CDs For A Jazz Fan - Look No Further 12/11/02

by Alan Greenblatt

If I were looking for a CD to buy for a jazz fan in my life, I don't think I would need to look much further than the Duke Ellington tribute disk "1969 All Star White House Tribute." This is a recording of Ellington's 70th birthday party, hosted by Richard Nixon, and it features all the expected Ellington hits, done one after another not by Ellington but an array of great talents, including Billy Taylor, Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan, Earl Hines, Jim Hall, J.J. Johnson and Paul Desmond, who blows a lovely "Chelsea Bridge." What makes this disk special is its mood, so even if you have plenty of recordings of "'A' Train" or "Solitude," you'll enjoy the variety of styles and the loving, affectionate nature of the performances. This is material that wasn't released in the U.S. until a couple of months ago, so it's less likely that your jazz fan already has a copy, plus you might find it on sale.

Pop ringer: As I type, I'm listening to Beck's latest, "Sea Change." This is a completely accessible record for all you fogies like me who don't have a lot of use for hip hop or other contemporary pop. This thing is a complete throwback -- my friend Steve was right when he said it sounds like Nick Drake. It's got that early-70s singer-songwriter rock sound, with that nice guitar sound underpinning the moody lyrics and perhaps a more up-to-date and sophisticated arrangement of voices and strings and whatnot behind the singer.

Karrin Allyson's "Ballads" CD from a couple of years back has justifiably gotten praise as one of the best vocal disks in recent years. She's a lovely singer, with a pretty-husky voice, perfect pitch and great smarts about both musical choices and ways of putting across a lyric. I am a little less impressed by her current "In Blue." Like all such "blue"-themed records, it's made up entirely of actual blues tunes, but all the songs are on the melancholy side. In other words, it all sounds fine but it's not all that balanced.

Since hearing Rene Marie at the Kennedy Center a couple months back, her 2001 disk "Vertigo" has been a regular listen at our house. Marie's voice isn't quite as lush as Allyson but she's also right on the note and has a wider-ranging style. She can sing the hell out of a ballad but also performs quirky but road-tested and well thought out new versions of familiar songs such as "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "Blackbird." She's very charismatic, I think.

A sparkling group of musicians -- Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Stefon Harris and Lewis Nash -- can be found on "The Classical Jazz Quartet Plays Bach." This record will remind you of the Modern Jazz Quartet in terms of its instrumentation, chamber jazz sound and its looking to Bach for inspiration. As the MJQ showed, Bach lends himself pretty well to this sort of idiom-blending. This current group goes the MJQ one better, I think, in that they play the melody and then take off on improvisations just as jazz players would do with something by Gershwin or Porter. It's a pleasing sounding album to have on but features some excellent solo work by Barron and Stefon Harris, a young vibes player I'm pretty hot on.

If you need a treat for yourself, may I recommend the new compilation celebrating the Savoy label's 60th Anniversary. This is not hardly a 60-year survey; all the records are from the 1940s and 1950s, Savoy's glory periods when it boasted a lineup including Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Gene Ammons, etc., etc., etc. This is great postwar jazz, featuring many classic performances. The two-CD set has been on sale for $14 at Tower Records for several weeks.

Eliades Ochoa has always been my favorite among the Buena Vista Social Club boys. His solo CDs have been excellent, as he is a passionate singer and a fine guitar player. But they started to sound the same. I haven't even opened his latest, "Estoy Como Nunca" (Beck is still mumbling away), but listening to it briefly in the store last night it sounded great, full of horn arrangements and generally more punch than Ochoa's earlier stateside releases.

I guess that's it for this time. Remember, though, that in my monthly jazz concert roundup on washingtonpost.com, I include a selection aimed at helping you build your jazz CD collection. Go to that web site, click on the entertainment button and then search the music page for the "best bets in jazz."