The Walker Art Center’s 2024-25 season has a lot going for it. Here are some highlights: Coming in December, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter/bassist and Blue Note Records artist Meshell Ndegeocello will perform music (jazz and hip-hop) from her latest album, “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin,” (presented with the Dakota).
In March, London-based jazz saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings plays flute with a six-member
ensemble. In April, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey
and his trio will perform two separate concerts, one with alto saxophonist Greg Osby.
In an article about the new season, Star Tribune writer Sheila Regan said that racial justice and blurring lines between performance and visual arts were themes. Philip Bither, performing arts curator at the Walker, added, “There are four or five pieces that are pretty hardcore, raising the continued oppression and seeking out Black joy and liberation in the face of ongoing discrimination and racism in this country.”
Jazz drummer and bandleader Louis Hayes, who is 87 years old, has a new album entitled,
“Artform Revisited” from Savant Records. His bandmates include tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, pianist David Hazeltine, and bassist Dezron Douglas.
On this new album, the NEA Jazz Master fondly recalls some of his old friends, but it also stands as one of today’s finest post-bebop sessions. Some of his carefully chosen tracks are “Tour de Force,” “Milestones,” “Ray’s Idea,” and “Dewey Square.”
For the last 60 years, Hayes has put together an impressive body of work, playing and recording with the likes of Grant Green, Oscar Peterson, Kenny Burrell, Sonny Rollins, and Dexter Gordon, among others. Hayes has proven himself to be more than a prolific drummer but also a charismatic bandleader who is showing no signs of stopping.
Another album out now, and recently released in time for Juneteenth, is “Freedom, Justice and Hope,” which is a live performance album of historic jazz records created to protest racial injustice, according to the record label Blue Engine Records.
Assembled for the album is a new arrangement of the great John Coltrane’s “Alabama,” which pays homage to the four Black girls killed when the Ku Klux Klan bombed Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. Also, look out for original compositions by the incredible young bassist Endea Owens and talented trumpeter Josh Evans.
The album was recorded in 2021 and features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with
trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and civil rights lawyer and jazz pianist Bryan Stevenson, who
founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a criminal justice reform and racial justice nonprofit based
in Montgomery, Alabama. All the songs are instrumental with no vocals, and Stevenson’s monologues are powerfully delivered.
On July 7, we remembered the late great saxophonist Hank Mobley. He was born that day in
1930 and died in 1986. Mobley was well-known for his rhythmic sophistication and was often called the “middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone.” I highly recommend listening to his albums, “Soul Station,” “No Room for Squares,” and “Tenor Conclave.” My favorite song featuring Mobley is “If I Should Lose You.”
Jazz trumpeter and composer Lee Morgan was born on July 10, 1938, and died on Feb. 19, 1972. He was a standout hard-bop musician of the 1960s who recorded several stellar albums for Blue Note Records. Morgan recorded with Mobley, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. If you want to gain an appreciation for his sound, listen to his albums, “Lee-Way” and “Search for the New Land.” Those two albums are among his very best. In 2021, his album, “The Complete Live at The Lighthouse” (Blue Note), was released to great fanfare.
Plan ahead: Coming up at the Dakota, Terrace Martin featuring James Fauntleroy on August 9. The JazzMN Orchestra presents Delfeayo Marsalis on Sept 22. For tickets, visit www.dakotacooks.com.