Jazz Recommendations

Dec 10 2018

Album of the Day: “Article XI” by Anton Hunter

 

Artist:  Anton Hunter

Album: Article XI

Label:  Efpi Records

Style:  Suggested orchestra jazz/Covert experimental jazz

Favorite Track:  “Retaken”/”Innards of Atoms” (tie, or maybe I just adore how one feeds into the next)

Music from:  Manchester, UK

What I like about it:  It’s like getting lost in the funhouse.  The winding passages of lyricism, the warped melodicism that crystalizes into harmonic visages, the unpredictable changes of direction… it’s a controlled insanity that holds through every note of this recording.  I have never heard this album the same way twice.  Not even close.  Each time I play this recording (and, god, I’ve played it tons), inevitably I think to myself, wait, this isn’t how I remember it sounding before.  I can’t express sufficiently how much fun and enjoyment that inspires in me.

Extra notes:  The label, Efpi Records, only releases a couple albums per year, but without exception, they’re gold.

Your album personnel:  Anton Hunter (guitar), Sam Andreae (tenor sax), Simon Prince (tenor sax, flute), Mette Rasmussen (alto sax), Cath Roberts (baritone sax), Graham South, Nick Walters (trumpets), Seth Bennett, Richard Foote (trombones), Eero Tikkanen (bass) and Johnny Hunter (drums).

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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

Be sure to check out the artist’s site.

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Dec 9 2018

Album of the Day: “Vanished Gardens” by Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

 

Artist:  Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

Album: Vanished Gardens

Label:  Blue Note Records

Style:  Jazz Americana

Favorite Track:  Vanished Gardens

Music from:  Los Angeles, CA

What I like about it:  Lucinda Williams adds her vocals to half of the tracks on this live performance, and I like that the band’s sound doesn’t change with her presence.  They coalesce around her, like the current navigating the circumference of a small island at sea.  I like that everything is melodically focused, which is implied on the instrumental tracks, and made perfectly clear on the vocal ones.  I like how Bill Frisell’s guitar and Charles Lloyd’s sax just melt into one another, indistinguishable as sunbeams on a cloudless day.  I like how the group generates an intensity from a casual delivery, that every passage, every phrase has that feel.

Extra notes:  Hi, Bill & Lucinda, please feel free to adapt “Are You Alright?” for this or any similar project, thanks.

Your album personnel:  Charles Lloyd (tenor sax, flute), Bill Frisell (guitars), Greg Leisz (pedal steel, dobro), Reuben Rogers (bass), Eric Harland (drums) and Lucinda Williams (vocals).

Available at:  Amazon

Be sure to check out the artist’s site.

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Dec 8 2018

Album of the Day: “Wobegon” by Aaron Irwin Trio

 

Artist:  Aaron Irwin Trio

Album: Wobegon

Label:  Fresh Sound New Talent

Style:  Jazz Americana

Favorite Track:  Wobegon

Hometown:  Brooklyn, NYC

What I like about it:  It’s rooted in thick melodies as wide as the day is long.  It’s the kind of music you’d imagine being played out on the back porch on an Autumn day, green fields dotted by the colors of fallen leaves, and the sunlight dwindling over the horizon.  I like how it ratchets up the heat and makes those languid passages resonate that much stronger by way of comparison.

Extra Notes:  I wrote about Irwin’s 2015 release A Room Forever back when it first came out, and I still highly recommend it.  It falls in line with his latest, though if Wobegon is a campfire crackling away in the backyard, then A Room Forever is a flickering candlelight in the window after the campfire has been extinguished, everyone’s gone to sleep and fireflies play beneath a sky full of stars.

Your album personnel:  Aaron Irwin (alto sax), Mike Baggetta (guitar) and Jeff Hirshfield (drums).

Available at:  Amazon

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

Be sure to check out the artist’s site.

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Dec 7 2018

Album of the Day: “Let Me Be Unwound” by Weird Turn Pro

 

Who:  Weird Turn Pro

Album:  Let Me Be Unwound

Label:  Self-Produced

Style:  Post-jazz that phases between states of post-bop, minimalism and drone-rock

Favorite Track:  Finlandia

Hometown:  New Hampshire, Seacoast region

What I like about it:  This sextet really floats my boat how they enter into a seriously captivating melodic drone.  It’s like staring at warped sunlight rippling at the bottom of a blue pool.  It’s comforting as hell.  But I’m just as thankful for when they break into something more common to the modern post-bop sound, when some bounce and some heat nullify the risk of the music dissipating into just atmospheric bliss.  I mean, there would’ve been nothing wrong with that, but it suits the band well that they’re not afraid to break listeners from their thoughts.

Extra notes:  I also wrote about their last album The Repeatedly Answered Question.  I’m no less fond of it now than I was then.  If you like their new one, there’s absolutely no reason not to scoop that one up, too.

Your album personnel:  Mike Effenberger (keyboards), Rob Gerry (bass), Mike Walsh (drums), Matt Langley (reeds), Chris Gagne (trombone) and Chris Klaxton (trumpet).

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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

Be sure to check out their artist site.

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Dec 6 2018

Now up: November’s Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations

 

Now up, my latest Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations for The Bandcamp Daily.  The newest monthly installment covers albums for November 2018.  There’s ten primary recommendations in total, but, as always, I’ve added some sidecar recommendations to boot.  Because, really, ten is not enough.  There’s some familiar names to regular visitors of this site (and my other outlets), and, of course, there’s some names that’ll be brand new to you just as they were to me.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

And check out past recommendations by running through the archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

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