Featured Artist: Jeremy Pelt

Jazz CD cover CD Title: November

Year: 2008

Record Label: MaxJazz

Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic

Musicians: Jeremy Pelt (trumpet, flugelhorn), JD Allen (tenor sax), Danny Grissett (piano), Dwayne Burno (bass), Gerald Cleaver (drums), Jeff Haines (percussion)

Review:

Having had the pleasure of reviewing Jeremy Pelt’s live album, Shock Value, and finding it quite attractive, I came to this album with an open and receptive mind toward this most talented and acclaimed trumpeter and, I’m sure, the pride of Maxjazz Records.  This is a bit of a different vibe from Shock Value, which he performed with WIRED and is, for the most part, quite an explosive journey. November is a more laid-back, silkier, acoustic and traditional display of Pelt’s adeptness with jazz at its purest.  The five-time winner of Downbeat Magazine’s Annual Critics Poll for Rising Star, as well as the Jazz Journalist Association’s choice for “Up and Coming Musician of the Year” in 2005, Pelt is obviously no stranger to the jazz world.  Luminaries like Wayne Shorter, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Cobb and Bobby Short can surely attest to that.

This latest effort finds Pelt again at home with the intricacies and character of straight-ahead jazz and all its excellence. The runs, the timing, the bass lines, all come together to comprise a wonderful collage of sound to be heralded by jazz purists the world over.  Translation: The man knows what he’s doing and does it quite well. That, of course, has to come from a very important place, that place of understanding and identification with the crystalline aspects of this fine art form.

The opening track, "Mata," is almost deceptive with its slow, rather lazy feel, resembling a mystery film soundtrack or high-level tune-up session. That's just before he injects his enveloping charisma in the quality passages that follow on the subsequent tracks. There are so many places in this album that again mark this trumpeter as the one to watch.  Dazzling scale work like that displayed on “Phoenix” will only solidify his standing among great trumpeters everywhere.  This is Pelt as an experience. Experience him for yourself.



Tracks: Mata, Avatar, Clairvoyant, Dreamcatcher, Phoenix, Rosalie, Monte Cristo, Nephthys, 466-64 (Freedom Fighters)

Record Label Website: http://www.maxjazz.com

Artist's Website: http://www.peltjazz.com

Reviewed by: Ronald Jackson

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