Jazz Connexion 5/2/10

We started tonight's program with a froed, scarf-clad pianist named Jacky Terrasson (left). Born in Berlin, raised in Paris, currently based in NY, Terrasson has made his Concord Record label debut with his new album Push, which follows 10 Blue Note releases. The winner of the 1993 Thelonius Monk Piano Competition features bassist Ben Williams and drummer Jamire Williams on his new album. You may recognize Jamire's name from the four records that phenom fashionista and trumpeter Chrisitan Scott has released in the past few years. Also on this album is Scott's regular guitarist Matt Stevens as well as regular Lionel Loueke collaborator and saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart. In particular, Stevens is featured on the bouncing track "Say Yeah," which sounds like it belongs more on Paul Simon's Graceland than on a progressive piano trio album. Terrasson hasn't lost any of his luster after 15+ years in the business. This 11-track album features 7 originals, 2 Monk covers, a Cole Porter tune and a melange of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and the standard "Body and Soul." The variety in both song selection and tone throughout the album blasts Terrasson's Push into a realm that is much more than just another piano trio album.

Also featured on the Jazz Connexion this weekend was Italian Fusion bassist Roberto Badoglio, jazz/ hip-hop pianist Robert Glasper, New Orleans young guns Trombone Shorty and Christian Scott, and Free-Jazz pioneers John Tchaicai on alto (from Coltrane's Ascension), Roswell Rudd (1st free jazz trombonist), Finn von Eyben on bass and Louis Moholo on drummer (both from The Blue Notes and Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath). Their record Old Stuff is from 1965, where they recorded under the name The New York Art Quartet.

Thanks for tuning in. Join me next week for another hour of great music.

1. Jacky Terrasson - Push - Gaux Girl
2. Annie Sellick - Street of Dreams - Tristeza
3. Roberto Badoglio - Re-Evaluation-Time - The Song of The Wine, The Wind, and The Roses
4. Robert Glasper - Double Booked - Butterfly
5. Trombone Shorty - Backatown - On Your Way Down
6. Christian Scott - Yesterday You Said Tomorrow - Angola, LA and The 13th Amendment
7. Edward Ratliff - Those Moments Before - Good Question
8. New York Art Quartet - Old Stuff - Pa Tirsdag
9. Stefon Harris and Blackout - Urbanus - Gone (Variations on Gershwin's Gone Gone Gone from Porgy and Bess)