The Cookers - Look Out! (September 24, 2021 Gearbox Records)

Look Out! is the triumphant sixth album return of jazz supergroup The Cookers, due out on September 24th on double vinyl, CD, and digital. Recorded at the iconic Van Gelder studio in Englewood Cliffs and cut using a Van Gelder-era '67 Haeco Sculley lathe at Gearbox Records, the 7-track release comprises original, fresh pieces written by Cecil McBee, Billy Harper, and George Cables which channel the heady, aggressive post-bop era of the mid-60s.

Whereas the majority of the jazz tradition’s elder statesmen head their own groups, this is one of the few jazz bands to contain legacy musicians of this calibre functioning as an equitable, long-standing ensemble. Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, George Cables, Eddie Henderson, and Billy Hart all came up in the heady era of the mid ‘60s: Hart and Henderson were members of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi group; Cecil McBee anchored Charles Lloyd’s great ’60s quartet alongside Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette; Billy Harper was part of Lee Morgan’s last group, as well as being a member of Max Roach’s Quartet and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; while George Cables held down the piano chair in numerous bands including groups led by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper. David Weiss and Donald Harrison, from a more recent generation and the youngest members of the band, are experts in this forthright lingo, having gained experience performing with Art Blakey, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, Roy Haynes and Herbie Hancock.

After 14 years together, again the incredibly high level of musicianship has only increased with the revisiting of their fresh, challenging, boundary-pushing music from these legendary, revered, veteran improvisers. 

1. The Mystery of Monifa Brown

2. Destiny Is Yours

3. Cat's Out The Bag

4. Somalia

5. AKA Reggie

6. Traveling Lady

7. Mutima

Billy Harper: tenor sax

Eddie Henderson: trumpet

David Weiss: trumpet

Donald Harrison: alto sax

George Cables: piano

Cecil McBee: bass

Billy Hart: drums

Produced by David Weiss

Executive Producer: Darrel Sheinman 

Recorded at Van Gelder Recording Studio by Maureen Sickler

Mixed by Katherine Miller

Mastered by Caspar Sutton-Jones and Darrel Sheinman at Gearbox Records

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Jacám Manricks - Cloud Nine (June 26, 2021 Posi-Tone Records)

Saxophonist Jacám Manricks soars up and out into the friendly skies of "Cloud Nine." This exciting musical program from 2012 covers all the angles as Manricks' brilliant original compositions are presented by an amazing group of players including celebrated organist Sam Yahel, renowned guitarist Adam Rogers, the ever amazing Matt Wilson on drums, and there is also a guest appearance by trumpet wizard David Weiss. Manricks demonstrates his total command of the instrument, and serious listeners will be joyously transported away to the swinging heavenly wonderland of "Cloud Nine."

1. Cloud Nine 03:58

2. Ystävä Sä Lapsien 05:26

3. Any Minute Now 06:15

4. Take The Five Train 05:57

5. Cry 06:20

6. Alibis And Lullabies 04:52

7. Serene Pilgramage 04:05

8. Loaf 07:28

9. Luiza 04:58

Jacám Manricks - alto saxophone

David Weiss - trumpet

Adam Rogers - guitar

Sam Yahel - organ

Matt Wilson - drums

Marc Free - producer

Nick O’Toole - engineer

recorded October 19, 2011 at Acoustic Recording, Brooklyn, NY

mixed & mastered at Pine Street Studio, Lake Oswego, OR

photography by Jayd Gardina

package design by Escott Associates

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David Weiss & Point Of Departure - Wake Up Call (ROPEADOPE RECORDS 2017)

The late 1960's were a turbulent but exciting time for jazz. The music seemed to simultaneously get more complex and simpler at the same time as a variety of influences infused the music. Some were experimenting with soul, rock and exotic rhythms from the India and the Far East. Others were carrying on the innovations of the second great Miles Davis quintet, using the groups ever shifting rhythms and harmonic complexities as a springboard to new compositional ideas. Some somehow combined both to create some new, exciting music.

The Point of Departure Quintet is re-examining some of the most innovative music of the period, some of it neglected, some, perhaps, never quite as developed as it could have been as things seemed to move at a pace during that period that left some music from being fully realized as they quickly moved on to the next new thing. Among the composers being re-examined and re-imagined are Andrew Hill, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Tony Williams and music from the unsung Kenny Cox and the Contemporary Jazz Quintet (who recorded two seminal but under-appreciated records for Blue Note in the late 1960's). 

Weiss began dabbling with the idea of the Point of Departure band as early as 2004 but began the group in earnest in 2006 when he was offered a regular Thursday night residency at the Greenwich Village club Fat Cat. The regular gig gave Weiss the opportunity to try out many up-and-coming musicians on the scene in various combinations until the personnel became solidified. By the end of the six month run, Weiss felt he had a fully realized new band with a unique sound and approach; a harmonically adventurous band with more of a free approach to the music that could switch grooves from swing to funk to rock in different time signatures on a dime. His original idea for the sound of the band drew on his experiences playing with the Haitian kompa super group Tabou Combo.

That band featured two guitarists playing interweaving guitar lines that defined the sound of the band. When the band recorded the horn section, they had the horns record every line twice and one would be panned far left and the other far right creating a unique stereo effect. Weiss thought using two guitarists could make both these concepts work, the interweaving lines and when the guitarists both played chords in unison could achieve a interesting stereo effect.

After a few failed attempts during their initial residency, the decision was made to stick to one guitarist until a proper 2nd guitarist was found. When conceptualizing the new CD, the decision was made to attempt the two guitar sound again and this time everything fell into place with two new amazing young guitarists, Ben Eunson and Travis Reuter came aboard. The new CD also stretches the parameters of the original group concept a little by adding material from the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the Brazilian avant garde fusion band Grupo Um.

The Cookers - The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart (2016) SMOKE SESSIONS RECORDS

by GERALDINE WYCKOFF / offbeat

Hard bop supreme is served up by the Cookers, a truly all­-star ensemble that includes veterans who helped develop and shape the sound. In order to understand the scope of these musicians’ experience and magnitude it’s imperative to call out their names: bassist Cecil McBee (trumpeter Miles Davis, saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter), trumpeter Eddie Henderson (lessons from Louis Armstrong, pianist Herbie Hancock), drummer Billy Hart (Davis, Hancock), tenor saxophonist Billy Harper (pianist Randy Weston, drummers Art Blakey, Elvin Jones and Max Roach) and pianist George Cables (saxophonist Sonny Rollins and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard). Trumpeter David Weiss, the youngest member, came up with the idea of putting these hefty musicians together with little notion that nine years later they would remain a unit. With the release of The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart, which, like 2014’s Time and Time Again, includes the band’s newest member, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, the Cookers have put out five outstanding albums.

The name of the album—also the disc’s first cut—tells a lot about the music. Penned by Harper, it rhythmically opens ever so slowly and peacefully. Later it explodes with the wild excitement of Harper’s tenor.

It’s Harper’s pen at work again on the lovely ballad “If One Could Only See.” Cables’ gentle piano sets the soft mood with the purity of Henderson’s trumpet leading, as if singing, the tune. All of the original material is written by members of the Cookers, enabling each composer to bring that side of his musical personality to the project.

Diversity defines the spirit of The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart as it runs free while referencing musical touchstones from the past. The Cookers continue as master chiefs of the bandstand.

Beyond Forever