Jazz

Richie Beirach and Dave Liebman, “Quest for Freedom” with the Frankfurt Big Band, arrangements by Jim McNeely (Sunnyside, available next week); David Liebman Big Band, “As Always—Live” conducted by Gunnar Mossblad (Mama). You have no idea how wonderful it would be for jazz in America if a Dave Liebman Orchestra disc as spectacular and ambitious as “Quest for Freedom” had been recorded in concert in Denver and Toledo and a lesser orchestral disc like “As Always” had been recorded live and in the studio in Europe. Alas, it’s the other way around. On the European “Quest for Freedom”—one of the great works of orchestral jazz coming out in a period of sudden orchestral profusion—saxophonist Liebman is teamed up with pianist Richie Beirach, who’s one of his oldest and best musical partners, and composer/arranger Jim McNeely, who clearly cherishes the Frankfurt Radio Big Band’s ability to play the first orchestral versions of Beirach and Liebman’s musical “code,” which McNeely describes as “the intensely chromatic harmonic and melodic language that forms the basis of their performances.” The result, courtesy of tremendous playing by Beirach, Liebman and the Frankfurt Band—is orchestral jazz with both abstract brilliance and phenomenal power. It’s not easy music, but it’s a great jazz record. “As Always,” performed live in Denver and Toledo—by American musicians and arranged by Andrew Rathburn, Pete McGuinness, Guri Agmon, Gunnar Mossblad and Scott Reeves—doesn’t begin to have either the ambition or the authority of what McNeely does with the kind of playing Beirach and Liebman have been doing for decades. “Quest for Freedom” doesn’t bathe the ear, that’s true; invigorates the spirit is more like it. “As Always” certainly has its moments, but too much of it presents largely inconsequential jazz “professionalism.” 3 1/2 stars for “Quest”, 2 1/2 for “As Always.” (Jeff Simon)

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Joey DeFrancesco, “Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music of Michael Jackson” (High Note, available next week). The mere idea of this elicits a bit of a giggle. OK, it’s a matter of universal agreement that Buffalo-bred Dr. Lonnie Smith and Joey De-Francesco have divided between them Jimmy Smith’s Hammond B-3 estate. And if he were still with us, you can bet your pedals that the ornery but commercial-minded Smith would himself have thought of a whole disc of Michael Jackson tunes (the big difference— Smith would have gotten the late Oliver Nelson to do the arrangements and the results would have been blissful). It turns out, to the eternal credit of Michael Jackson the composer, that his music isn’t nearly as adaptable to chitlin circuit Hammond B-3 wails and screams and staccato stabs as you might assume. It’s more than a little resistant—especially tunes like “Human Nature” and “Rock With You” which are just a little too pretty for this kind of organ funk. And when Joey D. insists on camping up “Thriller” with his own version of Vincent Price’s narration, you want to moonwalk all over his head. But he’s a terrific player (as is his main man, guitarist Paul Bollenback), and when he figures out how to solo on these tunes (usually by wailing over two-chord vamps or simple riffing progressions), you’d have to be made of granite not to enjoy the heck out of it. This is great jazz fun of a decidedly venerable variety but if you think for a second that lessens the enjoyability, you’re daft. 3 1/2 stars (J. S.)

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Dave Bass Quartet with guest vocalist Mary Stallings, “Gone” (Bass’Own Label). Bass is a good California pianist with a great jazz story—an injured wrist that caused him to get out of jazz entirely and into lawyering and, eventually, back into jazz. And Mary Stallings— who’s featured on two tunes here—is certainly an ingratiating jazz singer. It would be nice then if one or both of them were the musical focal point of Bass’ disc for his homemade label, but they’re not. What’s so great about this disc recorded in 2008-09 is the presence of the great tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, who was, arguably, the finest soloist, by far, in Doc Severinsen’s TV band for Johnny Carson (though there was nothing wrong with his tenor-mate Pete Christlieb or pianist Ross Tompkins). Watts has never recorded a fraction as much as he probably should have. And when he has, he’s never, to some of us, received nearly enough credit for his distinctively elegant and fluidly graceful sound and imagination. Any record at all that puts Ernie Watts in able and compatible musical company is a triumph. 3 stars (J. S.)

Classical

Messiaen, “Visions de L’Amen,” and Debussy, “En Blanc et Noir,” performed by pianists Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal (Cedille). In his mystic, ecstatic and deeply private way, the French master Olivier Messiaen may be the last 20th century composer to turn out masterpieces in all genres with the regularity of Bartok and Prokofiev (not even Shostakovich and Stravinsky match them there—not in instrumental variety anyway). There are masterpieces by Messiaen for so many different and distinctive instrumentations. The two unquestioned piano masterworks are the solo “Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jesus” and this, the two-piano “Visions de L’Amen” from 1943. It was written, says notater and co-pianist Lowenthal, when he had just returned from eight months in a German prison camp (during which he wrote, arguably, his greatest work, the “Quartet for the End of Time”) only to find, on return, his wife showing signs of dementia. The “Visions De L’Amen” was originally performed by Messiaen himself and his student (and eventual wife) Yvonne Loriod. You couldn’t find better pianists for it than Oppens—who premiered Rzewski’s marathon “The People United Will Never Be Defeated”—and Lowenthal. The playing is lucid and inspired, as it is in Debussy’s once-scandalous “En Blanc et Noir”. If only the engineering of the recording were as sonically vivid as the music’s tense hypersensitivity required, it would have been one of the year’s great classical discs. 3 stars (J. S.)

Pop

Jenny and Johnny, “I’m Having Fun Now” (Warner Brothers). Johnathan Rice has worked with his girlfriend, Jenny Lewis, on her solo albums, but in Jenny and Johnny he gets equal billing, and rightfully so. Lewis will overshadow just about any partner with her aching vocals and her star power (which went into diva mode for Rilo Kiley’s last album), but Rice holds his own on this set of jangly roots rock. The two split the lead vocals and, as the title declares, revel in seemingly lighthearted songs. But these songs have barbs, and they’re full of knives and snakes. “Just Like Zeus,” “My Pet Snakes,” and “Switchblade” take jabs at soured friendships and/or celebrity hypocrisies, and “Big Wave” and “Animal” are bitter political ditties. The bright West Coast country-rock underpinnings disguise the jaded sentiments, but the mean-spiritedness sometimes undermines the fun. 3 stars (Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Country

Marty Stuart “Ghost Train: The StudioBSessions” (Sugar Hill). In the liner notes to “Ghost Train: The StudioBSessions,” Marty Stuart concludes by writing, “It was time to write some songs and it was long past time to play some hard-hitting country music.” Well, Stuart and his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, along with guests such as steel-guitar great Ralph Mooney, deliver in spades. Stuart is a country music veteran who’s an unabashed lover of the music’s history in its various forms, and you can hear that throughout “Ghost Train.” It opens with a couple of Bakersfield-style electric guitar workouts, “Branded” and Don Reno’s “Country Boy Rock and Roll,” the latter a duet, and a six-string duel, with the Superlatives’ Kenny Vaughan (more of that approach turns up later). Stuart also nods to his former father-in-law and boss, Johnny Cash, with their co-written “Hangman,” a sepulchral ballad; duets with his wife, Connie Smith, on “I Run to You,” and pays tribute to an old friend with “Porter Wagoner’s Grave,” delivered in a Wagoner-style recitation. Following his, uh, superlative work of the last decade, “Ghost Train” offers further proof that the 51-year-old Stuart, who got his start at 13 with bluegrass legend Lester Flatt, is really just now in his prime. 3 1/2 stars (Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer)