Humanization 4tet - Live in Madison (Ayler, 2013) ****

By Paul Acquaro

Luis Lopes' Humanization 4tet caught my interests a while back after I read a review of their eponymous first album. Indeed, as Stef described, the group still possesses a straight forwardness, backed up by raw intensity and sharp technical skills. Live in Madison was recorded in Madison, Wisconsin at the end of a US tour that the 4tet did in support of 2010's Electricity. The recording's sound is great, capturing the dynamics of the group perfectly.

The opening track 'Bush Baby' begins with a tension filled blast of sound over a repetitive bubbling bass and drum line. Lopes wields the guitar with abandon, playing cool melodic single note runs and ramping up to some knotty chordal passages. Sax player Rodrigo Amado digs in on track two, 'Jungle Gymnastics',  where after a quick set of unison lines with Lopes, the tunes becomes a barely contained rumpus with each throwing around shards of sounds -- rhythmically free and brutally melodic. Drummer Stefan Gonzalez and bassist Aaron Gonzalez provide a tight groove on 'Two Girls' giving Lopes a chance to to spin a dangerous solo. Amado's sax intertwines with Lopes' guitar mesmerizingly. Along with the hard hitting bouts, there are glimpses of beauty, like the stately solo bass beginning to track 3, 'Long March for Frieda Khalo'.

At times, the concise and energetic themes are reminiscent of intense groups like The Thing or Acoustic Ladyland, though the Humanization 4tet is a bit more complex and less post-punk. Live in Madison is a great companion piece to the Humanization 4tet's slim but solid discography.

 Subscribe

Read More

Deep Listening Weekend - Hera feat. Hamid Drake: Seven Lines (Multikulti, 2013) *****

 By Martin Schray

Germany’s standard work on jazz, Joachim-Ernst Berendt’s and Günther Huesmann‘s “The Jazz Book”, claims that in the last 20 years jazz has become world music, a hybrid. Of course, jazz actually has always been world music since New Orleans was a cultural melting pot of nationalities, races and cultures, but in times of migration and globalization jazz has indeed established as the improvised music between the cultures more than ever before. Today, in our interlinked world, music of the most various, overlapping, different, even competing styles has been colliding. Moreover, you don’t even have to be from – say – India to play ragas, you can find great – in this case – raga musicians almost everywhere (especially in the big cities). And many of these musicians speak of themselves as members of the jazz community.

An excellent example of this theory is Hera, a Polish band consisting of Wacław Zimpel (clarinet, bass clarinet, harmonium), Paweł Postaremczak (soprano and tenor saxes, harmonium), Ksawery Wójciński (double bass) and Paweł Szpura (drums). They have always been one of this blog’s favorites, Stef has rightfully talked of their debut album and “Where my Complete Beloved is” in glowing terms. But while these albums, which were recorded with a completely different line-up, are either clearly in the Coltrane tradition or knee-deep in Zydeco (or both), Zimpel and his collaborators try the big strike with this release, which is why the band has expanded and is now augmented with Rafael Rogiński (guitar), Maciej Cierliński (hurdy-gurdy) and American master percussionist Hamid Drake.

“Seven Lines” includes Polish folk songs and Jewish klezmer (something you might expect when you see Zimpel and Rogiński in the line-up) but also music from the Far East, Sufi chants, blues sprinkles, African funk or free jazz elements.

Especially the harmonium and Maciej Cierliński’s hurdy-gurdy provide for a very oriental mood in “Sounds of Balochistan” before a repetitive blues riff comes up so that the reeds can kick off melancholic lines and the guitar can add shredded intersperses. Even here they have got you, from the very beginning the music develops a vibrating, vortex-like quality, it overwhelms the senses with an almost psychedelic force. The rhythmic propulsion provided by the double drums reinforces the trance-like, hypnotic character of the tracks, there are so many magical moments in this music, it is an omnipresent experience of sound, rhythm, atmosphere and melody, it takes you by the hand and leads you to a musical Garden of Eden. Just listen to the mourning interplay of the reeds at the beginning of “Roofs of Kyoto”, the meditative spirituality of Drake’s voice in combination with the drums and the harmonium in “Temples of Tibet” or the funk groove outro of “Afterimages” which can match with Drake’s Wels quartet (with Brötzmann, Gania and Laswell) on “Long Story Short”. 2013 has been a very good year for the music we love so much, there have been lots of brilliant albums so far. “Seven Lines” is definitely among them.

The album was recorded live at Manggha during Krakow Jazz Autumn Festival on Nov, 1st, 2012 and is available on CD.

Can be purchased from instantjazz.com. 


Interview with Wacław Zimpel on Hera : Seven Lines (Multikulti, 2013)

By Stef   

From the start of this blog, I've always been reluctant to change the recognisable format of having (short) CD reviews, as a kind of heads-up to fans of the genre of what might be worth looking for. Readers and colleagues had asked me to also include interviews with the musicians, or with the labels, or to have more general texts on the free improvisation and avant-garde jazz. 

So I find myself violating this rule now, by starting a chat with Wacław Zimpel on Thursday last week, resulting in this short yet insightful interview. 

What does the album's title refer to? 

Wacław Zimpel : The title refers to lyrics of the Seven Line Prayer - a buddhist prayer to Guru Rinpoche-Pandmasambhava, which is a very important prayer in the Dzogchen tradition. I heard this prayer for the first time when I met Hamid Drake in 2010 at the Lublin Jazz Festival in Poland. We played a double bill gig then. He played a beautiful set with Pasquale Mira and he sung the Seven Lines Prayer accompanied by his frame drum. It was so beautiful that it stayed with me. The same night we played a long jam session with Hamid, getting the feeling of receiving an initiation into deeper forms of music. With this energy we went to Poznan and we recorded "Where My Complete Beloved Is" our second album. That's why I asked Hamid to sing this prayer one more time with us. After that I decided that "Seven Lines" would become the title of our third CD, also because our band had become a septet.

Indeed, why would you add new instruments to the band, if the previous albums were so successful? Why change a winning team? 

Wacław Zimpel : The idea of adding people to the group started with the second CD, which already features Sara Kałużna on tampura and Maniucha Bikont as guest musicians. Later on I started a concert series in Warsaw called "Hera at Skład Butelek", which refers to the name of the jazz club. The idea was to play every Friday with Hera but with invited musicians. Thats how we started playing with Maciej Cierliński on hurdy-gurdy. Guitarist Raphael Rogiński also used to show up during those sets, a musician I've known for a very long time and with whom we've had many projects.  At that time I started writing music which really needed more instruments. I especially needed and independent drone that would allow me to build  sax and clarinet lines over it. The hurdy-gurdy was perfect for this and together with the drone itself, Maciej plays beautiful lines on the instrument, so I could compose three voice structures over bass and drums. The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument with a bow, so we now had a string section with double bass and wood wind section. It gave me a lot of possibilities. The larger band and the new instruments allowed for repetitive structures and a natural way of exploring sound possibilities and different forms.

What was the prior musical preparation with Hamid Drake? Did he just join or did you rehearse? 

Wacław Zimpel : We met Hamid  several times between Lublin and Krakow. All those meetings were very powerful for us and for our music. He gave us much wider perspective of creating the sound. So when it become possible to play with him at the Krakow Jazz Autumn I was very happy. I wrote pieces for this large ensemble. We did two rehearsals one day before the performance and one during the soundcheck. We ate dinner together and had some wine which was probably as important as rehearsals!

This album sounds like a travel around the world? Why this global perspective?

Wacław Zimpel : I have been very interested in many different musical traditions for a very long time. I go very often in dialogue with old traditions as gagaku, carnatic music, gregorian chant, gnawa... It is part of my daily musical life. And somehow all these influences manifested themselves at our concert with Hamid. It was much more of a natural flow than an actual plan.

Read More

Arve Henriksen & Teun Verbruggen - Black Swan (RAT, 2012) ***½

By Stef   

I just came across this hard-to-get album recently, and it deserves attention only because Arve Henriksen (Supersilent) plays on, and then with together with Teun Verbruggen (Othin Spake), my fellow compatriot and drummer with open-minded progressive musical tastes.

Although the concept is not new (check David Sait's "Postage Paid Duets"), the album was made by both musicians separately. Arve Henriksen first recorded his trumpet parts at home, in February 2010, together with some hardanger fiddle, vocals, samples, keyboard and snare drums. Teun Verbruggen recorded his part in a studio in September of the same year. Then the whole thing was mixed and mastered.

Fans of Arve Henriksen will not be deceived, but they won't find anything new either. The music is ethereal at times, without substance, like mist or wind, hard to grasp but pleasing nonetheless, with Verbruggen's percussive parts adding some raw contrast to it, like sharp rocks breaking a beautiful horizon and offering depth and perspective. Other pieces, like the title track, are more dynamic, full of rhythmic complexities mixed into the final sound, like you can expect from several layers of sound and electronics superimposed.

In contrast to trumpeters like Mattias Eick or Nils Petter Molvaer, the duo is more adventurous and dares to go beyond easy sounds. Despite this, there aren't too many surprises either, and that is really something we would expect from two creative minds.

 

Read More

Estamos Trio - People’s Historia (Relative Pitch, 2013) ****

By Martin Schray

One of my favorite non-fictional books is Howard Zinn’s classic “A People’s History of the United States“, which tells American history from the perspective of the ordinary people. The first chapter about “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress” counters the still wide-spread notion of Columbus as the noble conqueror and proves him being a slave trader and murderer. The book begins with the words “Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts.”

For his new recording "People's Historia" Thollem McDonas has reduced his larger Estamos Ensemble to a trio, consisting of himself on piano, Carmina Escobar on voice and electronics, and Milo Tamez on percussion. The twelve songs are named after the numbering of the Arawak (apart from the title this is the obvious connection to Zinn) because they are losing their indigenous language since young people and children are not able to use it in their everyday lives and the result is that a crucial part of their culture is destined to disappear, a fact McDonas wants to bring to people’s conscience.

Estamos (the ensemble and the trio) consists of American and Mexican musicians, the word is the Spanish verb for “we are” in a non-permanent sense and it reflects the ever changing nature of music in general, or – as William Parker put it in the liner notes: Composition is freedom and out of the woods comes this lonely melody that doesn't recognize itself in the mirror because every time it is played it looks and sounds different. The tradition was originally about individuality not preservation. It was each musician's job to find his or her own voice... Then acknowledge that each individual voice was part of a larger cosmic voice. So be healed by this music. "

The music on “People’s Historia” is natural, adventurous and peaceful, yet fragile and endangered, like the existence of the Awarak. On tracks like “Aba”, “Abadakabo” and “Biandakhabo Diako Kabyn” Carmina Escobar’s otherworldly voice, which is the sensation of the album, sounds like a haunted ghost coming directly from the Caribbean jungles. Mc Donas’ piano, which accompanies her in a very dissonant manner, even enforces this spooky effect. In general, the onomatopoeic and fragmented music swings to and fro between echoic sounds (e.g. in ”Bianitian”), McDonas’ European classical music influences (especially Debussy) and sparse electronics and field recordings that reflect the Caribbean world (“Biandakhabo Diako Abaro”).

Relative Pitch is a young label but they have already released great albums, just recently Joey Baron’s “Just Listen”, Taylor Ho Bynum/John Hébert/Gerald Cleaver: Book of Three’s “Continuum” or Mary Halvorson/Kirk Knuffke/Matt Wilson’s “Sifter”. Keep on keepin’ on, guys!


Can be purchased from instantjazz.com. 

Read More

Evan Parker – Vaincu.Va! Live at Western Front 1978 (Western Front New Music, 2013) ****½

By Dan Sorrells

It may be a truism to say so, but it is impossible to keep up with all of the new music that’s released these days. Equally impossible is adequately sampling from the coffers of the past, even without digging through thrift store bins or obsessively surfing eBay. That’s because every year there are countless records resurrected as reissues, or historical performances that are finally given a chance to be heard by those beyond the long-dispersed original audience. Almost all of it is worthy, rewarding music, but how can one make the time for it when so many current musicians are still forging ahead, adding to our already too-lengthy “have to hear” lists? 

Improvised music adds another twist: free improvisation itself is predicated on a ceaseless push forward, never-ending tinkering with the infinite combinations of musical bits, and the idea that you never have to say the same thing twice. In a music so literally grounded in the present, why focus one’s attention back towards the past?

Naturally, I’m being a bit of a Devil’s Advocate. There are plenty of compelling reasons to look back across a domain of music that has always been looking forward. With some historical releases, there’s no question that one must stop and listen. In fact, some releases underscore just how far we’ve come, and still manage to offer a glimpse of where we may be heading yet. Vaincu.Va! Live at Western Front 1978 is such a case, a recently resurfaced Evan Parker solo set, recorded on the final night of his marathon 29-date North American tour in 1978.

The closest touchstone to Vaincu.Va!  in Parker’s oeuvre is the formidable Monoceros, an album that was direct-cut to vinyl and released on Incus the same year. Parker’s solo approach was fully developed by this time (a remarkable thought, as more than 30 years later, it still yields astonishing music), a completely overwhelming torrent of patterned, harmonic playing that pushed saxophone-based music and playing technique into places few others have reached even to this day.

In a conversation recounted in David Toop’s Haunted Weather, Parker says that, in a sense, the “design” of his solo playing is “built up from one calculation, the output of which becomes the input for the next calculation.” By becoming a one man feedback loop, Parker can focus his attention on generating an incredible range of harmonic overtones. He describes hearing Greek clarinet music as a student in the 60s that gave “the sensation of insects or buzzing. Hearing that layer in the music,” he knew it was “very important, what’s happening up there, on top of the line.”

While albums such as Monoceros or The Snake Decides were recorded in ultra-fidelity in an effort to capture all of the partials generated by Parker’s playing, live performances like Vaincu.Va! hit upon a more psychedelic mode. Here, the edges are blurred, the notes spreading and reverberating and blending before making their way to the microphone. It’s often tempting to try to imagine what Parker is actually doing at any given moment, what sort of other-worldly technique goes into producing such music, but with Vaincu.Va! one simply succumbs to the sound, which rolls in like a fog, too thick and too fast to process in a meaningful way. Vaincu.Va! gives Parker the opportunity, as he wishes in the documentary Amplified Gesture, to “disappear and just be the sound.”

The blended sonorities of Vaincu.Va! emphasize another line that can be traced back through Parker’s solo playing, a line the leads to John Coltrane. Not so much the obvious connection between Parker’s free improvisation and Coltrane’s late-period free jazz, but an earlier development in Coltrane’s playing, what Ira Gitler called his “sheets of sound.” Parker has perhaps finally realized what Coltrane was grasping at in the dense, vertically-stacked solos on albums like Black Pearl: a saxophone harmonizing with itself, creating true layers of overlapping, interacting notes, rather than a steady, linear train. 

Parker continues to release many albums each year; there is certainly plenty to stay current with. But Parker’s singular body of solo work is something that every fan of improvised music should make an effort to survey: since the first solo albums of the early 70s, Parker has been uncompromising and peerless in his accomplishment.  There’s something strange, even unsettling, about Parker’s solo playing, something that, even when it was captured over 30 years ago, points to a place the rest of music hasn’t seemed to stumble upon yet. Vaincu.Va! isn’t an easy listen, but it’s an essential historical document of what still remains truly novel creative music. As Parker himself said in 1992, “even audiences who think they want the familiar actually need music to be about newness, too.”


Can be purchased from instantjazz.com. 

Read More

Peter Brötzmann/Steve Noble: I am here where are you (Trost, 2013) ****

By Martin Schray

Another new album by Peter Brötzmann which feels to be his 231.498th one (or so) and as usual it raises the question if we need yet another of his duo performances because he has released a lot of sax/drums duo albums, among them legendary ones with Han Bennink and Hamid Drake, which have set high standards.

But he hasn’t released a duo with Steve Noble before, although Noble is part of his trio with John Edwards (b) (just recently he extended this trio to a quartet with Jason Adasiewicz on vibes at the Berlin A L’Arme Festival– it was a killer performance). Noble is an excellent drummer, who has an interesting post/punk background on the one hand (I first became aware of him as a member of Rip Rig and Panic in the early 1980s), but on the other hand he has always been interested in African rhythms (he studied with Elkan Ogunde) and he has always had connections to the British free jazz scene being a regular participant of Derek Bailey’s company weeks.

The opening title track of this album is typical Brötzmann: lately he has tended to begin his recordings at a very high level, he gets in at the breaking point of the wave and keeps this level for 10 – 15 minutes. Even if you have seen (or heard) this before, it does not lose its fascination, it grabs you by the scruff of the neck and does not let you go. He starts with his typical Brötzmann tenor honk (consisting of four notes) marking the territory, stating: This is a Brötzmann record, this is what you’ll get, be prepared for it. And Steve Noble is with him from the very first second, he even pushes him to his limits. But he is also a very sensitive player, which becomes quite obvious at the beginning of the second track “If Find is Found” where he starts soloing while Brötzmann is changing to clarinet. He concentrates on his toms preparing a very repetitive African basis for Brötzmann’s blues inspired hollers, which is a very intense moment. Both players are rather aggressive on this album but as usual there are balladesque moments as well, e.g. at the beginning of “Mouth on Moth”. Maybe this is the greatest quality of Brötzmann on his latest albums. He is able to play slow ballads without being cheesy, there is always an angular and yearning element in them – and Noble is a drummer who can support this aspect of Brötzmann’s music perfectly.

Finally, back to the question from the beginning: Do we need this album (especially considering the fact that Brötzmann has just released another great duo album with Hamid Drake)? Well, maybe not necessarily. There are classics which are more important (as a duo recording I would always recommend “The Dried Rat Dog” with Hamid Drake on Okka or “Ein halber Hund kann nicht pinkeln” and “Schwarzwaldfahrt” with Han Bennink which were just rereleased by Trost) if you have just discovered him. But this is a very good album, and you won’t be disappointed. If you are a fan (like me) it is must, of course.

The album was recorded live at Ateliers Claus in Brussels on January 19th, 2013, the cover was designed by Brötzmann himself, but it is not one of his woodcuts, it is one of his rather rare pornographic drawings in the expressionist tradition.

You can buy it from www.trost.at or from instantjazz.com.

Watch “I am here where are you” (the title track) here:

Read More

Piano solo

By Stef   

Most musicians have a need to perform solo once in a while, and the piano is definitely the most suited instrument to do that, because of its possibility to play chords and melody at the same time. The setting itself and the forced isolation, make some musicians more meditative and introspective than when they play in a band. Some of the musicians below, like Satoko Fujii and John Medeski clearly go that route, offering interesting new perspectives on their music, or others dive into the past of both jazz and classical music to interpret the great heritage we have.


Satoko Fujii - Gen Himmel (Libra, 2013) ****½

If I'm not mistaken, this is Satoko Fujii's third solo album only, after "Indication", released in 1996, and "Sketches" from 2004, and this despite her prolific output of more than seventy albums. One of the big differences with most of her other albums is the calm and impressionistic approach to sound we get here, as opposed to the well-balanced sense of expressionist dramatic music we know from her. No urgent story-telling here, but rather well-paced and precise beauty. The imagery it conjures up is still unique, reflecting internal and external worlds.

The album starts with the eery sounds of the title track, "Gen Himmel", which means as much as "toward heaven" in poetic German, sounds produced by working on the inside of the piano, who suddenly disappear into the background when just a few calm and meditative piano chords take over, as a natual intro into the next piece "In The Dusk", an impressionistic, soothing sonic environment, more classical than jazz in a way. "Hesitation" brings a strange left hand with scales going up and down, supported with chords played with the right, a juxtaposition which makes you wonder indeed how this piece will evolve, yet it doesn't.

"Take Right" is an amazing piece, it starts with clear single notes played inside the piano or with half-muted strings, and evolves into a playful dance full of counterpoints and clashing waves between jazz and classical music.

"Ram" is built around a carefully paced and slightly altering three-note phrase, that is countered by scraping on strings inside her piano.

"A.S." is more lyrical, played with a broader pallette, with Paul Bley coming to mind, a beautiful and calm piece, and Fujii shows her skills to keep the attention going by offering great variety in emphasis and even adding some sudden dissonant chords in the middle of the piece, just to break the patterns and challenge her own improvisation.

And we could go on. This is a very strong album : personal, coherent, varied and clever, bringing music that is both eclectic and sensitive, accessible and compelling.


Henri Roger - Exsurgences (IMR, 2012) ****

Henri Roger is a self-taught pianist, guitarist, drummer and composer with a long track record in modern music, and if I'm not mistaken, this must be his fourth solo piano album. This one is vinyl only, with an accompanying DVD. The theme of this album is the way of underground water as it moves up to the surface.

The A side is quite exploratory, with the artist nervously conjuring up dark phrases with increasing intensity, alternated with interesting moments of almost percussive lyricism. It an eclectic improvisation, not really jazzy, not classical either, but a very honest and cautious journey of musical reflection.

The B side is at times more romantic, calm and introspective in a Jarrett mode, but then with a little darker edge to it.

The DVD is actually longer than the LP, with the visual part consisting of videos by Anne Pesce, evocative accompaniements, ranging from a long travel around a globe, visiting just dots of unrelated cities to high speed travel in a car without being able to see too much what's happening. All videos can be viewed here.


Thollem McDonas - Dear Future (Wild Silence, 2013) ***½

Pianist Thollem McDonas is probably a little bit underrated, including on this blog, and that's maybe because even for readers of this blog - and at least for this reviewer - his music is hard to pigeonhole, which is a great thing by itself, but we need to keep some guidelines as to the actual profile of this blog too. McDonas is very much in his own category, deliberately unwilling to fit in.

Anyway, "Dear Future", suffers/benefits from the same aspects: the album is a collection of tapes by the pianist ranging from his educational years, including great classical pieces from Scarlatti, improvisations on Debussy, a vaudeville lyrical declamation over rapid-fire Bach or some similar sillyness on Skriabin, and a bunch of musical explorations mixing styles and modes and moods. It all sounds indeed like a young musician trying to get rid of the past while starting to create his own voice, or rather, digging it up in the debris he's created. Yet at the same time, this makes this album also unique and quite interesting in its authenticity, because indeed it already encapsulates some of what's to come.

A peripatetic idiosyncratic iconoclast constructivist ... and we like it. Only 100 albums available.


John Medeski - A Different Time (Sony, 2013) **½ 

It is totally weird. It is totally weird to hear this album and then think about the musician hammering away on the organ with Medeski, Martin & Wood. The album is released by Sony, but it sounds like ECM, unfortunately with artwork of such an ugly nature that would never be mistaken for an ECM album.

Medeski plays quiet, calm and meditative pieces, including two covers. The end result is surprising, but not essential. A personal different face, or the introvert impressionist melancholy hidden side of the extravert expressive power player.

Nice for quiet evenings, good background music, but nothing more. We prefer the other side of Medeski. This is really too mellow.


Aki Takase - My Ellington (Intakt, 2013) ***½ 

Another great album released this year, is Aki Takase's tribute to Duke Ellington, sounding like a greatest hits of the master, played by solo piano. The album starts with "The Mooche", and you get "Caravan", "It Don't Mean A Thing", "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good", "In A Mellow Tone", "Love You Madly".

To Takase's credit, her interpretations are really great. She deconstructs the themes as you could expect, gives hints of the swing, gives chordal playfull switches of the arrangements, and just plays with the material for what it's worth, making it jazzy, bluesy, stomp or avant-garde, or just intimate and introspective, as in "Solitude". With "Caravan", it takes about a minute-and-a-half before the piece's theme is actually played.

What is even stronger, Takase not just gives her own take on these Ellington originals, you hear jazz piano history, from Scott Joplin over Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor. Yes, it's an exercise in style in a way, but equally an highly enjoyable album in its own right. Despite all her skills, the overall result remains somewhat musically non-committal.


Matthew Shipp - Solos - The Jazz Sessions (Original Spin, 2012) ***

"Hi, I'm Matthew Shipp. I am a pianist and a composer. I play new music. New music means music that is new". That is the intro to the now available mp3 version of a former DVD release with the same name.

The album has some more short interviews and new takes on some of his earlier compositions, such as "Greensleeves", "Symbol Systems", "New Orbit", "Before The World", offering the album some kind of documentary value, which by itself is not bad, although it destroys the continuity for listeners. As such, the CD release remains a kind of educational introduction to Matthew Shipp, but not really an album in its own right.

The DVD can be ordered directly from Original Spin. The mp3 version is available on iTunes and Amazon, and here on eMusic.

We're all looking forward to his upcoming "Piano Sutras" solo piano album, later this month.


Most of these albums can be purchased from Instantjazz.

Read More

Christian Wallumrød Ensemble: Outstairs (ECM, 2012) ****

Reviewed by Joe

I haven't been a fan of Christian Wallumrød's music for so long, it's a recent fad that seems to have grown on me whilst listening to some live recordings I have of this band. His approach is completely original, if you listen to his other records - trios, the ensemble, solo etc - you'll notice how he's developed his style bit by bit over the years. Moreover, that is what makes it so interesting, one could say it's all the same even! It's a music that works on small details, simple ideas that develop slowly, not unlike a melodically organised version of Skogen's "Ist Gefallen in den Schnee". Interestingly Stef also saw a connection with Wallumrød's collaboration on "Dans Les Arbres", so maybe I'm not dreaming after all!

The texture of the ensemble is of utmost importance to the colour of this music. The original band had Arve Henriksen on trumpet, which may give you a clue to the music stylistically, but since a while Eivind Lønning has been in the trumpet chair. The rest of the group is Gjermund Larsen - violin, hardanger fiddle, viola. Espen Reinertsen - tenor saxophone. Tove Törngren - cello and of course the unstoppable Per Oddvar Johansen on drums and vibraphone, and for all who don't know him, Christian Wallumrød plays piano, harmonium and toy piano. You'll notice there's NO bass and this really makes the music sound somewhere between classical and a sense of world music, which is created via the harmonium and the clever use of drums, often played with the hands. The great use of bass 'movement' via the cello, or sax even gives the music a very special sound. 

"Stille Rock" starts the album like a mournful prelude to the music that follows, Wallumrød's music has that sound, but is in fact uplifting. "Bunadsbangla" is 'the hit' of the album, and believe me he can write some catchy tunes! The album, like most of his work, is best listened to as a whole. There is little space between improvisation and composition, it sounds very organised, but it works well that way. You can make out small sections of improvisation, but don't buy this if you're looking for mind stretching new approaches, it's all about control and the beauty of restraint. There are too many pieces on the album to talk about everything. "Tridili #2" is a baroque piece with saxophone playing overtones and clusters in response to the melody. "Very Slow" is a quite piece (and slow!) using tone clusters. "Folkskiss" is a beautiful ballad that reminds you of a tune you heard long ago, but where - almost Gaelic in feeling! The scrapings and scratchings of "Third Try" could be from a gore movie.

This is a fine album that hangs musically between many worlds of sound. If you love film sound tracks that create space, and if you like organised beauty, then this is certainly one for you. 

    

Read More

Sifter - A Deep Listening Weekend Review

Sifter: Self-titled (Relative Pitch, 2013) ****½ 

 

By Tom Burris

Mary Halvorson is involved in so many side projects it's hard to pick a favorite – until now.  Sifter, her trio with Kirk Knuffke (cornet) and Matt Wilson (drums), has created one of the most inviting discs of the year with its self-titled debut.  The compositions are concise.  The themes are hummable.  The solos never venture too far from home, and yet conversely it's a highly adventurous recording. 

The album opens with a country shuffle (“Cramps”) that features the main theme played in unison by Halvorson and Knuffke, a common setup for the heads throughout the disc.  Halvorson plays single notes on the bass strings until the distortion pedal stomps on the proceedings like Pappy's unruly grandson barged into the room and tried to wrestle the guitar out of Aunt Mary's hands.  Unfazed, Wilson's brushes shuffle onto the finish line.

“Dainty Rubbish” opens with a strong melody from Knuffke, accompanied by Halvorson's unmistakeable riffing on a two chord vamp.  Wilson plays with the snare off, tapping out a minimal chug Mick Fleetwood would be proud to claim.  Interestingly, Wilson gets even more minimal on the next track, “Always Start,” where his playing becomes so understated he sounds like a Moe Tucker disciple.  His perfectly sublime pulse compliments Knuffke's unwinding broken blooze lines and Halvorson's seriously warped chordal smears so that the track comes off sounding like honor students about to become dropouts. 

“Absent Across Skies” features gorgeous melancholy lines from Knuffke as Wilson's brushes, once again, are beautifully understated accompaniment.  I finally missed having a bass line around, but it only lasted for about twelve bars.  Mary's riffing and warping, so good it distracts from Knuffke's brilliant melodic lines, rides on top of Wilson's perfect pulse waves on “Original Blimp” with such humor it will make you laugh out loud.  I promise! 

Echoes of Tropicalia open the breezy “Doughy” with a beautifully understated melody from Knuffke and sweet, full Brazilian chords from Halvorson.  When she takes a tremelo-laden solo, the bass-less space underneath provides the perfect canvas.  This minimalistic approach is warm and very approachable, as on “Proper Motion,” when Wilson plays time on two cymbals for almost one minute with no other audible sound within earshot.  It draws you in like a secret.

Wilson is an ace improviser, knowing when to merely keep time and knowing when to astound by cutting loose, as on “Free Jazz Economics,” where his skills reveal him to be as equally gifted technically as he is intuitively. 

This album is loaded with surprises, as on “Back and Forth,” where the main theme goes up and down and Knuffke plays in and out.  “Forever Runs Slow In Cold Water” features Sonic Youth-esque crescendos and chord progressions.  “Vapor Rub” features Knuffke and Halvorson in a short duet that appears to be completely improvised; and a robot rock stomper called “Utility Belt” closes the disc in dramatic fashion.  Above all, this disc is Fun.  It contains a track called “Don Knotts”.  This band is called Sifter.  They have just released one of the best albums of the year.



Sifter: Self-titled (Relative Pitch, 2013) **** ½ 

By Martin Schray

After I had come across Mary Halvorson for the first time (I saw her with Anthony Braxton’s Diamond Curtain Wall Trio) I looked for her on youtube and immediately found some absolutely excellent clips. That’s why I was wondering all the more why some of the comments below the clips were harshly offensive: “Horrible garbage! Sounds like they have never met or rehearsed”; “I can't believe this crap is subsidized!”, “Her command over the guitar is very amateur and weak” or “I don't know how any jazz fan can defend this utter shit” – and this is just the peak of the contributions.

Since then I have seen and heard Mary Halvorson quite often and it is obvious that these commentators have no idea what a great guitar player is. She is one because her approach to use the tremolo, with which she warps chords or melodies before they get too convenient, is absolutely unique and above all she has a tremendous, yet special technique.

These typical Halvorson elements run like a thread through this album. “Cramps”, the first track, starts with an alienated, abstract country/rockabilly riff which is elegantly and sparsely accompanied by Matt Wilson (dr) and Kirk Knuffke (tr) can throw in a very light-handed melody in front of this background. Yet after two minutes Halvorson steps on the distortion module and puts the track through the mill before they all come back to the theme from the beginning. This is almost classic modern jazz songwriting.

Additionally, Halvorson has a great command of almost every style. In “Dainty Rubbish” she brings in flamenco pieces, country elements, and rock chords, all played in a very minimalist way, there is no note too much. In general there are a lot of typical (post) modern jazz tunes on the album, there is a lot of unison playing between Halvorson and Knuffke, as in “Don Knotts” with its eerie swinging theme, “Proper Motion” with its chopped post-rock beginning or the classic hard bop “Free Jazz Economics” which soon changes to classic harsh jazz chords, the other returning structural element of the album because Halvorson’s chords and riffs prepare the ground for Knuffke’s varied and virtuosic playing, the interplay between the three musicians is simply sensational.

Hidden between all these great tracks there are two gems: “Absent Across Skies” and “Forever Runs Slow in Cold Water”, two angular ballads. Both show Halvorson in a Bill Frisell tradition at the beginning, before she executes what she can do best – using the tremolo to distract the way the nice melody is going, leading it to dissonant and unexpected grounds before bringing them back on the right track again.

You can say a lot about Mary Halvorson but you cannot vilify her claiming she cannot play. These negative comments only prove that these people have a preconceived opinion of what music should be like.

Watch the trio live here:

Can be purchased from Instantjazz.

Read More

JC Jones - Citations - Solo Bass (Kadima, 2012) ****

By Stef   

There are musicians who deserve recognition for their music. There are musicians who deserve recognition for their educational role. There are musicians whose passion drives them to set up their own label. There are musicians whose passion drives them to make music change the world. And then there is JC Jones, who does it all. You cannot but respect the man, self-taught, then graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston, and living in Israel for the last three decades. 

He is the bass-player's best promoter, with numerous records released on his Kadima label by fellow bass-players, such as Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips, Tetsu Saitoh, Mark Dresser, Bert Turetzky, Peter Kowald ... the best among the best. 

And now his own solo album, on my desk for quite a while, because it's an album that needs its time and the right atmosphere to favor fully, and these moments are rare. Solo albums have this intimate and vulnerable exposure, in full view of the listener, while at the same time being a personal confrontation for the artist with himself. 

Jones brings us seventeen pieces, ranging between one and five minutes, and of a varying nature. Some are introspective, meditative ("Retro"), other ones are more physical ("Noises", "Equations"), some have overdubs ("OFM"), other ones are plain acoustic, some are quite accessible, other tracks are more exploratory ("15 Bt"), some tracks sound like practice, other ones are gut-wrenching emotional ("Bt Trem", "Here"). It is great, it is excellent, but then each piece is too short, like being unfinished, like a great idea that's created for all of us to think about its possibilities, about what the rest of the story may be, or maybe ideas for other musicians to work on. Or maybe that's it, a short statement each time. This is a collection of short stories, each quite interesting and beautiful by itself, but it's not an odyssey, as the label claims. The epic unified story is probably yet to come. Let's hope so. 



You can listen and buy from CDBaby. 

Read More