New and noteworthy

Gifts

Alex Acuña

Alex Acuña has contributed drums or percussion to over 250 albums, including the three that he recorded as a member of the Christian jazz combo Koinonia in the ’80s. So even if he, Ramón Stagnaro (guitar), John Peña (bass), and Otmaro Ruiz (keyboards) didn’t go way back (to 1990’s Thinking of You to be exact), the ease with which the funk-fusion grooves lock in would come as no surprise. The warmth and definition of the melodies testify to Lorenzo Ferrero’s way with a tenor sax. The crucial opening minute of the outlier ballad “Divina” testifies to Giovanna Clayton’s with a cello—and to the fact that divina is Spanish for “divine.”

Secular Psalms

Dave Douglas

Recorded to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the van Eyck polyptych The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb and featuring Berlinde Deman breathily delivering extracts from the Latin Mass (“We Believe,” “Agnus Dei”), the Latin Mass plus Psalm 59 (“Mercy”), and the medieval poet Christine de Pizan (“If I’m in Church More Often Now”), these “psalms” could hardly be less secular. (Well, “Mercy” does quote Marvin Gaye.) Douglas’ trumpets and Tomeka Reid’s cello set the somber-­to-reverent tone. Deman’s tuba shores up the density. Frederik Leroux’s electric guitar makes the case that dissonance makes the heart grow fonder.

Freedom: Celebrating the Music of Pharoah Sanders

Mark de Clive-Lowe

If Pharoah Sanders’ recent death has you wanting to remember him at his solo prime, start with 2006’s The Impulse Story and proceed to 1996’s Message from Home. If you want to know what happened in between and how it relates to those early and late-career peaks, this somewhat edited, 83-minute live tribute will give you a good idea. Caveat: “The Creator Has a Master Plan” ends before it reaches the boiling point.

Let Us Break Bread Together

Alexander Smalls

Alexander Smalls has said that his goal with this album is to “bring the music [Negro spirituals in particular] back to … the lives of everyday people.” And who might those everyday people be? People who enjoy hearing an award-winning chef who has also sung in a major production of Porgy and Bess recite Langston Hughes and sing “Wade in the Water,” the title cut (twice), “Hush, Somebody’s Callin’ My Name,” and “Poor Little Jesus Boy.” Nuance-attuned combos anchored by Cyrus Chestnut, Reuben Rogers, and Ulysses Owens ­provide accompaniment.

Encore

Recent though it is, Secular Psalms is not Dave Douglas’ newest release. That honor goes to Songs of Ascent: Book 1—Degrees (Greenleaf), credited to the Dave Douglas Quintet, which dropped on Oct. 7. Composed while Douglas was assembling Secular Psalms and recorded in a similarly challenging manner (i.e., with the musicians recording remotely for COVID-related reasons), the album comprises eight selections, seven of which were inspired by the “Songs of Ascent” (i.e., Psalms 120-134).

Generally, the pieces begin with jaggedly ascending themes stated on trumpet (Douglas) and sax (Jon Irabagon), then proceed to give the impression that all five musicians are soloing at once. Listen for the common core if you want, but it’s more fun to concentrate on who’s doing what in isolation, especially the bassist Linda May Han Oh and the drummer Rudy Royston, who—brief solos aside—sound as if they’re chasing each other around in an spirited game of tag. —A.O.