Todd Strait, There’ll Be Some Changes Made (Todd Strait)
Drummer Todd Strait has spent significant stretches of his career in New York and Portland and freelanced with a cross-section of world-class musicians. Having toured extensively, Strait is back in his Kansas City home territory. His first album as a leader demonstrates not only the flexibility and power of his drumming, but also the connections he has established over the years. The veteran pianist Bill Mays worked hand in glove with Strait on impressive arrangements of pieces by composers that include Beethoven (“Für Elise”), Thad Jones (“Kids Are Pretty Peopleâ€) and Wayne Shorter (“Infant Eyesâ€). Strait sings “Old Folks†in memory of his father. Mays, bassist Bob Bowman and guitarist Danny Embrey are a superb rhythm section. There are bonus contributions from guest pianist Laura Caviani and—via a charming tape recording—Strait’s daughter Naomi singing “What A Wonderful World†when she was 7.
Crosby became the world’s best-selling recording artist, a title he holds 40 years after his death. According to his Wikipedia biography, Crosby has sold around the world more than one billion records, tapes, CDs and digital downloads. More important, his relaxed musicianship and charm…and his movie stardom…made him him one of the most influential performers during the period when jazz and American popular music were developing more or less in tandem.
recordings. He went on to major in music and anthropology at the University of New Mexico. During Army service in World War Two, drummer Kenny Clarke, a fellow soldier, convinced Lewis to move to New York when the war ended. Both men joined Dizzy Gillespie’s big band in 1945, and Lewis later recorded with vibraharpist Milt Jackson, Clarke and bassist Ray Brown when Jackson formed his own quartet. After Percy Heath replaced Brown on bass, the group changed its name to the Modern Jazz Quartet.
New Orleans is mourning the death on Friday of Charles Neville, saxophonist and ever-smiling presence in the Neville Brothers band from 1977 to 2015. Charles was a focal point with his brothers Cyril, Art and Aaron in the family band that became one of the city’s most successful and celebrated musical groups. For years, they were a fixture of the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival. Neville died at home in Huntington, Massachusetts.He moved to New England in the 1990s, returning frequently to his hometown for performances and family reunions. In a 2011 concert at Angel Park in Williamsburg, MA, he and bassist Tyler Heydolph played Horace Silver’s “Song For My Father.â€
In the aftermath of Bob Dorough’s death on Monday, increased attention is going to his extensive body of songs. Among Dorough’s greatest admirers is the Swedish trumpet player and singer Mårten Lundgren. With bassist and vocalist Helle Marstrand, pianist Sven-Erik Lundequist and drummer Espen Laub von Lillienskjod, Lundgren 
Dorough’s greatest fame in popular culture stemmed from his central role in the enormously successful television series Schoolhouse Rock. The program informed and entertained children, and many adults, from 1973 to 1985.
McNeely fortifies his position in the upper echelon of jazz arrangers in this set of new pieces for the formidable Frankfurt Radio Big Band. The album begins with his tribute to the late Bob Brookmeyer, “Bob’s Here.†Despite the dedication to the iconic player of the instrument, Christian Jaksjö manages to be himself on valve trombone. Indeed, all of the Frankfurt BB soloists—too many to name in a brief recommendation—are top-flight. Wait, I must mention the tag-team tenor saxophone work of Tony Lakatos and Steffen Weber in “Falling Upwards.†McNeely pays tribute to the arranging pioneer Don Redman, incorporating the classic Redman device of clarinet trios into “Redman Rides Again,†a piece that otherwise does not evoke the 1920s. In four other new compositions, McNeely’s writing is notable for its textures, intersecting lines across the horn sections and ingenious use of time relationships.
Years of playing together have refined the compatibility that saxophonist Lovano and trumpeter Douglas have displayed since their initial collaboration in the San Francisco Jazz Collective in 2004. Their fascination with the music of Wayne Shorter is evident in Sound Prints not only in their arrangements of two of Shorter’s best-known compositions, “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum†and “Juju,†but also in original pieces by the co-leaders. Bluesy, riff-like repeats in Douglas’s “Ups and Downs†constitute one example of Shorter’s influence. Two others are Lovano’s reflective “Full Moon†with its entwining horn lines, and the skittering energies in his short “High Noon,†a track whose solos would be welcome at greater length. Douglas’s “Libra†opens with the harmonic riches of Lawrence Field’s piano chorus. Douglas and Lovano achieve an album high point in their rich unison ensemble in that piece. Bassist Linda Han Oh and drummer Joey Baron round out the quintet. They and Fields constitute a tight rhythm section, abetted in Lovano’s “Full Sun†by Baron’s stick work and joyous cymbal splashes, Douglas’s rising swoops of high notes and Linda Oh’s crisply intoned bass solo.
playlist includes two of his pieces, including the celebrated “Southern Nights.†It also has his piano performances of compositions by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Fats Waller, Earl Hines and—perhaps to the surprise of some listeners—Bill Evans’ “Waltz For Debby.†Toussaint’s appreciation ran a wide gamut. Sidemen here can be surprising, among them guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Charles Lloyd and lap steel guitarist Greg Leisz. On 19th Century New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “Danza,†Amy Shulman is at the harp. In his playing, Toussaint gives his chords a flow akin to running water. He sings one song, Paul Simon’s 1973 “American Tune.†It remains as moving as when Simon did it.
Sulieman (1923-2002) was a distinctive early bebop trumpet player. His experience as a young man included McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, the Earl Hines big band, Sid Catlett and Cab Calloway. His range and flexibility allowed him later to be featured with Thelonious Monk, the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland band and Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Band. Sulieman was notable for his fluency, a kind of edgy lyricism, and the cavernous sound he achieved with a cup mute. This double CD album was recorded in Algeria at a Tangiers radio station and in a New York City studio. It features the little-recognized pianist Oscar Dennard, bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Buster Smith. Dennard’s harmonic gift triumphs over a piano that it would be kind to call adequate, but his solos are so interesting that the unfortunate instrument barely matters. Sulieman and company are particularly incisive in Charlie Parker’s “Visa.†This is a good way for anyone unfamiliar with Sulieman to learn what he was all about.
composer†his longtime bass-playing associate Jeff Johnson is. The three pieces that Johnson contributed to Cubist leave no doubt about his writing ability. The title tune plus “Kiwi,†“Artists†and “Scene West†give Galper, Johnson and drummer John Bishop plenty of challenging material. They make the most of it. Galper’s post-bop credentials with Cannonball Adderly, Chet Baker and Phil Woods, among others, are part of his solid history. A few years ago he began to explore the challenges and charms of time-play, rubato, bypassing strict tempo—â€stealing time,†as the Italians sometimes put it. The approach requires that all hands feel the time or non-time at the same intensity, with the same flexibility. Galper, Johnson, Bishop and tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi feel it together. “Scene West†is thirteen minutes of slowly building intensity capped by a bear-growling Johnson bass solo. Galper rounds out the album with compatible pieces not written by Johnson; Miles Davis’s “Solar,†Johnny Carisi’s “Israel,†a relaxed Ellington “In A Sentimental Mood†with another superb Johnson solo and laid-back, adventurous Bergonzi, and Galper’s own “Scufflin’,†which has stretches of Bishop in strict time that is not entirely unwelcome.
And magnolia blossoms 15 feet from the kitchen window.
Lilian Terry’s book is full of anecdotes about her friendships with the musicians mentioned in the title—and dozens of others. Enjoying modest renown in Europe for her singing, Ms. Terry has also been involved in radio and television broadcasting and is a cofounder of the European Jazz Federation. Her activities brought her in close contact with Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. She conducted extensive interviews with Ray Charles, who is quoted at length on musical and racial matters. Gillespie’s roguish personality comes through clearly, as does the sincerity that shone through the graciousness with which Ellington could seem to be parodying himself. She tells a touching story of Strayhorn providing her a lyric to his “Star Crossed Lovers,†which 
Pianist Green’s earlier album Altered Narratives put strings with his trio on three tracks. The melding with a string quartet worked nicely. One Day It Will carries the idea to album length, with excellent arrangements by Green and smooth interaction among a string quartet and the trio featuring bassist Justin Grinnell and drummer Julien Cantelm. Among many highlights: the evocative languor of Green’s “October Ballad,†Cantelm’s accents amounting to commentary behind Green’s dancing solo on “As The Parrot Flies,†Grinell’s solo on the waltz “Lemon Avenue,†the richness of Kate Hatmaker’s violin on “As The Parrot Flies.†Sound quality is superb.
They were hot in more than one sense. Pelt, pianist Victor Gould, bassist Vicente Archer, drummer Jonathan Barber and percussionist Jacuelene Acevedo had established their unity and fire in the earlier 
The Kairos Sextet are protégés of the superb Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto, who assembled them from among his students at Miami’s Frost School of Music after he came to the US a decade ago. The group has been in demand for work supporting major players including Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano, but in Transition, they are on their own, gloriously so. Prieto’s guidance may have been essential in the band’s formation, but trumpeter Sam Neufeld, saxophonists Sean Johnson and Tom Kelley, pianist Nick Lamb, bassist Jon Dadurka and drummer Johnathan Hulett have evolved into an ensemble whose solo abilities and big collective sound put them in the first rank of contemporary groups. The pieces are original compositions by the members, except for Victor Schertzinger’s classic “I Remember You.†Kelley gives it a stirring arrangement with minor-key flavors.
upscale music magazines used to call a basic repertoire item. The Three Sounds thrived for a few years under the leadership of pianist Gene Harris. For most of the group’s existence, Andy Simpkins was the bassist and Bill Dowdy the drummer. Engineer and celebrated on-air host Jim Wilke recorded the group when he presented them in live broadcasts that became steady fare for Seattle-area listeners. The trio has sometimes been described as representative of jazz-rock, but their music was deeper and broader than the term suggests, as this album’s “Yours Is My Heart Alone,†“The Night Has A Thousand Eyes†and “The Shadow Of Your Smile†attest. It’s not just a question of repertoire, but of musicianship and the blues feeling with which Harris, Simpkins and Dowdy infused everything they played. That includes Ray Brown’s “A.M. Blues,†Toots Thielemans’ “Bluesette†and Three Sounds specialties like “Rat Down Front†and “The Boogaloo.†Kalil Madi or Carl Burnett substitute on drums for Dowdy on a few tracks and carry the torch splendidly. Resonance Records and Wilke deserve praise for preserving the music and finally releasing this album. Warning: It could make you decide to dust off your 1960s boogaloo moves.
Leave it to readers to keep the Rifftides staff up to date. Otherwise, it might have skipped my attention that this is Denny Zeitlin’s 80th birthday. As you will momentarily see and hear, Zeitlin has retained the vigor and style that have helped keep him one of the most consistently interesting pianists of his generation; indeed, of any generation. In one of his recent annual concerts at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, California, Zeitlin featured works of Thelonious Monk. Here, he introduces one of Monk’s best-known compositions and explains its geneology.
In this five-CD reissue, the formidable pianist plays pieces by ten composers who dominated American popular music for decades. Peterson had bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Barney Kessel, succeeded by Herb Ellis. It’s the trio that made Peterson famous with Jazz At The Philharmonic and–by way of the 10 albums reproduced here–on juke boxes and radio stations everywhere, when jazz was popular music. Among the songwriters are Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans and Richard Rogers. Peterson’s playing is exquisite, his support by Brown, Kessel and Ellis impeccable, the melodies precious to generations. The tracks tend to average three minutes or so. To single out just two performances, “Blue Skies†from the Berlin collection is impossibly fast and impossibly relaxed, Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady†is a tribute to a Peterson idol that verges on prayerfulness.
from the first of two Jazz Greats Of Our Time sessions that the prolific composer and arranger (pictured) recorded in the 1950s—one with star east coast musicians, the other with some of the most prominent west coast players. Albam made the east coast “Millmoss†in New York in 1957 with Gerry Mulligan, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, Nick Travis, Art Farmer, Osie Johnson, Milt Hinton and Hank Jones. In the video, the soloists are identified by name, for which Erlendur Svavarsson, who posted the track, deserves great credit. (Photo: Monk Rowe)
Cecil Taylor, a pianist who fashioned his music from myriad styles and sources, died yesterday in New York. He was 89. From his earliest recordings in the mid-1950s with bassist Buell Nieidlinger, drummer Dennis Charles and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, Taylor pursued daring and swam upstream against jazz orthodoxy. This is how critic Ben Ratliff put it in an obituary in today’s New York Times.