PMG Recordings

Feb 13 2020

Best of 2019 #10: Svetlost – “Odron Ritual Orchestra”

 

This is an album that’ll get into your blood is how I began my write-up of Odron Ritual Orchestra for The Bandcamp Daily.  The Skopje, Macedonia 11-piece ensemble Светлост, or Svetlost, is a throwback to the avant-garde big bands of the ‘70s, where chaos and raging intensity amplified sweet melodicism and a thundering groove.  No matter how often this music gets played (and for me personally, it is very often indeed), its propensity for thrills never wanes even a little bit, and the impact of its huge surges of intensity just seems to keep getting stronger.  Despite the absolute show of force and raw power this music represents, there is something remarkably unguarded and vulnerable about it, as if the musicians ripped open their chests to expose their hearts as proof of their sincerity.  There is something terribly cathartic about this music, in the way it lets everything out, and how it sweeps the listener up in its embrace and carries it away.  The music is a throwback sound to a previous jazz era, but the heart-on-its-sleeve emotional display feels very relevant to today.  It’s what we need to get through these days.  This is one of the best things I’ve heard all year, and I just can’t enough of it.

Your album personnel:  Ninoslav Spirovski (clarinet, soprano & tenor saxophones), Petar Hristov (soprano & alto saxophones), Ivan Trajanoski (alto & baritone saxophones), Vasko Bojadžiski (tenor saxophone), Bisera Bazer (trombone), Vladan Drobicki (trombone), Kristijan Novkovski (drums, percussion), Dragan Teodosiev (drums, percussion), Konstantin Hadži Кocev (piano), Panče Bujukliev (minibrute), and Deni Omeragić (contrabass).

Released on PMG Recordings.

Music from Skopje, Macedonia.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp

By • Recap: Best of 2019 • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Dec 31 2019

Now up: Best Jazz on Bandcamp in 2019

 

And here we go.

It was pretty much an impossible task to cobble together a Best of 2019 list for Bandcamp, limited, as I was, to just 15 slots.  Too many great recordings in 2019, too few opportunities to train a spotlight on them.  Rather than do a typical ranking, I went with the approach of presenting a cohesive picture of the modern jazz landscape, a snapshot of its diversity and how that leads to new and exciting forms of expression… including many that leave the 1950’s bop sound far behind.

Some of these albums will be familiar to you from the monthly recommendations columns to already hit The Bandcamp Daily, but there are also a few that will be new to this column.  2019 was the best year ever, and this list is just a fraction of the evidence supporting that claim.

And on that note, let’s begin.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

By • Announcement - Music • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dec 24 2019

Now up: September’s Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations

 

And here we go.  Let’s do some catch-up on notifications about my latest Best Jazz on Bandcamp recommendations posting on The Bandcamp Daily.  This monthly installment covers albums for September 2019.  There’s ten primary recommendations in total, plus some bonus recommendations, to boot.  There’s been no let-up on the deluge of new music in 2019, so if you were thinking about maybe settling into a prior month’s purchases, forget about it… you’ve got more excellent new music to discover.  I have been saying this same thing nearly every month, and every month it is true.  On that note, let’s begin.

Follow this LINK to read those recommendations and listen to music from each album.

Check out past recommendations by running through my contributor archives.

Have fun going through the list!

Cheers.

By • Announcement - Music • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr 23 2019

The Round-up: This is where we’re at

 

Here is some very good new music

 

Anat Fort Trio – Colour (Sunnyside Records)

There’s a comforting fireplace presence to the latest from Anat Fort, and in the way she brings a melody to light, there’s also a hypnotic effect not unlike the flickering motion of flames dancing off the surface of wood.  Influences of modern jazz, blues, gospel and folk shift back and forth, exerting their influence just enough to be felt, while maintaining an equilibrium between the different forms of expression that color the album’s pieces.  This is music that will fit any time or place.  Long-time collaborators bassist Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider contribute to this session, and thus continue a long and fruitful partnership with Fort.  Music from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Artist site | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Fergus McCreadie Trio – Turas (Self-Produced)

A really strong debut from Fergus McCreadie.  The pianist lets the melody speak with a bold voice, and then lets it linger long after his trio has begun seeing where it will take them.  That kind of resonance especially pays off when they circle back to the opening statement, and so there’s a satisfying sense of returning home.  Along with bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson, McCreadie’s trio sticks primarily to a modern straight-ahead sound for piano trio, a style particularly represented by Brad Mehldau.  And that works to this music’s favor, where harmonic potential is the doorway to melodic exploration.  This is actually the second time recently that McCreadie has made an appearance in a Round-up column.  Music from Glasgow, Scotland.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp – Amazon

 

Elisha, Carter, Harlos & Elisha – Before or After (EYEtone Records)

What carries this album along is the way in which a focused intensity is maintained even during the performance’s sparsest moments.  Pianist Haim Elisha, wind instrumentalist Daniel Carter, bassist Jeremy Harlos and drummer-percussionist Ehran Elisha exhibit a chamber sensibility in the course of free improvisation roaming tendencies, and it creates fertile soil in which to nurture the natural tension created by shaking free of a self-imposed structure.  Music from NYC.

No artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

Max Johnk Quartet – allweather (Self-Produced)

There’s all kinds of straight-ahead goodness on the sophomore release from Max Johnk.  The bassist and his quartet with tenor saxophonist Chris Schuster, trombonist Steve Wallevand and drummer Joel Beseler-Thompson find the right balance between melodic warmth and rhythmic heat, and gets it to where one feeds off the other in an unending cycle of lively energy.  Those interactions between the musicians when they’re all moving in different directions while keeping a tight center of focus to make the motion seem completely in sync is when the quartet shines strongest.  Music from Fargo, North Dakota.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

Kliment Angelovski Trio – Inquistion (PMG Recordings)

Well, this is a fun and intriguing session.  Guitarist Kliment Angelovski, accordionist Gjorgji Serafimovski and percussionist Mihail Parushev have created an album that has a presence as thick as a fog, and just as ethereal.  There’s a looseness to the delivery that is plenty appealing, and just the nature of its unconventional sound makes it tough to stop listening.  It appears this session was recorded back in ’96 and just now seeing the light of day.  Not sure exactly, but I definitely wanted to get a quick mention in.  Music from Macedonia.

Artist site | Listen | Buy:  Bandcamp

 

By • Jazz Recommendations - 2019 • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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