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08/10/20
FAWN FRITZEN/How to Say sorry and Other Lessons: A real strange duck of a jazz vocal album whose singer/writer is a recovering Catholic with a really varied background that sounds like a shrink's dream client unfolding her tales. A female empowerment outing that doesn't hit you in the head with a mallet, at least you can feel good for her realizing this isn't the dress rehearsal before it's too late. Certainly something out of the ordinary.
(Chronograph 81)
SAVOY BROWN/Ain't Done Yet: The blues/rock answer to Rodney Crowell's "It
Ain't Over Yet"? Choogling along with the same force leader Kim Simmonds has been dishing out for over 50 years, any long time boogie bears will fist pump to this even if they are the only ones left on the floor. He might have changed with times in certain ways but he hasn't upset the core as he refuses not to boogie on.
(Quarto Valley)
GANNA/Dykyi Lys: Is she really sensitive or just an art chick with high aspirations? You decide. This is a quiet, intimate album by a singer from a Russian village of 375 that found life in Berlin quite a culture shock. Meanwhile, it hasn't displaced her jazzy, after hours vibe and feelings. Whether she's improvising or playing it straight, she never fails to follow her own muse and take you on trips through her own back alleys to places unknown.
(Double Moon 71374/Jazzthing Next Generation Vol. 84)
JOE HAIDER SEXTET/As Time Goes By: A German piano man that's been on the road for 60 years and still deserving of wider recognition serves up a set with a distinct 50s/60s vibe to when albums celebrating arrangers in straight ahead style were in fashion. A dandy oasis of solid playing that doesn't need affect or effect to make it's succinct point, if straight ahead players kicking out righteously is enough for you then this set is more than enough for you. A real treat throughout.
(Challenge/Double Moon 71371)
EVA KESS/Falling Stars: The vet bass ace combines a jazz trio with a string quartet here but she doesn't have them playing against each other as is usual in these jazz/classical fusions. The two outfits were envisioned as a unit and assembled as such from the start. Rather than call this jazz or classical, I'm going to dub it instrumental music--and a fine one at that. Nothing at all like a surfeit of those hokey 60s records you probably think of when you think of instrumental music, this is a fine set of solid players showing what they can do when given the chance to really strut their stuff on a program of worthy originals.
(Neuklang 34230)
EDWARD SMALDONE/Once and Again: Launching his career with a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, this leading edge modernist rifles through his back pages here for a collection of what he was up to at various times. From pieces that would make Bugs Bunny repeat "Dat's a nice, fat opera singer" to stuff that's more linear in it's scope, he's a modernist that doesn't need pots and pans to make his point. An artist through and through, he knows how to zero in on the hard core and leave the tourists to their own devices.
(New Focus 258)
FRISOF PESCO COLLINS/Beauty Crying forth: This is actually a hard core act of female empowerment as the principals make it seem like this is a various artist compilation subsuming their own names well below the line. Focusing on flute/piano classical duets, all the composers are women and they are chosen from various periods and places. A recital kind of set with no egghead pretensions, this music is all good no matter who wrote it but it is nice to give a proper shout out to those who might have otherwise been unsung that deserve an ear. Well done.
(Furious Artisans 6826)
Volume 44/Number 287
August 10, 2020
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
Copyright 2020 Midwest Record
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