Chris Kelsey - The Crookedest Straight Line, Vol.1 (CIMP, 2007) ***½

It seems to become a fashion again in free jazz circles to play inside-out, starting with tightly composed themes which refer back to the roots of jazz, but then only just to serve as the base camp for more adventurous free explorations. Soprano sax player Chris Kelsey uses this approach here with his fine quartet, which also includes John Carlson on trumpet and flugelhorn, François Grillot on bass and Jay Rosen on drums. The first track "Post Modern Time" is a great piece of free bop, with walking bass and all, and full of energy, to be followed by the beautiful "Poor Relations", a more abstract, slower piece, that evolves rather freely, with alternating solos by the two horn-players ending in a long unisono theme. The next piece also starts unisono in the same vein of musical color with a relatively complex theme and ditto rhythm, which lays the foundation for again great solo work. "Fangle" starts boppish, with sudden tempo and rhythm changes, reminiscent of Ornette Coleman, and then John Carlson tears away on his trumpet, a pleasure to hear, above an uptempo high intensity drumming by Rosen whom we seldom hear in this role, hard and energetic yet with his usual precise accentuating, opening space for a scorching solo by Kelsey, all the while being propulsed further forward by the rhythm section. Then suddenly, above all this intense powerplay, Carlson starts playing a slow, soft, almost romantic solo, and he brings this machine from hell to a grinding halt, and bridged by some light drumming, back to the main theme. And that's the nice thing about this band : the four musicians are a perfect fit, playing in support of one another, with focused soloing, managing to create a common musical color. The beautiful "Ask I Won't Tell" starts in a structured manner, with a lightly dancing melody brought by the sax and with the trumpet echoing the theme, paving the way for a powerful solo by Kelsey. Both horn-players are excellent, and it's not surprising that Kelsey asked Carlson to join his band, since both players have a warm tone, a melodic and structured approach which they combine with creative and abstract tone-setting, and this track illustrates this very well. As Kelsey says it himself, this is probably his most accessible album so far : "Maybe, although it's a wildly relative judgment. Kenny G (or even Branford Marsalis) this ain't. It simply is what it is. I dig it, and hope you do, as well." We certainly do.

Contet/Chevillon/Corneloup - Nu (In Circum Girum, 2006) ***

Pascal Contet plays accordion, Bruno Chevillon bass and François Corneloup baritone sax. And this trio tries to give a new definition to music on this CD. The title "Nu" can of course be read as the English "new", but also and more appropriately as the French for "naked". "Less is more" seems to be the core principle and the trio ventures to grasps essence of emptiness : searching for the rights sounds and how to fill an empty space with them, but then preferably as sparse, as careful and as respectful as possible. There are some really beautiful things on this CD, such as the crying sax in the opening track, or the soft bass playing in the second one, or the eery and sustained tones that Chevillon manages to squeeze out of his instrument. This music is so fragile that you barely dare to listen to it out of fear of damaging it. But unfortunately they do not keep the creativity at high enough levels to make from each piece something great. The empty space becomes too large and their musical approach too limited, or they have to look for such unconventional angles, that it becomes too cerebral. And is really too bad, because there is some really great music here, like the last-but-one track, "Elle était la", on which Corneloup just like at the beginning gets some beautiful soft howling sounds out of his sax, perfectly accompanied by the warm bass and the hypnotic accordion.

Lucien Dubuis - Tovorak (Tovorak Records, 2005) ****

This sax trio led by Swiss reedman Lucien Dubuis funks and rocks from beginning to end, without stopping, without halting, playing as if their life depended on it. The music is very rock-influenced, close to the best pieces of other sax trios such as The Happy Apple or the Belgian band Slang. Dubuis' playing is strong, and often reminded me of Ken Vandermark. And that's a great compliment. He is one of the top young European musicians, having played with the European Young Jazz Orchestra, and for this trio he is accompanied by Roman Nowka on bass and guitar, and Lionel Friedl on drums, objects and dance (?). The tracks are short, 14 for the whole album, yet their compactness is part of their strength. Yes, there is soloing on this album, and even great soloing, but the real power is in those beats and the sustained intense energy emanating from this trio. They describe themselves as "Imagine a chromosomic mingling of a touch of John Coltrane genes and the DNA of the Beastie Boys: the Crossover Jazz Trio just enjoys playing the jazz stuff, just as Madonna would enjoy sex after a year in jail, with lust !"

That sounds pretty clear, and it is actually a pretty good description of their music. However, what this album is all about, remains a mystery, even with the explanation given : "Tovorak, the monster with spines, learned the fabulous techniques of the Sumo for many years and is now back to save the world. But can he resist the indecent and hysterical offers of Samantha, Britney, Lorie, Kent and Falbala ? Will he be able to transcend his own weakness and see his quest of a phantasmagorical paradise through?"

Never mind the explanations, this is great music, adding some new twists to free jazz, and it is fun too. Worth looking for!

Listen to some sound samples :

Non Pas
'veux pas dormir
HPC1erE
Dear Mr. Crunch

Nagl/Bernstein/Akchoté/Jones - Big Four Live (HatHut, 2007) ****

After the success (relatively speaking) of their first studio album "Big Four", the new live version is a more than welcome addition. The band consists of an odd group of musicians : Max Nagl on sax, Steven Bernstein on trumpet, Noël Akchoté on guitar and Bradley Jones on bass. Nagl is Austrian, and best known for his more avant-garde leanings, as is the French guitarist. Bernstein is a good mainstream trumpet player and excellent in musical arrangements and probably best known from his Diaspora CDs on the Tzadik label (and Sex Mob, of course!). Brad Jones is an American bass-player with references going from Don Byron and Marc Ribot to Elvis Costello and Sheryl Crow. And the chemistry between these four gentlemen is excellent, because their technical skills allow them to master all jazz forms and sub-genres, and they demonstrate this here with lots of tongue-in-cheek and respectful joy. The whole of jazz history is being dealt with here, from traditional 12-bar blues, over swing, bop, hard-bop to more modern styles, but then brought by an intimistic free-jazz chamber ensemble, that can swing if need be. Most tracks start with well-rehearsed tunes, just to set the stage, and by itself this is fun, because the melodies and their perfect rendition are a real treat for the ear, but it becomes even more fun once they start playing around with the themes, transforming them, throwing them around and receiving them back. Bernstein has the lion's share of the compositions and that's not really a surprise since his knowledge of jazz history is certainly the deepest, yet that he manages to stand his role in the more free moments is a surprise and good to hear. And the opposite is certainly true for Nagl and Akchoté : their knowledge of the more classical idiom is excellent and the ease and joy with which they handle the mainstream parts are great. And that's what the audience thinks too. It claps and cheers, and probably the longest during and after the long and exhilirating "New Viper Dance", in which Jones gets the opportunity to demonstrate the sensitivity of his bass-playing during a long solo. "Big Four" is probably the nicest composition, more modern, more free, more sensitive, and the beautiful serpentine soloing of the horns are solidly supported by the bass. "Muddy" evolves from a jazzy melody to a straight-ahead Muddy Waters tribute, with Akchoté playing sensitive pentatonic blues scales, great, nice, fun, and the support by bass and horns is simple yet effective. In sum, the musicianship, the interplay, the rhythm and tempo changes, the bouncing of themes, the joy, the call-and-response, the musical quotes from jazz history : this is all candy for the ear, an album to enjoy.

Wadada Leo Smith & Günter Sommers - Wisdom In Time (Intakt, 2007) *****

On "Wisdom In Time", Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Günter "Baby" Sommer (drums, percussion) revisit their collaboration of ten years ago, now without the late Peter Kowald' bass. In the continuation of his great album "Compassion" of last year, the duo setting seems to suit Smith perfectly, and he - or rather "they - delve into the sheer emotional and spiritual power of pure sounds - melody and rhythm being often only latently present in favor of patternless clarity and intense interaction. This careful and very attentive, almost considerate and respectful handling of sound by Wadada Leo Smith is of course not new to him, but I have the impression that he brings it to even higher levels of perfection than before, more abstract yet also more accessible, a rare combination which is hard to explain. Sommer is excellent throughout, not only adding accents, but actively driving Smith at times, reacting and propulsing at the same time, bringing a more tribal coloring to the music, especially on "Woodland Trails To The Giants" and "Old Times Roll", as opposed to Adam Rudolph's softer meditation-like approach on the previous album. Smith's use of electronics increases the tonal variation, but without being excessive, just creating shades, offering more depth to his sustained crystal-clear tone. Their ode to Peter Kowald in "Bass-Star Hemisphere" offers absolute sheer musical beauty, in a combination of sadness and joy, interspersed with little dance-like intervals, or dark menacing drum-rolls and somber bells, leaving lots of space without any urge to fill the space between notes. This is music stripped bare of any needless ornamentation or melodic anchor points, and thereby creating a feeling of wide expansive vastness and openness, involving the listener in their spiritual journey. Again, highly recommended.

Other Dimensions In Music - Live At The Sunset (Marge, 2007) *****

Two things are extremely hard to believe.

First, about five years ago I bought ODIM's "Time Is Of The Essence Is Beyond Time", which I thought was awfully chaotic and empty, so I put the band in the don't-ever-listen-to-them-again category . Some years later I was encouraged by Phil Freeman's excellent book "New York Is NOW! The New Wave Of Free Jazz" to listen to their first self-titled album and to "Now!", their second release, which I think are two absolutely fabulously brilliant albums. I was totally misguided by the reviews on Allmusic.com, that claim that "Time ..." is their best album, and in fact, it's quite the contrary.

Second, they have just released a double live album on the French label Marge, which got NO, I mean NO (ZERO) reviews whatsoever, anywhere....(hence the fact that I cannot show you the cover picture : nothing to be found on internet and I have no scanner to copy the cover for you). And it's not only hard to believe that this album received no attention so far, it's a crying shame too! So, lovers of free jazz, this album exists and it is excellent.

For those who don't know Other Dimensions In Music : the band consists of Roy Campbell on trumpet; Daniel Carter on sax, flute and trumpet; William Parker on bass and Hamid Drake on drums. And what they bring is free jazz at its best : spontaneous improvization with rhythm, empathy, beautiful soloing and telepathic interplay. These four stellar musicians have played together for decades and in various bands and it shows. Drake and Parker play like they are one person with two bodies, and their rhythmic foundation supports the tonal soundscapes weaved by Campbell and Carter, who both have a huge background, but more importantly, they play with the rare combination of emotional and creative power. There is lots of variation in the instruments used : Parker also uses the musette, the reed instrument played by Dewey Redman in Old & New Dreams, stopping his solo and switching to arco, Hamid Drake sings and plays snare drum, Carter sings as well. The second variation comes from the variety of styles they integrate into their improvizations, often implicitly : blues, swing, bop, african, middle-eastern, and the third variation comes from the levels of intensity, ranging from subdued and spiritual to high-pitched high energy playing, but rarely chaotic skronking, like the great swells of the ocean, moving up and down in large uninterupted movements, all different, yet all part of the same. And all this has a meaning - the titles speak for themselves : "Blues configuration", "Afro Carribean High Life", "Blues for Baghdad", "Funk The Government/The Betrayal of New Orleans/Hurricane Katrina", "Suite for Miles Davis", "For Louis, Cootie and Lester", "James Brown Ascension", ... gives you an idea what musical references are used to illustrate the titles. But it's not only political or musicological in nature, in essence their music is spiritual : "multilayered music that is drenched in vision. Blues vision, world music vision, 21st Century vision, it's the music called Black Mystery Music that comes from the deepest parts of Africa, Asia and Europe. Sounds that can be found in the furthest reaches of the cosmos. The mud that binds the music is the call of the human soul in need of healing. Combined with all the beautiful things that have ever existed since the beginning of time". And Parker continues in the liner notes : "We never know what will happen from minute to minute in the music but we are ready to go anywhere it wants to go, without being restricted by style". And that's exactly what this double CD has to offer : excellent free playing, moving naturally, rhythmically, full of intensity, full of spirituality and musical vision.

Buy it!

And you can at Sunset Records

Here are some sound samples from their previous album "Now!", just to give you an idea of what they sound like :
For The Glass Tear
Blue Expanded

Dennis Gonzalez - Geografia (Self published, 2006) ****

Dennis Gonzalez is a trumpet player whose tone and approach to music I really like : his tone is warm and composed, his music adventurous yet elegant. "Yells At Eels" is the name of the trio he has with his sons Stefan (drums, vibes) and Aaron (bass), yet often further supported by guest musicians, like on this album : Carl Smith on tenor, Devon Wells on flute, Kim Corbet on trombone, Bill Pohl on electric guitar, alternating each other for one or two tracks. The music is open, bluesy, quiet, beautiful and inspiring. The accent is on the common musical creation, the musicians weave tonal layers and search for a joint composition rather than demonstrating their improvisational instrumental skills. And the music really benefits from this functional approach. The pieces flow like clouds or water, melancholy, dramatic, slow, at moments impressive and impactful. Especially the long "Crow Soul" is powerful, and brings up memories of Terje Rypdal's Rolling Stone (on the Odissey LP version) in terms of rhythm, bass line, overall mood and tone, flowing seemlessly into the next, equally long, yet more energetic and more electronic "Mutation Station", which leads to a great climax. The last track is a dedication to William Parker, and rightly so, don't we love him all??? One of the other strengths of the album is the unity of style which is maintained throughout all the pieces. Strong.


The CD can be ordered from Dennis Gonzalez personally, and believe me, he puts it in the mail the day your e-mail reaches him on "dennisgonzalezx@aol.com".

Below you can watch a video of a Yells At Eels performance of Ornette Coleman's Happy House (nothing to do with this album, though)

Billy Stein Trio - Hybrids (Barking Hoop, 2006) ***½

On his first album guitarist Billy Stein brings us, together with bass-player Reuben Radding and drummer Rashid Bakr, an interesting hybrid form of free improvization and structured form. The three musicians search and turn around each other, creating music which is surprising, inventive, recognizable at times, more often rhythmic than not, never dull. Stein himself plays guitar as if he is the conductor, giving directions to both other players with his soft-toned guitar and ditto presence. And bass-player and drummer take up the challenge. Radding and Bakr are of course well-known in the more avant-garde jazz circles, yet hear they can be heard from their more accessible side, and what they show here is excellent. The music never gets so far as to create real melodies or themes, yet they bring a whirling rhytmic unity of unobtrusive sounds and counter-sounds, inventive and creative.

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble - Hot 'n' Heavy (Delmark, 2007) ****

Percussionist Kahil El'Zabar has two bands with which he releases new albums with the regularity of a clock : the Ritual Trio and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, the latter most often a quartet. There aren't any major differences between both bands, neither musically, nor in terms of overall feeling and effect, apart from the line-up which offers a different coloring to the music. The music is strongly based in rhythms, with a fixed, contagious groove, that is maintained throughout the track, which offers the soloists ample space on their spiritual quest, built around beautiful, often long melodic lines. Atmosphere, enthusiasm, mutual encouragement and interaction between the players are all central to the concept of the band, sometimes exuberant, sometimes subdued, yet always very rhythmical and with lots of space. The major difference between both bands is the line-up : the Ritual Trio consists of percussion, bass and sax, while the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is composed of percussion, the trombone of Joe Bowie, the sax of Ed Wilkerson or - like here - Ernest Dawkins, once every so often joined by Fareed Haque on guitar. And the repertoire is absolutely identical : El'Zabar classics such as "Ka-Real", "Ornette", "Love Outside Of Dreams", "Ancestral Song", "Alika Rising", "Papa's Bounce", etc. can be found on several records by both bands. And who cares? Only this album brings a totally new song list. And Joseph Bowie on trombone is replaced by Corey Wilkes on trumpet and flugelhorn (even played at the same time!). Quite some changes at first sight, but that does not apply to the music. The compositions keep their rhythmic base, the melodies are beautiful, the structure and arrangements simple, the percussion absolutely fabulous and the joy of playing of the musicians is a treat for the ear. And the music is at its best when performed live, in a small setting, intimistic and close. And the audience reacts like it does here : spontaneous, enthusiastic, part of the performance. The musicians give an excellent reading of El'Zabar's compositions : Corey Wilkes is really strong, Dawkins composed, with a warm bluesy tone, Haque gives the necessary harmonic support and soloes well, and El'Zabar himself is unequalled on hand percussion, and as well on his signature instrument, the thumb piano. This is mainstream jazz in its free-est form, or free jazz in its most melodic and rhythmic variation, but I don't think El'Zabar cares about these distinctions, as long as the music sounds well, creates space and spiritual feeling. And it does that for sure, and it offers joy on top. Recommended.

There is also a DVD of this performance, to be bought separately.

Luister naar samples :

Major To Minor
MT
Hot 'n' Heavy
There Is A Place
Black As Vera Cruz

Jacek Kochan - One Eyed Horse (Gowi Records, 2005) ****

Another remarkable CD of Polish origin : drummer Jacek Kochan, with master saxophonist Greg Osby and Austrian trumpet player Franz Hautzinger. Krystyna Stanko's voice is present at some limited and barely audible places. And believe me, this is a great album. Kochan's music is highly rhythmic, funky even at times, but with free inclinations simultaneously, with beautiful melodies and interplay, against a restrained backdrop of electronics and ambient sound. This is modern jazz at its best, the kind of music from which so many would-be innovators of today could learn from : this is real music, with energy and intensity, clever musical constructions, full of variation, creative, emotional. The CD consists of 15 relatively short tracks, often built on a (strong) rhythmical pattern, often electronically transformed, and Kochan imitates to perfection what DeJohnette does on Miles Davis' Bitches' Brew : to keep that high-tempo rhythm going in full support of rhythmless sax bursts or slow melodic trumpet, by economically and relentlessly hard-hitting the hihat, just to take the initiative back again to demonstrate to all who want to hear what rythmic wonders such a drumkit can contain. Kochan is a great drummer, period. And Osby and Hautzinger feel perfectly at ease in this context, whether it's uptempo free, funky, or slow melodic, it all fits, not too mellow, at times a little rough, yet accessible. The real power of this album is the unity of style, and the fact that the electronics are fully subordinate to the music. Highly recommended.

Listen to sound samples :
Rift
Drop
Sun Doesn't Know She Is A Star
Fear No More (whole track)
Simoom (whole track)

Carla Bley & Paul Haines - Escalator Over The Hill (JCOA, 1971) *****

Few albums have such a unique profile as Escalator Over The Hill by Carla Bley, and I'm still not sure how to describe the music more than 30 years after its original release : a free jazz fusion world music avant-garde opera seems pretty close, because you get it all, magnificent, bombastic, waltzing, humpah-ing, screeching, rocking, haunting, enervating, crazy, merry-go-rounding, absurd, stammering, howling, menacing, invigorating, crushing, cinematic, disjointing, chaotic, ....

Take an orchestra with the (then) absolute crème-de-la-crème of modern jazz : Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, Roswell Rudd, Karl Berger, Sam Brown, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, Enrico Rava, Perry Robinson, Michael Mantler, Leroy Jenkins, Ron McClure, Jimmy Lyons, Carla Bley herself of course, and add a dozen or so additional horns to form one of the many bands in the opera. Add some stars from the rock-scene, with amongst others Linda Ronstadt on vocals, Jack Bruce (The Cream) on bass and vocals, Don Preston (Mothers Of Invention) on Moog synthesizer, and of course John McLaughlin on guitar, and add some more vocal power Jeanne Lee and Sheila Jordan. And believe me, they're all pretty fantastic.

Next, take a theater author who can write down the most insane and absurd lines, to be sung in in various styles : opera, rock-n-roll, musical, or just to be shouted or spoken, alone or in a choir, or just simply sung, and singing in all earnestness sentences such as the following :

"It's in the lobby
of Cecil Clark's
that people raised
for one thing
like cows
for milk
and chickens
for legs
vote for something
weak
and to the point
riding the escalator
over the hill

vote for something
weak
and to the point"

... and Carla Bley made something musically unique out of all of this.

So, in sum, treat this music without any preconceptions, let yourself be lead through a story the likes of which you have never heard, forget all musical notions and expectations, leave the safe haven of fixed patterns, .... and take this damn escalator!


(... and please don't ask me what it's all about!)

"Stop refusing to explain
Give up explaining"

Gato Libre - Nomad (Nomansland Records, 2007) ***½

The spouses Natsuki Tamura (trumpet) and Satoko Fujii (usually on piano, here only on accordion), have something with cats (not only for their Gato Libre band, but cats also figure on some other CD covers). Apart from that, they are musical adventurers, and their Gato Libre outfit could not be further removed from their usual more avant-garde endeavours. I invite everyone with open ears and a solid heart to listen to Tamura's "Hada Hada", which brings the most improbable hard electronic industrial free jazz, a subgenre only represented by that album. "Nomad" is at the entire other end of the spectrum, and is the sophomore effort of this band, bringing accessible jazz, founded in European tradition, ie. French musette, Viennese waltzes, Scottish dances, some klezmer, flamenco, and all this full of melancholy and warm-hearted sympathy. Every track has the name of another Europan city, and is created on the basis of the local musical tradition, then nicely packaged, with a ribbon around it, ready to be sent home to the fatherland. The other two Europeans at our service are Kazuhiko Tsumura on acoustic guitar and Norikatsu Koreyasu on bass. This is light, refreshing, sensitive chamber jazz, and the combination of the four chosen instruments, together with the musicians' mastery of them, makes this a really nice album, far above the average of similar projects.

Listen to In Krakow, In November and compare with the same piece from their trumpet-piano album

Exploding Customer - At Your Service (Ayler Records, 2007) ***½

This is the third album by the Swedish band Exploding Customer on the Ayler Records label, and the first one which is recorded in the studio, which is too bad, because with the kind of music they play, this is a real live band, where the interaction with the audience must be immediate and reinforcing to the players. Nevertheless, their soulful funky approach to free jazz is still invigorating enough, but at the end of each track I'm surprised not to hear any applause. The band consists of Martin Küchen on alto and tenor, Tomas Hallonsten on trumpet, Benjamin Quigley on bass and Kjell Nordeson on drums. And their music is fun, lively, clever, and well-played. This is not boundary-shifting jazz, but you will enjoy it from beginning to end, because of the great compositions, the great interplay, the variation in the music, the fun and the funk, yet the heart and the mind are not forgotten either, the album contains its slower more introspective moments too, such as the long and beautiful "The Supply And Demand Of Love And Hate", and they even finish the album with Charlie Haden's moving piece, "Els Segadors". For those who like skillful funky free bop without pretence.

Can be ordered at Ayler

Marcel Khalife - Taqsim (Nagam Records, 2007) ***½

Marcel Khalife is a Lebanese oud player and composer, who, for once, restrained himself to a trio album (as compard to his other symphonic and heavily orchestral and cinematic output), offering all the sensitivity and intimacy that characterizes good music. His oud-playing is excellent as is Peter Herbert, the Austrian modern jazz bass player, who acts as his main sideman on this album, ocne in a while accompanied by Bachar Khalife on percussion . The album consists of three long tracks, which delve into Arabian music, but also which also have more modern, jazzy connotations, meeting halfway between both genres, mainly because of the common characteristics of openness to improvization in both Arabic music and jazz. The strength of this music lies exactly in the interplay between the two lead musicians. The purpose of this album is to bring an musical expression and tribute to the poetry of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, whoever that may be. Regardless, this is great music.

View Video below.

Marc Ribot - Asmodeus, Book Of Angels, Vol. 7 (Tzadik, 2007) *****

It's never a good idea to write a review before you've listened several times thorougly to a new album, then think it over, then carefully analyze the whole, maybe look up some references and background stuff, and start writing. It's just that this CD does not allow for that. This is straight-ahead instrumental hard rock by Marc Ribot on guitar, Trevor Dunn on bass and Grant Calvin Weston on drums, and I just can't waste time by thinking before sharing my enthusiasm with you. The album starts heavily, full speed, all guitar knobs and switches opened to the max and pedals pushed down, with exploding guitar licks and rhythm section, the musical equivalent of a nuclear attack. The most amazing thing is that Ribot gives an overview of 40 years of electric guitar pyrotechnics on one album, and then paradoxically on the lyrical Masada songbook, and he covers it starting with Hendrix over fusion over punk over avant-garde, ending somewhere with metalcore or death ambient or gothic metal or whatever they call that stuff these days, bringing bluesy solos ("Yezriel"), strong superfast unisono themes ("Cabriel"), lots of power chords, lots of shredding, to slow heavy pumping ("Zakun"), and all this interspersed with the most insane sound orgasms. Truly amazing, one of the most powerful guitar trio albums ever made. We know Ribot from his refined, creative work as a sideman to Tom Waits, or from his own almost classical work on the nylon string guitar, his avant-garde punk inventions with Shrek, his work with the Lounge Lizards, his more lyrical work with John Zorn's Bar Kokhba ensemble, or his Latin big-sellers with the fake Cubans, but on this one, he's outdone himself again, this one is beyond comparison. This guitar music is the wet dream of any guitar player, technically skilled, strong compositions, lots of variations in the styles used, rhytmic changes and hard, hard, hard, and fast, fast, fast, without a moment of rest, more energy than most young bands could muster these days. Truth be told, I've been laughing aloud from pure joy at hearing so much restrained violence. Violence is the word, and restrained is the word. There are no endless solos on this album, the longest piece is ten minutes, but most tracks are relatively compact, ten of them for not even 40 minutes of music. And on top of it all, all these tracks, which are so lyrical in essence, come from the Masada songbook, with klezmer scales to start with, but in no way comparable to the other "Books of Angels", this is more in the realm of the Fallen Angels, dark and cruel. And the success of the album is to the credit of the trio itself, not only to Ribot, also Dunn and Weston are astonishing, for their speed of execution, the tight interplay, the unrelenting hard-hitting energy. Amazing, a true musical statement, instrumental madness to the extreme, while remaining melodic, lyrical and rhythmic. Truly amazing.

Listen to sound samples (poor quality, though)

Yezriel
Cabriel
Zakun
Dagiel
Mufgar

Ilmillieki - Take It With Me (Tum Records, 2006) ***½

"Take It With Me" is the second album by the Finish band Ilmillieki, which consists of Verneri Pohjola (tp), Tuomo Prättälä (p), Antti Lötjönen (b), Olavi Louhivuori (dr). Their music is calm, restrained, with creative angles built on well structured forms leaving lots of room for free improvization, holding the middle between jazz and romantic classicism, and it that respect it made me think at times of the Lemon Juice Quartet. This music will not make you dance, but that's definitely not the purpose. The title track "Take It With Me" is based on a song by Tom Waits, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Porcelain" gets covered as well as Suzanne Vega's"My Favorite Plum". But don't get fooled by this, this band's music is far away from the approach taken by The Bad Plus and some of its followers who cover rock songs in a jazzy fashion, no, this band is much too authentic for that, their endeavors entirely genuine, striving for true artistic expression rather than entertainment. And, in all honesty, I think that their own compositions are superior to the ones they cover. Recommended for those who like subdued freedom.

Listen to fragments on MySpace

8 Bold Souls - Sideshow (Arabesque, 1992) *****

Review from my list of the albums that I find absolutely terrific, even if not very recent.

8 Bold Souls is the band lead by Ed Wilkerson, and which is characterized by the deep sound of the horn section and the fascinating mix between heavily orchestrated and structured pieces, combined with very free improvizations. The emotional and musical power of this 8-strong ensemble is relatively unique and very recognizable. The band consists of Ed Wilkerson Jr - tenor, alto and bass saxophone, clarinet and alto clarinet; Mwata Bowden - clarinet, baritone, and tenor; Robert Griffin - trumpet and flugelhorn; Isaiah Jackson - trombone; Aaron Dodd - tuba; Naomi Millender - Cello; Harrison Bankhead - bass, and Dushun Mosley - drums and percussion. Just listen to the beginning of "Black Herman" in the sound sample below and you will get an idea of the dark, deep-toned menace the horn section can create, supported initially by a very sparse bass-line and ditto drums, changing the tempo after about five minutes, and then the band starts in full swing, with great solo pieces from all the musicians, including cello and bass. This album brings us also one of the best versions of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman", starting with a long, heart-breaking and piercing duet between arco bass and cello, wonderfully emphasizing the absolute sadness of a crushing loneliness, even more fully accentuated when the horns start with the well-known theme. Only this track by itself justifies the purchase of this album. This music is not changing music history, but it brings a great synthesis of orchestra music, free jazz and bop. Creative and very expressive.

Listen to sound samples (albeit too short for the average duration of 10 to 15 minutes)

Black Herman
Glass Breakers
Lonely Woman
Sideshow
Light On The Path

IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD : BELGIAN FEMALE PIANO PLAYERS

(for Nathalie)

The two best mainstream/world jazz CDs ever made by Belgian female pianists have much in common. And believe me, both albums are of world class level. They have a common approach in their search for absolute perfection in the combination of strong compositions with emotional power and instrumental virtuosity. Furthermore, both albums display an openness to the world which is characteristic and probably a prerequisite for obtaining these results. Myriam Alter is of judeo-spanish origin (sephardic) and was educated in an environment where Spanish, Italian, South-American and classical music were part of the daily environment. And Nathalie Loriers creates a band consisting of musicians of Italian, Yugoslavian-Jordanian, French-Algerian and Belgian origin. Belgium, the melting pot of the world ...

Myriam Alter - If (Enja Records, 2003) *****


This album offers an astonishginly sustained melodic beauty, elegance and precision of phrasing, rhythmic refinement, ... in sum, brilliant. This is mainstream jazz at its best : recognizable yet creative, emotional without being overpowering, intimistic with musical vision. One of the most surprising aspects of the album is that the classically trained pianist has replaced herself on her own album by another pianist, Kenny Werner. According to her, he is a better piano-player and she a better composer, and yet that doesn't really convince me, although the result is succesful in any case. The other musicians are also among the best : Dino Saluzzi on bandoneon, John Ruocco on clarinet, and the Masada rhythm section : Greg Cohen on bass and Joey Baron on drums. This ensemble brings the musical equivalent of a Belgian chocolate : high quality ingredients, it melts in the mouth, and it is very sweet but with a powerful, solid taste, the result of a crafty and virtuose process. And once you've eaten it, you just want more of it. Yet the most important difference here is that here it is the listener who completely melts inside, because of the heart-warming nature of the music. Sure, this album is miles away from free jazz, and I apologize for it, but I also have my sentimental side which appreciates top level mainstream jazz. And this album definitely fits into that category. Esthetic, refined, elegant, emotional, light, ...

Listen to sound samples

Waking Up
Home
IfI Think Of It
Moving Somewhere
Where You Belong

Nathalie Loriers Chemins Croisés - L'Arbre Pleure (De Werf, 2006) ****



Another Belgian album, "L'Arbre Pleure", that almost equals the quality of Myriam Alter's "If", comes from the Belgian piano-player Nathalie Loriers and her band Chemins Croisés ("crossroads"), with Gianluigi Trovesi on clarinet, Karim Baggili on oud, Philipppe Aerts on bass and Joël Allouche on drums. The line-up of the band and its name already indicate that many influences will be at work in the music : European, Arabian and American (jazz, you know). The comparison with Alter is a valid one, in the sense that the compositions are strong, the musicians (and then especially Trovesi and Loriers) excellent, with a very strong musical unity and emotional tension underpinning the whole album. The tone is not as melancholic as Myriam Alter's "If", and once in a while some joy seeps through, as in "A Pas Feutrés" (referring to her cat?) or "Mister Lee". The nice thing about this album is that the natural evidence of the melodies and the interplay hide the compositional and rhythmic complexities beneath, and indeed you should not notice these as a listener, you should just undergo it and enjoy it. And that's the only word I can think of for you : enjoy it. Excellent!

Listen to Sound Samples :

Kalila Et Dimna
L'Arbre Pleure
L'Auberge Des Femmes

Roscoe Mitchell Trio - No Side Effects (Rogue Art, 2006) ***

Roscoe Mitchell is of course one of the figureheads of free jazz, a long time member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and nowadays productive in smaller settings, duets and trios. On this double CD he is accompanied by Harrison Bankhead (bass, cello) and Vincent Davis (drums) , to bring 24 compositions varying between 2 and 14 minutes. The trio improvizes along structural patterns, and the interplay and technical skills of the three musicians, and then especially Mitchell himself, are excellent. And yet, ...yet ... to me one of the essential ingredients for good music is lacking : soul! The whole album sounds very thought-through, well-conceived, but where is the anguish, the pain, the sadness, the joy, the pleasure of playing music? Once in a while all hell breaks loose, such as in the long "Parched Plains" or "Enfold" or"Shake Up", but otherwise this CD sounds very restrained and composed, and comes in my opinion close to modern classical music, sometimes esthetically beautiful, and creatively interesing. And yet ... Emotions, Roscoe, emotions ...

Brian Groder - Torque (Latham, 2006) *****

It takes courage to do this, asking the Sam Rivers Trio to bring out a CD together, and it sounds a little bit like you're asking to become the fifth wheel on a car. For those who don't know : Sam Rivers has played all kinds of jazz in his 83-year long life, but has especially brightened the free jazz and avant-garde subgenres with his powerful tenor for many decades. And yes, Brian Groder managed to create a jewel of an album with Sam Rivers and his rhythm section : Doug Mathews on bass and Anthony Cole on drums. Brian Groder is a New York trumpet and flugelhorn player who makes music here like he's been touring with the band for many years, yet even more importantly, he also manages to create a common language which holds the middle between free, avant-garde and bop. With the exception of the rare unisono themes between sax and trumpet, this album consists of a very melodious discovery of interplay and sound color, with lots of space for improvization. The album consists of pieces with the full band, but also of duets, starting with Cole ("Spellcast"), with Rivers alone (on flute "Behind The Shadows", or sax "Camouflage"), and of course also with the bass ("Iota", "Jingo"). The album ends with a duet of trumpet and drums. And regardless of the line-up changes, the music is absolutely fantastic, and will entrance both freejazzers and mainstreamers alike, by the absolute musical freedom, openness and vision on the one hand, and because of the accessible sensitivity, and the melodic and rhythmic feeling on the other. Groder is obviously the musical center of the album, yet the intensity and depth that is brought here should be credited to the whole band. And probably the most stunning aspect of it all is that Sam Rivers goes along with Groder throughout, as if he's become the alter ego of the trumpeter, but then on sax. The veteran's skills, empathy and musical understanding are astonishing. Everything on this album is a success. A real must!

Listen to sound samples :
Spellcast
Betwixt
Diverging Orbits
Involution
Tragic Magic
Behind The Shadows, Part II
Iota
Oculus

Ulrich Drechsler - Humans & Places (Cracked Anegg, 2006) ****

Allaboutjazz introduces the album with the following sentence "Ulrich Drechsler asks and answers the question: how can the saddest music in the world be delivered with so much hope?" and I think that couldn't be more accurate. This is mainstream jazz with an open mind, and Drechsler makes something unique out of his debut album. His bass clarinet indeed touches upon the extremes of human emotions, between sadness and hope, between melancholia and joy. Again, I will take Myriam Alter's album "If" as a reference : a chamber-like atmosphere, a lightness of touch, carefully crafted compositions, excellent interplay, beautiful melodies, a sense of fragility throughout, and a sadness, sadness, sadness, .... just listen to "For Andy", or "Graceful Touch", "OSK", it will make you break to pieces when listening to it. This is jazz with an interesting mix of European urban folk or street music with an American blues feeling, very much in the vain of Gianluigi Trovesi or Tomasz Stanko. The band members are truly excellent, with Tord Gustavsen on piano, Oliver Steger on bass, Jörg Mikula on drums and Peter Ponger on piano on two tracks. Great music.

Listen to some sound samples

For Andy, Dedicated To Desi
Soulmates
Graceful Touch
O-S-K
First Step

Ravish Momin's Trio Tarana - Miren (Clean Feed, 2007) ****

Percussionist Ravish Momin comes with a new Tarana Trio : Jason Kao Hwang has been replaced on violin by viool Sam Bardfeld, and Brandon Terzic replaces Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz on oud. This change gives the music a totally different color, despite the fact that the same instruments are used. Just like on "Climbing The Banyan Tree", the rhythms and rhythm changes are at the center of gravitation, but just a notch more intense than before. Momin's approach to music is hard to define, world music influences dominate, and then especially Indian rhythms and Middle-Eastern sound flavors, yet sometimes the melody lines are closer to European folk, but the real power of this music are the long improvizations which are definitely jazz-oriented. Bardfeld's violin sounds less abstract, less varied than what Hwang brought, but it's a little more hypnotic, basically because he's not afraid to bring repetitive themes, in which he approaches the same notes with a different intensity, and that doesn't miss its effect on the listener. The oud is also more prominent, because for Blumenkranz bass was his first instrument, and the oud was only used sporadically. And Terzic is good, even if it sounds at times ungrateful to play an instrument with limited natural volume against the hard driving drumkit, like in the title piece. The oud really shines when it can play solo, like at the intro of "What Reward" or when it's just accompanied by light percussion as on "Tehra" or "Fiza". This is a great CD, with strong emotional power and tension, and one that is easy to recommend to anyone interested in the combination of free jazz and world music.

Downloadable from http://www.emusic.com/

Listen to sound samples

Tehra
Fiza
Ragalia
Miren
What Reward?
Fiza

Martin Speicher - Shapes & Shadows (Clean Feed, 2007) ****

Freejazzers, rejoice! Here is a sublime sax trio. Martin Speicher (sax and clarinet), Georg Wolf (bass) and Lou Grassi (drums), bring some top level free improvization. I only knew Grassi from his great Avanti Galoppi album, and the other two musicians are unknown to me, and that's unfortunate, because what they bring on this album is really very strong. The three musicians listen well and carefully to each other, they search for new expressive power, and they find it, bringing lots of variation, even within the same piece, sometimes intense and forward moving, then slow, sensitive, melancholic. Speicher has a warm tone, even in the most hard-blowing moments, Wolf offers nice telepathic interaction, and Lou Grassi keeps propulsing the band forward with excellent drum work. The album starts very promising with "Please, Confirm", in a lightly dancing mode with loose tones, which evolves into a high and sustained powerplay, just to end with reference to the beginning. "Le Star" brings slow searching sounds, with Speicher looking for the high notes of his sax, eery, sad and powerful. "Claire's Net" begins dissonant and abstract, with Speicher on bass clarinet and Wolf on arco bass, and although it would be too much to say that something like a melody is created, it is a wonderful experience to notice how out of this loose cluster of notes a musical unity evolves which is hard to define, yet which is unmistakably there. And that just characterizes the whole album. Strong discipline and self-control, together with a common focus on exploration in the creation of their musical vision permeate all tracks, and the result is more than worth listening to. The title song brings an excellent close to the album, with Speicher again on bass clarinet, and it is without a doubt the highlight of the album, ending in sad howling tones, the likes of which you will not have heard before. Don't expect fixed melodies or rhythms, but what you get is a creative, intense and impactful modern jazz.

Downloadbaar via http://www.emusic.com/.

Uri Caine Ensemble Plays Mozart (Winter & Winter, 2007) ***(*)

When in secondary school, we had a demonstration afternoon by a classically trained pianist, who took any suggestion from the hall of students : a popular melody, Strawberry Fields Forever, or even the national anthem, and he would play these in the style of Mozart, Beethoven, The Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis or Thelonious Monk, and it was fun listening to his skills. That's the kind of feeling I have when listening to Uri Caine's attack on Mozart. Caine is a great piano-player and also a master in arragements, and he demonstrates this again with every new album. The other musicians are also among the best you can find: Chris Speed (cl), Drew Gress (b), Jim Black (d), Nguyen Le (g), Ralph Alessi (tr) en Joyce Hamman (v). From what I hear, Black and Nguyen Le are the only ones without classical schooling, and the other players are more than proficient in it. Caine offers us Mozart's best known piano and opera pieces, and he brings those in a partly classical mode, partly in a totally different form (jazzy, free, chaotic, Turkish, ...). My main comment is that he does nothing of real value with it, the two kinds of music remain side-by-side. This is spielerei, delivering high level circus tricks, but no art. Well played, well done. But what do I have to think of this? Of course Mozart's tunes are great, and the Uri Caine Ensemble does nice and interesting things with it. But so what? And yet I enjoy this. It's fun without depth. It's skilled entertainment without emotional load. No art, but nice. What the hell do I have to think of this???

Henry Kaiser - Invite The Spirit & Invite The Spirit 2006 - ***

Henry Kaiser is hard to pigeon-hole: rock guitarist, jazz guitarist, experimental guitarist, but on these albums he goes zen with San Won Park on kayagum, a Korean 12-string zither, and with Charles K. Noyes on percussion. I know nothing about Asian music, and to be honest I have to admit that I thoroughly dislike Chinese music and the Japanese music you sometimes hear in movies. I can hence impossibly assess for each track whether this music is authentic or experimental all the way. Ok, you can hear the electric guitar, often distorted, but what San Won Park plays sounds often more experimental than what Kaiser does. Whatever it may be, this music is beautiful, and has the effect of Japanese drawings : a few precise pen-strokes on a white sheet say more than a page full of lines and colors without refinement. Less is more. And indeed, this music is nothing more than strings being plucked, with lots of space in between, once in a while with a light touch of melody, but never fully developed (don't expect to be whistling along after a while). At times utterly bizar, you will also have to get used to the singing, but once you're "in" the music, this is something to be enjoyed. The first album dates from 1983 (Celluloid), and now Invite The Spirit 2006 is out on Tzadik.

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Between Nothingness & Eternity - ****

When reading reviews about the Mahavishnu Orchestra, this would be one of the lesser albums according to the critics, their "death rattle", with "bad sound quality", "unsophisticated compared to the studio albums", that kind of bull shit. Well, critics, listen again to this album. Get up from your lazy chairs and now really listen to this album. This is music with the energy and power for which you had been waiting in vain in all the other Mahavishnu albums. All - and I choose my words carefully - all other Mahavishnu albums belong to the realm of Kitsch with a capital K, as I already wrote earlier, but this is the real deal. The studio has been the death of Mahavishnu, because McLaughlin could not possibly control himself and created horrors of intricacy, just like a housewife would add statuettes, picture frames and flower pots on the mantel piece, just to keep filling all this empty space, without any sense of esthetics or restraint. But this one is different. It is hard, it is sober, it is real. There are solos here at speeds that you can't fathom, and not only by McLaughlin, but by all musicians : Jerry Goodman, Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Rick Laird, and the sublime thing is that this speed, this mad rage of note-crunching just does not stop, this is over forty minutes of a high speed train trip through the universe, thundering across the galaxies, shooting past everything and its grandmother. And the music? Forget about the music, that's not the point. Listen to these musicians, how they transform energy into sound, hard-hitting, fast, faster, fastest, with once in a while a slower piece just for the sake of tension. I wish I had been there, that evening in Central Park. Luckily the thing was recorded. Fly along!

Jerry Granelli - Sonic Temple (Songlines, 2007) ***

I don't quite know how to describe the music of Jerry Granelli's V 16. Free rock seems to be the best description. The line-up itself is already atypical for jazz : two electric guitars, electric bass and drums. Father Jerry plays drums, son J. Anthony plays bass, Christian Kögel and David Tronzo play guitar, and with the exception of son J.A. this is the same band as the V16 Project of some years ago, an album which was slightly more interesting than this one.

David Tronzo is probably the best known musician on this album, because of his collaborations with Sex Mob, the Lounge Lizards, Slow Poke and Michael Blake. This double album brings two live versions of the same set, recorded on two consecutive days. The songs and the sequence are identical on both discs. This is interesting for those interested in identifying the differences between prepared parts and improvization. The music is not earth-shocking, but quiet, spacy, creative improv bringing an interesting new sound to modern jazz. The best song is "Old Neighborhood", and kudos to 67-year old Jerry for his self-effacing yet effective presence on the album. Even "It's A Man's World" is on the album, in a more than enjoyable version. But the whole is a little bit to nice to my taste.

The CD can be downloaded via http://www.emusic.com/.

Listen to sound samples :

Riddim
Rock Thong
This Is A Man's World
The Ballad Of El Leo Nora

Spaceways Inc. - Version Sould (Atavistic, 2002) *****

Anyone who would slide this CD in his player and NOT start dancing, must have icecold blood flowing through his veins. Spaceways Inc. is one of Ken Vandermark's many bands, this time on baritone saxophone, with Nate McBride on bass and Hamid Drake on drums. This band is inspired by the music of Sun Ra and Funkadelic at the same time and combines their relatively remote musical visions, but they bring it with incredible enthusiasm and respect. If you like rhythms, then listen to this album. If you love great interplay, then buy this album. If you enjoy free improv on fixed themes, then look no further. Do you like music with real soul? Then put his album in your set. Do you like emotional expressive power? This is your thing. Do you like pure esthetic beauty? I could go on and on about this album. I do not know many musical pieces where rythmic joy and interplay have been tilted to such a high qualitative level. And the power of it, also from the funk and reggae you will find here, is the music that isn't played, it's the drum beat that it isn't hit, it's about the tension in the fraction of a second when the music stops and then starts again full blast. Drake, McBride and Vandermark seem to have found their natural habitat on this album. Already from the first track "Back Of A Cab", you hear that special things are about to happen : the pumping electric bass of McBride, the economical and precise drumming of Drake, and then the deep soft tones of the baritone that suddenly starts, delving into the depths of the instrument to extract the most bluesy sounds possible. And it all sounds so magnificently simple, while it is definitely not. Few are those who can handle this level of complexity, but you just don't notice it. You just hear great music. Less is more, and how much more. And you've got it all here : quieter pieces, ("Reasonable Hour"), greasy funkers ("Size Large"), subdued free jazz ("Rothko Sideways"), some hard-blowing free jaz ("Force At A Distance"). Less is more, and how much more!

Quick reviews

Ras Moshe - Transcendence (KMB Jazz, 2007) ***

Ras Moshe is a New York free jazz saxophonist. He had already released some albums on the Utech label of doubtful sound quality. This release is much better recorded and offers the quality the music deserves. With Dave Ross on guitar, Shayna Dulberger on bass and veteran Rashid Bakr on drums. Moshe is a powerful sax player, the music itself belongs to the post-bop and free-bop subgenres. Intense pieces alternate with softer ones.

Scott Fields Ensemble - Beckett (Clean Feed, 2007) ***


One more ode to the Irish absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett, with Scott Fields on guitar, John Hollenbeck on drums, Scott Roller on cello, Matthias Schubert on tenor sax. The CD offers an interesting musical expression of Beckett's theater, with instruments communicating along different lines, with lots of open space, not always an obvious sense of direction, lots of creatieve angles. The album requires quite some effort from the listener because newly introduced melodies suddenly stop or are replaced by new ones. At moments sad ("Come and Go"), or chaotic ("What Where"), or even funny ("Rockabye"), this album is more than worth listening to.

Nels Cline Singers - Draw Breath (Cryptogramophone, 2007) ****

I'm always amazed to see that on the release date of an album, it can already be downloaded via Emusic.com, at a fraction of the price it costs in the store. I assume that the record companies see their benefit in this, otherwise they wouldn't do it. And for the music lover this is a pure joy, especially if he or she doesn't live in the US, because the availability of albums in Europe or elsewhere in the world is not always within the next months, sometimes a year, if at all. So this album is one of those that were immediately available, like many others in my collection.

Nels Cline does not need much introduction anymore : he is the guitarist of the popular Chicago rock band Wilco, but next to that he has already published an extensive list of albums, some with his brother Alex Cline on drums, and one underrated album with Greg Bendian : an ode to John Coltrane's Interstellar Space.

On this album he plays with his band The Nels Cline Singers, although there are no vocals: with Devin Hoff on bass and Scott Amendola on drums. This is a modern jazz guitar trio, with quite some rock influences, and the trio plays it real hard at times. The music is straight-ahead, stripped of all arrangements or studio sophistication, and without falling into the trap of the needlessly long masturbatory guitar soloing of the less mature player. No, this is music with vision, with creative compositions. The CD starts very slowly with the menacing "Caved-in Heart Blues", with soft harmonic guitar strumming only accompanied by the bass drum, half-way the track the acoustic bass joins, then acoustic guitar, and then, from very far out of the depths comes a scorching blues guitar solo, with reverb and chamber buttons fully opened, while the bass plays arco and electronic noises come and go. Guitar trio? Indeed, but with overdub and electronics when needed. But that's about all the melancholy on the album. The second piece starts with chasing, nervous, jazzy guitar, with counter-rhythms from bass and drums. Cline is inventive, surprising and he never falls back in automatisms. The third piece is a real rock song without vocals, but then it fades away to leave the room for an arco bass solo from Hoff, again to be replaced by a burning hard rock solo, for which many a heavy metal fan would take out his air guitar, but Cline wouldn't be Cline if he didn't stop this whole thing abruptly for some soft finger-picking, just to come back full gusto with the whole band. The whole thing is not just hard stuff, there are also some dissonant avant pieces, without rhythm or melody, there is some real fusion, some soft guitar pieces, all genres are thrown in the mix. And they play it all well, smartly and with joy, and more importantly, it all fits their musical concept. Recommended.

Luister naar representatieve sound samples

Caved-in Heart Blues
Attempted
Confection
An Evening At Pop's