Best Jazz of 2019

Feb 14 2020

Best of 2019 #08: Rebecca Trescher – “Where We Go”

 

Not all recordings are finished products.  Some albums intentionally capture the beginning stages of a concept, where the musicians are fleshing out new compositions in the studio.  Some albums capture a transition phase, where recent works are given new perspectives in a live setting, or while on tour.  Other albums reflect other stages of creative development, either encapsulating old ideas in new ways or providing glimpses of a view from the next plateau.  The 2019 release from Rebecca Trescher is a landing spot.  Following thirteen performances over two years during her concert series at Tafelhalle Nuremburg, the clarinetist went into the studio and captured every bit of that creative trajectory into an expansive statement of stunning beauty.  The richness of the music reflects not just that time of regimented experimentation, but also of the diverse collaborators of musicians, instruments, dancers, writers, and filmmakers who contributed to that concert series.  This large ensemble work possesses a huge sound, as if flirting with the epic, but adheres to a chamber music sensibility, where the subtlest nuance can resonate like a thunder storm.  Trescher’s 2012 debut Sud was one of the best things to come out that year; that it was just the starting point makes the success of Where We Go that much more dramatic.

Your album personnel:  Rebecca Trescher (bass clarinet, clarinet), Sebastian Strempel (trumpet, cornet), Joachim Lenhardt (tenor & soprano saxophones, clarinet, flute), Markus Harm (alto sax, clarinet, flute), Anton Mangold (concert harp, flute, sax), Juri Kannheiser (vocals), Andreas Feith (piano), Tim Collins (vibraphone), Peter Christof (bass) and Silvio Morger (drums).

Released on Enja Records.

Music from Nuremberg, Germany.

Listen |  Read more | Available at:  Amazon

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Feb 13 2020

Best of 2019 #09: Goran Kajfes Tropiques – “Into the Wild”

 

Goran Kajfeš doesn’t fuse together different music forms so much as view them all as interconnected motions in one, long intricate dance.  The trumpeter waltzes, foxtrots and tangos with the folk musics of Turkey, Sweden, the Balakans, Africa, and America with no change in dance partner, and with a fluidity that sees old-school psychedelic jazz-rock, new-school avant garde, and a timeless ballad as different facets of the same, synchronized motion.  The modern jazz and improvised music scene has revealed itself to be as diverse as any art form on the planet; Goran Kajfeš embraces and embodies that truth.

But his world-hopping expressionism is just part of this music’s charismatic appeal.  It’s as much to do with the trumpeter’s talent for bringing the same energy and introspection to his sound, regardless of whether he’s instituting a deep groove or an ambient drone.  There’s a vitality to it at all times like the beating of a heart at first love, and a centered calm like a heart that is one with its surroundings, its beat in sync with the pulse of the world.  Kajfeš’ music is varied, nuanced, strange and obscure, and the culmination of the influences and approach results in music with an addictive personality and one that is supremely fun.  The music of Goran Kajfeš is essential, and some of the best stuff the new century of jazz has to offer.

Your album personnel:  Goran Kajfeš (trumpet, Moog synthesizer, Make Noise 0-coast), Alexander Zethson (piano, Crumar Organ, Korg MS-20), Johan Berthling (acoustic bass), Johan Homegard (drums, percussion) and Christer Bothén (bass clarinet).

Released on Headspin Recordings.

Music from Stockholm, Sweden.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp

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Feb 13 2020

Best of 2019 #10: Svetlost – “Odron Ritual Orchestra”

 

This is an album that’ll get into your blood is how I began my write-up of Odron Ritual Orchestra for The Bandcamp Daily.  The Skopje, Macedonia 11-piece ensemble Светлост, or Svetlost, is a throwback to the avant-garde big bands of the ‘70s, where chaos and raging intensity amplified sweet melodicism and a thundering groove.  No matter how often this music gets played (and for me personally, it is very often indeed), its propensity for thrills never wanes even a little bit, and the impact of its huge surges of intensity just seems to keep getting stronger.  Despite the absolute show of force and raw power this music represents, there is something remarkably unguarded and vulnerable about it, as if the musicians ripped open their chests to expose their hearts as proof of their sincerity.  There is something terribly cathartic about this music, in the way it lets everything out, and how it sweeps the listener up in its embrace and carries it away.  The music is a throwback sound to a previous jazz era, but the heart-on-its-sleeve emotional display feels very relevant to today.  It’s what we need to get through these days.  This is one of the best things I’ve heard all year, and I just can’t enough of it.

Your album personnel:  Ninoslav Spirovski (clarinet, soprano & tenor saxophones), Petar Hristov (soprano & alto saxophones), Ivan Trajanoski (alto & baritone saxophones), Vasko Bojadžiski (tenor saxophone), Bisera Bazer (trombone), Vladan Drobicki (trombone), Kristijan Novkovski (drums, percussion), Dragan Teodosiev (drums, percussion), Konstantin Hadži Кocev (piano), Panče Bujukliev (minibrute), and Deni Omeragić (contrabass).

Released on PMG Recordings.

Music from Skopje, Macedonia.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp

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Feb 12 2020

Best of 2019 #11: Laura Jurd – “Stepping Back, Jumping In”

 

When I originally wrote about Stepping Back, Jumping In for The Bandcamp Daily, I talked about how Laura Jurd has hopscotched around the modern jazz landscape, from the chamber jazz of her debut Landing Ground, to the intoxicating mix of brass harmonies and indie-rock tunefulness on Human Spirit, and the electronic fusion she explores with her ensemble, Dinosaur.  On Stepping Back, Jumping In, it’s as if Jurd has taken a survey of all she’s done before, and created a cohesive landscape from its components.  The end result is something entirely different, completely new, and arguably her most fascinating work to date.

I become more impressed with this recording the more I listen to it.  It also reveals more sources of enjoyment.  It’s a recording that rewards a listening state of full engagement, with its tiny surprises and masterful subtleties just waiting to be discovered.  But there are times I just let it all go, immersing myself in daydreams or kicking back with a new book, and even in my state as a detached listener, the music sweeps me off to a new place.  It’s presence is that strong.  It’s sway is even stronger.

It’s been a treat hearing Jurd’s development over the years, and after this retrospective statement, the curiosity for what comes next is already burning strong.

Your album personnel:  Laura Jurd (trumpet), Raphael Clarkson (trombone), Alex Paxton (trombone), Martin Lee Thomson (euphonium), Soosan Lolavar (santoor), Rob Luft (banjo, guitars), Elliot Galvin (piano), Anja Lauvdal (synth, electronics), Conor Chaplin (double bass), Liz Exell (drum kit), Corrie Dick (drum kit), and The Ligeti Quartet of Mandhira de Saram (violin), Patrick Dawkins (violin), Richard Jones (viola), and Cecilia Bignall (cello).

Released on Edition Records.

Music from London, UK.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Feb 12 2020

Best of 2019 #12: Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli – “Salika, Molika”

 

Earlier this year, I gave a pretty thorough breakdown of what this album is about and why it’s so damn compelling.  The Erlend Apneseth Trio with Frode Haltli created something timeless, music that has deep roots and eyes to the stars and beyond.  But now having spent nearly a year with this recording, and had the time to experience it at first listen, grow increasingly enamored with it, analyze it objectively for a write-up, and then get to where it settled in as one of my go-to albums when I just wanted some music to fill up the space in my house and my life, it’s gotten to where Salika, Molika elicits more abstruse reactions and oblique connections.

That past-future timelessness, and how it’s couched within a foundation of folk musics, it reminds me of other brilliant and adored recordings, like Down Deep from the trio of Ernst Reijseger, Harmen Fraanje, and Mola Sylla, and, similarly, Codona 3 by another trio, of Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Naná Vasconcelos.  All of these recordings had a way with their melodies, where they could come head on or an indirect route and nail their target, and they each conducted an inspired rhythmic discourse, the kind where its just as likely to compel the foot to tap as trigger the brain to try to interpret what it all means.  They each utilized unconventional instrumentation, and yet made it sound like something common to everyday life, as if crickets bathed in moonlight or the electric hum of the city at daybreak.  These are old soul recordings.  They transcend the bookends of our own personal timelines and make us feel as a part of something more eternal, entering a special place where art becomes immortality, and everyone it touches.

The musicians tapped into that source for this session, and it’s magical.

Your album personnel:  Erlend Apneseth (hardanger fiddle), Stephan Meidell (baritone acoustic guitar, zither, live sampling and electronics), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums, percussion) and Frode Haltli (accordion).

Released on Hubro Music.

Music from Aal, Buskerud, Norway.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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