The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra Strikes Again

At the end of last year I posted about "Rhapsody in Blue Live", Scottish National Jazz Orchestra featuring Tommy Smith and Brian Kellock (Spartacus Records 2009), an absolutely knockout recording of creativity that presents the piece as you've never heard it before. 

They're back again with "American Adventure" (Spartacus Records 2013) this time augmenting Tommy Smith on tenor sax (and as leader) and the 14 piece orchestra with a stellar group of American jazz players: Mike Stern on guitar, Clarence Penn on drums, Donny McCaslin on flute and tenor, Joe Locke on vibes, Dave Liebman on soprano sax, David Kikowski on piano, Joel Frahm on tenor, Bill Evans on tenor, Kurt Elling singing on one track, Michael Dease on trombone, and Randy Brecker on trumpet. The recording was made last June at the Avatar Stuidios in Brooklyn while the Orchestra was touring in the U.S. and Canada for the first time. 

It is an elegant set of seven pieces arranged to maximize the contributions of these stellar players, a set that includes Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love", the piece that Elling appears on; Wayne Shorter's "Yes or Know", a great arrangement for the horns and an energetic feature for Joe Locke and SNJO drummer Alyn Cosker;  rhapsodic and delicate play on Coltrane's "Dear Lord" featuring David Kikoski and Randy Brecker; a high wire romp on Shorter's "Pinocchio" featuring Michael Dease, Joel Frahm, and Clarence Penn; and the elegant Chick Corea's "Quartet No. 1 (part 2)" for Bill Evans and David Kikoski. 

As with the earlier "Rhapsody In Blue" it is the combination of the inviting arrangements, virtuosity of the players, and the energy they produce that makes the set memorable. Seriously creative music with too many great solo parts to enumerate. 

Note: For those who do not know Tommy Smith, he is an internationally known tenor sax player with a long list of accomplishments, both leading the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra as well as playing on many other significant CDs, including most recently Arild Andersen's "Mira" (ECM 2013), a beautiful and rewarding set that shows him in a very different but equally beautiful mood. 

Bad Covers, Great Music: You Can't Tell a Disc By its Cover

Ted Nash's CD from 2012 "The Creep" (Plastic Sax Records 2012) brought this to mind, CDs that I have seen languish on the shelf at my local store with covers that do not suggest that they are full of serious music, let alone serious and great music.

I know Ted Nash. I have a number of his previous outings which are uniformly excellent -- they include "Portrait in Seven Shades" with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (JLC 2010), "The Mancini Project (Palmetto 2008),  and "In the Loop (Palmetto 2006).  Nash is a bop and post-bop tenor and alto saxophonist also comfortable in the more avant-garde world. From L.A., he was introduced to jazz by his namesake uncle, a player with Les Brown and Henry Mancini in the 40s, 50s and 60s, and his trombonist father Dick. By the time he reached 17, he had played lead alto for Quincy Jones' band and was performing regularly with the bands of  others like Louis Bellson and Don Ellis. By 18 he recorded his first date as a leader for Concord Jazz and since has had a long career as a leader and sideman.

Still, the goofy cover, even though I understand it as conciously ironic and referential to '50s comics and noire films, put me off for quite a while, and only when I started reading other reviews and seeing end of year lists did I finally pick this up, and of course am now glad that I did. This is a CD full of great music and great playing, by Nash on saxes and his sidemen -- Ron Horton on trumpet, Paul Sikivie on bass, and Ulysses Owen on drums (Owens himself produced an outstanding CD as leader last year, "Unanimous" (Criss Cross 2012)).

This is sort of a mix of modern-bop and free-jazz but  tightly controlled and structured. The two leads on trumpet and sax have lots of room for improvisation, for wending their way around each other and generally keeping the energy flowing at a high level, with great rhythmic support by Sikivie and Owens.  Seven Nash originals are joined by an Ornette tune "Kaleidoscope" and a Sherman Irby tune "Twilight Sounds" and feature these trade-offs between unison play, counterpoint, and free play, but the music never goes out of control for these ears. There is much bop here, some West Coast sounds, some noirish themes, and overall just great play.

The Red Mitchell Trio "One Long String" (Mercury 1969) may have looked normal in 1969 when it was issued -- heck I had a Studebaker plastered with flower decals like those on the cover -- but as a reissue it just looks weird. And yet look at the players. Mitchell was a first rate, in-demand bassist who played alongside Ornette Coleman, Harold Land, Dizzy Gillespie, Phil Woods and on and on with a huge discography as sideman and leader, recognized for his large woody sound, creativity, and writing. He was 42 at the time of this recording and in the prime of his career. Bobo Stenson had yet to make an international name for himself and was still two years away from his first recording as leader, but already was a remarkably limber pianist. Drummer Rune Carlsson was a fixture on the Scandanavian scene who would go onto a long career backing Stenson and others in Europe as well as visiting Americans like Bill Evans and Ben Webster. Mitchell had moved to Sweden at the time of this recording, which is a very open, modern bop effort with a great deal of energy provided from his bass and the drumming of Carlsson. Stenson gets a chance to really open up on some soulful, energetic and wholly exciting tunes, mostly by Nash but also one by Stenson as well as the standard "Stella by Starlight." Close your eyes if you must but seek this one out and enjoy.

The first two CDs herein were by established, recognized players, maybe not of the highest profile but still recognizable names. What happens when a relative unknown produces a marvelous CD with a whacky cover? That is what we have with Igor Butman's "Magic Land" (Sony 2007). Butman is on the cover with his ear over the bell of his saxophone, with the title splashed in multi-colors. It does not scream serious music -- it screams goofy -- and does not invite one to pick it up -- who is this anyway? Is he for real? But if you do pick it up and flip it over, here is what you get: a band that inlcudes Randy Brecker, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Stefon Harris, and John Patitucci. Now are you interested?

Yes, this is one of those CDs where you need to look past the leader to the sidemen, and oh what sidemen. Does anyone believe that they would be playing behind a no-talent sax player? So who is Igor Butman?

Born in Leningrad in 1961, Butman was provided with a musical education from an early age, first on piano and then at age 11 on clarinet. He studied at top institutes in Russia, and then played in several major Russian bands. He picked up the tenor saxophone along the way for the charts in one of these bands, and never looked back. Butman, who had taught himself English, played with Gary Burton’s band during its 1982 tour with Chick Corea. In 1987 he came to Berklee and afterwards, with degrees as concert saxophonist and as composer, Butman went to New York where he played with Billy Taylor and Grover Washington Jr. first and later with Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton and Pat Metheny. He also formed bands for tours at home with John Abercrombie, Cindy Blackman, Joe Locke, and Adam Nussbaum. In 1998, Butman was guest soloist with Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He owns a club in Moscow and has brought jazz to Russia; in addition to his jazz, Butman has played and recorded with classical violinist Yuri Bashmet and his Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra. He currently continues to play and also now produces jazz recordings for his own recording label.

This is a very nice album, not earth-shaking or amazingly innovative, but a very solid outing featuring a mix of songs that include some Carribean influenced phythms and harmonies, some ballads, some bop, and some lullabyes. Brecker is a standout on the CD, and Harris' vibraphone adds a flair on those Carribean sounds, and Butman has a smooth tone and plays some lovely melodies particularly on the slower tunes. The band impresses throughout.

Got any other funky covers to share that hide solid outings? Let me know.

Dumpster Diving: Ada Rovatti, a $2 Gem

Okay, so it wasn't dumpster diving exactly. It was sorting through boxes and boxes of bargain discs at my local record store, which sometimes pays off with little gems. (Anyone like Blake Shelton? I saw at least three of his CDs among the piles.]

I picked up this CD, "Airbop" (Apria Records 2005) by Ada Rovatti to look at. Why? First, the cover shows her with a tenor sax and I love the sound of a good tenor sax. Second, among the players listed on the back cover two were well known to me as outstanding straight jazz players, Dave Kikoski on piano and Ed Howard on  bass. Good sign -- as I have said on earlier blogs, check the line up if you don't know the name. Good sidemen don't generally play with anyone, and if they think Ada Rovatti is worth playing with then who am I to argue. So then I opened the jewel box to see what it said inside and low and behold, there were guest players, specifically in this case Randy Brecker on trumpet/flugelhorn on four tracks and Bob Mintzer on bass clarinet on one track (and I have already said I am a sucker for bass clarinet).

Now it was really interesting, so I put it on the CD player in the store, and presto, this is a really good piece of solid modern bop music. And Ada Rovatti plays with a really nice big tenor sound. Randy Brecker swings like mad on his four tracks, especially "Choose Your Life", and Mintzer is solid on "2-Bros." with a nice bass clarinet solo. The set consists of 8 pieces composed and arranged by Rovatti, plus one lovely rendering of "My Shining Hour", a Harold Arlen composition on which Rovatti plays a very expressive, smooth soprano sax. Her play here is subdued and lilting, and Kikowski comes in early with a similarly subdued improvised solo that captures the beauty of the song. The  two blow the song away, and demonstrate the virtuosity of Rovatti on a song that everyone knows. Her compositions are effective and great pieces for her playing partners to open up on, and her own mastery of the two saxes on her various solos, runs up and down the notes, and unison play makes this a standout recording. Worth hearing and probably a bargain as well if you look.

Who is Ada Rovatti and what else has she played on? That was my next question after hearing this CD so here are some notes from her on-line biography. Ada Rovatti is an Italian saxophonist from Pavia who began playing piano at an early age and only at the end of high school picked the saxophone as her main instrument. She studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston,  moved to Paris, where she played with many artists, and then returned to New York. She has performed with Les Paul, John McLaughlin, Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Victor Bailey, Miroslav Vitous, Joanne Brackeen, and many others.

Her first recording as a leader was “Under The Hat”, and “Airbop” is her second release. She also appears on Randy Brecker's “34 th N Lex” (ESC Records 2003) and on John McLaughlin's “Industrial Zen” (Verve Fontana 2006). In 2009 she released “Green Factor”, which I have not heard but is described as a unique recording with a melting pot of irish/celtic/jazz/fusion influences with strong harmonies and sophisticated arrangements. She also has a band, Elephunk, with whom she has recorded as well.  

Rovatti is married to Randy Brecker and plays with his quintet.  A review from a recent tour (Jeff Nania, Metroland Newspaper, March 8, 2012) said the following:

Rovatti was endearingly referred to as “the secret weapon” by her husband and bandleader, Brecker. Her tenor sound is often dark and mysterious, but can be soulful and bluesy, or cutting and edgy. This is in contrast to her tone on the soprano, which is round and beautiful without any of the annoying edge that is so often associated with that instrument, and which even more well-known proponents of the instrument fall prey to. The interplay between Brecker and Rovatti came off with ease. They know how to accompany each other, and their interplay is truly conversational. The most original composition of the evening was Rovatti’s tune “Stuntman,” which came to a false ending, and the crowd started applauding before the group went into a 14/8 groove. Rovatti played soprano on this one, and although Brecker played the melody on trumpet, he picked up the flugelhorn for the solo.

In addition to her musical expertise Ada appeared in the movie ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ featuring Julia Roberts.

[NOTE: There are an awful lot of husband and wife jazz teams around that play some awesome music in addition to these two. Off the top of my head,  I can quickly think of Renee Rosnes and Bill Charlap, George Colligan and Kerry Politzer (Jan 9), Mike DeRubbo and Lauren Sevian (Feb 14), Geri Allen and Wallace Roney. (The dates indicate a blog post reference.)

Readers are welcome to provide more.