Optimism: In 1996, laments were heard on and off the record about the jazz marketplace being tougher than ever. But despite a challenging retail situation - "Too much product!" was the consensus chant - fledgling labels cropped up, and longstanding parent companies birthed imprints. Telarc started Jazz Zone to handle its contemporary sounds; RCA Victor replaced the Novus imprint with RCA Victor Jazz; the GRP-revitalized Impulse! came through with several newly recorded gems (two of them, by pianists Eric Reed and Danilo Perez, were produced by the imprint's president, Tommy LiPuma); and Astor Place helped create classy titles by Cedar Walton, David Murray, and Conrad Herwig.

Also, Joel Dorn and Robert Miller's 32 Records issued discs by Mose Allison, Horace Silver, and Miller himself, and the label's superb record by the Jazz Passengers, "Individually Twisted," is due at the start of '97. Homestead, a longstanding center of boldfaced indie rock, opened its doors to left-leaning improvisers like David Ware, Ivo Perlman, and Joe Morris, and indie pop label Mammoth got right with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the old-time swing of the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Personnel shifts at the major labels also took place. Atlantic reorganized its jazz division, with Ahmet Ertegun overseeing the music direction and Yves Beauvais working as VP of jazz and A&R. The label has a hitmaker with saxophonist James Carter and is likely to follow through with talented young vocalist Madeleine Peyroux, whose "Dreamland" was one of the anum's treats.

Over the year, the post-George Butler landscape finally settled at Columbia; direction for the label is in the hands of VP of jazz promotion Kevin Gore, VP of A&R Steve Berkowitz, and marketing director for Legacy Seth Rothstein. The ever-popular Marsalises, Wynton and Branford, still call Columbia home, as does their pal Marcus Roberts. Several hip players, including David Sanchez, offer the label a chance of developing young talent. The label team spent much of '96 dazzling jazz zealots with the sublime packaging of its Miles Davis/Gil Evans box. The Legacy arm of Columbia has declared a new-found commitment to its estimable catalog, too, and the high quality of the new regime's first titles is telling.

Blue Note's hierarchy remained the same: Bruce Lundvall oversees it all, Tom Evered finds ways to market the titles, and Steve Schenfeld directs A&R duties. The quality of the product followed suit. From large ensembles like the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra to one-off congloms like the Blue Note All Stars, the music issued was daring and rich.

Jazz bios flourished during the year. One of the best earned much of the coverage: David Hajdu's portrait of Billy Strayhorn, "Lush Life," was an insightful look at a multifaceted life. Donald L. Maggin's "Stan Getz: A Life In Jazz" also hit the racks. Both releases were coordinated with Verve; the label issued well-rounded compilations of the artists' works to coincide with the tomes. Also issued was "It's About Time: The Dave Brubeck Story" by Fred M. Hall. Two other jazz bios are in the works, and their subjects are a pair of the music's most charismatic bandleaders: John Szwed is at work on a Sun Ra overview, and Gene Santoro is documenting the life of Charles Mingus.

With missteps that only Hollywood marketing agents could comprehend, the roundhouse right that was supposed to drive the film and soundtrack versions of Robert Airman's "Kansas City" into the public eye became a swing through the air. The movie's release was postponed due to distribution snags, and Verve's much-heralded (and very stomping) soundtrack, which contains the work of many of the era's great young players, lacked some of the sales momentum it might have had. Still, it fared better than many dates; SoundScan clocks it at 38,000 pieces. That number is sure to rise when the Kansas City Ensemble travels across the country to play almost 20 dates in January as part of the Verve JazzFest. Also on the bill are the Joe Henderson Trio and Charlie Haden's Quartet West.

Given the huge huzzah offered up for the Great Day in Harlem photograph in '95, other jazz communities made a point of documenting their brethren. The Philadelphia Weekly ran a shot of 150 musicians as 1996 sprung forth, and New York's Knitting Factory made its own picture of associated improvisers before its What is Jazz? fest in late June. Community is crucial. Both the Knit and the Jazz at Lincoln Center program - the alleged yin and yang of jazz esthetics - grew in size and stature this year. Who says that there can't be a balance in such a diverse scene?

There's no question about who is the highest-visibility jazz personality of '96. That would be Cassandra Wilson. Time magazine named her burnished, beautiful Blue Note release "New Moon Daughter," the No. 1 album of the year, regardless of genre. In late November, The New York Times went even further, calling the disc one of the best records of the decade. Such mainstream support has been in Wilson's (and Blue Note's) corner since Wilson's "Blue Light 'Til Dawn" started the ball rolling in '94. And such mainstream support revitalized the already extraordinary sales of "New Moon Daughter." When the Times exclamation came out, the title was selling approximately 600 copies per week. During the next 14 days, the numbers spiked like a kid's fever - more than 5,200 were charted by SoundScan. That makes her domestic sales as of Dec. 17 a whopping 120,000. This year, the singer graced the covers of Down Beat, Fi, JazzTimes, Essence, and Jazziz. Is there a Grammy nomination in her future?

Jazz has proved its pliability over the decades, able to embrace a sound that has blossomed and morphed since the late '40s: the mixing of Afro-Caribbean rhythms and swing. Veterans of the longstanding stylistic melange, usually filed under the generalized rubric "Latin jazz," were in action.

Percussionist Tito Puente released "Special Delivery" on Concord Picante; the imprint also issued trumpeter Ray Vega's self-titled disc. Pianist Eddie Palmieri's "Vortex" was racked by the Tropijazz label. Milestone came out with Manny Oquendo and Libre's "On The Move (Muevete!)." Verve hit the vaults for the exquisite "Cuban Blues," a double disc that showed the eloquence and vibrance of arranger/composer/bandleader Chico O'Farrill's early '50s work. In the present tense, there were several impressive outings with Afro-Caribbean beats. David Sanchez's "Street Scenes" (Columbia) did the job, and Leon Parker's "Belief" (Columbia) built a suite centered around percussion.
Another influence that came into play over the year was classical music. Marcus Roberts redressed Gershwin's best-known work, "Rhapsody In Blue," and made a case for James P. Johnson's overlooked "Yamekraw" as being the equal of "Rhapsody."

This list of the last 12 month's best records could be much longer. Here's to a just-as-fertile '97. My personal favorites:
1. Danilo Perez, "Panamonk" (Impulse!).
2. Steve Wilson, "Four For Time" (Criss Cross).
3. Greg Osby, "Art Forum" (Blue Note).
4. Branford Marsalis, "The Dark Keys" (Columbia).
5. Matt Wilson, "As Wave Follows Wave" (Palmetto).
6. Rodney Kendrick, "Last Chance For Common Sense" (Verve).
7. Leon Parker, "Belief" (Columbia).
8. Ornette Coleman, "Sound Museum: Hidden Man" and "Sound Museum: Three Women" (Harmolodic/Verve).
9. John Scofield, "Quiet" (Verve).
10. Bill Frisell, "Quartet" (Nonesuch).

As usual, the year took some of our finest. 1996 saw the loss of Ella Fitzgerald, Eddie Harris, Gerry Mulligan, Art Porter, Don Grolnick, Jimmy Rowles, Alan Dawson, and Mercer Ellington. RIP

Source: Billboard, Dec 28, 1996 v108 n52 p44(1).
Author: Jim Macnie
Full Text COPYRIGHT 1996 BPI Communications