Enthusiasms (31) ~ Rebecca Martin

I first encountered singer Rebecca Martin several years ago on the fourth installment of the "On Broadway" series that Paul Motian has been issuing since the late 1980s. Her voice was a remarkable feature of the recording. Over this past Labor Day I was in Washington DC for the APSA convention and walked with Susan down to Dupont Circle. We stopped in at Melody Records where, among other things, I bought Martin's newest CD When I Was Long Ago, recently released on Sunnyside Records. On the recording it is just Martin, Larry Grenadier (bass) and Bill McHenry (tenor). The tunes are all "standards" with a twist.* Martin researched early performances of all the numbers in order to peel away some of the historical accretions that surround the way we have heard these tunes over the intervening decades. The sparse instrumentation and Martin's voicings make the recording a startling achievement.
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10 Tracks: For All We Know (1934) J. Fred Coots/Sam Lewis; But Not For Me (1930) George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin; Lush Life (1938) Billy Strayhorn; No Moon At All (1948) Redd Evans/David Mann; Cheer Up Charlie (1971) Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse/Walter Scharf; Low Key Lightly (Lucky In Love) (1959) Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn; Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (1931) Harry Barris/Ted Koehler/Billy Moll; Someone to Watch Over Me (1926) George Gershwin/Ira Gershwin; I Didn’t Know What Time It Was (1939) Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart; Willow Weep For Me (1932) Ann Ronell.

Enthusiasms (30) ~ David Murray

This post is well over due. To say that David Murray plays tenor sax and bass clarinet is a bit of an understatement. He has made many dozens of remarkable records over the course of three-plus decades, mostly on small independent labels - Sound Aspects, Black Saint, Justin Time, Delmark. While he records in a wide variety of contexts, I especially like his recordings with his Octet (in various incarnations) and in Duet settings. The two covers I've lifted here from his Octet were recorded two decades apart but both are very good. I had the pleasure of taking my two (more or less wholly unappreciative) sons to the duet concert with Kahil el Zabar at the Bop Shop. But I'd been hooked on their earlier CD, Golden Sea, for years. What prompts this post is that my son Douglas gave me a border's gift card for Father's Day. And I finally used part of it to buy the Murray-Waldron duets recording, mostly because I wanted to see how it compared to his much earlier session with Randy Weston. In any case, if you don't know David Murray's music you should.

Enthusiasms (29) ~ Paul Motian

I've not heard a note from this recording; it won't be released for a few weeks. However, I am totally certain that it will be simply terrific. Paul Motian was the very first musician to elicit my enthusiasm in public and I've noted his work on several occasions since. Chris Potter and Jason Moran are perfect co-conspirators. Look up "anticipation" in the dictionary ~ you'll find my smiling visage.