Three Collections Worth a Bit of Trumpeting

Have we heard enough from Wynton Marsalis yet this year? Columbia Records doesn’t think so. On top of the eight albums already released as part of his “Swinging Into the 21st” series, the company has now issued “Live at the Village Vanguard” (***, Columbia). The boxed set encompasses a five-year period of live performances by the Marsalis Septet recorded at New York City’s Village Vanguard club.

On the plus side, the quality level of the music is remarkably consistent. And Marsalis has wisely organized the CDs as the elements in an imaginary weeklong performance, with each CD representing a night dedicated to a specific thematic concept. Monday emphasizes blues; Tuesday is an anything-goes night; Wednesday features standards and originals--and so forth. The final two discs encompass longer pieces such as “Citi Movement” and, on the last CD, an hourlong rendering of “In the Sweet Embrace of Life.”

Although there is considerable solo space for players such as alto saxophonist Wessell “Warm Daddy” Anderson, pianist Marcus Roberts and others, Marsalis’ trumpet is clearly in the spotlight for most of the package. And there’s the rub. For all of Marsalis’ skills--and his soloing is strikingly diverse over the course of the albums--it would be hard to imagine anyone, short of, say, Charlie Parker or John Coltrane, whose ideas would not begin to appear repetitive in this context.

What does become amply clear, however, is that Marsalis’ dedication to the pre-’60s jazz mainstream--from Ellington and Armstrong to Parker and Mingus--is not just rhetoric. The playing, composing and arranging are smack in the middle of the mainstream, carefully articulated and well-done, but obviously reluctant to take any excursions into new and unfamiliar territory.

Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, however, has no difficulty at all in taking her music through the world of post-’60s jazz and beyond in “Higher Grounds” (***, Enja Records). Far less-known than Marsalis, Jensen, 32, has toured with Lionel Hampton and performs with the all-female big band Diva.

Working here with a sterling band that includes, among others, pianist Dave Kikoski, tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas, bassist Ed Howard and drummer Victor Lewis, Jensen’s style reveals traces of Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis, blended into her own highly original amalgam. In addition to allowing plenty of solo space for her associates, she has structured many of the ensemble passages into collective improvisations.

The result--in a program ranging from the standard “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” Chick Corea’s “Litha” and Hubbard’s “Dear John” to originals by Jensen, Lewis and Kikoski--is a set of performances emphasizing group interplay, emotional range and textural coloration rather than isolated solo excursions. And, for the listener, this provides an entry point to some fascinating, sometimes dissonant, but always intriguing music.

For many swing music fans, Harry James was the quintessential trumpeter. And although swing music was disappearing from the view screen in the ‘50s, James continued to lead bands, primarily in performances around the Southland. “The Complete Capitol Recordings of Gene Krupa and Harry James” (***, Mosaic) presents two distinct views of James’ music from 1955-58 on three CDs (four CDs are dedicated to Krupa bands from 1946 and 1947).

The first is a retrospective, via new recordings (originally released as “Harry James in Hi-Fi” and “More Harry James in Hi-fi”) of such classic James items as “You Made Me Love You,” “Trumpet Blues,” “Ciribiribin” and numerous others. James’ playing is characteristically strong, upfront and precise. Lacking any particular emotional depth, it compensated with a lush, almost fruity sound, a wide vibrato and an almost constant connection with melody.

The second view encompasses a period in which James--with arrangements by Ernie Wilkins (as well as Bill Holman and Neal Hefti) and with Buddy Rich occasionally in the drum chair--followed a Count Basie path. At times, the resemblance is almost too close for comfort, a virtual imitation rather than a creative influence (occasionally, as in the case of the too familiar arrangement of the Wild Bill Davis version of “April in Paris,” reflecting Wilkins’ simultaneous assignments for the Basie band). And, in this setting, James’ trumpet playing often sounds as out of context as Woody Herman’s clarinet did with his bop-drenched Four Brothers band. His band, nonetheless, is a fine, too often overlooked ensemble, with attractive soloing from alto saxophonist Willie Smith and tenor saxophonist Sam Firmature.

The Krupa recordings are a kind of anomaly: Although he never actually recorded for Capitol, he did seven sessions for the company’s transcription service intended solely for release to radio stations. Reissued in bits and pieces, all 74 items are collected together here for the first time.

Although Krupa was as obliged as any swing bandleader was to record pop-style ballads and novelty tunes, the jazz component in his band was omnipresent, and these tracks are filled with powerful soloing from tenor saxophonist Charlie Ventura; very early bop playing from alto saxophonist Charlie Kennedy and trumpeter Red Rodney; scat singing from the versatile Buddy Stewart; and four arrangements by Gerry Mulligan. (Mosaic is remiss, however, in not identifying all the soloists in either the James or the Krupa selections.)

Many of the tunes are parallel versions of what Krupa was recording for Columbia during the period. The early bop scat line “What’s This?,” for example, is rendered on Columbia by singers Stewart and Dave Lambert, here by Stewart with Ventura’s tenor saxophone. Other tracks have similar differences that will appeal to collectors of the original Krupa recordings.

(Mosaic Recordings are available solely through Mosaic Records, 35 Melrose Place, Stamford CT 06902; (203) 327-7111. More information is available at their Web site: https://www.mosaicrecords.com).