Amir ElSaffar & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch - Inner Spaces (Ornithology, 2025)

By Stef Gijssels

We have steadily reviewed American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar's work before on this blog, and always full of admiration for merging Middle-Eastern composition with jazz. Of Iraqi descent, ElSaffar integrated the musical legacy of his father into his Western musical education. On this album, he performs with electronic sound artist Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, who works for dance and theater, and who's also  professor of Electroacoustic Composition at the Conservatory of Montbeliard, France. His bio mentions his artistic endeavour to incorporate movement and space in 3D sound, multichannel and holophonic composition.

The interaction between both artists works to perfection. This is not free improvisation - readers should be warned - but carefully planned compositions with significant room for improvisation. ElSaffar has created a unique microtonal language that merges the Arabic maqam modal system with jazz and Western harmonies. To ElSaffar's credit, he keeps searching for new sounds and presenting them too. His eclectic knowledge of different musical traditions, his brilliant instrumental technique and his compositional power make it stand out as music with a unique voice, difficult to put into any musical category. Bianchi Hoesch's live electronics create more than just depth or background to ElSaffar's trumpet and singing, driving up the intensity, building walls of sound full of rhythm, or quiet flowing sounds that set the slow pace for some of the most beautiful moments of the album. 

ElSaffar's singing in Arabic will not be for everyone to appreciate - as we are usually less familiar with the quartertone singing, the vibratos and the language - but I can only encourage you to open your ears and listen to the depth and authenticity of the delivery, something he does even better on trumpet. 

On "Pas de Deux", he switches to santur, a hammered dulcimer, creating a sensitive and subdued sound that gives Bianchi Hoesch the opportunity to (re)create his own expression of previously sonic bits from ElSaffar's trumpet. 

The real power piece on the album is the eleven minute long "Spirits", which not only demonstrates the absolute purity and warmth of his trumpet playing, but also the compositional and rhythmic complexities of different musical styles, building up from the quiet intro to a more intense 10/16 rhythm, when he sings,  followed by a key and rhythm change into jazz harmonies. 

So am not sure how you could catalogue this music. There are "nu jazz" affiliations, reminiscent of Nils Petter Molvaer, there are possible associations with Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, but this is as far as it goes. ElSaffar does create his own sound. I will let you judge for yourself. Regardless of style and genre, it's impressive.

Listen and enjoy.

A live version of the album can be viewed in its entirety here: Live at Festival Aperto 2024, Teatro Valli, Reggio Emilia, Italy

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Ian Dogole – Quinta Essentia (Global Fusion Music, 2022)

By Matty Bannond

Ian Dogole is from Philadelphia – but his musical passions unfurl far beyond the City of Brotherly Love. Early inspiration from Philly luminaries like Sun Ra and John Coltrane led the percussionist to explore traditions and instruments from across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. His latest album, Quinta Essentia, is an uplifting tale of wide-ranging sonic adventure.

Seven musicians adopt fresh constellations for each track. Dogole’s contributions are spread across thirteen instruments. Richard Howell and Sheldon Brown take turns with tenor and soprano saxophones, while Howell also sings and Brown unpacks his bass clarinet. Fred Randolph features on double bass, with Frank Martin on piano and synthesizer. And the album also includes Henry Hung on trumpet, Moses Sedler on cello and Yassir Chadly on vocals and gimbri.

A couple of tracks serve up fairly standard contemporary jazz fare. A quintet huddles around a fanfaring melodic statement for the opening track, Togo. There’s a pink-panther-ish undercurrent for 'Reflections by the Bay Window.' These straight-ahead moments are suffused with a strong magnetic charm thanks to the tightly double-helixed intertwining of Dogole’s percussion and Randolph’s bass.

'Svoboda' is stripped down to just cello and kalimba – a finger-plucked instrument with a wooden soundboard and metal keys that originates in Southern Africa. The track has a stop-start feeling, with bowed long notes and fitful bubbling from the kalimba. It feels loaded with top-of-the-hill gravity, peaceful yet precarious and threatening to roll over the edge.

Yassir Chadly carries the sound in another direction for 'Nubian Dreams.' The Moroccan-American’s rich voice dances over the deep, contemplative sound of his gimbri – a three stringed, skin-covered bass-plucked lute from North Africa. Perhaps the freest improvisation can be found on 'Quince y Quatro,' where Howell explores open spaces above the sound of Dogole’s sundrum, a circular and tunable marimba made of wood that is derived from the Cora, Mbira and balafon.

The inventive spirit of Dogole’s percussion gives the album a joyous and self-surprised feeling. Quinta Essentia provides a bright, unpredictable and cross-cultural experience. Its diversity of contributors, instruments and ideas transports listeners around the globe – via the birthplace of cheese-steaks and Rocky Balboa. Go Birds.

The album is available as a digital download here.

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Ahmed Ag Kaedy - Orion Congregation (Schneeball, 2018) ***½

By Paul Acquaro

The Orion Congregation is a group out of Berlin, a mix of Malian, Nigerian, and German musicians, which caught my ear recently when I was poking around at a small record shop off of Berlin's Boxhagener Platz. Ahmed Ag Kaedy, the Malian guitarist, is the group’s leader, and his group is Johannes Schleiermacher on synth and sax, Michael Wehmeyer and Jörg Hochapfel on organ (yeah, they've got a big sound!), Kalle Enkelmann on bass, and Mahalmadane Traoré and Bernd Oezsevim on drums and percussion.

The music has a jam band feel to it, in this case modal romps with electrifying organ, served up with a dense underbrush of percussion. Overall, it’s a big mash of world-music-improvisation-stew and it’s a lot of fun to listen to and simply let surround around you. The music is built on layers of energy, growing and compounding through repetitive rhythmic figures (the bass is insistent, though it's a bit submerged in the mix). The lyrical melodies act more like a rhythmic elements, adding texture to the music.

Some fav moments: the free-ranging organ solo in 'Arodj Dalen' (about 3.5 min in, it gets modulated and even funkier). Around the 6 minute mark, the whirl has become even more intense, the whistling and cheering audience is enthusiastic, and the groove is unrelenting. The saxophone work from Schleiermacher on 'Mani Mani', the last tune on the album, adds some refreshing variety.

Good good fun, a groove band with a world-music flair, and I suspect an excellent experience live.

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Amir ElSaffar's Two Rivers - Crisis (Pi, 2015) ****½

[b]By Stef[/b]

This incredibly beautiful album shows the crisis of the Arab world in all its internal and external conflicts, the strife between modernity and traditionalism, between the right for self-determination and foreign influence, between tolerance and extremism, between peace and war.

We have heard the Two Rivers band before, a title referring to the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq, rivers of myths and legends, the basis of our civilization, but also very much on our television screens these years, where the cultural remnants of this civilization are turned to ruins. The band are Amir ElSaffar, of Iraqi origin on vocals and quarter-tone trumpet, Tareq Abboushi on buzuq, Zafer Tawil on oud and percussion, Ole Mathisen on microtonal sax, Carlo DeRosa on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums.

The band already delivered the beautiful "Two Rivers" in 2007 and "Inana" in 2011, two albums that are easy to recommend, but I have the impression that this one is even better. The themes are beautiful, the rhythms complex and ever changing, the interplay excellent, and the emotional depth even better than before. Just listen to ElSaffar's solo trumpet on "Taqsim Saba", a performance which can compete with Nassim Maalouf's "Improvisations Orientales", one of the absolute masterpieces of the quarter-tone trumpet, because of its desolation and beauty. Then listen to the complex harmonies and arrangements of tracks like "The Great Dictator" or "Tipping Point", where you are treated to some phenomenal interplay and dazzling soloing. The only downside on the album is that the strings are not always mixed with the right volume, so they tend to disappear in the background when soloing, but that is really the only downside of this great album. A special kudo too for ElSaffar's singing, which is as sad as it is powerful, not in the sense of Dhafer Youssef's volume pyrotechnics, but more contained, more intimate.

Over the years, ElSaffar has improved on all different aspects of the music, and it was already great to start with. World jazz fans should not miss this, and many others will surely enjoy this.

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Michael Zerang & The Blue Lights - Hash Eaters & Peacekeepers (Pink Palace, 2015)

 By Stef

Just for reasons of completeness, and in response to the comment from Mulot received this morning, this album is the companion cassette to the same band's "Songs From The Big Book Of Love". 

I cannot add more than what Martin wrote in his review : I love Tanger (having lived in Morocco for two years), I love the movie "Only Lovers Left Alive" (watched it already three times now), and I love the compelling music on this album which is incendiary, a great genre-bending exercise of jazz, brass band and middle-eastern influences, including a great version of Misirlou, which was originally an Egyptian tune. Other well-known songs are the cover of Lebanese singer Fairuz's beautiful "Al Bint el Chalabiya".

The band is the same : Mars Williams and Dave Rempis on sax, Josh Berman on cornet, Kent Kessler on bass and Michael Zerang on drums. The cassette is by definition a little shorter than the CD, but still highly recommendable and good value for money. And if in doubt, it's a great addition to the CD. 

What the Slavic Soul Party is to Balkan jazz, the Blue Lights are to Middle-Eastern jazz: not very authentic, but great fun. 

For those interested, you can also download both the CD and the cassette format from Bandcamp. 

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Michael Zerang and The Blue Lights – Songs from the Big Book of Love (Pink Palace, 2015) ****½

 

By Martin Schray

Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive” is a great movie. It celebrates a certain vintage lifestyle, in which quality, deliberate slowness, and a love for nostalgia and the luxurious fight against the inevitability of greed and the fast pace of today’s world. However, there is only one weak scene: At the end of the film the two vampires Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) are in Tanger and pass by a club in which the Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan is playing and the two protagonists get lost in the music. In this scene I wished Jarmusch had chosen a more interesting band instead of Hamdan’s rather insipid electro/world-music brew.

A great choice would have been Michael Zerang & The Blue Lights because their music reminds of the lost Tanger of William S. Burroughs and Paul Bowles, of the beat generation, hot jazz clubs, hard bop excesses, an exuberant life style and an atmosphere of anything goes. As a band leader percussionist Zerang, the son of Assyrian parents, is clearly in the tradition of Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers but he also cultivates his Eastern roots. The debut album of his band The Blue Lights includes eight original compositions by him and features the band playing a local club date in Chicago. And they set the house ablaze, no wonder considering that he has gathered Chicago’s top notch players like Mars Williams (sax), Dave Rempis (sax), Josh Berman (cornet) and Kent Kessler (b).

However, the fact that a great deal of the music is notated, does not mean that there is no room for improvisation although you might argue that the old theme/solo/theme/solo pattern is really worn out. But it’s just the opposite! Oriental riffs are used as a foundation to go completely astray (the saxes in “Persian Lips”), fanfare-like tunes meet urban funkiness (“Dancing for Cigarette”) and crazy over-blown sax solos (“To Tu”), syncopated cadences clash into Eastern melodies, free jazz excursions and call-and-response schemes (“Chicago Rub Down”). The brass section is a killer – especially Rempis and Williams kick asses - , Kent Kessler is solid as a rock, and Zerang‘s super-tight, earthy and relaxed strikes, his manic drum rolls, and Middle Eastern grooves keep the diverging elements together. Even the ballad (“I don’t know if you are beautiful tonight”) is so full of warmth you cannot resist. Hardly ever did I have such continuous fun listening to an album.

You can order and listen to it here:

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Gato Libre - DuDu (Libra, 2014) ****

By Stef

In my review of "Forever", their previous CD, I wondered what would happen with this great Japanese chamber quartet, now that bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu has sadly passed away. Rather than looking for a new bass player, they invited  Yasuko Kaneko to join on trombone. The other band members are still Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Satoko Fujii on accordion and Kazuhiko Tsumura on guitar. 

For fans of the quartet, the overall sound is not dramatically impacted by this change, the music is still a mixture of old European folk music with avant-jazzy improvisations and colorings outside of the lines. The music remains soft-spoken, with precious themes and solos that can go totally "out there" on a basis of rhythm and melody. 

If anything, the music is sadder than ever, if that's possible, with some devastating soloing by Tamura, who really outperforms himself on "Nanook", making his horn cry and wail in between the pure warm tones in the intro section, and Kaneko's trombone adds some wild additions to this in a duet with the trumpet near the end of the tune. 

Fujii and Tsumura offer harmonics to the horns in the most senstive of fashions, well illustrated by the careful build-up of a single accordion note and sparse guitar chords to evoke the title's "Rainy Day". 

The music has become more ethereal, with more open space, with less dense arrangements, and the more explicit dance rhythms that could be heard on the band's earlier albums has completely disappeared, as do the themes in a way, and interestingly enough, this evolution seems to work well, keeping the music fresh, authentic and offering fans something new instead of more of the same. 

A moving album. 

Available from Instantjazz.

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World jazz with influences from the Middle-East

By Stef 

As written before, I love Arabic music, I love the scales, the rhythms, the long improvisations and most of all the emotional power coupled with a deep spiritual longing. I also like - not all, but some of it - of the real worldjazz efforts by Arab musicians such as Anouer Brahem, Dhafer Youssef (both from Tunesia), Rabih Abou-Khalil and Marcel Khalife (both from Lebanon), and many more. 

Some new albums go in the same direction and are worth mentioning. 



Ayman Fanous & Jason Kao Hwang - Zilzal (Innova, 2013) ****½

Although it starts in a very traditional way, guitarist and bouzouki-player Ayman Fanouz and violinist Jason Kao Hwang quickly turn expectations upside down, extracting the ingredients from tradition, deconstructing forms and re-integrating them in another kind of beauty, the one in which new sounds arise from nowhere, shattering the calm contempative nature of the first track into short bursts of agony and distress. "Zilzal" means earthquake, and that is what you get in some tracks.

This is not world music. It isn't jazz either. This is music with ambition. Ambitions of beauty, artistic ambitions, for new forms of sounds, new ways to express things, full of emotional depth, with emotions that are too complex to be canvassed in old forms, too elusive to be captured in patterns, too deep to be expressed in shallow tunes.


Amir ElSaffar - Alchemy (Pi, 2013) ****

Master trumpeter Amir ElSaffar re-writes jazz harmonies based on former Babylonian and Summerian scales and rhythms, with microtonal chord changes. The result is not as gripping as his previous album (check them out on this website) but remain highly recommended for listeners looking for other views on how music may sound, this is worldjazz of a complexity that you rarely hear, even though the overall sound is quite boppish.

With Ole Mathisen on sax, John Escreet on piano, François Moutin on bass and Dan Weiss on drums.


Nashaz - Nashaz (Bandcamp, 2013) ***½

Nashaz is the debut album of the band with the same name and consisting of Brian Prunka on oud, Kenny Warren on trumpet, Nathan Herrera on alto sax, bass clarinet and alto flute,  Apostolos Sideris on bass,   George Mel on frame drum, udu drum, cajon, pandeiro, and percussion, and Vin Scialla on riq.

Like other musicians such as Rabih Abou-Khalil the ensemble uses middle-eastern scales and rhythms with traditional and jazz instruments mixed. The effect is nice, the playing is good, really good. It is not really ground-breaking, but within the subgenre of middle-eastern influenced jazz, it's easy to recommend.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Devin Ray Hoff - The Lost Songs Of Lemuria (2013) ***

A nice album, four tracks, with all four musicians improvising on a somewhat repetitive rhythmic base. With Tomeka Reid on cello, Alex Farha on oud, Frank Rosaly on drums and Devin Hoff on acoustic bass guitar.

Very welcoming sounds and some beautiful improvisations.

Listen and download from Bandcamp

Gordon Grdina - No Difference (Songlines, 2013) ***

We have reviewed Vancouver-based guitarist and oud-player Gordon Grdina before. On this album he teams up with Mark Helias on bass, Kenton Loewen on drums and Tony Malaby on tenor.

The first track is a deep piece for oud and bass, really strong and very middle-eastern in scales, rhythms and melody. But then Grdina is also a jazz guitarist. So the next track is very jazzy, again a duo with Helias, close to mainstream, gentle and warm. On the third track his guitar sounds a notch more distorted, and when the rest of the band joins the guitar-bass intro, you are almost in full fusion territory at times, full of power and speed and loudness. Or you get complete noise on the avant-garde "Cluster".

Like in several of Grdina's other albums, coherence is missing. There isn't even an effort to come with a single musical vision, no, the listener gets exposed to a whole series of possibilities, but when you try too much you often end up with too little.


Jussi Reijonen - Un (Unmusic, 2013) ***

Another strange album, ranging from middle-eastern meditative music to a prog rock version of Coltrane's "Naima", with in between references of Maurice El Medioni, and very quiet down-tempo new-agey rock music. A strange mix. Like Grdina's album, it is not quite clear what the unity of musical vision is, and if Grdina evolves into more volume and tighter interplay, Reijonen's music goes all quiet and more open. 
Jussi Reijonen himself plays oud, fretless guitar, fretted guitar, Utar Artun on piano, Bruno Råberg on acoustic bass, Tareq Rantisi on percussion, Sergio Martinez on percussion, Ali Amr on qanun, and Eva Louhivuori joins on vocals for the last track. 

Find out more on the musician's website. 

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Vyacheslav Guyvoronsky, Ahsan, Kucherov - Around Silence (Leo, 2013) ****

By Stef 

The combination of trumpet playing and Indian singing is not new : Irene Schweitzer introduced it on "Jazz Meets India" - or was it Don Cherry? -  some years ago trumpeter Erik Truffaz gave it a try with "Benares", but the real master on the instrument, Russian trumpeter Vyacheslav Guyvoronsky, whose technical skills as a classically trained fierce improviser have been praised before on this blog, now joins forces with Indian singer Niloy Ahsan and tabla-player Denis Kucherov, and the result is really fantastic, especially taken into account that I am not really a fan of carnatic singing.

The album consists of four long tracks, with music that shifts between slow meditative modes to high energy moments. You can call this the music of mysticism and religious spirituality, but in this case it is certainly not : the four pieces offer a joyful and playful interaction between the three musicians, with more often than not Ahsan leading the melodious parts and Guyvoronsky echoing him seamlessly, in a truly amazing fashion.

This is truly about the joy of making music, of joint improvisation, and this joy is maintained throughout the album. It's easy for the listener to join in the joy.

 

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Perry Robinson, Zerang, Roginski, Zimpel - Yemen. Music Of The Yemenite Jews (Multikulti, 2012) ****½

By Stef 

Performed at the Tzadik Poznan Jazz Festival in Poland, 2011, this band is pretty unique, with grandmaster Perry Robinson on clarinet and ocarina, Waclaw Zimpel on clarinet and bass clarinet, Raphael Roginski on guitar, and Michael Zerang on drums, frame drum and darabuka.

Apparently the Yemenite music is revived from archives dating back thousands of years ago. And the music is absolutely haunting and mesmerising, with Zerang and Roginski offering a repetitive trance-inducing rhythm on each long track, over which both clarinets intertwine in spiralling phrases, or with one leader singing in moaning melancholy, echoed with even sadder phrases by the counterpoint clarinet. And if the rhythmic patterns make your blood pump through your veins in synchronised empathy, contracting your muscles to force your entire body to move along, the beautiful clarinets wave by as free as the desert wind, as a breeze over warm sand and stories past.

The music is maybe of jewish origin, yet it doesn't sound like klezmer, and Yemen is close enough to Africa to have benefited from the continent's rhythms.

We all know the skills and talent of Robinson, Zimpel and Zerang in the meantime, they have been featured many times on this blog, yet guitarist Raphael Roginski is at the same high level, also featured on other recent albums such as Shofar's "Ha-Huncvot" and Sisters' "The Mono". His clean tone, his rhythmic approach and his stylistic immersion in the music, make it sound as if the electric guitar has been part of the Yemenite instruments of choice since the early days. A real achievement of control and expressive skill.

An astonishing and beautiful performance and adepts of Middle-Eastern music in modern form shouldn't miss this one.

 

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Middle East & Jazz

By Stef  

It's been almost a year since the last "world jazz" post on this blog, called "Jazz From The Middle East, Between Experiments & Kitsch". One of the earliest epigone of the genre was Ahmed Abdul-Malik with his "Jazz Sahara" in 1958 leading to Lebanese oud-player Rabih Abou-Khalil, possibly the best known master of the genre, yet who unfortunately keeps rehashing his own kind of musical blend with different line-ups.

Today two albums are worth mentioning, neither experimental nor kitsch, but bading in a warm atmosphere that is welcoming, with strong character and excellent musicianship.


Jan Klare, Ahmet Bektas, Fethi Ak (Meta, 2012) ***½

On this beautiful and unassuming album, German altoist and flautist Jan Klare meets his Turkish compatriots Ahmet Bektas on oud and Fethi Ak on percussion. The music is more Turkish or middle-eastern than jazz, with long improvisations woven around equally long unison lines, full of sad melancholy and joyful passion. The small setting makes for an intimate atmosphere.

Even if the album will not make music history, it has one intoxicating aspect and that is the sheer pleasure in making music together that transpires with every note. Even if this the band's debut album, they have been playing as trio for over ten years, and that can be heard.


Gordon Grdina's Haram - Her Eyes Illuminate (Songlines, 2012) ***½

On this more ambitious project, Canadian oud-player (and otherwise guitarist), leads a band with Chris Kelly on tenor sax, JP Carter on trumpet, François Houle on clarinet, Jesse Zubot on violin and electronics, Tim Gerwing on darbuka, Liam MacDonald on riq, Tommy Babin on electric bass, Kenton Loewen on drums, and Emad Armoush on vocals and ney. In short, some of Canada's more adventurous musicians.

From the very first notes, you can hear the great Arabic sound of main theme and counterpoint, rhythmic changes, orchestral unison and improvisation. Grdina, for whom this is one of many jazz and fusion projects, call this band his avant-garde Arabic Ensemble.

The music digs deep into Arabic cultural heritage, from the traditional Iraqi oud music of Munir Bashir to the vocal and orchestral Egypt of Oum Kalthoum.

Grdina leads his tentet through the real stuff, including the warm vocals of Emad Armoush, full of respect and admiration, yet he adds the temporary touch in the improvisations, which at times go far beyond what you get in fusion.

A heart-warming and powerful album.

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Jazz from the Middle-East - between experiments and kitsch

 By Stef

The concept of "jazz" is very wide, and it covers a wide variety of subgenres which are totally unrelated. Jazz is inclusive music, in that it absorbs, integrates and adapts interesting elements from other musical genres easily. And also in the Middle East, and Lebanon maybe even more so because it is one of those countries which has more inhabitants living outside the country than inside, which of course leads to broad cultural influences.

Possibly the most experimental of all music comes from the Al Maslakh label, which organises the annual  IRTIJAL festival and releases few but regular releases with musicians such as Sharif Sahnaoui, Mazen Kerbaj, Raed Yassin, Bechir Saade, Christine Sehnaoui, but also Brötzmann, Ingar Zach, Michael Zerang, Rodhri Davies.

Sharif Sehnaoui - Old And New Acoustics (Al Maslakh, 2011)

I have not heard this album yet, but I look forward to hear it. Sharif Sehnaoui is a minimalist, percussionist and guitarist, as you can watch on the video below. His playing can lead to fascinating results, with hypnotic and chime-like sounds bouncing off in all directions, erupting out of his horizontal guitar. Check out some of the tracks on this album, "The Ruptured Sessions Vol. 2", a series of four albums by Ziad Nawfal dedicated to present contemporary Lebanese music. Vol. 2  is dedicated to experimental music.

Amir ElSaffar - Inana (Pi, 2011) ****½

The best album in this overview comes undoubtedly from Iraqi trumpeter Amir ElSaffar, whose "Two Rivers"  I have reviewed and praised before. The band consists of Nasheet Waits on drums, Carlo DeRosa on bass, Tareq Abboushi on buzuq, Zafer Tawil on oud, violin and dumbek, and Ole Mathisen on sax, who replaces Rudresh Mahanthappa from the earlier band.

The end result is a fantastic blend of Middle-Eastern scales and sentiment, joined with the complexities of jazz, and both genres find themselves perfectly in the rhythmic changes and the improvisational space.

The album is gripping and moving, not only because of the beautiful melodies and interplay, but also because the soloists achieve strong emotional expressivity both in the expected parts, but even more so in the subdued parts. Amir ElSaffar's quartertone trumpet playing is exceptional, with a sound that shimmers and vibrates like distant air on hot sand.

Possibly the best world jazz album you will hear this year.

Rabih Abou-Khalil - Trouble In Jerusalem (Enja, 2011) ***½

I cannot describe the moments of joy I have had with some of Germany-based Lebanese oud-player Rabih Abou-Khalil's earlier work. He opened a new language in his own personal fusion of jazz and Middle-Eastern music, with its incessant rhythmic changes, its meandering snake-like coiling themes, its tongue-in-cheek humor, well balanced with technical mastery and a profound emotional depth.

In the past few years, he's been repeating his own idiom a little bit too much to my taste, doing the same thing over and over again, but then with different line-ups, and adding the occasional other cultural influence.

This project is of a different nature. He wrote the score for a German silent movie from 1922, "Nathan der Weise", based on a play by German author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, which advocates religious tolerance in Jerusalem in the period of the third crusade in the 12th Century, with the hope of making judaism, christianity and islam to live in peace.

The core band is known from previous albums: Rabih Abou-Khalil on oud, Michel Godard on tuba and serpent, and Jarrod Cagwin on frame drums. They are accompanied here by the Bundesjugendorchester (BJO) or German Youth Orchestra, conducted by Frank Strobel. The soloists are Tobias Feldmann on violin, Sarina Zickgraf on viola, and Sophie Notte on cello. Somehow the use of a classical orchestra is not alien to Abou-Khalil's compositions, since they are also quite prominent in Arabic classical music, and in the music of, for instance Egyption diva Umm Kulthum.

Abou-Khalil's music is recogisable as always, with lots of high speed forward driving motion, like the perfect score for car chases in police series, alternated by slower and more subdued moments, jubilant moments, solemn moments, and darkly menacing moments. This is a film score : it adds drama to the images, forcefully so, with an emotional immediacy that is needed to support the action.

It is nice, well played, with moments of beauty, and possibly a good accompaniment for a movie none of us are likely to see.

You can watch the entire movie "Nathan der Weise" (1922) here.

Ibrahim Maalouf - Diagnostic (Mi’ster Prod, 2011) *

And then to be totally unfair, there is also France-based Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, nephew of author Amin Maalouf, whose "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" is a must-read for everyone interested in world politics and history. My review of Maalouf's previous album "Diasporas" led to an avalanche of negative comments, and to my horror, his musical kitsch is even pushed further on this album.

I can accept that it is not Maalouf's intention to make jazz, but just to use its instruments to make some other music. Regardless, it is still kitsch. His trumpet-playing is really good though, but his musical taste demonstrates that blending styles without subtlety and clear artistic vision, keeps it in the domain of cheap entertainment. With Zalindê on batucada, Oxmo Puccino on voice, Sarah Nemtanu on violin, Nenad Gajin on guitar, Jasser Haj Youssef on Arabic violin, Jérémie Dufort on tuba, Piers Faccini on harmonica, Jasko Ramic on accordion, Guo Gan on erhu, and Serdar Barcin on saxophone. All other instruments are played by Maalouf.

Watch the clip to get my point - all cheap effects by excellent musicians, move to minute eight to hear the expected rock explosion.





Arab music is among the most beautiful in the world, and one that builds on many elements that are quite present in modern jazz : improvisation, spiritualism, rhythmic and instrumental mastery, as well as openness to new forms and cultures. We can only hope that the "Arabian Spring" will open the Middle-East even more to the rest of the world rather than closing down upon themselves. Yet on the other hand, authenticity and cultural heritage need also to be preserved. The music can become richer by incorporating true artistic wealth, but it can also decide to move into the realm of kitsch, and blend only those parts that sell. The latter will disappear because too shallow and too much part of today's entertainment business, the former will hopefully create new things that will still be listened to in the future.

Done with the preaching, now.

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Darren Johnston's Gone To Chicago - The Big Lift (Porto Franco, 2011) ****

 By Stef

Trumpeter Darren Johnston is a musician who has incredible ears and an openness for many subgenres of jazz, ranging from the simple trio combo as with "The Nice Guy Trio" to more adventurous stuff as on "Reasons For Moving" or "Third Impulse", with the recent "The Edge Of The Forest" somewhere in between.

On "The Big Lift", he continues his journey, exploring musical possibilities and arrangements, surely a long stretch beyond mainstream, yet so very rooted in the jazz tradition, with a band of Chicago's finest musicians :
Jeb Bishop on trombone, Jason Adasiewicz on vibes, Nate McBride on bass, and Frank Rosaly on drums.

And these five musicians' interplay is incredibly tight and loose at the same time : they stick to the agreed structures and arrangements while improvising freely and abundantly before unexpectedly falling back on unison lines and solid rhythmic patterns. You can hear blues, swing, calypso, funeral band and big band arrangements in a way like you've never heard them before : stretched and pushed beyond tradition, while retaining the value of their original character and musical enjoyment. Inventive compositions meet instrumental prowess meet human warmth.

Listen and download from eMusic.

Buy from Instantjazz.

The Nice Guy Trio - Sidewalks And Alleys/Walking Music (Porto Franco Records, 2011) ***½

We find Darren Johnston back in the company of Rob Reich on accordion and Daniel Fabricant on bass for their sophomore album with the trio, now accompanied by a string quartet consisting of Mads Tolling and Anthony Blea on violins, Dina Macabee on viola, and Mark Summers on cello.The album consists of two five-piece suites, hence the double title. Musical influences from all over the world are brought in a jazzy, chamber-like setting. If you like the Tin Hat Trio, or Gato Libre, you will surely enjoy this too. Fresh and light-footed.





Listen and download from eMusic.

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Vocal (other)-worldly stuff

By Stef

I usually am not a fan of vocal improvisation, but there are exceptions. It is extremely difficult to explain why it sometimes works and why it sometimes doesn't. I think a lot has to do with attitude and authenticity. Very often vocals in modern music come across as posture, pretense and pyrotechnix - like in lots of operas by the way - yet rarely it sounds real and unaffected, like in these two albums.

The second common aspect between both albums is their lack of concern for musical genres and styles, while at the same time respecting them - they integrate and take it a step further. Purists of either jazz or world music will not specifically like those albums for this reason, but those willing to discard conventions will surely enjoy both albums.

André, Tokar & Kugel - Varpai (Nemu Records, 2010) ****

The trio is Klaus Kugel from Germany on percussion, Mark Tokar from the Ukraine on bass, Andrė Pabarčiūtė from Lithuania on voice.

I've praised the qualities of both Kugel and Tokar before, with the bands "Yatoku", and last year as the winner's of the Happy Ears Award with "The Passion". Both men are extremely precise instrumentalists with a shared musical vision of sculpting jazz into a more universal musical language.

Lithuanian singer  Andrė Pabarčiūtė was unknown to me, but her singing qualities are astonishing. The overall atmosphere of the music is minimalist, with lots of arco bowing and light percussive effects, with an almost classical chamber music feeling. Even if unfamiliar, the music is gentle and welcoming, with no clear references but with influences from jazz, folk and classical.

André's worldless singing is equally light, abstract and unpredictable. She can sing like a bell, clear incantations, she can use her voice as instrument, prolonging sounds, using her throat, lips, tongue as  extended techniques, resonating with the bass, screech like a bird, or add dark-toned drama and intensity.

Everything is refined and pure and open-ended and fully improvised. Like so much of minimalist music, the full attention goes to tone and shades of tones creating a common musical universe rather than three musicians playing together. The title - Varpai - means bells or chimes in Lithuanian (if I can trust the online dictionaries) and it is especially the latter that the music sounds like, like chimes moving with a common wind, bringing a coherent, light and resonating sound that is attractive without being repetitive once.

A wonderful listening experience.


Listen and download from eMusic.

Jubran Kamilya & Werner Hasler - Wanabni (Zig Zag Territories, 2010) ***½

This album is of a totally different nature, a duo recording by Palestinian singer and oud-player Kamilya Jubran and Swiss trumpeter and "electronician" Werner Hasler. 

 The album starts with almost foghorn-like trumpet-playing over a single electronics drone, creating a backdrop of dark despair for Jubran to join on voice. She sings the texts of contemporary Arab poets, and clearly there is not much to understand if you do not speak the language. The pieces are song-like, built around the singing, yet the instrumental qualities of both musicians take this far beyond what we would call a "song", adding tension and depth and context.

Jubran's singing quality, together with the Middle-Eastern scales give the music the expected feeling of yearning and sadness. She does not have the vocal reach of some other female singers from the Middle-East, staying predominantly in the middle range,  but that makes it all the more human and intimate.

I love Arabic singing, I love the sound of the oud, I love the sound of the trumpet, and when all three are brought together, the expectations are high for me.  Yet at moments, the melodies and overall sound on this album are a little too average, nor do the electronics always work. Luckily, the great moments on this album dominate. Understanding Arabic might help too, to fully appreciate the complete picture.

  

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Jin Hi-Kim & Gerry Hemingway - Pulses (Auricle Records, 2010) ****

By Stef

Good music really knows no boundaries, neither of style or tradition or geographically. With two instruments, in this case a komungo, played by Jin Hi-Kim, and percussion, played by Gerry Hemingway, a whole world of sound is created : strange, unfamiliar, beautiful and deeply resonating.

Korean artist Jin Hi-Kim clearly leads the dance, with Hemingway adding accents, emphasis or counter-rhythms to her unusual instrument, which she had also made in an electric version. The nature of the string instrument is percussive : the strings are hit with a bamboo stick, and the left hand changes the pitch, but the other strings continue to resonate openly. The result is a quite hypnotic repetitive and addictive mode of music, built around a single tonal center on each piece, but it remains open-ended, fully improvised. Hemingway is the ideal dance-partner, with incredible listening skills and a master at becoming one with the music, to the level of being uncanny.

Yes, the instruments have their limitations, and even after many, many listens, it is impossible to differentiate between the various pieces - at least for the unaccustomed listener that I am - but that does not spoil the fun and the mystery, quite to the contrary, it emphasises and shifts and brings back and diverges and returns in a great mystical wheel of sound, whirring around a pole that is rooted deep in the ground yet facing upward. Anything is possible, but without straying to far. Difficult to get more coherent.


Watch a short performance that will give you an idea of what to expect.





      
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Rahim Alhaj - Little Earth (Ur Music, 2010)

A feel-good album to start the year. Iraqi oud player Rahim Alhaj assembles musicians from around the world and with different musical backgrounds and instruments for this nice and pleasant 2-disc set. Bill Frisell, Guy Klucevsek, Glen Velez and Eyvind Kang are possibly best known among jazz fans. The music is as welcoming as its title suggests, accomodating everyone, alienating nobody.

Music as a uniting force, my wish for 2011.

Most tracks are small ensemble pieces with a selection of the musicians below.

Rahim Alhaj: oud
Luis Alberto: violin
Roberta Arruda: violin
Monica de la Hoz: viola
Jesse McAdoo: cello
Robin Abeles: double bass
Issa Malluf: darbuka
Guy Klucevsek: accordion
Katie Harlow: cello
Bill Frisell: electric guitar
Eyvind Kang: viola
Yacouba Sissoko: kora
Roshan Jamal Bhartiya: sitar
Maria de Barros: vocals
Glen Velez: percussion
Chris Dorsey: guitar
Miguel Piva: guitar
Eric Slavin: guitar
Mariano Fontana: bass guitar
Peter Buck: guitar
Lorenzo Martinez: violin
Luis Gerra: double bass
Robert Mirabal: Native American flute
Liu Fang: pipa
Stephen Kent: didjeridu
Hossein Omoumi: ney
Souhail Kaspar: percussion



Peace to you all and a happy new year!





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James Falzone galore

Vox Arcana - Aerial Age (Allos Documents, 2010) ***½

Vox Arcana is a band or project by drummer Tim Daisy, better known from his collaborations with Ken Vandermark, and here in the company of James Falzone on clarinet and Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and electronics.

Daisy's compositions are extremely tight and rhythmically complex, offering the second or third instrument the space to improvise, or in contrast tend to be more open structures floating well above solid ground with no safety net in sight. There is a lot of virtuose acrobatics, and to the credit of the musicians the improvisations are extremely focused on the pieces original concept, often abstract in nature.

Daisy plays a lot of marimba, and the combination with the cello and the clarinet offer a very warm and intimate sound, as on "Chi Harp Call in E", but once you're snug in your comfort zone, you're torn out of it by some screeching cello improv and wild chaotic percussion, or the sequence is the opposite as on "Winnemac", starting in very avant avant-garde, yet switching to sweet harmonic clarinet playing by Falzone, again disrupted by electronically altered sounds.This clash and unexpected turns and stylistic changes are the characteristic of each piece.

The "arcane voice" means that it is understood by few, and that is clearly the band's trademark: hermetic in its overall accessibility, yet mixing so many styles and subgenres like a cloth woven of wool and silk and plastic, utterly creative yet impossible to pigeonhole. Interesting listening yet hard to get into.

James Falzone & Allos Musica (Allos Documents, 2010) ***½

With "Lamentations", we find James Falzone in the role of leader of a trio with Ronnie Malley on oud and voice, and Tim Mulvenna on hand drums and percussion. They bring Middle-Eastern music, or rather, their own music in the Middle-Eastern tradition of rhythm and scale, on eighteen tracks, mostly very short with a few exceptions.

Their playing is absolutely excellent (although Malley's singing on one track somewhat less so), and more accessible than the original music. As a result, the music is somewhat cleaner than you might expect, less unrestraint and elaborate in the improvisations and less emotionally passionate than in the deep yearning that is so typical of Arabic, Turkish and Persian music. 

But because of its intimate quality, it is a great introduction for those not familiar with the music of the Middle-East.

James Falzone - The Sign And The Thing Signified (Allos Documents, 2007) ****½

I only got hold of this album recently, and it is incredibly good. Next to Falzone on clarinet, we find Katherine Young on bassoon, Amy Cimini on viola, Kevin Davis on cello, Brian Dibblee on double bass, and Tim Mulvenna on drums, hand drums and percussion. The music is a mixture of chamber jazz and world jazz, with some avant-garde and classical thinking in the overall approach, and the result is a calm, warm and welcoming piece of intelligent and creative music. 

The title refers to the works of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand De Saussure, whose thoughts were the object of many classes I had at university, so it's a strange thing to find him back after some decades in the form of music. Falzone calls his own music symbolic, referring to other things than the music itself, other parts stand on their own. How all this relates to each other, I will leave to greater minds to analyse, yet the music itself does not sound intellectual or sought: it flows naturally, whether improvised or composed. Intelligent with subtle emotions.

Great album!

Buy from Instantjazz.

Watch Vox Arcana on Youtube




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Irene Schweizer Trio & Dewan Motihar Trio - Jazz Meets India (MPS, 1967/2010) ****½

The Beatles were the first pop band to introduce the sitar and Indian music to broad audiences, with the George Harrison song "Within You, Without You", released on Sgt Pepper's in 1967 possibly one of the better known ones.

This album was recorded in the same year, on October 23rd, in Villingen, Germany, by a band consisting of Irene Schweizer on piano, Uli Trepte on acoustic bass, Mani Neumeier on drums, Dewan Motihar on sitar and vocals, Keshav Sathe on tablas, Kusum Thakur on tambura, Manfred Schoof on trumpet, and Barney Wilen on soprano and tenor saxophones.

True, the sitar had been used before in jazz, though sparingly, and Coltrane and Miles Davis were influenced by Indian music, but to my knowledge (and tell me if I'm wrong) this is one of the first real joint performances, on equal footing between musicians from east and west.

The first track "Sun Love", starts with the Indian trio, with the sitar taking the lead voice, and once their music has been established, the drums join, then the piano and the bass after some five minutes, hesitantly, respectfully, trying to become one with the Indian rhythm and modal scales, yet Schweizer's response is unbelievably precise and Motihar's response even better. Once they get to this comfort level, the volume increases without trampling too much on the vulnerable sound of the Indian instruments. When the calm returns, Schoof's trumpet enters, slow, magnificent, warm-toned, rapidly breaking the set boundaries, dragging bass and drums along into more intensity, falling back after a great improvisation on the slowly flowing essence of the piece, as the opportunity for Wilen to join, brilliantly, emotionally strong and sensitive, yet the long track ends with total mayhem in the best free jazz tradition, with controlled chaos, followed by the absolute calm of the solo sitar.

"Yaad" is shorter, with sitar and Indian vocals leading the way. The piano adds sparse tones and Wilen's entrance is again sheer brilliance of finding the right tone and approach, emulating the sadness of the voice, and with both horns adding great slow echoes to Mohitar's singing.

The last track, "Brigach And Ganges", starts with the jazz musicians : arco bass, tenor and trumpet, for some abstract free form, with Neumeier adding percussive accents, then sitar and piano join and turn the piece seamlessly into Indian raga form, with changing levels of intensity and volume depending on which instrument is taking the lead.

And then it's over: and it's too short, about thirty-seven minutes.

A real find (thanks Tony!).

If you're interested in world jazz: don't miss this one. The sound quality is absolutely excellent thanks to the digital remastering of the original tapes.

Buy from Instantjazz.

Listen to the promo video




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Romantic international piano trumpet percussion trios

A piano, percussion, and the occasional participation of a Norwegian trumpeter and singer, that's the common factor between the two albums shortly reviewed today.

Giovanni Di Domenico, Arve Henriksen, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - Clinamen (Off/Rat, 2010) ***½

Led by Italian pianist, Giovanni Di Domenico, this album explores the space of interaction, based on composed structures, yet evolving freely based on how the other musicians react. We read :  "'Clinamen,' in ancient Roman philosopher Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, is the magic force that makes an atom change direction during its fall and thus be able to hit other atoms and "create" energy and life". That's how the music sounds, yet still within the confines of traditional harmonic concepts. Tatsuhisa Yamamoto's percussive and highly creative interplay is possibly the most striking aspect of the music, going against the grain, avoiding the subtle forward flow of the music by adding counterrhythms and odd-metered interventions. Arve Henriksen is the most romantic, with slow and electronically altered trumpet playing and angelic worldless singing. Some pieces, like the long "Masks That Eat Water" have lots of variation, unexpected twists, and in this composition a gloomy atmosphere on top. The changes of approach are a little too radical at times, leading to a lack of coherence, as with illustrated by the shift from the new-agey "Vatos" to the mad "Idiot Glee". Excellent playing and creative genre-bending ideas, but stylistic unity might have have made it even better.

Markku Ounaskari, Samuli Mikkonen, Per Jørgensen - Kuara (ECM, 2010) ***½

This album by Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari, has the typically expansive ECM sound. He was asked to present his own project, and came with "source material including Russian psalms and folk songs from displaced Finnish peoples (Karelians, Udmurtians, Vepsäns) – all approached from improvisational perspectives". Pianist Samuli Mikkonen is the main voice on the album, and Norwegian trumpeter Per Jørgensen joins on several pieces. The "source material" adds a folksy and spiritual flavor to the improvised jazz, with strong and often repetive melodies offering the easily identifiable themes. Some of those are of a stunning beauty, like the slow "Tuuin Tuuin", on which Jørgensen's trumpet plays some heartrending phrases over a sweet piano melody. Some of the other pieces fall back on general ECM romanticism, with sparse notes, and great atmosphere creation, nice but with not much character.

Ounaskari's drumming is really in the background, not driving the music, but adding touches here and there.

Jørgensen's singing is less angelic than Henriksen's, and he is more used to direct singing, as we know from his own albums, but at times he moves a little bit in the direction of Dhafer Youssef, the Tunesian power singer.


Both albums are nice, well-played, quite accessible, with excellent moments.


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Ned Rothenberg

It's already hard to keep up with all new releases, but if musicians now also start releasing several albums a year, in various genres and all worthwhile to review, there is little choice left but to combine them, but also to rejoice because of so much good music.

Ned Rothenberg needs no further introduction: a fantastic clarinet-player and composer, open to any genre and style, and proficient in many, he uses this broad background to treat us to some special records.

Ned Rothenberg - Quintet For Clarinet & Strings (Tzadik, 2010) ****

Quintet For Clarinet & Strings is almost modern classical music, not only because of the strings, but primarily because of Rothenberg's abstract and intense compositions, often dissonant, varying between long repetitive phrases, lots of counterpoint or more open textured. You get it all. All through the compositions, you get the rare event of a clarinet which is used with all the possible tonal expressivity of a jazz instrument, adding tremendous power to the more traditionally played strings.

The Mivos quartet consists of Olivia De Prato and Joshua Modney on violin, Isabel Castellvi on cello, Victor Lowrie on viola.

The nice thing about the compositions are the variety of moods and influences, ranging from romanticism over jazz to more cinematic parts. Rothenberg gives the quartet also ample possibilities to add their own ideas and leaves them plenty of room to play the long pieces. On some, like "Setting Stones", his own contribution on clarinet is minimal. The last track "Finale" is pretty intense, but the best piece is the opening track, with its long and eery central moment when Rothenberg let his clarinet soar, first in circular breathing over light touches by the strings, then adding a wailing quality to his playing.

It will require some open ears, but it is a treat.

Listen and download from iTunes.

Ned Rothenberg - Ryu Nashi/No School - New Music For Shakuhachi (Tzadik, 2010) ****½

As a young man, I was a great fan of Tony Scott"s "Music For Zen Meditation" of which I mysteriously own two copies. I never listened to it for meditation purposes, but I liked the purity of the sound and the absolute calm the music expressed, linked to a emotional element that can be qualified as deep compassion with everything. Buddhism, in a nutshell.

That is the memory that comes back to me now, when listening to Ned Rothenberg playing his shakuhashi. The Japanese flute is actually quite expressive, offering a wide range of tones, and allowing to bend timbre while playing, flexing or bending tones, resulting often in a kind of plaintive fragile cry.

He plays several solo pieces ("Emergent Vessel" and "Shadow Detail") and there are some duets, yet with Rothenberg ceding his position to either Riley Lee or Ralph Samuelson, on shakuhachi, and with Stephanie Griffin on viola, Yoko Hiraoka on jiuta shamisen and voice. 

The long "Dan No Tabe", with Stepahnie Griffin on viola is to me the highlight of the album, because of the almost perfect match between both instruments, and its incredibly slow and carefully mastered sense of pace.



It all sounds very Japanese, with no clear indication that jazz or other genres are involved, but as Rothenberg explains, these are all his own improvisations and compositions in the Japanese style, but without following any specific rules that are ususally at the foundation of the music. The music is a "little westernized", but it will be impossible for the casual listener to notice this. 

Absolutely impressive and beautiful.

Listen and download from iTunes.

Ned Rothenberg and Vladimir Volkov - Live in Dom - Duo Music for Nicolai Dmitriev (DOM Records, 2010) ****

But because this is a jazz blog, you get your jazz too. On this album, Rothenberg plays alto, clarinet, bass clarinet and shakuhachi, and Russian bassist Vladimir Volkov joins him for ten improvisations that are absolutely fantastic. Abstract in nature, often with high intervallic jumps, but the two musicians correspond quite well, with faster than light reactions and joint build-up of a piece's character.

But it is jazz, without a doubt : the phrases, the rhythms, the expressivity, the joy, the fun, and the direct appreciation you get as a listener from sometimes complex interactions. Volkov plays more arco than you would expect, and the effect of that on the music is great, because it brings both instruments to the same level of sonic and lyrical expressivity.

It shows a totally different side of Rothenberg,with moments of fun, madness, deep sorrow, and wild explorations, with less restraint and composure than on the albums reviewed above, yet an environment that fits him equally well.

Again, great stuff.

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