Jazz Recommendations

Jun 27 2012

Daniel Freedman – “Bamako By Bus”

 

Daniel Freedman – Bamako By Bus

The title for drummer Daniel Freedman‘s expansive music vision came about on extensive bus ride through Mali, which was just one leg of his journeys through West Africa, the Middle East, and Cuba. He brought back with him to NYC more than just photos and souvenirs… the various regional musics came, too. And it was the coalescence of those sounds that inspired him originally to name this album NY Nation, because, as Freedman states, “[the music] from all over the world, it could only have come together here.” Here, in this instance, is New York City, a place of vast diversity, and arguably the center of the universe for Jazz, a music which is as diverse and as populated by music influences as the city Freedman calls home.

The album is built around a quintet of drums, trumpet, guitar, bass, and keyboards, but Freedman adds textures as if drawing a map.

Your album personnel: Daniel Freedman (drums, percussion), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Lionel Loueke (guitar, vocals), and Meshell Ndegeocello (bass). Jason Lindner (keyboards), and guests: Mark Turner (tenor sax), Joshua Levitt (Ney/Arabic flute), Yosvany Terry, Davi Viera, Mauro Refosco, Pedrito Martinez, Abraham Rodriguez (various percussion, some vocals), and Omer Avital (bass).

Though just a two minute intro, but opening track “Odudua” gives a decent peek at this album’s disparate elements. Latin rhythms and soulful vocals, it flirts with a Caribbean groove before transitioning to a rustic folk. And like the urban landscape suddenly changing the view from any major metropolis street corner, the second track leads into a West African tune, with Loueke’s spoken word chant, Cohen’s trumpet calling out over the top of a percussive flurry of congas, drums, and chekere.

The scene shifts again for “Deep Brooklyn” and its thick R&B groove. Lindner’s keys develop the tune’s casual strut while Cohen flexes on trumpet. Freedman provides the song with sharp teeth. And after the thick Latin percussion and chanting of “Rumba Pa’ NYC”, which explodes with life as piano and more voices join in, Cohen’s trumpet rising up out of the crowd, the sound transitions on the next track to a late night jazz club for “Alona”. Turner lets his tenor sax sing a wistful ballad. Linder and Cohen accompany on piano and trumpet, but their tones display an unwillingness to alter the moody atmosphere.

But if there’s anything the album does consistently is, in fact, change. “Sa’aba” is a modern piece, with melodic ambient interludes, dynamic percussion that drives the tune into rock territory, spurred on by the lit match of Turner’s sax and Cohen’s cut-and-run trumpet lines. The album ends with the title track. A bouncing tune of plucked strings and the pleasant repetition of piano notes like gurgling of a stream. A subdued vocal chant falls easily into the flow of the tune.

It’s an album that takes an impressive stab at realizing a grand scope, of encapsulating a sense of his travels and his home city into the length of a single album. The result should be considered a success.

Released on the Anzic Records label.

You can stream, and purchase, the album on the artist’s bandcamp page.

Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 0

Jun 26 2012

Review (NYOP Edition): Bram Weijters – “Trio Plus Strings (and a Clarinet)”

The NYOP Review Series highlights albums set to Name Your Own Price by the artists with the goal of making price no obstacle to discovering their music.

 

Bram Weijters – Trio Plus Strings (and a Clarinet)

Pianist Bram Weijters has five albums set at NYOP on his Bandcamp page.  All of them resulted from recorded live performances or rehearsals with bandmates that were never intended to get set down on a proper recording.  They have different line-ups, different album lengths, and different sounds.  After rediscovering them years after initially recorded, he decided to put them up on his bandcamp site and leave it open to the customer to pay what they see fit. Meanwhile, his excellent studio recording Imaginary Sketches with Chad McCullough, which I mention on BitW as one of the top albums of 2011, is set at a standard retail rate.  That’s a smart approach, offering some solid music for whatever the customer wants to pay for it, while the recording in which the real investment was made, that goes a more traditional pricing route.

In any event, I chose his album Trio Plus Strings (and a Clarinet) as the one to put in the spotlight.  I’ve been listening to it for well over a year, and it’s no less magical to me now than it was then.  Maybe even more.

Your album personnel: Bram Weijters (piano), Matthew Berrill (clarinet), Meredith Bates (violin), Jose Valente (viola), Alison Chesley (cello), Willie Wrinkle (bass), and David Meier (drums).

There’s three tracks on this EP.  The first, “What Did I Say?”, opens with strings that, eventually, give way to a piano trio format that hops along on a happy jaunt.  The intensity picks up as drums set off some fireworks.  Strings rejoin at the end to help send the tune off to its conclusion.  Second track “Jaja” is a nifty jig, beginning with piano and strings trading notes that give the tempo a bounce and slide repetition. When clarinet enters, it brings the two elements together, while weaving a path that crosses over both.  Bass and drums each stand up to speak briefly before the song ends as it began.

The tune “What’s Wrong?” ends the album.  The contrast between statuesque piano lines and trembling strings are powerful interludes that Weijters returns to over and over.  The transitions to sections of wild bass sprints and piano notes twisting wildly in the wind as drums rain down over it all are even more dramatic when the strings return, still quivering, sounding vulnerable as an unblemished field of white snow.  The song takes its first steps toward the conclusion with a steady march that builds intensity through tempo, the clarinet the only instrument daring to break formation. Strings then enter, and guide the song to set over the horizon.

It’s only fourteen minutes in length, but the album sets down a whole lot of beautiful moments in the short time it has.

Released in March 2009, the album is Self-Produced.  Recorded in Banff at a workshop, so the artists involved hail from all over the planet.  Weijters is a part of the Antwerp, Belgium scene.

You can access all of Weijters’ NYOP albums on his Bandcamp page, both to listen to full albums and purchase if you wish.  His collaborative album with Chad McCullough “Imaginary Sketches” is also available on the Bandcamp page.

NOTE:  I just noticed that Weijters titled the album “Trio Plus Strings” but has the meta-tag of “Trio With Strings” on the Bandcamp page.  It’s no real obstacle, but thought it worth mentioning for future search terms, etc.

You can read more about the Bird is the Worm NYOP Review Series HERE.

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2009 Releases, Jazz Recommendations: the NYOP editions • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Jun 25 2012

Review (NYOP Edition): Jason Parker Quartet – “Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake”

NYOP Edition:  Review of Jason Parker Quartet‘s Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake.

The NYOP Review Series highlights albums set to Name Your Own Price by the artists with the goal of making price no obstacle to discovering their music.

 

Jason Parker Quartet – Five Leaves Left: A Tribute to Nick Drake

The late Nick Drake had a short but profound career, recording three folk-rock albums of sublime beauty and massive sadness.  None of that music was particularly complex, but the melodies were vivid, the rhythms uncomplicated, and the emotional depth in which Drake gave voice to them made for some spectacular moments.  However, that simplicity had to have been something of an obstacle for trumpet man Jason Parker, an admitted fan of Nick Drake, as he attempted to reconstruct the tunes into something a jazz quartet could sink their teeth into.

Your album personnel: Jason Parker (trumpet & flugelhorn), Josh Rawlings (piano), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), D’Vonne Lewis (drums), and guests: Michele Khazak (vocals) and Cynthia Mullis (tenor sax & flute).

On this album, Parker performs the songs of Drake’s original album Five Leaves Left in their entirety and in the same album order as the original.  The challenges Jason Parker faced in tackling the Nick Drake songbook and arranging it for a jazz outfit were two-fold.

Because much of Drake’s simplicity allowed his music to focus its emotional impact, it would be safe to assume that Parker would encounter the balancing act of honoring the emotion-simplicity ratio of Drake’s music and honoring his own music vision as well as that of his bandmates.  He accomplishes this by not getting chained to Drake’s sadness, instead drawing out from each song the emotion that spoke to him musically.

The best example of this can be found in two songs: “Cello Song” and “Man In a Shed.”  Parker flips “Cello Song” on its head, taking Drake’s sonic brooding and transforming it into an upbeat tune.  After Flory-Barnes opens things up with some arco on the bass, Parker and Mullis kick back and blow, trumpet and sax taking turns shouting up to the sky.  Lewis establishes a snappy bounce, while Rawlings adds shading where it needs it.  Parker’s treatment of the melody is pretty damn identical to the original, but the emotional shift he incorporates into the song makes this the best example of Parker taking ownership of the Drake songbook, rather than just parroting the notes.  On “Man In a Shed,” Parker doubles down on Drake’s stab at buoyancy by turning the song into a celebratory jig, an invitation to laughter, and not settling for Drake’s mere allusion to contentment.

The other substantial challenge Parker faced on this album falls more squarely into the lap of vocalist Michele Khazak.  Drake had a signature velvety voice that sounded genuinely hopeful, but preeminently melancholy.  For listeners who strongly embrace the Drake songbook, it can be tough to accept any voice other than Drake’s singing those words.  On songs like “Time Has Told Me,” where Khazak keeps the Drake original on a tight leash, it’s not a particularly successful outcome.  However, when Khazak breaks from the original, like on “Way To Blue,” she absolutely shines.  Khazak turns away from the latent torpor in Drake’s voice and instead ignites her own burgeoning strength.  The quartet uses her spark as a springboard into a performance with more fight and fire than the original even realized, perhaps, it possessed.  It’s arguably the strongest moment on the album, with Khazak leading the charge.

The album is split about in half between vocal and instrumental tracks, with the latter consistently stronger, but with the former providing the more memorable moments.

Album ends with a duo performance of “Saturday Sun” with Parker on flugel and Rawlings on piano.  They lend it all the subtlety and barely repressed weariness of the Drake original.  It’s probably the best way to have ended a Nick Drake tribute album… subdued, simple, and evocative.

Personal Admission of Substantial Bias:  I am a huge Nick Drake fan.  His music made a serious connection with me back in the day, and its strength hasn’t waned.  I don’t want to hear anyone fucking with his music or, more revelevant to me personally, my memory of his music.  So this was a prickly obstacle to overcome.  Also, when I first heard Parker’s tribute album nearly a year ago, unfortunately, it coincided with a Nick Drake listening binge that I was going through at the time, so there’s no doubt that colored my initial impression of the album.  I keep revisiting Parker’s Five Leaves Left every couple months.  I find myself liking it more, accepting it more on its own terms.  That includes Khazak’s vocals in her “role” as the Nick Drake fill-in.  It’s why I hesitate to fully articulate some of the strong feelings I have about this recording… because I’m able to measure the change in my opinion of the album in comparison to the change in my biases.  I suppose the fact that I keep revisiting this album is evidence enough that there’s something happening here that should inspire everyone to take the time to listen.  Worth noting, also, that I just “revisited” this album four times in a row today.  Give it a chance.  I’d be interested to hear an opinion of this album from someone(s) who isn’t a Nick Drake fan.

Released in March 2011. The album is Self-Produced. Jazz from the Seattle, WA scene.

Available on Parker’s bandcamp page, priced at Name Your Own Price (NYOP).

You can read more about the Bird is the Worm NYOP Review Series HERE.

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases, Jazz Recommendations: the NYOP editions • 0

Jun 23 2012

Reviews: Todd Bishop Group, River Cow Orchestra, Phronesis & More

 

Review of Todd Bishop Group Little Played Little Bird, and Tiny Reviews of River Cow Orchestra, Phronesis, and more.

*****

 

Todd Bishop Group – Little Played, Little Bird

Taking ownership of a series of obscure Ornette Coleman songs, drummer Todd Bishop shines them through a facet of his own view of the music, while leaving the beating heart of the originals intact, not a scratch upon them.

Most strikingly, the album is an easy listen.  Not in the sense that it’s straight-forward, but instead, Bishop doesn’t needlessly complicate matters.  Due to his inventiveness, Coleman’s music already comes with its dangers and pitfalls, wrapped with a bow on top.  Bishop doesn’t try to out-free Coleman, instead, just takes the music as it is, and then plays it his way.  That’s a big reason why this album works.  It’s an impressive music statement to sound both personal and referential, to create music that feels In The Now and simultaneously nostalgic.

Your album personnel:  Todd Bishop (drums), Richard Cole (bass clarinet, baritone & soprano sax), Tim Willcox (tenor & soprano sax), Weber Iago (piano & Wurlitzer), and Bill Athens (bass).

Apparently the Old English translation of Ornette’s name is “Little Bird,” the source of that part of the title.  The “Little Played” portion relates to the relative obscurity of the tracks comprising this album (aside from “Lonely Woman,” a popular Coleman composition which Bishop has been performing for years and wanted to include “concept be damned.”).  Most of the songs were originally released on Coleman albums with dates 1969 and later, and many are still not sold digitally.  To hear the originals, one would either have to get lucky finding something on youtube or, as I did, stare interminably at personal CD shelves while grumbling about not having kept them organized while frying the pupils looking for Ornette’s name on jewel case spines.

Even as Bishop performs the music in his own voice, there’s still no confusing this music as originating from anyone but Coleman.  Album opener “Mothers Of the Veil” has the classic whippoorwill thrusts of woodwinds quickly rising and descending.  “Feet Music” has that classic funky strut of 60s-era hard bop, and “Comme il Faut” remains as patternless as snow drifts in a shifting breeze.

But there are plenty of divergences as well.  The album closer “Strange As It Seems,” is a brooding skewed ballad, contrasting with the cracked mirror refraction from blues gospel fusion of Coleman’s original.  And on “Check Up,” Bishop plays the tune closer to the vest, a sunny jaunt through the park, and in contrast to Coleman’s original which was a ball of yarn perpetually threatening to become unwound and tangled.

Amazingly, Bishop has negated the requirement of actually needing to like Coleman’s music to enjoy Little Played Little Bird, without extinguishing the heart of the source music, and thus, making this an album accessible to Coleman enthusiasts, too.

Released on the Origin/OA2 label.  Jazz from the Portland, Oregon scene.

You can stream the album, and purchase it, on Bishop’s bandcamp page.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

 

River Cow Orchestra – Going Softly Into the Good Night

Kansas City, MO outfit, the River Cow Orchestra, slips some theater into their music while subscribing unequivocally to a focus on group improvisation and the solemnity of the first take.  Trumpet takes the lead throughout, and perpetually maintains a birds-eye view of the music.  Keyboards and effects keep a fuzzy groove going.  Some occasional spoken word and general music caterwauling.  Some moments of humor, though in that deadpan variety that leaves one unsure if they’re being serious or not.  Playful, energetic, and unbounded.  A discography worth exploring.

Your album personnel:  E.E. Pointer (trumpet), Allan McGinty (bass), Michael LaGrega (violin, synthesizer), Don McCarter (guitar), Greg Field (percussion, drums), and Brent Bowman (keyboard).

Released on the FieldInfoServ label.  Jazz from the Kansas City, MO scene.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: MP3

 

Phronesis – Walking Dark

Phronesis is a piano trio with feet firmly planted in the modern jazz soil.  Staggered rhythms, frenetic melodies, and unafraid if their jazz rocks out from time to time.  For people who like that New Piano Trio tension a la Esbjorn Svensson Trio.  What they’re doing here is pretty fashionable these days for a modern piano trio, but Phronesis is doing it better than most.  Bassist Hoiby really gets his instrument to sing, so the bass isn’t getting lost in the background, nor is it incessantly begging for attention.  Eger keeps a nice chatter going on the drums.  Neame puts in a workmanlike performance; his is a name that I’m increasingly finding in the liner notes of solid albums.

All three musicians are part of the thriving new generation of the UK jazz scene and worth the time to follow.  Speaking of those musicians…

Your album personnel:  Jasper Høiby (double bass), Ivo Neame (piano), and Anton Eger (drums).

Released on the Edition Records label.  Jazz from the UK.

Available at eMusic.

 

Other Albums of Interest:

 

Solid! – Visitor

Solid! is an organ trio imbued with the introspective Norwegian jazz sound of their homeland. Very little of the groove one might assume, and more of a focus on melodies. Addition of first-class tenor man Seamus Blake adds nice texture. Organ, guitar, drums, and Blake’s tenor sax.

Artist site Link.  Available on eMusic.

 

Dan Cray – Meridies

Nice straight-ahead set of tunes featuring former Chicagoan Dan Cray on piano leading a quartet that includes new sax wunderkind Noah Preminger.  Nothing groundbreaking, just decent jazz.  Album ender “March of the Archetypes” sends the album off on a terrific note, and has me intrigued to see where Cray goes with his next recording.

Download a free track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label (Origin).

Artist site Link.  Available on eMusic.

 

Red Trio + Nate Wooley – Stem

Engaging free jazz session with Lisbon-based Red Trio and Brooklyn’s Nate Wooley.  Wooley’s trumpet arcs overhead, warning of danger, as the piano trio sometimes spurs the rhythm the ahead, sometimes prowls menacingly after it.  Growls, jangles, screeches, and breaks down the door.  For those who like ferocity in their jazz.

Artist site Link.  Available on eMusic.

 

Sinouj – Here

Sinouj describes their music as “Afro-Mediterranean band which bases its music on Magreb and Middle Eastern traditions that they mix with contemporary jazz, funk, as well as African musics.”   Or said differently, it’s world jazz that you can party to.  Joyful, lively, and all types of groove for the bounce addicts.  So glad I ran into this one.

Your album personnel:  Pablo Hernández Ramos (alto sax), Larbi Sassi (violin), Sergio Salvi (keyboards), Pablo Alfieri (bass), and Akin Onasanya (drums).

Artist site Link.  Stream the album on their bandcamp page.  Available on eMusic.

*****

 

The Todd Bishop and River Cow Orchestra reviews are 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“, reprints courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

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

By • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2012 Releases • 1

Jun 19 2012

Matt Ulery – “By A Little Light”

 

It’s a celebratory moment when an artist attempts to grasp a grand vision.  We should want that from our artists, that they attempt to synthesize Big Dreams down to expressions of creativity that can be shared with us all.  We want to be able to experience the great expanse of a massive idea and gain a sense of the journey it took to get there.  The connection with something that is both immense and intangible is like staring into futures and possibilities opened up to us all.  These attempts at capturing the epic don’t have to be perfect.  Hell, sometimes their imperfections add to their strength, much how a brief slip can make the climb to the mountaintop that much more thrilling and glorious.

Matt Ulery’s By A Little Light is about as close to perfection as one can get.

Spanning two discs, bassist and composer Ulery presents a story that is as much classical as it is jazz, as much theater as it is music.  At the heart of the music is the piano trio.  Working with two different piano-drummer combos, pianist Rob Clearfield paired with drummer Michael Caskey and pianist Ben Lewis paired with drummer Jon Deitemyer, Ulery starts with the trio and builds up, and out, from there.  Adding members of the Eighth Blackbird ensemble, violinist Zach Brock and vocalist Grazyna Auguscik to this mix, Ulery all but guarantees that his music will defy comparison.  This is music with a strong identity difficult to put name to.  The first disc, subtitled “By a Little Light” is all instrumental.  The second disc, subtitled “To the Brim”, is accompanied by vocals.  It is an album in two acts.

Disc One sets the stage.  Using a blend of classical, jazz, and Old World folk music, Ulery weaves a landscape out of sound and populates it with cities of notes.  Even on a tune like the title-track, where it is only the piano trio in action, the texture of the sound gives the impression of more instruments lurking in the background, uncredited and out of sight.  Nothing about this music is small.  Even the nuances possess a weight that belies their brief moments in the spotlight.  Piano is given lots of room to roam and explore, while drums stamp it on the map.  When not gingerly tiptoeing through the scene, strings make dreamy pronouncements, while vibes and trumpet shade the edges.

No better representative track for Disc One than “To Lose Your Mind.”  Vibes and piano provide a sense of gravity, of two feet planted on the earth, while strings and drums provide the running start and liftoff to flight.  On violin, Zach Brock transitions between those two roles, providing at time the sound of footfalls on fresh soil, and at other times, lush notes ethereal as clouds.

The final track on Disc One, “The Miniaturist”, ends with a lullaby, reminiscent of Ulery’s 2010 release Flora.Fauna.Fervor.  Piano and vibes meticulously create a silhouette composed of infinite permutations of shading, while bass and drums imbue it with just the faintest sense of motion, that perhaps the silhouette, like a dream come alive, is more than just a shadowy outline.

Disc Two lets the characters develop.  Set to a backdrop of soaring woodwinds, brass, and strings, Auguscik sings words of encouragement.  The song blossoms with the hope and romance of fairy tales.  But fairy tales are also typified by the affliction of dark days, and so when shadows descend upon the composition as it transitions to the next song, it’s almost to be expected.  This time it’s Ulery who takes over the role of vocalist.  His voice has little range, and it’s sort of brittle; qualities which imbue the music with an eye-opening vulnerability as he sings of his worry of loneliness and worst case scenarios.  It makes for one of the album’s biggest successes.  After this, the composition returns to the jazz piano trio, and then true to form, it grows organically from there.  Joined by strings, alto flute, and bass clarinet, the tune lifts off, returning to its original spot for the song’s conclusion.

Auguscik returns to vocals for the final three tracks (with Ulery providing some accompaniment).  They’re beautiful songs, and of particular note is the superb pairing of Tim Munro on alto flute with the bass clarinet of Michael Maccaferri on “To the Brim”, who enter with melodic statements of heartbreaking beauty.  Their appearances are only momentary, but it speaks well to Ulery’s talents that he allows his compositions room to breathe such that seemingly minor details and embellishments are allowed to become something greater.

“… allowed to become something greater.”  That is By A Little Light in a nutshell.

Your album personnel:  Matt Ulery (double bass, voice), Ben Lewis (piano) and Jon Deitmeyer (drums) (Tracks 1-5, 11), Rob Clearfield (piano) and Michael Caskey (drums) (Tracks 6-10, 12), and joined by:  Michael Maccaferri (clarinet, bass clarinet), Tim Munro (flute, alto flute), James Davis (trumpet, flugelhorn), Zach Brock (violin), Dominic Johnson (viola), Nicholas Photinos (cello), Matthew Duval (vibraphone, glockenspiel, marimba), and Grazyna Auguscik (vocals).

Released on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music label.

Music from the Chicago scene.

You can purchase the album as MP3, FLAC, or CD at the Greenleaf Music store.

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

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