Jazz Recommendations

Working with two ensembles and constructing his album around his “Folk Art Suite,” saxophonist Jeremy Udden offers more of his fascinating blend of folk-jazz on 2012’s Folk Art.  Udden’s Plainville ensemble albums are sublime recordings, sometimes slow and easy, sometimes deconstructed and free, but always the stuff of lazy afternoons spent on back porches.

A creative arc is apparent after three Plainville ensemble albums.  The first of those recordings, the 2009 release titled Plainville, was full of the comfort of warm melodies and a cheerful banter of percussion.  The second album, 2011’s If the Past Seems So Bright, toyed with the melodies a bit, rendering some of them less friendly than its predecessor, and giving a bit of darkness and edge to many of the tunes.  On new album Folk Art, Udden not only continues on the path of disassembling those back porch serene tunes, but also with the configurations of the ensembles that portray them.

It displays yet more facets of Udden’s unequivocally singular and fascinating sound.

Your album personnel:  Jeremy Udden (alto & soprano saxes), Brandon Seabrook (banjo), Jeremy Stratton (bass), Kenny Wolleson (drums) and Eivind Opsvik (bass), Pete Rende (Rhodes, Wurlitzer), Will Graefe (guitar), Nathan Blehar (guitar), RJ Miller (drums).

The album opens with “Prospect Part 1,” a mix of scattered percussion cut through with strings and buoyed with some inquisitive lines from sax.  It’s an eerie sound hinted at in Udden’s previous two recordings, but now he’s putting it right up front.  He’s made a statement that it’s not business as usual.  A track like this was made for Wolleson’s percussion talents, with a similar touch being used on recordings by Bill Frisell and John Zorn… that right mix of the beautiful and the dangerous.

Second track “Train” has Graefe’s guitar plucking its way through a pleasant interlude.  The tune’s gentle beauty is nice as a contrast to the dissonance of the previous tune, and also as a transition into the fuller, freer “Up.”

Third track “Up” continues the seemingly looser construction of tunes.  Percussion and strings spill everywhere, bouncing off one another and crossing lines while sax skitters over the top.  Seabrook has some ferocious moments on banjo, just flying through notes like a bat careening through a swarm of mosquitoes.  It further demonstrates the distances the group stretches out to as they explore Udden’s folk jazz sound.

But the ensemble doesn’t forget to look back over its shoulder at what has come before.  Fourth track “Portland” harks back to the previous two recordings.  Languid sax lines, rustic strings like raindrops, and the gentle steady patter of drums.

“Dress Variation” is a two-and-half minute Blehar solo on a nylon-stringed guitar.  It’s got soul, but it’s also got a dour disposition reminiscent of some of Leo Kottke’s darker tunes.  It plays on the theme of “New Dress” (from If The Past Seems So Bright), while also serving as a wonderful transitional interlude between “Portland” and subsequent track “Alexander Part 2.”  Udden’s fluttering sax lines twist around Stratton’s bass, while Wolleson adds chipper statements on drums.  It’s a construct later revisited on “Our Hero,” but where “Alexander Part 2” goes out quietly, “Our Hero” brings a simmer to a boil, ending with a wash of sound.

“Bartok” displays the course Udden’s path has taken from the original Plainville.  “Bartok” lays down a choppy cadence that many post-boppers utilize as they straddle the line between straight-ahead and modern avant-garde.  The track sounds like an original model disassembled then reorganized into a new but familiar structure.  It ain’t pretty, but it’s easy to see how it once was.  It’s also a welcome development.  As much as I freely rave of the sublime beauty of Plainville, it’s a healthy sign to see Udden experimenting with the formula in If The Past Seems So Bright and then breaking it down to its elements with Folk Art.  It prevents things from getting stale.  It also adds anticipation for what might come next.

The final two album tracks are “Jesse,” a growling tune that brings a lovely contrast between an earthy electric guitar and Udden’s fluttering alto sax.  The album finale is “Thomas,” a track that was also featured on If the Past Seems So Bright.  The current rendition falls right in line with the previous one.  It also lines up well the music of the previous two recordings, so that even as Udden stretches further away from his starting point, he hasn’t lost sight from where he first began.  It ties everything together nicely, and promotes a sense of both the new and the familiar.  Just a great way to end this wonderful album.

Released on the Fresh Sounds Records label.

Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

At the tail end of a residency at Small’s Jazz Club in 2006, bassist Omer Avital brought his group into the recording studio for a one day marathon session.  The goal was to capture the vibrancy of the time they’d been spending together playing live, and to play compositions that Avital had completed in New York after a three year residency in Israel.

What came out of that session is an album that will deserve strong consideration for Best of 2012.

Your album personnel:  Omer Avital (bass), Daniel Freedman (drums), Joel Frahm (sax), Omer Klein (piano), and Avishai Cohen (trumpet).

Of immediate interest is the comparison of the Avital composition “Free Forever.”  Coincidentally, a live version appeared on the 2011 Avital release of the same name.  It’s near the same ensemble, but replacing Ferenc Nemeth with Daniel Freedman at drums and bringing in Jason Lindner to replace Omer Klein on keys.  This is a song to jack up the volume for.  Roll down the car windows, turn up the volume, and hope there’s no cops around as you speed down an empty country road.  Euphoric, uplifting, and so full of life and electricity, the studio version of “Free Forever” is just as thrilling as the live version.

That’s not an easy accomplishment.  Generally speaking, studio versions of songs are going to sound cleaner than their messy live counterparts, whereas the live version will jump right out at the listener.  However, on Suite of the East, Avital’s quintet brings all the bombast and power of a live performance.  It’s gotta be completely attributable to the fact that this recording session followed this quintet’s residency.  They brought the live energy into the studio with them.  No better example of this than “Free Forever.”

But it doesn’t end there.  Title track “Suite of the East” alternates between statements of melody with a gentle lilt on trumpet and sax, then with the full effect of the ensemble blasting it through the speakers.  Half way through, an interlude changes to an easy groove, Klein and Avital in the lead on piano and bass, then Cohen and Frahm step in on horn and sax.  Freedman accentuates both groups without sacrificing his own sound.  The tune ends much how it began, though with Freedman throwing in some rhythmic wrinkles.

And third track “Song For Peace” opens with a festive statement that’s got a little groove in its soul.  Develops some tension, but then the tension dissipates and both Cohen on trumpet and Klein on piano take turns with some nice solos.  Some wonderful interplay between Frahm and Cohen to close the tune out with more of that festivity.  But this, like the songs that preceded it, are full of life and energy.  Celebratory.  No different with on “The Mountain Top,” which plays with tempo as they achieve increasingly higher elevations.

The song “Sinai Memories” calms things down a bit.  It opens with a lovely bass section by Avital, and Klein offering some accompaniment before taking the baton for a lovely section of his own.  It has a contemplative presence, palpable in that way that Abdullah Ibrahim always seemed to invoke at will.

“The Abutbuls” has a driving cadence, and Cohen’s trumpet is like flames over a sheet of gasoline.  It begins with a peacefulness marked by where “Sinai Memories” left off, but that’s quickly dispelled with a vibrant Middle-Eastern influence.  It builds up to a thunderous climax, which, interestingly, is a different approach than Avital, Cohen, and Freedman take as three parts of the Third World Love quartet.  On their 2012 release Songs & Portraits, they bring a fusion element to the composition, and behave more as lightning than thunder.  But on Suite of the East, it’s full speed ahead, and from my perspective, the better of the two renditions.  Avital gets to the heart of the song and makes it thump loud and clear.

Oddly, the album ends with “Bass Meditation,” a solo bass piece.  Also, oddly, it doesn’t kill the flow of the album at all.  After an hour of perpetual intensity, there’s something refreshing about the gentle comedown of a meditative bass solo… like watching a bird soar gently back to earth after an extended flight in turbulence.

You want to know who the new Monks, the new Coltranes, the new Davises are on the modern jazz scene?  Start listening to Avital, and start with this recording.

Released on the Anzic Records label.  You can stream most of the album, and purchase it, on their bandcamp page.

Jazz from NYC.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Tiny Reviews, featuring:  Linda Oh Initial Here, Linus Lindblom Objets Trouves, and Roberto Verastegui Meeting Point.

Today’s Tiny Reviews all were released in the first half of 2012.  I could’ve written reviews of them at that time, but each presented me with facets that, I dunno, made me want to keep them on my review shelf, keep listening to them sporadically throughout the year, and then put up some final words about them at the end of 2012.  I don’t often indulge that particular luxury, but I did for a handful of 2012 releases.  These were three of them.

Let’s begin…

*****

Linda Oh – Initial Here

This is bassist Linda Oh‘s sophomore release.  The various promo materials going around about this album refer to Initial Here being an album about identity, and point to Oh’s heritage and the geographical expanse of her influences.  It was that aspect of the album that really hung me up for awhile.  Because, y’see, I never really heard any of those influences, at least, not in any substantial way that would define this album.  Yes, there are moments that could get pointed to, but for the most part, this is simply a wonderful straight-ahead modern jazz album, one that makes a statement on the merits of its music.

Your album personnel: Linda Oh (acoustic & electric bass, bassoon), Fabian Almazan (piano, Fender Rhodes), Rudy Royston (drums), Dayna Stephens (tenor sax), and guest: Jen Shyu (vocals).

I originally fell for this album after my second listen.  By the time I got around to scheduling it for a third, I was really looking forward to it.  That was back in May.  I listened to it a few more times, then took several months off.  Here’s what I find I’m enjoying as much, if not more, than when it first hit my stereo.

The pairing of Oh’s arco bass and bassoon and guest Jen Shyu’s mix of English and Mandarin Chinese vocals on “Thicker Than Water” is just too pretty to be considered haunting, but, yeah, it is kind of haunting.

Second track “Something’s Coming/Les Cinq Doigts” has some delicious conversational shifts that Oh brings about seamlessly, like disjointed passages of a short story that flows with an effortless fluency.

Fourth track “No 1 Hit” has a neat electro-groove presence, but doesn’t wash out the post-bop personality.

The back and forth trade of lyrical phrases by Oh’s bass and Stephens’ tenor sax on “Little House” provide plenty of tiny thrills.  When Almazan enters the fray on Rhodes, it just gets better.  And it’s just one more display of Royston’s talent at getting his point across on drums without stepping on toes or speaking over the top of others.  It’s where any album that has Royston’s name on it is one I’m enthused to hear immediately.

And that statement pretty well sums up how I’ve felt about this album for the better part of the year.  Just damn solid music.

Released on the Greenleaf Music label.

Jazz from NYC.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Linus Lindblom – Objets Trouves

An interesting release from tenor man Linus Lindblom.  He and his quartet are all firmly rooted in the Swedish Jazz scene, and their names can be found on other albums reviewed here on Bird is the Worm.  What sticks out in my mind for Objets Trouves is how informed it is by American post-bop.  Whereas many of the albums of his counterparts stay within the Scandinavian jazz sound, and if they depart, it’s more likely to stray into regional folk music, Lindblom, on the other hand, blends in some spirited refrains more akin to the jazz I’d expect to hear coming from the U.S. Pacific Northwest scene or some of the Brooklyn scene (specifically what the Brooklyn Jazz Undeground label is putting out).  It makes for a refreshing development.  It’s really threw me for a loop the first time I ran it through the stereo, and then even several listens later.  Further confounding me was that only a few months prior, I had raved about Lindblom’s performance on Martin Hoper’s The Bride, an album that will make my final Best of 2012 list.  My ear just kept struggling to bridge the gap between expectation and reality.

Though many tracks do have a nice kick and drive to them, Lindblom isn’t coming out with a strong edge to all album tracks.  Some album tracks do brood, and possess some of that Scandinavian atmosphere.  But for the most part, it’s up-tempo and a dense tone that gives the tracks some thumping power when the notes hit.

Your album personnel:  Linus Lindblom (tenor sax), Nils Janson (trumpet), Nils Olmedal (bass), and Christopher Cantillo (drums).

Released on the Hoob Records label.

Jazz from the Stockholm, Sweden scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Roberto Verastegui – Meeting Point

Meeting Point is a great example of the musician imperative to avoid a misstep on the album opener.  On his debut album, Roberto Verastegui leads out with a pretty standard rendition of Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice.”  Nothing wrong with it, also nothing notable.  I braced myself for an album of more of same.

That’s not what I got.

What I got is an engaging set of compositions that have some very thrilling moments which have stood up well over the course of the year.

Your album personnel: Roberto Verastegui (piano & Rhodes), Quamon Fowler (tenor sax), Li Xiaochuan (trumpet), Jacob Smith (electric & acoustic bass), Matt Young and Jason ‘JT’ Thomas alternate on (drums).

Following the opening track, which has no cohesion to the rest of the album, second track “Dance Cadaverous” gets things underway with a slow build up to a breathless pace, lines within lines like a tornado developing inside of a tornado.  Verastegui brings a fireplace warmth to the Rhodes on “Pee Wee,” which later attains a staggered gait on the combined strength of Smith and Young on bass and drums.  And “Think Again” has a creeping tempo that Fowler’s sax lines comes to cross-purposes with, creating an enticing contrast in sound, further enhanced by Verastegui and Smith adding some focused, though intensely cyclical moments on piano and bass.

But where this album just knocked me over was Xiaochuan’s opening statements on “Memories Of Her Dream.”  Enchanting notes that grow more still when Verastegui joins in.  The build of one track to the next, establishing both a comfortable pace and hints of both fire and ice, it leads so fluently into this startling duo performance that, in most ways, sounds nothing that has come before it.  I remember originally being dumbstruck by this album right at this same point when I first heard it.  I was driving through the backroads of a sunny countryside, and it made me want to pull over on the side of the road so I could give the rest of the album my full attention.  And now, almost a year later, I’m still struck by this beautiful moment on this wonderful recording.

I’m really surprised this recording didn’t get more attention.  It deserves it.

Released on the Armored Records label.

Jazz from the Yucatan, Mexico scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3