Jazz Recommendations – 2014 Releases

Returning with the same cast that offered up the excellent 2013 release Percussive Mechanics, Anna Webber offers up with Refraction a similar method of coalescing a disassembled collection of moving parts into a form of synchronized chaos where melodic fragments thrive and prosper.  Though each of the album’s seven songs possess a shape and form that is perpetually in a state of flux, Webber’s ensemble directs the action in a way that guarantees a strangely melodic tunefulness will shine right on through.

“Five (Action)” is a brooding tune with a heavy step, but the lumbering tempo is belied by the darting motion of the wind instruments.  The mix of motions is where this ensemble excels.

Atop a strong current of rolling tempos, “Tacos Wyoming” is all about the melodic shapeshifting.  Though shape and form change from moment to moment, the melody’s presence is felt always.

“Climbing On Mirrors” builds from an amicable chatter to an intense wail, whereas “Theodore” shifts between expressions of varying dissonance, as if the tempo were run through a hyperactive blender.

It’s interesting how the ensemble is able to develop a rather beguiling motion on “The All Pro 3 Speed,” even though, for all intents and purposes, it’s a tune meant to kick up all kinds of turbulence.  There’s an interlude when it adopts a distant peace, and, of course, it enters, eventually, into a strong melodic passage, but this is one of the songs where the dissonance rules the day.

The album ends with the roiling tempo of “Friction – Vif (Reflection),” a tune that builds from a drone up to a roar before blossoming into a pulsing cadence and a melodic theme that enjoys the cyclical pattern of chasing its own tail in increasingly snugger confines.

There should be a law that this ensemble has to record something new every year.  First Percussive Mechanics and, now, Refraction illustrate just how creatively rewarding such a legal action would be.

Your album personnel:  Anna Webber (flute, alto flute, tenor sax), James Wylie (clarinet, alto sax), Julius Heise (vibraphone, marimba), Elias Stemeseder (piano), Igor Spallati (bass), Max Andrzejewski (drums, marimba) and Martin Kruemmling (drums).

Released on Pirouet Records.

Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD

*****

As mentioned above, Webber’s 2013 release, Percussive Mechanics, was one of the best things to come out that year.  It received the #8 slot on the Bird is the Worm Best of 2013 list.  And I gotta tell ya, I still think it’s something special.  You can read my original recommendation, here –> (LINK).

*****

I’ve always had a thing for the music of David Mengual.  The term “free spirits” is very applicable to his music.  No matter the size of the ensemble, it possesses a lightness and a flowing motion that I always take to.  His newest, Vertebrats, an album that incorporates both an octet and big band formation, holds true to form.  Consisting of six different suites that all snap neatly into place, Mengual displays his ability to convey an orchestral grace to music with a pop music sensibility.  With pianist Toni Vaquer given the role of arranger and, in some instances, composer, the David Mengual Free Spirits Big Band eases its way through 32 tunes, originals and interpretations, short pieces and extended, and covering the expanse of jazz, rock, and classical.

The album opens with the eminent grace of “Canicas,” “En Patufet i sa lletuga” and “L’Ira del Bosc.”  All short pieces that have a lightness and flowing motion that accentuates a humble beauty.  It’s a quality that I associate most often with Mengual’s music.

Not uncommon are the dramatic shifts into a sense of urgency.  This happens here with fourth track “El Resumen,” which signals the beginning of surges of intensity, bouts of dissonance and thick introspective drifts.

The ensemble shifts into a new gear, starting with “Dimonis fent foguerons.”  They retain much of the intensity developed in the previous section, but now come together and focus on patient, lovely expressions of melody while taking the care to wrap them up carefully in thick, warm harmonies.  There’s no less drama than the previous section… it just coalesces where the previous section dispersed or collided.

After a short interlude of a straight-ahead jazz tune (“Plaga de ratas siguiendo a flautista enfermo”) and one more of the free variety (“Las crónicas de Saturno”), the album settles back into one of orchestral grace.  And, then, typical of Mengual’s sense of adventure, this ensemble begins a medley of classic rock tunes from Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix and The Beatles, before ending the album with the New Orleans inspired “Himne.”

Fun moments, beautiful moments, both, to be discovered on this enjoyable recording.  Go check it out.

Your album personnel:  David Mengual (director), Alvar Monfort, Natsuko Sugao (trumpet, flugelhorn), Ivan Gonzalez (trumpet, French horn), Joan Mas (alto sax), Miguel “Pintxo” Villar (alto, soprano sax), Gonzalo Levin (tenor sax, flute), Juan Saiz (flute), Aram Montagut, Dario Garcia (trombones), Amaiur Gonzalez (tuba), Enric Peinado (guitar, cavaquinho), Lina Lomanto, Toni Vaquer (piano, Hammond organ), Alex Reviriego (double bass), Josema Martín, Oriol Roca (drums, percussion), Roser Farré, Maria Ibáñez (violins), Alicia Domínguez (viola), Margarida Mariño (cello), Marcel-lí Bayer, Jordi Santanach (clarinets), Pau Domenech (bass clarinet) and Alfonso Fernandez Vargas (bassoon).

And for more listening, follow this LINK to Vaquer’s Soundcloud page, where he streams the “rock ‘n roll suite.”

Released in 2014 on Bebyne Records.

Jazz from the Barcelona scene.

Available at: eMusic | Amazon MP3

Using the thought & form of 1970s TV show theme songs as his inspiration point, guitarist David Ullmann put together one of the more melodically rich albums in 2014.  The melodies on Corduroy have a memorable quality that rivals those of that decade’s classic themes.  However, what seals the deal is Ullmann’s thoughtful attention to the way in which harmony pushes the sale of the melodies on an album where, really, the melodies sell themselves.

He opens things with the upbeat “The Chase,” a tune with a hard charging Rockford Files tempo.  Making use of his entire cast, Ullmann builds plenty of room for soloists to step up and drive.  “Ocelot” isn’t far removed, but works a Barney Miller groove instead of a determined beat.  “Papaya,” too, scoots right along, but with a Chico & The Man optimism.

Title-track “Corduroy” takes it nice and easy, some shuffle and some sway and the warm embrace of a Welcome Back, Kotter.  There’s a nifty shift in tempo, too, on “Something You Said,” but here it performs a WKRP switch between a darting motion and smooth glides.  The sadness of “You Can’t Go Back” has an incongruous warmth that fits like a pea in the same pod with M*A*S*H “Suicide is Painless.”

“Champ” staggers into the room, each step an unpredictable one.  But then it gets its engine going and dives headlong into a Starsky & Hutch car chase, especially in the appealing way the different instruments stagger atop one another near its conclusion, intertwining in the most fascinating pattern, much in the same way car engines, crashes, and gun shots blend into the cop show theme groove.

The album ends with “Moving On,” a song that bleeds the imagery of a late-night taxi cab crossing the Queensboro Bridge at the end of its shift and heading down New York streets just beginning to drift off to sleep.  It’s a logical, lovely way to roll the credits on this very fun album.

Your album personnel:  David Ullmann (guitar), Kirk Knuffke (cornet), Brian Drye (trombone), Mike McGinnis (clarinet), Loren Stillman (alto sax), Chris Dingman (vibraphone), Gary Wang (bass) and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums).

Released on Ullmann’s label, Little Sky Records.

Jazz from NYC.

Available at:  eMusic | CDBaby | Amazon CD/MP3