Jazz Recommendations

Andy Emler, Claude Tchamitchian and Eric Echampard (aka ETE) are long-time collaborators.  Their newest album Sad and Beautiful is the third recording of these artists in a trio format.  This, in addition to their work together in Emler’s MegaOctet, has given rise to a certain empathy to the cryptic structures of Emler’s compositions as well as each artist’s peculiar voices that each of the artists possess.  It’s why so much of their music sounds so mysterious and strange, yet reflects a logic and beauty so simple to absorb.

2014’s Sad and Beautiful is the most concrete presentation of this yet.

Your album personnel:  Andy Emler (piano), Claude Tchamitchian (double bass), and Eric Echampard (drums).

As with past recordings, their newest collaboration is exemplified by an uneasy melodicism.  Opening track “A Journey Through Hope” opens with it immediately before breaking into a cant that carries that melody away.  Emler’s piano is a cascade of notes that withdraws and returns with a suddenness that is quite startling, just as it is welcome.  Tchamitchian provides dramatic strikes of lightning with some bass arco, bolstering the turbulence of Eschampard’s drums.

The interlude of “Last Chance” shows the trio’s ability to shift into a melody of a more elegant shapeliness.  The pleasant chatter from drums, the introspective missives from piano, deep sighs from bass.  “Elegances” picks up where the previous interlude left off, but sinks deeper into introspection before ramping things up to finish off the song.

“Second Chance” is a vortex of motion, growing faster as the trio reaches the core of the song.  On “Tee Time,” however, the force of the trio is more vertically directed, charging head first from the first notes, when bass comes out humming, piano taking leaps and bounds, and drums coaxing the intensity ever upward.  The trio slides into expressions of a defined melody that also possesses strong rhythmic implications.  A beautiful middle passage of bass arco, and piano singing just over the top, leads to some atonality when piano alters its voice and cymbals crash down repeatedly.  This, in turn, leads to a conclusion with a hurried demeanor and the delivery of abrupt phrases, contrasting with both the song’s cohesive opening and its serene middle section.  It’s these kinds of changes of expression that symbolizes so much of the strange and mysterious beauty contained in the music of these artists.

The albums final two songs do no less.  “By the Way” begins with a dancer’s elegance and proclivity for crisp and fluid changes of shape and motion.  And the concluding song “Try Home” is a subdued expression of what has come before… a brief and quiet introspection, and a curious beauty.

Released on La Buissonne.

Available at:  Bandcamp | eMusic | Amazon MP3

On previous albums, saxophonist Manuel Dunkel displayed an ability to play it straight from both past and post-bop perspectives.  On 2004’s Manuscript, Dunkel’s quartet kept things more in the mainstream jazz arena, and illustrated his ability to draw evocative tones from patient expressions.  On 2010’s A Step Forward, Dunkel’s quartet turned up the heat, hitting notes that sang of modern post-bop jazz sounds, though hinting at roots of that music with quick turns of phrases and a rhythm section that could turn on a dime.

On his latest recording, 2013’s Meeting Point, Dunkel brings those elements together.  Furthermore, he adds the Proton String Quartet to the mix, providing a new dimension to his music as his sound evolves creatively.  It’s what puts this recording over the top, eclipsing previous efforts.

Your album personnel:  Manuel Dunkel (tenor & soprano saxes), Seppo Kantonen (piano), Ville Herrala (bass), Mika Kallio (drums) and the Proton String Quartet: Teppo Ali-Mattila (violin), Ilkka Lehtonen (violin), Maarit Holkko (viola), and Veli-Matti Iljin (cello).

The balance between the saxophone quartet “side” and the string quartet “side” is most fascinating in the way their negative correlation expresses itself.  On opening track “Sustaining,” Dunkel’s languid sax lead is offset by urgent coaxing of strings, and when the sax quartet speaks in clipped phrases, the string quartet offers up long slow washes of harmony.  On “Le Calife,” Dunkel’s sax rides the turbulent drafts of Kallio’s drums, while strings provide a smooth jet stream just beneath the expanse of the solo.

“Fortitude North” develops a little swing, as Herrala walks down Dunkel’s opening salvo.  When Dunkel states the melody, strings hit the gas pedal on the harmony, then slams on the brakes, inching forward to add some emphasis to the rhythmic chatter.  On piano, Kantonen works the seams between the two, while running in a direction opposite that of bass.  The sense of intersecting lines heading it opposite directions adds some welcome tension to a tune that verges on a season of swing.

Of course, it’s not all a matter of counterbalancing… the expressions in tandem offer plenty to get excited about.  The opening of “Stones” sees the octet skipping determinedly forward, and then all as one, leap off a cliff and begin to soar.

“Range of Moods Pt.2” and “Kevätkoivu” slip into ballad form, letting strings tell a love story while Dunkel adds that tone of heartbreak inherent in all romantic expressions.  But “Outlines” is a different kind of demeanor.  Raucous right from the start, the ensemble speeds through an upbeat tune, featuring a nice turn by Kantonen on piano.

The album ends with “Sustaining 2,” a reprise of the opening track.  And where the first rendition of this song slowly built drama right from the start, the reprise has a sense of finality, both Dunkel and Kantonen offering up shorter and crisper statements on sax and piano, drums still pronounced, but with less insistence.  Strings, intriguingly, add a soft layer of dissonance in the background, which contrasts greatly with the rest of the ensemble, yet, strangely, serves to enhance the tempered wind-down.

A nice example of how to add an element of strings to an existing sound without changing everything up, and, also, just an enjoyable recording that I find myself coming back to from time to time.

Released on Texicalli Records.

Jazz from the Vantaa, Finland scene.

Available at:  eMusic | Amazon MP3

There is a charming quality to the creative fearlessness that pianist Michael Wollny displays in his projects.  His trio [em] was all modern piano trio, but along with the unrepentant flair for drama were Wollny’s quirky compositions that tinkered with cadence and melody in ways that seemed counterintuitive to the evocative aims typical to that particular brand of jazz-rock fusion.  Wunderkind, his duo collaboration with Tamar Halperin, built around keyboard instruments, with harpsichord as the centerpiece, isn’t the kind of project that is going to lead to a musician getting pigeonholed as anything ordinary.

This holds true, also, for his odd Thrillbox collaboration with accordionist Vincent Pierani and bassist Michel Benita, an album with a folksy charm and a warm heart and a vocabulary sufficiently expansive as to deftly rope a fascinating rendition of Thelonious Monk’s “I Mean You” into its embrace.  And then there were numerous renditions of Miles Davis and Duke Ellington compositions on his collaboration with saxophonist Heinz Sauer (If [Blue] Then [Blue]), a collaboration that has led to recordings that possess an austerity reminiscent of Nordic Jazz and the elegance of Classical.

Weltentraum, the newest by Wollny, displays more of that creative bravery, as he switches things up by building a new trio and adding a new sound to his already diverse repertoire.

Your album personnel:  Michael Wollny (piano, harpsichord), Tim Lefebvre (bass), Eric Schaefer (drums & percussion), and guest:  Theo Bleckmann (vocal).

In some ways, Wollny’s newest project is his most straight-forward.  This type of melodic impressionism is not a new thing, may actually symbolize the development of the jazz piano trio in the modern era, but Wollny’s current foray into the medium is nothing short of spectacular.  And since we don’t listen to sub-genres, but instead to the artists that express the common forms of music language, any time a talented musician picks up a particular line of dialog, it’s always reason to sit up and take notice.

It’s not uncommon for Wollny to embrace the music of others and channel it through his particular creative lens.  Weltentraum is no different in this regard.

The trio’s rendition of the Medieval court music of Mauchaut’s “Lasse!” retains a hint of formal dance, yet instills a nonchalance in the melodic expression that is a toothsome contrast.  And “Nacht,” an Alban Berg composition of function and fancy, is contorted into a little ramshackle tune that vacillates between a state of coalescence and one of carefree dispersion.

But it’s not all music of ages past.  Wollny’s trio brings a clearer definition to the shimmering harmonic wave that is the Flaming Lips “Be Free, a Way.”  A thick melodic line lights the path ahead, as patient expressions paint in evocative tones.  And a song that starts out with a moody disposition asserts its presence, growing increasingly dramatic as Wollny expands on the opening melody and Schaefer’s drums become more vociferous, and the song becomes something quite different from the original while still shadowing Wayne Coyne’s spark of inspiration.  And then there’s their rendition of pop artist Pink’s song “God is a DJ.”  Featuring the vocals of guest Theo Bleckmann, and also featuring Wollny’s sole appearance on harpsichord on this recording, they bring a Zen disposition and a droning ambiance to the original’s party-time atmosphere, and give a sincere take on a song for which it would be too easy to adopt a snarky attitude.

But Jazz is typified by honest takes on pop music of the day, going as far back as the genre’s birth with renditions of the Great American Songbook, through free jazz takes on songs like “My Favorite Things” and “Greensleeves,” of fusion and post-bop takes on the entire Beatles songbook, and now with renditions of the music of modern acts like Radiohead, Elliot Smith, and The Flaming Lips.

Intriguingly, but not surprising, Wollny hits upon a couple songs that fall far outside the mainstream.  The trio captures the inherent sadness in the Charlie Kaufman-Jon Brion tune “Little Person” by working a melodic seam as a gentle lullaby, and then allowing the song to drift from first note to last.  And Wollny breathes some Sunday church gospel into the fuzzily ambient selection from the David Lynch Eraserhead soundtrack, “In Heaven,” diverging from the original’s pop music tone with a different kind of soul.

Only a few of the album’s track are Wollny originals.  One of those is arguably the strongest of the bunch.  “When the Sleeper Wakes” has bassist Lefebvre setting the pace for a groove with all kinds of serious bounce.  Schaeffer flits between aiding that groove and joining Wollny’s series of improvisatory somersaults executed in the seams between the rhythm section’s landmarks.

Another Wollny original, “Engel,” is a slow build of melody, a rising tide that reaches its crest patiently, but with an increasing intensity that subsumes its tenacious demeanor.  Similarly, “Hochrot” glitters like stars with a harmonic brilliance that’s quite stunning, even though it never raises its voice to startle.  And then there’s “Muhlrad,” which comes in flurries, stays light on its feet… the playful dance of a flickering candle.

The entire album is enchanting in that way.  An unassuming beauty that resonates brightly.

Released on ACT Music.

Jazz from the Berlin scene.

Available at:  Amazon CD | Amazon MP3

I’ll add a link for eMusic when it becomes available.

There is a nonchalance to the music of the trio Rooms that is especially appealing.  Their self-titled debut album Rooms sounds carefully constructed with a certain poetry in mind… of repeated phrasings juxtaposed with scattered rhythms, and sounding both off-the-cuff and thoughtfully planned, in a way that is both genuine and charming.

Your album personnel:  Matt Carroll (drums), Dan Pierson (piano, keyboards), and Charlie Kirchen (bass).

The album’s character is best symbolized by its opening two tracks, “Toad” and “Bricks.”  On the former, Dan Pierson makes his mark on keys, sometimes with casual expressions and sometimes with offhand repetition, and often accentuated with a dramatic flourish… an effect accentuated with a crash of cymbals from drummer Matt Carroll that barely rise above a whisper.  The latter track “Bricks” is benefited by brief statements of melody at key moments, keeping a loose song tight at the seams.

“Bloomington” and “Middle Song” provide a nice contrast.  The first highlighted by little missives tossed about, conversational asides that cross paths repeatedly and make a singular dialog in aggregation.  The interlude of “Middle Song,” however, stays close to song center by attaching itself to a cheerfully dancing melody.

“Silence” is the first album track to gather into a definitive form… it just happens to alter that form several times throughout its course.  On drums, Carroll shifts from a staggered gait to a driven repetition.  Pierson hits some nice melodic passages on piano, lighting a fire kindled with an informal austerity.  Kirchen’s bass is the overarching constant to this track, shepherding the tune from the depths of the shadows, the soft pulsing footfalls of his bass establishing a rhythmic foundation that piano and drums proceed to tinker with.  It’s the most vibrant of all the album tracks.

The odd elegance of “C Ballad” incites a sense of formal expression delivered with a confident ease and nonchalance, whereas “Glendalough” lays out sufficiently to make its predecessor appear statuesque.

“Track 12” develops a bit of a groove, building up to a point when Carroll’s drums surge up and over the melody.  And then, like a wave crashing the shore, the song glides over the sand, stretching out further and further until it quietly disappears into the spaces between grains of sand.

To end the album, the trio flexes its muscles a bit.  “Just Wild” opens with Kirchen’s bass arco, then enters a free association that sounds more intentional than anything previous… the trio establishing its presence upon the song with a directness to take the album out strong.

Really, just a charming album and very easy to like.

The album is Self-Produced.

Jazz from the Chicago scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | CDBaby