Jazz Recommendations – 2017 releases

There’s a wearied soul presence to this compelling duet recording from saxophonist Nick Mazzarella and cellist Tomeka Reid.  Perhaps it’s a tone set by the spiritual resonance of “Blues for Julius and Abdul,” but there’s no denying it’s a tonal quality that makes itself felt even within the swirling velocities of “Interstices” and title-track “Signaling,” just as it does during the cathartic wails of “The Ancestors Speak” and the abiding peacefulness of “Like So Many Drops of Water.”  It’s the sound of music speaking from its roots.

The duo’s plan going in was to seek the guidance of 1970s avant-garde expressionism before turning around and rechanneling it with the voice of the new century.  The transition between perspectives old and new is especially effective in how the contemplative “Rediscovery of an Age” increasingly bubbles with excitement before eventually reaching a boil, and how the distance between a murmur and a roar is made to seem infinitesimal on the ephemeral “Topographies.”  But key to the success of Signaling is how these inspirations fall easily into the embrace of those pieces where influence and era are cloaked in subtlety or obscured altogether.  And so, while opening track “Blues for Julius and Abdul” may have set the tone for the recording, the concluding piece “Invoking a Spirit” embodies its spirit.  Both familiar and strange, the music has a universal nature, tied to no decade and yet tied to all, where a heartfelt melodic voicing and a wide open path speak to music past and present.

Your album personnel:  Nick Mazzarella (alto sax) and Tomeka Reid (cello).

Released on Nessa Records.

Music from the Chicago scene.

Available at:  Amazon

Hans Lüdemann is so damn expressive with a melody, and yet his music has such a relaxed ambiance to it that it hardly seems like he’s even trying.  That dichotomy, and the fascinating contrast it puts front and center of every piece, is a big reason his music resonates like mad.  The pianist first gained this site’s notice with his excellent 2014 release Timbuktu, which earned the #25 slot on that year’s Best of 2014.  That was with his Trio Ivoire and their piano-balaphon-percussion combo with Aly Keita and Christian Thomé.  On his newest release Blaue Kreise, it’s a more conventional combo with his ROOMS outfit of bassist Sébastien Boisseau and drummer Dejan Terzic, but the huge expressiveness makes its presence felt with no less force.

This is true on the introspective “Dark Lights” and the rough-and-tumble of title-track “Blaue Kreise” and the glittering light show of “Arabesque” and the wild celebration of “Spring Rites,” and there isn’t a moment that isn’t crackling with life, as if every note might be their last.

The trio take the Ornette Coleman tune “Humpty Dumpty” for a spin, and the extended piece “Crum,” while an original composition, behaves as a brief tour of jazz’s past, with echoes of Dave Brubeck, Horace Silver and Andrew Hill reverberating across its breadth.

If you’re not familiar with Lüdemann, this is as good a place to get started as any.  All of it is gonna be wonderful

Your album personnel:  Hans Lüdemann (piano, virtual piano), Sébastien Boisseau (double bass) and Dejan Terzic (drums).

Released on BMC Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Soundcloud page.

Music from Hamburg, Germany.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic

This is old-school music from back when it was new school.  The blues are an ever-present force for expressing joy and pain, but they are rarely conjured up with conventional means or spoken with an ordinary voice.  There are shouts and drawls and sighs.  Sounds are warped and sometimes it feels like the center of this album will not hold.  There is a sense of laughter.  Lewis Jordan‘s wonderful this is where i came in brings together inside-out jazz, spoken word and modern groove.  His Music at Large sextet is comprised half by wind instruments, and the saxophonist layers their wild, unkempt strands of melody into patterns altogether fascinating.  He doesn’t mind when electric guitar burns a path right though it.  The bass and drums duo seems to shape the tempo with a cryptic algorithm based on predictive modeling… except when they’re digging deep into a groove.  The transition between instrumental tracks and those with spoken word is an ebb and flow affecting both lyrical delivery and emotional impact.  They both feed one into the other, amplifying the strengths of one another.  And there isn’t a moment on this album that isn’t fun.

Your album personnel:  Lewis Jordan (alto & baritone saxophones, voice), David Boyce (tenor & soprano saxophones), Ian Carey (trumpet), Karl Evangelista (electric guitar), Erich Hunt (acoustic & electric basses) and Jimmy Biala (drums, percussion).

This Self-Produced album is released on Common Notions.

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

Music from Oakland, California.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon