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Jazz Consumer Guide (14):
Surplus

This is the surplus file for Jazz Consumer Guide #14. These are short reviews of records that for one reason or another have been dropped from active consideration while working on this column. These reviews will be published in the blog when the column comes out.

Alvin Batiste: Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste (2006 [2007], Marsalis Music/Rounder): Released along with a Bob French tribute, which nabbed an honorable mention right with a slight edge over this. Then Batiste, a veteran New Orleans clarinetist who had rarely been recorded well, passed away, making this all the more valuable. B+(**)

Stefano Bollani: Piano Solo (2005, [2007], ECM): An attractive, eloquent album, well crafted, patiently executed, enough to overcome my congenital resistance to solo piano, but still didn't quite inspire me to write about it. B+(**)

Harry Connick Jr.: Chanson du Vieux Carré (2003 [2007], Marsalis Music/Rounder): A big band album of old New Orleans, dusted off post-Katrina and sloughed off on Connick's B-label, where he had to get others to take the vocals. I ultimately decided that the A-label Oh, My Nola (2006 [2007], Columbia) was slightly better overall, then wound up using neither. B+(**)

Joel Futterman/Alvin Fielder/Ike Levin Trio: Live at the Blue Monk (2006, Charles Lester Music): An old-fashioned avant-garde trio, which is to say they like to make a racket in additional to wheeling and dealing freely. Futterman is a pianist of the Cecil Taylor school; Levin a saxophonist who can get dirty; Fielder has his AACM credentials. I always dig their records, but somehow never get around to writing about them. B+(**)

Gold Sparkle Trio With Ken Vandermark: Brooklyn Cantos (2002 [2004], Squealer): The Trio already has a fine saxophonist in Charles Waters, as well as a superb drummer in Andrew Barker. Adding Vandermark doubles the fun, but this was old when I got it and kept slipping behind newer records. B+(***)

Dave Holland Quintet: Critical Mass (2005 [2006], Dare2/Sunnyside): Seems like Holland is such a big name this should have been dealt with in a more timely fashion, but I was real slow on the uptake, or maybe just fascinated with the idea of cutting it down. Ultimately, there's just too much talent here for that. B+(***)

Jerry Leake: The Turning: Percussion Explorations (2005 [2006], Rhombus Publishing): Nine out of ten jazz musicians claim to be educators these days, but Leake really is one, and this is a world-class textbook on percussion. B+(***)

Abbey Lincoln: Abbey Sings Abbey (2006 [2007], Verve): Aside from We Insist -- Freedom Now, under husband Max Roach's name, I've never found a record by her that I've really cared for. At first these were disappointing; over time they became annoying. She does have her fans, including critics I rarely argue with, so I figure my resistance to her is just one of those weird personal quirks. For whatever it's worth, I think this is her best record, at least of the half-dozen or so I've heard. The songs are field-tested, the arrangements cleverly developed. Her voice is rougher than it used to be, and I think that helps. Francis Davis wrote a rave in the Voice already. I don't see much value in adding my lukewarm consent. B+(***)

Roswell Rudd & Yomo Toro: El Espíritu Jíbaro (2002-06 [2007], Sunnyside): One of Rudd's world music match-ups, with Bobby Sanabria reinforcing Toro's Puerto Rican country beat, and Rudd just being the great trombonist he's always been. Better than his beatless Mali album; not as intriguing a mix as those Mongolian throat singers. Francis Davis reviewed this among a bunch of Rudd records in the Voice, and I wrote plenty on this in RG. B+(***)

David Smith Quintet: Circumstance (2005 [2006], Fresh Sound New Talent): Young Canadian trumpet player gets a nice coming out party, with a strong assist from saxophonist Seamus Blake. B+(***)

Toph-E & the Pussycats: Live in Detroit (2004 [2006], CD Baby): Basically a funk band, not all that special, but fun enough I was long tempted to slip them in somewhere. B+(**)

Lars-Göran Ulander Trio: Live at the Glenn Miller Café (2004 [2005], Ayler): Swedish saxophonist, a local legend from the 1960s, given a shot at a headline album, which he aces. Between the obscurity and the competition, I never got back to this. The label has since moved into a new download-only business model, which is a shame given the nice packaging. Also given the distaste I have for downloading. B+(***)

Other Drops

Also dropping the following. Don't have anything to add to what was previously said in the prospecting notes (for this or some previous Jazz CG cycle).

Finally, the following appeared (or soon will) in Recycled Goods: