Jazz Recommendations – 2016 releases

Each piece comprising the new album from Giuseppe Finocchiaro is strikingly picturesque.  The Italian pianist adds some Spanish and Arabic influences to his trio’s modern sound, but these seem less like attempts at music inventiveness than simply additional textures to manifest his potent imagery.  The swirling melody of “Taranta” and the brisk cant of “Verana” and the cheerful tones of “Español” chart a range from focused intensity to bright sunniness, while tracks like “Suspendido a Ti” and “Winter” and “Paris” sink into contemplation and stillness and peace.  On its face, it might appear that Prospectus presents two separate tones, running parallel to one another and never quite coalescing.  However, no matter how the trio ultimately expresses each musical scene, the music radiates an intimate warmth, and that is what joins these pieces into one cohesive series of images.

Just a really enjoyable modern piano jazz recording.

Your album personnel:  Giuseppe Finocchiaro (piano), Giovanni Arena (double bass), Riccardo Gerbino (tabla, cajon) and guest: Martin Romero (vocals).

Released on Dodicilune Records.

Listen to another album track on the artist’s Soundcloud page.

Music from Catania, Italy.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic

The follow-up to saxophonist Anders Lønne Grønseth‘s 2015 Mini Macro Ensemble release is no less compelling than its predecessor.  Mini Macro Ensemble 2nd Edt Vol2 brings a diverse array of influences to the mix, from modern jazz to baroque to maqam to neo-classical to folk, and the sliding ratios of Grønseth’s equations create wonderfully intriguing distortions of the influences’ distinguishing traits.  It’s not unlike how the Naked Lunch collaboration of Ornette Coleman‘s harmolodic approach and the London Philharmonic Orchestra‘s classical was a fluidly shifting attraction of opposing magnetic poles.

The rambling jazz expressionism of “Urobilin” gains greater focus as the chamber music element assumes control, but never releases its hold over the direction of the piece.  On “Caput Mortuum,” the jazz, classical and Indian music influences continually cross paths, creating an enjoyable uncertainty surrounding the ultimate manifestation of the melodic development.  And then there’s the severe personality changes of “Icterine,” leading to a narrative that annihilates assumptions and could lead just about anywhere.

This absorbing session has all kinds of little surprises to offer, and they’re couched in an endlessly curious beauty.

Your album personnel:  Anders Lønne Grønseth (soprano, baritone & tenor saxophones, bass clarinet), Hanne Rekdal (concert, alto & bass flutes, bassoon), Morten Barrikmo (soprano, bass & contrabass clarinets), Martin Taxt (tuba), Sigrun Eng (cello), Audun Ellingsen (double bass), Anders Aarum (piano, Fender Rhodes) and Andreas Bratlie (tabla, percussion).

Released on Pling Music.

Music from the Oslo, Norway scene.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic

There’s a wonderful presence to the debut from Hammond B3 artist Txema Riera.  It sits squarely in modern blues territory, but so many times this music possesses the atmosphere of classic soul-jazz recordings that it’s pretty easy to get nostalgic even when listening to something that clearly comes from a present-day perspective.  Performed live at Barcelona’s Estival de Jazz. , Riera is joined by guitarist Dani Pérez and drummer Roger Guitérrez, and much like their old-school counterparts, they work most of everything through the lens of the groove.

“El Pendulo” works from a Latin groove and solos at will, whereas the groove of “Oompa-Loompa” is all soul.  The patient groove of “El Secret de Judit” syncs into the melody and sways it atop waves on the cadence of a rocking sea.  A few tracks add some contrast at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Title track “Terror” jacks up the heat, and Perez’s guitar sears the melody into the surface of the song.  But from a different approach, the ethereal “Little Green Feet” sighs the melody out one lovely note at a time.

A seriously enjoyable recording, and a very promising debut.

Your album personnel:  Txema Riera (Hammond B3), Dani Pérez (guitar) and Roger Guitérrez (drums).

Released on the Underpool label.

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

Music from the Barcelona scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic

There’s a compelling mix of influences and expressions on Solstice, and tracing them as they perpetually come together and pull apart is the album’s winning quality.  Athens-based ensemble Omikron Project additionally sources its regional roots in music to Dutch and French origins, and the way these folk musics lend to the abiding sound is one of several points of interest.  That instruments like Hohner Guitaret, Aegean bagpipes, steel guitar, and didgeridoo are joined with more jazz traditional instruments such as soprano sax, drums, and bass are another source of delight.  But perhaps the greatest source of joy comes from the diverse array of expressions the ensemble produces from the unusual mix of ingredients.  The percussion-heavy “TTC” and the ambient fusion of “Floating” and the post-bop of “Five on Fire” and the electro-acoustic drone of “Zero Option” and the folk-heavy “Lost In Three” all lead to a parade of different sounds that, remarkably, all flow together in a way that makes perfect sense.

A nifty recording, and one not to let fly under your radar.

Your album personnel:  Nikolas Tsilogiannis (drums, percussion, idiophones), Alex Drossos (soprano sax, didgeridoo, beckophone), Henk Spies (soprano sax, electronics) and Dinos Zoumperis (bass, Hohner Guitaret, modular synthesizer, Aegean bagpipe).

This album is Self-Produced.

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

Music from Athens, Greece.

Available at:  Bandcamp

This is one for the fans of Bill Frisell’s Disfarmer period.  The melodies of California Love are as welcoming and gorgeous as moonlight, and the pace of each piece is modeled after gently rocking waves on the sea.  The sextet Le Migou lets the strings shape the songs while the woodwinds provide the personality, but all of it aims to settle right into that particular kind of twilight Americana tranquility.

Yes, the sextet lights a fire under a few of the tracks.  The punchy “Tom Pouce” has saxophone leading out with some wild swings, but everyone gets in their shots.  And there’s some Ennio Morricone action with the hopping “Pistolero” and “Nola” slides into a pleasant blues.  And then there’s the way tight lines of guitar melody loop back upon themselves on “Pour faire la sieste” while trumpet soars peacefully above the fray while offering up complementary melodic fragments, for the sake of imagery as much as anything.  But all of that differentiation falls right in line with a Frisell Americana mold.  But more important than influence is the fact that all of California Love is seriously arresting and often quite beautiful.

Your album personnel:  Nicolas Frache (guitar), Pierre Gibbe (bass), Aëla Gouvernec (cello), Quentin Andrélouis (violin), Thibaut Fontana (tenor sax) and Emmanuelle Legros (trumpet).

Released on Grolektif Productions.

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

Available at:  Bandcamp