Notes and tones: Eight fresh jazz releases keep listeners in the pocket

Here's eight recent or upcoming jazz releases to keep in the pocket.

Noah Haidu, "Standards"

Pianist Noah Haidu offers an intentional “homage” — performed with a sense of originality and clarity — to the Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette release “Standards, Vol. 1” of 40 years ago. The supporting cast is impressive: Buster Williams and Peter Washington share the bass chair; drummer Lewis Nash is omnipresent; and saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Steve Wilson is heard on “You and the Night and the Music” and “Ana Maria,” just two of the nine chestnuts intelligently interpreted here.

Dave Stryker, "Prime"

Guitarist Dave Stryker’s long-standing trio — featuring organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter — deliver a pandemic-recorded, then post-pandemic live-streamed, in-studio performance and now-delivered set of all-original music, save a reading of “I Should Care,” the 1944 Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston and Sammy Cahn classic. What’s hip here is this is a one-take-only effort with no overdubs, just as a concert would be.

Hilario Duran and David Virelles, “Front Street Duets”

As titled, this is just a beautiful, joyful set of duets featuring a pair of extremely accomplished Cuban pianists; David Virelles is now New York-based, and Hilario Duran is a long-time Torontonian. Duran composes most of the selections here as the two enjoy ongoing interplay that, stylistically, revisits numerous Cuban rhythms and styles. The music touches on everything from the folkloric to jazz to European classical genres. If you like piano, go for it.

Doug MacDonald, “I'll See You In My Dreams”

On this take, the veteran Southern Californian guitarist surrounds himself with the ace rhythm section of pianist Tamir Hendelman, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton. The foursome rips through nine selections that are totally in their wheelhouse. Talk about teeing it up. Put this quartet together to interpret Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Ira Gershwin and spice it up with an Illinois Jacquet selection and you have the perfect recipe for what “easy listening” should be.

Joe Farnsworth, “In What Direction Are You Headed?”

As mentor and composer Harold Mabern's the title track implies, seasoned drummer Joe Farnsworth’s latest release seems to be about self-assessment, all the while rhetorically asking — and musically answering — “what direction?” Obviously veering from his hard-bop roots, Farnsworth leads four other musicians who one might think wouldn’t necessarily cross paths. The quintet brings bassist Robert Hurst, a Detroiter, peer and someone who normally fits into the “straight-ahead” world; the generally more adventurous guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, likewise a peer; along with a pair of next-generation participants — a pair of already-established twenty-somethings: pianist/Fender Rhodes player Julius Rodriguez and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. That this experiment all works is a testament to Farnsworth.

Franco Ambrosetti Band, “Lost Within You"

Bill Milkowski, the critic, author, and in this instance, liner note writer, describes trumpeter/flugelhornist Franco Ambrosetti as “elegant,” “suave” and “conversant in five languages, one being jazz.” “Lost Within You,” which incorporates all those attributes and more, sees a confluence of engaging musicianship that employs the skillset of guitarist John Scofield, a shared piano chair with Renee Rosnes and Uri Caine, bassist Scott Colley and drummer DeJohnette, who doubles on piano on the opening selection, a reading of Horace Silver’s anthem “Peace.” This recording floats and is filled with nuance, space, sparkle and crispness. It’s enthralling.

Pilc Moutin Hoenig, “YOU Are The Song”

Start with your basic/classic cooperative trio comprised of pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Ari Hoenig and add two of jazz’s most attractive and seductive ingredients — improvisation and creativity — with an abundance of skill and communication and the end result is trés bon. The trio mixes and matches John Coltrane’s “Impressions” with a pair of Thelonious Monk titles, “Straight No Chaser” and a Honig’s driving march-like rendition of “Bemsha Swing,” alongside Oscar Hammerstein’s “The Song Is You,” the traditional “Dear Old Stockholm” and a Rodgers and Hart medley of "Alice In Wonderland" and "My Romance." They augment such selections, each performed with uninhibited flash, with a pair of shared compositions of their own.

Ahmad Jamal, “Emerald City Nights — Live At The Penthouse”

Kenny Barron, the great pianist and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, says in the liner notes for this pair of two-CD sets captured during a four-year span at The Penthouse — the famed Seattle jazz landmark — that he first saw pianist Ahmad Jamal when he was in high school. Barron, who turns 80 on June 9, used the word “flawless.” Jamal who died April 16 at age 92, played right up to or close to his passing. Listening to selections on this comprehensive compilation, the words dynamic, surprising, unpredictable, fluid, exhilarating, and mellifluous all come to mind. However, if I had to pick a word to describe Jamal’s music, it would be “Swing” with a capital “S.” Jamal’s favorite format was piano-bass-drums trio, and with a few variations in rhythm section, that’s what these “Live At The Penthouse” CDs each document. I don’t know about you, but I never tire of hearing such perfection.

Jon W. Poses is executive director of the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series. Reach him at jazznbsbl@socket.net.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Notes and tones: Eight fresh jazz releases keep listeners in the pocket