Chicago Soul Jazz Collective: No Wind & No Rain
Calligram Records

Why Chicago jazz singer Dee Alexander is missing from the group photo on the inner sleeve of Chicago Soul Jazz Collective's fourth album is puzzling, given how pivotal her presence is to No Wind & No Rain (she does, however, dominate the album's colourful cover illustration by Arthur Wright). Sharing vocals with guitarist Larry Brown Jr., her powerhouse pipes elevate the band's music whenever they appear. No matter: led by tenor saxophonist John Fournier, the group lives up to its name with ten inspired performances drawing from jazz and grounded in soul, blues, funk, R&B, and gospel.

Initiated in 2017, the road leading to No Wind & No Rain was serendipitous, Fournier at that time wanting for inspiration and turning to artists he'd loved as a young musician, Ramsey Lewis, The Crusaders, Horace Silver, and the like. Wishing to play music as uplifting, Fournier assembled a band for a weekly residency at an Illinois club and building on the reception it received recorded its debut, a live set of classic soul jazz tunes called Soulophone, and then followed it with an album of original material, It Takes a Spark to Start a Fire. With Alexander in the fold, Chicago Soul Jazz Collective produced On the Way to Be Free and now presents No Wind & No Rain.

The album's theme concerns perseverance, but don't chastise yourself for less attending to it and more the performances. Many of the cuts are infectious and packed with tight funk grooves, crisp horn lines, and exuberant vocals. Fleshing out the band are pianist trumpeter/flugelhornist Ryan Nyther, pianist Amr Fahmy, electric/acoustic bassist Micah Collier, and drummer Keith Brooks II (B-3 organ too). While Chicago Soul Jazz Collective is presented as a democratic collective, all of the album's compositions are credited to Brown Jr. and/or Fournier. No Wind & No Rain is split, incidentally, between vocal and instrumental tracks, though two of the latter are miniatures.

The group's jazzier side comes through on the instrumentals when Fournier and Nyther are granted room to blow; that said, there's as much soul, funk, and blues in their playing as jazz, as the opening “The Laughing Heart” makes clear. Powered by Brooks II's popping snares and Collier's pulsing bass, the tune's funk-boogie groove provides a rousing base for the front-liners to wail over. Adding to the party vibe are fleet-fingered rhythm guitar work, a sparkling organ solo, bass slaps, and, driving the point home, handclaps. With “A Town Called Mercy,” Alexander enters the fray, the tempo slowed and the mood soulful. The swaying instrumental arrangement provides a terrific foundation for the singer's raw emoting, especially when the horns sweetly purr and Fahmy adds an elegant piano solo. Brown Jr. shows he's no slouch in the vocal department when he takes the mic for the soulful “So Alive pt. 2,” its lyric “You thought I was dead but I've never been so alive” alluding to the album's theme of resilience. A similar message is communicated in the title track when Alexander drawls “They can't make no wind strong enough to blow my castle down,” though this time it's delivered within a steamy funk context—don't miss the horn episode that calls Stevie Wonder (“Sir Duke,” especially) and Earth, Wind & Fire to mind in equal measure.

The somewhat Metheny-esque “There Is Light interlude #1” lets one catch one's breath for a minute before the radiant folk-soul ballad “Message to a Child,” elevated by a heartfelt vocal from Alexander, lifts the spirits. Radiating hope and affirmation is the mellow instrumental “There Is Light Somewhere,” whose sultry romantic melody gives Fournier a terrific moment to showcase his tone and Brown Jr. his prowess as a soloist. As the album winds down, the ensemble pays homage to Ramsey Lewis with the funky “A Groove For Ramsey” (also woven into the track is a birthday shout-out by Obama). Ending the set with a memorable postscript, Nyther struts his flugelhorn and muted trumpet chops in the second “There Is Light” interlude.

June 2026