Jazz Recommendations – 2017 releases

There’s plenty of individual moments to enjoy on the new installment of John Zorn’s Book of Angels series, but what ultimately reveals itself to be the greatest factor in this album’s success is the nature of the changes between pieces and how their accumulation delivers a seriously powerful emotional impact.  There’s the more obvious examples like the transition between storm and eye on consecutive tracks “Jekusiel” and “Diniel,” then “Akzariel” and “Palaleil,” and then all over again on “Parymel.”

But there’s also the more subtle shifts.  Like how the mystical elements of “Karkiel” and the late-period hard bop of “Tsirya” and the blues of “Bazazath” and the scattered patterns of “Avial” all seem to walk the same line, and that the dominance of any one particular influence is a difference as thin as the length of the shadow cast by the trio’s expressionism.

And then there’s the echo of memories.  John Zorn has been at this Book of Angels project for 31 volumes spanning nearly thirteen years.  Similarities begin to emerge.  This happens between different volumes in the Masada series and also those of other Zorn projects.  The sense of Zorn’s hand in the creation of the music resonates strongly at times.  There’s a real satisfaction earned from listening to these different projects and picking up the nuanced differences between bird-of-a-feather compositions, and reveling in how they blossom under the guidance of different musicians and ensembles.  In this instance, pianist Brian Marsella adds a new voice to the continuum, and is joined by long-time Tzadik label regulars, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Kenny Wollesen.  And so it’s no wonder that Buer: Book Of Angels Volume 31 sounds like a little something old as it gives voice to something very much new.  This John Zorn series just keeps on giving.

Your album personnel:  Brian Marsella (piano), Trevor Dunn (bass) and Kenny Wollesen (drums).

Released on the Tzadik label.

Music from West Orange, New Jersey.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic

Also, for an alternate view of Marsella’s music, you should check out his Imaginarium project and the 2016 release The Clocks Have Gone Mad.  I never ended up writing about it, but it is something different and odd and compelling in its way.  You can give it a listen and purchase it on his Bandcamp page.  Hat tip to Kevin Coultas for the heads-up about that album.

There’s really no sense breaking this album down for you.  This is a gorgeous recording, and there’s not a whole hell of lot more to say about it.  The self-titled album from Abisko Lights dishes out a series of melodic visions, possessing form and substance, and yet also an ephemeral quality that allows them to change shape or just drift peacefully away.  Serene.  That would be a good word to use when talking about this album.  So would captivating.  And considering the band’s name refers to the Aurora Borealis and the prime viewing spot, Sweden’s Abisko National Park, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise the music sounds as it does.

Of particular interest is the pairing of bass clarinet and cello.  Though both instruments bring a deep resonance, their effect on the melody can be vastly different from one another.  But on Abisko Lights, they live in unity throughout, each acting as the other’s shadow when the spotlight of a solo is on their counterpart.  The use of double bass on this session strikes a middle ground between the two, and often serves more of a melodic role than a rhythmic one.  This, perhaps, more than any other element is key to this album’s success by providing nuance to thick beams of melody and a little something different from a percussive standpoint.  Drums and piano fill out the quintet, and the former’s restrained chatter and the latter’s ornamental flair round things out nicely.

A beautiful album.  It’d make a nice listen first thing in the morning while the sun’s rising, but I’d also suggest giving it a test run on a moody, rainy day.

Your album personnel:  Benjamin Wellenbeck (drums), Hannes Daerr (bass clarinet), Tabea Schrenk (cello), Dirk Flatau (piano) and Niklas Lukassen (double bass).

Released on Unit Records.

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

Music from Berlin, Germany.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic

Where it all went down was in a living room.  It started that way when Helen Gillet got together with some friends and played out.  Some other friends showed up, and they joined in, too.  It was like a potluck, but, y’know, with instruments.  The recording session went down in that same living room.  The sense of sharing and the variety of sounds on Horizon, it all comes off like a potluck, too.

Gillet is keyed into the traditions of her New Orleans home turf.  Even though Horizon takes all kinds of genre detours, this music is mainlined into a traditional sound.  The boisterous “Unzen” makes it clear right from the start, however, that anything old-school is likely to be populated with students of new-school experience and no-school visions.  The gospel groove of “Valles Caldera” breaks free at will, sometimes in a disintegrating bop and other times unleashed from any tag at all.  The three-part “Elden Suite” adds some chamber elegance to the affair, and then gradually betrays the view that fun is more important than elegance.  On the subject of fun, it’s particularly enjoyable when the ensemble runs wild and free and then suddenly coalesces into boozy, euphoric shout of the blues.  “Stromboli” is a good spot to check that out.  For an immersion into the rhythmic pulse of the recording, “Erta Ale” and “Krakatoa” are different views on how repetition or randomness can both lead to focus and unity.

“Piton de la Fournaise” brings the album to a close, and does it with the same exuberance and diversity the album introduced itself with, as well as the same attitude of fun.  There isn’t a moment on Horizon that isn’t joyful.  Tephra Sound conjures up a unique kind of magic.

Your album personnel:  Helen Gillet (cello, loops, megamouth), Rex Gregory (alto sax), Alex Massa (trumpet), Nikki Glaspie (drums, keyboards, bell wheel), Brian Haas (piano) and guests:  Jessica Lurie (flute, loops, alto saxophone, effects), Weedie Braimah (djembe), Annie Ellicott (voice, clapping).

Released on Tephra Sound Records.

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

Music from New Orleans.

Available at:  Bandcamp

There’s a fascinating interplay between the two discs that comprise the newest recording by the duo of Binker & Moses.  At its heart, this entirety of Journey To The Mountain Of Forever is a duo recording between tenor saxophonist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd.  But this particular heart is big and its blood flows strong in many directions, and so when the second disc expands from the first disc’s duo session to an expanded ensemble, the music beats with the same pulse and the blood carries the same flow… it’s just a matter of conveying a wider range of textures and expressions of beauty.

For instance, the speedy groove that results from the saxophone-drummer duo’s approach on “Intoxication From The Jahvmonishi Lea” is borne from the same seed that blossomed “The Valley of the Ultra Blacks,” but the latter lights things up with everything the expanded ensemble has got.  In that same way, Tori Handsley‘s harp opens a door into serenity on “Gifts From the Vibrations of Light,” but its undercurrent of tension is a mainline straight from the duo’s fiercely burning embers on “Leaving the Now Behind.”  And the celebratory dance of “Fete by the River,” which Boyd and Moses give a calypso streak, feeds off the same source of charm as the cheery “Ritual of the Root,” which gets an infusion of blues courtesy of Byron Wallen and his trumpet.

Bringing in the saxophones of Evan Parker generates massive dividends.  Parker’s twisting strands of melody on “Voice of Besbunu” commingle with those of Golding’s sax, and in combination, the result is something greater than their individual contributions.  And the extra percussion from the drums and tabla of  Yussef Dayes and Sarathy Korwar light things up with a relentless demeanor on “Entering the Infinite,” but it’s how they accentuate the spirituality and grace of “Echoes From the Other Side of the Mountain” that truly resonates like mad.

But those examples of differentiation are eclipsed by the wonderful cohesion between the first note, the last note, and all the notes in between.  Perhaps there’s no better example of this than the spiritual jazz cries of opening track “The Departure” and the spiritual jazz sighs of the album finale “At the Feet of the Mountain of Forever,” and how they convey that the beauty and life so evident in the beginning of this album is the same felt at the very end.

Your album personnel:  Moses Boyd (drums), Binker Golding (tenor sax), Tori Handsley (harp), Sarathy Korwar (tabla), Evan Parker (tenor & soprano saxophones), Byron Wallen (trumpet) and Yussef Dayes (drums).

Released on Gearbox Records.

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

Music from London.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic