Jazz Recommendations – 2015 Releases

I’ve put down more than a few words about the music of guitarist Jakob Bro on this site (and others), and without exception, it gets tagged with descriptors like “tranquility” and “serenity.”  And there’s good reason for that, since so much of his music possesses a lullaby quality that ushers in only sweet dreams after the final note has sounded.  So, it’s a thrilling turn of events to hear him bring a much bigger, much louder sound with this tentet recording.  On Hymnotic/Salmodisk, he either doubles or triples-up with drummers, bassists and saxophonists, plus adds a keyboardist and his own guitar.  The finer details are still there, but they’re wound up tight in thick harmonies, and they spring to life with the slightest flicker of a match.  Adding intrigue to the mix is the occasional contribution of poet (and fellow Dane) Peter Laugesen, whose recitations provide a needed respite from the ensemble’s waves of intensity, but also whose deep register is a susurrant counterbalance to the wailing and shouting of instruments reaching for the skies.  This music possesses a wild, crazy euphoria, and somehow Bro is able to bottle it up and serve it neat, no kick, no recoil.  And the way he intersperses the measured vocal tracks throughout the raw, wild energy provides a wonderful rise and fall of intensity that is responsible for this music’s sheer addictiveness.

The opening track “Mergelgrav” behaves like a preamble with its simmering intensity, its occasional blasts of power and the deadpan repetition of Laugesen’s spoken words like choppy waves getting ever closer to scaling the pier and splashing onto the streets.  It’s a particularly nice transition, then, to go from the possibility of chaos to, instead, the genial chatter of “Daybreak,” a song that skitters right along at a brisk pace and holds up intertwining melodic threads for all to see.

“Tinkerslotte” sees the return of spoken word to the mix.  This time around, Laugesen’s voice utilizes a storyteller’s phrasings and meter.  His delivery is one that doesn’t exclude those who aren’t Danish-speaking… the rise and fall of his voice, the changes in pace and tone, and riveting turn of phrase wrapped up in saxophone wails and patter of drums grabs the ear tight.  And like before with the previous track accompanied by the recitation of poetry, it creates a remarkable lift-off point for the shout-to-the-skies energy of “I Do Remember,” a song balanced out by a melodic sensibility more akin to the slow, sweet reveries of a contemplative mood.

The thick melancholy of “Altings Ophav” is a nice change of pace as far as emotional texture goes… a bit of the eye of the storm tranquility.  And with a series of volatile blasts, “Exploding Suns” takes things right back into the face of the storm from the very first notes.  Of particular enjoyment is the way the tune goes from untamed wildness to a thick drawling blues, and keeps that in a holding pattern even when the surge of intensity begins yet another ascent in the background.

It’s back to a calmer state with “Visne Blade Og Sokker” as voice and double bass take turns being the raindrops pelting the roof.  The album closes things out with a strong note of finality, as with the final cheers from a long night of celebrations.  “Sadness Is The Gladdest Way To Feel” has a velvety tone as it cries out the blues in warm, drowsy waves full of feel.  Just a brilliant way to close out this brilliant album.

It earned the #14 album of the year slot on this year’s Bird is the Worm Best of 2015 list.

Your album personnel:  Jakob Bro (guitar), Peter Laugesen (poetry), Jesper Zeuthen (alto sax), Andrew D’Angelo (alto sax), Chris Speed (tenor sax), Nikolaj Torp Larsen (keyboards), Anders Christensen (bass), Thomas Morgan (bass), Nicolai Munch-Hansen (bass), Jakob Høyer (drums) and Kresten Osgood (drums).

Released on Bro’s Loveland Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Soundcloud page.

Jazz from the Copenhagen, Denmark scene.

This album is a free download on Jakob Bro’s site (LINK).

In addition, you can buy the album as an LP from the artist’s site (LINK).

Read about some of Jakob Bro’s other recordings (LINK) on this site.

*****

Today’s feature is something old and something(s) new from UK pianist Alexander Hawkins.  His 2014 release Step Wide Step Deep received the #17 slot on this site’s Best of 2014 list, and he followed that up with a few new efforts in 2015 that built on that success.

The first two albums covered in this column are a trio session and a new one from his Convergence Quartet, and both are new to the world in 2015.  The third album mentioned, Slow and Steady, originally saw light of day a few years back, but this appears to be its first digital release.

In any event, this is all top-notch music you should know about.

Let’s begin…

Alexander Hawkins – Alexander Hawkins Trio

Nobody elicits a sense of elegance from the motion of tumbling down a flight of stairs quite like pianist Alexander Hawkins.  His 2015 trio recording, Alexander Hawkins Trio, provides the evidence of this claim right from the start.  For all of its rambunctious motion, “Sweet Duke” is as carefree and light-hearted as an afternoon stroll through the park.  And even though the blur of “Song Singular – Owl (friendly) – Canon” is more pronounced in the weight of its footfalls, the quality of a noble elegance remains.  And “One Tree Found” shows how the crosscurrents of a loping cadence and melodic twirls present no challenge to his stoicism.  This truth holds even in the torrential downpour of “Perhaps 5 or 6 Different Colours.”

“40HB (for Taylor Ho Bynum)” returns to a state of captivating motion.  It epitomizes much of Hawkins’ music, and the recurring question that logically must be asked:  “How is this song even holding itself together.”  And yet it does, time and time again, next charting that course with the fascinating “Baobabs + SGrA*”  For a change of pace, “AHRA” doesn’t risk fraying its seams while transitioning from somber to solemn.  But this is only temporary, as Hawkins closes the album out with the thrilling “Blue Notes for a Blue Note (Joy To You),” a song that storms and thrashes, and as is so often the case with a Hawkins composition, it expresses an innate tunefulness tied to something more traditional and never more than a few heartbeats away from the blues.

Your album personnel:  Alexander Hawkins (piano), Neil Charles (double bass) and Tom Skinner (drums, percussion).

The album is Self-Produced.

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

Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

*****

The Convergence Quartet – Owl Jacket

Owl Jacket marks the fourth release from the quartet of pianist Alexander Hawkins, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, bassist Dominic Lash and drummer Harris Eisenstadt.  It’s an excellent recording when judged all on its own, but for those who are familiar with their past work, it’s rewarding to hear just how much they’ve synched up with the visions of one another.  Also, new aspects of their personality as a working unit emerge on this recording.

The album begins with the riveting “Dogbe Na Wo Lo,” a song guided into a lovely confluence of melody and motion.  The motion of subsequent track “Jacket” takes the music from one of flowing water to something more akin to drifting clouds.  Bynum’s cornet provides the song its only sense of motion until the skies turn grey and that drifting cloud begins pouring sheets of rain.  The charming “Coyote” brings the album back down to earth.  The tune’s awkward dancing motion keeps jarring the melody loose, sending it bouncing around the surface of the tempo.  “Owl” is the first significant advance by the quartet in the direction of the combustibility they’ve consistently displayed on previous recordings, but even here, the hyperactivity gives way to calmer imagery and a flirtation with peacefulness.  “Azalpho” just sort of ambles along whistling its melody until Eisenstadt’s drum flurries draw the focus to the steps taken and the way ahead.  The album ends as it began with the West African influence of “Mamady Wo Murado Sa,” but where the album-opener guided melody and tempo into a seamless flow of tunefulness and groove, the concluding track flips that approach on its head and celebrates the divergent qualities of the elements.  One is no less compelling than the other.

Your album personnel:  Alexander Hawkins (piano), Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Harris Eisenstadt (drums) and Dominic Lash (double bass).

Released in 2015 on the NoBusiness Records label.

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

Available at:  Bandcamp

*****

The Convergence Quartet – Slow and Steady

Slow and Steady was originally recorded back on November 2011 at the Vortex Jazz Club as part of the London Jazz Festival.  The album opens with combustion, first with “Assemble Melancholy” and then right into “Third Convergence,” which is why it’s almost stunning when the quartet breaks into a gently melodic passage on the latter track, continuing to captivate in the way the tempo is only ever brought back up to a rapid simmer until the home stretch when it returns to its combustible state.  And on “Remember Raoul/Piano Part Two,” the quartet arrives at the blues, but then take some winding back-roads on the way out of town.  On “equals/understand (totem),” the quartet keeps to the main thoroughfare of modern post-bop, but repeatedly careens up and over the curbs and onto the sidewalks.  On the other hand, the drone and cry of “Oat Roe + Three by Three” is more a dream of action than any actual semblance of motion.  It’s more of the same transitions of intensity and texture that color “The Taff End,” so when they close the show out with the gentle moonlight of title-track “Slow and Steady,” the suddenness and breadth of change gives the impression of a sound no less big and evocative than this music at its most aggressive.  Of particular interest is that where this album leaves off, years later is where Owl Jacket picks right back up.

Your album personnel:  Alexander Hawkins (piano), Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Harris Eisenstadt (drums) and Dominic Lash (double bass).

Released in 2013 on the NoBusiness Records label.

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

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

*****

A melody in the hands of Ron Miles is thick as smoke.  It fills up the room with a warmth and gets deep into your lungs and you’ll feel its emotional intensity with each breath you take.  All alone, with just himself and his trumpet and cornet, he’s able to generate this kind of effect, but when he’s matched with someone who is equally talented at crafting a melody… like Bill Frisell, like Wayne Horvitz… suddenly that smoke has an even greater presence when fellow collaborators are adding the spark and the kindling.

Whirlpool is melodically driven.  On their excellent 2013 release, This World and One More, the trio of saxophonist Caroline Davis, drummer Charles Rumback and guitarist Jeff Swanson dove into the deep end of the melodic pool.  But typical to their style of phasing in elements of post-bop and indie-rock, those strong melodies were spurred on with a determined gait.  Still pretty, yes, but at times, rather bracing.  They were in the service of motion, not emotion.

An impromptu live show collaboration between Whirlpool and Ron Miles on his home turf of Denver venue Dazzle led to the new studio recording Dancing on the Inside.  With their focus on melody from two different approaches, every note on this album wears its heart on its sleeve, beaming proud.

“Remedies” is the overwhelming evidence of the perfection of this match.  A pulsing tempo and the occasional break from structure leaves a wide open door for the quartet to slowly unroll the prettiest melody through.  It’s a peaceful sigh, it’s a catchy tune, and it bleeds personality when combined with the fitful solos and the gentle curvature of the rhythm’s path.  It’s a similar path adopted by “The Ocean Knows” when it takes the form of a ballad that threatens to lose its structure like a heart breaking into a thousand pieces.

This, in fact, is a nice touch on several of the songs in that way the quartet will briefly turn their back on any semblance of structure.  It puts the melodic beauty into stark contrast, and when they return to that blissful state, the transition back to one of shape and form is made even more dramatic by the dissonance that preceded it.  This sleight of hand isn’t anything new for any of these musicians. It’s something utilized by Miles via his membership in Wayne Horvitz’s Gravitas Quartet.  Drummer Rumback shows his talents at honing rougher edges into something sharper on his Clean Feed Records recordings.  And Davis has a number of projects, most notably Pedway, where roughing up the melody isn’t at all out of line.

The quartet mixes things up a bit with the straight-ahead tune “The Crew” and the pop vocal track “Right Where,” but both keep within reach of the heart of the album.  “Ridges” closes the album out, and through it courses the same blood that runs through veins of tracks like “Remedies” and “The Ocean Knows.”  A peaceful exhalation of melody is partnered with a tempo fond of its casual rate of speed.  It’s a beautiful send-off from a beautiful album.

If this site’s Best of 2015 list were expanded out to fifty slots, there’s no doubt that this album would’ve earned itself a spot on the list.  One of the best things to come out in 2015.

Your album personnel:  Ron Miles (cornet), Caroline Davis (alto sax, voice), Charles Rumback (drums) and Jeff Swanson (guitar).

Released on Ears & Eyes Records.

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

Available at: Bandcamp | Amazon