WALLACE RONEY — Crunchin' (1993) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Trumpeter Wallace Roney sounds poignant and fabulous throughout the eight tracks on his latest release. His lines on "What's New" and "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" are full and gorgeous, while his soloing on "Woody'n You" and "Time After Time" has warmth, intensity and edge. Alto saxophonist Antonio Hart chimes in with equal facility and spark, while Geri Allen shows that she is just as outstanding as an accompanist on standards and hard bop as in trios or as a leader. Ron Wynn
Tracklist :
1    Woody'n You    4:47
 Dizzy Gillespie
2    What's New    7:49
 Johnny Burke / Bob Haggart
3    Angel Eyes    6:19
 Earl Brent / Matt Dennis
4    Swing Spring    5:37
 Miles Davis
5    Time After Time    5:52
 Sammy Cahn / Jule Styne
6    We See    6:49
 Thelonious Monk
7    You Stepped Out Of A Dream    4:16
 Nacio Herb Brown / Gus Kahn
8    Misterioso    12:47
 Nacio Herb Brown / Gus Kahn
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Antonio Hart (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6 to 8)
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums – Kenny Washington
Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder
Piano – Geri Allen
Trumpet – Wallace Roney

ORNETTE COLEMAN SOUND MUSEUM - Hidden Man (1996) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

For this project, altoist Ornette Coleman made one of his very few recordings with a pianist. On a vacation from his electrified Prime Time group, the innovative saxophonist (who also plays a bit of trumpet and his percussive violin) teams up with a purely acoustic trio (pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charnett Moffett and drummer Denardo Coleman) to perform 13 of his originals, plus the traditional "What A Friend We Have In Jesus." Most unusual is that another CD released at the same time (Three Women) has different versions of the exact same Coleman originals (plus one other song). Ornette Coleman shows throughout that he had not mellowed with age, and his concise yet adventurous improvisations (which are full of pure melody) are quite intriguing. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1     Sound Museum 6'16
Ornette Coleman
2     Monsieur Allard 2'56
Ornette Coleman
3     City Living 3'21
Ornette Coleman
4     What Reason 4'19
Ornette Coleman
5     Home Grown 3'08
Ornette Coleman
6     Stopwatch 2'25
Ornette Coleman
7     Women of the Veil 4'41
Ornette Coleman
8     P.P. (Picolo Pesos) 2'50
Ornette Coleman
9     Biosphere 3'11
Ornette Coleman
10     Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 4'10
Ornette Coleman
11     European Echoes 3'18
Ornette Coleman
12     What a Friend We Have in Jesus 4'38
Ornette Coleman / Traditional
13     Mob Job 3'10
Ornette Coleman
14     Macho Woman 2'17
Ornette Coleman
Credits :
Bass – Charnett Moffett
Drums, Producer – Denardo Coleman
Piano – Geri Allen
Saxophone, Violin, Trumpet – Ornette Coleman

ORNETTE COLEMAN SOUND MUSEUM - Sound Museum Three Women (1996) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

In 1996, altoist Ornette Coleman simultaneously released a pair of 14-song CDs; 13 of his pieces are heard in different versions on both releases. Joined by a particularly stimulating rhythm section (pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charnett Moffett and drummer Denardo Coleman), Coleman (who also contributes some trumpet and violin) is in superior form throughout the performances. On "Don't You Know By Now" (the one tune that is only heard on this CD), Lauren Kinhan and Chris Walker take passionate vocals. Otherwise, this is an excellent showcase for Ornette's searching and emotional (yet melodic) improvisations, one of the very few occasions since 1958 when he can be heard using a conventional three-piece rhythm section. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1     Sound Museum 4'54
Ornette Coleman
2     Monsieur Allard 2'47
Ornette Coleman
3     City Living 3'31
Ornette Coleman
4     What a Reason 4'58
Ornette Coleman
5     Home Grown 3'24
Ornette Coleman
6     Stopwatch 2'31
Ornette Coleman
7     Don't You Know by Now 4'21
Ornette Coleman
8     P.P. (Picolo Pesos) 3'25
Ornette Coleman
9     Women of the Veil 4'49
Ornette Coleman
10     Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 4'14
Ornette Coleman
11     Biosphere 4'23
Ornette Coleman
12     European Echoes 4'57
Ornette Coleman
13     Mob Job 4'21
Ornette Coleman
14     Macho Woman 2'40
Ornette Coleman
Credits :
Bass – Charnett Moffett
Drums, Producer – Denardo Coleman
Piano – Geri Allen
Saxophone, Violin, Trumpet – Ornette Coleman

DEWEY REDMAN QUARTET - Living on the Edge (1990) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The great tenor Dewey Redman has always been a versatile player and he really gets a chance to show off his individuality on this set, whether it is some freebop a la early Ornette Coleman, "Mirror Windows" (which is an explosion of sound and pure energy), the soulful "Blues for J.A.M. - Part 1," a free and speechlike tenor-piano duet with Geri Allen on "As One" and a boppish "Lazy Bird." On "If I Should Lose You," Redman has a rare chance to play some conventional but cliché-free alto. With bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Eddie Moore forming a solid team, this is an easily recommended set of inside/outside music. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1     Boo Boodoop 9:46
Composed By, Arranged By – Dewey Redman    
2     Mirror Windows 8:32
Composed By, Arranged By – Dewey Redman
3     Blues or J.A.M., Pt. 1 5:02
Composed By, Arranged By – Dewey Redman
4     If I Should Lose You 8:07
Ralph Rainger / Leo Robin    
Arranged By – Dewey Redman, Geri Allen
5     As One 5:58
Composed By, Arranged By – Dewey Redman
6     Lazy Bird 6:20
John Coltrane
Arranged By – Dewey Redman, Geri Allen
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Bass – Cameron Brown
Drums – Eddie Moore
Piano – Geri Allen

CHARLES LLOYD - Lift Every Voice (2002) 2xCD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

As Charles Lloyd prepared to kick off a gig at New York's Blue Note club the night of Tuesday September 11, 2001, some murderous terrorists had some other plans for that morning a bit further south. The gig thus didn't begin until that Friday, and the wheels in Lloyd's mind kept on rolling through the aftermath, resulting in this double-CD album. Going his own way, he drew from public-domain spirituals, pop/rock songs, protest R&B, folk songs, and Ellingtonia and mixed them with his own compositions and meditations, assembling and reining in top-notch musicians like pianist Geri Allen, guitarist John Abercrombie, bassists Marc Johnson and Larry Grenadier, and drummer Billy Hart. The result is one of the most unusual and deeply spiritual recordings in Lloyd's always-unusual career, one that says more with fewer means. The leadoff track itself is an ear-opener, Lloyd's "Hymn to the Mother," which opens the gates with an Indian flavor, with its arco bass drone on a single chord and sitar-like articulation from Abercrombie. It's a miraculously subtle yet compelling way to grab your attention, like the introduction to a raga, thoughtfully sustained over 15 minutes. Somehow, the rest of the 130-minute album manages to maintain and develop the rapt atmosphere, reaching its central pivot of emotion three tracks into the second disc with the Coltrane quartet-like treatment of "Go Down Moses." As is often the case in a Lloyd performance, the tenor saxophonist is tempted to go to the outside, but usually in a gentle way, his head now in a thoughtful fog. Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" stays largely with the tune except toward the close, matching the haunted, dazed mood of the original. Billy Strayhorn is appropriately represented by "Blood Count"; Lloyd's own "Beyond Darkness" finds him on flute. Even "Amazing Grace," the over-exposed staple of every other folk or gospel revival, sounds fresh, devout, and genuine. Each disc concludes with something meaningful: Lloyd mourns alone and soulfully on "Hafez, Shattered Heart" at disc one's close and one more lengthy meditation, followed by an up-tempo release, "Prayer, the Crossing," ends disc two. Let responses like this from the jazz world be the real legacy of the aftermath of 9/11. Richard S. Ginell  
Tracklist 1 :
1     Hymn To The Mother 15'00
Charles Lloyd
2     You Are So Beautiful 4'05
Bruce Fisher / Billy Preston
3     Amazing Grace 4'42
Public Domain / Charles Lloyd / John Newton / Traditional
4     Red Bank 9'40
Charles Lloyd
5     What's Going On 5'07
Renaldo Benson / Al Cleveland / Marvin Gaye
6     Angel Oak 3'33
Charles Lloyd
7     Te Amaré 6'46
Silvio Rodríguez
8     I'm Afraid 7'38
Duke Ellington / Don George
9     Hafez, Shattered Heart 4'43
Charles Lloyd
Tracklist 2 :
1     Rabo de Nube 7'05
Silvio Rodríguez
2     Blood Count 5'06
Billy Strayhorn
3     Go Down Moses 10'37
Charles Lloyd / Traditional
4     Beyond Darkness 7'51
Charles Lloyd
5     Nocturne 6'12
Charles Lloyd
6     Wayfaring Stranger 8'35
Charles Lloyd / Traditional
7     Deep River 6'25
Charles Lloyd / Traditional
8     Lift Every Voice And Sing 3'08
James Weldon Johnson / John Johnson / Charles Lloyd / Traditional
9     Prayer, The Crossing 14'03
Charles Lloyd
Credits :
Double Bass – Larry Grenadier (pistas: 1-2, 1-8, 2-2, 2-4 to 2-8), Marc Johnson (pistas: 1-1, 1-3 to 1-7, 2-1, 2-3, 2-5, 2-9)
Drums – Billy Hart
Executive-Producer – Manfred Eicher
Guitar – John Abercrombie
Photography By, Design, Producer – Dorothy Darr
Piano – Geri Allen
Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Tárogató [Taragato], Producer – Charles Lloyd

CHARLES LLOYD - Jumping the Creek (2005) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Since making a middle-of-life comeback in the 1990s, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Charles Lloyd has continually issued fascinating recordings. While some of them contain missteps, it's not for lack of ambition. For one of jazz's elder statesmen, Lloyd pushes his envelope of ideas about improvisation, rhythm and harmony, often to the breaking point. He is a player who sets sometimes impossibly high goals for himself, but in so doing, gives listeners something to really hold on to when encountering one of his albums or seeing him live. Jumping the Creek, which continues his association with ECM Records, is another compelling affair. The band -- pianist Geri Allen, bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Eric Harland -- is simply outstanding. Allen, particularly, hasn't shined on a record like this thus far this decade. Lloyd's compositional ideas here come from rhythmic phrases, small harmonic vamps and emotional thematics. Lloyd engages his quartet in various ways, sometimes in duets, sometimes trios, sometimes as a full band, often during the same composition. The whole quartet does engage fully on the 13-plus-minute opener "Ne Me Quitte Pas," with skeletal phrases becoming larger, striated harmonic statements as Allen uses both modal and post-bop concerns to flesh out the body of the tune. The saxophone/drums duet in "Ken Katta Ma Om," is an utterly lovely change-up that follows. The rest of the band doesn't even enter until halfway through. And Allen does this as a way of introducing a contrapuntal solo that touches upon both Andrew Hill and Lennie Tristano. The title track uses trio and quartet settings to explore the various tensions in melody. Lloyd is a master of moving from gorgeous, gently swinging balladry to blues-drenched free blowing, on a dime. "The Sufi's Tears" features Lloyd on taragato -- a soprano saxophone-like instrument used in Middle Eastern and Indian music. Accompanied only by Hurst's bowed bass, the mournful melody slips off into ether as improvisation wanders into the heart of the frame and remains. It's exotic and tight. "Georgia Bright Smile," is another long work in which the band changes configurations repeatedly in the course of its execution, winding around Lloyd's themes and Allen's painterly pianism. Hurst is particularly impressive here as he trades fours with Allen in his solo. Ultimately however, this, like Lloyd's other recordings on ECM is about emotion, feeling, and a sense of peace and serenity. Lloyd uses the rough places in his improvisations, to be sure, but it is only to make the rough places plain, limpid, utterly integrated in a serene whole. On Jumping the Creek he succeeds seamlessly and ups his own artistic ante.
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Tracklist :
1    Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away) 13'28
Composed By – Jacques Brel
2    Ken Katta Ma Om (Bright Sun Upon You) 5'44
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
3    Angel Oak Revisited 3'33
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
4    Canon Perdido 3'01
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
5    Jumping The Creek 5'56
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
6    The Sufi's Tears 3'05
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
7    Georgia Bright Suite 13'32
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
7a.    Pythagoras At Jeckyll Island
7b.    Sweet Georgia Bright
8    Come Sunday 5'51
Composed By – Duke Ellington
9    Both Veils Must Go 2'59
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
10    Song Of The Inuit 11'26
Composed By – Charles Lloyd
Credits :
Double Bass – Robert Hurst
Drums, Percussion – Eric Harland
Photography By, Design – Dorothy Darr
Piano – Geri Allen
Producer – Charles Lloyd, Dorothy Darr
Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Tárogató [Taragato] – Charles Lloyd

GARY THOMAS & SEVENTH QUADRANT - By Any Means Necessary [1989] JMT / APE (image+.cue), lossless

The M-Base concept, which never caught on in a big way but did influence the playing of a dozen or so top jazz improvisers, is heard in its prime on this Gary Thomas release. The tenor saxophonist (doubling on flute) meets up with the fiery altoist Greg Osby, keyboardist Geri Allen, keyboardist Tim Murphy, bassist Anthony Cox, drummer Dennis Chambers, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, and, on some selections, guitarists John Scofield and Mick Goodrick. The music features dense ensembles, simultaneous improvisations, eccentric funk rhythms, and rhythmic but very dissonant horn solos that have a logic of their own. One can think of this noisy date as being an updated extension of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time and is recommended to open-minded listeners who think that nothing new has been played in jazz since the mid-'70s. by Scott Yanow
Tracklist
1 By Any Means Necessary 7:44
Gary Thomas
Guitar – John Scofield
Percussion – Nana Vasconcelos
2 Continuum 6:52
Gary Thomas
Percussion – Nana Vasconcelos

3 You're Under Arrest 7:17

John Scofield
Guitar – John Scofield
4 Potential Hazard 6:23
Gary Thomas
Percussion – Nana Vasconcelos
Piano, Synthesizer – Geri Allen

5 To the Vanishing Point 4:37

Gary Thomas
Piano, Synthesizer – Geri Allen

6 Screen Gem 5:02

Gary Thomas
Guitar – Mick Goodrick
Percussion – Nana Vasconcelos

7 Janala 2:39

Geri Allen / Greg Osby / Gary Thomas / Naná Vasconcelos
Alto Saxophone, Synthesizer – Greg Osby
Percussion – Nana Vasconcelos
Piano, Synthesizer – Geri Allen
8 At Risk 7:12
Gary Thomas
Guitar – John Scofield, Mick Goodrick
Percussion – Nana Vasconcelos
 9 Out of Harm's Way 6:12
Gary Thomas
Alto Saxophone, Synthesizer – Greg Osby

 GARY THOMAS & SEVENTH QUADRANT - By Any Means Necessary 

[1989] JMT / APE (image+.cue), lossless 

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