Thursday, June 28, 2018

'Kidd' Jordan Quartet - New Orleans Festival Suite (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)


This live recording was made in May 1999 at the Dream Palace in New Orleans during the annual jazz festival. The session was improvisationally interactive to an explosive degree, even for these four musicians, and the recording had become legendary a while before it was released. 'Kidd' Jordan is from New Orleans and that is where he’s mostly played, but lately he’s been in demand in New York and Chicago, and Europe too.

Pianist Joel Futterman is a Chicagoan now based in Virginia and before he became a cohort of 'Kidd' Jordan he was a cohort of the late Jimmy Lyons. Alvin Fielder held the drum chair for the Roscoe Mitchell Sextet album, 'Sound' (Delmark DECD-408) when, in 1966, it signalled the appearance of new jazz activity in Chicago. He’s been on innumerable sessions since, including a number for Silkheart Records.

Bassist William Parker is just about the most central, and creative, figure on the New York new jazz scene and has been for twenty years or thereabouts. The quartet’s 'New Orleans Festival Suite' confirms what may or may not be common knowledge, namely that the 'Kidd' Jordan Quartet is not only the senior improvising jazz group on the scene but also the hottest and the most excitingly...  more

1. Decateur Street 28:10
2. Dream Palace 32:49
3. Ole Miss Lovesong 11:56

Edward 'Kidd' Jordan tenor saxophone
Joel Futterman piano, soprano saxophone, indian flute
William Parker bass
Alvin Fielder drums