Maria Grand - Reciprocity

May 6, 2021

Label: Biophilia Records, 2021

Personnel - Maria Grand: tenor saxophone, voice; Kanoa Mendenhall: bass, voice; Savannah Harris: drums, voice.

The multi-skilled tenor saxophonist and singer Maria Grand has been displaying her singular style in several musical contexts. Magdalena (Biophilia, 2018), her previous work, featured a larger ensemble with guitar and piano, but for Reciprocity, her third outing as a leader, she operates in the classic saxophone trio format alongside bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Savannah Harris. The inspiration for the 12 original compositions on the album came from her newborn child, with all the pieces being written while expecting.

The album’s opener, “Creation: The Joy of Being”, kicks in with layered vocals stating ‘the joy of being who I am’ to which is added the reflective tone and easy gait of the bass walks and the subtly articulate drumming. The mild climate is complemented with improvisational lines atop, but the texture becomes gritty and the pace hushed as the time passes, letting us perceive a swinging motion amidst the ambiguity.

The propulsive groove placed at the base of “Wharbi” is equipped to receive the schematic, often exotic ideas that flow from the saxophone with abundant musicality. Evolving with certitude, the piece also incorporates a fine drum solo.

On “Creation: A Home in Mind”, we find Grand extracting patterned textures from her circular breathing technique. Calmly, the space remains open, but the freedom takes the musicians into a racing swing. It sounds as if they have established a compromise between visionary expressionism and serene poise.

The two complementary parts of “Fundamental” reveal lyrical tone qualities in their own terms. Pt. I manages to put together impeccable vocals, breathy droning sounds produced by bowed bass as well as some tinging cymbal activity. In turn, the explorative Pt. II combines kinetic bass lines and jittery rhythms, with the dynamics being constantly worked out for excellence. Grand reveals to be a charming singer here (citing some lines from Khalil Gibran’s book The Prophet), an aptitude further recognized on the folk chant “Canto Manta”, an engaging horn-less rendition of a healing piece from the Venezuelan Jesus Hidalgo.

In a different context, with vocals surfacing in parallel, “Now Take, Your Day” blossoms with a cool beat-making and saxophone riffing, demarcating the gentle free funk with the throbbing rhythmic feel of hip-hop.

The absence of harmony often infuses the pieces with a relative abstraction that is never difficult but rather aural. A good example of this is the closer, “Creation: Welcome”, where the group ends up engaging in a folk jazz circularity.

Motivated by motherhood, abandoned to creativity, and sharing a bit of telepathy with her trio mates, Grand takes this experience to interesting musical places.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Wharbi ► 05 - Fundamental Pt.II ► 09 - Now Take Your Day

Dopolarians - The Bond

May 5, 2021

Label: Mahakala Music , 2021

Personnel - Chad Fowler: alto sax; Marc Franklin: trumpet; Kelley Hurt: vocals; Christopher Parker: piano; William Parker: double bass; Brian Blade: drums.

The Bond marks the return of Dopolarians, a sextet of avant-gardists and free musical explorers composed of alto saxophonist Chad Fowler, trumpeter Marc Franklin (subbing for the tenor player Kidd Jordan), vocalist Kelley Hurt, pianist Christopher Parker, bassist William Parker and drummer Brian Blade (replacing the late Alvin Fielder). The ensemble remains faithful to the essence of improvisation, responding to particular situations with their musical intuition and ability to speak up through their respective instruments.

The title track is a 20-minute journey that mixes spiritual dimensions and southern blues roots right at the beginning. The occasion allows us to appreciate the rich harmonic progressions on the piano, which are followed by trumpet and saxophone expansions with a predilection for higher pitches. Parker, the bassist, bounces things up with an odd, hopping groove that provides a functional framework for Fowler’s silver-tongued improvisation. He is accompanied by Blade’s thunderous bombardment of highly sculptural drum sounds. The drummer, who is rarely seen in this avant-jazz context, is a great addition to the group, employing all his known sensitivity to deal with the volatile atmospheres. The bass solo lies on dreamy piano, also enjoying leisurely adornments from the horns and Hurt’s exploratory vocalise, which soon claims the attention while the other instruments surround it.

“The Emergence” kicks off as a densely webbed, frenzy romp with spiky horn peaks and rhythmic fragmentation. Then, it moves through a prolonged reflection that could be a bit of an endurance ride for the listeners, before returning to the dynamics that nimbly expand and contract, burning everything around.

The album closes with the stunning “The Release”, whose ethereal beauty relies on modal embodiment and spiritual enlightenment, recalling Pharaoh Sanders and Alice Coltrane in their unchained abandon.

Although not as strong as the Dopolarians’ 2019 debut (Garden Party), The Bond creates some frisson while leading us to an extraordinary finale.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - The Bond ► 03 - The Release

Chris Potter Circuits Trio - Sunrise Reprise

May 4, 2021

Label: Edition Records, 2021

Personnel - Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet, sampler; James Francies: piano, keyboards; Eric Harland: drums.

A prodigious figure in the contemporary jazz world for many decades, saxophonist/composer Chris Potter constantly makes waves at every release. Sunrise Reprise, the second installment of his acclaimed Circuits Trio - featuring the formidable keyboardist James Francies and the dynamic drummer Eric Harland - consists of a five-track program that, navigating an interesting tonal spectrum, generates a technically perfect circuitry of ultra-modern sounds combined in its electric and acoustic forms.

Recorded in the midst of an imposed New York City lockdown, the album kicks off with “Sunrise and Joshua Trees”, a soaring contemplation delicately crafted with Francies’ adept textures. The tune’s glowing atmosphere has a dreamlike quality occasionally stirred by laser-like synth beams and progressively engulfed by deep bass notes that stimulate Potter’s advanced vocabulary.

The saxophonist’s echo-laced melodies hit us with soulfulness on “Southbound”, where Harland makes an incredible impact as soon as he gets down to business. Francies doesn’t stop to excel, unleashing here a momentous improvisation on top a levitating atmosphere that he created himself.

“Serpentine” is made of recoiling trajectories and sliding friction, emerging as a hip fusion piece built on the grounds of funk. Moreover, it exhibits a hip-hop-ish vibe in the language as well as fiery post-bop chromatics injected by Potter’s effect-laden horn.

Denoting an even-tempered posture, “The Peanut” plays like a ballad, carrying harmonic brilliance and melodic lucidity.

The trio concludes with the 24-plus-minute “Nowhere, Now Here / Sunrise Reprise”, a triangulated open drift which muddles through many complex layers, labyrinthine corridors, and spatially dynamic vamping sections. Following an unadorned introduction with flute and percussion, the group plasticizes through groove-centered avenues guided by busier bass offerings. At that point, a blend of funk energy and precise post-bop dynamics push the soloists to their most eloquent drive and cutting-edge musicality.

Luxuriating in individual freedom and tight collective interplay, Sunrise Reprise may not reach the heights of the Circuit Trio’s eponymous debut, but guarantees plenty of groove and atmospherics to keep you permanently connected.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Southbound ► 03 - Serpentine ► 05 - Nowhere, Now Here / Sunrise Reprise

James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet - Jesup Wagon

May 3, 2021

Label: Tao Forms, 2021

Personnel - James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone; Kirk Knuffke: cornet; Christopher Hoffman: cello; William Parker: bass, gimbri; Chad Taylor: drums.

The tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis is a conceptualist and a storyteller who takes his music very seriously. Although his records are very different from one another, his voice remains recognizable, in a process that deftly combines emotion and fleet, ferocious technique. His new album, Jesup Wagon, features him with an all-star group of creatives - Red Lily Quintet - with whom he draws up a range of perspectives to sonically portray the life, work and vision of Dr. George Washington Carver, an American agricultural scientist and inventor.

Music-wise, this body of work arrives as a flirtation between folk and avant-garde jazz, and the title cut opens the curtain with that Southern folk intonation and New Orleans-style marching strut that runs on oiled wheels. Lewis’ powerful tone and translucent expression create a wonderful solo intro as well as an invigorating statement where penetrating lower notes briefly pin rhythmic figures that dance unabashedly.

“Lowlands of Sorrow” teems with a triple meter, a chanting groove generated by William Parker’s exotic gimbri and Christopher Hoffman’s rigorous cello plucks, a caravan-like pace, and striking solos and interplay between Lewis and cornetist Kirk Knuffke. This is often filled with spiritual strength and Coltranean craftiness.

The band navigates the mournful, sometimes agonizing dirge, “Arachis” (an elegy to peanut), with deep sentiment, and a tight-knit coalition between arco bass and cello is in plain sight. Once departed from this heavy theme, Lewis, solidly supported by bass and drums, exteriorizes downright revolutionary avant-garde forays, and is later joined by Knuffke, who proceeds with autonomy without ever turning his back on tastefulness.

The terrifically melodic “Fallen Flowers” and the kinetically polyrhythmic “Experiment Station” are both outstanding. The former progresses with an asymmetric A section (7+6+7+8) and an ostinato-laden B section shaped with a sextuple meter before ending with Lewis’ engaging spoken word, a meditation on life and death. The latter piece, ending more subdued than it started, showcases the immense rhythmic abilities of drummer Chad Taylor as well as authoritative statements from sax and cornet.

Both coupling dancing quality and emotional heft, “Seer” is enriched with the African-tinged tides of Taylor’s mbira, while “Chemurgy” features the sounds of gimbri, vocal chants and a rich sax/cornet dialogue.

Obeying his musical instincts with frankness, inspiration and resolve, Lewis weaves a common lyric thread to all tunes that is indispensable for the unification of the whole. This knockout album is a must-listen.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Lowlands of Sorrow ► 05 - Experiment Station ► 07 - Chemurgy

Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas' Sound Prints - Other Worlds

April 29, 2021

Label: Greenleaf Music, 2021

Personnel - Joe Lovano: tenor saxophone; Dave Douglas: trumpet; Lawrence Fields: piano; Linda May Han Oh: bass; Joey Baron: drums

Sound Prints, the all-star quintet spearheaded by the titanic tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and the formidable trumpeter Dave Douglas, releases its third full-length album, this time featuring only original compositions by the leaders but still inspired by the musical temperament and style of the legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter. However, exploring such an impactful legacy takes the two composers to new places in the company of a multi-generational trio of rhythmic backers and accomplished soloists, namely pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda May Han Oh and veteran drummer Joey Baron.

“Space Exploration”, the first part of Lovano’s Other Worlds Suite, first spins with spiritual consciousness and then allures our sonic palate with crisp unisons that leave room for Baron’s stable drum fills. The bass initiates a swinging route that serves the excellence of Lovano’s vertiginous ins and outs, just before Oh starts off a line of thought herself. Her impressive bass work is put on halt immediately after, when Douglas rides high on top of an adept accompaniment provided by piano and drums. Concluding the series of improvisations, Lawrence dovetails whirling figures and works on classical-inspired movements that incessantly land in the right places.

The ensemble often passes the idea of free-form exploration but never really loses the sense of structure. That’s evident in pieces touching the borders of post-bop and avant-garde, like Douglas’ “Life On Earth”, a tour-de-force that incorporates dashes of funk, bendable horn stretches, and a modal property that easily recalls the Miles Davis Quintet from the 1960’s. Moreover, the name Miles in the title of Lovano’s “Sky Miles” might not have been by chance; it’s a mighty jab into ingenious post-bop that also falls into the Shorter/Davis’ bag.

“The Flight”, the third movement of Lovano’s above-named suite (nonsequential on the album’s track list), teems with playful lyricism and smoldering horn exchanges that form a kaleidoscopic sheet of sound. It all plays out under a springy, waltzing articulation.

Douglas’ fascination for the ancient past and its major figures is bespoke in two of his pieces: “Antiquity to Outer Space”, whose modern creative traits are shaded with wafts of chamber music, and “Pythagoras”, a polyrhythmic stunner in which we find the musicians pushing and prodding each other in an effort to go beyond themselves.

Baron’s brushed textures and sizzling cymbals propel “Manitou” with the help of a coruscating bass churn. This is a ballad in six that produces plenty of melody via the elegant dance between muted trumpet and tenor saxophone.

There’s a relaxed assurance to the entire set that stems from the experience of the collective. The musicianship involved here is outstanding, resulting in a work of great impact that deserves enthusiastic commendation.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Space Exploration ► 03 - Life On Earth ► 06 - The Flight

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

Steve Slagle - Nascentia

April 27, 2021

Label: Panorama Records, 2021

Personnel - Steve Slagle: alto saxophone, flute; Jeremy Pelt: trumpet; Clark Gayton: trombone; Bruce Barth: piano; Ugonna Okegwo: bass; Jason Tiemann: drums.

The music of American saxophonist Steve Slagle, whose musical career straddles several decades and stylistic jazz currents, usually bends toward the tradition. A member of the Mingus Big Band since 1993, Slagle contributed great sonic flavors to projects by Joe Lovano, Carla Bley and the late Lionel Hampton, among others. Nascentia is the most recent entry in his 17-album discography as a leader.

“We Release” sets the tone, with the group concentrating efforts on a sunny post-bop marked by a hooky pop-ish vibe. The spirit of the musicians is typically glowing and there’s a pronounced rhythmic cadence in the harmonic drive giving it a charming touch.

While in lockdown, Slagle composed a suite whose three main parts link together through two solo interludes, one delivered by bassist Ugonna Okegwo and the other by drummer Jason Tiemann. It kicks off with “All Up In It”, a straight-ahead uptempo burner that swings convincingly while evoking the artistry of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (a powerfully accented obbligato brings his version of Curtis Fuller’s “The High Priest” to mind). The esteemed trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and the assertive trombonist Clark Gayton offer their own personal angles to the storytelling. “Agama” is a danceable modal inflection that suits the sidestepping, hurricane-like blows of the bandleader. He saves the shouts and cries for last, loading the latinized title cut with emotional weight.

Whereas “Who Compares to You?” sounds like if the standard “Have You Met Miss Jones” had been retouched by Coltrane, “I Remember Britt” - penned by the late pianist Harold Mabern in honor of trombonist Britt Woodman - is the sweetest piece on the record, featuring Slagle on flute and a gleeful piano work from Bruce Barth.

The program is rounded off with “A Friend in Need”, an in-the-pocket piece written for the great saxophonist Michael Brecker.

Slagle holds the fort with charisma and avails himself of the engaging and supportive accompaniment his peers provide.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - All Up in It ► 04 - Agama ► 09 - I Remember Britt

Tobias Meinhart - The Painter

April 26, 2021

Label: Sunnyside Records, 2021

Personnel - Tobias Meinhart: tenor and soprano saxophone, alto flute, voice; Eden Laden: piano, Rhodes, synth; Matt Penman: bass; Obed Calvaire: drums; Ingrid Jensen: trumpet (#2,6); Charles Altura: guitar (#1,10)

German-born saxophonist/composer Tobias Meinhart has a new album inspired by varied sources, a remarkable distillation of engaging musical ideas woven together to make a more than satisfactory whole. Here, he spearheads a core quartet featuring the pianist Eden Laden, the bassist Matt Penman and the drummer Obed Calvaire, but the participation of trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and guitarist Charles Altura on two tracks each, revealed to be monster add-ons toward excellent sonic outcomes.

“White Bear” makes an impressive opener, advancing with a throttling ferocity at a 9/8 tempo and featuring a bass solo upfront. A nice unison melody glides over the rich harmonic itinerary and jagged rhythm, and then it's the liquidity of Altura’s guitar phrasing and the melodic qualities of Meinhart that stand out before a polyrhythmic feel emerges from a vamp.

Just like the first track, “The Painter” and “Bird Song” are highlights for different reasons. The former denotes a delicate fragility as it is introduced by beautiful, crystalline bass resonances, having Meinhart soaking the canvas with a dripping multiphonic melody and delivering his tenor solo with range, pure timbre and expert note choices. The latter tune places an ostinato of flute and trumpet at the base, shifts metrics along the way (5/4 to 4/4), and thrives not only with an alluring piano solo complemented with ARP String synth colorings but also with the luminous empowerment that comes from Meinhart and Jensen’s interlaced horns. The bandleader wrote this one for the Canadian trumpeter.

Calvaire brushes with flavor against the soft texture of “Oak Tree”, where Penman’s relaxation transpires through a sensitive bass statement. Also evincing affectionate demeanors and soothing tones, we have Bruno Martino’s ballad standard “Estate”, the sole non-original on the album, and “Last Dance”, a flute-driven piece propelled by a firm groove in five, which serves as a springboard for balmy modal ideas.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, “Movement” steps into more familiar post-bop territory with a swinging disposition, and another message of hope is brought by “Dreamers”, the closing tune in which Meinhart sings and plays the soprano saxophone.

The Painter is an outstanding record, finding Meinhart at the summit of his compositional prowess and underscoring the strengths of the players in it.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - White Bear ► 05 - The Painter ► 06 - Bird Song

Mehdi Nabti & Prototype - Grooves à Mystères

April 22, 2021

Label: Distrokid, 2021

Personnel - Mehdi Nabti: alto sax, nira, clave; Joy Anandasivam: electric guitar; Nicolas Lafortune: electric bass; Bertil Schulrabe: drums, derbouka, percussion.

The French-born, Canada-based alto saxophonist and composer Mehdi Nabti returns with Grooves à Mystères, a focused effort containing eight flowing groove-imbued selections that bridge diverse musical cultures and illustrate a very personal musical concept he called Afro-Berber continuum, the thread underneath all his projects. Fronting his quartet Prototypes, Nebti takes an extremely functional North Africa-meets-West approach that brims with modal forms and formidable rhythmic complexities.

The tone is set by the opener, “Antée” - aptly assembled with African percussion, a round bass groove with a funky feel, odd tempo, lenient jazz chords, and a beautiful, celestial melody that shapes into a sequence of fragmented lines during the sax improvisation. Articulation is never in question, even when the solos take a more modest role like in the case of guitarist Joy Anandasivam.

Propelled and illuminated by an infectious groove provided by the bassist Nicolas Lafortune and the percussionist Bertil Schulrabe, “Ayyur” feels very Eastern in sound, recalling the sonic cross-genre formulations of the saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, yet with not as much eloquence in the expression. The sumptuously breezy “Eon”, built over a 13-beat cycle, flows with a sub-Saharan incantation, making us breathe the air of different worlds with a spiritual sense of wonder rather than pressure, whereas “Esperanto” overflows with impromptu oratory, stepping ahead forcefully as it enters in a celebratory mode with accurate rhythmic moves and a decided folk comportment. In turn, “Mithra” makes a decent jazz-funk stab, stressing an array of staccato lines in the theme.

Navigating highly structured frameworks, the group achieves a fine balance between the effortlessly charming and the wryly intricate, and if the traditional Macedonian “So Maki Sum Se Rodila” expands its roots by growing world-fusion branches, then the closer, “Timgad”, remains hypnotically static in a 10/8 meter flow while Nabti plays the nira (Moroccan flute) with light-footed ritualistic gestures.

As a mosaic of eclectic influences, the music on this album can be rewardingly illuminating, remembering us that the beauty of jazz also relies on its ability to be open and merge with other styles.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Antée ► 03 - Eon ► 05 - Mithra

Lara Solnicki - The One and the Other

April 21, 2021

Label: Outside in Music, 2021

Personnel - Lara Solnicki: vocals, poems; Jonathan Goldsmith: keyboards, electronics, electric bass, electric guitar; Peter Lutek: alto saxophone, electro-acoustic clarinet, bassoon; Hugh Marsh: electric violin; Rob Piltch: electric and acoustic guitar; Scott Peterson: electric and acoustic bass; Rich Brown: electric bass; Davide Di Renzo: drums.

The Canadian vocalist, composer and poet Lara Solnicki was blessed with an exquisite vocalic articulation and the art of poetry, as well as an impressive ability to blend genres such as classical, free jazz and experimental music. Working with a host of heroic players that lend her music a distinctive palette, she unfurls her most complexly detailed and ambitious work to date with this third outing, The One and the Other, a song cycle of utterly original tone poems.

The opener, “Bit Her Sweet Christopher Street”, immediately drew me in with its immersive words and the offbeat ideas presented by the pianist/producer Jonathan Goldsmith, an adept of inharmonic dripping and dissonant intervals, and the alto saxophonist Peter Lutek, who infuses extra tension and tonal contrast in his anguished blows. Even if only for a brief time, the guitarist Rob Piltch haunts us with an indie-rock fire that prompts the drummer Davide DiRenzo to muscle things up in response. The inspiration here was Debussy’s song cycle “5 Poèmes de Baudelaire”.

The enriched classical movements of Bach are aligned with the genuine freedom of jazz on “Idée Fixe”, where the saxophone goes hand in hand with the sweet-sounding vocalise. The harmonic stability is disturbed during a fascinating conversation between piano and sax, and then resumed in the final section.

Airing Bjork-like demeanors, “The Embrace” tells the story of two lovers frozen outside time and space, and its views differ from “Furling Leaf, Retrocede”, which employs sinister, startling, and occasionally psychedelic soundscapes in the sublime filmic grandeur that accompanies its poem.

The album closes with the three-part suite that lends the album its title, a tragic tale of a man that drowns in his image of love. “The One and the Other I: a Pass Glass” sets a resolute, unhurried voice against a jittery knitting of complex instrumentation. Some push-pull motions are detected, and a necessary bass groove even stirs a few passages by giving it a reassuring heartbeat. “II: Awe of the Sea” feels quietly and feverishly dreamy except for a portion of time when fierce drum fills and aggressive cymbals resound in the background, and then “III: Hollow the Need”, a little rougher around the edges, paints a vividly noir scene according to the tale’s heavy conclusion.

Solnicki makes every line a new experience, turning herself loose with a spontaneous sense of narrative and a transfixing experimental posture. This album is an exciting voyage of discovery that claims a different place in her oeuvre.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Bit Her Sweet Christopher Street ► 02 - Idée Fixe ► 06 - The One and the Other II: Awe of the Sea

Greg Smith - Cluster 001

April 20, 2021

Label: Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, 2021

Personnel - David Binney: alto saxophone; Vanja Kevresan: guitar; Alexander Maksymiw: guitar, synth guitar; Logan Kane: electric bass; Greg Smith: drums, synth.

The Canadian drummer/composer Greg Smith, an active musician since the 1990’s, compiled seven originals into an engaging debut record that revels in earnest rock expression and futuristic jazz reverie. Smith spearheads a supple quintet comprising the virtuosic saxophonist and producer David Binney, Berlin-based guitarists Vanja Kevresan and Alexander Maksymiw, and Californian bassist Logan Kane. The group’s simpatico is on display throughout and the quality of the musicians brings as much personal fire as stunning interplay into the fold of contemporary jazz music.

Those elements are immediately perceptible on the opening track, “My Pet Robot”, whose mechanical riff at the outset handles more than simple decoration. Terrific improvisations occur with diverse apt accompaniments guaranteeing the harmonic substructure. An early guitar stretch is well supported by fat bass reverberation and rock drumming, then is the bassist who enjoys the harmonic guitar carpets under his feet, and finally Binney who dazzles by discoursing with a combustible tone over a circular retro synth-pop tapestry boosted by drum fills. The saxophonist’s advanced vocabulary makes the notes ricocheting with reverb on “NLX” as he embarks on a cascading complexity that transpires with ecstatic energy atop of a two-chord vamp.

“Leolo” is launched in five, denoting sleek key slides and metric shifts with an affinity for the asymmetric. Mysterious effects are added for a darker tone but the scorching rock guitar of Maksymiw casts some light when a sturdy rhythm imposes alongside funk flavored bass lines. Also taking advantage of the mighty power of the electric guitar, “A Stable Genius” and “Angels & Insects” unpack elastic rhythms while conducting some fearless improvisation. The former takes the form of a groove-centered funk equipped with riffs that swell and fuse with the rhythmic cross-currents that take shape, while the latter is a stimulating prog-rock exercise involving knotty adjustments of tempo in the transitions from the A to the B sections. “Ice 911”, in turn, shows off acrobatic saxophone and an effects-laden guitar bantering with each other on top of a sextuple groove.

Smith convened the perfect group, integrating compositional rigor and improvisational openness. He has many reasons to be proud of his debut work.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - My Pet Robot ► 03 - Leolo ► 05 - A Stable Genius

Jennifer Wharton's Bonegasm - Not a Novelty

April 19, 2021

Label: Sunnyside Records, 2021

Personnel - Jennifer Wharton: bass trombone; John Fedchok: trombone; Alan Ferber: trombone; Nate Mayland: trombone; Michael Eckroth: piano, Fender Rhodes; Evan Gregor: bass; Don Peretz: drums.

The versatile bass trombonist Jennifer Wharton manages to give her instrument a rare major role in a contemporary jazz group. The follow-up to the Bonegasm eponymous debut is called Not a Novelty, which, in a similar fashion, features the rich quadruple 'trombonism' provided by John Fedchok, Alan Ferber, Nate Mayland and Wharton herself. The rhythm section consists of piano, bass and drums, and their chairs are occupied by Michael Eckroth, Evan Gregor and Don Peretz, respectively.

The album sails off with "BonGasmo", a feel-good expedition that finds the sweet spot where modern jazz meets traditional Cuban music. The piece, written by Eckroth for the Havana-based Orquestra Akokán, is enriched with piles of rhythmic accents and slippery curves, having the guest percussionist Samuel Torres focused on his craft to propel it with the right feel. Another Cuban-infused piece is pianist Manuel Valera’s “La Otra Mano”, and we can also spot a great deal of Latin jazz on the Ayn Inserto-penned “Blue Salt”, a shapeshifter that suggests a delicious bop feel before mutating into a lush Latin fantasy with modal flair. Wharton plays with soul until a swinging groove is installed, buoying up Fedchock’s solo.

Fascinating arrangements give personal definitions not just to Remy LeBoeuf’s “Face Value”, a post-bop enlightenment filled with refined melodic and harmonic impressions, but also to Alan Ferber’s “Union Blues”, which, inspired by Mark Turner’s “Iverson’s Odyssey”, shows us how to take a blues to tonally attractive territories.

Ferber’s arrangement of Chris Cheek’s “Ice Fall” is simply graceful, allowing a subtle pop liquidity to permeate the post-bop surface while maintaining the triple time feel of the original. Eckroth’s beautiful solo, so rich in melody, is followed by the four trombonists who alternate bars with a linear storytelling in mind. Peretz concludes the improvisations by stretching over a vamp.

Fedchock composed the sweet ’n breezy “Little Cupcake” for Wharton, his wife, and the warmth is perceptible throughout. This piece precedes the record’s surprising conclusion, a rendition of Soundgarden’s grunge song “The Day I Tried to Live”, where guest singer Kurt Elling emulates phrases with wah-wah effect as a response to Wharton’s sounds. The illustrious leader of the Secret Society ensemble, Darcy James Argue, is behind this arrangement.

If you like your jazz with multiple flavors and clever arrangements, then you have many good reasons to go for this one.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Face Value ► 03 - Ice Fall ► 10 - The Day I Tried to Live

Tom Rainey Obbligato - Untucked in Hannover

April 15, 2021

Label: Intakt Records, 2021

Personnel - Ingrid Laubrock: tenor saxophone; Ralph Alessi: trumpet; Jacob Sacks: piano; Drew Gress: bass; Tom Rainey: drums.

The third installment in the catalogue of Tom Rainey Obbligato is a live recording composed of pieces of the Great American Songbook previously recorded by the quintet. Yet, these were reshaped anew for a 2018 concert at Jazz Club Hannover, Germany, which featured the band’s regular members - saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, bassist Drew Dress and Rainey on drums - with the exception of pianist Kris Davis, who was replaced by Jacob Sacks.

“If I Should Lose You” initiates the set with loose melodic contours and contrapuntal piano over the clearly swinging posture offered by the brushed drums and hopping bass lines. Alessi’s muted trumpet jumps into the fray with optimum aesthetic results, while Rainey’s rhythmic elucidations, near the end, become excitedly busy at times and gracefully restrained during others.

“Stella by Starlight” finds the group in top flight as they build phrases on top of phrases for an infinitely open communication. There’s textural inventiveness pumped up by the three time feel, and even an unexpected bossa groove before completion.

Two tracks on the record combine standards, with “What’s New / There is No Greater Love” being the first. The portion concerning the first piece is introduced by a harmoniously articulated bass statement, and then has piano, trumpet and sax, by turns, uttering the theme with a laid-back posture. The transition to the second song, which waltzes, is made via Rainey’s cymbal tinkling and scratches. They evolve into complex layers of toms, precise snare strokes and rim accents, before the incredibly adaptable Laubrock turns her focus to the main melody, flanked by Alessi’s conversational hooks.

In the same manner, the track five splices up “Just in Time” and “In Your Own Sweet Way”. The spirited vibe of the former benefits from occasional percussive slapback and creative freedom. Things are softened up for the latter tune, which earns some momentum through Sacks’ tense chords and melodic undercurrent.

The group concludes with a nearly free-bop reading of Jerome Kern’s “Long Ago and Far Away”.

What makes this record so satisfying comes in large measure from the distinctive sound and sense of liberation conveyed by each musician. Their ability to transform notably known songs into something imaginatively new is strongly valued.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - If I Should Lose You ► 02 - Stella by Starlight ► 05 - Just in Time / In Your Own Sweet Way

Christian Pabst - Balbec

April 14, 2021

Label: JazzSick Records, 2021

Personnel - Christian Pabst: piano, Rhodes; André Nendza: acoustic and electric bass; Erik Kooger: drums.

Formerly based in the Netherlands and now living in Italy, the German pianist/composer Christian Pabst is seen here at the helm of a classic piano trio featuring fellow countryman bassist André Nendza and Dutch drummer Erik Kooger. The title of his fourth album as a leader, Balbec, was drawn from his own imagination, alluding to a fictional city especially envisioned to give wings to unostentatious sonic depictions and explorations. Topics such as the arts, traveling and everyday life feed his fount of inspiration.

The lead-off track, “Revelation”, has a singing bass spreading melody around over a well-leveled harmonic pavement that reveals graceful pop piano hooks suggestive of Bruce Hornsby, in addition to a lustrous jazz reminiscent of Brad Mehldau. There are passages imbued with pure rhythmic groove and the piano improvisation flows with post-bop ease, carrying some pleasant outside playing and predictably compliant figures.

The iterative dry flux of Kooger’s snare drum reinforces the cyclic harmonic pattern of “Snake”. The trio creates a general relaxing vibe and achieves a nearly ethereal feel in their maneuvers, with Nendza’s pumping electric bass instilling the extra energy. The strong melody plays an important emotional role here, as well as on “Snow”, a dramatic piece predominantly played in five, and equally on “Storm”, which, despite of what the title may suggest, leans more on the contemplative, balladesque side of things for most of its duration.

Waltzing with spirit at a medium-fast tempo, “Golden” features a piano statement that, starting as a monologue, soon regains the company of bass and drums to embark on a rhythmic friskiness that ends with a supple, unaccompanied bass ride.

The trio wades into the polyrhythmic context of the title cut, embracing a gleaning texture that incorporates the amiable nature of Brazilian music and the brittleness of a smooth jazz that swings.

More of an ear-pleasing architect that actually a stirrer, Pabst brings a luminous quality into compositions that find his trio in a composed yet responsive mode.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Snake ► 03 - Balbec ► 04 - Snow

Vijay Iyer - Uneasy

April 13, 2021

Label: ECM Records, 2021

Personnel - Vijay Iyer: piano; Linda May Han Oh: double bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums

The musical genius of post-modern jazz pianist Vijay Iyer reaches new heights on Uneasy, his fourth trio album and sixth release on the ECM Records as a leader/co-leader. Having forged a revolutionary path in jazz, Iyer continues to break new ground, this time benefiting from the rhythmic wonders of a new trio with the drummer Tyshawn Sorey, a longtime partner, and the bassist Linda May Han Oh, with whom he recorded in 2011 for the Dave Douglas Quintet. The music takes a more jazzified route here, in the sense that it’s intrinsically connected to tradition and form, detaching from that free-er and experimental side presented in his works with Craig Taborn and Wadada Leo Smith.

Composed over a span of 20 years, some of the pieces strive to bring sociopolitical predicaments and disorders in America to the human conscience. The opener, “Children of Flint”, is one of those cases, calling the attention for the lead poisoning water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Written in 2019, it emerges here with an astonishingly detailed theme statement and angular melodic refinement, as well as an elegant bass solo over Sorey's dry flat tom-tom sounds and curious cymbal patterns.

Another good illustration is “Combat Breathing”, which relates to the early Black Lives Matter movement and materializes in coiled blues threads that gravitate around an 11-beat cycle. The introductory solo piano section leads to firm pedal points and sagaciously bluesy lines ironed out with sporadic assertive motifs rather than cryptic patterns. The intensity refrains during a twinkle-toed bass dance that comes firmly guided by emotions.

Three pieces ooze relaxation and poignancy from its pores - “Touba” is handled in five and resulted from the fruitful collaboration between Iyer and Boston hip-hop artist Mike Ladd; “Augury” is an emotionally strong solo piano effort; and “Entrustment”, a tribute to the cave temples of Dunhuang in China and its multicultural heritage, is delivered in seven with a warm compelling sound.

“Uneasy” channels a sense of restlessness at the outset but soon morphs into an ecstatic trip with variations in dynamics, attack and density. In turn, “Configurations” harkens back to 2001, bringing back the South Indian sonics and impressively intricate progressions of the album Panoptic Modes (Pi Recordings).

The pianist also squeezes in the jazz standard “Night and Day” and Geri Allen’s “Drummer’s Song”. The former, inspired by McCoy Tyner’s piano work in Joe Henderson’s version, flows in a peripatetic 7/8 bliss; while the latter number, a tribute to the late influential pianist and mentor who composed it, links African folk tradition with imaginative post-bop via groove.

Many moments of pleasure come out from listening to this record, in which the virtuosity of the three musicians involved is constantly put at the service of the music.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Children of Flint ► 02 - Combat Breathing ► 08 - Uneasy

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue - Zero Grasses: Ritual For the Losses

April 12, 2021

Label: Pi Recordings, 2021

Personnel - Jen Shyu - voice, piano, percussion, Japanese biwa, Taiwanese moon lute; Ambrose Akinmusire: trumpet; Mat Maneri: viola; Thomas Morgan: bass; Dan Weiss: drums.

Jen Shyu, an incredibly talented singer/composer and multi-instrumentalist, delivers a groundbreaking multi-lingual hour-long opus that screams with personal loss - related to her father’s recent passing - and cuts into the surface of societal problems such as racism and sexism. Her flagship ensemble, Jade Tongue, was narrowed into a stellar quintet for Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses, a John Zorn-commissioned work featuring Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Mat Maneri on viola, and the rhythm team of bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Dan Weiss.

The album kicks off with the four-part suite “Living’s a Gift”, an emotional reaction to the covid-19 pandemic, where impeccably layered vocals overlap to create polyphonic melodies, unisons and counterpoint. Just like the opener, the following piece “Lament For Breonna Taylor” was composed in 2020, but this time with the marginalized Black lives in mind as it references the shooting of the African-American mentioned in the title, in an erroneous drug raid led by Louisville police in Kentucky. Following preliminary chimes and gongs, the desolate narrative proceeds with wailing viola, mournful trumpet cries, dramatic piano tremolos and somber bowed bass. With no disruption, this piece slips directly into the memorable “The Human Color”, whose ambiance is in compliance with a stylish jazz velvetiness that serves Akinmusire’s soloing virtuosity. The latter piece, brought back from Jade Tongue’s 2009 eponymous album, condemns the 19th-century colonialism in Cuba.

Both “A Cure For the Heart’s Longing” and “Display Under the Moon” were taken from Shyu’s solo theatrical work Nine Doors and thrive with curious instrumentations. In the former, Shyu accompanies herself on the two-string Taiwanese moon lute, while the latter dives in the Japanese traditional music, featuring the 4-string Japanese biwa on top of deft bass underpinnings. These pieces, together with the ritualistic “When I Have Power”, a vehicle for Shyu's virtuosic singing while going back to the race-motivated confusion of her teenage years, defy conventional forms and aesthetics. Another paradigm of her vocal prowess is the poignant “Body of Tears”, verbalized with remarkable range and emotional tension.

Putting her ethnic fusion capabilities at the service of each narrative segment, Shyu blends the ancient and the contemporary to forge an unparalleled, cohesive sound.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Living’s a Gift Pt. 3: My Unsolved Regrets ► 05 - Lament For Breonna Taylor ► 06 - The Human Color

Goldberger / Maneri / Jermyn / Cleaver - Untamed: Live at Scholes

April 8, 2021

Label: Out of Your Head Records, 2021

Personnel - Jonathan Goldberger: guitar; Mat Maneri: viola; Simon Jermyn: electric bass; Gerald Cleaver: drums.

This ‘Untamed’ performance, another one digged up and recovered by the Out of Your Head label, features a quartet of ripe, well-integrated avant-gardists that includes guitarist Jonathan Goldberger, violist Mat Maneri, bassist Simon Jermyn and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

The single 36-minute improvisation that appears on this record was played live at Scholes Street Studio in Brooklyn, at a time where the group was gigging regularly. Suffice to say that the musical cohesiveness usually found in close collaborators are pretty much on display here. The quartet’s instinctive behavior and freedom allow them to create a palette of inviting sounds that you’ve likely never heard before.

The smart, unconventional atmospheres are continually intriguing and nearly makes us jump out of the reality to embark on a surreal voyage with a lot to discover.

The infallible rhythmic support provided by Jermyn and Cleaver often falls into free-flowing grooves and cyclic pedals that regularly change physiognomies, ensuring that there’s plenty of freedom for Goldberger and Maneri to create and interact. The microtonal vulnerability of the viola together with the moody, mercurial guitar consistently push things into a state of suspension that, although never threatening, pricks our senses.

On occasion, you are offered electronic-like abstractions and constructive ruminations proper of the experimental avant-garde universe. Then the group opens a nice free-funk backdoor that leads into a gentle rubato contemplation tied up with off-kilter composed motifs. On other instances, you’ll be able to enjoy largely atmospheric folk sounds turned into pastoral elegies that feed into imaginary bucolic landscapes slightly blurred by a thin mist. The group concludes in a sort of Radiohead’s stylings through a circumscribed 4/4 harmonic routine.

The impression is strong, and I would definitely like to see this group come out with a studio recording sometime in the near future.

Miguel Zenón - Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman

April 7, 2021

Label: Miel Music, 2021

Personnel - Miguel Zenón: alto saxophone; Ariel Bringuez: tenor saxophone; Demian Cabaud: bass; Jordi Rossy: drums.

The influence of alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman in modern jazz is as clear as daylight, and his groundbreaking music has become a tremendous inspiration for so many musicians. The chameleon-like Puerto Rican altoist Miguel Zenón is vary aware of this, being grateful to the free jazz pioneer, who would have turned 91 this year, for having opened his ears and mind for something more than just the traditional ways.

On this live recording, captured at The Birds Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland, Zenón revives Ornette’s music with a magnetic vibrancy and huge respect for his work, playing alongside Cuban tenor saxophonist Ariel Bringuez, Argentinian bassist Demian Cabaud, and Catalan drummer Jordi Rossy. The chord-less quartet was convened for the occasion only, and yet the musical synergy displayed throughout makes us believe they are frequent collaborators.

“The Tribes of New York” launches a freebop madness with the saxophonists glued in a powerful unison. While Zenón fills his speech with recognizable yet shifting rhythmic figures and superbly articulated phrases, Bringuez flaunts an adequate hard-bop proficiency that counterweights the former’s vocabulary. Refraining the exuberance of the horns, Cabaud embarks on a bass reflection that gains more rhythmic emphasis shortly before the concluding theme statement.

The bassist introduces the widely esteemed “Law Years” and also outsets its improvisational segment with bluesy bends and a palpable melodic touch. Tenor sax and drums go for a walk together after Zenón’s reactivation of the theme during a wide-ranging improvisation.

Playful and brash, “Free” has a well defined structural backbone but gets crammed with manifest accentuations in the melody, bass pedals, and a firm swinging motion that points out the direction to go. The smoky horns rise above this rhythmic flux, exploring the vast possibilities in their dynamic interplay. They also exchange lines on “Dee Dee”, one of Ornette’s most spirited tunes.

In consonance with the latter’s vibe, “Giggin’” grooves high with a straightforward posture, and if Rossy reacts to Zenón's alto, Bringuez develops ideas out of his own rhythmic cells. In order to balance the energy, “Broken Shadows”, the opening track of the terrific 1972 album Crisis, injects some tearful tones in the mix.

Law Years is a jubilant celebration of Coleman's legacy; its contagious joy is as plain as the nose on your face.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - The Tribes of New York ► 02 - Free ► 05 - Broken Shadows

Flow Trio with Joe McPhee - Winter Garden

April 6, 2021

Label: ESP-Disk, 2021

Personnel - Louis Belogenis: tenor and soprano saxophone; Joe Morris: bass; Charles Downs: drums + Joe McPhee: tenor saxophone.

Flow Trio comprises intrepid, like-minded explorers of sound and texture with proven merit in this peculiar musical art known as free jazz.

Influenced by Ayler, Coltrane and S.Ware, the saxophonist Louis Belogenis was an intermittent collaborator of the late drummers Rashied Ali and Sunny Murray; for his part, bassist Joe Morris is a rhythm machine who’s been faithful to his own vision alongside many musical partners (multi-reedist Ken Vandermark, tenorist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp); Chicago-born drummer Charles Downs (aka Rashid Bakr) joined the pianist Cecil Taylor in the early 1980’s for a more-than-a-decade collaboration, and was a member of Billy Bang’s Survival Ensemble. Winter Garden marks their third outing as a group, the second on the ESP-Disk label, and features another prolific pathfinder and timbral digger on the tenor, Joe McPhee.

The trio grapples with violent agitation on the opener, “Rabble Rouser”, where the saxophonists clash against each other, pulling out raucous and raspy timbres as their phrases swell with volume and speed. The robust foundation of bass and drums never vacillates in the support of horn growls whether in complete ecstasy or severe distress. There’s still time for Morris’ arco dissertation. He starts alone, but somewhere down the line, is joined by antsy drumming and juxtaposed saxophone ostinatos.

“Recombinant” adopts a more pattern-based approach. McPhee’s repetitive tenor figure is later matched and kept by Morris, while Belogenis keeps chanting loose, longer lines on the soprano with perseverance and plasticity. A stream of cymbal attacks accompanies this process until the flow gets interrupted by a bass solo.

Whereas “Incandescence” is a blistering discharge of tension that becomes more melodic in its final phase, “Glistening” is the calmest track on the album. Although amorphous in form and free in pulse, the latter is less vehement in the expression and more discernible in the direction.

The title track alternates intensities and concludes the session with the saxophones on the same side. It features a double intervention by Morris, first bowing across the bass strings and then opting for pizzicato.

Unpacked with multiple levels of abstraction, Winter Garden is a raw and ferocious album that lives from intensive communication and unrestricted reciprocity.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Rabble Rouser ► 02 - Recombinant ► 05 - Glistening

Abraham Burton / Lucian Ban - Blacksalt

April 5, 2021

Label: Sunnyside Records, 2021

Personnel - Abraham Burton: tenor saxophone; Lucian Ban: piano.

American saxophonist Abraham Burton has turned heads in projects of drummer Louis Hayes, pianist Horace Tapscott, and as a member of the Mingus Big Band. Romanian-born pianist Lucian Ban has been building a name for himself through fruitful collaborations with saxophonist Alex Harding, violist Mat Maneri, bassist John Hébert and, recently, the British multi-reedist John Surman. The two musicians are not strangers to each other since Burton is a central constituent in Ban’s Elevation quartet. Yet, they team up for the first time as a duo on Blacksalt, a seven-track set recorded live at the Baroque Hall in Timisoara, Romania, in 2018.

The album’s first two tracks, “Opening / Freeflow” and “Belize” are representative of the personal and musical kinship shared by these two sonic builders. Dedicated to Pharoah Sanders, the former has the saxophonist blowing with prayerful utterance while the pianist - ushering into percussive muted notes, lush chords and flexible textural coils - finds efficient ways to better serve his associate's spiritual fire, expressed with range and tonal coloring. The latter tune, on the other hand, charts a dramatic Afro-Caribbean flux that comes peppered with blues movements and a faithful Coltrane terminology.

Like the two aforementioned numbers, the title cut was penned by the twosome, who gets cracking in a burnished post-bop dialogue that progressively leans toward a tempestuous avant-garde before bending into a Latin dance.

Burton’s “Dad” is a 4/4 ballad previously included in the 1999 quartet album Cause and Effect (co-authored with the drummer Eric McPherson). The session closes with two Ban compositions - the crepuscular, rubato tone poem “Untold”; and “Not That Kind of Blues”, the opening piece of Ban/Maneri’s 2013 ECM album Transylvanian Concert, here inflated through a jamming rock 'n roll-ish behavior and nice call-and-response.

With the duo’s sonic worlds closely attuned, this disc is worth searching for.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Opening/Freeflow ► 02 - Belize ► 06 - Untold