's alto sax and Lucky Thompson's tenor, Byars finds new niches in bebop, picking up threads from the 1950s that got pummeled by hard bop, discarded altogether by the avant-garde, then buried under whatever passes for postbop these days. Much as bebop developed underground in places like Minton's where musicians gathered to play for each other, the same dynamic developed at Smalls in the '90s, connecting a new generation to unreconstructed veterans like Frank Hewitt and through them to the foundations of modern jazz. Tapping into the process, Byars sounds fresh even working in such a well-worn form. A-

Frank Hewitt: We Loved You (2001, Smalls) Hewitt was one of countless guys who spent their lives playing in obscure dives, never lucking or bulling into the spotlight. For nine years up to his death in 2002 he worked and sometimes lived at Smalls, an after-hours club in NYC, garnering fans like Luke Kaven, who founded this label to right the wrong that Hewitt had never released a record. It's easy enough to guess why biz pros passed: Their ideal pianist is a young guy with a distinct edge -- a Brad Mehldau or a Jason Moran. Hewitt sounds warm and comfy, like someone you'd cast for atmosphere before cutting back to the plot. But because he never gets corny or sentimental, he cuts himself a distinctive niche after all. A-

Frank Hewitt: Fresh From the Cooler (1996, Smalls) A bebop pianist who almost slipped through 66 years of life without leaving a trace, Hewitt built enough of a cult during his Smalls residency to inspire a label in no small part dedicated to his legacy. His fourth posthumous release features a trio that steps gingerly around jazz standards such as "Cherokee" and "Monk's Mood" -- nothing fancy, just a rare touch with for melodic nuance. A-

Ari Hoenig: The Painter (Smalls) Led by the drummer, but Guadeloupean Jacques Schwarz-Bart could write a book on state-of-the-art tenor sax, and French pianist Jean-Michel Pilc can dazzle even when he's dutifully helping out. Recorded live at Fat Cat, it sneaks up on you, like the realization that you've just had a real good time. A-

Zaid Nasser: Escape From New York (Smalls) An alto saxophonist who risks sounding like Charlie Parker and winds up showing how it should be done. He taps Ellington for two tunes, wails through "Chinatown My Chinatown," plucks a barnburner from oldtime bebop pianist George Wallington, strings them together with a couple of originals, including one from pianist Sacha Perry. Not a tribute. More like 55th Street is back in business. A-

Honorable Mention

Ari Roland: And So I Lived in Old New York . . . (Smalls) The Chris Byars Quartet, bass-ackwards. [A-]

Zaid Nasser: Off Minor (Smalls) Classical bebopper, smoother and slicker than Bird, not in such a hurry. [A-]

Harry Whitaker: One Who Sees All Things (1981-82, Smalls) Avant-fusion, reverting to the true radicalism of bebop. [B+(***)]

Fat Cat Big Band: Meditations on the War for Whose Great God Is the Most High You Are God / Angels Praying for Freedom (Smalls) Two separate discs, crossing Ellington and Mingus for postbop swing and back-to-the-future politics. [B+(**)]

Off List

These are other Smalls records I prospected and rated but didn't write CG reviews of -- although a couple are still in play, and the U items I haven't gotten to yet. This is pretty close to the complete catalog (exceptions I'm aware of: Omer Klein: Heart Beats; Neal Miner: Evening Sound; Sacha Perry: Eretik). Recording dates provided. I just alphabetized them within grade slots, and didn't try to figure out where the pre-star B+ items rank.

B+(***)

• Omer Avital: Room to Grow (1997)
• Frank Hewitt: Four Hundred Saturdays (1999)
• Frank Hewitt: Out of the Clear Black Sky (2000)
• Ruslan Khain: For Medicinal Purposes Only! (2008)
• Omer Klein: Introducing Omer Klein (2007)
• Eric McPherson: Continuum (2007)

B+(**)

• Yaala Ballin: Travlin' Alone (2009)
• Chris Byars: Night Owls (2001-02)
• Chris Byars: Jazz Pictures at an Exhibition of Himalayan Art (2007)
• Teddy Charles: Dances With Bulls (2008)
• Gil Coggins: Better Late Than Never (2001-02)
• Charles Davis: Land of Dreams (2006)
• Sacha Perry: The Third Time Around (2007)
• Ari Roland: Sketches From a Bassist's Album (2005)
• Frank Senior: Listening in the Dark (2007)
• Third World Love: Sketch of Tel Aviv (2005)

B+(*)

• Omer Avital: Asking No Permission (1996)
• Adam Birnbaum: Travels (2008)
• Ned Goold: March of the Malcontents (2005)
• Gilad Hekselman: Split Life (2006)
• Fabio Morgera: Need for Peace (2007)
• Sacha Perry: Not Brand X (2006)
• Harry Whitaker: Thoughts (Past and Present) (2007)

B+

• William Ash: The Phoenix (2004)
• Neal Caine: Backstabber's Ball (2005)
• Sasha Dobson: The Darkling Thrush (2004)
• Ned Goold: The Flows (2004)
• Frank Hewitt: Not Afraid to Live (2002)

B

B-

• Across 7 Street: Made in New York (2004)

U

• Dan Aran: Breathing (2009)
• Stacey Dillard: One (2008)
• Ari Roland: New Music (2009)