Denny Zeitlin, Stairway to the Stars

There is more than one Denny Zeitlin--pianist, composer, electronician, advanced garde jazzman, purveyor of interpretive acumen for the standard repertoire. On the trio effort Stairway to the Stars (Sunnyside 1380), as one might gather from the title, exactingly thoroughgoing re-thinking of standards is the order of the day.

Denny assembled a trio for the San Francisco Jazz Festival and a gig following that at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, 2001. He chose bassist Buster Williams for his beautiful sound and sense, and a then-young Matt Wilson on the drums.

Fortunately the Jazz Bakery gig was well-recorded, and we now have some excellent music on disk from the stint, the recording at hand.

The trio runs through some standards well- and less-well-known, my favorite being an excellent rendering and interpretation of Wayne Shorter's "Deluge". But there are really stunning versions of such familiars as "Oleo", "You Don't Know What Love Is", and "Spring is Here", among others.

What is remarkable is the Denny Zeitlin harmonic-melodic pianistic exponent, which is at full throttle and continually to be heard on this set. He is a master of such doings in his own right, even if these days more time and attention may be given to the Evans-Jarrett contingent. Just listen to Maestro Zeitlin's excellent work here and listen again.

Buster Williams not only fits right in, he sounds inspired and at his best. The piano trio in full flourish needs an acutely aware bass master who does much more than walk, of course. And Buster comes through in rather spectacular fashion. We know now how musical Matt Wilson is as a drummer. The special subtlety and punch demanded of a trio drummer was something he already could muster up, and that he does here.

The time of the recording chronologically was 2001, but really this kind of set is without provence. When everything is right there is a timelessness. That is clearly the case on Stairway to the Stars.

This one is not to be missed!

Ken Peplowski, Maybe September

The Ken Peplowski revival that's been going on for several years continues. It's not that he went anywhere so much as he is getting a new appreciation for his quirkily traditional clarinet and tenor sax through a series of applauded albums. Maybe September (Capri 74125-2) gives us another one to like. He is joined by a together group of supporting artists in pianist Ted Rosenthal, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson.

As is the case with Ken's recent endeavors he chooses a very eclectic mix of tunes that suite him and make it all work. So you get Irving Berlin's rather obscure "All Alone by the Telephone", an arranged excerpt from a Poulenc clarinet sonata, Brian Wilson's "Caroline, No" and Lennon-McCartney's "For No One". Oh, and Duke's "Main Stem", too.

Rosenthal is swinging, bluesy, very together post-boppishly and otherwise as the second voice. Matt Wilson plays as nicely as ever and gets some cool solo spots (and all condolences to him and his family on the recent loss of his lovely wife). Martin Wind is there where he needs to be and propulses the swing quite well.

And that's the nuts and bolts of it. What's as always a kick about Ken is that his playing is all his own and coming from a trad period style, yet the band and he can get pretty free and creative in how they present it all.

Ken is an institution by now. This album gives you plenty of clarinet and enough of that tenor of his to delight the ears. Yeah, Ken! Thank you.

Andrew Hadro, For Us, The Living

For the present-era we might reflect back on these first years of the millennium and remember all that we've all been through. . . some things quite unexpected and traumatic, other things very promising. And so the music we create as collective beings, as artists and as listeners, you would think would reflect those experiences.

Baritone saxist and music-smith Andrew Hadro came through it like the rest of us. And perhaps the depth of feeling you hear in his music, the lyric and expressive passion does reflect the "having been".

Certainly his album For Us, The Living (Tone Rogue 002) has a concentrated, centered sort of purposefulness to it that may be something "of our time". There are mostly Andrew's compositions represented here, with a few others, not standards, to mix things up.

The band is quite together. Matt Wilson gets the drum chair and he gives us that smart-precise-driving artistry going that adds to any modern jazz session. Daniel Foose has the double-bass slot. He gives dimension to the compositional thrust here and makes a great pair with Matt. Carmen Staaf has a harmonic sense and pianistic facility with the space to express himself.

Andrew gets a baritone sound that can be light and airy as well as forceful and rough-hewn. He is a voice for today. On flute he breaks things up nicely and is no slouch. His writing stays in the mind too.

For us, the living comes out of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which celebrated 150 years in 2013. The great task remaining before us continues to loom, so Lincoln's words remain as crucial as ever.

This album has staying power. Andrew Hadro gives notice. He intends to remain before us in the best sense, for a long time to come. This one has much to recommend it. It promises even greater things from Maestro Hadro! Get it!

Pete Mills, Sweet Shadow

When you sample many jazz disks like I do every week in my role as reviewer here and elsewhere, some releases let you know within a minute that they are very much happening. Others take a while and in any event I generally stay with the first hearing all the way through. The latest album by tenor saxophonist Pete Mills, Sweet Shadow (Cellar Live 070813) had that one-minute recognition feel to it.

After only the first minute I knew that a) The rhythm section was totally primed and swung incredibly well, and that b) Pete Mills was playing real-deal jazz on his tenor. The rest of the album told more of the story, of course, but I knew immediately what the entire album confirmed, that this was a hard-charging, very swinging set of modern contemporary jazz.

Pete Mills plays a present-day sort of tenor that reflects a post-bop stance without sounding derivative in any obvious way. I wont say he sounds like Joe Henderson because he doesn't. But he parallels Henderson in a way with strength and drive. He is in a league with Lovano-Brecker-Bregonzi-Garzone sorts of modern tenorism, but again it's only by analogy. He doesn't sound particularly like any of them in any direct sense. Pete also crafts some excellent and hip blowing tunes, 12 of them. Along with an Ellington-Strayhorn and a Roland Kirk classic they set things up well for the band.

And the band is something very good. Matt Wilson at the drums makes things swingingly combust, in excellent tandem with Martin Wind on bass. Pete McCann on guitar and Erik Augis on piano fill things out with nice comping and something to say in the solo department.

All I can say is. . . put this one on for a minute and you'll get it. Excellent!

Steven Lugerner, For We Have Heard, with Myra Melford, Matt Wilson, Darren Johnston

Steven Lugerner? After hearing his limited edition LP For We Have Heard (No Business NBLP 64) I KNOW. Before I did not. He plays all manner of winds on the album and plays them well. But most strikingly he is an avant jazz composer of talent. The music is post-Weill, post-Carla-Bley, if you want some forebears. There is the slightest hint of the hoary cabaret or old march music in there faintly, yet there is so much more, and it is quite modern. Blocks of structure vary and repeat but not typically minimalistically.

He's put together a quartet pretty ideal for the music he writes. These are players who can work inside structures (as they do in their own music) and when called upon to solo reflect freedom-in-structure. It's the wonderful Myra Melford on piano, Darren Johnston on trumpet, and Matt Wilson on drums, all composers in their own right, master instrumentalists, and for lack of a better term, structuralists in the Lugerner manner.

The music has plenty of rhythmic and harmonic twists and turns of an original sort. It's highly arranged quartet music, and in that it also reminds favorably of Jimmy Giuffre's early work, not as especially an influence, but a sharer in essence.

The time limits of the LP translates into very compact and meaningful programming. There isn't a moment that doesn't count.

Beyond that I give this one lots of kudos. Seriously well crafted, excellently refreshing quartet music! Lugerner is a name to remember. Get the album.

Ray Anderson / Marty Ehrlich Quartet and "Hear You Say"

What a great idea for trombonist Ray Anderson and reedman Marty Ehrlich to form a working quartet! The results have paid off musically, as can be heard in profusion on their Hear You Say - Live in Willisau disk (Intuition 71303). They've played together in various contexts over the years, but this is the first of what I hope are many co-leader efforts.

Joining them is a rhythm team that drives the frontliners to some high places. Brad Jones is spiky and ever-pushing on the bass; Matt Wilson brings a very swinging percussive finesse to the sound, and that is one of the reasons why he's at the very top of the first-call list for drummers in and around NYC.

Together the four create an uninhibited, over-the-top exuberance that combines the incendiary aspects of traditional New Orleans frontliners and the sailing qualities of Ornette Coleman's classic small groups. In the process though they remain totally themselves, which is saying a great deal, as Anderson and Ehrlich have been playing their own tune for many years.

Like all great chemical composites in the improvisational arsenal, the joining of the four creates something over and above what each of them might do individually. This is a set that soars! It's something I would have no second thoughts about playing for someone who wanted to know what "modern jazz" sounds like today. Enough said. Just listen and you'll see.