Today’s Bandcamp List: Heinz Sauer-Daniel Erdmann 4tet, Uzumaki Redux, Stephan Crump, Pram Trio and Geometro

I listen to a lot of music.  I make lists of what I like.  I’m not able to write about everything, not nearly as much as the music deserves.  This new List column series will attempt to squeeze in some extra recommendations of stuff that I typically wouldn’t find time to write about on this site or my various other spots.

Here’s some quick hits of interesting stuff I found on Bandcamp today.

Heinz Sauer & Daniel Erdmann 4tet – Special Relativity (Jazzdor)

This outstanding live performance recording sources from the 2013 Jazzdor Festival at Berlin’s Kesselhaus, featuring the quartet of tenor saxophonists Heinz Sauer & Daniel Erdmann, bassist Johannes Fink and drummer Christophe Marguet.  The electricity from this set is palpable, and there are several moments where the music almost brought me up out of my seat.  Many of these moments corresponded to furiously melodic passages when Sauer and Erdmann enter a state of unison and Johannes Fink switches to bass arco.  All of these artists have received prior mentions on this site (and my Wondering Sound jazz picks columns) for other projects, and that they come together on this live date and absolutely kill it comes as no surprise to me.  This is one of a handful of live performance sets on the Jazzdor Bandcamp page, and it’ll definitely be worth your time to check them all out.  In the meantime, start here.

Your album personnel: Heinz Sauer (tenor sax), Daniel Erdmann (tenor sax), Johannes Fink (bass) and Christophe Marguet (drums).

More listening and for sale on their Bandcamp page.

Uzumaki Redux – Spiral (Self-Produced)

A seriously captivating album from the trio of Daniel Älgå, trumpeter Mike Lloyd and double bassist Mats Dimming.  The way that the live sampling and effects shares the same air space as the organic wind instruments, their flight patterns often crossing paths and threatening a collision, is pretty damn thrilling at times.  That said, this is music that keeps to a restrained presence, going with the method of speaking softly and allowing the contrasting element of brief silences to trigger a resonant effect.  The fragmentary shards of melody seem endless, even as the trio employs some repetitive qualities to layer one atop the other.  Very strange music, and yet no obstacle to displays of a curious, undeniable beauty.

Your album personnel: Daniel Borgegård Älgå (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, live sampling), Mike Lloyd (trumpet) and Mats Dimming (double bass).

More listening and for sale on their Bandcamp page.

Stephan Crump – Rhombal (Self-Produced)

What’s particularly likable about this modern session from bassist Stephan Crump is how loose the structure of each song presents itself, and how the melodies thrive within the wide open spaces of that environment.  Tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill join Crump in threading melodic lines in intricate patterns, but nothing ever gets jumbled or confused or tangled, because each song exhibits a patience with each step of its development, which gives those melodic constructs time to come to full bloom.  The elasticity of the tempos essential to this process can be attributed to typically dexterous Tyshawn Sorey, who seems to find inspired ways to express himself on drums no matter what project he’s contributing to, as well as Crump’s own contributions to the rhythmic evolution.

Your album personnel:  Stephan Crump (bass), Ellery Eskelin (tenor sax), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums).

More listening and for sale on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Pram Trio – Saga Thirteen (Self-Produced)

It’s pretty easy to fall for the way that Pram Trio latches onto a melodic idea and just explores every facet of the damn thing.  The improvisations that launch off from those melodic ideas give the sense of traveling great distances, but never once giving the sense of abandoning the melody that started the whole thing in motion.  The sophomore release of pianist Jack Bodkin, bassist Mark Godfrey and drummer Eric West are dead center of the New Piano Trio school of expression, but the level of intensity they’re able to generate during slow builds of harmonic beauty rank them a notch or three above the crowd.

Your album personnel:  Jack Bodkin (piano), Mark Godfrey (bass) and Eric West (drums).

More listening and for sale on their Bandcamp page.

Geometro – Deer in the Disco (Self-Produced)

Nice little EP from the Szeged, Hungary-based quartet Geometro.  Contemporary jazz-rock, with an emphasis on the latter quality, which is why this music possesses a welcome measure of edge and drive.  The quartet of saxophonist Bálint Szabados-Tóth, electric bassist Áron Turcsányi, drummer István Szegény and guitarist János Héjja roll the melodies out slowly, developing them under the duress of brisk tempos.  It’s why uncomplicated melodies lead to tangential inspirations that stretch out long after the opening statements are made, and the interest builds and builds and builds.

Your album personnel:  Bálint Szabados-Tóth (sax), Áron Turcsányi (electric bass), István Szegény (drums) and János Héjja (guitar).

More listening and for sale on their Bandcamp page.

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