Jazz Recommendations

Tiny Reviews, featuring Luis Gonzalez Sextet New York City Suite, Dudley Owens/Aaron Wright Band People Calling, Tilman Herpichbohm Jilman Zilman, Larry Willis This Time the Dream’s On Me, and Cello4qt Suite Para Cello y 3djazz (Claude Bolling).

*****

Luis Gonzalez Sextet – New York City Suite

The inspiration for this album springs from Luis Gonzalez‘s time spent in New York City, so it makes sense that a city as diverse as NYC would result in an album that hits on many of Jazz’s varied sub-genres. There’s some modern straight-ahead piano jazz here, and a bit of free jazz, some chamber jazz, some swing and some bop.  And rather than function as a compilation of different sounding tunes, Gonzalez finds a way to get them to mesh in one big melting pot of an album.  A very happy surprise to run into this fine recording.  Highly recommended.

Your album personnel: Luis Gonzalez (piano), Joan Sola-Morales (bass), Cesar Martinez (drums), David Morata (violin), Dolors Vidal (cello), and Gerard Sibila (clarinets).

Released on the PSM Music label.  Jazz from the Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain scene.

You can stream, and purchase, the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

Dudley Owens/Aaron Wright Band – People Calling

An album firmly entrenched in the bop tradition, though it shifts around a bit between be-, hard, and post bop idioms.  Some have the fluttering-light hard swing of earlier forms, others with the soulful groove of a mid-sixties hard bop recordings, and others break into the spiritual and freer elements that were to come later.  It was the band’s intention to have this music recall some of the jazz associated with the protest movements of the past, and at times, the music presents an ominous yet hopeful tone that reflects the quintet’s goals.  But intentions aside, this is just a solid album that is gonna appeal to both old-schoolers and new-schoolers alike.

Your album personnel:  Dudley Owens (tenor & soprano sax), Willerm Delisfort (piano), Aaron Immanuel Wright (bass), Clif Wallace (drums), and guest:  Justin Stanton (trumpet).

Released on the Origin/OA2 Records label.

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artists and label.

Available on eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Tilman Herpichbohm – Jilman Zilman

Even with two alto saxes taking up spots on this interesting quartet date, it’s actually relatively straight-ahead, at times sounding more traditional than modern.  Plenty of quirky moments that keep things fun, and plenty of tuneful moments that keep things, well, also, fun.  Worth noting that Herpichbohm and Bossert also appear on Rebecca Trescher‘s Sud, an album that gets a mention in my Best of 2012 (thus far) list.  Between that album and this one, that’s a hell of a lot of solid jazz.

Your album personnel: Tilman Herpichböhm (drums, percussion), Julian Bossert (alto sax), Johannes Ludwig (alto sax), and Peter Christof (bass).

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

Artist site Link.  Released on the Edition Metropol Musik label.

Available on eMusic.

Larry Willis – This Time the Dream’s On Me

A  jazz vet who shows no inclination to stop making beautiful music in the current day.  This, a solo piano set, drifts nice and easy on the water’s surface.  Pianist and piano, long-time friends, working as one.  Fans of Larry Willis have reason to celebrate.

Your album personnel:  Larry Willis (piano).

Released on the Highnote Records label.

Available on eMusic.

Cello4qt – Suite Para Cello y 3djazz (Claude Bolling)

Cello-led quartet date, and not some chamber-jazz routine either.  This is a stab at jazz with cello leading the charge, and it’s pretty successful, too.  I’m a sucker for cello, anyways, but this is a pretty album that has some bounce to it, as well.

Your album personnel:  César Jiménez (cello), Juan Ramón Veredas (piano), Juan Baca (bajo), and José Luís Gómez (batería)

Released on the Karonte Cambayá label.

Available on eMusic.

*****

The Luis Gonzalez New York City Suite review and the Dudley Owens/Aaron Wright Band People Calling review are original to Bird is the Worm.  However, portions of the other reviews were originally used in my Jazz Picks weekly article for eMusic, so here’s some language protecting their rights 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.

Tiny Reviews, featuring Federico Casagrande Battle of the Invisible, Tyson Naylor Trio Kosmonauten, and Fulvio Sigurtà & Claudio Filippini Through the Journey.

*****

Federico Casagrande – The Ancient Battle of the Invisible

The guitar of Federico Casagrande likes to ride the crests of waves rather than dive down and swim furiously beneath the water’s surface.  On vibes, Jeff Davis works wonders as Casagrande’s counterpart, keeping a furious pace yet never stepping over anybody’s toes.  Plenty of heat, but it’s the serene interludes that make the session.  Two feet in modern jazz territory, though I would find it unsurprising to learn they listen to Radiohead on the car stereo.  There’s a sensibility on this album for moody ambiance without letting up on the gas pedal that reminds me of some of the better Indie-rock acts.  This album creates an environment from the first notes and keeps the listener there until the last note is played.  Very highly recommended.

Your album personnel: Federico Casagrande (guitar), Jeff Davis (vibes), Simon Tailleu (bass), and Gautier Garrigue (drums).

No audio to embed, but you can stream the entire album on the label’s artist page.

Released on the Cam Jazz label.

Available on eMusic.

Tyson Naylor Trio – Kosmonauten

Pianist Tyson Naylor offers up a piano trio album that suffers from occasional bouts of schizophrenia.  Sometimes it’s the catchy hop of Vince Guaraldi, sometimes it’s a prepared piano in a sea of dissonance, sometimes it hears voices in its head that tells it to play melodica, and sometimes a voice drops in that sounds like clarinet.  And, somehow, it all works.  Nothing boring here, and, thankfully, it doesn’t get so complex as to render it unlistenable.  Nifty stuff.

Your album personnel:  Tyson Naylor (piano), Skye Brooks (drums), Russell Sholberg (bass), and guest:  François Houle (clarinet).

You can stream the entire album on Naylor’s bandcamp page.

Released on the Songlines Recordings label.   Available on eMusic.

Fulvio Sigurtà & Claudio Filippini – Through the Journey

Beautiful duo recording of trumpet and piano. One pretty tune after the other, unblemished even when they mix it up a bit. Sparse and serene in that ECM sort of way, but none of the ambient/new age leanings.  Jazz, with a modern classical touch here and there, a hint of an inclination to get a little free, but more often than not, keeping things tranquil.  Utilitarian use of space and silence; just enough to make their point without it impeding the essential engagement with one another.  Quiet late nights or rainy afternoons, this is the album you want to be playing through the speakers.

Your album personnel:  Fulvio Sigurtà (trumpet) and Claudio Filippini (piano).

No audio to embed, but you can stream the entire album on the label’s artist page.

Released on the Cam Jazz label.

Available on eMusic.

*****

Portions of the reviews were originally used in my Jazz Picks weekly article for eMusic, so here’s some language protecting their rights as the one to hire me to write about new jazz arrivals to their site…

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks“ and “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.

There was a particular quality of the music of Don Pullen’s African-Brazilian Connection that didn’t reveal itself to me until years after I had begun voraciously delving into that section of the Pullen discography… it was the way that he molded Brazilian and African music into recordings that were jazz at heart without sacrificing the soul of the original music.

I probably didn’t explain that well.

Stated differently, I discovered that I often think of, and sometimes recommend, Don Pullen’s Ode to Life as a straight-ahead jazz recording, even though it really doesn’t sound, per se, like Kind of Blue. But the elements of swing in Pullen’s music, the heartbreaking swoon of his ballads, the bop of the up-tempo pieces… even though he was meshing the rhythms of Brazil and Africa with Jazz, it was done so artfully that the music didn’t sound so much like a soup of influences… just, simply, Jazz, and all the ingredients Pullen used for the music blended perfectly into a singular outstanding taste.

That brings me to The Brazilian Trio, and their new release Constelação.

Bringing together Brazilian and Jazz music, this trio has created a delightful album that sings with the heart of Brazilian composers, while sounding, well, kind of like a straight-ahead jazz piano trio.

Your album personnel: Nilson Matta (bass), Duduka Da Fonseca (drums), and Helio Alves (piano).

Each of the trio members contributes a composition to the album’s ten tracks. All the others (with the exception of Cedar Walton’s “Bolivia”) are the compositions of Brazilian composers.

Many of the tunes have a lovely restraint, powerful in that way that saying the just the right words can carry so much information and feeling. For instance, on their cover of Jobim’s “Luiza,” the Trio refrains from the syrupy melodrama of the original, and display a pensive, smoldering facet of the composition. Three of the tracks bear Jobim’s name in the small print.

There’s also plenty of buoyancy. The Trio’s take on the title-track has all the fiery bounce of the original, even without the use of alto sax as in original composer Alfredo Cardim’s quartet.

Da Fonseca’s contribution, “Isabella,” is an evocative waltz, with just enough lightness to warm the heart, and just enough darkness to remind us that there is an inherently small, yet unmistakable sadness in the best waltzes.

In general, piano handles all matters of elegance, drums the wide smiles, and bass plays the role of that little voice that asks all the big questions. Constelação is an album that, measured by the emotional spectrum, covers a lot of territory, yet does so from within a perfect little space.

Released on the Motema Records label.

Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

It is a remarkable challenge to create a piece that is both innovative and nostalgic, one that blends the influences of the past with a vision of the future, and to do it without sanitizing one or the other.  On The Imaginary Delta, UK pianist Adam Fairhall does exactly that.

Originally commissioned by the Manchester Jazz Festival (and premiered live at Band On The Wall), Fairhall harnesses the disparate sounds of an ensemble built around obscure, traditional, and modern instruments and technology, and sets them upon a suite of compositions informed by traditional and modern musics alike.  Instruments like piano, trombone, clarinets, trumpet, drums, and bass team up with jug, didley bow, sampling, turntables, and effects, for a series of tunes informed by the blues, ragtime, stride, free jazz, modern and traditional jazz.

And Fairhall doesn’t just play it straight.  These are deconstructed jazz tunes that leave the heart intact.  The influences are just that… influences.  This is modern, forward-thinking music that just so happens to conjure up voices from the past.  In many ways, the artist most logically referenced by this album is Charles Mingus, who himself, also made experimental innovative music that, also, was heavily indebted to traditional jazz and blues.  It as if Fairhall isn’t channeling the music of Mingus, so much as he is the spirit with which Mingus gave life to his music.

Now, about that music…

Your album personnel:  Adam Fairhall (piano), Chris Bridges (trombone, jug), Steve Chadwick (trumpet), James Allsopp (clarinets), Tim Fairhall (bass), Gaz Hughes (drums), and Paul J Rogers (laptop, turntable, diddley bow).

The opening track starts with the processed sampling of an old recording, used as an interlude to the menacing, yet boisterous “Baptist Prayer Meeting.”  As the samples diminish into the background, the other musicians enter the recording with bass clarinet sneers and stormy skies piano.  Drums rattle off stark warnings, and diddley bow adds a percussive element that doesn’t cheer the mood.  The is Jazz composition as balled-up fist.

But the thing of it is, that initial menace gives way to a joyous energy as the band surges more emphatically into the tune, trumpets and trombones lending their voice to the rising tide of sound.  When the tide quickly recedes, and the sound returns to the opening menace… well, it just doesn’t sound that ominous anymore.  Beauty need not always source from pretty sounds.  There is beauty in scars, in shouts, in growls, in ferocity… just so long it’s arranged properly and played with heart and soul.  The song ends as it began, quiet, eerie, and the samples of sounds from another time.

Second track “Sedalia Rag” opens with prancing horns and the scratch of turntables.  The two forces wrestle, and become as one, their sounds indistinguishable from one another and from their moments of individualism.  Hints of traditional ragtime peek out from the free form nature of the tune, especially if the ear follows the breadcrumbs laid out by Fairhall’s piano (most distinctive in the second half of the tune).  But, again, Fairhall’s incorporation of those elements into the composition, ultimately, serve to emphasize its modernity, not its ties to the past.

On “Arabian Fantasy,” the mix of slow blues and sampled vocals is equal parts warm and haunting, like hearing the voice of a dearly departed from beyond the grave.  Pace picks up with some nice solo sections, especially from trombone.

Fourth track “Tutwiler Train Stomp” is a nice blowing session tune.  Bass clarinet takes the spotlight, both on its own and when matched with the higher pitched trumpet.  The tune begins with effects, but the traditional instruments take over.  The trumpet section is particularly riveting.

Fifth track “Victoria Spivey” begins with a repeated sample of skewed piano.  It’s the type of unsettling sound one would expect to hear on a (indie-rock) Mark Linkous song.  Fairhall begins playing over it, and adds an element of elegance to the proceeding.  Then vocals are sampled in, with Fairhall’s piano and Bridges’ trombone playing over it.  The rest of the ensemble slowly files in, adding quiet accompaniment.  The tune takes several sharp turns in tempo and style, but ends the way it began, with Fairhall’s piano and the sampled vocals.  It’s a nice bit of cohesion to a tune that showed many facets.

Album ends with “Harlem Fast Shout,” a hopping tune that conjures images of dance floors filled with Friday Night revelers and musicians on the bandstand playing into the wee hours of the night.

Nearly three months back, I mentioned in my brief synopsis of this album for eMusic that this is “An album of outstanding scope and vision.”  Now, three months later, and plenty more listens under my belt, the truth of that statement hasn’t lost any of its strength.  The Imaginary Delta is a stunning achievement.

You can stream two album songs on Fairhall’s site, HERE.

Released on the SLAM Productions label.

Jazz from the UK.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3