About a month ago my attention was drawn to the debut album of the Sophisticated Lady Jazz Quartet. This is not a new album. The twelve tracks were recorded between October 24 and October 26 in 2013, and the album was copyrighted by Yarlung Records the following year. Yarling is based in Los Angeles, and the recordings were made in Cammilleri Hall, the auditorium of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. As a sidebar I should note that, beyond my ongoing interest in the relationship between brain and mind, I have already written about a Yarlung album recorded in Cammilleri Hall, a concert recording by Yuko Mabuchi released as the album Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis.
The jazz quartet itself consists of JJ Kirkpatrick on both trumpet and flugelhorn, Misha Adair Bigos on piano, Gary Wicks on bass, and Andrew Boyle on drums. Three of the tracks are composed by Bigos, two by Wicks, and two by Boyle. Duke Ellington also occupies two tracks, both the title track and “Isfahan,” which he composed jointly with Billy Strayhorn. The other composers are Jerome Kern (“I’m Old Fashioned,” the opening track) and Abel Meeropol (“Strange Fruit”). Finally, there is “For Andrew,” which takes a “melody kernel” by contemporary composer Andrew Norman as a point of departure.
Taken as a whole, the album amounts to an engaging encounter between the traditional and the “immediate present.” Stylistically, all four performers have a solid command of straight-ahead jazz playing. Equally important is that all four of them have more than ample opportunities to develop solo takes on the music being presented. This album may not be the “latest new thing;” but it is likely to satisfy any serious listener interested in inventive techniques that link past traditions with present music-making practices.
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