Jazz Recommendations

Tiny Reviews, featuring Mole Stream of Consciousness, and albums by Henning Berg Quartet, Jeff Denson, Human Spirit, and Pearl Django.

*****

Mole – What’s the Meaning?

Fusion gets used sort of lazily in jazz circles, typically to mean that polished, antiseptic, near-smooth concoction of jazz and rock characteristics.  It is often looked down upon. But the thing of it is, fusion can apply to many types of genre blending.  What matters is that the combinations elevate the genre qualities to a higher level.

The Mole quartet are a prime example of what can be done on their intriguing What’s the Meaning?

Your album personnel: Mark Aanderud (piano, keyboards), Hernan Hecht (drums), David Gilmore (guitar), and Jorge “Luri” Molina (upright bass).

By meshing the mathematical precision and improvisation that is Jazz with the rocket fuel drive of Rock, Mole burns through a series of tunes that speak of the heights that fusion can reach.  Some tracks heavier on the rock emphasis, others on the jazz, but overall, it’s a splendid mix of the two.  This music is complex, yet goes down smooth.

An aside, half of Mole is comprised of members of Todd Clouser’s Love Electric, which has received some favorable print on Bird is the Worm.

Released on the Rare Noise Records label.  You can purchase the album at their site in FLAC format, if you wish.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

Henning Berg Quartet – Seven Lively Conversations

Berg’s trombone-led quartet (w/ Hendrik Soll on piano, Nils Tegen on drums, Christian Ramond on bass) that does, in fact, present seven lively tunes.  The thing is, trombone can get a bit slow and cerebral whether it wants to or not, so, thankfully, it’s not completely an album of elevated heart rates.  Plenty of swing, but some modern compositions and some ballads, too.

Artist site Link.  Released on Jazzhaus Musik label.  Available at eMusic.

Jeff Denson – Secret World

Quartet date with Denson on bass and vocals, and backed by an excellent line-up of Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Florian Weber (piano), and Dan Weiss (drums).  Denson likes to play three-ball monty with his compositions… where you think the sound is isn’t necessarily where it’ll end up.  Experimental, avant-garde, and entirely listenable.  Yet another use of Glockenspiel in a 2012 jazz album; Weber also drops a melodica into some tunes.

Artist site Link.  Released on Between the Lines Records.  Available on eMusic.

Human Spirit – Dialogue

Recorded live at the Earshot Jazz Festival, it’s the first album recorded as the Human Spirit ensemble, but comprised of veterans of the Pacific NW scene (Thomas Marriott (trumpet), Mark Taylor (alto sax), and Matt Jorgensen (drums), with guests). Straight-ahead jazz in a modern sense, which in this case means the rhythm section swings and sways like one would expect of a jazz group, but woodwinds and horns don’t necessarily toe the company line.  Engaging and fun.

Artist site Link.  Released on Origin/OA2 Records.  Available at eMusic.

Pearl Django – Eleven

Gypsy jazz ensemble that’s been around for nearly 20 years, changing cast along the way, and transitioning from solely performing the music of Django Reinhardt to composing their own hot jazz style music and original compositions.  Very likable album, and it’s been a few months since I rec’d something like this, so here you are.

Artist site Link.  Released on Modern Hot Records.  Available at eMusic.

*****

The Mole review is original to Bird is the Worm.  However, portions of the other reviews were originally used in my Jazz Picks weekly article for eMusic, so here’s some language protecting their rights as the one to hire me to write about new jazz arrivals to their site…

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks“ and “New Arrivals Jazz Picks“ and “New Arrivals Jazz Picks”, reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

As always, my sincere thanks to eMusic for the gig.  Cheers.

An intriguing album just got released.  It’s a compilation album, teaming up various artists associated with Brooklyn jazz label Loyal Label and Norway’s Fenetre Records, a label that specializes in ambient/electronica/other-type music.

Most tracks are solo pieces, with the instrumentalists playing live over compiled sounds and beats prepared in advance, and sometimes recordings of themselves playing different parts on their instrument… a dynamic mix of improvisation built on the backs of compositions.  The end result of the collaboration is neither Jazz nor Ambient Electronica, but an odd sound experiment that revels in dissonance and tranquility, without giving free reign to either.

Your album personnel:  Jon Irabagon, Nate Wooley, Eivind Opsvik, Clayton Thomas, Okkyung Lee, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Ben Gerstein, Toby Driver, Kim Myhr & Sebastien Roux, Svarte Greiner & Kjetil Møster, and Splashgirl.

Opening track “Le Havre” is bassist Clayton Thomas creating a pulsing electro-acoustic drone… low moans sliced in half by high-pitched metallic mewling.  That’s followed by the Jon Irabagon track “Six In One,” with its looped saxophone lines as a flock of bats spiraling up into the sky in tighter and tighter circles, growing more ominous as their individual forms move as a singular fearful mass.

On the third track “4,” what begins as the blip-and-scratch of a post-modern spaceship captained by Kim Myrh & Sebastien Roux, becomes a tranquil guitar lullaby.  Toby Driver‘s guitar on the fourth track “Wet Color” is sometimes peaceful, sometimes spastic, like kicking back in a recliner with a bad case of cabin fever.

On the fifth track “There’s A Crack In Everything,” Kammerflimmer Kollektief is an empty bottle bobbing on tranquil waves in an electronic sea.  This creates an unsettling transition to the subsequent track “Brushed Like A Dry,” where Svarte Greiner & Kjetil Møster create a frantic dirge of twittering woodwinds and creaking strings.  On track seven “Unfolded Rings,” cellist Okkyung Lee channels her inner slasher flick, a beautiful song to murder by.

Eighth track “Winter Blues,” has Ben Gerstein offering a mix of his trombone, warped sounds and effects, and the sounds of children talking.  Ninth track is bassist Eivind Opsvik‘s “Sticks, Eyes, Feet, and Brains,” the most tuneful piece on the album.  An infectious rhythm that elopes with a lush bowed bass, they dash off into the sunset together, mixed feelings of urgency and contentment.

On the tenth track “Quincy-Mayger,” Nate Wooley creates a modern electro-hymn with long droning trumpet lines and effects.  The wall of prayer gains intensity at an inexorably patient rate.  Album ends with the breezy skip-and-hop rhythms of Splashgirl‘s “We Took Him Out To See the Sun,” a cheerful flow of gentle notes.

This is one of those albums that isn’t going to be attractive to a wide cross-section of the music listening public.  That, however, doesn’t appear to have been a consideration in the planning of this album.  What does appear to be of preeminent importance is giving artists from disparate sounds and origins wide latitude in expressing themselves with as much innovation as their hearts could bear.

Unfettered creativity, then sent out into the world for all of us to hear?  I like that.  You might, too.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

When Deric Dickens emailed me about Speed Date, I was hooked on the premise alone.  When he began listing off some of his collaborators, I was fully in at that point.

Here’s what I learned about the album before I sat down to listen to it.

• Dickens wanted to record with some of his New York City musician friends.
• He wanted the album to be predominately free, but to also base some of the music around Ornette Coleman- and Don Cherry-inspired melodies he’d been writing.
• He wanted to keep things short.  Nothing over ten minutes, preferably far less.
• He wanted to impose a restraint.  As a result, it gave the album a great hook (more on that shortly).

This is what I love about the creative process.  Artists who have worked together previously, recognize that they shed in the same peapod, and they decide to record an album that allows complete artistic freedom as long as they abide by a nifty hook/restraint.

Your hook for this album is the stopwatch.  On six of the album’s twenty tracks, a stopwatch was set to expire at just under a minute fifteen seconds, and when that timer went off, that was the end of the tune.  In fact, on title-track “Speed Date,” the timer alarm is audible at the end of the track, something I’m glad Dickens left on the finished recording… it’s just more proof of the good cheer of this album’s origins.  No track is less than a minute twenty in duration, and only one track exceeds five minutes in length (the seven and a half minute tune “Swing It Sista,” with Jeremy Udden).

In many ways, this is a ridiculous challenge set to the musicians.  They’re required to sit down, aware of the time constraint under which they must suss that creativity out, and then they’ve got that stopwatch staring at them.  To my mind, the reasonable reaction to that scenario is to laugh.

Here’s what my assumption was about the music before I sat down to listen to it:

• This was going to be fun music.  Challenging, probably, but in the spirit of fun.

I was right.

Your album personnel:  Deric Dickens (drums, percussion), with guests:  Jeremy Udden (alto & C-melody sax), Jon Crowley (trumpet), Ben Cohen (tenor sax), Kirk Knuffke (coronet), Jeff Lederer (tenor sax, clarinet), Matt Wilson (drums, wooden flute, Marks Mark Bottle).

All of the tracks are duos between Dickens and a guest musician.  Six guests in all, they each participate on three tracks total, except for Wilson and Knuffke, who participate on four tracks each.  While Speed Date does have a remarkable cohesion considering its sizable guest roster, it’s also noticeable how each guest artist is able to give voice to their specific sound on their respective tracks, and the consistency of that sound across the span of their contributions.

On trumpet, Jon Crowley generates an energetic bounce throughout.  Sometimes it’s a buoyant march, sometimes it’s a sadistic hopscotch, hitting notes that don’t seem to make sense in the moment, but perpetually sounding to land right where they were supposed to (Dickens sounds like he’s played this game before).

On alto and C-melody sax, Jeremy Udden provides his familiar lazy Sunday afternoon sway.  Dickens sounds right at home matching Udden’s easy breeze pace.

Ben Cohen’s first contribution on tenor sax is about as straight-ahead jazz as it gets on this album, but the other two tracks he blows on possess a plaintive lighthouse moan, and Dickens colors it with percussion like the sounds of a pier, as the sea gently laps against it.

Jeff Lederer is tough to nail down.  Whether on tenor sax or clarinet, he is shadowboxing personified.  Sometimes circles Dickens’ rhythms, sometimes he creates squiggly lines that Dickens playfully tries to nail down, and sometimes they trade spastic bursts of sound.

Three of Kirk Knuffke‘s four contributions have plenty of fight to them.  Shooting out sharp notes on cornet, sometimes definitive statements, sometimes inquisitive challenges.  On his fourth and final track, Knuffke sounds to be done with all the provocation, and he and Dickens have an amicable conversation on their instruments.

Drummer Matt Wilson, who aided Dickens in the planning of this album, has four enjoyable tracks, either doubling up on drums or playing a wooden flute, giving an intriguingly rustic haze to Dickens’ free jazz bursts of rhythm.  On “Termites,” the duo utilizes a full bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon.  Once the bottle became less full, Wilson uses it as a wind instrument while Dickens mans the drums.

Taken as a whole, the album is to appreciated as much as a creative experiment as a music listening experience.  For musicians to embrace a fun, exciting challenge, and then endow the music with those same qualities, that’s the kind of thing we should want from our artists… to take chances, to produce creative pieces of quality, and for it spring from some kind of emotional basis that elevates the piece from simple craft to inspirational art.

This one came from a place of good humor.  Speed Date communicates that loud and clear.

Released in 2011 on Mole-Tree Music, which appears to be Dickens’ own label.

Jazz from NYC.

There’s a nice interview of Deric Dickens by jazz interviewer extraordinaire Jason Crane on Crane’s site, The Jazz Session.

You can stream the album, and purchase it, on Dickens’ Bandcamp page.  There’s also a link on the Bandcamp page to purchase the physical CD, too.

Available at:  CDBaby | Amazon MP3