Fifty-three-year old drummer/composer Brandon Sanders is an interesting story. As a student at the University of Kansas, he walked on the basketball team, earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree, then decided he wanted to learn how to play the drums. At age 25 he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music, where he met and befriended vibraphonist Warren Wolf. Sanders moved to New York City in 2004 and has been playing around the area since while maintaining a full-time job as a school counselor. On his second album as a leader, he’s joined by Wolf, saxophonist Chris Lewis, pianist Keith Brown, and bassist David Wong for nine selections. The three Sanders originals (“Miss Ernestine,” a medium blues dedicated to his grandmother, who owned a jazz club in Kansas City; “Central and El Segundo,” referencing an intersection in his old Compton neighborhood; and the danceable title track) all display his comfort with different drum grooves. Vocalist Christie Dashiell guests on two songs, the Michael Jackson hit “Human Nature” and Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss,” and on both selections she displays her Grammy-nominated skills. There’s nothing fancy here, here, just solid straight-ahead music from a musician who has been referred to as “The Swingman.” Good stuff.

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Recorded while he was still recovering from a stroke the previous year that had rendered his left hand useless, it seems apparent from the outset that piano master Peterson may have lost something off his fast ball on this 1994 concert from Munich. He lays back on the opener, an uptempo rendition of “There Will Be Another You,” allowing guitarist Lorne Lofsky to solo first and dominate the track as he comps lightly and politely behind him. But as the tune progresses, it becomes clear that the pianist’s dazzling right hand is still very much intact. Peterson’s “The Gentle Waltz” and “Love Ballade,” both underscored by drummer Martin Drew’s sensitive brushwork, carry his usual touch of elegance while “Kelly’s Blues” finds him dipping into an earthy bag with bluesy gusto. Virtuoso bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen offers several heroic solos throughout, then turns in a stunning unaccompanied showcase on “Samba Petite,” which has him alternately referencing Jaco Pastorius’ “Portrait of Tracy” and Bach’s cello suite. The quartet returns for a joyfully swinging rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll,” then closes on an introspective note with Peterson’s classically flavored “Night Time,” which morphs into a jaunty swinger with the pianist’s fabled chops in full effect. 

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Esteemed guitarist Alan Licht returns to the VDSQ label almost a decade after his instrumental acoustic record, Currents (2015), bringing his mesmerizing style of droning and driven minimalism back to the electric guitar on Havens. Combining electric and acoustic guitars, Havens embodies stasis and motion all at once as each piece gradually unfurls, in flux between rapture and contemplation. Licht takes his time on these pieces, some which extend beyond 10 minutes, allowing motifs to expand and wither away organically. Compared to the straightforward intimacy of Currents, this album is more expansive with its thicker, varied textures, increased room sound, and incorporation of mellotron and vocals. While the propulsive title track and “Frank Sinatra Drive” feature chords moving tautly around a tonal center in washes of hazy electric guitar tone, “Five Chords and a Sword” and “The Daily Sit” harken back to his lilting acoustic tracks of Currents. Outliers include “Nonchalant,” a fingerstyle epic that builds its texture brick by brick, and “1970,” closing the record with Licht’s acoustic approach filtered through the electric guitar. Although Havens abandons the homogenous, immersive sound found on Currents, I appreciate how Havens feels like an exemplar of all the facets and nuances of Licht’s standout playing and composition.

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That four musicians who’d never played together as a quartet could make such a coherent album owes in part to bassist/flutist Joe Fonda’s past collaborations with pianist Satoko Fujii, with drummer Tiziano Tononi, and with his mentor and the record’s inspiration, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. That an avant-garde session, rife with abstract structures and free improvisations, could have such a comforting effect on a listener is more surprising. The sometimes-thick textures of Fonda’s composed sections open up into airy spaces for solos and duets that encourage calm reflection. Fonda’s exquisitely defined double bass and Fujii’s sharply faceted piano occasionally spin off notes at blurred velocities, with Tononi’s tight, disciplined percussion magically locking in. All three get ample opportunity to express their distinct voices. But all paths lead to Smith, the now 82-year-old AACM and CMIF (Creative Music Improvisers Forum) veteran, in honor of whom Fonda organized the 63-minute recording and wrote five of the seven pieces. Smith’s now piercing, now cozy trumpet tone, his manipulations of timbre, his playfulness with pitch, and his jagged, conversational phrasing act like gravitational forces holding all the elements together in a constantly expanding and contracting galaxy of sounds. 

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The Black Artist Group (BAG) was a St. Louis-based organization founded in 1968 to help promote African-American performing artists, remembered mostly for the contributions of several avant-garde jazz artists who became widely known in the 1970s. In 1972 a group of these musicians based themselves in Paris at the suggestion of Lester Bowie, the older brother of Joseph Bowie, who played trombone with the BAG. Also on hand were trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore, saxophonist Oliver Lake, and drummer Charles “Bobo” Shaw. The group made one poorly distributed LP called Aries 1973, which eventually achieved cult status for free jazz devotees, and now we have this previously unissued concert recording that is every bit as strong. The listener hears similarities with the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s approach, especially in the use of lots of assorted percussion instruments, whistles, and other noise-makers, and in group improvisations that depend as much on stillness and space as on fire-breathing statements from the horn players. The extent to which Shaw seems to direct traffic here is notable, as is Lake’s passionate brilliance, but everything about this music is deeply satisfying. The production values fully match the excellence of the music.

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After playing a CuZns gig with Bobby Bradford and William Roper, Garth Powell suggested they cut an album. The trio added Brian Walsh on saxophones and clarinets for this studio session, recorded live to two-track analog tape, produced by Joe Harley, with mastering and lacquer cutting by Kevin Gray. Bradford is known primarily for his cornet playing, Roper for his tuba mastery, and Powell for his drumming, but naming all the instruments played on these six tracks would take up this entire column, what with all the bowls, bells, triangles, gongs, cymbals, wood blocks, and wind instruments. With Roper and Bradford offering spoken recitations amid the rattling, shimmering, squeaking, and squawking instrumentation, Freddie Ain’t Ready asks questions about American identity, drawing from the pan-African culture of the Antebellum South and referencing preachers, camp meetings, water deities, voodoo healers, and burial grounds. Bradford, now 90, earned icon status in the Southern California avant-garde playing with Ornette Coleman, John Carter, Vinny Golia, and David Murray. He and Roper act here as modern-day griots in the lineage of what the Art Ensemble of Chicago called Great Black Music—Ancient to the Future, keeping us in touch with who we have been and who we can be.

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Since being reactivated in 1984, Blue Note Records has from time to time assembled all-star bands featuring artists from its roster. In the mid-80s, it was OTB (Out of the Blue), which introduced alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett. The late 80s saw the formation of Superblue, an octet including saxophonist Bobby Watson, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, and pianist Mulgrew Miller. Other all-star ensembles followed—New Directions in the late 90s, the Blue Note 7 in 2008, and the Blue Note All-Stars in 2014. Now comes Out Of/Into. Formed as a touring group earlier this year to celebrate the label’s 85th anniversary, their debut release harkens back to the forward-thinking music of 60s Blue Note artists like Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Eric Dolphy. With pianist-composer Gerald Clayton contributing four of seven tracks, including the compelling “Ofafrii” and the gorgeously atmospheric “Bird’s Luck,” Motion I features some of the most potent voices in modern jazz today in alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and vibraphonist Joel Ross. Drummer Kendrick Scott, the lone link to the Blue Note All-Stars from 10 years ago, holds the session together with masterfully interactive aplomb before exploding on his kinetic burner “Synchrony.” 

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Impex released 33rpm and SACD versions of this 1950 Columbia Sinatra album four years ago, with sonics fresher than ever. But I was floored by this remastered 45rpm 1-step release: Sinatra’s voice has even more reach-out-and-touch-it immediacy; the sonic picture is more open, with greater warmth, transparency, dynamic range, and sheer vividness. On some recordings from that period, vocal problems mandated Sinatra overdub his voice, and the band sounded “back there” as a result. Here, though, the instrumental solos exhibit a nearly demonstration-caliber presence. There are several new or alternate tracks, including a previously unreleased 15-minute open-mic rehearsal of “It All Depends on You” that affords a valuable peek into how Sinatra and colleagues worked together. This album marks an important watershed in Sinatra’s career. The unifying theme of “swing and dance” songs with full-bore jazz arrangements both adumbrated his great “Concept Albums” of the imminent Capitol years and announced his intention to conquer the world of jazz as completely as he had that of the ballad. With gatefold in handsome slipcase, exemplary documentation, and blissfully quiet RTI pressings, the whole package typifies the high technical excellence, peerless class, and stylish graphics of Impex releases.

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Tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman recorded the ballad-oriented Spirit Sensitive (1979) with a quartet that included John Hicks on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Billy Hart on drums. (Don Moye subs behind the kit on one cut.) The album opens with a duet performance of Vernon Duke’s “Autumn in New York” on which McBee’s fluid bass lines and Freeman’s gorgeous-sounding saxophone blend together beautifully, and a spacious and transparent recording heightens the experience. Elsewhere Hicks plays the most lyrical of piano solos while Hart’s sensitivity behind the drums also elevates the proceedings. In the liner notes to the Analog Productions reissue of the LP, Chico Freeman mentions how his tenor-playing father, Von Freeman, stressed the importance of achieving a distinctive tone on his instrument, and Chico also explains how recordings by Gene Ammons made clear that, with ballads, every note should count. Evidently those lessons paid off, as his solos on such standards as Rogers and Hart’s “It Never Entered My Mind” and Thad Jones’ “A Child Is Born” are textbook examples of how to play a ballad. Because Spirit Sensitive was originally released on an avant-garde label, it was overlooked at first. The warm and open-sounding Analogue Productions vinyl will help rectify that situation.

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A follow-up to 2022’s alternately engaging, mysterious, joyful, and uplifting Quartetinho, Bloom finds the Israeli clarinet virtuoso Cohen back together with her Brooklyn-based comrades (bassist Tal Mashiach, keyboardist-accordionist Vitor Gonçalves, and vibraphonist-percussionist James Shipp) on a varied program of buoyant originals by each member of the band. They also tackle a challenging classical number and a swinging, if quirky, interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s “Trinkle, Tinkle,” both with magnificent results. Cohen’s playful opener, “The Night Owl,” showcases her clarinet virtuosity and introduces a delightful sense of group interplay. Mashiach’s flamenco-flavored “Paco” finds the bassist deftly switching to guitar and overdubbing interlocking parts. Cohen’s choro-like “Coco Roccoco” has her sailing over Shipp’s deep Brazilian groove, and they strike a moody atmosphere on Gonçalves’ Astor Piazzolla-influenced “Tango Para Guillermo.” Shipp also contributes two stirring compositions in his suite-like “Superheroes in the Gig Economy,” which gradually builds from soulful exposition to grand cacophony, and the sparsely wistful “Friends in Every Manner of Convenience.” And their flawless execution on “La Catedral: III Allegro Solemne” is another stunning display of chops and groupthink.

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Captured during two performances at the 4 Queens jazz club, electric guitarist Emily Remler plays with romantic sensitivity, focused intensity, and personal phrasing. Supported by four Vegas showroom stalwarts—bassist Carson Smith, pianist Cocho Arbe (1984), and drummers Tom Montgomery (1984) and John Pisci (1988)—Remler exhibits the crisp comping, tight octaves, and breakneck runs absorbed from Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino. Interpreting American songbook standards, bop and modern classics, and lilting bossa nova and samba—by the likes of Cole Porter, Bobby Timmons, Montgomery, Martino, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Antonio Carlos Jobim—Remler dazzles note after note, phrase upon phrase, especially in unaccompanied cadenzas. The vinyl pressings are clean, present, and warmly rounded, putting Remler’s guitar just out in front of the solid and swinging rhythm sections, and Bill Milkowski’s thorough liner notes provide lucid historical context. One wonders where Remler would have taken her music had she not succumbed to heart failure in 1990 at age 32.

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To state the obvious, musicians are essential to AXPONA, as it’s their recordings that you hear in every room. And some musicians play a larger role in the event. Sometimes that translates into a meet-and-greet, as when Johnny Iguana signed his new album on Saturday at the Delmark booth, and sometimes the musicians give a live performance, as on Friday, when the Kyle Asche Organ Quartet played. Anne Bisson did both, signing her new album The Essentials (a complilation that was mastered by Bernie Grundman and is available on vinyl and as a reel-to-reel tape) and performing in one of the rooms.

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