Jazz Recommendations – 2019

Jan 30 2020

Best of 2019 #22: Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour – “Live at Firehouse 12”

 

In a modern jazz world where the forms of expression have become more varied and strange and untethered from the original sounds that marked the first giant steps of jazz, it’s a welcome experience to encounter a recording to remind us what got us all crazy about this music in the first place.  Gerald Cleaver’s live performance recording at Firehouse 12 with his Violet Hour ensemble swings like mad as it charges straight ahead.  The solos make you wish they’d never end except when the sextet comes back together and makes you wish for them to never part ways again.  The production is such that it brings the electricity of the live environment right into your home without any drop-off, and, yet, also leave you a bit jealous of those who were there to hear it in person.  This is Jazz today, this is Jazz as it ever was.

Your album personnel:  Gerald Cleaver (drums), J.D. Allen (tenor sax), Andrew Bishop (bass clarinet, soprano & tenor saxophones), Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), Ben Waltzer (piano), and Chris Lightcap (bass).

Released on Sunnyside Records.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Jan 29 2020

Best of 2019 #23: Graham Costello’s STRATA – “Obelisk”

 

On his debut album, Graham Costello attains a massive sound.  Each time I’ve listened to this album over the course of 2019, inevitably I shake my head in disbelief that it’s merely a sextet that generates this much energy.  But it’s more than just a big sound that distinguished Obelisk as something special; it’s the melodic intensity, and how it remains focused over a duration of nearly an hour and fifteen minutes of music.  Each piece clocks in, on average, at ten minutes in length, and there’s never a moment where the drummer’s STRATA ensemble wavers or meanders off or takes their eye off some distant spot on the horizon that represents the tune’s endpoint.  It’s driven music, and while the melody changes under this constant pressure, it’s never so much that it deviates from its original voicing.  It’s a remarkable feat just by way of this accomplishment, but how it lends to a dramatic listening experience is what elevates this recording up to a higher esteem.  I ended my write-up for The Bandcamp Daily by saying, “And drummer Graham Costello doesn’t let up for the entirety of his debut; the unrelenting waves of cinematic imagery accrue an intensity that never seems to level off, even after the last note has faded.”  And, really, that’s the best way to end it here, too.  This album has been in constant play on my stereo, and the impact of the music hasn’t lessened, not even a little.

Your album personnel:  Graham Costello (drums), Harry Weir (tenor sax), Liam Shortall (trombone), Fergus McCreadie (piano), Joe Williamson (guitar), and Mark Hendry (bass).

The album is Self-Produced, and released as BPQD Records.

Music from Glasgow, UK.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Cover art by Graham Costello.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Jan 29 2020

Best of 2019 #24: Madwort’s Menagerie – “Madwort’s Menagerie”

 

Crossed lines at a big band rehearsal, compositions for saxophone quartet, and the mercurial prerogatives of a free improv duo are the components that brought a curious unity to the self-titled debut of Madwort’s Menagerie.  Tom Ward’s sextet with cornetist Alex Bonney, double bassist Tim Fairhall, flutist Julie Kjær, baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts, cellist Adam Spiers added to Ward’s own bass clarinet are responsible for a curious beauty, where melodies have the ephemeral quality of dreams and harmonies like their lingering aftereffect upon waking, slowly and greeted by soft daylight, and the motion of the music is fitful and anxious, as if children unable to sit still in church pews during a morning service.

Your album personnel:  Alex Bonney (cornet), Tim Fairhall (double bass), Julie Kjær (flutes), Cath Roberts (baritone sax), Adam Spiers (cello), and Tom Ward (bass clarinet).

Released on Madwort Records.

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

Music from London, England.

Available at:  Bandcamp

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Jan 29 2020

Best of 2019 #25: Ethnic Heritage Ensemble – “Be Known”

 

The voice of Kahil El’Zabar is music from Afro-Futurism’s past.  The AACM veteran set both Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and Ritual Trio in motion nearly fifty years ago, and the intoxicating mix of spiritual jazz, classical, blues, and avant-garde were as effective at obliterating stereotypes and tropes of who should be making which kinds of music as it was at finding both simple and complex ways of expressing the blues and what it meant to live this life.  His music was an inspiration then, and continues to serve as a beacon to musicians today who carry on the Afro-futuristic tradition.  His 2019 release Be Known, with trumpeter Corey Wilkes, baritone saxophonist Alex Harding, and cellist Ian Maksin illustrates all of those qualities, and with an immediacy and a newness that puts the focus on what Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is in the here and now.  Be Known ain’t no throwback album.  This is vision forward.

Your album personnel:  Kahil El’Zabar (percussion, voice), Corey Wilkes (trumpet, percussion), Alex Harding (baritone sax), and Ian Maksin (cello).

Released on Spiritmuse Records.

Music from Chicago, IL.

Cool cover art by Nep Sidhu.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Jan 29 2020

Best of 2019 #26: Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux – “Path of Totality”

 

“It won’t take much convincing to believe that Quinsin Nachoff’s newest is inspired by a total solar eclipse,” is how I led off my write-up of the saxophonist’s outstanding 2019 release.  “Every bit of this sprawling epic radiates the kind of wonderment associated with the witnessing of celestial events.”  This is music on a grand scale.  There are many elements present on Paths of Totality that made it into past recordings, but there is a sense of interlocking pieces of familiar materials taking a shape far different than what they might have previously, under different conditions and a different time.  But key to this album’s success is how Quinsin Nachoff still makes the music accessible.  Every year there are a handful of projects that attempt to capture a majestic object or focus, and reflect that majesty with music of an equally imposing presence.  More often than not, the resulting music is something to marvel at as if from a distance, and never truly connect with.  But if Paths of Totality is the moon, his music brings the listener close enough to reach out an touch it.  That’s no small thing.  In fact, it might be everything.

Your album personnel:  Quinsin Nachoff (tenor & soprano saxophones), David Binney (alto sax, C melody sax), Matt Mitchell (piano, Prophet 6, modular synthesizer, Novachord, harpsichord, Estey pump harmonium), and guests: Kenny Wollesen (drums, Wollesonic percussion), Nate Wood (drums), Jason Barnsley (1924 Kimball theatre organ), Mark Duggan (marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, crotales, Tibetan singing bowls), Carl Maraghi (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet), Dan Urness, Matt Holman (trumpets), Ryan Keberle (trombones), Alan Ferber (trombone, bass trombone), Orlando Hernández (tap dance), and David Travers-Smith (Buchla 200E analog modular system, EMS Synthi 100 analog/digital hybrid synthesizer, Arp Chroma (Rhodes) analog synthesizer, clavioline, Oberheim SEM, modular Moog).

Released on Whirlwind Recordings.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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