This Week on Jazz Spectrum - 7/22

By Fritz Byers

This week on Jazz Spectrum, selections from a cascade of new releases reflecting the vitality of current jazz.  Among them:

*   The Venezuelan-born pianist Edward Simon, abetted by his stalwart bandmates, the drummer Adam Cruz and the bassist Reuben Rogers, programs his new release, Femininas, as an homage to female Latin American  songwriters.  The date is a showcase for Mexican vocalist Magos Hererra, whose deep attachment to the sinuous rhythms of the tunes pairs perfectly with Simon’s marvelous trio, among the best working in the music these days; the trio is augmented by matchless percussionist Luis Quintero.  Although anchored in the time and place of the source music, the recording is in truth a comment on the expansive nature of Latin-tinged jazz.  As Ms. Herrera has said, both cryptically and tellingly, “To find definitions is not too clever.  Let’s just say that jazz these days is taking such a vast direction.”  Yes, let’s say that.

*  The Canadian composer and arranger Daniel Hersog and his 17-piece ensemble is back with a follow-up to his 2020 debut, Night Devoid of Stars.  The new release, Open Spaces (Folk Songs Reimagined), showcases Hersog’s many talents, arranging American folks classics such as “Red River Valley” and “Shenandoah,” and deepening the texture of the release with his own compositions, including “I Hear,” based on a French-Canadian folk tune, and “Jib Set,” a lovely tribute dedicated to his parents.  Hersog’s conceptions provide compelling settings for the work of some of the most accomplished musicians currently on the scene: the multi-reed wizard Scott Robinson, the tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger, and the pianist Frank Carlberg, who we can hope will eventually emerge into the acclaim his ingenuity warrants.  

    And the show opens with the incomparable trumpeter, Wadada Leo Smith – a throwback to his 2000 masterwork, Golden Quartet, which finds Wadada working with the pianist Anthony Davis, the fabled bassist Malachi Favors, and the great drummer Jack DeJohnette.  The selection is Wadada’s typically intricate composition, “America’s Third Century Spiritual Awakening.”  He is a treasure, and his prolific late-career resurgence is perhaps without precedent in jazz.