Jazz, December 2019

hfnalbum.pngJohn Coltrane
Blue World
Impulse! 7762652 (LP: 7762651) mono

After last year's Both Directions At Once, here's another unreleased studio session from Coltrane's classic quartet. The tracks were recorded in June 1964, at the request of Gilles Groulx of the Canadian National Film Board, for his movie Le Chat Dans Le Sac. Rather than bring in new material, the group revisited earlier Coltrane compositions. Groulx took the (mono) master back to Canada, but only used ten minutes of the music in the film. Now, you can hear all of it, starting with a beautiful, luminous 'Naima', the first of two takes. Then, as well as three takes of 'Village Blues', you get 'Traneing In', 'Like Sonny' and the title track. Not exactly another 'lost album', but definitely another 37 essential minutes. SH

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Jane Bunnett And Maqueque
On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme
Linus Entertainment 270404

Bunnett and her husband, trumpeter and producer Larry Cramer, created Spirits Of Havana with Cuban musicians back in 1992. More recently, Bunnett launched Maqueque to help Cuba's young women overcome music business machismo, but it soon became a successful all-girl touring band, Bunnett's eloquent soprano sax and flute threading Afro-Cuban rhythms and vocals. The lineup has changed since the self-titled 2014 debut and 2016 follow-up Oddara, but pianist Dánae Olano and drummer Yissy Garcia are still core members. We no longer hear the great violinist Elizabeth Rodriguez, but guests this time include sacred-steel guitarist Nicole 'Nikki D' Brown. A treat. SH

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Bill Evans
The East End
Jazzline D77066 (two LPs: D78066)

Saxophonist Bill Evans made his name in Miles's early-1980s 'comeback' band, since when he's restlessly catalysed different genres, eg, feeding bluegrass into a jazz-funk blender with his Soulgrass band in the early 2000s. Vans Joint was recorded with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk big band in 2009, but here Evans is heard live on his triumphal return to Cologne and the WDR in 2011, with fellow guests Etienne Mbappé on bass and leading German drummer Wolfgang Haffner. Once again, his music was superbly arranged by Michael Abene and finely executed by the WDR players. And as always, Evans's own playing is both endlessly inventive and accessible. SH

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Erroll Garner
A New Kind Of Love
Mack Avenue MAC 1160 (Octave Remastered Series 04)

Four simultaneous releases inaugurate a 12-title series of the late pianist's Octave-label albums dating from 1961 onwards, expanded with previously omitted tracks. As with Sony's 3CD Concert By The Sea, the tapes were restored with the Plangent system, including wow and flutter correction. Uniquely, A New Kind Of Love comes with orchestral backing as Garner revisits tunes he wrote for the 1963 movie, but the first three titles feature the regular trio. There's the classic Dreamstreet, actually recorded in 1959, and Close Up In Swing from 1961. But One World Concert, recorded live with tremendous atmosphere in 1962, is the best of a good bunch. SH

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