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Out Of/Into: Motion I

by Mike Jurkovic
Most supergroups happen and barely dent the dust. Despite those odds, one or two happen for a reason. That reason is ?Motion I? by Out Of/Into. Formerly known as The Blue Note Quintet--pianist?Gerald Clayton, alto saxophonist? Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist?Joel Ross, drummer?Kendrick Scott, and bassist?Matt Brewer--hijack the lead track Ofafrii" with a brazen romp of everything tuneful and tasty. Wilkins and Ross virtually ground the driving ethic while power-gliding above the whole enterprise. It is a hellion ride, considering ...
Continue ReadingWalter Smith III: Return To Casual

by Dave Linn
Walter Smith III released his debut album, Casually Introducing (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006), to enthusiastic reviews. On it, he covered Sam Rivers, Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman and wrote the other six tracks, showcasing a mature and varied sense of composition. His playing and arrangements showed him to be a new, young (he was 26 years old) artist on the rise. Over the ensuing years, he released eight other albums, mainly for European labels. These recordings (including one live ...
Continue ReadingKendrick Scott: Corridors

by Chris May
Some of the press releases coming out of Blue Note's Los Angeles HQ since the pandemic have been ripe for inclusion in British satirical magazine Private Eye's Desperate Marketing column. In this, the Eye prints particularly egregious, or just plain laughable, attempts by publicists to hook-up what they are selling with headline news events, or to make eye-wateringly hyperbolic claims, or to manufacture an intellectual or cultural context for an artefact where none such exists. True, one ...
Continue ReadingKendrick Scott: Corridors

by Mike Jurkovic
Drummer Kendrick Scott's A Wall Becomes A Bridge (Blue Note, 2019) was everything to everybody and then some. Optimistic yet well aware of the roiling contradictions beneath it all, the formidable Corridors, its revivalist tenor intact, carries on that spirit of interplay and common alliance. Breaking from the start with the loping, street-smart, stride of What Day Is It?" Scott with Corridors take a sure journey, featuring conversant saxophonist Walter Smith III and the equally versed bassist Reuben ...
Continue ReadingJoey Alexander: Origin

by Peter Jones
Pianist Joey Alexander was never going to spend his life churning out standards. You could tell from his reimagined version of Giant Steps," the first track on his 2015 debut album, which begins with a dazzling two-minute solo introduction. The same album also features an original tune, the prowling Ma Blues." It was clearly only going to be a matter of time before he came up with an all-originals album, and so it is with this, his sixth outing. Meanwhile ...
Continue ReadingDarrell Grant: The New Black

by Paul Rauch
Pianist Darrell Grant's debut album Black Art (Criss Cross) was released in 1994, and became acclaimed as one of the definitive statements of New York jazz in the 1990s. It featured bassist Christian McBride, drummer Brian Blade, and the late, great Wallace Roney on trumpetall of whom would go on to make major statements of their own in the music. In 2019, some twenty five years later, Grant had the opportunity to revisit the album repertoire at Birdland, convening bassist ...
Continue ReadingMarquis Hill: New Gospel Revisited

by Chris May
Chicago-born trumpeter Marquis Hill released his first album while still in college and in 2022, just over a decade later, he has retooled it on New Gospel Revisited, recorded live in his hometown with a fresh lineup and tweaked instrumentation. It is a terrific disc. Like his near contemporary and fellow trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Hill holds his music to be part of a broad musical continuum that includes genres other than jazz, notably hip hop. ...
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