Jazz Recommendations – 2012 Releases

Sep 3 2017

Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album: Erik Lindeborg – “Salonul Magic”

 

Sunday morning is when the serenity comes down.  Sunday morning is the cocoon from the heavy exhaustion of too much Saturday night fun.  Sunday morning is when the city agrees to use its inside voice.  Sunday morning is when a hush settles in over the land.  It is a time for sitting still and listening to quiet music and silently praying the aspirin and coffee do something to stop your head from exploding.  Drama and stress are strictly forbidden on Sunday morning.

Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album is just for you, for times just like these.  If you possess the freakish compulsion to get-up-and-go when the clock strikes Sunday morning, this music is not for you.  Go and listen to a Spotify EDM playlist or something.  But whatever you decide, just do it quietly and far away from those of us who appreciate the true solemn nature of a Sunday morning.

Erik Lindeborg has a habit of creating music perfectly suited for peaceful Sunday mornings, and no better example is to be had than his 2012 release Salonul Magic.  The Stockholm-based pianist proved his talent at crafting captivating melodies on his 2010 trio session Time… an album that smouldered with tension, as if it could erupt at any moment.  On Salonul Magic, the melodies and tone are more laid back and behave as folk tunes rather than Nordic jazz.  It makes for a more personable recording, and allows for more of the melodic details to shine through.

Yes, “Part V” and “Part VIII” kick the temperature up a notch, but the heat is a fireplace warmth and conducive to a Sunday morning serenity.  This, too, applies to the sunny blues of “Part VI,” and serves as a nice reminder of how the classic Red Garland Trio tranquility keeps inspiring new generations of jazz musicians.  But the remainder of the album’s ten pieces develop with a comforting patience.  Whether that’s triggered by the gorgeous bass arco passages from Niklas Wennström or the friendly chatter of percussionist Robert Mehmet Ikiz, it all leads to an atmosphere that looks to blend in with a morning sunrise and a quiet, solemn afternoon.

You need this album today, right now.

  • Artist-Title:  Erik Lindeborg – Salonul Magic
  • Personnel:  Erik Lindeborg (piano, melodica, glockenspiel), Niklas Wennström (bass), Robert Mehmet Ikiz (percussion) and guests: Magdalena Adeen (voice), Steinar Aadnekvam (guitar).
  • Proper Use:  1) Daydreaming about the peaceful ambiance of snow-capped mountains, and how nice it is to be in a nice, cozy bed on a Sunday morning, 2) Contemplating whether anything better has ever been created than a cup of coffee & Irish cream or, 3) Listening to your cat(s) snore peacefully beside you, scrunched up against your leg.

Released in 2012 on Stockholm Jazz Records.

Music from Stockholm, Sweden.

Available at:  Amazon | eMusic

And here’s a video that shows the making of the album cover image.  It features the art of Diana Butucariu and is accompanied by the album track “Part V.”

 

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Nov 14 2016

Recommended: Laurent Rochelle – “Les Amours Invisibles”

 

laurent-rochelle-les-amours-invisiblesIt’s not just that Les Amours Invisibles is an album woven from the fabric of gorgeous melodies and how harmonies pour across songs like morning light filling an empty room, but it’s the way that multi-instrumentalist Laurent Rochelle guides his own melodic development to that of his ensemble’s and how he fluctuates between melodic nuance and the confluence of a grand unity that marks this recording’s success.  It’s not a process of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction… it is the way a flock of birds come together as a murmuration then break off again into their individual flight patterns… yet still are locked in with one another.  It’s where the togetherness of individual expressions are still part of the united whole.

The string section is a huge uniting force, which has the additional effect of accentuating those moments when soloists break free and parallel its path and run the circumference of its borders.  And when another ensemble member initiates a similar pattern switching between joins with Rochelle and communion with strings, then the effect is magnified dramatically.  In that way Rochelle’s bass clarinet and Loïc Schild‘s marimba hypnotize through repetition on “Passages” and yet swim in the flow of the string section.  And in that way that the electronic effects, violins, and the guitar of Denis Frâjerman generate a pulsing tempo on “Coda” that marries with Rochelle’s melodic sighs on soprano sax.  And how Rochelle, switching over to piano on “Quelques notes de pluie sur un grand piano noir” moves between a role as defining the path ahead and becoming just another traveler within the melody.  And it’s in the way that Rochelle modulates the dramatic surges so that the emotional discharge always comes off as sincere and not a gratuitous tug at the heartstrings.

It’s why this album can be so daringly beautiful and remain the genuine thing.

It’s why you should by this album.

Your album personnel:  Laurent Rochelle (alto & soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, piano, melodica, accordion, violin, Fender Rhodes, theremin, percussion, electronic effects & programming, voice), Nathalie Boullanger (violin), Marie-Florence Ricard (alto violin), Julianne Trémoulet (cello), Marie-Madeleine Mille (cello), Laurent Avizou (guitar), Denis Frâjerman (guitar), Edit Gergely, Alima Hamel, Audrey Durand (voices), Masako Ishimura (flute), Laurent Paris (percussion), Loïc Schild (drums, marimba) and Cédric Marcucci (drums).

Released in 2012 on Linoleum Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Toulouse, France scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

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Apr 29 2015

Recommended: Vincent Courtois – “Mediums”

 

The 2012 recording from cellist Vincent Courtois is struck through with vivid imagery.  Joined by frequent collaborators Daniel Erdmann and Robin Fincker, the pairing of their twin tenor saxophones and the cello of Courtois has the heart of a storyteller and the delivery of a filmmaker.  The tale of Mediums is told with a pastiche of visions and ambiance.

The thick bank of harmonies on “Mounting” sets the scene with a stark beauty.  The sprouting lines of melody on title-track “Mediums” is cut through with bisecting lines from cello, crosshatching effusive articulations with a scathing rebuttal.

The dissonant flutter & shriek of “Entresort” is balanced out by the alarming unease of “Une inquiétante disparition (part 1),” which calms itself by whistling a comforting melody, aided further by the soothing whisper of “Regards.”

The dust storm of “Jackson’s Catch” whips the melody about everywhere… an effect not unlike the competing conversations of “Une inquiétante disparition (part 2)” and how the overlapping lines of dialog create a cryptic, foreboding verse.

“Rita and the Mediums” begins disjointedly, but gradually gains momentum and cohesion, rising up like the sun over the horizon.  This is bolstered by “La Femme Sans Corps” with its languid motion and off-the-cuff melodic delivery.  It’s the deep quiet of the dead of night and the disquieting sounds that call out from the darkness.

The three-part “Bengal” suite goes about tangling the melody into a tight ball.  Sometimes, when it reaches a confluence, the song emits the prettiest of sounds.  The sweet sigh of “La Nuit des Monstres” takes that result to a greater extreme.

The album ends with “The Removal,” a tune that bobs peacefully on the surface of the water… its cadence hypnotic, its melody strangely alluring, and its note of finality immensely satisfying and one that aptly encapsulates this enchanting album

Your album personnel:  Vincent Courtois (cello), Daniel Erdmann (tenor sax) and Robin Fincker (tenor sax).

Released in 2012 on La Buissonne.

Listen at Bandcamp.  Explore the artist on Soundcloud.

Music from Paris, France.

Available at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon

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Apr 10 2014

Archaic Future Players – “Station Wagon Interior Perspective (A Requiem for John Fahey)”

 

Archaic Future Players - "Station Wagon Interior Perspective"Incorporating the blues and gospel and ragtime that comprise the roots of Jazz music, and then channeling it with a forward-thinking inventiveness, Robert Stillman’s Archaic Future Players offer up with Station Wagon Interior Perspective that potent mix of past and future, synthesized down in the present moment… a sense of timelessness and nostalgia that is as exciting as it is intoxicating.

It’s unsurprising that the ensemble echoes the voices of similarly inclined musicians like Charles Mingus and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra for their four-movement tribute to deceased folk guitarist John Fahey… a musician who also embraced the roots of the past as he constructed his own inventive expressions.

Your album personnel: Robert Stillman (Fender Rhodes, drums), Jeremy Udden (C-melody saxophone), Kenny Warren (trumpet), Dave Noyes (trombone), and Ben Stapp (tuba).

The album opens with “Part I: Waltz,” a song of heavy notes delivered with a staggering cadence, yet lofted up with a boozy euphoria that lets the music hang in the air, floating weightlessly.  Ben Stapp’s tuba brings a fullness to the tempo, and Jeremy Udden’s c-melody saxophone adds brightness to its edges.

That same cadence continues into “Part II: Blues,” though expressed with a casualness that lends it a lighter gait.  Kenny Warren’s trumpet has a melodic richness thick with feeling, and Stillman’s drums crackle off its surface like sparks from an open wire.

“Part III: Stomp” comes hard out of the gate.  Dave Noyes’s trombone opens the doors for Stillman to glide through with the most beautiful solo on Fender Rhodes.  It’s a stunning moment.  The lightness of Rhodes contrasts dramatically with the heaviness representative of the album up until that moment, and the way it puts this album’s tunefulness into sharp focus is a revelatory moment.  That the ensemble then builds up from this into something bigger and more expansive, the tempo getting chipper and the harmonies warmer, it illustrates this album’s winning attitude.

The four-part movement comes to a close with “Part IV: Funeral March.”  It has the endearingly celebratory tones inherent in the somber New Orleans ritual of taking the recently deceased to their final resting place… and symbolic of this ensemble’s method of honoring the traditions of music while simultaneously expressing itself with its own personality.

The album has two bonus tracks: “Epilogue for J.F.” and “NR Rag.”  Both tunes are introspective piano pieces, achieving a meditative dissonance and possessing an identity separate from that of the album’s four-part movement, while doing nothing to clash with the spirit of the album.  This is a smart recording, and the placement of the bonus tracks does nothing to change that.

I’ve been listening to this album for awhile now, and am just getting around to writing something about it.  My enjoyment hasn’t waned a bit, and I’m just as excited to recommend it today as I would have been the first time I discovered this fine recording.

Released on Stillman’s Archaic Future Recordings label.

Available at:  Bandcamp CD/MP3/Vinyl | eMusic | Amazon MP3

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Mar 1 2014

Kit Downes & Lucy Rialton – “Tricko Tareco”

 

As it turns out, Kit Downes wanted to play the cello.

It’s our good fortune that he was frustrated in those attempts and turned to piano, because as any regular reader of this site would know, Downes is one of the more exciting musicians on the UK scene today.  He’s been a member of outfits like Golden Age of Steam, Troyka, Threads Orchestra, Empirical, and his own trio and quintet ensembles.  On his most recent Quintet recording, Light From Old Stars (review HERE), he brings cellist Lucy Railton into the fold.

But this wasn’t his first collaboration with Railton.  During a residency at the Huddersfield University back in 2012, Downes and Railton, with the help of Alex Killpartrick, recorded an EP of material under the project header of Tricko Tareco.  A mix of minimalist jazz, classical leanings, and ambient soundscapes, it’s the kind of peaceful music that incites daydream fogs even as it twitters with life.

Downes never stopped writing for this project, and now in 2014, the duo are back recording music, with the intention of releasing an album later this year, which will be entitled Trickotareco.  Here’s “Alliri,” an advance song from that album…

That original EP of music recorded in 2012 was released by Impossible Ark Records, and combined with an EP of material from the Impermanence Trio (pianist Matthew Bourne, drummer Tim Giles, and bassist Riann Vosloo), and you can purchase it on the Impossible Ark’s Bandcamp page.  The first embedded player in this column is from that recording.

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