Label: Smoke Sessions Records, 2023

Personnel - Immanuel Wilkins: alto saxophone; Kurt Rosenwinkel: guitar; Julius Rodriguez: piano; Robert Hurst: bass; Joe Farnsworth: drums.

In a career spanning four decades, the selfless drummer Joe Farnsworth has been leaning on the conservative side of the jazz spectrum with excellent results, playing alongside pianists Cedar Walton and Harold Mabern, and saxophonists Benny Golson and George Coleman. For his third outing on Smoke Sessions label, In What Direction Are You Headed?, Farnsworth shows vision and innovative capacity by employing two outstanding Philadelphian soloists - saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. The group is rounded out by the up-and-coming pianist Julius Rodriguez, and a longtime collaborator, the bassist Robert Hurst.

This delicious eight-track jazz brew begins with two pieces by Rosenwinkel: “Terra Nova”, whose sax/guitar introductory section suggests a ballad before things diverge into an effortless bossa nova rhythm; and the modern classic “Filters”, whose striking, cyclonic theme inspires a creative improvisational feast taken with verve and rapture by Rosenwinkel and Wilkins. Rodriguez and Farnsworth also improvise with aplomb.

The album’s centerpiece is the Harold Mabern-penned title track which is meaningful in more than one sense. With focused bass and drums tied up all the way down, there’s this wonderful start-stop phrasing delineating the theme and incredible solos by the usual suspects. Rising to the top, Wilkins builds within a language whose vibrating currents make our bodies react, while Rosenwinkel tailors his synth-effect sound and approach with unbridled artistic command, thoroughly combining tradition and in/out expressionistic playing.

Wilkins’ previously unrecorded “Composition 4” is a smooth poem that, following a lyrical sax/guitar introduction, has the rhythm section kicking it into gear with crafty tempo and cymbal continuum. In turn, Rodriguez’s “Two Way Street”, culled from his debut album Let Sound Tell All (2022), and Farnsworth’s “Bobby No Bags”, dedicated to Hurst, are buoyant swingers made of expedite rhythm changes that everybody takes a bite.

Rosenwinkel brings another beautiful tune of his, “Safe Corners”, which, like “Terra Nova”, was included on his 2008 album The Remedy, and the session ends with a rendition of Donny Hathaway’s easy-listening soul hit “Someday We’ll All Be Free”, here reformulated with triple meter and further luminosity.

According to what we hear, Farnsworth’s new direction is taking him to exciting places. His current associates brought him intense connectedness and the freedom he seems to enjoy while truly committing to the music.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Filters ► 03 - In What Direction Are You Headed? ► 08 - Someday We’ll All Be Free

Brandi Disterheft: bass, cello, vocals; Harold Mabern: piano; Joe Farnsworth: drums.

Canadian contrabassist, singer and composer, Brandi Disterheft, a true representative of the contemporary swinging jazz, releases her fourth album on Justin Time Records. As a valuable element of a younger generation, Ms. Disterheft had no problem in joining forces with two of the most streetwise musicians dwelling in the traditional jazz. I’m talking about the pianist Harold Mabern and the drummer Joe Farnsworth, her accomplices in Blue Canvas, a joyful work that abounds with seductive rhythms, colorful sounds and fiery improvisations.

“Dis Here”, Bobby Timmons’s 6/8 soul-jazz classic, worked miracles in my ears with its engrossing vibes, allowing the three musicians to show their improvisational skills.
The trio steps on a similar ground when playing other stylish bop tunes. In Mabern’s “Beehave”, the nature of the theme itself allows Farnsworth to express himself thoroughly behind the drum set before a frantic swing brings the house down.
The irresistible melodies of the hard-bopper trumpeter Clifford Brown are well replicated in a couple of tunes he wrote, “Daahoud” and “George’s Dilemma”. The former, so expressively caressing, diverges from the latter, which is vigorously propelled by a dazzling Latin pulse, perfect for Farnsworth’s exteriorization.

Ms. Disterheft assumes the responsibility of uttering the head’s melodic line both in Todd Dameron’s “Our Delight”, which boasts extroverted bass and piano solos, and Ann Ronell’s bluesy ballad “Willow Weep for Me”. She does it with smoothness.
However, this record doesn’t live exclusively from bop renditions. The three originals from Ms. Disterheft also weigh in the final balance. The gently Latinized “Cripping Thrill” is an impulsive, sensuous endeavor that ends up swinging strongly, yet my senses became much more alert with the title track, an up-tempo vocalized enticer that evokes Dizzy’s “Salt Peanuts” memorable line.

The clever selection of tunes gained more preponderance with the sturdy rapport of the trio, so essential to starting a new euphoria and bringing some freshness into the perennial swinging jazz.

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Dis Here ► 06 – Blue Canvas ► 07 – George’s Dilemma