Flux Music Essentials … [Davis, El Movimiento, McFerrin, Parks & Washington]

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Aaron Parks, Bobby McFerrin, El Movimiento, Grover Washington Jr., Jazz, Miles Davis

Greeting’s jazz enthusiasts, I’m back with another tasty mix of jazz that’s undoubtedly shaken and well stirred from the shelves of the “Flux Music Essentials.” As can you see, the titles below may or may not fit in the category of hot selling artist/recordings. Nevertheless, they’re personal favorites that I’ve met and grown to love.

Flux Music Essentials

Miles Davis - Nefertiti

Miles Davis -|- Nefertiti – [Sony, 1967]

The fourth studio album by the second great Miles Davis quintet, and the second comprising material recorded in the pivotal year of 1967, NEFERTITI marked yet another metamorphosis in the career of a great musician noted for welcoming change. While Davis (1926-1991) did not make wholesale, far- reaching alterations on NEFERTITI, as he had on KIND OF BLUE and E.S.P and would on BITCHES BREW, one could say that the pace-setting trumpeter-bandleader modified his approach to the freebop that had for two-and-and-half years been his group’s bread and butter, at least for recording purposes.

On the title selection, and to a lesser extent on “Fall” (another indelibly aching piece) and “Pinocchio,” all high water marks in the catalog of tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, the group’s principal composer, Davis had the front line and rhythm section reverse their traditional roles. While the horns repeated the theme again and again, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams shifted the beat’s emphasis, stretched the time, and offered a full dynamic/emotional range. The effect was like a series of time lapse photographs of a particularly beautiful scene, with light and color and shadows subtly, but continually changing, thus shifting the focus of one’s eye – or, in this case, ear. This made for some of Davis’ most mesmerizing music since KIND OF BLUE and SKETCHES OF SPAIN.

Expanded significantly to almost 66 minutes by the the inclusion of four consistently enthralling alternate takes, NEFERTITI presents Miles Davis’ second great quintet at the peak of their hypnotic, roiling, poetic powers. —Amazon.com

New Releases [Jazz] for the Week of 5/17/2010

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African American, Grover Washington Jr., Jazz, Regina Carter, Violin

Greetings’ my fellow jazz aficionados, May continues in week three with a mosaic of distinctive, and insinuating sounds, immaculate melodies, relentless rhythms with the opulent flavors embedded in jazz is here to quench our ongoing thirst for quality music.

On this weeks play-list, I’ve got a host of exquisite sounds including the incomparable Grover Washington Jr.’s – new project titled “Grover Live” produced by Jason Miles … also in the mix we have Motor City native and violinist Regina Carter’s fascinating debut on E1 Music titled “Reverse Thread.” The Grammy-nominated artist new record is our “Featured album of the Week”. Oh man, fusion enthusiast the time has come drummer Lenny White’s highly anticipated release “Anomaly” is due this Tuesday. Trumpeter Alex Sipiagin arrives with the lyrically satisfying “Generations” along with tenacious Tim Warfield on saxophone stirs up a delicious brew on “A Sentimental Journey” both records are available on Criss Cross Jazz.

The aforementioned artists/titles and more to be released this week at Amazon.com.

Featured Album of the Week

Regina Carter - Reverse Thread

Regina Carter | Reverse Thread – [E1 Music, 2010]

One of the most beloved artists of her generation, preeminent violinist Regina Carter has achieved another landmark in a creative history that has yielded both artistic and commercial triumphs. Her newest release, Reverse Thread, starts with exquisite traditional African music and infuses it with contemporary jazz and Afropop energy. The results are uplifting, stirring, and joyful. Regina’s Reverse Thread Band adds virtuoso Yacouba Sissoko on kora – the West African harp traditionally played by village storytellers–to her longstanding rhythm section.

Grover Washington Jr. | Grover Live

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African American, Grover Washington Jr., Jason Miles, Jazz, Saxophone

Grover Washington Jr. | Grover Live – (Produced By Jason Miles)

Grover Washington Jr. - Grover Live

The godfather of today’s urban contemporary jazz scene, Grover Washington Jr., was one of the most popular and influential saxophonists of the ’70s and ’80s. And while he may have paved the way for such easy-listening artists as Kenny G, Najee, George Howard and Gerald Albright, none of those popular saxophonists play with the chops and sheer intensity that Grover
demonstrated on the bandstand from night to night throughout his career, which spanned three decades. And as the newly discovered Grover Live demonstrates, the man was clearly on top of his game well in to the ’90s. Recorded on June 7, 1997 at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill, New York, Grover Live, produced by Jason Miles (Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, Sting), captures the consummate pro in concert and at the peak of his powers, blowing with unbridled conviction and a sense of risk-taking on a collection of his tunes spanning three decades.

From familiar hits like “Winelight” and “Mr. Magic” to a medley of early numbers like “Inner City Blues,” “Black Frost” and “Just the Two of Us” to more recent offerings like “Mystical Force,” the hip-hop flavored “Uptown” and a contemporary spin on the old school groover, “Soulful Strut,” Grover and his crew – Adam Holzman and Donald Robinson on keyboards and synthesizers, Gerald Veasley on electric bass, Richard Lee on guitar, Pablo Batista on percussion and Steven Wolf on drums – stretch out in dynamic fashion on this exhilarating live CD.

Read the complete article at “The Urban Music Scene.com” …

..:: Source: TheUrbanMusicScene.com ::..

The Weekend Spin [Blanchard, Urban Knights, Redman & Reeves]

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African American, Dianne Reeves, Female Vocalist, Grover Washington Jr., Jazz, Joshua Redman, Ramsey Lewis, Saxophone, Terence Blanchard, Trumpet

Hi everyone, this week concludes on the flip-side with some seriously radical jazz sounds featuring the likes of trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and Urban Knights which features Grover and Ramsey is possibly the best all-star group projects of the 90’s.  Also the cool timbre of tenor hornman Joshua Redman is always an enjoyable experience and finally one of my favorite female vocalists Dianne Reeves rounds out the playlist for this weeks segment of the Weekend Spin.

Terence Blanchard | Flow [Modern Jazz/Blue Note/2005]

Terence Blanchard

For a musician like Terence Blanchard, flow is about finding the moment when the struggle finally seems worthwhile, when all the years of study and work make sense. At the start of filming, Terence happily speculated that he may have finally assembled the perfect creative unit, a band that grows individually, and simultaneously as a group: “With this band, I just feel born-again! [laughs] It’s given me new life, piqued my curiosity, made me work hard again to really try to redefine myself, to develop and just be an artist. At the same time, I’m really having so much fun…”  In the course of Flow’s visual collage of narrative, travelogue, and tunes — filmed on four continents — Blanchard, chillmaster of the urban film score (Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, Barbershop, She Hate Me, The 25th Hour) and his young, incredibly innovative band nightly pushed the edges, inventing new music that touched the souls of audiences from Paris to New Orleans, at a huge venue in Tokyo and an intimate club in Osaka, and from the street scene of South Africa to the swimming-pool-studded canyons of Hollywood. But the exotic settings serve to frame the human background of the very real daily lives of six musicians, constantly on the move physically and creatively. ~ Source: Amazon.com/Jim Gabour

Grover Washington Jr. | Winelight

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African American, Grover, Grover Washington Jr., Jazz, Saxophonist

As suggested all the way from Houston TX by Earlis Marks is “Winelight” the mega hit by legendary saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. … our featured “Video of The Week.”