Jan 19 2016
Recommended: Brigaden – “Om Jesus, Lill, Alberto och Vara Foraldrar”
It’s nice to see a new recording from the Swedish outfit Brigaden. Their debut Om Alberto Och Nagra Andra Gubbar made a huge statement with their potent mix of modern jazz, post-rock and Spanish folk and a penchant for delivering it with strong, plainly-spoken melodies and a Big Sound full of enthusiasm and bombast. Their newest, the 2015 release Om Jesus, Lill, Alberto och Vara Foraldrar, stakes out turf in similar territory, while nicely dialing things back at times and letting their melodic talents patiently develop and shine.
“Jesus” fully embraces the band’s method of letting rapturous melodies ride the crests of big waves of big sounds, and “Alberto V” shows that their approach is equally effective when the melody is a thick plume of smoke. And tracks like “Garderoben” illustrate their ability to deftly manipulate the ebb and flow of intensity as a vehicle for accentuating their rich lyricism.
“The Sleepover Trauma” lets its harmonies do the talking, and that beautiful melody is carried along on a tempo that keeps to a cant. That it doesn’t give the impression of needing to get anywhere in a hurry really allow the melody to breathe. It’s not unlike “Serenad,” which pulses softly as an undercurrent to gently flowing melodic lines.
Just a real enjoyable follow-up to their debut. Hopefully there’ll be more to come.
Your album personnel: Ellen Pettersson (trumpet), Emil Nerstrand (tenor & alto saxes, keyboard, clarinet), Olle Vikström (baritone sax, flute), Björn Lindberg (bass), Tim Bjuhr (drums), Anton Jansson (nylon string guitar, piano, synth, percussion) and guests: Clara Bjerhag (violin), Nicole Hogstrand (cello) and Måns Wikenmo (synth, percussion).
Released on Havtorn Records.
Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Soundcloud page.
Jazz from the Malmö, Sweden scene.
Available at: Amazon
Also, be sure to check out Brigaden’s debut album Om Alberto Och Nagra Andra Gubbar, which received the #30 slot on this site’s Best of 2014 list.
Read more here-> (LINK).
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The thing that I found most appealing about Insight Inside was how this music possesses both a lighthearted joy and a real sense of gravitas. This 2009 release from flautist 
Despite a very heavy listening schedule, I still occasionally dedicate an evening to just wandering the halls of the internet on a blind journey, just to see what music comes up when I enter certain keywords on sites like Bandcamp and Soundcloud (where I’m able to actually hear the music once I happen upon it). Due to his strong influence on the Pacific Northwest music scene, the search term “Wayne Horvitz” comes up with all kinds of nifty results. One of them is Seattle-based saxophonist 
Syrinx Effect is a duo collaboration of Kate Olson on soprano sax and Naomi Siegel on trombone. Snail Songs is dreaming music… it just happens to occasionally chatter and fling about in its sleep. “Moon or Crab” dreams at night of being a serene ambient drone, but lovely melodic lines, perpetually intertwining and unraveling, inspire more liveliness than an ambient hush can contain.
There’s an alluring motion to the music of the Cagematch trio, a transcendent aspect that informs every bit of the sound they kick out. The surging tempo matches wits with spasmodic melodies and electronic effects that go from a spark to a flame without warning. But even though so much of this music’s qualities suggest an uncontained volatility, it’s something far more embraceable than that. For all their furious motion, the melodic fragments lose not a bit of their captivating beauty, and those tempos, quite often they insinuate a dancing motion, as if the percussionist is daydreaming of a waltz as he speeds the trio forward. This fuzziness of form and intent is endearingly reminiscent of John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, where the music’s feel counts for more than how it springs from a thesis statement and outline of events.
There’s an appealing mix of personable warmth and solitary contemplation from this collaboration of the 
Aside from a nice showcase of the rich talent pool of the Pacific Northwest jazz scene, the line-up for composer 
This duo collaboration between Kate Olson and Patrick Neill Gundran (who seems to go by the name 
Today’s featured video is from clarinetist
Jan 20 2016
Recommended: Scott Jeppesen – “Wonders” and “El Guapo”
Scott Jeppesen – Wonders
The opening salvo is purely modern post-bop, though the warmth it develops has a classic 1960s hard bop quality to it that’s simple to embrace. The melody isn’t complicated or fussy, nor does it serve as a thesis statement in support of the album theme. It grabs the attention and holds it tight. There’s an abundance of cheerfulness, but also more than a hint of introspection. It’s carried along by a rhythm section that scoots ahead with a friendly chatter that’s no less arresting than the melody. And nothing about any of it really speaks to the majesty of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But when the quintet sighs out the drop-dead lovely melody of “The Marble Tomb” and follows it up with solos that possess the flickering beauty of a city skyline at night, this, too, doesn’t elicit the imagery of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. It certainly doesn’t matter. Not when the music is this good. I like a nifty theme or concept album as much as the next listener, but mostly I want well-crafted melodies, a rhythm section that knows how to set them to motion, and I want it gift-wrapped in some harmonic action that fits perfectly to the shape of the song. On Wonders, Jeppesen does this to a tee, and that’s where to find the source of awe and inspiration on this winning album.
The contrast between the pulsing tempo of “Colossus (of Rhodes)” and the gentle cooing of its melody is a positively magnetic song intro, and that Jeppesen then flips the script and lights a fire under the melody and has the rhythm section take a turn at being the patient one just makes the tune even more arresting. Keyboard effects give a space-y vibe to “Last Man Standing (Great Pyramid Of Giza)” and the walking bassline of “Big Daddy (Statue Of Zeus At Olympia)” adds something familiar to something new, but mostly this is just more of the good stuff provided by the opening track. Something new, however, can be found in the alluring “A Guiding Light (Lighthouse Of Alexandria),” with its curiously loping tempo and slow exhalation of melody.
The concluding chapters of the album are best exemplified by “Hubris,” a song that is emblematic of the album’s ambiguous emotional textures and its penchant for enchanting melodies talked up by rhythms that know how to carry a conversation.
There’s never enough space to fit all the top albums of a particular year on a year-end Best Of list. Wonders is yet another example of an exceptional recording that probably didn’t get as much attention as it deserved.
Your album personnel: Scott Jeppesen (tenor sax, melodica), Larry Koonse (guitar), Josh Nelson (piano, keyboards), Dave Robaire (bass), Don Schnelle (drums) and guest: Bob Sheppard (tenor sax).
This Self-Produced album was released in 2015 on Jeppesen’s Creative Bottle Music label.
On his site, Jeppesen gives a pretty decent rundown of his insights and thoughts about the Wonders project on a wonder-by-wonder basis. Definitely worth checking out (LINK). Plus, he’s got additional music embedded throughout. This is an example of where the concept of liner notes can flourish in the internet age.
Jazz from the L.A. scene.
Available at: CDBaby | Amazon
Scott Jeppesen – El Guapo
The arrival of “Great Odin’s Raven” pretty much cements this album’s roots as belonging to those of modern post-bop, and its wide smile of a melody and boisterous solos as engaging as a raconteur’s best anecdotal material is a conspicuous amount of evidence that Jeppesen and crew really know how to put together a solid modern jazz post-bop recording. Jeppesen’s way with the tunes, how his lyricism possesses both weight and substance while threading the needle between blues-make-me-happy and no-hurt-like-the-blues is a quality that should never be overlooked or under-admired. It’s not easy ground to tread, and it’s not often done with such an absorbing tunefulness. The egregiously under-the-radar UK pianist and composer Julian Joseph would be a bird of a feather in this regard, but it’s not something often encountered on a recording that sticks to jazz’s standard avenues and thoroughfares. The upbeat “I Tend To Agree” hits this sweet spot, too, though more subtly as it trades some of the nuance for an extra dose of heat. A similarly successful trade-off is made on “Maybe Later,” though in this instance, the net gain is a contemplative tone and a gathering of shadows to mute the album’s sunny disposition.
It’s the kind of thing that lets a musician get away with inserting some iffy mainstream groove action into the middle of “Overlapping Conversations.” As a stand-alone track, it’s easily dismissed. But in the flow of the album’s songs, on an album where the nuance exploited within the expanse of a melody’s emotional spectrum is focused squarely on the divide between joy and pain, light and dark, this approach to the music eclipses the measure of its cohesiveness to the entirety of the album. Besides, when Jeppesen digs right back into the heart of this recording with “Hidden,” the sense of logic returns full circle to the first, and ultimately, last impression.
Released back in 2013, this solid recording definitely deserves another turn in the spotlight.
Your album personnel: Scott Jeppesen (saxophones, bass clarinet), Larry Koonse (guitars), Josh Nelson (piano, keyboards), Dave Robaire (bass), Don Schnelle (drums) and guest: John Daversa (trumpet, flugelhorn).
This Self-Produced album was released in 2013 on Jeppesen’s Creative Bottle Music label.
Check out more about the album at the artist site.
Jazz from the L.A. scene.
Available at: CDBaby | Amazon
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2013 Releases, Jazz Recommendations - 2015 Releases, The Two-Fer Review series • 0