Jul 9, 2024 11:35 AM
Trumpeter, Educator Jim Rotondi Dies at 61
Jim Rotondi, a renowned hard-bop trumpeter, composer and educator, died suddenly on July 7 at a hospital in France. He…
Ambrose Akinmusire and Kris Davis perform in New York at Vision Festival, which ran May 23-28. Akinmusire’s Origami Harvest earned one of the few 5-star reviews in DownBeat during 2018.
(Photo: Eva Kapanadaze)
Stacey Kent issued I Know I Dream: The Orchestral Sessions on OKeh.
(Photo: Diane Sagnier)The list below is a round-up of the 5-star, 4.5-star and 4-star reviews that ran in print editions of DownBeat during 2018. If a performer was the focus of a feature story, it’s likely their album wasn’t reviewed, and accounts for its omission from the list below. Peruse at your leisure—and enjoy. DB
Ambrose Akinmusire, Origami Harvest (Blue Note)
When Akinmusire toured the Origami Harvest project prior to recording, the music was touted as a “jazz/rap/classical mash-up,” in part to explain the presence of rapper Kool A.D. and the Mivos String Quartet. But the music itself doesn’t really stitch jazz, rap and classical together. Instead, it repurposes elements of each to create something strikingly unique.
Kenny Barron Quintet, Concentric Circles (Blue Note)
At age 75, pianist Barron embodies the convergence of modern, progressive jazz and classic post-bop traditions. There’s nothing old-fashioned about the 11 tracks on Concentric Circles, his 47th album as a leader, featuring eight original compositions and four younger colleagues. Barron employs tunefulness, fine touch and implacable swing with ease and variety, drawing from decades of experience as an in-demand accompanist and bandleader. Yes, he could be showier, but this project is absolutely perfect as is, delighting the ear with delicate flourishes and turns.
Stacey Kent, I Know I Dream: The Orchestral Sessions (OKeh)
Kent’s mezzo-soprano voice is a beautiful instrument for offsetting orchestral accompaniment, a fact that I Know I Dream: The Orchestral Sessions illustrates well. The orchestra, a 52-piece London studio assemblage, has a lushness that would smother Nelson Riddle—yet the vocalist cuts through it effortlessly. In fairness, the arrangements hardly can compete with Kent’s presence. But the singer has a relatively soft, restrained voice that on a less-skilled performer might easily be overpowered. Kent is incisive, even at a near-whisper, as on the tender arrangement of “Photograph,” a mesmerizing bossa nova by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Wojtek Mazolewski, Polka (Worldwide Deluxe Edition) (Whirlwind)
Mazolewski, leader of the Polish experimental jazz quartet Pink Freud, offers up a bundled version of some of his previous works with Polka (Worldwide Deluxe Edition). The bassist and composer swaps three tunes from his critically acclaimed 2014 album Polka (Agora S.A.) for the title cuts from his 2017 12-inch “London/Theme De YoYo” (Lanquidity). This rejiggering of past releases results in a musical travelogue that tracks the bandleader’s wanderlust and musical prowess.
Steve Tibbetts, Life Of (ECM)
Because there’s so much atmosphere in Tibbetts’ music—the reverb-laden guitar, ghostly piano chords, quiet washes of percussion—it can be easy to assume that atmosphere is all he’s got. After all, the guitarist is not one for big, brash statements or deeply funky grooves, nor do his tunes offer anything like the easily decoded structure of pop songcraft. And when the narrative is hard to follow, it’s all too tempting to assume there isn’t one at all. With Life Of, Tibbetts makes it easier to follow the thread by presenting a series of sonic portraits, each one offered as a “Life Of.” It’s not storytelling in any conventional sense, but it does lend a certain specificity to the mood and vocabulary of each piece.
Bob Dylan, Trouble No More —The Bootleg Series Vol. 13, 1979-1981 (Columbia/Legacy)
Fred Hersch Trio, Heartsongs (Sunnyside)
Fela Kuti, Underground System (Knitting Factory)
Oscar Peterson, Oscar Peterson Plays (Verve)
Woody Shaw, Tokyo ’81 (Elemental)
Muddy Waters, The Best Of Muddy Waters (Chess/UMe)
Jim Rotondi was acclaimed for his wide, round trumpet tone, remarkable virtuosity and assured swing.
Jul 9, 2024 11:35 AM
Jim Rotondi, a renowned hard-bop trumpeter, composer and educator, died suddenly on July 7 at a hospital in France. He…
Charles Lloyd, seen here at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, makes DownBeat Poll history!
Jul 11, 2024 12:23 PM
The incomparable Charles Lloyd swept the 72nd Annual DownBeat Critics Poll, becoming the first artist ever to earn…
“Being president of Blue Note has been one of the coolest things that ever happened to me,” Was said. “It’s a gas to serve as one of the caretakers of that legacy.”
Jun 4, 2024 12:21 PM
Sitting with Don Was is a comfortable and unhurried exercise. He may seem slightly reserved at first, but ideas and…
“She reminds me of my childhood and makes we want to cry,” Cécile McLorin Salvant, pictured here with writer Ashley Kahn, said of Dianne Reeves.
Jun 11, 2024 12:31 PM
Italy’s Umbria Jazz Winter is one of those rare annual festivals that not only coincides with a major holiday —…
Maria Schneider said of Decades, her new compilation release: “I just wanted to create something, put it in a beautiful box and say, ‘Look at what we did.‘”
Jun 18, 2024 12:00 PM
Maria Schneider opened the sleek black box and placed it on a coffee table in her Manhattan apartment. Inside lay the…
