Jazz Recommendations – 2012 Releases

Featuring Tiny Reviews of:  Bridges Trio Mans, Josh Arcoleo Beginnings, Artvark Saxophone Quartet Sly Meets Callas, and Dieter Ilg, Rainer Bohm, Patrice Heral Otello Live at Schloss Elmau.

Let’s begin…

Bridges Trio – Mans

A trio of guitar, bass, and drums that, for this album, makes it a quartet with the addition of an extra guitar player. Thrilling stuff. They totally have the Bill Frisell ECM sound going, though some of the looping and effects recall Frisell’s period with Nonesuch albums like Ghost Town and The Willies. Now, granted, I’m a huge Frisell fan, so any musician who adopts that sound, I’m gonna be enamored with, but that said, this is beautiful music.

Your album personnel:  Guillem Callejon (guitar), David Soler (guitar), Dimas Corbera (contrabass), and Alfons Bertran (drums).

Released on the Quadrant Records label.

Available on eMusic.

Josh Arcoleo – Beginnings

Strong debut album from tenor saxophonist Josh Arcoleo.  Rounding out his quartet with piano, drums, and bass, he presents a confident set of tunes. Compositions deliciously balance fire of sax with bright elegance of piano, while drums and bass fill all the spaces in between, resulting in rich album with plenty of depth.  Arcoleo has lots of punch on tenor, but thankfully doesn’t turn this into a blowing session.  Ivo Neame, on piano, really shines, creates an environment for Arcoleo to thrive in.  Hard to believe this a debut album.

Your album personnel:  Josh Arcoleo (tenor sax), Ivo Neame (piano), Callum Gourlay (bass), and James Maddren (drums).

Released on the Edition Records label.

Jazz from the UK.

Available at eMusic.

Artvark Saxophone Quartet – Sly Meets Callas

A nifty pairing of the avant-garde Artvark Saxophone Quartet and classical soprano Claron McFadden for an intriguing mix of compositions ranging from traditional jazz, skewed blues, and chamber music.  A very nice reminder that just because something gets categorized as avant-garde, doesn’t mean it can’t be catchy as hell.

Your album personnel:  Bart Wirtz, Rolf Delfos (alto saxes), Mete Erker (tenor sax), and Peter Broekhuizen (baritone sax).

Released on the Zennez Records label.

Available on eMusic.

Dieter Ilg, Rainer Bohm, Patrice Heral – Otello Live at Schloss Elmau

Bassist Dieter Ilg, pianist Rainer Bohm, and drummer Patrice Heral interpret the works of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.  More jazz than classical, with the livelier moments leaning more toward the former and the quieter interludes toward the latter.  On the ACT label, which has a habit of releasing albums that are deceptively straight-ahead, like looking at Jazz through opaque glass.  Two feet in the European jazz sound.  Has the word ‘live’ in the title, but that sure fooled me- fantastic sound.

Available on eMusic.

That’s it for today’s article, and the first of two parts of the 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.

My review of Neil Cowley Trio‘s new album The Face of Mount Molehill has been published on AllAboutJazz.  You can read the original review: Here, at AllAboutJazz.

*****

The danger of composing tunes with catchy hooks and enthusiastic infusions of a string ensemble for a jazz album is that it gets dismissed as gussied up pop music; not jazz, just jazzy. Either unaware or unconcerned with the risk, pianist Neil Cowley presents a series of warm tunes that wear their heart on their sleeve. It’s not the first time that unguarded sincerity overcame risk and danger.

Cowley comes from a background more rooted in the rock, soul and funk of the UK scene, and that influence is evident from the first note. Here’s an album with stylized grooves, fuzzy harmonies and rich melodies, and which could stunt double as a Badly Drawn Boy soundtrack. And, yet, Cowley finds a way to tether it to jazz.

Your album personnel:  Neil Cowley (piano), Rex Horan (double bass), and Evan Jenkins (drums).

The first track, “Lament,” opens with an introspective countryside walk on piano, odd percussion like sounds off in the distant city, and strings like sunlight streaking across the path. It’s a tune thick with imagery, and it’s a theme that repeats throughout.

The second track, “Rooster Was A Witness,” provides an immediate contrast, with anthemic piano riffs and up-tempo rhythms that have at least one foot in rock territory. Strings make an appearance with a swirl and gust of harmony, adding buoyancy to an already lively tune.

This leads into “Fable,” which knocks up the pulse count even higher. There’s a nice push and pull with the rhythm on this song, and it has the strange result of providing more of a cerebral engagement and much less foot-tapping than would be expected at first blush.

Here’s where Cowley brings the sledgehammer down upon the heart-strings. During the next several tracks, he unabashedly sends the string ensemble out to lead the charge, the piano trio following behind, and sometimes by more than a few steps; piano and bass frequently sound distant, an effect that’s likely not unintentional. It’s also quite powerful. And when he adds the eerie vocal effects of “Mini Ha Ha,” the strangeness only serves to enhance the beauty of the song.

On “Slims,” Cowley returns with some piano bounce. Jenkins’ drumwork provides a sharp edge to the song, while Horan’s bass navigates the trail between.

“Distance By Clockwork” is the best candidate for purest distillation of the soul of this album. Cowley has constructed a song within a song. Cyclical piano lines that seem to lead to new solos and new circumferences, perpetually bisected by hopscotch drum rhythms, while bass eddies and curls at the edges. And, of course, sweeping waves of string ensemble, sometimes providing an undercurrent of harmony, sometimes dramatically washing over everything in sight. It’s a composition that could have easily failed and been canned as melodramatic were it not for the fact that Cowley pulls it off.

The title track is the only weak link on the album. It repeats some of the motifs of earlier anthem-rock tracks, but with a bit too much exuberance, making it sound like it had been hurriedly assembled.

The album ends with a trio of compositions that come off as an extended goodbye. They are suffused with an undeniable finality, but just as the album had multiple thematic devices, it appears that Cowley wished to send listeners off with an au revoir in each of those sounds. It’s not a bad thing or a bad idea, but the album may have been stronger with a more definitive, and prompt, final note.

There are going to be those who aren’t thrilled with the direction Cowley has taken with The Face of Mount Molehill, claiming it to be less experimental, less daring. They’d be wrong. When measured in terms of sincerity, honest displays of emotion carry a lot of weight, and that kind of impact shouldn’t be dismissed. This is an album that deserves to be respected for what it is and not what others wish it to have been.

Album released on the Naim label.

Jazz from the London scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3 | CD (Import)