Jazz Recommendations

Feb 11 2013

Recommended: Laura Jurd – “Landing Ground”

 

Laura Jurd - "Landing Ground"On her debut album, trumpeter Laura Jurd brings both her Jazz and Classical backgrounds to the table, and finds a way to highlight each while enhancing the depth of this beautiful album’s collective sound.

Leading a jazz quartet, and backed by the Ligeti (string) Quartet, a quirky modern jazz approach and the classical’s sweeping grandeur are both given room to breathe, and it makes for the sense of the expansive in a small enclosed area… like a city skyline in a snow globe.  Big, yet contained.

Opening track “Flight Music” matches abrupt punchy phrases with string harmonies, giving the song both edge and softness.  Jurd takes center stage on the opener with a confident solo that travels a long distance in a short time.

“The Lady of Bruntal” leads out with strings easing in nice and slow, then suddenly the jazz quartet joins in and, together, they establish a brisk gallop.  The song is marked by repeated ascensions and declinations.  The sudden shifts in both directions build some nice tension.

“Happy Sad Song” opens with some melancholic piano, the rattle of percussion, and the gentle sigh of strings.  When the song’s pulse rate increases with the arrival of trumpet, it’s flight pattern is matched by strings, offering up some uplifting harmonies.  The melody, which the ensemble returns to throughout in different variations, has the folky charm of the Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood,” and shares the lovely textures of it, too.  The interplay between piano and strings is one of the album’s highlights.

There are three duets spread throughout the album, each of them short interludes.  Some artists use interludes as a way of linking prior and subsequent tracks, utilizing the interludes to create a commonality and make for an elegant transition.  Others artists use their interludes as a way of cleansing the palate of the previous track so that the next one can be enjoyed on its own merits.  This is the route Jurd takes.  The danger in the latter method is to lose a sense of album cohesion and to interrupt a natural flow from one song to the next.  And, really, I’m not sure that Jurd avoided that danger.  In fact, she may have invited it.

The lovely somberness of “Happy Sad Song” leads into the second interlude, a duet between Jurd’s trumpet and Galvin’s piano.  They trade quick jabs, sharp right crosses, and the interlude’s sharp edges clash with the nighttime embrace that just preceded it.  But then Galvin and Ligeti Quartet lead out on “Landing Ground” with a sumptuous harmony that harks back to “Happy Sad Song”… which the ensemble immediately shatters with urgent sets of notes and phrases, reminiscent at first of the prior interlude, but then coalesces into a harshly stated, yet invitingly simple melody that takes the song, and thus the album, to an entirely new place.  It’s transitions like these that give an album a sense of something big, of distance traveled and journeys underway, and had Jurd not treated the various interludes as she did, I’m not sure the album could’ve pulled all of that off.

“Tales of the Old Country” has a weary, almost somber effervescence.  Apart from Chaplin’s notable bass solo, this track is all about the beautiful harmonies.  Its dreamlike presence almost dissipates into formlessness, making it easy to drift off in thought, swept away by music that intends to sweep the listener away.  The song is over before it even begins.  It acts as a seven minute interlude, a song between songs, and far too short for something so enchanting.

The album ends with, first, a nifty interlude (“Duet III”) of Jurd’s trumpet playing a rambunctious game of patty-cake with Corrie Dick on percussion.  This leads right into “The Cross-Atlantic Antics of Madame Souza,” a whimsical tune that looks less funny when it flashes sharp teeth.  The ensemble employs some music acrobatics that serves as a nifty rhythmic display on an album that spent most of its time on the harmonies and melodies.  It’s a bit of a jolt, following, as it does, on the heels of some serious moments of tranquility… but its these kinds of compositional wrinkles that lead to so much success on this recording, that it really sort of makes sense that this is Jurd’s send-off.

Just an excellent album.

Your album personnel: Laura Jurd (trumpet), Elliot Galvin (piano), Conor Chaplin (bass), Corrie Dick (percussion), and the Ligeti Quartet (Patrick Dawkins and Mandhira de Saram on violins, Richard Jones on viola, and Ben Davis on cello).

The album is Self-Produced, released on Jurd’s Chaos Collective label.

Jazz from the London scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

Feb 8 2013

Tiny Reviews: Caroline Davis, Sonic Liberation Front, Zoidberg Trio, Han Bennink, & Hardcoretet

Tiny Reviews edition!

Featured album:  Caroline Davis Quartet Live, Work & Play.

Plus:  Sonic Liberation Front Jetway Confidential, Zoidberg Trio Gargoyle, Han Bennink Trio Bennink & Co, & Hardcoretet Do It Live.

*****

 

Caroline Davis Quartet – Live, Work & Play

Caroline Davis - "Live Work & Play"Saxophonist Caroline Davis’s debut album is clearly informed by the soulful blues of her current Chicago digs, but Chicago is also a stronghold for an experimental jazz set, and Live, Work & Play has moments that recall’s the unconventional angles of music by artists like James Falzone and Frank Rosaly.  It makes for a splendid clash between seemingly opposite poles, except that Davis finds the commonalities and gives it her own voice.  End result is music that’s overtly warm, yet oddball at heart.

Your album personnel:  Caroline Davis (alto sax), Mike Allemana (guitar), Matt Ferguson (bass), and Jeremy Cunningham (drums).

Some tunes that really stand out for me:  “Bloodcount” is a smokey ballad interspersed with sudden quavering bursts of guitar and sax.  “Old Rims” has a sighing ambient presence that is the synthesis of a lazy afternoon and nowhere to go.  “Dionysus” begins with a fluttering lightness (reminiscent of Pete Robbins’ style on sax) that has the quartet developing music lines like strands of DNA, but then suddenly reach a plateau that sets them off as a singular force shooting straight ahead, gaining speed and volume with successive clicks.  But this entire album is a stand-out release of 2012; not an album track I don’t find something about it to enjoy.

Released on the Ears & Eyes Records label.

Jazz from the Chicago scene.

Stream the album at the artist’s bandcamp site.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

 

Other Albums of Interest:

 

Sonic Liberation Front – Jetway Confidential

Sonic Liberation Front - "Jetway Confidential"The Sonic Liberation Front creates a potent mix of trippy Afro-Cuban rhythms, electronic effects infusions, avant-garde missives, and jazz grooves.  Inspired by the music of Sun Ra, which comes through.  Giving a solid modern voice to music that cries out nostalgically to jazz from late-60s/early-70s a la Sun Ra/Mahavishnu Orchestra/Gato Barbieri.  Fun music that also challenges.

Your album personnel:  Kevin Diehl (drumkit, bata, percussion, loops), Baba Joe Bryant (bata, percussion), Tom Lowery (Afro Brazilian percussion, drumkit), Yinka Moore (bata, percussion, vocals), Veronica MJ (viola), Todd Margasak (cornet), Terry Lawson (tenor saxophone), Elliot Levin (tenor & soprano saxophones, flute), Connor Przybyszewski (trombone), Brent White (trombone), D.Hotep (guitar), and Matt Engle (bass).

Stream the first three album tracks at the artist site.

Released on the High Two label.

Available at eMusic.

 

Zoidberg Trio – Gargoyle

Zoidberg Trio - "Gargoyle"Nifty trio of guitar, vibes, and bass. Quirky modern jazz fusion. Moody at times, but then also performs covers of Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” and Ennio Morricone’s “Playing Love,” so there’s that, too. A likable album, and besides, guitar and vibes is always a sublime pairing.

Your album personnel: Marco Bianchi (vibes), Roberto Mattei (double bass), and Nicola Tacchi (guitar).

Released on the Abeat Records label.

Jazz from the Lecco, Italy scene.

Available at eMusic.

 

Han Bennink Trio – Bennink & CO

Han Bennink - "Bennink & CO"Very cool new release from avant-garde musician Han Bennink.  Refreshingly lyrical, even as the trio pulls out all the stops in complex and textured conversation.  Tracks like “Ganz” and “Kiefer” really sums up how immediate this music is while also accessible… a deep voice with a light bounce and a pronounced playful mood, even as it skronks and howls.  This album should make both avid and casual avant-garde fans happy.

Your album personnel:  Han Bennink (drums), Joachim Badenhorst (saxophones, clarinet), and Simon Toldam (piano).

Released on the ILK Music label.

Jazz from the Amsterdam scene.

Available at eMusic.

 

Hardcoretet – Do It Live

Hardcoretet - "Do It Live"Very cool quartet album, representing some of the talent coming out of the Seattle scene.  With its generous helpings of rock and soul mixed in with its jazz, Hardcoretet definitely hails from the new school of jazz a la Kneebody or Sean Wayland.  Tuneful like crazy, and they know how to work a groove for all its got.  I’m sure some of you post-rock fans would get into this, too.

Your album personnel:  Art Brown (alto sax), Aaron Otheim (keyboards), Tim Carey (bass), and Tarik Abouzied (drums).

Released on the Table & Chairs Music label.

Jazz from the Seattle scene.

Available at eMusic.

 

*****

The Caroline Davis review is partially original to Bird is the Worm, and 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.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

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

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

Feb 7 2013

Francesco Turrisi – “Songs of Experience”

 

Francesco Turrisi - "Songs of Experience"I originally became familiar with the music of Francesco Turrisi via his 2011 release Fotografia.  An excellent album that featured a standard piano trio line-up, and fixated on a balance between chamber music and folk-infused jazz.  What resulted was a pleasant duality of elegance and earthiness.  On his current release, Songs of Experience, Turrisi sticks with the trio format, and while he has Joao Lobo returning on drums, he replaces the bass position with trumpeter Fulvio Sigurta.  This results in an entirely different album.  And while I would’ve been eminently content with more of the good stuff, I’m thrilled to witness Turrisi’s new direction.

Your album personnel:  Francesco Turrisi (piano), Fulvio Sigurta (trumpet), and Joao Lobo (drums).

On its face, Turrisi has recorded a Nordic Jazz album.  Moody and serene, the melodies drift and the rhythms twitter, and expansive sounds play out in a quiet corner of the world.  In fact, the Nordic influence isn’t much of a stretch.  Dublin-based, but his roots in Italian soil, it’s not inexplicable that the sounds of Scandinavia might’ve trickled down into Turissi’s music.  Aside from the obvious effect of the digital age blasting through geographical barriers to allow music expressionism to spread across the face of the planet, there also appears to be a trend forming where the Nordic approach to Jazz is moving south as the Mediterranean Jazz movement reaches north to meet it.

There are examples on Bird is the Worm of Italian musicians performing tranquil Jazz influenced by local folk music.  And while the mannerisms of the Italian folk music differ, say, from those of Copenhagen, the traits that become fused with Jazz create commonalities in sound.  The crosscurrents of influence are also a result of musicians heading to other countries to study, as Turrisi did when he left Italy to study at Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands.  Collaborations of differing musics find the soft places where similarities exist, and thus conjure up new ideas and new expressions and new sounds.

But this is all just the talk of influences and music trends… inside baseball, of interest primarily to jazz geeks like myself.  Maybe to you, too.

What is the music like?

Piano with an icy sharpness, trumpet that expresses a weariness and hopefulness concurrently, and drums that say a lot when speaking very little.  This is music that fills up the room when a pervasive stillness has taken hold.  This is music that speaks in hushed tones, takes its time to express itself, and is fantastically evocative when it does.

Some tunes, like “Incubo N.1” offer up a Mingus-like mix of avant-garde and blues.  And “Birth” is an exasperated statement of chamber music… something that, perhaps, fans of Wayne Horvitz might appreciate.  But mostly we’re presented with tunes of elegance and austerity, dramatic tension persistently held at bay from finally boiling over, and, most importantly, a slowly unfolding beauty that develops seductively from the first note to the very last.

Outstanding.

The album is Self-Produced, released on Turrisi’s Taquin Records label.

Jazz from the Dublin, Ireland scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2013 Releases • 0

Feb 5 2013

Milder PS – “Quoted Out Of Context”

 

Milder PS - "Quoted Out Of Context"The premise of the Milder PS album Quoted Out Of Context is a reinterpretation of the music of Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon.  The result is a set of lovely Nordic Jazz that is sometimes sublime, sometimes breathtaking.

Milder PS brings a pop music sensibility to the album, reflected primarily through the lovely melodies.  The harmonic conventions, however, are textured in a way that imbues the music with a sweeping grandeur, while maintaining a calm presence.  It’s not unlike big ideas spoken in a quiet voice.

Your album personnel:  Joakim Milder (tenor, soprano sax), Nils-Olav Johansen (guitar), Johannes Lundberg (bass), Lisbeth Diers (drums, percussion, voice), and guests:  Gunnar Halle (trumpet), David Byström (trombone), and the Sjöströmska String Quartet.

Some of the tracks, like “Couldn’t Bear to Be Special” thankfully disposes of the theatrical flairs of the original, keeping things more restrained.  The ensemble also makes wise decisions on when to keep pretty close to the originals, like on “Doo Wop in Harlem” and its languorous sway, and “Anne Marie” with the pleasing use of orchestral accompaniment, balanced by a nifty guitar-bass pairing (Johansen and Lundberg, respectively).  “Jesse James Bolero” mimics the rhythm of the original for a gratifying result.

As the album proceeds, so too does its inclinations to the dramatic.  Strings become more prominent, and harmonies more turbulent.  “I Trawl the Megahurtz” is a landscape of windswept snow drifts… a beauty in shifting harmonies and peaceful moments interrupted by Diers’ cymbal washes, strings, and Milder’s slow wailing saxophone.

“Dragons” is a nice ambling tune, a pace instilled with some simple, yet effective percussion for soprano sax to meander atop of, whereas”Nightingales” is an anxious ballad, buffeted up by heavy infusion of strings.  And “God Watches Over You” burgeons with dramatic tension sourcing from several directions.  Drums rattle incessantly, strings ripple upward and out, soprano sax ascends slowly, powerfully, and Halle’s trumpet soars ever upward as bass spastically drives ahead.

Just a beautiful little recording, and one that might’ve slipped past under my radar if not for a little luck.

Released on the Apart Records label.

Jazz from the Stockholm, Sweden scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

Feb 4 2013

Philipp Harnisch Quartet – “Songs About Birds and Horses”

 

Philipp Harnisch - "Songs About Birds and Horses"Philipp Harnisch‘s quartet likes to formulate beautiful constructs, like sheets of stained glass, then methodically scar and shatter them.  It is a process he repeats throughout the lovely Songs About Birds and Horses.  Erecting soundscapes shot through with Nordic Jazz serenity, the quartet comes crashing down with a delicate avant-garde ferocity.  Of significant importance is the music’s quality of not turning its back on itself when it presents one of the two facets of tranquility and clamor… both are present at all times, and it is only a matter of which of the two is in the ascendent.

Your album personnel: Philipp Harnisch (alto sax), Elias Stemeseder (piano, melodica), Paul Santner (double bass), and Maximilian Santner (drums, percussion)

Songs made for the quiet hours of the morning, like “Still In Motian,” capture the shifting stillness of Paul Motian’s music and its sparks of life.  Whereas “Backyard Birds” enhances the album’s gentle presence with quavering piano notes rustle in cymbal washes and chiming percussion.  And “Purple Days” sighs contentedly with a languorous tone, just floats in place.

“Pulsate” is the first true sign of the quartet’s intentions to tear it all down. Harnisch’s wailing saxophone and Santner’s toolbox percussion are the sound of things falling apart… loudly.  Conversely, “Poem February” uses its inside voice, which proves no obstacle to rending the fabric of silence just before taking off at a gallop.  And following the short, brooding introduction, “Steel Horses” raises up slowly with layers of comforting repetition, just easing into everything.  But at the half-way mark begins to offer warning signs of potential flammability before returning to a state of peace and trust…. really, a microcosm of this album from the very start.

The album ends with “Coda (Birdsong)” and brings things back to the serenity from which the album began.  I’m a sucker for that kind of circular conclusion.

Harnisch has a solid handle with a light touch, which is called for often on this recording.  He ably brings the heat when required, but it’s his evocative tone when easing back that bears the greatest rewards.  Stemeseder’s piano often emits loose fluttering lines, which gives them both an electrical charge and a bluesy ease.  He’s also a primary catalyst for the breakdowns from serenity to chaos, when the quartet decides it’s time to deconstruct.  Bassist Santner doesn’t get in the spotlight much, but is most effective when providing the shadow for piano’s sunlight.  And it’s a toss-up between the shimmering cymbal work and the earthy percussion of Maximilian Santner which qualifies as his most gratifying contribution to the effort.

Just a lovely album, and one that proves that beauty can be illustrated by contrasting it with that which is not, just as effectively as raising it up on a pedestal.

Released on the Listen Closely label.

Jazz from the Vienna, Austria scene.

Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: MP3

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

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