Joanne Brackeen has been thrilling audiences for decades, performing professionally since her pre-teens and gigging around Los Angeles with the likes of Charles Lloyd, Bobby Hutcherson and Billy Higgins; she later attained the piano bench with jazz stars Joe Henderson, Stan Getz and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. As a leader, she’s helmed recording sessions with duos, trios and quartets since the mid-’70s, showcasing brilliant chops and compositional brio. Brackeen was at the top of her game in 1998, when she recorded the sizzling Pink Elephant Magic, recruiting bassist John Patitucci, drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and a then-rising-star front line of saxophonist Chris Potter and trumpeter Nicholas Payton for her 22nd album. The frantic pace of “Cram’n Exam” never relents, as the ensemble kicks off with frenzied unison lines that set the tempo for Brackeen’s swift and dexterous spotlight, with Patitucci and Hernandez racing alongside. Maintaining the caffeinated buzz, Payton jumps in with a bright, blasting solo, handing the baton to Potter who follows up with his own breathless, edgy statement. Hernandez also gets a chance to blow, adding his muscular mastery to the mix before Brackeen and the band return to the head for a raging outro. Released in 1999, Pink Elephant Magic was nominated for a Grammy, and Brackeen followed it with the exceptional solo-piano outing, Popsicle Illusion, in 2000. At the age of 87, the NEA Jazz Master continues to teach and perform, and two live albums in recent years capture performances at New York’s Jazz Standard with Ravi Coltrane on saxophone.
