# New music from Chick Corea, Jon Batiste, Tomeka Reid and Nellie McKay: Photos, Videos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/10/01/new-music-from-chick-corea-jon-batiste-tomeka-reid-and-nellie-mckay-photos-videos/
- Published: 2019-10-01T15:04:12+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Along with two other recommended albums — a total of six. (We’re feeling generous.)**

**Chick Corea Trilogy, “Crepuscule with Nellie”**

Chick Corea, the eternally youthful pianist and NEA Jazz Master, won his two most
recent Grammy awards for _Trilogy_, a live triple album he made with bassist Christian
McBride and drummer Brian Blade. That was five years ago, and while Corea has kept
busy — touring and recording with everyone from Béla Fleck to Steve Gadd to his 
Spanish Heart compadres — it came as welcome news that he’d be getting the band 
back together.

_Trilogy 2, _which releases this Friday on Concord Jazz, should be understood as
more than just another round. True, there is some track-list redundancy: Irving 
Berlin’s “How Deep Is the Ocean” makes another appearance, as does Thelonious Monk’s“
Work.” But the trio also revisits some of Corea’s back catalog — “Now He Sings, 
Now He Sobs,” “500 Miles High” — and digs into choice material by Stevie Wonder,
Steve Swallow and others.

It probably goes without saying, but the chemistry Corea has with Blade and McBride
remains a total delight; they share his quicksilver reflexes, his playful curiosity,
his gift for striking a buoyant stride. All of which is on display in this version
of an iconic Monk tune, “Crepuscule with Nellie.”

**_Chick Corea, Christian McBride and Brian Blade are [now on tour](http://chickcorea.com/concerts/);
they’ll appear in San Diego on Wednesday, in Los Angeles on Thursday, and in Irvine,
Calif. on Friday._**

**Jon Batiste, “HIGHER”**

Speaking of welcome sequels: it wasn’t so long ago that pianist Jon Batiste released
Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard, which was recorded during a weeklong
run last fall. He’s now back with another album made in that hallowed room: _Chronology
of a Dream: Live at the Village Vanguard._ Due out on Verve on Nov. 1, it’s a comparatively
looser, more let-your-hair-down experience — as you should be able to discern from
this single, titled “Higher.”

A joyous hard-bop number generously informed by the gospel church, “HIGHER” gives
us a deliriously rewarding Batiste solo — check out that initial triplet run, which
snakes through the chord changes without pause for 20 dazzling seconds — and a smart,
swinging turn by trumpeter Giveton Gelin. (As on _Angels_, Batiste enlists the longtime
rhythm team of bassist Phil Kuehn and drummer Joe Saylor.) On the album, “HIGHER”
flows right into “PWWR,” a tune that should be of special interest to fans of the
New Orleans Saints. You’ll have to wait for that one, but you can preorder the album
in the meantime.

**Nellie McKay, “The Best Things in Life Are Free”**

They say good things come in threes, so here’s another Volume Two: _Bagatelles_,
the forthcoming album by Nellie McKay, is a companion to Sister Orchid, from 2018.
As before, it’s a collection of standards unpacked in solo performance, on instruments
ranging from ukulele to piano to Theremin. As a singer, McKay finds her usual seam,
blending elements of an ingénue and a trickster; as a curator, she’s especially 
interested in songs, like “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” that can serve as conversation pieces
before she’s even sung a word.

This track, “The Best Things in Life Are Free,” should not be confused with the 
Luther Vandross-Janet Jackson duet from 1992. Look a bit further back, to the popular
song composed for a 1927 musical, and [later recorded](https://youtu.be/sozR4VGFvjA)
by singers like Jo Stafford. In this version, you’ll encounter a strummed ukulele
and a friendly gleam. Of course if you know McKay at all, you won’t be surprised
by her exhortation at the end of the take: “Healthcare for everyone!”

**Tomeka Reid Quartet, “Wabash Blues”**

Old Now the riveting new album by cellist Tomeka Reid, could only have been made
by a band with some wear on the tires. It features her quartet, which does indeed
have a previous album, a self-titled release from 2015. More significantly, the 
members of the group — Reid, guitarist (and newly minted MacArthur Fellow) Mary 
Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, drummer Tomas Fujiwara — share countless hours 
of playing time in other situations. Theirs is a shared language, flexible and deep.

[[

“Wabash Blues,” which has its premiere here, opens with a jaunty riff for cello 
and guitar, before the action shifts to bass (on the offbeat) and drums (clattering
away). This is all preamble for the main melody, a blues with a touch of boogie-
woogie. The solos — Reid first, then Halvorson, finally Fujiwara — are full of slanted,
unexpected gestures, and no small amount of soul.

**Daniel Carter, Brad Farberman, Billy Martin, “Prince of Hair”**

All too often, the advisement to make it funky is seen as something different than
the urging to play free. This narrow way of thinking isn’t an issue for the improvisers
on a forthcoming album called Just Don’t Die._ _Those musicians are Daniel Carter,
a saxophonist, trumpeter and flutist (among other things) revered in New York free-
jazz circles; Billy Martin, a drummer known for both his tenure in Medeski Martin&
Wood and an insatiable will to stretch out; and Brad Farberman, a guitarist whose
other outlet is a proper funk band, Middle Blue. (A former jazz critic, Brad happens
to be a friend. Just wanted to put that out there.)

[[

The album unfurls as a continues fabric, but it has been parsed into 10 tracks. “
Prince of Hair” is the third of these (it follows “Prince of Naps”), and on first
glance it sounds mainly like an encounter between Farberman and Martin. Listen a
little closer and you notice Carter on trumpet almost throughout the track, quietly
shaping and redirecting the energy. This music is wide open, in its groove and in
its spirit of play.

**Caroline Davis & Rob Clearfield, “Miss Ann”**

Alto saxophonist Caroline Davis and pianist Rob Clearfield named their jointly led
ensemble, Persona, after the 1966 Ingmar Bergman film. Just as the film explores
duality and the merging (or supplanting) of individual selfhoods, this is a band
that holds cohesion as the highest value. (Along with the bandleaders, who each 
contribute compositions, it features Sam Weber on bass and Jay Sawyer on drums.)

[[

“Miss Ann” is the lone cover on the group’s new album, Anthems — a swinging take
on Eric Dolphy’s tune. Davis threads her way through the tune, with an occasional
nod to Lee Konitz; Clearfield does a lot to evoke color washes and zigzagging lines.

![Chick Corea with his partners in Trilogy: Brian Blade on drums and Christian McBride
on bass](https://i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/201909/
chick_corea_trilogy_crop.png?w=640&ssl=1)

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