Nnenna Freelon & John Brown Big Band -][- CHRISTMAS – [Brown Boulevard, 2012] –

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African American, Brown Boulevard, John Brown, Nnenna Freelon, Vocalist

The first Christmas album from the six-time Grammy nominee finds her beautifully backed by the John Brown Big Band on ten songs sure to put some swing into your holiday season.

Nnenna Freelon and John Brown Big Band, CHRISTMAS

Nnenna Freelon & John Brown Big Band -][- CHRISTMAS –Mp3– [Brown Boulevard, 2012]

Nnenna Freelon’s mother was a lover of Christmas – the story, the anticipation, the excitement, but most of all, the gathering of her family around her. In her passing, she left her daughter with a gift that has resulted in a dream fulfilled and a holiday album that will extend a mother’s love of Christmas to listeners everywhere.

Venerated jazz vocalist and six-time Grammy nominee Freelon had long wanted to record a holiday album, but couldn’t garner enough interest from her label. So she did what most people do in need of a little help, she turned to a loved one. With a small inheritance received from her mother, she approached John Brown, a long-time member of her musical family, director of Duke University’s jazz program and leader of John Brown’s Big Band. The two, who have shared the stage and collaborated often during their twenty-year friendship, have now joined together to release Christmas, a selection of holiday songs. Brown produced the album and will release it on his own label, Brown Boulevard.

Nnenna Freelon | Homefree

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African American, Female Vocalist, Jazz, Nnenna Freelon

Nnenna Freelon .:|:. Homefree – [Concord Records, 2010]

In our mobile culture, the notion of “home” conjures up comfort, relaxation, the congenial touchstone of the soul. “There’s no place like home,” intones the young Judy Garland as Dorothy in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, while troubadour Paul Simon pines for the familiar in the 1966 Simon & Garfunkel hit, “Homeward Bound.”

As the saying goes, home is where the heart is, which is the sensibility behind esteemed jazz vocalist and multi-Grammy® nominee Nnenna Freelon’s latest recording, Homefree, her seventh Concord Jazz album as a leader and first studio outing since 2005. It’s a soulful, swinging homegrown CD, recorded at Sound Pure Studios in Durham, North Carolina, which, she says, “has been my home base for 28 years.” The album is an 11-track collection that Freelon calls her “home brew,” comprised largely of tunes that have been road-tested by her stellar touring band as well as a new original (the witty, playful and poignant “Cell Phone Blues” composed by the singer) and spirited arrangements of two anthems (the gospel treasure “Life Every Voice and Sing” and the national hymn “America the Beautiful”) that close the CD.

Have you listen to these lately?

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African American, Benson, Harris, Jazz, Nnenna Freelon, Redman, South African Jazz

Yes, we’ve just returned from the vaults of “The Urban Flux” music collective with a few tasty gems in hand. On this outing, we have the liquid smooth sounds of George Benson, and the jam packed organic funk session by saxophonist Joshua Redman anchored to the lovely and talented Ms. Freelon. And finally, we take a trip globally to South Africa to unleash the best of the best in “jazz” available.

What have you been spinning lately?

George Benson – Absolute Benson

George Benson, Absolute Benson

George Benson has been threatening to record a serious guitar album for years, and he’s finally done it. Absolute Benson is 99.9 percent pure jazz guitar as only this master of the instrument can produce. Recalling Benson’s CTI output of the 1970s, Absolute Benson features his lyrical, logical, and often emotional playing in mellow, groove-a-licious arrangements. Taking a cue from Santana and Louie Vega (who produced a couple of tracks here), Benson starts off AB with the percolating Latin bump of Donny Hathaway’s “The Ghetto” and its companion piece, “El Barrio.” Benson does scat and sing here, but after his smooth crooning and Joe Sample’s funky electric piano, Benson’s nimble fingers take flight and never touch down. AB includes the blistering burn of “El Barrio,” the burnished tones and smooth Brazilian swing of “Jazzenco,” the Wes Montgomery-style chordal work of “Deeper Than You.” -Ken Micallef [Amazon.com]

Joshua Redman Elastic Band – Momentum

Joshua Redman, Momentum

Since the release of his chart-topping, self-titled debut in 1993, which heralded the arrival of perhaps the most prodigiously gifted and charismatic young jazz talent of the decade, saxophonist Joshua Redman has always tried to capture “the spirit of the moment” in his live and recorded work. No project better illustrates this guiding ethos than the Elastic Band, his ongoing collaboration with organist Sam Yahel. – Amazon.com

A stunning collection by one of the premier young saxophonist in today’s jazz who draws from the tradition of Rollins but colors his sound pure Redman.

Nnenna Freelon – Shaking Free

Nnenna Freelon, Shaking Free

Freelon isn’t much of a lyricist (a typically stiff couplet is “We have come to find/ Intimate connection of heart and mind”), but she has a sure instinct for the way melody flows. Her soprano isn’t overpowering, but it is extremely graceful and thus perfectly fits the easy-going songs she writes and chooses. Her road band of pianist/arranger Bill Anschell, bassist John Brown and drummer Woody Williams are also well attuned to this approach; after two-plus years together, the four musicians seem to glide as one. The album does include standards by Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen and the like, but the highlights are a leisurely treatment of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Birk’s Works” and a dreamy version of the old folk tune “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” – Geoffrey Himes [Amazon.com]

Various Artists – Tales of South African Jazz [Styles and Influences]

VA, Tales of South African Jazz

South Africa’s current jazz scene is alive & kicking – it did not end with Masekela, Ibrahim, Makeba and McGregor! This 15-track overview of the contemporary jazz scene, featuring the biggest selling artists with their best tracks reveals how optimistic the music and cultural scene of the new, free and democratic South Africa is. Features Sipho Gumede, Big Voice Jack, Zim Ngqawana, Winston Mankuku and many more. – SheerSound: World & Jazz