Fred Lonberg-Holm - The Art Spirit

June 30, 2021

Label: ESP-Disk, 2021

Personnel - Michael Bisio: acoustic bass; Kirk Knuffke: cornet; Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello, electronics.

Bassist Michael Bisio, cornetist Kirk Knuffke and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm anchor a trio project that lives from improvisation. The Art Spirit, now out on the ESP-Disk label, is the follow up to Requiem For A New York Slice (Iluso Records, 2019). The music was inspired by the American painter Robert Henri, one of the organizers of a landmark show called ‘The Eight’, and consists of three Bisio compositions and five collective improvisations.

Besides leading their own groups, the members of this trio have been essential to many other groups and projects. The New York bassist has been working alongside Joe McPhee, Matthew Shipp and Ivo Perelman; the Colorado-born cornetist enriches the sound of Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus, Matt Wilson Quartet and, more recently, James Brandon Lewis’ Red Lily Quintet; while the Chicagoan cellist worked with Peter Brötzmann, Steve Swell and the amazing avant-jazz unit Vandermark 5.

“Not a Souvenir of Yesterday”, the opening track and first improvisation to appear on the album, has weighty bass lines meshing with incisive cello threads, creating a perfectly audible convolution that swings while letting the cornetist loose on it.

Other improvised phenomenons that caught my ear are “Both Keys Belong to You” and “Like Your Work As Much As”. On the former, the trio sculpts and paints with impressionistic ostinatos, free rambles and buzzing drones, with the ending sounding much like a written theme statement in which Knuffke has the word. The latter tune, on the other hand, plunges straight into a swinging flow that inspires not only Knuffke - who boasts exact phrasing, snappy articulations and extended technique - but also a fantastic integration of electronics devised by Lonberg-Holm.

Bisio’s compositions encompass several moods, and if “R.henri” combines bowed strings and cornet cries to express a flow of mournful vulnerability, then “Orange Moon Yellow Field” gives the impression of amorphousness through an offbeat interlocking of the instruments. “Things Hum” presents a pizzicato dance of bass and cello for a start, and then, on a constant drive, finds space for a chamber section twisted by bowed strings and muted cornet.

Some invocations are catchier than others, but in this bubbling modern creative stew there’s a lot of abstraction and clarification as well as tension and release to keep you tuned.

Favorite Tracks:
01- Not a Souvenir of Yesterday ► 06 - Things Hum ► 07 - Like Your Work As Much As

Alchemy Sound Project - Afrika Love

June 29, 2021

Label: ARC Records, 2021

Personnel - Samantha Boshnak: trumpet; Erica Lindsay: tenor saxophone, clarinet, alto flute; Salim Washington: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, oboe; Michael Ventoso: trombone; Sumi Tonooka: piano; David Arend: bass; Chad Taylor: drums.

The Alchemy Sound Project often blurs the line between notated music and improvisation while carrying a pronounced modal flair and spirituality in the style of John Coltrane, Billy Harper, Horace Tapscott, Pharaoh Sanders and Charles Tolliver. As had been the case with the previous records, the core quintet - woodwind players Erica Lindsay and Salim Washington, trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, pianist Sumi Tonooka and bassist David Arend - invites a trombonist and a drummer to join them. Michael Ventoso and Chad Taylor, respectively, were the elected ones for this third outing.

Comprising five original pieces, one by each member of the group, the record opens with Arend’s triumphant “The Fountain”, where a mix of articulated unisons and counterpoint traverses powerful harmonic vibrations in a compact, slick arrangement. Following the initial tenor solo by Washington, there’s a bridging vamp with ebullient drumming that takes us to the adventurous pianism of Tonooka. Before the catchy main theme is reinstated, Lindsay juxtaposes two different tenor statements.

The latter contributes “Kesii” to the track list, a 5/4 expedition launched by a bass clarinet figure and anchored in several bass grooves. By shifting pace and mood along the way, the group enjoys the incantation of self-invention, attaining equal parts mystery, bliss and relaxation in its itinerary.

Whereas Tonooka’s “Dark Blue Residue” flows within an asymmetrical structure, incorporating a middle passage in six for collective reflection and a drum solo at the end, the Randy Weston-like “Afrika Love” tinges its African-rooted fabrics with intriguing and balladic tones. Washington, who is based in Durban, wrote it for the South African pianist Afrika Mkhize, but, according to Tonooka, the title also applies to the group’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The amiably ramble of “The Cadillac of Mountains” denotes a very personal touch and compositional contrast that come from Boshnack, who penned it and put her trumpet in the lead. Juggling excitement and pondering, the piece is about being in awe of the nature’s magnificence, and becomes a wonderful showcase for the talents of Taylor, whose elegant propulsions come to a climax in the 15-beat cycle vamp that leads to the ending.

Alchemy Sound Project is a solid group with charismatic vibes.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - The Fountain ► 03 - Afrika Love ► 04 - The Cadillac of Mountains

Mario Pavone Dialect Trio + 1 - Blue Vertical

June 28, 2021

Label: Out of Your Head Records, 2021

Personnel - Mario Pavone: double bass; Matt Mitchell: piano; Tyshawn Sorey: drums + Dave Ballou: trumpet.

The incredible bassist, composer and bandleader Mario Pavone passed away last month after a 17-year battle with cancer. With a fruitful career that spanned nearly 60 years, he will be ever seen as a true example of love and dedication to creative music. Inspired albums such as Remembering Thomas (1999), Dancers Tales (1997) and Ancestors (2008) still have impact today.

For this record, the bassist and his Dialect Trio mates - pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Tyshawn Sorey - are joined by a constructive fourth member, the trumpeter Dave Ballou, who was in charge of the arrangements. The quartet manages to give the sense of what the musical connections with Pavone were: serious business but also a great deal of fun.

“Twardzik”, a tribute to the pianist/composer Dick Twardzick, is immediately launched with a rhythmic mesh that shows the bassist’s knack for grooving mightily in odd tempos. There’s a beautiful dissonance affixed to a dissimulated swing, and it feels good to hear Pavone’s sculptural robustness allied to Sorey’s temperamental sophistication.

Boasting an accented figure at the center, “OKWA” pulsates resolutely as the group contributes rhythmic punchiness and melodic openness. Mitchell and Ballou eschew obvious routes in their solos, which come laden with fresh ideas. The trumpeter brings his clever ostinatos and rapid proliferation of post-bop sounds into the four-way conversation that characterizes “Legacy Stories”. His resolute moves are closely followed by invigorating swinging bass lines unaligned by crumbliness, colorful piano playing and effervescent drumming for crispness.

“Philosophy Series” is a tension-inducer with a well-crafted theme statement. It thrives with grooving pedal-pointed vistas, elaborate interplay and elastic behaviors, sharing some of its dynamism with the playful “Good Treble”, which relies on fragmentation and cyclic activity to make a splash.

“Isabella” and “Face Music” incorporate considerable reflective qualities. The former is dedicated to Mario’s late granddaughter who died tragically in June 2020, while the latter embraces calm abstraction in the line of Paul Bley and Paul Motian before reaching a delirious pinnacle through a crescendo.

The music of Pavone - complex, lyrical and lively- will be sorely missed. Blue Vertical is here to attenuate that pain and be discovered.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Twardzik ► 02 - OKWA ► 05 - Philosophy Series

Silke Eberhard Trio - Being the Up and Down

June 24, 2021

Label: Intakt Records, 2021

Personnel - Silke Eberhard: alto saxophone; Jan Roder: bass; Kay Lübke: drums.

The German saxophonist Silke Eberhard has been infusing the European avant-garde jazz scene with structural integrity and brains. On Being The Up and Down, the fourth album with her powerhouse trio of 12 years - featuring Jan Roder on bass and Kay Lübke on drums - she provides zest and fiber to narratives delineated with a fully developed language that intersects influences from Eric Dolphy, Anthony Braxton, Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman.

“U11” starts off as a free ramble negotiated with extroverted saxophone and an aesthetic dispersion in the background created by uncertain bass walks and clattering drumming. Shortly after that, the trio explores thematic passages with angular melody, fluctuating tempos and occasionally indulging in swinging motions.

Titles such as “Strudel” and “Yuri Neko” embrace a welcome degree of complexity. The former probes distinct dynamics after combusting under the effect of explosive off-kilter lines unleashed with fiery timbres and accents. The latter, recorded live at the A-Trane in Berlin, bursts with Dolphy-esque energy throughout a playful and flavorful interplay that culminates in a vamp for Lübke's rhythmic amplification. The drummer also roars on “Von A Nach B”, while Roder enjoys ample solo space on “Laika’s Descent”, a piece delivered in five.

Nicely contrasting scenarios are offered by “Hymne”, which, imposing a rhythmic drive of geometric precision after a bass intro, has the cymbals and snare maneuvers gradually losing prominence on account of the bowing bass; and “Zeitlupenbossa”, a catchy, if sluggish, bossa song enchanted by Eberhard’s melodic smoothness and gently underpinned with unconcentrated bass lines and brushed drums in tow.

Achieving a balancing act between control and freedom, Eberhard and her associates sound here more responsive and resourceful than ever.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Strudel ► 05 - Hymne ► 09 - Yuri Neko

Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future

June 23, 2021

Label: Impulse! Records, 2021

Personnel - Shabaka Hutchings: woodwinds; Theon Cross: tuba; Tom Skinner: percussion; Edward Wackili-Hick: percussion + guests - Joshua Idehen: vocals (#1,11); Angel Bat Dawid: vocals (#2); Moor Mother: vocals (#2); Kojey Radical: vocals (#4); Lianne La Havas: backing vocals (#4); D Double E: vocals (#5); Steve Williamson: tenor saxophone (#1); Ife Ogunjobi: trumpet (#5); Nathaniel Cross: trombone (#5); Cassie Kinoshi: alto saxophone (#5); Kebbi Williams: tenor saxophone (#9).

Sons of Kemet, one of the many combos led by the British-born Barbados-raised saxophonist/composer Shabaka Hutchings (The Comet is Coming, Shabaka & The Ancestors) returns with Black to the Future, a dance-oriented fourth album that is more rooted in folklore than ever. This bubbling meld of cluttering, shuffling African beats and groove workout is reinforced with a few guest artists that help to pass the message against racial discrimination - from slavery to George Floyd’s death to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Both “Field Negus” and “Black”, opener and closer, respectively, resonate with the fervently emotive spoken word by poet Joshua Idehen. The former presents a mournful musical texture in the background, while the latter breaks out with surging drones. Both are expressions of rage and frustration.

The group incorporates different dimensions, materials and sources, and if “Pick Up Your Burning Cross” boasts an euphoric afro-beat, ecstatic horn riffery and the voices of Chicagoan Angel Bat Dawid and Philadelphian Moor Mother, then both “Think of Hope” and “For the Culture” go deep in the African folk traditions, empowered by Theon Cross’s super groovy tuba.

Featuring Kojey Radical’s rap with backing vocals by Lianne La Havas, “Hustle” embraces a ska vibe, sounding darker at first and sultry the next moment. It’s definitely not my cup of tea, in opposition to “In Remembrance of the Fallen”, a crisply arranged and rhythmically percolated piece with a Brazilian spirit and swirling flute waves.

Other two interesting instrumentals are “Let the Circle Be Unbroken”, a calypsonian instrumental with some cacophonous bursts and unexpected far-out passages, and “Envision Yourself Levitating”, where we spot afro-funk and reggae crosscurrents and an extended time for improvisation (with guest tenorist Kebbi Williams on the team), which occurs on top of a driving dance-march drumming.

The message is powerful and necessary, but not every track worked for me.

Favorite Tracks:
07 - In Remembrance of the Fallen ► 09 - Envision Yourself Levitating ► 11 - Black

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog - Hope

June 22, 2021

Label: Northern Spy Records, 2021

Personnel - Marc Ribot: guitar, vocals; Shahzad Ismaily: bass, keyboards, backing vocals; Ches Smith: drums, percussion, electronics, backing vocals // Guests - Darius Jones: alto sax (#6,7); Rubin Khodeli and Gyda Valtysdottir: cello (#8); Syd Straw: background vocals (#3).

Whether skirting rock, jazz, blues or funk, the guitarist/composer Marc Ribot always creates something fresh and finds powerful messages to deliver in our turbulent times. Hope is his third outing with the revolutionary Ceramic Dog project, in which he teams up with the bassist Shahzad Ismaily and the drummer Ches Smith. They are seen at the height of their powers in nine energy-filled tracks that were a direct product of the pandemic lockdown.

“B-Flat Ontology”, pinned with a minor chord whose colors take me to a particular passage of R.E.M.’s “Drive”, serves as a harbinger of Ribot's discontentment and frustration. According to him, it’s a depressing song, but it’s also an ironic one, where he doesn’t spare shocking performing artists, rock stars and young guitarists playing arpeggios at high velocity, contemporary poets, post-modern philosophers and pretentious singer/songwriters - “Isn’t it amazing? It’s just amazing! I’m just amazed!”, he sings.

The old and the new combine on “Nickelodeon”, a rockified reggae with a slippery bass groove, steady backbeat and a Talking Heads-like chorus; and also on “Wanna”, whose strong melodic riff and danceable slap beat were maybe fetched from to the 1980’s, including traces of funk rock that are redolent of Cameo’s “Word Up!”.

The satirical “The Activist” covers a lot of stuff in the spoken word (“I don’t accept…, I refuse, I resist.”), which flows atop slick bass moves and funk guitar interjections. Yet, I personally go for the instrumentals, two of which are bolstered by the guest presence of alto saxophonist Darius Jones who infuses extrovert avant-garde forays with fiery tones on “They Met in the Middle”, a country song, and “The Long Goodbye”, where the sophistication of Robert Wyatt meets the melodic distortion of Sonic Youth.

If “Bertha the Cool” navigates the groovy seas of smooth jazz via warm guitar octaves and licks, then “Maple Leaf Rage”, featuring two guest cellists - Rubin Khodeli and Gyda Valtysdottir - has two distinct halves: the first, more atmospheric, has Smith chattering fluently with brushes, whereas the second morphs into a blistering electric rock in which influences of Zappa and then Pink Floyd are noticeable.

The trio concludes the album with a cover of Donovan’s psychedelic pop song “Wear Your Love Like Heaven”, which they transform into a sort of evocative ballad sung in a Lou Reed style.

Ribot is a necessary figure in the current musical panorama, and the eclectic Hope has so many great flavors to be savored.

Favorite Tracks:
06 - They Met in the Middle ► 07 - The Long Goodbye ► 08 - Maple Leaf Rage

East Axis - Cool With That

June 21, 2021

Label: ESP-Disk, 2021

Personnel - Allen Lowe: alto and tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; Kevin Ray: bass; Gerald Cleaver; drums.

The new free jazz quartet East Axis explores different moods and forms of narrative in their music, and the fun of it, besides the incredible sounds that connect with artistic purpose, is that you are never sure exactly where it will take you. The group is comprised of Allen Lowe, a saxophonist and music historian known for associate acts with Julius Hemphill, Roswell Rudd and David Murray; pianist Matthew Shipp, whose originality, creativity and immeasurable energy have been marking the modern jazz for decades; bassist Kevin Ray, a former Reggie Workman’s protégé who is perhaps the less known of the four; and Gerald Cleaver, a formidable eclectic drummer with a penchant for alternative grooves.

The group opens the album with an intriguing mood, searching with expectation on “A Side”, where the mind-boggling pianism of Shipp stands out from the subdued backing rhythm of bass and drums. The saxophone, dancing confidently on top of the texture, swings in its own way, never by the books but also never stepping totally outside. Near the end, after a groove marked by percussive bass plucks and patterned piano stimulation, he conjures Monk with aplomb.

“Oh Well I Forgot That” finds the quartet in an impetuous rush created by relentless sounds mounted with jubilance and comfort. Conversely, the following “Social Distance” denotes a more cautious approach (as the title suggests) with sinuous sax melodies running over a controlled, if austere, rhythmic flux. This dispirited atmosphere is dismantled with the satisfaction conveyed on “I’m Cool With That”, a colorful blues populated with intrepid saxophone lines and a slowly built piano statement with less outside moves than expected but injecting some Monk angularity for accentuation.

All four members are focused on the communication and how to respond better to one another, and they finish off the record at their most inventive by crossing a sea of attractive textures and rhythms on “One”, a 28-and-a-half minute excursion developed with ambiguity and precision in its episodes. The poetic frisson of these proceedings often channels Ornette Coleman and Anthony Braxton and, occasionally, Steve Lacy.

With such players, a certain level of transcendence was expected, and the group delivers with both elegance and vitality.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - A Side ► 04 - I’m Cool With That ► 05 - One

Ben Goldberg - Everything Happens To Be

June 17, 2021

Label: BAG Records, 2021

Personnel - Ben Goldberg: clarinet, bass clarinet; Ellery Eskelin: tenor saxophone; Mary Halvorson: guitar; Michael Formanek: bass; Tomas Fujiwara: drums.

Anyone with strong ties to modern jazz has clarinetist/composer Ben Goldberg in high account, not only because of his free-minded posture and adventurous sound but also for the exciting groups he puts together. His latest outing, Everything Happens To Be, features him in a malleable quintet with some of the most in-demand New York risk-takers, for whom he specifically composed the music. Goldberg combines his melodic resources with the ones of tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin in the forefront, while the rhythmic department features the illustrious members of Thumbscrew - guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara.

Hyped by Halvorson’s phenomenal comping, “What About” demonstrates to be a romantic, cinematic and easy-on-the-ear opener, having Goldberg and Eskelin work closely together to draw a chorale-type of narrative arc. Fujiwara’s command of the brushes is noticeable here, and he finds a time for himself near the ending.

“21” offers a superb avant-garde psychedelia that gleams with sonic delights. It starts with the melody right at the center, passing through a period of moderate rhythmic fuzziness - thanks to Formanek’s woody plucks and Fujiwara’s snare drum - and then jumping into a steadfast swinging motion over which a collective improvisatory feast occurs. The two-horn coalition exudes a dixieland/swing type of allure during the theme, a disposition that returns on “To-Ron-To” and, less pronouncedly, on “Cold Weather”.

The group is symbiotic in its communication and tunes like “Fred Hampton”, a hummable pop song for the political activist that the title refers to; “Everything Happens To Be”, which flows with an underlying bossa touch; and “Chorale Type”, which flourishes with melody-drenched focal points (clarinet-guitar interplay / bass solo / tenor solo over pop-rock chord changes), make new and exciting music swirling into being. There’s also a groovy, asymmetric klezmer-flavored piece called “Long Last Moment”, which was previously included in the clarinetist’s 2006 quintet album The Door, The Hat, The Chair, The Fact.

Yet, the most impressive piece on the album is “Tomas Plays the Drums”, a tour-de-force that integrates the magnetic, sonorous tones of the bass clarinet with a mix of dry snare, wet toms and rim sounds provided by the drummer. The last section is reworked on the strength of an infectious rhythm atop which Eskelin’s multiphonics, Goldberg’s intensely vibrating blows, and Halvorson’s distorted tweaks, stand out.

This is an album that conveys optimism and joy, blending empathic familiar sounds with carefully measured tension.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - “21” ► 07 - Tomas Plays the Drums ► 08 - Long Last Moment

Stephan Micus - Winter's End

June 16, 2021

Label: ECM Records

Personnel - Stephan Micus: 12-string guitar, chikulo, sinding, nohkan, nay, charango, sattar, suling, kalimba, tongue drum, Tibetan cymbals, vocals

Winter’s End, the 26th solo album from German multi-instrumentalist Stephan Micus on ECM was mounted with 11 instruments from 10 countries and impeccable vocal layers.

“Autumn Hymn” fuses the heaven and earth through an ethnic dance that incorporates the nohkan, a traverse Japanese bamboo flute that darts and weaves over droning throbs and clicking noises of a trio of chikulos, a bass xylophone from Mozambique.

On the first page of the CD booklet we read the following quote from the Japanese poet Murakami Kijo: “Although there is the road, the child walks in the snow”. Inspired by it, Micus delivers both “Walking in Snow” and “Walking in Sand” in a 12-string guitar that oozes kindness, poignancy and a quiet vibration that is complemented with occasional harmonics.

Whether “A New Light” probes eastern chamber tones thanks to the sattar sounds (a long necked bowed instrument used by the Uigurs, a Turkman people from Western China), “Oh Chikulo” builds its nomadic narrative with deeper percussive sounds, employing four chikulos for the effect. This last instrument is also at the base of “Black Mother”, which admits clever modulation and a tuneful choral of 11multi-pitched voices recorded by Micus. He takes his singing gift even further on the beautiful “The Longing of the Migrant Birds”, whose dancing rhythm and spellbinding 14 layers of voice take us into a spiritual journey from Europe to Africa.

With expressive melancholy, “Southern Stars” drops passionate, romantic vibes emitted by four charangos (a small Andean stringed instrument), five sulings (Indonesian bamboo ring flute), one sinding (West African harp) and two nays (ancient Egyptian hollow flute).

This album, in all its simplicity and beauty, might not surpass its two predecessors - Inland Sea (2017) and White Night (2019) - but Micus’ harmonious and rhythmic qualities are found intact.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Walking in Snow ► 03 - The Longing of the Migrant Birds ► 11 - Walking in Sand

Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson, Dave King - Broken Shadows

June 15, 2021

Label: Intakt Records, 2021

Personnel - Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Chris Speed: tenor saxophone; Reid Anderson: bass; Dave King: drums.

Formed in 2017, Broken Shadows is a powerful chord-less quartet dedicated to tunes from archetypal avant jazzers such as Ornette Coleman, Julius Hemphill, Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden. The combo - fronted by saxophonists Tim Berne and Chris Speed, with Reid Anderson and Dave King (the rhythm machine of The Bad Plus) filling the bass and drums chair, respectively, is found in spirited form throughout 12 covers, ten of which had been included in a 2019 LP released on the Newvelle Records. Legacy is valued.

It all starts with “Street Woman”, a riveting Ornette Coleman piece whose subsurface tension adrenalizes the saxophonists to deliver freewheeling blows that roar with timbral splendor. They constantly interact with each other, usually embarking on unisons for a start, and then setting knotty phrases and potent riffs against the fibrous matrixes provided by bass and drums. “Toy Dance” and “Ecars” are contagiously swinging rides that follow both angular and sinuous melodic trajectories. The former is blissfully folk in nature while the latter is a freebop incursion.

Reid steps forward on Coleman’s “Comme Il Faut”, where he wallows in nimble movements with chromatic slips and improvisation, and also on Haden’s “Song For Che”, taking the folk intonations and gestural brushwork exhibited by his associates to a solitary bass perfection.

If the Redman-penned “Walls-Bridges” is rhythmically aggressive with the horns channeling all their creative energy into the solos, “Una Muy Bonita” requires sophistication in the latinized groove and rhythmic nuance.

Two Hemphill hymns are added to the track list: “Body”, a grooving and funky effort, and the cherished “Dogon A.D.”, a beautiful 11/8 statement with scratchy arco bass, parallel saxophone playing, and a cool beat upgraded with syncopation.

Because the excitement rarely slows down, it feels great that Coleman’s “Broken Shadows” concludes the record as a melodically arresting lament underpinned by brushed drums and a quiet bass flow that includes pizzicato and bowed techniques.

Rising and expanding with brief yet fraught soloing, this is energy music of the first order.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Street Woman ► 07 - Dogon A.D. ► 12 - Broken Shadows

Andre Matos - On the Shortness of Life Vol. I-IV

June 13, 2021

Label: Self released, 2021

Personnel - Andre Matos: guitar, effects w/ Guests - João Lencastre: drums; Andre Carvalho: double bass; Dov Manski: synth; Sara Serpa: vocals; Gonçalo Marques: trumpet; Noah Preminger: tenor sax; Demian Cabaud: double bass; Richard Sears: piano; Jose Soares: alto sax; Leo Genovese: piano; Nathan Blehar: tenor sax; Julian Shore: piano; Aaron Krusiki: bass clarinet.

After finishing his solo tetralogy with Casa (Robalo, 2021), the Portuguese guitarist/composer Andre Matos, who is based in New York since 2008, creates another four volumes, this time consisting mostly of short duo tracks that explore diverse perspectives of texture and space. Recorded last April, On the Shortness of Life has the guitarist working on top (and around) improvised segments sent by colleagues of long standing, guiding us across vast planes of music whose essence can be folk-like, experimental, avant-garde or ambient, and, in certain cases, a combination of some of these elements. All of this is delivered with a sensitive awareness of the frequencies of the two instruments involved and where they each fit.

The resolute direction taken by the pianist Richard Sears on “Sunrise” is shrouded by the beautiful soundscapes of Matos. This pair is responsible for a more mysterious collage of sounds on the concluding “Sunset”.

Two other pianists were called to participate in the experiment, namely Leo Genovese and Julian Shore on the warped “Quieter Pursuits” and the wistful “Dentro de Água”, respectively. Both titles evoke sounds of nature whether through cinematic effects, white noise or bubbly complementary ornaments. They usually follow quiet yet intriguing routes.

“Invested in Something” denotes hopeful guitar drippings that agglomerate around a long, crying note delivered by trumpeter Gonçalo Marques who unfolds it patiently without losing a bit of that tormenting beseech.

The nimble keyboardist Dov Manski deliberately embraces dark pitches on “Do Além”, with the tension being appeased by smooth layers of electric guitar. In turn, the tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger infuses both sheer melody and momentary outside playing on “Walking Around”, emphasizing the Americana influence in its concluding melodic part. The guitar comping is phenomenal.

“Vindima” is struck by muscular distortion and a folk-tinged slide guitar, which turned up as a consequence of the apt underpinning offered by the Portuguese drummer João Lencastre. The latter brings out his commanding touch of cymbals and toms on “Mucifal”, where Matos oozes a lustrous sound. Yet, the space between them gets strongly rooted in the American sound on “Colares”.

While finding the right feel for each track, Matos shows how subtly brilliant and spaciously melodic his guitar playing can be. “Smalls” and “Antidote”, both with saxophonist Nathan Blehar, and “Flowers” with bassist André Carvalho, convey a wise tranquility, whereas the vocalist Sara Serpa pushes things a bit more into the edgier side on three tracks. With “Remembrance”, it’s the circular breathing of Aaron Krusiki on bass clarinet that motivates a wonderful, in-depth guitar processing.

This is a lucid improvisatory work by a guitarist with a strong identity who decided to donate all sales of the record to the International Rescue Committee.

Favorite Tracks:
15 - Invested in Something ► 18 - Mucifal ► 19 - Walking Around

Ches Smith and We All Break - Path of Seven Colors

June 10, 2021

Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2021

Personnel - Ches Smith: drums, percussion, vocals; Miguel Zenón: alto saxophone; Matt Mitchell: piano; Nick Dunston: bass; Sirene Dantor Rene: vocals; Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene: tanbou, vocals.

The singular drummer/percussionist and composer Ches Smith fell in love with the drumming rituals of Haitian vodou music in 2000 and, since then, has been exploring and maturing it. His We All Break project began as a quartet in 2015, but now has doubled its members into a perfect octet lineup that includes all the original co-conspirators - pianist Matt Mitchell and tanbou players/singers Daniel Brevil and Markus Schwartz - plus the valuable additions of alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Nick Dunston, Haitian singer Sirene Dantor Rene and percussionist/singer Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene. This expansion allowed Smith to work on a broader range of musical territory on Path of Seven Colors, in which he pushes the envelope by brewing a potent cauldron of Haitian vodou rhythms and contemporary jazz.

The singing gets even more exposure on this album and the lead-off track, “Woule Pou Mwen” points the way after a precursory piano figure that joins the intervallic and the limberness. If this piece is based on the Kongo rhythm, a secular form of social dancing, then “Here’s the Light” erupts in the classic Port-au-Prince style bas line, merging the Afro-Haitian rhythmic colors of the Yanvalou (a sacred dance) with jazz influences that range from Keith Jarrett’s post-bop to Ornette Coleman’s harmolodics.

The latter tune thrives with improvisations from Mitchell and Zenón, who share and alternate the spotlight with eminent sagacity. The pair also delivers in the cutting-edge three-section “Women of Iron”, a fantastically orchestrated instrumental, whose Napo rhythm (coming from the Nigerian Yoruba roots and associated with military conflict and liberation) is complex and encouraging. I simply marveled at the playing of Zenón here.

“Leaves Arrive” kicks off with extended chantings that incorporate Brevil’s lyrics as well as one traditional song, climaxing in polyrhythmic expression and contagious statements from bass and saxophone. Inversely, “Raw Urbane”, marked by the propulsive Djouba rhythm (associated with cultivation and farming) stresses counterpoint and spiky accents before shifting to the Abitan dance type, occasion when soulful vocals and Zenón’s folk decoration step to the fore.

The title cut has a strong presence for it starts off with more atmospheric mood and unfettered sense of space prior to affix a strangely hypnotic pulsation.

Confident as ever, Smith proves to be a drummer of categorical rhythmic detail. His thought-provoking explorations combine precise articulation and an inexhaustible eclectic vitality.

Favoriter Tracks:
04 - Women of Iron ► 06 - Raw Urbane ► 07 - Path of Seven Colors

Sinikka Langeland - Wolf Rune

June 9, 2021

Label: ECM Records, 2021

Personnel - Sinikka Langeland: kantele, vocals.

I’m completely captivated by the entrancing, meditative music of the Norwegian folksinger and kantele player Sinikka Langeland. Having collaborated with known jazz personalities in the past - including the bassist Anders Jormin, trumpeter Arve Henriksen and saxophonist Trygve Seim - Langeland goes solo on Wolf Rune, her sixth outing on the ECM Records.

Here, she plays three different kantele instruments (a zither-family table-harp with rich tones), being more rooted in the incantatory and poetic tales of the Finnskogen folklore tradition than in jazz. Yet, a contemporary feel inundates these 12 tracks made of rune songs, folk hymns and dances, and mystic religious chants. Each of them works its own magic, generating a marvel of sounds that search for the elemental beauty in nature.

Langeland’s impeccable voice and the special 39-string concert kantele can be heard on the hypnotic “Row My Ocean”, in which she sings a text by contemporary Norwegian poet/playwright Jon Fosse; the tranquil “The Eye of the Blue Whale”, whose active low notes sustain the glowing upper sweeps and her own lyrics; “When I Was a Forest”, a mysterious and liturgical chant articulated with the words of the 13th-century mystic/philosopher Meister Eckhart; and “Don’t Come to Me With the Entire Truth”, where the 1961 poem of the same name by Olav H. Hauge soars above the bucolic nature of the music.

On the stunning “Winter Rune”, Langeland adds the 5-string kantele to the concert one, making a case for an ambient spaciousness that develops into occasional abstract textures that she sculpts (briefly using the bow) and molds with quill-plucked grace. When her voice is embedded in the last section, it comes with a pleasurably shivering sensation.

Configured like a lullaby-ish folk pop tune, the traditional “Polsdance From Finnskogen” merges the ancient and the contemporary, while “The Girl in the Headlands” is a trollspringar (Norwegian folk dance) carrying grace and emotion. The record ends with the title cut, a 1808 rune song wrapped in mythology and mysticism.

Conjuring incantatory landscapes and moods, this is a record of immense beauty that touches the heart and quiets the mind.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Row My Ocean ► 08 - Winter Rune ► 10 - The Girl in the Headlands

Jonas Cambien Trio - Nature Hath Painted the Body

June 8, 2021

Label: Clean Feed Records, 2021

Personnel - Jonas Cambien: piano, organ (#6,11), soprano saxophone (#4); Andre Roligheten: alto and soprano saxophone, bass clarinet; Andreas Wildhagen: drums.

Jonas Cambien, a classical-trained Belgian pianist living in Oslo, formed his resourceful trio - with Norwegian musicians Andre Roligheten on reeds and Andreas Wildhagen on drums - in 2016, the same year they made their recording debut with A Zoology of the Future. Their third breakthrough, Nature Hath Painted the Body, was recently made available on Clean Feed Records and comes packed with capable arrangements that allow for free interplay, biting tones, rhythmic tautness, and a thrilling intersection of angles, shapes and colors.

A warped 33-second introduction leads us to “1000000 Happy Locusts”, an exultant dance of curiosity and discovery, working as a heady blend of folk, avant-garde and classical that spread throughout its structural sections. Cambien shows how dynamic his piano playing can be when combining two concurrent melodic threads in his solo recital. He’s later joined by Roligheten’s soprano curlicues and punchy accents.

The reedist doesn’t eschew melody on the infectiously percussive “Harrieschoppers”, and even adds a bit of flutter tonguing technique on the bass clarinet to go along with the mechanical flux delivered by piano and drums.

Whereas “Mantis” sports a groovy piano pattern and galloping percussion at the base of its folk storytelling, “The Origins of Tool Use” takes the world music into an abstract realm, boasting not just a primitive Afro atmosphere generated by prepared piano, but also a frisky posture achieved by brazen organ as well as popping and chanting woodwinds.

Contrasting with the mercurial shifts on “Freeze”, which plays with hushes and outbursts, “Yoyo Helmut” has this danceable rock-fueled rhythm going on, all along.

The album concludes with “Helium”, whose manifest organ progression finds Roligheten on the edge of pitch, prior to Wildhagen’s anticipation of the three time feel that ensues. At that time, the bass clarinet tracks the crisp path of the piano, supporting simultaneous saxophones lines.

It’s stimulating what Cambien proposes in this album.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - 1000000 Happy Locusts ► 03 - Harrieschoppers ► 11 - Helium

Dahveed Behroozi - Echos

June 7, 2021

Label: Sunnyside Records, 2021

Personnel - Dahveed Berhoozi: piano; Thomas Morgan: double bass; Billy Mintz: drums.

San Jose-based pianist Dahveed Berhoozi merges jazz and classical streams in a peculiar way, pushing the envelope through a sui generis contemporary material that echoes a strong improvisational feel. For this album, his second, he is backed up by two New York stalwarts of the rhythm, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Billy Mintz, with whom he has been intermittently playing since his graduation from the Manhattan School of Music.

For the opening track, “Imagery”, the trio invests in ripe elliptical patterns, crafting a consolidated, if melancholic sound that falls into place through Behroozi’s exquisite hybrid pianism (the classical influence is notorious), Morgan’s immensely spacious drive that ties everything together, and Mintz’s incredible command of the cymbals, which spark with a myriad of colors.

The closer we get to the sound, the most we are able to appreciate the spirit of this ingenious music. “Gilroy”, which was titled for the Californian town where the bandleader teaches, plays like a three-way oratorio with consistent ideas that repeat, intensify and dance together. Later on, the trio exudes a stylish samba feel with hints of hip-hop out of its deconstructed concept. Following the short bass story that occurs on top of a piano pedal, the piece ends with wide-ranging keyboard sweeps.

Intriguingly oblique, “Chimes” is a mystery unfolding that seems not to be interested in a balanced articulation. No one better to create this type of effect than Morgan and Mintz, who patrol each musical section with both loose autonomy and collective sensibility.

Whether humble or exalted, the trio sticks to their thing. The deliriously dense “Sendoff” strikes out in a freer direction, and its zany motion contrasts heavily with pieces like “Royal Star”, a fragile 3/4 statement with conspicuous brushwork and floral inspiration, and “Tricks”, where odd lyricism wrestles with several gravitational forces to generate a perceptible polyrhythmic feel.

Though a little meandering, Echos is an album of systematic ambiguity and a few pleasurable surprises.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Imagery ► 03 - Gilroy ► 08 - Tricks

Ariel Bart - In between

June 3, 2021

Label: Ropeadope Records, 2021

Personnel - Ariel Bart: harmonica; Mayu Shviro: cello; Moshe Elmakias: piano; David Michaeli: double bass; Amir Bar Akiva: drums.

The up-and-coming Israeli harmonica player and composer Ariel Bart has been getting noticed not only through salient New York collaborations - with the trombonist Steve Swell on his album The Center Will Hold (2020) and the bassist William Parker on Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World (2021) - but also with her personal work. Wedding European jazz tradition and Middle Eastern particularities, In Between, her debut record, is more straightforward than oblique, showing the bandleader’s adherence to balmy musical contexts.

“Spiritual Wars” resulted in a gentle undulating flow permeated with beautiful folk melody. The harmonica commands our attention during the warmhearted improvisation, and then it’s the piano that colors things nicely before the mild effervescence of the snare drum becomes salient.

Bart is consistently expressive on “Colors Palette”, deserving a comparison with Toots Thielemans as she rides the crest of involving harmonic waves sustained by an attractive rhythm.

“Stranger on the Hill”, an emotion-filled waltz expressed with a mature language, includes sublime moments of multiphonic harmonica, pedaling and arco bass, and resolute percussion. In turn, the lulling “Deep Down”, equally coping with a triple meter, is concise, melodic and soulful.

Mayu Shviro introduces the title cut with unaccompanied cello, and that song concludes the album as a smooth, somewhat yearning Middle Eastern reflection in five.

In Between is the vehicle that transports us to Bart’s personal sonic world. It might not have the immediate thrills of the avant-garde scene but follows a coherent line of thought, signaling a promising future for her in the jazz universe.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Spiritual Wars ► 02 - Colors Palette ► 03 - Stranger on the Hill

Julian Lage - Squint

June 2, 2021

Label: Blue Note Records, 2021

Personnel - Julian lage: electric guitar; Jorge Roeder: double bass; Dave King: drums.

It’s frequent to find a variety of styles - jazz, folk, blues, country - in the music of virtuosic 33-year-old guitarist Julian Lage, who makes his debut as a leader on the Blue Note label with Squint. The album - whose program includes nine Lage originals, one jazz standard (the gracefully waltzing Mandel/Mercer's “Emily”) and one classic country song (Billy Hill’s “Call of the Canyon”) - was built with his current working trio, featuring bassist Jorge Roeder and the former-The Bad Plus drummer Dave King. It’s the long-waited follow-up to Love Hurts (Mack Avenue, 2019), whose rich repertoire included tunes by Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Ivers/Lynch, Roy Orbison and Jimmy Giuffre.

According to the bandleader, his tactic for this album was to make positive, beautiful music, and he succeeded with cohesiveness and an authentic trio sound that, happy to note, is never too polished.

“Etude” is a relaxing solo guitar introduction to the album, instantly drawing us in, but without disclosing what the rest of the record entails. Its discreetly brilliant melodic impressions lie on folk and contemporary classical elements.

The blues style is very present throughout, and if “Boo’s Blues” is a mature, easy listening tune with chordal mastery (momentarily presented like a progression of evolving chromaticism) and a swinging Kenny Burrell-delivery, then the following piece, “Squint”, adds a hooky Led Zeppelin-like rock twist to the genre.

Lage's beautiful composition “Day and Age”, retrieved from his first solo album, World’s Fair (2015), is equally bluesy, stirred by a country jazz undercurrent where the smooth texture and fascinating melody become one. This is breezy, amiable stuff that extends to “Quiet Like a Fuse”, which places a delicious guitar riff at the center with sparse bass accompaniment and subdued drums in the background. There's also the Scofield-esque “Twilight Surfer”, in which a rockabilly vibe stumbles on smooth jazz funk.

The casual pop groove with bluesy melodic accents of “Saint Rose” has Lage raising his hat to Wilco’s frontman Jeff Tweedy at the same time that alludes to his Californian hometown, Santa Rosa. But there’s another dedication on the album - “Familiar Flower” borrows the sophistication of saxophonist Charles Lloyd, with whom Lage has been playing in recent years. Sinuous guitar discourses flow comfortably on top of persistent bass pedals and clattering drums.

The arresting and eclectic Squint was crafted with nuance, clarity and precision, and the results are sophisticated and vibrant.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Squint ► 07 - Day and Age ► 08 - Quiet Like a Fuse

Hearth - Melt

May 27, 2021

Label: Clean Fedd, 2021

Personnel - Susana Santos Silva: trumpet; Mette Rasmussen: alto saxophone; Ada Rave: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Kaja Draksler: piano.

Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler, Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and Argentine saxophonist/clarinetist Ada Rave join forces in a new all-female avant-garde quartet with a fabulous command of timbre and texture. The name of the group, Hearth, came up as a blend of the words earth and heart, and the music on Melt clarifies why. The album consists of an improvised six-piece program recorded live at Portalegre Jazz Festival in Portugal.

You can almost trail a path into nature when listening to “At Daybreak”, a collage of curious sounds - many of them drawn from extended techniques and shaping up as fluttering reiterative figures - that will enable you to picture skies, birds, forests and mountains in your head. Among all these, and some more whispering and hissing sounds and percussive elements, a human voice stands out saying: “silence! too much talking” and “how far do you want to go?”.

I could hear the sea and the wind at the end of “Turbulent Flow”, which starts with dreamy piano playing infused with moderate tension, working as a platform for agitated saxophones and trumpet in a collision course. There’s more harmonic adherence on this piece than on any other, but on top of that, Draksler offers us an impeccable solo piano moment that is as much tonally blurred as it is colorful.

The opener, “Fading Icebergs”, has these notes of different durations and pitches coming and go at their own rhythm. They are deliberately and contrapuntally mounted to throb a pulsation that screams for life.

With three distinct parts, “Tidal Phase” has each musician reacting to the surroundings. Without delay, there’s buzzing, spiraling and frantic activity living all together; the middle section consists of undying piercing notes that resist to the propulsion of a popping saxophone and piano punctuation; and all ends with a reflective abstraction with the horns generating notes of warning that decay in pitch.

The experimental integrity of the group erupts with obscure intertwined forms on “Diving Bell”, which, clocking in at 14 minutes, is the longest track on the record. The horns here are raucous, snorting and grunting as they build a cadence that contrasts with the constellation of scintillating piano notes that grow from sparse to abundant. At some point, Rasmussen embraces palpable melody while Draksler shifts cluster chords with vigor. Conversational woodwind/brass interplay concludes the circuit.

Because the music of Hearth is technically unblemished and aesthetically admirable, I hope this is the first of many records to come.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Tidal Phase ► 05 - Diving Bells ► 06 - Turbulent Flow

Wadada Leo Smith with Milford Graves and Bill Laswell - Sacred Ceremonies

May 26, 2021

Label: TUM Records, 2021

Personnel - Wadada Leo Smith: trumpet; Bill Laswell: electric bass; Milford Graves: drums, percussion.

To celebrate his 80th birthday, the distinguished avant-garde trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith releases a 3 CD box set, Sacred Ceremonies, in the company of the experimental electric bassist Bill Laswell and the late free-jazz drummer Milford Graves. The recording, which took place at Laswell’s studio in New Jersey, is the product of three separate one-day sessions, with the first two volumes emerging as duos (trumpet/drums and trumpet/bass) and the third, the main focus of this review, in the trio format.

“Social Justice - a Fire for Reimagining the World” gets the ceremonies under way with percolating tribal drums and magnetizing cymbals that sound like a symphony to me, warped bass sounds devised with incantatory mysticism, and ultra-precise trumpet phrases that appeal more than moan while dancing on top of a reverberating groove occasionally modulated by wah-wah effect.

With these three extraordinary explorers, the improvisation can go anywhere as they discover as they go. Sometimes magical and ravishing, sometimes intriguing and dark, the music immerses the listeners in angular forms that are consistently good from start to finish.

“Myths of Civilizations and Revolutions” stresses the polyrhythmic artistry of Graves, whose work never overshadows the ever-surprising Laswell. The latter's command of the fretboard generates a blend of astute underpinnings with chromatic tension, offbeat textures and momentary silvery melodicism. His lockstep hypnotic vamps explore certain timbral-shadings that often makes his bass sound like a guitar, as we can hear on “Truth in Expansion”. Here, his two-minute solo intro involves us completely in the mood before merging experimental funk with post-rock and fusion chordal work. The close interplay, incorporating clear yet irregular drum patterns and cutting trumpet lines, creates an astounding range of emotions.

The closing piece, “Ruby Red Largo - a Sonnet” has a trembling, mantric-like bass drawing from a variety of ethnic traditions with Smith’s trumpet soaring high and mighty atop. Underneath all this, Grave’s beautifully tuned percussion provides not only solid ground but also a profusion of color.

Structural elements are connected with atypical exhibitions of sentiment, turning these unique meetings into amazing and unshakeable sonic worlds of their own. The album is dedicated to Graves, who passed away in February this year.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Social Justice - a Fire for Reimagining the World ► 03 - Truth in Expansion ► 07 - Ruby Red Largo - a Sonnet

Dave Holland - Another Land

May 25, 2021

Label: Edition Records, 2021

Personnel - Dave Holland: bass; Kevin Eubanks: guitar; Obed Calvaire: drums.

Dave Holland is a mighty bassist who is equally at home in world fusion and post-bop environments as with avant-garde ensembles. Another Land is a blistering fusion work delivered with a new trio that includes the versatile guitarist Kevin Eubanks, a longtime associate whose first collaboration dates back to 1990 (Holland’s quartet album Expansions), and drummer Obed Calvaire, a member of the SFJazz Collective since 2013, who joins him on record for the very first time.

The album’s nine instrumentals - four by Holland, four by Eubanks and one by Calvaire - will keep you engrossed in a kaleidoscopic musical sphere molded with startling emotional honesty.

Eubanks’ “Grave Walker” invites you to cut a rug at the rhythmic consistency of a pungent funky bounce strengthen with thoroughly imposing accents. A calmer passage emphasizes Holland’s lilting phrasing, and then there’s bluesy guitar licks fusing with tenacious rock washes, causing a radiant energy to build up.

Penned by Holland, the title cut is a soothing charmer grounded in a bass figure that gives a measured pace to the route, fortifying it with modal impression and groove. The acoustic guitar invests in an irresistible folk jazz intonation, precipitating Holland into a picturesque storytelling that stimulates the imagination.

Alluding to a deplorable year, “20 20” kicks off on a sad note, bolstered by a morose arco bass, but soon metamorphoses entirely by juxtaposing Jimi Hendrix-inspired chops with the exquisite curves of the Miles Davis Quintet and the weeping bends of the blues genre. A concluding rocking vamp brings Calvaire’s astute stretches to the fore. The drummer’s compositional traits are fully expressed on “Gentle Warrior”, which, propelled by a bass figure in five, soars into a higher plane with inward funk disposition, African folk magic and an ecstatic, rock-powered guitar solo that evokes… Hendrix once again.

The funk-rock feast continues with titles such as “Mashup”, which burns with groove before climaxing in a vamp in five, and “The Village”, which seamlessly handles changes of meter.

Holland’s allegiance isn’t to genre but to musical excellence. Whatever the context his group plays in, their sense of unity and enjoyment becomes evident, not just while riding the great themes but also when departing from the written notations to embark on thrilling improvised stories.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Another Land ► 03 - Gentle Warrior ► 07 - The Village