Recording of the Month

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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

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: Written by: Rad Bennett; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 March 2014

Beautiful Life Concord CRE-34171-02
Format: CD

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Concord Jazz once released almost nothing but jazz recordings. The label’s name has since been changed to Concord Records, and now they seek out artists in transition who are embracing and reimagining a wide range of styles.

Diane Reeves is such an artist. Revered for her jazz recordings, on Beautiful Life she includes enough R&B, soul, pop, and Latin music that we can say that jazz is now merely an influence, not the main course. One thing Reeves hasn’t changed is her full, gorgeous voice -- now darkened and warmed, it sounds even better than before. Also intact are her accuracy of pitch and sensitivity of phrasing; hers is a great voice that has mellowed in the best possible ways. Terri Lyne Carrington produced the album, and seems totally committed to creating the sound that best shows off Reeves’s voice.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 February 2014

Keb' Mo' Okeh/Epic/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 1-357
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****½
Overall Enjoyment ****

Although Kevin Moore, better known as Keb’ Mo’, recorded his first album in 1980, he didn’t land on a major label until 1994, when Okeh Records, a subsidiary of Epic, released Keb’ Mo’. Mo’ had played and recorded with the late Papa John Creach (1917-1994) and had worked in other facets of the music business, but his stint with Creach led to jamming with other blues musicians and solidified his skills as a blues player. Keb’ Mo’ was a confident outing, with a contemporary sound that for the most part remained true to its roots.

: Written by: Rad Bennett; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 January 2014

Either Way Naïve NJ623611
Format: CD

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

The subtitle of this latest album from French jazz singer Anne Ducros is intriguing. From Marilyn to Ella? What’s the connection?

In 1955, Ella Fitzgerald was not allowed to play the prestigious Mocambo club in Hollywood because of her race. Enter Marilyn Monroe. Fitzgerald told it this way: "I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt. . . . [S]he personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him -- and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status -- that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman -- a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it."

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 December 2013

Little Girl Blue Records BCP-6028
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2

Little Girl Blue was Nina Simone’s first recording, made in 1958, when she was 24. It was her only full album of songs for Bethlehem Records. The label’s other Simone title, Nina Simone and Her Friends, comprises four tunes remaining from the earlier record’s sessions, and four songs each sung by Chris Conner and Carmen McRae. Simone had left Bethlehem for Colpix Records by then, and was unaware that Bethlehem was going to issue another title under her name. She had sold the rights to Little Girl Blue back to them for $3000.

: Written by: Rad Bennett; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 November 2013

All Around Man Opus3 CD 23001
Format: Hybrid Stereo SACD

Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: *****
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2

Unsuspecting listeners such as I might put on this disc and think that Bottleneck John must be one of America’s newest, greatest blues singers, up from the Deep South. I stand by “newest” and “greatest,” but Bottleneck John was born Johan Eliasson, in Sweden. Fifteen years ago he heard an Eric Bibb album, went acoustic, and developed an authentic blues style of his own.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 October 2013

Saturday Morning: La Buissonne Studio Sessions Jazz Village JV570027
Format: CD

Musical Performance: *****
Sound Quality: *****
Overall Enjoyment: *****

What a force of nature Ahmad Jamal is! At age 83, he could easily coast on his reputation and extensive discography, playing rote shows to appreciative audiences. Instead, he continues to push himself and, in the process, astonish jazz fans by making rhythmically challenging, harmonically audacious recordings. Saturday Morning is, by my count, his 62nd album as a leader, and it follows last year’s powerful Blue Moon. This time Jamal took his quartet -- Reginald Veal on bass, Herlin Riley on drums, and Manolo Badrena on percussion -- into La Buissonne Studio, in France, for 11 tracks that crackle with energy and inventiveness.

: Written by: Rad Bennett; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 September 2013

Resonance Mandala MR103
Format: CD

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Though new variations certainly occur, jazz groups large and small mostly take one of several well-established forms. For a trio, we expect piano, bass, and drums. We expect a big band to have reeds, brass, and a rhythm section. Resonance is having none of this -- this unique octet boasts a flute, saxophone, violin, viola, and cello, and a rhythm section of piano, bass, and drums.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 August 2013

Gismontipascoal Adventure Music AM1078 2
Format: CD

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

The mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda is a virtuoso who, like many other Brazilian jazz performers, incorporates his country’s folk-music traditions into his work. He has recorded some of my favorite music over the last few years, and I’m pleased to call attention to Gismontipascoal, a collaboration with pianist André Mehmari. The disc is a tribute to two of their countrymen, Egberto Gismonti and Hermeto Pascoal, who join them on one track each. The remaining tracks are duets that demonstrate the richness of the compositions and the talents of the musicians.

: Written by: Rad Bennett; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 July 2013

Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole Concord CRE-34268-2
Format: CD

Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

When Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and others were alive and working, big-band vocal albums like this one used to be released with great regularity. But only a choice few were so finely crafted. George Benson is revered as a guitarist, but he also sings, and this album is evidence that he should be highly regarded for that talent as well.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 June 2013

I Thought About You Concord Picante CJA-34191-02
Format: CD

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Eliane Elias says, of her new disc, “I Thought About You was inspired by Chet Baker and in that sense it is a tribute to Chet, it was a natural fit for me to play, to sing music inspired by Chet because I am an instrumentalist and a singer, as Chet was.” Baker’s singing was sometimes close to a whisper, with a relaxed ease and a playful sense of time. The 14 tunes Elias chose for this disc are songs Baker covered over the years, and most are standards. She hasn’t simply performed them as Baker did, however. Instead, his spirit infuses the tracks with the cool precision he brought to both his singing and his trumpet playing.