These are videos that I like

My June recommendations just posted on the The Bandcamp Daily, but let’s revisit some of the recordings that made previous recommendations so special.

First up is Joe Lovano & Sound Prints performing my favorite Wayne Shorter tune, “Juju,” from a recent show at the Parisian nightclub New Morning.  It also appears on the ensemble’s new release Scandal.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

The Anteloper duo of Jaimie Branch and Jason Nazary are a hell of thing to witness live.  Their hyperactivity has a hypnotic quality all its own, but when they suddenly infuse some thick melodicism into the chaotic turbulence, that effect is amplified exponentially.  Their debut Kudu captures that energy to a remarkable degree.  But definitely go see them live if they stop in a zip code near you.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

Next up is a promo video for Murmuration, the newest from Bernhard Meyer.  The bassist has created one of the more compelling post-jazz recordings I’ve heard in a while.  It’s the kind of music that will as easily appeal to fans of Radiohead as it will those of Claudia Quintet.  Meyer has had his handprints on a number of excellent recordings this year, including albums by Wanja Slavin Lotus Eaters and Other Animal.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

And let’s wrap up with a promo video for Laura Schuler’s Kronikor.  The violinist deftly manipulates the currents of dissonance and tranquility into something quite mesmerizing.  I’m a sucker for videos with airports/airplanes in them, so that’s why I embedded the video I did.  But also check out the in-studio video performance of an album track, too.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

And follow this link to check out the archives of my Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations on The Bandcamp Daily.

It won’t be long before my May recommendations post on the The Bandcamp Daily, but before they do, let’s revisit some of the recordings that made February’s list so special.

First up is a video from the Zack Nestel-Patt Group.  It features a performance of the track “Mount Baldy,” from their mesmerizing new album River Run.  The performance space is somewhere in Brooklyn, and the NYC skyline laid out in the background there with all the sunlight beaming in is a very cool effect.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Next up is a video from Syrinx Effect, the duo of saxophonist Kate Olson and trombonist Naomi Moon Siegel.  This 2016 performance at Seattle’s The Triple Door features the song “Crabwalk,” a track from their new album A Sky You Can Strike a Match On.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

Next up is an in-studio performance from the Emilio Teubal Trio.  The featured song is the title-track from their gorgeous new recording Memorias de Otro Tiempo.  It’s also Exhibit A why the combination of piano, bass clarinet and guitar needs to be way more common the music scene.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

Next up is a live performance from the ensemble Mephiti.  Their self-titled release is a testament to the endless ways a musician can instill an atmosphere of serenity.  This album captivated me from the very first notes, and many months later, that enchantment hasn’t waned even a little bit.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

And let’s wrap up with a duet from Ryan Keberle & Frank Woeste.  This video sources back to Woeste’s project “The Libretto Dialogues,” and it’s perfect accompaniment to this lazy Sunday morning.  The duo’s new album Reverso: Suite Ravel is the perfect accompaniment to any time of the day and any day of the week.

Here’s a link to my album write-up for The Bandcamp Daily.  And you can just go give the album a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.  It’s also available at Amazon.

And follow this link to check out the archives of my Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations on The Bandcamp Daily.

Let’s continue the ECM Records takeover of Bird is the Worm with some videos.

Even casual readers of this site will know that I’m a sucker for certain qualities in a music video.  One of those are when a city skyline appears in the background.  And, so, here’s a video of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio at the 2016 Jazztopad Festival at Dizzy’s Club in NYC.  One of my very favorite albums is Wasilewski’s 2008 release January.

Learn more on ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

This next video far predates the latest release from saxophonist Andy Sheppard, but it’s too cool not to feature.  The saxophonist teams up with percussionist Kuljit Bhamra on a rendition of “Dear Prudence.”  The video is plenty fun all on its own, but this charming cover of a favorite song really makes this a special video.  We recently featured a write-up of Sheppard’s recent release Romaria.  Credit to Scot Alessi for putting this video together.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

Okay, I’m not entirely sure what exactly this is from, and I place equal blame on Google Translate and the various middle school and high school teachers who failed miserably at teaching me French.  With that out of the way, my best guess is that there was an art project at a festival where concert goers were asked to sketch while they were listening to the music.  Here’s a video that might explain more, and here’s the site that video links to.  The music in this video features Mathias Eick.  A write-up of his latest album Ravensburg posted just yesterday.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

And we’ll wrap up with a video that should look pretty familiar to you.  It was featured along with the write-up for the lovely new release from the trio of drummer Shinya Fukumori, tenor saxophonist Matthieu Bordenave and pianist Walter Lang, titled For 2 Akis.  But the video is so cool, I just had to feature it again.

Learn more at ECM Records.  Available at Amazon.

As I’ve mentioned countless times on this site (and elsewhere), Bill Frisell is one of my top three favorite musicians ever.  As such, I find as many excuses as possible to feature his music.  One of those routes is video.  Which is why I find it inconceivable that I haven’t run into today’s videos much much much sooner.  Why these videos?  Because they feature my favorite Frisell ensemble, the musicians who joined him for the guitarist’s excellent 1996 release Quartet:  Trumpeter Ron Miles, trombonist Curtis Fowlkes and tubist-violinist Eyvind Kang.

According to their YouTube page, they’ve been up for nearly ten years.  I can’t see how that’s possible.  With disturbing frequency, I google keyword searches with the above musicians’ names, just to see if there’s a one-off concert or a bootleg concert recording or A VIDEO of these musicians performing.  How I haven’t stumbled upon these videos prior to last week, I’ll never understand.  The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is it’s part of a vast, evil conspiracy by Google to prevent me from enriching my life (and yours) with the music of this particular ensemble.  It’s the only thing that adds up.

In any event, here’s three videos from the quartet’s April 8, 1997 performance in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  First up is the song “Dead Ranch.”

The next song is a rendition of “The End of the World.”

And wrapping things up is a performance of “Strange Meeting.”

I’m pretty certain if you anagrammed the three song titles, it would spell out something like “Hide these songs from Dave.”  Google, I’m on to you.

And in case you were interested in learning more about Ljubljana, Slovenia, here’s a Rick Steves’ Europe video that features the city.

Have a great Sunday!