Jazz Recommendations – 2016 releases

Berlin Soundpainting Orchestra enters music states that approximate chamber jazz, free improv, minimalism, classical, psych-rock and even an updated spiritual jazz choir project, but, ultimately, the large ensemble keeps things sufficiently in avant-garde territory that, really, there’s no adequate way to encapsulate the sonic experience with a genre tag, no matter how specific it may be tailored to a particular sonic expression.  This is music that is constantly in flux.  Tracks like “Encounter With a Mollusk” and “Organic Matter” firm up that position with pieces that transition between focused and fuzzy, dissonance and dissolve.

Some tracks express a more cohesive vision.  The driven intensity of “Submarine Volcano” balances a volatile instability with a simple melodicism.  And the way that the bare elements of a melody are given dynamic textures one layer after the next reveals the depth at the heart of “Sölid Particles.”  And the bursts of rhythm and choir on “Supercritical Mass” are compelling for their individuality and their unity.

Definitely something different here, and all of it is fascinating.

Your album personnel:  Hada Benedito (artistic direction, composition, soundpainting), Charlotte Barnett (voice), Bianca G. (voice), Makiho Yoshida (violin), Penelope Gkika (violin), Davide Lorenzon (alto sax, bass clarinet), Federico Eterno (alto sax, clarinet), Jonathan Lindhorst (tenor sax), Dominic Sell (electric guitar), Bob Meanza (electronics), Kriton Beyer (harmonium, objects), Rieko Okuda (piano), Adam Goodwin (double bass), Antti Virtaranta (double bass) and Adrian David Krok (drums).

Released on Aut Records.

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

Music from Berlin, Germany.

Available at:  Bandcamp

It’s pretty easy to forget that Confluere is a combination of multiple performances.  Actually, perhaps it would be more accurate to consider it a connection of performances.  Because even though the new release from Ben Zucker is compiled from a series of solo improvised performances over the course of a month, the cohesiveness that results from an extremely fluid environment is more than a little bit remarkable.  Apparently there wasn’t much studio manipulation going on here… Zucker simply laid down one performance atop the other.  And yet the endpoints of each performance snapped perfectly into place with its siblings, and it’s why the entire recording comes off as one long creative exhalation.

Zucker utilizes an array of melodic and rhythmic devices in his performances, which is why the end result is a work rich with the detail and nuance of an ensemble session.  Thankfully, however, the intimate nature of a solo performance isn’t lost when Zucker makes it all come together as one.  This is music situated at the peaceful end of the spectrum.  There’s plenty of activity and nothing about this music will get it slotted in an ambient drone playlist, but there’s an immensely contemplative nature to this music, and that quality alone is produced with sufficient strength to result in music made perfect for quiet moments in quiet rooms.

Your album personnel:  Ben Zucker (trumpet, vibraphone, marimba, drums, percussion, piano).

Released on Not Art Records.

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

Music from Oakland, CA.

Available at:  Bandcamp

Considering the intricate details and complex expressionism on the new recording from Ping Machine, it would be a fair assumption that the title of Easy Listening was meant as irony.  But, really, it’s not, not at all.  Because Frédéric Maurin harnesses the myriad of moving pieces and focuses them into a singular focus that makes their 2016 release so very easy to connect with and embrace.

The melodic repetition of vibraphones, the elastic melodicism of saxophone and the harmonic washes of wind instruments creates textures like strata, making them simple to trace.  And the shifts between a peaceful ambiance and a driven intensity to an insistent bounce is one where delicate solos drift slowly along to the same confluence of melody that carries the fiercer statements.  And all of it is orchestrated in a way that maintains an equal focus on the minute details of a passage and the big picture view of the entire work.  That final quality is the approach that makes Easy Listening a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A truly wonderful recording.

Your album personnel:  Bastien Ballaz (trombone), Stephan Caracci (marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, percussion), Guillaume Christophel (baritone sax, bass clarinet), Jean-Michel Couchet (alto & soprano saxophones), Andrew Crocker (trumpet, bugle), Fabien Debellefontaine (alto sax, clarinet, flute), Florent Dupuit (tenor sax, flute, alto flute & piccolo), Quentin Ghomari (trumpet, bugle), Didier Havet (bass trombone, tuba), Rafaël Koerner (drums, percussion), Paul Lay (piano, synthesizers), Frédéric Maurin (electric guitar, Max 7), Fabien Norbert (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, bugle), Raphaël Schwab (double bass) and Julien Soro (tenor sax, clarinet).

Released on the Neuklang label.

Music from Paris.

Available at:  Amazon

This band doesn’t really give a damn about parachutes.  The plane door opens wide.  The trio Viriditas launches themselves out into space, and begin a speedy descent to the earth below.  Saxophonist Ben Cohen flails the melody about spasmodically, attempting to lunge the song into something resembling flight.  Drummer Deric Dickens rapidly flaps his wings, hoping the speed of his rhythmic motions will overpower the effects of gravity.  Bassist Ross Gallagher twists and turns the tempo into shapes and patterns that seek to capture the cadence of the atmosphere and make it his own.  But Viriditas is about more than high-speed motion.  As they hurtle groundward, the trio strike up an engaging chatter, and the dialog becomes the signifier of the music and not its motion.  This becomes especially clear when the trio lands on a cloud, as they do on “Child’s Play” and “Sparrow,” and simply float peaceably for the while… at least until the descent begins all over again.

The result of all these components is some seriously fun, unabashedly effusive post-bop.

Your album personnel:  Ben Cohen (saxophones), Ross Gallagher (bass) and Deric Dickens (drums).

The album is Self-Produced.

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

Music from Brooklyn.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic

Everything about Big Pocket Orchestra is fun.   The septet that comprise the Big Pocket Orchestra run popular TV and movie themes through a traditional jazz lens, and I’ll be damned if every single one of them aren’t clever.  Opening the album with the 20th Century Fox theme gets the fun started.  Darth Vader’s voice intoning “I am your father” to a Latin Jazz version of the Star Wars theme is a highlight.  Also a highlight is how the theme to Peter Gunn shifts right into that of James Bond.  Harry Potter makes an appearance, as do the Flintstones.   However, the absolute gem of this delightful recording is the mash-up of the Paul Desmond-Dave Brubeck tune “Take Five” and the theme from Game of Thrones.  The transition between those two melodies, back and forth in the blink of an eye, is about the niftiest thing I’ve heard in a while.

Albums that do the movie-TV show thing can come off as trite.  Many times it’s nothing more than a popular melody wrapped in an empty suit of a song.  But Big Pocket Orchestra have created tunes that are enjoyable to listen to all on their own, and their contextual relationship to pop culture is simply an added bonus.  And, most importantly, they made it especially fun.

Your album personnel:  Melisa Bertossi (soprano sax), Matias Muñoz (keyboards), Sergio Lopez (drums, percussion), Alejandro Mazzoni (bass, double bass, guitar), Ale Ortega (trombones, accordion, guitar), Adriano Torregiani (saxophones, flute, harmonica) and Alberto Perez Jordana (trumpets, flugelhorn).

This album is Self-Produced.

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

Music from Barcelona, Spain.

Available at:  Bandcamp