Label: Empress Legacy Records, 2021

Personnel includes - Jazzmeia Horn: vocals; Bruce Williamson: alto sax; Freddie Hendrix: trumpet; Sullivan Fortner: organ; Keith Brown: piano; Eric Wheeler: bass; Anwar Marshall: drums.

Possessing extraordinary vocal gifts, the self-assured jazz vocalist Jazzmeia Horn was one of those rare artists who immediately ascended to stardom with a debut album. If Social Call (Prestige, 2017) brought her the deserved attention through renditions of known straigh-ahead jazz tunes, her second outing, Love and Liberation (Concord Jazz, 2019), was even better, consolidating her vocal abilities with more originals than covers. Now, the much-anticipated Dear Love holds special significance for Ms. Horn, who releases it on her own label. She put it together with the Noble Force, a 15-piece ensemble featuring expert soloists such as alto saxophonist Bruce Williamson and trumpeter Freddie Hendrix in the frontline, and an adequate rhythm section composed of pianist Keith Brown, bassist Eric Wheeler and drummer Anwar Marshall.

The album straddles between pure jazz tradition and more progressive exercises in the line of Sun Ra. In the first category we have pieces like “He Could Be Perfect”, which had me flashing back to Carmen McRae and Dee Dee Bridgewater; “He’s My Guy”, which channels Sarah Vaughan with further range; and “Lover Come Back To Me”, a showcase for her razor-sharped scat singing. The forward-thinking stuff can be exemplified with numbers such as “I Feel You Near”, propelled by a caravan-like Afro rhythm and colored with Jason Marshall’s baritone lines; “Nia”, an emotionally resonant modal jazz incursion with superb vocal work and a great saxophone solo by Williamson; and “Strive (To Be)”, perhaps Horn’s most triumphant original, measured with preliminary rattling percussion, epic grandeur in the horn arrangement, modal intonation and enough experimental fair to please avant-gardists.

“Where We Are” brings a smell of R&B balladry, and there’s even a curious take on The Beatles’ “Money Can’t Buy Me, Love”, but it’s “Let Us (Take Our Time)”, leaning on the ballad side with strategic pauses and featuring a muted trumpet solo by Hendrix, that will probably get more attention. The album closes out in the spirit of Aretha Franklin with “Where is Freedom”, where gospel and blues take part in the fun.

With an unapologetic personal touch, Jazzmeia knows how to freshen the old straight-ahead ways and dares to explore new possibilities. On top of that, she adds conscious social message, sometimes in the form of spoken word. Dear Love is her best album so far.

Favorite Tracks:
09 - Nia ► 11 - Strive (To Be) ► 14 - Where is Freedom

JAZZMEIA HORN - LOVE & LIBERATION (Concord Jazz, 2019)

Personnel - Jazzmeia Horn: vocals; Victor Gould: piano; Ben Williams: bass; Jamison Ross: drums, vocals; Stacy Dillard: tenor saxophone; Josh Evans: trumpet; Sullivan Fortner: piano.

Heavily steeped in straight-ahead jazz, Love & Liberation doesn’t defraud the expectations created with the 2017 debut release A Social Call. Jazzmeia Horn might not sound completely new, but it’s hard to resist to her vocal charms and swinging approach. The opener, “Free Your Mind”, is a blast, but if you think this is an energetic one, then wait for “Searchin”, an uptempo vocal endurance expressed with incredible articulation. Counting on great soloing contributions by trumpeter Josh Evans and saxophonist Stacy Dillard, Jazzmeia conjures up the spirits of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington (“Out The Window”; “Still Tryin’”), Horace Silver (“When I Say”), and Nina Simone (“No More”), and finishes up with a vocal/bass duet rendition of “I Thought About You”. Brand new standards going your way! [A-]

BRIAN LYNCH BIG BAND - THE OMNI AMERICAN BOOK CLUB (Holistic MusicWorks, 2019)

Personnel - Brian Lynch, Michael Dudley, Jean Caze, Jason Charos, Alec Aldred: trumpet; Tom Kelley, David Leon, Gary Keller, Chris Thompson-Taylor, Mike Brignola: reeds/woodwinds; Dante Luciani, Carter Key, Steven Robinson, John Kricker: trombones; Alex Brown: piano; Lowell Ringel: bass; Boris Kozlov: electric bass; Kyle Swan: drums; Murph Aucamp: percussion; Little Johnny Rivero: percussion + Guests: Dafnis Prieto: drums; Orlando “Maraca” Valle: flute; Donald Harrison: alto sax; Regina Carter: violin; David Liebman: soprano sax; Jim Snidero: alto sax.

American trumpeter/composer/bandleader Brian Lynch, a Grammy award winning artist, has brought a new burning charisma to the Latin jazz genre, raising consciousness through a colorful consolidation of diverse musical cultures. His double-disc big band album, The Omni-American Book Club, was inspired by literature and features noteworthy guests such as drummer Dafnis Prieto, flutist Orlando ‘Maraca’ Valle, violinist Regina Carter, and saxophonists David Liebman, Jim Snidero, and Donald Harrison. The latter completely kills on the smoothly funkified, R&B-flavored “The Struggle Is In Your Name”, where he exchanges heated phrases with the bandleader. Regularly disrupting the swinging rides with Afro-Caribbean passages, Lynch still has time to pay tributes to late saxophonist Blue Mitchell and trumpeter Woody Shaw. One of my favorite pieces is “Africa My Land”, an heroic adventure in six, where the baritone saxophone grooves beyond the lush horn-driven sections. [B+]

TOM PIERSON ORCHESTRA - LAST WORKS (Self Produced, 2019)

Personnel - Blue Lou Marini, Mark Vinci, Shu Enomoto, Neil Johnson, Michael Lutzeier: sax/woodwinds; Dominic Derasse, Mike Ponella, Tim Leopold, Lew Soloff: trumpet; Ben Herrington, Robinson Khoury, Dan Levine, Jeff Nelson: trombone; Tom Pierson: piano; Kanoa Mendenhall: electric bass; Pheeroan AkLaff: drums.

Composer/conductor Tom Pierson, a former protege of Gil Evans, shows all his musical qualities on Last Works, a beautifully arranged double-album, which represents 40 years of jazz composition for large ensemble. Expect majestic crescendos within epic noir ambiences (“Abandoned”), glib incursions on orchestral crossover with samba and funk on the first plan (“Chandra Lower’s Samba”; “Winter’s End”), melancholic reflexions boosted by explosive improvisations (“By The Marty’s Decree”), perplexing environments with inventive avant-garde forays (“Two Becoming 3”), dynamic jazz fantasies with contrapuntal wizardry (“Elipsis”), and fragmented bass grooves turned into continuously running fluxes (“45/8”) as Pheeroan AkLaff’s drumming is showcased. Previously unfamiliar with the work of this master orchestrator, I have to say I got particularly impressed with the emotional intensity revealed on some of the pieces. This is Pierson’s search for beauty. [A-]