Jazz Recommendations – 2013 Releases

Mirage, the new release by tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, is not unlike glimpsing a ballad through a thick fog.  There are intervals of time when the music is briefly out of sight, but the ears fill in the gaps between what came before and what presents itself now… inspiring imagination even as the song remains in place, moving barely at all.

Fully improvised, Mirage is evidence that fluent, lyrical conversations between musicians need not be sacrificed in order the achieve the magic of spontaneity.

Your album personnel:  Ellery Eskelin (tenor sax), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), and Michael Formanek (double bass).

The album has a mesmerizing cadence, even as it achieves speeds that one would not necessarily associate with such a characteristic.  For instance, when opening track “Rain Shadow” transforms into a runaway train, it doesn’t shake the peaceful disposition with which it began.  And “Meridian” proceeds cautiously, as if the trio were traversing a pitch black room, and yet the confluence of their sound gives the impression of overcoming their blinded condition hand-in-hand, as one.

Bassist Formanek often serves as the trio’s center of gravity.  At times, his stronger pole matches Eskelin’s fluttering saxophone lines.  Formanek’s arco, on the other hand, melts dreamily into the shimmering stream of Alcorn’s pedal steel guitar.

“Divergence” is a triple helix of interrelated notes, all signifying different character traits, but all belonging to the same breathing entity.  It is a song of three paths that intersect at points that present themselves as logical meeting places, and result in a satisfying feeling of everything happening just as it should.  This, for an improvised piece, is something that cannot be overvalued.

For a person who could be loosely categorized, understandably, as an avant-garde musician, Eskelin doesn’t exactly offer up his saxophone as something that forges a path ahead with the expectation that it is the listener’s responsibility to keep up.  He looks over his shoulder to be sure the listener is still there, often turning around for face-to-face conversations.  It’s why Eskelin’s music is suitably accessible, even as he advances ahead to new horizons of expressiveness.

“Saturation” is a race down a flight of stairs, and where the only way to pass the person in front is to leapfrog over them.  It creates an appealing sensation of a loping tumble, a staggered motion more likely to hypnotize than distract.  “Refraction” begins as formal dance, develops into motion much freer and posture bordering on statuesque.

Alcorn’s pedal steel guitar contributions add a dimension to the music that enhances its peaceful nature while also triggering the brain synapses to engage with it… a daydream presence that elicits powerful imagery juxtaposed against a drowsy state.

The album’s centerpiece is “Downburst,” a sprawling 27-minute piece that incorporates the recording’s varied facets under one roof, and illustrates how Mirage is one long conversation.  Individual songs, though separated by the bits of silence used to create the format of songs and album, don’t perforce represent separate dialogues… they are all one, all part of the same spontaneous, fluent conversation.

Released on the Clean Feed Records label.

Jazz from NYC.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

If you want the CD, it appears that it is only available directly from the artist, which you can order, HERE, on his site.

*****

More about the musicians:

I link to Eskelin’s site in the intro above, but he’s also got a blog that I recommend checking out.  I peruse it from time to time, and find it both insightful and enjoyable.  You can get there following this LINK.

Aside from checking out more of Eskelin’s own recordings, if you haven’t already, I suggest picking up Ben Goldberg’s Unfold Ordinary Mind, an excellent album I reviewed earlier this year, and on which Eskelin is just oustanding.

Michael Formanek also received a warm reception on this site for his 2012 release Small Spaces… a review you can find by following this link.  He’s an in-demand bassist, and it’s easy to see why.  I like his style, both as player and, perhaps more, as composer and session-leader… even if I don’t connect with all that many of his recordings.  Formanek certainly isn’t alone on my short list of musicians with whom I struggle with their music yet continue to listen to new ventures with a happy anticipation for what comes next and how it might grab my ear.

As far as I can tell, this was my introduction to Susan Alcorn’s music.  I love it when pedal steel guitar is included in a jazz session.  It’s such an odd sound judged on its own merits… so beautiful and mysterious and haunting all at the same time.  To hear it included in a jazz setting, it just enhances all those qualities by way of it being such an unusual instrument to be incorporated in Jazz… it challenges the ear for acceptance.  Anyways, here’s a link to her site so you can learn more about her and her music.

Links to Eskelin’s sites are above, and the link to Formanek’s site is found in my review of his last album, linked to above, too.

Cheers.

Tiny Reviews edition!

Featuring:  John O’Gallagher The Anton Webern Project, Matteo Marongiu Open Letter to Mingus, and PJ Rasmussen Adventures In Flight.

*****

John O’Gallagher – The Anton Webern Project

NYC saxophonist John O’Gallagher, who has long been fascinated with and studied, the 12-tone music theory and that of Serialism, takes it one step further by creating a concept album based around what the music of classical composer Anton Webern (an innovator in 12-tone) might have sounded like were he a jazz musician in modern day New York City.

There’s plenty to appreciate in the concept, but entirely unnecessary to enjoying this oddball mix of classical, jazz, and fusion.  Music with a loping cadence that slides into unconventional grooves, sharp guitar notes that dart through a shimmering organ haze, quavering harmonies shattered by saxophone wails, bright notes of vibes skipping multiple ropes with skittering drums, and the occasional bursts of strangely melodic vocals.

Your album personnel:  John O’Gallagher (alto sax), Ross Lossing (Hammond organ, Rhodes, piano), Pete McCann (guitar), Matt Moran (vibes), Johannes Weidenmueller (bass), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), and Margret Grebowicz (voice).

Released on the Whirlwind Recordings label.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD

Matteo Marongiu – Open Letter to Mingus

A collegiate project aimed at studying the technique of orchestration in jazz via the compositions of Charles Mingus, this large ensemble, led by fellow bassist Matteo Marongiu, captures the strange beauty of the subject’s music, while simultaneously expressing their own creative voice with a touch that is breezy and light as a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park.  Tracks like album-opener “Dear Angel” possess some frenetic shadowplay with tempo, whereas other tracks like “Scarlett” are a constant wave of sunshine warmth.

Your album personnel:  Matteo Marongiu (bass), Stefano D’Anna (tenor & soprano sax), Alessandro Di Liberto (piano), Daniele Pasini (flute), Roberto Migoni (drums), Simone Floris (clarinet, bass clarinet), Mauro Piras (trombone), Elsa Paglietti (violin), Simone Soro (violin), Angela Zienko (viola), and Gianluca Pischedda (cello).

Released on the Improvvisatore Involontario label.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

PJ Rasmussen – Adventures In Flight

Nice straight-ahead session by guitarist PJ Rasmussen, who toes a blues path by way of navigating a nice middle ground between a classic bop sound and one that’s a bit more mainstream.  Aside from resulting in a series of enjoyable tunes, this results in some satisfying album cohesion.  By touching on some form of blues voicing, the album focus doesn’t ever seem to waver, even if its expression of that focus does shift under the listeners feet from tune to tune.  Nothing groundbreaking, but I found the album sufficiently likable to give it a quick mention.

Your album personnel:  PJ Rasmussen (guitar), Steve Johns (drums), Adrian Moring (bass), Chris Pattishall (piano), Nate Giroux (tenor sax), Danny Reyes (trumpet & flugelhorn), and guest Kelly Green (vocals).

Released on the Third Freedom Music label.

Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

*****

In 2011, Goran Kajfes released the fascinating double album X/Y.  The X was a throwback to the period of the late-60s, early-70s when subgenres like world, soul, and spiritual jazz were blended into indiscriminate bundles of euphoric celebratory music.  Artists like Don Cherry, Sun Ra, and Archie Shepp were innovators and searchers of the various music’s commonalities, turning them into fearless expressions of inventive, deep, and fun music.  Kajfes’ X plunged right into that territory, but the composer gave it his own branding of psychedelic flavor, bringing out a party-time atmosphere from thoughtfully textured music.

The Y in that double-release was something else entirely.  Building on the work of early soundscapers like Brian Eno, Cluster, and Bill Laswell, Kafjes wove together a series of meditative pieces that droned with a space-age ambiance and emitted the distant warmth of fluttering stars.  Its minimalistic expressions seemed in direct contrast to the wild effusiveness of the X release.

Except that it wasn’t.  Both schools of music experimented with the details in the sound, bringing nuances to the forefront… just doing it with varying degrees of provocation.  Furthermore, there was a prevailing disregard to how different influences should be compartmentalized and separated by conventional standards.  There is more in common between different musics than that which separates them.  Both schools of music seemed to grasp this.

On Goran Kajfes newest release The Reason Why Vol. 1, he digs up the roots of that music.

Your album personnel:  Goran Kajfes (trumpet), Johan Berthling (bass), Per Ruskträsk Johansson (saxophones, flute), Jonas Kullhammar (saxophones, flute), Jesper Nordenström (organ, cembalo), Andreas Söderström (electric guitar), Andreas Werliin (drums, percussion), Lars Skoglund (drums, percussion), Mats Äleklint (trombone), and Robert Östlund (Moog, electric guitar).

Performing renditions of the composers and ensembles that informed the music of X/Y, Kajfes brings the albums under the same roof with a singular expression of his personal sound, while giving some insight into how he views the music through his own eyes and ears.  Backed by his Subtropic Arkestra, he channels the simultaneous imagery of outer space big band jazz like Sun Ra, and the finely textured ambient drive of Krautrock acts like Cluster, while voicing this music with Kajfes’s personal blend of jazz, rock, and psychedelia.  It sounds like there’s a lot going on here… and there is… but Kajfes offers it up in a package so very accessible, and so very fun.

Opening track “Yakar Inceden Inceden” somersaults off the shoulders of Turkish-psych composer Edip Akbayram, and puts on full display Kajfes’ signature high voltage attack.  Whereas, on his rendition of Soft Machine’s “The Nodder,” Kajfes illustrates that the opposite side of a high voltage attack is the ambient hum of electricity.  It’s a song with a prowling rhythm and melting harmonies, buffeted by fluttering electronic squiggles, capturing some traits of the original, but sounding like a generation on down the lineage.

Perhaps the most intriguing album track is Kajfes’ rendition of Celestine Ukwu’s “Okwukwe Na Nchekwube,” from which he develops the melody from the Nigerian musician’s folkloric languor up into a modern jazz psych-groove that steps into territory occupied by another unique act… Rob Mazurek’s Sao Paulo Underground… who also emits a party-time celebratory space-age sound from music that has a regional folk music at its heart.  Even as the track builds into futuristic electronic emissions and wailing shouts of brass and woodwinds, there remains an observable trace of the seaside peacefulness of Ukwu’s original.

On the other hand, Kajfes’ rendition of Tame Impala’s “Desire Be, Desire Go” takes a divergent path from the original.  There is an almost majestic persona to Kajfes’ version, leaving behind the grinding demeanor of the original and, instead, lifting off into soaring statements of melody with a groove that leaves the earth below, as well.  This, eventually, develops into a cool blues blowing session, with saxophones exuberantly tearing the song in two.

His rendition of Cluster’s “Es War Einmal” again goes to the heart of Kajfes’ reasoning that the roots of his X and Y albums aren’t that far removed.  Starting off with a church mouse hush, the song builds up intensity through repetition, adding more layers to a simple statement of melody and rhythm.  Eventually it grows into something far more complex than the simple peep of a mouse from which it began.  The rendition of Bo Hansson’s “Storstad” is upbeat right from the start, but there is a similar layering that lets Kajfes infuse the song with much of the subdued fantasy-story mystery of the original.  And just as his take on Cluster, Kajfes finds a way to fuse celebratory music with a sound that borders, at times, on meditative.

The cover of Archimedes Badkar’s “Badidoom” plays it pretty close to the original, but takes more to soaring and gives a finer polish to its notes to aid with flight.  It has an infectious groove and a catchy melody and so many wonderful details to get lost in.  With acoustic guitar leading the way, the orchestra offers up the cool jazz icy sheen of the 1970s …  and not that far removed from fellow Dutch musician Benjamin Herman and his New Cool Collective… the descending downpours of strings glittering brilliantly off the rhythmic hop and bounce.

The reference to Sao Paulo Underground is even more relevant for album closer “Karina.”  A song by Arthur Verocai, a Brazilian musician who was part of the innovative Tropicalia movement… a music form that SPU performs an updated version of.  Kajfes builds up to a frenzy pretty quick, going from zero to eighty in no time… fronted by an electric guitar burn and matching fire on keys and percussion.  Methodical statements by woodwinds and horns counteract some of the rhythmic fury, but mostly it gets taken for a very fun ride.

And when it all gets boiled down, when the influences and the backstories and historical references are out of mind, this album, stocked high with textures and colors and shading that work together seamlessly in a way that engages both heart and mind, is very fun music, as simple as that.

Released on the Headspin Recordings label.

Jazz from Sweden.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3 | Vinyl

Steven Lugerner made a hell of a splash by releasing co-debut albums to lead out the 2011 year, utilizing two different ensembles and presenting two divergent sounds.  One of those recordings, Narratives, was a lesson in potent melodies and story-like song construction.  The second of those two simultaneous debuts was These Are the Words, an album of sharp angles and clipped conversations… a perfect counterbalance to its partner album.

With his new release For We Have Heard, Lugerner returns with the same quartet from These Are the Words, and builds on that album’s pricklier nature.  Basing this album’s compositions on a numeric approach to biblical text, Lugerner presents music that challenges the ear, just as it must have challenged the composer as he went about the task of crafting the songs.  And as it is with any challenge, the effort to engage comes with its rewards.

Your album personnel: Steven Lugerner (Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe, English horn, soprano & alto Saxophones, flute & alto flute), Darren Johnston (trumpet), Myra Melford (piano), and Matt Wilson (drums).

The album opens with “Us and Our Fathers,” a contemplative piano-led piece with some saxophone accompaniment.  It channels the stillness of the morning.

“When a Long Blast Is Sounded” begins with a strong martial cadence.  This holds fast, so that when the ensemble strays from a tight formation, there remains a sense of marching straight ahead.  Drummer Matt Wilson, who brings a joyful swing to many of his own projects, displays yet again the breadth of his talent by contributing essential parts to an album with an acerbic disposition and one that employs an unconventional geometry in shaping songs.  On subsequent track “Drove Out Before Us,” Wilson picks up right where he left off on the previous track, driving the tune with a cadence that crackles and pops with electricity, and partners with Lugerner’s sax in raising up and calling out into space.

There are several themes that act as threads throughout this recording, but it may be Wilson’s drums that serves as the unifying force.

On “Be Strong and Resolute,” the quartet’s development of an edgy groove breaks suddenly into a mesmerizing piano solo, which marks one of several occurrences of Myra Melford infusing a song with an austere beauty, providing a lightness to counteract the music’s tendency to go heavy and hard.  Later, on the title-track, Melford adds some gentle accompaniment, partnering with the whisper of Wilson’s drums as Lugerner and Johnston work a melodic line that is about as fluid as any on this album of unpredictable motion.  A musing ballad, the title-track is a bit of a throwback to Lugerner’s previous albums.

Trumpeter Darren Johnston fits in with this project easy-peasy.  Whether it be with his quintet on a recording like the Clean Feed Records release The Edge of the Forest or a collaboration with top-tier players from the Chicago free-improv scene on an album like The Big Lift, Johnston is right at home with compositions that demand an aggressive expressiveness within an atypical framework of genially displayed ferocity.  On “All Those Kings,” Johnston punches woozy notes through the spaces in between Lugerner’s flailing sax lines, giving illusory form to a song that presents an illusory dispersion.

Half of the album’s ten tracks clock in around two minutes in length each.  They behave as vignettes, rather than simple interludes between songs, and as a result, express themselves as flash fiction… glimpses of imagination, with a brief life and an evocative punch.  They have the added feature of being the most effective doorways into connecting with this album.

Of all of Lugerner’s work to date, this is easily the most challenging.  But patience brings familiarity, and that leads to changes in how the album is perceived.  It’s one of those albums that rewards effort.  And considering Lugerner’s relative newness to the recording scene, it marks an intriguing chapter in his development.

Released on the Primary Records label.

Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Bandcamp.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3