The Duo - Duke Ellington 100 Mulgrew Miller & Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen Storyville
This release on the Danish Storyville label is the first release of a 1999 session that Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Mulgrew Miller together to pay tribute to Duke Ellington on the 100th anniversary of his birth. The two were initially brought together by Bang & Olufsen to celebrate Ellington and his partnership with bassist Jimmy Blanton. NHØP was approached to take part and tapped Mulgrew Miller to tackle a series of Ellington's classic themes and a couple of their own. It was the beginning of the musical and personal partnership between the two.
The songs are all from Ellington except for one original from each. The two display marvelous musical chemistry, whether lightly swinging "C Jam Blues", develop the lyricism of "Sophisticated Lady," and playfully perform "Pitter Patter Panther." There is the lovely "Mood Indigo" and the driving piano rendition of "Caravan." Mulgrew's interpretations take us from stride to the post-bop, post-Bud Powell piano tradition that he was such an important representative of. Thanks to Storyville for rescuing this lost gem from two decades ago. It is available at https://storyvillerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-duo-duke-ellington-100.
I purchased a download from the Bandcamp site listed above. Here the two perform "Caravan."
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Songs - The Music of Allen Toussaint Storyville
In recent years, stories about the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra centered on a scandal involving the conduct of its prior director. Now under the artistic direction of drummer Adonis Rose, this important musical institution returns from a three-year recording hiatus with this big band re-imagination of the music of the late New Orleans legendary pianist-songwriter-performer-producer Allen Toussaint. While Some of Toussaint songs have been subject to big band treatment (Joe Williams singing "Get Out of My Life Woman" with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra half-century ago), this is I believe the first such big band album dedicated to his music.
I am not familiar with many of the musicians here, but besides Rose, pianist Victor Atkins, tenor saxophonist Edward Petersen and trumpeter Ashlin Parker are names I know as well as vocalists Phillip Manuel and Gerald French. Dee Dee Bridgewater is a guest vocalist, and other guests appearing on this include Roderick Paulin on alto saxophone and Jamil Sharif on trumpet. Atkins provides detailed information on each selection and identifies those making specific contributions that will highlight musical voices to keep an eye on.
The big band arrangements here expand on the originals while retaining the spirit of Toussaint's music. Trombonist and vocalist Michael Watson delivers "Southern Nights" that opens as a Brass Brand number before segueing into the more familiar melody. Mike Esnault provided the arrangement, and it does sound like an uncredited tuba driving the bass line. Dee Dee Bridgewater, who suggested this project, sings wonderfully. Victor Atkins stately arrangement of Irma Thomas' hit "It's Raining," with a powerful, imaginative tenor saxophone solo from Ed Petersen. Ed Petersen provided the arrangement for the Lee Dorsey hit, "Working in the Coal Mine," building on the simple groove and chord structure with a group vocal segment and an outstanding alto saxophone solo from Jeronne Ansari. Another Irma Thomas hit, "Ruler of My Heart" places the spotlight on the band's wonderful lady vocalist Nayo Jones who injects her personality in the performance which goes from a ballad to a Latin-tinged second-line groove that takes the song out in Mitch Butler's arrangement.
Ashlin Parker's trumpet is spotlighted on "Java" that is based on Al Hirt's Grammy Award-winning recording with an ensemble trumpet solo based Hirt's playing on an Ed Sullivan show appearance. It is followed by "Gert Town," a non-Toussaint piece that is percussion-heavy, Mardi Gras Indian styled number sung and written by Gerald French. The gospel-tinged "With You In Mind" is performed as a marvelous duet between Phillip Manuel and Dee Dee Bridgewater with a punchy Emily Fredrickson arrangement with a marvelous alto saxophone solo. Another band original, "Zimple Street," was composed by Leon 'Kid Chocolate' Brown and arranged by Ed Petersen, and is a hard-swinging, blues with marvelous piano from Atkins, a hot trumpet solo and a spirited vocal from Brown.
"Tequila' might seem an odd choice to close this recording, but Toussaint did record it on a 1969 album. Here, against the familiar groove, tenor saxophonist Ricardo Pascal robustly solos followed by some robust tailgating trombone by Michael Watson with Victor Atkins laying down some Afro-Cuban rooted piano over the strong percussion. It closes a marvelously entertaining big band album that lets us know the only news the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra is now making is its terrific music.
I received my review copy from a publicist. This review appeared in the May-June 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 384). Here is a teaser for this album.
Here is a review of David Fulmer’s novel “Rampart Street” from the the November-December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 288). The book has since this review was published, has been issued in paperback and Harcourt has subsequently published Fulmer’s The Dying Crapshooter’s Blues, an excellent mystery set around thirties Atlanta and Blind Willie McTell, and several other novels including a new Valentin St. Cyr novel, Lost River, which I have not read. I believe I received a review copy of Rampart Street from the publisher. BTW, I previously blogged my review of The Dying Crapshooter's Blues.
About a year ago I picked up a paperback by Atlanta based David Fulmer, Chasing the Devil’s Tail. It was a mystery set in New Orleans of the early part of the century and featured a Creole of color, Valentin St. Cyr as its main character. St. Cyr was a one-time New Orleans policeman who left the force and began working for Tom Anderson, the King of Storyville, who owned a legendary cafe in “The District.” In a novel populated with Jelly Roll Morton and Buddy Bolden, at a time right after the Supreme Court’s infamous opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, St. Cyr solves the Black Rose murders of some of the District’s working ladies. By the time of the second volume, Jass, Buddy Bolden has been institutionalized and the members of a jazz band are being murdered. Everyone seems to want him not to solve the case except the musicians and after the case is solved St. Cyr leaves New Orleans. Rampart Street takes place a year and a half after the events in Jass, and has somehow gotten back in the good graces of Tom Anderson, working Anderson’s, bar but somehow someone disinterested in handling the pickpockets, card sharks and other predators as he had a few years before. A prominent New Orleans businessman is found murdered on Rampart Street, at the time the back end of the city where such a man would not have been found and an alderman goes to Anderson to have St. Cyr try to find the killer on behalf of the businessman’s daughter. Not that they want him to actually solve the case. Its better that the death quickly get forgotten, so no one but the daughter or St. Cyr want him to really solve the case. A street criminal is picked up and charged with the murder, but the evidence of the bullet wound and the lack of the powder burn does not support this being a case of a street robbery. St. Cyr seems to have everybody working against him and more people get killed around him including the person at the Picuyane’s morgue who had been helping St. Cyr in trying to unravel the series of murders. Unlike the earlier novels, Jelly Roll Morton is now in Chicago and jazz has a lower profile than in the earlier novels. Yet, the Sicilian grocery and saloon owner, whose place St. Cyr has a room at, features a jazz band in the saloon and Beansoup, the street kid who had been assisting St. Cyr and had been in the waif’s home at the same time as Louis Armstrong, is now playing harmonica in Jackson Square behind Charlie Jackson, a blues singer and guitarist who performs’Duncan and Brady, a ballad about an altercation between a saloon keeper and a sheriff in East St. Louis. Fulmer continues to develop his characters and weaves the story together in a compelling fashion. I could not put this down after starting it or the two earlier novels. He really brings this long gone period to life in all three of these excellent books. If you like mysteries, you certainly might read Chasing the Devil’s Tail first (it and Jass are currently available in paperback) and if you enjoy it (as I suspect you will), you will dig into the sequels including Rampart Street. The Valentin St. Cyr mysteries certainly are absorbing.
Posts
