Melbourne

Jan 12 2019

Best of 2018 #25: Tim Stevens Double Trio – “with whom you can be who you are”

 

I really can’t get over how beautifully Tim Stevens unites the free flowing conversation of a piano trio with the soaring harmonies of a string trio.  This isn’t your typical “jazz with strings” session.  There’s a strong modern jazz perspective and an equally strong chamber music influence, and rather than switch roles in a dominant-accompaniment relationship, the pianist gets the two components to enter the same confluence, becoming as one.  As a result, the melodic textures seem endless, and the dual personality of introspective and lively delivers a seriously magnetic charge.  This is music for a lazy morning watching the snow fall and it’s music for the car stereo while speeding between destinations, and, ultimately, it’s music for when you require an infusion of loveliness in your life.

Released on Rufus Records.

Music from Melbourne, Australia.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Dec 16 2018

Album of the Day: “Slippery” by Hannah McKittrick

 

Artist:  Hannah McKittrick

Album:  Slippery

Label:  Self-Produced

Style:  Moonlight jazz with vocals

Favorite Track:  “Theatre of Gesture”

Music from:  Melbourne, Australia

What I like about it:  This is moody music through and through, and I like how it reveals streaks of lighthearted cheerfulness as an appealing bit of contrast.  I like how Hannah McKittrick’s vocals come heavy with the drama, but by delivering them with restraint, the music is more hypnotic burning embers than a wild conflagration.  I like how the ensemble unfolds its lyricism in a way that honors the vocals instead of simply existing at the vocals’ behest.

Your album personnel:  Hannah McKittrick (vocals), Max Slorach (saxophones), Theo Carbo (guitar), Nat Bartsch (piano), Noah Hutchinson (bass, synth) and Ollie Cox (drums, percussion).

Available at:  Amazon | 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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Jul 16 2018

I am here for these solo percussion works on Ventor Records

 

Melbourne, Australia label Ventor Records states they are here for the rhythmically obsessed.  Nothing about the three solo percussion albums on their Bandcamp page would give any other impression.  Speaking from personal experience, this music will have no less appeal to those of us who consider ourselves more in the camp of incurable melody addicts.  It sure as hell applies to me.  I’m going to run each of ’em down for you.

Let’s begin.

 

Ronny Ferella – Invisible Skin

This album bleeds a magnetic personality.  Ronny Ferella holds court on Invisible Skin.  The pace is breezy and the chatter is light on its feet, but there’s a weight of importance to every little sound stirred up.  It’s an onslaught of sound, but it’s a measured aggression, the kind of thing where volatility doesn’t discharge a recoil kickback upon the listener.  The invitation is that it’s safe to immerse yourself in the music.  It’s easy.  Rivulets of percussion and the drone of melodica shape the path of drums, giving form to a state of pure momentum.  It has a run time just exceeding a half hour, and each instance of it reaching the finish line, I can’t believe it’s over so soon.    I am addicted to this recording.

Give the album a listen and purchase it on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

 

Sam Price – Rubicon

Now where Ronny Ferella was holding forth with conversation, Sam Price constructs a menagerie of cryptic messages.  On Rubicon, the pieces pulse with a lively energy, and their staggered tempos and intermittent signals of electronic effects hint strongly at a hidden meaning behind the seemingly random occurrences.  Even when the droning “Sehnsucht” opens things up for Price’s drum chatter to come through loud and clear, he delivers it as an urgent whisper… which has the effect of enhancing the sense of mystery that already hangs heavily in the air.  When “First Rodeo” lights things up with a foot-tapping tempo and a catchy melody, their gradual deterioration into dissonance by song’s end becomes yet another signal that all is not as it seems with Rubicon.

Give the album a listen and purchase it on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

 

Nat Grant – Marengo

It’s easy to miss at first.  Just for a moment, Nat Grant teases what will come much later.  If it gets past you, at first blush, it appears there’s no mystery to Marengo.  It comes off as the more straight-laced sibling to the wildly unconventional brothers Invisible Skin and Rubicon.  There’s no electronic effects nor any overdubbing of additional percussion instruments… just a musician with her drum set and something to say.  And that seems to be what Nat Grant is doing on Marengo.  It’s the most common of motivations for an artist of any medium… take all of the thoughts and emotions and ineffable ingredients that comprise who that artist is, and give them life through creative focus.  There’s a comfort to be gained from something grounded in the bare essentials.

But that’s not where things end up.  The hydrophone makes its presence known, and the first impression of a straight-ahead recording transforms into a new impression of something quite different.  The flame of intrigue starts to burn at the half way point of the recording, and what was hinted at so subtly in the first fifteen seconds begins to emerge.  It’s a slow reveal, and it gradually increases in speed.  It becomes more than just the dialog of a drum set.  The dialog achieves a richness that has subtlety as its foundation, where the addition of textures, though dramatic at times, burn brightest as nuance, and are best viewed not in how they drive the conversation, but, instead, how they surround it.

It’s a single track of just over thirty-seven minutes, and there ain’t a moment during that span when it seems like Grant is struggling to come up with something more to say.

Give the album a listen and purchase it on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

 

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May 21 2018

The Round-up: Shards from the past cut through the hours of our days

 

Here is some very good new music.

 

Zion80 – Warriors (Chant Records)

There’s a joyfulness to this music that leaves its mark.  Zion80 grooves heavy and hard, but there’s never a time the music doesn’t stay light on its feet.  It’s easy to see why Jon Madof‘s dectet was such a nice fit in John Zorn’s Book of Angels series… the ensemble can work subtle shifts between influences without causing even a ripple of disturbance in the rhythmic chatter.  The melodies of Warriors are like beaming smiles, full of warmth and friendliness.  Mysticism is a pretty big deal in the modern Zorn songbook, but it’s something that Zion80 clearly had in their back pocket before those sessions began.  There’s a spirituality that bleeds out of tunes designed for letting loose on the weekend, and that Zion80 doesn’t appear to view that as a contradiction is likely the reason for the music’s success and why it comes off as so damn genuine.  Ensemble members saxophonist Jessica Lurie and pianist Brian Marsella are just two of the names familiar to this site.  Music from NYC.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Tim Daisy’s Fulcrum Ensemble – Animation (Relay Recordings)

It can’t be easy navigating a path that attempts to be wide open and modern and free while also drawing thick lines tracing back to jazz in its early stages of life.  This inside-out recording from Tim Daisy’s Fulcrum Ensemble is wild and effusive, and sometimes it echoes the swinging affairs from New Orleans past and sometimes it explodes in an avant-garde fury reminiscent of New York City loft scene of the seventies.  But in every instance, there’s a strong presence of the modern day, that the form of expression is always focused through the lens of musicians who know exactly where their feet stand and that they breathe the air of today.  But aside from matters of influence and style, what matters most is that this music is supremely fun.  Its unpredictability is manifest even when the sound is something intimately familiar.  Clarinetist James Falzone, trombonist Steve Swell, cornetist Josh Berman, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and saxophonist Dave Rempis all leave their mark on this excellent recording.  It’s always difficult for me to get to all of the music out there and still meet my submission deadlines, and that’s the only reason this wasn’t one of my Best of Bandcamp Jazz recommendations when this album was released.  Don’t be surprised if it makes an appearance in a later column.  Music from Chicago.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

Menagerie – The Arrow of Time (Freestyle Records)

Menagerie‘s updated soul jazz is like the first day of Spring after a long winter.  The music’s melodic warmth and cheerful grooves are a signal to emerge from a state of hibernation and set to motion.  Lance Ferguson‘s ensemble steps up with a big sound, but its presence is laid-back casual.  That seeming contradiction between potential force and resultant calm creates its own form of tension, and thus a special kind of beauty… like when storm clouds gather overhead, but it never rains and a streak of sunlight is allowed to shine through unimpeded.  Fallon Williams adds a nice spoken word touch on the opening track.  If you liked their 2012 release They Shall Inherit, their newest will also float your boat.  Music from Melbourne, Australia.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

MABUTA – Welcome To This World (Self-Produced)

This debut from MABUTA is a nice example of how doing something a little bit different doesn’t necessarily have to be an obstacle to creating supremely embraceable music.  The sextet’s mix of South African jazz and contemporary electronic music is all kinds of friendly and forges a strong connection, even as it simultaneously creates an environment that sparks an introspective reaction.  The core group of bassist Shane Cooper, guitarist Reza Khota, pianist Bokani Dyer, tenor saxophonist Sisonke Xonti, drummer Marlon Witbooi and trumpeter Robin Fassie-Kock get some solid assistance from an array of guest musicians… notably saxophonists Shabaka Hutchings (who has got to have a ton of frequent flier miles for all the guest spots he’s been up for lately) and Buddy Wells (who lights the album up on his guest spot).  Also in a guest role, Tlale Makhene demonstrates that percussion is another form of electricity.  Music from Cape Town, South Africa.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Yves Arques & Miguel Crozzoli – Drops of Sun (Nendo Dango Records)

The tension ranges from simmering to explosive on this duo outing from pianist Yves Arques and saxophonist Miguel Crozzoli.  Passages of silence are just as fearful as the unleashing of sonic fury… and just as enchanting.  Arques adds some melodic textures, either by preparing his piano or keeping a bit of odd percussion nearby.  There are moments of extreme focus when the music becomes an immersive experience.  Music from Paris & Buenos Aires.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

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Jan 23 2014

Andrea Keller Quartet – “Wave Rider”

 

Andrea Keller Quartet - "Wave Rider"Australian pianist Andrea Keller presented an exquisite touch and evocative sound on previous albums, but on her newest, Wave Rider, she adds a string section to her working quartet, and the result is an absolutely gorgeous and thrilling album.

The album was released near the tail end of 2013, and it was an outstanding way for a jazz fan to wrap that year up.

The album opens as if setting a scene, with the burgeoning intensity of “From Nature’s Fabric” showcasing the piano quartet’s ability to gain a huge emotional impact out of a display of tension and restraint, further evidencing it by following with “Ingress,” which seamlessly incorporates the string quartet’s various rhythmic and melodic facets within trumpet’s harmonic presence.  “Queen for Tea I” is a continuation of this interaction, but trumpet begins to assert itself here, switching places with strings, which shift more to an accompaniment role.

And it’s on the fourth track, “Waves I,” where this album has left the exposition stage and now gets right to the conflict of the story.  Keller murmurs on piano, responding to the whispers of strings.  It’s a brooding tune with an ominous tone, and even when there’s a spike of intensity, it still behaves as a precursor to something more.

Something more is “Illumination,” the first moment when the entire ensemble coalesces into an expression of song form and motion.  Clarion calls by Ball and Whitehurst on trumpet and sax soar above Keller and Talia setting a rhythmic landscape on piano and drums.  Strings work the territory in between the two, adding a rhythmic component while also enhancing the surging motion of trumpet and sax.  And, delightfully, a song that speeds right along has a wind-down that floats gently, lovingly back to earth.

And that marked the spot where the album’s songs had a more definitive structure… a quality with a heightened gratification due to the opening stanzas’ predisposition to an ethereal formlessness.  For instance, a track like “Mister Music,” which accentuates the octet’s ability to glide through tempo changes on the wings of harmonic bridges, has that much more presence due to the tone of the album’s opening tracks.

A pattern begins to develop with “Reflection,” as the album moves back to a state of sonic musing, letting sounds disperse with a freedom that is positively arresting.  “Reflection” pairs quavering strings with probing trumpet notes, and piano glittering like a galaxy of stars.  “Patience” has Keller standing alone in the spotlight voicing quiet thoughts on piano, later joined by sax and trumpet offering up their own expressions, delivered patiently and with the deliberation of moonlight slowly covering the earth.

The interlude “Queen for Tea II” features saxophonist Whitehurst in a melodic display that meshes attractively with the string quartet’s frenetic accompaniment.  This leads to another short piece, “Waves II,” which gets strings back out front of the stage, providing the direction and the acceleration.

The album begins the homestretch with “Breathing In,” an extended piece that develops an infectious cadence that provides a welcoming environment for musicians to solo over.  Strings, again, display their invaluable contribution of thick harmonic waves that benefit both the melodic development and the tempo.  As session leader, Keller is unselfish with sharing time in the spotlight, and this is one of the rare times that she allows herself to really stretch out and raise up above the ensemble.

The lovely strings-sax duo of “Wave Rider” is followed up by the engrossing strings-piano conversation of “Queen for Tea III,” and then the thrilling dissonant cacophony of “Queen for Tea IV,” which provides some satisfying contrast to the previous tracks.

The album ends with “Egress,” a return to form of the album’s opening track, but with a stronger presence and point of view.  The ensemble finishes things out in unison, providing a nifty sense of finality.

As I said in the opening, this album came out late in 2013… after I’d already constructed my Best of 2013 list.  Had I heard this earlier, it absolutely would have rated highly.  As it is, my Best Of lists tend to run November to November, so expect Wave Rider to receive strong consideration on my Best of 2014 list.

Your album personnel:  Andrea Keller (piano), Eugene Ball (trumpet), Ian Whitehurst (tenor saxophone), Joe Talia (drums), Erkki Veltheim (violin), Helen Ayers (violin), Matt Laing (viola), and Zoe Knighton (cello).

Released on the Jazzhead label.

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

Jazz from the Melbourne, Australia scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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