Apr 23 2017
Because the world is a very big place: Your expanded JJA Awards nominees
The Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) is a non-profit that provides a mix of jazz advocacy and journalism resources. Everything about the organization comes off as well-meant. Once a year, they, like most music organizations and sites (including this one), roll out a Best Of list. Apparently the JJA membership vote on a number of categories, which leads to a nominating list, which then goes through another vote for the final selections. The newest ballot, for the 2016 JJA Jazz Awards, was just released. I very much like that the JJA has a Jazz Heroes section, which puts the spotlight on various people in communities tirelessly seeking to promote and advance jazz music. However, the rest of their nominating ballot reveals a pretty big flaw. A few years ago, after reviewing that year’s ballot, I stated it was unfortunate that only U.S.-based musicians were eligible for inclusion. That’s when the JJA informed me that there was no such restriction, and the reason that almost every musician on the ballot lived on the east coast (with a few west coast musicians sprinkled in) was that’s how the votes shook out.
And that’s how it typically is. It could lead you to believe that the only place the best jazz is happening is within or near the epicenter New York City and a couple hot spots along the California coastline. This, obviously, is nowhere close to a representative picture of the state of jazz. Outstanding jazz is being created everywhere, and it’s disappointing that a jazz advocacy group whose membership consists of jazz journalists isn’t able to reflect that fact.
So, in the spirit of jazz advocacy, I spent the last 48 hours putting together an impromptu “expanded ballot.” I included only musicians (and labels) who aren’t based in the United States. I used most of the JJA Awards categories. I didn’t bother with categories like Album of the Year or Musician of the Year or Large Ensemble of the Year, because, quite honestly, those categories are adequately populated by the various inclusions on my Best of 2016 list. In order to be included on my list below, each musician had to have a significant release in 2016 and/or contributed to someone else’s recording in a significant way… which I believe honors the true collaborative nature of jazz music. Strangely, that doesn’t appear to be a requirement of the JJA Jazz Awards; there have been several musicians over the years who didn’t appear on a recording for a year they were nominated.
I also included the city each musician resides. The locations are only as accurate as the online resources I utilized. These lists are certainly not comprehensive. I tried to leave it at five selections for each category, and I worked mostly from memory. Most of the music I listen to each year (which numbers in the thousands of albums) stays with me pretty well… especially the best of it. That said, there will be holes in this list, and I’m sure many of them will become apparent to me within 24 hours of posting this column. By way of example, for the life of me I can’t figure out why I could only come up with three trombonist selections. And I could filled pages for the “rare instruments” category, but kept it simple. I did a quick review of my 2016 recommendations to fill in some holes on my list (relying 100% upon my memory is a dangerous approach for any venture), but not much more than that. As I said before, this list isn’t meant to be comprehensive, but simply to put the spotlight on some musicians who aren’t receiving it elsewhere.
You can learn more about each of these musicians by searching their names on Bird is the Worm. It will lead you to posts of album recommendations, which also have embedded audio, links to artist & label sites, retail options, and anything else that seemed like a good idea to include at the time. I strongly encourage you to do it. These are trails of breadcrumbs that can lead you to your next favorite album. As an added incentive, I included some embedded audio.
Let’s begin…
Record Label of the year:
For-Tune (Warsaw), Edition Records (London), Clean Feed (Lisbon), Auand Records (Rome), Underpool (Barcelona).
Vocals:
Sissel Vera Pettersen (Trondheim), Alya Al-Sultani (London), Lucia Cadotsch (Berlin), Siyabonga Mthembu (Johannesburg).
Trumpet:
Laura Jurd (London), Natsuko Sugao (Barcelona), Rory Simmons (London), Susana Santos Silva (Porto), Sebastián Jordán (Santiago).
Trombone:
Tony Cattano (Livorno), Gianluca Petrella (Italy), Filippo Vignato (Mestre).
Alto Saxophone:
Alban Darche (Paris), Piero Bittolo Bon (Ferrara), Anna Högberg (Stockholm), Christoph Merki (Zurich), Marco Vecchio (Bologna).
Tenor Saxophone:
Malte Schiller (Berlin), Shabaka Hutchings (London), Christophe Panzani (Paris), Harald Lassen (Oslo), Elin Larsson (Stockholm).
Baritone Saxophone:
Joakim Berghäll (Helsinki), Anna Högberg (Stockholm), Mats Gustafsson (Vienna), Marco Guidolotti (Rome), Guillaume Christophel (Paris).
Soprano Saxophone:
Jasmine Lovell-Smith (Morelia), Joakim Berghäll (Helsinki), David El-Malek (Paris), Konrad Wiszniewski (Glasgow), Michał Król (Tarnów),
Flute:
Christophe Dal Sasso (Paris), Joanna Ważna-Pociask (Tarnów), Esinam Dogbatse (Brussels), Miho Wada (Auckland), Jane Bunnett (Toronto).
Clarinets:
Nils Berg (Stockholm), Rebecca Trescher (Nuremberg), Wacław Zimpel (Warsaw), Laurent Rochelle (Toulouse), Joachim Badenhorst (Antwerp).
Guitar:
Mikkel Ploug (Copenhagen), Jakob Bro (Copenhagen), Mathias de Wiele (Ghent), Pierre Perchaud (Ballancourt-sur-Essonne, France), Nicolás Vera (Santiago).
Piano:
Clemens Christian Poetzsch (Leipzig), Sean Foran (Melbourne), Giovanni Guidi (Foligno), Christian Wallumrød (Oslo), Ivo Neame (London), Sunna Gunnlaugs (Reykjavik).
Bass:
Jasper Hoiby (Copenhagen), Paraskevas Kitsos (Athens), Tomo Jacobson (Copenhagen), Christian Meaas Svendsen (Oslo), Miguel Ângelo (Porto), Henri Texier (Paris), Pippi Dimonte (Bologna).
Violin/Viola/Cello:
Shirley Smart (London), Peggy Lee (Vancouver), Andrew Downing (Toronto), Olivier Soubeyran (Paris), Lucy Railton (London), Dominique Pifarély (Paris).
Mallet:
Bex Burch (London), Roland Neffe (Berlin), Mario von Holten (Zurich), Stephan Caracci (Marseille), Victor Vieira-Branco (São Paulo), Ralph Wyld (London).
Drums:
Per Oddvar Johansen (Oslo), Mauricio Takara (São Paulo), Arnau Obiols (Catalonia), Einar Scheving (Reykjavík), Shun Ishiwaka (Tokyo).
Rare Instruments:
Daniel Herskedal, tuba (Oslo), Hermine Deurloo, chromatic harmonica (Amsterdam), Yan Lebreton, kamalengoni, (Paris), Stefanos Tsourelis, oud (London), Clemens Christian Poetzsch, fluid piano (Leipzig).
The quintet 
Well, I’m gonna keep this intro short and forgo my normal stand-up routine bit, too. Everything is settled in the new digs, old music discovery routines are re-established, and the recommendations are practically writing themselves after a long absence. There’s a huge backlog of music to get to in the next few months, and while playing catch-up is tricky business, there’s too much good music to do otherwise.
A seriously intriguing album from the quartet of multi-reedist Christophe Panzani, guitarist Pierre Perchaud, drummer Karl Jannuska and Tony Paeleman on anything with keys. Songs alternate between sharp acerbity and dreamy tranquility. Guitarist Perchaud has been highlighted on this site a number of his times for his ability to conjure up the latter quality, so it’s nice to see him really light a fire under a song and etch it with burn marks. The one track that deviates from the one-to-one track ratio of edgy to peaceful is the title track, which hits both states within the front and back covers of the song. “Bright Sun” is all kinds of catchy, and shows how simple tunefulness can cut a wide path between opposing perspectives. A very cool album and a very easy pick as Album of the Week.
It’s really not enough to say that alto saxophonist Gavin Templeton paints the melody in broad brush strokes, because there are plenty of times on his latest that he tosses the brush aside and just begins pouring straight from the bucket. Even the rare ballad like “Tether” displays an appealing looseness of form that instills a vagueness as to whether the heart in question is in love, broken irreparably or just plain bleeding out. But mostly what you’re gonna get on this one is wildly expressive tunes that can barely contain themselves as they tell their story. Joining the alto saxophonist are pianist Joshua White, bassist Richard Giddens and drummer Gene Coye.
Big fat beautiful harmonies are the big draw on this big band session, but it’s the way composer Christopher Zuar gets them to dance on the head of a pin that marks it as something special. He isn’t always successful; there are some missteps (so to speak), but even those moments that radiate less grace than their counterparts have plenty to offer by way of excitement. The orchestra is loaded with all-star talent… names like Brian Landrus, Alan Ferber, Pete McCann, Matt Holman, Jason Rigby, Lucas Pino (among many others)… who’ve earned repeated mentions on this site. This is the kind of album that confidently leaps off a cliff on the first note and immediately sets to flying.
This trio set from the flugelhorn of John Raymond, guitarist Gilad Hekselman and drummer Colin Stranahan generates some strong undercurrents of electricity and tension, and harnesses it with admirable restraint. There is something deliciously elusive about the banter maintained by the trio, and it’s the way their three instruments sometimes speak in unison but, more often than not, weave together conversational asides, murmurs and shouts, stream of conscious phrasings and definitive thesis statements in a massively jumbled yet strangely coherent presence. Of note, “I’ll Fly Away” has an old-school Frisellian influence to it, simultaneously contemplative and chipper and the smoky rendition of “Scarborough Fair” gets seriously evocative. Really can’t call this a “horn album” or a “guitar album,” etc… all three musicians are given the space to speak far and wide on this solid recording.
All kinds of personality to this trio session of bass clarinetist Lucien Dubuis, bassist Barry Guy and drummer Alfred Vogel. Their conversational habits are rarely straight-forward, but all three musicians have immersed themselves in their individualistic craft of dialog, and it’s why their loopy melodies and unpredictable rhythmic outbursts are relatively easy to connect with. That said, there’s nothing normal about this music, and so when you walk in the front door of track number one and think, what did I just get myself into, don’t distress, it’ll all start making sense pretty quickly.
What’s especially nice about the new one from guitarist Will Bernard is how his clipped melodic phrases attain such a fluid motion when riding atop the grooves and jams on this nifty post-bop quintet session. Some tracks have an almost airy presence as they build a rhythmic trail that perpetually doubles back on itself to build intensity skyward. Other tracks just get right into the thick of it and take that groove out for a cool stroll. Then there’s other tracks that slip into some old-school blues swing, deftly walking the dividing line between a casual ease and brisk motion. And that line-up of saxophonist John Ellis, bassist Ben Allison, organist Brian Charette and drummer Allison Miller… that’s not a band, that’s a fantasy sports team where Bernard held the first four picks in the draft.
Likable quartet session from alto saxophonist Allison Au, bassist Jon Maharaj, drummer Fabio Ragnelli and Todd Pentney on all things keys. This is straight-ahead jazz here, though it’s a little from this and a little from that. When the straight-ahead form of expression is in the modern camp, the compositions reflect some nice artistry… but when the influence is the straight-ahead of the past, well, there’s nothing wrong with those tracks, but they don’t nearly stand out like their modern counterparts. Tracks like “Tides” and “Deluge” are where you’re gonna want to focus your attention.
Tuneful set from vibraphonist Mike Dillon, pianist Brian Haas, bassist James Singleton and drummer Johnny Vidacovich. The rhythmic element is what’s gonna grab your ear, but it’s how they go about embedding melodic threads in that foundation that kicks this album up a notch or three. Another welcome characteristic of this recording is that, though built on the back of percussion, the quartet doesn’t rely just with a focus on the fireworks displays. Instead, they adopt an unassuming delivery on many tracks… one that feels more like gently falling rain than getting smacked in the face with a thunderstorm. It serves the album well, and it’s why this lively music could be your soundtrack for a get-up-and-go day or one spent kicking back in relaxation.
Real easy to warm up to this tuneful recording from the ensemble led by saxophonist Sundar Viswanathan. It’s a nice mix of modern jazz, ambient fusion and Indian musics. The end result is a kind of vague World Jazz a la world jazz trailblazers Oregon… but much like the Oregon ensemble, Avaatar bursts with all kinds of personality, some of it quite magnetic. The rhythmic approach develops a nice chatter, but keeps to a casual demeanor, which is why so much of this music has a peaceful ring. The up-tempo “Monsoon” gets closer to a pop music sound than is advisable, but even that questionable tune stays within the boundaries of album cohesion. Felicity Williams’ wordless vocals are applied with a nice touch and definitely add a welcome textural layer to an album that’s got plenty to offer.
This trio of pianist Jonathan Hofmeister, bassist Florian Herzog and drummer Jan F. Brill is at its most interesting when they toy with tempo and shape the sense of time. It’s the kind of thing that keeps the ear on its toes, and where the characteristic of unpredictability reveals itself as a valuable commodity on an album that doesn’t actually try to do too much. That said, when the trio settle into a melody, things get all shades of pretty, with the side benefit of a welcome change of pace.
Dec 16 2017
Recommended: FOX + Chris Cheek – “Pelican Blues”
The presence of Chris Cheek on Pelican Blues goes a long way to explaining the accomplishment of this particular sonic feat. The saxophonist has a proven talent at drawing out a clear beauty from the most acerbic environments, and conversely, bringing some humor to moments where the melodic intensity threatens to become overly dramatic. He and Perchaud in particular achieve a unity that adds a firework display of texture to the simplest melodic phrasing.
The deep moodiness of “2am” collides with the sunny attitude of title-track “Pelican Blues” and the effusive “Mardi Gras Bubble Gumbo,” in turn, has the shadow of the solemn “Spirit of St. Louis” following it around. The tonal echoes from song to song, passage to passage, resonate like mad, even to the point where subsequent listens lead to revised interpretations of where particular pieces land in the spectrum of changes. It gets to where no one song ever truly ends until the album has played its final notes. That’s pretty cool.
Their eponymous 2016 debut Fox was pretty damn good, but Pelican Blues is a serious step up.
Your album personnel: Pierre Perchaud (guitar, banjo), Nicolas Moreaux (bass), Jorge Rossy (drums, vibraphone), Chris Cheek (tenor & soprano saxes) and guests: Vincent Peirani (accordion), Christophe Panzani (tenor sax).
Released on the Jazz & People label.
Listen to more of the album on the label’s Bandcamp page.
Music from Paris, France.
Available at: Bandcamp | Amazon
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2017 releases • 0