Dec 25 2017
Best of 2017 #20: Tephra Sound – “Horizon” (Self-Produced)
Depending on how you go about looking at it, the sense is that Horizon is rooted to New Orleans in a number of ways. To start with the obvious, it’s where Helen Gillet lives. The Tephra Sound ensemble began in the cellist’s living room, and the resulting album was recorded there, too. There are also those moments in this dynamically diverse recording that key into a traditional New Orleans sound. And then there’s the idea of how Jazz, at its birth, was music that represented the melting pot of the city… that, with blues as its base, added the ingredients of disparate cultures as it all came together. That, too, is reflective of Horizon… measured by the diversity of its influences and the backgrounds of its members. The mix of old-school, new-school and no-school leads to moments that are joyful or ferocious or introspective or all of that and more. It’s also a whole bundle of fun, setting a charge for both head and heart. And the spontaneity that set the whole thing in motion is present throughout the recording session. Tephra Sound conjures up a unique kind of magic.
Music from New Orleans.
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Though both had made their respective marks while on the NYC scene, it wasn’t until after Rebecca Martin and Guillermo Klein had each relocated to upstate New York that the two ultimately collaborated. It was worth the wait. Their respective balance between folk musics and modern jazz sync up perfectly on The Upstate Project, and lead to a series of poignant moments rich with melodicism… and this applies to the union of their voices as well as between guitar and piano. A reworking of Bill Frisell’s classic song “Throughout” is nice bonus to accompany some beautiful original pieces. This collaboration should happen far more often.
This video-as-album project is some serious enchantment. Pianist Kasper Staub, bassist Jens Mikkel and trumpeter Jakob Sørensen teamed up with cinematographer André Hansen, and their music and imagery are the perfect match for one another. One song melts into the next like scenes shifting to different landscapes and backdrops. Sometimes Sørensen’s trumpet is the moonlight filtering through the trees and sometimes it’s the fireplace generating warmth. Staub’s piano is the sunlight bending through a window pane, splashing a melody across the floor. The soft footfalls of Mikkel’s bass marks both the passing of time and the motion of passing through it. It’s an illustration how an economy of sound can radiate a presence like a storm cloud threatening rain. It’s proof that some of the most powerful melodies are crafted with nothing more than just a few perfect notes in a perfect place. Fabel is as lovely as it gets.
Verisimilitude is a piano trio recording. It makes its intentions known in the opening notes of composer Tyshawn Sorey’s latest. Pianist Cory Smythe offers up some thoughtful phrases. Bassist Chris Tordini takes advantage of the open range by augmenting the rhythm with some melodic contributions. Sorey, on drums, adds nuance with a restrained patter and tasteful cymbal crashes. But Sorey’s creative impulses lean heavier toward forward-thinking expressionism, even as it goes about honoring that which has come before. And that marks where Verisimilitude ends its phase as a classic piano trio recording and becomes something else. Classical, electronic, ambient, avant-garde and any number of other influences become ingredients for an album that doesn’t exclusively cozy up to any one. And, intriguingly, the album never fully manifests into a final stage. It is music that is undergoing evolution while the tape is rolling. It’s a seed undergoing self-realization as the bloom is underway. That quality is what renders the album’s opening notes as the most intriguing moment of the Sorey’s latest project. Sorey’s trio rehabs the state of transformation into a permanent resting point, where everything changing is everything staying the same. Fans of Bill Evans are going to say this is the good stuff. Fans of Debussy are going to say this is the good stuff. Fans of Nils Frahm and Hauschka and Andrew Hill and Matthew Shipp are all going to say this is the good stuff. At least for a little while, until everything changes again. And that’s a good thing. Because Tyshawn Sorey is currently traveling a creative arc where every new change has the potential to be the most wonderful thing ever heard.
Dec 25 2017
Best of 2017 #19: Sam Bardfeld – “The Great Enthusiasms” (BJU Records)
Music from NYC.
Read more at Bird is the Worm.
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By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2017 • 0 • Tags: Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, Jazz - Best of 2017, New York City, Sam Bardfeld