Jan 27 2018

These are videos that I like: What we’ve been listening to

 

First up a video from the quintet Holzig.  Their eponymous 2017 release was one of my favorite albums of the year (go read about it).  This video features a song from that album: “Flaum.”

And if you want to skip the write-up and just check out the album, you can give it a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Next up is a video from Taylor Haskins & Green Empire, from a July 2017 show at Burlington, Vermont’s Light Club Lamp Shop.  The song “Pallisades” is a track from his 2017 release The Point (go read about it).

And if you want to skip the write-up and just check out the album, you can give it a listen, and purchase it, on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

And let’s wrap up with a video from an upcoming Round-up column.  The piece is titled “A Toast” and it’s a track off the new solo guitar recording from Cameron Mizell, Memory/Imagination.  If you adore the Bill Frisell recordings where it’s just him and his guitar and loops & effects, then this album will be right up your alley.

Video credits:  Dance and choreography by Jonathan Matthews.  Video by Aeric Meredith-Goujon.

And if you don’t feel like waiting for that write-up to post, you can check out the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

By • These are videos that I like • 0

Jan 25 2018

Jaimie Branch is performing in Lexington this Saturday, so now all you have to do is figure out your Friday plans

 

It would be a pretty good idea to be in Lexington, KY on Saturday night.  Jaimie Branch is gonna be in town for a January 27th show at the Farish Theater.  This’ll get framed as a jazz show.  I get that.  Branch released one of the best albums to hit the scene in 2017.  Fly or Die was tagged as a jazz recording, because where else are you going to slot wildly creative and innovative sounds that are mostly instrumental and highly improvisational and don’t quite fit anywhere else?  Besides, the trumpeter is of the tradition… she’s certainly cemented her jazz rep on Chicago’s deep music scene, and, now, as an ex-pat in NYC.  The point is, this is outstanding stuff, and it’s a great opportunity to catch some tunes that don’t normally float through Kentucky.

Joining Branch, her trumpet and her sonic pyrotechnics is percussionist Jason Nazary.  As a duo, they’re Anteloper.  What little I’ve heard of this duo doesn’t sound that far removed from Branch’s Fly or Die recording.  At least, not in spirit.  As a bonus, Josh Berman is also showing up to do a solo cornet thing.

This is the 15-year anniversary, and Event #200, of Ross Compton’s Outside the Spotlight series.  Ross is one of those local music scene heroes who devotes a ton of sweatwork bringing great music to his community.  There have been a ridiculous wealth of talent from the experimental and jazz pool that has performed in Lexington because of Ross’s efforts.  And most of those shows, like this one, is free to the public.

The shows happens this Saturday, January 27th.  Doors open at 6:30pm, show starts at 7pm.

Here’s a track off Branch’s excellent 2017 release Fly or Die.  We have no way of knowing what any one live show will ultimately sound like, but here’s a sense of what’s what:

You can listen to the whole album, and purchase it, on her Bandcamp page.

Also, a reminder that Fly or Die earned the #2 slot for Album of the Year on this site’s Best of 2017 list.

The show details:

When:  Saturday, January 27th, 2018 at 7:00pm

Where:  Farish Theater at the Lexington Public Library.  140 East Main St., Lexington, KY.

It’s a free show.

The Farish Theatre’s site-> LINK

The artist’s site-> LINK

Here’s a video from a show last August in Brooklyn featuring the Anteloper duo…

 

By • Jazz in Kentucky, Live Jazz • 2 • Tags:

Jan 24 2018

Recommended: Trio S – “Somewhere Glimmer”

 

This music is about water.  It’s also about dreams.  Were that not stated up front, it wouldn’t really have mattered.  The nebulous presence of Somewhere Glimmer would’ve inspired imagery of a similar, ethereal nature.  The melodies twist and rise like plumes of smoke… or perhaps rivulets of water breaking free from the pool and searching out new directions, or just the hallucination of one.  It all comes back to the same place.

This is Doug Wieselman‘s second such album, three years after the release of 2014’s From Water.  For his newest, the clarinetist expands from the solo project to include cellist Jane Scarpantoni and percussionist Kenny Wollesen.  The impact is immediate.  Whether it’s the rising tide of intensity on “Dreambox” or the cry and hum of “New River” or the amicable chatter of “That Way,” Wieselman’s vision is much more fleshed out with the additional melodic and harmonic possibilities the trio format affords him.  The wildly creative expressionism that his Kamikaze Ground Crew work elicits was present in the solo set From Water, but by sharing some of the workload, it emerges with more nuance and an enticing dash of restraint.

As part of the year-end wrap up of 2017, I wrote a column that included some of my favorite albums of the year.  That column could’ve been much longer.  Somewhere Glimmer would’ve been one such reason.  I’ve lost count of how often this gorgeous album has hit me right in the heart.

Your album personnel:  Doug Wieselman (clarinets, loops, banjo), Jane Scarpantoni (cello) and Kenny Wollesen (drums. wollesonics).

The album is Self-Produced.

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

Music from NYC.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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

Jan 23 2018

Recommended: Mark Wade Trio – “Moving Day”

 

The latest from the Mark Wade Trio gives the sense that they’re really settling in as a working unit.  There’s a confidence to their method of revealing the lovely melody to “Autumn Leaves” time and again that’s emblematic of Moving Day, and how their flight patterns are locked in place.  From a rhythmic perspective, the bassist is the conversational bond between pianist Tim Harrison and drummer Scott Neumann.  For the most part, that bond manifests as the shepherd to a focused message, but even when the method of engagement is one of interplay between musicians, an enduring unity shapes the flow of dialog.

This is straight-ahead modern jazz done right.  Nothing groundbreaking, nothing experimental, and everything to like.

Your album personnel:  Mark Wade (bass), Tim Harrison (piano) and Scott Neumann (drums).

Released on the Edition46 label.

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

Music from NYC.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2018 • 0 • Tags: , ,

Jan 22 2018

The Round-up: Dancing with distance

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Barry Altschul & The 3dom Factor – Live in Krakow (Not Two)

For some musicians, the process to the performance is 1.) Pour gasoline, 2.) Light match.  On this live set from drummer Barry Altschul, bassist Joe Fonda and saxophonist Jon Irabagon, the flames are unleashed on the city of Krakow, and there’s just no end to it.  Even the brief reprieve of “Irina” barely serves as a breather with its insistent extrapolation of the blues.  This album really only has gears that operate at high speeds, and that’s exactly the reason you want to scoop this one up.

Artist site | Buy:  Amazon

 

Henrique Eisenmann – The Free Poetics Of (Red Piano Records)

That way in which a roomful of conversations can take on a life of its own, and achieve a unity that verges on a distinct dialog all to itself… that’s the sensation from this new release by Henrique Eisenmann.  The crosscurrents of melody ripple across the dotted surface of multi-rhythmic expressions, and it crackles with life.  Even during contemplative interludes, that electricity hums quietly just beneath the surface and gives off an animated charge.  The pianist has soprano saxophonist Gustavo D’Amico, double bassist Jorge Roeder and percussionist Rogerio Boccato at his side.  Music from Boston, MA.

Artist site | Buy:  Amazon

 

Tony Burkill – Work Money Death (ATA Records)

Some soul, some bop and plenty of heat to drive it all ahead.  This throwback recording to the old school when hard bop was looking inward at its soul and outward to other musics is plenty addictive.  Saxophonist Tony Burkill finds a way to make the music catchy when at its most intense, and introspective when it’s time for the intensity to catch its breath.  It’s a pattern he has on repeat, and it never grows old, not even a little bit.  The rhythmic attitude of Work Money Death is let’s dance, and while the tempo might not point to any formal method of motion, it elicits a compulsion to move all the same.  Music from Leeds, UK.

No artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

John McNeil & Mike Fahie – Plainsong (Destiny Records)

Nice straight-ahead set from the trumpeter John McNeil and trombonist Mike Fahie.  They stick to the area where hard bop and post-bop can blend into the same crowd and remain relatively indistinguishable one from the other.  “Rain Song, Plain Song” is one of a couple exceptions where the modern influence reigns supreme, and the decision to take this course gives the album its personality.  This doesn’t stray far from the winning formula of McNeil’s Hush Point group.  For this session, it’s pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Billy Hart rounding out a quintet.  Music from Brooklyn, NY.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Giovanni Di Domenico & Abschattungen – The Ear Cannot Be Filled With Hearing (El Negocito Records)

This large ensemble performance led out by pianist Giovanni Di Domenico goes big and gives it everything they’ve got.  They toe the line where sonic wildness becomes random dissonance, and so each of the four extended pieces of his 2017 release perpetually cycle between states of dispersal and reformation.  The thing that triggers the transition back to structure is a groove.  It’s as if it suddenly emerges from beneath the surface of the song, like the earth swelling up and grumbling out a heady tempo.  It’s an arresting feature of an interesting album.  Music from Brussels, Belgium.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

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

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