The Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet: Impact (Inner Music IMD108)
This is Canadian jazz at its finest, featuring Steve Holt’s regular working group – Kevin Turcotte (trumpet and flugelhorn), Perry White (tenor), Duncan Hopkins (bass) and Terry Clarke (drums). Turcotte is a prolific recording artist who has worked with Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass where he sat next to the legendary Guido Basso (see the JJ obituary). He also appeared on Holt’s last release Catwalk in 1993 (Sackville SKCD2032). White has performed with Aretha Franklin, Renee Rosnes, Count Basie and the Toronto Symphony. Hopkins’ CV includes stints with McConnell, Scott Hamilton, Houston Person and Diana Krall. Clarke is probably the best known member, from his appearances with John Handy, Frank Rosolino, Guido Basso, Oscar Peterson and Art Pepper. Steve Holt has studied with Kenny Barron and worked with Archie Shepp, Larry Coryell, James Moody and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.
This is Holt’s first release since Catwalk and it features a quintet that is thoroughly at home with the leader’s new material. Turcotte is particularly impressive on Impact and Lalita’s Waltz and White makes notable contributions to Second Voyage and The Unveiling. Tom McIntosh’s attractive The Cup Bearers has become something of a jazz standard, having been recorded by James Moody, Blue Mitchell, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson and Kenny Burrell, among others. White reminds me a little of Harold Land here and Turcotte gets pretty close to Kenny Dorham.
With recent Trump talk of making Canada the 51st state of the USA, the leader decided to end the session with an emotional and solo reading of O Canada, the country’s national anthem. On a recent interview with Will Chernoff he admitted he was “almost in tears” when he recorded it. Going forward, Steve Holt intends opening with O Canada on his future bookings.
Anne Burnell & Mark Burnell: This Could Be The Start Of Something Big (Spectrum Music 0033)
This is Anne Burnell’s fifth release and the third with her husband, singer-pianist Mark Burnell. It is a follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2022 Two For The Road CD and as usual with their high-quality albums it features an eclectic mix of songbook classics along with hidden gems you don’t hear every day. Their close-harmony deliveries remind me of another husband and wife team – Jackie Cain and Roy Kral – who burst on the scene with Charlie Ventura’s Bop For The People band in the late 40s. (The New York Times once celebrated “Jackie & Roy as the most famous vocal duo in jazz history”.)
The uptempo title track has the principals exchanging the lead and then seamlessly moving between unison and thirds before Pat Mallinger’s tenor storms into a hard-swinging chorus straight out of the Sal Nistico school of swinging excellence, with a little Salt Peanuts quote along the way. I Could Have Danced All Night has an attractive Afro-Cuban feel. Joy Spring, with a lyric Jon Hendricks wrote for Manhattan Transfer, has unison voices doubled with the piano, leading to Mallinger this time on alto calling Bobby Militello to mind.
Stevie Wonder performed his Sir Duke with buoyant joie de vivre but the Burnells take it down to a slow, groovy tempo which really works. Hats off to Mark who created eight bars of vocalise name-checking some Ellington classics here. Anne’s original Sweet Dream Of Love is a charming bossa nova with key changes and chromatic passages which she handles with ease. Despite its funky overtones Sunday Kind Of Love is not a blues. It was introduced by Fran Warren with Claude Thornhill back in 1946 and is a perfect vehicle for Anne’s delicate delivery. The hip Let’s Eat Home, by master songsmith Dave Frishberg, really suits the laid-back approach of this highly musical duo. I look forward to their next release.
Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra: Mixed Bag (Summit Records DCD 834)
Pete McGuinness has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene since graduating from the University of Miami in 1986. He studied with Bob Brookmeyer and Manny Albam and spent years in the trenches with Maria Schneider, Woody Herman’s Big Band (directed by Frank Tiberi), Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Werner and Bill Mobley. This is the fourth album by his jazz orchestra and the first since he gave up his “beloved trombone” due to embouchure dystonia. Because he still wanted to express himself as a soloist he is featured here as a vocalist and his intimate tenor sound is heard to good effect on From This Moment On, So In Love and Where Do You Start? Since 2016 he has also been working with a NYC-based vocal quartet known as The Royal Bopsters and Downbeat has acknowledged him as a rising star in his new role.
The arrangements here are his and just like the leader, the personnel are all big-band veterans able to add a little magic to McGuinness’s ambitious charts. Rebecca features Chris Rogers (trumpet) and Tom Christensen (tenor), two stellar soloists who have been with the band since First Flight in 2006 (Summit DCD 481). The well-named Down The Rabbit Hole is in 12-tone form and a stimulating listening experience, with Rob Middleton (tenor) along with Rogers responding to the challenge. As Gene Allen (former Charlie Barnet and Woody Herman sideman) once explained to me, “There are 12 notes in each scale, so why not use them?” Baritone man Dave Rieckenberg, another who has been with the band since its inception, has ’Round Midnight all to himself, providing Cecil Payne-like elegance. The Sly Fox has a Bill Holman feel, with its contrapuntal passages. Mark Patterson and Matt Haviland on trombones are centre stage, recalling Jay and Kai in their pomp.
