Jazz Recommendations – 2012 Releases

Mina Agossi is a French vocalist who sticks to jazz, but is sufficiently adventurous to travel to other genres for her material and sound.  She has a new album out.  It’s called Red Eyes.  I’d like to review it right now, but first I’ve got to talk about Albert Ayler and office tower cubicles.  If you have a problem with that, you can blame Agossi.  She instigated the whole thing, with the help of Bobby Few.

So, about ten years ago, I’m living in Chicago, working as an accountant for some nameless worldwide corporation in some nameless office tower in the shadow of the Sears Tower.  It was one of those jobs that seemed like a good idea at the time, but after a year in the same drab cubicle doing the same drab work, I was thinking exit strategy.  In the meantime, I began listening to Albert Ayler.  Impulse was re-issuing a bunch of his albums, remastered and newly packaged.  It seemed like a good time to delve into his music.  Besides, I had enough familiarity with his music to know what I was getting into.  I wanted some ferocity, I wanted some noise, and I wanted some of that old blues new soul swing that all the ferocity and noise crested upon.  At a time when my life felt despairingly dull with no change in sight, a music jolt like Ayler sized up as a decent inoculation.

I scooped up several albums.  The Complete Village Vanguard recording was originally my favorite, most likely because I found it the most accessible, so my ear was more receptive to what it was hearing.  But over time, I starting getting all kind of electricity off New Grass.  Another recording that floated my boat was Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe.  Looking back on it, I can’t point to any specific reason why that album grew to be my favorite.  That’s just how music is sometimes; inexplicable connections through notes, provocative reactions in space.

And as most jazz enthusiasts are wont to do, I indulged that quirky habit of looking into the discographies of any album sidemen that were unfamiliar to me.  Well, Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe was my introduction to pianist Bobby Few.  I liked his sound.  I liked the album.  I wanted to learn more about him, hear more of his music.  And upon discovering that obtaining more information and music of Few’s, both, was going to be difficult, well, of course, that only strengthened my resolve to keep searching.  I can’t say I was particularly successful.  I was able to track down a bit more, some online scraps, but not much.  Sometimes these things don’t shake out.  I decided, at the time, to shelve my search for a later date.

And that brings us to Mina Agossi‘s Red Eyes.  There is an album song called “Let It Rain.”  It is a delightful tune, and what convinced me to write something up.  It also struck me as familiar.  It wasn’t until I checked the liner notes that I discovered it was a Bobby Few composition.  Did I initially recognize it as his?  Not sure.  Too many years and too much music ago to be certain of anything.  But it did start me looking for his music again.  Found some cool videos, found a decent fan site, MP3s are increasingly prevalent… better results than ten years ago.  It was also a nice reminder of how much better life is now than back then.  Music as time machine, all over again.  Most of all, though, it was a reminder of the timelessness of music, of its limitless ability to inspire and delight.  As I explore the present music of Agossi, so I also explore the past music of Few and Ayler, all over again.

Now, about that album.

Your album personnel:  Mina Agossi (vocals), Stéphane Guery, Phil Reptil (guitars), Sue Richardson (trumpet), Eric Jacot (bass guitar), Ichiro Onoe (drums), and guest: Archie Shepp (tenor sax, piano, & vocals).

To my mind, a vocalist should strive to achieve (at least) one of three goals:  (1) Highlight the element of the voice that presents it as any other instrument, thus accentuating the vocals as sound over meaning, (2) So inspire the listener as to make them daydream about singing the words themselves, and (3) Create a connection so personal as to make the listener believe the vocalist is singing directly to them.

It’s in this third category that Agossi shines brightly.  Agossi sets the tone with her voice, gives the songs a relaxed feel, casual in such a way that the intimacy of the session is palpable.  Meanwhile, the various guitars glitter like stars, bass and drums twitter like crickets outside the window, and trumpet is a blanket of soft moonlight.  Even contrasts in tension serve primarily to enhance the session’s warmth.

The album opens with the easy stroll of “Eyes Without A Face,” followed by the Agossi original “The Crying Girl,” a lesson in heartbreak.  Despite the emotional swing between the two songs, it’s a distance bridged by Agossi’s even hand, smoothing the edges of the seams, and making the transition seem completely natural.

Jazz legend Archie Shepp guests on a few tracks, with some mixed success.  In the past, his deep gravelly voice, those few times he offered it, could imbue a song with a blues that could be hopeful or wistful, depending on who was doing the listening.  On “The Stars Are In Your Eyes,” his voice sounds brittle and frail.  But when he speaks up on tenor sax, it’s with a voice with plenty of soul and punch, and a nice counterbalance to Agossi’s vocal swerves and quick shifts in speed.

“Sleep Babe Blues” is a nice example of Agossi’s ability to smoulder words out of the air, like contrails to the jet engine heat of guitar.  Guitars appear to be her ideal pairing, bringing out the best in her voice and rhythmic attack.  Guitarists Guery and Reptil are well-matched counterparts.

Shepp steps back in on tenor for a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House.”  Agossi has established a pattern of diving into the Hendrix songbook, and it’s a pattern she should continue to develop.  As just mentioned, guitar brings out the best in her voice, and that seems to go for both interplay of the moment, but also in how guitar fits into the stream of the composition.  Once Shepp starts to blow, with Agossi adding vocal accompaniment, the sun comes out and the song shines.  On bass, Eric Jacot rings bright and clear, his notes beating with the heart of the original.

And then Agossi begins her rendition of Bobby Few’s “Let It Rain,” and Agossi’s voice is velvet soft, even when she extends out.  This song is so wondrously open to interpretation, but at its best, it is both happy and melancholy, a lesson on the importance of maintaining a sense of humor when skies are grey, that having the blues need not preclude one from feeling hope and joy.  Agossi’s rendition of this song would give some indication she recognizes this.  It also illustrates the overall success of the album.

Released on the Naive label.

Jazz from France.

Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Also, here’s a decent fan site created for Bobby Few.

And here’s a video of Few performing “Let It Rain” live…

Bobby Few (piano), Rasul Siddik (trumpet), Harry Swift (bass), and Benjamin Sanz (drums).  Fabienne Audeoud & Renaud Bezy (graphic art) in Paris (Cite Internationale des Arts).

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  John Yao Quintet In the Now, Shamie Royston Portraits, Raf Ferrari 4tet Venere e Marte, and Jazz Lunch Housewarming.

A strong group of albums from a very strong batch of new releases.  A couple of these albums, had I the time, I’d probably write far more extensive reviews.  I might still.  But for now, here’s some Tiny Reviews, some which aren’t quite that tiny and don’t much resemble anymore what I initially wrote for eMusic.  Of course, that’s been happening more and more lately.  Anyways, let’s begin…

John Yao Quintet – In the Now

Wow. Trombonist John Yao’s debut album, and it is damn strong.  Featuring Jon Irabagon on soprano, Yao weaves a deliciously textured album that seems of greater fullness than five instruments could create on their own. Songs like “Shorter Days” are just so joyful.  Yao also leads the Yaozeki Big Band, which must inform his approach to the quintet based on the depth of In the Now.

Your album personnel:  John Yao (trombone), Jon Irabagon (Alto & Soprano Saxes), Randy Ingram (Piano), Leon Boykins (Bass) and Will Clark (Drums).

One of those albums where there’s a lot going on, plenty of complexities, yet remains inherently listenable.  An engaging album that you can just sit back and enjoy.  An album for old and new school jazz fans alike, and a terribly promising sign that this is Yao’s debut album.  I’m already looking forward to hearing what comes next.

Jazz from the Queens scene in NYC.

Released on the Innova Recordings label.

Download a free album track from AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label.

Available at eMusic.

Shamie Royston – Portraits

Very enjoyable debut album for pianist Shamie Royston.  Leading a trio with Ivan Taylor on bass and Rudy Royston on drums.  A nice set of straight-ahead jazz.  Not a weak link in the trio, and they all have some strong moments on the album.  Royston’s solo sections are especially beautiful.  There’s nothing quite like a solid piano trio album when Spring is in the air.

I couldn’t find anything to embed, but there is one track available to stream on Royston’s site (linked to above).

The album is Self-Produced.  Jazz from the Piscataway, New Jersey scene.

Available at eMusic.

Raf Ferrari 4tet – Venere e Marte

Stunningly beautiful chamber jazz recording. A quartet of piano, cello, bass, and drums, with a guest clarinet. While more chamber than jazz, there are moments that flirt with a swing, and plenty of tunes here to satisfy a jazz fix.  Mostly though, it’s just a sublime series of compositions that ask nothing less than to fall head over heels in love with them.

Your album personnel:  Raf Ferrari (piano), Vito Stano (cello), Guerino Rondolone (doublebass), Claudio Sbrolli (drums), and guest: Gabriele Mirabassi (clarinet).

The album starts strong, and really seems to catch its stride as it develops.  When Mirabassi sits in with clarinet, like on “Fou de Love,” it adds texture that elevates the track up to an even higher level than that set by the quartet.  A track like “Capelli Di Sagoma” with its shifts in tempo make for an addicting sensation, not too far removed from methods employed by ECM artists Marcin Wasilewski and Matthias Eick to great success.  The cello isn’t used just to play “the sad parts” of songs; Stano lets the cello lift its voice plenty, giving tunes a sense of good cheer as often as a sorrowful wail.  Ferrari has a nice touch on the keys, and really should develop a strong following, especially in the aforementioned ECM fan crowd.

Over the course of the last month, this album has got its hooks deeper into me, and it’s starting to become a daily listening habit.

Jazz from the Rome, Italy scene.

Released on the Dodicilune label.

Available at eMusic.

Jazz Lunch – Housewarming

Nice large group recording.  Tunes have plenty of swing, but there’s an undercurrent of rainy day music to it all. Song “Jarmul” is terribly pretty and melancholy.  For the most part, it’s straight-ahead modern jazz.  Nifty little find, these guys are.  Apparently recorded the entire album in one sitting in their living room.

Your album personnel:  Dan Ryan (guitar, compositions), Jon Birkholz (piano, compositions), Ben Frock (trumpet), Brent Madsen (trumpet), Eric Trudel (saxophone), Gary Thomas (saxophone), Chad Hochberg (drums), and Frank Russo (drums).

Jazz from the Baltimore, MD scene.

Released on the Reoccurring Dreams Records label.

You can stream the album on their bandcamp page.

Download a free album track from AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artists.

Available at eMusic.

*****

That’s it for today’s article.  This is the first set of Tiny Reviews from this batch.  There’ll probably be three more sets from the batch, but we’ll have to see.  Several of the albums I’ll probably be doing stand-alone reviews of, depending on how much time I have.

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.
© 2012  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.

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Hans Glawischnig Jahira, Ben Wendel Frame, and Aaron Goldberg, Omer Avital, & Ali Jackson Jr. Yes!.

Notably, among the three albums reviewed today, is that they’re all released on the Sunnyside label.  Sunnyside Records released a slew of strong albums near the end of 2011 and then into 2012.  And, like labels sometimes do, they release several at a time.  I decided to bunch these three together because… well, now that I write this, I can’t really recall the exact inspiration for the idea, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Perhaps we should just begin…

Hans Glawischnig – Jahira

Fascinating trio date with bassist Hans Glawischnig, drummer Eric Doob, and Samir Zarif on soprano & tenor sax.  Glawischnig sticks to acoustic bass and gets a wonderful tone on it.  Zarif’s tone has a celebratory swing to it.  Doob takes an ebb and flow approach to the rhythm, providing some dynamic moments, especially on cymbals.  While Glawischnig’s background in Latin jazz (via work for Paquito D’Rivera, Miguel Zenon, and Ray Barretto) informs some of the compositions, much of the album’s sound seems to spring more from the African influenced jazz a la Pharoah Sanders earlier Impulse date or Abdullah Ibrahim’s post-millenial recordings.

However, a tune like “Crow Point” aptly demonstrates that Glawischnig has his own unique vision to follow.  At times, his basslines could feel right at home in a modern jazz indie-rock fusion a la Kneebody, even while the composition overall speaks more to an avant-garde jazz piece; a compelling mix of cold steel and fiery groove.

Some ballads and slow-tempo tunes are thrown into the mix to great effect.  This is a group that knows how to instill a supreme serenity over a song, of making grand statements with simple phrases, of creating the sense of something big without having to talk it up incessantly.  Master strokes.

Released on the Sunnyside Records label.  Jazz from NYC.

You can stream the entire album on the label’s bandcamp page.

Available on eMusic.

Ben Wendel – Frame

With his group Kneebody, Ben Wendel fused the modern Indie rock sound with jazz into a perpetual ignition of music fuel.  The result was a series of Fringes of Jazz albums that moved its feet too quick to determine which side of the Jazz Dividing Line they rested upon.  Ultimately, it was great music, which tends to make music territory discussions a bit irrelevant.  On his new release, he brings in Kneebody bandmates, but adds a larger ensemble that includes jazz great pianist Gerald Cleaver for a series of a tunes that fall squarely in the (modern) jazz family.

Your album personnel:  Ben Wendel (saxophones, bassoon & melodica), Gerald Clayton, Tigran Hamasyan (piano), Adam Benjamin (piano & Fender Rhodes), Nir Felder (guitar), Ben Street (bass), and Nate Wood (drums).

There is a relentlessness to this album.  Not in the avant-garde free jazz exhaustive sense, but a rhythmic attack that keeps one on their toes, even as reflected through the expressions of melody.  I say this by way of describing the album, but also as advice that with an album like this, sometimes the subtler details take some repeat listening to flesh out.  Or said differently, it’s easy to allow oneself to get swept away by the waves, but it’s important to remember that it’s also nice to dive beneath them and take a look at what’s darting beneath the water’s surface.

Three different pianists collaborated with Wendel on the album.  And while there is nothing generic about their contributions, it is impressive that the shifts in personnel don’t detract from the album’s cohesiveness.

Final two tracks, “Leaving” and “Julia” end the album on a very strong note.  “Leaving” has a dramatic bent and a furious groove, even as it palpitates a sense of the melancholy.  “Julia” twists and turns in a gentle breeze, light as a feather but with the occasional sharp change in direction; a wistfulness even in peace.

Released on the Sunnyside Records label.  Jazz from NYC.

You can stream the entire album (and purchase it) on the Sunnyside bandcamp page.

Available on eMusic.

Aaron Goldberg, Omer Avital, & Ali Jackson Jr. – Yes!

Pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Omer Avital, and drummer Ali Jackson Jr. have been performing together for decades, but this is their first collaboration on a studio recording.  A live set of a wonderful mix of covers and originals that both swing and sway. Cover of Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Maraba Blue” and the Avital original “Homeland” are highlights on an album filled with them.  Three musicians with modern voices developed from jazz traditions.

Goldberg has recently stood out on his duo album with fellow pianist Guillermo Klein Bienestan, but has plenty of recorded music under his belt.  Omer Avital recently released Suite of the East, and, in my opinion, is the finest bassist and composer on the scene.  Jackson Jr. is mostly closely associated with Wynton Marsalis, though his reach extends further out than that.

This is primarily a straight-ahead jazz album that should appeal to fans across many jazz sub-genres.  Three great jazz artists just putting their heads down and making jazz music.  Outstanding.

Released on the Sunnyside Records label.

You can stream the entire album on the label’s bandcamp page.

Available on eMusic.

*****

That’s it for today’s article.  This was a set of Tiny Reviews from a batch of new arrivals a couple months back, and I really wanted to spend more time expanding on my original thoughts in the eMusic article, so I’m just getting to them now.  They kinda resemble the original pieces I wrote for eMusic, but not really.  In any event…

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.
© 2012  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.

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Andy Clausen The Wishbone Suite, Interlunio L’ennui Riot, Michel Mandel & Yves Gerbelot Tuyaux, and Chris Plansker Trio Inside the Bubble.

It’s been a little while since I put up some Tiny Reviews, and today is as good a day as any, so let’s jump right into it.  Today we’ve got three albums that come nowhere close to straight-ahead and one piano trio album as a palate cleanser.  The Clausen album has a shot at making my best-of mid-year list, due out sometime in July.

Let’s begin…

Andy Clausen – The Wishbone Suite

Brilliant debut album by trombonist Andy Clausen,who finds a way to fuse a disparate line-up of musicians and their seemingly ill-fitting instruments into an alluring, whimsical, and just-plain-cool mix of jazz, classical, and experimental music. Clausen often paints harmonically with broad brush strokes, which highlights the joyful details of his meticulous treatment of simple melodies.  Challenging music that doesn’t shy away from also being pretty.

Your album personnel:  Andy Clausen (trombone), Ivan Arteaga (clarinet), Gus Carns (piano), Aaron Otheim (accordion, piano), and Chris Icasiano (drums, glockenspiel).

There isn’t much out there that sounds like this music. Matt Ulery‘s blend of jazz, classical, and lullaby seems like the closest thing I can offer by way of comparison. Just really compelling stuff which earns more of my esteem with each subsequent listen.

Released by the Table & Chairs label.  Clausen is a Seattle native currently attending Julliard in NYC, and I don’t think he’s the only one in the ensemble with that situation.  So, this is jazz from a couple music scenes.

You can stream the album on the label’s bandcamp page.

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label.

Available at eMusic.

Interlunio – L’ennui Riot

Interesting quintet date that has plenty of avant-garde flavors to go along with a strong world jazz sound.  Ensemble via Portugal, but the ensemble members trace their individual studies to Mediterranean, Arabic, Flamenco, Renaissance, to name a few, and which inform the album music to varying degrees.  Interestingly enough, rather than try to give a healthy taste of their various music endeavors, the Interlunio ensemble utilizes an economy of sound… much to the recording’s benefit.  End result is something that sits in the same chamber jazz territory of, say, Wayne Horvitz’s Gravitas Quartet, but with heavy infusions of an ECM New Sound release.  An unusual beauty, unconventional melodies, and a peacefulness even during moments of chaotic interaction.

Your album personnel: Ricardo A. Freitas (bass guitar), Gonçalo Lopes (bass & soprano clarinets), Johannes Krieger (trumpet), Raimund Engelhardt (tabla, percussion), and Eduardo Lala (trombone).

Released on the JACC Records label.  Jazz from the Lisbon, Portugal scene.

Available at eMusic.

Michel Mandel & Yves Gerbelot – Tuyaux

A duet of saxophones and clarinets.  Vacillates between the peaceful end of things and the fiery side of the spectrum.  The pulse of a beating heart, the call of wild birds, the whisper of a cool breeze darting between the countryside trees, moonlight spreading out over a calm ocean surface… an album full of imagery.  And it’s always nice when a clarinet gets some time in the spotlight to really stretch out and remind everyone what a sublime sound it’s capable of achieving.

Your album personnel: Michel Mandel (Bb clarinet, bass clarinet) and Yves Gerbelot (baritone & sopranino sax)

Released on the La Forge CIR label.

You can stream an album track on the label site, here.

Available at eMusic.

Chris Plansker Trio – Inside the Bubble

Nice little piano trio date.  Nothing complicated, laid back with a vibrant sound, definitely with at least one foot in the modern jazz composition setting, but nothing that makes it inaccessible to classic jazz fans.  Focus on ambiance.  Quite pretty at times.

Your album personnel:  Chris Plansker (piano), Rob Avsharian (drums), and Jordan Schug (bass).

This album is Self-Produced.

Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist.

Available at eMusic.

*****

That’s it for today’s article.  Looks to be about two more sets of Tiny Reviews from this batch of new arrivals.

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.
© 2012  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.

It’s not easy for a musician to nurture their sound into something quite unclassifiable, yet still remain strongly tethered to a particular genre.  Jessica Lurie makes it look easy.

This is jazz music, though put it side by side to an album recognized universally as jazz, and it’s like night and day.  It’s a matter of apples and origins.

There’s folk music here.  There’s quantifiable amounts of Klezmer.  The vocals could belong to an Indie-rock song.  There are excursions into Greek traditional folk dance.  And, yes, there’s jazz, too.  But where many artists begin with jazz and move outward toward the fringes while incorporating other influences, Lurie seems to move in a different direction… bringing her disparate elements together in a way that suits her, and which just so happens to coalesce into jazz.

It makes for an alluring and potent mix of music.  For this album, she brings together a stellar lineup.

Your album personnel:  Jessica Lurie (alto, tenor, baritone saxophones, flute, voice, megaphones), Brandon Seabrook (guitar, banjo, tape recorder), Erik Deutsch (piano, electric piano, organ), Todd Sickafoose (acoustic bass), Allison Miller (drums, percussion), and guest: Marika Hughes (cello). Tom Swafford (violin),  and Tina Richerson (baritone sax).

Aside from it being a heavy talent pool, Lurie’s choice of personnel was pretty crafty.  All the musicians on the album are quite adept at playing outside traditional jazz lines.  Brandon Seabrook fit in seamlessly with Jeremy Udden’s folk-jazz music.  Erik Deutsch plays funk/rock/jazz keys under his own name, as well as on bluegrass-jazz outfit County Road X and as sideman for Country act Shooter Jennings.  Todd Sickafoose recorded a brilliant indie rock-jazz album Tiny Resistors, and is a long-time sideman for pop musician Ani DiFranco.  Allison Miller is full-on modern jazz, and ably handles all the genre crosscurrents that exemplify it.  They all have proven capable of adapting to the music in front of them.  That’s a good quality to have when Jessica Lurie is leading the charge.

In doubt of what’s in front of you, stare right at the heart of the album.  In this instance, the album’s heart is “Der Nister.” It touches on so many of the themes and sounds glimpsed at throughout the album.

Lurie is growing more assured as a vocalist.  On previous albums, she displayed an adeptness at the turn of phrase, but on tracks like “Maps”, there is a richness to her emotive shifts in tone that smooths out the edges even as the words cut into the hearts of anyone listening.  Closing track “Once” is yet more evidence of her adeptness at vocal gymnastics and how no degree of difficulty is too risky if the song demands it.

Seabrook has always wielded the strings like a rusty blade… a sharp precision that displays its wear and tear on its sleeve.  And this doesn’t change whether it’s guitar or banjo.  There is nothing pretty about his sound, and, strangely, that makes it all the more rapturous.

Allison Miller is easy to notice on drums.  She has a distinctive sound, one that compels the rhythm though she’s never outwardly aggressive.  Miller has a way of getting the rhythm to obey without ever raising her voice or making a fist.  It was no different on her own solid 2010 release Boom Tic Boom.

“Same Moon” is a composition of sublime beauty that presents, in succession, Lurie’s drowsily hypnotic sax and Deutsch’s regal piano solo.

The guest appearance of strings is a nice touch.  On “Zasto,” Hughes’ cello, Swafford’s violin, and Sickafoose’s bass conjure up some serious magic.

I’ve been a fan of Lurie’s music for years now, so when I say I’m addicted to this album like none previous by her, it’s important to recognize that she had already established a pretty high bar to surpass.  Megaphone Heart does just that, and I’m absolutely sure it will be on my Best of 2012 when I make my half-way point of the year post in July.

You can stream the entire album, and purchase it, on her Bandcamp site.

The album is Self-Produced.  Jazz from NYC.

Available at Amazon: MP3