Artist Overviews

Mar 28 2015

I listen to all of this: Klabbes Bank

 

Klabbes BankA handful of years ago, I stumbled upon the music of Klabbes Bank during one of my late-night sessions of just wandering the halls of the internet in search of cool new music.  They had just released their album Je Suis la Mer, and I immediately gravitated to it and everything else they’ve done during their career.  They’ve released four albums, which I’ll cover in today’s column.  They have a fifth album out now.  We’ll visit that one next week.  For now, I just want to give a rundown of what’s led up to this point.

There is a Friday Night Out On the Town quality to this Swedish jazz ensemble… an immediacy to the music that makes me feel like I’m not that far removed from a few rounds of beer.  The music feels like a celebration.  There’s an exuberance to how the individual members of the sextet throw their weight around.   And even when their individual contributions sound detached from one another, the music possesses a synchronicity that leads to a wonderful confluence of creative expressions.

This band is fun, and their music is joyful even during its darker moments.  And there are plenty of darker moments, heartbreaking at times, but then the spirits rise again with the blast of trombone, the ascendent optimism of piano keys, the eminence of sax blaring that all is right with the world, and bass, drums and percussion blazing a path to a long night that says The Weekend Is Here.

Now, about that music.

Let’s begin…

 

Klabbes Bank – Musik För Sånna Som Mormor & Morfar

Klabbes Bank - "Musik For Sanna Som Mormor Morfar"Their debut was the 2004 release Musik För Sånna Som Mormor & Morfar.  In addition to serving as an introduction to the ensemble as recording artists, it also presents all of the elements that have contributed to later recordings, in varying degrees.  Their debut spreads it out pretty evenly.  Looking back on it, their debut provides the least amount of definition to the band’s personality and vision.  However, by way of setting the table for what was to come, Musik För Sånna Som Mormor & Morfar was an excellent way to say “hello.”

Of all their albums, this one displays the greatest influence of post-bop in their discography.  Opening track “Hampe & Balle” develops a nice little groove and laces it with some post-bop heat.  This also happens to a greater degree on “I Värmland Är Det Schönt,”

“Skräcken” keeps the groove going, but spurs it on with a greater determination.  But the song’s selling point is the melodic dramatics going for a big sound and even some chaotic dispersal to bring the song to a close.  Their ability to draw out a melodic beauty even during sudden and dramatic surges of intensity is something Klabbes Bank excels at.  It’s also a quality that serves them well in subsequent recordings, as they become increasingly willing to utilize that talent on new compositions.

“Schysst Schönt” is a song made of moonlight.  It’s a form of expression that comes up often with Klabbes Bank.

The title-track gives some indication of what’s to come later, though never truly manifesting in its complete form until their 2013 release Protect the Forest.  The song has a fluid, but rapid motion, not unlike driving down long highways… a sense of a constant high rate of speed that feels almost serene, by way of its effortless propulsion and acclimation to a strange but familiar sound.

“Tunnelbanan” falls right in line with this.  It’s a preview of a distant point on their creative arc, while also encapsulating their potent mix of melodic enchantment and percussive engagement.  On the other hand, the celebratory tones and freer, volatile motion of “I Värmland Är Det Schönt” is a preview of music approaching much sooner.

The album ends with the sole vocal track, “Dödenlåten,” displaying the band’s ability to create profoundly heartbreaking moments out of the sweetest, warmest expressions.

It’s an excellent debut, the kind of album that is likely to generate some serious intrigue into what would come next.

Your album personnel:  Klas-Henrik Hörngren (piano), Thomas Backman (alto sax, clarinet), Tobias Sondén (bass), Fredrik Hamrå (drums), Joel Wästberg (tenor sax), Markus Ahlberg (trombone) and guest:  Mariam Wallentin (vocal).

This album is Self-Produced.

*****

 

Klabbes Bank – Kålsäter

Klabbes Bank - "Kalsater"What came next was the 2007 release Kålsäter.  The immediate impression it makes over its predecessor is of a greater presence.  The expressions are bolder and brimming with confidence.  And all throughout the recording are huge melodic pronouncements, sung out with a certain gravity indicative more of substantive depth than pro forma dramatics.  Furthermore, the rhythms are crisper, punctuated not for the sake of force but decisiveness.

The album opens right up with a dramatic melodicism, showing more control over their ferocity than displayed on their debut… which enhances the melodic sweetness now.  “Dina vackra lockar, min tomma lägenhet” is the sound of heartbreak.  Soft piano phrases lead into some strongly expressive saxophone parts, digging deep.

“Gondolen” is all about the party-time demeanor that carries a contemplative mood just behind its smile.  The foot-stomping jaunty cadence is juxtaposed against the long, gliding strokes of wind instruments calling out the melody, sometimes with a quiet roar, sometimes as the gentlest coo.

“Mellanspel” dives into melancholy waters, whereas “I Protest” shows that their strong sense of melody is retained even when they rise up and shout.  They layer loudness atop loudness, but with a discernment that allow the melodicism to cut right through the thick of it and to the bone.  “Sovlåt” hints at a stately dance, a formal affair designed loosely.

The album is marked by shifting tides of intensity.  “Kålsäters äng” moves slowly, inching ahead, creeping forward, followed by the pounding grind of “I Love You,” which screams and roars the melody out… no less beautiful for its rage, the melody handled no less deftly either.  This is followed by the soft moonlight of “Inte krig,” a song that has the boozy sonority of last call neighborhood bars.  “Ta taratta” is a rare moment of truly free improv.  Shrieking, skronking and a series of jabs and body blows that somehow develop into a parade march dance.

And just like on their debut album, Kålsäter ends with a sole vocal track, the lullaby “Vatten.”  It’s a nice way to look back to their past as the band develops into something new.

Your album personnel: Klas-Henrik Hörngren (piano, vocals), Joel Wästberg (alto & tenor saxes), Thomas Backman (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), Magnus Wiklund (trombone), Tobias Sondén (bass) and Fredrik Hamrå (drums).

Released on Imogena Records.

*****

 

Klabbes Bank – Je Suis La Mer

Klabbes Bank - "Je Suis la Mer"The thing about their 2009 release Je Suis la Mer that really defines this album as a step up from previous albums is how the group uses the same ingredients as past albums but provides the expressions with stronger defining characteristics.  The songs are put together with a greater craftsmanship.  The ensemble gels.  Even when a song is given a hazy shape and scattered pattern, it’s presented in sharp focus.  The ensemble is really coming into its own.  Kålsäter was their new sound taking form.  Je Suis la Mer is that vision manifesting in its entirety.

It opens much like Kålsäter did.  “Yngre” has the contemplative piano and the impatient tapping of percussion and the moody saxophone.  The melody drips from the song like candle wax, a flickering light that echoes off all the dark walls.  And the strong imagery is given a vivid presentation… the shape of the melody possesses a sharp outline and the colors that fill in the shapes are bold and self-assured.  The tempo lights a path that keeps within sight, even when the music grows unpredictable.

“Det Brinner Inte Längre” is pure, undistilled melancholia, radiating an inner serenity when it expresses the melody like a firm pronouncement, a strong, simple statement.

The title-track is full-on celebratory.  The shuffle and sway of its cadence invokes a sense of the days of swing, and its catchy melody is built to stick around.  It leads in nicely to the up-tempo “Cowboyhäst,” which scoots right along at a brisk pace and a melody that, like its predecessor, has staying power.

“Sju” is Klabbes Bank in classic form, illustrating how heartbreak and hopefulness can form a single expression.  It’s the face of sadness or sunny days, depending on your perspective in that instant.  Its unifying trait is its sheer beauty.  That they are able to follow it up with the whimsical “Elg” and make that transition sound practically logical in the flow of emotions is a tribute to their craftsmanship, and as good a sign as any of their maturity as an ensemble over the course of three albums.

Breaking from tradition, the final track, “På Natten I Norge Nån Gång” is strictly instrumental.  It’s an ambient blues, a boozy sonority that speaks of the last of the moonlight before the sun rises, the last of the whiskey before the tavern’s neon signs flicker off.  It’s a beautiful way of ending the album.  And its break from tradition is nothing like what their next album pulls off.

Your album personnel:  Klas-Henrik Hörngren (keyboards), Thomas Backman (alto sax, bass clarinet, clarinet), Tobias Sondén (bass, guitar), Magnus Wiklund (trombone), Joel Wästberg (alto & tenor saxes) and Martin Öhman (drums, electronics).  Pretty much everyone in the band contributes to the percussion effort at some point on the album.

Released on Hoob Records.

*****

 

Klabbes Bank – Protect the Forest

Klabbes Bank - "Protect the Forest"On their 2013 release Protect the Forest, Klabbes Bank broke from past form and began moving in a new direction… kind of.  Whereas previous recordings were tiny melodic bundles of heartbreak and sunshine, on Protect the Forest, the songs manifest with a sweeping grandeur and rhythmic intensity that take root with a heavy utilization of electronics and effects.  This isn’t something that was necessarily frowned upon previously, but the use is more pronounced and widespread, and it’s the closest, by far, that the band has strayed to a Jazz-electronica fusion.  This, however, wasn’t a sea change for the band.  Their debut hinted at this direction ten years earlier, it’s just the sound was more organic, less electronic.  Protect the Forest swings dramatically in the opposite direction.

I won’t go into the album any further.  Follow this LINK to my original recommendation of the album, where I go through it track by track.

But I will say that it did mark a big departure for Klabbes Bank from previous albums.  They continued to use the ingredients of happiness and heartbreak, potent melodicism and sharp tempos, but the ultimate form given those elements was a relatively surprising development, though not an unwelcome one.  There was a risk of stagnation, of the profound become formulaic, and Klabbes Bank sidestepped that outcome quite deftly.

Your album personnel:  Joel Wästberg (alto sax), Thomas Backman (alto sax, clarinets), Magnus Wiklund (trombone), Klas-Henrik Hörngren (keyboards), Jacob Öhrvall (bass), and Martin Öhman (drums, electronics).

Released on Hoob Records.

*****

Klabbes Bank albums available at:  eMusic – Amazon

*****

 

Klabbes Bank has a new album coming out.  Titled simply Z, it shows that the changes embodied by Protect the Forest were neither a one-shot deal nor an end-point.  I’ll be publishing a recommendation of that album soon, so be sure to check back in.

In the meantime, go to my Facebook page to check out a brief promo video for the album.

(Sorry, couldn’t figure out how to embed a Facebook vid in this post)

Cheers.

***

By • Artist Overviews, I Listen To All Of This, Jazz Recommendations • 6

Feb 23 2015

I listen to all of this: The Jakob Bro “Balladeering Trilogy”

 

Jakob BroMarch 2015, Guitarist Jakob Bro has a new album coming out.  Titled Gefion, it features his strangely alluring mix of jazz and folk and ambient soundscapes.  And though it possesses the ingredients that typically complete your basic Nordic Jazz recording, Bro’s expressionism doesn’t fit so neatly into that general category.  Even when he’s being structurally obtuse, his music possesses a form and presence and melodic incisiveness that proves elusive to categorization.

In anticipation of his new album, I wanted to recap three of Bro’s excellent recordings.  In 2013, Bro wrapped up a planned trilogy of albums that began with 2009’s Balladeering, continued with 2011’s Time and ended with 2013’s December Song.  The music was composed for a small group of select musicians.  The albums each have their own personality, but definitely all sound as if they were formed from the same creative point of view.  This is peaceful music that presents itself with a simple, striking beauty that is often quite breathtaking.

Let’s begin…

 

Jakob Bro – Balladeering

Jakob Bro - "Balladeering"The 2009 release Balladeering started off the album trilogy.  Of the three recordings, it’s the one that most reflects the influence that Bill Frisell has had over modern guitarists.  His mix of jazz, folk and rock presented with a strikingly melodic, hazily ambient presence and sometimes ominous tone is stamped indelibly on this recording.  And while Jakob Bro is certainly his own man when it comes to a singular creative voice, if it can be said he came out of one particular “school of Jazz,” it would the Frisellian.

“Weightless” speaks directly to this distinction.  With its layers of melody and effects, it creates a swirling mist of sound whose form is defined by the path it drifts in as much as it is by its sequencing of one gorgeous note after the next.  “Terrace Place” runs very similar to this, but Konitz’s sax cuts through the fog like a knife.

“Vraa” sparks with life.  Konitz’s sax is thick with emotion, heart wide as the day is long.  Paul Motion’s drums match Konitz’s forward motion while kicking up a bit of propulsion.  On “Evening Song,” the melody serves as the source of propulsion, with lyricism as the fuel.

Aside from the lovely tone they provide, the use of steel-stringed guitar on “Starting Point (Acoustic)” portends an essential element that leads to the success of Balladeering‘s follow-up… Time.  But for this session, it’s all about the warmth those guitars generate, and how a distant beauty grows much closer and embraceable.

Your album personnel: Jakob Bro (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Ben Street (bass) and Paul Motian (drums).

Released on Loveland Records.

Jakob Bro – Time

Jakob Bro - "Time"Of the three albums in Bro’s trilogy, 2011’s Time is most cohesive and radiates the strongest presence.  As a result, its seaside ease conjures up the imagery of the shoreline and salt in the air, and translates the immensity and vastness of a large body of water without sacrificing the music’s calm serenity.

On “Sma Dyrr,” steel-string guitar glitters like sunlight.  Thomas Morgan’s bass is bright and resonant.  On “Swimmer,” guitar lines plume upward from the dancing flame of Lee Konitz’s sax.  The expression on “Cirkler” is one of determined will, but it grows increasingly drowsy, as if having spent all its energy before drifting off to sleep.  The Frisellian influence is stronger on “Fiordlands” and “Nat.”  On the former, the rhythmic touch by guitars and bass is almost hypnotic, while the latter track’s shimmery guitars incite an ethereal presence that drifts peacefully along, even as melodic fragments create an ominous tone that hangs in the air.  The quartet gets a lot of mileage out of the mix of earthy and mysterious tones on Time, and it’s a big reason for the album’s success.

Your album personnel:  Jakob Bro (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto sax) and Thomas Morgan (bass).

Released on Loveland Records.

Jakob Bro – December Song

Jakob Bro - "December Song"The final album of the trilogy was 2013’s December Song.  Overall, it possesses an ethereal presence wispier than that of its trio-mates and a formlessness that creates an undercurrent of tension, as if the ear recognizes that a tune can change direction at any one moment without warning.

Tracks like the enchanting “Giant,” on which Bro’s & Frisell’s guitar lines ascend upward like fireflies on a dark Summer night and “Laxness,” in which Lee Konitz’s sax bobs on the twin guitars’ peaceful ocean waves.  The solemn “Vinterhymne” wavers and shifts in and out of focus.  Konitz’s bright melodic light shades the song from one side while bassist Thomas Morgan works subtly, yet still resonantly from the opposite.

The album tracks that coalesce into a substantive form tend to feature Craig Taborn’s piano in a prominent role.  The brightly shining “Zygaena” sees Taborn’s piano walking out ahead with both guitars nearby at its side.  Together, they create a melodic cohesiveness enjoined with beautiful harmonies.  “Treehouse” takes a similar approach, but is expressed with serenity and patience.  “Kong Oscar,” on the other hand, has a bigger presence via a series of strong melodic surges.

But overall, it’s a track like “Risskov” that reflects the spirit of the album… an ambient languor struck through with lively melodic flares and enveloped by drifting harmonies and an ethereal presence.

Your album personnel:  Jakob Bro (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Craig Taborn (piano) and Thomas Morgan (double bass).

Released on Loveland Records.

*****

Jazz from the Copenhagen scene.

Available at:  Amazon | Direct from the artist

By • Artist Overviews, I Listen To All Of This, Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2009 Releases, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases, Jazz Recommendations - 2013 Releases • 0 • Tags: , ,

Jan 26 2015

Outside Ordinary: Tim Daisy’s Relay Recordings

 

Relay Recordings

Relay Recordings is the label of Chicago drummer Tim Daisy.  It was originally a device for releasing his own music, but lately it’s begun to release albums by musicians that Daisy either collaborates with or has existing relationships.  As a lynchpin of the Chicago free improv scene, naturally, these recordings represented Daisy’s hometown environs, but now, with his New Composer’s series, Relay Recordings has begun expanding its reach outside of Chicago and overseas to Europe.

Ultimately, though, Daisy sums up the label’s goals as such:  “I try to release the music that I feel best represents what I’ve been up to recently both as a performer and composer,” adding, “But also to capture and document some of the new music being made in Chicago’s thriving avant-garde scene.”

Tim DaisyWith its focus on new and experimental music, Relay has already built up a nifty collection of exactly that.  Much of the music on this label presents a challenge… this is not conventional stuff intended to imprint a catchy melody on the brain, nor is it likely to get the foot tapping.  But it’s key to remember that challenging music can also be friendly and allow for any number of points of connectivity with the ear.

A lot of the music on this label is wildly expressive.  The path taken isn’t always laid out with clear trail markers.  Car chase scenes have their fair share of collisions.  Genre has little to do with it except as established points of reference.  Improvisation and in-the-moment creativity is key.  Some of this improvisation takes the form of new ways of thinking and some of it echoes traditional forms of Jazz language.  It’s also exciting and imaginative and fun.

Here are some of the albums I’m really taking to…

*****

 

Tim Daisy – October Music Vol. 1: 7 Compositions for Duet

Tim Daisy - "October Music Vol1- 7 Compositions for Duet"Drummer Tim Daisy invites other musicians from the Chicago scene to each perform a duet with him for the newest recording on Relay.  Those musicians (James Falzone on clarinet, Dave Rempis on baritone sax, Katherine Young on bassoon, Marc Riordan on piano, Jen Clare Paulson on viola, Jason Adasiewicz on vibes and Josh Berman on cornet) each develop compelling dialogs with Daisy, and the action ranges from a track like “Roscoe Street,” which has Rempis burning it up on baritone sax while Daisy just keeps tossing matches to the flame, to a track like “Some Birds,” a duet with bassoonist Young, that possesses both the languorous presence and distant warmth of moonlight.

Released December 2014.

*****

Russ Johnson Quartet – Meeting Point

Russ Johnson - "Meeting Point"A solid modern jazz set from the quartet of trumpeter Russ Johnson, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Tim Daisy.  Perhaps the most appealing quality of Meeting Point is how Johnson gets his trumpet to mirror the bass clarinet’s fuzzy lyricism and wide-lens expressiveness.  In addition to the harmonic peculiarities this invites, it’s just plain fun hearing them bounce ideas off one another.  Nice mix of inside/out and free improvisation.

Released May 2014.

*****

Bill MacKay – Chatham Park

Bill MacKay - "Chatham Park"Bill MacKay experiments with folk and rock mediums as much as jazz, and the ability to cross-pollinate between those genres shines through pretty strong on the strangely alluring Chatham Park.  The challenge of speaking in several lexicons doesn’t prevent MacKay from developing a nice chatter, simultaneously informing both melody and tempo.  This solo album has him on guitars and requinto.  At times, it’s positively magnetic.

Released October 2014.

UPDATE:  It appears that this album is no longer on the Relay site.  You can check it out now on MacKay’s own Bandcamp page.

*****

Vox Arcana – Soft Focus

Vox Arcana - "Soft Focus"Arguably, Soft Focus represents the true spirit of experimentalism that Relay is looking to represent.  This trio of clarinetist James Falzone, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm (also on electronics) and drummer Tim Daisy (also on marimba) dives into free jazz, chamber, inside/out and a vague post-bop, and their dizzying run through these expressions makes them indistinguishable from one another and perpetually self-referential… as if they’d discovered a new form of language that had been in use all along and nobody had yet noticed.  Personal favorite quality of Soft Focus are the shifts from thick dissonance to the oddly melodic.

Released in September 2012.

*****

Tim Daisy Quartet – Streets In Time

Tim Daisy - "Streets In Time"The quartet of drummer Tim Daisy, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, trombonist Steve Swell and bassist Tim Hebert has a real personable way of delivering the bursts of chaos and dissonance and furtive kinetic energy of their improvisations amongst the firmly entrenched passages of modern post-bop and classic inside/out.  It’s like watching a good friend go off on one of his wild tangents, growing increasingly unstable, then returning back to the original point as if that had been his predetermined path all along.  Streets In Time is an album that finds time to bop and swing in between the big explosions.

Released February 2013.

*****

Purchase these titles (and others) at Relay Recordings’ Bandcamp page.

*****

By • Artist Overviews, I Listen To All Of This • 0

Mar 3 2014

I listen to all of this: Taylor Haskins – “Fuzzy Logic” and everything else

 

Taylor Haskins promoI got sort of lucky stumbling upon the music of Taylor Haskins early on in my transition from listening primarily to the Jazz of the prior century to obsessing over the Jazz of Today.

A New Hampshire native and currently a resident of upstate New York, Haskins cut his teeth for twenty years on the NYC scene, recording music as session leader and also as a member of ensembles led by Guillermo Klein, Jamie Baum, Dave Holland, Alan Ferber, and Joel Harrison.  These ensembles, much like Haskins’ own music, vary greatly in terms of articulation, and how much one informed the other is too complex an equation to dissect and analyze, but it does speak to the openness with which Haskins views music and his willingness to gravitate to diffuse sounds.  When asked about this, Haskins explained, “I have no real overriding strategy other than deep self-examination and reflection,” adding, “As a composer, I find myself working like a painter or sculptor, and more often than not, the process itself is what reveals the music to me.”

Process.  Like many listeners, I have a process, too.  My methods for discovering new jazz are more regimented now.  I have assignments.  I have my own site.  I need to be efficient.  But I do fondly recall the days and nights I would simply wander the halls of the internet, following a path from one musician to the next, one album to the next, and just seeing what popped up… what new album or musician I’d discover that day.  It was a time like this that I came upon Haskins’ 2002 release…

Taylor Haskins – Wake Up Call

Taylor Haskins - "Wake Up Call"Your album personnel:  Taylor Haskins (trumpet), Andrew Rathbun (saxophones), Regina Bellantese (violin), Ben Monder (guitar), Guillermo Klein (piano), Ben Street (bass), Jeff Hirshfield (drums), Yusuke Yamamoto (percussion), and Aubrey Smith (vocals).

Wake Up Call hits that same territory where Ben Allison situates himself… the axis where post-bop meets indie-pop, and clearly defined, outstanding melodies are augmented with harmonic development and a rhythmic approach that reveals all the complexities and advanced possibilities of that simple, pretty melody.

For instance, the jangling of Ben Monder’s guitar meshing with the sonorous calls of Haskins’ trumpet is has an abounding personality on its own, but when the rest of the ensemble stands up with a soft, but rousing chorus, the melody just blossoms with bright and proud colors.  And “Dream With You” digs into a nifty groove, adding vocals and effects to produce something just as home on the dance floor as a recliner & headphones.  “Nomads” keeps the melody short and simple, then goes about revealing its deeper facets with Klein’s piano serving as the launching pad for Haskins and Bellantese to trace intertwining flight patterns on trumpet and violin.  And then there’s the offbeat character of “Please Be Quiet, Please,” which starts out with a quirky lyricism that is slowly eclipsed, revealing a quality hinting at a grand majesty.

I’m not comfortable saying it was a precursor to other seminal indie-rock jazz fusion recordings like Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors or the interesting things that Reed Wallsmith’s Blue Cranes are coming up with, but this wouldn’t be the first instance where Haskins was on the cusp of a cutting edge years before it began to dull from use and time.

As often happens when I discover a new album from a new (to me) musician that floats my boat, I immediately set out to find another recording by that artist.  That’s when I tracked down his 2006 release…

Taylor Haskins – Metaview

Taylor Haskins - "Metaview"Your album personnel: Taylor Haskins (trumpet, keyboards), Andrew Rathbun (saxophones), Adam Rogers (guitar), Matt Penman (bass), and Mark Ferber (drums).

An album with a definite mainstream sound, yet in a way that’s forward thinking to what might be the next evolution of the mainstream… an electro-acoustic environment in which grooves for the masses cohabit peacefully with post-bop heat for the jazz-at-heart, and accompanied by a series of well-crafted melodies that thrive in any medium.

Reflecting Haskins’ sound on this recording are the grooves of “Biorhythm” with its murky keyboard harmonics and “Patience” with the electro-groove and bounce, which the melody rides like rapids down a steady stream.  And then there’s “Trance Dance” with its torrential rhythm and solos wild and free, and “Interbeing,” which welcomes all these qualities under the same roof, whereas “Zuma” has them standing side by side.

At the time, Metaview didn’t look like that many other albums standing nearby in the crowd of modern jazz recordings.  That’s not so much the case anymore.  The last few years have seen more musicians embracing a modern electro-soul and groove, and while each musician takes this general sound to where their specific voice compels them to go, for the most part, it’s music that incites motion.  That changes with the next Haskins recording I scooped up.

It wasn’t too much longer after, sometime in 2010, that Haskins released a new album, which to my mind, situates itself as the masterpiece of his creative development (thus far)…

Taylor Haskins – American Dream

Taylor Haskins - "American Dream"Your album personnel:  Taylor Haskins (trumpet, melodica), Ben Monder (guitar), Ben Street (bass), and Jeff Hirshfield (drums).

Taylor Haskins knows how to make an opening statement.  The forlorn cries of title-track “American Dream” introduce the album, holding the promise of songs about hope and heartbreak, and the drama inherent in both.  Hitting a sound that borders the Jazz Americana lands traversed by Bill Frisell, Haskins brings a dark tone to the jazz-folk sound, a heavy atmosphere that promises a smoldering intensity, and no certainty to predict how everything will shake out.

“Theme From Dead Man” colors the Neil Young tune with bold statements full of bravado that tails off, enticingly, into moments of reverie.  “Mustangs” has a punchy attitude fully epitomized by Monder’s guitar, full of fight.  “Drifters” shows the quartet is still all kinds of pent-up energy, and “Black Boxes” is no less, though where on the former, Haskins’ trumpet tears into a solo while Monder balances the heat with wavering guitar notes, on the latter of the two songs, it’s Monder back in the role of making the temperature go up up up.

The second half of the album delivers on the promise of heartbreak to eclipse the hope of the album’s first half, displaying more of a pensive tone throughout.  “No Regrets” possesses a melancholy tone that doesn’t let up.  The sadness of “Pyramids” is like reaching out to a beam of moonlight and realizing it provides no warmth.  “Idlewild” chirps up with bits of bright melody, but its muted calls are more contemplative in nature, accentuated by the low murmur of Street’s bass solo.  The album ends with a rendition of Tom Waits’ “Johnsburg, Illinois,” a selection that perfectly frames the American Dream emphasis on the bittersweet.

It’s a stunning album, all kinds of evocative, but with a reserve that just emanates strength from within… a crosshatch of moodiness and menace.

And it was nothing like his next recording, released just a year later in 2011…

Taylor Haskins – Recombination

Taylor Haskins - "Recombination"Your album personnel:  Taylor Haskins (trumpet, melodica, synths, computer), Ben Monder (guitar), Henry Hey (piano, synths), Todd Sickafoose (bass), Nate Smith (drums), and guest:  Samuel Torres (percussion).

Considering my familiarity with Haskins’ music up to this point and his tendency for his sound to evolve from project to project, looking back on it, I’m not sure why I expected his 2011 release Recombination to run along similar lines as American Dream.  Because it didn’t, and even today, years later, as I continue picking up the pieces of my shattered expectations, I find my opinion of Recombination in a perpetual state of flux, my perspective changing along with the passing of time.

In some ways, it combines the prevalent elements of Metaview and Wake Up Call, though presented with a much more rounded out, evolved sound.  The opening track “Morning Chorale” is all lovely harmonic fuzz, whereas “Here is the Big Sky” crashes into the room with a rock ‘n roll appetite, which then shifts into the electro-groove of “Clouds Form Below Us.”  Haskins digs even deeper on “Upward Mobility,” electric dance music that is confident enough to let melodic lines stray from the thick R&B groove, allowing both elements to thrive.  “Lurking Shadows,” with its spacey vibe, continues to develop the music of motion, working a groove that behaves as a loping cadence, making it no less provocative in eliciting motion from the listener, while still differentiating it from previous tracks.  Grooves are great, but when they get homogenized… not so much.  The work of Sickafoose, Hey, and Smith offer up all kinds of variation in rhythm.

The second half of the album switches tone.  This begins with “Passing Through,” a song with an atmospheric drift, hanging just above a murmuring bass line and soft drum chatter, and continues on “Riverstone,” with Torres’ percussion adding some nice texture to the rhythm section.  The sense of the first half of the album behaving as rising sun and the latter half as setting sun is cemented in place with “Forgotten Memory of Something True,” as the charming electro-folk sound of Haskins’ melodica swims in the same water as bright keyboard notes.

I find myself enjoying Recombination the more that time separates me from what American Dream was and how that informed my desire to want more of that on the next Haskins recording.  It’s one of the more rewarding experiences in music listening… to be able to measure the change in connectivity in the same flow of time as one lives their own life.  It’s the kind of thing that weds music to specific moments in our timeline.

And regarding expectations and the development and change of Haskins’ sound over the course of his recording career, he states, “I’m trying to stay on a linear trajectory and follow the advice Ornette [Coleman] gave me when I met him many years ago: ‘Don’t look back,'” adding “I never know what’s next.  My work is a reflection of who I am at a given moment in time.”

This is who Taylor Haskins is now, his 2014 release…

Taylor Haskins – Fuzzy Logic

Taylor Haskins - "Fuzzy Logic"Your album personnel:  Taylor Haskins (trumpet, Native American drone flute, melodica), Ben Monder (guitar), Kermit Driscoll (bass), Jeff Hirshfield (drums), Joyce Hammann (violin), Lois Martin (viola), and Jody Redhage (cello).

There’s no sense talking about Fuzzy Logic, the new Taylor Haskins recording, without first bringing up the string trio.  Of the many sounds that represent the progression of Haskins’ evolving voice over the years, this is the first that incorporated strings.  It creates a context in which the entire album can be described.

Fuzzy Logic has an appealing monochromatic quality.  The degree of change from one album track to the next is measured by its subtleties and nuance, and the shifting tides of light and shadows.  Each of Taylor Haskins’ recordings have an individual personality, distinct from one another, and each of those personalities possess certain quirks and traits that run counter to their generalized representations.  Fuzzy Logic is Haskins’ most consistent, rounded-out piece of work to date… a steadied perspective that blurs the lines between songs and gives an impression of one long, sustained expression.  It makes the album sound vast and unending, and though its patient development never threatens to leave the listener breathless, that doesn’t imply that there aren’t moments when the music threatens to steal that breath away.

Some of this effect is due to the ubiquitous presence of the string trio, but equally causative are the familiar names to Haskins recordings that return to the fold for Fuzzy Logic.  Ben Monder’s chameleon guitar continues to express its mutability between moments of melodic contemplation, fiery expressionism, and digging deep into a thick groove.  Jeff Hirshfield is back in the drum seat, having been a part of both Wake Up Call and American Dream.  Kermit Driscoll is a new name to Haskins recordings, but the veteran bassist has been an essential collaborator to other artists, most relevantly as a member of Bill Frisell’s outfit, helping to develop the Jazz Americana sound reminiscent of Haskins’ American Dream.  And then, of course, the string trio of Jody Redhage, Joyce Ammann, and Lois Martin.

In that way author Michael Chabon is a master of the novel’s opening paragraphs, Taylor Haskins crafts some majestic opening statements to albums.  The melancholy opening of “Somewhere I’ve Never Traveled” is a ray of sunlight cutting through a bank of dark clouds, the Native American drone flute a haunting subtext to an otherwise optimistic melody.

And the tone shifts on “Four Moons,” on which Driscoll’s pulsing bassline instills a sense of urgency upon the tune… an effect that pulls both strings and Haskins’ trumpet into its orbit.  The darker tones shift to lighter hues on title-track “Fuzzy Logic,” anchored by Monder’s guitar gently lofting notes upward, floating away and buffeted by Hirshfield’s insistent drum work.  The string trio sharpens the tone on “Comfortable Disease,” banking striking harmonies off Haskins’ angular melody, an effect that swings to the opposite end of the spectrum with the shapely melody of the ensemble’s rendition of Thomas Dolby’s “Airwaves.”  Haskins widens the expanse of Dolby’s strong melody, allowing it to gently drift where Dolby chose to make it soar.

Lighter tones are explored for the album’s home stretch.  The ballad of “Perspective” moves with the ephemeral grace of a plume of smoke, with the harmony of trumpet and strings providing its tiny warmth and soft glow.  And “Too Far” opens with lilting statements by strings and trumpet, slowly rolling out the melody in an orderly fashion then immediately setting about to rearrange it.  “Conviction” toys with tempo a bit, both melody and rhythm misguiding expectations of where the next shoe will drop, juxtaposing a slow melody against a fast-thinking rhythm.

The lighter tones and hues continue with “I Believe In You,” a brief tune, an idea of a song, and so exquisitely formed as to epitomize, perhaps, the beating heart of this recording.  There is a hint of perfection in how immaculately this song is crafted, in that way massive trees and dazzling floral displays are dwarfed by the glorious simplicity of the seed from which they are derived.

Haskins ends the album with a rendition of Tom Waits’ “Take It With Me.”  The inherent bittersweet sadness of a Tom Waits Mule Variations song fits right in with this album’s dark-clouds-on-a-sunny-day monochromatic expressionism.  It’s also a bit of a reprise from previous albums.  Haskins closed out American Dream with a rendition of “Johnsburg, Illinois” (from Swordfishtrombones), and as he did on the final song of Recombination, he ends Fuzzy Logic on melodica… a wind instrument that looks a bit like a keyboard and sounds a bit like a harmonica, and which conveys both a sadness and a warmth that are equally charming.  These kinds of commonalities are nice subtle tethers between albums of different personalities, illustrating that seeming differences are merely facets of similar expressions.

It’s a sublime conclusion to a lovely album.

*****

 

Your publishing attributions:

Wake Up Call and Metaview released on Fresh Sound New Talent.

Recombination released on Nineteen-Eight Records.

American Dream and Fuzzy Logic released on Sunnyside Records.

 

Your Retail Links:

Wake Up Call at: Bandcamp | eMusic | CDBaby | Amazon: CD – MP3

Metaview at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | CDBaby | Amazon: CD – MP3

American Dream at: Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon: CD – MP3

Recombination at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon MP3

Fuzzy Logic at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon: CD – MP3

By • Artist Overviews, I Listen To All Of This • 0 • Tags:

Jan 12 2014

The Lounge Lizards – “Live in Warsaw” and “Voice of Chunk”

 

Today’s video is a live performance by The Lounge Lizards, at the Jazz Jamboree Festival, Warsaw, Poland back on October 25th, 1998.

John Lurie‘s outfit strung together a series of compelling albums during the 80s (with a slight return in the subsequent decade).  What I remember back then (and, yeah, me relying on my own memory is a poor basis for writing anything that purports to be factual) is that it seemed like lots of people were going out of their way to disassociate The Lounge Lizards’ music from Jazz proper.  It’s not really Jazz, was the refrain I’d hear.

And maybe it’s not.  Or wasn’t.  It had elements of Jazz, and it had elements of other musics, too.  But the thing of it is, it sounds more like the Jazz of today than many people recognize.  The jazz improvisation, the post-rock melodic washes, the modern classical ambient drones, the poly-rhythmic cross currents of Latin and Afro-jazz, the chamber and folk music interludes… these are all elements embraced by the modern jazz community, musicians, critics, and fans alike.  Lurie’s vision had a substance and weight that carried it outside his own sphere of creativity and found a home in the line of sight of other musicians.

More proof of this can be found in this video’s personnel.

Your video personnel:  John Lurie (alto & soprano saxes), Michael Blake (alto & soprano saxes), Steve Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet), Evan Lurie (piano), Doug Wieselman (guitar, clarinet), Jane Scarpantoni (cello), Tony Scherr (bass), Mauro Refosco (percussion), and Calvin Weston (drums).

For instance…

Saxophonist Michael Blake has had a strong run of releases in the last couple years on the Songlines label, creating music that has a definitive edge to it, but also incorporates folk and rock elements to give this music a haunting, moodier tone.  He’s also been the saxophonist on Ben Allison’s series of modern jazz-rock recordings.  Allison has been at the forefront of destroying the barricades between what is Jazz and what Isn’t.

Doug Wieselman was part of the downtown NYC scene, significantly with the Kamikaze Ground Crew… an avant-garde ensemble that, yes, performs jazz, but with a variety of influences as to make it unclassifiable.  I adore how KGC’s music is tagged as “weird jazz” on the CDBaby site.  Steve Bernstein‘s Millennial Territory Orchestra and Sex Mob ensembles have made a home performing jazz covers of other genres, sometimes framing the originals in traditional Jazz sounds and sometimes straying far off into the original tunes respective genres.

Drummer Calvin Weston did some intriguing work with James “Blood” Ulmer, and is also part of the John Lurie National Orchestra.  Jane Scarpantoni was the go-to cellist for a number of alternative rock acts, though it was her collaboration with Lou Reed where she really shined.  Tony Scherr’s work with another genre-bender, guitarist Bill Frisell, fits right in with the qualities of modern jazz that I’m discussing.  And these are just a few of the names that have been a part of the Lounge Lizards.

If we go further back, musicians like Curtis Fowlkes (Bill Frisell), Billy Martin (Medeski, Martin & Wood), Kenny Wollesen (John Zorn’s mystic projects), and Marc Ribot are all gonna come up.

These musicians that Lurie was collaborating with, all of them have made their mark on the modern jazz scene, and all of them have made some contribution to the form jazz takes in the present day.  And some of it, well, sounds a lot like the music Lurie and crew(s) were creating back in the day.

My introduction to The Lounge Lizards (or any of John Lurie’s music) was when someone played the 1988 album Voice of Chunk for me.

There’s a lot of good reasons to accumulate close interesting friends… one of those reasons is that, often, they will play music for you that you’ve never heard before and wonder how you went through your life not hearing it up until that point.  That saxophone opening to “Bob the Bob” drew me right in, and the subsequent drifting harmonies and furious improvisatory sprints drew me in even closer.  I remember a snowy day in Denver, walking into St. Marks Coffee House, and hearing the music of Voice of Chunk drifting through the same air that carried a heat blasting the January chill from my face, and then just melting into a booth with a cup of joe, a good book, that music, and a sense of contentment that life was settling in just as it should.

I don’t remember who it was that introduced me to the music of The Lounge Lizards, but thanks.  That was a nice thing you did.

The music is evocative as hell, but it made a cerebral connection with me that has never shook free.  For all the talk back then of what this music wasn’t, I always felt (and still do) that this is very honest music.  And what I mean by that is that this is music that (to my ears) sounds to be focused on a creative vision, expressed in a way that ignored current conventions of what music did or should sound like… a entire focus on the sound that was right there in front of them at the time, in that moment, unconcerned about how it might sound later or what should come later, theoretically or in reality.

Lounge Lizards - "Voice of Chunk"

Legendary jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller once referred to a type of jazz called “interview music”… of inventiveness for the sake of drawing attention to the inventiveness, attempting to do something different, which typically will attract notice for its differentiation and not necessarily for the music itself, which invariably leads to interviews, features, articles, and more attention.  When I hear Voice of Chunk, I hear something at the opposite end of that spectrum.  I hear Isolation Music.

Isolation Music is just the musician by him or herself, simply pursuing a creative idea, a raw unformed vision, and just following it through, regardless of where it went and what form it took.  It is something that nobody is ever going to hear.  It just so happens, in this instance, that it wasn’t one musician, but many, and that Voice of Chunk has been released in recorded formats and performed all over the world.  But it sounds like the inventive music that never leaves the home practice studio, the riveting short story that gets buried on the writer’s desk, the brilliant painting that gets rolled up and tossed into a closet with all of the other canvases.  Creativity that was a good idea at the time, but that’s all it was… an idea, a creative impulse, a personal vision that compelled the artist to complete it, without any thought given to sharing it.

Now, I am applying a whole bunch of thoughts and assumptions to music I wasn’t there to see created by musicians I’ve never spoken to about an album on which I’ve never performed background research.  None of what I say about Isolation Music might apply to how Voice of Chunk came to be.  I’m talking about the effect creativity has on the recipient.  These are some of the thoughts I have on how this music affected me, and since it’s my site, I get to spend time obsessing over it.  And thank god each of us does that.  If music didn’t affect us on a personal level, it would lose much of its value.  I sure as well wouldn’t be writing this now.  This site wouldn’t exist.  And you wouldn’t even care or know its absence.  It matters.

Lurie has got a new album coming out in 2014.  It’s from his John Lurie National Orchestra, which features the trio of Lurie, Weston, and Martin.  Titled The Invention of Animals, it’s comprised of previously unreleased and off-the-grid live and studio recordings, culled from a body of work the trio intended to be used as the launching pad for more Lounge Lizards work, but which became something quite special existing on its own.

It’s being released by Martin’s Amulet Records, and I’ll be posting a review of it tomorrow (Monday, Jan. 13th).

In the meantime, if you’re interested in picking up Voice of Chunk (or any of the other Lounge Lizards or John Lurie recordings), here’s some retail links…

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon | Direct from Lurie’s label Strange & Beautiful Music

By • Artist Overviews, These are videos that I like • 0

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