Best Jazz CD of 2012

Centennial by Ryan Truesdell and the Gil Evans Project

When I was fortunate enough to host The House of Blue Lights on WIUP-FM, on my final two programs of each year I would present my choices for the best blues and jazz CDs of the year, along with runners-up, the best historical CDs, and my choices for the worst blues and jazz CDs of the year. (It's a lot easier to pick the worst CDs when you work at a radio station that gets free stuff. These days, I try to avoid buying turkeys.)

My choice for the best jazz CD of 2012 is Centennial by Ryan Truesdell and the Gil Evans Project. Gil Evans (1912-1988) was a jazz composer, arranger and bandleader, active from the '30s to the '80s, and best known for his collaborations with Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool (1949), Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1958), Sketches of Spain (1960), and Quiet Nights (1962). Ryan Truesdell is himself a young composer-arranger, a protege of Maria Schneider. He co-produced her CD Sky Blue—my choice for the best CD of 2007. Maria Schneider studied with Gil Evans. Several of the musicians on Centennial are regular members of the Maria Schneider Orchestra.

When Ryan Truesdell began doing research on Gil Evans, the Evans family granted him access to Gil's manuscripts and he discovered about 100 compositions and/or arrangements that had never been recorded. He chose ten of them. The CD was funded through Artist Share, which solicits contributions from fans over the internet. The title Centennial reflects the fact that it was released on May 13, 2012, the hundredth anniversary of Evans' birth. Here is Ryan Truesdell explaining the project and ending with a now-obsolete appeal for contributions.

The songs span the period from 1947 to 1971. Five of the earliest are big band arrangements written for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Here is one of them, “The Maids of Cadiz,” a different arrangement of which appears on Sketches of Spain.

Much of the creative tension on the CD comes from the contrast between these arrangements from an earlier era and the more modern-sounding solos. The three longest pieces are “Punjab,” an Evans composition with an Indian flavor, anchored by Dan Weiss on tabla; “Barbara Song,” an Evans arrangement of a Kurt Weill song, featuring a long and inventive vibraphone solo by Joe Locke; and a medley of three Evans compositions, “Waltz/Variation on the Misery/So Long.” The tenor sax solo by Donny McCaslin on this 19-minute cut is a highlight of the CD.

For me, the only discordant note is a 1957 arrangement of “Smoking My Sad Cigarette,” sung by Kate McGarry, whose lyrics seem strangely out of place on a 2012 record.

Luciana Souza

Centennial has been nominated for three Grammy Awards: the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, the Best Instrumental Arrangement (for “How About You?,” one of the Thornhill arrangements), and the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist (for “Look to the Rainbow,” sung by Luciana Souza).

Here are four honorable mentions that I also strongly recommend:

• Ravi Coltrane, Spirit Fiction.

  
  

  
  
• Jazz Soul Seven, Impressions of Curtis Mayfield.

  
  

  
  
• Branford Marsalis Quartet, Four MFs Playin' Tunes.

  
  

  
  
• Gregory Porter, Be Good.

Coltrane and Marsalis are familiar to most jazz fans. Jazz Soul Seven is an ad hoc group assembled for this session that includes Wallace Roney on trumpet, Ernie Watts on tenor sax, and Phil Upchurch on guitar. The CD contains 12 instrumental versions of Mayfield songs, including almost all of his greatest hits. Gregory Porter is a jazz singer-songwriter whose lyrics are inventive and thoughtful.

I'll present my choices for best blues CD and the best historical CDs in subsequent posts.