Julian Lage - Speak To Me

February 27, 2024

Label: Blue Note Records, 2024

Personnel - Julian Lage: acoustic and electric guitar; Jorge Roeder: bass, vibraphone; Dave King: drums; Patrick Warren: piano, keyboards; Levon Henry: tenor saxophone; Kris Davis: piano.

Guitarist and composer Julian Lage explores different styles and group formats - from solo to quartet to sextet - in his fourth full-length album for Blue Note, Speak To Me. On seven tracks, his versatility is showcased alongside regular associates bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King, with keyboardist Patrick Warren adding distinct flavors to their sharp sound.

On the opener, “Hymnal”, strings emulation flow from his keys while Lage’s acoustic phrases dialogue with Roeder’s bass lines. It’s all delivered with a liberal narrative perspective. “Northern Shuffle” infuses cheerful rock n' roll-flavored blues with outside electric guitar playing, adding a slight dissonance that enhances its appeal. Featuring a sextet arrangement, Levon Henry's tenor saxophone shines on this piece.

Similarly presented in a sextet setting, "South Mountain" leans towards folk with strummed passages in five and a loose-limbed finale. "76" delivers an intoxicating rock tale with Lage on acoustic guitar and pianist Kris Davis contributing a gripping solo. "Speak To Me" electrifies with free spirit, saturating the atmosphere with vibrant colors, while "Two and One" revisits acoustic blues with hints of Django Reinhardt's swinging propensity.

If “Omission” is a dyed-in-the-wool contemporary country song, then “Serenade” waltzes unhurriedly with passionate romanticism, highlighted by Warren’s soaring keyboard accompaniment. “Tiburon” features vibrant guitar improvisation over a rich harmonic progression and King’s simmering drum work, while “As it Were” captivates with Lage’s dissonant acoustic swoops and fragile aesthetics.

Lage’s ability to infuse songs with unexpected twists while maintaining a strong foundation showcases his unique musical vision, which, never rigid but not completely rooted in improvisation, relies on a sure-footed synthesis of post-bop, rock, and American music. On this account, this eclectic artist, who often combines angular detail with pleasant melodicism, cannot be reined by an obvious classification.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Hymnal ► 06 - South Mountain ► 11 - As it Were

Marcelo dos Reis - Flora

December 11, 2023

Label: JACC Records, 2023

Personnel - Marcelo dos Reis: guitarra; Miguel Falcão: bass; Luis Filipe Silva: drums.

Portuguese guitarist Marcelo dos Reis leads a trio featuring Miguel Falcão on bass Luis Filipe Silva on drums. His improvisatory prowess shines in Flora, a collection of six original pieces that acts as a gateway to rich musical realms not necessarily tied to jazz.

The trio displays a progressive attitude in “Big Tree”, where a guitar figure with angular dimension and rhythmic purpose sets the tone for a palpable, enlightened, and harmonically stabilized art-rock flux with folk melodic trajectories. The music is far from static, with a frantically swinging underpin initiated through an exalted bass spirit and agitated drumming. The rock influence persists but unfolds with vast moods, textures, and influences capable of surprising the listener.

“Amanita” delves into experimental ambient territory with airy substance and a drone in the background. Midway, it pivots on a parallel execution between guitar and bass, leading to a resolution of the accumulated tension. The piece segues into “Tampanensis”, whose vigorous bass lines and daredevil guitar warps infuse a New Wave/post-punk tinge that find support in Silva’s danceable krautrock rhythm.

The group fearlessly explores dynamics, and “Cornelia” ventures into darker grounds painted with luscious Eastern colors. It’s as if Joy Division and Mahavishnu Orchestra fused to create spasmodic alternate gushes of sound. The trio cuts loose on “Sky Blue Petunia”, a forward-moving exercise orchestrated with audacity, where the psychedelic dance-rock of The B52’s meets the defiant and irreverent swinging jazz of The Lounge Lizards.

The album comes to a close with “Full Sun”, structured with an 11-beat cycle, propelled with drive and unity, and sending out jazzy and bluesy vibes. There’s a shift in texture and tempo for a robust and dense funk-rock-infused finale. Flora contains well-played evocative music that demands attention without being flashy, confirming dos Reis as a gifted guitarist to watch in the future.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Big Tree ► 02 - Amanita ► 04 - Cornelia

Jim Black & The Schrimps - Ain't No Saint

February 9, 2023

Label: Intakt Records, 2023

Personnel - Asger Nissen: alto saxophone; Julius Gawlik: tenor saxophone; Felix Henkelhausen: acoustic bass; Jim Black: drums.

Jim Black, an insightful drummer and composer with a propensity for knotty rock textures, joins forces with three European musicians with ages under 30: Danish alto saxophonist Asger Nilssen, German tenor player Julius Gawlik and German bassist Felix Henkelhausen. An indomitable energy prevails throughout the 12 tracks on Ain’t No Saint.

The chord-less session starts powerfully with “The Set-Up”, a tribute to 76-year-old trumpeter Baikida Carroll with whom Black played on Tim Berne’s octet album Insomnia (Clean Feed, 2011). The ensemble rides raw surfaces, externalizing gestures with a gripping immediacy. Henkelhausen defines the harmony with permanent commitment, and his work is also relevant on two natural-sounding pieces that follow a more standard song format: “No Pull”, which slows things down through a leisurely 4/4 pop/rock stream; and “The Once”, which he introduces with empathetic involvement, later having long saxophone notes giving it harmonic context. Following his improvisation, the intensity of the latter piece is impetuously elevated into a pragmatic if athletic rock circularity.

“Snags” reveals swinging urgency with the saxophonists in synchronous activity during the main theme, and then becoming very communicative in their interspersed statements. Equally exposing a good swinging time, “Surely” is bounded by an incredible rhythmic stimulation, with Nilssen and Gawlik gearing up a pump of adrenaline before making their phrases converge in the last minutes.

There’s tremendous passion behind every drum stroke, and Black excels particularly on “Asgingforit”, a more overtly progressive cut imbued with a hymn-like solemnity, as well as “Bellsimmer”, where he contributes to the fray by tapering off into world-inspired rhythms and prog-rock terrain. The ritual insurgence embraced by the horn players here differ from the elated melody delivered in parallel on “Crashback”. The bandleader digs in on the occasion with an inexorable rhythmic drive, turning the piece into an entrancing groover.

Black’s implacable body of work will reward followers of muscular avant-garde jazz and resilient rock hybridity.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - The Set-Up ► 03 - Asgingforit ► 06 - Bellsimmer

Olli Hirvonen - Kielo

November 7, 2022

Label: Ropeadope Records, 2022

Personnel - Olli Hirvonen: guitar; Marty Kenny: bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell: drums.

One of Finland’s most rising musical exports is the guitarist/composer Olli Hirvonen, who has been based in New York since 2011. For his new recording, Kielo, he leads a close-knit trio with bassist Marty Kenny and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell, delivering eight tunes (seven originals and one cover) that integrate his Finnish musical roots and Americana. The follow up to the excellent Displace (Ropeadope, 2019) sounds simpler in conception but still rocks out with an understated elegance that goes beyond stereotyped jazz contexts.

The title cut is shaped with delicate streams whose charisma and poise takes us to the emotional, ambient-like psychedelia of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. “Outline” was inspired by novelist Rachel Cusk’s trilogy of the same name, and its provocative base, in which Hirvonen’s axe goes together with Kenney’s bass presence in optimum ways, doesn’t outshine the melody.

Less jumpy than the previously mentioned number is “Current”, an enigmatic, slightly somber and brush-driven piece that holds tight to a 3/4 tempo but has the amplitude to ebb and flow; and also “Lento”, which, inspired by the indie folk-pop singer/songwriter Cassandra Jenkins, provides one of the album’s starkest moments. As at early, the mood is taken to further lows, but Ellmann-Bell swaps the initial balminess for a more solid rhythm solidly locked in with the bass. Hirvonen’s solo finds support in the reliable foundational builders.

With “Erode”, the trio embraces an indie rock style that shows no complexes. Although the inspiration came from the Brian Blade Fellowship, this is a ballad song crafted with noise-filled passages that could be taken from Mogwai or Sonic Youth. Hirvonen’s distortion-swathed guitar weaves through the tune with grit.

The set comes to a close with a rendition of “Vegas”, authored by the Brooklyn band Big Thief. It reads like a modern folk song propelled with an invigorating backbeat. Kielo will make explorers of pop/rock instrumentals happier than jazz diggers.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Kielo ► 02 - Erode ► 06 - Lento

Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Ding Dong You're Dead

April 28, 2021

Label: Rune Grammofon, 2021

Personnel - Hedvig Mollestad: guitar; Ellen Brekken: bass; Ivar Loe Bjørnstad: drums.

The powerhouse trio of Norwegian guitarist/composer Hedvig Mollestad is back with another set of hefty tunes professed with an irresistible full-fledged sonority and razor-sharp honesty. The incendiary guitarist forged a special musical partnership with bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad, and their intense work has generated seven albums since 2009, the year of the group’s formation.

Unsurprisingly, the music in Ding Dong You’re Dead serves the tastes of contemporary jazz fans, indie rockers and metalheads alike, in a cross-genre format that hooks us in its acute moods.

With a vibe à-la Rage Against the Machine, Brekken’s “Leo Flash Return to the Underworld” is a detailed headbanger with odd-meter signatures and high-flying solos that spread freedom and fury. Prog-rock maniacs won’t be disappointed either, and it's easy to understand from the very first minute why this trio shaped up into something special.

The blues-based “All Flights Cancelled” storms off with a hard-rock energy that recalls Black Sabbath. The blues factor is shared with the ongoing vamp stressed on the indie-pop title track, which unfolds calmly and steadily with bowed bass at first, and then with transient crystal-clear harmonics followed by atmospheric synth-guitar melody.

If “Gimbal” fascinates with thick and dark guitar washes and chromatic power-chords allied to impeccable rhythmic variances, then “The Art of Being John Malkovich” pushes us into a muscular dance-rock experience that interlocks gut-punching backbeat and heedless bass lines. It’s craggy terrain that the trio explores here with gusto.

Different from the rest, but still compatible, the clamant “Magic Moshroom” is a hallucinogenic trip where we rock, swing and dance at the same time. A sheer unexpectedness is created by syncopated drums, impressive bass mobility and improvisatory avant guitar.

“Four Candles” concludes the album on a beautiful, pathos-laden note, appearing in the form of an alternative country-esque ballad graced by colorful jazzy chords and fine percussion.

Mollestad and her trio never stop to surprise and amaze.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Leo Flash Return to the Underworld ► 04 - Gimbal ► 07 - Four Candles

Dan Weiss Starebaby - Natural Selection

October 15, 2020

Label: Pi Recordings, 2020

Personnel - Matt Mitchell: piano, Prophet-6; Craig Taborn: piano, Fender Rhodes, synth; Ben Monder: guitar; Trevor Dunn: electric bass; Dan Weiss: drums, tabla, piano.

Accomplished drummer Dan Weiss quickly gained notoriety among fellow colleagues due to a tremendous versatility, musical taste and advanced technique. The second installment of his Starebaby project - an idiosyncratic blend of David Lynch’s Twin Peak’s mystery and progressive metal with suggestions of post-apocalyptic electronica - is called Natural Selection, and its tracks are deeply connected to the ones presented in the previous album by acting as tulpas (beings or objects created through spiritual or mental powers).

As an illustration, “Episode 18”, which kicks in with fast guitar licks on top a rugged texture, is a tulpa of “Episode 8”. During the start-up phase, we have abrasive surfaces that later morph into more melodic and atmospheric passages conducted by expressive cymbal texture. Some psychedelia pops up, emanated from the synths operated by Craig Taborn and Matt Mitchell. And then, there's an arcane, gothic-style doom-metal aesthetic anticipating the visceral mass of distortion and feedback placed atop the fast attacks and booming bass lines delivered by Weiss and Trevor Dunn, respectively. Virtuoso guitarist Ben Monder oozes out a violently toxic solo by the end.

A change of mood is proposed with “Dawn”, whose languid beat and folk innuendo allow the group to set one foot on the contemporary and another on the medieval milieus. Things are muscled up a bit from the tune’s midpoint on, yet, Monder opts to set an ethereal lyricism against the cyclic harmonic progression that moves toward the ending.

“The Long Diagonal” offers rhythmic stability but only after a sluggish guitar ostinato collides with a more expedite synth figure. The keyboardist continues to connect that ostinato, yet a Latin-flavored vibe soon exudes from his right-hand routines. Ratcheting up the intensity level, Weiss brings the talkative drums to the fore, while the odd-metered prog-rock mechanisms trigger guitar spasms and then an extraordinary piano solo that, most likely, is the closest to jazz you can get on this album (“Acinna” is another competitor in this aspect). “A Taste of Memory” has its meditative intro built with the help of piano and sustained synth chords. Dark and heavy textures erupt, but the keyboardist still finds room for his perpetual rumination.

The drummer's kinetic propulsions on “Bridge of Trust” would pass for a samba if it weren’t for the dismal harmonies and foreboding melodies that run across them.

With this project, Weiss has the willingness to evoke, but also to experiment in dazzling fashion. One must admit they do it wholeheartedly.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - The Long Diagonal ► 04 - A Taste of Memory ► 07 - Acinna

Ethan Sherman - Building Blocks

August 30, 2017

Label/Year: pfMentum, 2017

Lineup – Ethan Sherman: guitar; Chris Rolontz: bass; Christian Euman: drums.

Ethan Sherman is an L.A.-based guitarist and composer whose openness to different styles and facility of approach make him an interesting voice in the modern jazz world. His debut album as a leader, Building Blocks, was recorded in trio with Chris Rolontz on bass and Christian Euman on drums.

The translucent opacity of Sherman’s music punches like a matador in the introductory section of “Jungle Gym”, a rubato incursion that nods to Ben Monder and surprises through immersive, robust triads. Afterward, this same piece is recuperated, shortened to half, and accelerated in pace (called the fast version). Despite the opening tune’s premise, it was the pop/rock feast “Keltner”, written by Sherman with the drummer Jim Keltner in mind, that immediately gained focus through the mystery drawn by on-spot guitar chords coated with occasional powerful distortion and corroborated by a languid yet confident groove that guides and enthralls.

The easy melody presented in the light-hearted “Dangling” dances freely over the undeviating foundation formed by Euman’s riding cymbal strokes and Rolontz’s danceable pulsation from below. After improvising, the bassist continues with a discerning walking bass that leads us to Steve Swallow’s old happy creations.

The most beautiful piece is also the most reserved. Entitled “Norway”, this airy, far-sighted, Motian-esque composition paints autumnal landscapes with a mighty force that implodes, maintaining an unaltered surface that anchors in “Pretty Polly”, a traditional folk song reimagined to hinge distorted guitar dissonances and loose, often atmospheric bass-drums liaison.

Strongly influenced by the blues, “Motivation” takes the shape of an accessible song whose rustic, soulful touches get it closer to a ballad. It contrasts with "Positive Space”, a fruitful blend of dreamy folk and dissimulated funk where Sherman uses his peculiar vocabulary drawn from jazz and rock to speak frankly, and “Snowshoe”, a delicate pop mantra initially escorted by minimal mallet-driven drumming, bowed bass, and circular chord progressions embellished with harmonics. After Rolontz’s bass solo, the tune’s texture core is intensified but never altered.

This is an auspicious debut from a talented young guitarist that shows strong compositional skills and potential to do even greater things in the future.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Keltner ► 04 - Norway ► 08 - Positive Space