Sep 30 2016
Recommended: Aaakash Mittal Quartet + Ron Miles – “Ocean”
The transformations from one form of imagery to the next, and what they reveal about this album’s spirit is profoundly stunning on this 2013 release from saxophonist Aakash Mittal. Oceans starts out with sufficient intrigue. The opening tracks begin with an in-your-face drone, like a command to meditate, then shift into the motion of throwing punches inside the heart of the hurricane. The ferocity continues with expressions that range from an angry groove to a breathless joyride to some straight-ahead action with a little swing mixed in with edgy post-bop. And all of this is well and good and worthy of a fair surplus of esteem. But it’s at the midway point of the album that Mittal reveals that it’s as much about the transformations between images as it is the imagery itself.
Trumpeter Ron Miles joins Mittal’s quartet of guitarist Matt Fuller, bassist Jean-Luc Davis and drummer Josh Moore, and he’s an excellent choice for this kind of voicing. Even when dealing in dissonance, Miles weaves notes out of moonlight, and it’s why even at his most abrasive his music has the warmest attributes. But with something like the title-track “Oceans,” a song that doesn’t possess form so much as it does a presence, and where the cries and squalls of melody float out across a surface of electronic effects and susurrant harmonies, that’s when that Miles moonlight effect shines its strongest. And in the context of this excellent recording, that change from permutations of ferocity and cheerfulness, to suddenly break forth with an entirely new form of expressionism, and to make it logically fit into the framework of the album even if it’s difficult to exactly describe how it fell into place, it’s a jarring transformation. It also marks the album for its best qualities.
“Without a Name” begins another transformation, utilizing a gorgeous melody for its launching point. A couple of introspective improvisations delve into a nifty rhythmic dialog, and these lead into the next shift, where the melodic gentleness of “Without a Name” gives way to the fiery demeanor of “Insideout.” The song traces sharp lines back to its predecessors while simultaneously pointing out the changes on the road ahead.
A remarkable album.
Your album personnel: Aakash Mittal (saxophone, clarinet), Ron Miles (trumpet), Matt Fuller (guitar, effects), Jean-Luc Davis (bass) and Josh Moore (drums).
This album is Self-Produced.
Jazz from the Boulder, Colorado scene.
The track “Disappearing/Keep the Sharks from your Heart” might be the best example of what the quartet 
Today we’re going to feature a recording label that documents the music scene in Poland. Much of what 
A bit on the stranger side this one is. This septet treats its melodies roughly, and often attacks them with a zeal to see how great a mess they can make out of their original concept. It creates an appealing bit of chaos and confusion, with an added bonus of the moments of satisfying clarity when they suddenly return to that original melody clear out of the blue. Bursts of electronics & effects find a home on this album alongside non-traditional instruments like blockflutes and Balkan horn. A couple tracks dial back the craziness a bit (including a nifty cover of “Imagine”), and that provides a welcome respite, as well as some necessary context and contrast for their chaotic approach to things. The personnel are trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski, alto saxophonist Aleksander Papierz, tenor saxophonist Ray Dickaty, electric pianist Stefan Orins, double bassist Jacek Mazurkiewicz, drummer Jakub Rutkowski and Dominik Strycharski on blockflutes.
Hell of a debut for pianist Wania. The most impressive characteristic of this straight-ahead trio session with double bassist Max Mucha and drummer Dawid Fortuna is how highly fluent he remains while delivering a series of thrilling fireworks. There’s a streamlined concision present during each and every moment that counterbalances the rhythmic flurries and the wind sprint tempos, and that’s why the trio is able to deliver an emotional punch that never seems melodramatic or superfluous. And, yes, the album title does refer to composer Maurice Ravel, but this sounds nothing like your typical jazz-classical crossover action.
This music is an old rowboat. The sound of ancient wood straining against the tide, the pained creaks and groans meshing into the comforting wash of waves lapping up against its prow and the soothing hush of them breaking apart and becoming one with the ocean’s surface… all of that combines into music that perpetually sounds like it could come apart at any moment, yet continues rolling along, rocking back and forth with an uneasy lullaby motion. That’s what you get from this live performance recording from the trio of guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith. Strangely captivating.
This is an album that prefers life in the hurricane, but vacations often in the serenity of the hurricane’s eye. Alto saxophonist Maciej Obara, pianist Dominik Wania, drummer Gard Nilssen and double bassist Ole Morten Vågan take on a set of compositions from film soundtrack composer & jazz pianist Krzysztof Komeda and just run off to the horizon with them. It’s appealing how the quartet opens this live performance recording with more adventurous takes on the originals and gradually scales it back with each successive composition… a satisfying way of bringing the theme home.
This 2013 release by clarinetist Waclaw Zimpel is one I keep coming back to, time and again. Stone Fog alternates between delicate expressions of a peaceful state and volatile bursts of unbounded motion. And it’s the way in which those two polar extremes feed off one another that makes this a winning album.
Alaman is a live recording from the big band Power of the Horns, an outfit led by Piotr Damasiewicz. It’s music that echoes the experimental big bands and large ensembles of the fertile 1960-1970’s free improvisation avant-garde axis, but offered up with a new voice, sounding fresh and vibrant and no less experimental with its own sense of daring and fearlessness.
Aside from being one my favorite musicians on the modern jazz scene, guitarist 
There is something refreshingly easy-going about this music… a quality that doesn’t change just because the pace of the music does. “Catalpa” sees Barber’s quartet of drummer Jeff Ballard, bassist Larry Grenadier and saxophonist Mark Turner maintain a quick-footed tempo, spurring the melody forward so they can get to the meat of the development and just start soloing. And “Virginia” flirts with a groove as they scoot right along, but even these flurries and bursts of activity aren’t sufficient to lessen the tranquil effect of tracks like “Richi” and “Desierto,” which have Barber weaving his guitar into languorous saxophone lines, twittering drum chatter and the shadows of basslines into a bundle of sunny afternoon peacefulness. There’s an arresting tunefulness to this music that keeps the attention rapt.
Barber worked with two different trios on this recording. Ari Hoenig replaced Jeff Ballard on drums. Both Turner and Grenadier returned for Barber’s sophomore release, but about half of the album tracks had Barber switching them out for the sax-bass duo of Seamus Blake and Johannes Weidenmueller.
Bringing back the Blake-Weidenmueller-Hoenig trio and teaming up with desktop wizard Hugo Cipres, Barber set course for an entirely new venture. 411 is an electro-acoustic project that brings together laptop effects, thick dynamic grooves, and a fleeting melodicism into a hodgepodge of dominant and recessive qualities that changes ratios from moment to moment. The song “Poncho” illustrates the potential for genius this approach represents. The rapid pulse of electronics coalesces with the sussurus of classical guitar and the gentle patter of drums. It is a song that is both insistent and atmospheric, urgent and placid, contemporary and futuristic, and incorporates many divergent voices into one unique, captivating sound.
A duo collaboration with pianist Craig Taborn, it brings together two artists who typically venture into heavily cerebral territory, yet rather than anchoring them down with deeply contemplative thought, it acts as the launching point into melodic expansions unbound and free to flight.
Feb 10 2017
Recommended: Nicola Perfetti and Federico Gerini – “La Forma dei Ricordi”
Those tracks where it’s just Perfetti and Gerini in a duet bring a solemn tone to the affair, as if the method of dialog is something far more contemplative than the extroverted nature of the quintet at play. And when Gerini switches over to Fender Rhodes on “Death Valley No. 5,” it’s remarkable how the peaceful ambiance doesn’t stir the slightest and how he manipulates his keyboard to simply become a different kind of ripple on the surface of the water. “Tram 28” lets the jazz presence emerge at its strongest, and it’s persistent tempo and edgy melody is a nice counterbalance to the album’s prevalent tranquility.
A beautiful recording.
Your album personnel: Nicola Perfetti (acoustic & classical guitars), Federico Gerini (piano, rhodes), Stefano Guazzo (soprano sax, clarinet), Massimiliano Rolff (double bass) and Massimiliano Furia (drums).
Released in 2013 on Dodicilune Records.
Listen to more of the album at the artist’s Soundcloud page.
Music from Firenze, Italy.
Available at: Amazon
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2013 Releases • 0