Jazz Recommendations – 2012 Releases

There is a consistent pull to this album, as if the music is tugging at the ear.

The music stays elusively, seductively one step ahead, drawing the listener in close, enough to feel the warmth of the music and the gentle tap of its rhythms, but never enough to grasp it.  This is a sensation that makes it easy to hit the play button again after the last note has played.  It’s not so much an addiction as a need to capture the music.

Drummer Scott McLemore has a couple albums under his own name, but also influential collaborations with pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs, the ASA Trio, and experimental pop artist Amy Kohn.  The mix of influences of straight-ahead modern jazz, Icelandic/Nordic/ECM moody jazz, and eccentric pop music all show their influence on Remote Location.  It’s a curiously quirky, enchantingly catchy album that has a pop music sensibility retrofitted for the natural complexities of a jazz composition.

Your album personnel:  Scott McLemore (drums), Óskar Guðjónsson (tenor sax), Andrés Thor (accoustic & electric guitar), Sunna Gunnlaugs (piano, wurlitzer), and Róbert Þórhallsson (contrabass, electric, & acoustic bass guitar).

A couple examples of what I’m talking about…

The nine minute long “Citizen Sitting Zen” just drifts along for all of six minutes, offering wispy notes, and establishing a demeanor of perfect serenity.  And then guitar approaches from the distance with crunching footsteps, growing louder and closer, breaking the peacefulness the song had spent so much time establishing.  But executed with a deft precision, sax and percussion and keys mesh it all together and recreate that initial serenity, just at a greater tempo and volume.  It makes for a low-key but thrilling turn of events, and it’s arguably the best tune on the album.

And the perky “Dunegrass,” which begins with a catchy repetition of phrase by Gunnlaugs on piano, which Guðjónsson adds some accompaniment to.  McLemore kicks in an amicable pattern, but the entrance of Andres Thor on acoustic guitar really makes the tune shine bright.  And when Gunnlaugs riffs on that opening phrase by exploring its different facets, that and the acoustic guitar and drums that sound like sand blowing across a deserted parking lot, its like post-bop for the Great Wide Open spaces far from the streets of New York City… an airy expansiveness that never lets itself get too far from the earth that launched it.  It’s a bit of a magical tune with an ambiguous groove and sweet lovely melody.

Several of the album tracks are concretely positioned in the sound of the Icelandic scene where McLemore now calls home.  It’s got plenty of the flavor of Nordic Jazz, but where Nordic tends to gravitate to the atmospherics, Icelandic keeps closer to the earth with a folk song pragmatism and children’s lullaby charm.  Tracks like “Balkelero” and “Woods At Night” and “Secrets of Earth” and “Charlottesville” fit that bill.  While not the most compelling tracks on the album, we are talking about an album here and not just a collection of various songs.  “Dunegrass” wouldn’t have had the same kick were it not for the sighing ambiance of “Charlottesville.”  And the transition from the steadily rising energy of “Woods At Night” creates a nice dynamic with the simmering groove of “Waking.”  In fact, its the push and pull of the album’s shifting intensity from track to track that is one of its most redeeming, and entrancing, qualities.

The album is bookended by tracks at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Album opener and title-track “Remote Location” has an anxious gate.  Bass twitches nervously, and then the tune’s muscles relax.  By the time guitar makes its entrance, the song seems to have found its groove, and even a return to the opening statement lacks the opening tension.  Things settle in nicely after that.  The album ends with “Movement for Motian,” a ballad that cycles more than sways, like leaves caught in a dust devil.

Released on the Sunny Sky Records label.

Jazz from the Reykjavik, Iceland scene.

You can stream the album in its entirety on the artist’s bandcamp page.  You can also purchase it there, both as CD or Download (in a number of different file formats).

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

What began originally as the inspiration from a single piece of art blossomed into an entire album.  After receiving a comission from San Fran’s de Young Museum and Intersection for the Arts to write a composition based on a piece showing at the de Young Museum, trumpeter Erik Jekabson was drawn to the installation art of Cornelia Parker, specifically her piece “Anti-Mass”… a collection of burnt timbers, the result of criminal arson, that seem to defy gravity by floating in place, the individual pieces giving the collective impression of wanting to reunite as a church once again.  It’s a powerful piece, even viewed via computer screen.

Jekabson, also affected by the artwork, used it as the inspiration for his commissioned piece, which was later performed live at the museum.  But that wasn’t enough.  In the wake of his completed project, he set out on another, similar goal… to record an album of compositions based on individual pieces in the de Young Museum.  That endeavor became Anti-Mass, an album both inventive and evocative, and one to deserve some recognition at year end when rounding up the best the year had to offer.

Your album personnel:  Erik Jekabson (trumpet), Dayna Stephens (tenor sax), Mads Tolling (violin), Charith Premawardhana (viola), John Wiitala (bass), and Smith Dobson ( drums & vibes).

“Silence” opens the album with the low hum of strings, the siren call of trumpet, and the soft chime of vibes.  It’s an enchanting tune, and it’s  the kind of track that really hooks me, gets me excited for what the rest of the album has in store.  As far as opening statements go, it’s a brilliant one.

It immediately transitions to an up-tempo piece.  On “Strontium”, trumpet and violin and sax take turns calling out to the choir.  When trumpet and sax weave strings of notes together as violin crackles like electricity… these are exhilarating passages.

The music goes in a jazz-folk direction with “Park Stroll.”  A lively ballad with a bit of gravity to its sway, back and forth with a feathery lightness, but with a rhythmic punch that can ding you all the same.  Tolling’s violin is the driving force behind the spirit of this tune, even when he steps into the background.

“A New Beginning” has violin on tiptoes, and sax and trumpet slow and lovely.  Wiitala gets a tone on bass that shouldn’t be overlooked on this track.  It has that throaty resonance of sounds from beneath the water’s surface, and also possesses the oddly calming warmth of underwater acoustics.  Pretty neat.

The fifth track is accurately titled “Interlude.”  Just over a minute in length, it features strings repeating a melancholic phrase while vibes dart in and out between the strings and bass takes short bursts of quick steps.  It’s a pretty tune, and I’m a sucker for substantive interludes between primary album tracks.  They can add such a delicious element to an album.  This is especially true when they lead into a track like “Anti-Mass,” which begins as a torrential downpour, notes crashing to the floor, whipping sideways.  But the storm recedes, and the tune becomes the sound of rain dripping off the eaves of rooftops.  And when the clouds part and the sunlight shines through, the song is transformed into a New Orleans celebration of the storm now passed.

The seventh track is another interlude, a duo of violin twitches and butterfly vibes.  And much like the previous interlude, this one leads into an up-tempo track, “Portrait of Miss D,” a jaunty stroll with some nice call and response between trumpet, sax, and violin.  Bass gurgles happily through all of this, and when it gets in a brief solo, it makes its time in the spotlight count.

“The Cello Player” is sax and strings swaying to and fro.  There’s a solemn tone to this composition, but in as much as this would imply an element of sadness, it’s an emotion that also typically recognizes a majestic beauty that exists even in dour times.

The pattern of transitioning between the lush elegance of string-heavy shorter tracks and longer upbeat ones is an album positive.  There’s all types of benefits to the different ways to weave an album’s tracks together into one satisfying whole, as well as an equal number of pitfalls.  Jekabson got it right when he dispersed his tracks the way he did.

And continuing on that subject, the softness of “The Cello Player” leads into the get-started-on-your-day urgency of “To Be DeYoung Again,”  Staccato notes from violin and trumpet with plenty of chipper joie de vivre.  Stephen’s sax is alive-and-kicking, and Dobson just sounds like he’s having a ball on drums.  It’s a tune that makes it increasingly simple to buy into its cheerfulness the longer it goes on.

The album ends with “Afternoon on the Sea, Monhegan.”  It sounds a bit freer than the rest of the album.  Sax bisects the rhythms, vibes peek out intermittently, the soft patter of percussion chatters nervously, and there is a sense of man-alone-on-the-open-sea that inspired the composition.

Really, just a wonderful album.

The album is Self-Produced, released under Jekab’s Music.

Jazz from the San Francisco scene.

Not yet available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Here’s a photo of the piece “Anti-Mass” that started the ball rolling on this project:

Don’t dismiss harpist Carol Robbins because of her instrument.  My immediate reaction is to state that this isn’t your typical jazz harp album, but the relative rarity that is the jazz harp album precludes use of the word ‘typical.’  Moraga has got some ballads and it’s got some swing, and Robbins coaxes her harp into seamlessly blending its innate elegance with the allurement of the former and the boisterousness of the latter.  This album keeps both feet in conventional jazz far more than another recent jazz harp release, Iro Haarlas’s Vespers, which focused more on the harp’s tendency to soar like mad, or say, another harp contemporary, Rachel Gladwin, who, lately, has been channeling the sound of Alice Coltrane’s spiritual jazz with Nat Birchall’s outfit.

The thing of it is, the use of harp in jazz is so infrequent, that it’s easy to make assumptions based on the singular voices of those rare harpists who do get into the spotlight.  And often, the harp position in the ensemble is sufficiently compelling as to impose its will upon the other instruments.  Robbins displays that this doesn’t have to be the case.

Your album personnel: Carol Robbins (harp), Billy Childs (piano), Gary Meek (saxophones, clarinet), Larry Koonse (guitar), Darek Oles (bass), and Gary Novak (drums).

For instance, on the sublime “Three Rings,” clarinet is the bird singing into the night, and harp’s interaction with it is to ruffle its feathers with a soft breeze and carry its voice out into the darkness.  But on album opener (and title-track) “Moraga,” Robbins play it straight, fitting expertly into place with the rest of the ensemble and keeping the jazz bounce going even during her solo.  No different on the up-tempo “Straight Away,” where Robbins tosses out a few sheets of revved up elegance, but shows a similar comfort riffing with the rhythm section.  The album ends with the mysterious “Rotadendron,” a song that is as much soothing as haunting, and which features interplay between harp and piano that ends this solid album on a very high note.

Forget preconceptions of what a harp jazz album should sound like.  This is a little gem of a straight-ahead jazz album.

Released on the Jazzcats Productions label.

Jazz from the L.A. scene.

Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Jensen/Anschell/Symer Blueprints, Claudio Scolari Synthesis, Steve Davis Gettin’ It Done, Heliocentric Counterblast A Tribute to Sun Ra, and Greg Spero Acoustic.

*****

Brent Jensen, Bill Anschell, & Chris Symer – Blueprints

It’s nice when an album possesses qualities that are both serene and scattered.  Music like that makes for lazy Sunday afternoons when napping is the furthest thing from ones mind.  The trio of Brent Jensen, Bill Anschell, and Chris Symer hits that sweet spot just right.  With soprano sax, piano, and bass (respectively), they take a peaceful stroll through a set of tunes that sound vaguely deconstructed.  Bits of original melodies peek out from crosscurrents of notes that all sound like original ingredients doctored up in a new, though similar, meal.  The cover of “How Deep the Ocean” flirts with free improvisation performed in a tiny crucible.  Parker’s “Yardbird Suite” goes from swing on the dance floor to bop musings on the staircase.  The trio goes in the opposite direction on Monk’s “Blue Monk,” giving the tune an alluring sway that shifts into a jittery wobble.  It makes for a nice effect.

My only disappointment is that only one of the nine tracks is an original composition.  The delightful symbiosis amongst the trio makes me pine for what might have been had they sunk their teeth into some original melodies.  Based on the results from this recording, there’s no reason to expect it would be anything less than sublime.

Your album personnel:  Brent Jensen (soprano sax), Bill Anschell (piano), and Chris Symer (bass).

Stream a couple album tracks at the artist’s website.

Released on the Origin Arts label.

Jazz from the Seattle, WA scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Claudio Scolari – Synthesis

Percussionist and composer Claudio Scolari finds a way to make avant-garde music out of the same ingredients that many ECM artists create atmospheric soundscapes.  The thing of it is, he doesn’t appear satisfied with simply having developed his own uniquely compelling sound.  Whereas others may have simply coasted on the creation of the sound itself and created a series of comparable tunes, on Synthesis, Scolari appears to venture into other music territories.  There’s some riffs on jazz, including one with Latin jazz rhythms, and there’s a few that hit the folk-jazz elements, and then others that earn the avant-garde tag. Richly textured.  Plenty of percussion with some trumpet to soar over the top of it all. Something for those who like Something Different, and a nice release, especially following on the heels of his excellent release Colors of Red Island.

Your album personnel: Claudio Scolari (drums, percussion, synth computer, flute), Daniele Cavalca (drum, vibraphone, piano, melodica, bass), and Simone Scolari (trumpet).

Released on the Principal Records label, which may be Scolari’s own label.

Jazz from the Caltanissetta, Italy scene.

Available at eMusic.

Steve Davis – Gettin’ It Done

Nice hard-bop session from trombonist Steve Davis. Davis was one of the musicians who worked the transition years, when the old-school jazz legends were winding down their careers and a new generation was rising up to continue the Jazz tradition.  Davis, who notably was part of Art Blakey’s crew in the 90s, has amassed an impressive resume in a relatively short time (by jazz career standards). His current release displays a workmanlike effort, as he leads a sextet in a series of hopping tunes.  This is pure jazz, no need to check the fine print.

Your album personnel: Steve Davis (trombone). Josh Bruneau (trumpet, flugelhorn), Mike DiRubbo (alto sax), Larry Willis (piano), Nat Reeves (bass), and Billy Williams (drums).

Released on the Posi-Tone Records label.

Jazz from the Hartford, CT scene.

Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Heliocentric Counterblast – A Tribute to Sun Ra

This German octet does a nifty rundown of Sun Ra, capturing Ra’s compositional eccentricities as well as his abundance of joyful music.  Fun album, and glad I ran into it.  I like that I got to type “space-keys” in the personnel section.  No proper website, but here’s a link to their Facebook page.

Your album personnel:  Nikolaus Neuser (trumpet), Kathrin Lemke (alto sax, flute), Dirk Steglich (tenor sax, flute), Andreas Dormann (baritone sax), Gerhard Gschlössl (trombone), Uri Gincel (piano, space-keys), Mike Majkowski (bass), and Philipp Bernhardt (drums).

Released on the Yellowbird Records label.  Jazz from the Berlin scene.

Available at eMusic.

Greg Spero – Acoustic

Spirited recording from the dynamic pianist.  Greg Spero has plenty of flash, but as this album illustrates, he’s got the substance to back it up.  A nice mix of late-night piano jazz, some which could induce listeners to just close their eyes and lean back in their seats, and other tracks which simmer with an R&B groove.

Your album personnel:  Greg Spero (piano), Matt Ulery (bass), and Makaya McCraven (drums).

Released on the BluJazz Productions label.  Jazz from the Chicago scene.

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist.

Available at eMusic.

*****

The Jensen/Anschell/Symer and Steve Davis reviews are original to Bird is the Worm, but the portions of the other reviews were originally used in my Jazz Picks weekly article for eMusic, so here’s some language protecting their rights to that reprinted material as the one to hire me to write about new jazz arrivals to their site…

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks,“ and “New Arrivals Jazz Picks,” reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

As always, my sincere thanks to eMusic for the gig.  Cheers.

When speaking of the fringes of Jazz, it need not involve music with crashing notes and screeching instruments and chaotic patterns that assault the senses, listenability be damned.  If traditional jazz is the center, then there are any number of directions an artist may venture to get to the fringes.  The Fringes are a circle, and some arcs on that circle are quite beautiful.  For instance, Chambr‘s Freewheel.

A sextet that features stringed instruments for all but one ensemble member at percussion, Chambr shows no favor to any one particular genre, concocting a charming blend of jazz, classical, and folk musics, honoring elements of each genre without latching onto any one of them exclusively.  The result is a lovely, sprawling landscape of compositional inventiveness.  And it’s set masterfully out on the fringes.

Your album personnel:  Nick Tyson (acoustic guitars), Paul Baxter (double bass), Sebastian Hankins (drums, percussion), Ben Trigg (cello), Ruth Gibson (viola), and Charlotte Glasson (violin).

Freewheel presents a nice mix of soaring atmospheric tunes and up-tempo ear-to-the-soil compositions.  Those that are more of a classical bent more often take to the skies, whereas the folk-leaning tracks stick closer to the earth.  When jazz becomes more prevalent, it’s a darting flight path that alters elevation between those extremes.

There’s a lot of comparability between Chambr and another genre-blurring UK ensemble… Threads Orchestra.  Their respective sounds are distinguishable each from the another, but they’ve also certainly set up shop in the same part of town.  They both create music that would be equally at home in a opera music hall as it would a movie soundtrack or outdoors in a pastoral countryside.

However, if one were to look back in time for influences on this music, old-school World Jazz ensemble Oregon immediately springs to mind.  Chambr has that indelible mark of folky romanticism and chamber jazz austerity, not to mention a propensity for ambient classical passages that pull on the heart strings.

A track like “Olivia,” soars with bold strokes that speak to the classical music origins of this music, whereas tracks like “Bassekou” and title-track “Freewheel” flirt with Latin, tango, and gypsy swing.  “Ant and Dec” exuberantly embraces the Oregon brand of World Jazz, illustrated most clearly via guitarist Tyson’s extended solo and that unmistakable meander-and-twang.  And the “Full Horatio,” it brings some swing to the table.

But really, trying to suss out the strongest genre present in each song is almost to miss the beauty of this music, in that the combination of different musics doesn’t result in a nondescript sanitization of their various facets, but instead incorporates their best elements and creates something quite separate and unique and greater than the sum of their individual parts.  On point, “Akikor” would likely be considered all over the map if measured by a regressive geography.  Instead, it aptly displays what the Chambr landscape is all about.

Originality, inventiveness, musicianship, and, above all, a sprawling beauty that positions itself on a majestic little section out on the fringes.

Released on the F-IRE Collective label.

Jazz from the London scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3