Ginetta’s Vendetta: Fun Size (Kickin’ Wiccan Music)
Ginetta Minichiello (also known as Vendetta) may not be too familiar to many Jazz Journal readers. She is actually a hugely talented exponent of the rarely used pocket trumpet. An alumna of the famed music school of North Texas State University, she later went on to study with the celebrated Laurie Frink in New York who had played with Gerry Mulligan, George Russell, Benny Goodman and Maria Schneider. She formed her group Ginetta’s Vendetta 25 years ago, and has released six CDs along the way. Three albums – Standards, Little Big Horn and Land On My Feet – have been nominated for Grammy Awards and she has also received four ASCAP Plus Awards for songwriting. She is accompanied here by a sympathetic rhythm section fully in tune with her eclectic repertoire. Her front-line colleague Danny Walsh, who has played with the Mingus Big Band, Phil Woods and Bruce Springsteen, is a fluent tenor man from the Michael Brecker school.
The opening Ginetta is an attractive call-and-response theme worthy of Horace Silver. Blues For Pop- Pop is a funky, foot-tapping 12-bar with Ginetta displaying her Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan influences. She is particularly lyrical on the bossa-nova Black Orpheus, making extensive use of her middle and lower registers. Both horns are inspired on Miles Davis’s All Blues and Tell Your Story Walkin’ which is a 48-bar ostinato. Ms Vendetta is also a capable vocalist, as she demonstrates on Moon River and Misty, which benefit from her sultry delivery with its Sarah Vaughan-like vibrato.
Noel Okimoto: Hō‘ihi (Noel Okimoto Music 01)
Judging from the calibre of musicians appearing on this CD, there appears to be a thriving jazz scene on the island of Hawaii. Hō‘ihi was recorded in Honolulu under the leadership of local-born drummer Noel Okimoto who has worked with Gaba Baltazar (a long-time resident in Hawaii), Freddie Hubbard, Richie Cole, Stan Getz, Ray Charles and Wynton Marsalis. He earned a bachelor’s degree in percussion from the University of Hawaii. Unusually for a drummer-led session there are no drum solos here apart from his brief introduction to Up Syndrome. There is still much to admire though in the crisp accents and fills that punctuate the tightly arranged charts. He reminds me a little of Steve Gadd; he’s that good.
Braying is a funky little 16-bar sequence allowing Allen Won to stretch out inventively on soprano. Lethologica is a blues with attractive Red Garland-like block chords from pianist Tommy James. Cachorro is a busy, bustling samba with some fleet vibes from Abe Lagrimas Jr. The highlight of the set is probably Up Syndrome. It demonstrates how creative trumpeter DeShannon Higa, Tommy James and Allen Won (this time on tenor) can be on an extended vamp.
Jim Self/John Chiodini Duo: Feels So Good (Basset Hound Records BSR 102-23)
Jim Self comes from a long line of tuba virtuosos that goes all the way back to Bill Barber who worked with Claude Thornhill, Sauter-Finegan, Miles Davis and Gil Evans in the 1940s. Performing transcribed Lester Young solos on the instrument was one of Barber’s party pieces. Don Butterfield, Red Callender and Howard Johnson have all added to the lore over the years.
I first heard Jim Self with the Marty Paich Dektette accompanying Mel Tormé at a 1988 Tokyo concert where his tuba gave a satisfying depth to the ensembles (Concord CCD 4382). Another fine example of his work can be found with the Tricky Lix Latin Jazz Band in 2015 where he negotiates an Afro-Cuban set of mambos, cha-chas and boleros with rare delicacy and aplomb (Basset Hound Records BHR 114-2). He has also recorded with Billy May, Pete Christlieb, Clare Fischer, Don Ellis and Frankie Capp. A veteran L.A. studio musician, he has performed on more than 1500 movie scores often with the John Williams orchestra. He also provided the galactic tones as the “Voice of the Mothership” in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Feels So Good is the fifth album with Self and John Chiodini sharing top-billing. Guitarist Chiodioni has worked with Buddy DeFranco, Peggy Lee and Louie Bellson, and his sympathetic interplay with the tuba is notable throughout. Despite his cumbersome instrument, Self is remarkably light on his feet, especially on You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To, the calypso Super Mario and the funky Sidewinder. A few guests make occasional but telling contributions. Tenor man Steve Marsh’s Fanciful Dream is a contrafact of the lovely You Stepped Out Of A Dream and Self holds his own during a chorus of exchanges with the fleet-fingered Marsh. Isfahan was a Johnny Hodges feature but Phil Feather gives the piece a quite different look with his vibrato-free alto. The ensemble has fun letting their hair down on the final track, Blues Connotation, by Ornette Coleman.
Alexis Cole And The Taipei Jazz Orchestra: Jazz Republic (Tiger Turn Music)
With her rich contralto and perfect diction and intonation, Alexis Cole takes a fresh look at some classics from the songbook repertoire. Her sound reminds me a little of Roberta Gambarini (a personal favourite) which is why I have played this release regularly since receiving it for review. Her super slow and dramatic Begin The Beguine creates a suitably romantic mood on Cole Porter’s timeless standard. Incidentally, Beguine’s unusual chorus length of 106 bars is probably the great man’s longest ever composition. The coda becomes an extended vamp with an inventive series of variations from Cheng-Yu Jimmy Lee on alto. Billy Joel’s feel-good anthem Uptown Girl is another perfect vehicle for her. Bye Bye Blackbird is notable for the way she plays with both time and melody rather like Anita O’Day used to do. Her scat chorus here is pretty impressive too.
Ms. Cole’s approach to Jimmy Van Heusen’s Here’s That Rainy Day is a highlight. Originally written for the 1953 musical Carnival In Flanders, it remained a neglected gem until Frank Sinatra’s 1959 album No One Cares finally put it on the map. James Kaplan’s comprehensive Sinatra The Chairman points out that “the song had a special meaning for him”. She handles the tricky harmonies with aplomb and the track benefits from an outstanding contribution from trombonist Michael Wang bringing Urbie Green to mind. Multi-instrumentalist Tom Ranier is limited to just his clarinet and piano which add a little magic to Moon River. The only non-standard here is the opening title Common Ground. Ivan Lins’ lyric is full of a buoyant optimism which Alexis Cole and the outstanding Taipei Jazz Orchestra convey throughout this delightful release. Highly recommended.
Without J.J. the trombone might have suffered the same relative decline as the clarinet in the mid-40s
John Fedchock: Justifiably J.J. (Summit Records DCD 828)
This recording took place in March 2024 at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis, the home-town of one of the giants of our music – the great J.J. Johnson. It is a centennial tribute to the man who, as John Fedchock acknowledges in his sleeve-note, took his instrument “to new heights”. Without J.J. the trombone might have suffered the same relative decline as the clarinet in the mid-40s. It needed his prodigious technique to show how his somewhat unwieldy instrument, with its seven slide positions, could adapt to the new bebop language. His 1946 recording of Indiana Winter prompted some to speculate that he was playing a valve trombone. That was also the year he won Esquire magazine’s New Star award. A Philadelphia club owner once advertised him as “the fastest trombone player alive”. By 1956 he was accepted by his peers as the premier voice on the instrument. Leonard Feather canvassed 120 leading musicians asking them to nominate the “greatest ever” in each category. J.J. came top on trombone followed by Bill Harris and Jack Teagarden.
John Fedchock has established an outstanding reputation through his work with Woody Herman, Gerry Mulligan, Maria Schneider and since 1992, as leader of his own big band. He’s a regular clinician and educator, and it is entirely fitting that he should salute Johnson’s legacy with this CD. The record concentrates mostly on J.J.’s originals it would require an instrumentalist of John’s stature to negotiate uptempo fare like Naptown (an Indiana contrafact), Say When and Ten 85. No salute to Johnson’s work would be complete without his classic Lament, which he introduced in 1954 with Kai Winding. It has been recorded on 488 occasions to date. Miles Davis and Gil Evans gave it their seal of approval on Miles Ahead in 1957 and Meredith d’Ambrosio added a sensitive lyric on her 1990 CD Love is Not A Game.
Visions Jazz Ensemble: Across The Field (Patois Records PRCDO32)
The alternative title of this CD is College Fight Songs Reimagined, which might seem to have limited appeal to readers of Jazz Journal. These songs, though, are an important part of the pageantry of US college football life which is frequently played in stadiums hosting 100,000-plus size crowds. The songs are performed when the team enters the stadium, when the home-team scores a touchdown and when the cheerleaders dance at half-time. They are a critical part of the college scene mostly dating from the early 20th century and Cole Porter, no less, wrote a fight song in 1913 for his alma mater, Yale University. It is not included here, unfortunately.
Trumpeter Sam Butler and tenor man Garrett Fasig are to be congratulated on their arrangements for this unlikely material, giving it a decidedly hard-core jazz spin. Much of the repertoire is based on marches that influenced early New Orleans street music. The opening title Tiger Rag, for instance, was first recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. It was adopted by the Louisiana State Marching Band in 1926 and the coda is straight out of the polyphonic playbook. Fasig’s powerful tenor is heard on Anchors Aweigh, Hail Purdue and Victory March. Butler’s rich, burnished tone impresses on Glory, Glory, and The Victors. The esteemed trombonist Wycliffe Gordon guests on Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight which is a fight song for his alma mater, Florida A & M University. The chart concludes with some more old-time polyphony. From the opening Tiger Rag to the rousing shout chorus on the final track Wisconsin, there is much to admire here.
