All hail Marshall Chess! Now 83, the head of Chicago’s iconic Chess Records is at it again with Czyz Records (his original Polish family name before it was changed). New Moves, by The Chess Project, is a world-class blues lesson of old classics brought up to date by a sizzling hot band featuring longtime Stones backup singer Bernard Fowler, heavyweight lead guitarist Eric Gales, and members of the bands of no less than Santana, Patti Smith, Prince, Babyface, and Jeff Beck.
Israeli alto saxophonist-composer Tevet Sela has been wowin’ ‘em in Montreal for 14 years. His self-released self-produced all-original eighth album, Sweet Tears, is a doozy. (Purists can go sit in the corner.) This is a melting pot, traversing the joyousness of Klezmer music, Middle-Eastern scales, Rhythm’n’Blues, Latin Jazz, and gospel. His alto soars above his quartet (piano/bass/drums) like a bird in flight yet they stick to him like a second skin.
It’s About Time folks heard Brazilian singer-songwriter-guitarist Celso Salim’s terrific new Wide Track Records release with California singer-songwriter-harmonica player Darryl Carriere; after all, they’ve been making music together for 20 years now. Despite that, this is their first recording together. Producer Mike Hightower plays bass and drummer David Kida kicks it along with rough precision and the result is rollicking blues-rock – the kind you’d expect from Celso who has toured with Magic Slim and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Bravo!
There’s a reason that the Floridian JP Soars won the Blues Foundation’s 2009 “International Blues Challenge” – dude’s an entertainer, pure and simple, and it’s no surprise he stretches the blues into previously unimaginable pretzels on his Little Village Records debut, Brick By Brick. He actually improves upon Little Milton’s 1971 “That’s What Love Will Make You Do,” yet he’ll go all hillbilly on your ass with “Can’t Keep Her Off My Mind” where he puts down his electric guitar for a banjo that sounds so cool juxtaposed with the fiddle of Anne Harris. And he knows his Django, too, for he dredges up the ghost of that three-fingered 1930s gypsy guitarist on “Jezebel.” No limits when JP soars to new heights.
Drummer-Composer Alex Kautz grew up in Sao Paolo, thus his Brazilian side will always be prevalent. He moved to New York City in 2007 where he quickly ingratiated himself with the jazz elite. His Where We Began (Sunnyside Records) debut as a leader is a stunning synthesis of both worlds. He’s got an A-List team to effectuate his vision: sax-man John Ellis, pianist Helio Alves, bassist Joe Martin, guitarist Chico Pinheiro, and vocalist/co-producer Magos Herrera (on two tracks). As he says, “Sometimes it goes more jazz and sometimes more Brazilian. Without changing anyone’s sound, we found a way to play within the different influences of different cultures.” He alludes to the “openness” of the players and closes by saying, “within the jazz language, everything can come together.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Tain’s the man! Anything drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts does gon’ be great. George Benson, McCoy Tyner, Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis have all benefitted from his beats. Now comes WAW! (Hobby Horse Records, Denmark). It’s Tain with pianist Carl Winther (who wrote four of the five extended jams here) and Danish bassist Richard Andersson. The one cover is an old chestnut they’ve dusted off and polished to a modern sheen to make it shine once again: “My Old Flame” was written for Mae West by Arthur Johnston for the 1934 film Belle of the Nineties. It has since gone on to outlive the movie and become, in the process, a jazz standard, recorded by everyone from Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, to countless others. Here, the chemistry of these three comes to the fore as if they instinctively seem to know exactly where each other is going before they actually go – and they do that on all five jams.
