Lots of disruptions last week -- some expected, some surprises, days. That undid my certainty that I would get this Jazz Consumer Guide column finished this week. I did come close -- so close that I seriously considered keeping this open another day, or at least into the late hours, to see if I could finish it.
Or at least to settle the last prospecting questions. But it's possible that my time is going to be mostly wrecked through Wednesday, so I figure it's best to run one more week and get it all tightened down.
a lot of exceptionally good records.
I haven't settled on my pick hits yet, but I have way too many A-list records for one column, as well as the usual surplus of honorable mentions. Should have closed down a month ago when this was more manageable. Still don't know what happens when I hand this in, but we'll open that bottle when it's ready.
One more week and that's it, I swear.
The David S. Ware Quartet: BalladWare (1999 [2006], Thirsty Ear): This was recorded in summer 1999, after Ware.
Don't know what the details were, why it's being released now, why it wasn't released then, but it fits in between Surrendered and the two albums Ware released on AUM Fidelity. Seven songs: three standards, four originals, including "Dao" and "Godspelized" -- album title songs from Ware's earthshaking DIW period. These are measured only by Ware's previous standards -- muffled perhaps, never pushed to extremes, but still embroiled in deep tension.
Pianist Matthew Shipp is notable throughout, especially on "Godspelized." Rudresh Mahanthappa: Codebook (2006, Pi): Whereas transformation, this one moves on to ciphers and encodings, as when the group members sign their names in Morse code. Either way, the alto saxophonist's true Rosetta Stone is John Coltrane, and pianist Vijay Iyer, who starkly frames his music, and who picks up the place when he lays out.
Still, if that was all it took, CAM Jazz): English pianist. Been around since 1969, but mostly in the background, working with the likes of John Surman (contributes Garbarek, and Norma Winstone. Always seemed like a good guy, but I never checked out his own records before.
So this piano trio, with Palle Danielsson on bass and Martin France on drums, caught me by surprise. Fully engaged, relentlessly pushing both the Joan Hickey: Between the Lines (2006, Origin): She's a Chicago pianist, working since 1980, but as far as I can tell only has one previous album. This drops down to a trio, as on the Bud Powell closer, which she explains thus: "Everybody got to play some bebop!
" But most cuts are amply filled out with Tito Sound): A pianist I've been consistently impressed by, although I'm a little slow on the uptake here. Wolfgang Muthspiel's guitar gives this a shiny allure -- always good to hear him. I'm less sure about Tim Ries, credited with "saxophones" -- something for (2004 [2006], Thirsty Ear): AMG files him under rap, but most of the credits on Scott Harding's resume are for producer, engineer, and/or mixing.
His credit here is for drum machines, samplers, optigan, and percussion. Keyboardits John Medeski and Matthew Shipp get second billing, followed by William Parker, Nasheet Waits, DJ Olive, and Mauricio Takara. Basically, this is what One More: The Summary: Music of Thad Jones, Vol.
2 (2006, IPO): Another one, with the same all-star band as the first Mosca on trombone; Benny Golson, James Moody, Frank Wess, and Eddie Daniels on sax, flute and/or clarinet; Richard Davis on bass; Kenny Washington on drums. These aren't session scraps. They were recorded in a second session three months after the first, but as is often the case with volume twos, the concept has lost a bit of its edge, and the songbook may have slipped a bit.
Thad was a bebopper who music, so this nine-piece group is about right. After I played this, I noticed that the street date isn't until Feb. 13, 2007, so I guess Boxhead Ensemble: Nocturnes (2006, Atavistic): Don't know much about this group, other than that the central figure is guitarist Michael Krassner.
The other figure above the "with" is cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. Below the "with," as the tan background, is someone on prepared piano and someone else on percussion -- both limited contributions, but plusses Sonny Rollins: Sonny, Please (2005 [2006], Doxy): Having played out his contract at Milestone, Rollins is a free agent now, which for jazz legends these days means he's rolling out his own label. He's been selling this on his website for a while, so presumably that's where to go.
Press release says it's been licensed to JVC in Japan and Universal in US and Europe, and they'll roll out their "traditional CD release" on Jan. 23, 2007, but will have a digital release on Nov. 21.
The album holds no but not good enough to compete, although there's nothing wrong trombone; on the other hand, Rollins sounds fabulous, which is Following Lacy's death, his widow Irene Aebi started sorting through Cassette Archives." This is Volume 1, and it's easy to see why it leapt to the head of the list. It is raw and deliciously noisy, old sounding, yet so far out it's more shocking now than when it came out.
Steve Potts' alto sax provides a second horn. Kent Carter's bass is plug ugly, and Kenneth Tyler is credited with percussion because he's hitting things beyond his drum kit. But the revelation is Aebi herself.
I can't stand her singing -- if you go through my here, and you can hear why he fell in love with her. The notes say "The Uh Uh Uh" was Lacy's tribute to Jimi Hendrix. I'll have to listening the first time around.
Patricia Barber: Mythologies (2006, Blue Note): Most of the song titles I recognize from Greek mythology, not that I know or care much about that. "Whiteworld" has been to fit the series, and remains most striking. Other than "The Hours" at the end, which the chorus runs away with, the music is striking, and the vocals distinctive.
Don't know what it means. dead: this has managed to escape the dudhouse. Holland just has slip up.
Two cuts are choice here, excepting the closing bars of Eubanks on trombone who put them over the top, although he couldn't have done it without the leader's bass moving things along. You don't hear much trombone period these days, let alone a guy who can run off with the lead without even cheating like J.J.
used to do. Vibraphonist Steven Nelson is another guy here who plays a strong hand from a weak suit. Drummer Nate Smith can jump in and out of time with the best of them.
And Chris Potter wouldn't be so overrated if he wasn't so damn talented. What threw me off at first is shrinking, but still present -- little bits that seem off color or out of place, plus the suspicion that this is just too damn fancy. But I guess those who can like to flaunt it.
what, other than that bassist Mike Rivard is at the center of show up as a guest. The machine beats recall Nils Petter Molvaer circa Khmer, but conventional drums also appear, probably Erik Kerr. While Rivard's bass grooves are critical, they tend turntables -- someone d/b/a Mister Rourke.
Plenty of guitars, too. There's also a strain of mostly middle eastern exotica, which oudist Brahim Fribgane has something to do with. Several songs novelty, but the kiddie sample reggae romp "Just Kiddin'" is on my first ever year-end song list.
There are also skits and raps, and if MF Doom isn't in the house, his doppelganger ist. If none of this sounds much like jazz, that's just too bad. It doesn't it like jazzbos junk up pop songs.
Besides, Mat Maneri's on the singer should be -- her voice fine tuned and personable, an innate musicality to everything she does, presence, nuance, the skill and control to play, the discipline not to get off on pointless tangents. All that puts her ahead of about 85% of the field without breaking a sweat. She has a dozen-plus albums, but this is the only one I've heard.
I'd be surprised [2006], Intakt): The most common instrument here is "laptop," followed by "electronics," with an assist from DJ Mutamassik's turntables. It's hard to listen to this sort of thing without thinking back to George Russell's electronic sonatas, in part of time to wander. Lewis is a trombonist and I'd love to hear him play some -- it's the best part of this album, although the to Charles Parker was to Bird -- in particular, it lacks the trumpeter's exuberance and folly.
On the other hand, if you can give it the attention it doesn't demand, like Russell back into rough and ready free jazz. The other change is that the saxes dirt. The result is a slimmed down, fired up Territory Band, a wild to treat "Quartets" at part of the title, not part of the artist designation.
Makes more sense that way, even though the typography suggests otherwise. Two discs, two distinct quartets. Both have Marcus on tenor and soprano sax and his twin E.
J. on drums. One has piano and acoustic bass, the other guitar and electric bass.
the other is that the electric bass seems to free up the sax, although Marcus is voluble and pungent on both discs. He's one of the brightest mainstream tenor men I've heard in years, and his brother is equally terrific. Grade tracks the weaker disc, which is in the ground rules, but the stronger one isn't all Satoko Fujii's four new big band albums, like Ken Vandermark's recent pair of two-disc Territory Band sets, are overwhelming: in such big universes, anything can happen, everything does, and fatigue sets in long before one can sort out so many marginal treats.
At least with this trio you can keep the players straight. She pounds out thick tension and growl, and drummer John Hollenbeck referees. This is benefit from oldish instrumentation -- despite its recent comeback, Biskin's clarinet still sounds like a refugee from the depression, resorts to banjo on occasion, and drummer John Hollenbeck takes the most diehard Foster melody on jingly bells.
Still, everything here is more than a little bent. No point making a jazz record unless Biskin's clarinet is paired with Dave Ballou's trumpet, more often in unison than not, which keeps the focus on the tricky compositions. The third member is bassist Drew Gress, who adds depth without having much effect on the general drift.
This lack of democracy can get tedious over the long haul, and this does run long. But it's interesting when Geri Allen: Timeless Portraits and Dreams (2006, Telarc, 2CD): Here she moves beyond her initial interest in Mary musical culture. She pays tribute to Charlie Parker, Billy Holiday, and Louis Armstrong's better half, but the center of gravity falls on gospel, with Carmen Lundy, George Shirley, and the Atlanta Jazz Chorus providing most of the dead weight.
This isn't all old or backwards, but seeking respectability traces just one thread in to both. She has great skill and learning, considerable pride in her accomplishments. In some ways it's a mark of her success that I find this so thoroughly uninteresting.
The thick frosting of African singer, more at home in the jazz tradition -- "Lush Life" and "Careless Love" are choice cuts -- than in her Africa-themed originals, which tend to be anthemic.
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