Jazzmatazz capsule reviews

Capsule Reviews
August 2003

Joey DeFrancesco featuring Joe Doggs
Falling in Love Again (Concord) July 8, 2003

On his new CD, Falling in Love Again, Joey DeFrancesco's soulful organ playing backs the mysterious singer Joe Doggs (aka actor Joe Pesci), who sings in a haunting, high voice that's reminiscent of Jimmy Scott's.

They're backed on this nice selection of standards by some skillful soloists including Pat Martino on guitar (with several tasty solos), Red Holloway and Ralph Moore on tenor sax and Elijah Davis on trumpet. Ron Eschete and Kevin Eubanks alternate on rhythm guitar and Jeff Hamilton and Byron Landham on drums.

DeFrancesco has some forceful playing—he doesn't just sit in the background comping. The choice of tunes certainly isn't ground-breaking, but they do a good enough job on these well recorded standards. I most enjoyed their versions of "All or Nothing at All" and "Can't We Begin Again." — ALAN LANKIN

Larry Ochs & Drumming Core - The Neon Truth (Black Saint) July 8, 2003

The shadow of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's 1967 album of sax and drum duets, Interstellar Space, hangs heavy over any new attempts at this format. But on The Neon Truth, saxophonist Larry Ochs, a founding member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, was inspired by the interplay in the vocal and percussion musics of Asia and Africa. I also hear the legacy of Albert Ayler on the record. Ayler has a very vocally-inflected tone and Ochs's tenor echoes Ayler's deep, low sound, wide vibrato and emotional intensity.

Ochs is joined here by two drummers: Don Robinson and Scott Amendola, aka Drumming Core. The drummers create a wonderful barrage of bass drum beats, cymbal accents and snare drum rolls in conversation with Ochs's tenor and sopranino saxes. — ALAN LANKIN

David Borgo - Massanetta Springs (Circumvention) July 1

Massanetta Springs is a recording of modern post-bop from tenor and soprano saxophonist David Borgo performed by a shifting set of musicians including John D'earth on trumpet, Alan Ferber on trombone, Sam Wilson on guitar, Pate Spar on bass and Mark Ferber on drums, plus David Pope on alto and Roberto Miranda on bass.

Most of the compositions are by Borgo, but the CD includes several covers include a nice one of Dave Holland's "Conference of the Birds," with Alan Ferber on trombone. (That composition is the title track for Conference of the Birds, which also features, Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers and Barry Altschul.) The next track, David Pope's "Pomodori," retains some of the Anthony Braxton influence from the previous track and has the most out playing of the disc. Overall, Massanetta Springs is a nice record, composed of fairly straight ahead playing with some freer touches. — ALAN LANKIN

Bob Moses - Love Animal (Amulet Records) July 1

Amulet Records has just issued the first-ever release of Love Animal, drummer Bob Moses's previously unreleased 1967-68 recording.

Moses has had a storied career—starting in the mid-1960s he played with a long list of important jazz players, including Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Larry Coryell (in the early Fusion group, the Free Spirits), Gary Burton, Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Steve Kuhn and others. He recorded some excellent albums for Gramavision between 1982 and 1993.

Love Animal, which would have been his first solo record, is a wild and eclectic album. It includes a nice guitar and drum duet, "Rock Fantasy," with Larry Coryell, a standard, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", with Keith Jarrett on piano, some whacked out blues and some free playing. Jarrett even plays soprano sax on two tunes. It's good to get the chance to hear more from the under recorded Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper, who died in 1992. Larry Coryell is enjoyable in his early, wilder period and bassist Steve Swallow is welcome on any session. — ALAN LANKIN

Bobby Hutcherson - Montara (Blue Note) July 8

(review coming soon) —

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last update 31 July 2003

Capsule Reviews August 2003

Capsule Reviews
August 2003