Tiny Reviews: Beppe di Benedetto, Mijin Woo, Chick Corea, & Clipper Anderson

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Beppe di Benedetto 5tet See the Sky, Mijin Woo Azure Walk, Chick Corea Further Explorations, and Clipper Anderson The Road Home.

Beppe di Benedetto 5tet – See the Sky

Solid date led by Beppe di Benedetto’s trombone, rounded off with sax, piano, bass, and drums. Nice mix of up tempo and ballads. This is straight-ahead bop with a modern touch. Benedetto has a graceful touch on trombone, which sometimes can elbow other instruments out of the way, but here, he’s a seamless part of the quintet. Also, the compositions just flat out rock; tunes that soar and tunes that sway. The kind of album I can listen to over and over.  One of my Picks of the Week.

Your album personnel:  Beppe Di Benedetto (trombone), Emiliano Vernizzi (soprano sax), Luca Savazzi (piano), Stefano Carrara (acoustic bass), and Alessandro Lugli (drums).

About a month after first listening to this album, I find myself returning to it repeatedly.  A great album when I need some music with plenty of life to it.

You can stream the entire album on Benedetto’s Soundcloud page.

Released on the TRJ Records label.  Jazz from the Parma, Italy scene.

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label.

Available on eMusic.

Mijin Woo – Azure Walk

Nice straight-ahead quartet date with pianist composer Mijin Woo leading an outfit rounded out by sax, drums, and bass. Strong moments when the languor of the sax is juxtaposed against the tension of piano and rhythm section. It’s Woo’s debut recording, which is a promising sign of things to come.  This album may have originally been released in 2010, but I’m willing to apply a liberal use on the phrase “new release” when it comes to self-produced and small-label albums.

Your album personnel:  MiJin Woo (piano), Daniel Blake (sax), John Hebert (bass), and Marcello Pellitteri (drums).

Woo’s blog, which I link to above, is mostly in Korean, but there are some outstanding photos of performances and general city shots.

It appears you can stream some of the album on Woo’s myspace page.  I normally don’t link to that site, but I’ll make an exception here.

Released on the FourHands Music label, which appears to be Woo’s own label.

Jazz from the Seoul, South Korea scene.

Available on eMusic.

Chick Corea – Further Explorations

Always a reason to celebrate when one of the jazz greats puts out a solid new recording.  Chick Corea teams with fellow great Eddie Gomez on bass and recently departed Paul Motian on drums, and delves into the music of jazz piano legend Bill Evans. Thankfully, Corea doesn’t approach it as an opportunity to record a covers album homage, but instead uses it as a springboard to further develop Evans’ ideas with his own voice. Some strong moments, especially on “Laurie” with cycling piano lines creating an inwardly building tension, and “Turn Out The Stars”, which turns a lighthearted tune into a spooky affair.

On “Puccini’s Walk,” the trio hits a brisk trot from the first note, breaking it mid-stream, momentarily, with some nifty swings in tempo…

Released on the Concord Music Group label.

Available on eMusic.

Clipper Anderson – The Road Home

Jazz vet finally records an album under his own name. Clipper Anderson’s bass has been around, especially on the Seattle scene. for some time now, and he leads a trio date (with some guests) for an elegant set of mainstream jazz. Bass, piano, drums, and some guest vocals provide for a warm series of tunes that has everyone sounding confident and professional. Some very nice moments, especially on “Jimnoprodie”, when Anderson does a little bowing on bass, and “Poinciana”, an up-tempo tune that has the trio racing along, but not so fast that anybody risks losing their breath trying to keep up.

Your album personnel:  Clipper Anderson (bass, vocals on final track), Darin Clendenin (piano), Mark Ivester (drums, congas), and guests Jeff Busch (percussion) and Greta Matassa (vocals).

Released on the Origin/OA2 Records label.  Jazz from the Seattle scene.

A free album track is available at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label.

Available on eMusic.

That’s it for today’s article, and the last of the Tiny Reviews from this batch of new arrivals.

Here’s some language to protect emusic’s rights as the one to hire me originally to scour through the jazz new arrivals and write about the ones I like:

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks“, courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

My thanks to emusic for the freelance writing gig, the opportunity to use it in this blog, and the editorial freedom to help spread the word about cool new jazz being recorded today.