Jan 25 2020

Best of 2019 #41: Eri Yamamoto Trio and Choral Chameleon – “Goshu Ondo Suite”

 

Writing about this album for The Bandcamp Daily, I stated, “Even in the context of a modern jazz scene where so much is unconventional, this recording from pianist Eri Yamamoto stands out.”  And it does.  This live performance of Eri Yamamoto is a meeting point between modern jazz and Japanese folk, of her jazz trio and the choir Choral Chameleon.  This meeting point is one of collision.  There is no seamless confluence of different streams of influence here, and it’s this quality that makes the album so thrilling.  It is no different than attempting to pleasantly enjoy the soft twinkling of stars for their peaceful ambiance while simultaneously ruminate on how massive these stars truly are, that they are each a sun, emitting massive amounts of light across great distances, and that some are mere embers of what they once were by the time that light reaches our nighttime sky.  The combination of thoughts big and small, casual and consequential is the seven part Goshu Ondo Suite.

Your album personnel:  Eri Yamamoto (piano), David Ambrosio (bass), Ikuo Takeuchi (drums) and the Choral Chameleon choir.

Released on Aum Fidelity.

Music from New York City.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

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Jan 25 2020

Best of 2019 #42: Matt Ulery – “Delicate Charms”

 

I’ve written negative reviews of three musicians on this site.  They were as follows:  Bill Frisell, Bobby Hutcherson, and Matt Ulery.  Frisell and Hutcherson are jazz giants, and responsible for landmark recordings, and over the course of their careers have been instrumental in the advancement of jazz.  I ripped apart their (at the time) new releases for being far below what they were capable of.  Basically, for the crime of being ordinary.

Matt Ulery’s sin didn’t even rise to that level.  In hindsight, I really should’ve cut the guy some slack.  The bassist and composer is young by jazz standards, but he’s also way ahead of the curve by way of creative accomplishments.  The Chicagoan has already delivered a unique sound that is as inventive as it is classic.  One day I expect to be speaking of his works with the same reverence as I do Henry Threadgill or Wayne Horvitz.  In truth, it was awfully tepid criticism. I basically said his album was too pretty.  And it was.  It lacked some of the edge and mystery of past works.  But in the grand scheme of things, there was nothing really wrong with the album, and perhaps focusing on that single flaw was a bit much… especially in the context that it’s still early, for him (and for us, as listeners), and also possessing an understanding that his music, like all others, exists in a continuum, where some things are merely elements of transformations to come, changes to manifest, and, perhaps a too-pretty recording leading to a grand beauty of the future.

I bring all this up, because that future grand beauty became the present in 2019 with Delicate Charms.  The album has the majestic stature of his jazz orchestra recordings and the curious melodicism of his small ensemble Loom sessions, and yet the elements of each come together in a way that are much different than simple addition, a different kind of math altogether, an abstract calculation where one plus one equals universe.  It’s a gorgeous recording.  It’s also a huge reminder that we are watching evolution in action, tracking artists as their music changes as they change and as the music transforms yet again.  It is easy to forget how truly miraculous it all is.

Your album personnel:  Matt Ulery (double bass), Greg Ward (alto sax), Zach Brock (violin), Rob Clearfield (piano) and Quin Kirchner (drums).

Released on Woolgathering Records.

Music from Chicago, IL.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

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Jan 25 2020

Best of 2019 #43: Miho Hazama – “Dancer in Nowhere”

 

The compositions of Miho Hazama are a simultaneous view of the colors of a tree’s leaves and the entire forest in which it lives.  Dancer in Nowhere often feels like an epic journey, a sense of an ever-changing landscape that reaches out the horizon and keeps on going.  And, yet, there are so many junctions within the changes where Hazama makes it so damn easy to immerse oneself in a precise moment that its like time stops and every nuance is revealed.  Her ensemble work is Exhibit A in the case of big band jazz having as much impact in the present day upon jazz as it ever has.

Your album personnel:  Miho Hazama (conductor), Steve Wilson (alto & soprano saxophones, flute), Ryoji Ihara (tenor sax, clarinet, flute), Jason Rigby (tenor sax, clarinet), Andrew Gutauskas (baritone sax, bass clarinet), Jonathan Powell (trumpet, flugelhorn), Adam Unsworth (French horn), Tomoko Akaboshi (violin), Sita Chay (violin), Atsuki Yoshida (viola), Meaghan Burke (cello), James Shipp (vibraphone, guiro, shekere), Billy Test (piano), Sam Anning (bass), Jake Goldbas (drums), and guests: Nate Wood (drums), Kavita Shah (vocals), and Lionel Loueke (guitar).

Released on Sunnyside Records.

Music from New York City.

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Jan 24 2020

Best of 2019 #44: Joel Ross – “KingMaker”

 

It was just a few years ago that I was catching Joel Ross perform on the Young Lions stage at the Chicago Jazz Festival.  This, after the previous night, when he was a featured soloist for Orbert Davis’s festival opening performance.  It was a great show, and he and his band ripped through some tunes, whispered out a ballad, and basically reminded everyone around how high the talent level is for jazz musicians still in the nascent stage of their evolution.  It is bewildering but also not surprising at all to be writing about his debut as part of the Best of 2019 countdown.  The spirit of that Chicago Jazz Festival performance is captured in Kingmaker, and its bolstered by a few years of growth manifesting as some very thoughtful composing.  Ross also wrote these songs about different people and events in his life to date, an attempt at encapsulating the influences that led him to this point.  For most of us, however, this album is all about the future, and how much we have to look forward to as the vibraphonist continues to evolve and record and delight.

Your album personnel:  Joel Ross (vibraphone), Immanuel Wilkins (alto saxophone), Jeremy Corren (piano), Ben Tiberio (bass), Jeremy Dutton (drums), and guest: Gretchen Parlato (vocals)

Released on Blue Note Records.

Music from New York City.

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Jan 24 2020

Best of 2019 #45: Tomeka Reid Quartet – “Old New”

 

The words old and new may be given equal billing in the album’s title, but a cursory listen to the recording will reveal the album skews far more to the latter than former.  But that’s more of a measure of the levels of dissonance and tangled cadences that grace the Tomeka Reid Quartet’s 2019 release.  But all creativity is more than just the math of the medium’s characteristics and stats.  There’s the intent.  There’s the artist herself at the center of things, channeling everything inside, past, present and dreams of the future.  Reid is a musician of today.  Her music is going to reflect the diverse settings and kaleidoscopic influences, musical or otherwise, that shape the person, the cellist, who stepped into the recording studio.  Traditional music is a part of that composite.  The blues, swing, folk are as much a part of her as the oxygen she breathes.  And so they all emerge from Old New, in a new way, as Reid is today.  The blues manifest like a fond memory, and the swing is a photograph, vivid in its recall, timeless in its nature, but transformed by the undeniable passing of time.  This kind of experience, shared by the artist, is everything.

Your album personnel:  Tomeka Reid (cello), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jason Roebke (bass), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).

Released on Cuneiform Records.

Music from Chicago, IL.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at: Bandcamp – Amazon

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