Barefoot Man: Sanpaku

Larry Coryell

Coryell says that he based this recording on a template derived from his 1971 album Barefoot Boy. But he’s clearly hearing something different in his new tracks than Barefoot Boy fans will. They’ll wish, for instance, that he hadn’t put away the lengthy, squalling guitar solos and any sense of recklessness (not to mention abandon) like so many childish things. There is, though, an upside to his having mellowed out, as the new track “Penultimate” demonstrates: openness to a loveliness that the younger Coryell would’ve blown right past.

Live at the Opernhaus, Cologne 1969

Duke Ellington & His Orchestra

Here’s how Ellington, just over two weeks shy of his 70th-birthday concert, introduces “Up Jump”: “And now Paul Gonsalves overindulges himself in the most over-indulged form of overindulgence, sometimes known as tenor-saxophonic calisthenics.” And, sure enough, Gonsalves delivers a midsong, a cappella solo worthy of the hype. It’s just one of many entertaining moments of oats-feeling spontaneity that, thanks to Germany’s Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (which originally broadcast the show), has finally become available.

Unstatic

Manu Katché

For a drummer who got his start assisting Sting and Peter Gabriel, composing and powering an album’s worth of accomplished 21st-century jazz fusion (identifiable as such because it sounds a lot like accomplished 20th-century fusion) represents significant progress. Some of it fades too easily into the background. The undertow riffs that threaten to turn into “Smoke on the Water” (“City”) or “Axel F” (“Ride Me Up”), however, not only stick out but also draw you in until you notice (and enjoy) the “overtow” riffs as well.

Ready Take One

Erroll Garner

Capitalizing on the warm reception given Erroll Garner’s The Complete Concert by the Sea in 2015, Sony Legacy and Octave Music have assembled these 14 previously unreleased Garner studio recordings from 1967, 1969, and 1971 and sonically upgraded them until they sparkle. The usual Garner adjectives—rollicking, joyful, virtuosic—apply, and usually simultaneously. But the various members of Garner’s accompanying trios also acquit themselves well (and more noticeably than usual). They don’t quite rise to the level of indispensable, but they certainly help Garner get where he’s going.

ENCORE

Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite turns 50 this year, and the Brooklyn-based Slavic Soul Party! has marked the occasion with Slavic Soul Party! Plays Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite (Ropeadope). The album, however, is no mere re-creation. Given the prominence of tuba, accordion, and marching-band percussion in the ensemble’s sound, how could it be? Rather, it honors the Ellington–Billy Strayhorn melodies while bringing out the compositions’ rhythmic oompah.

The result is a strikingly different cultural vibe from that of the original. Whereas Ellington sought to evoke what he and his 14 musicians felt during their tours of mostly Near East cities (yes, the suite’s title is a misnomer), Slavic Soul Party!’s nine members go for a Southeast European feel designed to justify their billing themselves as “New York’s official #1 brass band for BalkanSoul GypsyFunk.” It’s a slogan that, like Plays Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite itself, is both accurate and a really good joke. —A.O.