New Release Round-Up 07-05-24

Wayne Shorter - Odyssey Of Iska (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) - Blue Note Records

The winds of change were blowing through Wayne Shorter's life and career in 1970. The saxophonist had just left Miles Davis' group and was soon to form his collective fusion band Weather Report. His music was evolving too as he began to delve into his own unique fusion explorations on his previous two Blue Note recordings Super Nova and Moto Grosso Feio. Recorded in August 1970, the mesmerizing Odyssey of Iska would be the last release of Shorter's early Blue Note period. The album was a tribute to his daughter Iska-who had been born the year before with severe brain damage-with four immersive Shorter compositions portraying a variety of moods: "Wind," "Storm," "Calm," and "Joy." The album's centerpiece is an extended version of Bobby Thomas' Brazilian influenced piece "De Pois do Amor, o Vazio" (After Love, Emptiness), foreshadowing Shorter's growing interest in Brazilian music which he would explore further in the years to come. Shorter's soprano and tenor saxophones are the lone horns heard on the album which featured Gene Bertoncini on guitar, David Friedman on vibraphone and marimba, Ron Carter and Cecil McBee on bass, and Alphonse Mouzon, Billy Hart, and Frank Cuomo contributing drums and percussion.

Donald Byrd - Byrd Blows On Beacon Hill (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) - Blue Note Records

Recorded in 1956 for producer Tom Wilson's short-lived Boston-based label Transition Records, Byrd Blows On Beacon Hill presented trumpeter Donald Byrd in a relaxed and intimate quartet setting with his frequent collaborator Doug Watkins on bass along with Boston area musicians Ray Santisi on piano and Jim Zitano on drums. The standards heavy set was captured on a rainy Spring afternoon in the Beacon Hill home of engineer Steve Fassett which provided a casual atmosphere that gave the album both it's title and it's easy-going charm. Byrd is at his lyrical best on Joe Sullivan's tune "Little Rock Getaway" as well versions of "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," "If I Love Again," and "Stella by Starlight." The trumpeter lays out to let the trio shine on "People Will Say We're in Love" and "What's New."

Jason Moran - Ten (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) - Blue Note Records

Pianist and composer Aaron Parks made his first Blue Note appearances as a member of Terence Blanchard’s band, an outfit akin to The Jazz Messengers in its cultivation of future jazz greats. After appearing on the trumpeter’s albums Bounce, Flow, and A Tale of God’s Will through the early 2000s, Parks made his own Blue Note debut in 2008 with Invisible Cinema, a striking album that has only grown in its influence across the modern jazz landscape since its release. The band—a quartet featuring the pianist with Mike Moreno on guitar, Matt Penman on bass, and Eric Harland on drums—travelled across new sonic and rhythmic frontiers on this set of Parks’ evocative original compositions which were imbued with a cinematic drama and drew inspiration from the likes of Wayne Shorter, Radiohead, Bjork, Meshell Ndegeocello, and more. This first-time vinyl release includes two bonus tracks previously only available in Japan.