Jan 11 2019
Best of 2018 #27: Marc Cuevas – “Carta Blanca”
Easily one of the most intriguing albums of 2018 is the electro-acoustic Carta Blanca from Marc Cuevas. It’s not a union of electronic and organic elements and it’s not a battle of the wills… instead it comes off more like peaceful cohabitation, as in that way a thick fog falls away as the ship cuts through it. Sometimes the electronics obscure a trumpet’s cry of melody until it suddenly breaks into view, and sometimes the motion of a modern piano work keeps the electronics in a perpetual state of dissipation… except for those moments that the quartet chooses for it to rise up within a brief moment of silence. I am endlessly fascinated with this recording.
Released on Underpool Music.
I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Music from Barcelona, Spain.
Available at: Bandcamp | Amazon
Steven Lugerner really needs to be not so under-the-radar anymore. His audacious double-album debut in 2011 
No matter how you look at this album, you’ll see a statement. There’s the political context, of the idea of royalty and the fracture of racism cutting down the center of society. There’s the media context, and of who is presented to the public as role models and heroes. There’s the musical context, of the roots of folk music stretching across continents, of cross-pollination of influences, and of musicians stamping their mark on the present day scene. But in ascendance over all of those, the statement that rings most clear, is that a heavy message need not clip the wings of music that simply wants to go soaring. There is an unmissable sense of importance that radiates from every note of Sons of Kemet‘s Your Queen Is A Reptile; so are its expressions of joy.
Get the Blessing is Exhibit A that the modern jazz sound remains in a perpetual state of metamorphosis. GTB have a fresh sound all their own. It’s not post-bop or avant-garde or really belonging to any particular school… just their own formula and their own sound, inventive and innovative and, yet, a cursory appraisal returns an opinion of, yeah, this is jazz. On their 2018 release Bristopia, the quartet of bassist Jim Barr, drummer Clive Deamer, saxophonist Jake McMurchie and trumpeter Pete Judge reveal that their own personal creative evolution is also still underway, as the melodic grooves of previous recordings gain a bit more edge, and, as a result, heavy electronic effects possess an immediacy all their own, frantic almost, as if the wings of a butterfly fresh out of the cocoon. This is one of the most original groups on the scene, and every note they play proves that assertion.
Jan 12 2019
Best of 2018 #26: Wanja Slavin Lotus Eaters – “Salvation”
Released on WhyPlayJazz.
Music from Berlin, Germany.
I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Available at: Bandcamp | Amazon
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By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2018 • 0 • Tags: Berlin, Bernhard Meyer, Jazz - Best of 2018, Wanja Slavin, WhyPlayJazz