Jazz Recommendations – 2013 Releases

Regardless of the project, pianist Myra Melford has always possessed a conversational style.  As a member of Trio M, her bursts of keyboard chatter fit seamlessly with the drums and bass of Matt Wilson and Mark Dresser… two artists who also thrive in creating fluid motion from the raw material of crisp statements expressed in bursts of energy.  This style also has suited her well in collaboration with clarinetist Ben Goldberg, both in live performance and also as part of her Be Bread ensemble (which also includes Matt Wilson)… Goldberg’s stylistic expressions match well with Melford’s quirkiness, and the odd melodic beauty they shape with rhythmic patterns that scurry and scrape across the landscape of a tune are terrifically engaging in that way improvised dialog can shatter expectations and inspire new ones.

And it’s especially important not to overlook her Trio and Extended Ensemble recordings for hatOLOGY, in which punches are thrown in bunches, the blues coexists peacefully with avant-garde expressionism, and stormy rhythmic fronts occasionally part clouds to make room for exquisite melodies to slip through.  And at the other end of the spectrum, Melford’s duo recording with fellow-pianist Sakoko Fujii found gentle ways to create environments of chaotic discourse.

And these are just some of the highlights of a performing career that has contributed to projects that typically develop out of sight of the main thoroughfare and which possess an impressive array of original works.  It’s why it’s so hard to believe that this is truly Melford’s first solo effort.

On Life Carries Me This Way, Melford pays tribute to her friend, artist Don Reich, who passed away in 2010, and whose work is the inspiration for the album’s songs.  The personal nature of her connection to the source of the music’s inspiration, the association with existing creative works in the form of paintings, and the intrinsic challenges faced by any musician in a solo setting have resulted in a recording as beautiful as Melford must have intended it to be, and insightful to the listener to hear a facet of Melford’s music that hasn’t often come to light when she has other musicians in the room to converse with.

Your album personnel:  Myra Melford (piano).

On Life Carries Me This Way, Melford doesn’t state the melodies so much as slowly exhale them, like plumes of smoke that mask their final shape until fully revealed.  Though that’s not to say that Melford’s deft use of her instrument’s percussive qualities is abandoned.  On “Park Mechanics,” Melford opens with a demeanor akin to the sunnier side of town, but grows increasingly agitated with flurries of notes.  Not unlike many of her contributions to other projects, the melody is to be discovered in fractured glimpses seen between rhythmic lines.  And on “Piano Music,” her quirky expressiveness assumes a fluid motion that behaves as a story told with an indescribable chronological order.

However, the heart of the album shows itself on melancholy tracks like “Red Beach” and “Red Land (for Don Reich).”  Melford whispers the melody as if from across the room… bits and pieces are captured by the ear, and imagination fills in the rest.  “Japanese Music” is offered up as missives, glittering, as tiny sparks of emotion, whereas “Curtain” is equally obtuse, yet exists at the opposite end of the spectrum, delivered in a deluge of notes in which a little bit of the melody is everywhere all at once.  And then there is the quietly musing “Moonless Night,” which unfolds with an old soul patience.

Intriguingly, there are a couple tracks that adopt these two characteristics, yet end up sounding derived from neither.  The quirky inclinations and declinations of “Attic Music” behave like a melody skipping across a landscape of rolling hills, and “Sagrada Familia” tumbles in tight circles, concerned with form through slight differentiations in the folds.

In many ways, the music of this album comes closest to resembling Melford’s duo collaboration with reedist Marty Ehrlich, an artist who very much fits in stylistically with aforementioned artists like Ben Goldberg and Matt Wilson, and who has a proven talent for eliciting the melodic sensibilities of those he collaborates with.  A recording like Spark shares many of the qualities mentioned thus far, with its comforting tone even when expressing discomfited ideas, and its easy comportment when faced with plenty of space to fill and the immediate understanding of just the right amount of sound to enhance it.

The album ends with “Still Life,” perhaps the most song-like of all the album tracks.  Aside from the allure of its elegance and abounding warmth, the presence of its easily traceable shape provides a sublime palpable finality to an album of strong undercurrents, sensed, but often indirectly.

A beautiful recording.

Released on the Firehouse 12 Records.

Jazz from the Berkeley, California scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp CD&Digital | eMusic | Amazon CD & MP3

The CD version includes photos of Reich originals.

Every year, there are a handful of outstanding albums that offer up brilliant melodies that reveal, one after the other, like massive fireworks at a celebration.  The kind of thing that lets the ear immerse itself in the current song while anxiously wondering what the next might bring… and when it finally arrives, experiencing no less surprise at its strength or vibrancy, even when taking into account the album’s impressive track record.

The Head of the Circle, the new release by drummer Tim Horner is one of those albums for 2013.

Your album personnel:  Tim Horner (drums, percussion, vocal), Joe Locke (vibes), Jim Ridl (acoustic piano), Steve Allee (accordion, Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes), Ted Nash (tenor & soprano saxes, bass clarinet, flute), and Dean Johnson (acoustic bass).

In a touch of irony, this album opens with an interlude that is more about rhythm, lacking any substantial melodic intent.  The dramatic burst of flute slips into percussive murmuring, a conversational aside that serves as a precursor to an album of direct statements and on-message melodies.

“The Dance” gets right to it.  A beautiful melody stated with just the right touch of gravitas, developed with a masterful touch by vibraphonist Joe Locke and bass clarinetist Ted Nash, who balance one another out like the light and dark halves of a crescent moon, and add to the song an inspiring loveliness to match.

“Awakening” is no different in terms of its melodic effusiveness, but this time the composition is presented with an uninhibited casualness that makes it so easy to just sink into.  Ridl and Allee trade notes with one another when they’re not creating individual tethers to the other cast members.  It creates an intoxicating sonic crosshatch.  And it seems only natural when Horner and Johnson steer the song into a bit of a groove, as if the melody had been leading up that moment right from the start but chose to delay the big reveal.

“Listen and You’ll See” and “Requiem” are two views of rainy-day music.  On the former, it’s a view from a window as the storm comes down.  On the latter, it’s stepping outside as the storm reaches its conclusion, with Nash’s sax as a ray of sunlight cutting through the clouds.

The ballad of “I Wish I Knew You” has sax and vibes walking hand-in-hand on separate paths, an incongruity and connectedness that makes for an exquisite compare and contrast.  That effect continues of “Mandala,” an up-tempo track that, curiously, comports itself with a brooding disposition.

“Frugal Meal” features Johnson using his bass to shape the melody in that way shadows shape the sunlight when it touches solid ground.  Nash’s bass clarinet sings with a resonant loveliness at the same moment the song becomes increasingly chipper.

“The King” lets the group blow off some steam, allowing the groove to carry the melody for a change, and raising the album’s temperature a degree or three.

The album ends with the same bit of irony with which it began.  “Ta Da” is, easily, the most free of any of the album’s tracks, pushing back against the concept of form as if a revolt by rhythm against the structural confines of melody.  Locke and Allee trade jabs on vibes and Rhodes while Horner’s drums strike furtively, both as a whisper and with a bang.  Ultimately, by sandwiching all of those strong melodies between two tracks built on foundations of rhythm, comparatively, it illuminates their beauty all the more.

Released on the Origin Arts label.

Jazz from the Jersey City, New Jersey scene.

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

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon: CD & MP3 | Directly from Origin (CD)

I have been listening to an astounding new release.  It is titled Alaman, a live recording from the big band Power of the Horns, an outfit led by Piotr Damasiewicz.

This is an album where:

Saxophone cries and surging tempos co-exist with interludes of melodic beauty and jaw-dropping moments of harmonic sensitivity.

Surging infectious grooves materialize out of nowhere, at moments when it appears that the music will disperse completely, freed of all structure.

Piano and bass and drums combine in an expression of late-period Hard Bop, instilling a soulful patter while saxophones and trumpet are wailing with an unrestrained freedom, as if to deny the presence of any form of influence or attempt at categorization.

Free expressionism and far-reaching solos never fall out of sight due to the binding nature of a rhythmic center of gravity that drives each song toward a unifying shape, no matter how much each soloist strains against it.

Music sounds ferocious and terrifying and volatile, and yet resonates with an unmissable sense of fun, of the sort of expressiveness that is likely to elicit grins from listeners, rather than fear.

Thrilling music that sets off a perpetual series of explosions possesses, at times, a mesmerizing quality not unlike the effect of when the sonic bang of fireworks falls off the radar, leaving only the captivating light show to awe and enchant.

Music that echoes the experimental big bands and large ensembles of the fertile 1960-1970’s free improvisation avant-garde axis is offered up with a new voice, sounding fresh and vibrant and no less experimental with its sense of daring and fearlessness.

Uninhibited creative expression proves, yet again, to be an invaluable source of inspiration, amazement, and enjoyability that can’t be measured… only treasured and persistently sought out time and time again.

Go buy this album.

Your album personnel:  Piotr Damasiewicz (composer, conductor, trumpet, voices), Adam Pindur (soprano sax), Maciej Obara (alto sax), Marek Pospieszalski (tenor sax, bass clarinet, flute, growl), Pawel Niewiadomski (trombone), Jakub Mielcarek (double bass), Max Mucha (double bass), Gabriel Ferrandini (drums), Wojciech Romanowski (drums), Tomas Sanchez (percussion), and Dominik Wania (piano).

Released on For Tune Records.

Stream an additional album track on the label’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Wroclaw, Poland scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon | Bandcamp

This is what happens when musicians with different voices but similar points of view come together on a project.  This is the sublime genius that presents itself with an irresistible simplicity, a vibrant resonance of a singular focus.

Vibraphonist Gary Burton has spent a career transforming the sound of Jazz.  His inclusion of classical traits to a jazz collaboration, and later, his work in creating a new form of world-folk-jazz are just two examples of his body of work that has marked Burton as one of today’s jazz giants.  His music often has a moody ambiance, even as he provides a sense of swing and bounce with his four-mallet approach.

Guitarist Julian Lage also is helping transform the sound of Jazz.  His music also has a moody ambiance, most notably on his 2011 release Gladwell, which took folk-jazz to a new level, providing a rustic charm to rival the music of folk guitarist Leo Kottke as much as it did the quiet solitude of a solo Jim Hall performance.  Bassist Scott Colley‘s 2010 release Empire, also, tread firmly on folk-jazz territory, though the moody ambiance took on the resemblance of Bill Frisell’s spooky Americana sound (Frisell contributed to the album, in fact), and drummer Antonio Sanchez‘s 2013 folk-jazz release New Life punctuated its moody ambiance with a resounding series of dramatic expressions that brought it more in line with the nu-jazz of a Brian Blade Fellowship.

Similar visions, similar manifestations of those visions, yet resulting in a disparate array of expressions differentiating them from one another, but likely would fit the bill for any listener looking for something lively to fit seamlessly with a peaceful state of place and mind.

Which brings us to the Gary Burton Quartet release Guided Tour, an album with plenty of heat and swing, but expressed with a presence that matches better with a fireside seat than a spot on the dance floor.  The cumulative energy exerted by the individual artists presents a tempo and temperature greater than that which they might emit on their own, but their smart preoccupation with pacing, of establishing tempos and developing melodies with an abounding patience, it instills a soothing tone that prevails no matter how firmly the quartet is pressing down on the gas pedal.

Your album personnel:  Gary Burton (vibes), Julian Lage (guitar), Scott Colley (bass), and Antonio Sanchez (drums).

The quartet comes bursting right out of the gate on “Caminos,” with a driving tempo that wouldn’t indicate a demeanor of sitting still.  However, Colley’s presence, both out front and behind the scenes, provides a shadowy presence that colors all the bright notes of vibes and guitar, and balances out with Sanchez’s snappy drum work.

“The Lookout” and “Jackalope” provide great examples of Lage’s rustic influence in a setting with plenty of room to swing.  Notes that twang more than shine, his guitar work adds a sunny charm to serious music.

“Once Upon a Summertime” slows things down for the first time on the recording.  A seaside peacefulness sets in from the first note, and Burton’s vibes provide both a shimmering beauty and a touch of melancholia to a song with a serene disposition.

“Sunday’s Uncle” shifts between an exaggerated bounce and a casual stroll, with Sanchez providing the impetus for the former and Lage to that of the latter.  As the song progresses, those two opposites meet at the middle and become as one.

On “Remembering Tano,” Burton gives a shout-out to Astor Piazzolla, with whom Burton collaborated with as they experimented with tango in a world-jazz context.  The piece has a moody disposition, but a spritely step.  Colley’s bass is the glue that seals those two elements into a cohesive whole.

“Helena” sets out like it’s to be an aid to relaxation, but decides soon after that it’s unable to contain its exuberance, breaking out into an up-tempo gallop.  It changes speed a few times, and none of those changes would be categorized as “slow.”

The album’s final two songs are emblematic of both the two faces this recording presents and the ways in which those two faces are, in fact, only facets of the same visage.  The gentle ballad of “Legacy” sways peaceably along, yet at a clip that surges with an insistence that implies a rate of speed greater than its actual range of motion.  The album’s closer is the straight-ahead “Monk Fish,” a song that plays it fast, but not loose, and those tightly wound parallel lines of development instill a comforting sense of togetherness that gives the tune, like much of this album, a comportment of repose far greater than the bustling tempo would otherwise indicate.

And it’s exactly that kind of seeming contradictory behavior that makes this album so vibrant, so engaging, and so much fun.  One of the best things to come out in 2013.

Released on Mack Avenue Records.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon: CD/MP3

*****

Other Things You Should Know:

This isn’t their first recording as a quartet.  That designation belongs to their 2011 release Common Ground, an album that doesn’t sound far removed from Guided Tour, not even a little bit.  I no less recommend picking up that recording than I do this one.

You can read my synopsis of Julian Lage’s Gladwell, an album I included in my roundup of the Best of 2011.

I should be finishing up a write-up of Sanchez’s 2013 release New Life sometimes soon.  Surprised I hadn’t done it sooner.  Just one of those reviews that fell through the cracks, I guess.

I still think fondly upon Scott Colley’s Empire.  It’s one of those albums on my list for The Safety Net review series.  I may or may not write a review of it… that list I speak of is very very long and my time is very very short.  Regardless, you should go check it out, because it’s some very solid music.

There’s a few videos posted on the site, from my These Are Videos That I Like series, of Gary Burton and Julian Lage performing together.  A search of either of their names on my site will pull those up.

Tiny Reviews edition!

Featured album:  Harris Eisenstadt September Trio – The Destructive Element.

Plus:  ACV Busk, MV4tet Igapo: Un Univers des Mondes Hybrides, Hubert Brundlmayer Hornhub, & Radio String Quartet Vienna Posting Joe: Celebrating Weather Report.

*****

Harris Eisenstadt September Trio – The Destructive Element

A skeletal system formed of the blues, but like many Harris Eisenstadt recordings, bones tend to warp and bend and dematerialize in ways not exactly human.  But though this does possess many of the avant-garde characteristics of a typical Eisenstadt recording, it permeates a down home ambiance that’s tough not to fall for.  Many tracks take the form of ballads, and held in combination with the blues, those were raw materials that Eisenstadt’s trio seemed to relish taking their time shaping, and that’s what gives the album much of its down-home demeanor.

Of particular substance is the way the trio format allows saxophonist Eskelin to break out his love song persona… a sound he’s able to achieve, remarkably, on some of the more challenging propositions put down in a recorded format.  No matter how angular or crooked or skewed a piece gets, he’s able to bring a little bit of the ballad to the table.  Take the way the lovely sway of “Back and Forth” follows the serpentine “From Schoenberg, Pt. 1,” a track with a fluid motion and a curious curvature.

Pianist Sanchez is clearly right at home in this shifting milieu.  The tune “Ordinary Weirdness” has her instilling a formal elegance to a song that swims in abrupt starts and stops and changes of speed.  And on a track like album-closer “Here Are the Samurai,” she ramps up the sense of drama on a song built for the big finale.

An album that makes challenging music sound simple.

Your album personnel:  Harris Eisenstadt (drums), Ellery Eskelin (tenor sax), and Angelica Sanchez (piano).

Released on Clean Feed Records.

Download and/or stream a free album track at the artist’s site.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon MP3

Other Albums of Interest:

ACV – Busk

Interesting quintet date, with a heavy dose of prog-rock shiny notes and electronic geometry, but then the post-bopping heart of the music reveals itself with interludes of jazz sweetness.  More hard edges to this music than soft, more rocking out than swaying to ballads.  But it’s those reveals, the transitions from one sound to the next, where this album shines.  Not an easy thing to accomplish successfully with any type of consistency, but ACV kind of nails it here.

Your album personnel:  Andy Champion (double bass), Graeme Wilson (tenor & baritone sax), Mark Williams (guitar), Paul Edis (keyboards), and Adrian Tilbrook (drums).

Released on Babel Label.

Available at:  eMusic | Bandcamp CD/Digital | Amazon MP3

MV4tet – Igapo: Un Univers des Mondes Hybrides

The Swiss quartet MV4tet is comprised of violin, clarinets, bass, and piano.  The music is sometimes charming, sometimes haunting, and always engaging.  Probably best file it under Chamber Jazz… the instrumentation, sound, and compositional quirks all lead to that happy end.  Just a great little find in the new arrivals bin.

Released on VDE-Gallo.  Available at:  eMusic | Amazon MP3

Hubert Brundlmayer – Hornhub

Intriguing release from drummer Brundlmayer.  Often seems like a straight-ahead affair, but as if a fine mist occasionally passes over the band, their music suddenly becomes more opaque and difficult to make out… leading to some fascinating interludes in between the more conventional stuff.

Your album personnel:  Hubert Bründlmayer (drums), Bastian Stein (trumpet), Alex Löwenstein (alto sax), Seb Zillner (tenor sax), Georg Schrattenholzer (trombone), and Georg Buxhofer (electric bass).

Released on Jazzwerkstatt Wein.  Available at:  eMusic | Amazon MP3

Radio String Quartet Vienna – Posting Joe: Celebrating Weather Report

Have you never much cared for the music of fusion outfit Weather Report, and inexplicably always felt sort of bad that you were never able to get into it?  Well, here you go.  A beautiful album by Radio String Quartet Vienna that offers warm luxuriant harmonies, some urgent tempos, and won’t ever inflict fusion-heavy music upon you.  A way to enjoy Weather Report from afar.  Joking aside, this is a terribly beautiful album with a smart attitude.

Released on ACT Music.  Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD/MP3

*****

Portions of these 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,“ “New Arrivals Jazz Picks,“ and “New Arrivals Jazz Picks“ reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2013  eMusic.com, Inc.

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