Thomas Conrad

Around the last decade of the previous century, something significant happened in jazz. Suddenly, many of the best players were no longer Americans. Actually, it was not sudden. It was a gradual flowering that achieved critical mass and could no longer be overlooked.

Ryan Truesdell: Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans
Ryan Truesdell, conductor; 35 musicians including those mentioned in text, plus: Scott Robinson, Charles Pillow, reeds; Greg Gisbert, trumpet; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Romero Lubambo, guitar; Lewis Nash, drums
ArtistShare AS0114 (CD). 2012. Ryan Truesdell, prod.; James Farber, eng. DAD. TT: 74:18
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

It is dreamlike when the opening track, "Punjab," begins so softly, with the tapping of a tabla. Exotic woodwinds, perhaps English horn and bassoon, murmur in the left channel, whisper in the right. It is dreamlike because Gil Evans died in 1988, yet this unfamiliar music sounds like him, and when suddenly that deep, solemn brass figure looms out of the right channel, it could only be him. More instruments enter, and more motifs, with brighter colors from alto saxophone and flute. Like all the greatest Gil Evans music, "Punjab" creates its own world of high drama and mysterious allusion. It belongs in the exalted company of such Evans masterpieces as Out of the Cool and Sketches of Spain. And it is new.

On this page in the May 2011 issue of Stereophile, Steve Guttenberg became the latest in a long line of prophets of doom who periodically announce that jazz is deceased. Guttenberg argued that "Digital audio mortally wounded recorded music's creative mojo in 1982" and was "stifling creativity in rock and jazz."

I bring glad tidings to Stereophile readers. When it comes to jazz, Guttenberg is dead wrong. The jazz art form today is rich, diverse, deep, and international.

<B>ENRICO RAVA/STEFANO BOLLANI: <I>The Third Man</I></B><BR>
Enrico Rava, trumpet; Stefano Bollani, piano<BR>
ECM 2020 (CD). 2007. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Stefano Amerio, Gabriele Kamm, engs. DDD. TT: 72:06<BR>
Performance ****1/2<BR>
Sonics ****

I don't remember the year, but I remember the moment when I first became intensely curious about Roy DuNann. It must have been about 1975, right after I moved to Seattle. I bought a Sonny Rollins LP called <I>Way Out West</I>, took it home, cued it up on my Thorens turntable, dropped the tonearm, and suddenly I was in a room with Rollins and Shelly Manne and Ray Brown. It was a shipping room with records stacked on shelves all around the musicians, but I wouldn't know that until many years later.

<B>THE TIERNEY SUTTON BAND: <I>On the Other Side</I></B><BR>
Tierney Sutton, vocals; Christian Jacob, piano; Trey Henry, Kevin Axt, bass; Ray Brinker, drums; with Jack Sheldon, trumpet, vocal<BR>
Telarc SACD-63650 (hybrid multichannel SACD/CD). 2007. Elaine Martone, prod.; Robert Friedrich, eng. DDD. TT: 60:03<BR>
Performance ****&#189;<BR>
Sonics *****

<B>ONE FOR ALL: <I>The Lineup</I></B><BR>
Eric Alexander, tenor sax; Jim Rotondi, trumpet, flugelhorn; Steve Davis, trombone; David Hazeltine, piano, Fender Rhodes; John Webber, bass; Joe Farnsworth, drums<BR>
Sharp Nine CD 1037-2 (CD). 2006. Marc Edelman, prod.; Katherine Miller, eng. DDD. TT: 57:42<BR>
Performance <B>****&#189;</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>