In a year notable by the too-high incidence of jazz losses, Charles Earland quietly left this planet on Saturday, December 11, 1999. Known as the Mighty Burner for the intense way he commanded the Hammond B-3, the always working, too-heavy 58-year-old Earland made his departure via heart failure following one last performance in Kansas City.

Originally a sax player who taught himself the unwieldy organ during a sax stint in Jimmy McGriff’s band, Earland made waves as Lou Donaldson’s organ player during 1967-68 and had a huge hit his first time out in 1969 with a soul-jazz cover of "More Today Than Yesterday." Right from the git go, Earland coaxed the most individual of sounds from the Hammond B-3, firing off machine-gun osinatos some call a ‘typewriter’ style. He balanced this with a cavalcade of just-right cushioning from his left hand and, most notably, a string-bassist’s command of the organ’s difficult foot pedals.

In the last few years Charles Earland became wildly prolific, unleashing a rash of recordings for the High Note, Savant and Cannonball labels. One of the recent Cannonballs even featured fellow organ-grinder Johnny "Hammond" Smith’s final recording. Moreover, Earland’s playing – and his records – captured some of the highest points in his musical career. After years of plugging away, experimenting with different keyboard effects, psychedelic soul and even interesting forays into disco, Earland fell into the groove he was meant for. Fortunately, High Note still has a few of Earland’s recordings left to release, plus another one with Irene Reid.

Earland’s May 1997 recording of Slammin’ & Jammin’, recently released by Savant as part of their "Groove Master Series," is among the Mighty Burner’s very best. A collection of familiar and soulful covers, these grooves are ones Earland himself always admired. From Bill Doggett’s "Honky Tonk" and Joe Zawinul’s "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" to Stanley Turrentine’s "Sugar" and the late Grover Washington Jr.’s "Mr. Magic," Earland shares his love of these tunes with some especially strong grooving.

Even the organist admits, in Ted Panken’s excellent liners, that a lot of organ groups do nothing but lock themselves into this kinda groove (give the people what they want, right?). But Earland has always tried to vary his programs with a bit more substance (either exploring more seriously-regarded jazz standards or alternating the way you expect to hear certain sounds). So it’s a rare – and welcome – thing when he just gets down and grooves as he does here.

Maybe it comes from getting down to basics. The eight cookers here – not a ballad in the bunch – ascend from a get-down triumvirate of Earland on the Hammond B-3, with the reliably soulful fuel of the organist’s longtime partner in crime, guitarist Melvin Sparks, and funky drummer supreme, Bernard Purdie.

They get loose and just play the way they were meant to play.

Carlos Garnett adds his surprisingly warm tenor sax groove to "Honky Tonk," "Let The Music Play," "Mr. Magic" and his own especially appealing "Organyk Groove." Earland himself shines, writing his air-of-the-gods signature on Rudy Van Gelder’s organ especially well during his spots for "Honky Tonk," "Sugar," "Mr. Magic" and his own nicely conceived "Blue For Sheila," (Earland’s widow).

These guys must have loved doing this date: playing the stuff they like, exactly the way they want. It cooks. Nice of the Mighty Burner to leave such a tasty jam for soul jazz lovers and organ groove fans.

Tracks:  Honky Tonk; Sugar; Mercy Mercy; When Johnny comes Marching Home; Organyk Groove; Let The Music Play; Blues For Sheila; Mr. Magic.

Players:  Charles Earland: Hammond B-3; Carlos Garnett: tenor sax on "Honky Tonk," "Let The Music Play," "Mr. Magic" and "Organyk Groove;" Melvin Sparks: guitar; Eric Seals: electric bass on "Sugar," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," "Organyk Groove" and "Blues For Sheila;" Bernard Purdie: drums; Gary Fritz: percussion on "Sugar," "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and "Blues For Sheila."

Bob Brookmeyer, at age 70, is enjoying renewed celebrity as an artist. But, unlike so many others who ascend to legendary status late in life, it’s not because he’s out-survived his peers. Still known primarily for his distinctive and lyrical valve trombone playing (he’s also an especially deft touch on piano), he’s now evolved into a magnificent composer. Indeed, much of the music he records these days – notably issued by the more artistically inclined European labels – captures his compositions and rather too little of his gorgeous playing.

The captivating New Works (Celebration), though, is remarkable evidence of the intricate musical language Bob Brookmeyer has crafted as a composer. In the realm of his own inner logic – informed by Sauter and Stravinsky as much as George Russell and even Boulez – Brookmeyer has conceived something that is as warm and passionate as it is cerebral and sometimes startling.

The disc is built around the four-part "Celebration" suite, originally written for the late Gerry Mulligan. A seamless collection of sounds, "Celebration" is a broad travelogue that wends in 30 minutes through many of fields Mulligan and Brookmeyer once explored together. Excellently substituting for Mulligan is Scott Robinson on baritone sax (and every other kind of reed instrument elsewhere) and he is indeed the star soloist.

But the canny 18-piece New Art Orchestra, formed in Germany by Brookmeyer, is the star voice – given to beautifully poetic pronouncements phrased by Brookmeyer’s strategic writing. Sounds are declarative without being imposing. Themes develop slowly over long passages, effectively dismantling ideas that improvisational music must conform to three chords or 12 bars.

The suite reaches its peak in the exciting fourth movement ("Celebration Two And"), a true celebration of swing and synapse based on, of all things, the Charleston dance. Here, Robinson’s baritone and Brookmeyer’s trombone (!) happily shuffle through a whole history of jazz statements -- from swing and Dixieland to orchestral jazz and avant-garde. Like a crafty puppetmaster, Brookmeyer unerringly guides the orchestra to suggest it all with an effortlessness that is astounding and a consistency which strikes only after the first few listens (clearly, there’s a teacher at work here).

It is probably not without significance that Brookmeyer, the player, is featured on the disc’s best tracks, the gorgeous "Idyll," the waltz-like "Cameo" and the comes-out-swinging "Boom Boom." Both "Idyll" (originally written for Lee Konitz) and "Cameo" are brimming with beauty in the way that recalls some of the lovely pieces Brookmeyer wrote for 1993’s Paris Suite quartet. Both seem to be melodic anti-melodies too. They’re not easy to hum along to. But Brookmeyer’s clean, simple conception lulls with a magisterial elan that is unquestionably melodic. In fact, Brookmeyer’s playing here seems so well considered, one might guess it was wholly written out ahead of time.

"Boom Boom," part of Brookmeyer’s "Danish Suite," concludes the disc with what seems an homage to those intellectual, gifted writers (Sauter, Hefti, Evans, maybe even Ogerman etc) who wrote for dance bands with a wit that said something different was at work. It’s a happy piece that features some glossy playing by trumpeter Ralf Hesse.

Of note too is the unusual (and rather more Brookmeyer-like) "Duets," seemingly named for the alternatives Brookmeyer proposes between orchestra and player and rhythm and melody. It is, perhaps, the disc’s most experimental track. Clocking in at over 12 minutes, it’s also the longest. There’s a Monk-ish quality to Brookmeyer’s exercise here, guided especially by John Hollenbeck on drums. Here, Brookmeyer explores the nuances and improvisational possibilities of whole tones, similar to the way he did on his superb 1991 ACT disc, Electricity, showing how he can set tradition a little ahead of its time.

This 1997 recording evidences much that is grand and promising in the second career of Bob Brookmeyer. One suspects that his arrangement with the Dutch Challenge label will proffer a great variety of interesting recordings in the future too (a trombone-bass duo with Mads Vinding is next). But we can only hope for more of the poetic explorations Brookmeyer achieves here with the New Art Orchestra too.

Tracks: Celebration Jig; Celebration Slow Dance; Celebration Remembering; Celebration Two And; Idyll; Duets; Cameo; Boom Boom.

Players: Scott Robinson: baritone sax; Marko Lackner, Stefan Pfeifer: alto sax; Paul Heller, Nils van Haften: tenor sax; Marcus Bartelt: baritone sax; Thorsten Benkenstein, Torsten Mass, Sebastian Strempel, Ralf Hesse, Jorg Engels: trumpet; Bob Brookmeyer: valve trombone, composer; Ludwig Nuss, Ansgar Striepens, Christian Jakso: trombone; Edward Partyka: bass trombone; Kris Goessens: piano; Jurgen Grimm: keyboard; Ingmar Heller: bass; John Hellenbeck: drums; Christopher Dell: percussion.

NIGHT CHILD
Oscar Peterson
(OJC)

This 1979 quartet recording makes an ideal blindfold test for the most practiced of jazz piano admirers. From the "oscillating Martianisms" on electric piano of the moody opening track, "Solar Winds," to the rollicking cop-show funk (!) of "Teenager," it would be difficult to name – or convince the listener – that this is Oscar Peterson. Indeed, it is. Even more surprisingly, it is one of those super- rare and highly welcome all-Peterson programs – which makes it even more important in this grand pianist’s discography.

Here, Peterson is in the familiar company of guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and drummer Louis Bellson – all Pablo regulars. So it is by no means the unusual "fusion" date the above pronouncements suggest.

In fact, Night Child may well be the best record Peterson made during the 1970s, a highly prolific period that produced much more high-profile music than this.

One listen to "Dancin’ Feet," may even erase the hackneyed notion that the most personable of pianists lose all personality when they plug in. There’s simply no question about who those dancing fingers belong to. Peterson surely gets electricity to swing. He can also plug in and deliver the most convincing, stylish signature blues too, as he does on "Soliloquy (Blues For Dr. John)," a nice feature for Pass too.

Peterson comes back to the acoustic piano for the long, lovely lullaby-waltz, "Night Child." When he returns to the electric keyboard for "Charlie," he seems to be challenging the listener to consider the beauty electricity lends to older ideas (the previous track, in this case).

From this listener’s perspective, it is indeed the disc’s most unusual tracks, the haunting "Solar Winds and the funky "Teenager" (which fades prematurely at 5:46) that are most notable. Peterson applies his great facility to bring out some of the best of two jazz styles that were done to death, and far less personably, during the 1970s. It’s a joy to follow him on these two journeys. Indeed, Night Child is a surprise and a joy throughout.

Tracks:  Solar Winds; Dancin’ Feet; Soliloquy (Blues For Dr. John); Night Child; Charlie; Teenager.

Players:  Oscar Peterson: acoustic and electric piano; Joe Pass: guitar; Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen: bass; Louis Bellson: drums.

CHILLIN'
David Newman
(High Note)

Too often soul jazz veterans get locked into their soulful groove and end up as little more than lounge-act versions of themselves. Consider any Hank Crawford disc from the last fifteen years, or Bob Porter’s continuing series of pointless Milestone productions. The best you can hope for is a signature sound covering the latest R & B hits.

Then there’s one of jazz’s most soulful players, David "Fathead" Newman, a Crawford ally from the famed Ray Charles big band of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He’s made plenty of soulful records on his own (most significantly for the Atlantic label between 1958 and 1973) – and a staggering number of soulful sessions too. But, like Stanley Turrentine, Newman often compliments his soulful menus with more appetizing fare such as bop, blues and, notably, ballads.

Indeed, since leaving Atlantic he’s recorded some of his most notable music. This includes 1980’s Resurgence, 1982’s Still Hard Times, 1988’s Fire!, 1989’s Blue Head and, now, Chillin’, Newman’s newest and his debut for the High Note label.

This compelling, easily enjoyable set shows the many sides of David Newman’s personality – and his distinctive and vital talents on a variety of reed instruments too. Newman’s quintet hinges, as it has for at least the last decade, on the appealing rhythmic underpinning of vibraphone (so much so, in fact, that John Hicks barely seems present on piano). Manning the vibes is Bryan Carrott, a ringer for his predecessor in Newman’s band, Steve Nelson. He’s got a brash confidence and soulful personality that recalls the lamented Lem Winchester’s. He’s also resourceful enough – whether by accident or design -- to accept a sort of co-leadership role with Newman that truly benefits both sounds.

Newman comes out swinging on tenor with a particularly rousing take on Ellington’s "Take The Coltrane." He even suggests Turrentine a bit, positively swinging with pure musical abandon. Switching to his not oft-heard soprano, Newman gloriously explores the romantic Dimitri Tiomkin's ballad "Return To Paradise," which elicits quotes from "Camptown Races" and Newman’s own Ray-era signature piece, "Hard Times."

However, the disc’s most memorable pieces are surely the Newman originals. The funky "The Whole Tzimmes" (a bit of Yiddish which means a bit of everything) elicits some fine pronunciations from Newman, Carrot and Hicks while the deep blues of the title cut finds Newman absolutely glowing on alto sax (Carrot sparkles here too). Unfortunately, there’s too little of Newman’s fine and distinctive flute work here. But he is heard vamping on flute during an interesting take on "Caravan," one of two songs ("Red Top" is the other) featuring Newman’s son, Cadino, on vocals.

Players:  David "Fathead" Newman: tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax, flute; Bryan Carrot: vibes; John Hicks: piano; Steve Novosell: bass; Winard Harper: drums; Cadino Newman: vocals.

Tracks:  Take the Coltrane; Return to Paradise; The Whole Tzimmes; These Foolish Things; Invitation; Chillin'; Caravan; Red Top.