Tiny Reviews: Amy Cervini, Arturo Sandoval, Enrico Rava, & Julie Lamontagne

Featuring Tiny Reviews of:  Amy Cervini Digging Me Digging You, Arturo Sandoval Mambo Nights, Enrico Rava Quintet Tribe, and Julie Lamontagne Opus Jazz.

Let’s begin…

Amy Cervini – Digging Me Digging You

Excellent jazz vocal album by the talented singer and backed by a ridiculously impressive cast of Bruce Barth (piano), Jesse Lewis (guitar), Matt Aronoff (bass), James Shipp (perc & vibes), Matt Wilson (drums), Anat Cohen (clarinet), Jeremy Udden (alto sax), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Josh Sinton (bari sax), and Jennifer Wharton (bass trombone).  Amy Cervini pays tribute to jazz icon Blossom Dearie.  Lots of swinging tunes that match well with Cervini’s bounce and ballads that match with Cervini’s warmth.  Nice curation of songs for the album, and inspired choice of ensemble members.  The kind of jazz vocals album that will appeal to people who say, “I’m not really into jazz vocals albums”.  Very fun.

You can stream the entire album on Cervini’s Bandcamp page.

Released on the Anzic label.  Jazz from NYC.

Available on eMusic.

Arturo Sandoval – Mambo Nights

Oh man, this is nice. Trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval and the WDR Big Band for a series of bebop and Afro-Cuban compositions that just soar soar soar.  Nothing but sonic happiness here; even the cover of “Oye Como Va” (which, on most albums, pretty much makes me cringe at this point) delivers plenty of life and good cheer. This album is aces.  Highly Recommended.

Released by the Termidor Music Group.

Available on eMusic.

Enrico Rava Quintet – Tribe

Well, it appears that Emusic is getting caught up on it’s 2011 ECM releases.  This one from trumpet player Enrico Rava. Honestly, I just don’t connect with his sound, which to me is like audio quicksand, but people definitely like his stuff.  Rava is perpetually up there on Best Of lists from year to year, so I figured I’d mention this one. He’s got the nifty trombonist Gianluca Petrella on this recording, which is nice. Hey, give the samples a shot; maybe it’s your kind of thing.  I like the following song…

Your album personnel:  Enrico Rava (trumpet), Gianluca Petrella (trombone), Giovanni Guidi (piano), Gabriele Evangelista (bass), Fabrizio Sferra (drums), and guest: Giacomo Ancillotto (guitar).

Released on the ECM Records label.

Available on eMusic.

Julie Lamontagne – Opus Jazz

Former classical pianist and composer, now jazz pianist and composer, gives us a solo recording that attempts to fuse both. Seems to lean a bit more to the classical side, but whatever, I’m liking this on my first pass of the album. The Trilogie Coloree is just beautiful. Released on the Justin Time label, which can always be counted on for making tasteful choices in which albums they release.

Your album personnel:  Julie Lamontagne (piano).

Jazz from the Quebec, Canada scene.

Available on eMusic.

That’s it for today’s article, and the third of three parts 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.