Jan 19 2019

Best of 2018 #6: Ambrose Akinmusire – “Origami Harvest”

 

This album is stunning.  It’s stunning, and it comes from all directions, in all contexts.  Ambrose Akinmusire brings together an exquisite unity of modern jazz, hip hop, chamber music, R&B, pop, rap and spoken word that is unlike anything else out there.  The influences are like swirling tides in a single body of water, entering confluences and then breaking apart and colliding.  The themes of racism, political divides, and societal barriers possess an immediacy that never goes away even as you drift away to the beauty of the music.  The motion of the music incites the image of dance, elicits it from the listener.  Rarely does spoken word and rap merge so well in a jazz setting as it does here, where the powerful meaning of the words melts lovingly into the flow of the instruments, one not taking a dominant role over the other, while also allowing the cadence of the vocal delivery to behave, too, as an additional percussive instrument.  This album is stunning in that way it brings classic forms of expression into the fold with those modern, as if attempting to prove that the passing of time is merely a device of perception and that all music of all ages truly exists all in the same breath.  Origami Harvest is stunning, and it is sublime, and with the passing of time and opportunity for contemplation, those qualities are likely to resonate with ever increasing strength.

Released on Blue Note Records.

Music from New York City.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Available at:  Amazon

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Jan 19 2019

Best of 2018 #7: Marike van Dijk – “The Stereography Project feat. Jeff Taylor and Katell Keineg”

 

“A remarkable example of diverse aspirations attaining a cohesive vision,” is how I described the 2018 release from Marike van Dijk for The Bandcamp Daily in my round-up of the Best Jazz of 2018.  What the statement refers to is two-fold.  First, the alto saxophonist adds to the challenge of her 2015 Stereography Project release of bringing improvisational elements to a chamber jazz environment by adding an additional layer of difficulty by composing for vocalists.  Furthermore, as a reflection of her time spent living in New York City and her native Amsterdam, van Dijk brings together two different ensembles and two different vocalists from those locales.  That’s a lot of variables to incorporate, and van Dijk makes it seem as simple as taking your next breath.  But it’s more than just overcoming a great challenge; it’s that this music is bursting with life and awash in nuance and the tiny details that make the difference between a pretty song and one possessing the emotional charge to melt hearts and move mountains.  In my original write-up of this album for The Bandcamp Daily, I said “[These] aren’t proper love songs per se, but they sure do evoke euphoria, heartbreak, and all of the ineffable emotions that fall between those extremes.”  This music is timeless.

Released on Hert Records.

Music from NYC and Amsterdam.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 19 2019

Best of 2018 #8: Roller Trio – “New Devices”

 

There are a very great many things to adore about the 2018 release from Roller Trio, but the most significant development is best viewed from the context of the band’s timeline.  As I stated about this exciting electro-acoustic project when I first wrote about it for The Bandcamp Daily, “The mad experiments of the Roller Trio’s previous two recordings manifested a new kind of Frankenstein’s monster.”  Roller Trio’s previous recordings were warmly received by this site, and each were enjoyable in their own way, but looking back on them now as stages that led up to the magnificent New Devices, there’s a certain post-excitement about the earlier works because of the hints and signs of what was yet to come.  When I included this album in my Best Jazz Albums of 2018 column for The Bandcamp Daily, I believe I summed things up best when I concluded, “This is the sound of a band coming into their own.”  It’s one of the most rewarding benefits of following the creative trajectory of an artist, to experience that growth in their work and the achievement of new plateaus as we go about living our own lives, and manifesting our own individual growth and achievements.  This is how music becomes intertwined with our timelines, and becomes personal to us in the most ineffable ways.  It is how art becomes timeless.

Released on Edition Records.

Music from Leeds, UK.

I wrote about this album for Bird is the Worm.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 18 2019

Best of 2018 #9: Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret – “The Other Side of Air”

 

Typically, the albums that make this site’s Best Of list top ten are those that have made a statement.  That statement could come in any form… a social or political commentary, a picture of what jazz can become or the bounty that jazz past can yet provide, a personal artistic plateau achieved or a state of perfection on an existing vein of exploration… anything, really, where the significance of the recording rivals what makes it special.  But without fail, there’s always an album that scores a top ten ranking that is there just because of what it is… beautiful music crafted with exquisite taste and expertise.  Myra Melford’s The Other Side of Air is 2018’s iteration.  Alongside cornetist Ron Miles, guitarist Liberty Ellman, drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Stomu Takeishi, the Bay-area pianist has created something that exists as a snapshot, of timeless music captured in one brief moment of the music continuum she and her collaborators have, and will continue to create over the course of their lives.  This music represents itself- its beautiful melodies and its jagged edges, its warped shapes and vivid imagery- and that’s all the statement that needed be made.  This album is what it’s all about.

Released on Firehouse 12 Records.

Music from Berkeley, CA.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Jan 18 2019

Best of 2018 #10: Juan Ibarra – “NauMay”

 

“This kind of melodic drama would leave the Brian Blade Fellowship awestruck” is how I concluded my synopsis of Juan Ibarra‘s NauMay for The Bandcamp Daily, adding that “arguably no other album in 2018 took melodies to euphoric levels” as did the drummer on his 2018 release.  I’m still left awestruck, myself, at this intensely beautiful recording.  I just adore when musicians take a lovely, well-crafted melody and ride it all the way out to the horizon and beyond, giving the sensation of a long, eventful journey, before finally returning to that opening melody, and, appropriately, a feeling of finally returning to a familiar and welcoming home.  This is not groundbreaking or experimental music.  It is an excellent example of how much freedom and power can still be generated by the established modern sound of today, and how the personality of musicians and their combined vision can weave magic from the common tools of their trade.

The album is Self-Produced.

Music from Montevideo, Uruguay.

Read more on Bird is the Worm.

Available at:  Amazon | Bandcamp

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