Music Monday: Kenny, Dave, and Chet

The last few weeks saw a flood of good new music coming out and some of it is destined to be in my summer listening rotation.

This past weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed Kenny Garrett’s new collaborative album with the beatsmith Svoy titled Who Killed AI? Most of the tracks feature a compelling range of beats over which Garrett solos. The most exciting track on the album is “Divergence Tu-Dah” where Garrett’s highly processed alto solos brilliantly across Svoy’s beats. His processed saxophone sounds almost like a guitar at times, but his solos also reveal where we breathes reminding us that even the most digital of performances still reveals signs of human life. 

I’m also enjoying a few early tracks from Dave Douglas’s next album, Gifts, with the recently prolific (and exciting) James Brandon Lewis on sax, Rafiq Bhatia on guitar, and Ian Chang on drums.

The album was due out May 3, but dropped this past weekend. I have been particularly enjoying their version of Billy Stayhorn and Duke Ellington’s classic “Take the A-Train”:

Finally, one my drive home on Thursday evening I heard a cut from an album that I missed when it came last year, Chet Baker’s Blue Room: The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland. I can hear some of my buddies groaning in disappointment, but I simply love Baker’s version of Miles Davis’s “Down”:

I’ve also been enjoying Shabaka Hutchings’ latest album, Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace, Mechelle Ndegeochello’s Red Hot and Ra: The Magic City, Noah Haidu’s Standards II, and the new Vampire Weekend album. More on those next week!