Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
When Freddy Cole is asked why he is finally releasing a tribute to his legendary older brother, who left this world 50 years ago, his answer is hardly surprising. “Because I felt the time was right.” Anytime is the right time for a new Freddy Cole CD but this one is particularly welcome. The thing you notice most is the way that Freddy and friends, especially tenor titan Houston Person, address the entire breadth and scope of the Nat King Cole songbook. Freddy sings everything from jazz standards to luminescent ballads. He reinterprets songs from his brother’s early jazz period as well as his more mature years as a chart-topping pop headliner.
The most poig
nant music is often inspired by watershed events in an artist’s life, and few occasions are more transformative than the arrival of one’s first child. For Allison Miller, the extraordinary drummer, composer and leader of her band Boom Tic Boom, that life-affirming experience provided the seed that led to the creation of her new studio disc, “Otis Was a Polar Bear.” Miller’s approach to composing deviated from her previous work. Instead of exclusively composing on the piano, which is how she’s always written, she utilized the bass, vibes, drums, guitar and mini-keyboard. On these various instruments, she discovered an entirely new sphere of exploration that matured her arrangements, allowing her to scribe specifically for each idiosyncratic band member. Those include violinist Jenny Scheinman, cornet player Kurt Knufke, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, upright bassist Todd Sickafoose and pianist Myra Melford. Incidentally, Miller brings this band to the Iowa City Jazz Festival this July.
Also this week, guitarist Russell Malone and his working band are “All About Melody”.
Pianist Lesl
ie Pintchik showcases saxophonist Steve Wilson and trumpeter Ron Horton with a terrific mix of six vibrant originals and four richly interpreted standards on the new CD, “True North”.
Guitarist Henry Robinett offers up his first release in several years, “I Have Known Mountains.”