The High Notes Come Jampacked With Variety

The arrival of the new millennium brings a widening of inclusiveness in jazz. With no major iconic figures to lead the way, musicians from around the world are making individual efforts to mix, match and blend genres, and that blending is producing some fascinating jazz pathways. Add to that the continuing flow of reissues--heightened by the anticipation of the massive Ken Burns documentary in January--and it’s made for a cornucopia of choices, gift possibilities for every musical taste.

**** ELLA FITZGERALD, “Ella Fitzgerald: In the Groove,” Buddah Records. Recorded live via radio air checks from New York’s Savoy and Roseland ballrooms and Chicago’s Grand Terrace when Fitzgerald was, nominally at least, leading the former Chick Webb Orchestra. The 21 tracks reveal that virtually every aspect of her inimitable style was present from the beginning in the scat singing on “St. Louis Blues,” and the balladry of “Day In, Day Out,” “My Prayer” and “The Lamp Is Low.”

*** 1/2 DAVE HOLLAND, “Prime Directive,” ECM Records. Always a world-class bassist, Holland has emerged in recent years as an effective group leader as well. His ensemble here included Chris Potter’s saxophones, Robin Eubanks’ trombone and Steve Nelson’s vibes, and Holland uses the combination’s unusual textural potential as a palette for a wide array of sounds. The results, when combined with offbeat meters and superb soloing, underscore the expansive potential of new-millennium jazz.

*** 1/2 WYNTON MARSALIS, “The Marciac Suite,” Sony Classical. Marsalis may have a busy schedule, and the frequency of his musical outings sometimes stretches the limits of even his considerable abilities--but not here, in a 13-part work celebrating a tiny French jazz-festival town. One of his most engaging compositions, it is filled with attractive melodies, seamless stylistic transitions and some surprisingly lighthearted trumpet soloing.

*** 1/2 RAY BARRETTO, “Portraits in Jazz and Clave,” RCA Victor. Working with his group, New World Spirit, and guest stars Kenny Burrell, Joe Lovano, Steve Turre and Eddie Gomez, the iconoclastic percussionist brilliantly cobbles together tunes by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane. The results are extraordinary, blending the two genres in a fashion that enhances their uniqueness while celebrating their similarities.

*** 1/2 WORLD SAXOPHONE QUARTET, “Requiem for Julius,” Justin Time Records. A tribute to the late Julius Hemphill, one of the quartet’s founding members, the album recalls the group’s acoustic roots. Both the thick-textured writing and the edgy individual playing can be difficult at first encounter, but the pieces become more persuasive with each rehearing.

*** 1/2 AL JARREAU, “Tomorrow Today,” GRP Records. If anyone can bring some spunk, spirit and creative high voltage to the smooth-jazz arena, it’s Jarreau. His first studio album in more than five years understandably contains a few commercially oriented tracks. But his performances on pieces such as “Something That You Said” (based on Joe Zawinul’s “A Remark You Made”) and Joe Sample’s “Put It in Your Pocket” are potent reminders of the abilities of a performer who is arguably the jazz world’s most imaginative male vocalist.

**** URI CAINE ENSEMBLE, “The Goldberg Variations,” Winter & Winter Records. Caine has already offered his unusual takes on Mahler, Wagner and Schuman, but his view of the seminal J.S. Bach work is a breakthrough in genre interfacing. Caine’s set includes 70 variations (well beyond Bach’s original 30), via interstitial romps through ragtime, bop, free jazz and New Orleans, as well as his personal views of the original variations. Two CDs filled with the results of a breakthrough musical encounter.

**** DIDIER LOCKWOOD, “Salute to Stephane Grappelli,” Dreyfus Jazz. French-born violinist Lockwood has never received the recognition his skills warrant. But this excellent tribute, in which he is accompanied by gifted French gypsy guitarist Bireli Lagrene, should not be overlooked. The music includes some Grappelli-Django Reinhardt classics--”Nuages” and “Minor Swing”--and the results, with Danish bass virtuoso Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen as the third participant, are consummate examples of chamber-style jazz.

**** CHARLIE PARKER, “Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings, 1944-1948,” Savoy. The essential vocabulary of post- World War II jazz was largely established in Parker’s work from this period. Virtually every track included is a classic, from “Billie’s Bounce” and “Ko-Ko” to “Parker’s Mood” and “Donna Lee.” And the inclusion of alternate tracks provides insightful opportunities to hear the Parker improvisation process in action.

**** JOAO GILBERTO, “Joao Voz e Violao,” Verve. Many Brazilian musicians view Gilberto as the Charlie Parker of their music, in terms of the impact his inventive combination of voice and guitar had on the performers who followed him. But Gilberto affected American jazz as well, and this new collection, a spare, sometime starkly minimal set of tunes (including classics such as “Desafinado” and “Chega de Saudade”), is a splendid example of his musical magic in action.

**** SONNY ROLLINS, “Sonny Rollins, The Freelance Years: The Complete Riverside and Contemporary Recordings,” Riverside/Contemporary. A five-CD box with 58 tracks encompassing the legendary tenor saxophonist’s groundbreaking work between December 1956 and October 1958. Among the classic material here: “Way Out West,” “Freedom Suite” and “The Sound of Sonny” albums as well as tracks from Thelonious Monk’s “Brilliant Corners” and Kenny Dorham’s “Jazz Contrasts.”

*** 1/2 DAVID SANCHEZ, “Melaza,” Columbia. Puerto Rican-born tenor saxophonist Sanchez leads his well-organized group in pieces representing his dedication to the folkloric music he heard as a youth. More jazz-oriented than his previous album, “Obsesion,” it showcases the remarkable diversity of his playing, now on a level that places him in the top echelon of jazz saxophonists.

**** VARIOUS ARTISTS, “Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America’s Music,” Verve/Columbia. A five-CD boxed set that is essentially the soundtrack for Burns’ massive jazz documentary, scheduled to air on PBS in January. Although, as with the documentary, it is lacking in its coverage of post-’60s jazz, there can be little argument with the earlier material, which--bypassing the limits of individual labels--has been gathered from virtually every relevant source. It would be hard to find an important or well-known pre-1960 jazz item that is not present in this must-have collection.

**** BEN SIDRAN, “The Concert for Garcia Lorca,” GoJazz. Recorded live in June 1998 at the Granada home of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, Sidran’s program is a musical-poetic tapestry blending jazz pieces with readings of Garcia Lorca’s essays. A stunning example of the capacity of jazz to function in a dense creative environment, the CD is beautifully packaged in hardcover book style.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).