Deborah Latz: sur l'instant

June Moon Productions
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: sur l'instant

There’s only one thing wrong with this album. It’s too darn short.

We folks on the West Coast periodically find out that not living in, or near, New York City can be a real pain. Such is the case with my only now discovering Deborah Latz, the performer featured on this release. I’m quite unhappy that it took me so long to become aware of her, and her many talents. 

Although born in Northern California, Latz moved to the East Coast fairly early in her career. That said — and what’s particularly galling — is the fact that she was featured on Lynn Darroch’s radio show in Portland, Oregon (my stomping ground) in May of 2011, and yet I missed her.

Ah, well. Better late than never.

Latz is an actress with an award-winning career in dramatic and musical theater; she’s also a writer, arranger and singer/performer. (Note that I’m not using the term vocalist, because she’s much more than that.)

 

Her voice falls in the alto/soprano range, and is wonderfully expressive. Although she has dead-on pitch when necessary, she hasn’t ever found a flatted-note she can avoid, which puts her in the company of numerous boppers.

She’s backed on this album by French pianist Alain Jean-Marie and bassist Giles Natures. The track list includes standards such as “All the Things You Are,” “Over the Rainbow” and “Nature Boy,” along with relatively unknown melodies such as the “Love Theme” from Spartacus. She also handles great swingers from the world of jazz: “Throw It Away,” “Weep No More,” “Four,” “Blue Monk” and “Mr. PC.” 

All too often, she obeys the classic stage adage of leaving the audience wanting more; some of the tracks just aren’t long enough.

Although I’ve yet to see her in person, the Web offers plenty of short videos that demonstrate what it means to sell a song.

And I swear, Ms. Latz: I’ll never miss another of your albums ... or any appearances, if you happen to visit Oregon again!

Bruce Forman: The Book of Forman

B4Man Music
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: The Book of Forman

You may not be familiar with Forman’s skill as a guitarist, but chances are you’ve heard him. That’s particularly true for Clint Eastwood fans; Forman was featured on the soundtracks of Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers and Hereafter.  

Oh, yes: and on 18 other albums prior to this one.

Essentially self-taught, Forman started to play professionally after graduating from high school. His early years were spent in San Francisco and New York, and he began working with name musicians in the late 1970s. He served as a sideman in numerous groups, and played with Richie Cole from 1978 through ’82. Forman didn’t release albums under his own name until 1980; during the subsequent decade, he averaged about one a year. 

He’s currently an educator as well as a performer, teaching master classes and serving as an adjunct assistant professor at USC’s Thornton School of Music.

Although primarily identified as a bebop guitarist, Forman formed a western jazz group known as the Cow Bop Band in the early 2000s, and played swinging versions of songs by Patsy Cline and other country stars. For this new release, though, he has returned to his bop/straight-ahead roots.

Forman composed the majority of the 11 tunes on this album, which also includes three titles from the Great American Songbook: “On the Street Where You Live” (Lerner and Lowe), “The Song Is You” (Kern and Hammerstein) and “You Go To My Head” (Gillespie and Coots). 

Forman and his trio swing wonderfully. He’s supported by young bassist Alex Frank, and Marvin “Smitty” Smith on drums; the latter has been around for years, and has worked with many name bands.

Considering how grooved this trio is, it’s also one of the most relaxed and tasteful groups working these days. Whether at a club, or from your sound machine, you’ll enjoy this stuff immensely.

Mark Winkler: Jazz and Other Four Letter Words

Cafe Pacific Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Jazz and Other Four Letter Words

Los Angeles-born singer/songwriter Mark Winkler has performed and recorded since the mid 1980s. He’s another hip vocalist in the style of Dave Frishberg, Mose Allison, Michael Franks and Bobby Troup, although Winkler’s delivery is a bit more smooth. He has written charts for others — such as Liza Minnelli and Randy Crawford — but is best known for performing his own material. He’s also a crossover artist, in that he does a lot of pop music and has even written a Broadway show.

His recording output was limited for awhile, with only half a dozen albums until the new century. Since then, he has been much busier. 

Winkler always surrounds himself with talent. The backup musicians on this release include pianist Jamieson Trotter, guitarists Larry Koonse and Pat Kelley, bassists John Clayton and Dan Lutz, drummers Jeff Hamilton and Mike Shapiro, and instrumentalists Bob McChesney and Walt Fowler. 

Winkler also does a couple of duets with Cheryl Bentyne, of Manhattan Transfer fame.

The menu includes tunes by Frishberg, the Gershwins, Paul Simon and Richard Rogers, along with some originals. Everything is appealing, and — more importantly — everything swings.

Winkler is an excellent vocalist, and his voice is smooth as silk. Give him a try.

John Basile: Penny Lane

Stringtime Jazz
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Penny Lane

John Basile is a well-known guitarist; he’s also an adept computer programmer. He employs both skills for this release.

Basile was born in Boston, and educated at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. Like many musicians, he moved to New York City, where he became a first-call artist for numerous vocalists and small jazz groups. It’s interesting to note that his major influences haven’t been other guitarists, but vocalist Frank Sinatra and pianist Bill Evans. 

Basile’s technique is different; his finger-style combines the melodic line with fragments of chord structure. Then — and this results in a huge impact — he uses MIDI computer programming to expand the sound into a musical background, which results in a virtual “combo,” rather than just a solo guitar.

This album’s title highlights the source of the musical menu: All 14 melodies are famous hits by The Beatles. If you’re both a jazz and Beatles fan, you’ll love this album.

A few caveats, however: Many of these tracks electronically fade out, rather than being allowed to run their course. In some cases, that results in a relatively abrupt ending. Basile perhaps could have done better justice to a smaller number of tunes.

Additionally, the MIDI “sweetening,” blended with guitar, occasionally winds up sounding like Muzak. Listeners might feel that they’ve wandered into a department store. Even so, Basile’s skillful technique, along with the Beatles menu, are enough to make this a must-have album.

Terell Stafford: Brotherlee Love

Capri Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Brotherlee Love

Some time has passed since I’ve reviewed a “small jazz” (quintet)-sized combo that plays a truly pleasant mix of both new and standard straight-ahead arrangements, all of which swing nicely. Of course, with the artists involved here, that’s no surprise. Terell Stafford is one of the most gifted — and hardest-working — trumpet players to have developed during the past 20 years, and his pianist, Bruce Barth, has the same reputation.

Stafford was attending the University of Maryland in 1988 — to obtain a degree in music — when he met Wynton Marsalis, who recommended that he study with William Fielder (who, at the time, was at Rutgers University). During this period, Stafford joined Bobby Watson’s group, Horizon. Stafford subsequently played with McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, Kenny Barron, Jon Faddis and the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Band, along with his own groups.

This album is dedicated to Lee Morgan, a sensational young trumpeter who, at 18, had joined Dizzy’s big band. Morgan was another icon who met an untimely death; he was shot to death by his common-law wife when he was just 33.

Morgan wrote seven of these nine tracks; Stafford composed “Favor.” “Candy,” the lone standard, is an Alex Kramer tune.

This is a “happy” album; you can feel the enjoyment projected by the artists during each track. Very often, even with famous names, the musicians can sound a bit bored, but that absolutely isn’t the case here.

This is the kind of group you want to spend an entire evening listening to.

Gary McFarland Legacy Ensemble: Circulation

Planet Arts
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Puzzle

I suspect only true jazz historians — or fans from my generation — are familiar with Gary McFarland. Born in Los Angeles in 1933, he came to jazz relatively late, while in the Army. He tried trumpet, trombone and piano, and settled on vibes in the mid 1950s. He also was a vocalist, but his skills as a composer, arranger and producer set him apart.

A musician is known by the company he keeps, and by those who seek him out. McFarland’s closest friends included luminaries such as Bill Evans, John Lewis, Bob Brookmeyer, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Anita O’Day and Clark Terry. And, like so many of his peers, McFarland attended the Berklee School Of Music.

Alas, his life and career were all too short. He and a friend were poisoned at a bar by someone who poured liquid methadone into their drinks. McFarland suffered a fatal heart attack and died; he was only 38 years old.

This album, by the Gary McFarland Legacy Ensemble, includes 11 of McFarland’s compositions. The quintet features another vibes icon, Joe Locke, along with pianist Bruce Barth, bassist Mike Lawrence, saxophonist Sharel Cassity, and drummer Michael Benedict. 

The track menu was chosen from different segments of McFarland’s all-too-brief career. The opening track, “Dragonhead,” is an up-tempo swinger from his time at Berklee. “Why Are You Blue” and “Blue Hodge” demonstrate his feel for the blues; the latter has become a jazz standard. “The One I Could Have Loved” and “Summer Love” represent his softer, balladic, side. Everything clearly demonstrates McFarland’s talent.

“Unknown” usually means “not missed,” but that isn’t the case here, or with McFarland in general. Thanks are due all those associated with the creation of this lovely memorial.

Here comes S-A-N-T-A ... S-A-N-T-A!

By Derrick Bang 

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — still the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene for 20 years, with lengthy columns that just keep growing. Check out previous columns by clicking on the CHRISTMAS label below.]

I’ve been compiling the annual survey of holiday jazz for two decades.

Some years have provided a wealth of great new releases; other years have been quite disappointing. This year, I’m delighted to report, is one of the best ever.

Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz sagely explained that a cartoonist is someone who has to draw the same thing day after day, without repeating himself; the same can be true of musicians brave enough to tackle beloved holiday tunes. We know what they sound like, and we want them to sound that way ... or close enough, in some indefinable manner, to pass muster. That attitude is anathema to jazz musicians, who earn their reputations by taking a familiar melody and changing it up.

Serving both masters, then, is an extremely tricky — and delicate — tight wire act.

It’s arguably even harder with Christmas music. Music fans may be impressed by way-way-out interpretations of classic Gershwin tunes or modern pop ditties, but few people are willing to tolerate a cover of Mel Tormé’s “The Christmas Song” that has been deconstructed to the point of obliterating the original melody.

Most of this year’s offerings superbly navigate those rough seas. As you’re about to find out, plenty of great new albums are waiting to enliven your upcoming holiday gatherings.

******

I’ve gone years without any big band ensembles to discuss, and check it out: This year we’re blessed with a bumper crop. First out of the gate is the answer to a longstanding Christmas wish: a holiday album from Gordon Goodwin’s simply amazing Big Phat Band, quite appropriately titled A Big Phat Christmas: Wrap This! (1201 Music).

Dubbing this unit the best and swingingest big band operating today isn’t sufficient praise. These guys don’t merely cook; they explode. The often mischievous arrangements hearken back to Goodwin’s formative years, when he cut his teeth composing and conducting music for the Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain cartoon shows, back in the 1990s. Since then, new albums by his 20-piece Big Phat Band have been treasured classics the nanosecond they’re released.

No surprise, then, that Wrap This! is every bit as vigorously entertaining. The ensemble bolts from the gate with a marvelously sassy arrangement of “Carol of the Bells,” which showcases the terrific unison horn ensemble, along with an excellent soprano sax solo from Eric Marienthal. A wildly syncopated version of “The Little Drummer Boy” is equally ferocious, propelled by strong percussion (Bernie Dresel, Joey DeLeon) and highlighted by sparkling solos on guitar (Andrew Synoweic) and baritone sax (Jay Mason).

Not all tracks are screamers; the band is equally tight at slower and more deliberate tempos, as with a reverential handling of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” which opens with nice bass work from Trey Henry, features a thoughtful piano solo from Goodwin, and gradually builds to an intense finale. The mid-tempo handling of John Williams’ “Somewhere in My Memory” (from Home Alone) is sweet and wistful, fueled by locomotive-style percussion touches and Goodwin’s tasty soprano sax solo.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is old-style swing, boasting excellent solos on trumpet (Dan Fornero) and tenor sax (Goodwin); “Santa Baby” opens with an impish duet on ukulele and sleigh bells, and then builds via rolling percussion and sassy solos on tenor sax (Brian Scanlon) and trumpet (Willie Murillo). “Do You Hear What I Hear” positively races to the finish line, powered by Rich Shaw’s smooth bass work and a terrific vocal from the jazz ensemble Take 6.

The album concludes with a slow, solemn reading of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which features more sublime unison horn work that builds to a screaming climax ... and then retreats to a gentle finale on piano. All I can say is Wow!