Monthly Archives: April 2012

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Erik Deutsch Demonio Teclado, Tore Johansen Double Rainbow, and Marc Bernstein Good People Music.

Three Tiny Reviews of three very different albums, all with something strong to hear.

Let’s begin…

Erik Deutsch – Demonio Teclado

Interesting new release from keyboardist Erik Deutsch. Very much in the neo-soul jazz family, though Deutsch’s sound has always had a healthy infusion of pop, even as part of the very cool but under-the-radar Colorado country-jazz ensemble County Road X.  On this album, Deutsch lets the electric keyboards sing with plenty of compositions just ready to groove with anyone who’ll listen.  Inclusion of steel guitar is a very nice touch on “Ms. Pelican” and ends the album with resounding proof that Deutsch deserves plenty of attention.

Your album personnel:  Erik Deutsch (keys), Tony Mason (drums), Glenn Taylor (steel guitar), Brandon Seabrook (guitar), Jon Gray (trumpet), Ben Rubin, Jeff Hill (bass), and guest: Jens (tambourine; one track).

Plenty to like here for everyone, jazz and non-jazz fans alike.  Those who still put Beck’s Odelay into the stereo on a regular basis might like what’s going on here, as would people who are into Ray Charles electric period.  Just a real fun album that’s easy to bop along to.

Released on the Hammer & String label, which is Deutsch’s thing.  Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.

Available at eMusic.

Tore Johansen – Double Rainbow

Nice release from trumpeter Tore Johansen. Very much in the style of Nordic jazz; atmospheric, relaxed, rainy-day jazz. Nice balance to the production; instruments each have their equal say, much to the benefit of the listener. Drummer Jon Christensen, who has played on some of the ECM label’s seminal modern albums, absolutely shines here; even when his playing gets more pronounced, he never surrenders his innate elegance.

Your album personnel:  Tore Johansen (trumpet), Vigleik Storaas (piano), Jo Skaansar (bass), and Jon Christensen (drums).

Released on the Inner Ear label.  Jazz from the Trondheim, Norway scene.

Available on eMusic.

Marc Bernstein – Good People Music

Intriguing release by multi-reedist Marc Bernstein, and featuring drummer extraordinaire Billy Hart. A quintet rounded out with drums, piano, and bass.  Compositions with an inquisitive nature that gets the musicians in a searching frame of mind.  Cool, evocative music… the kind of jazz that, when played, can make the mundane seem special just by way of it being the soundtrack to that particular moment.  Highly Recommended.

Your album personnel:  Marc Bernstein (saxophones & bass clarinet, Billy Hart (drums), Jacob Anderskov (piano), and Jonas Westergaard (bass).

NOTE:  The above section is what I wrote for my eMusic Jazz Picks article, but over the last month, this album has become increasingly addictive, so I’ll be looking to write a full length review soon, to be pubbed either on AllAboutJazz or Bird is the Worm.

Released on the Blackout Music label.  Jazz from the Denmark scene.

Available at eMusic.

That’s it for today’s article, and the first of two parts of the Tiny Reviews from this batch of new arrivals.

Here’s some language to protect emusic’s rights as the one to hire me originally to scour through the jazz new arrivals and write about the ones I like:

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks“, courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

My thanks to emusic for the freelance writing gig, the opportunity to use it in this blog, and the editorial freedom to help spread the word about cool new jazz being recorded today.

My review of Theo Bleckmann‘s album Hello Earth!  The Music of Kate Bush just got published over at AllAboutJazz.  The original article appears HERE, at AllAboutJazz).

*****

The 1980s possessed an incongruous hope for the future against a backdrop of possible nuclear annihilation, as if in the darkest of times, society retreated to a naive state. This is a generalization that doesn’t, obviously, represent the entire gamut of human experience, yet it was there all the same. The majority of singer and composer Kate Bush’s music came from that decade, and there was always something about her music that seemed representative of that cloak of innocence; a touch of fairy tale magic, even when singing about loss, heartbreak or the cost of war.  Since then, cynicism has been adopted by much of society as the interface with the human experience, and so it’s supremely refreshing that singer Theo Bleckmann embraced the magic and optimism from which the source material for Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush sprang.

Your album personnel:  Theo Bleckmann (vocals, electronic voice processing, glockenspiel, toy piano, caxixi), Henry Hey (piano, Minimoog synthesizer, Fender Rhodes piano, prepared harpsichord, voice), Caleb Burhans (electric five string violin, electric guitar, voice), Skuli Sverrisson (electric bass, voice), and John Hollenbeck (drums, percussion, crotales, voice).

An appealing aspect of Bush’s music has always been her lack of self-consciousness in baring her heart and soul through her music. It’s the kind of thing that is easy to mock, but the correct reaction is to respect the hell out of it. Bleckmann shows the same courage Bush displayed when recording the original versions.  Of the fourteen album tracks, all but two were recorded in the 1980s, half of which were released on Bush’s Hounds Of Love.

The best example of Bleckmann’s outstanding treatment of the Bush songbook is in opening track, “Running Up That Hill,” which rings with sincerity and beauty, not to mention the glassine shimmer of the Fairlight CMI digital effects that grew in popularity on many pop and rock albums of the 1980s. Bleckmann’s version is an astounding facsimile of the original, a feat outshone by the song’s immaculate tunefulness.

In addition to unabashed sincerity, Bush also had a predisposition to drama bordering on the theatrical. In the hands of a less talented artist, this is the kind of thing that can quickly devolve into the comical. Bleckmann, however, displays the same uncanny knack for making it so easy to buy in, to accept the drama as genuine tension and the theater as the song’s reality.

Another delicious example of Bleckmann taking ownership of the Bush songbook is his transformation of “Army Dreamers,” from Bush’s stately waltz into an a catchy anthem more akin to shouting up at tavern ceilings than spoken elegantly in formal dancehalls. But Bleckmann doesn’t execute full-on costume changes for every Bush composition. Comparing Bush and Bleckmann versions, sometimes the before and after pictures carry a striking resemblance. The details hidden within the differences, however, are often quite breathtaking, as evidenced in how Bleckmann tweaks Bush’s conventional piano solo tune “And Dream of Sheep” into a little lullaby bobbing away on an open sea of ambient effects and vocal looping, or on “Hello Earth!,” in which Bleckmann gains an emotional impact greater than that of the original by adopting a restraint that trades in on some of the sensationalism the Bush’s recording.

The highlight of the album, arguably, is “Cloudbusting,” with its rhythmic marching formations juxtaposed against the piano exuberance of notes scrambling up a flight of stairs, and Bleckmann’s vocal bounce a pleasant fusion of the two extremes. The end result is that “Cloudbusting” is as complex as it is catchy.

The best of tribute albums possess all the soul of the original, while the heartbeat and blood flow is purely that of the music’s adopter. Bleckmann must understand this on some level, because the music he presents makes it easy to fall in love with Bush’s music all over again, while presenting facets so divergent as for Bleckmann’s album to stand on its own two legs, requiring no knowledge or love of the source of the music’s inspiration. In this, Hello Earth! is an unqualified success.

You can stream album tracks at the artist site, here.

Released on the Winter & Winter label.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

***

Here’s a video of a live performance of an album song (courtesy of the artist)…

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Menschmaschine Hand Werk, MSV Brecht Hippie Tunes, John Moulder Quintet The 11th Hour: Live at the Green Mill, Kyle Bruckmann Kyle Bruckmann’s Wrack: Cracked Refraction.

Menschmaschine – Hand Werk

Menschmaschine is a Swiss jazz ensemble that wears their love of Kraftwerk on their sleeves. Two feet very much in the modern Euro-jazz sound, they’ve constructed a series of unavoidably catchy tunes.  Even when they run willingly off the jazz reservation, they inevitably return, bringing both the song and the melody with them.  Some occasional vocals, which shouldn’t scare off anyone who prefers their jazz to be without; the vocals here are quite enjoyable, and since they tend to show up more often than not in the tracks that stray away from jazz, that should mitigate your reservations.

Your album personnel:  Christoph Utzinger (bass), Kevin Chesham (drums), Oli Kuster (piano), and Domenic Landolf (tenor sax & bass clarinet), and Nadja Stoller (vocals, looper, blockflote, glockenspiel).

Really a fun album, that I’ve enjoyed for a little over a month (as of publish date).  Music that’s lively and unpredictable.

Released on the Meta Records (Germany) label.  Jazz from Switzerland.

Available on eMusic.

MSV Brecht – Hippie Tunes

MSV Brecht is a Berlin quartet of sax/clarinet, guitar, bass, and drums.  They’ve got a Euro-jazz jazz-rock fusion thing going on.  What that means is that it’s introverted music that’s good for staring out windows at rainy day landscapes, but has way too much kick to actually fall asleep to it.  It also means that it’s gonna sound more like indie rock, at times, than anything resembling jazz.  Warm sweater sax notes and drifting melodies, guitar that sometimes hums, sometimes screams, percussion that doesn’t settle for just-good-enough, and some nice matching of clarinet and bass.

Your album personnel: Timo Vollbrecht (tenor sax, clarinet), Peter Meyer (guitar), Bernhard Meyer (bass), and Hanno Stick (drums).

Jazz fans, if you like Brian Blade’s Perceptual, you might find something to like here. Rock/Indie fans, if you like the Doves Last Broadcast, give this album a run.

Released on the Unit Records label.  Jazz from the Berlin, Germany scene.

Available on eMusic.

John Moulder Quintet – The 11th Hour: Live at the Green Mill

Backed by saxophonist Geof Bradfield (who also doubles on bass clarinet), pianist Jim Trompeter, Larry Gray on bass, and long-time collaborator Paul Wertico on drums, guitarist John Moulder presents an excellent live set from Chicago’s historical jazz venue, The Green Mill. Moulder has emerged as one of the unique voices on jazz guitar, equally comfortable showing a face of quiet solitude as he is of sharpened steel. No better representation of that is on the album’s final song “Time Being”, with Moulder’s mesmerizing guitar lines giving lift to Bradfield’s heartbreaking opening notes on sax, and then closing with rock-like heat that could make the sun blush with embarrassment. Moulder uses both acoustic and electric guitars on this set. Sound is solid for a live recording, and the sounds of the Green Mill, when they hit the audio, enhance the listening experience rather than step over it.

Your album personnel:  John Moulder (electric & acoustic guitars), Geof Bradfield (saxophones, bass clarinet), Jim Trompeter (piano), Larry Gray (bass), and Paul Wertico (drums).

Released on the Origin/OA2 Records label.  Jazz from the Chicago scene.

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label.

You can read a more comprehensive album review I wrote for AllAboutJazz, HERE.

Available at eMusic.

Kyle Bruckmann – Kyle Bruckmann’s Wrack: Cracked Refraction

An intriguing session with Kyle Bruckmann on oboe & English horn, and backed by bass clarinet, viola, percussion, and bass. A little bit jazz, a little bit nu-classical, a little bit avant-garde, and now there’s enough ingredients to make this an unclassifiable dish with an addictive taste. Some compositions have the frenetic pace of a horror movie chase scene, and some compositions only need two lovers and a pastoral scene in the countryside to make it complete. Back in Chicago, Bruckmann had his hands in disparate projects, including classical, post-punk, free jazz and electronic experimental, so it’s no surprise that this album pretty much shatters boundaries on sight.

Your album personnel:  Kyle Bruckmann (oboe, English horn), Tim Daisy (percussion), Anton Hatwich (bass), Jen Clare Paulson (viola), and Jason Stein (bass clarinet).

Released on the Porter Records label.  Music from the Oakland, CA scene.

Available at eMusic.

That’s it for today’s article, and the third of three parts of the Tiny Reviews from this batch of new arrivals.

Here’s some language to protect emusic’s rights as the one to hire me originally to scour through the jazz new arrivals and write about the ones I like:

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks“, courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

My thanks to emusic for the freelance writing gig, the opportunity to use it in this blog, and the editorial freedom to help spread the word about cool new jazz being recorded today.

There is something wise in how the opening track to Floratone II is titled “The Bloom Is On.”  It implies a return of something that existed in previous seasons returning yet again.  In that the sound presented on the ensemble’s follow-up album is very similar to the spot where Floratone’s 2007 album left off, the thought of a new bloom of an old flower fits right in with the scheme of things.  And just as the new bloom of Spring is a welcome sight every year, so is the release of Floratone’s second collaboration.

Floratone is a core quartet of guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Matt Chamberlain, with producers Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend (given credit as collaborators).  New members to the ensemble include Mike Elizondo on bass, and long-time Frisell partners-in-music Ron Miles (trumpet) and Eyvind Kang (viola).

Floratone’s sound is quite unlike anything else on the scene.  An industrial bluegrass, an Electro-Americana thing… mixing rustic instruments with modern looping and effects, channeling old music through new machines, organic sounds carried over frequencies of steel.  It makes for an odd dichotomy.  It’s also appealing as all hell.

Let’s talk about that sound…

Opening track “The Bloom Is On” is a march of staccato rhythms, asymmetrical guitar lines, and a skewed melody.  Bright notes fight through the strange dissonance until they become indistinguishable from one another.  Second track “Pluck” opens with more staggered rhythms, but Ron Miles’ trumpet eclipses the percussion with bold pronouncements and soaring arcs of sound.  There is not much to differentiate the first two tracks in terms of theme; or said differently, if one were to trace the creative ancestry of the two songs, they would lead back to the same muse.

At this point, a difference between first album and second has become apparent… the second album aims the spotlight directly on the interplay between Frisell’s guitar and Chamberlain’s percussion.  The debut album was a more democratic blend of each ensemble members’ voices, but, here, it’s the voices of Frisell and Chamberlain who stand alone at the front of the stage.

Third track “Snake, Rattle” begins to shake any preconceptions that the first two tracks may have instilled.  Inciting images of a cemetery haunted by the ghosts of bluegrass musicians, Chamberlain’s spooky percussion added to Frisell’s voodoo guitar notes paint an ominous canvas.  The ill winds of keyboards and electronic effects blow through the song, and Elizondo’s booming basslines sound like a countdown to a moment of dread.  That the ensemble constructs this track into something that the foot can tap along to is a revelation that can’t help put a smile on a jaded ear.

Fourth track “Parade” kicks the tempo back into gear, with the bounce of horns and march of drums, angular guitar lines, quavering electronics, scattered keyboards, and then those sublime interludes that the Floratone ensemble specializes at… like breaking from an overgrown forest into a valley clearing, with long cool swaths of prairie grass, a clear sparkling stream, and all the sunlight one could ever ask for.  The group’s talent at seamlessly ushering compositions into these peaceful moments and then returning again to the dissonance of the “forest” is a highlight of both first and second albums.  The ability to shift from chaos to peace to chaos is not new to music, but it is a maneuver not often excelled at.  Floratone proves with their follow-up that the expertise they displayed on the debut album was no fluke.

Fifth track “Not Over Ever” is a brief beautiful interlude.  Ron Miles, who arguably has come closest to matching Miles Davis’s evocatively frail sound on trumpet more than any other horn player since, voices one wavering note after the other as Frisell accompanies with ephemerally shifting notes and Kang makes his viola sound like a mournful howl of a lonely heart in the dead of night.  There is an undercurrent of lush drone.  This interlude is an album highlight.  It also leads right into a blistering tune full of fight and fire, a pace that is broken only when guitar and keyboard play simple single notes over top of the still sprinting rhythm section.  The juxtaposition of a smattering of pretty notes atop frenetic percussion is as cool as it is delicious.  But make no mistake… it’s Chamberlain’s percussion that carries this track.  His furious gallop creates an environment where no other instrument can do wrong, where all other instruments can feel free to express themselves however the mood shapes them, because he makes it known that the song rides on his shoulders.  Arguably the strongest album track.

Seventh track “Do You Have It” settles into a nice groove.  Chamberlain lopes ahead along with bass.  Frisell lays down a smart pattern of guitar bursts to accentuate the rhythm.  And just when it seems like the song has shown all its got, Frisell walks up and down the line with sharp steel twang and Brion’s keyboards in tow.

Eighth track “The Time, the Place” has a Southwestern funereal sound to it.  With Frisell on steel stringed, Chamberlain’s snare and percussion, and Miles’ plaintive trumpet calls, the images of a procession across desert plains, expansive big sky, and a silence so complete that even the gentle breeze sounds like a shout.

“No Turn Back” returns to the album’s opening sounds, yet with more zeal and more electronics, and a bit more hurried.  Even when Frisell lays down some distortion and Chamberlain rocks out on drums, it still apparent as a facet of earlier statements.  It’s nice to hear a different presentation of a common theme, but I can’t help but feel like they’re trying a bit too hard on this track.  It just doesn’t sound like it came naturally to them.

“The Time, the Place (Part 2)” is another interlude, mostly Ron Miles playing slow and soft over the blip of electronics and wandering guitar notes.  It leads into “Gimme Some,” a mixed jumble of sounds that comes off as being a bit muddled.  At only two minutes in length, it perhaps is meant to serve as more of an interlude or was simply a bit of improvisation that never reached fruition that the group wanted to include on the album anyway.  The tune’s heart is in the strange percussion, though the wild leaps Frisell takes on guitar grab some attention.

Following the brief interlude of “Grin and Bite,” the album ends with the serene “Stand By This,” a pastiche of fairy tale bells and chimes, lullaby strings and moonlight trumpet, drums like soft sleepy breaths… a sonic distillation of the sound of good dreams.

So, where does that leave us?  There were times, many times actually, when I found myself thinking back to the debut album and wondering if they were performing new versions of old compositions.  There is a profoundly strong cohesion of sound between first album and second, though whereas the first album leaned more toward the softer melodic side of the spectrum, the current recording is far more expansive in terms of the percussive elements.  It makes for rougher edges and breathtaking dynamics.

The way it all shakes out, if you loved the first Floratone album as much as I, then the release of the follow-up album is a reason to celebrate.  If you liked the first one, but were hoping for something more, something different, then you might be left feeling a bit underwhelmed.  And though I fall into the former category, it’s not much of stretch to see things from the point of view of the latter.  Me, personally, I’ll be keeping this album in my regular rotation for the foreseeable future.

Released on the Savoy Jazz label, who lets you stream the album in its entirety on its site, here.

Also, you can stream many of the tracks from their first (and second albums) on Floratone’s site, here.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon: CD | MP3

Here’s the EPK video for the album…