The Listening Guide
🎶 The listening guide: five albums, released during the past twelve months, chosen around a weekly theme 🎶
This week, a fresh batch of quartet records from five fantastic and unique four-piece outfits. Finnish pianist, composer, and bandleader Riitta Paakki’s new album Piste kicks things off, followed by New York-based bassist Barry Stephenson’s LP The Iconoclast. As is evident, a formidable line-up has been assembled for Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1, which is also true of Trish Clowes’ Ninety Degrees Gravity, with the saxophonist and leader joined by Chris Montague, Ross Stanley, and James Maddren. The latest LP from tenor and altoist Benny Rubin, Jr., which features an intense piece inspired by the water crisis in his city of birth and a reworking of Joe Henderson’s Inner Urge, rounds off our five picks. You can support each and every record on Bandcamp!
Riitta Paakki Quartet – Piste
Barry Stephenson – The Iconoclast
Daniel Carter/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Gerald Cleaver – Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1
Album of the Week
Our NQ Jazz album of the week is the debut album from Toronto-based vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Emily Steinwall. In addition to Steinwall (voice, saxophone, flute) the record features guitarist Joey Martel, pianist and keys player Yunjin Claire Lee, bassist David Maclean, and drummer Eric West, plus additional guests. You can support the project on Bandcamp!
Classic Album
Leonard Feathers’ opening liner notes to this week’s NQ Jazz classic album read: “In this world of ordinary singers, I’m glad there is Mavis.” Rivers’ outstanding 1961 LP features beautifully blended big band horns and an astounding vocal performance, clearly captured, with Rivers’ deep vibrato and fantastic storytelling evident. The stand out tune may well be Day in, Day Out, but you may feel differently! You can find the record on streaming services, nestled within the first disc of Mavis Rivers The Reprise Years.