Jan 30 2020
Best of 2019 #22: Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour – “Live at Firehouse 12”
In a modern jazz world where the forms of expression have become more varied and strange and untethered from the original sounds that marked the first giant steps of jazz, it’s a welcome experience to encounter a recording to remind us what got us all crazy about this music in the first place. Gerald Cleaver’s live performance recording at Firehouse 12 with his Violet Hour ensemble swings like mad as it charges straight ahead. The solos make you wish they’d never end except when the sextet comes back together and makes you wish for them to never part ways again. The production is such that it brings the electricity of the live environment right into your home without any drop-off, and, yet, also leave you a bit jealous of those who were there to hear it in person. This is Jazz today, this is Jazz as it ever was.
Your album personnel: Gerald Cleaver (drums), J.D. Allen (tenor sax), Andrew Bishop (bass clarinet, soprano & tenor saxophones), Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), Ben Waltzer (piano), and Chris Lightcap (bass).
Released on Sunnyside Records.
Music from New York City.
I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.
Jan 31 2020
Best of 2019 #17: Camila Meza & the Nectar Orchestra – “Ámbar”
But even here, Ámbar seems like a plateau achieved more audacious than anything reasonably anticipated for her next recording. The strings arrangements of her Nectar Orchestra melt into the firm embrace of both jazz ensemble and Chilean folk, except during those passages where the strings say to hell with staying grounded in rhythmic patterns, let’s go soaring. This is an album of many great proclamations and big statements, yet never seems far removed from a poignant melody and soft touch. Inspired renditions of songs by Elliot Smith, Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays, Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes, and Milton Nascimento snap right into place with Meza originals, and come off sounding like they’d all been meant for this project on exactly this very day. It’s one of the very best recordings of 2019, and, in the context of Meza’s recording career, it wholly decimates all measures of what could and should be expected next from her.
Your album personnel: Camila Meza (vocal, acoustic & electric guitars); Eden Ladin (piano, juno, celesta, keyboards), Noam Wiesenberg (bass, arrangements), Keita Ogawa (drums, percussion), Tomoko Omura (violin), Fung Chern Hwei (violin), Benjamin von Gutzeit (viola), and Brian Sanders (cello).
The Self-Produced album was released on Sony Masterworks.
Music from New York City.
Listen | Read more | Available at: Amazon
Like this:
By davesumner • Recap: Best of 2019 • 0 • Tags: Best Jazz of 2019, Camila Meza, New York City, Self-Produced, Sony Masterworks