Gapplegate Music Review

NatJim, Natsuki Tamura, Jim Black

2024-07-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

In the history of Jazz, an important if at times under-discussed element is of configuration, ensemble size and makeup, the most obvious being big bands, as opposed to generally smaller groups such as the quartet. In the piano realm the solo configuration predates the Jazz form of course, while the trio of piano, bass and drums gradually and increasingly holds pride of place for piano Jazz. But in the realm of Jazz Modernism, there were other key possibilities--most especially in the early example of the solo tenor of Coleman Hawkins in "Picasso." After a number of years Bean's gem eventually led the way to important solo horn recordings such as Anthony Braxton's For Alto. Then beginning with Gerry Mulligan Quartets with Chet Baker and then Ornette Coleman's classic quartets and trios, and also in the later '50s the Sonny Rollins' Trio, so there was the gradual rise and triumph of the pianoless horn and rhythm group.

Finally we come to another configuration watershed that concerns us especially here, of trumpet and drums, beginning with Don Cherry's exceptional two-volume 1969 Mu with drummer Ed Blackwell.

For every style there are associated a number of configuration or more in time. Like other radically pared configurations the trumpet-drum duo gives itself well to free melodics and rhythmic figurations.This is excitingly true with the new album NatJim (Libra Records 102-074) that pairs Satoko Fuji's lifemate Natsuki Tamura on trumpet with Jim Black on drums Here we feel a peak of creative frisson throughout.

The album divides into some nine Tamura compositions, some more obviously composed, others flowing remarkably in a spontaneous zone that gives drummer Black a special melodic continuity of purpose, a fully developed and linear full set drum language that sets off Tamura's wide ranging romps nicely.

This is a superior set that ranks I think with the finest radically minimal configuration offerings out there today. Do not miss it. Tamura and Black shine like supernovas that define themselves increasingly with successive listens. Outstanding.

Listen to a stream of a representative track on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bk-music-pr/morning-city

Andrew Krasilnikov, Bloody Belly Comb Jelly

2023-12-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

From Russian Jazz saxophonist and composer Andrew Krasilnikov comes BLOODY BELLY COMB JELlY (Rainy Days Records Rainy 018CD)--a remarkable record with a title not easily digested but in the end refers to a very luminous genus of jellyfish newly discovered in the depths of the oceans.

Krasilnikov plays soprano and c-melody saxophone, and writes the fascinating intricacy of the some seven compositions in part reflecting time spent at Berklee College, Boston sessions and New York Apple Core Moments before returning to Moscow, and creating this exciting large band offering among other albums. Little-by-little the music reinvents your ears in an exuberant super FreeBop topping off.

You hear echoes of Shorter, Tristano, Hancock, Gill Evans as you forward ahead to a beyond slot.

Chromatic runs of delicious ambiguity fill your ears thanks to sax, band and piano. As you listen by track five you start to meet happily the irrepressible flow and facticity from Krasilnikov, then the pianist too starts flowing very nicely as well, almost in a Tristano Atlantic mode. The quartet starts off the album and they are good. Others are added more or less consistently for the big band culmination. Listen to this one!

Check the whole album on Bandcamp https://rainydaysrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bloody-belly-comb-jelly

Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio, Jet Black

2023-12-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

For many years pianist Satoko Fujii has been one of a handful of new avant improv jazz pianists who lead the field as the major influences, the major innovators on their instrument. That is saying something as the number of talented jazz pianists today is quite high in my estimation and to my appreciation. Ms, Fujii over the years has been extraordinarily productive, with hundreds of CDs released of several hundred performances in solo and many varied instrumentations of all kinds. Right now we have an especially compelling CD out of Fujii and her Tokyo Trio in a riveting set entitled Jet Black (Libra Records 203-073).

Ms. Fujii's Tokyo Trio has all the requisites for a landmark avant Jazz Improv Trio. Ms. Fujii's strong pianistic musicality and her vibrant compositions make every cut a highlight. There are six Fujii compositions here, all standouts for memorable character and strength, along with open ended Jazz inventiveness and New Music Modernisms. Takashi Sugawa on bass and Ittetsu Takemura on drums both have high inventive skills and original musicality in all they play here. They are in many ways the ideal foil for Ms. Fujii's remarkable presence throughout.

Ms. Fujii's imaginative scoring for the trio makes for highly engaging fare, thanks to the superior musicality of the members and their response to her fertile musical ideas. This one is a solid winner and a thrill to hear multiple times. Highly recommended. Satoko Fujii scores big here. Hurrah!

sTREAM THE ALBUM AT

Brew, Heat (1998-99), Between Reflections (2019), Miya Masaoka, Reggie Workman, Gerry Hemingway

2023-12-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

When it comes to Brew, I am guilty of not previously being aware of them as a threesome. Yet I have been gladly aware of kotoist Miya Masaoka for some time, and of course i have followed happily the bass, bandleading and musical direction of Reggie Workman for many years and so too of drummer Gerry Hemingway. But I still say after studying the music that the whole in the presence of this double CD Heat (1999) and Between Reflections (2019) (Clean Feed CF642) is greater in the sense that the three invent a largeness that I did not quite expect of either of the three singularly. It was a surprise at what they created as a whole beyond what I might have heard them do previously, or in other words there is a happy confluence, a chemistry of togetherness that is a true pleasure to hear, cover-to-cover.

Miya plays koto and electronics throughout, then appears also as percussionist and on the monochord and percussion for the second CD, Reggie appears of course on bass as well as percussion plus saw and digeridoo on Between Reflectiony, Gerry plats drums and electronics throughout and then also vibes and voice for CD2. There is a consistency of excellence ro be heard always, a distinctive expressive totality that touches on motives, an openness with occasional forays into swing and rock underpinnings. The koto in Miya's hands can sound like itself technique-wise but then at times a harp, a guitar and/or an avant extended technique vehicle. Workman and Hemingway complete the picture with a rhythm team as good or better than any today.

This is a very first-rate improv sequence, and both the early and later disks come through with high impact. music, all astute improvisation sequences, some of the best on our current scene.

Listen to a full stream of the two-CD set https://cleanfeedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/heat-1998-99-between-reflections-2019

Kevin Sun, The Depths of Memory

2023-10-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

You are lucky when there is a new artist, when a new artist emerges with a fine tuned concept and a talent to realize it. Or at least I feel lucky when encountering such a thing. This is happening with Chinese native New York jazz tenorman-composer Kevin Sun and his double album The Depths of Memory (Endectomorph Music EMM 015).

Creative arpeggiations, chordal sequences, harmonic-melodic progressivity, and sculpturally alive lines enable free expressions to thrive with Sun's tenor, in creational overdrive and compositional profundity, Dano Saul on piano in an exceptional expressive mode, Adam O'Farrill triumphant on trumpet for 2/3rds of the session, then a righteous presence of an alternating rhythm section of Walter Stinson or Simon Willson on bass and Matt Honor or Dayeon Seok on drums. Compositional and improvisational sequences balance one another well in sophisticated and creative ways. The front line of tenor, piano and trumpet stand out but the entire ensemble is loose and effective throughout. This sounds thoroughly new and progressive yet definitely Jazz infused in a later Newish-Thing Blue-Note-and-beyond sort of way.

Molto-Bravo! Do not fail to hear this one. Stream the music and get an idea of its richness of theme and improvisation stylistics. Here is the Bandcamp link: https://thekevinsun.bandcamp.com/album/the-sustain-of-memory

Charlie Apicella & Iron City Meet The Griots Speak, Destiny Calling

2023-09-27T15:20:00.001-07:00

Nowadays you might find all kinds of combinations on the Jazz scene and much of the time there is good ground broken, productive music made. I feel that way about the meeting of guitarist Charlie Apicella and his trio Iron City with the avant Afro-American Avant foursome of The Griots Speak on the album Destiny Calling (Origin Arts OA2 22214). It is a combination that works completely thanks to the big ears and musical attitudes of all concerned. So Charlie holds forth soulfully on guitar loosely enough to set up a rootedness to the Avant freedom surrounding his organist Brad Whitely's stylings, then topping off the trio is Austin Walker's swinging drums, all told at times a little Tony Williams Lifetime adventuresomenesss, th pugh not as far advantced in that as the original Willam;s outfit.

All the that the all-star avant togetherness of reed ace Daniel Carter who doubles on piano and trumpet nicely, then on bass the New York kingpin of outness William Parker who doubles on the Afro doson ngoni, the gralla double-reed wind instrument and the pocket trumpet, then the conga percussion vet ace Juma Sultan on congas, shakers, etc.

Put it all together and it is an adventure of an album of out grooving everyone is up for. Good show, this.

Both groups give plenty of cound color variety, soul and energy in tandem, and in various settings. In the end I've listened to the whole of it a bunch of times and it rings true and solidly in a very musical way.

The album ends with the soul funk groove "Sparks" and amen brothers and sisters we get there for sure. The Afro Element and organ groove and a little Miles electric band looseness and new thing looseness as a undercurrent, that all works very well; in all it is the sum of the totality and happily it melds together in an original amalgam that keeps sounding good as you play it repeatedly. Bravo. Check this one out.

Here is a cut to hear: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVvoYXsd1MkBL9Twk6nxqQA

Sarah Weaver, Synthesis Series, Music of Sarah Weaver and Collaborations

2023-07-19T11:08:00.001-07:00

Composer and sound artist/improviser Sarah Weaver is one of those vital creative forces at work today in the New Jazz and Improvisation realms that makes the new, very new. There is a double album out digitally this summer but soon as a two CD-set that I've been listening to with interest. It is called Synthesis Series, Music of Sarah Weaver and Collaborations (Sync Source).

The music came naturally out of a COVID era social distancing as music meant to be performed live by members from widely disparate locations. The first most noticeable trait to this music is the appealing continuance of a long, spanning rhapsodic flow that gets its identity from composer-performer interfaces. All that is seen strongly from the beginning and the 46+ minute bird-like conference on "Integral Infinity."

Then the second part has a great inter-collaborative composition and performative thing for Gerry Hemingway and Sarah Weaver. What stands out right away is the striking blast of percussive color freely yet magnetically sounding a tattoo for our listening selves like a New Guinea slit gong sounding from an adjoining mountaintop.

Track one of album two, "Isomorphic Now" develops even further the long interactive song warbling as played beautifully by each of the melodically situated instruments.

The fourth and final soundblock begins with low notes from the lower horns and then others wing into an interlocking intervallic lengthening.

The performers play a key role as color brushes, as improvisers, as artfully situated in Ms. Weaver's compositional matrix. They in so doing help make the music a sublime success, thanks especially to the overall directive, completely sympatico retation to her and what sound and pronounced ambience she looks for. So kudos to Jun Sung Choi (vocals), Jane Ira Bloom (soprano sax), Marty Ehrlich (clarinete woodwinds), Ned Rothenberg (alto sax, woodwinds), Ray Anderson (trombone), Dave Taylor (bass trombone), Mark Helias (contrabass), Gerry Hemingway (percussion, co-composer on piece #2), Sarah Weaver (composer, conductor, improviser, computer music), and Robert Dick (flute, contrabass flute).

All this takes place with a kind of classic New Music certitude. Ms, Weaver clearly occupies an comfortable perch among the prevailing avant winds folks. She does not follow a predictable path as far as what generally gets forward in some typical stylistic byways and cross currents. So I do recommend you pay serious attention to this. Bravo.

Hear related works played live at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQv2dVKyZpw&t=315s

Owen Broder, Hodges: Front and Center, Volume 1

2023-07-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

There is a truism in the idea that a tribute album can be progressive or regressive, in that returning to a specific artist or genre can help redefine the present or merely recycle it all like heartburn. Here is an album I immediately took to on first hearing but then hesitated, wondering whether we go forward or back with it. I did not know the artist before hearing this, but in the end I kept hearing a fresh newness as I listened so I resort happily to posting on it. Alto and baritone saxman Owen Broder shows himself a real fan of Johnny Hodges and his alto but then takes the swing influence and updates it all in a way that feels good to hear repeatedly. That on this first volume of the digital album Hodges: Front and Center (Outside in Music, Bandcamp Digital Release).

The band is together and motivated to reach backwards and forwards at once, in a lively Quintet of Broder plus Riley Mulherkar on trumpet, Carmen Staaf on piano, Barry Stephenson on bass and Bryan Carter on drums. They go their own way within a kind of Rabbit and Duke in a swing stew that sounds all the clarion feeling of the best of that period without slavishly imitating anything.

The repertoire includes a couple of Swing and pre-Swing classics like "Royal Garden Blues" and "Take the A Train," then a few things, sides Rabbit did on his own, and then others that give us the essence but I do not readily recognize them. Good things all, played with a conviction and steadfast resiliency one does not often hear in such retrospectives. Bravo, bravo. Listen to this on the Bandcamp site and order it there if like me it gets you smiling. https://outsideinmusic.bandcamp.com/album/hodges-front-and-center-vol-1

M'lumbo, The Summer of Endless Levitation

2023-07-06T06:39:00.000-07:00

M'lumbo has been a band I always seem to gravitate towards. I've covered a good number of their albums on these pages. Now here is a new one and it is different, spacy with a kind of Neo-African soundscape that rolls a little differently than the heavier Neo-Psychedelic Jazz-Rock of some of the earlier efforts. To me here listening it is a cool thing, all of it. So you note I start logically with the title of the album, The Summer of Endless Levitation (Hell Yeah, LP or Digital).

So where to begin? If you go over to the BandCamp page that is devoted to the new album you will read that M'lumbo is a "New York multimedia band that crosses the boundaries of Rock, Electronic, Psychedelic, Jazz, and World Music with over 14 recordings.... 'It's Mickey Mouse, The Stanford University marching band, Santana and Syd Barrett rolled into one...borders on genius'-- Baltimore City Paper."

To get more specific this one is a majestic soundscape evoking the wonderful summers of our youths maybe, of Africa in classic days, of our deepest dreams and complex weaves of associations. Sometimes you might find there is almost a Beatles-in-summer resonance, other times a sunny acoustic-electric back porch dream. It all feels like a pitcher of fresh ice tea and lemon, to me at the moment. It is music most carefully and effectively orchestrated for a heady mix of acoustic and electric instruments and vocals. And it in the end is itself, delectably so.

It is a fruitful excursion into the symphonic realms of acoustic-electronica nowadays, a beautiful tapestry of synthetic and organic dream weaves. To go or to stay is up to you. One thing is certain. This is music in itself, of itself at the highest caliber. So get your ears on it if you can.

Take a walk to the album site to listen. https://mlumbo.bandcamp.com/album/the-summer-of-endless-levitation

ANNA, Intentions, Progressive and Cosmic Ambient Electronics for the Soul

2023-06-29T10:56:00.002-07:00

ANNA is a DJ from Portugal, born in Brazil. Her new (second) album Intentions (Mercury CD) provides you with a sort of progressive avant ambience that lets one float inside a universe one would love to call one's own. And indeed the artist provides us with a meditation technique by which to hear this music which ultimately gives you a way to take this album unto yourself. It is a mesmerizing Post-Minimal Radical Tonality that may be totally laid back but is never the least bit banal in a New Age flatulence, not at all, in fact quite the opposite. The cosmic wrap envelopes you but then when you interrogate the music itself it is not found wanting or pandering.

This is an album that has a haunting excellence of sound color and an absolute wealth of invention that makes it all quite special. That I am happily covering the album should make you see that it is not the pablum that some minimalist, trance, smooth or ambient music can be. I would say it is a masterpiece of this sort of thing, so do not miss it. Bravo, bravo.

Give the album a free listen at youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsyQVPPtilg&list=PL9tY0BWXOZFsKETNlawUDMUIjxC1W-Mjx

Denny Zeitlin, Solo Piano, Crazy Rhythm: Exploring George Gershwin

2023-06-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ever since the early '60s pianist Denny Zeitlin has excelled as an original improvisational voice that has all the harmonic nuance of a Bill Evans but too all of a later tonality and line abstraction of the New Thing dispensation beyond what is exemplified in Paul Bley, etc., along with an electric acumen that is as orchestral as it is all-encompassing. Today's offering has nothing to do with that third and all to do with his pianoforte prowess and identity, his original stance in regards to a set of standards by Gershwin, namely his solo piano adventure Crazy Rhythm: Exploring George Gershwin (Sunnyside SSC 1693). The concentrated set is from the live concert as part of the annual Zeitlin solo spot in the Oakland Piedmont Piano Concerts.

Many of the must-include Gershwin songs are a go here, so "Fascinating Rhythm," "Summertime, " "My Man is Gone Now," etc. There are also some lesser known ones here, nicely done, like "I Was Doing Alright," and "I've Got a Crush on You."

The rapid modulation possibilities come into play at choice moments, and as expected, there are exceptional voicings and substitutions. At the same time it all swings well when appropriate and goes in a forward momentum to paraphrase and invent inventive alternative phrases throughout, in a sublime Piano Jazz sort of way.

This is the 2018 concert and no surprise but it sounds as timeless as when it was made, the proverbial day before yesterday. Inspiration is abundant and it all makes for an excellent go round, affirming Zeitlin as a true master of the Jazz arts, up there with the heavies no matter how you want to stack it. He gives us some thrilling line weaving in the process and it is a ride of exhilaration and satisfaction. We get the aromatic spice of Modernism with an overarching sense of totality that just works. Nice work, and what a command!

To get a free sample stream of the album and find out how to order go to BandCamp at https://dennyzeitlin.bandcamp.com/album/crazy-rhythm-exploring-george-gershwin

The set has so much to like I expect it will appeal to confirmed Jazz ears as well as musically inclined newcomers. Wonderful album. Top ratings!

Yumi Ito, YSLA

2023-06-12T15:31:00.002-07:00

Singer-Songwriter Yumi Ito happily sent me her new album and hey, it sounds so good. It is called YSLA (ENJA yeb7831). I am taken by her intonationally impressive, gifted, stylistically rangy and ultra-musical voice, which may remind you slightly and nicely of Byork or Imogen Heap or sometimes even Edie Brickell only more sophisticated but not in any obvious way. She can scat wonderfully well in a contemporary zone, What else? The Milk Eyed Mender, that artist, Joanna Newsom? Maybe, but just as an affine so to speak, perhaps not a sister per se, but most emphatically herself. Her new album has seven very tunefully advanced songs bursting over with originality, with a feelingful content and lyrically bracing presence one does not encounter the likes of often, but even so this is very much her own way about it, arrangements, compositions and artistry Zazzy Jazzy-ish in ways that will perhaps floor you like it did me. Ah, Madame Zazz, as Duke might have exclaimed!

Throughout she plays a nicely conceived set of piano and Rhodes parts, she is also well accompanied by a tastefully wrought set of accompanists that she arranges deftly for, and she produces it all with impressive sonic results. So what don't I like about the album? Nothing! The lyrics are often personal, poetically acute and amorously situated, which is cool. I will not say she is a new Joni Mitchell but she has a kind of vastness about her music here which does not diminish her in any way, and there is something there that you will probably like if you like Joni. Either way this is substantial fare.

She is Japanese-Polish if you wonder, and her music is her way through the world we live in today. The music is very contemporary, sometimes a bit riffy, with progression expression, and tangy, soundscape-y growths of musical sound. The vocals ride atop it all with a yodel and a yip, a nuance of phrasing that is a beauty to hear and a triumph of the wonderfully rangy perfection that makes you perk up and listen. Bravo.

To do a free stream of the album, to find out more details about the album, and to order a copy go to https://yumiito.bandcamp.com/album/ysla-2 and to find out about the ongoing world tour this year go to her general site https://www.yumiito.ch/concerts

Devin Gray, Most Definitely, Solo Drum Album

2023-06-12T14:36:00.001-07:00

An unaccompanied solo drum album was a rare thing when I was growing up, so I especially appreciated a Max Roach album that had select solo gems that came out back then, and then Milford Graves' solo percussion ensemble (with Sonny Morgan) followed by another essential, Andrew Cyrille's BYG solo album from 1969. There have been others since but those three examples still stay in my musical memory as the most influential and iconic to me in formative years.

Today we have a new one that deserves our attention, namely Devin Gray's Most Definitely (Rataplan 40). This is a thoroughgoing exploration of the drum set improv space that virtually converges today in a sort of New Music percussion ensemble view with a Free Jazz extended techniques articulation of it all. There are also a few moments here where the drum audio is altered by electronic transformations and it works fine and widens the aural possibilities as it comes and goes from the program. But otherwise it is a tour de force of sound color in miniature and sometimes in a maximum torrential wash of drumming, impressive and original. This is one of the most interesting and creative solo drum albums I have heard in recent years. You give it a couple of close listens and if you are like me you will start to appreciate the subtle, nuanced and often powerful expressions that put Devin in the "thinker's drummer" category. The musical trip throughout has dramatic pacing and an ending that will stir you up for sure, I suspect. Bravo!

Stream the album and check out digital, CD, or LP ordering options at Bandcamp: https://devingraymusic.bandcamp.com/album/most-definitely

Vaster than Empires, Three Days

2023-05-30T09:43:00.003-07:00

Every day moves forward the presence of time, of history, of where we have been and then might in turn be. Today that needle moves decidedly forward with the Avant Improv trio Vaster Than Empires and their recent CD Three Days (New Focus Recordings PAN 28). It is a full album of intelligent, extended techniques invention that brings us forward in the experimental language of abstracted Modernism with sound explorations and noise-pitch dialogues for violin (Erica Dicker), percussion (Allen Otte) and sound artist composer-improviser (Paul Schuette).

This ensemble formed in the course of an intersection in Cincinatti of two of the trio doing graduate work and the other flourishing in local New Music performance. The resultant trio gives us a spontaneous and virtuoso bead on sonic arts that hearkens back to classic improvisers like MEV, AMM and Il Gruppo as it simultaneously looks ahead to the world we will hear and see going forward from this day.

Maybe I say this too much but I believe the sure method for hearing this music properly (as well as any else of the advanced kind) is an open mind and a clear deck while listening and then the patience to let the music flow through your hearing in multiple listens. Now for me right as I pen these lines I am working on listen four and I must say it all is making rewarding sense to me. After repeated hearings it does not sound arbitrary but rather smart and timely in its interactive whole. It is complicated and ever-changing but it is excellent and without a doubt some of the best of this sort of thing that has come by me in the past decade. Vaster Than Empires is decidedly inspired on this album. They are the real thing in Improv today, at the top of the heap in results and good sounds. Do not miss it. Give it a streaming listen at bandcamp. https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/three-days Bravo, bravo!

Allen Lowe, In the Dark

2023-05-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Allen Lowe has it all going for him in terms of artistry--his saxology, his Jazz composing brilliance, his determined directionality, his historical grasps and insights. Alas his health has not been with him lately with a malevolent cancer and many operations under his belt The good news is that he is back with two new releases that mark him as reassuringly continuing to excel and flourish.

Today a good look at his more ambitious undertaking, the multiple CD project dubbed In The Dark (ESP-Disk 5080 3-CD) featuring the Constant Sorrow Orchestra. His bandmates are an interesting choice for a stylistic diversity and a wide period coverage of post-eclectic, wholistic Jazz expression from quasi-New Orleans to Bop to Post-Mingus post-Blues and Roots revisited, ultimately to profundity and beyond. So we have an effective and winning lineup of clarinet great Ken Peplowski in tandem with Allen's eloquent and kicking tenor sax, Aaron Johnson's alto sax and clarinet, Lisa Parrott a most pleasant surprise on baritone, Brian Simontacchi on trombone, Kellin Hannas on trumpet, Lewis Porter on piano, organ-synth and synth, Alex Tremblay and Kyle Colina on basses and Rob Landis on drums.

The sprawling 31 composition triumph pits excellent players with memorably appealing and seriously impactful compositions for one of the greatest comebacks ever. Get this one, do not hesitate. Stay tuned for a discussion of his other new release.

Mats Gustaffson, Merzbow, Balazs Pandi, Cuts Open

2023-05-18T08:46:00.035-07:00

Mats Gustaffsen is something of a world apart as a saxophonist when it comes to a style association. Yes he is free, but he can be very electric too. So today's recent offering is a case in point. Cuts Open (Rare Noise RNR 0122 2-CD). This one has long extended free articulation for Gustaffson and band. His baritone sax and flute are out front nicely at times but he is as, or even more active throughout with his own live electronics. The well known artist Merzbow (Masami Akita) gives us his usual highly evolved noise electronics and with Matts additional percussion., Finally Balazs Pandi gives us a gradually unfolding blanket of bash on drums and percussion. It has some of the essence, that pioneering vibe heard decades ago the early electronics groups like Il Gruppo amd Musica Electronica Viva. It is still way ahead and not perhaps for everybody with ears. It takes a few listens perhaps before you start working to an understanding of what they do here.

The whole is an extraordinary, long unfolding and a truly orchestra blend of extreme electronics and band with dynamics that keeps evolving and growing until you want to shout at the squirrels. Well I do anyway.

Nicely nuanced and well recommended. Listen here on the BandCamp Site and order if you like: https://matsgustafsson.bandcamp.com/album/cuts-open

Paul Van Gysegem Quartet, Square Talks

2023-05-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

What yearly developments new and serious music manages to achieve are not always the sort of thing you hear about in the mass media these days. This blog page tries to cover as big a swatch of what's new as possible. Today is no exception with a release worth hearing and consideration, namely the Belgian New Free Jazz ensemble known as the Paul Van Gysegem Quintet and their live album Square Talks (el Negocita Records eNR079, Bandcamp).

It is an absorbing, very successful effort from start to finish. All features a nicely adventurous Quintet of Paul Van Gysegem on double bass, Cel Overberghe on tenor and soprano sax, Patrick De Groote on trumpet and flugelhorn, Erik Vermeulen on piano, and Marek Patrman on drums and for one selection a second trumpet.

The open improvisational game plan is to listen to one another and create a mutually inventive set of interactions. This has passion but also a kind of free logic that rings true with nicely tempered contributions from all concerned. There is a specially lucid and thoroughgoing vision to this music that perhaps identifies it as European more so than not, surely in its vocabulary at any rate. At the same time it is not in any way a gratuitous or hasty sort of bundle so much as it is a very successful effort to thrive in a free improvisational state.

Listen and order here: https://elnegocito.bandcamp.com/album/square-talks

Recommended heartily. Not to be missed if you seek the new edges of jazz freedom.

Jacob Chung, Epistle

2023-03-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Tenor Sax Hard Bop and Postbop adept Jacob Chung scores big with his Quintet and this most attractive set entitled Epistle (Three Pines Records) which came out in late 2021 but seemingly stands the temporal test and gladly so as far as I am concerned. So this comes to us as a tight knit and swinging tenor-trumpet-piano-bass-drums unit that includes Christian Antonacci, Felix Fox-Pappas, Thomas Hainbuch, Petros Anagnostakos in a lively album of hard charging Postboppers out of the Blue Note mould of New-Thing-Eve offerings, updated with a new cast of swinging cats.

All six numbers have a sort of anatomically correct bearing and a goodly hipsonic attack. It reminds me obliquely of the Lee Morgan Blue Note middle period album I found at the Sam Goody Sale Annex in midtown Manhattan when I was a budding listener in my adolescence years ago. Not that this album is a ringer for that one in any way, but it could have been in that same bin and would not have alarmed me as being out of place were I to have somehow heard it back then. I only set the scene to give you a context for this music. It assuredly refers back to those heady days of the music yet holds its own as a first-tier tenor vehicle to appreciate whether you go back to earlier days or do not.

One thing is certain. Jacob Chung is a tenor star to watch. Meanwhile he has a great sound, motility facility and the guy could be one of keys in the action avenues of Jazz soloing in the years to come,

It is a good bet and I happily recommend it to you. For some additional considerations listen to him on some select videos and such. https://jacobchungmusic.com/

Amjad Ali Khan, Music for Hope

2023-03-07T06:51:00.031-08:00

If there are good musical ideas out there, I hope someone will hip me to them. In the old days I might frequent a hip record store and maybe as I went in there was a new Don Cherry album on, and I got it musically, so I got it! Nowadays someone might send me a review copy in the mail. So that latter happened happily with Amjad Ali Khan and his album Music for Hope (Zoho ZM202207).

This is sarod master Amjad Aki Khan/s good idea of pairing himself and his two sarod playing disciple sons Ayaan Ali Bangash and Amaan Ali Bangash with Chinese Pipa virtuoso Wu Man and Indian-Mideast-Asian drum specialist Shane Shanahan. All get together to play music with compositional and rhythmic frameworks primary of Hindustani origins but then free wheeling improvisations that allow each instrumentalist personal leeway. And so truly we experience a synergy between North Indian and Classical Chinese commonalities.

The album clocks in at 35 minutes of pungent compositional improvs that thanks to all concerned truly punches in for a genuine fusion of two local art brilliances.

It is an album that actually is what it purports to be and in very winning ways. Nice compositions, vital improvisations. So do not miss it! Here is a taste of the music and a little more about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Y0vf9KXMY

Sara Caswell, The Way to You

2023-03-02T09:53:00.001-08:00

Every so often I catch up with somebody who I have missed in the years of isolation I have endured when some significant miles away from the urban centers of Jazz. Happily I have recently connected with such a luminary in violinist-Jazz composer Sara Caswell and her quartet in her first outing as a leader in more than 17 years. It is the album entitled The Way to You (Anzic Records ANZ-0085-02) and I am very glad to have gotten to know it in the last few weeks.

If you go back a few years in your listening it might strike a resonance in you if I say that this music reminds me nicely of the sort of lyrical melodic jazz that was practised by Gary Burton in his fertile middle period with Steve Swallow, Keith Jarrett, Sam Brown, violinist Richard Green, etc. Then also some of the more memorable early ECM records by Eberhard Weber come to mind as well. Sara and her tight-loose sympathetic quartet bring you significant performative elements that set off the songful niceties of Sara's pieces with a Jazz immediacy that gives them vibrant life.

Sara's violin understandably is a central component of it all and a marvelous voice for Jazz it is. She handles the written-melodic and the improvised passages with a special ease and beauty that sets her apart. But then a critical voice in it all too is electric guitarist Jesse Lewis in a sport of post-Friswellian post-Abercrombie-like universe makes for especially attractive ballsy lyrical flow soloing throughout. Ike Sturm is a marvelously anchoring bass component who can give us a lovely solo too without hesitation. Drummer Jared Schonig has a loose Swing-Rock feel that sets each piece apart and breathes periodic charm always. Finally on about half of the numbers here the quartet is joined by vibist virtuoso Chris Dingman to give us that classic Rock-Jazz interwovenness we have so happily heard in years gone by on Burton albums, etc.The program of originals and nicely turned cover arrangements stand out as terrific vehicles for Sara and the artists to shine forth.

When it comes to this kind of expressive harmonically impressive fare I must say it is the very nicest sort of music in this style that I have heard in years. Very recommended.

Jeff Arnal, Curt Cloninger, Drum Major Instinct

2023-02-13T09:23:00.003-08:00

What is next in the sequence of the sounding virtually of everything we can guess at but never know 'til it is there, and today's example is as unexpected as anything right now. What is it then? A duet of drummer Jeff Arnal and Curt Cloninger on modular synthesizer for a thoughtful and sonically alive full album entitled Drum Major Instinct (Mahakala Music CD MAHA-034).

As you listen you immediately grasp that this is spontaneous in its three segmented part improvisations, yet they manage to remain extraordinarily inventive and varied in what they weave moment-after-moment. Jeff's drumming owes something to the Eddie Blackwell sort of time plus continuous set adornment solo material in ever inventive and sonically diverse ways. On top of this is Curt's rather psychedelic drone and minimal sonic landscaping. He varies all he does in every sequence so we feel time passing and music endlessly pouring with enchantment from a fountainhead of intelligent spirit.

The key is perhaps obvious but not in any way routine in the continual brilliance of the evolving musical moments. It reminds of Terry Riley John Cale, Robert Wyatt in their finer moments yet very much with the duo's own heady mix of possibilities, and there is a noisey sonic element too that thickens everything much of the time without a question of abandoning the harmonic trance set-up and slowly evolving until the next organized moment of new ground.

Outstanding job! Highly recommended, one of the finest electronic and percussive clusters of improvisational brilliance I have heard lately. Bravo, molto bravo!

Satoko Fujii, Hyaku, One Hundred Dreams

2023-01-16T10:32:00.001-08:00

The incomparable pianist and jazz composer Satoko Fujii never to my ears fails to deliver a superb and original devotion to expressive sound in the Freedom Jazz mode. To celebrate some 100 of what I have heard as beautiful albums of all heard to date Ms. Fujii gives to us the latest, Hyaku, One Hundred Dreams (Libra Records 209 021).

It balances in her special way compositional and freely improvisational moments and you will hear one of her earlier works in triumphant return towards the end. Throughout it is a special ensemble of musicians who fully celebrate with feeling and musicality this remarkable journey thus far. This is a star-studded gathering who belong to this music as few might at this level. The full cast consists of Ms. Fujii, of course, at the piano, plus Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor sax, Wadada Leo Smith and Hatsuki Tamura on trumpets, Ikue Mori on electronics, Brandon Lopez on bass, with Tom Rainey and Chris Corsano on the drums.

Every moment counts on this program, from unaccompanied solos by various artist--not the least from Satoko herself, naturally--plus various ensembles of improvisers and then compositional frameworks, all of the highest caliber and best heard than described.

More than this I can say, certainly, that whether you have been following Satoko Fujii's career assiduously or are new to her, this is an album on the must-have-and-hear list. It is a joy and you simply need to immerse yourself in it. This volume reaffirms her pianistic importance and her brilliance as a jazz composer and a bandleader. It is all here to hear on a single CD. Amen, amen.

Thomas Heberer, Ken Filiano, Phil Haynes, Spontaneous Composition

2022-12-29T09:18:00.000-08:00

The world, the "Free World" of Free Improvisation keeps moving ahead even if the cultish novelty of such things may no longer be in play. The heady days of Ornette, Cecil, Ayler, late Coltrane and the like may no longer be with us, but then of course prophets are meant to usher in the future and then must leave it to the later practitioners. That is how it goes. And if there is a kind of "routinization," as Max Weber described such things, in the wake of the first innovations it only means that the controversy surrounding what a boldly new style can generate diminishes as the community makes its way slowly to the music as a fulcrum point in a post-mainstream musical climate. That is good in the end because the style needs to continue untrammeled by excess friction or opposition from others who ideally should respectfully honor the music and not question its creative, transformative influence on the music scene.

With all this we hail a new trio grouping that forms a part of the latest in Free Improv, with the virtuoso open form thriving in the hands of Thomas Heberer on trumpet and piano, Ken Filiano on contrabass and Phil Haynes on drums on their debut trio recording Spontaneous Composition (Corner Store Jazz CSJ-0129).

It is about the trio thriving in a total improvisational situation, recorded at a faculty recital at Bucknell University on September 4, 2022. There came out of it some five spontaneous segments, each collective improvisation covering a slightly different feel to it but ever inspired, a three-way of the highest and most inventive type. All three trio artists are brilliant improvisers at the peak of their powers, so happily this recital gives us a nicely consistent, movingly elevated slice of their art today.

We hear the poetic immediacy articulated on all three instruments, and importantly the drumming shows that rare melodic feel that goes steps beyond time per se into an advanced percussive mode. And that drumming forms the foundation on top of which trumpet and contrabass build an original edifice rather far beyond the traditional trio roles. So listen closely and soar along. Look up Phil Haynes Corner Store Jazz on Bandcamp and you can listen to it and decide for yourself. Highly recommended.

It's About Time, Music for Wind Ensemble and Jazz Soloists, New England Conservatory Symphonic Winds, William Drury

2022-12-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

When one contemplates the legacy of the New England Conservatory in Boston, if you are like me the realm of Jazz Composition springs to mind, given its association with the brilliance of such things in the hands of NEC associated artists George Russell, Gunther Schuller and Jimmy Giuffre, among others. So when I came upon a new release by the New England Conservatory Symphonic Winds under William Drury, namely It's About Time (MSR Jazz 1801, my eyes lit up.

And after a good number of listens I come on here to talk about it. First things first, the ensemble is surprisingly seasoned for a school ensemble. They have an outstanding timbral luster, a full and balanced, punchy tutti and colorful sectionalities, and they bring out the salient features of each work very well indeed.

The repertoire includes some fine basics by Bernstein ("Some Other Time") and Mancini ("Dreamsville") both nicely arranged by Dave Rivello. Then there are forays into the future and present, all showing some hommage one way or another to key compositional-arranging voices like Gil Evans, George Russell, Gunther Schuller and what came after, but then all stating an original meld and memorable soundings, each its own.

Rather than try and epitomize each new work performed in the program I will leave it to your ears. Suffice to say that each piece has much of musical merit, plenty of richly inventive group unfoldings and dynamics. All of this music is progressive, and perhaps there is not a lot of the boldly avant about it, but in the end one does not care. In the end it is uniformly high caliber music that transcends category and nicely stands up to scrutiny in the Jazz and Classical New Music aspects of the whole throughout. So here's to the composers represented: those mentioned above plus Mildred J. Hill, Guillermo Klein, Greg McLean, and James Stevenson.

I do recommend you hear this, live with this music and grow with its implications. It is in every way worth your time.

Ivo Perelman & Joe Morris, Elliptic Time

2022-12-26T10:31:00.004-08:00

It used to be a fairly common thing for the LP scene in Jazz for a label to group together its most popular Jazz players, those who place at the top of the various Jazz polls and call attention to them. So JJ Johnson's First Place, Cannonball Adderley with Wes Montgomery, Ray Brown, Victor Feldman and Louis Hayes dubbed "The Poll Winners." Or Shelly Manne, Barney Kessel and Ray Brown recording, also as "The Poll Winners." These days there is less of the sort of immediate calling out of commercial potentiality\in a particular gathering, yet of course there are groupings ro be had that feature instrumentalists who rate high on their instruments in terms of public acclamation. I do not always follow the poll results these days but it seems to me one might well note the "top of the standings" characterizations of some groupings these days, So I might venture to say is the case for the Free Jazz centrality of alto saxophonist Ivo Perelman and guitarist Joe Morris.

And happily the two gather as a duet in the recent album Elliptic Time (Mahakala Music). Now I do not suppose I will be venturing into new territory when I note how both players over the years have gradually honed their approach to free playing so that they are ever the original free voices at the top of those active today. One thing that marks them both and so then understandably makes sense out of how a gathering of the two works exceptionally well--that is that both spring into free territory with a strong assumption of the ins and outs of Jazz line weaving specifics translated into a more harmonically open and ever shifting bedrock of testifying, of expressing a noteful and a densely emotive giving forth.

All this transpires with brilliance in a series of five freely articulated segments, each thriving in consistenly underscoring a densely thick lineage that hearkens in its own way back to the essence of Bop possessed fervor that without fail gives us a thoroughly Jazz influenced improvisation, as opposed to something like Il Gruppo,where the improv used more the vocabulary of New Music and Avant Concertizing.

So there we are. Happily they do not just do this, they do it exceptionally well. Very recommended.