Jazz Recommendations – 2017 releases

It’s odd how ephemeral the personality of Malnoia is, and yet how very distinct.  In a vague sense, this is a chamber jazz recording… except when it’s not quite.  Other times the impression given is that of a folk-jazz work, but that impression fades before it fully takes hold.  Then there are those moments it is situated firmly in modern jazz or post-jazz territory, before it moves briskly along to the next facet of that very ephemeral, very distinct personality.  The sophomore recording by pianist Jorn Swart is a treasure of very strong imagery that only lingers for a moment.  Something about that transient quality keeps the music a source of constant intrigue, and almost eclipses the album’s cascading beauty.

The album is best mapped by its tones.  The classy elegance of “Elefante Triste” borders on becoming detached and radiating a distant warmth, and it’s striking how that eventually leads to the somber mood on “Feldmania.”  This curved path is also how to traverse the cheery hop and twist of “Walsje” and “Hindemith” through the ominous passages of “Odd Christmas Song” before ending with the contemplative nature of “The Return Of The Snow Bunnies (In Slow Motion)” and “Nocturne.”  But no matter how familiar the map and its routes may become, it’s not certain that this music will ever become so familiar as to not sound strange.  Or, for that matter, ever see its intrigue come to an end.

Your album personnel:  Jorn Swart (piano), Benni von Gutzeit (viola) and Lucas Pino (bass clarinet).

Released on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.

Music from Brooklyn.

Available at:  Amazon

It’s more than just focused intensity with JD Allen.  Lots of musicians have that.  Some express it better than others, but it’s not a unique thing.  No, what JD Allen has got is grace.  No matter how furious the tempo may grow and regardless how patient a ballad’s melody might be exhaled, the saxophonist radiates a grace that washes over every note and every motion of every song, and it’s why his music so often sounds so much greater than a collaboration of musicians contributing their individual voices… it’s a sense of how everything is interconnected and moves in concert.  That’s Radio Flyer.

It’s the melodic ebb and flow of Gregg August‘s bass and Liberty Ellman‘s guitar on “Ghost Dance” and how Rudy Royston‘s drums envelops it all without the slightest risk of drowning it out.  It’s how the stormy downpour of Royston’s attack on “The Angelus Bell” isn’t nearly as fearsome as how Allen is able to dance his solo between the raindrops, untouched but definitely interactive.  It’s the first-blush sense that each member of the quartet is doing their own thing on title-track “Radio Flyer” before the second impression sets in that disassembly is, in fact, their unity, not unlike how a scattered mass of marbles all posses the same starting point and share the same collision to set them in motion in the first place.  It’s how the muscles flexed on “Daedalus” never forget they’re all part of the same body.  It’s all of those connections and how fluid their state of coexistence plays out.  There’s an elegance to it all, even when it sounds edgy as hell.  That’s the grace.  A single motion given the illusion of consisting of multiple acts.

A very fun album, as all of Allen’s recordings are.  The repetition of that distinction does nothing to diminish their enjoyment.  Go scoop this one up.

Your album personnel:  JD Allen (tenor sax), Gregg August (bass), Rudy Royston (drums) and Liberty Ellman (guitar).

Released on Savant Records.

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

Music from NYC.

Available at:  Amazon

On AXES, they all come out swinging.  This sextet session from João Mortágua features four saxophonists, and not a one of them is thinking ballad as they crank up their instruments.  The sextet is rounded out by two drummer-percussionists, and they ain’t looking to display a delicate side, either.  Each melody clears out a wide path, knocking over anything that gets in its way.  The distinguishing characteristics are to be discovered in the motion those melodies attain while going about their business.

“Afro Axe” unleashes a bit of a groove to get the feet moving and “Decablues” wrings out every last drop of pain from the soul.  “Robot” switches between a light bounce and a lumbering stomp.  “Bud Pets” bops its head around, sometimes striking with it.  “Pyramidal” is light on its feet, except when it isn’t.  And “Methall” kind of wants to rock out on the dance floor.  And no matter what form that motion takes, it’s plenty fun.

Yet another release on the Porta Jazz label that’s floating my boat.

Your album personnel:  João Mortágua (alto & soprano saxes), José Soares (alto sax), Hugo Ciríaco (tenor sax), Rui Teixeira (baritone sax), Alex Rodriguez-Lázaro (drums) and Pedro Vasconcelos (drums, percussion).

Released on Porta Jazz.

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

Music from Porto, Portugal.

Available at:  Bandcamp

There’s a sense with Tyst of music existing in a perpetually emergent state.  It’s an enticingly languorous motion that carries through the duration of this mesmerizing set by the Lisa Stick Septett, and how the melody is gradually revealed as if from the enveloping folds of a thick mist creates a wonderful bit of anxious tension.  It’s an approach most prominent on tracks like “Braband,” “Slow Day” and “13.Januar.”  The septet throws some punches with “Une Rue” and “Ove” is wild and free, but it’s how “Lingering” makes the attention hang on each note of a gorgeous melody or how melodic lines spryly dance circles about one another on “Meilahti” that represents the best this album has to offer.

Of particular interest is how Lisa Stick complements her trombone with a string quartet, and then takes advantage of all of the harmonic possibilities this affords her.  The bass and drums duo of Christian Müller and Dirk Achim Dhonau strike out on a path right down the center of it all, providing the ethereal music a center of gravity and an outline of definition.

Just a lovely recording.

Your album personnel:  Lisa Stick (trombone), Julia Mahns (violin), Gillian Bradtke (violin), Tina Oepen (viola), Constantin Pritz (cello), Christian Müller (double bass) and Dirk Achim Dhonau (drums, vocals).

Released on the JazzLab Label.

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

Music from Hamburg, Germany.

Available at:  Bandcamp