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Christian McBride solidifies his role as the champion of the past, present and future of jazz with his Grammy Award-winning big band’s new album in tribute to Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery and Oliver Nelson. In September of 1966, over the course of three days, organist Smith and guitarist Montgomery recorded the material for two now-classic albums, backed by a big band featuring arrangements by the great Oliver Nelson. Bassist McBride and master organist Joey DeFrancesco would wear out the grooves on their copies of those summit meetings during their high school days, and both would remain touchstones throughout a friendship and collaboration that has lasted nearly forty years. “For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver” echoes the format of the original Smith/Montgomery meetings with a balance of big band and quartet tracks, with guitarist Mark Whitfield playing the Montgomery role.
Four-time Grammy Award-winner Billy Childs remains one of most diversely prolific and acclaimed artists working in music today. His canon of original compositions and arrangements has garnered him an additional ten Grammy nominations, the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009. “On my first Mack Avenue recording, ‘Rebirth,’ I wanted to return to a focus on my jazz piano playing,” Childs states. “’Acceptance’ is an extension of that.” Childs thrives on group improvisation, and has recruited fellow master musicians—saxophonist Steve Wilson, drummer Eric Harland and bassist Hans Glawischnig—as the core ensemble for this new collection.
Also this week, Havana-based pianist and composer Harold Lopez-Nussa takes a picturesque look at Cuban culture with a marriage of jazz and Cuban pop music on “Te Lo Dije”;
tenor and soprano saxophonist Paul Carr performs modern straight ahead jazz on “The Real Jazz Whisperer” with a top-notch quartet, interpreting a well-rounded set of consistently creative material;
and The Big Bad Bones featuring Scott Whitfield consists of four premier trombonists with a solid rhythm section combining Nebraska talent with prominent musicians from California, Texas, Ohio and Illinois on “Emergency Vehicle Blues.”