We have Howard's wife Angie to thank for him finally realizing a Christmas album – just the hearth-warm blend of jazzy soul and spirit fans would expect. First and foremost is that voice, so soothing and familiar in all of its cherished riffs. It's George Duke who really puts that voice to the test with a new song titled "That's Christmas" – one that requires Howard to spend an inordinate amount of time in the falsetto register of his range, then shows him some mercy by having Kirk Whalum slide in and blow some wonderful tenor horn. Also sweet is Howard singing the duet "Baby it's Cold Outside" in English with a young lady named Jassette fighting off his mistletoe mack...in Spanish! Howard's old friend Ralph Johnson of Earth Wind & Fire makes sure the jazz is covered with Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time is Here" (in subtle shades of Stepney - wink), "What Child is This" (gon' Myron McKinley on piano), and "The Christmas Song" with Stevie Wonder dropping in on harmonica. Meanwhile, another longtime friend, Monty Seward, collaborates with Howard on another new melancholy gem titled "I Remember Christmas" that will touch all of us who have ever been briefly yet sweetly reunited with someone who is no longer ours 'round about Christmastime. These are a few of my favorite things from Howard's 11-song holiday gift...say "Amen."

 

Hands down, Mr. Patterson has gifted us with the most unique, feel-good alternative techno soul rock Christmas party album of the year! Good cheer cometh in abundance with his bright and airy 11-track collection balanced by originals and eclectically selected covers. That cheer is even more appreciated when the mood is broken for the deeply moving "That First Christmas," Rahsaan's remembrance of the first Christmas he had to spend in the absence of someone very dear in his life. Picking favorites here is hard because it's such a futuristic and funky ride. I'd have to go with the opening "Holiday," the Earth Wind & Fire-like groove of "Peace and Joy," his collaboration with Van Hunt titled "Christmas at My House," his cover of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" and the ambient lemon custard drop of "The Ultimate Gift." Props to Bro. Patterson and production partner Jamey Jaz.

 

This lady gets right to the heart of the holiday in all of its profound manifestations of spirituality, family and romance with this scintillating offering. She begins with a bang in the layered vocal of "I'll Go" (penned by Richard Smallwood who also plays piano) that explodes into a get down version of "Children Go Where I Send Thee" for rhythm section and choir that will rock-a your soul in the bosom of Abraham! "Led" also composed four numbers including the sassy/sexy "Be There for Christmas," the longing of a wife waiting for her soldier man to come home titled "This Christmas (Could Be The One)," a jazzily evocative collaboration with George Duke titled "It's Christmas" and a straightforward groove of gratitude titled "Thank You." Of the traditional and cover songs Led brings to life, none is more mesmerizing than "Silent Night" with her wordless melodies floating over the brushed drums of Teddy Campbell and the fretless bass of Melvin Davis – a truly fresh take on an often covered classic (masterfully produced with eight others by Rex Rideout). And I must add that the inlay photo of Ledisi in her royal highness lounging attire among the candles is her most breathtaking to date.

 

Back in 1983, Al Jarreau cut a holiday 45 of the old chestnut "The Christmas Song" in his inimitable style. Ever since then, fans have been waiting for Uncle Al to record a full album. 25 years later, that dream is now a reality with a project (co-produced with longtime band members Larry Williams, Joe Turano and Chris Walker) that melds Jarreau's smooth jazz style with the sounds of Christmas from around the globe. The 12 songs and one interlude are highlighted by the jazz waltz "Carol of the Bells," a version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" with an introductory lyric penned by Al, a lovely "I'll Be Home For Christmas" paired with fellow vocal gymnasts Take 6, a wonderful clarinet-infused arrangement of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by the great Clare Fischer (with his son Brent Fischer), and a lovely Island finale with Mickey Rooney's "The Little Christmas Tree."

 

Jazz piano titan McCoy Tyner went "out of this world" with the concept for his latest album – a project that features him working with five amazing and very different guitarists. Renowned as among acoustic jazz's most passionate players, McCoy shines in this unorthodox context. That this project is an event is manifested in it being a double CD and DVD package, with the DVD portion offering three hours of viewing pleasure capturing the session from cameras trained on each of the players. Banjoist Bela Fleck brings a tangy percussive texture to his original composition "Tradewinds" while Mark Ribot brings out the cosmic explorer in Tyner with two bet-free improvisations. Derek Trucks brings things back down to earth with "Slapback Blues" and John Scofield insures that classic statements are spoken here with "Mr. P.C." However, for this writer, it is the three collaborations with Bill Frisell that are most transfixing, nudging McCoy into the mystic. With the rhythm section of bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette, McCoy Tyner's Guitars is a magic carpet ride you won't soon forget.

 

Wanna feel like you're on an acid trip yet without dropping a single tab? Lay your ears on George Clinton's latest, a determinedly un-funky session of soulful love songs crooned the way George used to back in the late '50s and '60s with his original stand-up vocal group The Parliaments. One must remember that George actually did sing (not just bark) SOME of those Parliament-Funkadelic classics...most memorably "One Nation Under a Groove." Here, he wraps his smoke-weathered chops around chestnuts like "Our Day Will Come," "It's All in The Game" and "A Thousand Miles Away." Most outrageous are a cover of Barry White's "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up" (can you imagine) and a duet with gospel star Kim Burrell on George's own "Mathematics of Love." The most successful of these strange mash-ups is his spot-on rendition of "Gypsy Woman," an early Curtis Mayfield classic (first recorded by The Impressions) featuring truly inspired guitar playing by special guest Carlos Santana. Other guests include El DeBarge, Red Hot Chili Peppers, RZA and Sly Stone (singing and noodling at some synthesizers). Far out, man... (co-produced by George with Philly Soul guru Bobby Eli).

 

It's hard being that album that comes behind a hell of an act to follow, but that's exactly the fate that the late, great Esther Phillips' Alone Again, Naturally faced coming behind her amazing Grammy-nominated From a Whisper to a Scream. Hindsight proves – with this lovingly assembled and long overdue reissue of the 1973 gem – that while not as seamlessly dynamic as its predecessor, was a natural extension with magic moments of its own. Those include the sexy wee hours blues of "Cherry Red" (featuring Cornell Dupree on guitar), the aural balm of the every-black-woman's saga "Georgia Rose" (with a preamble penned by Gil Scott-Heron), her reggae take on Bill Withers' "Use Me" (plus a lovely "Let Me in Your Life"), the sweet surprise in her cover of the Gilbert O'Sullivan pop smash "Alone Again (Naturally)" (with an amazing string break by Don Sebesky) and a version of "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" that you ache to hear in a take-no-prisoners nightclub set (she's just getting warmed up here). She earned another Grammy nomination for this Lp, but it took Aretha Franklin humbly giving Esther one of her statuettes to show you just how incredible Ms. Phillips really was.

 

This is one of those CDs that true fans flock to – a warts and all document of a Carmen McRae radio broadcast with the Don Abney Trio during her first trip abroad performing at The Flamingo Jazz Club in London, circa 1961. In one sense, it's a set like any other set a singer might have done at the time – a night at the office with casual flair, the occasional flash of brilliance and the occasional flub due to nerves (check "Body and Soul"). Priceless here are her version of an alternate lyric to "Round About Midnight" by Thelonious Monk (a man she would leave her indelible stamp on decades later with a full album tribute that was among the last recordings before her death), a truly lovely "Don't Ever Leave Me" and a fun encore swing through the Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me." This is one of several fine jazz rarity CD's from Acrobat Music's Premier Collection, including others by the Miles Davis All-Stars, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan with Woody Herman & His Orchestra.

 

While we are in a profound mode of thanks for the return of Labelle the trio with its comeback CD Back to Now (see this month's Startime column), we cannot overlook Ms. Patti's burnin' solo Live in D.C. CD, handpicked from the Philadelphia International vault by Gamble and Huff themselves. The Spirit's In It is the album she was promoting here back in '82 and those words are also fitting here as Patti throws down on a well balanced collection of songs from both her recent solo outings (from the thrilling "Joy to Have Your Love" to the heartwarming "You Are My Friend") as well as Labelle trio signatures like "Lady Marmalade" and "What Can I Do For You." In fact, it is her solo take on Labelle's "Isn't it a Shame" that is the mid-show of this disc. The audience is fired up and in the palm of Patti's hands all night, and she'll have you wrapped up the same way before your speakers at home. Like UPS, Patti LaBelle delivers right on time.

 

You know a sista is showing some righteous love when the first sound you hear on her album is the saxophone of her man, Michael Bolivar. Vibrations such as that flow through the solid debut of Angie Whitney, a veteran of The Spinners' road shows. She has a voice that reminds you of sweet yesterdays with her charming, jazzy versatility. Produced by the ever-dependable Michael B. Sutton, the album is highlighted by the instructional title track, the poetically evocative "Black Rose of Harlem," a sassy take on Billie Holiday "Now or Never," a nod to Sutton's own wonderful "Flight," the deep bass funk of "Excuse Me (I've Got a Life to Catch)," and a truly transporting version of "Love Me By Name" (which you may remember Patti Austin singing on Quincy Jones' Sounds...and Stuff Like That Lp).

 

Wow! Wow! Wow! For those of us who have been awaiting the glorious reunion of Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, Back to Now serves up all the angles diehards would be starving for – blues-drenched power ballads ("Candlelight" and "Superlover"), hard rockin' message tunes (a cover of Mother's Finest's "The Truth Will Set You Free" and the amazing "Tears For The World" – penned by Patti with Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff), fierce three-part harmonies, one BIG love song ("Without You In My Life"), one BIG anthem of change – the theme of the moment ("How Long"), stratospheric leads from Patti (pick one), intimate writing from Nona ("Dear Rosa," a letter to Ms. Parks) and an ingenious choice for production collaborations (Lenny Kravitz - 'nuff said). With the exception of one song (the lead-off single "Roll Out" produced by Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis – a most unfortunate experiment that commits the sins of funneling Patti's voice through digital manipulation and scant evidence of her partners at all), this is the perfect Labelle reunion album. There's even a previously unreleased gem from '69 with their epic revision of "Miss Otis Regrets" (featuring the late Keith Moon of The Who on drums no less)! All that PLUS those of us too young to see them live getting the promise of a concert tour – I'm not sure we deserve it all at this hurtin' time in history but we'll take it...'cuz we need it! Four and 3/4 stars!!!!

 

This young lady has come out of nowhere to drop one of the most sonically interesting pop records of the year. Her amazing voice (urgent upfront, heavenly in overdubbed backgrounds) is cushioned by the aural tapestries of experts like Salaam Remi, Missy Elliott, Stargate and others. Her sound is big (one song is even titled "Dream Big" – about coming to Hollywood to make it...BIG). Whether taking on the mindset of an abused girlfriend on "Call Me Guilty" to the cautionary love vibe of "Lions and Tigers and Bears' to the psychological warfare revenge smash "Bust Your Windows" and the sexy reggae make-up joint "Need U Bad," Jasmine is no quarter with hers. She reminds me of an artist I dearly miss from the late '90s, Andrea Martin, with her vivid writing skills and arresting voice, yet the production is so timely, dynamic and full (even encompassing a touch of beat-fortified jazz on "Live a Lie") that I can hear many of these songs making it to the mainstream that sadly eluded Martin. And who can't relate to "Fear" on which everything around us is grounds for fear. Yet, judging from Jazmine's overall largeness, we shall overcome. Labelle will applaud this fierce young talent.

 

In my ongoing effort to promote openness to music from other cultures, I now take a deep bow to a living legend: Havana, Cuba's Omara Portuondo. Words are failing me at this moment to convey just how purely and directly this woman's voice penetrates your soul. She is given an impeccable and loving production on this album – songs of her personal choosing that she always longed to sing as she reflects back on an incomparable 60-year career. And I know I'm not alone just from the way bassist Avishai Cohen accompanies her on double bass for the song "Adios Felicidad," or how rapturous Roberto Fonseca's piano rises and falls on "Vuela Pena," or Swami Jr.'s 7-string guitar on "Cuento Para un Nino," and on and on. The reverence is palpable through the speakers. The lady has a way with language that musically serves the song yet is also like soliloquy – well-worded expression telegraphing sentiments and emotions that transcend them. This means you will feel this woman's soul when you listen...and I must insist that you challenge yourself to do so. Your heart will thank you.

This lady has always been a powerhouse live, but I found her two Virgin albums – while containing moments of brilliance – never really adding up to a cohesive whole. Ms. Costa has rectified all of that with Pebble to a Pearl, her first album for the reinstated Stax Records label (through the Concord Music Group). Here she has planted her feet deep in the fertile soul music soil of Memphis, utilizing top-shelf ringers such as guitarist Chris Bruce, keyboardist James Poyser and the ever-busy Daptones Band along with seasoned veterans like James Gadson lording over the drums. To me, Nikka has always been the reincarnation of Lydia Pense of the San Francisco rockin' soul horn band Cold Blood from the late '60s/early '70s – more controlled than a Janis Joplin yet wielding a mojo that could stand up to peers past and present. With her pedigree, she is miles beyond the unstable Winehouses of the world and a damn sight more exciting to see live. But the great thing is that this album has songs that stick with you like the crazy hooky "Stuck To You," "Without Love" and "Keep Pushin'," to the Stevie-esque title track, the bluesy "Lovin' You" and "Love to Love You Less" and the dub reggae "Damn I Said it First." She even ricochets back to the future with the closing "Bullets in the Sky." Every vibration rings authentic and Nikka sings them like she's lived them.

 

Consider this modern soul man comfortable in his own skin. His eagerly awaited latest offering, Something Else, sustains an assured and relaxed feel whether Thicke is getting his Chicago step on with, appropriately, "Sidestep," mining '70s boudoir Marvin for all its worth on "Ms. Harmony" or righteously navel gazing with the reassuring pendulum backbeat track "Dreamworld." And he brings a metaphoric grace to the hypnotic closer "Cry No More" that is rare in the lyrics of modern R&B. He's got more on his mind than the everyday love man and he's blended this bittersweet concoction with élan and care.

 

Taking her inspiration from the multi-dimensional messages of Marvin Gaye's timeless "What's Going On," singer/songwriter Terry Dexter lends voice to the myriad of issues troubling society today on Listen (the inaugural release for Penny's Gang Records, a joint venture between producer Chris Bolden and former Olympic Skier Penny McCoy). Emphasizing thoughtful lyrics and a varied musical backdrop that swings from acoustic to electric to churchy to pop from track to track, Dexter's 10-song Listen is a tightly conceived potpourri of purpose. Highlights include the title track (challenging boys to gracefully move into manhood), the familiar homeless story "No Place To Go," the wicked creep of the opener "Crazy" (about youth led astray) and the uplifting, radio-ready "I'm Free" (very Ne-Yo-esque). Props to Ms. Dexter, primary co-writer Jamey Jaz and company for bolding launching this imprint with a project filled with such weighty but necessary themes.

 

It is so nice to hear the incomparable Maysa back to singing original material after two albums of classic covers. Her songs sound and feel deeper for the time she had to marinate and really make her next personal statement. The centerpiece of the project is "I Need a Man," a plea to bring back the family structure – much like Barack Obama has spoken about in his campaign speeches. She all but says she is looking for a man like her father who had love to spare. Elsewhere on the CD are musical highlights like the opener "Simpatico" (a sexy co-write with frequent collaborator Rex Rideout), a serious guitar groove in two distinctly tempo'd parts (dedicated to Bluey of Incognito, featuring guitarist Nick Collione and produced by Chris "Big Dog" Davis) titled "Let's Figure it Out," the lovely layered vocals of "Take Me Away" and her pairing with Jason Miles and DJ Logic of Global Noize, titled "A Conversation With the Universe."

 

It's no secret that the jazz world is coming up short with regards to replenishing viable male singers. In this month's one to watch category is an up and comer from New Orleans named Kenny Washington, captured in an intimate live set in Northern California where he now resides at Anna's Jazz Island - a venue run by singer Anna de Leon who only supports the very best. The diminutive Washington has a crisp delivery and diction. While some of the material selected for this set could have been fresher ("Girl from Ipanema" – puh-lease), he really brings the latter half of his CD alive with a spry scat through Sonny Rollins' "Oleo" (he should re-sequence the CD and open with this) and by suspending "Summertime" in soulful animation. He is also quite convincing with his takes on "My Foolish Heart" and a finale of The Beatles' "Yesterday." We're keeping an eye on you, Mr. Washington.

 

On behalf of the momentous vision and campaign of change that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have swept the optimistic upward with his call to action, Hidden Beach Recordings has compiled a selection of uplifting songs spanning genres and styles – like America herself. A few of the songs are new, including Lionel Richie's "Eternity." Others have been enhanced with excerpts from speeches by Obama (John Mayer's "Waiting for the World to Change" and Jill Scott's Spanish-tinged "One is The Magic") and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (BeBe Winans' "I Have a Dream"). Still others are inspired covers (John Legend interpreting U2's "Pride, in the Name of Love." The melting pot overflows with additions from L.A.'s Ozomatli crew to Los Lonely Boys. Rockers Jackson Browne, Dave Stewart and Sheryl Crow weigh in. Hip Hop is present via Malik Yusef while youth pop is handed by newcomers Shontelle and Suai. But the song that is most clear-eyed in its simple eloquence and execution of the real road ahead one the parties top is Buddy Miller's acoustic country meditation "Wide River to Cross." ("I'm only halfway home / I've gotta journey long / To where I'll find the thing I have lost / I've come a long, long road / And still I've got miles to go / I've got a wide, wide river to cross").