Archive for March 2010
Wynton Marsalis: Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. 1 (1986 – SONY)
The first in a series, in which Marsalis re-investigates the jazz standards that many of his generation have, for one reason or another, rejected. The classic tunes that were part of the “songbooks” of all the great improvisers of the tradition–Charlie Parker, Art Blakey, Clark Terry, Max Roach–are here, and Marsalis and Co. carry on the tradition of making these tunes their own. He wails “Cherokee” while paying tribute to the style and influence of Dizzy Gillespie with a rapid-fire muted sound. “Goodbye” and “New Orleans” look to the sound of early-’60s Miles Davis.
Marcus Roberts is a joy to hear. His piano playing draws influence from Monk and Bill Evans, and he executes his carefully-chosen notes and phrases with perfect, no-excess flair. None of this comes off as imitation, but rather shows contemporary players continuing a great tradition. Marsalis uses this album to focus on, and pay tribute to, the standards and styles that formed the foundations for this superior American art form.
Stanley Crouch.
Robert Hurst (bass)
Recorded at RCA Studio A, New York, New York on May 29 & 30 and September 24 & 25, 1986.
Original Release Date: January 1, 1987 – Label: Sony
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Christian McBride: Kind of Brown (2009 – Mack Avenue Records)
Bassist/composer Christian McBride is one of the most in-demand sidemen in the music business, having toured and recorded with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Diana Krall and Sting. The Philadelphia-native has also made a name for himself as a daring leader, exploring both acoustic and electronic styles. For Kind of Brown, his premier date for the Detroit-based Mack Avenue Records, McBride introduces his new acoustic jazz quintet Inside Straight, featuring pianist Eric Scott Reed, saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, Jr. and drummer Carl Allen.
Joe Henderson: Page One (1963 – APO)
This 1963 session was Henderson’s debut as a leader, and it introduced a strikingly individualistic tenor saxophonist, with a distinctively muscular sound and approach, as well as a talent for finding a personal route through the dominant tenor styles of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. At the time of the session, Henderson worked regularly in a quintet with the veteran trumpeter Kenny Dorham, and the two enjoyed a special chemistry apparent on several Blue Note recordings under their individual names. One unusual facet is the hard-bop take on the then emerging bossa nova, apparent in the first recording of Dorham’s now standard “Blue Bossa,” on which Henderson’s thoughtful construction is apparent, and the saxophonist’s own coiling Latin tune, “Recorda Me.” Pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Pete LaRoca provide more than solid support for a date that’s as often reflective as it is forceful.
Stuart Broomer (Jazz Critic)
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on June 3, 1963. Originally released on Blue Note (84140). Includes liner notes by Kenny Dorham and Bob Blumenthal.
Original Release Date: June 3, 1963 – Label: APO
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Ravi Coltrane: Blending Times Savoy (2009 – Savoy Jazz)
Saxophonist Ravi Coltrane stands in the legacy of not one, but two great influences: his honored father, John Coltrane, one of the most influential musicians in jazz, and his mother, Alice Coltrane, a superb musician and spiritual guide whose untimely passing in January 17, 2007 left a void that will not be easily filled. Yet with a quiet demeanor contrasted by profound abilities, Ravi Coltrane delivers the long-awaited Blending Times.
This is his fifth release as a leader following 2005’s acclaimed In Flux (Savoy). It is even more dynamic due in part not only to Coltrane’s personal experiences, but also because of his excellent band that includes longtime members Luis Perdomo, a remarkable pianist, Drew Gress, a demonstrative in-demand bassist, and E.J. Strickland, a gifted drummer who is also the twin brother of saxophonist Marcus Strickland.
Coltrane’s tenor is more robust than ever—marked by quickness, stamina, and warmth—showing glimpses of true brilliance on “A Still Life” with inquisitive soloing that has equal amounts of power and gentleness. The appropriate titled “Shine” shows stylistic properties—deliberate, passionate, freely expressed within an enlightening melody where the solos are connected like links in a chain.
The music follows the band’s form: a gelatinous continuity conveyed in a mix of stirring contemporary music. Improvisational puzzles (“First Circuit” and “The Last Circuit”), some tricked funk syncopation in “Narcined,” a circuitous cat-and-mouse chase in “One Wheeler Will,” and swinging bopacity in Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy.” One of the many highlights is “Amalgams,” which moves from atmospheric lushness into a smoldering groove. It articulates an identifiable group sound with sparkling individualism that documents a strong performing unit.
As in his previous recordings, there lies a cerebral quality in the music that is undeniable. This reaches an apex on the recording’s final track with “For Turiya,” a superb ending featuring special guests, longtime friend/bassist Charlie Haden and harpist Brandee Younger.
Written by Haden, the composition begins with a simply beautiful harp solo by Younger which introduces the theme, followed by declarative statements from Haden and Coltrane. It conjures memories of classic recordings that featured both Alice Coltrane’s harp and John Coltrane’s saxophone with gracefulness and serenity.
Coltrane can’t deny his rich heritage and thankfully embraces it. But of equal import, he clearly has it within, to leave his own imprint, as witnessed on this superb release.
Mark F. Turner (All about Jazz)
Original Release Date: January 13, 2009 – Label: Savoy Jazz
Adam Rogers: Allegory (2003 – Criss Cross )
Jazz used to be a form of popular music, and indeed a folk music in its own right, before bebop intellectualized it and hard bop institutionalized it. That was a sad development in a way because the music drifted away from the public and ended up holed up in a tiny “art music” niche. When free jazz hit in the ’60s, there was no mistaking that jazz would never really go back.
Guitarist Adam Rogers is committed to making serious music for serious listeners. His debut, Art of the Invisible (Criss Cross, 2002), brought an already active sideman to the full attention of the jazz world, and the new quintet disc Allegory offers music of a similarly high caliber. Rogers is a traditionalist in every sense, whether it be in his playing, his group concept, or his compositions (all originals here), but the state of the jazz tradition is an advanced one indeed at this point. Modern jazz, as a category or just a plain description, works as good as any when it comes to describing Allegory.
Rogers paces his compositions. “Genghis” works through arranged melodic phrases (mostly consisting of his instrument placed carefully alongside Chris Potter’s tenor sax), loose reunions (more flexible and open), and explicit soloing (Rogers swinging bumpily along, almost funky but not quite there). He makes a conscious use of different meters: three, four, five, six, and seven are all featured on the record, sometimes in the same piece. The band sticks together through the changes, hiding them away and maintaining forward motion. “Orpheus” goes from six to seven and back, taking advantage of Rogers’ switch to nylon to reinforce a pensive mood before the piece shifts to a higher gear.
Other than Rogers, the most forward voices on this record belong to saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Scott Colley. Potter is responsible for most of the edgy feel when the music turns energetic, and Colley has a way of judiciously placing notes into various situations in order to round out harmonies and anchor the music.
The very same seriousness that gives Allegory its heft ironically subtracts from its effectiveness. Melodies are so focused that they rarely stick in your mind, the various changes in the music are abstract beyond ready comprehension, and the playing is so under control that it never really flies free. (Chris Potter provides just about all of the exceptions.)
I guess Adam Rogers has become too sophisticated for his own good. He’s obviously talented in just about every respect, but I just wish he would loosen up and get a little closer to the real roots of the music, a place where regular people can pick up the message without putting on a heavy thinking cap and listening over and over again. Could just be me…
Nils Jacobson (All About Jazz)
1. Confluence
2. Phrygia
3. Was
4. Genghis;
5. Angle of Repose;
6. Orpheus;
7. Red Leaves;
8. Cleveland;
9. Purpose;
10. Angle of Repose –
11. Reprise.
Personnel:
Adam Rogers (guitar)
Chris Potter: (tenor saxophone)
Edward Simon: (piano)
Scott Colley: (bass)
Clarence Penn: (drums)
Original Release Date: September 23, 2003 – Label: Criss Cross
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Alex Sipiagin: Out of the Circle (2008 – Sunny Side)
Out of the Circle by trumpeter/flugelhornist, Alex “Sasha” Sipiagin, provides modern jazz that is evenly vitalizing and cerebral. The recording’s smooth style matches the lush sound of its leader’s horns. But this is by no means tepid music, especially with some resourceful charts and stellar contributions from saxophonist Donny McCaslin, trombonist Robin Eubanks, guitarist Adam Rogers, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Antonio Sanchez, among others.
With a number of recordings under the Criss Cross label, Russian-born Sipiagin is a proven leader with a crafted voice that has contributed to the recordings of the Mingus Big Band, Dave Holland Big Band, saxophonist Michael Brecker and others.
Out Of The Circle, is an extension of Sipiagin’s ideas of “exploring musical freedoms” on the 2007 Criss Cross recording Prints, with exquisitely detailed arrangements and instruments additions with the inclusion of accordionist Gil Goldstein, keyboardist Henry Hey and percussionist Daniel Sadownick.
Sipiagin’s association with bassist Dave Holland is reflected in many of the pieces, which could have easily been penned for a larger ensemble. The flourishing and robust horns on “Wind Dance,” open paths to ardent solos, interconnected movements, on the title track and throughout; all evince Sipiagin’s effectiveness as a performer and writer.
“Syn” is a fine example of these stylistic approaches. With a beautiful intro acoustic guitar solo by Rogers, it also contains an elaborate, almost chamber-esque horn arrangement, Goldstein’s accordion touches, and round of excellent solos, including one from Sadownick. This is creative music at its best.
Another striking chord is found on “Flash,” which contains an extended bass solo by Colley, followed by Sipiagin’s rich flugelhorn, an animated dialogue between Eubanks’ ‘bone and McCaslin’s tenor sax, and rhythmic accents from Sadownick and Sanchez.
The inclusion of Sipiagin’s wife, singer Monday Michiru, on two selections is also consistent with the set; smart lyrics that flow nicely with the instruments. The closing piece “Sketches Of Myself” combines her sensuous vocals in an arrangement that is very hip and thought provoking.
If you’ve had little exposure to Sipiagin’s past music, Out of the Circle is a real discovery. For those who are familiar with his body of work, there’s plenty to enjoy on this memorable release.
Mark F. Turner (All About Jazz)
1. Wind Dance
2. Afternoon Dreams(With Monday Michiru)
3. Echoes Of Thought
4. Out Of The Circle
5. Flash
6. Syn
7. Sketches Of Myself(With Monday Michiru)
Personnel:
Alex Sipiagin (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, bass trumpet, flugelhorn)
Monday Michiru (vocals)
Adam Rogers (guitar)
Donny McCaslin (flute, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone)
Gil Goldstein (accordion)
Robin Eubanks (trombone)
Henry Hey (keyboards);
Scott Colley (bass guitar)
Antonio Sanchéz (drums);
Daniel Sadownick (percussion)
Original Release Date: March 4, 2008 – Label: Sunny Side Records
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Jim Rotondi: Blues for Brother Ray (2009 – Posi-tone)
Veteran trumpeter Jim Rotondi has been a fixture in the New York jazz scene for more than two decades. His clear, bold sound and polished soloing have been on display in such diverse groups as Lionel Hampton’s and Bob Mintzer’s big bands, as well as the powerhouse sextet, One For All, of which he is a co-founder. His most recent release, Blues for Brother Ray (Posi-Tone) celebrates the work of his early musical mentor and former boss, Ray Charles.
For jazz fans familiar with Rotondi’s playing, this album may surprise with its relaxed feel. The name of the game here is simplicity. Tracks such as “One Mont Julep” and “Lonely Avenue” deliver simple blues heads in unison, backed by sparse and repetitive accompaniment. Looking at the track listing, full of songs from Charles’ repertoire, this should not be surprising. Rather than viewing this album strictly as a jazz recording, it may best be seen as a jazz instrumental interpretation of soul and blues.
As such, this album is a success. Heads are delivered tastefully, and do not stray far from the feel of the originals with the exception of Rotondi’s fiery arrangement of “Georgia On My Mind,” taken at a tempo more akin to that of the fast-paced jazz standard “Sweet Georgia Brown.” The rhythm section offers disciplined accompaniment; Peter Bernstein’s guitar and Mike LeDonne’s organ never step on each other’s toes, and Joe Farnsworth’s drumming has an optimistic bounce.
The simple forms of this album’s music might allow for a lot of freedom in soloing, but their straightforwardness also demands restraint when it comes to harmonic experimentation. Navigating this line beautifully is Mike LeDonne, whose organ solos chirp, growl, and scream in exciting waves of inspiration, though never sounding unconvincing in the songs’ context. This is especially the case with his solo on “Makin’ Whoppee,” a virtuosic romp.
Eric Alexander’s saxophone style is best featured on “Cry Me A River,” perhaps because of the agitated modal swing context – his aggressive style sounds a bit impatient on simpler tunes such as “What’d I Say.” Rotondi is solid throughout, his tone full of belly and especially reminiscent of Freddie Hubbard. His soloing unfolds convincingly, blending bebop and blues language into cohesive statements.
A highly accessible album, I would recommend Blues for Brother Ray to jazz fans and casual listeners alike. If you were ever unsatisfied with the role of horns on Charles’ own albums, this recording gives you a chance to hear skilled improvisation over some of his charts by five quality instrumentalists.
Jacob Teichroew (About.com Guide to Jazz)
Danilo Perez: …Till Then (2003 – Universal/Verve)
Interpretations of intent—always confounding—become both particularly difficult and intriguing with works of artistic expression as simultaneously precise, pleasurable, and subtly constructed as …Till Then. Intense musical innovations often stem from the simplest, most confined of experiments, rather than an intellectually driven perspective. The kind of artistic directedness found on …Till Then often creates a finished product either too forced to be aesthetically satisfying or too aesthetically driven to be convincing. Avoiding both these pitfalls, Danilo Perez has shaped a work of rare tonal consistency that quite astutely maintains a focused intellectual agenda while providing a moving, seamlessly natural experience.
In may ways, Perez’s current release is the fulfillment of the experiment begun with the earlier Panamonk, which unabashedly combined Monk’s rhythmic and compositional legacy with so-called Latin jazz. By expanding on his previous work, Perez has debunked many preconceptions regarding Latin jazz’s possibilities. In fact, Perez’s experiment has been so successful as to virtually erase the lines of division previously relegating Latin music to a separate, second class citizen of jazz.
The artist’s innovations indicate that jazz and Latin jazz should be seen as one continuum. After all, Spanish, African, Caribbean, and other Latin inflections have existed within the jazz idiom from its earliest origins, and have year after year been tremendously influential on its further development. With pieces such as the steel pan-colored “Gracias a la Vida,” the sumptuous ballad “Vera Cruz,” and his own “Improvisations in Red,” Perez states quite clearly that though Latin elements can be isolated and expanded, they can also be completely integrated into the jazz sphere. Or perhaps the other way around. Jazz elements can be completely integrated into Latin structures.
Such a musical statement would be significant enough, but in many ways this is only the formal background upon which Perez founds this album. If the formal concept indeed relies on synthesis and integration of stylistic elements, then the album as a whole represents a call for integration of a higher order, namely an integration of peoples, governments, and philosophic stances.
How else to explain the all-too timely inclusion of Joni Mitchell’s classic protest song, “Fiddle and the Drum,” the lyric of which quite dramatically raises concerns about America’s international actions and responsibility? Further, the overall sedate, more refined, and lamenting feel of the album suggests contemplation and introspection instead of the more energetic and vibrant material displayed on some of Perez’s previous material. This is not, however, the personal lament of an inward turning individual, but the iron-shod lament of emotional, political, and philosophic engagement.
In the end, under the influence of Perez’s arrangements and instrumental skill, musicians John Pattituci (bass), Brian Blade (drums), Ben Street (bass), Adam Cruz (drums), Donny McCaslin (soprano saxophone) and Liz Wright (vocals) all contribute excellent performances to the balanced and unusually concise nature of the album. The result is an intriguing, powerfully evocative outing which raises pertinent questions regarding cultural hegemony, isolationism, and the potential of music, in this case quite literally at times, to not only vocalize these concerns, but transcend them.
Franz A. Matzner (All About Jazz)
1. Native Soul
2. Gracias a la Vida
3. …Till Then
4. Overjoyed
5. Trocando em Miudos
6. Improvisation on Red
7. Paula C
8. Rabo de Nube
9. Fiddle and the Drum
10. Vera Cruz
Personnel:
Danilo Perez: (Piano,Fender Rhodes Piano)
Lizz Wright: (Vocals) (3,9)
Donny McCaslin: (Soprano Saxophone) (5,10)
Ben Street: (Bass) (1,4,7,8)
John Patitucci: (Bass)
Adam Cruz: (Drums,Steel Drums,Percussion) (1,4,7,8)
Brian Blade: (Drums) (2,3,5,10)
Original Release Date: August 4, 2003 – Label: Universal/Verve
Jim Hall – Live! (1975 – Verve)
Jim Hall is our greatest living jazz guitarist, and probably one of our greatest jazz musicians, regardless of instrument, to boot. So why, despite being widely acclaimed by jazz aficionados, is he not exactly a household name? It probably has to do with his innately self-effacing demeanor, both on and off the bandstand. Beginning in the late 50’s and continuing on through the 60’s, Hall worked as a sideman, albeit one who was often essentially a “co-leader”, with Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Desmond, Art Farmer, and Sonny Rollins, among others. Even when he began making records more frequently under his own name, he tended to make quiet, intricate, and lovely music as an equal half of a duet: with Bill Evans, Ron Carter, and others. There are relatively few vintage records featuring Hall soloing at length as a leader of a group.
This is why another excellent reissue in the Verve Lp reproduction series, Jim Hall Live!, is so welcome. The music is taken from a series of 1975 club dates at Bourbon Street in Toronto, and features Hall in a trio with Canadians Don Thompson and Terry Clarke, with whom Desmond also made some great Bourbon Street recordings. The three obviously hit it off famously, and it is a pleasure to hear Hall let it rip on these five standards. The group is swinging and appealingly loose, going for broke so much that they get a little confused at the end of “Scrapple From the Apple” and humorously grasp for an ending to “The Way You Look Tonight”.
Although bassist Thompson (who also made the clear and lifelike recording—what did he do, push the faders with his toes?) takes some nice solos (check out the quote of “One Note Samba” in “Angel Eyes”), this is Hall’s show, and he doesn’t disappoint. He combines beautiful single-note phrases with his trademark chordal runs to weave a tapestry of continual invention on a long “Angel Eyes”, caresses the many harmonic possibilities of “‘Round Midnight”, and boppishly burns his way through “Scrapple”. “I Hear a Rhapsody”, taken at a sprightly pace, features some excellent counterpoint soloing by Hall and Thompson. Drummer Clarke provides tasteful, but unobtrusive contributions throughout.
For fans of Hall familiar only with his more mannered playing, this freewheeling live date will be a welcome revelation.
Joshua Weiner (All About Jazz)
1 Angel Eyes
2 Round Midnight
3 Scrapple from the Apple
4 The Way You Look Tonight
5 I Hear a Rhapsody
Personnel:
Jim Hall (guitar)
Don Thompson (bass)
Terry Clarke (drums)
Original Release Date: 1975 – Label: Verve
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Geri Allen: Maroons (1992 – Blue Note)
Geri Allen’s star had fully risen by 1992 with the release of this potpourri of tracks reflecting various aspects of her recording career and peeking at the future. Detroit mentor Marcus Belgrave appears on two tracks, while trumpeter and husband Wallace Roney is on the remainder of the ensemble selections — and he has shed the Miles Davis clone visage, striking his own poses and shadings. There are also several trio or quartet tracks with different drummers and bassists, as Allen revisits older material and adds to her widening repertoire with new compositions, always with the ingenious, virtuosic, and spontaneous style that makes her one of the most interesting players in modern post-McCoy Tyner jazz. A remake of “No More Mr. Nice Guy” (done with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian on In the Year of the Dragon) is rendered a bit faster here with bassist Dwayne Dolphin and drummer Tani Tabbal, but retains its elusive, cryptic quality. There are three versions of “Feed the Fire” as preludes — one with hand percussionists Tabbal and Pheeroan akLaff; one with them and twin bassists Dwayne Dolphin and Anthony Cox; and a third with Allen, Dolphin, and Tabbal — and all are very energetic and probing, with drum solos or bop notions inserted. The best trio track is “Bed-Sty” with Dolphin and Tabbal, a steamrolling, head-nodding piece, swimming in the spontaneous improvisations only Allen can conjure on the spot. Of the cuts featuring the emerging personal voice of Roney’s trumpet, “Mad Money” is all about the insane drive for the Benjamins, deliberate and clipped in its modal melody, but moving right into Allen’s clever solo. “And They Partied” has the contemporary funky M-Base approach with a bit of an inebriated, sauced line from Roney, while the title selection is totally in an underground mood, with the trumpeter evincing voodoo tones but quite unlike Miles Davis. Allen and Belgrave play a jaunty, lyrical duet on the Lawrence Williams composition “Number Four” as a tribute to their Detroit home base, while the two trumpeters join forces for “Dolphy’s Dance,” an angular, scattered post-bop melody that has future standard written all over it. Because of the variety of groupings, ever-changing and chameleonic through this program, it makes for a remarkable listening session from beginning to end. Dressed in elegant Victorian period clothing in the artwork, Allen seems to suggest that her past is as important as her present — yet Maroons still exists in modern times, and she refuses to be stuck in old habits while reaching for new vistas, standing solidly on terra firma. This excellent recording is easily recommended to her fans and potential new devotees.
Michael G. Nastos (A Jazz Critic)
Recorded at Sound On Sound, NYC on February 11-14, 1992
Original Release Date: 1992 – Label: Blue Note Records
Across Rhythm 