Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
A hundred years after her birth, the ever-eloquent Ella Fitzgerald continues to teach us lessons. Regina Carter has chosen this moment to celebrate the First Lady of Song’s infectious and inclusive artistry with unabashed joy. On “Ella: Accentuate the Positive,” the virtuoso violinist reveals the many faces of Ella that have influenced Carter’s own remarkable path in music. Apart from the title track, Regina resists the allure of the songstress’s most recognizable hits and mines tunes from deep within Ella’s bountiful catalog. To realize her vision, which transforms the songs through the lens of classic 1950’s-‘60s soul and blues, Carter calls on an impressive roster of musicians and arrangers, including bassists Chris Lightcap and Ben Williams, pianists Mike Wofford and Xavier Davis, guitarist Marvin Sewell, and vocalists Carla Cook and Charenee Wade.
Before the Rolling Stones were a known entity in the early 1960s, drummer Charlie Watts had a day job that took him to Denmark. While he was there, he entrenched himself in the jazz and blues scene, sitting in with bands big and small, keeping his passion for the music alive while he earned his living. Fast forward fifty years to 2010: Charlie got together with the Danish Radio Big Band and rehearsed for four days, presenting a concert at the newly opened Concert Hall of Denmark in Copenhagen that was broadcast on Danish National Radio. The synergy between the big band and Watts and his childhood friend and bassist Dave Green was palpable, and a day or two after the broadcast it was clear that it would make a great live album. “Charlie Watts Meets the Danish Radio Big Band” is the resulting disc, featuring big band classics, originals and Rolling Stones covers.
Also this week, Diana Krall reteams with Tommy LiPuma, the producer of many of her most acclaimed albums, for “Turn Up the Quiet,” released just two months after LiPuma’s passing in March.
Pianist Joe Alterman returns to his native Georgia in both spirit and sound on his third album as a leader, “Comin’ Home to You”.
Uptown Jazz Tentet makes its debut on “There It Is.”