The latest entry into the niche of boutique jazz labels to make a splash nationally is MaxJazz. The St. Louis-based imprint was founded in 1998 and in just a few short years has distinguished itself with a roster of first-rate, underrecorded artists and the artfully stylish fashion presentation each one receives. All discs are similarly designed and housed in digipaks adorned with stunning black-and-white or sepia-toned photos that make them immediately recognizable as MaxJazz releases. More importantly, the music itself is warm, intimate. Thus far, MaxJazz has steadied its course strictly through the mainstream. Their two dozen or so releases are divided nicely into, most prominently, a vocal series, a piano series, and a horn series. The latter was launched most recently and features two of the label’s finest albums to date. Young veteran trumpeter Terell Stafford delivers the goods on New Beginnings, a delightful session centered around a three-part suite and awash in a deep blues sensibility. Hot off the burners is up and coming Oakland-born trumpeter Jeremy Pelt‘s Close to My Heart. The contemplative date highlights the trumpeter’s lyrical side and illustrates that he’s much more than a brash, young fire-spitter. Those highlights aside, MaxJazz is probably best known for its bevy of talented singers that make up the vocal series. My favorite is sultry, soulful, Shreveport-bred and New Orleans-influenced songstress LaVerne Butler, whose Blues in the City was the label’s debut and set the bar for all subsequent releases. Motor City vocalist Carla Cook garnered the label’s only Grammy nomination thus far for her first MaxJazz album, It’s All About Love. Even better is her follow-up, Dem Bones, a funkier affair that features the warm, caressing sounds of three trombones, most notably that of Fred Wesley. The latest release in the piano series is Falling Up from former Jazz Messenger Geoffrey Keezer. A reflective project with Hawaiian slack key guitarist Keola Beamer providing some island inspired direction to a solid piano trio foundation, this is perhaps the most ambitious album of the series. With pianist Eric Reed about to birth the second offering in the Holiday Series and a nascent Vocal/Piano Series, MaxJazz is poised for continued kudos.
This article appears in Tom ‘Leatherface’ Delay.