Bracing Work That Gives New Meaning to the Word ‘Quintet’

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GREG OSBY

“Inner Circle”

Blue Note

In the best recording of his career, alto saxophonist Osby leads an acoustic band in music that proves brashly original yet utterly accessible and alluring. Those who admire Osby for the famously keening quality of his tone on alto saxophone will be struck by how vividly it stands out against the mighty block chords of pianist Jason Moran and the intricate melodic flourishes of vibist Stefon Harris. Although in many instances these artists might seem to be playing harmonic and rhythmic figures that clash with one another, in fact they’re simply building ensemble sound in unconventional ways (with elegant support from bassist Taurus Mateen and drummer Eric Harland). The music that results is so fresh, bracing and unpredictable that it forces the listener to reconsider the meaning and purpose of a jazz quintet. And just when Osby’s band seems to be pushing into somewhat rarefied terrain, the players produce the searing, thoroughly disarming lyricism of a cut such as “All Neon Like.” Come December, this recording likely will be turning up on year’s best lists across the country--it’s clearly a milestone for an already important musician.

*** 1/2

CARL SAUNDERS

“Be Bop Big Band”

Sea Breeze Jazz

The big-band era may be over, but don’t tell that to America’s jazz musicians, who not only are churning out important new recordings for large ensemble but redefining the genre. The latest example comes from veteran Los Angeles trumpeter-bandleader Saunders, who presides over a nimble big band in arrangements by such formidable writers as Herb Phillips and John Boice. The rhythmic accuracy that these players achieve on Saunders’ “Compilation,” the deeply burnished tone that the brass and reed choirs produce on Ivan Lins’ “Love Dance,” and the new life that the ensemble breathes into Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer’s venerable “Emily” attest to the enduring power and potential of the big-band idiom. Then there are Saunders’ solos, which are equally persuasive whether he’s playing fleet passages in the stratospheric range of his trumpet or coaxing long, silken lines from his fluegelhorn.

*** 1/2

FRED ANDERSON

“On the Run:

Live at the Velvet Lounge”

Delmark Records

There’s a fine line between hard-core bebop and free jazz, but few tenor saxophonists walk it as skillfully as Anderson. Although the septuagenarian reedist came of age when bebop was king, he has evolved through the decades, not only keeping pace with developments in experimental jazz, but also helping to invent them. This remarkably effective recording captures Anderson in particularly strong form, perhaps because he was inspired to play before an appreciative audience in his club, the Velvet Lounge, on Chicago’s South Side. Throughout, Anderson produces the blues-tinged lines and tough, sinewy tone that are his signature. It takes a lifetime to learn to construct a solo that’s as succinct yet stylistically free-ranging as Anderson’s opening cut, “Ladies in Love.” When Anderson teams with bassist Tatsu Aoki and drummer Hamid Drake, the saxophonist sounds all the more impressive, his relentlessly repeated riffs and crying blues phrases brilliantly punctuated by Aoki’s running lines and Drake’s explosive percussion.

***

VICTOR FIELDS

“52nd Street”

Regina Records

With his newest release, Oakland-based Fields shows that he’s maturing into a potentially significant vocal stylist. Blessed with an unusually gauzy tenor, he offers unorthodox interpretations of well-worn fare. Certainly few male vocalists have created as haunting and ethereal an account of Thelonious Monk’s “ ‘Round Midnight,” while Fields’ version of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia” offers an uncommonly genteel sense of swing. Presumably attempting to reach a wide spectrum of listeners, Fields is joined on several tracks by guest artists, though to varying degrees of success. If his collaboration with saxophonist Gerald Albright on “And I Love Her” leans too closely to commercial idioms, Fields’ partnership with vocalist Claudia Villela on “Bluesette” represents nearly ideal samba singing.

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Howard Reich is jazz critic at the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune company.