Recap: Best of 2016

The strange and beautiful lyricism of multi-instrumentalist Laurent Rochelle has a potent charisma.  His talents at shaping melodies and setting them in motion posses a particular allure, magnetic even, and the resulting music would be described as dreamlike were it not for the crispness of the imagery.  On this excellent session, Rochelle spends most of the time on bass clarinet, which in itself is a hell of treat.  His expressions have a keen precision and provide a lovely counterbalance to the instrument’s soulful drawl.  Joined by the Okidoki Quartet, they serve up a modern European-style jazz that Rochelle immediately begins to transform into something less swinging and more story-like.  All of the albums that earn a slot in the Top Ten of any year’s Best Of list are going to be bursting with personality… Rochelle’s Si tu regardes is no different.  What is notable, however, is just how distinctly he draws it out and how clearly he expresses it.  As much as this album plays out like an epic tale, the clarity with which it’s delivered brings into focus its base elements, and leads to a greater appreciation of just how strange and beautiful the album truly is.

Jazz from the Toulouse, France scene.

Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

This music is wildly over-the-top, and its exuberance is positively addictive.  The debut from Moonbow has, at its core, a modern European jazz foundation.  But that’s just the starting point.  From there, the septet mixes in different influences, pushing the boundaries of what can conceivably be considered modern jazz before it has to be given a brand new name.  And all of it, every euphoric shout and maniacal shaping of melody and combustion of rhythm is as crazily expressed as anything that came out in 2016.  There’s plenty of ferocity in this music, but all of it is delivered with a joyfulness that is as thrilling as it is infectious.  This is an album with a big heart, beating strong, and every single sound on this album is served up with an enthusiasm that holds nothing back.  This is what unbounded creativity sounds like.

Jazz from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm (LINK).

It’s notable how impressively trumpeter Ian Carey is able to keep Interview Music sounding unbound and free even within a meticulous framework of compositions, and how the ensemble doesn’t leave its fingerprints on the transitions between planned and improvisational sections.  But what really elevates this session to something special is how much fun they have playing with a straight-ahead sound.  It’s the suddenness of wind instruments exploding with the grace and speed of a murmuration of starlings, and how bass & drums attempt to break the sound barrier while trumpet patiently sighs out a melody, and how a sing-song melody snaps into place with harmony that is all about contemplation, and how the wind instruments take angles and bend curvatures that brush up against the expected change in direction without actually taking it.  It’s all of these unexpected traits, accents and differentiations, that has the cumulative effect of transforming the album’s entire world.

Jazz from Oakland, CA.

Read more about the album at Bird is the Worm (LINK).

At first blush, it would seem like something out of the blue for a jazz ensemble to perform a rendition of Brian Eno’s classic ambient drone recording Music for Airports.  But when that album originally came out four decades ago, Miles Davis was pushing boundaries along the jazz rock divide that led to the ambient music tranquility of In a Silent Way, so that Eno might become a focal point on the modern jazz scene isn’t completely inexplicable.  That said, the Chris Schlarb ensemble Psychic Temple perform not one, but two inspired, distinct takes, and the way each honor the original while expanding the vision into modern jazz and a throwback jazz-rock fusion is a jaw-dropping accomplishment.  In addition, Schlarb sandwiches those two renditions around a modern piece that behaves as an updated version of the Miles Davis fusion period when tranquility wasn’t the desired effect, and where funky grooves and joyful solos all had motion in mind.  Psychic Temple consists of artists who travel music territories beyond those that demarcate the borders of jazz, and that ability to cross over to all kinds of expressions serves this music well.  Everything about this album is seriously inspired, and it’s the kind of project that possesses a certain logic that can leave a person wondering how come it’s only now that someone thought to do it.

Jazz from Long Beach, CA.

Read more about the album at Bird is the Worm (LINK).

The debut album from drummer Stijn Demuynck is a very specific vision, a solitary image captured in time that hints at the existence of a multitude of details below the surface.  With only the comforting chatter of drums, the murmur of woodwinds and bass, and the occasional harmony of a choir, Pouancé exists in a state of serenity, and the only transformations that occur are those that reflect its different facets.  There is the impression of a snow globe.  Within it, a city skyline.  It exists in an entirely different world.  And even from the turbulence of being shaken, that city and all of its hidden inhabitants, remain unmoved, a tranquil presence as the water grows more still and the snow falls down upon it.  That is how I’ve viewed Pouancé for the better part of the year I’ve been listening to it.  It remains one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard in 2016.

Jazz from Cologne, Germany.

Read more about the album on Bird is the Worm (LINK).