------------Notes on Jazz Best of Jazz for 2015------------------

Every year jazz journalists make their end of year "best of" lists. They become a tradition and they are as subjective as anything can be but they do offer the listening public a great place to start looking and listening to the many new and quality offerings that jazz artists have released in the past year.

No list can be all inclusive and no list can be without personal prejudices, having said that, this is my list of the best of jazz in 2015. I have included a category for best debut album, best historical release, and best Latin Jazz album. One thing I can assure you, there is something in here for almost every taste. There is no particular order to this list so please enjoy this cornucopia of music and Happy Holidays to all.


Vibraphonist Chris Dingman's  The Subliminal and the Sublime  on Inner Arts

Saxophonist JD Allen's Trio with Greg August and Rudy Royston: Graffitti on Savant

Charlie Hunter Trio  with Curtis Fowlkes and Bobby Previte ; Let The Bells Ring On on   Charlie Hunter Music

Jose James: Yesterday I Had The Blues, the Music of Billie Holliday  on Blue Note

John Fedchock New York Big Band: Like It Is  on Mama records

Kenny Werner Trio: The Melody with Ari Hoenig, drums  and Johannes Weidenmueller, bass on Pirouet

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls  on ACT Music with ; Adam O’Farrill: trumpet; Matt Mitchell: piano; Francois Moutin: acoustic bass; Rudy Royston: drums. on ACT Music

Orrin Evans: The Evolution of Oneself  with Christian McBride bass and · Karriem Riggins drums. on Smoke Records

Dave Stryker: Messin' with Mr. T :  Jared Gold, organ,, Houston Person, saxophone, McClenty Hunter, drums. on Strikezone 

Manuel Valera and Groove Square: Urban Landscape: with Nir Felder, guitar, John Ellis, saxophones, E.J. Strickland, drums and John Benitez bass.  on Destiny Records

Tigran Hamasysan : Luys I Luso   with the Yerevan State Choir 

Kamsai Washington; The Epic:  on Brainfeeder 

Steve Johns : Family: with Debbie Keefe Johns, saxophone, Daryl Johns, bass, Bob DeVos, guitar, Dave Stryker guitar on Strikezone 

Dave Douglas Quintet : Brazen Heart : with Jon Irabagon (saxophones), Matt Mitchell (piano), Linda Oh (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums) on Greenleaf Music

Giacomo Gates : Everything is Cool:  with John DiMartino , piano, Ed Howard, bass, Willard Dyson Drums, Grant Stewart saxophone, Tony Lombardozzi, guitar. on Savant

Sample "If I Were You I'd Love Me"  here

Kait Dunton ; Trio Kait with Cooper Appelt on bass and Jake Reed on drums 

Pat Bianchi : A Higher Standard:  with Craig Ebner: guitar; Byron Landham: drums.

Mark Winkler: Jazz and Other Four Letter Words, with Cheryl Bentyne: vocals; Jamieson Trotter: piano; John Clayton, Dan Lutz: bass; Jeff Hamilton, Mike Shapiro: drums; Larry Koonse, Pat Kelley: guitar; Bob Sheppard, Kirsten Edkins: saxophones; Walter Fowler: trumpet; Bob McChesney: trombone on Cafe Pacific Records

Peter Oxley and Nicholas Meier:  Chasing Tales on MGP Records

Michael Cain: Sola with  James Genus  bass and Billy Hart drums.

Erik Firedlander : Illuminations 

John Pattitucci's Electric Guitar Quartet : Brooklyn with Adam Rodgers, guitar, Steve Cardenas, guitar, Brian Blade, drums on Three Faces Label.

Lafayette Harris Jr. Trio: Bend the Light with  Lonnie Plaxico on bass and Willie Jones III on drums

on Airmen Records

Christian Howes; American Spirit; with Josh Nelson, piano, Hamilton Hardin, organ, Ben Williams, bass, Gregory Hutchinson, drums and Polly Gibbons, vocals on Resonance Records

Best Debut Album: Katie Theroux: Introducing Katie Theroux with guitarist Graham Dechter, tenor saxophonist Roger Neumann and drummer Matt Witek.

Best Historical Release : John Abercrombie: The First Quartet;  Arcade with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald on ECM

Best Latin Jazz Album: The Latin Side of Joe Henderson Conrad Herwig with Joe Lovano 

The Kenny Werner Trio Explores The Melody

Kenny Werner The Melody Pirouet PIT 3083

There is something magical about a fine piano trio. When musicians are in sync it is amazing how communicative three pieces can be.  When you have the lyrically imaginative leader Kenny Werner on the keys there is no telling where his fertile imagination will lead you. On Werner’s latest The Melody, he is joined in perfect harmony by Johannes Weidenmueller on bass and Ari Hoenig on drums and between the three of them they create an exquisite exploration of what it is to be enraptured by melody in its many enduring forms.

Mr. Werner starts with a wonderfully sensitive rumination on the popular song “Try to Remember” from the 1960 Broadway musical “The Fantastiks.”  He sets the tone showing us the inner beauty of his take on the sentiment before he reveals the actual melody first playing it as a soft lullaby and then letting  it breathe, expanding into a more expansive swings and swaggers at times. Mr. Hoenig and Mr. Weidenmueller are not so much a rhythm section as color commentators painting the song with their own subtle pastels and warm tones.

Mr. Werner is no stranger to composition and here he offers four separate tunes of his own. The first “Who?” is a jagged, rhythmic affair that uses a repeated motif as the basis on which to explore.  The trio seems to intuit the shifts in time with easy aplomb with Mr. Weidenmueller keeping the motif alive throughout. Mr. Werner’s touch is a joy of restraint and delicacy as he moves around the motif with dance-like style

“Balloons,” another Werner original, has a light, airy introduction on solo piano before entering into its captivating melodic core. The theme has a child-like, wanderlust quality to its gentle theme expertly played with wrenching sensitivity. A probing bass solo by Mr. Weidenmueller elicits images of a dance of wood sprites in a hidden forest.  

John Coltrane’s “26-2” is given a jaunty rendering that is probably the most formidable demonstration of how in sync this trio is. The three wind and weave their way through the changes in perfect time, a celebration of one minded playing.  Hoenig’s traps and Weidenmueller’s bass mimicking the same line as Werner’s piano lead, a celebration of symbiosis. Werner’s lead is always perfectly logical but surprisingly unexpected in a sage kind of way. Hoenig offers a syncopated drum solo that is tasteful and unflashy.

Werner returns with another of his own compositions” Voncify The Emulyans.” The composition moves through a series of cadenced vignettes, where Hoenig’s military traps seem to set the pace as Werner’s pianistic overtures find varied directions. The tempo is often changed and the melodic content is hard to follow but the overall effect is of exploratory rumination.  The ending is a gorgeous slow fade on the theme.

Dave Brubeck is an artist whose work seems to have found few followers. Here Werner starts “In You Own Sweet Way” in a decidedly different way. The pianist creates an intro that has a disjointed mechanistic sound which he carries with some dissonance throughout the piece, normally a straight ahead sweet melody. When the trio get down to the melody they do so with a creative flair that employs some swing some syncopation and some style. Werner plays with the melody at times including some quotes from Bernstein. The group prances at different paces throughout the song in a facile display of how different rhythms could dramatically affect the way a song is perceived.  

The album ends with Werner’s “Beauty Secrets” with his solo intro played as a beautiful piano adagio. Werner is one of the most expressive pianists on the scene today and his touch and sense of poignancy is unmatched here.  The texture of Hoenig’s stick and cymbal work is the precise compliment to Weidenmueller’s anchored bass and Werner’s lyrical playing. There is an Americana flavor ala Greensleeves to this one that is very moving.

There is something very beautiful and unpretentious about The Melody and Mr. Werner, Mr. Weidenmuller and Mr. Hoenig have a collectively made listening to it a joy.

Joe Lovano and Kenny Werner: An Intimate Duet at Nyack's Carnegie Room March 15, 2013

Kenny Werner and Joe Lovano photo by Ralph A. Miriello c 2013

The recently re-named Carnegie-Farian Room of the Nyack Library is a jewel of a performance space, with its aged wood and stone turn of the century interior finishes. The space becomes as much a part of the performance as do the players who grace its stage, burnishing the tones of the music played there.

The Rockland Jazz and Blues Society and its President Richard Sussman, in conjunction with the Library’s Musical director Yashar Yaslowitz, have been putting on spectacular shows in this one hundred seat venue for several years. Friday night’s intimate duet, featuring the saxophone colossal Joe Lovano and the splendid piano virtuoso Kenny Werner, set a new high water mark for the series.

The sold out crowd was peppered with musicians and cognoscenti. They all came to hear these two masters play in the living room setting that makes the Carnegie Room so special and intimate.

Mr. Lovano is a big, burly man, bearded and jovial with a personality that emanates warmth. His predominant instrument is the tenor saxophone and he dominates his horn with a virtuosity and authority that few other present day players possess. His often brilliant improvisations are filled with nuance. He can create fleet, Coltrane-like, sheets of notes or he can hover between the notes, sustaining them, suspending them midair like a hawk floating in the thermals. His tone has a resonant timbre that lies somewhere between the sound of his predecessors Lester Young and Stan Getz. Forever the curious musician, he constantly challenges himself, frequently appearing as a sought after sideman or as the leader of his own ensembles.

Joe Lovano at Nyack Library photo by Ralph A. Miriello c 2013

Mr. Werner is a brilliant pianist, a well regarded writer and a marvelous composer. His piano technique has classical elements, undoubtedly a product of his time with Berklee’s renowned piano teacher Madame Chaloff. He combines a healthy sense of the blues, with an adept ability to interject elements of romanticism into his probing free improvisations. He was a Guggenheim fellow in 2010 and has accompanied many famous musicians and leads his own groups.

Mr. Lovano and Mr. Werner have a long history. Their familiarity with each other was apparent, especially on the freer pieces like the opening number, a Paul Motion composition titled “Conception Vessel.” The piece was like a dance through an enchanted forest led by tree sprites. The sprites, Mr. Lovano, on his beautiful, Peter Jessens, custom G mezzo soprano saxophone, trading inquisitive lines with Mr. Werner’s delicate and sprightly piano musings. If you closed your eyes you could be transported to their hidden realm, suspending reality for a moment.

Joe Lovano on G Mezzo Soprano Saxophone

Lovano played his tenor on the second song of the set, Mr. Werner’s composition “One.”  The laddered piece was a perfect vehicle of conversation between these two intuitive compatriots. Mr. Werner offered a beautifully rambling solo which was countered by Mr. Lovano using a more searching sound. There is no map to where Mr. Lovano will lead you with his solos. He can burst forward with excitement, meander a bit in places, yank you by the collar pulling you into the abyss, embracing you ,enveloping you in a blanket of his warm sound, and you go along willingly, all to experience the magic of the moment.

Mr. Lovano took to the drums on another free piece “Journey Within,” which is from Cross Culture, the latest album from Mr. Lovano and his group Us Five.  Mr. Werner’s whimsical piano was accentuated by Lovano’s sporadic use of brushes and splashy use of cymbals. Mr. Lovano loves drums and in his Us Five Group he utilizes two drummers to great rhythmic effect. Mr. Lovano returns with his soprano, trading ideas with Mr. Werner in a playful exchange.

Mr. Lovano‘s  last piece of the first set was his composition “Weatherman,”  dedicated to the saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who turns eighty this year. Joe's bellowing tenor ran through fluid lines, in the spirit of the elder master. Mr. Werner offered a deft accompaniment, his perky enthusiasm spilling out occasionally with audible refrains of Ah! when he liked what he heard. Mr. Lovano returned to the drum kit, keeping expert time, using a predominantly splashy sound accented by the occasional snap of the snare. With a steady rhythmic drive provided by Lovano, Werner was able to let free and offered a stirringly sensitive solo as Mr. Lovano nodding approval looked on admiringly.

After a brief intermission, the second set started off with Mr. Lovano, this time appropriately on drums for another Paul Motian tune “Drum Music.” The piece was bombastic and punctuated with a repeating line, a theme that Mr. Werner would use as the basis for his own explorations, a free improvisational romp. Mr. Lovano’s drums didn’t  keep discernible time so much as to provide accent.

Mr. Werner’s composition “Five” was a slow sensitive ballad, with Mr. Lovano playing on his warm, full-bodied tenor with a poignant, beautiful lyricism. Mr. Werner was equally emotive, as he sat hunched  over the black Yamaha grand, deep into the music, caressing the keys with his delicate, feather-like touch. These two musicians were absorbing each others ideas in mutually emphatic communion.

The program continued to thrill, as the two played Billy Strayhorn’s “Star Crossed Lovers,” a song identifiable to most of the crowd.  Mr. Werner created a short intro to the classic, leading to Mr.  Lovano stating the melody on tenor. Joe can bring great depth of feeling to his ballad work, a combination of technique and warmth of tone that lulls you into a blissful state. Mr. Werner created romantic cascades of sound on his piano, with delicate flourishes that were especially effective on this poignant ballad.

A Werner composition, “Go There and Roam”, was another chance for Mr. Lovano to play lyrically. With a  cinematic-like theme, Lovano and Werner made this a high light of the evening. Together they wove a tapestry of sound that elicited a feeling of being transported to an unfamiliar albeit melancholic place. Joe, as percussionist, took up a grouping of netted shook that he used in rhythmic support as Kenny dug deep into the song. The crowd was understandably mesmerized.

Keeny Werner and Joe Lovano photo by Ralph A. Miriello c 2013

Mr. Lovano ended the set with his own lilting “Streets of Naples.” with its' Latinized beat and a catchy melody. Joe's tenor sounding in the same spirit and with a similar gait to the way Sonny Rollins played on his famous ode to “St. Thomas.”  Mr. Werner’s solo was particularly lively giving the tune a beautiful, care free feel. The two artists darted in and out of each other's ideas in a marvelous display of spontaneously developed musical choreography.

The encore, a Werner composition titled “Ballad for Trane,” is a dedication to John Coltrane that Mr. Werner said came to him in a dream and practically wrote itself.  Mr. Lovano can channel Coltrane at will, as he has proven on such recent albums as Steve Kuhn’s Mostly Coltrane album from 2009.
He can produce a searching sound, the distinctively yearning sound of someone who is seeking out a higher truth through his music.

The performance was an unqualified success and a very special evening for all those who attended. Fortunately it was recorded on video by the Library and you can link to it here.