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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Benjamin Koppel: Art of the Quartet (Unit Records, 2020)

Benjamin Koppel: alto saxophone; Kenny Werner: piano; Scott Colley: bass; Jack DeJohnette: drums.

Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel possesses a wealth of talent and a huge skill set. He can play anything from soul, funk and R&B as evidenced The Ultimate Soul And Jazz Review (released as a sister companion album to the present collection) avant garde, and composed pieces. Art Of The Quartet his latest release on his own Unit Records is a stunning double disc exploring both free and more structured (but no less adventurous) playing with an equally stunning collective: Kenny Werner on piano, Scott Colley on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The group is truly a selfless collective for a variety of originals by Koppel, Werner, DeJohnette, Colley, a standard, and two sprawling free improvisations.

The rapport of the group can be traced back to several associations the saxophonist procured over the years, for example Koppel had played in a group with Kenny Werner, Scott Colley and Antonio Sanchez, and DeJohnette, always up for creative, exploratory music rounds out the project. There’s a particularly supple connection between the quartet that makes their interaction a joy to hear. Werner and DeJohnette had previously appeared with David Liebman on Fire (Jazzline, 2018), and the pianist’s own leader date A Delicate Balance ( BMG France/RCA Victor, 1997). There is a marvelous moment on the first disc’s pace setting “Free I” where the pianist’s abrupt, prodding, jabbing chords are perfectly complemented by DeJohnette’s stuttering, quaking accompaniment, redolent of a fish fighting to breathe out of water. Koppel enters with a searing late Coltrane ish tone and engages in thrilling four way dialogue, gradually evolving into scattered shapes where Koppel is emulating funk guitar figures and furthering the rhythmic role as he initiates an ostinato as a cue for DeJohnette to explode all over his kit. “Bells of Belief” is a composition by the saxophonist based on a piece of Gyorgy Ligeti’s that so inspired DeJohnette that a break in the session was called so that he could drive home and pick up a set of bells that would work for the tune.

DeJohnette makes creative use of the bells, their timbre similar to Tibetan singing chanting bowls and his own resonating bells that Sabian released over a decade ago. He opens the piece with shimmery, golden melodic tones that blossom into full throated chords. Koppel offers shades of Jan Garbarek with a deep cry, and as his solo builds over a rubato foundation, the conversation between he and DeJohnette recalls John Coltrane and Rashied Ali on Interstellar Space (Impulse! rec. 1967/rel. 1973). DeJohnette reprises “Ahmad The Terrible” from the classic Album Album (ECM, 1984) whereas the original dovetailed into a nice swing section, this fiery rendition takes on a see saw character.

After the first disc closes with the dramatic arc of “Free II” where the saxophonist tonewise hints at David Sanborn and Michael Brecker, disc 2 takes on a more structured song tact with Werner’s beautiful “Iago”. Koppel’s impassioned testimony is punctuated by DeJohnette’s interjection of reactionary ideas, and the drummer’s trademark half swung straight eighth note feel is broken up by massive fills during Werner’s intense statement. Colley rounds it out with a concise melodic statement carrying on the huge toned tradition of both Wilbur Ware and Charlie Haden. “Ballad for Trane” is a perfect example of how musicians can use the inspiration of the mood set by the classic John Coltrane Quartet without mere imitation, and the group smokes through a spirited “If I Should Lose You” replete with a bouncy Colley solo, and DeJohnette barreling through taking turns improvising with Colley. DeJohnette’s “One on One” originally appeared on Special Edition’s Earth Walk (Blue Note, 1991) and employs a similar compositional device that the drummer and pianist used on his classic “One For Eric” with a portion of the melody in half time before ramping up to explosive swing. Koppel soars over free time, Werner turns in some of his spikiest playing of the set and benefits from DeJohnette’s swing. To close the album, Werner’s “Sada” based on a chant from his ashram is a wonderfully reflective piece. Colley’s bowed E flat pedal point turning into a simple vamp and DeJohnette’s floating pulse bring the tune closer in feel to some of Keith Jarrett’s more ritualistic, groove driven pieces found on many solo concerts and the Standard Trio’s Changeless (ECM, 1987). In a way given Jarrett’s recent news of no longer being able to play due to two strokes suffered in 2018, though this Koppel quartet was recorded in March of 2015, it ends up being an unintended fitting tribute with the undeniable Jarrett tinge. Koppel’s playing here is glistening and transcendent.

Sound:

Recorded in March of 2015, Art Of The Quartet was recorded at Clubhouse Studios in Rhinebeck, NY a studio recommended to Koppel by DeJohnette. The recording, by Julie Last and Bella Blasko is an incredibly detailed, present recording. It is clear from listening that this was recorded live in the studio with a lot of close miking and subtle hints of reverb added, especially on Koppel’s alto for atmosphere. The sound of DeJohnette’s bells on a quality speaker like the Focal Chorus 716 must be heard to be believed. In particular when listening to the CD, there is a palpable sense of glow created by the harmonics of each bell,being rendered in rich detail. Colley’s bass is natural, gargantuan and full of woodiness, and Koppel’s alto, combined with the Schiit Modius DAC has scale, and an urgency.

Concluding Thoughts:

With Art Of The Quartet Benjamin Koppel makes a real statement. Though he has recorded a host of records with the biggest names in jazz, the fluency of this group with Werner, Colley and DeJohnette is as if this has been a working unit for years. While the music isn’t groundbreaking in terms of the next new thing, what it is, is chancetaking, inspired and taking full advantage of the moment. Koppel has one of the most distinct alto voices among a generation of contemporary players of a younger generation such as the rising Immanuel Wilkins, and perhaps the imminent most influential alto player of his generation, Miguel Zenon. Art Of The Quartet is simply, one of the best albums of the year.

Music: 10/10

Sound: 9.5/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Sony Playstation 3 (for CD playback)

youtube

#benjamin koppel #kenny werner #scott colley #jack dejohnette #ECM Records

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Keith Jarrett: Budapest Concert (ECM, 2020)

Keith Jarrett: piano

Life is fleeting, a series of joys, triumphs and sorrows captured in a brief glimpse. For iconic musicians, the glimpses of greatness are captured in three or four decades, and the legacy is preserved forever in recorded form. Particularly for the improvising musician, these legacies captured on tape, in addition to the brilliant moments, also at times have captured the struggle in getting there. For Keith Jarrett in a career encompassing more than forty years, the concert hall was a sort of laboratory. There, he practiced the art of improvisation without a safety net, first in long 30-45 minute chunks, and then later in his post SEID (systematic exertion intolerance disease) in shorter concentrated doses. Moments of intense struggle like those leading up to the Koln Concert (1975) culminated in singular beauty, while Testament: Paris/London (2008) A Multitude Of Angels (2016) took adverse circumstance and turned it into rarefied inspiration. The brilliant moments such as Dark Intervals (1987) and La Scala (1997) were borne out of a quest to explore. Following the heart breaking news in October 2020, reported by the New York Times of Jarrett's inability to play and subsequent retirement from performance in 2018, his latest archival recording Budapest Concert recorded a mere two weeks after the brilliant Munich, 2016 released last year from his final European tour finds the pianist once again mining improvised territory and producing magic.

Jarrett's family roots run in Hungary, and his affinity for Bartok's music on this evening was quite clear. There was something about the Bela Bartok Concert Hall that July 3, 2016 evening that brought a particularly rich, lyrical quality even in his by then standard, cubist avant garde excursions that opened up the concert. Similar to Munich, 2016 the pungent angularity is a feast for Jarrett's left hand and ability to explore contrapuntal lines. Throughout the phrases that manifest like the neon glow of cars that zip about the city in time lapse photography the pianist finds specific phrases as thematic material. Even with something as jagged as “Part I”, the phrases consonantly resolve. “Part II” is a slice of nocturnal beauty, “Part III” mysteriously unfolds with jabbing left hand figures, gulfs of space between them, Jarrett's right hand exploring his favored Phrygian mode with heightened intensity, the rising dynamics with piano hammers, resonating against strings creates a harmonic type effect, recalling the title track of Dark Intervals. “Part IV” introduces his preferred use of ostinato, a blend of the profane and sacred, the ritual, hypnotic churning vamp at times turning funky, to close disc 1.

As disc 2 begins, it is really the ballad pieces in the second half of the concert that prove most remarkable with real time improvisation that stand on their own as if they were composed pieces. “Part V” rings with a pastoral quality, as if one is viewing vivid green countrysides from a train window. “Part VIII” is a sparkling, Americana tinged folksy ballad that recalls some of those classic moments from The Koln Concert or massive Sun Bear Concerts in it's melody beauty, but it also reminds the listener of how far Jarrett's approach evolved since those halcyon 70's days. A brief bit of dissonance returns for “Part IX” and for “Part XII” to the delight of the audience, the pianist indulges in rollicking, barrel house, boogie woogie piano in an impromptu blues. The encore of “It's A Lonesome Old Town” is perhaps even more emotionally arresting and melancholic than it's rendition 2 weeks earlier in Munich, and “Answer Me, My Love” closes the concert with aching beauty.

Sound:

Recorded by Martin Pearson and by Christoph Stickel, the recording of Budapest Concert is typically sterling. Jarrett's piano has a rich bass, mid range, and shining high end across the sound stage with correct position. The trademark vocalizations are to the right of center, and the pianist's occasional foot stomping can be heard in the rear of the sound stage. A beautiful sense of dynamics are maintained throughout.

Closing Thoughts:

Budapest Concert captures an evening in Keith Jarrett's final solo tour when everything just clicked. It could be argued that in a career with so many solo milestones that Budapest Concert is indeed the perfect microcosm of the final chapter of Jarrett's career and may very well be one of the best places for those just experience Jarrett after the stone classics of Bremen Lausanne (1973) and The Koln Concert to start. For the experienced Jarrett fan there may be little in the way of surprise in the arc of the concert, but it's just a concentrated helping of what he does really well. Perhaps in the future he will resume composing, but for right now it's almost certain ECM will keep the flame alight with more offerings, both solo and Standards Trio in the future. Thank you for ALL the music, Mr. Jarrett.

Music rating: 10/10

Sound rating: 10/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Musicbee (for CD quality WAV file playback)

youtube

#keith jarrett #ECM Records #improvisation #piano

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Terje Rypdal: Conspiracy (ECM, 2020)

Terje Rypdal: guitar; Stale Storlokken: keyboards; Endre Hareide: fretless and electric bass; Pal Thowson: drums, percussion.

Terje Rypdal and a new ECM album is cause for major celebration. The Norwegian guitarist, a Fender Stratocaster, his axe of choice, born in Oslo in 1947, has had a varied career that has seen him compose symphonies and chamber works. John Kelman, longtime Rypdal devotee once remarked that the guitarist's music was the sound of the fjords in Norway, it goes without question that his tone, with it's unique attack feature a volume pedal like fade in, and slashing lines is utterly one of a kind. Rypdal, having been influenced by a ride array of guitarists including Jimi Hendrix brought something fresh to the table that was unlike the sounds being offered in Britain and America-- the likes of Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa and the post Wes Montgomery boom of players that was lead by George Benson. Rypdal's participation on Jan Garbarek's tough, edgy free jazz classic Afric Pepperbird (ECM, 1970) lead Manfred Eicher to issue Rypdal's own contract for the label, and his legacy is influential particularly on the Norwegian jazz scene as it is vast. Conspiracy, Rypdal's first recording since 2013's Melodic Warrior finds him in a quartet with keyboardist Stale Storlokken, electric and fretless bassist Endre Hareide, and drummer percussionist Pal Thowson.

Conspiracy in a word is vintage, classic Rypdal, and represents everything that makes him a force: haunting, hymn like meditations with otherworldly tone colors, and blistering rockish bombast. The group he has assembled for this release is so in lockstep with him that it brings to mind his popular Chasers group from the mid 80's that recorded, Chasers (1985) the classic Blue (1987) and the followup The Singles Collection (1988). “As If The Ghost Was Me” has Thowson's 16th note based ride cymbal pattern as the base for Rypdal's strong melody, fluffy keyboards and the melancholic fretless bass of Hareide-- the meditation just soars. “What Have I Done” is a tone poem with Rypdal's vocal esque guitar inflections; the foreboding mood of the piece, with occasional burnishes of light from Thowson's finger cymbals is like a confessional to someone, barely able to hold in their secret. The title track is a blistering, stomping piece of rock, Rypdal unable to contain his passionate, wild, whammy bent cries, and Storlokken follows with some distorted, meaty Hammond B-3 organ. Delicious, delicate swirls of organ frame “All By His Lonesome”, and it is a showcase for the melodic, singing fretless bass. As the album closes with “Baby Beautiful” and the aural timelapse of “Dawn”, the mood returns to where it began. The sensual glide of “Baby Beautiful” has some tasty Mellotron action in the background from Storlokken.

Sound:

Recorded at the hallowed ground of Rainbow studio and recorded by Martin Abramhamsen and produced by Manfred Eicher, Conspiracy is a wide open sonic treat. One can imagine a wide open space with the depth of reverb in this music, but that spatial depth leads to a wonderful sound stage... particularly in the mellow organ tones, that pan between the Focal Chorus 716 speakers, left, center and right, the subtle glow of synth pads, and the details of Thowsen's percussion, especially finger cymbals really sparkle. Rypdal's tone with it's metallic sharpness sounds as beautiful as it's ever been.

Concluding Thoughts:

Conspiracy is a wonderful, striking return to form for Terje Rypdal. The moods that are set by the ensemble are far more important than individual solos, and his evocative compositions keep things interesting through this very short album (running only 35 minutes). The sudden gear shifts to burning jazz-rock after the incredible images some of the soundscapes create may be a surprise for those hearing him for the first time, but everything in this album is a perfect snapshot of Terje Rypdal.

Music: 10/10

Sound: 10/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing speakers

Musicbee (For WAV file playback)

Schiit Modius DAC

youtube

#terje rypdal #ecm records #norwegian music #a-ha #jazz fusion

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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A deeper look at: Thelonious Monk: Palo Alto (Impulse!/Sony /Legacy, 2020)

Thelonious Monk: piano; Charlie Rouse: tenor saxophone; Larry Gales: bass; Ben Riley: drums

Palo Alto, the much awaited archival find from Thelonious Monk recorded in 1968, serves as arguably the most significant release in two decades in what has seen a number of finds from the iconic pianist. The last 16 years have seen quite a few releases of “new” Monk; Live at The Olympia (Thelonious Records, 2004) the revelatory and now classic Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Blue Note, 2005) and Paris, 1969 (Blue Note, 2013) which documented one of the pianist's final bands with tenor saxophonist Paul Jeffry, and a guest appearance from one of the Magnificent 7 of modern jazz drummers: Philly Joe Jones. What makes this new release so important is it stands as a mirror for contemporary times in the present moment-- How music can bring individuals together in times of racial and social crisis.

The dream of integration in the highly segregated town of Palo Alto, California if only for one afternoon, was brought about by a student at Palo Alto High School, Danny Scher. Scher had an unusual and voracious appetite for jazz beginning as an elementary school student, playing in the school band, lead his own dixieland group and taught lectures on jazz history. In order to quench his thirst for jazz, he would speak with local jazz disc jockeys and assist in helping hang up posters for artist's concerts. Knowing this incredible enthusiasm in such a young person was a rare occurrence, the DJ's would give out the musician's phone numbers to Scher so he could start booking them. Thelonious Monk was an idol for the booking prodigy and he contacted Monk's manager to discuss terms for bringing the iconic pianist to play at his high school. However due to racial tensions, Palo Alto being a predominantly white town, and the fact that Scher was promoting a black artist, the tickets for the event, with their (thinking of the present era) incredible $2 price tag were not moving as the community, and country at large were reeling over the death of Robert Kennedy and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Further, no one thought the pianist would show.

To complicate things, when Scher phoned Monk at the Jazz Workshop where he was the featured attraction, the pianist was simply unaware of the plans the high school student had to bring him in for the concert. After being assured he could get to and from Palo Alto high school via Scher's brother, in the pouring rain Monk's quartet with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, (a member since 1959), bassist Larry Gales, and drummer Ben Riley arrived in a white van to eager fans, black and white. Scher would later go on to be the most important bookers in jazz and rock, booking and managing Jon Hendricks from his college dorm room, and later working with Bill Graham for over 20 years.

By the time of the October afternoon show, this iteration of the Monk Quartet had been together for five years. Gales had replaced Butch Warren and Riley, Frankie Dunlop. As 1968 rolled around, the pianist was having a tough year. The pianist had been in a coma as a result of several seizures and was being charged for studio time by Columbia, whom his tenure was ending with initially convened with the indispensable Monk's Dream (1962) and by the late 60′s he was playing his music the way he wanted.

Columbia had tried unsuccessfully to market him to the younger demographic, by creating the memorable, outrageous cover to Underground (1968) portraying the pianist, seated at a basement upright piano adorned with bottles of spirits, as if in a saloon, rifle strapped to his side with a Nazi SS member tied up in the background in a bit of absurdity. Monk’s Blues, recorded that same year but released in 1969, flanked Monk’s quartet with Oliver Nelson arrangements, in an attempt at recapturing the vitality and creativity of Hal Overton’s charts for the classic albums The Thelonious Monk Orchestra At Town Hall (Riverside, 1959) and Big Band And Quartet In Concert (Columbia, 1963) but the album was met with mixed critical reaction.

While many Monk devotees regard the groundbreaking Blue Note recordings, his Prestige and most notably Riverside catalog as the pinnacle, he settled into a comfortable groove at Columbia with little in the way of surprises, but the beauty of this newly discovered recording are the levels of interplay it contained. It can be argued that Charlie Rouse, as great as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Johnny Griffin were at understanding the nuances of the pianist's music (Hank Mobley also served an undocumented stint), was the ideal foil for Monk. Rouse did have devices to be sure, but was wonderful at spinning inventive improvisations, as he does on the opening ballad “Ruby My Dear” here, wrapping the tune in a romantic, velvety longing. He finds delight in the uptempo material, launched by the pianist's provocative figures and mining the freedom when he's left to stroll on “Blue Monk” really laying into the cushion the rhythm section sets for him. Larry Gales provided superb bass lines with forward motion to the group and it is fascinating to compare his choruses of walking on The Complete Live At The It Club (Columbia/Legacy, 1998 rel. 1964) to his solos here that get to the heart of matter. He brings an agile fluency to “ Well You Needn't”, flexing his chops, even taking time to humorously quote “Boo Boo's Birthday”. Throughout the set the pianist showcases his gift with melodic variation in a solo rendition of “Don't Blame Me” which demonstrates this to the fullest, his left hand providing steady stride rhythms giving illusions of a complete rhythm section, his right often ornamenting with patented whole tone runs. Ben Riley is unusually energetic and responsive and contributes exciting, extroverted comping on “Well You Needn't” and “Blue Monk” also supplying some strong, inventive soloing, sticking and moving like a boxer with a strong jab and swift combinations. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the 47 minute set is Monk's brief reading of “I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams” as an encore. He was always great at choosing some off the beaten path repertoire and his comment to the audience, “we gotta go to work, you dig?” ends the set on a rapturous note.

Sound:

For a recording made by the Palo Alto High School janitor, Palo Alto is surprisingly good. The recording is mono, with Rouse's biting tone palpable, Monk's piano somewhat under recorded in the background. If there are minor quibbles to be made, Gales bass is VERY heavy in the recording and there is a hollowness to Riley's cymbals that carries a bit through to his brush work. All things considered, the recording which is from a 24 bit/44.1 review copy WAV file conveys a certain excitement that the Focal Chorus 716 speakers capture fairly well-- being matter of fact speakers which may be far from glamorous for some, tell the truth.

Concluding thoughts:

While Palo Alto finds the Thelonious Monk Quartet examining their typical set list there is a particularly energy that makes this new find a joy to hear. Those starting with Monk are advised not to start here but at the classic Blue Note, and Riverside recordings as well as a few of the Columbia albums, but for Monk fanatics it's a worthy find. The fact the group was promote harmony in a community and country in turmoil and perhaps the unusual high school gym venue was something that clearly inspired them as they gave the audience at Palo Alto High School a sparkling show.

Music rating: 8.5/10

Sound rating:7/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 Floor standing speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

youtube

#thelonious monk #jazz #impulse #piano #unreleased

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Artemis (Blue Note, 2020)

Renee Rosnes: piano; Melissa Aldana: tenor saxophone; Anat Cohen: clarinet, bass clarinet; Ingrid Jensen: trumpet; Noriko Ueda: bass; Allison Miller: drums; Cecile McLorin Salvant: vocals.

The super group can be a mixed blessing. In rock, The Band thankfully equaled the sum of its parts, in classical there was the Three Tenors, in jazz throughout the 90's and early to mid 00's all star groups are pretty much the norm for record dates and festival gatherings. At their best, the synergy is like a band who has been playing for years, while when these combinations don't work, it's usually when the artists don't concede to a greater whole, or too much time has passed. Artemis, the new super group consisting of Blue Note veteran (recording her own leader dates in the late 80's and early 90's) Renee Rosnes on piano, Melissa Aldana on tenor saxophone, Anat Cohen on clarinet, Ingrid Jensen on trumpet, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller and vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant thankfully lives up to the all star status and really demonstrates it can be a real band, moving forward.

Before looking at some of the music on this album, having an all female super group on Blue Note warrants a brief history of women on the label and why this is so important. In the so called “classic” era of Blue Note that runs from 1954-1970, there have only been three women who lead leader dates. Jutta Hipp, the German pianist lead At The Hickory House during the label's watershed year of 1956 (which saw Jimmy Smith's debut that changed the landscape forever, the unique piano of Herbie Nichols, and Horace Silver's smash “Senor Blues”) the rarely recorded singer Dodo Greene released My Hour of Need in 1962, and legendary vocalist Sheila Jordan recorded her debut, the cult classic Portrait Of Sheila the following year. In the United Artist era that ran through Horace Silver Plays The Music Of The Spheres, the final Blue Note release until the label's resurrection under EMI Manhattan in the mid 80's, the label had success with flautist Bobbi Humphrey and vocalist Marlena Shaw. However, it was not until 2002 with the release of Norah Jones' Come Away With Me that female artists on Blue Note became huge. With that release, Jones single handedly revitalized the label once more, because it was and is the biggest selling Blue Note in history, the label was also able to begin a massive reissue campaign that put long out of print items back into circulation in their RVG and Connoisseur series lines. Within the past few years, the signing of Kandace Springs has also bolstered the female presence to a large degree.

Artemis brings to mind past ensembles like Super Blue, the Blue Note All Stars, and Out Of The Blue in the post bop aim of the project. Like the Blue Note All Stars' Our Point Of View rather than being a group of up and coming players, it's a group of established stars, veterans and leaders. Their performance at the Newport Jazz Festival impressed label president Don Was and prompted him to sign them, and this is their first offering. There is truly an egalitarian group aesthetic here, no one dominates the ensembles, and through the varied front line colors, the compositions take on a large timbre palette. Alison Miller's “Goddess Of The Hunt” has some wonderful use of unison lines employing Cohen's bass clarinet and Ueda's acoustic bass after bass and piano play the same figure, replaced by Rosnes' piano. The churning chord progression used for the melody is the bed for Aldana's scalding tenor sax solo with notable use of altissimo register. Rosnes' follows with her signature clarity and depth of ideas, and Jensen's trumpet to soar blending a Freddie Hubbard bravura with the wide intervallic leaps of Woody Shaw. Cohen takes a cue from the last phrase of Jensen for a solo without excess before the ensemble returns. The melancholy “Frida”, written by Aldana, perfectly captures the personality of the pioneering painter, with strong spots for the saxophonist and Rosnes.

Vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant shows a wide stylistic range appearing on two selections, Stevie Wonder's “If It's Magic”, and the admittedly quite dated lyrics of “Cry, Buttercup Cry”, a 1948 hit for Maxine Sullivan. In both cases, McLorin Salvant's warm, expressive voice transforms the material. Cohen's sensual “Nocturno” features stellar turns for her clarinet, and especially Noriko Ueda's melodic bass. The album closes with a slinky, funky, off the beaten path version of Lee Morgan's “Sidewinder” that in an effort to forge it's own identity wisely dispenses with the famous Bob Cranshaw pick up in the bass line, and a deeper in the cut feeling.

Sound:

Recorded by James Farber and mastered by Mark Wilder, who regularly produce outstanding work, Artemis leaves a bit to be desired in the sound department. The mix seems quite narrow, with clarinet and tenor on the right and trumpet towards center left, but for the huge sound they create the sound stage is not as deep and wide as it could be. On “Goddess Of The Hunt” and “Frida” it sounds as if there are multiple instances of peak distortion on Aldana's tenor sax and Cohen's clarinet. A positive spot though is Ingrid Jensen's Harmon muted trumpet has a bright sparkle. While the sound is not brick walled, it is not the equal of the work Wilder has done on the catalogs of Miles, Monk, and CTI Records to name a few. The music lacks the dynamic range and punch of other fantastic work he has done. Granted, this is how the artists wanted things to sound but compared to say, the recent Immanuel Wilkins Omega a release that has fantastic sound and dynamics, it's underwhelming.

Concluding thoughts:

Artemis is an overall impressive debut by a wonderful all star band that focuses on the sum of it's parts. A group such as this could easily give in to ego and meaningless displays of fireworks, the emphasis is on tight, varied compositional frameworks with concise solos from players with distinct individual voices. Women have been breaking much needed ground in the instrumental realm, and this is a group with a chemistry that could gain serious mileage, with several tunes that could be staples in the modern jazz repertoire.

Music: 9/10

Sound: 5/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion Laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing Speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Musicbee (for CD quality WAV file playback)

Amazon HD Music (for high resolution 24/96 file playback)

youtube

#artemis #Blue Note records #renee rosnes #melissa aldana #cecile mclorin salvant #alison miller #anat cohen #ingrid jensen #noriko ueda

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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A deeper look at: The Brecker Brothers- Live and Unreleased (Piloo Records, 2020/rec. 1980)

Randy Brecker: trumpet & vocals; Michael Brecker: tenor sax; Mark Gray: keyboards; Barry Finnerty: guitar; Neil Jason: bass & vocals; Richie Morales: drums

At the dawn of the 80's Randy and Michael Brecker had been one of the hottest commodities on the music scene. They initially made a splash in 1970 as part of the horn section on Dreams (Columbia) the self titled debut album from the studio driven band of the same name. Dreams, the brainchild of vocalist/producer/composer Jeff Kent is significant because like Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969, rel. 1970) and the Tony Williams Lifetime's pivotal Emergency (Polydor, 1969) it ushered in an amalgamation of jazz and rock that was completely fresh and something that would continue into the decade most notably with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, and the Latin driven sound of Caldera. Dreams, featured luminaries like Billy Cobham, guitarist John Abercrombie, bassist Doug Lubahn (who appeared on three of the Doors' albums) and trombonist Barry Rogers, and with the vocal driven+ horns combination the group entered territory close to early Terry Kath era Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears. The Brecker Brothers would then move on to join the Horace Silver Quintet-- Michael would only appear on In Pursuit Of the 27th Man (Blue Note, 1972) while the trumpeter would appear on three albums: You Gotta Take A Little Love (1968), The United States of Mind Phase I , That Healin' Feelin (1970) and the aforementioned In Pursuit Of the 27th Man. As the seventies wore on, the brothers would log valuable time as members of Billy Cobham's group and individually as session musicians running the gamut from Parliament Funkadelic, Frank Zappa, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Michael Franks among others.

At this time, the Breckers' had found themselves in the midst of something incredibly creative. As session musicians, there was a movement among several, including vibraphone innovator Mike Mainieri, the late pianist Don Grolnick, David Sanborn and Steve Gadd to fuse the harmonic and rhythmic complexities of jazz, with funk and other popular music. As a result of the fruits of these musical inventions Mainieri formed Steps, better known as Steps Ahead with Michael Brecker, Grolnick, and Gadd (later replaced by Peter Erskine) in tow plus bassist Eddie Gomez. The band would record the classic Smokin' In The Pit (Better Days/NYC Records, 1979) Step By Step (1979) and Paradox (1981). All this music was recorded during the Brecker Brothers' peak, they also owned the storied Seventh Avenue South club, an incubator for like minded musicians who were interested in exploring this unique style.

The recently unearthed two CD Brecker Brothers: Live and Unreleased recorded at the famous club Onkel Po's in Germany on July 2, 1980 features the band in their absolute prime. The set list consists uncompromising versions of well known tracks that are mostly drawn from the then recent George Duke produced Detente (Arista, 1980) and their other Arista recordings, including The Brecker Bros (1975), Don’t Stop The Music (1977) and extended, far superior versions of nearly all of the compositions that appeared on Heavy Metal Bebop (1978). The album is also the first chapter in a new phase of Michael Brecker's playing with this gig occurring just a month after taping Pat Metheny's 80/81 (ECM, 1980) and album that signaled a marked shift in the tenor man's facility and conception. As the sadly missed saxophone icon said in Metheny's podcast on the making of the album, “there was everything before 80/81 and everything AFTER 80/81”. This is also the first “new” music heard from him since the final album as a leader with Pilgrimage (Heads Up, 2007).

Live And Unreleased catches the group absolutely on fire. The group includes Randy on trumpet and vocals, Michael on tenor, Barry Finnerty on guitar, Mark Gray on keyboards, Neil Jason on bass and vocals and drummer Richie Morales. Over the ten selections which form a nice cross section of their catalog, they take on this spunky, New York rawness that eschews the slick heavier production of the studio albums. The tunes with their slick, and wry humored harmonic complexity and pounding funk are wonderful blowing vehicles for high octane solos. The saxophonist's “Strap Hangin'” from the band's yet to be released final Arista recording the next year, is a portrait in a nutshell of what this music is all about: fun. Often, within the problematic linear jazz narrative, upon it's release, outside of serious musician circles at Berklee and local levels where these tunes were oft played, jazz critics derided these albums as empty musical effluvia conforming staunchly to the decade's stylistic and production tropes. While yes, some of the music on the studio recordings is very of it's time, there is some serious meat on the bone in these tunes. The tongue in cheek intro conjuring images of the Queen's Guards at the British Royal Palace gives way to the composition's sinewy, tough street wise melody. The bridge chords allow for both Breckers' to glide with hard swinging, behind the beat phrasing in their solos. Randy showcases tremendous range and agility with a Freddie Hubbard like bravura, and Michael ravenously eats the changes, unfurling furious cascades that are now much beloved phrases that are much copied by his disciples. “Tee'd Off” is a sultry example of rhythmically driven funk, but the most significant piece on the album, is the 18 minute plus version of “Funky Sea, Funky Dew”. Each night, as Randy Brecker alludes to in the liners, the band would leave Michael on stage alone for a lengthy cadenza. Here, the saxophonist engages in the best solo of the entire set, dipping into gravity defying acrobatics, funky, swinging asides (with Barry Finnerty behind him) and most important, a display of pre EWI electronic experimentation. Many hallmarks of Michael's EWI approach are found here in this predecessor. Disc 1 finishes with the explosive “I Don't Know Either”, where Richie Morales is in his deepest Steve Gadd groove mode.

A Doobie Brothers style shuffle is employed on “Inside Out” where everyone lets loose soloing on blues changes for the most part, albeit with a trickier more ornate prelude setting up the blues changes. Mark Gray soars in particular with his Jan Hammer and George Duke flavored Moog solo, and Michael Brecker displays his affinity for Stanley Turrentine in spots. “Baffled” features a lengthy drum solo from Morales investigates the Mozambique and bembe rhythms, and an exploratory, angular, Randy Brecker solo in Woody Shaw territory. “Don't Get Funny With My Money” a Zappa-esque slice of absurd silliness closes the album with vocals from Randy Brecker.

Sound:

Taken from masters from the NDR Radio vaults, Live and Unreleased is about as pristine as one could get. Saxophone and trumpet timbres are particularly vivid, trumpet left center and saxophone right center. The drums, as the recording is from 1980, have that familiar dead punch familiar to the era, Morales’ toms had black dot heads with no bottom head, again typical of the era. Dead, deep snare in the center channel with equally dead toms across the sound stage, and shimmery cymbals. The sound stage though wide and nicely separated is quite close up. This is very amped up, electric music afterall!

Closing Thoughts

Live and Unreleased is a wonderful addition to the Brecker Brothers discography. The raw, stripped down nature is a conduit for crackling solos, and lockstep group interplay, with absolutely unhinged Randy and Michael Brecker at their absolute best. It's a reminder of how sorely missed the saxophonist is, and the towering influence he had on several generations of players that continues to the present.

Music rating: 9.5/10

Sound rating: 8/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 Stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Musicbee (for WAV file playback)

youtube

#Michael Brecker #randy brecker #jazz fusion #jazz funk #chase baird

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Gerald Clayton: Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 2020)

Walter Smith, III: tenor saxophone; Logan Richardson: alto saxophone; Gerald Clayton: piano; Joe Sanders: bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums.

Pianist-composer Gerald Clayton (son of bassist John Clayton) has for the past several years been one of the brightest lights and a mainstay of the current jazz scene. His broad command of the tradition as well as moving the music forward has garnered several critical accolades and he emerged as a strong writer and composer with his debut Tributary Tales (Motema, 2017). In addition, the pianist has proved his formidable improvised talents on trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note, 2008) and guitarist Peter Bernstein's Let Loose (Smoke Sessions, 2016). For his Blue Note debut Happening: Live At Village Vanguard he leads a wonderful tight quintet: tenor saxophonist Walter Smith, III (fresh off his own In Common 2) alto saxophonist Logan Richardson, bassist Joe Sanders and the phenomenal grandson of the legendary Roy Haynes, Marcus Gilmore at the drums.

As the world continues to deal with the unprecedented challenges of social distancing, for the pianist, Happening serves as a reminder of the community that live performances bring forth. Much of the material stems from Tributary Tales but Clayton also throws in some less than conventional looks at Bud Powell's “Celia”, the standard “Body and Soul”, and a closing 14 minute blowout on Duke Ellington's classic “Take The Coltrane”. From the composer standpoint, the pianist's writing for two saxophones (no Tony Williams Tokyo Live pun intended) is quite potent. Smith, III's tenor is a broad counterpoint for Logan Richardson's bright vocal cry, and on the opening “Patience Patients” (reprised from Tributary Tales) the combination is so effective. Smith, III is featured in a solo that explores the piece's subtle dark contours, Gilmore's flexibility with the straight eighth feel allows him to open the rhythmic floor for tumultuous commentary. The pianist's solo demonstrates just how wide his stylistic palette is, and his investigation of the composition's harmony is fascinating. Abrupt, abstract splinters of piano frame “A Light” where Clayton shows he is just as comfortable with vocabulary from the avant garde and new music idioms, in an extended intro. Eventually, the tune morphs into a thrilling relay type dialogue between saxophones, everyone, including the pianist taking a number of bars than handing off, rather than conventional solo methodology. Here, Logan Richardson shows why he has been one of the most significant alto voices in recent years. When Clayton pairs things down to a trio is where sparks really occur. The rendition of “Celia” is fabulous, and anything but well worn bebop. Gilmore adds tremendous momentum, summoning his grandfather's inimitable (and still commanding at age 94!) ride cymbal beat. Clayton is all over the piano, generating a ton of heat. Sanders Eddie Gomez inspired vocalization with his bass solo adds more fuel to the fire as does Gilmore's limber solo. Later on in the album, when the trio tackles “Body and Soul” shows a relative rarity among younger pianists: Clayton shows real reverence for the tune's melody and lyrics and gets knee deep into the tune's nuances. The double saxophone front line returns for “Take the Coltrane” to end things with a bang.

Sound:

Recorded by Geoff Countryman and Tyler McDarmid the recording really captures the essence of the Village Vanguard. Despite the venue's small size and L shaped stage, the sound stage is impressively deep and wide. The recording itself has a very analog live to two track type sound... the saxophones quite bold, the bass woody and chunky, and the brilliance of Gilmore's K Zildjian cymbals and the crack of his drum kit. Clayton's piano is rich and accurate, however the stereo image of the piano appears reversed: the pianist's right hand is captured in the left channel, the mid range of the keyboard center left and center, and the left hand, the right and far right. There is very little to choose from between the CD quality 16 bit WAV files and the high resolution 24/96 version of the album except that the sound stage depth, instrument timbre and associated attack and decays are more present on the high res version. Also on the high res 24/96 version, in an other wise excellent sounding recording, during the section of “Take The Coltrane” with Sanders' bass prominent there is a click of digital distortion that does not seem to be a “snap” of a bass string, drum stick on rim, or something hitting the body of the piano from the ambiance of the live recording itself, which is quite curious.

Concluding thoughts:

Gerald Clayton's Blue Note debut with a crack quintet, adds to the long list of storied recordings made at the Village Vanguard. He has a knack for intriguing timbre combinations for the dual saxophone front line, and inside some fairly heady structures, there is plenty of room for heated improvising, and explosive group interplay. Clayton's balance of the tradition while being thoroughly immersed in contemporary jazz and other genre musical grammar adds tremendously and this album is well worth while as a portrait of where the pianist was in the moment, and a hint of where he could be in the future.

Equipment used:

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

HP Pavilion laptop

Musicbee (for 16 bit WAV file playback)

Amazon HD Music (for high resolution 24/96 streaming playback)

Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Music rating: 9.5/10

Sound rating: 9/10

youtube

#gerald clayton #logan richardson #Walter Smith III #Marcus Gilmore #Blue Note records

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Single review: Chase Baird “Pulsar”(Outside In Music, 2020)

Chase Baird: tenor saxophone, EWI; J3PO: Fender Rhodes, synthesizers; Dan Chmielinski: Moog bass; Steve Lyman: drums.

Saxophonist Chase Baird (now burgeoning guitarist and singer-songwriter!) made waves last year with his most fully realized composition and band leader statement yet A Life Between (Sounds A Bound) featuring an all star band with Brad Mehldau, Nir Felder, Dan Chmielinski and Antonio Sanchez. Another one of Baird's passions is electronic music and synthesis; something explored on his brand new single “Pulsar”, featuring his tenor and EWI, Julian Pollack (also known as J3PO) on piano, Fender Rhodes and synthesizers, Dan Chmielinski on Moog bass and Steve Lyman on drums. The track, initially conceived as an electronic dance oriented piece becomes more of a hybrid with jazz improvisation in the center. “Pulsar” paints a broad post futurist portrait of the unknown, and discovery. J3PO's ring modulated Fender Rhodes speak of this uncertainty of a new world, visions in the listener's mind reminisce about early 80's videos and space and technological innovation as juicy, throbbing Moog bass wiggles it's way into the open, minimal space. Triumphant chord progressions signal the delight of exploration and signs of life as astronauts explore the new world. Baird's saxophone and J3PO's acoustic piano in tandem, stake claim boldly of this new world, Baird's EWI euphorically states the anthemic chorus while Lyman all the while is slicing the beat different ways acoustically emulating the programming of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. The drummer weaves in and out of these divisions during an intense solo over a bass ostinato before themes resurface to close.

Production:

Early demo versions of “Pulsar” were rendered from Baird playing every single part on EWI, to which J3PO decided to eventually play the parts himself. As this track was created during quarantine of the post COVID 19 era, it's truly remarkable that it sounds like a live band playing in real time. The entire group played their parts separately to a click! Unlike decades past, where it could be occasionally clearly heard parts were done separately and phoned in (think Frank Sinatra's hugely successful Duets albums) modern recording technology is to a point where tracks can be recorded in different cities, and continents and sound completely of a piece. The 24 bit/48 kHz master file has a huge soundstage, the authoritative crack of Lyman's reverbed snare is impressive, as are the floaty, weighty analog synth pads, and present atmospheric EWI. The Focal Chorus 716 again shows it's strength with the percussive snare cracks, and sinewy Moog bass. The Schiit Modius DAC presents clear separation and a very wide sound stage equivalent to a 2:35 aspect ratio in film if there was an aural equivalent.

Track rating: 9/10

youtube

#chase baird #j3po #electronic music #idm

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Derrick Hodge: Color of Noize (Blue Note, 2020)

Derrick Hodge: acoustic, electric bass, vocals, guitar, keyboards; Jahari Stampley: piano, organ; Michael Aaberg: keyboards; Justin Tyson, Michael Mitchell: drums; DJ Jahi Sundance: turntables.

Multi instrumentalist, and two time Grammy award winner Derrick Hodge returns with his third Blue Note album Color of Noize featuring his new band: 17 year old prodigy Jahari Stampley on piano and organ, Michael Aaberg on keyboards, the double drum powerhouse of the phenomenal Justin Tyson and Michael Mitchell, DJ Jahi Sundance on turntables and the leader Hodge on acoustic, electric basses, vocals and additional synthesizers. The album is really a statement on the various influences that have shaped Hodge: jazz, R&B, neo soul, hip hop, gospel, and orchestral composition and how they seamlessly blend to create a signature blend. With the communal aspect of the 11 tunes, there is almost an aesthetic that is reminiscent of pre Sweetnighter Weather Report or On the Corner era forward Miles Davis in that the grooves, moods, and textures are more important than individual solos, though within the structures there is plenty of dynamic interplay.

For Color of Noize Hodge took an approach to get the most of the music, somewhat similar to Miles Davis' approach on Kind of Blue, the group played down the tunes in the studio with little planning in advance. The nature of interaction and improvisation here is within the structures. Hodge's knack for anthemic, memorable melodies shows up on “Not Right Now”, the floating synth textures are a feathery complement to the gargantuan dual drum gospel chop type fills of Tyson and Mitchell, chopping up various subdivisions of the beat. Hodge's orchestral side shows up on the Satie, musique concrete like “Little Tone Poem”; a gentle sound scape, Jahi Sundance's turntables the main focus, and subtle hints of drums boiling over in the mix. The biggest contributions in the band sound come from Jahari Stampley whom Hodge was alerted to from Robert Glasper sending a link of the young keyboardist's playing. Stampley's piano and gospel organ dominate the regal call of the seven minute title track, the slow harmonic rhythm kaleidoscopically shifting, Justin Tyson making the most of the opportunity with scalding drum fills in conjunction with Mitchell. Stampley's piano frames a unique hip hop spiced take on Wayne Shorter's “Fall”, and a solo piano version of “You Could Have Stayed”, really a rehearsal take in which Hodge unknowingly to the keyboardist, rolled tape. “I See You” and “New Day” could and should be mainstream radio hits, with the latter in particular, Hodge showing his singer/songwriter chops, and a simple, hooky lyric. Stampley and Hodge are a perfect, sympathetic pair on the gorgeous ballad, “Heartbeats”

Sound:

Recorded by Qmillion and mastered by Ian Sefchick. Color of Noize has obvious musical dynamics that are choked by extreme, brickwalled compression. The title track, with a wide sound stage, drums on left and right channels with keyboards, synths and turntables filling the back, center left and right of the sound stage has a clear dynamic peak, but at this peak, one can almost hear pumping compressors. This effect was heard on both the CD quality WAV and high resolution 24/96 version of the album on Amazon HD Music. Such dynamic compression makes high resolution moot and sound like low fidelity. Drums have an indistinct dead thud on “Fall”. The Schiit Modius helps with instrument separation but, the Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing speakers tell the absolute truth about a recording, and the dynamic compression comes through massively. The album uses contemporary hip hop and R&B style production, but that doesn't mean that it has to be robbed of dynamic range. The closing solo piano “You Could Have Stayed” fares much better dynamically. Most people will be listening to this on phones, cheap ear buds, streaming and vinyl more than likely, but the limitations of the mastering on a high fidelity system will be shown quite nakedly and bluntly.

Concluding thoughts:

Color of Noize is the most complete statement of Derrick Hodge's musical experiences to date. He brings together a strong new band well versed in the micro innovations that became apparent with artists like the Robert Glasper Experiment, Kamasi Washington and Flying Lotus. Jazz here is an adjective, a spirit, and Hodge shows that it can meld with anything and keep the core values of improvisation and spontaneity. Those who are straight ahead purists will find little of interest here, but open minded listeners will love the album. For fans of the aforementioned artists, this will be a smorgasboard, and a gateway to everything jazz has to offer.

Music rating: 7.5/10

Sound rating: 2/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Musicbee (for CD quality WAV file playback)

Amazon HD Music (for streaming high resolution file playback)

youtube

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin’ (Blue Note, 2020; rec. 1959)

Lee Morgan: trumpet; Wayne Shorter: tenor saxophone; Bobby Timmons: piano; Jymie Merritt: bass; Art Blakey: drums.

In 1959 Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers were going through transition. While the rhythm section of pianist Bobby Timmons, Jymie Merritt; bass, and Blakey had stayed consistent since the summer of 1958 when tenor saxophonist Benny Golson had joined the ensemble. Golson had left the Messengers within a few months having cut Moanin' on Blue Note with the band in October, and having participated on their European tour. That tour included their famous Club St. Germain appearance in Paris captured on three LP's for RCA, and the group's Salle Pleyel gig. The stop gap, at least on records, until Wayne Shorter joined was Hank Mobley rejoining the group. The tenor saxophonist had been an initial member of the first true Messengers unit, being on the seminal Horace Silver and The Jazz Messengers (Blue Note, 1954), the two volume The Jazz Messengers (Blue Note, 1955) and The Jazz Messengers (Columbia, 1956). All this made for a heady triumvirate of work, featuring some memorable original compositions like “Hank's Symphony”, “Carol's Interlude” and “Weird-o”, his unmistakable tone, and always fresh ideas. Mobley was a no show for a Canadian Messengers gig when Lee Morgan ran to get a then little known Wayne Shorter, playing with Maynard Ferguson's big band, thus recommending him to Blakey.

Just Coolin' is something of an anomaly: The session was taped March 8, 1959. Coincedentally, two years earlier on the same date, Mobley cut Hank Mobley Quintet also with Blakey on board at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack NJ studio. The story of how this session eventually saw official release is fascinating. The music was heard by a select few from a tape copy of a mono reference reel made for session producer Alfred Lion to take home to listen to. This practice of course was also done by Rudy Van Gelder for John Coltrane. These reference tapes were kept separate from the legitimate session tape in the Blue Note vaults. More than likely, as is the case with rejected or unissued Blue Note sessions, it is more than plausible that Just Coolin’ was deemed unsuitable for release at the time by Alfred Lion and chose to issue the two volume At The Jazz Corner Of the World instead. Those two albums were recorded at Birdland (whose name could not be used for contractual reasons) on April 15, 1959 presenting live renditions of four of the six tracks here. Mobley also was on hand for a 1959 Newport Jazz Festival appearance with the Messengers that summer reprising much of this music, available at Wolfgang's Vault. For serious Blakey connoisseurs, the new studio album offers some interesting comparative listening, to the live Blue Note session chosen for release. Zev Feldman, czar of Resonance Records now working with Blue Note on a series of archival finds, was able to make a listenable album experience selecting the best six out of twenty one takes found on the master. The date includes two previously unheard numbers, “Jimerick” and Bobby Timmons' “Quick Trick” which has not appeared on any other recording.

What Just Coolin' does show however is at their peak, and in their prime, the Jazz Messengers were simply a swinging marvel tightly oiled, and there is simply nothing better than prime Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley. Mobley in particular developed a harder, more aggressive sound that contrasted with his classic work on Blue Note and a variety of other labels during the 50's, and this transformation was further completed by his 1963 comeback. His soulfully swaggering “Hipsippy Blues” opens the album as it did on volume 1 of At the Jazz Corner of the World. This studio version is just a trifle faster, and Mobley steps up to the the plate with complete confidence in his behind the beat phrasing over Buhaina's (Blakey's nickname) deep pocket shuffle. By the second chorus, buoyed by the drummer's subtle bass drum kicks at the top, Mobley steps on the gas a bit more. A sanctified feeling reaches Mobley's lines at the start of the third chorus egged on by Blakey's triplets, the saxophonist's funky triplet motif, also found on the live version a month later appears in the fifth chorus. He rides to a satisfying resolution for two more choruses. Lee Morgan takes over for 5 choruses, staying cool as Blakey signals a batallion of flams in the second chorus, upping his intensity as the drummer opens up on the fourth chorus, and Morgan uses some of his favorite devices and half valve effects in his fifth. Bobby Timmons pulls right on in for his own 5 choruses, ever so funky.

“Close Your Eyes”, the Bernice Petkere standard that subsequently was added to the Messengers' book, is once more, slightly quicker than the version captured a month later at Birdland. Lee Morgan shines hewing close to the melody in his solo, tossing off bravado ideas, and indulging in his favorite triplet lick midway through. Mobley follows suit with a solo that is just as assured, and lyrical, adding a quote of “It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got that Swing” at a choice moment.

What will be of most interest here to Blakey collectors are two compositions that have never appeared on any previous Jazz Messengers releases: the uncredited “Jimerick”, and Bobby Timmons' loping “Quick Trick”. The lightning “Jimerick” showcases Timmons' best Bud Powell vocabulary, but his pet gospel licks show up here as well. Morgan and Mobley enter in with a harmonized statement of the herky, jerky theme, that in rhythmic timing bears a bit of similarity to the Jazz Messengers' arrangement of Thelonious Monk's “Evidence” slyly renamed “Justice”, which was a part of their standard live set and surfaced a month later on the Birdland set list. Both horns and Timmons soar on the bebop tempo burner, and Blakey takes center stage for an extended solo. His use of varying rhythmic textures keep things interesting such as when he uses the rustle of his brushes against some tom with stick punctuation in his other hand. His typical solo closing phrase learned from Kenny Clarke naturally ushers the theme restatement back to close the track. “Quick Trick” is a bit more relaxed and lyrical than classic, funky Timmons numbers like “So Tired”, and “Dat Dere”. The pianist gets such strong support from Jymie Merritt's bassline that he coasts so freely. Mobley's solo is a bit hindered by reed squeaks, but the ideas are inspired as well as Morgan's. The pianist solo is adroit at balancing the more virtuostic Powell type lines with earthiness.

Hank Mobley's composition “M&M” is probably one of the best known from the At The Jazz Corner of The World volumes. The saxophonist sails through his solo, and Morgan really excels at the swift tempo, his breaths audible between phrases. The horns and Blakey trade 2 choruses of four bar exchanges before taking it out. The saxophonist's “Just Coolin'” was first taped for Mobley debut Blue Note session Hank Mobley Quartet on March 27, 1955 with the then current Messengers rhythm section of Horace Silver on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Blakey behind the drums. On At The Jazz Corner of The World, Volume 1, the drummer announces the tune “as a pretty little thing, it's a fox trot” but the tune here is more burn then fox trot . The pretty, unmistakably Mobley melody is used as a launching pad for thoughtful solos by all. Blakey's solo is a textbook on how to use melodic invention and development on the drums, with some sparkling use of poly rhythms that Blakey disciple and Messengers alumnus Ralph Peterson has described as “rhythmic loops”.

Sound:

Just Coolin' was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack, NJ studio, 9 months before he'd move in to the famous Englewood Cliffs, NJ location that is used to the present day in the hands of Don and Maureen Sickler. The stereo image, and sound stage is classic Blue Note for the period; 2 dimensional and flat, but with a lot detail . Tenor sax in the right channel, trumpet in the left, piano and bass in the center and drums in the right channel. The sound signature of the recording itself is very much like Moanin' and countless other Blue Notes of the period. The Schiit Modius DAC increases the sound stage width, the air and exciting edginess of the RVG horn sound is in full effect. The Focal Chorus 716's enhance the you are there sense brought about by the horns. Bobby Timmons' piano has the standard mid heavy RVG piano sound, and the bass, is more felt than heard though the Focals will render bass light or heavier depending on the source. The Focals render the transients of Blakey's drums well, as solos like “Jimerick” demonstrate that incredible power he always brought.

Mastered by Bernie Grundman, the album is very transparent, and punchy Grundman retains a lot of dynamics, though the transfer has a little bit of high end boost typical of his mastering but not annoyingly so. The room sound and realism is captured quite well. However, the sound does not capture the blow you away, rich and lifelike three dimensional sound stage of many of the Audiowave Blue Note XRCD's mastered by Alan Yoshida as far as red book standard goes. Instead the sound of Just Coolin' is pretty matter of fact, and that is perfectly fine. The vinyl issue is being given audiophile treatment. fully analog mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI.

Concluding thoughts:

Just Coolin' is an important document 60 years after it's recording. It represents a bridge between the Lee Morgan and Benny Golson edition of the Messengers and the version with Wayne Shorter that would debut on the November 10, 1959 session that produced Africaine (first released in 1979). Indeed, the Morgan/Shorter edition would produce some of the group’s most enduring and significant music, but this transitional Mobley ensemble provided plenty of compositional muscle and fiery soloing. While newcomers to Blakey would be better served by Moanin', The Jazz Messengers, or 1960's A Night in Tunisia, Just Coolin' provides a really nice addition to Blakey collectors who have everything. There is some fascinating contrasting listening to the two volume At the Jazz Corner of The World with the four of the six pieces found herein. Though Wayne Shorter would assume the role as musical director, Mobley compositions “The Opener” and “High Modes” would appear on 1960's double volume Meet You At The Jazz Corner of The World showing that the tenor saxophonist's influence was still very present after his departure.

Music rating: 8.5/10

Sound rating: 8/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 Floor standing speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Musicbee (for WAV file playback)

youtube

(For comparison purposes, the live version of “Hipsippy Blues” from At The Jazz Corner of the World: Volume 1 is posted below)

youtube

#Blue Note records #hard bop #Art Blakey #hank mobley #lee morgan

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff (ECM, 2020)

Thank you for continuing to support Jazz Views With CJ Shearn for its 200th post and my goal of providing in depth reviews for jazz and beyond. This review is dedicated to my late mother Bonnie Shearn (1948-2016).

Marcin Wasilewski: piano; Slawomir Kurkiewicz: double-bass; Michal Miskiewicz: drums; with Joe Lovano: tenor saxophone.

Pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz, and drummer Michal Miskiewicz have been one of Poland's finest jazz groups for over two decades. Initially they began as a trio in their teens as the Simple Acoustic Trio, and first entered the ECM orbit with the legendary, late Tomasz Stanko for three albums, before issuing Trio (2005) with Wasilewski and Kurkiewicz also appearing during Manu Katche's three album ECM run. They have been nothing but consistent, releasing a string of worthwhile albums, with Live being their previous effort in 2016. For Arctic Riff, their first studio album since the excellent Spark of Life (2014) with Swedish tenor saxophonist Joakim Milder, the trio welcomes Joe Lovano into the fold.

Joe Lovano made his first ECM appearance in 1981, and since becoming a leader for the label with Trio Tapestry last year, makes his third label appearance in less than a year, having co lead a quintet with Enrico Rava on Roma released last year as well. What Lovano brings to the trio is quite different than Milder, but no less enriching: he is an additional fearless, exploratory spirit to Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz and Miskiewicz in their unique brand of piano trio exploring melody with building undercurrents of thrilling tension and heat. For example, Lovano's fat, warm tone slices like a fencer through the first version of Carla Bley's classic “Vashkar”, sparring with Miskiewicz' spiraling drums like two brothers in fierce competition, all the while Kurkiewicz' bass keeps a clear harmonic outline, while also broadening it's scope. The saxophonist brings heart wrenching tenderness to the opening ballad “Glimmer of Hope”, and Wasilewski's melancholic musings capture his wonderful ability to carve out simultaneously searching and melodic improvisation. The egalitarian ethos of the ensemble approach is best expressed on the epic, nine and a half minute “Cadenza”, a virtual suite that combines the best of both improvisation and new music. Lovano's brawny inner dialogue with the rhythm section contrasts with the pianist's obtuse shapes, and Kurkiewicz' arco harmonics, bathed in a distant reverb, that timbrally recall Robert Een's cello on the opening of vocalist Meredith Monk's defining Dolmen Music (ECM New Series, 1981). The quartet examines a variety of colors and moods from this point, demonstrating their remarkable simpatico and ability to adapt on a dime.

Wasilewski's memorable “Fading Sorrow” allows the saxophonist time to show his gorgeous approach to melody, and the pianist explores both the pretty, poppish contours, supported by its equally beautiful harmony. Everyone burns full tilt for “L'amour Fou”, the pianist's out for blood swing echoing the same drive found on “Actual Proof” recorded on both Spark of Life and Live. “Vashkar” (var) ideally contrasts Lovano's once more turbulent rhythm section dialogue, whereas Wasilewski's quiet, calming solo brings things to a satisfying resolution; the ways in which the core trio is able to latch onto a variety of rhythmic ideas, and time feels is reminiscent of the classic Hancock/Carter/Williams rhythm team with Miles Davis. This method of operation is especially evident on the closing “Old Hat”, Lovano book ending the journey with the gentle caresses that began the album.

Sound:

Recorded at Studios La Buissone in France, and produced by Manfred Eicher, Arctic Riff really hones in on the intimacy and interplay of the quartet. Wasilewski's mid range of the piano is rich, sounding true to life, with a sparkling high end. Slawomir Kurkiewicz's bass tone is gargantuan and rendered nicely, in combination with the revealing nature of the Focal Chorus 716 speakers and the enhanced sound stage and separation from the Schiit Modius DAC. Joe Lovano's tenor saxophone is breathy, and has mass. Miskiewicz' cymbals shimmer and bloom, as they do on previous releases.

Concluding thoughts:

Marcin Wasilewski's brand of trio playing continues to be captivating. The bond of Kurkiewicz and Miskiewicz continues to be palpable, and the pianist's knack for great melody and resourcefulness as an improviser is impressive. Adding Joe Lovano to the mix is an inspired pairing that one would hope will continue. He adds just a bit more fire, and inquisitiveness that keeps the exploratory nature of the trio highly attuned. Arctic Riff is one of the finest releases of the year thus far.

Music rating: 9.5/10

Sound rating: 9/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion Laptop

Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing speakers

Musicbee (for WAV file playback)

Schiit Modius DAC

youtube

#Marcin Wasilewski Trio #ECM Records #jazz piano #joe lovano

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Ambrose Akinmusire: on the tender spot of each calloused moment (Blue Note, 2020)

Ambrose Akinmusire: trumpet; Fender Rhodes: Sam Harris: piano; Harish Raghavan: bass; Justin Brown: drums; Genevieve Artadi: vocals (track 3) Jesus Diaz: vocals, percussion (track 1)

Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire has been on the scene for over two decades, first debuting with Prelude... For Cora (Fresh Sound, 2008) but really making a splash with his Blue Note debut, When The Heart Emerges Glistening in 2010. For that recording, he enlisted Walter Smith, III on tenor saxophone, pianist Gerald Clayton (soon to make his own Blue Note debut), Harish Raghavan on bass and Justin Brown on drums-- what was immediately apparent on that recording was the striking individual trumpet sound, quite heady writing which shared a lot in common with the jazz tradition both American and European, the provocative, poetic tune titles that also dealt with the experience of being black in America. With on the tender spot of each calloused moment, the trumpeter makes perhaps his deepest statement to date, finding him back in the quartet format that dominated 2017's double disc A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard and eschewing the more album length concept of Origami Harvest last year.

Before anything is said of the music which is excellent, haunting, and relentlessly challenging the album speaks to the trouble social climate that our world is currently in. Not only is the society dealing with COVID-19, but the senselessly brutal May 26. 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, in which the officer drove a knee into Floyd's neck for an appalling 8:46 and killing him. The riots in direct response to this atrocity have lead America to a breaking point, no longer are people dealing with racial injustice, and with a gleam of hope Americans, black, white, Asian and Latino are joining together to say enough is enough. Akinmusire appears on the cover in a stark black and white portrait, his hair in cornrows, shadow and light playing off each other, bearded, and in a black hoodie, bringing to mind Trayvon Martin. The trumpeter has always aimed to present his music in extremes, on Origami Harvest the use of cliched misogynistic hip hop phrases, at times in completed random places were rendered with an almost darkly humored absurdity, but on the tender spot of each calloused moment serves as a not so frank wake up call to society to look at what it's doing.

For the album which Akinmusire considers a sequel to his initial Blue Note offering, he brings back his long standing quartet. The group includes pianist Sam Harris (not to be confused with 80's Star Search winner and 80's pop, R&B singer) Harish Raghavan on bass, and drummer Justin Brown whom appeared on 2017's A Rift In Decorum, augmented by special guests including Knower's Genevieve Artadi and percussionist Jesus Diaz. The trumpeter presents perhaps his most ambitious social and artistic statement to date, that pulls on subtle touches of contemporary pop production, new music, R&B and the avant garde into a mixture purely his own. While the music does indeed feel a bit similar in tone and mood to When The Heart Emerges Glistening, it draws more upon the uncompromising nature that marked the double live album, which is in no small part to how in tune the quartet is. As they embark on the suite like “Tide of Hyacinth”, they deftly demonstrate how the trumpeter works at extremes. The first section of the three part tune is a busy, roaring collective avant improvisation, the trumpet spattering Jackson Pollack like fragments into the atmosphere, with Raghavan's extended bowing techniques, and Brown's treated cymbals and thwacking dead toms. The second section is more driving, Brown's cymbals acting as flowing waves, with Akinmusire's intense winding melody setting the stage for Harris' piano, focusing on color and texture. The third section throws something that at first seems like a non sequitir, but makes complete sense when one keeps in mind the concept of extremes. The voice of percussionist Jesus Diaz joins the fray, singing in the Yoruba dialect that initially the trumpeter wanted his father to sing. Diaz' section adds a grooving, joyous Afro-Latin element, the 2-3 clave an intriguing feature, and the piece closes on this joyous note. “Yessss” seems to be a reflection on the history of the African American struggle, Akinmusire's varying vocal inflections and deep blues undercurrent lament the seeming progress, but the longing in his tone appears to be saying “What progress have we made really? there's much more to be done”. The gradual solo build over synthesizers and a back beat from Brown's dead snare bring the track into a more contemporary vein reminiscent of D'Angelo, and a nice send off.

“Cynical Sideliners” with Akinmusire on Rhodes, and the child like vocals of Genevieve Artadi, is a bizarre lullaby. The track could be seen as a subtle indictment of those who are sitting and complaining about the current social upheavals but ultimately doing nothing. Artadi delivers the lyrics with a detached naivete that is disconcerting against the pillowy Rhodes chords, but it also is because of this exact mood that makes it such a striking piece on the album. “Mr. Roscoe (consider the simultaneous” is a reflection on the great Art Ensemble of Chicago co founder, multi instrumentalist, Roscoe Mitchell, and in this piece, Akinmusire who was a member of Mitchell's quartet balances the essence of the unique composed and improvised structures the multinstrumentalist oft employed.

Still, Akinmusire's aim through all the music with trademark poetic titling is to reach for the heart. Harish Raghavan's double stops and extended solo set the mood for “Interlude (that get more intense) featuring Harris' tornado of pianism, and another deeply emotional trumpet solo, that finds Akinmusire considering the thematic possibilities of a triplet repeating in morse code as the tumult dies down. What really touches the emotions deeply however is the closing “Hooded Procession (read the names aloud) which continues a series beginning with “My Name is Oscar” on the first Blue Note. The pieces evoke serious thought about the horrors of all the black men and women falling victim to police violence as well as the senseless mass shootings over the past decade. The “Hooded Procession” of the title is almost an answer to that of “a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie” on Origami Harvest, and the trumpeter's solitary Rhodes chords this time, with no spoken word as the listener thinks of names like Ahmad Arbury, George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Elijah McClain, the list goes on and on is heart wrenching and chilling. The tribute to Roy Hargrove, simply titled “Roy” is also a sobering reminder of one of the greatest trumpeters of the modern era, and the fostering of talent that he so nurtured. Ambrose Akinmusire now carries the mantle for those of his generation.

Sound:

on the tender spot of each calloused moment is very realistic tonally, Akinmusire's trumpet is full of body, with a warm glow. Listening to the album using the Schiit Modius DAC enhances the stereo image, and the Modius' warmer than neutral character is an advantage. On pieces like “4623” which use effects, the bathroom tile type reverb is quite palpable. Occasionally though, Raghavan's bass is so rich in depth of tone that it occasionally fights with Justin Brown's resonant bass drum, in the audio space. Brown's effects treated toms with their thudding attack and dead snare have a particular presence, and Sam Harris' piano is weighty, realistic and accurate.

Concluding thoughts:

Ambrose Akinmusire is a true artist whose work challenges the viewpoints and thoughts of the listener. As an improviser he remains fearless creating lines that grab attention, and with his quartet, he has a band that is so in tune with his aesthetic, that it's clear from the first note it can be no one but Akinmusire, his tone and ideas so distinctive. on the tender spot of each calloused moment is the most realized chapter to date in the trumpeter's discography from his political and societal stance, to the group interplay and impassioned improvisation.

Music: 9/10

Sound: 8/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion Laptop

Focal Chorus 716 Floor Standing Speakers

Schiit Modius DAC

Musicbee (for WAV file playback)

youtube

#ambrose akinmusire #jazz trumpet #Blue Note records

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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John Scofield: Swallow Tales (ECM, 2020)

John Scofield: guitar; Bill Stewart: drums; Steve Swallow: bass guitar.

Steve Swallow, since the sixties has been one of the biggest innovators in the realm of the bass guitar in jazz. In the quite narrow, problematic way the music has captured it's history using linear narrative, the lineage of electric bass in jazz would place early pioneer and brother of Wes, Monk Montgomery first, then Steve Swallow, then Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Richard Bona and so on. Swallow's contributions are so much bigger than what this linear narrative indicates. He brought a lithe, agile phrasing to the bass guitar, more like a regular guitar, that freed it up from the plunking rhythmic role the instrument had previously in the music, and in pop and R&B to that time. His composition “Falling Grace” has been a manifesto for legions of musicians, as it provided just a new approach to playing, and his compositions have provided so many musicians with interesting meat on the bone for improvising. John Scofield, who makes his ECM leader debut with Swallow Tales revisits some of the bassist's best loved compositions with Swallow himself, and one of Sco's favorite musical companions, drummer Bill Stewart.

The guitarist who initially appeared on ECM in 1985 as part of Marc Johnson's group Bass Desires, had been thoroughly acquainted with Swallow's compositions from the time he first played with the bassist as a 20 year old Berklee student. The trio of Scofield/Swallow/Stewart have been old friends and musical compatriots for decades. Their union is so flawless that it makes many of these Swallow tunes that are quite challenging (from the guitarist's admission) absolutely a blast to listen to. Stewart, in particular, because Scofield has such a rhythmic style, the drummer's trademark methods of oblique time keeping are the perfect match, and throughout Swallow is there on bass guitar every step of the way. His “She Was Young”, sung originally with Sheila Jordan's lyrics and appeared on Home (ECM, 1979) is a tender melody that the guitar states with no pretenses before getting down to improvising in a comfortable waltz time under Stewart's floating brushwork. He uses the melody as a gentle push to spin variations in his solo, etching gently swinging lines, elegant trills, full throated chords, and octaves with the drummer picking the right moments to punctuate behind him and goad Scofield ecstatically. Swallow's solo cuts right to the core of the track with no excess, framing with melodic signposts, as if the bass is the role of the girl in the song, brimming with innocence. After the brief melody rundown, Scofield and company really soar on the coda, as the guitarist dips a bit more into a bluesy bag, double timing and the mood getting more intense as Stewart switches to sticks, unfurling swiss triplets, the guitarist once more referencing the theme.

“Falling Grace”, “Portsmouth Figurations”, and “Eiderdown” are significant for the fact all three tunes were featured in vibraphonist Gary Burton's book, of which the guitarist, like many of his generation was profoundly effected by in terms of innovation. “Falling Grace” is a piece that defined the straight eighth rhythmic feel in jazz, and the trio dives into the now standard tune with absolute confidence. Stewart handles the straight eighth feeling in the half swung way that became a hallmark of the ECM aesthetiv, and dismounts into a full blown swing for the guitar solo. Scofield jabs, hooks, and weaves in and out like a boxer in reaction to the drummer's busy, provocative comping. Again, Steve Swallow in his bass solo gets right to the heart, wasting nothing. On the knotty, angular “Portsmouth Figurations” which appeared on Burton's seminal Duster (RCA, 1967) Scofield is so free during his solo that he even plays a couple reverse guitar lines, tongue in cheek, the backing from Swallow and Stewart is so comfortable and in the pocket, also the case on the humorously titled “Awful Coffee” an uptempo tune that Scofield slowed down here to an easy going Sunday stroll, one can almost imagine Miles Davis' First Great Quintet with John Coltrane playing this tune. The four bar trades with Stewart are especially exciting. “Eiderdown”, Swallow's first tune ever written is rendered in a blazing rendition. Scofield cooks with reckless abandon, especially following the drum solo. The lyrical “Hullo Bolinas” slows things down a bit and features a gorgeous Swallow solo. “In F” takes harmony from what sounds like “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and the burners are on once again until the closing “Radio”, Scofield handles the challenging harmony, gliding on it with aplomb.

Sound:

Recorded at the James L. Dolan Recording Studio at NY, by Tyler McDarmid in March of 2019 Swallow Tales sounds marvelous. Scofield's tart tone mainly positioned center right of the sound stage takes full advantage of the Focal Chorus 716's midrange. There's pleasing weighty heft to Scofield's tone where his signature grunge and grit really show up on the “She Was Young” coda especially. There's a subtle hint of reverb on the guitar that floats towards the left center that almost ssounds like reverb from the guitar amp itself. Still, there's a bit of upper sweetness that is an ECM signature that adds an additional layer in a mostly mid heavy recording. Bill Stewart's K Zildjian cymbals come through with their dark hues, ride mainly in the center right with toms center right and center, with high hat center left. There's a satisfying realism to the drums here, mainly dry, but with a touch of reverb and Stewart's cross sticked rim shots have a satisfying woody chop from the stick hitting metal. Swallow's bass is clean, and accurate, never getting in the way of the bass drum, which naturally, and recording wise, equalization can create.

Final thoughts:

John Scofield, Steve Swallow, and Bill Stewart are simply one of the finest guitar trios around, and the most impressive aspect of Swallow Tales is the rapport that they've built up over so many years. The recording is really like being a fly on the wall, hearing an intimate conversation between friends, because their trust and harmony as a unit is so strong the choice collection of 9 complex Swallow originals comes of as effortless. Swallow's participation on this and wife Carla Bley's excellent recent Life Goes On (the subject of an upcoming review on this blog) demonstrate that not only is he one of jazz's greatest bass guitar exponents, but that his playing and cleverness of tune structure prove incredibly inspiring. In a perilous time in civilization, Swallow Tales is an album showing absolute beauty and hope for the world.

Music rating: 10/10

Sound rating: 10/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers

Software:

Windows Media Player (for digital file AIFF playback)

Note: Jazz Views with CJ Shearn will now have a more detailed sound category offering audiophile insight into recordings as part of review thanks to upgraded equipment.

Key terms:

Sound stage: The audio depiction of the placement of instruments, as if one were to go see a play and see the position of the actors/actresses on stage, when a listener closes their eyes, they can see and hear the placement of the players and instruments. The term stereo image can also be applied.

Stereo imaging refers to the aspect of sound recording and reproduction of stereophonic sound concerning the perceived spatial locations of the sound source(s), both laterally and in depth. (source for stereo image definition: wikipedia)

youtube

#john scofield #steve swallow #bass guitar #bill stewart #jazz guitar #ECM Records

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Connie Han: Iron Starlet (Mack Avenue, 2020)

Connie Han: piano & Fender Rhodes; Ivan Taylor: bass; Bill Wysaske: drums; Walter Smith III: tenor saxophone, Jeremy Pelt: trumpet.

When 23 year old pianist Connie Han released Crime Zone, her Mack Avenue debut in 2018 it caused quite a sensation. For starters, she used the influences of Kenny Kirkland and Mulgrew Miller along with those of McCoy Tyner, Hank Jones and others to put her spin on the post bop music that young musicians made following the arrival of Wynton Marsalis. Now, with her sophomore Mack Avenue release Iron Starlet Han shows growth from Crime Zone and also plenty of potential with expansions into other directions. Here she mixes even more refined examples in the burnout style heard previously; head bobbing swing, expressive ballads. She uses her working trio, bassist Ivan Taylor and drummer/producer/composer Bill Wysaske, augmented by Walter Smith III (returning from the previous album) and Jeremy Pelt on trumpet on select tracks in full quintet and quartet formations.

What in part and parcel makes this music successful and enjoyable is that it is road tested. Han and Wysaske did not just bring in the charts for some of this very difficult music for a first time studio run down-- they played much of the material on the road, including a stop at New York's Jazz Standard last summer. The other common denominator is the Wynton, Branford, Terence Blanchard, Kenny Garrett, Kenny Kirkland and Jeff “Tain” Watts stream of playing the new compositions take their cue from and expand on. It's all music that Pelt, and Smith III had also grown up on so it's a natural fit. For musicians in their 30's and 40's, it's nearly impossible to not be influenced by albums the above named players made that boldly through their own lens blended the kind of energy found on the best jazz-rock and jazz-funk records, the defining Blue Note albums of the 60's, and some of the pivotal albums from John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders.

Han's interest in insistent rhythm and locking into a stone groove with Taylor and Wysaske announces the title track with powerful conviction. The knotty theme has the striking use of piano and bass unison like that of “Southern Rebellion” on Crime Zone with abrupt thematic passages for Pelt's trumpet and winding unisons for Pelt and the pianist. For Pelt's bravura solo, staccato eighth note jabs and legato tones incite Han's comping figures, prompting eruptions from Wysaske's drums. Han's solo is brash, rhythmic acuity a defining feature; Taylor locked in his walk, Wysaske's short high hat chokes on the upbeat and swiss triplet figures in groups of five stoking the flames even more. If the first four minutes of the album are a thrilling joy ride on the Audobon, then Wysaske's attractive “Nova”, the first tune to feature Han on Fender Rhodes electric piano shows how adept the pianist is at switching moods. This is where the growth from Crime Zone really begins to shine through. Pelt and Smith III play Wysaske's pretty melody as if they are skaters on ice, Han's Rhodes solo is filled with a warm glow, keen sense of space, and blues undercurrent. Her playing on the coda under Wysaske's straight eighth ride brings about a feeling of melancholy letting the glowing “Nova” go.

“Mr. Dominator” a Hank Jones and Mulgrew Miller inspired lesson in hard swing, is distilled here to it's essence from the lengthy versions the trio played nightly. The pianist is sly, sultry and funky, freely using techniques of horn players in her improvisation ,while Wysaske sticks purely in service to the groove. Ivan Taylor gets his say with a Wilbur Ware and Jimmy Garrison depth of tone, and a brief economical drum solo bring things back the funky, memorable melody. “For the O.G.”, dedicated to the late McCoy Tyner conjures up some of the feeling of the pianist's defining 1970's Milestone albums. The pianist launches into the piece with determination, and her solo assimilates the innovations of Tyner wisely. Her use of the lick as a motivic device is dryly humorous, and her cadenza at the end demonstrates how much she loves and understands the Tyner style, but she uses the ground he broke to speak those lines in her own voice. Sandwiched between the head and the pianist's solo, Wysaske's drum solo has judicious use of toms as a thematic component.

Eugene McDaniels “Hello To the Wind” originally taped by vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson for his classic Now (Blue Note, 1970) and later reprised with the LA Philharmonic on the obscure Blue Note Meets The LA Philharmonic (Blue Note, 1977). McDaniels' lyrics and the entire Now album, in light of our divided social climate, and the general surge for change are as relevant in the present as they were then. Han's choice of chorused Rhodes and a Philip Glass like ostinato in the left hand, for the introduction with textures later thickened by acoustic piano add emotional weight to the piece. The deeply emotional current is further in her solo and Walter Smith III's tenor. Wysaske's tender ballad “Captain's Song” an ode to a French bulldog, has a gently floating feeling and Han digs deeply into color in her solo, much as she does on the drummer's gorgeous “The Forsaken”; making all the note choices count. Both “Boy Toy” and the closing homage to Wynton Marsalis' Black Codes From the Underground (Columbia, 1985) “Dark Chambers” mine the treacherous burnout territory once more, with the closing track in particular a marvel of focused intensity, and the rhythmic urgency found on the Marsalis recording. Han takes zero prisoners in her solo, using motivic development to smart effect. Smith III, and Pelt go full steam ahead as well for a wonderful conclusion to an engaging collection.

Sound:

Recorded at Sear Sound in New York City over two days in August, 2019 recorded and mastered by Chris Allen, and mixed by Patrick L. Smith at Dennis Songs Studio in Los Angeles Iron Starlet is a significant upgrade in sound from Crime Zone. Well done acoustic jazz recordings have a particular matter of fact quality to them that Iron Starlet definitely has in that the instrument tonalities are natural and realistic, the relatively dry sound stage bear this out. Han's piano shines on Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers, where it's midrange is one of it's strongest assets, and the stereo image of the piano is accurate to what is heard in real life. The Fender Rhodes tones are particularly fat and luxurious, the Chorus 716's again excelling at mid range. The upper end of Han's Rhodes work makes subtle use of Focal's patented inverted tweeter technology. The high end of her Rhodes silky and smooth, with the way the instrument is recorded there is an pleasing bell like ping in the upper notes, reminiscent of Bob James' signature Rhodes timbre on his classic work. Walter Smith III's warm tenor tone is captured attractively and Jeremy Pelt's rounded tone comes through without issue. Ivan Taylor's bass tones in the phantom center channel are rendered accurately on the Chorus 716's where some speakers may have difficulty with tones that deep. Finally Bill Wysaske's drums have the snare in the center image with ride cymbal on the right of center, high hat on far left, with splash and crash in the far left and right and tom drums far left and right. The snare has resonance but is contrasted with a weird hybrid Tony Williams 70's type sound with a more deadened one for the toms. As Wysaske is a lover of Steely Dan, this kind of tom sound is no surprise, but at first the subtle resonant-dead sound can take a minute to get used to. The deadened tom sound did appear on acoustic jazz albums in the 70's like Frank Butler's The Stepper (Xanadu, 1978) so it wasn't uncommon then, but album's like Butler's often had strange mixes, as did a lot of acoustic jazz of the period.

Final thoughts:

With Iron Starlet, Connie Han has truly arrived. This is very much a project of continued growth in an artist's journey. The assured ness that informs a very specific area of the jazz universe is heard through each one of her compositions, those of Wysaske's, and the lone standard “Detour Ahead” . Han is a driven and unshakably confident soloist always ready to burn, but she also exhibits a level of restraint and sensitivity that further drives home her passion. She has a trio that makes challenging music quite accessible, and with the added gusto of Walter Smith, III and Jeremy Pelt, the ensemble delivers on a high level the very visceral music that helped shape and establish many musicians who came in it's wake. Iron Starlet also points to Han's further potential, perhaps a double live album to cap off the music presented thus far on her Mack Avenue releases, an album with Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Jeff “Tain” Watts, or even an album expanding on the cyberpunk themes the pianist loves with her ethos at the core, enhanced by more Rhodes, keyboards and funky rhythms in addition to searing swing. The sky is the limit for Connie Han.

Music: 9/10

Sound: 9/10

Equipment used:

Yamaha RS202 stereo receiver

Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers

CD playback: 80GB Sony Playstation 3

Note: Jazz Views with CJ Shearn will now have a more detailed sound category offering audiophile insight into recordings as part of review thanks to upgraded equipment.

Key terms:

youtube

#Connie Han #jazz #young lions #wynton marsalis #branford marsalis #kenny kirkland #mulgrew miller #fender rhodes #bob james

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Avishai Cohen: Big Vicious (ECM, 2020)

Note: Jazz Views with CJ Shearn will now have a more detailed sound category offering audiophile insight into recordings as part of review thanks to upgraded equipment.

Key terms:

Avishai Cohen: trumpet, effects, synthesizer; Uzi Ramirez: guitar; Jonathan Albalak: guitar; bass; Aviv Cohen: drums; Ziv Ravitz: drums, live sampling.

Jazz, over the past three decades especially has become a global language. The music by it's very nature is inclusive, taking on elements from all over the world, while maintaining it's core identity. Yet despite this statement, a debate still rages on about what jazz is, for some it may be Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the acoustic period of Miles Davis. While Miles Davis' electric music, Weather Report, Return to Forever, Bill Frisell, John Abercrombie, John McLaughlin and Pat Metheny among others were all artists that brought something inherently fresh to the table. All these artists were rooted in jazz tradition but not hemmed in. Since Wynton Marsalis arrived on the jazz scene in the late 1970's, and after garnering a major label deal with Columbia in 1981, continuing on to his becoming director of the newly founded Jazz At Lincoln Center in 1987, the age old debates of what jazz is flared up. These debates always existed but began to intensify when record labels, who had been on the cutting edge of recording jazz-funk, jazz-rock and other needlessly coined permutations, suddenly sharply focused on acoustic straight ahead jazz. The music was made by young, primarily African American musicians, and like earlier decades, statements on who they were as players, and their place in society. Many of the musicians from that specific time period of the 80's-90's have had a strong impact on current jazz, and a lot of the musicians who are major figures, like Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Jeff “Tain” Watts, the late Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton and Joshua Redman have been influences on the generations of 20 and 30 somethings who are on the front lines.

Israeli born trumpeter Avishai Cohen is just one of many musicians, who have been influenced by this so called “young lion” period, but has distinctly, like fellow Israeli ECM labelmates Oded Tzur, Anat Fort and Shai Maestro brought forth influences from that country's music but also music across genres that were inspiring. This is the name of the game in jazz now, musicians bringing forth what inspired them, whether it be Nirvana, Radiohead, Boards of Canada, Wu Tang Clan or anything they grew up with.

For the fourth album bearing his name for ECM, Cohen debuts an exciting new quintet project Big Vicious. The quintet, made up of the leader on trumpet, effects and synthesizer, guitarist Uzi Ramirez, guitarist and bassist Jonathan Albalak, and the double drum tandem of Aviv Cohen and Ziv Ravitz on drums and live sampling, an all Israeli group bring a powerful and potent combination... acoustic and electric hybrid music with slamming grooves, textures reaching the cosmos and some tight rope walking improvisation that is a very distinct and personal blend. The group had been playing much of the music on the road for sometime, playing the originals here and covers such as Massive Attack's trip hop classic “Teardrop” part of a stream of music which all had grown up on. The mix of jazz and electronic proclivities is a result of all their collective experience and was tightened in the studio at producer Manfred Eicher's suggestion which distilled the music to it’s essence considerably. Each player in the group brings their experiences of jazz and elsewhere, and the notion of soloing is less important than overall feeling and textures. This practice governed much of Weather Report’s early work as well, but it is only a surface resemblance in this new collection.

Aviv Cohen's fat, thudding kick, and deep, thunderous dead snare set the tone for the sing songy “Honey Fountain” of which the trumpeter's bright tone make the most of. Albalak and Ramirez' guitars and bass are an important component, and Cohen's groove are important because, a variation of the same groove is also found on the penultimate “Teno Neno”. The track is like an movie introduction. “Hidden Chamber” introduces much darker sonic tapestries including a weird, altered pitch underpinning with fuzzy harmonics, somewhat reminiscent of the T-1000 sound effects from Terminator 2. Ravitz's more jazz centric approach tease at some burning swing as things build to a sparkling climax, drummer Cohen more in the pocket over Ravitz' implied swing. The spoken word samples of Einstein and Wayne Shorter are a nice touch as they suggest the infinite nature of space. “King Kutner” is a joyous anthemic blast, Guitar and synth together combine like lovely shining stars.

Three pieces in particular serve as album centerpieces. The group's treatment of “Moonlight Sonata” is breathtaking with Cohen's almost bucolic melodic treatment, the guitars, and electronics stroke bold dark colors on a beautiful canvas. The trumpeter uses the melodic contours for wonderful dynamic exploration, with dark, scratchy guitar again suggesting the beauty of the cosmos. Cohen's trumpet and subtle ad libs are almost operatic in nature, bright like the stars on this wonderful moonlight night. “Fractals” is dark and foreboding, with usage of Israeli scales. The strange, bubbling electronic world at times recalls Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi at their abstract best on the pivotal Crossings (Warner Brothers, 1972). The lengthy treatment of Massive Attack's classic trip hop opus of love and obsession “Teardrop” (also recently covered by Thana Alexa) allows Big Vicious to really stretch in a vast atmosphere. Ravitz' treatment of the iconic beat, gets additional assistance from Aviv Cohen and through improvisation, reversed sounds and distorted, delayed trumpet explore the psychological aspect of obsession and longing. The trumpeter cries out almost in anguish. Whereas Alexa's version faithfully captures the tale of sensuality and obsession, Cohen really plumes the psychological aspect and in his solo really flies in the upper register. “The Cow and The Calf” ends things on a note as cinematic as the album began, Cohen's trumpet states the reflective melody, then contrasts in the bridge section with a quasi boogaloo feel reminiscent of 60's Blue Note classics.

Sound:

Big Vicious' debut is filled with a ton of sonic ear candy and a huge sound stage. The drums of Aviv Cohen and Ziv Ravitz take up the far left, center left, right center and far right of the stereo image. The drums have a real deep percussive snap to them with Cohen often employing effect laden snares with tambourines on the drum heads, and other devices to simulate electronic drums acoustically, much in the domain of Mark Giuliana, Chris Dave, Antonio Sanchez and Eric Harland. There is also a satisfying dead drum sound here recalling that of classic 70's groups like that of The Eagles, or the Alan Parsons Project. A few cool moments appear on “Teardrop” with Ravitz' rim shots trailing off into reverb in the invisible center and stick drags from snare in the left channel translate to reverbed snare hits from Ravitz in the center channel. Odd, at times sinister synthesizers, guitars and effects are present throughout various areas of the sound stage, and Avishai Cohen's trumpet is brilliantly clear and realistic despite both subtle and heavier uses of effects. Manfred Eicher's production with a firm grip of contemporary trends results in a dynamically exciting recording that leaps from the Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers with accurately rendered tones.

Final thoughts:

Avishai Cohen with the debut of exciting new band, his golden, singing beautiful trumpet, and a wealth of collective musical experience is what makes Big Vicious a joy to listen to, start to finish. Cohen is a diverse musician that with his fourth ECM recording taps into yet another wellspring for different ideas. With relatively brief catchy tunes, blending the acoustic and electronic, with the current woes of contemporary society in a post COVID-19 world, this is the kind of recording that will appeal to traditionally non jazz listeners, and for some perhaps be a catalyst to dive into the enchanting back catalog of ECM records.

Music rating: 9.5/10

Sound rating: 9.5/10

Equipment used:

HP Pavilion laptop

Yamaha RS 202 stereo receiver

Musicbee library (for digital file playback)

Sony Playstation 3 (for CD playback)

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#trumpet #avishai cohen #massive attack #trip hop #idm #edm #jazz #ECM Records

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jazzviewswithcjshearn · 5 years ago

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Wolfgang Muthspiel: Angular Blues (ECM, 2020)

Wolfgang Muthspiel: guitar; Scott Colley: double-bass; Brian Blade: drums.

Vienna based Wolfgang Muthspiel, a strikingly inventive and original guitarist returns with Angular Blues following 2018's excellent quintet offering, Where The River Goes featuring Ambrose Akinmusire, Brad Mehldau, and Larry Grenadier. For the new trio disc Brian Blade, a long time collaborator of the guitarist returns to the drum chair (having been replaced by Eric Harland on the previous recording). The group is filled out by the first call, excellent Los Angeles bred but New York based double bass of Scott Colley. Over seven Muthspiel originals and two fresh looks at standards the trio is uncompromising in their fearless approach to improvising and texture.

Muthspiel possesses a wondrous sound on nylon string acoustic guitar, and inviting silvery smooth electric tone that makes the combination of Colley and Blade ideal for his rich compositional sense and improvisational fervor. Colley and Blade are so free as supporting partners that their collective experience of being in bands as diverse as those of Jim Hall, Joni Mitchell, Wayne Shorter and Michael Brecker allow them to have a borderless approach to music that is as melodic as adventurous. Muthspiel's gently gliding eighth note based “Wondering” is the perfect example of how the trio operates. For the memorable melody, Colley comes to the fore, and spins carefully considered thematic variations. His deep woody tone definitely possesses shades of his mentor the late, great Charlie Haden. Muthspiel enters for his own gliding solo over Blade's gently shimmering cymbal, and signature unpredictable snare and bass drum accents, making use of a triplet figure that serves as a motif in his solo. The title track is a tongue in cheek look at the blues with the guitarist again flying over Blade's drums. “Hutengriffe” is a beautiful slice of melancholic Americana, and the last track to feature the guitarist's nylon string. Muthspiel conjures the type of mood that Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny are so expert at creating, and with the tune's subtle blues hues, particularly with Blade's folky back beat the piece carries a “Travels” like vibe. The trio, who had recently played a three night run at Tokyo's Cotton Club lights fire on the original “Ride”. Blade's half time brush work sets the pace for some cooking from Muthspiel and Colley, the guitarist particularly Bill Evans like once the drummer propels forward into searing 4/4 swing. The method here is very reminiscent of the Keith Jarrett Trio in the playfulness of the form.

It is however, Muthspiel's two Kanon based pieces that are the most stunning in this collection. “Kanon in 6/8” uses the classic African bembe rhythm as a launch for Muthspiel's delay filled counterpoint theme, his lines achieving a parallel vertical symmetry. As a smart use of tone color, he uses a pedal to sustain for a drone, and cranks on some distortion for heightened intensity. On the solo “Kanon in 5/4” the guitarist's overlapping use of delay once more creates some fascinating parallel symmetry. The album closes with the trio's off the beaten path spirited rendition of “I'll Remember April” to end a satisfying session.

Sound

Recorded in Tokyo during 2018 at Studio Dede, the album sounds quite rich. Over Focal Chorus 716 floor standing speakers, Muthspiel's acoustic tone blossoms out of the center right section of the soundstage with incredibly detailed midrange. Scott Colley positioned center left, is appropriately deep, and rich, the speakers with their 2.5 way bass woofer and bass reflex port handling the bass, as well as Brian Blade's resonant open bass drum beautifully. The guitarist's electric tone with it's upper mid range shines, with delay and reverb trailing off into the center part of the sound stage. Blade's cymbals, with their dry, smoky timbre are positioned to the left and right of the sound stage, with the ride left of center. His snare has a realistic thwack as do the toms. The recording overall is very mid centered, but quite gorgeous.

Closing Thoughts

Angular Blues is yet another in a delightful string of recordings from Wolfgang Muthspiel. The fact it was recorded right after a run of three gigs ensures that it isn't just a recording with an all star group thrown in, with a let's see what happens type approach. The music is carefully crafted and shows why Muthspiel has been one of the best guitarists on the scene for a long time, his wonderful improvisatory ingenuity is a huge asset and being paired with Scott Colley's assured bass and Brian Blade's innate creativity, make an album worth returning to time and again.

Music rating: 9/10

Sound rating: 9/10

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#wolfgang muthspiel #scott colley #brian blade #Jazz Guitar #ECM Records

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