Joe M

This (his new cd Trumpet Evolution) has to be the worst concept album of all time. This is what kids in high school try to do! Note for note recreations are not cool for veteran jazz "artists". Why not listen to the originals???

About Judi Silvano, check out her new cd with the late Mal Waldron on Soul Note, Riding A Zephyr, very nice. I think it was also Mal's last recording. Just piano and voice, though I think Joe Lovano is on one cut. There's two vocalists out right now who are among my favorites that I haven't seen mentioned, they're both radically different from each other, but I like them both - Luciana Souza and Stacey Kent. Luciana's new cd North and South is great, a nice mix of originals, standards and brazillian songs. The band is great, with Fred Hersch, Bruce Barth, Ed Simon, Scott Coley and Clarence Penn. She gives the material very original and distinctive treatments, yet shows a lot of respect for the material. Stacey Kent is a totally different sort of singer, but I've become a huge fan of her work. She has a great voice, but more importantly, knows how to use it, and how to deliver lyrics like some more "popular" jazz singers can't. There's also this refreshing lack of irony in her music, and a great sincerity that comes through that I also don't always find in other current singers (you could also say the same thing about sincerity in regards to Luciana Souza too). Her band is also perfectly suited to her, and her rapport with her husband (saxophonist Jim Tomlinson) is great. Some may say she falls more on the cabaret side of the spectrum, but I don't see it that way, I don't care much for those singers, and I hear something different in her approach. Check out her new cd "In Love Again" on Candid, it's a Richard Rogers songbook album. She may not be doing anything innovative, but within the tradition, she's a nice and welcome addition.

Congrats on setting up a great board, Organissimo. This is already by far the best jazz BBS out there, maybe ever. There's a lot more going on here than say at JazzCorner or the few other places left since Blue Note dropped their board. And as far as the lack of discussion about newer music - that's up to us!

Well, it perhaps shouldn't be that big of a surprise. Wynton was on Ted's 1999 album Rhyme and Reason, which also featured Kimbrough and Alison (as well as some of Wynton's best playing in a long time, I might add). I don't think Wynton's playing on this one is enough to win over the Wynton haters, (nothing would) but if you're on the fence and liked his Black Codes era things, and his occasional guest spots, like on Citizen Tain, this is certainly one to put on your list.