Jan 23 2012
Review of Sunna Gunnlaugs’ “Long Pair Bond” on Emusic
My review of Sunna Gunnlaugs‘ Long Pair Bond is published over on Emusic now. It was one of the top recordings n 2011.
Here’s the link to the page.
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Jan 22 2012
Know Your ABCs: An Album, a Book, and a Cat
Here’s your Sunday edition of Know Your ABCs…
Your Album: The Scenic Route, by Kamikaze Ground Crew
Your Book: The Masked Man, a comic series by BC Boyer.
Your Cats: Thomas O’Mally & Marie
THE SCENIC ROUTE, an Album by the Kamikaze Ground Crew
Consisting of Downtown New York musicians who begun their collaboration as a pit band for the Flying Karamazov Brothers, the Kamikaze Ground Crew has an ever-evolving sound that changes with their ever-changing line-up. Able to play jazz and blues with a straight-ahead approach that can quickly veer into avant-garde territory. Active on both the jazz and theater scenes, not to mention collaborations and projects of their own that fall over the genre map. As a collective, they’re fantastic, and individually, they’re a treasure map to all types of other great music.
Your album personnel: Gina Leishman (alto sax, bass clarinet, accordion, ukelele, piano, keyboards, vocals), Doug Wieselman (clarinets, saxophones, guitars, mandolin, penny whistle), Bob Lipton (tuba), Danny Frankel (drums, percussion), Jeff Cressman (trombone, baritone horn, slide whistle), Steven Bernstein (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, Tuba), and Peter Apfelbaum (tenor sax, claro-sax, clarinet, recorder). They all chip in for the Bottle Choir part.
The Scenic Route was released in 1990 on the New World Records label. It ain’t an album that sounds the same from beginning to end. There are the joyous shouts of New Orleans jazz, deconstructed assemblages of dustbowl blues, trapeze displays of avant-garde shenanigans, and enigmatic Frankensteins of cabaret, classical, and R&B. There’s something here for everybody, but nobody gets to have it all.
There are moments of heartbreaking beauty…
… where sometimes I feel Miles Davis and sometimes I hear Tom Waits. The impressions, I suppose, are limitless with collectives like Kamikaze Ground Crew, because the shifting sounds and alternating personnel mean a limitless supply of contributing voices and visions.
Sometimes they lean back and shout out the blues…
… drenched with the euphoric joy that seems so contradictory to the place the blues comes from. I can’t get enough of it.
I discovered this album on one of my random browsing trips to Reckless Records (Chicago, IL). If an album or artist isn’t familiar to me, I give it a listen, and sometimes I am stunned by the simple majesty of discovering a moment of creativity that, somehow, never made it onto my radar. I think I purchased The Scenic Route back in 2006 (or thereabout), and I’m still in love with it. I’ve also purchased several other albums my KGC, all wonderful, and continue to collect other recordings. Also, let me reemphasize, the musicians involved with KGC, on this recording and others, have worked on some fantastic projects of their own. Steven Bernstein with his Millenial Territorial Orchestra received some Best of 2011 recognition recently, and Kenny Wollesen (who appears on other KGC albums) has been mentioned glowingly on this site, too. Highly recommended.
Available at Amazon: CD
*****
THE MASKED MAN, a Book by BC Boyer
The Masked Man is really Dick Carstairs, a private detective, who originally dons his simple blue mask as a way of drumming up some stories for his buddy reporter Barney McCallister (the sidekick). He has no special powers. He uses his fists. He’s a brawler. He keeps a watch over his neighborhood. And he’s shows as not just a man-of-the-street, but a superhero-of-the-street, too; no angelic imagery of a caped crusader standing on rooftops and looking benevolently down over the city. He fights muggers, gangsters, various neighborhood lowlifes, and the occasional odd personality. B.C. Boyer handles both script and art.
By way of comparison, I would describe the Masked Man as Will Eisner’s The Spirit living in a Twin Peaks world.
There are fistfights with mobsters, encounters with inept copycat “superheroes”, a love interest with the mysterious Maggie Brown (who may or may not actually be blind), an undercover cop disguised as a neighborhood weirdo, a newspaper editor who has it in for MM, a wily reporter looking to push Barney out of the way and become MM’s new sidekick, the Architecture Terrorists, and the Rigatoni (a treasure of immense value and unknown identity).
There are stories of what it means to be a hero, of what it means to value friendship, to learn how to trust and hope and strive to be a better person. The stories are of common themes in an exaggerated world. They are stories that wear their heart on their sleeve, but express no amount of preachiness or naivete. These are nuanced tales of good versus evil, with some acknowledgment of the grey areas in between and some thoughtful investigation into the identity of the extremes. There is also some tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of superhero story themes (as was beginning to happen during the 80s & 90s as the comics industry began to explore its own identity).
What appeals to me about the character: I enjoy the minimalist superhero approach, how the Masked Man barely has a disguise and no powers other than his natural physical abilities, his intelligence, and his courage. I like how he fights everyday-type criminals and doesn’t have any arch enemies with trillion dollar ray-guns looking to hold the world hostage or mutant genes that turned them into criminal deities. He could’ve just as easily been me. Or, more to the point, anybody could be a Masked Man. It was that same quality that made me forever a fan of Daredevil during the Frank Miller run, when DD lost his “powers” and Stick had to mentor DD back to health, telling him that the radioactive isotope that blinded him as a child wasn’t the source of his powers, that the “powers” that DD had were in him all along, that they were in everyone. That particular view of power, that everyone possesses the ability to be a superhero like DD or The Masked Man, of bringing the heroes back to our level by saying we’re are all made of the same heroic clay, it makes it so easy to personalize people in masks and secret identities as “just one of us”, while still admiring them and calling them heroes because they achieved a plateau of strength and accomplishment that all of us could attain but few of us actually do. That they direct their achievement for the betterment of society, that’s what makes those like The Masked Man a hero.
The Masked Man was published by Eclipse Comics (RIP). It doesn’t appear to have ever been collected into a trade.
According to Wikipedia, these are the issues that The Masked Man has made an appearance:
* Eclipse Magazine #7 & #8 (November 1982 & January 1983)
* Eclipse Monthly #1 – #10 (August 1983 – July 1984)
* The Masked Man #1 – #12 (December 1984 – April 1988)
This appears to be B.C. Boyer’s singular contribution to the comics medium. He had a brief title called Hilly Rose: Space Reporter, and he contributed some art to other Eclipse titles, but Masked Man seems to be the primary dealio. It’s a hell of an accomplishment.
Available (occasionally) at Amazon: Single Issues
*****
THOMAS O’MALLY & MARIE, two tiny Cats looking for a home.
Meet Thomas O’Mally and Marie. They are brother and sister who were part of a litter discovered on a farm out in the county. The farm owners have been wonderful in getting them scooped up, working with us to get the mother and kittens fixed and all their vaccinations, and trying to find them homes. Out here, cats don’t have much of a life expectancy living wild on farmland… too many natural predators.
Anyways, Thomas and Marie are the only two remaining from the litter who need homes. They are both sweet as pie and playful as one would expect kittens to be. While not finicky with their toys, Thomas seems to be more of a “string guy”, whereas Marie likes a fuzzy toy mouse to attack, then cuddle with. They are both still in that stage where they inexplicably jump straight up into the air, then spin around dizzily chasing after invisible objects. They also sleep like furry little angels and do nothing to hide the big smiles splashed across their faces when a ray of sunlight falls upon them during a nap or when they find a big pair of arms to cuddle them tight.
They are both fixed, up to date with their shots, tested negative for feline leukemia, and they both use their litter boxes just like the big cats do.
More information on Thomas O’Mally and Marie is available at the Mercer (KY) Humane Society at (859) 734-9500, mercerhumane.com. If you are unable to adopt, you may sponsor their adoptions, or the adoption of any cat, by contacting the office.
Jan 21 2012
Jazz New Arrivals: Week Ending Dec. 20, 2011 (Pt. 2 of 2)
Featuring Tiny Reviews of: Oh Yeah Orchestra, Dino Saluzzi, Alfredo Naranjo, Angelo Valori & the M. Edit Ensemble, and Jazz Combo Box.
This is Part Two (of two) of my weekly Jazz Picks for emusic’s new arrivals section for the week ending December 20, 2011. December is typically not a great month for new releases in any genre, so you’ll notice that the columns are getting a bit sparse.
Let’s begin…
Oh Yeah Orchestra – Freedom of Movement
Comprised of ten of the top jazzers on the Swedish scene and led by drummer/composer Martina Almgren, it’s a nice mix of orchestral and avant-garde jazz. Odd dissonance woven into luxurious threads of large ensemble orchestration results in an enchanting set of tunes. I love it when experimentalism is applied to an album, and yet the overall result is an exhilaratingly pure jazz recording. Soprano & tenor sax, trumpet, trombone, tuba, cello, bass, Berimbau, percussion, hang & sizzleboard drums, and some vocal accompaniment are the ingredients to this excellent album. Highly recommended.
Your album personnel: Lisen Rylander Löve (saxophones), Björn Almgren (saxophones), Magnus Broo (trumpet), Karin Burman (vocals), Petra Lundin (cello), Niclas Rydh (trombone, tuba), Tommy Kotter (piano), Owe Almgren (electric bass), Ebba Westerberg (percussion), and Martina Almgren (drums and compositions).
NOTE: I probably enjoy this album even more than I did a month ago when I originally wrote the above for the Emusic article. Just a fun fun album.
Released on the Imogena Records label. Jazz from the Swedish scene.
Available at Emusic.
Dino Saluzzi – Navidad De Los Andes
Another ECM title dropped today, this one matching up the trio of composer and bandoneon musician Dino Saluzzi, with cellist Anja Lechner, and saxophonist Felix Saluzzi. Not jazz, per se, more world-classical… I guess… or something like that. Cripes, ECM just has its own sound when it comes to these things; they might as well be their own genre at this point. Some people go crazy for this stuff, some not so much. If you like sorrowful harmonization amongst a trio of concerto instruments, then just hit the download button and don’t look back.
Released on the ECM Records label. Jazz from Argentina.
Available at Emusic.
Alfredo Naranjo – Mexico Music Fest
Vibraphonist, composer, and arranger Alfredo Naranjo brings together a quartet that includes guitar, bass, and percussion for a nice live set recorded live in April 2011. With Naranjo’s vibes out front, it’s a warm display of technique and voice, with Juan Angel Esquivel’s guitar the perfect accompaniment. I’m very much of the opinion that vibes and guitar should always be at the hip on a jazz album; something so complementary in the instrument’s respective sounds that it’s a lonelier affair when one is excluded from the other. Thankfully, on this fine live performance, we get to hear them in action together.
Your album personnel: Nene Quintero (percussion), Roberto Koch (bass), Alfredo Esquivel (drums), and Alfredo Naranjo (vibes).
The album is Self-Produced. Jazz from the Caracas, Venezuela scene.
Available at Emusic.
Angelo Valori & the M. Edit Ensemble – Il Caffe Dalle Americhe
An intoxicating album of jazz fused with Mediterranean folk music. Led by composer & pianist Angelo Valori, the ensemble consists of strings, vocals, saxophones, guitars, piano, and an accordion that sounds like a string section when it sticks to the background. Plenty of serene moments fluttering over rustic compositions. It gets a bit light & fusion-y at times, but that’s part of its charm. I almost passed this album over, but something about it kept me coming back. Now I’m getting hooked. My patience was rewarded, maybe yours, too. Highly recommended.
Your album personnel: Angelo Valori (composer), Loredana Di Giovanni (vocals), Manuel Trabucco (saxophones), Angelo Trabucco (piano),
Mauro De Federicis (guitars), Danilo Di Paolonicola (accordion),
Maurizio Rolli (bass), and Roberto Desire (drums, percussion).
NOTE: It’s been a month since I originally wrote the above Tiny Review for Emusic, and I still find this album just as charming.
Released on the Wide Sound label. Jazz from the Pescara, Italy scene.
Available at Emusic.
Okay, this last one, I’m not sure what to make of it and everything I find on the internet about it is in French and no convenient translation page to help me out, but this is just too cool not to mention…
Jazz Combo Box – Scratcho’Band
A mix of hot jazz, hip hop, and a little bit of 70s soul. As far as I can tell, this outfit got together a jazz outfit, including tuba and maybe a banjo, and scratch records along with it and sample others. There are a lot of failed hip hop jazz fusion attempts out there… a lot. I find most of them unlistenable. This album, though, it’s so damn infectious, leaves me smiling with each track. I’d hate to find out that they’re actually doing their thing over old vinyl jazz records, but really, what little I could find and translate, I think these guys are doing their own thing. So fun.
NOTE: Okay, I’ve learned a little bit more about them since my above Tiny Review a month ago. Here’s this bio from their Facebook page…
“Jazz Combo Box: born in 2008 is composed of 10 young French musicians. Have participated in major jazz festivals in Europe.
Known as a band of fanfare has dragged thousands of people behind their performances in the streets of Europe. They are known for the lyricism of the songs, harmonic ingenuity, improvisation and interpretive creativity.”
The group consists of:
Loïc Poisenet – Artistic Director and Alto Saxophone
Patrice Vignoud – Trombone
Geoffrey Chartre – Trumpet
Fabian Thomas – Tubafone
Michael Herjan – Drum
Lucca Ferrari – Percussion
Jeremy Naud – Accordion
Brestel Brieuc – Scratchphone
Mael Cageron – Tenor Sax
Hugo Journaud – Banjo
Released on the La Compagnie ID label. Jazz from France.
Available at Emusic.
That’s the end of Part 2 (of 2) of that week’s jazz recs.
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.
© 2011 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.
Jan 20 2012
Jazz New Arrivals: Week Ending Dec. 20, 2011 (Pt. 1 of 2)
Featuring Tiny Reviews of: Miguel Zenon, Roberto Negro Trio, Olivier Mugot, and Mike Lorenz.
This is Part One (of two) of my weekly Jazz Picks for eMusic’s new arrivals section for the week ending December 20, 2011. December is typically not a great month for new releases in any genre, so you’ll notice that the columns are getting a bit sparse.
Let’s begin…
Miguel Zenon – Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook
Turning classic Puerto Rican songs into jazz compositions, apparently, wasn’t enough of a challenge for alto-saxophonist Miguel Zenon, so he adds a ten-piece wind ensemble to the mix. The result is a richly textured series of tunes with a modern approach but steeping in the nostalgic songbooks of Long Ago. Sharp searching sax lines interspersed with lush ballads endow this album with a storybook feel. By the way, the wind ensemble is conducted by the excellent pianist-composer Guillermo Klein (if you’re not familiar with his discography, then get started right here with Filtros, arguably 2008’s album of the year). Also contributing are regular Zenon collaborators Luis Perdomo on piano, Hans Glawischnig on bass, and Henry Cole on drums. Highly recommended.
Released on the Marsalis Music label. Jazz from the NYC scene.
Available at eMusic.
While I’m at it, lemme just quickly rec another fantastic Zenon release from a few years back…
Miguel Zenon – Awake
Altoist Miguel Zenon, known predominately for delving into Puerto Rican songbooks and compositions resulting in some very exciting recordings, threatens to record a straight-ahead affair with the 2008 recording Awake. I said “threatens”. Adding Fender Rhodes and a string ensemble to album tunes keeps things euphorically different, and his playing on alto sax is just phenomenal. A virtuoso display of his lyricism without it coming off as forced. Pushy lead instruments just grate on my nerves; it’s so unnecessary to force an instrument to do the work that it’s absolutely capable of doing on its own. On Awake, Zenon lets his sax sing. Highly recommended.
Released on the Marsalis Music label. Jazz from the NYC scene.
Available at eMusic.
Roberto Negro Trio – Downtown Sorry
Interesting piano trio album. The Roberto Negro Trio gives the impression on the first track that it’ll be a standard piano-bass-drums recording with some pretty flourishes and a little bit of nuanced melancholia thrown in for good measure. But then his piano runs begin to scatter, the bass and drums follow at a discrete distance, and sax and electronics reveal their face at surprising moments. Each subsequent tune gets a little more interesting than its predecessor. Pretty neat, and recommended.
Your album personnel: Roberto Negro (piano), Jérôme Arrighi (bass), and Adrien Chennebault (drums).
Released on the Art & Music Diffusion label. Jazz from the Paris, France scene.
Available at eMusic.
Olivier Mugot – Distance(s)
French guitarist Olivier Mugot has put himself together a nifty avant-garde world jazz album. With herky-jerky compositions played out on guitar, bandoneon, harmonica, percussion, bass, Distance(s) is faintly reminiscent of old-school ECM without sacrificing any of the album’s sense of Now. Plenty of cerebral moments to keep the listener engaged. Mugot’s sound on guitar comes off as effortless, improvisational. Drums, however, steal the show on several tracks, though the interplay between the two are the high points of the album. Cool stuff.
Your album personnel: Olivier Mugot (guitar), Benjamin Jouet (drums), Pascal Henner (percussion), Philippe Henner (bass, contrabass), Gwenael Micault (bandoneon), with guests: Francis Lockwood (piano), Sebastien Charlier (harmonica), and Frederic Loiseau (guitar).
The album is Self-Produced. Jazz from the Soucy, France scene.
Available at eMusic.
Mike Lorenz – Of the Woods
I often like to refer to Brian Blade’s epic Season of Changes as the vanguard example of what nu-jazz has come to be… non-repetitive melodies more akin to storytelling than formulaic poetry and indie rock conventions in a modern jazz framework. But there are others that have adopted that sound, many to impressive effect. Enter guitarist Mike Lorenz with Of the Woods, a nice series of tunes with understated tension built over machine gun rhythms. A quintet of guitar, sax, piano, bass, and drums, it’s a solid effort that’s an enjoyable listen. Definitely worth a look into if you’re into Brian Blade’s thing.
Your album personnel: Mike Lorenz (guitar), Mike Cemprola (alto sax), Matt Mitchell (piano), Brian Howell (bass), and Matt Scarano (drums).
Album is Self-Produced. Jazz from the Philadelphia scene.
Stream the entire album on his Bandcamp page.
Available at eMusic.
That’s the end of Part 1 (of 2) of that week’s jazz recs. Part 2 will appear in tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) article.
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.
© 2011 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.
Jan 23 2012
Recapping the Best of 2011: Adam Cruz “Milestone”
Your album personnel: Adam Cruz (drums), Miguel Zenón (alto sax), Steve Wilson (soprano sax), Chris Potter (tenor sax), Steve Cardenas (guitar), Edward Simon (piano, Fender Rhodes), and Ben Street (bass). Zenon and Wilson don’t play on every tune.
Milestone is Cruz’s debut album under his own name, but he’s been around the scene for awhile, and like any talented professional, he gets right down to business and doesn’t stop until it’s all over.
That first track “Secret Life” is absolutely brilliant, one of the tunes of the year. It begins so alluringly, then builds in intensity with saxophones. Then Cardenas slips in on guitar and guides the composition from its peak into a speedy glide and soar, a sensation that continues even after the ensemble joins all back in together.
That thrilling sound continues on right into the second track “Emje.” Even Cruz’s nifty odd meters halfway through the tune do more to enhance it than alter the emotional direction.
Another outstanding album track is “The Gadfly”, which begins like a game of hopscotch… quick rhythmic patterns with sudden directional changes.
About a third of the way through, guitar brings some fire to the tune and tempo increases like its feeling the heat. Drums and piano get into a fight and relentlessly throw combinations of punches at one another. When saxophones step in to break it up, the tune loses none of its fight, getting stronger in fact, building up to a huge finish.
There’s a nice mix of tempos on the album, though the ensemble runs more than it walks. The third track “Crepuscular” gives a sense of both without quite doing either. Most tracks are nice modern hard bop, though some have free(r) jazz elements to them. But mostly, it’s just great straight-ahead fare.
The final album track begins much as the first did… drums and piano with enchanting notes that hint at a quiet intensity that could explode at any moment.
It’s that same quiet intensity displayed throughout Milestone that has me so damn hooked on this recording. I like it when a musician reflects power through emotion rather than volume. Also, there is the suspense building that occurs with quiet intensity, an anxious waiting for when the top does finally blow (if at all) that doesn’t necessarily end just because the album does. In fact, it’s that element that keeps bringing me back to a particular recording… maybe this album will explode this time around.
Adam Cruz assembled an all-star lineup for this album. Keeping those disparate voices cohesive and getting them to all buy in to the album leader’s vision can be a daunting task for anybody. That Cruz has pulled this off for his debut album is an impressive accomplishment. Cruz ain’t no rookie on the scene, and his rep stands side by side with all of the album personnel, but still, when it’s your name that appears front and center on the album cover, that adds an additional pressure that can’t be blithely dismissed. Cruz really pulls it off here, and Milestone is more than deserving of recognition as one of the top albums of 2011.
Released on the Sunnyside Records label. Jazz from NYC.
Stream the entire album on his bandcamp page, as well as purchase it in a number of different file formats.
Available on Amazon: CD
| MP3
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases, Recap: Best of 2011 • 0 • Tags: Adam Cruz, Recap: Best of 2011, Sunnyside Records