JAZZ REVIEW: The Chicago Should Jazz Collective "No Wind & No Rain" by Jeff Cebulski

The Chicago Soul Jazz Collective. No Wind & No Rain, Calligram Records, 2026.

By Jeff Cebulski ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Dee Alexander, vocals

Larry Brown Jr., guitar and vocals

John Fournier, tenor sax

Ryan “Blue” Nyther, trumpet and flugelhorn

Amr Fahmy, piano and Fender Rhodes

Micah Collier, electric and acoustic bass

Keith Brooks II, drums and B-3 organ

The soul jazz tradition in Chicago has spawned many notable personalities: Ramsey Lewis, the Staples, Minnie Riperton, Donny Hathaway, Oscar Brown Jr., the Pickens family, Curtis Mayfield, and Herbie Hancock, among others. A local ensemble that has epitomized this tradition is the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, which makes numerous appearances at Winter’s Jazz Club and has released No Wind & No Rain, its fourth album, on Calligram Records. Featuring the stirring and luxurious vocals of Dee Alexander, the band does its best incorporating the genre’s finest characteristics while managing to sound as original as possible. This new album features music that sounds like its predecessors but has unique arrangements that incorporate rhythmic and stylistic elements so that any track can bring back a load of memories while shining a light on its contemporary musicians through guitarist Larry Brown Jr.’s and the group’s production and arrangements.

Meanwhile, the songs’ messages invoke the better memories of 60’s soul and gospel music, which lift the heart and invite fellowship. After a swinging instrumental, saxophonist John Fournier’s “The Laughing Heart,” to start, Alexander croons “A Town Called Mercy.” Riding Micah Collier’s sumptuous electric bass line and Fournier and trumpeter “Blue” Nyther’s stately brass attack, Dee sets up a double-sided narrative adorned by Amr Fahmy’s lovely piano that begins in the lowland (“I met a holy man/He said freedom is forgiveness/You better get some while you can”) and then, in Brown Jr.’s “So Alive pt. 2,” recovers into confident hope: “You thought I was dead but I’ve never been so alive.” Kudos to Brown for his tidy, shimmering guitar fills and Keith Brooks II for his equally tidy and insistent drumming.

The gospel trope is strong throughout. The title cut pronounces a hard-to-deny urban paradox:

There’s always a flood in my neighborhood

The streets are always on fire

But the church bells ring out

And the true word takes flight

Brown’s funky, pedaled guitar provides the energy here, and the band grooves into a complex interlude before Alexander and Brown return to the theme attached to another jazz moment.

The brass arrangement in “Message to a Child” has the aura of a Dionne Warwick song, with an uplifting lyric and sensitive Brown solo that builds to a pleasing, dramatic chordal refrain. Alexander’s closing appeal—“Close down every dream/And fill your days with song”—touches the willing heart as the ensemble pours out love. “On the Way to Be Free” exudes a deep but positive funk peppered with percussive spice, including some tasty Alexander scat. Among the songs is a triad of “There Is a Light” pieces composed by Brown and Fournier. The middle portion, “There Is a Light Somewhere” is pure contemporary jazz featuring Fournier’s soulful sax.

A live track, “A Groove for Ramsey,” showcases the Collective’s jazz chops in the Lewis style, recorded in front of an appreciative audience. Brown sets down a melodic, colloquial blues statement atop Collier’s rugged bass and Fahmy’s ringing Fender Rhodes, with some Obama ‘Happy Birthday, Ramsey’ audio mixed in.

For those who never want the ‘soul’ to disappear in our fair city, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective is the best way to keep it alive these days. No Wind & No Rain represents, with grace, aplomb, and style.

For more info, go to calligramrecords.com.

About Jeff Cebulski

Jeff Cebulski, who lives in Chicago, is a retired English educator (both secondary and collegiate) and longtime jazz aficionado. His career in jazz includes radio programs at two stations in southeast Wisconsin, an online show on Kennesaw State’s (GA) Owl Radio from 2007 until 2015, and review/feature writing for Chicago Jazz Magazine since 2016, including his column "Jazz With Mr. C". He has interviewed many jazz artists, including Joshua Redman, Charles Lloyd, Dave Holland, John Beasley, and Chris Brubeck, as well as several Chicago-based players. Jeff is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association. Contact Jeff at jeff@chicagojazz.com