Brass Tracks
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Louis Armstrong in Scandinavia Vol. 2
Louis Armstrong in Scandinavia Vol. 1
Storyville
It is good for the psyche to return now and then to the man who made jazz a soloist's art. We needn't go all the way back to Louis Armstrong's duets with King Oliver or his Hot Five recordings. The earliest of these previously unreleased performances find...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Take Me to the Land of Jazz
Delmark Records
Billy Butterfield, one of the great jazz trumpeters, is seldom mentioned these days, so this 1970s appearance with a Florida traditional band is a welcome reminder of his brilliance. He had unforgettable solos on recordings of "Stardust" with Artie Shaw...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Blue Notes
3Sixteen
In his mid-40s, Orbert Davis is a Chicago institution becom-ing more widely known elsewhere, in part through extra-curricular activities like arrang-ing music for the motion picture Road to Perdition. Still, he established himself as a gifted trumpeter...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Blues for Hawk
Delmark Records
This is trumpeter Yves Francois' album in name and in fact, but he organized these dates in the 1980s to give exposure to two Chicago saxophone heroes, Franz Jackson and Eddie Johnson. Some of the tracks were released 20 years ago on an obscure label. Several...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Gemini
Mack Avenue Records
On the brief "Gemini (Phase 1)," accompanied only by drummer E.J. Strickland, Sean Jones is all over his horn in an access of high, fast, busy, trumpet playing. The liner-note essay says, "He spits out a series of notes that swirl, dart and soar...." They...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
You Don't Know What Love Is
Louisiana Red Hot Records
First recorded at 19 by Columbia in the days when labels were chasing young talent in the wake of Wynton Marsalis, Marlon Jordan had heavy components of Marsalis and Miles Davis. He still has, but they are further beneath the surface of his style, which...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Identity
MaxJazz
Jeremy Pelt says in a news release that Identity concerns "the expectation that I have placed upon myself. More specifically, it deals with me finding my own identity." His young sidemen share his commitment to depart from the predictability of standard...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Live at the Blue Note
Half Note Records
On the CD/DVD combo release, Arturo Sandoval tells his DVD interviewer that the heart of his music is bebop. Working up an Afro-Cuban bop froth on several numbers, he and his hot young band prove the claim beyond a doubt. At a ferocious pace, "Eso Es Lo...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Accidentally Yours
McVouty
Jay Thomas plays trumpet, flugelhorn and a small arsenal of reed instruments. He is so good on tenor sax that a few years ago when the late Bill Perkins had to bow out of a Bud Shank record date, Thomas got the call. I once wrote that his artistry on trumpet...
October 2005 By Doug Ramsey
Yellow Dance
HeavyWood
Dick Titterington doesn't wear his technique on his sleeve, but his chops are apparent in demanding octave leaps on "Lose the Crowd," his wry wah-wah assertions and chromatic intervals on his 7/4 composition "Lunky" and his crisp dispatch of the tricky bridge...
