There are no surprises on Brian Simpson's fifth solo release, Just What You Need. The ten cuts are comprised of catchy, laid-back smooth jazz arrangements with elements of lite R&B, executed with ease and a very clean production. The two standout tracks, for very different reasons, are both cover versions. "The Girl from Ipanema" (with Dave Koz on saxophone) has none of the romantic breezy haze of the original, and comes across too formal and somewhat sterile. On the other hand, "You Gotta Be," the 1994 hit song by Des'ree, has an infectious, relaxed groove, featuring vocalist Jeff Robinson, that is hard to get out of your head. Also making guest appearances on Just What You Need are celebrated smooth jazz musicians Gerald Albright, Marc Antoine, Elan Trotman, and Jonathan Butler.
After a brief sojourn for Verve Forecast with 2011's Contact, Boney James returns home to Concord for The Beat. Aptly titled, this is the recording where the composer and saxophonist weds his love for both R&B and Latin music, weaving them together in his trademark brand of contemporary jazz. Besides James, the other star on this date is all-star percussionist Lenny Castro, whose use of congas, timbales, bongos, and numerous other instruments adds dimension, flavor, and punch to most of these cuts. A cover of Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," is the opener. It's played as a lithe bossa nova. Drummer Vinnie Colauita and Castro exchange accents in all the right places as James uses his soprano to glide through the melody. Another highlight is the cover of the Sergio Mendes classic "Batacuda," with longtime friend and collaborator Rick Braun lending his trumpet. In James' arrangement, this is 21st century jazz funk with the two-horn frontline backed by Rob Bacon's stinging guitar, Alex Al's bassline, Tim Carmon's keyboard washes -- including a second bassline -- and keen interplay between punchy drummer Omari Williams and Castro. Braun's solo is short but very tight. Soul crooner Raheem DeVaughn appears on the slippery meld of old-school soul and laid-back funky jazz on "Maker of Love." Natalie "The Floacist" Stewart offers her rhyming and signing skill to "They Midas (This Is Why)." It simmers with a sexy, nocturnal feel and illustrates modern club jazz at its best. "Sunset Boulevard" wanders into the jazz fields more, with lovely piano work from Brandon Coleman and a low-end strutting bass by Dwayne "Smitty" Smith. "Powerhouse" melds Latin funk to fingerpopping contemporary jazz, while "You Can Count on Me" -- with one of James' most memorable melodies in ages -- weds Brazilian MPB, languid R&B, and emotive smooth jazz, and sends it all out on a high note. His tenor playing here is wide open and sultry. While The Beat is not as uptempo as its title might imply, it more than compensates with the layers of rhythms inherent in its tunes. There are no low points on the set, only grooves galore.
The smooth jazz genre in the 2000s and 2010s has had two very vocal apostles in Kirk Whalum and Jonathan Butler, who made gospel albums to complement their more mainstream output, and have spoken freely on-stage about their faith. One who has done this more quietly, but no less eloquently, is Euge Groove, whose muscular tenor sax-doubling and lilting soprano have helped him score numerous radio hits and develop a ready-to-party audience as he subtly infuses a little church in the mix. In many ways, House of Groove falls right in line with the versatile saxman's core array of sounds -- dreamy, lilting, and sexy on the expansive opening track "Knock! Knock! Who's There?" and going for that dark-chorded, midtempo, doubled-tenor sizzle on the title track. One of the coolest elements that sets this collection apart is the length of the tracks, which allow him to offer rich solos to his bandmates -- most notably, the fiery Neal Schon-like guitar solo by John "Jubu" Smith on the hypnotic ballad "Indian Summer," and the stellar soloing throughout by keyboardist Tracy Carter. But the spiritual/emotional core of the songs calls to mind the vibe of his earlier release, Sunday Morning. There's the infectious invitation to the "Fellowship Hall," the simmering gospel ballad "God Bless You" (with graceful vocals by Kate Miner Moebel), the buoyant "Faithful Central" (a church in the Los Angeles area of which Carter has been musical director), and the gentle gospel/whispery soul vocal ballad "It's Only Rain," a passionate plea about keeping the faith. Another R&B-driven delight is "Never Met a Woman (Like You)," featuring the lighthearted coolness of genre great Jeffrey Osborne. House of Groove keeps its promised rhythms flowing, but the spiritual heart takes Groove's game to some exciting new places.
Soprano saxophonist Marion Meadows plays what has to be called smooth jazz, but he stretches the template a bit by incorporating subtly nuanced Latin, Eastern, and African touches into his style. Whisper is Meadows' first new studio album since 2009's Secrets, and in many ways it works as a sort of follow-up bookend to that earlier project, and while it doesn't really ruffle any feathers, or even try to, it does generate a nice little smooth and rhythmic breeze.
Masada is as much a "songbook" as a group, comprising more than 500 relatively brief compositions. Each song is written in accordance with a number of rules, including the maximum number of staves, the modes or scales that are used, and the fact that the songs must be playable by any small group of instruments.Masada is a musical group with rotating personnel led by American saxophonist and composer John Zorn since the early 1990s.
Given the historical associations of the project's name (see Masada), the Hebrew titles of the compositions, and the Jewish imagery on the covers of the associated albums, Zorn was clearly exploring his Jewish roots, stating, "The idea with Masada is to produce a sort of radical Jewish music, a new Jewish music which is not the traditional one in a different arrangement, but music for the Jews of today. The idea is to put Ornette Coleman and the Jewish scales together."
History
Zorn formed the group Masada in order to record and perform this set of tunes. The first group to use the Masada name was Zorn (alto saxophone), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Greg Cohen (double bass), and Joey Baron (drum set). On occasion, different drummers filled in for Baron – most regularly Kenny Wollesen.
This first edition of Masada had the same instrumental make-up as the pioneering free jazz group led by saxophonist Ornette Coleman in the late 1950s and early '60s, and earned frequent comparisons to Coleman's music. Masada recorded the music on a series of ten CDs on the Japanese DIW label and a number of live recordings on Zorn's Tzadik label.
By the last few months of 2004, Zorn wrote over 300 new tunes for the Masada songbook. Some of the new tunes were debuted at Tonic in December 2004, as a mini festival. Tzadik has released a series of CDs of these songs played by various ensembles, including the Masada String Trio, Marc Ribot, Koby Israelite, Erik Friedlander and others as the "Masada Book 2: The Book of Angels" collection.
As of early 2007, according to the Tzadik website, "Together for close to fifteen years, John Zorn's Masada Quartet is officially breaking up and will be performing two of their last live concerts ever at Lincoln Center March 9th and 10th on a double bill with Cecil Taylor's New AHA 3." Nevertheless they were scheduled to perform as the original quartet on a concert in Antwerp in Cultural Center Luchtbal on June 22, 2008 - the bill later changed with the addition of pianist Uri Caine, who performed with them the entire set, except for one song. Baron, Cohen and Douglas also joined the duo of Mike Patton and John Zorn the evening before, at the same venue, and the quartet also performed one song as an encore.
The quartet performed together at Yoshi's San Francisco jazz club on March 12, 2008. The 8pm show featured music from the original Masada songbook and the 10pm performance featured songs from Masada Book 2: The Book of Angels.
