Alan Skidmore’s tenor-tonic

That’s Our Life
(Jazz in Britain Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑

https://jazzinbritain1.bandcamp.com/album/thats-our-life 

In 1985, tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore assembled a quartet with fellow tenorist Paul Dunmall, drummer Tony Levin and bassist Paul Rogers. “I’ve loved all my bands, but this is the best!” declared Skid, although Tenor-Tonic never produced an album during its brief lifetime.

But here’s a two-in-one now, four decades on, and how it resonates! From tracks recorded in Levin’s Birmingham house to others waxed in Poplar Steam Rooms, east London and Pendley Jazz Festival in Hertfordshire, the foursome roar and groove with an inventive, ferocious dynamism.

These are unbridled, passionate sessions with all members in full throttle. The Poplar date unleashes both horns in full revelation of their sonic power, with an insurgent Levin and earthen Rogers adding an exuberant rhythmic uplift. Their sound may take us back forty years, but it holds a now-times vigour that never gets old. It blows your boots off!

Jeremy Pelt
Our COMMUNITY Will Not Be Erased
(High Note Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9dezXIvY7M&list=OLAK5uy_n6ZwZyaOy66dRJn02754I3Vyr-a5BLKn8&index=7 

In the sleeve notes of Los Angeles Jeremy Pelt’s new album, Our COMMUNITY Will Not Be Erased, he asserts with a defiant irony: “This is NOT a protest record. This is a LOVE record.” It is, of course, both: a praisesong to his family, his Brothas on the Corner and a Manifesto of The March into Resilience, never to be eclipsed.

With the powerful rhythmic genius of veteran Buster Williams’s bass, Lenny White’s omnipresent drums and the melodic, stomping, elegiac piano of Orrin Evans, Pelt creates a blood-red riposte to Trump, Musk and ICE from the heart of black America.

Pelt’s sublime, note-perfect horn narratives extol the closeness of family and community and the struggle against police repression, recalling the boldness of his 2015 album, Tales, Musings and Other Reveries. Evans’s, Williams’s and White’s sheer propulsion never leave him, making a collective sound of determined and compelling beauty.

Yusef Lateef Quartet
Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase
(Resonance Records)
HHHHI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncxOnyM3954&list=RDncxOnyM3954&start_radio=1 

In June 1975 the multihorn virtuoso Yusef Lateef on tenor saxophone, flute and oboe was playing at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase, with a stellar quartet of pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Bob Cunningham and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath.

In Alight Upon The Lake, Resonance Records have given us a masterclass of their live artistry, which explores the jazz genius of each, stretching out to half-hour tracks of unquenchable music. Listen to the 29 minutes each of Opus 1 and 2 or Yusef’s Mood, where you hear the quartet in all their fullness, or Lateef’s tribute to the great tenorist Ben Webster, where his saxophone lyricism turns to moving elegy.

Inside Atlantis has some beautiful Barron and Cunningham’s arco bass, and Lateef’s wooden flute flies through the melodic serenity of Eboness, with Barron’s flickering piano. A wonderful surprise from the past are these records, brilliantly played, scrupulously recorded.