These four? Really? Not since Diz, Bird, Bud, Mingus, and Max convened in 1953 as ‘The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever,’ has there been such a meeting of the minds. “Supergroup” barely scratches the surface of the debut performance at Brooklyn’s Ornithology of tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, guitarist Lage Lund, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. These four bright lights have been illuminating the future of jazz in many projects for years now. As the latest addition to Giant Step Arts and its Modern Masters and New Horizons series, Live In Brooklyn, by The Fury, was the last great jazz album of 2024. They got the name of their band from the 1929 William Faulkner novel, The Sound and the Fury. Ballads, swing, post-bop, funk: it’s all here. They get looser as the album evolves, as each of the last three tracks are over 11 minutes.
Welcome to Sadie’s Gentlemen’s Club. Volume No. 6 of this Atomicat Records pre-1963 series is subtitled Weird. These long-ago and far-away sides deserve to be unearthed, polished off, and enjoyed again. The “Weird” title tune by Bob Vidone & The Rhythm Rockers gives way to Hots Lips Page leading his orchestra through “I Wanna Ride Like The Cowboys Do” – and they ain’t talkin’ ‘bout riding horses! Song after song celebrates Sadie’s, where the adult fun takes place in back rooms like “Tight Skirt and Sweater” by The Versatones, “Let Me Bang Your Box” by The Toppers, and “Don’t Take My Whiskey Away” by Wynonie Harris. Most are from long-forgotten regional artists, but stars like Eddie Cochran, The Shirelles, and Wilbert Harrison show up, too. Tough to pick a highlight, but Al Hendrix’s “Monkey Bite” takes the cake.
This gal’s got it all! Petra Onderuf comes from Slovakia in Central Europe, a landlocked country bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Austria, and the Czech Republic. She’s a violinist extraordinaire and it’s been a lifelong dream of hers to make an album consisting of her own compositions. An Odd Time Of Day (Kaipati Records) gives her that platform – 11 tracks in 65:52, all hers, with her flying fiddle ascending to the heavens in front of a piano-bass-drums setting. Two tracks have a guest sax, three others have a guest trumpet. Petra loves to confuse the genres like a master: there’s a seamless sweet spot between certain kinds of classical and certain kinds of jazz. She’s found it.
The Edible Flowers of the Jessica Jones Quartet will get you high. It’s a complex route through six jams with no chords starring the husband-wife sax team of Jessica and Tony Jones with drummer Deszon Claiborne and bassist Stomu Takeishi. “Manhattan” approximates the hustle’n’bustle of the greatest city in the world. Jessica’s previous forays in Haitian, Caribbean, and African music informs her playing to the point where her phrasing and unique glides and swoops and guttural moans becomes the focal point against her husband’s more polished approach.
This third installment of Posi-Tone’s Blue Moods series, Force & Grace, produced by Marc Free, sets its sights on one of the great trumpeters of the 20th Century. All 12 tracks are by Freddie Hubbard [1938-2008] as interpreted by the quintet of Diego Rivera (tenor and soprano sax), Art Hirahara/Jon Davis (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums). Notice: no trumpet. Highly recommended.
