{"id":3366,"date":"2014-02-05T18:06:26","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T18:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3366"},"modified":"2014-02-05T18:06:26","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T18:06:26","slug":"now-playing-new-forthcoming-cds-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/05\/now-playing-new-forthcoming-cds-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Playing (New & Forthcoming CDs)…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So many things\u2014the holidays, deadlines, a nasty flu that I beat back\u2014have led to a terrifingly tall stack of music to catch up with, yet also alluring once I see what it contains. I’ve begun to dig in; more soon…
\nRufus Reid<\/strong> Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project<\/em> (Motema Music, Feb. 11): Now 70, bassist Reid has a half-century of important music-making to his credit, alongside the likes of saxophonists Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon, trombonist J.J. Johnson, drummer Jack DeJohnette and singer Nancy Wilson. For a quarter-century, he mentored countless musicians as director of the jazz studies and performance program at New Jersey\u2019s William Patterson University. He\u2019s spent the past decade or so developing as a composer, and creating music that\u2019s mostly intended for large ensembles and orchestras. For this ambitious new work, Reid was inspired by the sculpture of Elizabeth Catlett, who died in 2012 at 96. Her iconic works, which often carry powerful African American themes, include the statue of Louis Armstrong near Congo Square in New Orleans and can also be found in collections at the White House and the Museum of Modern Art. Here, Reid\u2019s music is realized by 20 musicians, most of them, such as drummer Herlin Riley, standard-bearing players. Yet it\u2019s his own voice and composer\u2014as distinctive as the one he projected as a bassist\u2014that makes grand statements out of mostly subtle gestures.
\nVarious Artists<\/strong> Looking Into You: A Tribute to Jackson Browne<\/em> (Music Roads Records, April 1): I\u2019ve always had a soft spot for Jackson Browne\u2019s charming voice, chiming melodies and searching lyrics. Here are 2 CDs full of his songs, as covered by a wide range of musicians. Scanning its contents and knowing of Browne\u2019s fascination and connection to Cuban musicians\u2014he wrote this 2004 piece<\/a> in The New York Times imploring the U.S. to permit Carlos Varela and others to perform here\u2014I was a bit disappointed not to find a Cuban among the interpreters. However, I can’t complain: There\u2019s plenty to dig into here with relish\u2014I\u2019ve just begun\u2014not least Browne\u2019s anthem, \u201cThe Pretender,\u201d as sung by Lucinda Williams, whose warbling drawl flattens out the song\u2019s melody interestingly and intensifies its sense of ennui, and Karla Bonoff\u2019s hauntingly lovely take on a more obscure tune, \u201cSomething Fine.\u201d Scroll down at this link for Lyle Lovett\u2019s version of Browne\u2019s \u201cRosie<\/a>.”
\nMiles Davis <\/strong>Miles at the Fillmore \u2014Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 3<\/em> (Columbia\/Legacy, four CDs, March 25): At a certain point\u2014maybe already\u2014Davis\u2019 posthumous output will outnumber the recordings released during his lifetime. Yet who among us that played the 1970 LP \u201cMiles at the Fillmore\u201d over and over wouldn\u2019t want to hear Davis at the height of his powers, with a band including Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, Airto Moreira and Steve Grossman, giving us another version of \u201cFootprints\u201d and \u201cMiles Runs the Voodoo Down\u201d? If you weren\u2019t among the collectors who\u2019ve tracked down the full versions of these concert recordings already, here\u2019s your chance. And context never hurts: Here, you get 2,200 words of it from Carlos Santana, as told to author Ashley Kahn, and another 2,500 from Michael Cuscuna, who is about as erudite and well-informed a producer as is alive today, and who, back when Miles opened for Laura Nyro at the Fillmore East and for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West, was a disk jockey at New York\u2019s influential WPLJ-FM.
\nJeff Ballard<\/strong> Time\u2019s Tales<\/em> (OKeh): Ballard, who just turned 50, is among the most sensitive, authoritative and versatile drummers of his generation. His range and rhythmic authority should be clear by now from his work in many contexts, including the collective group FLY (with saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Larry Grenadier) and pianist Brad Mehldau\u2019s trio. Ballard fronts his own bands often in performance, but this is his debut recording as a leader. His trio here is a powerhouse, with guitarist Lionel Loueke, who also performs in Ballard\u2019s ambitious Fairgrounds quintet, and saxophonist Miguel Zen\u00f3n. The repertoire spans both obvious choices, such as Loueke\u2019s \u201cVirgin Forest,\u201d to the less expected, like an adapted B\u00e9la B\u00e1rtok piece and a cover of a Queens of the Stone Age tune, \u201cHangin\u2019 Tree.\u201d Some might call this an overdue statement; yet the music’s grace and commitment sounds right on time, and its range of influences, timely. (You can hear some of the music, and hear Ballard discussing things like why there’s no bassist here<\/a>.)
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So many things\u2014the holidays, deadlines, a nasty flu that I beat back\u2014have led to a terrifingly tall stack of music to catch up with, yet also alluring once I see what it contains. I’ve begun to dig in; more soon… Rufus Reid Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project (Motema Music, Feb. 11): Now 70, bassist … <\/p>\n

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