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.
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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
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
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River Cow Orchestra – Going Softly Into the Good Night
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
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
Artist site Link. Available on eMusic.
Dan Cray – Meridies
Download a free track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label (Origin).
Artist site Link. Available on eMusic.
Red Trio + Nate Wooley – Stem
Artist site Link. Available on eMusic.
Sinouj – Here
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.
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 1