Jazz Recommendations – 2017 releases

Let me just get this out of the way right from the start:  I am not a fan of the music of Terje Rypdal.  I find the guitarist’s sound melodramatic and sometimes a little screechy.  His albums veer too often into new age territory for my own tastes, and when he swings in the other direction with some guitar solo fury, it tends to burn away at any melodic beauty built to that point.

There are moments I enjoy.  For instance, this album.  And this one.  And, hey, some stuff on this one, too.  And then this one is arguably my favorite from his discography, viewed as a whole and not just bits of an album I like.  But for the most part, I hear this and this and this, and I just can’t deal.

But, hey, you are welcome to like this guy’s music.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  And my personal dislike of his music isn’t offered up as some sort of repudiation of his standing in the music community.  There’s a whole bunch of musicians who look up to Rypdal, and a bunch of those musicians are ones I’m a fan of.  Take, for instance, this very fun tribute recording, celebrating Rypdal’s 70th birthday.  Sky Music: A Tribute to Terje Rypdal brings together a cadre of the guitarist’s former collaborators, new generation followers, and just plain admirers, and the range of ways they channel his music is a pretty decent facsimile of Rypdal’s own.  There’s a core group that perform Rypdal pieces for about half of the album, and then a series of guests that either perform solo-duo pieces (like Bill Frisell and Erik Friedlander) or join in with the core group (like Jim O’Rourke‘s excellent contribution on the album finale).

What’s particularly nice about how the album gets rolled out is that the core group unleashes all of the fury commonly associated with Rypdal’s music, while the solo and duo pieces highlight Rypdal’s melodic perspective… an attribute that sometimes gets lost in all of the intensity and electronic production.

This is a fun album, and one that I genuinely enjoyed.  No, I’m not a fan of Rypdal’s music, but that opinion is one that has developed over time and with a lot of experience giving him a listen.  An album like this, comprised of musicians expressing their own perspective on Rypdal works, it’s one more door to perhaps encounter a path to connect with the guitar legend’s music.  Whether you’re a long-time fan of his music or if this is the first time you’ve heard of the man, I highly encourage you to check out this recording and Rypdal originals.  There are a lot of music listeners who count Rypdal among their all-time favorites.  It might be the same for you, too.

Your album personnel:  Gard Nilssen (drums), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (electric & double basses), Even Helte Hermansen (electric guitar), Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen (electric guitar), Henry Kaiser (electric guitar), Reine Fiske (electric guitar), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards) and guests:  Erik Friedlander (cello), Bill Frisell (electric guitar), David Torn (electric guitar), Hans Magnus Ryan (electric guitar), Raoul Björkenheim (electric guitar), Nels Cline (electric guitar, bass, loops) and Jim O’Rourke (pedal steel guitar, guitar synthesizer, acoustic guitar, synth, double bass).

Released on Rune Grammofon.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic

And here’s the official EPK for the recording…

The Good Land takes an interesting turn after a straight-forward opening.  The album starts out like a conventional set from the Lesser Lakes Trio of trumpeter Jamie Breiwick, bassist John Christensen and drummer Devin Drobka.  The moonlight warmth of “Bender Park” and the bob & weave of “Wu-Chi” and the slow burn of “The Four Corners” give every indication that it’s going to be a modern trumpet album that borrows generously from the music of jazz gone by.

But then everything changes.  It starts with “Fitzimmons Rd” and its thoroughly modern rhythmic attack and pop-tinged melody.  The song is both fiercely driven and immensely catchy, and though it sounds nothing like what came before, there’s yet still an identifiable connection… sort of in that way a child can resemble a parent or perhaps, similarly, how lifetime lovers seem to grow more alike as the passing of time side by side one another.  The strangely ambient drone of “String of Pearls,” behaves almost as an interlude before “Happy Jacks” and title-track “The Good Land” circle back to where “Fitzimmons Rd” left off.

And from there, that’s when the trio takes a look back over their shoulder.  “Upon a Single Leg” and “Stilts” echo the phrasing and cadence of the album’s opening two tracks, but focus that view through a lens that is trained acutely on the present day.  But that sense of having come almost full circle, where the two ends don’t meet but are within reach… it’s a satisfying conclusion to a very enjoyable recording.

Your album personnel:  Jamie Breiwick (trumpet), John Christensen (bass) and Devin Drobka (drums).

Released on Shifting Paradigm Records.

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

Music from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

This album crackles with an electricity that sounds like laughter, feels like euphoria and lights up the room with a jolt of beauty.  Le Vanneau Huppé is so full of life it barely is able to contain itself, as if it were a heart too full of joy to keep it all in.  Thankfully, Collectif SPATULE doesn’t even bother trying.

But it’s not just about the album’s emotive qualities.  There’s also the complexity at its foundation and the friendly embrace it has waiting for anyone who steps up to listen.  The way “Fabulous” opens the album with the relentless cries of saxophone as harp, acoustic guitar and chimes fall gently like raindrops between the lightning strikes.

Sometimes voices enter as harmonies and sometimes with lyrics.  On “Cimes,” it’s both, and both to great effect.  There’s an addictive quality to the repetitive chatter from the percussion duo of Gabor Turi and Florian Chaigne, and the way Chloé Cailleton melts her words into their dialog is positively intoxicating.  This effect is amplified on “Âdhyâtma Murshida,” where a strong folkloric quality is the launching point for a series of melodic diversions.

The album is rich with diversity and the ensemble is able to exploit it for moments of stunning beauty and subtly evocative nuance.  The saxophones of Gweltaz Hervé make their presence known loud and clear, and there’s never a moment where they don’t give the space and time for Pascal Vandenbulcke to dart through on flute.  And the accent on strings with the harp, acoustic guitar, cello and double bass of Émilie Chevillard, Fabien Ewenczyk, Stéphane Oster and Rémi Allain are like a flowery full bloom of colors.

The sing-song “”Réminiscence” is arguably the best exhibit of how the ensemble is able to harness all of this complexity and detailing, and spin it into a pretty tune, easy to connect with and friendly as the morning sun.  Then again, the way the ensemble accomplishes the same feat with the extended jam “13 à table” to bring the album to a close might serve just as ably an example of the musicians in their best light.

This is one of the very best things I’ve heard all year.

Your album personnel:  Chloé Cailleton (voice), Pascal Vandenbulcke (flutes), Gweltaz Hervé (saxophones), Émilie Chevillard (chromatic harp), Fabien Ewenczyk (guitars), Stéphane Oster (cello), Rémi Allain (double bass), Gabor Turi (drums, percussion, voice) and Florian Chaigne (drums, percussion).

Released on Aloya Music.

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

Music from Nantes, France.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon