Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith - Abbey Road Quartet (Treader, 2009) ***½

Wadada Leo Smith's second record for the Treader label is better than the previous "Brooklyn Duos", on which he plays duets with John Coxon on guitar and harmonica. The latter still plays guitar on this album, but the band is expanded with Pat Thomas on piano and electronics, and Mark Sanders on drums. Smith's powerful and meditative horn blasts are still the main feature over the long improvisations, which move back and forth between the gentle and accessible on the one side, and the fierce and abrasive on the other. This works well in some pieces, as on "For Johnny Dyani", the 18-minute long first track. This shift between approaches gives all the improvisations a kind of suite-like structure, as if the pieces are built around a preconceived concept: it starts with gentle piano and trumpet and gradually evolves into a nightmarish and unpleasant mix of violent electronics and dissonant guitar scratching. The second piece, dedicated to Coxon's brother in arms Ashley Wales, is more atmospheric with synthesizer-created string orchestra, melodramatic heavy piano chords, and bottle-neck guitar sounds. The third improvisation shifts to a more intimate sound of electric piano, light percussion and equally percollating guitar, with Smith playing sad muted trumpet, a short tribute to "Mongezi Feza", another South African jazz great. "For Grant Green" gets introduction by guitar and electronics, with dark and dissonant tones, totally unlike the great guitar player's music. "For Elton Dean" moves into more rhythmic playing, with disconnected short bursts of sounds, but more around the beat than on it, like many of the other pieces somewhat reminiscent of the electric Miles. I'm a great fan of Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, I like his playing, I like his openness to try new forms and to play in a wide variety of settings, it can only make his music richer. Yet again, to my ears the marriage with the electronics does not always work, not because of the electronics per se, but rather by how they sound here. I've said it before, take away the electronics, keep the trumpet, the piano and the drums, and I'm sure I will love this music. But that's the boring and unadventurous position of an old man. You have to leave the beaten track, and that's what these guys do, and they end up in a different place than I would have gone.

Buy from Instantjazz.

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KiKu Trio - Méthane (Veto Records, 2009) **

I do not usually review CDs that I don't like, but once in a while I will do it to make a more general point. The Swiss KiKu Trio consists of three excellent musicians : Yannick Barman on trumpet, Malcolm Braff on piano, and Cyril Regamey on drums. Together they create a really nice musical environment, quite sophisticated and creative, but then they tear it to pieces by the use of silly electronics. I have no problem with electronics per se, but why on earth would you use it in such a superficial and almost infantile way, making the trumpet sound like quacking ducks, or something between early 70s trials on a minimoog or the electronic sound of arcade games from the same period. Sorry guys, I don't get it. Do away with the silly electronics, and you have a nice album.

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The Black Napkins (Rat Records, 2009) ****

When I said some days ago that there aren't many women trumpet-players, I missed one who is basically living and playing in my backyard. Sanne van Hek is a Dutch trumpet-player, who started on clarinet and saxophone before switching to bass and bass guitar when she turned sixteen, an instrument on which she expanded her skills at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She switched to trumpet at nineteen and studied amongst others at the Manhattan School Of Music. The trumpet is now her main instrument.

Named after a Frank Zappa song, The Black Napkins' music doesn't sound like Zappa at all, except maybe for the high quality instrumental skills and their sense of adventure. On this trio, the trumpeter is joined by Jasper Stadhouders on guitar and Gerri Jaeger on drums. The music is quite adventurous indeed and quite special. Each short track has its own left of center approach, setting a mood, a theme, a weird improvisation, sometimes rhythmic, sometimes it's all about the sound, which fluctuates between the traditional and the industrial, between jazz and rock and pure improv, between form and chaos, all quite full of character while remaining enjoyable. There are two long pieces on the album, "9.5" almost nine minutes long, which shows that the band is also capable of really building up a composition, expanding on the main concept and creating an interesting atmosphere : a cold and thorny melancholy. On the last eleven minute track, the band is joined by Jozef Dumoulin on keyboards, who moves the music into a more electronic environment and ambient sounds as the background for some great introspective soloing. Again, despite the sudden shift in approach, it fits well with the rest of the music, which is stubborn, single-minded and rich.

Listen to samples on MySpace and buy from Instantjazz.

Here in possibly the darkest Youtube clip imaginable:



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Miles Davis epigones

Your humble servant is a great fan of the "Bitches Brew" period of Miles Davis, so when young bands bring materials that is influenced by the master, it is always with interest that I listen to them. Two new epigones recently albums that would broadly fit within this category.

Agent-K - Mouvements (CDBaby, 2009) ***

Agent-K is a band created by bassist Kenny Cordova, with David Burgos on trumpet & flugelhorn, Max Farber on keys, and Bobby Macintyre on drums. The references to the electric Miles are more than obvious, including the sound of the trumpet and of the electric piano, and if you stay in the same zone, you of course elicit a comparison which is hard to win. That being said, the music is worth a listen, rhythmic, atmospheric and fun.

Listen and download from CDBaby.

Iron Kim Style (CDBaby, 2009) ***½

Iron Kim Style is Dennis Rea and Thaddaeus Brophy on guitar, Bill Jones on trumpet, Ryan Berg on bass and Jay Jaskot on drums. The band brings a quite interesting mix of jazz and rock, strong compositions and subtle playing. Yes, Miles is present in spirit, and so is McLaughlin, yet less in the pyrotechnics and more in the overall stylistic development. Another great advantage is the compactness of the compositions, which helps them avoid the trap of the lengthy elaborations in which usually only the best can survive*.

Listen and download from CDBaby.


* free aphorism : if you can't swim, don't create your own ocean, but stay in the bath-tub

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Viktor Tóth, Hamid Drake, Mátyás Szandai - Bringing Light Towards Me (BMC, 2009) ***½

Maybe I exaggerate, but I like albums to have a musical coherence from beginning to end. Variation is needed, and even necessary, but a good album has to offer one line of thought and approach. Despite all the good qualities of the music, that lack of coherence was already and unfortunately one of the shortcomings of Hungarian altoist Viktor Tóth's previous album "Climbing With Mountains", and now it happens again with this album. The first five tracks are a live performance played as a trio, with Hamid Drake on drums and Mátyás Szandai on bass. The music is good, the playing is good, and even on those six tracks, they manage to have this stylistic side-step on the Latin-influenced "The Easiness Of Steps", even if it gives Drake the additional opportunity to demonstrate his skills at the drumset. On the sixth track Ferenc Kovács joins on trumpet and the music's quality increases, adding depth and volume. As of the tenth track, the band expands even further with Mihály Dresch on soprano and flute, Adam Javorka on alto violin, and György Jeszenszky on drums and percussion, giving it a more orchestral perspective, especially when Kovács switches his trumpet for violin, and a more distinct central European flavor. Despite these shifts, each of the three approaches brings worthwhile and sometimes beautiful compositions and playing, but a little more unity would have made this a far better record.

Listen and download from eMusic.

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Raymond MacDonald - Cities (Nu-Jazz Europe, 2009) ****½

More than any other art form, music has the possibility to express anything that goes beyond the rational and the logical, which makes it of course hard to describe in words, but which makes it all the more valuable to experience. Some musicians actively seek this experience by breaking patterns, anticipations, predictability and creating contradictions, illogical forms, new sounds. In this sense the Japanese couple Satoko Fujii on piano and Natsuki Tamura on trumpet form the perfect match for British saxophonist Raymond MacDonald, guitarist Neil Davidson and drummer Tom Bancroft, for an improvised recording that took place in Glasgow in 2005 in front of an enthusiastic audience. The interaction of these five musicians is truly fantastic, even if they rarely all play together at the same time, with duets and trios actually dominating. They create the kind of sound paintings that are incredibly rich with detail, with broad patterns that are somehow familiar and yet not quite so : the pieces can be meditative and melancholy (especially the last track "Euforia"), but are equally disorienting, yet always in a gentle and subtle manner, allowing the audience to fully participate in the experience of the organic, hypnotic, animal-like, or just hard-to-identify sounds. And as is so often the case with good music: switch off your brain and let yourself be led into this world of melodyless lyricism, of serious fun, of light-hearted depth, of solid abstraction, of smooth weirdness, of unfamiliar warmth, of exquisite delicacy.

Buy from Nu-Jazz Europe or from CDBaby (with sound samples).

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Tyft - Smell The Difference (Skirl, 2009) ****½

Tearing his way through jazz, Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jensson continues to move even deeper into the possibilities of power jazz, building his music on the mad yet solid foundation of hardhitting drums and guitar power chords, selecting the best of modern metal as inspiration, from the slow droning beats alternating with superfast rhythm changes, accentuated by lightning fast shredding notes, headbanging himself and yourself into a trance in the process, and wouldn't it all be a little bit bland and boring if this music was not in the hands of the absolute masters of the modern fusion between jazz and rock, to know : Jim Black on drums, Chris Speed on clarinets, Andrew d'Angelo on sax, Peter Evans on trumpet, and Joel Hamilton joining on electronics on track four, a horn front line broader than on earlier releases and one that superimposes melodic themes on the voluminous rhythms, cleverly, in counterpoint or just in unison with the heavy beats, offering of course the real treat in their wild yet disciplined soloing, disciplined because this music is measured and planned to the very microsecond, not much is left to chance, adding quality and precision in the execution, which is half the joy because you will be taken by surprise by unexpected twists and turns, including some excursions into the more melodic territory of Jim Black's Alasnoaxis, where the mellow sentiments fuse with the raw and abrasive, adding risky complexities of the don't-try-this-at-home variety to simplicity and vice versa, hitting you in the face as well as pleasing you immensely at the same time, offering varying modes and moods and rhythms and phrases, explosions and implosions, on and on, making this more than just a stylistic exercise, but a real worthwhile new synthesis of creative jazz sensitivity, craftmanship and skills with the compelling and exhilirating mad pumping drive of metal.

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Dennis González Galore!

Dallas-based trumpet-player Dennis González will always be one of my favorites for this warm and solid tone, his openness of mind and the emotional power of his music. With the exception of "Paura", his music is always very rooted in bop, but then of the free-er and sometimes the harder kind, while remaining open to more rock-influenced adventures, the latter possibly under the influence of his two musical sons with whom he forms the trio "Yells At Eels".

This year González seems to be very productive, releasing in quick succession his third, fourth and fifth album of the year. Dennis González has the incredible knack of making his albums, even the more free ones, accessible, recognizable too, yet while keeping a fresh approach, re-inventing himself, remaining open to the rest of the world. And you get the impression that the trumpeter gets as much pleasure from listening to his fellow musicians, giving them the floor and enjoying their music, as much as playing himself. A true musician. No wonder he has played with so many of today's top musicians.

The Great Bydgoszcz Concert (Ayler, 2009) ****

On this album the aforementioned trio (Dennis González on trumpet, Aaron González on bass, and Stefan González on drums) becomes a quartet with Portuguese Rodrigo Amado on tenor, a musician who we've reviewed before and with whom González already played in Amado's Lisbon Improvisation Players. The music here shows the wide variety of the band, together with their respect for the masters: Ornette Coleman's joyful "Happy House" gets a fine rendition, and so does Krzystof Komeda's sad "Litania", at the same time offering a great illustration of the musical span of this album, varying between the cinematic, the melancholy, the boppish and the free, but always with that modern infusion added by the González sons. Stefan González' long opening track "Crow Soul" has the kind of hypnotic rock rhythm that reminds a little of Terje Rypdal's Odissey. A great album.

Songs Of Early Autumn (NoBusiness, 2009) ****

"Songs Of Early Autumn" is possibly the best adapted for this season of the year, and it was recorded at an improvised meeting in the not yet heated (and therefore chilly) home of Joe Morris, who plays bass on this album. González and him are joined by this other bass-player turned tenor saxophonist Timo Shanko, and with Luther Gray on drums. Morris and González had played before on "No Photograph Available" and apparently the collaboration was worth a follow-up. Three of the eight tracks are compositions by González, all the other pieces are group improvisations in the real free (bop) tradition. The album starts highly rhythmic, uptempo with steady bass vamps and drum lines, and both horn players get all the space they need to enjoy us with their skills (and I laughed out loud because it is such fun at moments). But the album is balanced, with slower, more moody pieces, allowing the horn players to show another perspective, and I must say that Shanko outdoes himself, reaching the improvisational emotional power of González, howling, screeching, wailing, going deep, deep, deep, and making this again a great album.

A Matter of Blood (Furthermore, 2009) ****

There was already a hint to Tomasz Stanko in playing "Litania" on "The Great Bydgoszcz Concert", but on this album González moves more into the great Polish trumpeter's musical territory, also illustrated by the band's line-up. He plays C trumpet and B cornet, with Reggie Workman on bass, Curtis Clark on piano, and Michael T.A. Thompson on drums. And this band is truly excellent for this sad and dark post-boppish album. The playing is versatile, crisp, sophisticated, almost in the ECM way, with lots of open space, shifts in intensity and room for González to move in, yet so does the band. The long tracks are connected by some musical capsules of improvisation by each of the band members. But the long tracks are of course what capture the interest: their length provides ample time for spatious and careful elaboration of the themes, creating depth and a great sense of space at the same time. The music lifts you up, even if it's not joyful by nature.

So, you will ask me, which one should I buy?

Well, I will answer you, you make the selection, or buy all three.

These are three different albums, all three with their value and musical angle. But all three of a high quality, all three with excellent musicians who understand the musical project, improvise creatively and sensitively, and interact well. All the rest is a matter of personal preference.

Buy from Instantjazz.

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Carter/Colbourne/Flaherty - A Flash In The Sky (TheGlassMuseum, 2009) ****

You like free jazz raw and hard and real and authentic? Well then here's a treat for you: Daniel Carter meets Randall Colbourne meets Paul Flaherty in a free-for-all blowing session.

The session? Two tracks, one of thirty and one of fifteen minutes of unadultered sax+sax+drums, with Carter occasionally switching to trumpet.

Doubts? No need to have them. In the hands of three such experienced musicians the end result is one well worth listening to, and for most of us, a great joy from beginning to end.

Essential? Not really. But listen how they find the right balance between power and subtlety, between violence and tenderness, between mutual respect and I'll-show-you.

Quality? You bet! In every note. Fine sound quality too. Great art work.

Will it sell? Surely not. Have you ever seen a paper sleeve with no names or references? You buy this? But I'm not sure selling is the objective.

You like free jazz? Order it through The Glass Museum.

And now with a Youtube clip (thanks Kevin!)


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Gunhild Seim & Time Jungle - Morpho (Mudi, 2009) ****

There aren't many women trumpet-players. I know Ingrid Jensen, Jamie Branch, Nadje Noordhuis, and now Gunhild Seim. Seim is a Norwegian and someone to watch. On her sophomore album, she is accompanied by a great band, with Arild Hoem on saxophone, Dag Magnus Narvesen on drums, John Lilja on bass, and with Odd Børge Sagland joining on marimba on half the tracks. This is not free jazz, but carefully composed and meticulously arranged music with room for improvisation and the occasional wild excursion. And indeed, next to a wonderful trumpet-player, she is also a promising composer, very open in her ideas of how to use rhythm and how to superimpose several melodic lines, while paying lots of attention to the piece's specific style and mood. Most tracks could be categorized as chamber jazz, despite the presence of the drums, which doesn't mean that all compositions are down-tempo. "Frown" and "Motion Sickness", for instance, are more boppish, forming the middle part of the album. "Blue Morpho" is a mid-tempo piece, sad and joyful at the same time. Dave Douglas, with whom she studied, is not far, and especially on "Gigue" you can hear his influence, both in the composition and in the tone of her playing. But Seim has sufficient character and creativity to develop her own musical ideas. And the best pieces are the ones on which Odd Børge Sagland joins on marimba, adding a nice touch of additional flavor, and in combination with the arco bass, the great rhythms and the nice playing of both Seim and Hoem this works extremely well. "Just A Hunch", and "Captain Cook" are my favorite tracks, together with the dark closing piece. This is music like a fresh bowl of salad : light and substantial, varied and coherent, simple and complex, and with a great mix of subtle and contrasting tastes. Enjoy!

Listen and download from eMusic.

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