Oct 20 2016
This Is Jazz Today: Andrew Cyrille and Bill McHenry, Cory Healey’s Beautiful Sunshine Band, Naftule’s Dream, Jane Ira Bloom, and Dave Stryker
This Is Jazz Today
Andrew Cyrille & Bill McHenry – Proximity (Sunnyside)
This low-key affair is nonetheless extremely engaging. The duo of drummer Andrew Cyrille and tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry aren’t creating songs so much as giving extended life to interludes and fragmentary ideas. There’s an intimacy to this session not unlike music, heard clearly, drifting out from a window as you stand on the sidewalk below, transfixed by every note. A few tracks raise their voice a bit, but for the most part, this is music that keeps to restrained, thoughtful expressions.
Your album personnel: Andrew Cyrille (drums) and Bill McHenry (tenor sax).
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Amazon – Bandcamp – eMusic
Cory Healey’s Beautiful Sunshine Band – Beautiful Sunshine (Shifting Paradigm)
Considering how melodic this album is at heart, it possesses an unusual gruffness, abrasive even at times. It’s as if the quintet Cory Healey’s Beautiful Sunshine Band resents the mere presence of the melody and thus quickly ushers it across the song and out the door before the next song begins. But that’s just how the melodic treatment comes off at first blush, because with repeat visits to this interesting recording Beautiful Sunshine, it becomes increasingly apparent just how much the quintet focuses its attention on the melody. The fact that they knock it around and warp it and treat it, at times, with more than a little violence, ultimately it’s the melody, in its battered and flawed form, that eclipses every other aspect of this recording. And it makes those times resonate so much more strongly when, by way of comparison, the quintet nurtures the melody as if bringing a flower to bloom. “Cheerleader” gives a hint of that before setting the damn thing on fire, but then there’s tracks like “With God On Our Side,” where the melody is allowed to dance on its own and show the album in an entirely new light.
Your album personnel: Cory Healey (drums, electronics, AM radio), Erik Fratzke (electric bass), Zacc Harris (guitar), Jake Baldwin (trumpet) and Brandon Wozniak (tenor sax).
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Amazon – Bandcamp – eMusic
Naftule’s Dream – Blood (Self-Produced)
There’s an appealing contrast to the soaring melodies and the stomping boots tempos, as if all the uplifting feelings of hope and love were balanced out by a pragmatic understanding that life can be hard and often is. That a parallel can be drawn between this album’s sound, the first from Naftule’s Dream in quite a while, and their contributions to the Radical Jewish Music movement of the 90s, in which they infused a heaven & earth feel to their updated take on traditional Klezmer music, adds both to the intrigue and the signposts of how they’ve developed over the course of time. Those songs on Blood that take on a drifting ambience are plenty alluring, but their substance is locked in by the edgier pieces with punctuated rhythms that possess, in their way, a dancing flow.
Your album personnel: Glenn Dickson (clarinet), Gary Bohan (cornet), Eric Rosenthal (drums), Jim Gray (tuba), Michael McLaughlin (accordion) and Andrew Stern (guitar).
Artist site | Buy: Amazon – CDBaby
Jane Ira Bloom – Early Americans (Self-Produced)
It’s not just that there’s a pleasant flow to the newest from soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, but that it traverses a series of compositions that bubble with excitement and energy. Her previous recording, 2013’s excellent Sixteen Sunsets, staked out territory in the serene and the sublime. But with Early Americans, this is get-up-and-go music, and based on the exuberance they apply to the rhythmic attack, both drummer Bobby Previte and bassist Mark Helias seem perfectly content with Bloom’s choice of tone and tempo. But what shouldn’t get lost in all this talk about energetic music is that the music retains a sense of intimacy, an intimation that the music, though not striving to introduce an atmosphere of tranquility, is sure to maintain a nearness to it all the same.
Your album personnel: Jane Ira Bloom (soprano sax), Mark Helias (bass) and Bobby Previte (drums).
Artist site | Buy: Amazon – eMusic
Dave Stryker – Eight Track II (Self-Produced)
So I’ll just admit right up front to having little objectivity when it comes to covers of John Barry’s theme to the movie Midnight Cowboy. It’s one of my favorite soundtracks to one of my favorite movies, and since guitarist Dave Stryker did a very nifty rendition of the song, heavy with a cool blues and an easy-going ambiance, well, that’s why his new album of pop music covers is getting a mention in today’s column. He hits upon a couple by Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, others by The Isley Bros. and Prince (among other well known tunes). Those tracks where a cool groove is the method to move, everything shakes out just right. However, when the pace picks up, like on a cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” it’s not quite as successful. That said, none of this stuff is straight-up note-for-note cover songs, and that deserves plenty of credit. Also, you’re not gonna go wrong with a line-up of Stryker, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter. Basically, Stryker is playing with a Posi-Tone Records house band.
Your album personnel: Dave Styker (guitar), Steve Nelson (vibraphone), Jared Gold (organ) and McClenty Hunter (drums).
Artist site | Buy: Amazon
*****
All the Dreams is a stunning album. It’s not groundbreaking. There are no real fireworks. It’s not especially inventive or forward-thinking. It doesn’t bottle up music of the past to give it life in the present day. But by simply settling into a gorgeous melody and channeling every facet of it to its extreme, the duo of vocalist 
On their newest recording, the 
It’s truly remarkable how catchy this music is considering how often Keberle and crew are willing to shrug off its structure to go wandering off in a new direction or simply explode in euphoric bursts of wild expressiveness that seem detached from the tight melodic seed that set the whole thing in motion. This approach isn’t particular new for the trombonist, but what does register as a recent turn of events is the easy confidence in which its delivered. Each track sounds to have achieved the fullness envisioned when the quintet first set out, even as changes occur in the spur of the moment. And this applies even in the context of the strong South American music influence that hangs over this straight-ahead modern jazz session. Everything in its right place, and arriving exactly right on time. Along with trombonist Keberle, that Catharsis crew consists of vocalist Camila Meza, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Eric Doob.
Hard not to become transfixed by the roiling soup of influences mixed by the London-based collective The Heliocentrics. Jazz, psychedelia, rock, funk, soul and any number of other forms of expressions rise up to the surface, pop off a few expressions, then submerge to be replaced by something new yet again. I wrote previously about their collaboration with Mario Van Peebles, and this newest offering compares quite favorably. Drummer Malcom Catto, bassist Jake Ferguson, percussionist Jack Yglesias, keyboardist Oliver Parfitt, guitarist Adrian Owusu and Tom Hodges working the electronics and effects are the core of the outfit. This is highly addictive yet seriously unconventional music, and it possesses a magnetism not dissimilar to how rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre ropes ’em in. This might not be your cup of tea (bowl of soup), but you owe it to yourself to check it out first.
An intriguing album from trombonist Ramon Fossati, alto saxophonist Olivier Brandily, pianist Laurent Bronner, bassist Nicolas Rageau and drummer Luc Isenmann. It hovers at the edges of straight-ahead while never quite putting both feet into avant-garde, and that vagueness of direction creates a wonderful bit of tension and some lyrical opportunities that the quintet takes advantage of repeatedly. Add to that some prepared piano, some unconventional percussion and some found sounds, and now it’s not just smart music but also undeniably fun. Good stuff.
It’s the way the emotional tones and varying tempos of each song feed off one another that reflects the winning side of the latest from drummer Jeff Williams. Opening out with several boisterous tracks, when the quintet shifts into ballad mode on “Meeting a Stranger,” much of the previous electricity still crackles with life along the edges of the gently swaying tune. And even between up-tempo tunes, the inter-relationships between the swirling motion of title-track “Outlier” and the laterally-inclined “The Interloper” keep the ear stimulated and on its toes just trying to keep up with the current while framing it in the context of the former. And then there’s a track like “Dream Visitor” that switches things up mid-stream over and over. Joining Williams is a strong cast of tenor saxophonist Josh Arcoleo, guitarist Phil Robson, keyboardist Kit Downes and bassist Sam Lasserson. The whole band just sounds like they’re having a blast, and it comes out in the music.
Kind of a mixed bag on this newest from pianist Omar Sosa, who rejoins two long-time collaborators in trumpeter Joo Kraus and percussionist Gustavo Ovalles. Perhaps it’s appropriate that this charming album is a mixed bag, since Sosa’s career hardly can be encapsulated by the naming of just one or two jazz sub-genres. This one has some Latin and Afro-Latin Jazz influences, some old-school fusion, some vague World Jazz, some straight-ahead and some pop and spoken word action to boot. Some tracks are stronger than others, but even the weaker links on this recording fall into place and make sense in the stream of ideas rolled out by the trio. The quality that defines the album’s winning attitude? The laid-back quality that gives the impression of melodies hummed and whistled under the breath… an undercurrent of magnetic tunefulness no matter what form each song ultimately takes.
There’s a congenial warmth to this recording that’s pretty easy to fall for. There’s nothing particularly monumental or groundbreaking about this recording. It’s just your basic modern straight-ahead session, but each time the album walked through the door, its easy-going nature, its fluid lyricism and that abundant warmth made it a welcome visitor on each pass. That’s no small thing, and it’s a nice reminder how walking a well-traveled path is no obstacle to creating something enjoyable that sounds fresh and new in the bright light of today. Your Living Bridge quartet is comprised of tenor saxophonist Artie Black, guitarist Jeff Swanson, bassist John Sims and drummer Marcus Evans.
So if you’re sitting there thinking, damn, I’m in the mood for some straight-ahead jazz piano, then this is where you stop and hit the download button. Veteran pianist Kuhn is the epitome of how a lifetime of practicing the standards while simultaneously following original paths of creativity end in a place where a singular voice emanates from compositions new and old. On his newest, it’s a mix of up-tempo scooters and solemn Sunday morning drifters, each complementing the strengths of the others. Al Cohn’s “Ah Moore” really gets the album under way with a match of a light heart and a quick step, but it’s the powerful rendition of Gil Fuller’s “I Waited for You” that provides the album’s high point while closing the affair out. Kuhn walks with fellow jazz giants on this session with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Joey Baron.
The trio of pianist Jon Davis, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Jochen Rueckart do a nice job of showing how the concept of straight-ahead piano trio jazz has changed over time, while also keeping in close orbit around a concrete sound that rings true to their own vision. The album’s strongest tracks are those that speak to the past, emanating that cheerful yet bluesy feel of old-school Red Garland trio sessions. Those tracks that situate themselves in the modern day make a nice showing, too, though, especially how the flow of the lyricism is accentuated. There’s a couple renditions of pop tunes that really don’t do anything to improve the album, but nothing about them prevents this from being a thoroughly enjoyable piano trio session. Easy to like.
A piano trio session typical to the modern set, where melodies are kept simple and their development is easy to follow, the rhythms are pretty much there to escort those melodies along to their planned destination, and the form of expression often gets plenty shiny and pretty. But there’s a place for shiny and pretty, and I like featuring a modern piano session that falls into this category from time to time. This one, from the trio of pianist Momchil Atanasoff, bassist Rayleymon Janga and drummer Juri Schewe fits that bill. Plenty of liveliness to this music, but never to the point where it would be considered something other than rainy day music. Sort of a tepid recommendation, I know, but I found this album pleasant enough to give it a quick mention.
There’s an abiding sense of meticulously planned precision on the newest from multi-instrumentalist Pek, but the patiently developed expressions have a looseness about them that speaks more to the fully improvised nature of its construction. Pulled together from hours of improvised sessions, this fascinating recording is powerfully meditative, even when it threads the needle on the placement of dissonance within the confines of serenity. File this one under ‘experimental,’ but be sure to file it in your digital library, too.
Dec 13 2016
Recommended: Alexis Cuadrado – “POETICA”
Nothing encapsulates this potent mix of emotions better than the three-part suite “Balada de Matt Sweeney,” which goes from giddy excitement to raw disillusionment to gritty determination. It’s always a fight, but never so much as when you’re the visitor receiving push-back on someone else’s home court. “Here be dragons,” the voice warns on “Mappa Mundi.” And another voice repeats the nebulous intonation “the eye seeking home has to lower, lower, lower” on “Song of Fulton and Gold.”
This has been a strange year. Not in the normal things-change personal way, but in how societal events alter the shape of the everyday and nothing looks the same and the perspective becomes that of a collective… one that we may and may not belong to, simultaneously. For many, this presidential election instigated a jarring sense of dissociation with our surroundings, a cultural dislocation from a society that had meant to house our better angels.
The crushing end to “Song of Fulton and Gold” is Rowan Ricardo Phillips intoning, “There are no towers.” Its intensity is amped higher by the pragmatism of his earlier advice to not look up. How many couldn’t look up on November 9th of this year? How many felt the collective weight of despair, that something had gone terribly wrong? And despite the overwhelming sense that the end was underway, had to go on with life as if normal. To step outside, into the sun, unable to look up, feeling like an outsider. POÈTICA is not a guide to navigate to a better place, nor does it substitute as a source of advice. But it is a reminder that the feelings of disassociation and separation are not new, not permanent, and the disillusionment that follows the euphoria is, in turn, followed by determination. POÈTICA came at a good time.
Your album personnel: Alexis Cuadrado (double bass, voice, cajón, handclaps), Melcion Mateu (voice), Rowan Ricardo Phillips (voice), Miles Okazaki (guitar), Andy Milne (piano, keyboards) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums).
Released on Sunnyside Records.
Listen to more of the album at the label’s Bandcamp page.
Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.
Available at: Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2016 releases • 0 • Tags: Alexis Cuadrado, Sunnyside Records