Monthly Archives: September 2014

A curious recording that has been occupying my attention lately is Aurum, the new one from saxophonist Piero Delle Monache.   A modern fusion of sorts, it combines a contemporary style of both jazz and rock, while adding influences from Monache’s “Thunupa African Tour.”  It results in music with a pop music attractiveness that’s predisposed to occasional eccentric displays of a strange and uneven personality.  It’s the kind of album that is best measured one song at a time, because taking it as a whole doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense or result in a satisfactory answer.

“ABC” starts things out with music that is both moody and buoyant, like a sky of grey clouds and the dim sense of the sunlight beaming on their opposite side.  “Annie” follows it up with more of the same.  Monache’s sax glides lightly atop the gentle rhythms of bass and drums.  On piano, Ceccarelli shifts from a support role to that of a soloist, and his contribution carries the song forward with an equal grace.  Both songs rise up with a bit of intensity near their conclusion before dropping off into their original state.  Just a little bit of drama for a little bit of differentiation, and it sets things off for the remainder of the recording.

“Nairobi” is a hypnotically twirling play with rhythm, as piano, drums, bass and sax wind about one another, an endless loop gathered up in a net of electronics and effects.  “Fedex” finds a nifty balance between lite-jazz sweetness and space-jazz fuzziness.  “Un giorno come un altro” is a pretty folk-jazz tune that brings together a lilting tenor sax together with an acoustic guitar, mbira, and the soothing hush of brushes.  “La Festa” has a similar consistency, but is upbeat and chipper and shows its South African jazz influence proud.

Several songs are mere vignettes, too fully realized to be considered an interlude, too brief to be thought of as proper songs.  The alluring “Miramare” has the dancing atmospherics of a Nils Petter Molvaer soundscape, whereas “Blu 1” is reminiscent of a Bill Frisell concoction of the ethereal and the rustic.  “Angeli e demoni,” on the other hand, is a solemn duet between sax and piano, a straight-forward performance of a song with nothing to hide.

The album’s curious nature sees it through to the end.  The finale of “Marts Dub” has a thick, but atmospheric dance beat juxtaposed with ambient flourishes from sax and piano.  Like most of the songs on this intriguing album, it seems to have something and yet nothing at all to do with that which preceded it… an unpredictability that reveals a cohesive element only when viewed in the rear view mirror, if even that.  And it’s that effect which keeps bringing me back to this personable recording.

Your album personnel:  Piero Delle Monache (tenor & soprano saxes), Mauro Campobasso (electric & acoustic guitars, samples, live electronics), Giovanni Ceccarelli (piano, keyboards), Tito Mangialajo Rantzer (double bass), Alessandro Marzi (drums, percussion) and guests:  Luca Aquino (trumpet), Bepi D’Amato (clarinet), Mark Bardoscia (bass), Tati Valle (vocals) and Othnell Mangoma (percussion, mbira).      .

Released on Parco della Musica Records.

Jazz from the Pescara, Italy scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

Cantus Caterva II leads out with its heart.  Opening song “Lekitto eta kitto” immediately shows what this album is all about… songs with a vibrant head, rich with texture and liveliness that leads right into finely crafted melodies that were made to be remembered.  But it’s not just about great opening lines.  Shifts in tone and tempo string the melodies out, unravel them with one surprise after the next, yet develop in a way so natural that the surprises seem expected all along in the first place.  The way the opening bombast of wind instruments suddenly drops off for the light rainfall of keyboards, the saxophones modifying their behavior to fit in with the new leader.  The switch, then, over to a spirited piano solo as the instigator back to the opening bombast possesses an alluring fluidity that carries the ear effortlessly across the expanse of a song that flirts with something approaching the epic… if not for its composure and tasteful restraint.

And that is how Hasier Oleaga drives his newest album from first note to last.

The excitable rhythms of “Weyland Txirrindularia” lead from an opening bass solo, to stick work, to some punchy sax accompaniment.  The way languorous statements of melody are interspersed through the dynamic fields of percussion is just more evidence of the changes that reflect one of this album’s two strengths.  The other is the melody, and this song offers up a diamond as shiny as the opening track.  “Argitasunaren alde iluna” also lays out a carpet thick with rhythmic threads, but weaves intensity and moodiness into its pattern instead.

After what teases as a modern piece with an intro thick and lumbering, “Solvitur Ambulando” surprises with some swing, dancing light and lively across the dance floor.  “Niger Hole” also pulls a quick costume change, but this time shifts from a modern post-bop piece to something more free and volatile.  But even as the song enters states of agitation, the melody is still in the mix.

The ballad “Mayi” has a breezy appeal, as if its profession of love is sincere but totally off-the-cuff.  The album ends with the hot and cold blues of “Zure gaileta neure kafean bustitzen duzunean.”  There’s a tone of finality to the song, a melancholy weariness fitting of an album that put so much of its heart into the crafting of a set of beautiful melodies and a plan how to best present them.

This is one of those recordings that achieves a modicum of greatness by simply doing everything right and augmented by some well-times bursts of excellence.

Your album personnel:  Hasier Oleaga (drums), Mikel Andueza (alto sax), Julen Izarra (tenor sax), Iñaki Salvador (piano, keyboards), Jorge Abbeys (guitar), Jan Piris (bass), and Fernando Neira (electric bass).

Released on Errabal Jazz.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon MP3

A lovely new recording is from the duo of pianist Espen Eriksen and trumpeter Gunnar Halle.  On Psalm, the duo reinterpret church songs, focusing them through a lens of Nordic Jazz and then dispersing the identity of the songs through improvisation.

A challenge to reinterpreting old, beloved songs is resisting the pull of nostalgia and the urge to express the song as pictured by memory.  The duo accomplishes this by hanging their hat on the melody and only the melody, using that as their tether to the original material while simultaneously utilizing it as an escape hatch to follow their own creative vision.

This isn’t the first time these two have teamed up and delved into the theme of church music.  2010’s Meditations on Christmas kept to the holiday songbook, and of most relevance, Eriksen and Halle were more direct in their interpretations of the originals, playing them closer to the vest.  It’s a nice change of pace on 2014’s Psalm to hear the duo allowing themselves the license to follow their own creative vision when shaping the psalms into something more expansive.

The solemn notes of “Se, vi går opp til Jerusalem” set the mood, creating a baseline from which to modulate both temperature and tone upward.

For instance, the incremental optimism of “Velt alle dine veie” is the hopefulness of a sun patiently rising above the horizon, signalling a new day and a new opportunity.  On the other hand, “Kirken den er et gammelt hus” is steeped in contemplation, a mere ripple on the surface of the serenity.  Working the middle ground is “Å, for djup i Jesu kjærleik,” for which the instruments sing more than express, focusing on the tangibility of melodic fragments and reducing the reliance on elusive atmospherics.

Of all the tracks, “Noen må våke i verdens natt” is the most effusive, putting itself out there and discarding the distant presence of other album tracks.  Eriksen’s piano broods in its way, but it works to develop a big voice.  A quavering trumpet enters and leaves its flight pattern, Halle weighting the effect of his appearance heavier than the frequency.  The song is a winding path that leads far and away from its opening melody, but just when it seems disappeared forever, the melody pops back into sight as the song reaches its conclusion.

Other songs that lend bits of differentiation to the album are “Vend bort din vreide,” which swells up with an abiding cheerfulness and “Jesus, det eneste,” which sees trumpet stretching out a bit, highlighted by sudden rises and descents.

“O bli hos meg!” ends the album on the same solemn note with which it began.  It’s a closing of the circle that ties the album up with a satisfying sense of cohesion and finality.

Just plain beautiful.

Your album personnel:  Espen Eriksen (piano) and Gunnar Halle (trumpet).

Released on the Grappa label.

In addition to the two artist sites linked to above, the duo has a Facebook page dedicated to the project.

Jazz from the Oslo, Norway scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon MP3