Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 19 2012

John Moulder – “The Eleventh Hour: Live at the Green Mill”

My review of John Moulder’s “The Eleventh Hour:  Live at the Green Mill” has been pubbed on AllAboutJazz.  You can read the original review here, at AllAboutJazz.)

*****

 

Whereas many of Chicago’s jazz and blues guitar icons seem to channel the dark alleys and the bar sign neon of the city through their instruments, John Moulder‘s sound is more akin to a synthesis of the lakefront—a beauty and serenity that is just as likely to show a face of fury and cold precision. For some time now, Moulder has quietly been developing his sound into something quite unique. The Eleventh Hour provides the opportunity to hear it in a live setting.

Recorded at the celebrated jazz venue, Chicago’s Green Mill, Moulder presents a set of tunes culled from past albums. But while past studio albums like 2009’s Bifrost and the 2006 release Trinity were laced with atmospheric effects, it’s a thrilling experience to hear the blistering heat and cool grace of his guitar undiluted by studio mechanics and effects.

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

For this show, Moulder leads a quintet of pros that includes saxophonist/bass clarinetist Geof Bradfield and past Pat Metheny Group alum, drummer Paul Wertico. The five of ’em sound like they’ve been performing together since they were wee tots. No better proof of that can be found than on the album’s closing track, “Time Being,” where a hypnotic opening of circular interplay between Molder and pianist Jim Trompeter leads to a series of solos that build atop one another, peaking with a surge of electricity that explodes with the final notes. It’s one of those rare occurrences that a song is truly deserving of the descriptor “magical.”

For a live recording, the audio quality is rock solid. When the inevitable sounds of the venue do hit the audio, they serve to enhance the listening experience rather than detract from it. Live, the heart of Moulder’s sound beats large, and he brings the show straight to the speakers of anyone who listens, as if seated in a booth at the Mill the night it all went down.

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.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

By • Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

Mar 16 2012

Martin Hoper – “The Bride”

My review of Martin Hoper‘s The Bride was originally published at AllAboutJazz.  (Click here to read the review at AllAboutJazz).

*****

 

There is a solemnity throughout bassist Martin Höper‘s The Bride.  When he presents a blues, it enhances the heartbreak.  When he presents a waltz, it adds to the grace. And when the tone grows celebratory, the receding soberness induces even wider smiles.  Imbuing fun music with stately mannerisms is what gives The Bride an emotional complexity that brings such satisfying and successful results.

Your album personnel:  Linus Lindblom (tenor sax), Jonas Ostholm (piano), Chris Montgomery (drums), and Martin Hoper (bass).

The opening track has a sedate, almost bluesy persona.  Linus Lindblom’s saxophone has a melancholy sway, and Hoper’s methodical steps up and down the register give the impression of pacing nervously about the room.  Drums give the faint impression of a clock ticking down to moment of finality; piano trails just behind and drives the point home.

There is a sadness to Hoper’s melodies, even when the music is designed to get the foot tapping.  In part, this can be attributed to the sound prevalent in the Scandinavian jazz scene from where Hoper’s quartet originates, but only so much can be traced back to geography; ultimately, it’s the heart of the musicians at the heart of the music.  The music’s sadness is channeled through the saxophone of Linus Lindblom, who achieves a tone that is light at its heart, but like a feather gently fluttering to the ground, there is no mistaking the effect gravity is having upon it.  So it is with Lindblom’s horn: no matter how buoyant he makes his tone, ultimately the heavier emotions will have their say.  This is best displayed on the second track, “Olmed,” which has Lindblom out front with a plaintive voicing of the melody on a composition that has the rest of the quartet in a spritely frame of mind.  It creates a contradiction of emotion, and depending on which facet of the quartet the listener focuses most on at a particular time, the end result is a single composition with multiple faces.

Despite the album’s complexity, it has a resounding cohesion.  It’s easy to imagine that all the songs were written in a single session of furious creativity.  Songs on an album can fit together in any number of ways.  The Bride is an album where the songs are presented as chapters of a book. There is a story tale arch to the sound.

After the sedate blues of the opener, “The Boys In My Hood,” and the plaintive yet incongruous wide grin of “Olmed,” the title track sees Jonah Ostholm’s piano elicit the elegance of a waltz, and the odd metered combo of bass and drums adds a subdued good cheer.  This is followed by a gentle ballad, with bright piano lines and calming brushwork contrasting with cloudy sky saxophone and dour bass.  Depending on your state of mind, the track may sound either deliciously languid or bordering on bleak.

The album’s second half opens with more life. On “Cilantro,” the quartet adopts a peppier cadence and hints at the pop-infused jazz of Mathias Eick’s Skala.  This is followed by the only composition to act as a (modern) straight-ahead jazz tune, in the American sense of that phrase.  It has a decent amount of fire, but nothing that’s gonna burn the speakers, and the rhythm moves right along without taking any odd steps along the way.  The album closes, first, with a wishing-upon-a-star ballad. Soft and reflective, “Eriksberg” is a quiet tune with limitless hope, and it acts as the perfect lead-in to the final track, “Calibanos,” a lighthearted tune that flies effortlessly on by.

It’s an excellent finale to an album that may leave you wanting even more.

Released on the Hoob Records label.

Jazz from the Stockholm, Sweden scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

By • Announcement - Music, Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

Mar 15 2012

The Wee Trio – “Ashes To Ashes: A David Bowie Intraspective”

 

It really wasn’t a safe choice.  Sure, any jamoke can warble the melody to “China Girl” or slur a decent drunken rendition of “Ziggy Stardust” into a karaoke mic.  David Bowie has recorded some of the seminal tunes of the last century.  His songs are recognizable for a lot of reasons, but none more important than his treatment of the melody.  As much as any rocker, Bowie could spin an addictive melody, one that gets recognized long long after the song’s release date.  The thing of it is, there was nothing simple about Bowie’s melodies.  Sure, they’re easy to hum and they stick to brain like audio glue, but there was always something just a little off in his melodies, something that skewed them just a couple degrees off of Normal.  The way to view Bowie’s melodies are as off the reflection of the lake’s surface… clear, but shimmering.  So, yeah, Bowie’s melodies may be catchy as hell, but holding them in your hand is an entirely different matter.  It’s like grasping onto water.

Let’s talk about how Wee Trio grasps water.

Your album personnel:  Dan Loomis (bass), James Westfall (vibes), and Jared Schonig (drums).

And here’s the track listing, with the original Bowie album in parenthesis:
T1: Battle for Britain (Earthling)
T2: Queen Bitch (Hunky Dory)
T3: The Man Who Sold the World (The Man Who Sold the World)
T4: Ashes to Ashes (Scary Monsters)
T5: 1984 (Diamond Dogs)
T6: Sunday (Heathen)

That a vibraphone led trio should attempt to cover Bowie actually makes a lot of sense.  Vibes are pretty.  They sound happy and clean and they have a bouncy sound.  Just like Bowie’s melodies!  But as Bobby Hutcherson taught us, vibes can also haunt; they can prowl through a composition or batter it mercilessly.  Vibes can turn hazy and dissipate from sight.  Vibes are a lot like the sound of piano viewed as a reflection on the water’s surface.

But speaking for myself, a life-long Bowie fan, while I was thrilled to hear that this album existed, it was an emotion counter-balanced by my pragmatic expectation that it would probably piss me off, leaving me unsatisfied by not treating Bowie songs in a way that I think they should have been approached.  This is a threat that every artist or ensemble must face when reinterpreting the tunes of a Music Great.

Like I said, this wasn’t a safe choice.

On “Battle for Britain,” Bowie was going for the electro-rock sound.  I don’t recall the album getting received too warmly, but in many ways, it wasn’t too far distant from some of his dissonant glam-rock of the mid-to-late 70s albums a la Lodger, Low, and Diamond Dogs (and compiled quite brilliantly on the album Changes II), just maybe a little bit louder and crisper.

Wee Trio really uses the electro-rock element as a way of attacking the composition with rapid-fire rhythms (an extremely deft representation actually), while still returning to the melody with homing pigeon regularity.  Each time they come back to that melody, there is a welcoming sense of returning to the nest that really glues the tune in tight with the rhythmic exhilaration.

Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” has the oh-so-satisfying balance of acoustic and electric guitar and Bowie vocal aeronautic swoops between smooth harmony and screeching inflections.  Bounce your head and tap your foot and its a song that’ll stick in the back of the head long after the song has ended.  Some grunge and some glam and catchy as hell.

There is nothing catchy about Wee Trio’s treatment of this song.  Listening to the Bowie and Wee Trio versions back to back (repeatedly), I felt as if I was listening to inverted compositions.  If Bowie’s version was a tree, Wee Trio snipped off a leaf from its melody, planted it in the soil, and created an entirely new species of flora from it.  If you listen hard enough, you can catch bits here and there that trace the new version’s melody back to its parentage, but that’s about where the similarities end.  Well, there is an enthusiasm inherent in both versions that are comparable, but that’s pushing it a bit when doing Before and After pictures.  Ultimately, it’s my least favorite tune on the album, but I can’t help but appreciate their initiative at taking an element from the song and expanding on it from there into entirely new sound territories.  It’s that kind of musicianship that I love so dearly about Jazz.  So while the Wee Trio’s take on Queen Bitch may not have been to my liking, I find myself strangely appreciative that they didn’t just do a straight cover.  This is almost certainly the tune (and there’s one on every album) that I’ll be perpetually adjusting my opinion of.

“The Man Who Sold the World”, from the early-Bowie album of the same name was a catchy little tune with a folk-rock foundation and some strangely amenable Latin action.  Walking basslines, guitar success through repetition, and easy-peasy Bowie vocals.  Aside from “1984,” this is Wee Trio’s most literal treatment of the original.  Wee Trio’s version is very much like a child’s lullaby, mesmerizing and likely to lull one into a peaceful state of mind.  When the tune gets increasingly lively, its trend toward repetitive statements allows it to retain that lullaby quality.  Beautiful.

On “Ashes to Ashes”, the trio hits the melody, but only in fragments, and often asymmetrically.  I have no idea if this was intentional or not, but it’s thematically clever as a reference to the original version, as the song described a skewed man whose life was falling to pieces.  Westfall blasts away on vibes, slowing down long enough to reference that classic melody.  The tune’s center of gravity lays at the interplay between all three musicians, trading running lines that intersect but on different planes.  For me, this song was easily the highlight of the album.  Thrilling, really.  It also contrasts nicely with Bowie’s version, which was eerily sedate, and despite its pop-song pretensions, was a song that exuded a state of depression.  Wee Trio’s version focuses on the deconstruction of the song’s main character rather than his depressive state.

On 1984, Bowie fused his electro-gloom period with a bit of disco for a dark tune based on Orwell’s book of the same name.  The song is a little bit theatrical cabaret and a little bit nu-disco, so it’s the kind of song you initially put on as background music but find yourself suddenly dancing to.  The song opens with a pretty literal translation of the original, though without any of the original’s flamboyance.  Melodies are dead ringers for one another.  Loomis gets his bass to vocalize Bowie’s tones with startling precision.

Bowie’s version of “Sunday” keeps him singing in lower registers with small inflections and changes in cadence.  He sings over a twitchy electronic drone and too-smooth harmonizing electronic effects.  There is a little bit of a chant feel to the song, and the atmospherics are, to my tastes, a bit overdone.  But then again, some of these same elements I absolutely adore in Radiohead, so my criticism of Bowie on this song may have more to do with my nostalgic view of how he should sound versus judging Heathen as how it is and not how I want it to be.

Wee Trio begins with hypnotic gurgles of sound, Loomis’s bass the only one of the three breaking the surface of the water.  When vibes begin stating the melody, it’s with a stately quality that brings the song an elegance where Bowie went more with a solemn aesthetic.  The trio explodes out of it with jackhammer rhythms that gain steam as they grow lighter on their feet.  When they return to the melody without breaking step, it’s a strong strong moment.

And then the album’s over.

I found myself wanting a day of nothing but the music of David Bowie.  I started out that way, but kept drifting back to Wee Trio’s album.  It was nice to experience a different facet of Bowie’s music through the sound and vision of a jazz trio.  It got me to wanting other ensembles to grab the Bowie songbook.  Ultimately, it had me excited about the possibilities of future music of other musicians.  I could almost hear that music, which, of course, existed only in my own head.  That kind of visceral reaction isn’t easily induced.  Wee Trio made a connection with Bowie’s music, which also connected with me.

That rates Wee Trio’s Ashes to Ashes as a winner in my book.

That’s it.  I was gonna try to wrap up the review with some tie-in to the initial melody-as-water metaphor in my opening statement, but I like how the review wound itself up.

Released on the Bionic Records label, which appears to be run by vibes man Westfall.

Jazz from the New Orleans scene.

Available on Amazon: MP3

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

Mar 14 2012

Tiny Reviews: Julian Joseph, Keith Jarrett, Kevin Hays, & Radio String Quartet Vienna

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Julian Joseph Live at the Vortex in London, Keith Jarrett Rio, Kevin Hays Variations, and Radio String Quartet Vienna Radiodream.

In today’s batch, we have three solo piano albums and one classical string quartet.  I didn’t actually listen to them in this order, nor did I even realize how I had batched them into this article until just now.  Odd how that worked out.  Anyways, let’s begin…

 

Julian Joseph – Live at the Vortex in London

A solo piano outing from shamefully under-recognized pianist Julian Joseph. Extremely talented, and possesses a flair for bringing elements of other genres to him in Jazz without having to leave jazz territory to get them. On Live at the Vortex, Joseph keeps things on familiar ground with a solo live performance that sees him stretching out with his classical background. If you’re into solo piano, this makes a nice selection. For something more traditional from Joseph, check out his excellent The Language of Truth, which I still listen to regularly 15 years after first picking it up.

Your album personnel:  Julian Joseph (piano).

Released on the ASC Records label.

Available on eMusic.

 

Keith Jarrett – Rio

This recording is from Keith Jarrett’s 2011 live solo piano three day concert. Personally, I’ve always preferred Jarrett’s brilliance with his American Quartet back in the 70s, and find most of Jarrett’s solo ECM stuff unpleasantly distant.  But this one, I dunno, seems more soulful, and really connects with me.  Even his odd guttural vocalizations during tunes seems to fit right in just fine.  The fact that tunes keep mostly to the five minute mark probably also works in their favor.  Nice stuff. Compositions like “Rio Part XV” are pure bliss (not the same song embedded below).

Your album personnel:  Keith Jarrett (piano).

Released on ECM Records.

Available on eMusic.

 

Kevin Hays – Variations

Pianist Kevin Hays would make an excellent tour guide on his instrument. He’s spent his career discovering all the hidden spots in between the notes that typically attract the tourists. Leaving his typical trio format for this recording, his exploratory nature shines through. A delicate sound throughout, and compositions that wander classical territory more than jazz, it’s an impressive addition to his already impressive discography.

Your album personnel:  Kevin Hays (piano).

Released on the Pirouet Records label.  Jazz from NYC.

Available on eMusic.

 

And let’s wrap up with my weekly “Cool Album Misfiled Under Jazz” pick….

Radio String Quartet Vienna – Radiodream

Classical music through-and-through. Released on the ACT Music label, which doesn’t stick to just jazz.  Radio String Quartet Vienna gives some moments that come close to representing an eagle soaring over snowcapped mountains and some moments that probably were how Sigourney Weaver felt as she ran from aliens in deep space. Beautiful.  Listening to this over the last month or so, and it’s emotional impact has yet faded for me.

Your album personnel:  Bernie Mallinger (violin), Igmar Jenner (violin), Cynthia Liao (viola), and Asja Valcic (cello)

Available on eMusic.

 

That’s it for today’s article, and the second 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.

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 2

Mar 13 2012

First Impression: Threads Orchestra – “Threads”

 

I just discovered a wonderful ensemble last night, and I’m gonna write a review about it as I stream their beautiful beautiful beautiful music on their Soundcloud page.  If the second half of the album is as outstanding as the first half, I will likely gush about Threads Orchestra‘s album Threads for the entirety of this review.

So, prepare yourself.  This is unfiltered.

Your album personnel:  Adam Robinson (viola), Julian Gregory (violin), Chris Montague (guitar), Kit Downes (piano), Rus Pearson (bass), Kristoffer Wright (drums), and Semay Wu (cello).

The opening track “Attached” probably has some significance to the composer, but for me, it was symbolic in that from the moment the lush waves of strings washed over the intermittent pounding of drums, followed immediately by the prowling piano notes and drowsy guitar effects, I was hooked on this album.  Stuck to it.  Attached.  The song builds nice and slow, more nu-classical with rock moodiness than actual jazz, though the piano section certainly could argue against that statement.  It’s an enchanting opening song, supremely beautiful, but a little fearful in that way expansive beauty can be.

Second track “Gene Wilder” doesn’t exactly dial it back on the addictiveness.  With the happy patter of plucked strings accompanied by poppish piano trills, it’s the audio version of sugary cereal on a bright and snowy winter morning… a sense of the magical in a world of small but special treats.  Then strings start to raise their voice, backed by electric guitar picking and gentle but rapid drumming.  And then it sort’ve turns into a bit of a tango and the tempo and volume rises, receding briefly to the starting point before building right back up to the grand finale.

So far, two songs, two sounds.  Third track “Titus Salt” adds yet another disparate element to this album.

Two feet in the Americana Jazz perfected by Bill Frisell, “Titus Salt” has strings blissfully swaying between searching guitar notes.  Piano breaks through the clearing for an uplifting solo that somehow raises the prettiness factor.  But really, it’s the trio of viola, violin, and cello that shines brightest on this tune.  Good grief, this is a beautiful tune.

See?  I warned you how I’d be.  It’s love, I just know it.

Let’s talk about one more tune, then call it a day.

The sixth track “Oliver Reed,” begins with some avant-garde strings that would make the duo of Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone proud.  They seamlessly transition to a tango sound, which really doesn’t seem like it should work except that I just heard it happen (and so can you embedded just above).  As a composition, it’s a whirlwind with an excellent sense of timing.  Strings whip about while piano hops in place, and everything sound like it gonna scatter everywhere, but instead finds a dance partner and saves the chaos for another day.

Just outstanding.

The album is Self-Produced.  It was released in 2011.  Music from the UK.

Stream the entire album on their bandcamp page, where you can also purchase the album.

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artists.

NOTE:  I will be writing a proper album review of Threads, to appear either on Bird is the Worm or AllAboutJazz. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The review appears on Bird is the Worm, and is searchable via the “Musicians” drop-down menu on the right-hand side of this screen).

NOTE:  Also, I believe there is a 2012 release forthcoming.

 

*The first of a series of one-draft stream-of-conscious “reviews” of new-to-me albums and/or artists.  See the Series Intro post for more information about the First Impression Series.

By • Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases • 0

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