ALL THAT JAZZ by Simon Adams

REVIEWS

ART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS Just Coolin’ (Blue Note).

If any musician defines the era of hard bop it is drummer and bandleader Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. And if any label recorded that music best, it is Blue Note. So, this previously unreleased Blue Note set of the Messengers in action in 1959 is a real find. Unreleased, because a month after the set was recorded the band played most of its material live at Birdland, forming the basis of much-loved and hugely successful live album. This album was thus relegated to the vaults, where it sat ever since. The ever-changing Messengers line-up was on a high around this time, with the double act of Lee Morgan on trumpet and Hank Mobley on tenor sax, plus the ever-funky Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass. Mobley and Morgan make for a cool front-line pairing, while Blakey consistently stokes the fires beneath them all. It all adds up to a perfect set.

DEZRON DOUGLAS & BRANDEE YOUNGER Force Majeure (International Anthem).

Faced with lockdown in New York in March 2020, bassist Dezron Douglas and harpist Brandee Younger found that all of their gigs had been cancelled and their income slashed. The couple decided to host live-stream performances from their Harlem home, during which they would perform classic tunes for friends and family to watch online, in return for some much-needed donations. Such was their success that a record company sent them a microphone, and a record was born. The natural acoustic of their living room makes for an intimate set of performances, with material covering both Alice and John Coltrane – Alice herself a harpist – and Pharoah Sanders at one end and Kate Bush at the other, with Gloria Gaynor, The Stylistics and The Carpenters somewhere in between. For all its low-key production values, it is rather comforting, and the more welcome for that. And as a bass and harp duet, it is quite unique.

KEITH JARRETT Budapest Concert (ECM).

Recorded during American pianist Keith Jarrett’s European tour, this double album documents his performance at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest in July 2016. Jarrett’s family roots reach back to Hungary, so in some ways this was a musical homecoming for him. Latterly, his improvisations have taken the form of suite-like structures comprised of independent movements, each one a marvel of spontaneous improvisation. A blues and two popular songs are served up as encores. The sad thing about this live set is that Jarrett is unlikely to play in public again, suffering two major strokes in early 2018 that left him with little strength in his left hand. For such an important musician, it is a likely sad end to a glorious career.