Jazz Recommendations – 2016 releases

The curious thing about the newest recording from pianist Rob Clearfield is that Islands plays out as something of a fluid construction, where one image leads logically into the next, and each lends itself to the embrace of the Bigger Picture.  But what makes Islands so compelling is the abiding sense that these shapes taking form aren’t altogether planned, that their ultimate manifestation is one not aligned with the trio’s original intentions, and it’s through their attempts to regain control of the imagery that tension is distilled into the final product.  They accomplish this through the melody.

In that way “With or Without” attains a momentum that gradually rages out of control, and each time the trio reins it in by turning the melody into a construct of dissonance, stopping the momentum in its tracks and allowing the trio to get the melody back into a dreamstate of pure beauty… until the cycle begins all over again, with each iteration generating an ever-increasing intensity.

And then there’s the track “Ralph Towner” in which the gorgeous melody seems to envelop itself, as if a rainstorm were overtaken by another rainstorm, one eclipsing the other even as their mutual bond of melodic texture enhances the qualities of each and both.  “Narcissa” takes that approach, but it’s shards of glass coming down instead of raindrops.  But then it swings back in the other direction on “Child, Awake,” in which an even-handed approach to overdubbing of guitar and organ adds even more lovely textures to an intoxicating melody.

But things get even more intriguing when tracks begin to repeat patterns from earlier tracks, combining overlapping approaches and expressions into newer, more complex imagery.  “The Forest” echoes the sounds of “With or Without” and “Narcissa,” while “The Antidote” is cast upon the ripples of “Ralph Towner” and “Child, Awake,” and the album finale “Where the Tape’s At/Islands (reprise)” seems to borrow from all of the above.

I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

Your album personnel:  Rob Clearfield (piano, electric piano, organ, guitar), Curt Bley (acoustic & electric basses) and Quin Kirchner (drums).

Released on Ears & Eyes Records.

Listen to more album tracks at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Chicago scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic

The Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is both a collective of musicians and a label documenting music from the Pacific Northwest.  Much of it lives on the dividing lines between genres, borrowing generously and modulating the ratios so that a cohesive sound makes identification of influence problematic.  Live at Alberta Street Pub is a nice synthesis of that approach, as well as an example of how complex constructions are no obstacle to making an album that’s tuneful as hell.  Catherine Feeny‘s intoxicating voice has a smoky presence that springs to life with the suddenness of embers catching fire.  She and drummer Chris Johnedis are accompanied by a quintet of wind instruments… notably PJCE honcho, trumpeter Douglas Detrick.  It’s the way the five-pack of brass and reeds weave the harmony through the tight crevices of voice and drums that directly addresses the album’s appeal.  Well, that and when the pulsing of saxophones creates an undercurrent of tension that sets the backdrop for a series of gorgeous melodic sighs from trumpet and trombone.  The joy of the album is discovered often quite suddenly, in sudden surges of intensity set afire by melody.

Your album personnel:  Catherine Feeny (vocals, guitar, ukulele), Chris Johnedis (drums), Douglas Detrick (trumpet), Lars Campbell (trombone), Lee Elderton (soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), Mary-Sue Tobin (tenor sax) and Pete Petersen (baritone sax).

Released on the PJCE label.

Listen to more album tracks at the label’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Portland, Oregon scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

Well, this album is as gorgeous as it is unconventional.  The Arabic vocals of Alya Al-Sultani shine a light on anything resembling a melody and transforms it into a beacon, drawing everything to it.  The rhythmic interplay her patterns incite with pianist Clemens Christian Poetzsch are no less riveting than their melodic pairings.  And on the subject of melodies, each time Shirley Smart enters the song on her cello, whether as accompaniment or as soloist, the music takes off soaring with a sweeping grandeur.  The trio Sawa locks into a meeting point between modern jazz piano, Iraqi folk music and chamber, and it’s about as compelling anything out there.

The swirling melody of “Chai Chai Alay” is meant to hypnotize, while its counterpart on “Win Ya Galob” is the enveloping fold of nighttime, comforting and cool with its embrace.  Poetzsch utilizes a fluid piano on this session, and the microtonal instrument’s ability to shift out of a Western-style tuning on the fly is what allows the rustic charm of “Kalimat” to exist in the same breath as the dynamic “Bahlam Beek,” with its spry cadence and a motion meant for dance.

Just a fascinating album.

Your album personnel:  Alya Al-Sultani (vocals), Clemens Christian Poetzsch (piano, fluid piano) and Shirley Smart (cello).

Released on Two Rivers Records.

Listen to more of the album at the label’s Bandcamp page.

Available at:  Bandcamp

This is one of those albums that’s exuding all kinds of cheerfulness, so that no matter what it gets into, the music is gonna be plenty likeable.  United switches between old-school blues strolls and modern jazz harmonic binges, and those transitions, whether seamless or jarring, is a big part of the fun.  For three of the album’s five tracks, this happens within the duration of each song.  It’s particularly fascinating how it plays out on “In a Bus,” which mashes up conflicting expressions out of the Red Garland and Esbjorn Svensson schools of music, yet binds them up by their shared melodic bonds, solemn and serene when not pouring dramatically from the mouth of the bottle.  But then there’s also the old vs. new of subsequent tracks “Over the Rainbow” and a Kendrick Lamar cover of “These Walls.”  Parked bumper to bumper, and yet the trio finds a way to keep a sense of cohesion throughout.

The trio is led by pianist Konrad Bogen, a young musician from Germany who seems to have his hands in a number of different projects.  This is a promising sign of things to come.  Also, worth noting that he’s got this EP on his Bandcamp page set to Name Your Price, which should provide some extra incentive to check this music out.

Just really easy to like this one.

Your album personnel:  Konrad Bogen (piano), Mischa Frey (bass) and Samir Böhringer (drums).

The album is Self-Produced.

Listen to more album tracks at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Konstanz, Germany scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp