Jan 25 2020
Best of 2019 #43: Miho Hazama – “Dancer in Nowhere”
The compositions of Miho Hazama are a simultaneous view of the colors of a tree’s leaves and the entire forest in which it lives. Dancer in Nowhere often feels like an epic journey, a sense of an ever-changing landscape that reaches out the horizon and keeps on going. And, yet, there are so many junctions within the changes where Hazama makes it so damn easy to immerse oneself in a precise moment that its like time stops and every nuance is revealed. Her ensemble work is Exhibit A in the case of big band jazz having as much impact in the present day upon jazz as it ever has.
Your album personnel: Miho Hazama (conductor), Steve Wilson (alto & soprano saxophones, flute), Ryoji Ihara (tenor sax, clarinet, flute), Jason Rigby (tenor sax, clarinet), Andrew Gutauskas (baritone sax, bass clarinet), Jonathan Powell (trumpet, flugelhorn), Adam Unsworth (French horn), Tomoko Akaboshi (violin), Sita Chay (violin), Atsuki Yoshida (viola), Meaghan Burke (cello), James Shipp (vibraphone, guiro, shekere), Billy Test (piano), Sam Anning (bass), Jake Goldbas (drums), and guests: Nate Wood (drums), Kavita Shah (vocals), and Lionel Loueke (guitar).
Released on Sunnyside Records.
Music from New York City.
It was just a few years ago that I was catching 
The words old and new may be given equal billing in the album’s title, but a cursory listen to the recording will reveal the album skews far more to the latter than former. But that’s more of a measure of the levels of dissonance and tangled cadences that grace the 
There’s so much joy that emanates from this music. It’s irresistible, and, really, why would you even want to resist? But it’s more than that. The way grooves advance forward in unison and how melodies are cast like rays of sunlight beaming in all directions and how the musicians become entwined in a harmonic embrace, this joy has a shared quality, as if sprung from a collective, a collective joy that makes it easy to envision others enjoying this music at the same moment as yourself. This is the kind of experience that makes a live performance so special, of mainlining great music like so much happiness and being surrounded by people doing no different. The 2019 release from
Jan 25 2020
Best of 2019 #42: Matt Ulery – “Delicate Charms”
Matt Ulery’s sin didn’t even rise to that level. In hindsight, I really should’ve cut the guy some slack. The bassist and composer is young by jazz standards, but he’s also way ahead of the curve by way of creative accomplishments. The Chicagoan has already delivered a unique sound that is as inventive as it is classic. One day I expect to be speaking of his works with the same reverence as I do Henry Threadgill or Wayne Horvitz. In truth, it was awfully tepid criticism. I basically said his album was too pretty. And it was. It lacked some of the edge and mystery of past works. But in the grand scheme of things, there was nothing really wrong with the album, and perhaps focusing on that single flaw was a bit much… especially in the context that it’s still early, for him (and for us, as listeners), and also possessing an understanding that his music, like all others, exists in a continuum, where some things are merely elements of transformations to come, changes to manifest, and, perhaps a too-pretty recording leading to a grand beauty of the future.
I bring all this up, because that future grand beauty became the present in 2019 with Delicate Charms. The album has the majestic stature of his jazz orchestra recordings and the curious melodicism of his small ensemble Loom sessions, and yet the elements of each come together in a way that are much different than simple addition, a different kind of math altogether, an abstract calculation where one plus one equals universe. It’s a gorgeous recording. It’s also a huge reminder that we are watching evolution in action, tracking artists as their music changes as they change and as the music transforms yet again. It is easy to forget how truly miraculous it all is.
Your album personnel: Matt Ulery (double bass), Greg Ward (alto sax), Zach Brock (violin), Rob Clearfield (piano) and Quin Kirchner (drums).
Released on Woolgathering Records.
Music from Chicago, IL.
I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Listen | Read more | Available at: Bandcamp – Amazon
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By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2019 • 0 • Tags: Best Jazz of 2019, Chicago, Greg Ward, Matt Ulery, Quin Kirchner, Rob Clearfield, Woolgathering Records, Zach Brock