Dec 23 2019
Now up: August’s Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations
And here we go. Gonna do some catch-up on notifications about my latest Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations posting on The Bandcamp Daily. This monthly installment covers albums for August 2019. There’s ten primary recommendations in total, plus some bonus recommendations, to boot. There’s been no let-up on the deluge of new music in 2019, so if you were thinking about maybe settling into a prior month’s purchases, forget about it… you’ve got more excellent new music to discover. I have been saying this same thing nearly every month, and every month it is true. On that note, let’s begin.
Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.
Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.
Have fun going through the list!
Cheers.
Artist: Jonathan Finlayson
There’s so many ways to utilize the music of the past as the source of inspiration for the music of today. Trio HLK (along with guests Evelyn Glennie and Steve Lehman) present a before-and-after comparative of deconstructed standards, where the original work serves as the seed for a massive transformation into something quite new. The before and after pictures are not always apparent. In fact, a certain level of disconnect should be expected going in. However, that’s the charm of the album, and its intelligence. In that same way a puzzle can be considered a source of entertainment even as it forces a brain to go into overdrive and the nervous system to persevere ’til the solution is found, Standard Time coaxes a deep dive into the memory banks for something familiar as it simultaneously keeps the attention focused on its playful expressionism of the new.
Jan 22 2020
Best of 2019 #51: Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn – “The People I Love”
There is a decisively combustible nature to Lehman’s sound. It has much to do with why it’s so arresting and so fun. But there is also clearly more to it, though that more is not easily identifiable. His 2019 release The People I Love brought some clarity to the subtleties of the music’s defining characteristics. Yes, the immediacy of the music is still an omnipresent force, but this album reveals that the aggressiveness is simply a byproduct, and that the immediacy has more to do with the subject of focus. In this specific instance, The People I Love celebrates ten year of the alto saxophonist’s trio with bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid. There’s your focus.
This is an album of ballads. They certainly don’t all present themselves that way, but they strike the heart with the same thoughtfulness and care as those tunes that gift wrap the ballad in soft tones and slowly poured melodies. This quality, as much as any the album presents, is what makes it so damn special.
For this session, the trio are joined by pianist Craig Taborn, which is a good reason to celebrate for any reason at all.
Your album personnel: Steve Lehman (alto sax), Craig Taborn (piano), Matt Brewer (acoustic bass), and Damion Reid (drum set).
Released on Pi Recordings.
Music from New York City.
I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Listen | Read more | Available at: Bandcamp – Amazon
Like this:
By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2019 • 0 • Tags: Best Jazz of 2019, Craig Taborn, New York City, Pi Recordings, Steve Lehman