Nate Wooley

 By Stef

The number of creative and free improv musicians who really have good promotion of their music is limited. Take Nate Wooley for instance, without a doubt one of the best trumpeters around, about whom information on his discography or performances is extremely hard to find. You can check Allmusic  and you will find no information, just three albums, labeled as "prog rock", or  Artistdirect  mentions just one album with no information.Wooley had a website that advertises three albums, without any new information for the last six years! He now has a blog with very fragmented and infrequent information, to say the least.

Maybe that's a good sign. It shows he's busy working on his music rather than promoting himself, rightly thinking that his music is his best ambassador. But for fans like myself it makes it difficult to find what is available, because once you like his music, you want to hear more of it. Wooley has not only incredible trumpet technique and background (he was a student of Ron Miles), he is also very creative and audacious, while being a great team player too. With those qualities, it is no surprise that he is widely asked to perform and record. His recent output is nothing but prolific. Hence the three succinct reviews below, plus what I think is his most relevant discography, ranging from his most straight-forward first album to his very adventurous music with Mêlée.

Daniel Levin Quartet - Organic Modernism (Clean Feed, 2010) ****½

In my previous review of the band's "Live At Roulette", I wrote " The music flows organically, growing as it moves along, with instruments coming and going, like birds or bees passing by, coming and going, yet all taking part in the same unpredictable yet not unfamiliar scenery. Despite the apparent freedom, it all sounds very focused and coherent and it was possibly discussed before playing, or maybe not, and these four stellar musicians are just so good and so used to playing together, that this symbiosis of fragile and raw sounds might have been created spontaneously".

I am not quite sure how to say it differently for this album : the music is moving without being sentimental. It has nothing of traditional music, yet it is drenched in familiar sounds that are organised differently, not around structure but around each other, growing organically, with subtle pulse. It can be sweet and bluesy ("My Kind Of Poetry", "Old School"), it can also be adventurous and full of expressive outbursts ("Zero Gravity", "Expert Set") ... and excellent throughout.

The band is Daniel Levin on cello, Nate Wooley on trumpet, Matt Moran on vibes and Peter Bitenc on bass.

Listen and download from eMusic.

Buy from Instantjazz.

Nate Wooley Quintet- (Put Your) Hands Together (Clean Feed, 2011) ****

For the first time in many years, Nate Wooley releases an album with composed music, with an actual band, and with music that is more accessible than any of the records made under his leadership. The band is Josh Stinton on bass clarinet, Matt Moran on vibes, Eivind Opsvik on bass and Harris Eisenstadt on drums .... indeed the musicians who play regularly together in each other's bands and with equal success.

In stark contrast of some of his previous albums, Wooley's trumpet tone is voiced, deeply sensitive but within the same phrase he can switch it into screeching whispers. The compositions integrate jazz history, but then in a reverend and playful way, gently giving new dynamics and dimensions to the familiar forms, lifting them up, dusting them off, refreshing them with new power and creative angles.

The end result is a carefully crafted, fun album, with moments of playfulness ("Elsa"), deep sentiments ("Hazel"), compositional complexity ("Ethyl") or all in one ("Hands Together"). The most beautiful piece is "Shanda Lea" (Wooley's wife?), opening the album with solo trumpet, repeated halfway the record in duet with Stinton, then again as solo trumpet to end the album. On tracks like "Erna" you can hear the warm voice of Ron Miles seep through, but unlike Miles, Wooley adds some odd raw edges and in doing so also more depth in the delivery.

In short, a heart-warming and inventive album, show-casing a fantastic musician and an artist in full development. No need to praise the rest of the band: you know them already: they're among the best you can get these days, and to Wooley's credit, he leaves them lots of space.

Listen and download from iTunes.

Buy from Instantjazz.

Pete Robbins Unnamed Quartet - Live In Brooklyn (Not Two, 2011) ****

It is sometimes amazing how musicians can speak different "languages". Pete Robbins’ “siLENT Z Live”was a nice album, modern with some rock influences and lots of creative little angles - especially by Tyshawn Sorey on drums - yet somehow still constrained to predictable forms.

With his "Unnamed Quartet", Robbins goes a lot further. And so does the band, with Pete Robbins on alto sax, Daniel Levin on cello, Nate Wooley on trumpet and Jeff Davis on drums. If music can be free, this is it! It can be slow and deep, raucous and intense, angular and raw, unpredictable and expressive, with the four musicians listening quite well to each other, leaving space yet moving in the same direction. This is truly my kind of music, lacking polish, varnish and the only sophistication is to be found in the skills of the musicians to express themselves. A really great and welcome step forward for Robbins. And a fantastic album to hear Wooley, Levin and Davis in a completely free environment. Great stuff!


The three albums are quite different in nature : from organic open textures, over playing with tradition and sentiments to full free improvisation, and all three are easy to recommend, showing not only the breadth of Nate Wooley's playing but also the delight of musicians creating new sounds, sculpting their own musical space, full of character and vision. In the end, choosing one over the other is just a very subjective matter.

To come back to my introduction : there is nothing to be found about these bands on Youtube either, yes, some limited and often low quality material about one or the other musician, but nothing of real value. A pity.

Buy from Instantjazz.

Discography of Nate Wooley as leader and co-leader

Sangha Trio - Frantically, Frantically Being At Peace (Slippery Slope, 1997)
Nate Wooley - Run, She Whispered (self-released, 2002)
Blue Collar - ___ Is An Apparition (Rossbin, 2004)
Blue Collar - Lovely Hazel (Public Eyesore, 2005)
Nate Wooley - Wrong Shape To Be A Story Teller (Creative Sources, 2005)
Matt Hannafin, Brian Moran, Nate Wooley This Machine Kills Fascists (Sachimay, 2005)
Mêlée - Newest Ruins (Brokenresearch,  2006)
Mêlée - Pax Spray (American Tapes, 2007)
Mêlée - Violent Forms Of Laughter Pt. 1 (Meudiademorte, 2007)
Mêlée - Violent Forms Of Laughter Pt. 2 (Arbor, 2007)
Mêlée - Bare Those Excellent Teeth Pt. 2 (Brokenresearch, 2007)
Mêlée - Endings Vol. 8 (American Tapes, ?)
Mêlée with Aaron Siegel (Brokenresearch,  2007)
Mêlée & Joe Morris - Cloud Atlas Quartet (Brokenresearch, 2010)
Leonel Kaplan, Nate Wooley, Audrey Chen - Silo (Utech, 2006)
Evil Eye - Doing It All For My Baby (KMB, 2007)
Ryan Jewell, Reuben Radding, Nate Wooley - Rift (Smeraldina-Rima, 2007)
Chris Forsyth & Nate Wooley - The Duchess Of Oysterville (Creative Sources, 2007)
Paul Lytton & Nate Wooley - Untitled (BrokenResearch, 2008)
Tim Barnes, Nate Wooley & Jason Roebke Trio (Esquilo Records, 2008)
Water Closet Ensemble - Flush Tank Terrorists (Spread The Disease, 2008)
Water Closet Ensemble / Nozone / Indigents - Face It! (Spread The Disease, 2009)
Nate Wooley, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jason Roebke - Throw Down Your Hammer and Sing (Porter, 2009)
Joe Morris & Nate Wooley - Tooth & Nail (Clean Feed, 2010)
Nate Wooley, Paul Lytton, David Grubbs - Seven Storey Mountain (Important Records, 2009)
Nate Wooley & Paul Lytton - Creak Above 33 (Psi Recordings, 2010)
Nate Wooley - Trumpet/Amplifier (Smeraldina-Rima - 2010)
Nate Wooley Quintet- (Put Your) Hands Together (Clean Feed, 2011)

This is quite an impressive list, but some of the stuff is really hard to find, some of it was released on 25 audio-cassettes only!

As a side-man

Marc Gartman - All's Well That Ends (Pushpin Records, 2002)
Assif Tsahar & The New York Underground Orchestra - The Labyrinth (Hopscotch, 2002)
Assif Tsahar & The New York Underground Orchestra - Fragments (Hopscotch, 2005)
Aarktica - Bleeding Light (Darla Records, 2005) 
Reuben Radding -  The 12 in 2007 Project (free downloads)
Reuben Radding - Fugitive Pieces (Pine Ear Music, 2006)
Transit - Transit (Clean Feed, 2003)
Transit - Quadrologues (Clean Feed, 2009)
Mary Halvorson, Reuben Radding, Nate Wooley - Crackleknob (Hatology, 2009)
Stephen Gauci - Nididhyasana (Clean Feed)
Stephen Gauci - Absolute, Absolutely (CIMP, 2008)
Stephen Gauci - Whisps Of An Unknown Face (CIMP, 2006)
Daniel Levin - Some Trees (Hatology, 2006)
Daniel Levin - Blurry (Hatology, 2007)
Daniel Levin Quartet - Live At Roulette (Clean Feed, 2009)
Daniel Levin Quartet - Bacalhau (Clean Feed, 2010)
Daniel Levin Quartet - Organic Modernism (Clean Feed, 2011)
Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra - Ashcan Rantings (Clean Feed, 2010)
Matt Bauder - Day In Pictures (Clean Feed, 2010)
Harris Eisenstadt - Canada Day (Clean Feed, 2009)
Harris Eisenstadt - Guewel (Clean Feed, 2008)
Mike Pride, Jack Wright, Ben Wright, Nate Wooley - Tenterhooks (Bug Incision, 2009)
Graveyards - Night In A Graveyard (Rococco Records, 2006)
Graveyards - Night In A Graveyard Part 2 (Rococo, 2006)
Graveyards - Untitled (Qbico, 2008)
Graveyards King Size - Tape Reading Radio Lines (American Tapes, 2008)
Steve Swell - Presents: Magical Listening Hour Live @ The South Street Seaport (CJR, 2008)
Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet - Inner Constellation Volume One (Nemu Records, 2007)
Soccer Committee & Machinefabriek (self-released, 2009)
Pete Robbins’s Unnamed Quartet - Live In Brooklyn (Not Two, 2011)


... and some guest appearances with Peeesseye, Akron/Family, David Grubbs, Anaïs Mitchell, Matthew Welsh,... with the most bizarre performance on the "White Light/White Heat" Lou Reed tribute album by Puttin On The Ritz.

Here is a long and insight-full interview with Nate Wooley.


© stef

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Trumpeter and music innovator Bill Dixon passed away

Yesterday night, trumpeter and music innovator Bill Dixon passed away in his sleep at the age of 84, leaving a wife and two children behind.

You can find more about him on other websites and blogs with substantially better archives than this one. I never saw him perform, and I came to know his music far too late, but caught up with this gap in my knowledge in the last years.

I can only say that I admire the man for his musical vision. Whatever he did, it was with a relentless dedication to his music, not for himself, not to get admiration, but just to get more soul, expressivity, emotional power out of this most ephemeral thing as sound.

Whether in small ensembles on in large orchestras, his music was unique, never the same, evolving over the years, searching, searching, searching ... he seemed never happy with the result, expecting more, deeper, better. Listen to the man's tone, his explorative power, his adventurous spirit, his sense for lyricism, for abstract authenticity... words fail me.

I can only say that all his four latest albums, reviewed on this blog, received five-star ratings :

- Weight/Counterweight

- Tapestries For Small Orchestra

- 17 Musicians In Search Of A Sound - Darfur

- Bill Dixon & The Exploding Star Orchestra 

... which is even by my generous ratings, quite astonishing.

I put him on my list of the top-3 musicians of the year 2008.

He is also one of the first musicians to have solo trumpet and trumpet-percussion duo albums, elaborating the sounds of his instruments and pushing the boundaries of playing and listening.

His musical legacy is huge, and will only be appreciated in some decades from now. He left us musical gems like few other musicians.

Our thoughts are with his family.


Below an obituary written by Ben Young, author of Dixonia: A Bio-Discography of Bill Dixon (Greenwood Press, 1998)

"Trumpeter and composer Bill Dixon died June 16th at his home in North Bennington, Vermont after a two-year illness. He was 84 years old.

Dixon was a revered and idiosyncratic figure in the avant-garde of Jazz music, and a creative force who strived at all times to place the music in ever more respectful circumstances. Dixon developed an often controversial profile as an outspoken and articulate defender of musicians’ rights as artists, and specifically the challenges to Black music as a contender in the culture and society of the United States. His music is known for a dark, poignant, pan-tonal abstraction that remains lyrical without relying on songs or the conventions of Jazz music=making. Through five decades as a recording artist, Dixon’s music has developed a loyal worldwide following.

As a musical stylist and educator, Dixon was the progenitor of an often reserved composition and playing approach that stood in contradistinction to the trends prevailing in the avant-garde in Jazz since the Sixties. He steered an influential through short-lived collective-bargaining movement in New York in 1964–65, the Jazz composers’ Guild. Under Dixon’s leadership, the Guild crafted a stance to preserve the artistic self-determination of Guild membership. Though he lived in Vermont for most of the last four decades, playing only occasionally in New York and in the US altogether, Dixon remained a leader and doyen for musicians of successive generations in a diaspora of alumni of his teaching and ensembles.

The legacy of Dixon’s progressive organizing activities in the music often overshadow the impact of his own music-making. Dixon emerged as a composer and bandleader in what can fairly be called a second wave of the New York avant-garde. Dixon’s legacy of ensemble records (1966, 2007, 2009) frames an unparalleled body of solo music for trumpet (1970 –76, mainly) and a subsequent series of small ensemble recordings (1980–1995) that stand apart in texture, instrumentation, personnel, and orientation from most of the numerous records of the period by Dixon’s contemporaries.

Born William Robert Dixon on October 5, 1925, he was the son of William L. Dixon and Louise Wade. His family transplanted to Harlem at the height of the depression from Nantucket, Massachusetts where Dixon was born. An early aptitude in realistic drawing led him to advanced studies in commercial art during and after high school, well before music became a serious interest. (He was also acclaimed in a group and solo shows of paintings prior to serious recognition of his music, and he was painting, drawing and creating lithographs to the end of his life). Dixon enlisted in the U.S. Army during WWII and served in Germany at the close of European theater.

Bill Dixon’s deliberate study of music began at the Hartnett Conservatory of music in the mid-1940s. His journeyman years as a Jazz trumpet player in the 50s involved activity as a sideman in an array of entertainment and rehearsal projects. Daytime employment as an international civil servant at the UN Secretariat, Dixon also turned to musical advantage. He founded the United Nations Jazz Society in 1959. He worked in the same period to establish the coffee houses of Greenwich Village as a formal and legitimate venue for presenting progressive music, an early manifestation of the spirit that fed the formation of the Jazz Composers’ Guild.

Bill Dixon will perhaps always be remembered for his organization of a concert series to present the new music, the October Revolution in Jazz of October1–4, 1964, at the Cellar Cafe on west 91st Street. Though literally digested by only a handful of eyewitnesses, the concert series focused significant critical attention on the undergrowth of otherwise unrecognized creative musicians, many of whom, including Dixon, shortly would show forth as the newest voices of the new music of the Sixties.

Starting in 1966, Dixon entered a fruitful collaborative partnership with the dancer/choreographer Judith Dunn, whose background lay in the Cunningham and Judson schools. The collaboration with Dunn led Dixon to join the faculty at Bennington College where she taught in the Dance department, and Dixon pushed for the creation of the Black Music Division, a phalanx of the school’s music teaching that had its own faculty, student body, and orientation. Active officially from 1975 until 1985, the program was a prototype of a kind of college-level music study that has flowered only haphazardly since, basing itself in the aesthetics and praxis of avant-garde music-making.

Dixon is remembered by many of his students as a powerful and charismatic teacher who adroitly factored student musicians at various levels of skill and development into classes and his own ensemble pieces. Within the first few years at Bennington, it became the norm for Dixon to design individual and group exercises artistically meaningful enough to become part of the compositions he developed through a term’s work.

Dixon retired from teaching in 1995 and continued to perform and record, chiefly in Europe. His last years saw a dramatic increase in the frequency of his U.S. appearances, and, since 2008, in U.S.-released recordings of his works for ensembles.

Dixon is survived by his longtime partner Sharon Vogel of North Bennington, a daughter Claudia Dixon of Phoenix, Arizona and a son William R. Dixon II of New York City. He also leaves two grandchildren.

A memorial celebration of Bill Dixon’s life and work will be held in New York City at a later date."

© stef

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Jimi Hendrix

The first time I ever got goosebumps from music, was when I listened to Hendrix as a teenager. I wasn't even aware at first that the music triggered this physical effect. But then it happened again, and again. I still have this today.

This year the 40th anniversary of Hendrix's death is commemorated. A new album, "Valleys Of Neptune" with unreleased tracks will become available in March.

Why was Hendrix such a great musician?

It was a coincidence, or maybe not, that in the sixties two musicians transformed their traditional music drastically, turning it inside out and upside down, turning tunes into art. The first was John Coltrane, the second Jimi Hendrix. (Hey, you say, what about Miles Davis, what about Ornette Coleman? Yes, I answer, sure, but they're different).

What they did was comparable: unleash deepfelt emotions, re-inventing what they knew, re-think the scales, deconstruct and recreate, pushing the boundaries. Music before that time did not have the same expressive quality it has now. What we take for granted today, was unheard of before these two geniuses. Compositions were tunes, with harmony and rhythm, there to please an audience and were designed to dance and entertain.

Hendrix sure still made some poppy songs, released on just four official albums, but his real environment was the stage, the place where his music received its full power. Voodoo Chile and Foxy Lady were compositions on which he could speak a language unheard before. That language knew no boundaries. Even if his instrument was the same, almost bankrupt, stratocaster that "The Shadows" used, he used electricity, amps, pedals and feedback, but not for the sake of it, but to create a sound that could express his innermost feelings of distress, turmoil, passion, sadness, anger, ... he could scream, yell, howl, weep, soar, wail, ... his guitar technique was self-taught, based on simple blues scales, and fairly limited at the basis, but the new elements he discovered, the new techniques he developed, and the resulting sound he managed to create, it all remains unparallelled in terms of technical skills and especially in its expressiveness. Many, many guitarists were and are better schooled than Hendrix, with a much broader range of styles in their fingers, but none managed to transform feeling into sound like he did. Not one of them. 

Hendrix was an explosion of exuberant and expansive expressivity.

What has Hendrix got to do with jazz? Well, nothing with jazz per se, but surely with free jazz. He could just let go of rhythm and harmony and just do his thing on stage, exploring the unlimited potential of sound and impact, while always falling back on his feet. Listen to some of his Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) versions, or to "Hear My Train Comin' (electric version)" on the Blues CD. Goosebumps guaranteed.

Many musicians have tried to copy Hendrix. Check the tribute albums that are around. There aren't many good ones. The musicians playing tribute deliver poor covers, maybe with the exception of Stevie Ray Vaughan, but then he sticks too close to the original, demonstrating skills but no vision.

Several jazz musicians tried to the same. And I must say, the end result is even poorer.

La Musica Di Jimi Hendrix Per Jazz Ensemble - If Six Was Nine (1992) (All brass)
Lonnie Smith - Purple Haze - Tribute To Jimi Hendrix (1995)
Jean-Paul Bourelly - Tribute To Hendrix (1995)
Reed Robbins - Songs of Jimi Hendrix for Solo Jazz Piano (1995)
Christy Doran, Fredy Studer, Phil Minton, Django Bates, Amin Ali - Play Jimi Hendrix(1995)
Lonnie Smith - Foxy Lady - Tribute To Jimi Hendrix (1996)
Gil Evans Plays Jimi Hendrix (1998)
Andreas Willers & Friends - Play Jimi Hendrix Experience (1995)
Ron E. Carter Trio - Play Hendrix (1999)
Nguyen Le Purple (2002)
Christy Doran, Fredy Studer, Erika Stucky, Kim Clarke - Jimi (2005)
Francis Lockwood - Jimi's Colors - Tribute To Jimi Hendrix (2008) (piano solo)
Hiram Bullock Jimi Hendrix Tribute (2009)

... but all these albums are often rather painful attempts to sell rather than genuine tribute albums. 

The only "jazz" performance that is fun to listen to, even if not worthy of the original, is to be found on this Youtube clip, with Charlie Hunter on guitar, Skerik on sax, Mike Dillon on percussion, and Stanton Moore on drums. Apart from Hunter's fabulous technical skills on his 8-string guitar, listen to Skerik's sax solo somewhere in the middle.

© stef

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Tom Rainey

(photo by Barry Quick)

When I review the list of my reviews from this year, there are clearly a few constants, but none so striking as the presence of Tom Rainey at the drumkit, and that is a coincidence in the sense that I never looked for CDs on which he played (unlike CDs with for instance Hamid Drake), yet it's also not a coincidence in the sense that the major jazz musicians of today seek the services of this excellent and very versatile drummer.

Some of this year's best CDs on which Tom Rainey performs :

Joe Rosenberg - Quick Sand
Mark O'Leary - Waiting
David Torn - Prezens
Mark Feldman - What exit
Cline/Parkins/Rainey - Downpour
Drew Gress - Irrational Numbers
Mark Helias - Atomic Clock
Simon Nabatov & Tom Rainey - Steady Now
Brad Shepik - Places You Go
Tim Berne - Live In Cognito
Fred Hersch Trio - Play Coleman, Coltrane, ...

... and add some of the best albums of 2006 :

Drew Gress - 7 Black Butterflies
Julian Argüelles - Partita
Malaby/Sanchez/Rainey - Alive In Brooklyn Vol. 1 & 2

The most staggering thing when you look at this list is the wide variety of styles he is playing, and without a doubt he is a major contributor to the success of each of these CDs. It also demonstrates his attitude - in full service of the music at hand. And it also demonstrates the fact that he combines the technical skills of all these styles together with sufficient musical understanding and creativity to make it a success.

Unfortunately I couldn't find sufficient samples to illustrate the major differences of approach and the quality of his drumming in each and every style he's touched upon in the past years, and that's too bad. It only demonstrates that good music still is hard to find, even on internet.

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Thomas Heberer

Last year, Dave Douglas wrote on his blog : "For our New York readers: By all means, PLEASE come hear trumpeter Thomas Heberer this Saturday at Tonic at 8pm. He's coming with his electric trio from Cologne. This is an EXTREMELY RARE visit from a European master. Be there if you can".

True, German trumpeter Thomas Heberer studied with Douglas, but still, for someone with his reputation to be so insistent, it must be more than just out of friendliness that he does this. And he's right. Heberer is not only one of the best European trumpeters of the moment, his long-standing role in the ICP Orchestra can testify of that, but also in the European Jazz Ensemble, in Aki Takase's quintet, with Alexander von Schlippenbach, and many more. His technique is fabulous, which is of course the reason why he is so in demand, but on top of that, his compositional skills and musical vision are excellent as well. He has created several bands or musical projects of his own : Lip Lab (with tuba and drums), Sloops! (trumpet solo, with electronics and dubbed), SSH (with guitar and keyboards + turntables). The most recent projects are with bassist Dieter Manderscheid with whom he has released four CD's so far.

One of his latest US performances can be listened to below in its entirety : a quartet with Nate Wooley also on trumpet, Reuben Radding on bass and Harris Eisenstadt on drums. It was recorded in June of this year in Brooklyn, and it is closer to free improv than free jazz, but more than worthwhile.

Listen and download (also available on his website) :

Map 31
Forest Hills
Myrtle Ave
No Door Bell

His best work according to me is to be found in his duo releases with Dieter Manderscheid, because it is a little more accessible.

Listen to Heberer/Manderscheid :
Room 210
The Progress Thus Far
ER

For more information on Heberer : click here to be linked to his website.

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Ken Aldcroft

Yesterday I bought guitarist's Ken Aldcroft's "From Our Time", a record from 2003. I knew Aldcroft from his double CD "Kirby Sideroad" (2004) and from "His Mistress Never Sleeps" (1999), a tribute to Duke Ellington. Aldcroft is from Toronto, Canada, and his musical style is very modern, very bluesy and very open. Both in his compositions and guitar-playing Aldcroft manages to integrate the whole jazz-legacy without loosing his own voice, which is airy, carefully composed and free in the improvizations. At one moment it's bop, then free, then funk, then modern, but always with a creative touch, and a little harshness in the delivery, the tone of his guitar being more tuned for rock than for jazz, but it's accessible and compelling all the way. He is not breaking musical boundaries, but not everyone should do that. Once in a while it's good to have someone who brings it all together. On this album he is accompanied by Evan Shaw on alto saxophone, Gordon Allen on (pocket) trumpet and Joe Sorbara on drums. A great band with special kudo's for Joe Sorbara, whose drumming is absolutely excellent.

If you get the chance, get to know Aldcroft, you won't be disappointed. He is one of those musicians who clearly need wider recognition.

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Henri Texier - Remparts D'Argile (Label Bleu, 2001) *****

I have most of Henri Texier's albums, with the exception of his latest, "Alerte à l'Eau" published in February of this year. But why do I have all his CDs? Well, that's very simple : this guy knows what music is all about, and he has his own modest vision on it. He is a phenomenal bass player, who manages to keep the ground tone while being very melodious at the same time. Furthermore, he integrates many influencess in his music, starting with French folk music, of which he changes the often joyful melody into a jazz-format : extending and stretching the melody, putting the accents differently, and making the sound a little bit darker, more emotional. A "Texier melody" is hence easily recognizable, and that is also the case on his CDs with Louis Sclavis and Aldo Romano. But it doesn't stop there. Also Arabic and African influences find their way easily and imperceptibly into his music. He made his best albums with his Azure Quintet : the same players as on this album, but with Bojan Zulfikarpasic on piano, and Glen Ferris on trombone : "Mad Nomads", "An Indian's Week" and "Mosaic Man" are easy to recommend. Especially Bojan Z's piano is worth listening to : he adds some extra Balkan rhythms and melodies into the mix. On two of his other CDs ("Izlaz" and "Colonel Skopje") Steve Swallow joins on his electric bass. A quartet with two basses, that's something different, yet it works.

Ok, but why then choosing Remparts D'Argile as the record of reference? Indeed, it's film music, and very often film music is boring if you don't have the pictures that go with it, but that is definitely not the case with this album. I find this album excellent because it reduces Texier's music to its bare essence : the power of rhythm, melody and improvization. After the complexity of arrangements is being filtered out, what remains is raw emotion : joy, sadness, dispair, fear. Tony Rabeson is great on drums, but Sebastien deserves praise for the variation he brings on sax and clarinet. And Henri? Well, as usual he is carryng the whole building, inconspicuous as most foundations, he soloes, he carries the rhythm, he puts the accents, he propels the other players forward, he even pushes to swing once in a while ... And the music? The music is absolutely gorgeous. Great melodies, perfect dosage of interplay and improvization. Actually, the great thing about this CD is that you don't need the movie. The music is powerful enough.

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The Many Faces of John Zorn

John Zorn is a special character : the many faces of modern jazz.

He is :

1. A saxophonist : technically adept, yet I don't like his tone (often too cold : it's bizarre how he and Dave Douglas have this cold tone in Masada, while Greg Cohen (bass) and Joey Baron (drums) offer a warm sound.

2. A jazz composer : he is very strong in offering a mix of jazz with other influences, but especially klezmer. His best CDs are the Masada Live albums (Middelheim, Sevilla), but also his Bar Kokhba and his String Quartet releases are superb!

3. A soundtrack composer : he composes a soundtrack in a few hours (or so he writes in the liner notes for one of his Filmworks series (which one?). Nice music to listen to once (allright, twice).

4. A music publisher/producer : Tzadik, his label brings primarily klezmer-jazz and klezmer-rock, and new music. It's great how he offers young artists the opportunity to bring their music on CD, yet it has to fit within his vision.

5. A commercial genius : he managed to turn some unsellable music into a "branded" item. At the European Fnac stores, his label gets even a special section within the jazz department.

6. A wild improvisor : especially for his power and energy.

7. A duck quiff flute player : run away as fast as you can with your hands on your ears ("The Art Of Memory")

8. An avant-gardist : makes musical collages, tries out new things, not always with success, or at least not really my cup of tea (Spillane, Kristallnacht).

9. An everything-I-do-must-find-its-way-to-the-market : more than 100 albums under his own name in a timespan of 25 years, and the last few years on average 6 to 7 CDs per year! Zappa didn't manage to select his good from his trivial things too. So?

10. A romantic : why else would he advertise his jewish heritage in such a way, why would he be so terribly sentimental at times?

In sum, a guy with a very open spirit and a broad musical knowledge, but it would be better for him (and for my wallet!) to be a little bit more selective in what he publishes, preferably with a greater sense of self-criticism.

I find him fantastic. I find him awfull. Listen and judge. I have over 30 albums by Zorn, and most are worthwhile checking out.

Here is my list of favorites :

Masada - Live At Sevilla

Masada - Live at Middelheim

Masada - Live At Tonic

The Sony Clark Memorial Quartet

Bar Kokhba - Bar Kokhba

Bar Kokhba Sextet - 50th Anniversary, Vol 1, 2 & 3

The Circle Maker

Masada String Trio - 50th Anniversary

Masada String Trio - Azazel, Book Of Angels

The Gift

Filmworks IX - Trembling Before G-D

Filmworks XI - Secret Lives

Filmworks XII - Invitation To A Suicide

Filmworks XV - Protocols of Zion

Filmworks XVI - The Working Man's Death

And here are some Tzadik releases you shouldn't miss from the Radical Jewish Culture Series :

Paul Brody - Beyond Babylon

Rob Burger - Lost Photograph

Ken Butler - Voices Of Anxious Objects

Anthony Coleman - Sephardic Tinge

Anthony Coleman - Morenica

Anthony Coleman - My Beautiful Garden is Open

The Cracow Klezmer Band - De Profundis

Davka - Lavy's Dream

Davka - Judith

Davka - Live

Marty Ehrlich - Sojourn

Erik Friedlander - Grains Of Paradise

Koby Israelite - Dance Of The Idiots

Koby Israelite - Orobas, Book Of Angels, vol. 4

Frank London - Invocations

Frank London - Scientist At Work

Frank London - Hazonos

Jon Madof - Masada Rock

Jon Madof - Shalosh

Eyal Maoz - Edom

New Klezmer Trio - Melt Zonk Rewire

Psamim - Abi Gezint! (Belgian!)

Ned Rothenberg - The Lumina Recordings

Satlah - Exodus

Greg Wall - Later Prophets

Yves Weyh - Zakaryah

Doug Wieselman - Dimly Lit

Dany Zamir - Satlah

Dany Zamir - Children Of Israel

I am sure I forgot plenty, but this is a great start, I would say.

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David S. Ware - Surrendered

David S. Ware is a force of nature on tenor, someone who's managed to collaborate with the best of the American free jazz scene : Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Suzy Ibarra, Hamid Drake. On this album he is accompanied by Shipp (piano), Parker (bass) and Guillermo E. Brown on drums. On some of his CDs one gets the impression that the band has only a supporting role, and even hardly gets any space to do their thing, as is sometimes the case on the three-disc set "Live In The World". That is not always a negative factor : Ware knows how to keep things interesting. Surrendered is somewhat different. More subdued, more melodious, even harmonious, and hence somewhat warmer and more accessible. There is an atmosphere of spirituals you rather expect with Albert Ayler than with David S. Ware. Yet his playing remains 100% free jazz : no sound of his sax is left unchecked to convey a wide emotional range, expressing dispair, fear, anger, resignation, hope. Last year he also issued a similar "calm" CD, Balladware, a little bit too mellow to my liking. For those who do not know David Ware, Surrendered will offer a good introduction.

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