Last year, alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa earned one of the top slots on the Best of 2015 list with his excellent recording Bird Calls.  His concept for that session was to utilize fragments of Charlie Parker songs as seeds for his own explorations.  With Touch My Beloved’s Thought, alto saxophonist Greg Ward takes a similar approach in a new direction with the 1963 Charles Mingus recording The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.  Using the Mingus recording as both concept and launching point for his own live performance project, Ward sets up shop at that sweet spot where avant-garde musings, the motion of dance and a reverence for the blues all resonate equally in the same breath.  This also is an album where past and present converge, where the source of inspiration presents no obstacle to creativity with a modern vision as the guide, and where forward-thinking creativity doesn’t mean forgetting the music’s origins.  To carry this out, Ward enlists a strong ensemble, with Tim Haldeman and Keefe Jackson on saxophones, Norman Palm and Christopher Davis on trombones, Ben LaMar Gay on cornet, Russ Johnson on trumpet, Dennis Luxion at the piano, Jason Roebke on bass and Marcus Evans on drums.  And just like his counterpart Mahanthappa did last year, Ward and his ensemble 10 Tongues earn a place among this year’s best.

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Jazz from Chicago.

Read more about the album with my Best of Bandcamp Jazz column on The Bandcamp Daily (LINK).

Julian Shore provides an endless supply of distractions on Which Way Now?  The rhythmic pitter-patter trade of nuance between piano and drums, the soft whispers of cymbals blending in with the hush of saxophone harmonies, the swirling piano lines circling the soaring contrails of saxophone solos, the deep voice of bass sometimes as an undercurrent of piano’s melodic incursions and sometimes as the driving force of guitar’s lyrical expansions… all of it contributes to this album’s kaleidoscopic beauty.  And much like the kaleidoscope, there’s a clockwork precision in play here, evidence that the unfolding beauty is the result of fluid logic and planning.  Shore complements his core sextet with guest musicians on instruments as diverse as pedal steel and dobro, bass clarinet and a string section, adding more textures to an album drowning in ’em.

Jazz from Brooklyn, NY.

Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

There’s an undeniable magic to the way pianist Giovanni Guidi and trombonist Gianluca Petrella shape the melodies of Ida Lupino before launching their afterimages deep into improvisations.  This quartet date with clarinetist Louis Sclavis and drummer Gerald Cleaver brings out one beautiful tune after the next… and they maintain a sense of song throughout, even though they go about exploring the different avenues and detours each composition affords them.  Both Guidi and Petrella can sink their teeth into a melody, but it’s how their complementary approaches provide a fullness to the expression that’s particularly rewarding.  Guidi works a melody like the breeze creating ripples on the water’s surface, seeking to use motion to accentuate the sparkle and shine of sunlight beaming down upon it.  Petrella’s motion is more direct, and his lyricism has a strong gravitational pull as his trombone displays an innate lyricism… sometimes in a booming voice, sometimes as a peaceful cooing.  And all of it is magical.

Jazz from Foligno, Italy.

Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

This series of duo collaborations is seriously absorbing.  Saxophonist Joakim Berghäll has embarked on a four-part series of duets with his Finnish counterparts.  The first installment centered on the pianists.  The second, and current, project recording, Dialogues II, has him matched up with guitarists.  As one might imagine, duets with ten different musicians is going to result in ten different conversations.  What isn’t so likely to see coming is how fascinating each and every one of them are, and, inexplicably, that they all come together with something resembling album cohesion.  The range of expressions are all over the map, from a jazz-rock edge to serene minimalism to avant-garde clashes of dissonance to Frisellian looping effects and over to a Finnish folk music influence.  To enhance the range of possible expressions, Berghäll brings his alto, soprano, tenor & baritone saxophones and a bass clarinet, to boot.  The imagery is strong and the diversity of sound expansive, but the nature of the duet invokes a sense of intimacy, and it’s why all of these dialogues present themselves with a certain disarming warmth… no matter how lovely and strange the music may get.

Jazz from (all over) Finland.

Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm (LINK).