Welcome to the weekend and New In Music This Week: June 28th.
There was a clear and easy top pick this week. It is:
JAZZ VOCALS: APRIL – April Varner – Cellar Music Group
What do Vernon Duke, Pat Metheny, Frank Ocean, Prince and Simon & Garfunkel have in common? They all wrote songs invoking the fourth month of the year. Vocalist/songwriter April Varner can add her name to songwriters inspired by the month best known for April Fool’s Day and paying taxes. She wrote the songs that open and close April.
You would be a fool not to listen to this gorgeous album. Varner won the 2023 Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition. Listening to this album, that’s not a surprise. Her ability to give full emotion and meaning to each lyric and pair that with a beautiful vocal performance is incredible.
Joining Varner for this celebration of all things April are vocalist Benny Bennack III; pianist Caelan Cardello; guitarist Russell Malone; bassist Reuben Rogers; drummer Miguel Russell and saxophonist Dayna Stephens. The album was produced by Ulysses Owens Jr.
Here are my other selections for New In Music This Week: June 28th
CLASSICAL: DVOŘÁK & TCHAIKOVSKY – John-Henry Crawford/San Francisco Ballet Orchestra/Martin West – Orchid Classics
Perhaps you’ve heard cellist Crawford on Christopher O’Reilly’s From the Top on NPR. That’s where I first heard him. He’s since recorded three previous albums centered on works by Brahms, Ligeti, Piazzolla, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Villa-Lobos amongst others.
This new album opens with his performance of the 8 Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky. The album closes with Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor for cello and orchestra.
Crawford has said in interviews that he has performed the Rococo (as he says cellists like to say) many times before getting into the studio. That experience pays off in this recording which finds him easily navigating the challenging parts of Tchaikovsky’s work and making beautiful music of them.
I’m not the biggest fan of Dvořák’s work, but I did enjoy this recording of the B minor concerto.
CLASSICAL: JOE HISAISHI IN VIENNA: SYMPHONY No. 2; VIOLA SAGA – Joe Hisaishi/Wiener Symphoniker – Deutsche Grammophon
Hisaishi is best known as the composer of film scores for filmmaker Hayao iyazaki. This album features his 3-movement symphony and 2-movement saga.
The symphony runs just under 38 minutes. The Viola Saga runs 21-1/2 minutes with Antoine Tamestit as the soloist. Both works are enjoyable and do serve as a departure from his film scores.
Hisaishi conducts the Wiener Symphoniker in this live recording.
CLASSICAL: WAVES (Music by Satie) – Bruce Liu – Deutsche Grammophon
Pianist Liu beautifully plays Satie’s music. In fact, he beautifully plays it twice: once on a grand piano and once on an upright piano. I’m not sure of the thinking behind recording the 6 Gnossiennes twice other than to inform listeners of the difference between two different pianos.
If you love Satie, you’ll enjoy Liu’s performances. You’ll just have to decide which piano you think sounds better.
JAZZ: GRATITUDE & GUIDANCE – Zachary Finnegan – Shifting Paradigm Records
Not many people take nine years to create their debut album, but that persistence and patience paid off in trumpeter/composer Finnegan’s Gratitude & Guidance. I’m already interested to hear what a second album might offer – which hopefully won’t be another nine years away.
Eight of the nine tracks on Gratitude & Guidance were composed by Finnegan. The lone cover is Invitation written by Bronislaw Kaper. In the jazz world he’s best known for having composed On Green Dolphin Street. This song comes from the 1950 film A Life of Her Own.
Joining Finnegan (who arranged all the music and also plays flugelhorn) are Matt Gold on guitar; Camile Mennitte Pereyra on drums; Ethan Philion on bass, Leonard Simpson III on alto and soprano saxophones and Julius Tucker on piano. A string quartet joins for three tracks on the album.
JAZZ: SMALL MEDIUM LARGE – SML – International Anthem
SML is a five-person ensemble that includes bassist Anna Butterss; synthesist Jeremiah Chiu; saxophonist Josh Johnson; percussionist Booker Stardum and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann.
From that line-up alone, you know this isn’t going to be an old-school approach. This is improvisation and some serious funk. It is also a recording made as much in its editing as it was in individual performances.
The result is nothing short of mesmerizing. Small Medium Large is part of the next generation of “jazz” music. As such it gives one complete optimism about what might be next.
JAZZ: SANYAS – Steve Turre – Smoke Sessions Records
For almost 40 years you have welcomed trombonist/composer Steve Turre into your homes. Since 1985 he has been a member of the Saturday Night Live Band. Beyond that he’s been a innovative jazz trombonist and composer for more than 50 years.
This album was recorded live at New York’s Smoke Jazz Club. It features five tracks (one is listed as a bonus track). There are two of Turre’s composition on this thoroughly enjoyable album: Sanyas and Wishful Thinking. There is a cover of Lee Morgan’s Mr. Kenyatta and two standards: All The Things You Are and These Foolish Things.
Joining Turre are tenor saxophonist Ron Blake, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, drummer Lenny White and bassist Buster Williams.
This is Turre’s first live-album and it’s a damn good one!
JAZZ VOCALS: TIME AND AGAIN – Eliane Elias – Candid Records
Fans of Brazilian jazz and jazz vocals have long known about Elias. She’s been recording since 1985’s Amanda which found her paired with Randy Brecker. She’s recorded albums of music by Chet Baker, Bill Evans and Jobim.
On Time And Again the songs are all hers. Sung in both English and Portuguese, these songs bring with them her trademark vocals with terrific arrangements true to her Brazilian roots.
I love Brazilian jazz vocals, so this album was a lot of fun and brought me back to my one trip to Rio de Janeiro. My favorite tracks are Falo Do Amor, A Volta and Making Honey. This is an album full of Carioca spirit.
MUSICALS: THE GREAT GATSBY – Original Broadway Cast – Sony Masterworks Broadway
There are two current musicals* that are adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. The first is this musical now playing at the Broadway Theatre, which has music and lyrics by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) and a book by Kait Kerrigan.
The show received only one Tony nomination for Linda Cho’s costumes. She won. But audiences appear to be won over by the performances of the cast: Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby; Eva Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan and Noah J. Ricketts as Nick Carraway.
It’s hard to get a sense of the full experience of this show from the album, but musical fans already know how talented Jordan and Noblezada are from their previous shows. Rickets absolutely impresses on this recording.
*The other musical waiting to see the fate of this musical was written by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett and had its premiere recently at A.R.T. in Boston. It plays there through August 3rd.
That’s it for New In Music This Week: June 28th.
Enjoy the music!
Enjoy your weekend!
Main Photo: Part of the album cover art for April by April Varner