The Listening Guide
🎶 The listening guide: five albums, released during the past twelve months, chosen around a weekly theme 🎶
This week we have the latest edition of our tributes and continuations theme, featuring albums that recognise the importance of, or sometimes represent a continuation of the ethos of, a jazz luminary. The multiple award-winning vocalist Ledisi sings some of Nina Simone’s most fondly-remembered songs on Ledisi Sings Nina, including a rendition of Four Women alongside Lizz Wright, Alice Smith and Lisa Fischer, plus an atmospheric take on Feeling Good with the backing of the Metropole Orkest. In celebration of his 75th birthday, NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman presents nine newly-arranged and reimagined John Coltrane classics for the album Selflessness. Guitarist Nigel Price tackles the music of Wes Montgomery alongside his organ trio and guests including saxophonist Tony Kofi and percussionist Snowboy. The ten tunes on Wes Reimagined span Montgomery’s writing career and are given expansive arrangements, including string parts on certain tracks. David Sanford Big Band are joined by Hugh Ragin as they pay homage to the late trumpeter Lester Bowie, whom Ragin studied under in the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Sandford and Ragin conduct original compositions for big band, plus a rendition of “Dizzy” Gillespie’s Dizzy Atmosphere. On Discipline of Sun Ra, EABS pay tribute to the visionary bandleader and composer by reimagining seven pieces he composed between 1957 and 1979. They take the music into jazzy hip-hop territory with spoken word samples, punchy drum beats and electronics, but leave space for improvisation, as well as more conventional jazz rhythms and arrangements. You can find Ledisi’s album on several platforms via the smart URL in our blog post, and seek out the rest of the albums on Bandcamp!
Dave Liebman’s Expansions – Selflessness: The Music of John Coltrane
Nigel Price Organ Trio – Wes Reimagined
Album of the Week
Our NQ Jazz album of the week is the new offering from a band of veritable jazz legends who go by the name of The Cookers. Formed over a decade ago, the group features Billy Harper on tenor sax, Eddie Henderson and David Weiss on trumpet, NEA Jazz Master Donald Harrison, Jr. on alto sax, George Cables on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Billy Hart on drums. The new LP for Gearbox Records was recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio by Maureen Sickler and features seven original compositions penned by various band members. You can support the record on Bandcamp!
Classic Album
Our NQ Jazz classic album this week is organist Gloria Coleman and drummer Pola Roberts’ sole collaborative album for Impulse!, entitled Soul Sisters. With the exception of Grant Green’s Funky Bob, all of the album’s compositions were written by Coleman, and feature the playing of Grant Green on electric guitar and Leo Wright on alto saxophone. Coleman doesn’t sing on this LP, like she would on later recordings, but shows her soulful, funky touch on electric organ throughout. You can find the LP on streaming services, but physical copies aren’t the easiest to come by.