Jan 13 2019
Best of 2018 #23: Christopher Ali Solidarity Quartet – “To Those Who Walked Before Us”
When I included this album as part of the Best of Bandcamp Jazz 2018 column, I stated that “sometimes, protest needs an anthem to focus its anger and fear and resolve.” It’s a quality that runs all the way through this exciting release from the Christopher Ali Solidarity Quartet recording. The heavy punch delivered by this music isn’t a bit blunted by way of the catchiness infused within its melodies. This in combination with its spellbinding mix of avant-garde, Swedish and Arabic folk musics and modern jazz makes for an arresting listening experience, and the kind of thing that makes it just as compelling in the context of protest music as it is in the absence of.
This album is Self-Produced.
Music from Gothenburg, Sweden.
Read more on Bird is the Worm.
I’m still not sure where this album came from. It popped up on my radar as 2017 came to a close, and its lovely blooms of melody and harmonic colors bold and bright made me want to include it as a last minute replacement on the Best of 2017 list. I’ve learned to hold back on that compulsion. Every album deserves time to fully reveal itself. Migration Patterns certainly has done that, and it speaks to how deep the talent pool is on the modern scene that this album doesn’t sit in a higher slot on the list. I listen to this album over and over and over, and I still can’t decide which song is my favorite. I guess it’s whichever one I’m listening to at the moment. An amazing debut from Jack Radsliff, and a promising sign of things to come.
I really can’t get over how beautifully Tim Stevens unites the free flowing conversation of a piano trio with the soaring harmonies of a string trio. This isn’t your typical “jazz with strings” session. There’s a strong modern jazz perspective and an equally strong chamber music influence, and rather than switch roles in a dominant-accompaniment relationship, the pianist gets the two components to enter the same confluence, becoming as one. As a result, the melodic textures seem endless, and the dual personality of introspective and lively delivers a seriously magnetic charge. This is music for a lazy morning watching the snow fall and it’s music for the car stereo while speeding between destinations, and, ultimately, it’s music for when you require an infusion of loveliness in your life.
I adore the balancing act Wanja Slavin‘s 11-piece ensemble Lotus Eaters pulls off along the very thin line that separates the modern post-bop sound with something more akin to post-jazz. The fuzziness at the edges where these two forms of music meet is something that Slavin explores like discovering an entire new universe. It’s where things that sound familiar bleed into expressions that sound new and vaguely alien, and the alto saxophonist exploits this sensation to present a vast sonic spectrum.
Jan 13 2019
Best of 2018 #22: Blast – “Drifting”
Released on Label Pince-Oreilles.
Music from Lyon, France.
I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Available at: Bandcamp | Amazon
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By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2018 • 0 • Tags: Anne Quillier, Blast, Jazz - Best of 2018, Label Pince-Oreilles, Lyon (France)