Jazz New Arrivals: Week Ending Dec 13, 2011 (Pt. 2 of 2)

Featuring Tiny Reviews of:  Tzwing. Michiel Stekelenburg Quartet, Mark O’Leary, La Orquesta Inestable, and Molnbar av John.

This is Part One (of two) of my weekly Jazz Picks for emusic’s new arrivals section for the week ending December 13, 2011.  December is typically not a great month for new releases in any genre, so you’ll notice that the columns are getting a bit sparse.

Tzwing – Tzwing

A very fun set of Gypsy swing tunes. Tzwing are two guitars, a violin, and contrabass; this string quartet skips happily along, slowing the pace for the occasional languid ballad before breaking into another brisk cant. Albums ends with a pretty vocal contribution on the song “Lili Marlene”.

The album is Self-Produced.  No audio for me to embed.

Available on Emusic.

Michiel Stekelenburg Quartet – Hypnos

This was an interesting find. Michiel Stekelenburg and his guitar nicely straddle the line between straight-ahead jazz and nu-jazz, incorporating the swing rhythms of the former with the non-traditional approach to melody of the latter. The end result is a pleasant wandering stroll that you can tap your foot to. Very nice.

Your album personnel: Michiel Stekelenburg (guitar, compositions), Tom Beek (sax), Guus Bakker (bass), and Pascal Vermeer (drums).

The album is Self-Produced.  Jazz from the Netherlands scene.

Available on Emusic.

Mark O’Leary – Waves III

Post-jazzer Mark O’Leary gets his ambient drone on with Jeff Gauthier’s electric violin and Alex Cline’s gentle rainfall percussion. Arguable if this should be classified under jazz, but all three musicians have solid jazz resumes, and the album is nice slice of peacefulness, so I figured I’d mention it. Easily could see this appealing outside the jazz tent. Some of you Kranky fans might want to give this a listen.

Released on the TIBprod Italy label.  Music from the Cork, Ireland scene.

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

Available on Emusic.

La Orquesta Inestable – La Orquesta Inestable

A throwback swing ensemble, this septet brings together guitars, accordion, trumpet, violin, doublebass, drums, and some vocals for a series of wistful and happy tunes. Uncomplicated and sincere, this is swing of long ago with a present day voice. Just sit back and enjoy.

Your album personnel:  Leonardo Amadeo (singing & guitar), Sebastián Pinto (guitar), Alexis Carulias (double-bass), Santiago Martínez (violin), Matías Martinelli (accordion), Manoli Martínez (drums), and Daniel Mayor (trumpet).

Here’s their reverbnation page, which seems to act as their artist site.

Available on Emusic.

Molnbar av John – Thundersketches

Well, this one’s a little different. When indie musician Momus and turntablist John Henriksson collaborated on Thunderclown, they created a palette of old scratchy vinyl 45s, jazz instruments, and various items found in alleys and hardware stores for an unclassifiable miasma of sound. Thundersketches is Henriksson displaying some of the source material for the initial album and then toying with it some more. This album and the original Thunderclown are the type of albums that emusic should shout from the rooftops. Experimentation, forward thinking approach, and an oddly nostalgic sound.

Here’s a song from the album…

And here’s the same track from the concept album Thunderclown that Molnbar av John collaborated with Momus on…

Brilliant.

Released on the Tona Serenad label.

Available on Emusic.

That’s the end of Part 2 (of 2) of that week’s jazz recs.

Here’s some language to protect emusic’s rights as the one to hire me originally to scour through the jazz new arrivals and write about the ones I like:

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks“, courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2011  eMusic.com, Inc.

My thanks to emusic for the freelance writing gig, the opportunity to use it in this blog, and the editorial freedom to help spread the word about cool new jazz being recorded today.