Tiny Reviews: Erik Hove Chamber Ensemble, Sketches, & Frank Kimbrough

Your Sunday edition of Tiny Reviews!

Featuring:  Erik Hove Chamber Ensemble Saturated Colour, Sketches Sketches II, and Frank Kimbrough Quartet.

*****

Erik Hove Chamber Ensemble – Saturated Colour

An exciting session offered up on Saturated Colour by the Erik Hove Chamber Ensemble.  The tension formed between free kinetic energy and compositional structure holds for the entirety of this absorbing album.  It’s as if Hove herded a band of cats, corralled them in an orchestra pit, handed them each an instrument with instructions to burn off their night-crazies by playing out his compositions.  Melodies are dispensed in surges and harmonies are just a tool to accentuate the strength of the tempos.  Hove leads an octet comprised of a string trio, clarinet, oboe, trumpet, flute, sax, bass and drums.  Some familiar names participating on the album are Anna Webber, Evan Tighe and Josh Zubot.  What an exciting album this is.  Just as likely to appeal to fans of Henry Threadgill as it is fans of the Peggy Lee Group or Mark Feldman.

The album is Self-Produced.

Available at:  eMusic | Bandcamp | CDBaby | Amazon MP3

*****

Sketches – Volume Two

The second go-around for the Sketches crew of trumpeter Matt Holman, saxophonist Jeremy Udden, pianist Jarrett Cherner, bassist Martin Nevin and drummer Ziv Ravitz.  The concept for the sophomore release is the same as the first:  Music fragments and incomplete compositions of one quintet member are adopted by another, developed into a full thought, then spun back into the group dynamic for a final shaping of the song.  Volume Two works far better than the initial foray.  Compositions come off with a clearer definition and the musicians gel around soloists with a greater confidence and to greater effect.  There’s also more differentiation between tracks, with streaks of the blues and rock and folk offering clearer voices within the post-bop context.  The time invested by this group working the Sketches concept on the road and the studio paid some serious dividends on Volume Two.  Good stuff.

Released on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.

Available at:  eMusic | Bandcamp | Amazon MP3

*****

Frank Kimbrough – Quartet

Nice straight-ahead date from pianist Frank Kimbrough, who brings together long-time collaborators for a session that emits all kinds feeling.  It’s mostly originals with a couple standards thrown in for good measure.  The up-tempo pieces often have a relaxed, loose vibe to them, which is all kinds of appealing, but it’s the songs where the quartet expresses themselves with more patience that the album is most evocative.  A representative track:  The beautiful “November” gives the impression of being light-at-heart, but reveals a moodiness in glimpses that creates a gripping dichotomy.  Solid from beginning to end.  That Quartet is rounded out by Steve Wilson on alto & soprano saxes, Jay Anderson on double bass, and Lewis Nash on drums.

Released on Palmetto Records.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

*****

Some of this material was used originally in the weekly new jazz releases column I write for eMusic and Wondering Sound, so here’s some language protecting their rights to the reprinted material as the one to hire me to write about new jazz recordings…

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks,” reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2014  eMusic.com, Inc.

As always, my sincere thanks to eMusic for the gig.