Duke Ellington Orchestra
Copenhagen 1964
(Storyville Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

HEARING this 1964 Duke Ellington Copenhagen concert, including the Far East Suite with its compelling melody Isfahan, featuring the great alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, made me think of that holy city now, partially destroyed by the odious Trump’s relentless bombardment, killing hundreds of Iranian civilians in his declared intention to obliterate the nation’s civilisation.

How his hateful words contrast with the beauty of Duke’s compositional genius. The concert also includes Happy Reunion with tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves’ sublime choruses, and the musical subtlety of Duke’s Harlem, with its “civil rights demands.”

I heard the same orchestra in the same year at the Leeds Grand Theatre with trumpeter Cootie Williams, trombonist Lawrence Brown, baritonist Harry Carney and clarinettist Russell Procope — unforgettable virtuosi. This album includes them in all their ensemble and solo glory, a brilliant US antithesis of all the dehumanisation of Trump, Hegseth and their imperial US evil.

John Taylor & Stan Sulzman
Quintessence
(Jazz in Britain Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

IN December 1987, two nonpareils of British jazz, Mancunian pianist John Taylor and London saxophonist Stan Sulzmann, who were working as a duo at the time, were invited by the Rundfunkorchestra Hannover des NDR to record a selection of Taylor’s compositions. For nearly 40 years this recording has been unreleased, but at last it is with us thanks to Jazz in Britain, as fresh and brilliant as its day of creation.

Sulzmann plays soprano saxophone throughout, and from the enticing title opener onwards he and Taylor create music on the cusp of the classical, but with a profoundly soulful and improvisational jazz undertow.

Sulzmann’s bird-like beginning to Silver with the orchestra’s mollifying strings alongside him and preceding Taylor’s chiming notes, is especially beautiful and emblematic of the entire album. and the German orchestral musicians play with an inspired empathy.

This is an outstanding musical rescue. Get it quick!

Joe Henderson
Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase
(Resonance Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

ANY newly unearthed recording of the Lima, Ohio-born tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson (1937-2001) is precious, but this 1978 live session at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase is a real double-CD creamer. Playing with pianist Joanne Brackeen, bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Danny Spencer, Henderson, at the height of his powers, truly reveals his monstrous talent.

Playing classic themes by Charlie Parker, Monk and Coltrane plus three of his own tunes (Inner Urge, Recorda Me and Isotope), Henderson lets loose in an informal club setting, holding nothing back. Even the 23 minutes of the ballad Softly As in a Morning Sunrise, soars into the Chicago night, never softly.

My favourite tracks are Monk’s Round Midnight and the Billie Holiday elegy, Good Morning Heartache. Henderson plays it as if he were singing its forlorn words through his mighty horn. How his rampant sound lives, thrives and roars, never to be forgotten.