Dmitry Baevsky: Roller Coaster (Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT 688)
Hailing from St Petersburg, Russia, altoist Dmitry Baevsky started playing the saxophone as a teenager. Following four years at Mussorgsky College Of Music he moved to the USA and enrolled at New York’s New School University on a full scholarship. Nearly 20 years on he’s already recorded 10 albums under his own name including an impressive debut Introducing Dmitry Baevsky (Lineage Records, 2004) featuring Jimmy Cobb and Cedar Walton. In between recording albums Baevsky has been busy playing on the New York jazz scene.
On Roller Coaster, recorded in New Jersey on 10 January 2024, he’s supported by three outstanding musicians in the form of bassist David Wong, drummer Jason Brown and notable guest star Peter Bernstein on guitar, who’s probably best known for his trio collaborations with Larry Golding and Bill Stewart. The album is populated with 11 numbers, of which nine are standards of varying renown, such as Benny Golson’s Out Of The Past, and two are Baevsky originals including the jauntily swinging title track, which proves a perfect medium to showcase the saxophonist’s soloing at its best.
Jackson Potter: Small Things (Shifting Paradigm Records SP216)
American guitarist Jackson Potter’s Small Things reflects the fundamentals of jazz – namely, harmony, melody and swing whilst simultaneously exuding a contemporary vibe. He’s also assembled a truly international quintet for the follow-up to his debut Restless (Wise Cat Records, 2021). Trumpeter Alex Ridout is British, saxophonist Troy Roberts hails from Australia, bassist Hamish Smith is from New Zealand and drummer Marcello Cardillo is Italian.
Raised in a musical family and an early adopter of the guitar (he started playing the instrument aged 10), Potter attended the University of Miami Frost School of Music studying jazz guitar with John Hart. He moved from his home city of St Paul, Minnesota to New York in 2021 and since then has performed in most of the city’s major venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center.
This album’s nine tracks include five originals – four by Potter – and four standards/non-originals. Listen to Ridout’s fluid flugel solo on Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Potter’s elegant rendition of that tune. Recorded in Brooklyn’s Bunker Studio on 18 February 2024, Small Things is a blueprint for excellence both in its arrangements and execution and indicates that this twenty-something super-talented guitarist has a lot more to offer.
Samuel Blaser, Marc Ducret, Peter Bruun: Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground (Birds Nest BM013LP – 10EP)
The music presented here is mostly free improvisation but it’s also remarkably accessible. The personnel comprises three European musicians: trombonist Samuel Blaser is Swiss, guitarist Marc Ducret is French and drummer Peter Bruun is Danish. The opening title track is the only cover, penned by Blind Willie Johnson who played bottleneck slide guitar and wordlessly sang in unison to the guitar’s melody line. Johnson’s poignant blues was originally released in 1928 by Columbia Records. Here the trio respectfully offer a moving tribute, reproducing the essence of the song with moaning trombone, subtly reverberating guitar and funereal percussion.
The subsequent six tracks are almost totally improvised, Hook being one exception, starting with an angular composed head. So also has a written middle section with trombone and guitar playing briefly in unison. The record is presented in a limited edition of 300 on 10” blue vinyl with five tracks but is accompanied by a download code to access the full album which includes two bonus tracks. Recorded at Wincraft Music Studios, Cheltenham on 8 and 9 October 2023, the complete album is also available separately as a digital download.
Grant Green: Gooden’s Corner (Jazz Wax Records JWR 4629)
Curiously, although recorded on 23 December 1961, Grant Green’s Gooden’s Corner wasn’t released until a Japanese issue appeared around 1980. Later, Blue Note issued The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark in 1997 following a Mosaic Records issue The Complete Blue Note Recordings Of Grant Green With Sonny Clark. Clark, whose name is co-headline with Grant on those compilations, died in New York City on 13 January 1963 aged just 31. Subsequently, there have been several reissues both on vinyl and CD. Jazz Wax’s is the latest incarnation on 180-gram audiophile vinyl.
The opener on Side 1 is the hauntingly beautiful On Green Dolphin Street, where Green’s guitar seems very slightly distorted, which may have been the result of a transient recording glitch. That said, this sonic aberration doesn’t impede the listener’s appreciation of Green’s delicate, virtuosic playing. The second track sounds like an upbeat version of John Coltrane’s Mr. P.C. except it isn’t. It is in fact Shadrack by Robert MacGimsey but Coltrane must have been influenced enough by this 1930s number to borrow its main theme for his famous paean to Paul Chambers found on Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960).
Green surrounded himself for this record with an all-star cast comprising Clark on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Louis Hayes on drums with tenorist Ike Quebec guesting on Count Every Star. Side two’s exquisite reading of Moon River is worth the entrance fee alone. On this number and throughout the album, Clark positively shines, which might explain why he received such high billing on the complete reissues editions. The title track, co-written by Green and Ed Cherry, is a catchy and moderately paced 12-bar blues with Green’s beguiling soloing occupying the first choruses after which Clark offers up an agile solo underpinned by Jones’ meaty bass and Hayes’ crisp drums. The closer, redolent of Miles’ So What, is Green’s Two For One with Hayes initially keeping the beat on what sounds like a woodblock. Green’s soloing here is replete with imaginative lines before Clark takes the spotlight, interspersing swift right-hand runs with left-hand chordal punctuation.
Incidentally, apropos the title of this magnificent album, Gooden’s Corner was a club in St. Louis where Green played regularly. The owner was Leo Gooden, who managed the guitarist when he was resident in that locale.
