In recent years the great Michigan independent jazz label Nessa Records has focused most of its energy on reissuing gems from its catalog on CD—whether by free jazz luminaries like Wadada Leo Smith and Hal Russell or old-school swing and bop masters like Eddie Johnson and Ira Sullivan. But it’s encouraging in this inhospitable climate for record labels, especially ones devoted to improvised music, that Nessa has just released an all-new recording. Silver Cornet is a terrific live session recorded in Baltimore in March by the Bradford/Gjerstad Quartet. Nessa has a long history with LA cornetist Bobby Bradford—the brilliant melodist who worked most famously with clarinetist John Carter (as well as the legendary Ornette Coleman)—releasing a pair of excellent albums cut in the 70s with British drummer John Stevens. In fact, it was Stevens who first introduced Bradford to the Norwegian reedist Frode Gjerstad as part of a quartet rounded out by the South African bassist Johnny Dyani called Detail Plus back in the mid-80s.
Zedashe Ensemble, Intangible Pearls (Electric Cowbell)Jimmy Giuffre, The Four Brothers Sound (Atlantic, Japan)Emerson String Quartet, Journeys (Sony Classical)St. Vincent, St. Vincent (Loma Vista/Republic)Nils Petter Molvaer & Moritz Von Oswald, 1/1 (Emarcy, Germany)
