Recording of the Month
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Premonition 90763-1
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: *****
Overall Enjoyment: *****
Patricia Barber is an audiophile favorite, and her record label, Premonition, has recently revisited some of her earlier recordings to see if they could be improved on. Although Café Blue was already admired for its sonic quality, last year’s vinyl reissue was a pronounced improvement over both the original CD release and Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s reissue. Remixed, remastered, and pressed by RTI on high-quality, 180gm vinyl, this new edition removed some heavy-handed reverb and presents Barber and her band more honestly and likeably.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
Verve/Analogue Productions CVRJ 8606 SA
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****
This 1964 set can polarize jazz lovers. Many find it the consummate recording of this trio, which had been together five years when it was taped. Others think the repertory is trivial. Peterson chose for this set such popular favorites as "Quiet Night of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)," "People," "The Girl from Ipanema," "The Days of Wine and Roses," and "My One and Only Love." Balancing these chestnuts are some slightly less familiar standards: "Have You Met Miss Jones?," "D & E," "You Look Good to Me," and "Time and Again." Here's the formula: Peterson usually makes a clear statement of the tune up front, then goes off on one or more of his incredible variations, manipulations that give him a chance to show off his fleet, refined, and graceful fingerwork. Bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen are virtuosos in their own rights, but also know how to fit in as part of the ensemble. To say that the three are tightly knit is to understate the obvious.
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Impulse!/Universal Music/Analogue Productions CIPJ 74 SA
Format: Hybrid SACD
Musical Performance: ***1/2
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
The posthumous reputation of jazz singer Johnny Hartman (1923-1983) got a boost in 1995, when Clint Eastwood chose some of his recordings for the soundtrack to The Bridges of Madison County. Hartman had never been a household name. Hardcore jazz fans probably know him best for John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, the sole album by the saxophonist to feature a singer. Coltrane knew Hartman from their brief stints in Dizzy Gillespie’s late-1940s big band, and in 1963 he brought the singer to Impulse! Records, where Hartman would record two more LPs.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
Naïve NJ621711
Format: CD
Musical Performance: *****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: *****
You might have heard of Tania Maria as a Brazilian bombshell whose fusion performances have been spicing up jazz clubs and recordings for 30-plus years. On this album she has just one partner, double bassist Eddie Gomez, known to many for his work with Bill Evans. Tania Maria is earthier than ever on Tempo, on which her singing, piano playing, and composing skills can be easily heard.
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
A&M/Analogue Productions CAPP 9135 SA
Format: Hybrid SACD
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: *****
Overall Enjoyment: ****½
Tea for the Tillerman was Cat Stevens’s fourth album, and his second with producer Paul Samwell-Smith. Stevens had enjoyed some success in England in 1966 with his first LP, Matthew and Son (Decca), but had been dissatisfied with the production of his second, New Masters, the following year. He was leaning toward a simpler, folk-rock sound, and his producer had made an overly elaborate record that didn’t even chart. After a lengthy recuperation from tuberculosis in 1969, Stevens changed record labels (Island in Europe, A&M in the US), released Mona Bone Jakon in July 1970, and then, just four months later, became an international star with the release of Tea for the Tillerman.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
Verve/Analogue Productions CVRJ8545 SA
Format: Stereo SACD/CD
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2
In the early 1960s, after tenor saxophonist Stan Getz heard Brazilian jazz played with a new beat called bossa nova (Portuguese for “new trend”), he and guitarist Charlie Byrd collaborated on the album Jazz Samba (1962). Having gotten a taste of bossa nova in the soundtrack of the mesmerizing Brazilian film Black Orpheus (1959), US listeners and musicians were primed for something new and innovative, and Jazz Samba was one of those rare jazz albums that topped the pop charts.
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Concord Jazz CJA-33364-02
Format: CD
Musical Performance: ****½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Chick Corea’s Further Explorations echoes the title of Bill Evans’s Explorations, his 1961 recording with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro for Riverside Records. Motian, who died late last year, is on hand for this live recording with Corea and bassist Eddie Gomez, who played with Evans for 11 years. The trio worked together to choose material from Evans’s discography for a series of live performances at New York’s Blue Note in May 2010. In September 2011, Universal Music in Japan released this two-disc set of selections from those performances, and Concord has now made it available in the US.
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