“No Wind & No Rain” is the fourth album by this seven-piece ensemble from the Windy City. The group has been delivering an energetic mix of jazz, blues, soul, funk and gospel for years. Perhaps the ever-present wind in Chicago is the reason the city produces so many outstanding horn sections. The opening ‘The Laughing Heart’ immediately hits the mark: a catchy groove and a wonderful saxophone solo by founder, composer and bandleader John Fournier, before guitarist Larry Bown Jr. gets his moment. From the very first minute, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective storms through the speakers. Dee Alexander’s powerful, raw vocals are impossible to ignore. Not everything is played and sung at hurricane force; quite the opposite. In ‘Message to a Child’ Alexander shows she can sing beautifully in a restrained way as well. Here her voice makes the real difference: in dynamics, timbre, range and phrasing she lifts the track to a higher level. The band itself is at its best in the funkier sections, such as the closing instrumental ‘A Groove for Ramsey’, a tribute to jazz legend Ramsey Lewis, who passed away in 2022. Closing track? Not quite, because the final notes belong to the flugelhorn in an ‘interlude’, an instrumental break that is not really a break and actually ensures that “No Wind & No Rain” still arrives on land like a spent hurricane, reduced to a strong breeze. That could and should have been different. (Jeroen Mulder) (7/10) (Calligram Records)
CHICAGO SOUL JAZZ COLLECTIVE – NO WIND & NO RAIN
