Aug 16 2017

Recommended: Goncalo Leonardo Quartet – “East 97th”

 

There’s a dreamy presence to the debut by Gonçalo Leonardo.  Whether it’s the thick blues of “Just a Folk Song,” the soulful “Easy Going” or the Portuguese folk song “Ó Que Calma Vai Caindo,” the bassist crafts the melody so that it floats ethereally across the length of each piece.  It’s a lovely effect under normal conditions, but the approach really shows its value on a completely improvised piece like “Train Talk” and how the frenetic chatter still possesses the tonal qualities of something more tranquil.  That said, “Spring Beat” and “Which Way” front the magnetism of a pop song while going about the nuanced complexities of a modern jazz tune, and everything about how the quartet rolls those tracks out speaks to the heart of the album.

The guitar of André Matos goes a long way to pulling it all off, but the Fender Rhodes of Yago Vazquez plays no small part in the mechanics, as with the rhythmic approach applied by drummer Tommy Crane.  With East 97th, there’s some edge and some kick, and its greatest use is as context for the enchanting way this album drifts peaceably along.

Your album personnel: Gonçalo Leonardo (bass), André Matos (guitar), Yago Vazquez (piano, Fender Rhodes) and Tommy Crane (drums).

Released on Robalo Music.

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

Music from Lisbon, Portugal.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2017 releases • 0

Aug 15 2017

We really need to talk about these videos for Martin Pyne’s new album

 

Martin Pyne has a new album out.  The solo project Behind the Mist nicely highlight’s the strengths the vibraphonist brings to the Busnoys trio, while also illuminating the breadth possessed by his personal artistry when freed from the requirements of collaboration.  The album has a theme.  Of the album’s ten tracks, all but the last are inspired by faeries of the British Isles.  The music makes this assertion an easy sell.  There is an otherworldly tone to this music.  The album also has some videos to partner with the music.  Visual artist Maria Hayes adds some striking imagery to three of the album tracks, and they have the dual effect of bolstering the music’s attachment to its theme and coaxing out elements that further enhance the overall experience.  The synthesis between sound and vision is subtle and emerges with a measured pace, and those moments when it all comes together border on the dramatic.

We need more of this.

There’s the dreamy presence of “Niamh of the Golden Hair” and the tumbling jumble of “Spriggans” and the furtive motions of “Yarthkin,” and Hayes captures all of these traits and the soul of the album with the divergent, yet complementary textures on her drawing, as well as the way they are revealed in synchronicity with the music.

“Changeling” is one of a handful of tracks where Pyne adds some real-time electronic effects to augment the vibraphone’s icy precision.  It’s a nice touch, not overdone by any means, and adds some welcome contrast with its wobbly melodicism and hazy harmonic accompaniment.  The title-track “Behind the Mist” also utilizes these effects.  The motion of the art on Maria Hayes’s drawing mirrors both the ambiance of the music and its own movements.

The album’s final piece sources back to Pyne’s Busnoys trio, and adapted for the current work.  “Song for Grace Melbury” may not fit in with the theme of supernatural creatures, but it has no difficulty blending in with the crowd.  This nod to the album’s cohesion is not something to be undervalued.

A seriously enjoyable project.

Behind the Mist is released on Pyne’s label Tall Guy Records.

Your album personnel:  Martin Pyne (vibraphone, effects).

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

Music from London.

Available at:  Bandcamp

And here’s one final video, this to the song “Will o’ the Wisp”

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2017 releases, These are videos that I like • 0

Aug 14 2017

The Round-up: What went unseen

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Jim Black – Malamute (Intakt Records)

There’s a magnetic charm to the way Malamute simultaneously sighs and growls out a melody.  The quartet of drummer Jim Black, saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson, bassist Chris Tordini and keyboardist Elias Stemeseder mesh ambient Icelandic jazz and blunt NYC edge into the same expressions, and the tonal contrast carries equal weight to their fascinating complementary interactions.  The ratio of each aspect shifts back and forth within the span of a song, and often quite dramatically.  Healthy infusions of electronic effects and samples bolster the organic instrumentation, and how they jostle for position is especially fun.  Nothing simple about this music, but the quartet’s delivery sure gives that impression.  Connections made easy.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Sam Newsome – Sopranoville (Self-Produced)

The sub-title for this new exploration from saxophonist Sam Newsome is New Works for Prepared and non-Prepared Saxophone.  The scholarly vibe is accurate in its representation of what this album has got to give.  Not all of it is pretty, but all of it is compelling.  Newsome is willing and able to throw a punch with his soprano sax.  Sometimes he challenges the concept of music.  There’s 22 tracks and most clock in at less than two minutes.  There’s some overdubbing and some match-ups with other instruments.  Newsome likes to experiment, and part of the joy of his recordings are just simply seeing what shakes out.  I’m not sure that this album is meant to be enjoyed as music, but offered up with the goal to excite and inspire and illustrate the boundlessness of creativity… and if you enjoy it, so much the better.  An easy recommendation, as Newsome’s music often is.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Amazon

 

Andy Emler – Running Backwards (La Buissonne Label)

Composer Andy Emler doesn’t do anything normal, even when it sometimes sounds that way.  The pianist front-loads his pieces with all kinds of personality and textures, and they can range from massive statements to the most delicate nuance… and all of it resonates like mad.  To be honest, his newest release isn’t really among my favorite recordings, but every new Emler recording is noteworthy, and I’m happy for every opportunity to draw attention to his music.  Running Backward features a quartet with guitarist Marc Ducret, bassist Claude Tchamitchian and drummer Eric Echampard.  The music is very disjointed, and the melodies never seem to congeal into something one could hope to embrace, but there is a particular allure to that inaccessibility, and it can compel a strong need to examine every facet of every note in the hope of truly getting to know and understand what this music is all about.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Proyecto Reutemann – Proyecto Reutemann (Discos ICM)

A very cool modern fusion session from the Proyecto Reutemann ensemble of trumpeter Matias Rivara, saxophonist Hernan Torres, guitarist Gaston de la Cruz, bassist Maxi Castillo and drummer Joaquin Waiman.  The influence of their Mar Del Plata, Argentina home turf is evident throughout.  What also shines through strong is how this quintet’s nonchalant delivery feeds into its loose grooves and catchy melodies, creating a music unison that is both addictive ear candy and structurally unbound creativity.  This is the second release on the (new to me) Discos ICM label, and I am now feeling very motivated to start digging into their catalog to see what else there is to spotlight.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

FB&I Trio – Live in Belgium and France (Self-Produced)

Pretty straight-forward piano session, and pretty typical to the modern scene.  The trio digs into a melody and doesn’t ever come up for a breath, and anything else that wants to participate does so at the service of that melody.  The FB&I Trio are plenty good at this formula on this collection of live performances.  Those melodies are more than a bit pretty and more than a bit catchy, and everything about the way they go about their business seems intended to make the kind of music good for just kicking back and letting go.  Nothing groundbreaking here by any means, but it’s good to have this kind of album in your music library.  Plenty here to like.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2017 releases • 0 • Tags:

Aug 13 2017

Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album: Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze – “Sira”

 

Sunday morning is when the serenity comes down.  Sunday morning is the cocoon from the heavy exhaustion of too much Saturday night fun.  Sunday morning is when the city agrees to use its inside voice.  Sunday morning is when a hush settles in over the land.  It is a time for sitting still and listening to quiet music and silently praying the aspirin and coffee do something to stop your head from exploding.  Drama and stress are strictly forbidden on Sunday morning.

Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album is just for you, for times just like these.  If you possess the freakish compulsion to get-up-and-go when the clock strikes Sunday morning, this music is not for you.  Go and listen to a Spotify EDM playlist or something.  But whatever you decide, just do it quietly and far away from those of us who appreciate the true solemn nature of a Sunday morning.

Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze tapped into a vision of serenity, and I’m not sure they’ve ever snapped out of it.  Their 2008 release Sira was the first of many collaborations between the duo, and not one of them has strayed from the outcome of instilling peace and tranquility and joy anywhere within reach of their sublime music.  On its face, it’d be forgivable to think that the two might not snap so neatly into place.  Cissoko brings to the mix his kora and his Senegalese folk music background.  Goetze has his trumpet and the type of jazz expressionism that reflects the European scene most pervasive to the German’s origins.  But, good god, it’s not just that they’re in sync, but that every note of every song bonds together like they were meant to from birth.

Cissoko’s vocals are hypnotic.  They melt into the slow river of the kora’s melodicism.  Goetze’s trumpet makes its presence felt in soft bursts, like rays of sunlight that occasionally break through a patch of dark clouds.  On the other hand, when Goetze’s trumpet becomes a more permanent fixture on “Bamaya,” its effect upon the affair is no less profound.  A similar result occurs on the instrumental track “Gorgorlou” in how the vacuum created by the absence of vocals is easily compensated for on the strength of their musicianship.  Adding further texture is the hop and skip motion of “Domain Domain” and how it brings a bit of liveliness to an album that could easily bliss out on its lovely melodies.  There is not a moment on this recording that isn’t gorgeous.

You need this album today, right now.

  • Artist-Title:  Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze – Sira
  • Personnel:  Ablaye Cissoko (kora, vocals) and Volker Goetze (trumpet, flugelhorn)
  • Proper Use:  1) On the rooftop, with morning coffee and headphones and sleepy eyes, to greet the sunrise, 2) The soundtrack for a fireplace, or 3) Reprieve from everything awful in the world.

Released originally in 2008 on ObliqSound and then reissued later on Motema Music.

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

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic

And, as a bonus recommendation, here’s a video for their 2012 follow-up recording Amanké Dionti.  The song is titled “Haiti.”

You can listen to Amanké Dionti, and purchase it, at the artist’s Bandcamp page.

By • Jazz Recommendations, Sunday Morning Jazz Album • 0 • Tags:

Aug 12 2017

Preview “Slow Learner,” the upcoming release from Musicianer

 

The trio Musicianer have a new album out soon.  Slow Learner is getting released September 25th, 2017 on Iluso Records.  The trio consists of bari saxophonist Josh Sinton, bassist Jason Ajemian and drummer Chad Taylor.

If Sinton is familiar to you, it’s either via his Steve Lacy-inspired project Ideal Bread or that he’s among Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society.  After checking out this new album, it’d be a good idea to get familiar with his holus-Bolus ensemble (a personal favorite).

These days, bassist Ajemian is most known for his Folklords outfit, but I definitely recommend checking out his Highlife stuff, too, especially if you can catch that live.  He displays a remarkable mutability as to influence and genre, and nothing he does really sounds normal.  With each collaboration, he makes his crazy fit everyone else’s crazy.

Long-time readers of this site will recognize drummer Taylor from his Chicago Underground Duo collaboration with Rob Mazurek (and its various offshoots).  Of a more recent vintage, however, is his contribution to Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, one of the best things to come out so far in 2017 (and an album that Ajemian also contributes to).

This album is getting released on Iluso Records, a label out of Perth, Australia I’m seeing hit my radar lately.

Here’s a preview of what’s to come…

Your album personnel:  Josh Sinton (baritone sax), Jason Ajemian (contrabass) and Chad Taylor (drums).

You can learn more about the album and pre-order it on the label’s Bandcamp page.

By • Album Preview • 0

« Older Entries Newer Entries »