What do the names Moffett, Marsalis, Ammons, Brubeck, Rowles, Monk, Moncur, Drew and Coltrane have in common? They all represent families with two generations of jazz musicians. Like his bandmate Kenny Drew Jr., drummer Cody Moffett is playing the same instrument as his famous father. And also like Drew, Moffett is doing it by establishing his own style and identity. The drummer’s My Favorite Things (TCB) is a family affair, as the band includes brothers Charnett on bass and Mondre on trumpet. Guitarist Stanley Jordan, who’s been recently absent from the straightahead jazz scene, is back with his trebly bag of tricks and actually gets pretty spacey on the medium-tempo arrangement of “Naima.” The leader has recorded three original pieces here: “November in New York,” a showcase for vocalist Cherelle Shabazz (good voice, but it’s a shame she doesn’t have better lyrics to sing); a brisk 6/8 performance of “Simone,” which includes violinist Leonardo Suarez Paz; and the stirring “Jambalaya Suite,” which shows you can play free and out without becoming cacophonous. The only disappointment is the title track. The bass and drums lock up but the rest of this arrangement is a bit of funky fluff. It fades out with good reason.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading

Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes

Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro