Michael Marcus - The Magic Door (Not Two, 2007) ***

The first album I heard with Michael Marcus was "Ithem" a sax trio with William Parker and Dennis Charles, and I was immediately charmed by this excellent musician. He has a very strong sense of melody and pitch when improvizing, a great sense of swing in his compositions, a clear respect for the traditional form which he recreates in a very open modern format. Whether he plays with Jaki Byard, the Cosmosamatics or in other bands, his core characteristics are always present as they are on this record. He sticks to his clarinet on all songs, with Jay Rosen on drums and François Grillot on bass on most tracks. Daniel Levin plays cello on three pieces and Rahsaan Carter and Eric Revis play bass on one track each, and Newton Taylor Baker drums on one track. Anyone interested in melodic free jazz with a great swing feeling, should look this one up.

Listen to :
The Magic Door

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Blaise Siwula - New York Moments (Konnex, 2006) ****

Total improvization is not only a rare thing, it is also a very risky venture, that more often than not is doomed to fail. Yet when it is successful, the result may be very rewarding. And this is certainly the case for this album by the "Total Improvization Unit", led by alto saxophonist Blaise Siwula, and the sequel to the earlier Konnex release "Brooklyn Moments". Nobu Stowe on piano and Ray Sage on drums provide continuity in the line-up, with the addition of guitarist Dom Minasi on this record. Just like on the previous one, the quartet manages to create a very unique sound, very coherent and intense, with interesting excursions in their interplay. The four musicians each play a specific role : Ray Sage is an energetic drummer, who can play very implicitly at times, but with a forceful regularity, Nobu Stowe offers the melodic backbone, Siwula soloes creatively yet very composed, and Dom Minasi acts as a sounding board to Siwula, reacting with short dry notes or with chordal counterpoint. The four musicians play almost the whole time - except on the two trio tracks of course, at times giving the impression to be soloing simultaneously, yet never falling into chaos, with Stowe really acting as a strong anchor to keep it all coherent. The nice thing is that the music is so open-minded, that nearly everything can happen, and with intense listening a unique logic and beauty emanates from the music. This is the kind of music which is hard to put into words for lack of real references for comparison. But I can recommend it to anyone with open ears.

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John Surman - The Spaces In Between (ECM, 2007) ****

John Surman has always managed to find the perfect balance of accessible and emotional playing without falling into the abyss of cheap sentimentalism. The tone of his sax-playing is recognizable out of millions, regardless of whether he plays in a jazz quartet, in more free mode with Jack DeJohnette, with supportive electronics, or with a classical string quartet as on this one. Chris Laurence's bass plays both in a classical and jazz mode, bringing more balance to the album. The music is, as the title suggests, very spacious, creating a peaceful yet intense musical environment. I am personally not really a fan of the use of strings on jazz albums, because they're often no more than a chordal musical backdrop, without any role other than to heighten the ego of the artist, giving him an air of seriousness and importance : snobbery in sum. Luckily that's not the case here, the strings are players in their own right, they make the music, participate actively, as illustrated by the title track, central on the CD, which is only solo violin, and one of the many highlights of this album. The music varies between jazz, modern classical music, baroque and romanticism. There are clear references to Bach ("Wayfarers All") as well as Ravel ("Mimosa"), yet the compositions are characteristic of Surman, the finale of the second piece is reminiscent of his "Edges Of Illusion" from the early 80s. On "Mimosa" the music is also mediterranean in nature, with the strings accentuating the theme as in Arabic music. The record offers lots of variation in terms of moods : from melancholic ("Winter Wish") over playful ("Now See!") to downright gloomy ("Leaving The Harrow"). A great album, with lots of excellent soloing by Surman, whether on baritone, soprano or bass clarinet. His technique, the variation of his playing and the clarity of his tone are stunning. Surman has always looked for his own romantic aesthetic, and finds it here, with lots of the credits for it going to the strings. It's not jazz in the traditional sense, but it's excellent music.

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Raymond MacDonald & Günter Sommers - Delphinius & Lyra (Clean Feed, 2007) *****

Raymond MacDonald is a young Scottish saxophonist, Günter "Baby" Sommer a veteran Swiss drummer who has been instrumental in creating European free jazz. They enter into a musical dialogue on this album, and how! The record begins with a serious kick by Sommer on one of his cymbals, and the party begins : free jazz improv from beginning to end, with an intensity that is maintained throughout, even on the slower pieces. The title of the album refers to signs of the zodiac in the southern hemisphere, Delphinius (the dolphins) and Lyra (the harp), which could lead to think that the music refers to the spiritualitiy of Coltrane's "Interstellar Space", also a sax and drums album, if only the titles of the tracks were not so prosaic by comparison : "GIO and the Dresden Free Team", "Socialistic Hip Shit", "Peter's Red Shoes", it's hard to find titles less spiritual than these. That's a little odd, but who cares, the music is brilliant, varied, deeply emotional at moments, sometimes hard, wailing, crying, shouting, singing, yet never wild, never without purpose, never without intent, because the two musicians build an interesting, coherent and sometimes suprising musical universe, such as in "I'm OK", in which MacDonald's slowly weeping alto sounds like a wounded dog lying by the roadside, when suddenly Sommer walks along playing harmonica in the most joyful way, just disappearing while the wailing goes on. Once in a while Sommer also plays mouth-harp, and on one song MacDonald sings/shouts like he's celebrating something, just to have his ass kicked a second later by an entire police corps (the evoked images are bizarre, and may be the result of the madness of your servant). The most fun is to be had from listening to "Socialist Hip Shit", that flows on a repetitive almost tribal rhythm, starting with an intense sax solo, moving into a joyful and unrestrained spontaneous singing by both musicians, just to end in an absolutely beautiful solo. We're already familiar with Sommer's capabilities, but MacDonald's playing is absolutely stunning, in pitch, timbre, variation, and he also demonstrates his skills for circular breathing on the last two tracks. Despite the limited line-up and the totally free approach, there really is no boring moment on this album, quite the contrary even, the interaction between these two stellar musicians grabs the listener's attention from the start until the very end : intensity, suprise, beauty, creative collisions, ... If you like free jazz, you will certainly enjoy this one!

Listen to sound samples :
GIO and the Dresden Free Team
Socialist Hip Shit
Parked on the Positive Side of Remembrance

You can download via emusic.com.

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Declared Enemy - Salute To 1000001 Stars (RogueArt, 2007) ***

I have mixed feelings about this record... Again, a courageous thing by the French label RogueArt to release this adventure. An American line-up consisting of Matthew Shipp on piano, Sabir Mateen on clarinet and alto saxophone, William Parker on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums, is among the best free jazz units you can assemble, but then performing in the company of Frenchman Denis Lavant, who recites French texts by Jean Genet. The idea was Shipp's, because of his admiration for the French author. Yet the concept doesn't work very well. My first problem is of a general nature : the combination of music and poetry doesn't mix well. Poetry is in the very first instance meant to put words in a musical language, without being spoken out loud, and definitely not with the intention of being spoken with a musical backdrop. The spoken word looses this competition, by a big score difference. I do not know of any successful examples at least. It's often quite the contrary, they're examples of pretence. My second problem is specific : Denis Lavant's reading of the texts is in the 19th Century romantic mode, quite pathetic actually, and probably more suited for poets such as Verlaine or Rimbaud, but definitely not for Genet's attacks against the political system of the 60s. My third problem is that music and text were recorded separately, leading to a certain artificiality. Luckily, the spoken word just spoils two tracks, but together they last more than half an hour. The saddest thing is that the music is good, and the other tracks are a real relief, despite keeping some of the menacing tone of the texts, but then with the sensitive clarinet and the precise and often dissonant expressive piano, and the whole band doing great things. There are more CDs that I re-recorded, filtering out the spoken word. I will do it again with this one. The music is great, I can only applaud the courage of the initiative, but too bad not all roads lead to success.

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Sonic Openings Under Pressure - Muhheankuntuk (Clean Feed, 2007) ****

In truth, I wasn't too thrilled with Patrick Brennan's two previous efforts "The Drum Is Honor Enough" and "Rapt Circle". Yet this one is different. Apart from Brennan on sax, Hillard Green's bass is the only constant with the previous albums. David Pleasant plays drums and harmonica on this CD. And the music is totally different too. The more limited line-up has opened the music quite a lot, and the three musicians weave some sensitive and creative textures. You have the feeling that anything could happen on this album, and it does. The music is often tentative, timid even, creating soft but intense interplay, with the exception of "Hardships", which is an uptempo high enery great anger vocal rap/spoken word piece. But indeed all the other pieces are free form open improvizations around agreed themes and structures, played with a musical delicacy and precise elegance that demonstrates once again that free jazz can be so much more than noisy blowing contests, and truth be told, even more subtle, nuanced and emotionally authentic than the large majority of more mainstream releases. The music itself is built around themes, that appear and then disappear again, depending on the mood of the musicians, like waves on a river. And that is what the title means "river that flows in two directions", in the local native American language, referring to the Hudson's typical tide currents. On "Flash Of The Spirit", Pleasant switches to harmonica, which makes for an unheard of combination, but it works, and it works well. In "The Terrible" Brennan's sax speaks in short bursts, words and phrases over a very varied rhythmic creation by Pleasant and Greene. The last piece, which I find the highlight of the album, starts with a weeping duo of sax and bass, moving into a lightly funky form, then almost organically shifting to a higher gear free bop, and the fun thing is that despite the ever increasing power play of the rhythm section, Brendan keeps his cool and his soft angle, right until the very end, when he does explode, only to come to a sudden halt for a final blow, literally. Open and intense music by three stellar musicians. There is much to enjoy here.

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Kahil El'Zabar's Infinity Orchestra - Transmigration (Delmark, 2007) ***

If there is one musician about whom I can claim that I have all his recordings, then it's probably Kahil El'Zabar. I like his musical vision, the joy he expresses in the performance and the interplay, the beauty of his composition, the polyrhytmic feasts, the intimacy and directness of emotional and spiritual power, partly too the result of his playing in small ensembles, with five musicians at the most. But this is one is something else. The Infinity Orchestra is a big band from Bordeaux, where El'Zabar has been artist in residence for some years at the Academy of Music, and consists of young French musicians, ranging from pure jazz musicians to turntablists and hip-hop singers, with the addition of El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble musicians Ernest Dawkins on sax and Joe Bowie on trombone. The great thing about the album is also its weakness. The music is without a doubt El'Zabar's, and he adds his respect for each and every individual's musical style and competence and wants them to be made apparent. Like a teacher he tries to bring the best out of this band, and he really succeeds. Some of the musicians are absolutely excellent, such as the saxophonist on the first and third track, Arnaud Rouanet, who has a really great tone and expressive power, or the 15-year old clarinetist Jean Dousteyssier on the second. The downside of this approach is that you have a clash of genres at times, a democratic principle to showcase all musicians which is not always succesful, and because of the size and the orchestration much is lost of El'Zabar's usual light-footed approach and spur-of-the-moment creative changes. In any case, his objective was to demonstrate that music is a universal language tapping into the origins and styles from across the globe, like the members of this band. And although it's different in terms of form and orchestration from his usual work, the joy and the vision are still there, and the intimate directness is replaced by the power of a very coherent team. Great fun!

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Michael Bisio - Circle This (CIMP, 2007) ****

Without a doubt Michael Bisio is one of the best and most creative bassists in the free jazz genre today. On this album he is assisted by two sax players, Avram Fefer and Stephen Gauci, and by Jay Rosen on drums, a promising line-up I would say. The album starts in a boppish mode, with the horns bringing a short unisono theme, which moves into a soprano solo, supported by the bass, which increases the tempo and once a summit of tension is achieved, the whole thing dwindles down into a slow drum solo, which in turn invites bass and horns back into the theme, back into the same mood, but now the tenor is brought to an uptempo summit of tension, wonderfully accentuated by the drums, and the whole thing collapses again for a bass solo. I will not describe every track, but suffice it to say that the music is excellent, the bass is the pivotal point around which the music circles, both horns are really a great match for each other throughout the record, and Rosen is his usual subtle self. There is beauty to be found in the melodies and the interplay, softness and tension, creative thoughts and perfect execution. There is great respect for the jazz tradition, and "Island Circus" is a perfect example of this, it could have been penned by Ornette Coleman. By the way, the tenor sounds at moments like Ethopian saxophonist Mulate Astatqe, but also a little middle-eastern. The most beautiful composition is the 10-minute long "The Fighting", which starts slow with Bisio on arco and the horns playing the theme with intervals, moving away from it for some simultaneous circling around it, but bass and drums call them back to the main theme, revving up the tempo a bit, to move one tenor into a sensitive solo, transitioning perfectly to the other tenor after a while, which equals the power of its predecessor. The record's real power is the perfect balance between composition and free form, between horns and rhythm section, between form and emotion. Great!

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Music for melancholy moments

Rufus Cappadocia - Songs For Cello (Cappadociasongs Bmi; 2007) ****


Frank London - Invocations (Tzadik, 2000) ****


Depressed? Melancholy? In a lonely and emotional mood? Then I can recommend both these albums. What trumpeter Frank London did on the Tzadik label some years ago, is now sort of repeated by cellist Rufus Cappadocia on his own label : creating an intensely sad piece of music, for the length of an entire album, and without any mood shift at all, no moment of joy, no moments of fun, no hope, no ray of light, only sorrow and sadness, lamentation, powerlessness, gloom, mournful moaning and misery ... Paradoxically the expressive power of the music is intense, partly due to this sustained monotony. And not by the compositions themselves, harmonic structure and rhythmic changes are of less importance than the melodies and the language of the lead instrument. Although Frank London does not play solo - he is accompanied by either harmonium or bass, which actually emphasizes the loneliness - both albums reflect in essence the loneliness of one musician in the wide universe, alone in the vast expanse, little and insignificant, a speck of dust in endless infinity. Obviously spirituality and religious feelings are not far away. Both musicians use musical ideas from a broad range of world genres, jewish cantorial singing with London, but also the blues, jazz, ottoman or middle-eastern music, and both manage to use their instrument to its full extent, London producing long wailing shifting tones on the trumpet, Cappadocia heart-piercing double tones on his cello. Really great, melodic and expressive. But keep these handkerchiefs close by.

Listen to :
Frank London :
T'Kias Sofar
Ezkeroh Elokim
Tzaddik Rabbi Elozar

Rufus Cappadocia :
Prayer
Lament
Element

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Rob Wagner Trio (Valid Records, 2007) ****

I'm sorry to sound over-enthusiastic again for a new record, but this one by the - at least to me - unknown sax player Rob Wagner is really worth listening to, all the more so because Hamid Drake plays the drums on it. De bass is in the hands of Nobu Ozaki. Wagner and Ozaki are both from New Orleans, where the CD was recorded, with the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina still all too present, and some of the tracks refer to it, or rather to the lousy administration and the lack of political will to tackle the problems adequately. But now the music : only to hear Hamid Drake playing this CD is already worth purchasing : varied, accurate, flashing, perfectly supporting, creative, sensitive, ... a real master in body and soul. Ozaki is a drummer by education but he switched to bass in order to make a living in New Orleans, and his bass-playing is excellent, melodic and rhythmic as you might expect, but also with emotions and insight which puts him definitely above average. But the real star of this album is Wagner himself. Already from the first notes of "Desoparia", Wagner's soprano demonstrates what you will hear for the rest of the album : middle-eastern or klezmer inflections in his phrasing, a warm tone, variation, and a very tight and intense trio. The music swings, has vision, sensitivity, structure and his solos have focus. Drake switches his drums for frame drums on some tracks, offering a more intimate world jazz feel, especially because Wagner plays around the rhythms with hypnotic melodies. After a few more subdued pieces, some uptempo tracks, led by a fierce tenor, change the tone a little, creating real power and intensity, but all very coherent and with a great sense of direction. "Childhood Memory" is a children's tune which is updated, and serves as the basis for a long improvization. Rob Wagner is truly excellent and this album is highly recommended.

Listen to :
Desoparia
Shock, Awe, Sham, Shame
Freedumb (Aren't You Glad You Can Vote In America)

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