Jazz Recommendations – 2013 Releases

The music of Black Aces will punish you.  And that’s okay, because some of you probably deserve to be punished.  Hell, some of you even like the punishment.  Slobber Pup is the quartet of Jamie Saft on organ & keyboard, Joe Morris on guitar, Trevor Dunn on bass, and Balazs Pandi on drums.  Nothing here is out of sorts with what these musicians have brought to other recordings, but that still doesn’t make the results of this collaboration any less startling or overwhelming to the senses.

Intense waves of music, a sonic bombardment.  Opening track “Accuser” opens with a pounding tempo, cut through the center by Morris’s guitar.  But despite the furious opening, both Dunn and Pandi somehow raise the stakes and take the tempo to a higher level of volatile motion.  Sometimes, like on “Suffrage,” the bursts of Saft’s organ break through and provide a soulfulness that’s almost heavenly.  And then there is a track like “Taint of Satan” in which Saft’s organ permeates the entire tune, and through sheer force of will, causes the music to hover inches from the ground despite its intense rhythmic weight.

Songs differ in focus and compression.  Album opener “Accuser,” with all of its rage, dispenses its fury with a telescopic unison.  Whereas tracks like “Basalt” and “Black Aces” are freer with their structure, looser with the connectedness of interplay.

Challenging, yes, but I think some of you are up for the challenge.

Released on Rare Noise Records.

Available at: eMusic MP3 | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3 | Amazon Vinyl

*****

A portions of this review was 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,“ reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2013  eMusic.com, Inc.

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

Pianist Ketil Bjornstad is a musician with a knack for synthesizing down serene ambiance into a sonic medium, resulting in quiet music for quiet mornings.  On La Notte, his newest, he gets a bit more expansive.  With the films of Michelangelo Antonioni as inspiration, Bjornstad creates an album of sprawling epics and miniature expressions of solitude.

That said, Eivind Aarset isn’t going to let the peacefulness stay that way long.  Just as his electronics can push music to a heavily atmospheric bliss, his guitar will shriek and growl and take the music to the other extreme.  Bjornstad must have anticipated this, which is why he enlisted Andy Sheppard for this session, a saxophonist who, historically, has taken on the responsibility of raising the temperature on other ECM Records releases, and who clearly has no difficulty matching Aarset’s fire with some heat of his own.

The cello of Anja Lechner comes in handy for keeping a lid on things, and bringing the album back to its peaceful roots.  Lechner and Bjornstad combine for sections of evocative expressionism, of moments so pretty they almost hurt a little, and of moments so rich in melancholia that they can’t help but elicit a smile.

Those sections wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the wise decisions of percussionist Marilyn Mazur, whose track record on ECM proves a diversity in approach that always comes off as slightly unconventional, adding dynamic qualities to music that often keeps to a whisper.  Bassist Arild Andersen, another ECM vet, is right at home in this type of music.  His own album Hyperborean walks a similar path to that of La Notte, flirting with epic statements that don’t risk waking anyone from their happy dreams.

It still has all the serenity one could require from Bjornstad… he just lets the simmer reach a boil from time to time.

Your album personnel: Ketil Bjørnstad (piano), Andy Sheppard (tenor & soprano saxes), Eivind Aarset (guitars, electronics), Anja Lechner (violoncello), Marilyn Mazur (percussion), and Arild Andersen (double bass).

This album was recorded live at the 2010 Molde International Jazz Festival.  From the sound of it, you’d never know.

Released on the ECM Records label.

Stream an album track on the ECM site.

Jazz from Norway.

Available at: eMusic MP3 | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

*****

Want more Bjornstad?  Follow this LINK to an article I wrote for this site that covers two more Bjornstad albums… one that has him in a duo setting with cellist Dave Darling and another in a trio setting with Tore Brunborg and Jon Christensen.

Guitarist Mary Halvorson has been doing her own thing for some time now.  Most of her albums, arguably, don’t even fall into the Jazz category.  It’s the kind of music for why avant-garde is its own designation… music that is fearless and inventive and unabashedly creative.  There’s something exceptionally respectable about an artist who is so focused on finding their unique creative voice, that they charge headlong into the process, like Wile E. Coyote running straight through a wall, leaving behind a cloud of dust and a hole in their shape.

But sometimes those things don’t make for very pretty music.  To hell with pretty, it’s often a challenge just to listen to it sometimes.  It can posses a rawness that makes it tough to connect with.  Often, creative endeavors such as these, especially in the earlier stages before they begin to really coalesce, they sound unformed and wild.  In terms of music, it often leads to projects that one doesn’t listen to so much as just experience on a visceral level.  This isn’t, in and of itself, a bad thing.  Sometimes it’s quite illuminating to get a glimpse of the experience from the artist’s perspective, when it’s just the artist and herself, finding that perfect form of expression, with no mind paid to a potential audience.  On the other hand, as a listener, it’s also nice when the music meets the ear half way (or thereabouts).

On Halvorson’s newest, Illusionary Sea, she continues her trend of inventive music, but finds the right equation to offer up an album that is a fun listen as much as it daring expressionism.  Featuring a solid cast that includes the addition of trombonist Jacob Garchik and tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock to the mix, Halvorson creates an album of a strange geometry, of melodies with a warped beauty and harmonies of an essential warmth, and brings a fuzzy hospitality to chaotic, unfettered music.

Your album personnel:  Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon (alto saxophone), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), Jacob Garchik (trombone), John Hébert (bass), and Ches Smith (drums).

Though unique, Halvorson’s music isn’t without peer or ancestry.  I’m most reminded of the way Jerry Hahn wove his skewed guitar notes through the wild tangle of John Handy’s exhilarating, forward-thinking recordings of the sixties.  Like Hahn, Halvorson’s notes often sound haphazard and thrown about blithely, except for the fact that their emergent route gradually displays an unusual logic… like a theoretical construct of physics, something that can be proven, but only under a condition that doesn’t currently exist on planet Earth.

Illusionary Sea opens with intersecting expressions of melody that generate all kinds of beauteous warmth when their paths cross.  Their paths join after that lovely opening and enter into an affable cadence with a playful bounce.  As the tune progresses, it begins to lose form, instruments wandering off trail though not entirely out of sight.  It takes a Ches Smith drums solo to bring them all back home.  Smith, who, in the past, has displayed a knack for a furious assault that never comes off as superfluous or showy, continues that trend here.  When the last of his fireworks explodes, the ensemble comes back together with a more textured, wildly intersecting rendition of the original introduction… not quite as lovely, but possessing an allure all its own.

Second track “Smiles of Good Men #34” begins with the disassembled montage of colliding sound, but then begins to merge into a single lane of driving cadence and oddball harmonies.  After threatening to come apart at the seams yet again, the ensemble coalesces for a final moment of melodic enchantment.

“Red Sky Still Sea #31” has a languidly rocking motion to it, accentuated by Finlayson’s punchy trumpet contribution, which hems in the seams of the long flowing harmonies of saxes and trombone.

“Four Pages of Robots #30” is a jitterbug of a tune, skittering excitedly from side to side, with Irabagon and Halvorson trading gusts of notes like self-contained tempests, no teapot.

“Fourth Dimensional Confession #41” has the spirit of a ballad, but not the patience to sit and wait for the lovers it originally targeted… meandering off for an adventure all its own.

“Butterfly Orbit #32” may be the first Halvorson tune that could be defined as “catchy,” in the traditional sense.  It’s not a traditional song.  But its melody is soft and embraceable, it develops that melody in a way that’s easy to follow, and even after it’s departed that original statement of melody, it clings to the memory and is ready to be hummed at a moment’s notice.  The ensemble fires off notes at one another like a hi-speed game of tag played atop a bouncy castle.  Even after Halvorson briefly dominates the song with an electric burst of machine gun guitar fire, the final return to the melody sound natural, as if expected all along.

Halvorson ends the album with a rendition of fellow guitarist Philip Catherine’s “Nairam.”  With a delicate touch, Halvorson sends off tiny surges of harmonic warmth over the surface of the melody.  And after an album with a thrilling demonstration of sonic aeronautics, this seems almost like a lullaby… and the way it ends the affair and puts the album, “Nairam” may be just that.

This album makes me all kinds of happy.  I gravitate to music that can be this inventive and retain all of its natural charm and sense of fun.

Released on Firehouse 12 Records.

Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.

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

*****

Other Things You Should Know:

Drummer Ches Smith put out an excellent album of his own this year, on which Halvorson contributes.  You can read the review of Hammered HERE.

Also, the first mention Halvorson received on this site was for her duo album with violist Jessica Pavone.  You can read the tiny review of Departure of Reason HERE.

Trombonist Garchik’s The Heavens made my Best of 2012 list.  Read the review HERE.

I could really go on with no end in sight.  Pretty much everyone who participates on this album has gotten mentions both here and in my weekly eMusic Jazz Picks columns.  Hit the drop-down menu on the right side of the screen that says “Musicians” and begin searching for more music from this album’s personnel.

Tiny Reviews edition!

Featured album:  Fabrizio Bai Etruscology.

Plus:  Kris Davis Capricorn Climber, Swedish Mobilia Did You Hear Something?, Marc Cary For the Love of Abbey, and Jamie Breiwick Spirits: Live at the Jazz Estate.

*****

Fabrizio Bai – Etruscology

Led by the classical guitar of Fabrizio Bai, this quartet session offers up a set of absorbing music with its version of Mediterranean-influenced Jazz.  Some tracks have a languorous seaside disposition that let melodies hover complacently in full view.  Other tracks take a richly textured rhythmic approach, and let the melodies ride the crest of the wave.  In both instances, the quartet provides a clear path to the melody at all times, and that trait taken into account with their personal take on Italian regional folk music provides a strong point of view and some very catchy tunes.  A listen to fourth track “Danzatori di Pietra” sums it up perfectly… memorable melody, dynamic rhythm, and a personal voicing.

Your album personnel:  Fabrizio Bai (classical guitar), Massimo Guerri (saxophones, clarinets), Andrea Beninati (cello, percussion), and Maurizio Costantini (double bass).

Released on Dodicilune Records.

Available at:  eMusic MP3 | Amazon MP3

Other Albums of Note:

Kris Davis – Capricorn Climber

Compelling new album by pianist Kris Davis, who delivers plenty of songs shaped with an eerie geometry.  Some tracks possess a disconcerting presence, whereas others drift serenely on uneasy seas.  A strange beauty that both entices and rebuffs.

Your album personnel:  Kris Davis (piano), Mat Maneri (viola), Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Trevor Dunn (bass), and Tom Rainey (drums).

Maneri is having a strong 2013, and he’s hit a plateau where I’m on the brink of saying that if you see his name in the personnel section, just buy the album and don’t think twice.  Stream a track on the artist’s site.

Released on Clean Feed Records.

Available at:  eMusic MP3 | Amazon MP3

Swedish Mobilia – Did You Hear Something?

Highly improvisational, and with generous use of electronics and effects, Swedish Mobilia draws up an intriguing display of the unformed nature of raw creativity, performing improvised music that sometimes sounds like the psychedelic Jazz of the past, sometimes sounds like the experimental jazz-rock of the present.  While nothing about this album is pretty, per se, it does have a smokey presence that gives an alluring quality to experimental dissonant music.  Some compelling things going on here.

Your album personnel: Andrea Bolzoni (guitar, electronics), Daniele Frati (drums, percussion), Dario Miranda (bass, electronics), and Luca Aquino (trumpet).

Released on Leo Records.

Available at: eMusic MP3 | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

Marc Cary – For the Love of Abbey

Solo piano recording from Marc Cary, honoring his longtime mentor (and bandleader) Abbey Lincoln.  Remarkably evocative recording.  Full of life, yet possesses a zen-like expressiveness so that the music never comes off as pushy.  When taking on the challenge of a solo recording, some artists feel the need to bring the fireworks to compensate for the singularity of a solo instrument point of view, but thankfully Cary has the wisdom and confidence to let the songs blossom as they were meant to, and without trying to shape them into something they are not.  A beautiful album that will likely continue to reveal itself with subsequent listens.

Stream a couple album tracks on the artist site.

Released on Motema Records.

Available at:  eMusic MP3 | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

Jamie Breiwick – Spirits: Live at the Jazz Estate

Recorded live at the Milwaukee joint The Jazz Estate, this straight-ahead session, led by Jamie Breiwick, has plenty of heart and soul.  Originals, some compositions by Wayne Shorter and Duke Ellington, plus covers of artists like Death Cab For Cutie, Radiohead, and Taylor Swift.  Just a likable album that swings plenty, and expresses melodies with a care and thoughtfulness emphasizing their lyricism.  Good stuff.

Your album personnel:  Jamie Breiwick (trumpet), Tony Barba (tenor sax), Tim Ipsen (bass), and Andrew Green (drums).

Released on Blujazz Productions.

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

*****

The Fabrizio Bai review is original to Bird is the Worm, but 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,“ reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2013  eMusic.com, Inc.

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