For me, Catherine Russell is the Hank Jones of vocalists. Like the late pianist, she carries the entire history of jazz and blues in every phrase she delivers—from New Orleans to Muscle Shoals, from the Brill Building to Harlem. It’s the canvas for her vocal paints and brushes. Like Jones, her every line moves with an understated elegance and a heart-lifting swing to tell a story—the whole story. Her latest album, Alone Together, gives us a singer at the top of her game, backed by a terrific band perfectly matched to her intentions.
Engine: Robin Gentien, Pierre Lauth-Karson, Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez. Photo by Trevor Meier.
Back in 2017, when the trio Engine was invited to perform at Tricklock Company’s 17th Annual Revolutions International Theatre Festival and at ¡Globalquerque!, likely no one suspected that it was the beginning of a love affair between the band and New Mexico. Two years later, however, thanks to the Theater Department at UNM and Neal Copperman at AMP Concerts, the Franco-Argentine trio—Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez (vocals, acoustic guitar), Robin Gentien (vocals, electric guitar, cascas), and Pierre Lauth-Karson (vocals, harmonica, shaker)—has established a North American home base in Albuquerque. Last spring, their Encuentros Íntimos (Intimate Encounters) concert series here quickly developed a devoted (and SRO) audience and produced a live recording, Encuentros Íntimos: Unplugged in Albuquerque, and the band also recorded a studio album, Si viene la muerte, before taking off on a four-month European tour. This week, the band—now a sextet for its New Mexico appearances, with the addition of Terry Bluhm (bass), Jefferson Voorhees (drums), and Caro Acuña (percussion)—is launching another set of Encuentros Íntimos. This year’s edition includes four appearances in Santa Fe and four in Albuquerque. Anyone interested in an ecstatic musical experience should mark their calendars accordingly.
On Trio Tapestry, his first recording on ECM as a leader, tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano called on pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi—and his own long history with the likes of Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Gunther Schuller, and Hank Jones, among others—to create an album of expressive and intimate beauty. The trio will bring their atmospheric grace to the stage at the Outpost on March 12.
Albuquerque singer/songwriters continue to release original work that deserves wider attention. Here are two completely different takes on reality: the sublimely ridiculous Get It Up from Sage and Jared’s Happy Gland Band, and the earnestly searching Stubborn Heart from Kevin Herig.
Singer/songwriter Isaac Aragon has two pieces of good news for music listeners: First, he is releasing his new single, “Love Bless America,” on February 19 via the familiar online outlets. Second, he has recently made the decision to flip his work schedule, going from full- to part-time at his physical therapy gig (he’s got a doctorate in that discipline) and from part- to full-time in his music career. That means you’ll be seeing the Peñasco native/Los Lunas resident playing out a much more often than in the past, and you’ll be hearing a lot of new music from him this year. If the rest is anything like “Love Bless America”—oh, baby.
