Released 2014 Label Relative Pitch Records | Recorded October 26, 2013 Length 50:42 Release date 27 May 2014 | |
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Similar Fire in the Valley, New World Pygmies, First Feeding, New World Pygmies vol 2, Revolt of the Negro Lawn Joc | ||
The Zookeeper's House is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, which was recorded in 2013 and released on Relative Pitch. It was his first album leading a full band in over a decade.
Contents
Music
Moondoc plays the ballad "For the Love of Cindy" with only the rhythm section composed of bassist Hilliard Greene and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. On the title track and "One for Monk and Coltrane" they are joined by pianist Matthew Shipp. On "Little Blue Elvira" and Alice Coltrane's classic "Ptah, the El Daoud" the band is a quintet with a three-horn front line featuring trumpeter Roy Campbell, in his final recorded appearance and to whom the album is dedicated, and trombonist Steve Swell, who played before with Moondoc on the record Swimming in a Galaxy of Goodwill and Sorrow, by Swell's band Fire Into Music.
Reception
The Down Beat review by Josef Woodard states "The new five-track set, with different groupings and musical angles, captures a distinctly live vibrancy and in-the-moment vulnerability in the studio."
Burning Ambulance placed the album at #1 on their Best Jazz of 2014 list.
Track listing
All compositions by Jemeel Moondoc except as indicated
- "The Zookeeper's House" - 9:11
- "Little Blue Elvira" - 9:43
- "Ptah, the El Daoud" (Alice Coltrane) - 10:48
- "One for Monk and Trane" - 12:42
- "For the Love of Cindy" - 8:18
Personnel
Songs
1The Zookeeper's House9:11
2Little Blue Elvira9:43
3Ptah - The El Daoud10:48