STEWART MACAULAY’S JAZZ PICKS …. MAY 2009Music that I’m listening to now:    For some time, I’ve been telling people to listen to the singer Karrin Allyson.   Her most recent CD is “Imagina:  Songs of Brasil.”   My friends who speak Portuguese say that she is remarkably good for an American.    When she sings in English on this disk, she has tried to get better translations than some that were used when the songs first came to this country.   As always, she has terrific musicians with her on the CD.

I discovered Allyson a few years ago when I bought Marian McPartland & Friends:   “85 Candles — Live in New York.”  (This was a celebration of McPartland’s 85th birthday with just about everyone active in jazz who was available).  Allyson performs on only one of the twenty- two tracks, but I so liked it that I started buying her CDs.   Allyson sings McPartland’s song, “Twilight World,” which has lyrics by Johnny Mercer.    Then I found Allyson’s CD, “Daydream.”  (Concord CCD 4773-2)  She sings the Ellington-Strayhorn title tune very well, but she does wonderfully in a very different style in Duke’s “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues.”   You also get two bossa novas, and “Like Someone in Love.”   Adding to my enjoyment, she has Gary Burton (vibes) and Randy Brecker (flugelhorn) on some of the tracks.    After hearing “Imagina,” I bought one of her 1999 CDs, “From Paris to Rio.”  While there is plenty of jazz on this one, it has a European/Brazilian feel to it that I like.

What about Duke Ellington, you would ask if you know me.   I discovered a remake of a concert album that was originally recorded in October of 1971, that I’ve played over and over.   This is late Ellington.   Billy Strayhorn and Johnny Hodges are dead, and Jimmy Hamilton has left the band.   But Duke is still writing new music as well as playing new arrangements of “C Jam Blues,” “Cottontail,” “In a Mellotone” and “I’ve Got it Bad, and That Ain’t Good.”   I very much like some of the new stuff:   “Soul Soothing Beach” from the “Brava Togo Suite” is wonderful big band writing.  “La Plus Belle Africaine” is percussive and lets you hear a lot of piano and bass.   Finally, Norris Turney’s tribute to Johnny Hodges, the man he replaced, captures Hodges without being a trite imitation  — this is “Checkered Hat,” named after the hat that Hodges often wore.   The album is called “The English Concert.”   The remastered version is BGO #CD451.   It may be hard to find; it was released in England and imported here.

We had many visitors to my house last weekend.   Several of them, after discovering my “tiny” collection of Ellington CDs, asked what should they buy to get into Ellington.   This is a very hard question to answer because there are so many ways to go.   If you want a fairly broad sample of Ellington, I’d turn to “The Great Paris Concert.”  It was originally issued by Atlantic in 1973, but it was reissued on Collectables in 2005 (COL-CD-7818).    You get many older tunes from the early days of the band and you get two of his longer works  — “Suite Thursday” and “Tone Parallel to Harlem.”   More importantly, the band was really on for the concerts that produced these recordings.    Another approach would be to buy “Jazz Party in Stereo”  (Sony Columbia) if you can find it.  (It is worth tracking down a used copy).  It is from 1959, and it has little that is famous.    However, you get as guests Dizzy Gillespie and Jimmy Rushing. Gillespie plays the trumpet part in Billy Strayhorn’s “U.M.M.G.”   That stands for “Upper Manhattan Medical Group,” and it is dedicated to Dr. Arthur Logan, Ellington’s doctor.   You get both Gillespie and Rushing on “Hello Little Girl,” a blues that just roars.   Irving Townsend, Columbia’s jazz producer, ended his album notes with “in a small voice, an opinion!”   Then, he wrote in small type:   “This is the most exciting album of jazz I’ve ever heard.”   You don’t have to rate it that highly to accept that it is very very good.   Of course, you really can’t go wrong if you buy any of the many “Duke Ellington’s Greatest Hits” CDs.

If you want to ease into Ellington with something that you are very likely to enjoy, you could try two CDs that are now available.   The first is “The Complete Ellington Indigos.”  The band plays some Ellington songs and some by other composers such as “Where or When,” “Tenderly,” and “Willow Weep for Me.”   Shorty Baker’s trumpet on “Mood Indigo” is worth the price of the CD, particularly if you’ve ever danced to a big band.   This is on Jazz Beat 527.  A shorter version was originally issued on Columbia in 1957.   The other is “Duke Elllington:  Retrospection — The Piano Sessions.”  It is on Lonehill Jazz LHJ10369.   Most of the CD has Ellington playing with a trio.   Some of the songs are classic Ellington;  others are wonderful things that you probably haven’t heard.