The Big Takeover: Ron Jackson - Standards and My Songs (Roni Music) bigtakeover.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bigtakeover.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Embed
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says COVID-era isolationism has produced a bumper crop of solo records from jazz instrumentalists. These include two very different new albums by two outstanding tenor saxophonists - J.D. Allen caught in the studio and Jon Irabagon recorded in the wild. He starts with J.D. Allen.
(SOUNDBITE OF J.D. ALLEN S THESE FOOLISH THINGS )
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Tenor saxophonist J.D. Allen giving These Foolish Things the gravitas of Old Man River. It s from Allen s solo CD Queen City, the nickname for Cincinnati, where he recorded it early in 2021. In the notes, Allen describes his own COVID-era journey, questioning what it s all about as the music world ground to a halt, then turning back to his horn - lockdown was made for practicing - and then towards self-reliance, making music on his own. He already had a sturdy, bluesy tone and deep authority as a player to build on.
COVID Era Produces A New Crop Of Solo Records From Jazz Instrumentalists kosu.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kosu.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Chris Potter and more – first shared musical space with Hart in the late eighties.
The trio takes on a program of three Hays originals and three “contrafacts” of well-known standards. The latter means rearrangements and extrapolations on “Scrapple From the Apple” (as “Unscrappulous”), “Stella By Starlight” (as “Twilight”) and “All the Things You Are” (the hard-swinging title track) – all reminiscent of the originals, but not close enough to truly be covers. (There’s long been precedent for this approach in jazz – after all, Charlie Parker’s “Moose the Mooche” and Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail” are both based on “I Got Rhythm,” and Miles Davis’ “So What” and John Coltrane’s “Impressions” use the chord structure of Morton Gould’s “Pavanne.”) Besides, considering this threesome’s incomparable improvisational chops, any tune becomes a new tune in their hands. Hays’ incredible piano chops and melodic sense and Hart an