Orrin Evans’s Captain Black Big Band
Some of the same energy of the Sanabria record lives in “Captain Black Big Band” (Posi-Tone), the first album from a new large ensemble led by the pianist Orrin Evans. Recorded at spots around Philadelphia and New York City over the past year, it is deep in the tradition of African-American East Coast jazz since the mid-’60s, percussive, punching and hard swinging; it might make you think of big bands led by Charles Tolliver, Charles Mingus and Clifford Jordan. And with its multiple composers and even multiple pianists, it’s got range. (Mr. Evans conducts as well; when he does, others take his keyboard bench.) There are many soloists worth mentioning here — the trumpeter Walter White, the drummer Anwar Marshall, the pianist Neil Podgurski. But the alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw outdoes them all with his performance at the end of Mr. Evans’s alternately peaceful and baleful piece “Jena 6.” It is a prolonged and controlled fury, definitely one of the best improvisations I’ve heard this year.
