José James | The Dreamer

Tags

Hip-hop, Jazz, Jose James, Soul, Vocalist

José James | The Dreamer – [Brownswood Recordings, 2008]

José James, The Dreamer

Brooklyn based, half-Irish and half-Panamanian José James sounds like a soulful cross between Gil Scott Heron, Terry Callier and Kurt Elling. He’s definitely a jazz singer and we don’t seem to have enough of those, especially younger ones to take the form forward. He sings here as part of a basic quartet made up of him, Nori Ochiai on piano, Alexi David on bass and Steve Lyman on drums – though Luke Damrosch plays drums on “The Dreamer” and “blackeyedsusan” and Junior Mance plays piano on “Spirits Up Above“.

There’s another slight variation to the line-up (and general vibe of the album) on “Park Bench People“, where Ryan Blum takes up keyboards and Gal Ben Haim plays guitar. Blum also plays keys on the album closer, the drum & bass-inspired “Love“. Omar Abdukarim also plays trumpet albeit, on the title track only.

Chico O’Farrill | Carambola

Tags

Arranger, Chico O'Farrill, Conductor, Cuban Jazz, Trumpet

Chico O’Farrill | Carambola – [Milestone, 2000]

Chico O'Farrill, Carambola

With 60 years of music making under his belt, the Cuban-born composer, arranger, and bandleader Chico O’Farrill reigns as the dean of Latin jazz. After arriving in New York in 1948, he worked with Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Machito. Carambola, the maestro’s first CD of the 21st century, finds him in rare form. Old tunes like “Carambola,” “Havana Blues,” and “Crazy City (…But I Love It)” charge with a mambo-bebop fire. “Waller Exercise” is a ragtime-stride, New Orleans second-line ditty recorded to sound like a scratchy 78, while “Rhapsody for Two Islands” is a Cubop shout to George Gershwin. The timeless vocals of Graciela, the sister of Machito and wife of Mario Bauza, grace “Oye Mi Rumba.” The CD’s high points, though, are O’Farrill’s extended compositions–his 1950 masterpiece, “The Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite” with its mercurial, millennial mood, and “The Aztec Suite.” Composed in 1959, the latter is featured on CD for the first time. Both numbers indulge peppery rumbas, bebop lines, boleros, and Afro syncopation’s with the touch of a master. Trumpeters Phillip Michael Mossman and Jim Seeley, trombonist Papo Vazquez and alto saxophonist Mario Rivera add their improvisations to the mix and make this aural offering one tasty Cuban-American dish. —Eugene Holley Jr.

Check out “Afro Cuban Jazz Suite” performed by Chico and company on a clip from “Calle 54” the movie!

..:: Source: Amazon.com ::..