stereophile.com n August2019
“Old World
craftsmanship
still exists!
Alta Audio speakers,
marvelously designed
and built by Michael Levy,
have made my listening
at home divine!”
- PHIL SCHAAP,
WKCR disc jockey, jazz historian,
archivist, and producer.
AUDIOPHILE-CLASS SPEAKERS
HAVE A NEW HIGH BAR.alta-audio.comRECORD REVIEWSJOEL ROSS
Kingmaker
Joel Ross, vibraphone; Immanuel Wilkins,
alto saxophone; et al.
Blue Note B003003802 (CD). 2019. Joel Ross,
Harish Raghavan, prods.; David Darlington, eng.
DDD. TT: 66:55
PERFORMANCE
SONICS
Blue Note’s press release for Kingmaker
calls Joel Ross “the most thrilling new
vibraphonist in America.” The hype
is true. There is a major buzz on
the street over Ross. Kingmaker is his
recording debut as a leader.
Blue Note under its current presi-
dent, Don Was, sometimes attempts
to contemporize its jazz artists (Robert
Glasper, Ambrose Akinmusire, even
Charles Lloyd) with electronics,
singers, and rappers. They leave Ross
alone. His acoustic quintet needs no
synthesizers or vocoders to be right on
the leading edge of what’s happening
in jazz at this moment.
The vibes are unique. Like pianos
and guitars, they can play both chords
and single-note lines of melody. But
the vibes can also envelop you in lumi-
nous clouds of treble and seduce you
with vibrato.
Ross is a 23-year-old original. He
creates new relationships between me-
lodic lines and enveloping vibraphone
clouds because he embeds the one in
the other. Then he spills lavish solos
full of fresh ideas. His compositions
have unusual structures and ingenious
arrangements, yet he understands that
the whole history of the vibraphone is
about the instrument’s special capacity
for lushness and lyricism. “Touched by
an Angel” and the title track are utterly
pretty before they are anything else.
Another exciting new player here is
alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins,
who takes Ross’s yearning and deepens
it. “Grey” begins as a gathering of quiet
moods and hesitant emotions. When
Wilkins enters, his long, piercing calls
carry the ensemble into unbridled pas-
sion.— Thomas ConradWAYNE SHORTER
Et Cetera
Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock,
piano; Cecil McBee, bass; Joe Chambers, drums.
Blue Note Records B0029357-01 (LP). 1965/2019.
Alfred Lion, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.; Joe Harley,
LP reissue prod.; Kevin Gray, LP reissue mastering
eng. AAA. TT: 33:15.
PERFORMANCE
SONICS
Et Cetera, recorded in 1965, was
Wayne Shorter’s fifth Blue Note
album as a leader—in just a little over
one year’s time!—yet wasn’t released
until 1980. A definitive reason for the
delay has yet to emerge, but there’s no
doubt that the amount of great music
Blue Note Records recorded during
this time constituted an embarrass-
ment of riches.
Shorter’s compositional output was
white hot in 1965, and he had the play-
ing chops to match. (Miles described
him as “looking like an angel, but
when he picked up his horn he was
a motherfucking monster.”) Four of
the five pieces are by Shorter, with the
interesting inclusion of “Barracudas”
by the great Gil Evans. With fellow
Miles Davis School of Music fresh-
man Herbie Hancock at his side on
piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Joe
Chambers—another frequent Shorter
session-mate—kickin’ it on drums, this
is a killer band, playing innovative,
cutting-edge jazz.
One of an initial pair of releases in
Blue Note’s new Tone Poet Audio-
phile Vinyl Reissue Series, Et Cetera’s
new LP incarnation gets the same
royal treatment that series producer
Joe Harley helped establish with
earlier Blue Note remasterings. You
get a fine gatefold jacket with Francis
Wolff’s great black-and-white session
photographs inside, notes by Michael
Cuscuna from the 1980 release, and,
most important, analog remastering by
Kevin Gray, with an excellent 180gm
pressing by RTI. Compared to earlier
LP versions, the sound here is fuller on
the lower end, with a bit less bright-
ness up top.— Sasha Matson