Dec 27 2016
Best of 2016 #16: Cyro Baptista – “BlueFly” (Tzadik)
What began as an impromptu recording session between percussionist extraordinaire Cyro Baptista, cellist Vincent Segal, bassist Ira Coleman and percussionist Tim Keiper eventually grew into the expansive BlueFly, an album that includes upwards of twenty guest musicians and instruments as diverse as shahi baaja, Fender Rhodes, surdos, samples, clarinet, Kamale ngoni, mandolin, cello and laptop. That initial recording session, which happened during a tour stopover, became the core of the album. From that starting point, Baptista sent out requests to musicians to perform something with the initial pieces. Baptista added and edited and made his collage of music contributions. This process, in combination with his nature to incorporate folk musics from around the world and let them bleed into a jazz framework led to this fascinating, unclassifiable 2016 release. Percussion is always going to be where Baptista is going to lay the groundwork for a project, but the crafting of melodies on BlueFly and how they flow into the dialog of the rhythm is what leads to many of the jaw-dropping moments of beauty.
Jazz from NYC.
Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm (LINK).
The Alexis Cuadrado project POÈTICA is brilliant on many levels. The bassist’s ensemble brings together multilingual poetry, Flamenco and both modern straight-ahead and Latin Jazz for glimpses into the challenges of immigrants new to America. I’ve written about this fantastic recording quite recently (
The 12-piece band Skadedyr is out doing its own thing, and there’s really nobody else that comes close to sounding like them. That said, they’re not all alone. Arguably, they could be considered the Nordic counterparts to the jazz inventiveness of NYC musicians Todd Sickafoose and Chris Lightcap. On the wildly expressive Culturen, Skadedyr mixes in psychedelic pop music, ambient electronica, indie-rock, Nordic folk and anything else that seemed like a good ingredient at the time. But the point isn’t so much the ingredients as it is the determined process of using whatever tools available to forge a raw tunefulness out of misshapen melodies. The grumble and growl of “Bie” leads into a raucous chorus bordering on euphoria. “Datavirus” wobbles between states of post-bop and post-jazz. Or how about the way that “Trålertrall” transforms from an acerbic dissonance to waves of gorgeous harmonies. There’s nothing conventional about the means or the methods employed by the ensemble, and yet it’s made to coalesce in kaleidoscopic imagery that almost seems logical.
The large ensemble AfroFree tethers Carpathia to the folk music traditions of Central Europe, and by incorporating Afro-Jazz rhythms and modern jazz improvisations, it results in music that is strangely hypnotic and immensely tuneful. A large regiment of wind instruments opens up all kinds of harmonic possibilities, and the ensemble takes advantage of every single one of them. Potent melodies run throughout the session, and the way that AfroFree uses them as launching points for some lovely harmonic passages is just one of this album’s winning characteristics. The casual way trombonist Tomasz Ożóg is able to dance a melody through a talkative rhythmic landscape and break from the abiding melodic direction is emblematic of how open and free this music behaves in the complex environment the ensemble set for itself. There are some moments of stunning beauty here.
Dec 27 2016
Best of 2016 #15: Natsuko Sugao Group – “La Danza de una Luz” (Underpool)
Artist site | Listen | Available at: Bandcamp – eMusic
Jazz from Barcelona, Spain.
Read more about the album with my Best of Bandcamp Jazz column on The Bandcamp Daily (LINK).
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By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2016 • 0 • Tags: Jazz - Best of 2016