Monthly Archives: February 2014

A thrilling large ensemble work that features the compositions of Ken Vandermark, and performed by an all-star cast of musicians.  Head Above Water, Feet Out of the Fire is comprised of a studio recording and a live performance.  The latter is a live recording from a 2012 performance in Hasselt, Belgium, and consisted of compositions that the ensemble had been working on during the tour and felt so successful, they wanted to get the music down on record.  The studio album was recorded in Chicago in 2012, and was to coincide with the Chicago Jazz Festival debut of new compositions.

This is music that’s got determination and drive, punctuates its solos with gusto, and casts out harmonic waves intended to sweep up listeners and take them away… and, thankfully, never forgets to deliver the goods with a conversational tone that is as intellectually gripping as the music is emotionally intense.

Your album personnel:  Ken Vandermark (baritone sax, Bb clarinet), Mikolaj Trzaska (alto sax, bass clarinet), Waclaw Zimpel (Bb & alto clarinets), Tim Daisy (drums), Mark Tokar (acoustic bass), Michael Zerang (drums), Steve Swell (trombone), Magnus Broo (trumpet), Dave Rempis (alto & tenor saxes), Per-Åke Holmlander (tuba), and Devin Hoff (bass VI).

“Creative Reconstruction Company (For Muhal Richard Abrams)” is a wild horse, alternating between an hypnotic cadence of hooves pounding earth at a gallop and the sudden rearing back and explosion of force upward, shouting up to the sky with all the fury gained from forward motion.

The uneasy drone of “Elegy for Two Rooms (For Fred Anderson and Von Freeman)” is both soothing and ominous, whereas “Type A (For Michael Orlove)” has a boisterous personality and a chipper attitude, ending sentences with wide beaming smiles.  Even, later, when the song breaks down into dissonance, that initial friendliness still comes through.

“Fsa Color (For Thomas Bernhard)” is a series of somersaults, a spinning motion that trumpet solos atop like walking a barrel.  Momentarily, the ensemble takes it down a gear, and settles into a pacified little stroll that builds up to a hike through the storm.

“Lipstick in Hi-Fi (For Jean-Luc Godard)” begins with a ramshackle swing, a motion that sways with a grim velocity.  Drums and tuba break from out of the crowd, run the table with a compelling point of contrast to the ensemble’s Big Sound.  The moans and howls of the middle section are an interlude to the slight reprise of the opening statement, but run down with the cadence of a stampede… furious, yet strangely ordered.

“The Other Shore (For Robert Irwin)” begins as a dust devil of reeds, shifts into a whirlwind, and ends as a focused jet stream of rhythmic propulsion.

The album ends with the perpetual costume change of “Watch Repair (For Michael Haneke),” a tune that reveals new dimensions with passion, while nonchalantly discarding over its shoulder that which is no more.

Tuneful music, thrilling music, and so very fun.

Released on the NotTwo Records label.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

However, if you want the CD, it’s cheaper at the Catalytic Sound site… which is a collective of like-minded musicians that joined together to sell their music.  Vandermark is a member of that collective, and it’s always best to buy directly from the artist whenever possible.

*****

For the most part, this review is original to Bird is the Worm, but I sorta fell in love with a couple of the sentences that I originally used in my Jazz Picks weekly article for eMusic when I first talked about this album, and I wanted to use it here unaltered.  So, while I’m not even sure I need to do this, out of respect to eMusic, here’s some language protecting their rights to the reprinted material as the one to hire me to write about new jazz arrivals to their site…

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks,“ reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2014  eMusic.com, Inc.

My sincere thanks to eMusic for the gig.

I’m not gonna have much for you on this one, but I’ve been captivated by Aïki Do Rémy, the debut EP of Free Human Zoo, and so I wanted to get in a quick mention of it.

As best I can tell, this is a septet that employs two guitarists or, more likely, a sextet that rotates the guitarists depending on the composition.  This music is highly melodic, and switches between expressions of moody contemplation and joyful unrestrained motion.  Very much a jazz-rock blend, with perhaps the influence of the latter being the stronger of the two.

This, I believe, are the musicians who perform on this recording…

Your album personnel:  Samy Thiebault (tenor sax, flute), Patrice Kornheiser (piano, clavier), Gildas Martin (guitar), Laurent Skoczek (trombone, effects), Nicolas Feuger (electric bass), Dan Decrauze (guitars), and Gilles Le Rest (drums).

The album opens with “Cœur Céleste,” a song that maintains an urgency even in the presence of melodic trombone purrs and saxophone sighs.

“Corps Léger” opens with a joyful bounce that saxophones and guitar flutter and dart above.  An up-tempo song that offers up rich textural rhythms, and meshes influences not that far removed from the exhilarating work of fellow country-person Anne Paceo and her outstanding album Yôkaï.

“Doute” begins with introspection, but then shifts into a higher gear, and the melody shows its able to operate at any speed.  They build with repetition, slowly, and with a purposeful direction that leads right into the album’s final tune “Danse Circusséenne,” which uses the repetitive pattern of the previous song as a launching pad into something far more dynamic rhythmically.  The song’s cheerful demeanor gives it license to tinker with the melody, expressing it with a kaleidoscopic motion that renders a thrilling conclusion to this captivating album.

Released on Ex-Tension Records.

Jazz from France.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon MP3

Andy Emler, Claude Tchamitchian and Eric Echampard (aka ETE) are long-time collaborators.  Their newest album Sad and Beautiful is the third recording of these artists in a trio format.  This, in addition to their work together in Emler’s MegaOctet, has given rise to a certain empathy to the cryptic structures of Emler’s compositions as well as each artist’s peculiar voices that each of the artists possess.  It’s why so much of their music sounds so mysterious and strange, yet reflects a logic and beauty so simple to absorb.

2014’s Sad and Beautiful is the most concrete presentation of this yet.

Your album personnel:  Andy Emler (piano), Claude Tchamitchian (double bass), and Eric Echampard (drums).

As with past recordings, their newest collaboration is exemplified by an uneasy melodicism.  Opening track “A Journey Through Hope” opens with it immediately before breaking into a cant that carries that melody away.  Emler’s piano is a cascade of notes that withdraws and returns with a suddenness that is quite startling, just as it is welcome.  Tchamitchian provides dramatic strikes of lightning with some bass arco, bolstering the turbulence of Eschampard’s drums.

The interlude of “Last Chance” shows the trio’s ability to shift into a melody of a more elegant shapeliness.  The pleasant chatter from drums, the introspective missives from piano, deep sighs from bass.  “Elegances” picks up where the previous interlude left off, but sinks deeper into introspection before ramping things up to finish off the song.

“Second Chance” is a vortex of motion, growing faster as the trio reaches the core of the song.  On “Tee Time,” however, the force of the trio is more vertically directed, charging head first from the first notes, when bass comes out humming, piano taking leaps and bounds, and drums coaxing the intensity ever upward.  The trio slides into expressions of a defined melody that also possesses strong rhythmic implications.  A beautiful middle passage of bass arco, and piano singing just over the top, leads to some atonality when piano alters its voice and cymbals crash down repeatedly.  This, in turn, leads to a conclusion with a hurried demeanor and the delivery of abrupt phrases, contrasting with both the song’s cohesive opening and its serene middle section.  It’s these kinds of changes of expression that symbolizes so much of the strange and mysterious beauty contained in the music of these artists.

The albums final two songs do no less.  “By the Way” begins with a dancer’s elegance and proclivity for crisp and fluid changes of shape and motion.  And the concluding song “Try Home” is a subdued expression of what has come before… a brief and quiet introspection, and a curious beauty.

Released on La Buissonne.

Available at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon MP3