Nov 15 2012
Andrés Þór – “Mónókróm”
Plenty of instruments that belong to the guitar family, but you don’t often see them appear on a jazz album. There’s some exceptions, of course. Bill Frisell has famously created his very own jazz subgenre of Americana Jazz, a form of folk-jazz fusion, which incorporates instruments like pedal steel and dobro, as well as their music forms and qualities. And other artists have begun carving out territory in the Americana-Jazz subgenre, notably Jeremy Udden, Jessica Lurie, Hank Roberts, Jeff Cosgrove, and, of course, Bela Fleck’s inspired collaboration with the Marcus Roberts Trio. But with the exception of Lurie’s Balkan influenced form of folk jazz, most of the main players are U.S.-centric.
With Mónókróm, Icelandic guitarist Andrés Þór breaks that trend. Like a Nordic version of Frisell’s Americana Jazz sound, Mónókróm adds dobro, pedal and lap steel, Wurlitzer and pump organ to the mix for a set of intoxicating tunes that transition between a brooding simmer and a lively bounce. It doesn’t sound like anything else, which, I suppose, is a pretty impressive quality for an album to possess.
Your album personnel: Andrés Þór (guitar, dobro, lap steel, pedal steel), Agnar Magnusson (piano, Wurlitzer, pump organ & Celeste & Mellotron), Þorgrímur Jónsson (bass), and Scott McLemore (drums, percussion).
(Note: Andrés Þór also goes by Andres Thor, and it’s how I’ll refer to him for the rest of the review. I haven’t confirmed this, but I’m certain that the alternate name is a matter of convenience for the English-centric keyboard and databases.)
Mónókróm is one of those albums that proves it often doesn’t pay to be too hasty when searching through the new arrivals listings. The album opens with the title-track, and while it’s a nice enough tune, there’s nothing about it that would’ve normally snared my attention to stick around. However, I’m tremendously gratified that I did.
“RNA” is a brooding composition. Magnusson creates little eddies on piano while Jonsson and McLemore skip rocks over the water’s surface on bass and drums. And over the top of this, Thor casts out wistful notes on dobro. Dobro is all about the hopeful kind of blues, when sad times are embraced as the precursor to better days ahead, and so that juxtaposition of hopeful dobro over melancholy piano and rhythm section makes for quite the intoxicating song, and one of the best I’ve heard all year.
“Heima” also keeps things on the quiet side of town. A gentle lullaby that takes its time to develop, Thor casually puts one foot in front of the other, performing a slow reveal on the melody in a way not dissimilar to Frisell’s method. The lovely part of this track, however, is when Thor hands off the ball to piano and accompanies on pedal steel. Magnusson, also, switches things up mid-stream, offering some wavering notes on mellotron to open the track, and some pump organ, to boot.
But it’s not all moody drifting. The catchy “Pink Wilco” has a nice blues-rock persona, both melodically and rhythmically. “X” climbs out of bed and slips into a hopping post-bop tune, with some nice interaction between Thor’s guitar and Magnusson’s piano, and “1982” that has a nice steady groove, a groove which Thor keeps hazy with lap steel in the first half of the tune, but turns up the heat on the second half with guitar. “Sjavargrund” is a pretty ballad given all types of life by Magnusson’s Wurlitzer. “Hrio” is pretty standard fare as to modern jazz guitar, though McLemore gets some decent chatter going on drums to keep things interesting, and “Munchen” brings the album to a close with an uptempo piece that, again, has some fine work on piano.
In terms of overall sound, this album marks a shift for Thor. Previous albums had him in more conventional modern jazz guitar sets, with recordings in a sax-guitar quartet, a guitar-organ trio, and the traditional guitar/bass/drums trio (notably, with Einar Scheving at the drum set). In addition, the Thor, McLemore, and Magnusson have a separate outfit called ASA Trio, which typically offer a quirky groove. I’m hoping that Mónókróm isn’t a one-off recording for this particular direction, and I’m already looking forward to what comes next.
Released on the Dimma Sweden label.
Jazz from the Reykjavik, Iceland scene.
You can stream, and purchase, the album on the artist Bandcamp site.
Nov 16 2012
Ben Holmes Quartet – “Anvil of the Lord”
But it’s not the only quality that makes it special.
Your album personnel: Ben Holmes (trumpet), Matt Pavolka (bass), Vinnie Sperrazza (drums), and Curtis Hassellbring (trombone).
Fifth track “Otesanek” brings out the Romanian influence that other tracks hint at. After a nice duo between trumpet and bass, it moves into a section that can be traced to Balkan music origins, and starts hitting on the same intoxicating buttons. It’s an area that saxophonist Jessica Lurie has been mining for years now, and with wonderful results. The folk music of this area just seems to pair so well with the myriad of possibilities of jazz improvisation.
Throughout this album, Holmes infuses the compositions with varietals of Southeast European music. A waltz at heart, the song “Kingston” sounds as if it wants to evolve into a Romanian folk song. It skitters and shakes, but just can’t come out the other side, and it’s that incubating tension that gives the track its energy. The walking bass lines and post-bop trumpet phrasings of “Song for Creel Thompson” share the same space with the Klezmer affectations of “Moved Like a Ghost.”
This is also a quartet of two duos. Holmes synchs up his trumpet with Hassellbring’s trombone and Pavolka and Sperrazza do the same with bass and drums. And within each song, those pairs meet up in places, find common lines of communication, and interact. But the album sounds often like it’s brass leading the way and rhythm section impelling the music ahead from behind. It’s this quartet-of-two-duos effect that’s the primary contributor to this album’s nifty perpetual forward motion. I’m not implying that the quartet members weren’t working in tandem, but an apropos analogy would be of four people carrying a long sofa… the two people out front and the two people bringing up the rear are going to be concentrating on getting in step with the person at their side before attempting to marshal the forces at the “other end of the sofa.” The natural push and pull of a little bit forward then a little bit back then forward several steps, it’s a construct of perpetual locomotion. And as far as defining characteristics go, it’s an enviable one for an album to possess.
This really is a wonderful recording. Highly recommended.
Listen to two album tracks on the artist site.
Released on the Skirl Records label.
Jazz from the Brooklyn scene.
Available at Amazon: MP3
*****
As an aside, I’d like to really commend Skirl Records on the presentation of this CD. It comes in a DVD-size box, and has the beautiful art design of Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker, who form the company Karlssonwilker. Everything about this package is very cool. My eyes popped open wide when I first opened the mail and slipped this album out of the mail packaging. It made a hell of an impression, and I know I wasn’t the only one struck, because I exchanged a couple tweets with someone who had the same reaction and mentioned it on Twitter.
Here’s some photos…
Learn more about the Skirl Records collaboration with Karlssonwilker HERE.
Now, that’s how to package an album. Excellent job, to everyone involved with this.
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0