New Mulgrew, New Kenny Barron

[Joe M]

Both Mulgrew Miller and Kenny Barron have excellent new albums out, and it's hard to get better than either of these two on the piano today.

Mulgrew's album is "Live at Yoshis Vol 1" on MaxJazz, with Derrick Hodge and Karreim Riggins, an excellent live set, all trio. Mulgrew always sounds great, but I think this record is a better showcase of his talents than the last Wingspan record. Of course, after so many years without a record under his own name, and now two in just a short time, it's hard to complain. The tunes are mostly standards, one original, plus Woody Shaw's "Organ Grinder" and Donald Brown's "Waltz for Monk".

Kenny's album "Images" is a quintet record on Sunnyside, with Stefon Harris, flutist Anne Drummond, Kyoshi Kitagama and drummer Kim Thompson. Mostly originals by Kenny and Stefon, with Bud Powell's "Halucinations" and "Footprints" too. Harris and Barron make a great front line, Drummond ads some nice texture, but her work on Halucinations sounds a little stilted to these ears, and doesn't quite swing, at least in her articulation.

It's a shame we seem to take both Kenny and Mulgrew for granted, but they're just so consistenly excellent, and do so much sideman work (especially Mulgrew) that sometime it happens. Maybe if they dressed up like the Bad Plus...

[Dan Gould]

Coincidentally, I just gave my first listen to the Mulgrew record-I picked it up when Borders was running the 25% off any CD coupon but hadn't had a chance to listen til now. Very good, as Joe says. Definitely one to seek out.

[sal]

I agree about the Mulgrew CD as well. Very exciting music. That last track is a burner!

[Alexander]

I got both CDs, and both are highly recommended. Well worth the cost.

[Vincent, Paris]

The new Kenny Barron CD was released on Verve in Europe through Universal France... but licensed to Sunnyside for the US.

[king ubu]

The new Kenny Barron CD was released on Verve in Europe through Universal France... but licensed to Sunnyside for the US.

Yes! I'm wondering! Some folks in the US seem to think that Universal France releases (such as this one, or the OWL reissues), or Enja releases are actually on Sunnyside! I mean, Universal France has done lots of GREAT jazz releases during the last decades (there's a thread on their anniversary series somewhere), and Enja is - simply said - one of the most interesting labels around these days, focussing on some great musicians and occasionally crossing over to avant and more often to thoroughly european styles of the music.

ubu

[Joe M]

Yes, they are "from" Universal France, but if it wasn't for the good folks at Sunnyside, they wouldn't be out in the US! And they all do have the Sunnyside logo on them. Verve US is just about out of the business of instrumental jazz records, mainly just pop vocalists, so I think we'll see a lot more of these Universal/Sunnyside issues in the months and years to come.

[jazzmessenger]

I saw the Kenny Barron Quintet at Montreal Jazz Festival last week. Kenny Barron and Stefon Harris were simply phenomenal. But two young girls (flute and drums) sounded a bit too mechanical and boring. Regardless, it was a great show with very nice tunes. I will definitely pick up their new CD.

[king ubu]

Yes, they are "from" Universal France, but if it wasn't for the good folks at Sunnyside, they wouldn't be out in the US! And they all do have the Sunnyside logo on them. Verve US is just about out of the business of instrumental jazz records, mainly just pop vocalists, so I think we'll see a lot more of these Universal/Sunnyside issues in the months and years to come.

I'm sorry, I might have been a bit harsh! However, I really want to point out that Universal France has done a lot for jazz, lately - check their series of GREAT Randy Weston releases, for instance!

Glad that you are able to hear these recordings at all! One thing we might forget sometimes is that you don't get any jazz releases you might want in the US, either...

ubu

[mikeweil]

Universal France certainly is not the one to blame - the branches in different continents follow independent release policies. As Joe M said, it is Universal/Verve in the US who decide not to release this.

Let's thank Sunnyside for doing the job - I hope it will get them some bucks to pursue their own very interesting projects - Eddie Higgins has done some for them etc.

[DrJ]

There's also another date that Borders had filed under Kenny Barron's name (it wasn't just misfiled in the bins, the computer tag had it listed for him so you may also find it there) called WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE: THE MUSIC OF TOM MCINTOSH. Barron helped organize and lead the date with trombonist McIntosh, who is the actual leader (so you might also find it under his name). Big thumbs up for this one so far, which features some fine playing by Benny Golson, James Moody, Barron, Roger Kellaway, Richard Davis, Stefon Harris, and McIntosh. It's on the IPO label, the same one that issued several fantastic Roland Hanna albums shortly before his death.

[Dan Gould]

There's also another date that Borders had filed under Kenny Barron's name (it wasn't just misfiled in the bins, the computer tag had it listed for him so you may also find it there) called WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE: THE MUSIC OF TOM MCINTOSH. Barron helped organize and lead the date with trombonist McIntosh, who is the actual leader (so you might also find it under his name). Big thumbs up for this one so far, which features some fine playing by Benny Golson, James Moody, Barron, Roger Kellaway, Richard Davis, Stefon Harris, and McIntosh. It's on the IPO label, the same one that issued several fantastic Roland Hanna albums shortly before his death.

Thanks for hipping me to this, Tony. McIntosh added some nice tunes to the Jazztet's book, if I'm not mistaken. Good to see a date like this, I'll have to look for it.

[DrJ]

Yes Dan, that's the guy, you'll love this one.

It's a really well-done, honest session, a bit rough at the edges in some of the ensembles and with some fluffs left in, but very appealingly so (I find most recent jazz recordings far too "sterile" and perfect and knowing your taste I think you'll feel the roughness adds rather than detracts).

Benny Golson uncorks a classic, classic solo on track 2, a great new tune McIntosh wrote for the date in tribute to Dizzy Gillespie (don't recall the track name). I hit the repeat button SEVERAL times when listening in the car on the way home from the store, a real great example of his "inside out" approach. What he's doing won't jar or sound "out" but when you get down to it, he's based his whole solo on extended harmonies - it isn't so far away from the type of thing Eric Dolphy did, but with a smoother sound and phrasing it's almost subversive rather than in your face. A beauty.

Edited July 15, 2004 by DrJ