Jazz Recommendations – 2015 Releases

Always on the verge of falling to pieces is how the self-titled debut from the quintet Falga presents itself.  There’s a sense of parts connected merely through strong belief and sheer force of will.  There are gaps in between melodic statements that imply no sort of causation or relationship.  The rhythmic process gives the impression that falling down stairs is a purposeful state of existence.  Harmonies seem to move in directions counter that of any melodic intent.  And yet the quintet of baritone saxophonist Giuseppe Doronzo, guitarist Lucio Tasca, pianist Federico Pozzer, bassist Andrea Caruso and drummer Aleksandar Škorić infuse the music of Falga with a center of gravity that keeps all of its elements in a tight orbit… often not in concert with one another, but close enough to where implied relationships and suggestive connectivity gives a sense of a very loose cohesion.  It’s a supremely appealing trait, and it’s why this music explodes with so much damn personality.

If it can be said there’s a glue that binds these individual tunes, it’s in the way that a striking melodic inspiration suddenly materializes in the thick of it all, providing a new perspective and something to hold onto.  “Pigeons” gets it done and barely has to raise its voice.  “Craters at the Sunset” does at the outset of each new plateau of intensity.  But with “Mannaggia,” it happens piecemeal and at an uneven tempo, as if watching the melody through the thick haze of a heatwave.  It’s never when you expect it and never comes at you from the same place twice, but each time a vivid melodic image shines through all those spaces in between, it just brings everything together.

A very cool album.

Your album personnel:  Giuseppe Doronzo (baritone sax), Lucio Tasca (guitar), Federico Pozzer (piano), Andrea Caruso (double bass) and Aleksandar Škorić (drums, percussion).

Released on Cantina Records.

Listen to more of the album at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Groningen, Netherlands scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp

It’s the way this music shifts between phases of immense orchestration and free improvisation that marks Libèrrim as a winning album.  Drummer Arnau Obiols leads a quintet of trumpeter Pol Padrós, clarinetist Marcel·lí Bayer, cellist Míriam Fèlix and tubist Amaiur González, and sometimes he takes them into the thick of a composition where every step is directed and every footprint’s shape predetermined, but so often these manipulations are not, in fact, enclosures, but instead behave as doorways to passages of wild spells of imagination.

Adopting separate lines to develop as their own creates ripples of melody across the surface of a song, and when they do eventually come together, the weaving motion is one where they all spiral down in unison to the song’s conclusion.  The waves of harmony, especially when tuba and cello are in synch, are some of the more lovely moments you’ll be likely to hear again anytime soon.  When bass clarinet enters the fray, even more so.  Obiols voices his drums with a sympathetic approach, gently urging a melodic foray onto greater heights, framing the harmonic direction in a way that corrals it without obstructing it, and sometimes just adding a burst of ferocity to balance out all the comforting melodic loveliness.

These are all original pieces except for “El Cant de la Sibil·la,” a traditional folk song of Catalonia.  It’s illuminating to see how Obiols’ inventive approach both informs the traditional piece and how his Catalonia roots affect his own compositions.

Just a brilliant recording.

Your album personnel:  Arnau Obiols (drums), Pol Padrós (trumpet), Marcel·lí Bayer (clarinet, bass clarinet), Míriam Fèlix (cello) and Amaiur González (tuba).

Released on Aladid Records.

Listen to more of the album at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Catalonia, Spain scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp

The different influences that color Dreamy Train populate the album as would movie characters, each with their own distinct personality.  The tango shades on title-track “Dreamy Train” and the disco flirtations on “Katrina” and the Arabic folk of “Dubka” and the hot jazz of “La Faux” and the chamber music of “MMT” and tracks like “Blue Soda” that incorporate all of these elements and more in varying strengths and ratios all have prominent roles in this cinematic soundscape from the quintet Taxídi.  In many ways, perhaps the best ways, it takes the classification of World Jazz to heart, and attempts to bring as much of the planet’s musics into the quintet’s embrace.

The percussion often keeps to a conversational patter, and the contrast this sets in motion with the harmonic offerings is why the gentle waves of strings and the stirring of wind instruments can rise up to a sweeping grandeur when adopting subtlety as its form of engagement.  The quintet typically sticks to crisp melodies, but rarely allows them to tell their entire story until the song’s finish line is within sight.  This dichotomy of a simple tunefulness and a pervasive sense of mystery is a big reason why so much of this album is as compelling as it is.

Your album personnel:  Simon Fransquet (guitars, charango, percussion), Isaline Leloup (double bass), Joachim Loneux (accordions, cajon, bodhrán, percussion, tap dance), Rudy Mathey (clarinet, bass clarinet, tin whistle), Zoé Pireaux (flute, voice) and guests: Karim Baggili (flamenco guitar), Quentin Liégeois (electric guitar), Alain Deval (drums), Taio Thai (rap, beat box), Antoine Dawans (trumpet) and Yano Polis (viola).

Released on Home Records (.be).

Listen to more album tracks on the label’s Bandcamp page.

Music from the Liège, Belgium scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic

The strength of And I See Night lies is in how the quintet Gadadu commingles its different elements.  Nothing sits plumb and the ratios are never consistent or equal, and there is a grand sense of nothing quite snapping into place as neatly as it could, and it’s from this place of seeming muddled confusion that all kinds of personality springs to the surface.  This is a state where no flaws exist, because everything new simply adds definition and character to a place where intrigue already rules the day.

Some tracks roll out a mainstream groove and lead with a pop song attitude.  The sunny “Someone” skitters along, even with the loping melodicism adding a nice bit of anticipation for when the final note hits the ground.  And “Everytime” gets a charge from a casual delivery interrupted by sudden spikes of intensity.

And then there’s tracks like the gorgeous “Project Runway” and “Corpse,” where strings and trumpet sweep in and take the album into chamber territory and a straight-ahead jazz with strings expression.  But even here, the quintet veers away from the well-traveled road with some staggered cadences and a willingness to let melodies trail off into slightly divergent flight paths.

But then there’s the tracks where the quintet amplifies the odder personality traits.  “Strangeties” has an alluringly hazy melodicism compounded by striking harmonics, and together they shake off the burden of form.  It’s a song that lives in the moment and that’s the best place to find its beauty.  And when it’s not zigzagging the melody back and forth, “Oceansmell” shimmers like sunlight on a rippling pond.

The thing of it is, it’s not like this album heads off into avant-garde or experimental territory.  This lighthearted, quirky music orbits common forms of expression.  But the quintet’s eagerness to warp these expressions into unconventional shapes, to go all-in to make everything just a little bit different, the cumulative effect of those oddities resonates with an impressive strength.  It also results in a seriously engaging album.

Your album personnel:  Hannah Selin (vocals, viola), Nicki Adams (keys, vocals), Pat Adams (trumpet), Dan Stein (double bass) and Moses Eder (drums, percussion).

The album is Self-Produced.

Listen to more album tracks on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from NYC.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon