Jozef Dumoulin

Apr 9 2019

Album of the Day: Jozef Dumoulin and Lidlboj – “Live In Neerpelt”

 

Artist:  Jozef Dumoulin & Lidlboj

Album:  Live In Neerpelt

Label:  El Negocito Records

Style:  Ghost of jazz passing beneath an electric moon

Favorite Track:  “Ik Roep”

Music from:  Neerpelt, Belgium

What I like about it:  I like how loosely the music presents itself, like it just climbed out of bed and walked to the center of the party.  And I like how that quality contrasts with the crisply dealt phrasings on both saxophone and voice.  The whole disposition of this album is of a band etching shapes into the surface of a cloud.  This live performance originally went down back in 2011, and I like how the economics and technology of the internet provide an outlet for music like this to finally see the light of day on the recorded medium.  Real good stuff, and yet one more fascinating album courtesy of site-favorite Jozef Dumoulin.

Your album personnel:  Jozef Dumoulin (keyboards & effects), Lynn Cassiers (voice, electronics), Bo Van der Werf (baritone sax, electronics), Dries Laheye (bass, effects) and Eric Thielemans (drums).

Available at:  Bandcamp

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

Be sure to check out the artist’s site.

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Oct 29 2018

The Round-up: I wanted to be invisible

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Wolfgang Muthspiel – Where the River Goes (ECM Records)

Wolfgang Muthspiel is really locked in on his latest.  There is a level of enchantment going on here that pretty much will keep you hitting the play button over and over again each time Where the River Goes comes to an end.  When lullaby melodies settle into a susurrus of rhythm are the album’s strongest moments, but when tracks like “One Day My Prince Was Gone” and “Blueshead” leap into action, it’s only a change in the delivery of the spell and not its stunning effect.  This kind of success is pretty well guaranteed when you enlist the likes of trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland to set the thing in motion.

Artist site | Available at:  Amazon

 

La Colectiva – El Chombo, El Blanco y El Mulato Vol. 2 (El Sonido Es Tuyo Records)

This album is so much damn fun.  The trio of keyboardist and trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, bassist Jota Ortiz and drummer Tony Drums go big with the synthesizer drama, where every melodic statement is a shout to the skies and as catchy as a pop tune.  Some modern jazz, some electronica, some tipico of their native Panama, and it all comes together for big statements that flow with a motion for the dance floor.  The moog action is particularly rewarding, like how an infectious laugh pairs nicely with a wide smile.  Worth noting that Navarro is the trumpeter on the excellent 2017 release by Irreversible Entanglements.  Music from Panama City, Panama.

Artist site | Listen | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Jozef Dumoulin & Orca Noise Unit – A Beginner’s Guide to Diving and Flying (Yolk Records)

It’s an uneasy serenity maintained by Jozef Dumoulin throughout this recording.  Even though most of the album hangs in the air like a murmur, it leaves an unsettling feeling that everything could explode without warning.  Intriguingly, it never really does.  Yes, there are some disruptions of dissonance, but those are the exceptions and only slight reprieves from the simmering tension that marks the recording.  The pianist is joined by flutist Sylvaine Hélary, saxophonist Antonin Tri Hoang, double bassist Bruno Chevillon and percussionist Toma Gouband.  Music from Paris, France.

Artist site | Listen | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Sean Conly – Hard Knocks (Clean Feed Records)

Okay, let’s start running.  Everything about the latest from Sean Conly gives the impression those were the words he used to begin the recording session for Hard Knocks.  This straight-forward post-bop session is all about the interactions between trio members as they briskly follow parallel lines of communication.  The bassist is joined by long-time collaborators Satoshi Takeishi (on drums) and Michaël Attias (on alto sax), and the benefits of that relationship are best represented by their synchronicity at high speeds.  Music from NYC.

Artist site | Listen | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Brad Mehldau Trio – Seymour Reads the Constitution! (Nonesuch Records)

Look, you’re never gonna go wrong scooping up a Brad Mehldau release.  There’s a strong argument to be made that Mehldau is the epitome of the modern piano trio.  The pianist’s latest does nothing to counter that premise, displaying the solid craftsmanship and harmonic warmth emblematic of his output.  There’s nothing particularly new about his latest, but that’s not meant as a criticism nor is it a bad thing.  With drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, Mehldau offers up some originals, some takes on modern pop tunes, and a rendition of something from the bop era.

Artist site | Available at:  Amazon

 

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Mar 26 2018

The Round-up: It was Sunday night and warm light filled the room as darkness sat outside the window and watched

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Danny Fox Trio – The Great Nostalgist (Hot Cup Records)

Thoughtfulness at high speeds, of notes hanging in the air even when the space between them is ever so slight.  That’s the lingering impression made on this straight-ahead session from the trio of pianist Danny Fox, bassist Chris van Voorst and drummer Max Goldman.  The brisk pace never gets in the way of an articulate voicing of melody or its eventual development into an engrossing conversation.  This session is in the mold of a standard modern piano trio recording, but the little turns of phrase and keen modulations of pacing have the great impact of raising things up to something outside the accepted archetype.  Those nuanced differences are one way to make cerebral music extroverted and fun.

Artist site | Buy:  Amazon

 

Wooley/Dumoulin/Flaten/Verbruggen – kaPSalon (Ratrecords)

“This music,” Buster Keaton, reincarnated, would announce. “It will be the soundtrack for my next silent film.”  And why not?  This live performance recording by trumpeter Nate Wooley, pianist Jozef Dumoulin, double bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and percussionist Teun Verbruggen is all about emoting through motion.  Idiosyncratic and volatile as hell, the music signifies the personality quirks of characters and their physical manifestations… the relation of many things that defy the need for words.  And though wholly avant-garde in nature, the blues and jazz bubble up to the surface frequently and at just the right moments, making a resolute statement that this wild, untamed music willingly tethers itself loosely to music of the past.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Tamaya Honda – ICTUS Trio (Song X Jazz)

Much in that way Paul Motian could imply the whisper of a hurricane during the recitation of a lullaby, the trio of drummer Tamaya Honda, bassist Takashi Sugawa and pianist Koichi Sato establish an appealing balance between serenity and volatility.  This modern piano trio recording is perfect for a rainy day, and that means for when it’s a torrential downpour or when the comforting patter of raindrops soothes the soul.  The Motian comparison isn’t happenstance.  This album is dedicated to Masabumi Kikuchi, a pianist who thrived in exactly this kind of environment, and, logically, collaborated with Motian himself on a number of recordings.  Carla Bley compositions comprise nearly half of the album tracks, which adds an interesting quality, as does Sugawa switching over to cello.  Music from Tokyo.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

Ed Jones – For Your Ears Only (Impossible Ark)

There’s something particularly resonant about this straight-ahead release from Ed Jones.  Perhaps it’s the beautifully crafted melodies or perhaps it’s how the saxophonist’s quartet keeps referencing it as the pace and distance from its introduction increases, and maybe it’s the way a patient exhalation of the melody contrasts with a galloping tempo.  But whatever the reason, this is one of those albums that sparkles like stars with each volley of notes, each turn of phrase, each expression of melody.  Pianist Ross Stanley, bassist Riann Vosloo and drummer Tim Giles round out the quartet, plus a guest spot from vocalist Brigitte Beraha.  Music from London.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

The Housewarming Project – at_home/at_play (Self-Produced)

There’s a special kind of chemistry to the trio of pianist Jeremy Siskind, vocalist Nancy Harms and multi-reedist Lucas Pino.  There’s a sense of musicians fated to come together because it was willed by elemental forces.  Their 2012 release Finger-Songwriter was one of the very best things to come out that year, and since that time, the trio has released another recording and been on a dedicated tour of living room shows.  Their new release compiles some of the moments from those shows, and it displays that the magic conjured up by the three is nowhere even close to waning.  Harms’s smoky delivery is a perfect match to Pino’s languid expressions of melody, especially when he switches over to bass clarinet.  On piano, Siskind’s accompaniment is almost reverential.  It all plays out like moonlight on a small patch of earth, where everything inside the beams seems more alive than anything else on the planet and nobody wants to move or speak for fear of breaking the spell of enchantment.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

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