Norwegian guitar hero Terje Rypdal joined the performances of local
free-prog-rock power trio Elephant9 - keyboard player Ståle Storløkken
(of Supersilent, who played with Rypdal since the mid-nineties,
including in his last studio album, Conspiracy, ECM, 2020), bassist
Nikolai Hængsle and drummer Torstein Lofthus. Catching Fire captures the
best of these performances, at Oslo’s Nasjonal Jazzscene - Victoria in
January 2017, a few months before Rypdal celebrated his 70th birthday.
You may feel goosebumps when you will hear the familiar, sustained-icy
melodic guitar lines of Rypdal in the opening piece, “I Cover the
Mountain Top”, sending you immediately to the iconic ECM albums of
Rypdal from the seventies like After The Rain and Odyssey. But Rypdal
rarely takes solos in these powerful performances, and there are
extended times that he listens to the Keith Emerson-tinged Storløkken’s
Hammond attacks and the aggressive-propulsive rhythm section of Hængsle
and Lofthus, updating the Miles Davis’ electric era bands sound with
psychedelic fireworks.
Rypdal plays only when his intervention is crucial but every time he
plays the guitar is pure gold. Rypdal injects masterful melodic finesse
and rhythmic fiery wisdom into the explosive ride of Elephant9. He finds
a contrapuntal melodic spot on top of the wild and super intense
dynamics of Elephant9, more in the way of Rypdal’s mid-eighties power
trio the Chasers than his early or later ECM albums. David Fricke, who
wrote the liner notes, compares Catching Fire to the classic live albums
of Mahavishnu Orchestra, ELP and King Crimson, and suggests that his
interplay Storløkken evokes Pink Floyd’s Meddle crashing the oedipal
climax of the Doors’ “The End”. Either way, you do not want to miss
this magical gem.
Derek plays Eric - A Suite of Soaps and Other Assorted Sceneries
(Jazzwerkstatt, 2023)
The concept of this Berlin based trio is to find a spot somewhere in the
continuum of stylistic features and approaches between Derek Bailey on one
end and Eric Clapton on the other. A broad spectrum indeed. Bailey, of
course, pioneered a free improvisation language on the guitar and developed
a philosophy towards improvisation, while Eric Clapton is often credited as
a preeminent sculptor of modern rock with the Yardbirds and Cream and has
offered at times his own somewhat more suspect philosophies. Anyway,
A Suite of Soaps and Other Assorted Sceneries
is the second recorded outing from this trio, following their self-titled debut from 2018 and it continues their journey of musical amalgamation.
The group is
guitarist Andreas Willers, bassist Jan Roder and drummer Christian Marien,
and the program that they've cooked up on Soaps is rich and tasty. The album opens with drummer Paul Motian's 'Tuesday ends Saturday'
from 1974's Tribute and which was already a guitar laden slow
burner. Here, it is rendered with some reverence but even more grit. This is
followed by a Willer's penned suite, itself a steaming stew of musical
influences, with a heaping of avant-garde alongside hearty chunks of well
marinated jazz-rock. Later in the program, a rendering of Gateway's "May
Dance" is impossible not to enjoy - a great song given a worthy re-reading.
Possibly the best example of the combination of the group's namesakes can be
found in their take of the Beatle's "I Want You (She's so Heavy)," in which the closing
track's opening moments are a seeming nod to the deconstruction of standards
Bailey performed in his final years with the fiery rock furnace blast that
the tune works itself into.
Juanma Trujillo - Howl (Endectomorph Music and Falcon Gumba Records,
2024)
Juanma Trujillo is a guitarist originally from Venezuela who spent ten
years in New York studying and honing his voice on the instrument, and now, according to various internet sources, is living in Barcelona. Along
the way, he has developed an impressive discography and a core of close musical
associates. As his move to Spain may change the some of the nodes in the
network, he celebrated his New York connections at least one last time
(though that's never truly the case, right?) with the recording of Howl
featuring tenor saxophonist Kevin Sun, bassist Andrew Schiller and drummer
Matt Honor on drums. Other recordings from Trujillo have featured other NYC
fixtures and up-and-comers including Sean Conly and Franciso Mela (Collage,
2022), Kenneth Jimenez and Gerald Cleaver (Contours, 2023), and
violinist Leonor Falcón (Imaga Mondo, 2023).
On Howl, what is most interesting is the constraint Trujillo puts
on himself - he uses only nylon string guitar. On other recordings, like the
ones just mentioned, you may hear him on electric extracting long
atmospheric tones or crunchy high-energy solos, or even playing mandolin and
cuatro. The nylon string has its own sound-world. There is a difference to
how the tones form, sustain and decay, there is a softness and clarity but
also a real possibility to create dense thickets of sound. Trujillo's guitar
playing does all of this on Howl as his musical partners respond
with an equally rich set of tonalities. Opener 'Transient' lurches to life
with a jaunty two note figure over which Sun arcs melodically while Trujillo's
lightly atonal solo showcases the instrument's delicate side. 'Rojo' begins
with a lithe figure and features Schiller's bass and Honor's drumming in an
extended, building passage. The melodies seem to sneak up in the deft
arrangement and that sparse intro becomes a full band effort by the end.
The title track, after a spidery intro from Trujillo and Honor, is shredded
by some powerful, free flowing saxophone. The contrast of the guitar and the
woodwind is invigorating. Check this one out for sure!
Jessica Ackerley - All Of the Colours Are Singing (AKP, 2024)
If Trujillo's album is one of saying goodbye to one life before embarking on a new one, then guitarist and
composer Jessica Ackerley's could be considered one of transitioning into
the new one. Ackerley began working on
All of the Colours Are Singing
after relocating to Hawaii and beginning a doctoral program. In the liner
notes, she writes about both working with new musicians in Hawaii and one in
New York City. She also talks about a friend she made after moving to the
islands who then passed away from cancer just after completing the album's
mixing. Is it an album memorializing loss? Reflecting on change? Celebrating
new beginnings? There is a good chance that the answer is simply:
'yes it is.'
Suffice to say, what we hear on All of the Colours is a deep,
diverse and emotionally imbued sequence of songs that range from the
abstract strings of the opening "Introduction" to the power-trio charged
explosions that is but one of parts of the closing track "Conclusion: In
Four Micro-Parts," and all of the wonderful music in between. For example,
the title track begins with a simple melody that bobs and weaves behind an
evocative line of distorted legato guitar tones and a sonorous melody from
Concetta Abatte's viola. Aaron Edgcomb's drums and Walter Stinson's upright
bass provide support for the first half of the song and then the drums take
center-stage for the rest. There is also the follow up, "The Dots are the
Connection" which is an upbeat avant-jazz-rock tune, Ackerly's guitar
leading the way, but it very much the collective work of a guitar-bass-drums
trio. Then there is 'Nature Morte: Time is Fleeting,' in which we can
basically hear the guitarist, with the help of her string arrangements,
contemplating mortality. Each track is layered, the pieces with the strings
even more nuanced, and all of the tracks embrace unusual and provocative
melodic and rhythmic ideas. It would seem that Ackerley has found
inspiration amongst the volcanic outcrops and black sand beaches of her new home.
Jorge Nuno - Labirinto (Phonogram Unit, 2024)
There is a certain tactile and aural joy that can be found strumming and
plucking a steel string acoustic guitar without, say, a specific musical
plan. There are resonances and vibrations that when activated can be a very
satisfying feeling. Portuguese guitarist Jorge Nuno, leader of the very
electric group Voltaic Trio, seems quite happy to release those vibrations
on his solo acoustic guitar recording Labirinto. The 46-minute
album is comprised of eight very individual tracks that are full of abstract atonal
melodies and very concrete rhythmic inventions. The opener, 'Sombras',
begins with a detuning, a sound that guitarists are quite used to,
as the pitch of strings are compared against each other as the tuning pegs
are slowly turned. Then, the playing evolves into seemingly frenetic
statements, but on repeat listens begin to reveal patterns based on other
attributes than well-tempered melodies, for example, Nuno uses to great
effect, motion, repetitive tonal clusters, and syncopation. The title track
begins with non-sounding notes, in which the friction from striking muted
strings with vigor create the track's textures. The closer, 'O fim',
features a similar approach, at least at first, but with the sound on. One
interpretation of the album's title, Labirinto (which means
labyrinth) could be interpreted as a trip through the quixotic corridors of
the acoustic guitars timbres and tonalities, which would make sense as Nuno
is presenting the guitar at its purist.
Flak, Jorge Nuno, José Lencastre, Hernâni Faustino - Break It Down
(Phonogram Unit, 2024)
Let's stick around in Lisbon for a moment - after all, it's a lovely city
with its own sounds and labyrinthine streets and corridors - and check out another one featuring
Nuno, and this time with his Phonogram Unit label mates, saxophonist José
Lencastre and bassist Hermani Faustino, along with guitarist Flak, who was
an lynchpin of the Portuguese rock scene with the group Rádio Macau.
On Break it Down, the group relies on Flak's analog drum machine work
as a basis for their improvisations. Throughout, Lencastre is burbling over
with melodic ideas, while Nuno provides both searing and atmospheric
electric guitar. Faustino's bass lines throb and thrust, rooting the group
with a feel that veers between dub, rock, funk and its own unique thing. The
main event is the title track, a nearly 20-minute aural treat, in which
Flak's percolating electronics provide constant agitation as Lencastre and
Nuno generate energetic waves, and Faustino's punchy bass delivers precise
blows. The track ebbs in the middle, leaving the drum and bass to their
inventive devices. The group comes together in the final moments, with
swelling noise-guitar from Nuno, hand-clap rhythms from Flak and
ever-twisting lines from Lencestre. Pure inventive joy.
Samo Salamon with Ronan Guilfoyle & Rafal Mazur - For the Listener
Who Listens (Self-Released, 2024)
Now for something completely different:
For the Listener who Listens
is a set with Solvenian guitarist Samo Salamon in duo with two different
bassists, Ronan Guilfoyle from Ireland and Rafal Mazur from Poland. The
tracks are interspersed, Salamon and Guilfoyle on the odd numbered ones and
Salamon and Mazur on the evens. Both of the bassists play the acoustic bass,
not an upright double bass, but rather the one that looks like an oversized
acoustic guitar, and all of duets with Guilfoyle sees Salamon playing the
banjo. The sound world of these instruments together is as important as the
interactions between the players. On the opening track, The opener, 'A Mind
of Winter', the plink plonk of the banjo is taut, focused and cutting, and
so is the bass. Each note is distinct and on equal melodic footing. The
push-and-pull of the duo is on the delicate side. The following track, 'The
Frost', with Mazur is different. Salamon is on his usual semi-hollow body
electric, which he plays with a clean, rounded tone and Mazur's notes blend
slightly together. Here, the give-and-take builds more quickly as they both
exchange tonal clusters and melodic snippets. The dialog of duos continues,
each track featuring a different approach from the two musicians involved,
and ending with a final duo with Guilfoyle. 'The Nothing that Is" is closing
remark on the spacious improvisations that do in fact reward the listener
who truly listens - again, and again and again.
Frank Paul Schubert, Kazuhisa Uchihashi & Klaus Kugel - Black Holes
Are Hard To Find (Nemu, 2022)
This is Guitar Week's bonus track. Black Holes Are Hard To Find was
released in December of 2022, so it has been out in the world for a bit, and
it is a bit tragic that it has had to wait so long to get a well deserved
mention here.
This international trio is made up of German saxophonist Frank Paul
Schubert, Japanese guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi, and German
drummer-percussionist Klaus Kugel. The album,
Black Holes Are Hard to Find
is entirely improvised and showcases an eclectic, genre-blurring style and a contagious synergy between the players. The seven tracks are rich with
dynamic interplay, seamlessly shifting through multifaceted musical ideas.
To pin-point Uchihashi's contributions on guitar is tricky, as it is the
blend of the three that make the album stand out, but special attention
could be given to apocalyptic wailing that permeates the title track,
especially around minute three, then again towards the final third of
'Explosive Past', and also in the middle of 'Internal Structure.' More
importantly though, each piece unfolds with its own internal logic,
blending bold textures and timbres into an extremely satisfying sonic dish.
The duo album of Serries and German experimental, free-improv,
avant-rock and noise drummer Jörg A. Schneider (known from the free
jazz-drone-dub duo Roji with Portuguese bassist Gonçalo Almeida, a
frequent collaborator of Serries) was recorded at Schneider’s home base,
the Loundry Room in Hückelhoven, Germany, in June 2023. This is the most
radical and varied album of these three new duos. Series plays a
distortion-heavy, mean electric guitar and pushes Schneider’s manic,
primitive drumming to extreme terrains on the opening piece “Muscle
Steam” but on the following “Enhance The Machine”, Serries suggests a
much more reserved, twisted kind of ballad, accompanied by fragmented
rhythmic patterns of Schneider. “Mechanical Collapse” threatens to drown
in another manic, noisy freak-out and “Complex Particle System”
experiments with a dark and noisy cinematic soundscape. The album ends
with the sparsely melodic “Force Regeneration”, and already calls for
continuous chapters of this stimulating duo.
French guitarist Christian Vasseur describes his music as free of any
form of dogma and exploring new sound universes with such exotic
instruments as archlute, mohan veena, Weissenborn-Harpa and electric
10-string lap-steel guitar. Vasseur brings to this guitar duo an
11-string classical guitar, tuned in quartet-tone, while Serries plays
on archtop guitar, often with a bow and objects. Floating Simularities
was recorded live at the Kapel Oude Klooster in Brecht, Belgium, and
Serries was responsible for the recording, mixing and mastering. The
seven intimate and almost chamber duets explore tension-filled, resonant
acoustic timbres. Sometimes these duets sketch surreal textures or
suggest brief stories, and at other times flirt with delicate,
oriental-sounding elements, as in the most enigmatic, beautiful
gamelan-like “The Traveller Surprised By His Dream”, with Vasseur
adding wordless chanting.
Dirk Serries & Trösta - Magnetar (Projekt, 2024)
Magnetar takes Serries to his formative ambient era, then working under
VidnaObmana and Fear Falls Burning pseudonyms, in a second duo album
with fellow Belgian alto sax and electronics player-sound
engineer-producer Trösta (aka Nicolas Lefèvre), following Island on the
Moon (Consouling Sounds, 2022). The album was recorded live between 2021
and 2023 at Serries’ favorite Sunny Side Studios in Brussels, operated
by Lefèvre. This 102-minute album offers atmospheric and peaceful yet
quite melancholic, free improvised dreamscapes and drones of Serries’
expansive, effects-laden guitar lines, resonating with great reverb the
subtle melodic phrases of Trösta. A highly immersive listening
experience that highlights the close and powerful magnetic fields
Serries and Trösta share.
Luís Lopes - Dark Narcissus: Stereo Guitar Solo (Rotten/Fresh / Shhpuma,
2024)
Portuguese guitarist Luís Lopes describes his idiosyncratic, solo
aesthetics as averse to any linearity. He refuses to subscribe to any
genre, pushing himself to experiment with paradoxes, and preferring the
electric guitar sounds as they are, dirty, crispy, excessive,
disoriented, violent and obliterating of the senses. Dark Narcissus is
the fourth solo album of Lopes and was recorded at Estúdio do Olival in
Alfarim in October 2023. It takes the expressive and noisy music to
surprising restrained terrains.
Lopes plays a stereo guitar connected to two separate channels/amps, and
all the music was captured in real-time, with no overdubs. The opening,
20-minute “The Cry of Dark Narcissus” is an introspective and sparse
piece that offers enough time and space to linger on every resonant note
of the stereo guitar, patiently weaved into a surreal, thorny texture.
The following “I Ascend So I Could Look At You” is a more abstract but
unsettling piece, and surprisingly, even a vulnerable and melancholic
one. The last piece, “Reminiscence of A Dark Night” takes an impossible
task, sketching a meditative texture through a noisy trance, and most
likely only Lopes can make perfect sense of such a demanding mission.
The duo of Lopes with German drummer Jörg A. Schneider was recorded at
Schneider’s home base, at the Loundry Room in Hückelhoven in May 2023.
The album features two free improvised pieces. The first “One Armed
Bandit” suggests an uncompromising, fast and furious, rhythmic interplay
between two powerful and stubborn musicians, but without settling on any
patterns. In the second piece “Danger Of Suffocation” Lopes takes the
leading role and keeps expanding the manic patterns of Schneider with
pulse-free, open-ended yet coherent, noisy and distorted ideas.
Tim Berne and Bill Frisell - Live in Someplace Nice (Screwgun, 2024) *****
I don’t often mess with “favorite album ever” talk, but when I do it
almost always includes Tim Berne and Bill Frisell’s 1984 piece of magic,
Theoretically. I don’t know if you would call it a masterpiece,
since both were in early career mode, but there is something about that
record that is so perfect, and so right—the sound, the balance, the
intrigue, the suspense, the laughs—that I have never stopped loving it.
AND, since it came out, I have never stopped wishing for more water from
that same well. (Typical fanboi presumption!)
Live in Someplace Nice was recorded around the time they were
recording Theoretically. It’s been gone over by David Torn, and
has more kick-ass going for it than Theoretically did, which could
be for any of three reasons. 1) Conscious choice of Tim and Bill. 2) Torn’s
production. 3) Live recording, as opposed to studio. Frisell’s penchant for
swells and sustain bring in a hint of ambience. Spaces to be written on and
repetitive figures make the structure through which the brilliant
improvisation navigates.
I’m trying to remember what it was like in 1984. A lot of us had fallen
for this duo, but did anyone understand what a stunning abundance of talent
existed here? Five stars in 2024.
David Torn - Sway the Palms (sr, 2024) *****
Torn, like Frisell, has an amazing ability to shape the envelope of the
sound—through performance and production—it leaves one gasping for air.
Torn offers these five tracks as part of a series, the rest of which I
haven’t encountered (yet). The method in the madness, here, is that, in
studio, Torn improvises the composition on guitar and real-time. In all
cases, these compositions are meant to stand alone. In two cases, Torn
invites a guest to “play with” the completed conversation not
sweetening
it, he says, but deepeningit.
Torn’s compositions feel like film soundtracks to me—the first thing of
his I ever heard was the soundtrack for Lars and the Real Girl. He
draws from the whole guitar template, steel acoustic to fully processed
Frippery, but these are surface trappings (though interesting ones), set
dressing for the scenes that unfold in my head as he evokes these stories.
Tim Berne guests on the first track, and Gerald Cleaver on the third. On
the title track, a 17 minute masterpiece, Torn improvises (as an overdub) a
poem. The five tracks, though, come together with the coherence of a
movement and hearing it all in one sitting leaves me basking, processing,
and afterglowing. Also five stars.
Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. Who doesn’t want to return to their
youth or doesn’t like to think about what they have achieved back in the
days. Also in music, there are bands that still exist but haven’t
produced anything new for years. However, they keep on touring satisfying
the audience’s desire to bring back days long gone. On the one hand,
that’s absolutely okay, but on the other hand such concepts represent
artistic stagnation. Of course, this idea of music hardly works in
improv and especially the German guitarist Olaf Rupp certainly can’t be
accused of suffering from nostalgia. "I don’t like to look back. Mostly
I prefer to dream about the future," he says in the liner notes of his new
album.
Nevertheless, he has now released an almost two-hour long album with
music from the turn of the century. But in order to understand
Earth and More
one has to go back in history. At the time when the music published here
was created, Rupp’s band STOL (with Stephan Mathieu on drums and Rudi
Mahall on bass clarinet) had just disbanded and he began to focus more on
freely improvised music. However, in order to see in which direction he
wanted to go, he recorded and produced complete albums every month,
sometimes pieces with the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar or
electronics. Some were released, the rest became demo cdRs that were
distributed all over the world. Some made it to Liam Stefani in Glasgow.
The head of the Scatter label has kept them to this day. He was the one
who initiated the idea to publish some of them and Rupp actually thought
about his earlier music, listened to old tapes and “found a way to
overcome [his] nostalgia phobia”.
On Earth And More we listen to a musician who is strongly
fixated on electronics and for whom the guitar tends to take a back seat.
Pieces like “Lorraine Rain“ or the title track remind me of Aphex Twin
(without the drum’n’bass background), Throbbing Gristle, Test Department or
This Heat! “I did not have a computer at that time, so I recorded directly
onto cassette tapes and audio cdRs“, Rupp explains. “The setup was a
heavily abused Behringer mixer which I modified so that I could cascade and
feedback several channels. Then I had a few guitar effects: a looper, a
distortion pedal and a bass guitar synth-pedal.“ Another influence on this
music is techno. Whether the tracks are more ambient-like (“Makyō“) or
seem to be based on computer game sounds (“Mai Outtake“), Rupp seemed to
enjoy the purity of rhythm and sound.
Another surprise is the fact that he sings on two of the tracks. On
“Goodlook“, with his constantly looping chorus line, which becomes
increasingly alienated as the song progresses, he sounds a bit like Robert
Wyatt. On “Lonely Woman” he is reminiscent of an experimental Nick Drake,
who seems to have John Martyn as a second guitarist and who extends his
melancholy songs to infinity with ambient sounds.
Finally, the last two tracks - all in all 35 minutes long - are pure
ambient music. “Upstate 1 and 2” were created as music for an exhibition
by photo artist Gabriele Worgitzki. The music is functional and very
spatial, with loops that work like a beat. Both tracks are wonderful,
especially “Part 1” with its echoes of music of the spheres and the
sparse guitar arpeggios even gives the piece a psychedelic touch. Bands
like Autechre and Boards of Canada come to mind.
The result of this journey into his artistic self was Rupp’s turn to
improvised music. Life Science, his first album on FMP, was
released in the summer of 1999. Nevertheless, it would have been exciting
to see in which direction the electronic musician Rupp would have
developed.
Although it is unusual music for our blog, for me it’s one of this
year’s most interesting releases so far.
Earth And More is available as a download. You can listen to it
here:
Raphael Rogiński is not a guitarist like any other, and his playing style
is particularly unusual for guitarists from the field of free jazz or
improvised music. There are hardly any references to Sonny Sharrock, James
“Blood” Ulmer or Derek Bailey and Masayuki Takayanagi. So it may seem
all the more surprising that this album deals with the music of John
Coltrane and the lyrics of the most famous representative of the Harlem
Renaissance, Langston Hughes (the vocals on “Walkers With The Dawn“ and
„Rivers“ are sung by Natalia Przybysz).
First of all, however, it must be said that Plays John ColtraneandLangston Hughes is not a new piece of work, but the expanded
reissue of an album from 2015 that has not yet been released on vinyl and
has long been out of print on CD. The fact that the Unsound label is now
making the music available again cannot be appreciated enough, because
Rogiński’s solo guitar approach to John Coltrane’s music is completely new
and exciting. Although the album is full of Coltrane classics like “Blue
Train”, “Naima” and “Lonnie's Lament”, you’d hardly recognize them,
if you didn’t know that. Rogiński only leaves parts of the melody lines,
if at all, the harmonic and rhythmic structures are virtually ignored and
the tempo is sometimes radically throttled. It’s as if Coltrane had been
deprived of jazz. This almost sounds like blasphemy, but what the Polish
guitarist makes of it is simply spectacular. “Blue Train” and ‘Equinox’,
for example, sound like Bill Frisell was jamming with Maleem Mahmoud
Ghania, while the arpeggio-drunk “Mr. P.C.“ and “Seraphic Light“ are
reminiscent of Spanish flamenco guitarists which are influenced by a harsh
punk attitude. “Countdown” wouldn’t stand out on an album by Ryley
Walker, so relaxed and shiny is the folk/country framework that Rogiński
has put under the piece. Approaching Coltrane’s singular, spirited music
with a perspective formed outside the jazz tradition, the music turned
out to struck the guitarist as a revelation, the liner notes claim.
“Suddenly these songs became full of glowing moving pictures, with a
melancholy, but also with something like promise,” Rogiński says. Another
characteristic of the atmosphere conveyed by this music is intimacy. A
piece like “Spirituals”, in which something like a Coltrane melody line
actually seems to be recognizable, is imbued with a great tenderness. One
might actually believe to be sitting unrecognized in Rogiński’s living room
while he plays this music just for himself.
The grail keepers of John Coltrane’s music may be horrified, but
Plays John Coltrane
andLangston Hughes is simply a wonderful piece of
music, like fine wine it has only gotten better over the years. Anyone who
has heard the guitarist’s music with
Shofar
or his project
Yemen. Music Of The Yemenite Jews
, with Perry Robinson, Wacław Zimpel and Michael Zerang, will love this
music. Outstanding.
Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes is available as a double
album on vinyl and as a download. You can listen to it and order it here:
Guillaume Gargaud and Eero Savela – Syyspimee (Ramble Records,
2023)
This one escaped me last year. However, it seems to have been released on
Bandcamp just this year, so I will include it in this year’s guitar week.
Guillaume Gargaud is French guitarist, who, despite
release
with the late Burton Greene I covered a few years ago for FreeJazzBlog, has
over 35 releases under his belt. Finnish trumpeter Eero Savela was
previously unknown to me, though a quick internet search shows he has been
quite active in live performances, especially in various forms of dance,
theater and even circuses. This is their second duo release, the first
being 2020’s Helsinki.
There is a real ease to this music. The title, Syyspimee, is Finnish for
“the darkness of autumn,” but this is a calm darkness, a welcome extended
twilight after an active summer. I hesitate to go much further along this
somnolent line, however, as the music is not sleepy or enervated or boring.
IT is just relaxed. Both musicians display a range of techniques, some
conventional, some less so. However, the volleys of sound, the vining of
guitar and trumpet runs, the skill and vision behind the deceptive veil of
simplicity make this one stand out. Gargaud lays an almost classical
progression on his acoustic guitar, Savela responds with a series of smokey
spirals. Gargaud responds with another slowhand lick and Savela, with a
jaunt that evokes a smokey Miles or Chet Baker. If this loose serenity is
what this autumn holds, I happily bid summer adieu.
Syysipmeeis available as a CD and download on Bandcamp.
Eldritch Priest, composer and guitarist who released the infectious
Omphaloskepsis
two years ago is back with another solo effort. This one,
Dormitive Virtue
, focuses less on earworms, and leans much harder into layers of riffing
and light feedback. There is a fine line between noodling and this type of
performance, and that line seems to consist of intentionality and
dedication to a motif and mood. Priest strides the right side of this
divide.
Dormitive virtue refers to opium’s hypnogogic properties, which invite the
blurring of sleep and hallucination. I am not sure how this would sound in
an altered state, but it is certainly mesmerizing. Each of its eight
tracks sucks the listener into its frequently liquid sound world. The
guitar is measured and spacey, flickering like an ill-defined and distant
star or blurred like a moon lightly covered by a gauze of cloud. The music
sounds composed, if not on paper than at least in Priest’s head, but
follows no regular pattern. And, as with Omphaloskepsis, there are
sections that are so rich (think the more elevating moments of Kraftwerk)
that they border on juicy pleasures.
Dormitive Virtueis available as a slick-looking vinyl and download
from Bandcamp.
Eyal Maoz and Eugene Chadbourne – The Coincidence Masters
(Infrequent Seams, 2024)
Here is another review of a guitar duo that does not disappoint. Eugene
Chadbourne, of course is a freakabilly, radical country, free improv
extraordinaire. Eyal Maoz might have less of a reputation, but that is no
reflection of his wide musical interests (rock, reggae, Jewish/Eastern
European folk traditions, reggae, free jazz [of course]) nor of his
playing.
From the first notes of The Coincidence Masters,Chadbourne leans
on the avant-garde of his unique syntax and Maoz holds his own. That sounds
too combative, though. On any of these pieces Maoz and Chadbourne seem of
like mind, playing a combination of straightforward picking and augmented
chords and piercing shreds. Much of this is comparatively relaxed, a front
porch jam just when the alien vessel arrives. O, maybe a dazed
contemplation of the constellations, complete with heavy connotations of
just how ethereal and strange that process can be. (For those to whom this
means something, I cannot shake the thought that this might be, even
subconsciously or mistakenly, a meditation on the Flatlanders’ The Stars in
My Life, albeit without the groove and vocals, and chopped up, processed,
digested, and distorted almostbeyond recognition.) Anyway, this
one is a real standout in its skill and understated oddity. Rock on, Eyal
and Chad, and watch out for those tractor beams.
The Coincidence Masteris available as a CD and download from
Bandcamp.
To paraphrase Ash Williams when confronted with a triad of Necronomica in
Army of Darkness, “Three guitars? Nobody said anything about three
guitars? Like what am I supposed to follow one guitar, or all guitars, or
what?”
The second installment of Elliot Sharp’s E(e)r(e) Guitar presents the
listener with that conundrum. This time with Sally Gates and Tashi Dorji,
the answer is, well, opaque. Ere Guitaris a cauldron of electric
whirling, twirling and more general electro-rummage cacophony. One almost
immediately loses track of which guitarist is playing which line, as
everything mixes in the same stew. Flecks and shards of atmospherics bleed
in and out of the background, as one guitarist, then another steps in to
shred, or lay out a fusillade of clicks and plinks. Some parts, such as the
beginning of Survey the Damage – incidentally the longest cut on the album
– adopt a darker mood, laying drones on feedback. Then, however, the shocks
of sound emerge, jetting back and forth and tearing into the gloomy tonal
canvas. Then, the striated shocks open to finer moments of precision
etching and, more often, blunter ones of gouges and scrapes, and the clunky
repeating click of an engine. I am not sure what Ash would have made of
this, especially way back in 1992, when the film came out, or the generic
medieval setting in which it took place. That said, this would have been a
fitting soundtrack at least to his journey through the time portal from one
to the other. Just awesome.
Ere Guitar is available as a CD or download from Bandcamp.
This one is it. The final release from an Ayler Records going on indefinite
hiatus, which is never a good sign. It is fitting that this one, titled in
Roman numerals MMXXIV, involves guitarists Noël Akchoté, who has
been featured on Ayler Records various times, and Philippe Deschepper, who
is new to me and the label’s catalog.
In true Akchoté fashion, many of the compositions are from other artists –
three from Paul Motian, one each from Steve Swallow and Ornette Coleman,
one from fellow French double-bassist Henri Texier. However, likewise in
true Akchoté fashion, he and Deschepper make them their own. It took some
effort, for instance, for me to connect the version of Sex Spy captured
here with the Prime Time version. In this one, there is not hint of funk
and, beyond a loose melody, only gestures toward the original. She Was
Young, the Swallow composition, is more identifiable, but, again, without
more meandering, especially when as the melody volleys between two guitars.
Indeed, these as well as Motian pieces, sound like fragmented and
reconstituted versions of the original. Something of the core is there, but
this is more homage in difference than in feeling or faithfulness.
It is more difficult for me to weigh in on the fractures and reconstitution
that went into the Deschepper and Akchoté compositions. However, to these
ears, the stylistic commonality reaches back to Akchoté’s masterful 2021
release Loving Highsmith, which likewise featured Akchoté with
complimentary guitarists, though there they were the great Mary Halvorson
and Bill Frisell. Deschepper is different but no less masterful. He is
tender, maybe even more in tune with Akchoté’s style, though the liner
notes assure that this was their first collaboration and, moreover, there
is no reason beyond my own subjective knowledge to consider this any more
of a product of Akchoté’s vision than Deschepper’s. Frequently enough, it
is difficult to distinguish the lines of one from the other, and, once one
does, the musicians switch roles, as the repetitious rhythmic lines in one
ear shift to freer exploration just as the sounds in the other ear settle
into mode or concept. The unifying elements seem to be flurries of earworms
and raw stepped waltzes, wherein one can hear the pluck, but rarely a
muzzled and mistaken note. Tracks like Sad Novi Sad (a play on the Serbian
city ) use more effects and step toward Doors-styled trippiness. Through
it all, the guitars intertwine, gnarly. Descepper follows a tendril here.
Akchoté traces another one there until it begins to bud. Then, they return
to the stem.
Truly transfixing, and a truly fitting album on which Ayler Records can
pause and contemplate its future. If this really is it for the label, it
is at least an appropriately high note on which to end.
MMXXIV is available as a CD and download from Bandcamp:
Not protected like a National Park, National Monuments in the US are nevertheless meant to protect special areas from development and can be created by proclamation by the President. In 1996, President Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, an expanse of high desert that contains absolutely stunning landscapes and geological features in the southern desert of Utah. One of the earliest acts of the Trump administration was to start dismantling these national monuments, Grand Staircase-Escalante direct in his mendacious glare. So why mention this in a music review? Because the music created by the guitar and bass duo Endless Field (Jesse Lewis, guitar and Ike Sturm, bass) was recorded on location in the mountains and chaparral of southern Utah, music inspired by the location, notes hung in the dry desert air. Aside from the aesthetic choice, there is a political dimension as well, as all proceeds from the record will be donate to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is fighting to preserve the land.
Putting the politics aside for just a moment, the music of Endless Field contains big, sweeping vistas. Just two musicians, but the sonic territory they cover is impressive. Recorded in the field, the duo pushed the limits to bring this luminous album to life, lugging a solar-powered recording rig as well as National Geographic photographers and videographers to document - providing videos for each track (I haven't seen the videos, but I'm including a picture here to help build your impression). Throughout the tracks, Lewis' acoustic guitar rings loud with a mix of hearty strumming and blistering finger picked arpeggios, while Sturm's bass playing is expansive, providing a firm grounding and perpetual motion. The album is about one half freely improvised and the other composed pieces.
(Photo Credit - Christopher Georgia)
The opening track, 'Life on Earth', is a burly, but sensitive, tune. The bass line is deep and thrumming as well as lithe and melodic, while the guitar work throbs with rhythmic pulse - like a lumberjack sitting on the stump of a majestic tree he just felled, tears running down to his axe. On some tracks, nature is the third musician. A running waterfall, providing a light wash of ambiance, works it way into the follow up 'Wind', a short improvised interlude. The textural and contrasting track is a solo bass passage accompanied by some light percussion, which then segues into 'The Well', which contains the same background ambiance, as well as the lush tones of Lewis' guitar. I feel some connection to guitarist Steve Tibbett's acoustic work here in the organic drones, long melodic sighs, and natural flow of sound. Tracks like brief syncopated improvisation of "Fire" and the intricately composed "Zim" offer yet a different approach. Especially on the latter, which is a conscientious nod to Zimbabwean musical influences; however, Endless Field's roots are in folk, less so in world music.
Of note, the record is coming out on Biophilia Records, which release physical/digital releases. The physical products contain no actual CD, but rather an intricate 20 panel origami-like piece containing extensive artwork and a download code. These cases are all made from sustainable materials and inks. The idea is to provide the tactile object that downloads alone lack - something that I totally understand.
As you astute readers may have picked up, I have very personal feelings about southern Utah. Visits with my brother over the years, hikes in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, mountain biking the famous Slick Rock Trail (which was also recently threatened by attempts from the current administration to open the area to mining - can you read my swelling anger?!), and surreal walks through Goblin Valley, left their mark, and I'll use any excuse to show my support for preserving this area of the world.
Give a listen to the recording, it's at times gentle, maybe even too melodic for some of the more hardened listeners out there, but it is genuine, heartfelt music. Buy a copy and know that you did a little bit to help protect something unique.
Nervous Systems,
a duo guitar album of works by Wendy Eisenberg with Shane Parish, offers
the listener a joyful and organic collaboration from musicians who seem
familiar with one another’s style. Eisenberg and Parish work well together,
as they seem to share a fondness for ornate legato lines and hard-plucked
strings. Across Nervous Systems, you can’t help but notice the
sense of play that exists in these musicians. Eisenberg and Parish are bent
on exciting and surprising each other, and their happiness is infectious.
Listening to Nervous Systems feels as intimate as sitting in on
close friends passing guitars around. The album has the spirit of a home
jam and the chops of two fabulously talented people. Like the home jam,
however, the album lacks a sense of direction. Not wanting to be tied down
in experimental abandon or deliver a composed duet, Eisenberg and Parish
are at times stranded between two shores. “Fresh Bust,” the album’s opener,
moves towards climaxes with poorly constructed tensions, causing the point
of resolution to feel a bit hollow. The blame may lay in the length of the
tracks. The average track on Nervous Systems clocks in between
five or six minutes, not giving the players ample time to lean into their
experiments. “Playing the Long Game,” correctly named given its length at
eleven minutes (which feels eternal in the atmosphere of the rest of the
album), shows that the duo are capable of producing affecting longer work.
In the latter half of “Long Game,” one player lays a sonic ground floor
with subdued yet agile tremolo picking. With this hypnotizing drone in
place, the other player travels across the fretboard to the upper register
to play a series of peregrinations, all to quietly resolve back in the
bass.
These moments of support abound on Nervous Systems, but you may be
left wanting. If they would let the tape run just a bit more, this album
could truly astound. That being said, Eisenberg and Parish have produced an
album that is rough-hewn in the best sense of the words. Laughter can be
heard at the close of tracks, and the sound of guitar picks colliding with
the body of the guitar after a particularly emphatic riff conjures an
organic, playful mood more interested in showcasing a collaborative
experiment than in achieving technical perfection. In that spirit, Nervous Systems pairs well with a cup of tea and a sunny afternoon
with friends. Pleasant but not complacent, it is a sound worth sharing.
…“Too much philosophy
too much thought forms
not enough room
not enough trees”…
It is quite thrilling and mind-blowing that still, in this polarized full
of hate world, music is a way of non-verbal communication between like
minded people. I strongly believe that Catherine Sikora’s music works in
the aforementioned way inside me.
…“Too much Police
too much computers
too much hi fi
too much pork”…
This duo recording of Sikora on the saxophones and Liberatore on the
electric guitar is loosely based (but with strong connections to) on
Sikora’s thoughts on the poem Ruhr Gebiet by another soul so
dearly missed, the great Allen Ginsberg. You will find parts of the poem
within these lines (please avoid any comparisons with my words). The three
long tracks that comprise this recording, are all ideas and sketches that
evolved into the three compositions. Even though this live recording was
realized during September 2019, its relation to this dreadful dystopia is
one of the first things that came into my mind.
…“Too much metal
too much fat
too many jokes
not enough meditation”…
Matteo Liberatore only came to know the compositions right before this
recording was realized. Having that in mind one can say that the two
musicians developed a close interaction but, maybe something more important
and powerful I dare say. A complete and strong communion. Easy to comment
about it, very difficult and demanding to achieve it. Especially today as
our societies are becoming (to quote the vulgar Thatcher) more a big sum of
individuals, it is totally demanding to leave your ego behind and try to
communicate, formulate a shared common ground and ideas with others. To be
human rather than just a consumer.
…“Too much anger
too much sugar
too many smokestacks
not enough snow”…
Personally I challenge the notion of progress. The given fact for many that
by definition this world is progressing into something better. There enough
facts to support this thought, I do not want to bore you with it. The music
the two musicians are making seems to evade the trajectory of time in the
same way the lines of Ginsberg’s poem do. I felt a balance between
aggression and sentiment in Sikora’s sax lines. Liberatore’s guitar sounds
(like him I guess) quite at ease with following. Never struggling, but
always going along. Their music is, most definitely, one of the most
optimistic pieces of music I’ve heard during this troubled (in many ways)
time. It incorporates silence; it is soothing while it brings solace
through both musicians passion. The third track, Not Enough Snow, seems
like the culmination of sorts for the recording. It also sounded like their
approach was more fierce in way, kind of chasing the demons away. A need, a
hope for a catharsis. Just like in Rurh-Gebiet’s two final lyrics
…“Build a gold house
to bury the Devil.”
The two musicians achieved that even for a brief moment.
Eric Mingus made the artwork that leaves a strong impression and Elliott
Sharp mixed and mastered the recording.
In case there was any doubt about it, the new album by Elliot Sharp and
Sergio Sorrentino makes clear that the electric guitar is an instrument
unto itself, and must be considered as something wholly different than its
acoustic equivalent. Spilla’ (which the liner notes tell us means
“‘to play’ in the secret language of the Neapolitan musicians”) overwhelms
the listener with a barrage of sounds that seem unable to emanate from two
guitars. Pinched harmonics, muted arpeggios, tapping on guitar pickups,
soaring volume swells, and guitar picks being dragged over roundwound
strings layer over one another for over an hour. The listener may be left
wondering what these players are after on this recording. Are they enemies
or brothers? Is the guitar simply the medium at hand to reach a greater
understanding, or is Spilla’ all one great big love note to the
6-string?
The album consists of two recordings of Sharp’s “graphic scores.” These
pieces, “Hudson River Nr. 6” and “Liquidity” are the first and third
recordings on the record, and are broken up by two extended improvisations
recorded live in Vercelli, Italy. Much like the techniques of mid-century
composers Earle Brown or Christian Wolff, Sharp’s graphic scores ask the
interpreter to approach the musical performance with a diversity of media
in mind. As the question of these musicians' relationship to the guitar
continues to swirl around the listener’s head, this mixed-media approach
seems fitting given the backgrounds of the musicians. Sharp, a veteran of
the New York avant-garde, has built a career around collaborative sonic
experiments since the late 1970s. He is a multi-instrumentalist and
technical polymath, often thought of as one of the first musicians to
incorporate computers into his live performances. This pairs well with
Sorrentino’s trajectory as a guitarist wholly committed to the “new” —
whatever that may mean — while immersing himself in strings of yore.
Sorrentino has performed works by Morton Feldman and Steve Reich, had his
work played on concerts that also showcased compositions by Frank Zappa,
and played the “Battente” baroque guitar with the Accademia del Ricercare
Ensemble.
Their collaboration breathes new life into the oft-overused phrase
“extended technique.” Sharp and Sorrentino reveal a desire to steer away
from patterns, vamps, or familiar sounds. As soon as they seem to fall into
a style, they take off in a new direction. That being said, listen for
their favored pairings. The duo seem to like sustained harmonic notes that
flourish over athletic tapped patterns. Often — most notably on “Liquidity”
— they move towards cacophonous overflows of sound where the rapid picking
of muted strings at the upper register of the fretboard begins to sound
like castanets beating out the final palpitations of the heart. Never
allowing their listeners to get too comfortable, Sharp and Sorrentino even
go as far as to displace the tonal center of their pieces by detuning /
re-tuning their strings and using elastic bends to baffle the listener. In
the best way, there is nothing “familiar” about this album. A
disorientation as reintroduction, Spilla’ is the system shock you
didn’t know you needed.
Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog – YRU Still Here? (Yellowbird, 2018) *****
Guitarist Marc Ribot is a long standing favorite of mine. In all of his guises - whether the folk and blues solo work, his always spot-on accompaniment, the 'fake' Latin band, or the raucous Ceramic Dog with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith, he always has something exciting to offer. On last year's YRU Still Here the guitarist is pissed and political. This is a monster of an album full of hard-charging proto-punk/funk tunes and snarling lyrics, it balances political and racial drama with humor and sly takes on a myriad styles from the retro-robot funk of "Oral Sidney with a U", the Middle Eastern flavored "Orthodoxy", or the Neil Young's Trans/Ennio Morricone mashup of "Rawhide", and the Cubano Positizo's like "Pennsylvania 6 6666" with lyrics invoking brutality from Ismaily's childhood in an intolerant all American town. "Fuck La Migra" is a check on the early Trump abomination, and a angry fuck you to their mendacious policies. However, my favorite tracks are the straight ahead rockers, like "Shut that Kid Up". Sans lyrics, just guitar, bass, and drums it bristles with attitude that says as much about the precarious state of the world as the others.
Samo Salamon & Tony Malaby - Traveling Moving Breathing (Clean Feed, 2018) ****½
The interplay of musicians in a free improvisation setting is something that, even after all of these years listening and writing about music, still astounds me. What is it that makes a session work? I know that there are as many approaches to it as there are musicians, but, when say a trio clicks, they can really make some unreasonably good music together. Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon works here with a free jazz saxophonist colossus on this recording - there is rarely a setting in which Tony Malaby does not impress, and the percussion work of Roberto Dani has fit into situations ranging from rock to theater to free jazz and has been working with Salamon for well over a dozen years. The sum of these parts more than meets the qualification of sounding reasonably good and go well into the unreasonably good.
Salamon goes for the jugular on several of the songs, letting the electric guitar marinate in distortion and heavy rhythmic passages. Malaby’s saxophone work runs the gamut, from the sounds of clicks and the compressed mouth pieces to soaring in the high register, to funky tattered passages. Dani provides both free and associative playing as well as driving straight ahead rhythms when needed.
Andreas Willers & Jan Roder & Christian Mariën - Derek Plays Eric (Jazzwerkstatt, 2018) ****½
I am not sure of the percent of, or even which Derek and Eric we're talking about here - be it Derek Bailey, or Derek and the Dominos, or Eric Clapton, or whomever, but the playing of German guitarist Andreas Willers is absolute killer on this recording. The guitarist whose debut album was a solo album on the venerable German FMP label in 1981, is working here with bassist Jan Roder and drummer Christian Marien, and the result is a power trio that is both powerful and nuanced. The opening "Steampunk '69" is a crusher of an opening track - straight ahead rock rhythms, melodic excesses reminiscent of Live at Village Gate by Larry Coryell, The follow up 'Plodding Along' features a looping bass line over which the guitar delivers shimmering strokes. But maybe it's all a set up for the third track "Roost'r / Tunnel Boogie", where the slide comes out to devastating effect as the elastic groove perfectly underpins the swampy guitar playing. Then, the set up of "Gentle Maya: Dance of Maya / Eat Your Blues / Valedictory" is unmistakably John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra's opus, and it incorporates prog rock a la Gentle Giant. The follow up, "Goobye Pork Pie Hat / The Marshall Needs El Juicio", begins with a pulsating straight ahead delivery of the great Charles Mingus song, but then erupts into guitar-hero shredding, which is just a whole lot of fun. "I Ain't Got Nothing But the Blues" is an acoustic blues / Derek Bailey mash up that makes no logical sense but works so well. Listen closely as well to the track "Laili", the guitar-bass tandem interplay seems like a slightly dirty secret. There is a ton of variety here, straight ahead rock fun and more than enough off the beaten path playing to keep you listening for a long long time.
Álvaro Domene - The Compass (Illuso, 2018) ***½
The next two records are the most experimental of the lot today, and in fact it's this solo recording from New York based Álvaro Domene that takes home the prize for being the most unusual. It's not so much an album of songs, though the tracks are all split up and named with some intention, but a reassessment of what a guitar can do. Sure there are sounds that border on metal, with sudden riffs like on Coulomb's Barrier", but these soon dissolve into squelches and smears of sounds. The track "EMS of Despair" starts with ambient tones stretched until they disappear, followed by tense partial arpeggios and tingling tonal clusters, and "Mudskipper" has an almost playful beginning with serious attention being paid to the whammy bar (or a pedal, I'm not sure if whammy bars are a much of thing anymore) bending tones before delving into a slightly more conventional solo over an apocryphal drone. The album was recorded without overdubs or multiple tracking, and there are times when Domene sounds like a frightful demolition team, but it's just him and his dark vision.
Henry Kaiser and Max Kutner - Wild Courses (Iluso, 2019) ****
I'm typically a fan of a guitar duo. There is so much musical ground that can be covered, colors to be revealed, and ideas to exchange that there is a virtual endless array of possibilities. on Wild Courses, Henry Kaiser, a relentless and prolific musical explorer and Max Kutner ,who has a surprising array of projects going on as well, get together for a real celebration of the strings. The duo uses 12-string acoustic and electric guitars and an 8-string bass to create and thoroughly explore their musical world. The opener is gentle, "Lucky Fool", where Kaiser's bass provides not so much a solid footing, but random outcroppings that Kutner on a high-tuned 12-string uses to pull himself up. The interchange is delicate, Kutner's sounds is mandolin precise and ringing (reminding me a little of John Abercrombie's electric mandolin work). The follow-up "The Silence Wager" features two 12-strings, but one is searing and distorted while the other is tuned low and wanders windy paths through clusters of notes and tones. The bottom drops out on "Dreams Interpreted by Opposites", which is a spacious and ambient float interrupted by electronic squalls. Two tracks "Boot Mistaken for an Axe Sheath" and "Did it matter, does it now" are both acoustic duets with somewhat conventional song forms - albeit very 'somewhat'. The former begins with a interesting rhythmic riff, which the other guitar then joins with a counter melody of equal, but not exactly aligned groove. The two follow in parallel play, with implied connections. The latter is begins with a preconceived riff that is more motion than motif, but leads into a delicate interweaving of melodic ideas. 'Glider' introduces some slide guitar over a bluesy accompaniment - quite a contrast to some of the more experimental tracks, and a nice anchor in the middle of the recording.
Cuong Vu 4TET : Change In The Air (RareNoise, 2018) ****
How had I left this album untouched for so long? I mean, this is the Bill Frisell album I wanted to hear after I picked up "Gone Just Like a Train" from a little record store in Hoboken back in 1998. At least that's how I felt the moment the track "Alive" picked up. Here was the guitarist playing with that Americana swagger and twangy Tele that brings tears to my eyes.
Seattle based trumpeter Cuong Vu has joined forces with Frisell before, in fact in 2016 they released Ballet (The Music Of Michael Gibbs) - and worked together over a dozen years ago on the trumpeter's It's Mostly Residual (Auand, 2006). However, like on Ballet, they are joined by bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor, who each brought a set of recordings to this session. The aforementioned 'Alive', with the sauntering comping by Frisell and soaring melodies from Vu, is from Poor, as is the soaring "Lately", which features a lovely melody and a serene harmonic development.
The album begins with a standard that never was. Poor's "All That's Left of Me in You" is in title and spirit something of a bygone era, preserved in the pages of a Real Book for the next generation. Vu's solo is scrumptious and Frisell's accompaniment is perfectly balanced between comping and gentle splashes of color. However, the real prize here is Bergman's 'Must Concentrate', which in a short four and half minutes uses its hopeful melody to give Frisell and Vu to burst into (well contained) flames. Vu's "Round and Round" is a much freer piece, where there seems to be little but suggestions from the composer as to how accompany his open ended melody, and reprises two tracks later as "Round and Around (Back Around)", with a much more solid ending statement. The album is capped off with a composition from Frisell, "Far From Home", leaves a tinge of melancholy in the air.
Jakob Bro - Bay of Rainbows (ECM, 2018) ****
Here is a gentle coda to this round-up: the sumptuous sounds of Jakob Bro whose playing simply rolls and flows like a gentle waves in say, a Bay of Rainbows. With the help of Thomas Morgan's sympathetic bass lines and the deeply nuanced drummer Joey Baron, there is little that can go wrong, and little does. The album is a live recording from NYC's Jazz Standard in NYC from this trio which also released "Streams" on ECM in 2016. Bay of Rainbows also continues the deep collaboration of Bro and Morgan, whose playing together now goes back at least a decade. Bro is a master of using space and time to hone his songs. Morgan, similar to his work with Frisell on Small Town, engages Bro in a sophisticated tug of war. It never rushes, or is rushed, and it never feels drawn out or overdone - the waves are the result of a gentle, but insistent flow. Some standouts are the atmospherically thick and dripping "Red Hook", and the crunchy 'Dug", which bursts with restrained tension. However, it's not the stand-alone songs that matter as much as it is the confluence off the musical streams.
