Big Black is the name for the renowned percussionist who was born under the name Danny Ray. At an early age, Black left his home in Georgia and headed for Florida and the Bahamas so he could learn the conga drum while playing with top musicians in calypso and salsa bands. Returning to the US northeast, Black became a top percussionist in the world of jazz as he performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Sun Ra, Pharoh Sanders, Eric Dolphy and many others. In the late 60s, when the jazz world was at a sort of experimental peak, he put out a couple albums as a leader. “Elements of Now” is one of those albums and it displays Black’s knowledge and expertise in a variety of African derived rhythms that became popular in Cuba, the Bahamas, the US and elsewhere. Black is joined on here by a small horn section, a couple guitarists, a drummer and a bass player, but the star of the show is Big Black and his African Kongo drum.

This album is all bout the rhythm and features several tracks in that RnB flavored Cuban groove known as boogaloo, a style made popular by Mongo Santamaria. In fact, side one closer, “La De Da”, has enough dance potential that it could have been a hit, but that apparently didn’t happen. Other songs on “Elements of Now” venture into calypso, swing boogie and more pronounced African flavors with closing track, “Burundi Pose”, getting into fairly abstract almost avant-garde territory. If there is a missing link between Sun Ra and Mongo, then this album might be it. There are some horn solos, particularly from the two saxophonists, but also occasional rides from the guitarists and the tuba meisters too. The main feature of this album though is the many percussion breakdowns that feature Black and his drum while the others hold steady patterns, including the guitarists who are masters of the Jimmy Nolan style repeating guitar riff. Fans of Pharoh Sanders, Sun Ra and the more experimental side of Afro-Cuban jazz will find a lot to like here.

Trumpeter Curtis Taylor released two EPs late in the previous decade, but the recent, “Taylor Made”, is his first full length album as a leader. Curtis is hardly a new comer to the jazz world, having already worked with Gregory Porter, Patrice Rushen, Cyrus Chestnut and many others. His new album reflects some modern trends in post bop jazz with its fusion and art rock/pop influences as in what you might get if you mixed pianist Bill Evans with Radiohead or Blur. Curtis has a clean and precise sound on the trumpet and avoids any gimmicks associated with the instrument in a style similar to current players like Marquis Hill and Wynton Marsalis, or going further back, Clifford Brown. Pianist Theron Brown reflects the art pop meets post bop sound of Brad Mehldau with a grounding in Herbie Hancock, and on the ballad material he might display grand loungey flourishes that recall Ahmad Jamal. Saxophonist Marcus Elliot recalls Joshua Redmon, with, once again, an ability to mix post bop and more current pop/rock type flavors.

“Taylor Made” is a fairly eclectic outing, one highlight is the high octane bop of “Heightened Awareness”, it would be nice to hear more tracks like this in the future. “Kham’s Dilemma” is abstract post bop with a fusion drive and “For Her” is the romantic ballad in 3/4 time. The last three tracks on the album get more into their art pop meets post bop blend with the imposing buildup chords of “Indomitable” sounding like an acoustic prog rock number. “Hashtagged” is in 7/4 time that is somewhat disguised as almost in waltz time. “Journey” has a driving snare rim click and sounds like something Miles’ second quintet would have played in the mid 60s. This is a nice start for Curtis, and with his background in jazz, RnB, pop and gspel, its hard to predict where he might head next.

The Isley Brothers are the longest running RnB/rock act in the world, having started in the mid 1950s and still going, albeit with only two brothers left, Ronnie and Ernie, but those two have always been the most important members anyway. The band started with three Isley brothers up front singing, but when younger brothers Ernie and Marvin joined, plus cousin Chris Jaspers, they had a full band. Their early music centered around gospel flavored rock-n-roll and they scored a major hit with “Shout”, a popular song to this day. Moving into the late 60s and early 70s they got into James Brown influenced proto funk and also eclectic rock and pop cover songs. Its this late 60s and early 70s version of the band that is featured on “The Best … Isley Brothers”, a compilation on the Buddah label that came out in 1976. There are also many other best of Isleys albums out there covering other episodes of their career.

This is an excellent compilation, and represents their early forays into funk with songs like, “Its Your Thang” and “Pop that Thang”. They certainly had a thang for thangs. The many cover tunes in a variety of pop, rock and RnB modes are also excellent. Few bands can transform someone else’s hit the way the Isleys do as they present very creative versions of “Fire and Rain”, “Ohio”, “Lay Lady Lay” and many more. The salient feature of the Isleys is their ensemble vocal power, led by Ronnie Isley, one of the best romantic crooners in RnB history. As the band moved into the mid 70s, they developed a strong rock-funk sound as featured on the hit, “Fight the Power”, and Ernie stepped up as a blazing Hendrix influenced guitarist, but to hear all that you will need to seek out their later compilations.

Back in the 60s and 70s, Hammond B3 soul jazz was a gateway into the jazz world for many RnB and rock fans since so many rock/RnB bands had organ players who brought their soul jazz riffs to a larger rock oriented public. Greg Rollie, Billy Preston, Jon Lord and Greg Allman were just some of the rockers whose solos reflected their interest in the jazz B3 greats they emulated. Unfortunately the B3 and soul jazz fell out of favor during the synthesizer and Rhodes dominated fusion years, kind of ironic since soul jazz was the original fusion, but lo and behold, in the past couple decades soul jazz has staged an unlikely comeback and the sound of the B3 is back on the jazz air waves and nightclubs.

Tony Monaco is a big part of this B3 revival as he has cut 13 albums since 2000 and is still going strong. “Over and Over” is his latest release and it reflects the sort of diversity one can expect from a good soul jazz record. High energy hard bop is represented by “One for Pat Martino” and “Ready Set Go”, and Latin grooves come with “My Lil Rosie Girl” and “Sailboat”. The rest of the album features funk and hip-hop rhythms topped by album closer “Uprooted” which is a dead ringer for a JB’s track, complete with Jimmy Nolan style chicken scratching.

Tony lists the usual B3 suspects as influences, Jimmy McGriff, Groove Holmes, Jack McDuff etc, but probably the influence that shines through the most is Jimmy Smith. Jimmy always had a little more bebop to his playing and less RnB riffing, and Tony’s playing reflects that influence. This should come as no surprise as Tony studied with Smith for several years and has performed at Smith’s club as well. Guitarist Zakk Jones has a contemporary John Schofield influenced sound in which RnB, hard bop and blues blend seamlessly. On the album closer he goes distorted jazz rock style recalling Mike Stern’s work with Miles Davis. Reggie Jackson is the funky drummer that drives this trio as they offer a non-stop joy ride with no dud tracks.

By the time the year 2000 rolled around, Calvin Keys was already a veteran of the soul jazz scene, having played his first gigs when he was a teenager back in the 60s. Originally from the mid-west, Calvin worked with all the major Hammond B-3 artists such as Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff and Groove Holmes before moving to LA in the early 70s. In the 90s Calvin re-located to the SF Bay Area just in time to enjoy that scene’s acid jazz explosion which made a musician with a good soul jazz resume an artist in demand. A lot of small labels sprang up in SF at this time to capitalize on a growing interest in mixing soul jazz with current hip-hop sensibilities. This was a scene that was unique to SF within the US, but it mirrored similar scenes in Europe, especially England. So it came to pass that Calvin was tapped by the Wide Hive label to record his first album as a leader in some time, as Wide Hive tried to capitalize on the Bay Area’s fascination with the merger of hip-hop and jazz.

“Detours into Unconscious Rhythms” is a very solid funk jazz record, and although there are nods to some trendy hip-hopisms, things do not get too watered down in an attempt to sound hip. Instead, Calvin and his crew focus on making great music that would fit any time period. Like most soul jazz cats, Calvin’s playing is based in the blues, but he eschews that Wes Montgomery octave sound that influenced so many other hard bop guitarists and instead goes for a more fleet fingered solo note style in a George Benson vein, but driven with fusion style repeating solo riffs that recall John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell. Calvin gets some good backing from his crew, particularly Chester Thompson who performs on several tracks with his Hammond B3.

Most of the tracks are great, “Tierra Naranja” is uptempo fusion with vibraphone contributions from Roger Glenn. Chester Thompson plays some Larry Young style organ work on “Perfection is Instant Death” with its almost prog rock sounding chord progression buildups and “Landing Pad” has some nice spacey psych Fender Rhodes from Kat Ouno. There is only one track with gratuitous record scratching. a feature that does date this album, but it is brief. There is one choral vocal track that some may find inspiring, while others may find it overwrought and dated, but otherwise this album is filled with top notch funk jazz fueled by Calvin’s very deft fret work.