Jazz Recommendations – 2013 Releases

An album that I find myself increasingly called back to is the new release by guitarist Gordon Grdina, titled No Difference.  He shares top billing with bassist Mark Helias, and the scope of the album in no small way illustrates the depth to which this is a collaboration between the two.  Though all compositions are credited to Grdina, it’s the way in which those compositions play out in conversation between the two that signals the heart of the album, and, really, its intelligence, too.

Because, in ways that really count, this album is wired to make a cerebral connection.  Grdina adds oud and bowed guitar to his arsenal, and Helias’s elocution on bass carries the presence of words that don’t slip past unnoticed.  The form each song takes shifts from Jazz to Folk to Middle Eastern to Rock, with elements of more than one genre present at any one time.  Adding further texture to this recording are the transitions between duo and quartet pieces, and associated metamorphoses from contemplative states of mind to sudden bouts of turbulence and fury.

Your album personnel:  Gordon Grdina (oud, guitar, bowed guitar), Mark Helias (double bass), Kenton Loewen (drums), and Tony Malaby (tenor sax).

The album opens with some contemplative pieces, with Grdina and Helias working duo.  Grdina gets things started on oud, and he and Helias dance about one another in circles.  Then, on the subsequent track, Grdina, on guitar, steers the album back into jazz territory.  Third track “The Throes” opens with Grdina soloing on guitar, and later, applying some serious heat, but it’s the infectious bounce and melodic touches from the quartet that shine brightest.  Most notable is Tony Malaby’s melodic saxophone sighs, though Loewen’s affable chatter on drums carries the tune in its way, too.

“Leisure Park” displays the quartet’s chaotic nature, bouncing off one another with a kinetic energy that self-perpetuates its apparent motion while implying new directions simultaneously.  And the way the album then slides into the thoughtful duo piece of oud and bass on “Fast Times” further exemplifies the care that went into presenting the album as more than a simple, random collection of tunes… that the way the music flowed down the stream from source to endpoint was considered and deemed important.  This is further evidenced in the way that Grdina follows this up with another duo piece, but whereas the previous track was focused on the cadence of the conversation, “Nayeli Joon” is simply a testament to the inherent beauty in finding just the right words.

And this brings about another change in the weather.  The windstorm of “Cluster” is followed by the aggressive “Fierce Point,” which lets loose a scampering tempo pierced by saxophone shrieks

The album ends with “Visceral Voices,” a post-bop tune that wants to rock out just a bit.  Barreling ahead, Malaby leads out on sax, but has his speed matched by the other quartet members, whose rate of acceleration synchs in with that of the saxophonist.  Ending with this jaunty tune provides a satisfying conclusion to this heavily cerebral album with a strongly beating heart.

Released on Songlines Recordings.

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

Jazz from the Vancouver, BC scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

The term World Jazz was coined decades ago, used predominately to signify that strain of Jazz that was discarding many elements of bop and incorporating the folk music (and instrumentation) of various (overseas) regions.  Aside from the obvious US-centrism aspects of this designation, as jazz musicians began improvising with an even greater forms of non-jazz musics and as it became easier for musicians from different cultures to reach one another and collaborate, the usefulness of World Jazz as a tool for categorization has become increasingly poor.  At its inception, Jazz was already a crosscurrent of many musics… today, its scope is wider than ever.  It’s all World Jazz to some extent.

However, a great example of when that tag is completely on the mark can be found in Seven Lines, the new release by Hera, an ensemble that hails from Poland, and for this recording, brings in Chicagoan drummer Hamid Drake.  The ensemble is led by clarinetist Waclaw Zimpel, a musician who has developed a strong repertoire in the avant-garde and free improv scenes, but who also adopts other music forms as he expands his sound.  This new recording is no different.

Your album personnel: Wacław Zimpel (clarinet, alto clarinet, harmonium), Paweł Postaremczak (tenor & soprano saxes, harmonium), Maciej Cierlinski (hurdy-gurdy), Raphael Rogiński (guitar), Ksawery Wójciński (double bass), Paweł Szpura (drums), and Hamid Drake (drums, frame drum, vocal).

Recorded live at the 2012 Krakow Jazz Autumn Festival, this thrilling music has its share of free improvisation, while also expressing sounds rooted in Polish jazz and folk, music from the Western Provinces of Pakistan, Japanese court music, the music of Tibet (from which the title Seven Lines refers to a specific Tibetan prayer), traditional Russian music, and the euphoric groove of Afro-jazz.

The music typically presents itself as a drone, expressed at different frequencies of intensity, and often builds into something quite dramatic.  And no matter what shape or form that music takes at any particular moment, it is always a mesmerizing affair.

A track like “Afterimages” shifts between music that is wildly unhinged and a low current conductive groove, yet it maintains a hypnotic effect.  “Sounds of Balochistan” captivates the ear as a joyfully twisting folk dance as it is as a fuzzy ambient drone.  The balance between harmonic chants and hums and the double percussion attack of “Temples of Tibet” locks the ear in place, transfixed, only to be further beguiled when curling saxophone notes float on by.  The cries and burns of “Roofs of Kyoto,” for all their dissonance, draw the ear right in, and their effect is no different than the seaside languor of “Recalling Russia”.

Just a stunning album.  Had I been aware of this album at the time, it certainly would’ve made my Best of 2013.  Expect it to be included when I create my addendum column in the lead-up to the Best of 2014.

Released on MultiKulti Project.

Jazz from Poland.

Available at: Amazon MP3

*****

And here’s a LINK to my review of another Waclaw Zimpel project, his quartet album Stone Fog, which has a different sound but is no less intriguing.

In the liner notes to Memória de Amiba, bassist André Carvalho talks about his fascination with the concept of memory, and how they relate to album tracks.  And in that way that memories are rooted in a clear vision of a brief moment that gradually becomes fuzzier the more one attempts to expand its circumference, so is constructed the music of Carvalho’s newest release.  Each time for each album track, a memorable, strongly constructed melody is presented right from the start, clear as day, and as each song develops, the music drifts further away from that initial statement of memory, growing more opaque, and resembling more the stuff of dreams.

It makes for some very compelling music.

Your album personnel: André Carvalho (double bass), Jorge Reis (soprano & alto saxes), Zé Maria (tenor sax), Bruno Santos (guitar), Jeffery Davis (vibes), Óscar Graça (piano), João Rijo (drums), and guests: André Santos (guitar) and Ricardo Toscano (alto sax).

“Bleistift” is a great example of this pattern.  Vibes and drums start right out of the gate with some lively rhythmic action, and it serves as the launching point for the Reis & Maria double saxophone statement of a clear, concise, lovely melody.  Bass and piano shadow the melody’s flight course until the time is ripe for them to take the song in a new direction.  Carvalho’s bass takes quick loping steps alongside Graça’s piano’s skittering motion.  Eventually the ensemble returns for a final statement of melody, bringing the tune back to the nest, before, once again, taking it away, winding the song down with a bit of deconstruction, retaining a semblance of the melody, but framing it in a display of dissonance.

Album opener “Chamada Não Atendida” is no different in this regard.  It leaves the gate with a bit less urgency and a lighter touch, but that strong melody is right out front.  This time it’s sax and vibes offering it up, and when they leave the melody behind and head off on to other adventures, it’s Jeffery Davis’s vibes that provide the greatest thrills.

“Tadzio” teases with the melody first via a pensive piano opening, but then Reis gets down to it on soprano sax.  The added textures of Bruno Santos’s steel strings and Rijo’s percussion bring a rustic element to the bright notes that is a lovely contrast and terribly captivating.

Graça gets the melody started out on “Selina Kyle,” and it’s his interplay with bassist Carvalho deeper into the tune that is the brightest moment on this song.

Even “Contemplações do Panteão,” which begins with a solo vibes intro, and then casually gets to the melody with a languid expression by Maria on tenor sax, even here the strong pattern of leading out with melody continues.  The pulsing of Santos’s electric guitar adds an appealing ambient tone to saxophone harmonies and vibes accompaniment.

Drummer Rijo solos the introduction to “Nóia do Gil,” which leads to some urgency from the saxophone section as they get the song underway.  Later, when Davis steps out front on vibes with a smoother flight pattern, it’s the drum and bass teamwork of Rijo and Carvalho that maintains the sense of urgency, almost coaxing vibes to get back in line with the prevailing tempo and tone.  Santos, again, adds some intriguing textures on guitar, first with an electric crunch, then as a harmonic device with trails of wavering distortion, which, in turn, develops into a breath of heat with a straight-ahead solo section.

“Vi e Maria” expresses itself with patience and care, which is why the wind-down’s sudden acceleration, led by vibes and drums, is so damn thrilling.

The album ends with “Aunt Beru.”  Oscar Graca’s mesmerizing piano solo is what most needs to be mentioned here, and the way it pulls other instruments into its orbit.  It’s a sublime moment, and its effect remains even when the ensemble returns en masse and picks up both tempo and temperature.

Released right near the end of 2013, it was too late to consider this album for my Best of 2013 list, as my cutoff (and that of many other reviewers) typically runs from November to November.  However, this album will get some attention when the Best of 2014 lists start getting compiled.

Released on TOAP Records.

Jazz from the Lisbon, Portugal scene.

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

An album that has caught my ear lately, and which shows some sign of sticking around, is the new release by Torque Trio, titled Osmosis.  Two feet solid in modern territory for jazz piano trios.  Songs have a chatty demeanor, letting rich melodies coast along the surface of perpetually rippling percussion.  Very much from the school of Mehldau in how melodies develop in a twisting fashion that gives the impression of repetition, without it necessarily being so… a kind of perpetual motion that makes fast objects appear to be moving in place.

Your album personnel:  Koen Schalkwijk (piano), Mathias Polligkeit (double bass), and Antoine Duijkers (drums, glass harp, singing bowl).

Tracks like “Stories to Be Told” and “Down the Rabbit Hole” skitter along, melodic phrases meshing well with a focused rhythmic gust.

Tracks like “A New Day” and “Desillusie” take a calmer approach to melodic statements, letting them breathe in their own time, occasionally interspersing some abrupt interplay between bass and drums to break up the flow a bit.  But, typically, they return to form before long.

And then there are tracks like “End of Days” and “Presikhaaf,” in which the trio accentuates the rhythms with choppy slashes and staggered gaits, and effective shape the melody with an elastic force.

“Implore” represents this album’s event horizon in terms of intensity, with the murmuring “Singing Bowl” sitting at the opposite end of that spectrum.

The album closes things out with “Song for a Dying Bird,” a melancholy tune that expresses itself patiently, and with a quiet grace.

A real likable recording.  One of those modern piano trio albums that clicks right into place.

Released on Neuklang Records.

The trio’s members call both the Amsterdam and Cologne (Germany) jazz scenes their home turf.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD + MP3