Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun 25 2012

Review (NYOP Edition): Jason Parker Quartet – “Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake”

NYOP Edition:  Review of Jason Parker Quartet‘s Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake.

The NYOP Review Series highlights albums set to Name Your Own Price by the artists with the goal of making price no obstacle to discovering their music.

 

Jason Parker Quartet – Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake

The late Nick Drake had a short but profound career, recording three folk-rock albums of sublime beauty and massive sadness.  None of that music was particularly complex, but the melodies were vivid, the rhythms uncomplicated, and the emotional depth in which Drake gave voice to them made for some spectacular moments.  However, that simplicity had to have been something of an obstacle for trumpet man Jason Parker, an admitted fan of Nick Drake, as he attempted to reconstruct the tunes into something a jazz quartet could sink their teeth into.

Your album personnel: Jason Parker (trumpet & flugelhorn), Josh Rawlings (piano), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), D’Vonne Lewis (drums), and guests: Michele Khazak (vocals) and Cynthia Mullis (tenor sax & flute).

On this album, Parker performs the songs of Drake’s original album Five Leaves Left in their entirety and in the same album order as the original.  The challenges Jason Parker faced in tackling the Nick Drake songbook and arranging it for a jazz outfit were two-fold.

Because much of Drake’s simplicity allowed his music to focus its emotional impact, it would be safe to assume that Parker would encounter the balancing act of honoring the emotion-simplicity ratio of Drake’s music and honoring his own music vision as well as that of his bandmates.  He accomplishes this by not getting chained to Drake’s sadness, instead drawing out from each song the emotion that spoke to him musically.

The best example of this can be found in two songs: “Cello Song” and “Man In a Shed.”  Parker flips “Cello Song” on its head, taking Drake’s sonic brooding and transforming it into an upbeat tune.  After Flory-Barnes opens things up with some arco on the bass, Parker and Mullis kick back and blow, trumpet and sax taking turns shouting up to the sky.  Lewis establishes a snappy bounce, while Rawlings adds shading where it needs it.  Parker’s treatment of the melody is pretty damn identical to the original, but the emotional shift he incorporates into the song makes this the best example of Parker taking ownership of the Drake songbook, rather than just parroting the notes.  On “Man In a Shed,” Parker doubles down on Drake’s stab at buoyancy by turning the song into a celebratory jig, an invitation to laughter, and not settling for Drake’s mere allusion to contentment.

The other substantial challenge Parker faced on this album falls more squarely into the lap of vocalist Michele Khazak.  Drake had a signature velvety voice that sounded genuinely hopeful, but preeminently melancholy.  For listeners who strongly embrace the Drake songbook, it can be tough to accept any voice other than Drake’s singing those words.  On songs like “Time Has Told Me,” where Khazak keeps the Drake original on a tight leash, it’s not a particularly successful outcome.  However, when Khazak breaks from the original, like on “Way To Blue,” she absolutely shines.  Khazak turns away from the latent torpor in Drake’s voice and instead ignites her own burgeoning strength.  The quartet uses her spark as a springboard into a performance with more fight and fire than the original even realized, perhaps, it possessed.  It’s arguably the strongest moment on the album, with Khazak leading the charge.

The album is split about in half between vocal and instrumental tracks, with the latter consistently stronger, but with the former providing the more memorable moments.

Album ends with a duo performance of “Saturday Sun” with Parker on flugel and Rawlings on piano.  They lend it all the subtlety and barely repressed weariness of the Drake original.  It’s probably the best way to have ended a Nick Drake tribute album… subdued, simple, and evocative.

Personal Admission of Substantial Bias:  I am a huge Nick Drake fan.  His music made a serious connection with me back in the day, and its strength hasn’t waned.  I don’t want to hear anyone fucking with his music or, more revelevant to me personally, my memory of his music.  So this was a prickly obstacle to overcome.  Also, when I first heard Parker’s tribute album nearly a year ago, unfortunately, it coincided with a Nick Drake listening binge that I was going through at the time, so there’s no doubt that colored my initial impression of the album.  I keep revisiting Parker’s Five Leaves Left every couple months.  I find myself liking it more, accepting it more on its own terms.  That includes Khazak’s vocals in her “role” as the Nick Drake fill-in.  It’s why I hesitate to fully articulate some of the strong feelings I have about this recording… because I’m able to measure the change in my opinion of the album in comparison to the change in my biases.  I suppose the fact that I keep revisiting this album is evidence enough that there’s something happening here that should inspire everyone to take the time to listen.  Worth noting, also, that I just “revisited” this album four times in a row today.  Give it a chance.  I’d be interested to hear an opinion of this album from someone(s) who isn’t a Nick Drake fan.

Released in March 2011. The album is Self-Produced. Jazz from the Seattle, WA scene.

Available on Parker’s bandcamp page, priced at Name Your Own Price (NYOP).

You can read more about the Bird is the Worm NYOP Review Series HERE.

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases, Jazz Recommendations: the NYOP editions • 0

Jun 25 2012

New BitW Series: Reviews & Tiny Reviews- NYOP Editions

 

I’m going to begin putting the spotlight on some artists who have their albums set to NYOP (Name Your Own Price), which is exactly as it implies… you can purchase the album at any price you desire, including free.  Pay whatever you like.  And even if you choose Free, if down the road you decide that the album was more enjoyable than you first assumed, there is an option to go back and pay after the fact, again, at any price you choose.

It’s an interesting model, especially for artists who are unknown and just starting out, but also for artists who own the copyright to their music and want to rekindle interest in their older albums.

Most of the albums will be on the artists’ Bandcamp pages.  If you’re unfamiliar with Bandcamp, it’s a music retail site like Amazon or iTunes.  However, on Bandcamp, artists have control over their own “page” and, reportedly, Bandcamp takes less of a middleman cut than Amazon and iTunes, thus the artist makes more money from each sale.  Also, the Bandcamp site offers a variety of downloadable file formats; so you can download in the normal MP3 format like you would anywhere else, but you can also download in lossless formats, which means larger file sizes but better sound quality.  The price is the same no matter which file type you choose.  And if you prefer CDs or Vinyl, many artists sell those mediums on their Bandcamp page, too.  There will be occasions when the album will, instead, be streamable on the artist Soundcloud or Artist Site, but most will likely be a Bandcamp thing.

Anyways, I’m gonna do an occasional series of these NYOP Editions of Reviews & Tiny Reviews.  Some I’ll post here, and some I’ll post over on the Music Is Good site.  Worth noting that MiG also has posts of a similar nature for non-jazz albums.

Some reviews will be more comprehensive than others.  There will be times that I give the album one listen and perform a brief write-up from that.  The goal of this series is to get the spotlight on interesting music, rather than an analysis of what’s there.

If you are an artist and have an NYOP album that you want me to give a listen to, go ahead and drop a request in this post’s Comments section.  That’s where I’ll respond yes or no.

Requirements to participate:

1.  The album has to be set to Name Your Own Price (or Free, but with an option for fans to donate/pay as thanks for the music).

2.  I must be able to stream the entire album online.  It doesn’t have to be on a Bandcamp page; Soundcloud and Artist Sites are good.  I only mentioned Bandcamp initially because that’s where I initially became familiar with the NYOP model.  I don’t want to download the album, nor do I want physical copies sent to me.  My computer is stuffed to the gills with music files, and I want you to be able to sell the physical albums at shows or to people who want to buy it that way online.

3.  One request per artist.  If I run out of material, I’ll send out some notices on Twitter saying that I’m open for multiple submissions.  If you don’t follow me on Twitter, you really should.  Not only do I disseminate important information, but I’m also fucking hilarious (or so I’ve told myself on numerous occasions).  My Twitter handle is @BirdIsTheWorm.

4.  Please be genuinely committed to the NYOP strategy.  It doesn’t have to be for all of an artist’s albums.  For instance, I’ll be doing a Tiny Review of an album for an artist who has one class of recordings as NYOP, but his “major” recordings at a normal retail price.  I’m totally cool with that.  I’m just asking that an artist not temporarily put their album at NYOP in order to get some print here, then switch it back to normal retail model after I publish the review.  The NYOP model might not work for everyone, and it might not be an enduring good idea, but I want to add a little momentum to artists who are experimenting with new music retail strategies, because god knows, the music industry needs some.

I think that’s all I’ve got.  We’ll see how this goes.  I think this upcoming week will be dominated by the NYOP series, then I’ll start spreading them out a bit.

I’ll be posting the first article in the NYOP series momentarily, a review of Jason Parker Quartet‘s Five Leaves Left:  A Tribute to Nick Drake.

In other BitW news, I’ve got two nice batches of Tiny Reviews just about ready to publish.  It’ll either happen this week or next, depending on how the NYOP series goes.  Also, I’ve got some reviews to pub for the ESP label by Frank Lowe, Marzette Watts, and Frank Wright; a couple are re-issues and one was never issued before.  All three are very much in the free jazz school, recorded between ’66 & ’74.  I don’t typically do older recordings, especially reissues, but I have a soft spot in my heart for ESP and have really been in the mood for some free jazz, so I made an exception.

Cheers, and thanks for visiting the site.

-Dave Sumner

 

By • Announcement - Site & General • 0

Jun 23 2012

Reviews: Todd Bishop Group, River Cow Orchestra, Phronesis & More

 

Review of Todd Bishop Group Little Played Little Bird, and Tiny Reviews of River Cow Orchestra, Phronesis, and more.

*****

 

Todd Bishop Group – Little Played, Little Bird

Taking ownership of a series of obscure Ornette Coleman songs, drummer Todd Bishop shines them through a facet of his own view of the music, while leaving the beating heart of the originals intact, not a scratch upon them.

Most strikingly, the album is an easy listen.  Not in the sense that it’s straight-forward, but instead, Bishop doesn’t needlessly complicate matters.  Due to his inventiveness, Coleman’s music already comes with its dangers and pitfalls, wrapped with a bow on top.  Bishop doesn’t try to out-free Coleman, instead, just takes the music as it is, and then plays it his way.  That’s a big reason why this album works.  It’s an impressive music statement to sound both personal and referential, to create music that feels In The Now and simultaneously nostalgic.

Your album personnel:  Todd Bishop (drums), Richard Cole (bass clarinet, baritone & soprano sax), Tim Willcox (tenor & soprano sax), Weber Iago (piano & Wurlitzer), and Bill Athens (bass).

Apparently the Old English translation of Ornette’s name is “Little Bird,” the source of that part of the title.  The “Little Played” portion relates to the relative obscurity of the tracks comprising this album (aside from “Lonely Woman,” a popular Coleman composition which Bishop has been performing for years and wanted to include “concept be damned.”).  Most of the songs were originally released on Coleman albums with dates 1969 and later, and many are still not sold digitally.  To hear the originals, one would either have to get lucky finding something on youtube or, as I did, stare interminably at personal CD shelves while grumbling about not having kept them organized while frying the pupils looking for Ornette’s name on jewel case spines.

Even as Bishop performs the music in his own voice, there’s still no confusing this music as originating from anyone but Coleman.  Album opener “Mothers Of the Veil” has the classic whippoorwill thrusts of woodwinds quickly rising and descending.  “Feet Music” has that classic funky strut of 60s-era hard bop, and “Comme il Faut” remains as patternless as snow drifts in a shifting breeze.

But there are plenty of divergences as well.  The album closer “Strange As It Seems,” is a brooding skewed ballad, contrasting with the cracked mirror refraction from blues gospel fusion of Coleman’s original.  And on “Check Up,” Bishop plays the tune closer to the vest, a sunny jaunt through the park, and in contrast to Coleman’s original which was a ball of yarn perpetually threatening to become unwound and tangled.

Amazingly, Bishop has negated the requirement of actually needing to like Coleman’s music to enjoy Little Played Little Bird, without extinguishing the heart of the source music, and thus, making this an album accessible to Coleman enthusiasts, too.

Released on the Origin/OA2 label.  Jazz from the Portland, Oregon scene.

You can stream the album, and purchase it, on Bishop’s bandcamp page.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

 

River Cow Orchestra – Going Softly Into the Good Night

Kansas City, MO outfit, the River Cow Orchestra, slips some theater into their music while subscribing unequivocally to a focus on group improvisation and the solemnity of the first take.  Trumpet takes the lead throughout, and perpetually maintains a birds-eye view of the music.  Keyboards and effects keep a fuzzy groove going.  Some occasional spoken word and general music caterwauling.  Some moments of humor, though in that deadpan variety that leaves one unsure if they’re being serious or not.  Playful, energetic, and unbounded.  A discography worth exploring.

Your album personnel:  E.E. Pointer (trumpet), Allan McGinty (bass), Michael LaGrega (violin, synthesizer), Don McCarter (guitar), Greg Field (percussion, drums), and Brent Bowman (keyboard).

Released on the FieldInfoServ label.  Jazz from the Kansas City, MO scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

 

Phronesis – Walking Dark

Phronesis is a piano trio with feet firmly planted in the modern jazz soil.  Staggered rhythms, frenetic melodies, and unafraid if their jazz rocks out from time to time.  For people who like that New Piano Trio tension a la Esbjorn Svensson Trio.  What they’re doing here is pretty fashionable these days for a modern piano trio, but Phronesis is doing it better than most.  Bassist Hoiby really gets his instrument to sing, so the bass isn’t getting lost in the background, nor is it incessantly begging for attention.  Eger keeps a nice chatter going on the drums.  Neame puts in a workmanlike performance; his is a name that I’m increasingly finding in the liner notes of solid albums.

All three musicians are part of the thriving new generation of the UK jazz scene and worth the time to follow.  Speaking of those musicians…

Your album personnel:  Jasper Høiby (double bass), Ivo Neame (piano), and Anton Eger (drums).

Released on the Edition Records label.  Jazz from the UK.

Available at eMusic.

 

Other Albums of Interest:

 

Solid! – Visitor

Solid! is an organ trio imbued with the introspective Norwegian jazz sound of their homeland. Very little of the groove one might assume, and more of a focus on melodies. Addition of first-class tenor man Seamus Blake adds nice texture. Organ, guitar, drums, and Blake’s tenor sax.

Artist site Link.  Available on eMusic.

 

Dan Cray – Meridies

Nice straight-ahead set of tunes featuring former Chicagoan Dan Cray on piano leading a quartet that includes new sax wunderkind Noah Preminger.  Nothing groundbreaking, just decent jazz.  Album ender “March of the Archetypes” sends the album off on a terrific note, and has me intrigued to see where Cray goes with his next recording.

Download a free track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label (Origin).

Artist site Link.  Available on eMusic.

 

Red Trio + Nate Wooley – Stem

Engaging free jazz session with Lisbon-based Red Trio and Brooklyn’s Nate Wooley.  Wooley’s trumpet arcs overhead, warning of danger, as the piano trio sometimes spurs the rhythm the ahead, sometimes prowls menacingly after it.  Growls, jangles, screeches, and breaks down the door.  For those who like ferocity in their jazz.

Artist site Link.  Available on eMusic.

 

Sinouj – Here

Sinouj describes their music as “Afro-Mediterranean band which bases its music on Magreb and Middle Eastern traditions that they mix with contemporary jazz, funk, as well as African musics.”   Or said differently, it’s world jazz that you can party to.  Joyful, lively, and all types of groove for the bounce addicts.  So glad I ran into this one.

Your album personnel:  Pablo Hernández Ramos (alto sax), Larbi Sassi (violin), Sergio Salvi (keyboards), Pablo Alfieri (bass), and Akin Onasanya (drums).

Artist site Link.  Stream the album on their bandcamp page.  Available on eMusic.

*****

 

The Todd Bishop and River Cow Orchestra reviews are original to Bird is the Worm.  However, portions of the other reviews were originally used in my Jazz Picks weekly article for eMusic, so here’s some language protecting their rights as the one to hire me to write about new jazz arrivals to their site…

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

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

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 1

Jun 19 2012

Matt Ulery – “By A Little Light”

 

It’s a celebratory moment when an artist attempts to grasp a grand vision.  We should want that from our artists, that they attempt to synthesize Big Dreams down to expressions of creativity that can be shared with us all.  We want to be able to experience the great expanse of a massive idea and gain a sense of the journey it took to get there.  The connection with something that is both immense and intangible is like staring into futures and possibilities opened up to us all.  These attempts at capturing the epic don’t have to be perfect.  Hell, sometimes their imperfections add to their strength, much how a brief slip can make the climb to the mountaintop that much more thrilling and glorious.

Matt Ulery’s By A Little Light is about as close to perfection as one can get.

Spanning two discs, bassist and composer Ulery presents a story that is as much classical as it is jazz, as much theater as it is music.  At the heart of the music is the piano trio.  Working with two different piano-drummer combos, pianist Rob Clearfield paired with drummer Michael Caskey and pianist Ben Lewis paired with drummer Jon Deitemyer, Ulery starts with the trio and builds up, and out, from there.  Adding members of the Eighth Blackbird ensemble, violinist Zach Brock and vocalist Grazyna Auguscik to this mix, Ulery all but guarantees that his music will defy comparison.  This is music with a strong identity difficult to put name to.  The first disc, subtitled “By a Little Light” is all instrumental.  The second disc, subtitled “To the Brim”, is accompanied by vocals.  It is an album in two acts.

Disc One sets the stage.  Using a blend of classical, jazz, and Old World folk music, Ulery weaves a landscape out of sound and populates it with cities of notes.  Even on a tune like the title-track, where it is only the piano trio in action, the texture of the sound gives the impression of more instruments lurking in the background, uncredited and out of sight.  Nothing about this music is small.  Even the nuances possess a weight that belies their brief moments in the spotlight.  Piano is given lots of room to roam and explore, while drums stamp it on the map.  When not gingerly tiptoeing through the scene, strings make dreamy pronouncements, while vibes and trumpet shade the edges.

No better representative track for Disc One than “To Lose Your Mind.”  Vibes and piano provide a sense of gravity, of two feet planted on the earth, while strings and drums provide the running start and liftoff to flight.  On violin, Zach Brock transitions between those two roles, providing at time the sound of footfalls on fresh soil, and at other times, lush notes ethereal as clouds.

The final track on Disc One, “The Miniaturist”, ends with a lullaby, reminiscent of Ulery’s 2010 release Flora.Fauna.Fervor.  Piano and vibes meticulously create a silhouette composed of infinite permutations of shading, while bass and drums imbue it with just the faintest sense of motion, that perhaps the silhouette, like a dream come alive, is more than just a shadowy outline.

Disc Two lets the characters develop.  Set to a backdrop of soaring woodwinds, brass, and strings, Auguscik sings words of encouragement.  The song blossoms with the hope and romance of fairy tales.  But fairy tales are also typified by the affliction of dark days, and so when shadows descend upon the composition as it transitions to the next song, it’s almost to be expected.  This time it’s Ulery who takes over the role of vocalist.  His voice has little range, and it’s sort of brittle; qualities which imbue the music with an eye-opening vulnerability as he sings of his worry of loneliness and worst case scenarios.  It makes for one of the album’s biggest successes.  After this, the composition returns to the jazz piano trio, and then true to form, it grows organically from there.  Joined by strings, alto flute, and bass clarinet, the tune lifts off, returning to its original spot for the song’s conclusion.

Auguscik returns to vocals for the final three tracks (with Ulery providing some accompaniment).  They’re beautiful songs, and of particular note is the superb pairing of Tim Munro on alto flute with the bass clarinet of Michael Maccaferri on “To the Brim”, who enter with melodic statements of heartbreaking beauty.  Their appearances are only momentary, but it speaks well to Ulery’s talents that he allows his compositions room to breathe such that seemingly minor details and embellishments are allowed to become something greater.

“… allowed to become something greater.”  That is By A Little Light in a nutshell.

Your album personnel:  Matt Ulery (double bass, voice), Ben Lewis (piano) and Jon Deitmeyer (drums) (Tracks 1-5, 11), Rob Clearfield (piano) and Michael Caskey (drums) (Tracks 6-10, 12), and joined by:  Michael Maccaferri (clarinet, bass clarinet), Tim Munro (flute, alto flute), James Davis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Zach Brock (violin), Dominic Johnson (viola), Nicholas Photinos (cello), Matthew Duval (vibraphone, glockenspiel, marimba), and Grazyna Auguscik (vocals).

Released on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music label.

Music from the Chicago scene.

You can purchase the album as MP3, FLAC, or CD at the Greenleaf Music store.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

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

Jun 18 2012

The Safety Net: Sunna Gunnlaugs – “Mindful” & “Songs From Iceland”

 

The Safety Net, a Bird is the Worm series which highlights outstanding older albums that may have flown under the radar when first released.

*****

Pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs recorded an excellent album in the last half of 2011 called Long Pair Bond.  And though I initially became familiar with her music via the 2010 release The Dream, it was Long Pair Bond that really got me to sit up and take notice.  Since then, I’ve written a review of that album for eMusic and, more recently, interviewed Gunnlaugs for AllAboutJazz.  As is the case anytime I discover a new musician, I dive into their recording history to see what else I missed.  I’ll be talking about two of those albums today.

Mindful and Songs From Iceland were recorded on the same day in December 1999, at the System Two recording studio in Brooklyn, NY.  In what is described on her site as “an incredibly productive session,” Gunnlaugs’ quartet kicked out enough music to spread over two recordings.  During my AAJ interview (whose focus was Gunnlaugs’ current U.S. tour, which runs from June 16 – July 7, 2012), I squeezed in a couple questions about the 1999 recording session that produced Mindful, which Gunnlaugs explained were all original compositions, and Songs From Iceland, which are a collection of Icelandic folk songs.

First, let’s talk about that music.

Your album personnel:  Sunna Gunnlaugs (piano), Tony Malaby (sax), Drew Gress (bass), and Scott McLemore (drums).

The immediate characteristic of both albums that struck me was how “New York” they sounded.  One of the preeminent successes of Long Pair Bond is how Gunnlaugs is able to infuse the buoyancy of New York-style jazz into the austere serenity of Nordic-style folk-jazz… like enjoying a jolt of coffee while sitting by the fireplace and quietly watching the snow fall outside.  It was this quality of sound that was my introduction to Gunnlaugs’ music.  But, really, the older recordings shouldn’t have caught me off guard.

Originally from just outside of Reykjavík, Iceland, Gunnlaugs attended William Paterson University in Jersey before relocating to Brooklyn.  Immersing oneself in that kind of environment is certainly going to affect a person, whether listener or musician.  As Gunnlaugs explains on her site, “Suddenly being able to go to the Village Vanguard or Bradley’s any night of the week and hear amazing pianists was an incredible experience.  It was such a stimulating environment.”  It was in this environment that both albums at hand were recorded.

On Mindful, there is an uninhibited playfulness.  It’s apparent from the interplay that they are paying close attention to one another, even when stretching out on their own.  Mindful album opener “The Good Stuff” begins with Gunnlaugs and Malaby shadowboxing, shooting notes at one another whose intention is to cause an interaction without actually striking one another.  It’s an approach to choreography that extends throughout the entire recording.

The music of Mindful attains great speeds and swoops right in and heads straight up toward the sun.  But within each song is an interlude, sometimes more than one, where a height is attained and the quartet just soars, almost motionlessly in place, letting loose notes sparingly like the occasional flap of wings.  And then they dive right back down and begin all over again.  The push and pull works to the quartet’s strengths, and speaks well for the album.  Title track “Mindful” and “Bad Seeds” illustrate nicely this music attack.

Songs From Iceland takes an interesting approach to Icelandic folk songs.  Whereas the immediate assumption might be that this would be an album of subdued tempos, tight hold on the melodies, and a restraint of notes, Gunnlaugs keeps the This Is New York Jazz sound going.  There is only a hint of the regional folk music on the surface of the songs.  And, perhaps, this is a precursor for music that is to come later, when Gunnlaugs returned to her homeland of Iceland and began working the NYC-Nordic formula in the other direction.

Album opener “Upp á himins bláum boga” is about as straight-ahead a jazz tune as can be found on either recording.  The opening salvo is a strong statement of melody, followed by interludes that allow each member of the quartet to stretch out, with occasional returns to the opening statement.  The only real divergence, and it’s a noticeable one, is McLemore’s rhythmic tornado to end the tune on a thrilling note.

Second track “Höllukvæði” guides the recording closer to where an album with a folk song foundation would be expected to situate itself.  Moody, but still light on its toes, the song smoulders with an impression of old tales and the passage of time.  A beautiful song that builds in tension without sacrificing warmth, McLemore and Gress play a game of synchronized hopscotch as Gunnlaugs keeps things bright on keys while Malaby fires up the sax.  And for the rest of the album, the musicians keep to these roles.  Malaby oscillates between casual swing and a fierce burn.  McLemore and Gress work in tandem to give compositions a roiling undercurrent and a snappy bounce.  Gunnlaugs goes where the melody takes her, which is anywhere between spinning tales out of icicles and sparking embers to life.

Album ends with “Það búa litlir dvergar”, a tune with an infectious melody, sending the album off on the same cheerful note on which it began.

*****

As I mentioned earlier, I sneaked in a couple questions about this session while interviewing Gunnlaugs about her current tour.  Here they are…

Dave Sumner (BitW):  Looking back on the Songs From Iceland/Mindful recording session… how do you feel about that day now?  Have you changed as a musician since those sessions?  And if so, then how?

Sunna Gunnlaugs:  I feel great about those albums.  I didn’t feel so great about it right after the recording session, because it wasn’t as energetic as our live concerts were.  But that is typical- people stretch out much more in concert.  After some time passed, I could listen to the session without having that emotional connection.  There was a very special energy in that group and Mindful is especially close to my heart. It’s also my mom’s favorite.

I hope I have grown as a musician.  I feel that my writing has changed a bit after I moved to Iceland.  There is more space in the music now which maybe represents my current environment while the music on my previous albums represents Brooklyn.

DS:  Anything from that session still stand out in your mind, a memory that you find yourself occasionally reminiscing upon?

SG: There was no plan to record Songs from Iceland.  The recording session for Mindful went so well that we were done with time left over, so we decided to run the Songs from Iceland stuff, too.  I think we had just started to play that stuff in preparation for a tour of Iceland we had coming up a couple of months later.  You can actually read the tour diary on my site… quite an intense tour.

The recording session was in late December, and I remember entering the Systems Two studio and the engineer Joe Marciano greeting us in a Hawaiian shirt and white loafers.  It really brightened up the room.  I also remember sitting at the Steinway there and thinking I’d never want to leave.

It’s fun thinking back to the Mindful days. We played at places like Knitting Factory and Cornelia Street Cafe, and [saxophonist Tony] Malaby was always pulling pranks on us like filling our pockets with packets of sugar.

*****

You can stream both albums on Gunnlaugs’ bandcamp page.  You can purchase them there, too:  Mindful | Songs From Iceland

Download a free album track from Songs From Iceland at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist.

Available at Amazon:  Mindful: MP3

Available at Amazon:  Songs From Iceland: CD | MP3

Here’s a link to her tour schedule.  I believe Gunnlaugs is still working out the details on shows for the 24th and/or 25th, perhaps a show in Cleveland, so check back to her site if you live somewhere between Detroit and NYC.

By • Jazz Recommendations, The Safety Net • 0

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