The Free Jazz Collective: January 2008

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thing - Thing (Re-Release, 2007) ****

"ReRelease.net" is a label with a mission : to re-release free and avant jazz albums that are no longer available, and to distribute them in a digital format only. In their own words "We painstakingly discover old gems, then locate artists, master the recordings to high standards, and write liner notes to tell the story. We embrace the future by investing in the past". That means a nice selection from the start and music destined for afficionados of the genre. "Thing", saxophonist Arni Cheatham's Boston area band in those days (he now plays with Aardvark Orchestra), brings an imitation of Miles Davis early 70s period, high energy music, funky, cosmic and nervous. This live performance dates from a concert in Cambridge, MA in 1972. The band further consist of Will Letman on trumpet, Vagn Leick on electric piano, David Saltman on electric bass, Kiah Nowlin on Drums, Dorian McGee on congas, and Bob O’Connell on guitar (on “Sketch”). Although obviously the musicians are not in the same league as the electric Miles band of that period, what they bring is exceptionally good, both in terms of overall playing, but certainly in the outright genuine, emotional and straightforward approach to their material. It is great from beginning to end, and very Miles-like even up to the little details, the long percussion driven hypnotic passages alternating with softer meditative moments, ... and with an audience that appreciates what it hears. Great to have re-released this album.

You can listen and donwload from iTunes.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Sam Newsome - Monk Abstractions (SomeNewMusic, 2007) ***½

Sam Newsome certainly is an excellent soprano saxophonist, but his take on some of Thelonious Monk's more known compositions, also is more than a little ambitious. Ambitious in the sense that it's already a challenge in itself to fill an entire album with unaccompanied sax, but to use this restriction to bring a tribute to Monk, is setting not only limitations, but also adding real high hurdles. And Newsome has technical skills, and they're a real pleasure to listen to, but to me it just doesn't always mix with Monk's music, which is all about melody, harmony and rhythm pushed into a unique envelope, rich and soulful, which once transformed by Newsome's sax sound too distant, cerebral and cold, with too much focus on the instrument instead of the music itself. Despite the music's intrinsic qualities, like musical drive, playfulness, even fun and joy, nothing much of it transpires here (listen to Ben Goldberg's tribute to notice the difference). Sure, there are some fun things, as his tongue-slapping percussive alternation with the more melodic blowing of the tune in "Rhytm-a-ning". And his "Misterioso" is great too, with circular breathing, percussive sounds and even classical flights. On the other hand, he does not give us the richness and creative angle of other solo saxophonists like Evan Parker or Steve Lacy, because the focus is too much on the skills, often too self-conscously. The technique is all there, and for sax-players there will be a lot to enjoy and learn, yet the musical project suffers from it, with a few exceptions, like the real winner of the album, "Ugly Beauty", which gets a tentative, deeply emotional rendition. If the whole record had been like this song, it would have been a major success.

Listen, buy or download from CDBaby.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Lonely Woman - 8 Femmes Seules (Minium Label, 2007) ****

Last year, the Minium Label came out with a series of CDs with the brilliant idea to ask all of the individual musicians to play a cover of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman", which is in my humble view still one of the most beautiful and complete jazz pieces every written. The CD itself can only be obtained if you return a flyer which is in all the other CDs, which is a nice marketing trick. Therefore I exceptionally share this link with the full CD which I found on someone else's blog.

The musicians are :
1. Stephan Oliva & Suzanne Abbuehl (piano + vocals)
2. Marc Copland & Bill Carrothers (two pianos)
3. Stephan Oliva & Joey Baron (piano + drums)
4. Bruno Angelini - Lonely Woman (piano)
5. Stephan Oliva & Claude Tchamitchian (piano + arco bass)
6. Stephan Oliva & Jean-Marc Foltz (piano + clarinet)
7. Giovanni Mirabassi (piano)
8. Stephan Oliva & Linda Sharrock (piano + vocals)
9. René Urtreger - L'échafaud (piano)

Only René Urtreger covers the Miles Davis tune L'échafaud. As you see the CD is very much a piano album, but a great one, more mainstream than free but the tracks with Tchamitchian and Foltz make up for this.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Jacob Sacks, Eivind Opsvik, Mat Maneri, Paul Motian - Two Miles A Day (Loyal Label, 2007) ****

Two young and talented musicians, pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Eivind Opsvik talk about with whom of all the living jazz greats, they would like to play, and the unanimous answer is Paul Motian. And lo-and-behold, a while later they are locked up in a studio with the master, joined by Mat Maneri on violin and viola, and six hours later this recording has become a reality. And the speed clearly had a positive effect on the end result. On 11 tracks the four musicians bring out the best they can in terms of intensive playing, mining their respective and common musical idioms, from bop over latin influences to more abstract and free pieces. Some of the tracks had been composed before by Sacks and Opsvik, but not all. The title track is one of my favorites on this album, because it exemplifies Motian's concept of implicit rhythm, playing around it, accentuating it, rather than emphasizing it. And the other musician's follow suit, which makes the music the equivalent of an impressionist painting, shades and coloring which still draw a picture, but leaning toward the abstract. But other tracks are closer to mainstream, melodic, rhythmic and accessible, with Maneri's odd microtonal viola adding subtle emotional touches and out-of-this-world sounds. Light, deep, open-minded and rich music by four excellent and inspired musicians.

Listen to or buy from CDBaby.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Gwincinski-Richter-Skolik - Jupiter Urizen Wernyhora Trungpa (Not Two, 1998) ****

This is an amazing album, which is now available for download on several sites. It's a kind of guitar jazz instrumental music, reminiscent of Pink Floyd in the early post-Barrett period, with long, spacious and rhythmic relatively simple structures full of intrinsic tension and high quality instrumental touches and sounds, creating an eery, gloomy, hypnotic atmosphere. Jazz would not be a correct qualifier, but neither are rock nor fusion. The overall result is highly unusual, compelling and entrancing. With Tomasz Gwinciński on guitar and banjo, Loco Richter on bass guitar and B-3 organ, Arkadiusz Skolik on drums, xylophone, and with on some tracks Renata Suchodolska on cello and Tomasz Mucha on violin. This music is not about instrumental prowess, or clever harmonic development, rhythmic subtleties, or even about melody : it's all about atmosphere and mood, created over long repetitive rhythms, building a gloomy, sometimes melancholy tension with instrumental accents and shadings. Throughout the album the musicians keep their creative and unique approach to music, even if all tracks are different and by themselves of interest. Hypnotic and entrancing - I find no other words for it.

Listen and buy digitally from AllAboutJazz or Klicktrack

Friday, January 25, 2008

Vandermark 5 - Beat Reader (Atavistic, 2008) ****½

Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm sure adds some spice and change of perspective to the Vandermark 5, a free jazz band with stong roots in the tradition and characterized by Vandermark's broad, soulful and often funky soloing. Those characteristics are still here, but the quintet moves more into avant and free improv territory, with touches of chamber jazz, prog rock and even Hendrix-like sounds, not from a guitar, but from the cello! Variation galore with lots of unexpected twists and turns. Listen to "Signposts", on which both Lonberg-Holm on cello and Kent Kessler on bass create an nervous background frenzy with their bows, while Vandermark and Rempis play slow contained melancholy notes over the madness of the strings, then Tim Daisy breaks the thing open into a high tempo drums duo with the bass clarinet, and then when you think the whole thing will move into a free-bopper, the piece collapses into some slow playing, then picking up speed again with the clarinet going crazy, one beat by Rempis and the whole thing stops for the arco bass to play some chamberlike tune moving into cacophony when the cello and all the other instruments join, suddenly and unexpectedly ending with unisono rhythmic beats by the whole band. "Speedplay" is wonderful free bop, high tempo, high energy, great fun, ending in a few minutes by the cello emulating Hendrix. Not one track has a unity of style or approach, but is broken down in many pieces without loosing coherence. This is probably one of Vandermark's strongest compositional strengths : to structure carefully with strong melodic lines (listen to the beauty of "Any Given Number"), while leaving freedom to act, to integrate many things while creating something new, and all this while maintaing the band's phenomenal drive. It's fierce, it's tender, it's hypnotic. A captivating, surprising, intense album.

Available for download from eMusic.com.

Why free jazz?

True art is about emotions. True music is about emotions. Few musical genres have the power to unleash all emotional reactions, and free jazz is certainly one of the richest.

Happy
Festive
Contented
Relaxed
Calm
Satisfied
Serene
Comfortable
Peaceful
Joyous
Ecstatic
Enthusiastic
Inspired
Glad
Pleased
Grateful
Cheerful
Excited
Cheery
Lighthearted
Buoyant
Carefree
Surprised
Optimistic
Spirited
Vivacious
Brisk
Sparkling
Merry
Generous
Hilarious
Exhilarated
Jolly
Playful
Elated
Jubilant
Thrilled
Restful
Silly
Giddy
Eager
Keen
Earnest
Ardent
Avid
Anxious
Proud
Excited
Desirous
Sad
Sorrowful
Unhappy
Depressed
Melancholy
Gloomy
Somber
Dismal
Heavy-hearted
Quiet
Mournful
Dreadful
Dreary
Flat
Blah
Dull
In the dumps
Sullen
Moody
Sulky
Out of Sorts
Low
Discontented
Discouraged
Disappointed
Concerned
Sympathetic
Resolve
Choked up
Embarrassed
Shameful
Ashamed
Useless
Worthless
Ill at ease
Weepy
Vacant
Hurt
Injured
Isolated
Offended
Distressed
Pained
Suffering
Afflicted
Worried
Crushed
Heartbroken
Cold
Upset
Lonely
Desperate
Tortured
Pathetic
Angry
Compassionate
Resentful
Irritated
Enraged
Furious
Annoyed
Inflamed
Provoked
Sullen
Indignant
Irate
Wrathful
Cross
Sulky
Bitter
Frustrated
Grumpy
Boiling
Fuming
Stubborn
Belligerent
Confused
Awkward
Bewildered
Fearless
Encouraged
Courageous
Confident
Secure
Reassured
Hardy
Proud
Impulsive
Concerned
Fascinated
Engrossed
Intrigued
Absorbed
Excited
Doubtful
Unbelieving
Skeptical
Distrustful
Suspicious
Dubious
Uncertain
Questioning

So, that's quite a lot to express.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Jane Ira Bloom - Mental Weather (Outline, 2008) ***½

I have always liked the music of Jane Ira Bloom, but not too enthusiastically. Her soprano playing is excellent, her use of electronics is adventurous yet controlled, her compositions are creative, melodically and rhytmically more than just interesting, I mean ... it's all there, yet there's something lacking and I can't put my finger on it. Is it not raw enough? Is her music too controlled? Or too cerebral? Or is it too fluid, with insufficient relief (a flowing river rather than cascades or rapids)? This feeling is the same with her new album, which is released in two parts (a digital mp3 version with a continuous performance, and an otherwise identical CD with separate tracks). And it's also not the level of musicianship, which is very high, with Dawn Clement on piano and Fender Rhodes, Mark Helias on bass and Matt Wilson on drums - what a line-up! And Jane Ira Bloom's playing is excellent too, warm, precize, creative. Because it's all so great, post-bop of the highest level, or even at times in a category of her own, I'm sure the problem must reside with me. So, enjoy, because it's good.

Download as 1 track from eMusic.com.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Andrew D'Angelo - Skadra Degis (Skirl Records, 2008) ****½

ANDREW D'ANGELO IS HOSPITALIZED : PLEASE READ THIS TOO

Three big names of modern jazz : Andrew D'Angelo on sax, Trevor Dunn on bass and Jim Black on drums. When I first listened to the CD, a strong memory of the Thomas Chapin trio arose : a powerful sax trio, which often starts tracks with a strong riff-like vamp, as the kick-off for great improvizations, always with a strong sense of melody and rhythm, fierce, hard-hitting yet at times sentimental and romantic : in other words : a weird combination but it works. The three musicians have been working in various fields of jazz, always on the look-out for new adventures, new trials and opportunities to enlargen their own horizon, mixing styles and blending genres, and it's good to hear them in such a straight-ahead trio format, yet the amazing thing is that they kind of integrate the findings from their adventures into rock, avant-garde, balkan and electronic jazz in the acoustic music they bring here. Andrew D'Angelo and Jim Black also play together in Hilmar Jenson's Tyft, and in The Human Feel, with Kurt Rosenwinkel and Chris Speed, but the music is not comparable. The Human Feel brings more composed avant-garde jazz - and I wasn't too impressed with last year's "Galore", but on this record, feeling is much more imporant than form. This album is also miles away from D'Angelo's Scandinavian aggressive hard noise free jazz adventure with the Morthana trio. One of the many qualities of this band is the variation in the compositions. The first track is powerful free bop adventure, the second starts with a strong bass line for four minutes of melodic polyrhythmic joy (with Dunn leading the dance), the third a kind of ballad that goes haywire without loosing focus, the fourth a relentless hard-hitter (with Black in a leading role), followed by the romantic more abstract "Rutloosic", which starts with a great and intense conversation between bass clarinet and arco bass, "Morthana" is built around a joyful boppy tune on alto, while "Boo Be Boo Bee Bee" (great title!) is a dark moody avant piece with long abstract lines and bowed bass evolving into pure madness alternating with an almost classical melody, collapsing into madness again, etc., while "Fichtik" is full of tender sentiment, and "Gay Disco" brings us back to Thomas Chapin territory : a high enery full speed melodic and powerful theme as lead-in for improv, with bass and drum demonstrating what it means to have rhythm! ... This combination of raw energy, melodic themes, musical adventure and emotional expressiveness works well for D'Angelo. He gets the freedom here that he seems to have missed in the past. Great album!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Hélène Labarrière - Les Temps Changent (Emouvance, 2007) ****

Creating musical tension is not an easy task : you need to work on a sense of anticipation from the listener, who enjoys the surprises and contradictions he or she is confronted with, wanting to hear more of it, anxious about how the music is going to evolve, eager to know where it's going to end. And tension is exactly one of the major qualities of the second album by French bass-player Hélène Labarrière. The very first tones of "Soizig", the first track, already suck the listener into this feeling : brushed drum-playing, with rhythmic but asymmetric bass-playing is spiced with eery metallic sounds by guitar and sax. Tension is built, with little flourishes of relief, but not yielding everything. Labarrière is joined by François Corneloup on baritone sax, Hasse Poulsen on guitar and Christophe Marguet on drums. The contradiction is to be found in the tension between the incredible sense of rhythm, often repetitive and hypnotic, over which odd and often abstract unisono melodies are played, making the music inviting yet unfamiliar, forming the basis for controlled improvizations. The four band members are absolutely excellent in the overall unity of style the record brings, switching between soft loaded passages and fierce intense moments with screeching guitar and whailing baritone sax. Corneloup is a great baritone sax player as I mentioned earlier and Hasse Poulsen uses lots of extended techniques on his guitar and litterally with great effect. The only track which does not really quite fit is "Good Boy", bringing a folky melody on the acoustic guitar, a little bit too joyous for the dark mood and complex elaborations on the rest of the album. The title ("times are changing") not only refers to the time in between sounds (rhythmic definition), but also to the fact that because times are changing so fast (real life definition), we should not be deaf to the world and listen carefully, but above all, we should have a sense of urgency in what we have to say and play even more lively. That is what Hélène Labarrière writes about her own music. Let's hope that she walks the talk and doesn't wait another ten years for her next album.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Alphabetical Overview Of All CD Reviews