Oct 29 2016
This Is Jazz Today: Bundesjazzorchester, Tim Stine Trio, Hearts and Minds, Earprint and Enjuti
This Is Jazz Today
Bundesjazzorchester & Niels Klein – Groove and the Abstract Truth (Double Moon)
Over the years, I’ve highlighted various volumes in the BuJazzO series, but that still doesn’t do justice to all of the solid music issued by Germany’s Youth Jazz Orchestra, an organization dedicated to promoting the new generations of jazz musicians. The current installment featuring Niels Klein is a case in point. They step up and out with a big sound and harmonies as warm as the day is long. There’s a pop music sensibility to this music, dishing out passages that border on hooks, and which retains a permanence that holds even when instrumental soloists dig into complex expressions of improvisation that have little to do with pop music at all. But it’s the vocalists, both as chorus and soloists, that elevates this session up to a level that approaches a certain euphoria. The voices provide a fullness and also a delicate touch, and whether they launch themselves dramatically into a burst of focused speed or take to thrilling aeronautics, there’s always the sensation of soaring above. And of that particular piece of turf they occupy along the borders of jazz and pop, where this iteration of the orchestra on this session sits firmly on the jazz side of that border, by point of comparison, it could be said that the Polyphonic Spree occupy its opposite position on the pop music side. A seriously enjoyable recording.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Amazon – eMusic
Tim Stine Trio – Tim Stine Trio (Astral Spirits)
There’s an oddball poetry to this trio session from guitarist Tim Stine, bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly. Melodies fall and collapse with the staggered pace and sudden precision of a game of Tetris. That Stine uses an acoustic guitar adds a rustic charm to music that might otherwise dive too deep into the cerebral. The rhythm section is locked in with Stine’s unusual flight patterns, and the way they are still able to develop a relatable rhythmic message under those constraints is more than a little impressive. It’s easy to imagine that the origin of each song is a simple tune, long before the trio began reshaping it into warped imagery. A strange, but easy-to-like personality to this one.
Your album personnel: Tim Stine (acoustic guitar), Anton Hatwich (bass) and Frank Rosaly (drums).
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Amazon – Bandcamp
Earprint – Earprint (Endectomorph Music)
There’s a strong propulsion system that carries this album from first note to last, but it’s the way that the Earprint quartet of trumpeter Tree Palmedo, tenor saxophonist Kevin Sun, bassist Simón Willson and drummer Dor Herskovits use the melody as a way to generate imagery that acts as an appealing counterbalance to all the hyperactivity of the driving tempos. So even though these tunes speed right along on their way, there’s always an opportunity to sit back and check out the view. It’s a nifty bit of contrast, and really kicks the album up a notch or three. And it’s an effect that pays extra dividends when the quartet slows down the pace and coaxes the melody out front… taking advantage of the same form of contrast, but flipped on its head.
Your album personnel: Tree Palmedo (trumpet, ocean drum), Kevin Sun (tenor sax, clarinet), Simón Willson (bass) and Dor Herskovits (drums).
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
Hearts & Minds – Hearts & Minds (Astral Spirits)
The bass clarinet has traditionally delivered a curious type of lyricism, as if a flawed soul were attempting to sing an aria. On the trio session from Hearts & Minds, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, pianist Paul Giallorenzo and drummer Frank Rosaly just skip all that business and, instead, show how the instrument can be a tool for the proliferation of raw energy. Every melody carries with it the scars and fractures of a rough life and tempos are more often spurred forward through sheer force of will than the development of a flow. Add to the mix some generous helpings of electronic effects, and what shows up at the front door is a brusque personality that occasionally reveals a more personable side (see: track “Streaming”).
Your album personnel: Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Paul Giallorenzo (synthesizer, Pianet) and Frank Rosaly (drums, electronics).
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
Enjuti – Schönheit durch Zerbrechlichkeit (Traumton Records)
It’s a split personality from the quartet Enjuti. There are times they dive deep into contemplative waters, slowly exhaling a melody and letting it drift slowly away. But then there’s those passages when the quartet enters a harsh industrial type of atmosphere and all the introspection gets blown away. The thing of it is, sometimes fragments of those melodies drift into the center of the dissonant chaos, and that sense of the hurricane and its eye occupying the same tiny spot is pretty thrilling in its way. And sometimes that little spark of a melody triggers a larger conflagration, and the chaos of the storm takes on a shape and form, and while the result is never going to be described as tuneful or songlike, it possesses a certain enchantment, much in the way that crosswinds can twist the rain and whip it around hypnotically.
Your album personnel: Andreas Völk (guitar, effects), Laurenz Gemmer (piano), Kenn Hartwig (bass, effects) and Thomas Sauerborn (drums, percussion).
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon – eMusic
*****
The newest from pianist 
This low-key affair is nonetheless extremely engaging. The duo of drummer Andrew Cyrille and tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry aren’t creating songs so much as giving extended life to interludes and fragmentary ideas. There’s an intimacy to this session not unlike music, heard clearly, drifting out from a window as you stand on the sidewalk below, transfixed by every note. A few tracks raise their voice a bit, but for the most part, this is music that keeps to restrained, thoughtful expressions.
Considering how melodic this album is at heart, it possesses an unusual gruffness, abrasive even at times. 
There’s an appealing contrast to the soaring melodies and the stomping boots tempos, as if all the uplifting feelings of hope and love were balanced out by a pragmatic understanding that life can be hard and often is. That a parallel can be drawn between this album’s sound, the first from Naftule’s Dream in quite a while, and their contributions to the Radical Jewish Music movement of the 90s, in which they infused a heaven & earth feel to their updated take on traditional Klezmer music, adds both to the intrigue and the signposts of how they’ve developed over the course of time. Those songs on Blood that take on a drifting ambience are plenty alluring, but their substance is locked in by the edgier pieces with punctuated rhythms that possess, in their way, a dancing flow.
It’s not just that there’s a pleasant flow to the newest from soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, but that it traverses a series of compositions that bubble with excitement and energy. Her previous recording, 2013’s excellent Sixteen Sunsets, staked out territory in the serene and the sublime. But with Early Americans, this is get-up-and-go music, and based on the exuberance they apply to the rhythmic attack, both drummer Bobby Previte and bassist Mark Helias seem perfectly content with Bloom’s choice of tone and tempo. But what shouldn’t get lost in all this talk about energetic music is that the music retains a sense of intimacy, an intimation that the music, though not striving to introduce an atmosphere of tranquility, is sure to maintain a nearness to it all the same.
So I’ll just admit right up front to having little objectivity when it comes to covers of John Barry’s theme to the movie Midnight Cowboy. It’s one of my favorite soundtracks to one of my favorite movies, and since guitarist Dave Stryker did a very nifty rendition of the song, heavy with a cool blues and an easy-going ambiance, well, that’s why his new album of pop music covers is getting a mention in today’s column. He hits upon a couple by Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, others by The Isley Bros. and Prince (among other well known tunes). Those tracks where a cool groove is the method to move, everything shakes out just right. However, when the pace picks up, like on a cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” it’s not quite as successful. That said, none of this stuff is straight-up note-for-note cover songs, and that deserves plenty of credit. Also, you’re not gonna go wrong with a line-up of Stryker, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter. Basically, Stryker is playing with a Posi-Tone Records house band.
The cello-drums-guitar combo that comprises
Nov 1 2016
Recommended: Nova Express Quintet – “Andras: The Book of Angels Volume 28”
The multifaceted percussion of Cyro Baptista synced up with drummer Joey Baron modulates the intensity to pair with the melodic sighs of vibraphonist Kenny Wollesen and pianist John Medeski; sometimes they calm things down to marry a delicate patter with a delicate expression of melody, and sometimes the duo ramps the intensity up and leverages the power of contrast. Bassist Trevor Dunn spends time with each camp, and it’s when he matches with Medeski switching over to organ, there’s an undercurrent of electricity that gives a charge even to those passages that seem more content to drift than drive ahead.
Worth mentioning that these are all veterans of the John Zorn – Tzadik Records universe, and they put that experience to work, showing an easy comfort with Zorn’s particular aesthetic, and bring a crackling energy to an album of compositions more suited to contemplation. That combination of dreamy ambiance and focused desire is potent.
Your album personnel: John Medeski (organ, piano), Kenny Wollesen (vibraphone), Trevor Dunn (acoustic & electric basses), Joey Baron (drums), Cyro Baptista (congas, percussion) and John Zorn (compositions, arrangements).
Released on the Tzadik label.
Available at: Amazon | Direct from Tzadik
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2016 releases • 0