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Called “New York’s premiere hard-bop supergroup” by Jazz Times, One for All has evolved over the course of its quarter century history from a sextet of young torchbearers to an assemblage of the music’s most revered traditionalists. For its first release in seven years and 17th overall, “Big George,” the group once again features the unparalleled line-up of Eric Alexander, Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, David Hazeltine, John Webber and Joe Farnsworth. Legendary saxophonist George Coleman also joins in on the proceedings, and while the disc is not a tribute album to him per se, it is an acknowledgment of the giants of jazz who still walk among us.
Acclaimed American conductor and pianist Scott Dunn and leading British vocalist Claire Martin both met Sir Richard Rodney Bennett in the early 1990s and became great friends of his. Bennett was an extraordinary pianist and a prolific Oscar-nominated film composer, but also a fine jazz pianist, songwriter, lyricist and singer. The new release, “I Watch You Sleep,” featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, is their tribute to Sir Richard and features a good number of his compositions along with tunes by Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Johnny Mandel Ira Gershwin, and Kurt Weill.
Also this week, four-time Grammy nominated composer and saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf and his Assembly of Shadows big band find inspiration in the ever-shifting soundscape of the great American road trip on “Heartland Radio”; 74-year-old organist Caesar Frazier offers up the first live album of his career, “Live at Jazzcup,” recorded in a club in the heart of Copenhagen; and veteran saxophonist Ron Burris unveils his third disc as a leader, “Never Felt So Good.”