Wadada Leo Smith, The Great Lakes Suites

There seems little doubt about it in my mind, trumpeter-composer-leader Wadada Leo Smith continues to be one of the guiding lights in the new jazz today. He is doing some of the very best work of his career and it continues to delight. The new one, a return to a horns and rhythm group setting after several seminal large group works, brings us a series of pieces he calls The Great Lakes Suites (TUM CD 041-2 2-CDs).

Wadada creates a quartet of some very heavy players. There is of course Wadada himself on trumpet, Henry Threadgill sounding great on alto sax, flute and bass flute, John Lindberg on double bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums.

The first thing you notice, something that puts a strong foundation under the music, is the wonderful free-time drumming of DeJohnette. We've heard far too little of it in recent years and it reminds us how good he is in this zone. He still is a master at it. That adds much to the proceedings. John Lindberg prevails as a heavy on arco and pizzicato. And then Henry and Wadada sound better than ever.

The compositional frameworks go beyond head-solos-head form. There are motives the band gets into during the improvs that are pre-conceived. Where composition leaves off and improvisation begins is a fluid thing and it gives the freedom of the players an inherent structure that catapults the entire sequencing onto a higher plane. Yet as we would hope the improvisations are no less masterful.

It's an extended look at a master quartet and a master composer-conceptualist meeting on common ground and creating some exceptional music.

Outstanding! And so of course very recommended. Wadada is a leader in the widest sense. He keeps the music alive in the most vibrant way.

Keith Jarrett, Somewhere

Can it be possible that the Keith Jarrett Trio is becoming the most long-lived jazz group of all? They have been Jarrett-Peacock-DeJohnette for more than thirty years now. They are passing the MJQ or at least equaling them for longevity. It didn't seem like it was going to be that way when they made that first record of standards so long ago. But here we are and their new release Somewhere (ECM 2200) is with us. It's the three holding forth live at KKL Luzern Concert Hall in 2009, and they are in great form. Seemingly gone are the days when Keith's illness was a energy-technical-inspirational-limiting factor.

It's all back and it's still evolving. They do standards, of course. And they do them with the maximum flexibility they are known for and excel at (preposition endings nonwithstanding). There is the reappearance of the avant in Keith's playing, especially in the "Deep Space" unaccompanied prelude that begins the set, there is the mad bebop forays with brilliant lines cascading from Keith's fingers and imagination, there are the excellently subtle Peacock bass solos and ensemble work, and Mr. DeJohnette does wonders as he has for so long.

There's a two-chord vamp that extends "Somewhere" into the territory of the trio in their open mode. And there are simply beautiful re-harmonizations and re-expressions of some wonderful songs. All moving toward regions beyond, re-energized. So the travel continues.

This one is quite lovely--one of the best in recent years. Not that they've gone away at any point, but surely they are back with us in full force. Recommended!