2001 Recordings
of the Year
In a year dominated by reissues and comprehensive
boxes, these three new releases have occupied one heck of a lot of my listening time.
Simply for all the pleasure they've brought me, I nominate these discs for onhifi.com's Recordings of the Year award.
Dave Holland Quintet: Not For Nothin'
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 The current incarnation of Dave Holland's
quintet is quite possibly the most powerful jazz band currently playing. All five players
are strong soloists and all five take incandescent solos, but it is this band's ability to
play as a group that distinguishes it from all others.
When all five musicians are playing at full bore, the sound
will practically lift you out of your seat. Yet, what the musicians are playing is worth a
close examination. Holland's earthy swing anchors the group, while Chris Potter's and
Robin Eubanks' exuberant interplay takes the band deep into the music with outlandish
flights of fancy. Steve Nelson's vibes serve as the cohesive force that holds everything
together, while Billy Kilson's muscular drumming seamlessly joins with Holland's bass in
one of the swingingest rhythm sections working today.
It's smart, exciting music that's as thrilling to
re-encounter as it is to discover for the first time.
Buddy Guy: Sweet Tea
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 At this point in his career,
you'd think that Buddy Guy had nothing left to prove. Maybe so, but that didn’t stop
him from approaching Sweet Tea as though his life depended on it. Impassioned
playing and singing -- of the sort missing from his records for nearly a decade -- make Tea
an indispensable recording, one that reminds us of just how great Guy can be.
Much of this passion can be traced to the disc's songs,
which feature a healthy dose of contemporary blues masters such as the late Junior
Kimbrough, T-Model Ford, and Robert Cage. This connection to a new generation obviously
invigorated Guy, and when he's excited, there's nobody better.
Branford Marsalis and the Orpheus Chamber
Orchestra: Creation
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 After an extended hiatus from
classical music, Branford Marsalis teamed up with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra to release
Creation, a collection of lyrical French compositions featuring both jazz
inflections and the saxophone (and adding a few canny rearrangements that suit the
performers). The result is an album that is fresh and exciting, and one that sports demo
quality sound as well.
The material is intelligently balanced between solo and
chamber works for saxophone and large-scale works -- both with sax and without. But the
standout for me is Orpheus' idiomatic and relaxed La Création du monde, an
interpretation that puts the jazz back into the sax and a daffy Raymond Scott energy into
the work's central fugue. I defy you to listen to La Création without smiling. As
for the sound, a mild orchestral closeness is more than compensated for by the disc's
liquidity and lack of grain. In any year, Creation would have to have be
ranked among the finest.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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