Mar 26 2018
The Round-up: It was Sunday night and warm light filled the room as darkness sat outside the window and watched
Here is some very good new music.
Danny Fox Trio – The Great Nostalgist (Hot Cup Records)
Thoughtfulness at high speeds, of notes hanging in the air even when the space between them is ever so slight. That’s the lingering impression made on this straight-ahead session from the trio of pianist Danny Fox, bassist Chris van Voorst and drummer Max Goldman. The brisk pace never gets in the way of an articulate voicing of melody or its eventual development into an engrossing conversation. This session is in the mold of a standard modern piano trio recording, but the little turns of phrase and keen modulations of pacing have the great impact of raising things up to something outside the accepted archetype. Those nuanced differences are one way to make cerebral music extroverted and fun.
Artist site | Buy: Amazon
Wooley/Dumoulin/Flaten/Verbruggen – kaPSalon (Ratrecords)
“This music,” Buster Keaton, reincarnated, would announce. “It will be the soundtrack for my next silent film.” And why not? This live performance recording by trumpeter Nate Wooley, pianist Jozef Dumoulin, double bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and percussionist Teun Verbruggen is all about emoting through motion. Idiosyncratic and volatile as hell, the music signifies the personality quirks of characters and their physical manifestations… the relation of many things that defy the need for words. And though wholly avant-garde in nature, the blues and jazz bubble up to the surface frequently and at just the right moments, making a resolute statement that this wild, untamed music willingly tethers itself loosely to music of the past.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
Tamaya Honda – ICTUS Trio (Song X Jazz)
Much in that way Paul Motian could imply the whisper of a hurricane during the recitation of a lullaby, the trio of drummer Tamaya Honda, bassist Takashi Sugawa and pianist Koichi Sato establish an appealing balance between serenity and volatility. This modern piano trio recording is perfect for a rainy day, and that means for when it’s a torrential downpour or when the comforting patter of raindrops soothes the soul. The Motian comparison isn’t happenstance. This album is dedicated to Masabumi Kikuchi, a pianist who thrived in exactly this kind of environment, and, logically, collaborated with Motian himself on a number of recordings. Carla Bley compositions comprise nearly half of the album tracks, which adds an interesting quality, as does Sugawa switching over to cello. Music from Tokyo.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp
Ed Jones – For Your Ears Only (Impossible Ark)
There’s something particularly resonant about this straight-ahead release from Ed Jones. Perhaps it’s the beautifully crafted melodies or perhaps it’s how the saxophonist’s quartet keeps referencing it as the pace and distance from its introduction increases, and maybe it’s the way a patient exhalation of the melody contrasts with a galloping tempo. But whatever the reason, this is one of those albums that sparkles like stars with each volley of notes, each turn of phrase, each expression of melody. Pianist Ross Stanley, bassist Riann Vosloo and drummer Tim Giles round out the quartet, plus a guest spot from vocalist Brigitte Beraha. Music from London.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
The Housewarming Project – at_home/at_play (Self-Produced)
There’s a special kind of chemistry to the trio of pianist Jeremy Siskind, vocalist Nancy Harms and multi-reedist Lucas Pino. There’s a sense of musicians fated to come together because it was willed by elemental forces. Their 2012 release Finger-Songwriter was one of the very best things to come out that year, and since that time, the trio has released another recording and been on a dedicated tour of living room shows. Their new release compiles some of the moments from those shows, and it displays that the magic conjured up by the three is nowhere even close to waning. Harms’s smoky delivery is a perfect match to Pino’s languid expressions of melody, especially when he switches over to bass clarinet. On piano, Siskind’s accompaniment is almost reverential. It all plays out like moonlight on a small patch of earth, where everything inside the beams seems more alive than anything else on the planet and nobody wants to move or speak for fear of breaking the spell of enchantment.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp
Look, there’s nothing tragically awful about Frisell’s new album. I enjoyed it, I suppose. Music IS has its moments. But I’ve been saying this about other recent 
The thing of it is, it’s not like the guy has lost it or anything. Just five years ago, Frisell released the solo recording Silent Comedy, and it features an electric barrage of Frisell musings… tiny inspirations that play out in hellfire feedback, curious curls and loops, and glittering shards of melody. It’s clearly crafted in the Tzadik label aesthetic (well, one of them, at least) and features all of the wild creativity that (I imagine) John Zorn encourages from his fellow musicians. And I haven’t yet touched upon the pure gold of Frisell’s other recent recordings 
David Bowie went through many changes. His metamorphoses in persona were as wild as those occurring in his music. One such time, when he was strung out from a life of drugs and parties, Bowie retreated to Switzerland, before eventually settling in Berlin, Germany (hunkering down with Iggy Pop, actually). Throwing himself into the art scene, Bowie developed an interest in the ambient and electronic music from that locale, and this led to meeting up with Brian Eno. This partnership resulted in Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy… the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger. The electro-ambient influence is evident in all three, especially the first recording, Low.
Mar 27 2018
Anat Cohen & Fred Hersch: Sadists
There is evil in this world. Each of us know this is true. But rarely does it make its malicious intentions so plainly obvious as it does on this recording from Anat Cohen and Fred Hersch. These sadists… the former on clarinet, the latter on piano… want to inflict some hurt on us for not choosing to hear their live performance at the Raven Performing Arts Theater that evening in June.
Look, you and I both know that seeing the show live will always eclipse the experience of hearing it on a recorded medium. That’s just the way it is. Steve Moon and Mark Wilder do an outstanding job of bringing this lovely music into our homes, but there’s no amount of recording or studio talent that will compare to being there in person the night the show went down. I know it, you know it, and Cohen & Hersch know we know it. And they use that knowledge against us. Why else would they taunt us with this exquisite recording?
What were you doing on the night of June 11th, 2016? Not in Healdsburg, California? Well, that was a big mistake, and both Cohen and Hersch want to drive that point home. Don’t live anywhere nearby? Well, maybe you should have made different decisions when you were younger… chose a different college, applied for jobs in California, entered into a different romantic relationship, taken a different road trip, followed a different path… because the alternative might have led you to Healdsburg that night. You have no one to blame but yourself, and Cohen and Hersch want to be sure that point is made clear. They have made it clear to me. Big time.
“Child’s Song” is the tranquility of those Sunday mornings when sunlight floods the room and the world seems to have settled into a consensual peace. “The Purple Piece” is the majesty of two hawks soaring overhead, close enough to see the flutter of their wings, far enough to appreciate how they shrug off the effects of gravity. And the playful trades of melody on “Lee’s Dream” mimic the joy of butterflies dancing on the surface of a breeze carrying along the distant sound of children playing. That’s the sense of things, at least. Too bad you weren’t there to witness it in its totality.
Every now and then, between songs, the recording picks up the enthusiastic applause of the audience that was blessed to be in attendance that night. They’re just twisting the knife. I hate them all.
So, if you want to experience undiluted pain and regret and angst and depression, you should buy this album. And if you want to experience joy and beauty and delight and amusement and confirmation of the enduring belief that creativity reveals the best humanity has to offer, then you should buy this album. If I hear from either Cohen or Hersch inre: their preference for the former or latter, I’ll update you immediately. But go buy this album.
Your album personnel: Anat Cohen (clarinet) and Fred Hersch (piano).
Released on Anzic Records.
Listen to more of the album on the label’s Bandcamp page.
Available at: Bandcamp | Amazon | eMusic
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2018 • 2