Something Else!

One Track Mind: Zachary Richard, with Celine Dion, "Acadian Driftwood" (2009)

2009-12-02T16:45:00.008-06:00

NICK DERISO: Both the most French of American musicians, and the other way around, Cajun rock star Zachary Richard makes roots music that couldn't go by any other name.

It is about his heritage, and his people's, in Louisiana and in Canada and back all the way to France. In fact, his newest recording, "Last Kiss," is Richard's first non-French recording in 15 years.

Yet, Richard is brave enough to burst out of that contextualized comfort zone, 35 years after his initial recording sessions for Elektra.

The closer on "Last Kiss," a pure prairie update of Robbie Robertson's "Acadian Driftwood," features big-voiced international hitmaker Celine Dion.

"I'm really proud of it, though it still raises eyebrows," Richard told me. "The point is, it's about the music. She delivered that song with a lot of heart, and a lot of emotion. That's what it's all about."

Theirs is an unusual pairing of pomp and circumstance that connects, as the Lafayette, LA-area native scuffs up her familiar pop sheen with a ram-shackle honesty.

Richard first met Dion when she was just a youthful singing protege at age 14. They've kept in touch over the years, as Richard built a second career selling French-language recordings to huge success in her native country.

"French Canada is a small world; it wasn't long before we crossed paths," Richard said.

Then, last year, Dion invited Richard to play with her during the 400th anniversary celebration of the founding of Quebec. He tossed out a traditional tune with a second-line jazz funeral beat.

"I knew the girl had pipes, but I didn't know how she would do with a blues song," Richard said. "I was taken aback by the ease of which she came into my world."

In the glow of that fizzy moment, Richard invited her to join him in the on-going sessions for "Last Kiss," now out on Artist Garage-Fontana -- without even considering what song the duo might take on.

Richard's wife suggested "Acadian Driftwood," which he had covered ever since it appeared on The Band's 1975 LP "Northern Lights-Southern Cross."

The tune remains a devastating retelling of the racially motivated ousting of the Acadians from Canada. A number of those French-speaking peoples settled in what is now known in the Bayou State as Acadiana, a migration that both performers trace back through their own family tree.

"Celine had never heard it before, but she was very enthusiastic," Richard said. "She has Acadian heritage herself, and connected with the whole notion of the song. It retells the heart of the Acadian story, which is resistance to intolerance and tenacity in the face of great challenge. It spoke to us both."

The result is yet another crossover opportunity for Richard, who founded the first widely known Cajun rock band and has been splintering the door hinges on conventional wisdom ever since.

"I was overcome (after performing at the Quebec celebration), and my heart got out in front of my head," Richard said. "I just asked her to do something. I had no idea what we would do. The results are what you hear. I'm really proud of it."

Purchase: Zachary Richard - Last Kiss

One Track Mind: Phil Upchurch & The Clinton Administration "Flashlight" (2009)

2009-11-30T00:00:00.021-06:00

by Pico

Phil Upchurch is a guitarist I've known about for a long time, from his stint in George Benson's band in the late seventies. Even though he was the rhythm guitarist in a band that was fronted by one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time, Upchurch managed to grab my attention with funky rhythms and clean chording; he always seemed to know just how to play underneath Benson. But Upchurch was already a seasoned vet by the time he joined that super-tight combo whose live performance of "On Broadway" remains the best known version of that well-covered hit song. Upchurch had already been a fixture on the Chicago blues scene, having been the Chess label's house guitarist for a while and a highly demanded sessionist (still is today). He even had a hit instrumental "You Can't Sit Down" in the early sixties and made a string of soul-jazz and funk-jazz albums in the late sixties and seventies. Only Cornell Dupree has had a similarly lengthy legacy as a studio guitar player equally comfortable in blues, soul, funk and jazz.

In a career spanning over fifty years, Upchurch stays busy to this day. One of his more recent projects was as a member of a sort of Parliament/Funkadelic tribute band The Clinton Administration. I say "sort of" because the band roster do more than play tribute, they deliver instrumental versions of P-Funk songs that give the originals a run for the money. Started up by kebyboardist Robert Walter, only he and percussionist Chuck Prada have been the only permanent members of this funk collective (which moved on to covering Sly Stone songs for their next album), but for the first album One Nation Under a Re-Groove (2003), the roster list is an impressive list of in-the-pocket players both old school and new: Walter, Prada, Skerik (sax), DJ Logic (turntables, electronics), Clyde Stubblefield (drums), Melvin Gibbs (bass) and Upchurch.

While this record is already six years old, it comes to attention again as a track from it has been included in a new Magna Carta Records' compilation album Jam On Guitars, a collection of some fine individual guitar performances in the broadly-defined "jam band" arena. To me, the standout track is The Clinton Administration's "Flashlight" and Upchurch's deeds on it.

"Flashlight" was #1 R&B hit in early 1977 for Parliament, and was unforgettable for its campy chants and Bernie Worrell's synth-bass line that defied anyone to stay on the sidelines of a dancefloor (no one could). The Clinton Administration does the song justice as Skerik's heavily echoplexed sax and DJ Logic's effects give the song the party atmosphere that the vocals on the original gave, and Defunkt and Rollins Band bass player Gibbs locks down the low line like a champ. But the old pro Upchurch rises to the occassion, too. He digs deep into his mammoth bag of tricks and tosses out spacey wah-wah rhythms, jazzy octaves, and blues runs that have influenced generations of budding axe players who have listened to his handiwork on thousands of recordings covering half a century.

As I came to understand later on and am reminded of again with this rendition of "Flashlight," Phil Upchurch could play second guitar to George Benson but he's really second to no one else.

Purchase: Various Artists - Jam On Guitars

Quickies: Four More From Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records

2009-11-28T00:00:00.046-06:00

by Pico

Last year we spotlighted a trio of CD's that made up the maiden releases by a new record label, the artist-run collective Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records. A year later last June, there were three more BJU records to examine. And here we are less than six months after that, and there are now four more new releases by this fast-emerging startup record company.

Talk about getting up to speed.

As before, this quartet of records are by artists who are up-and-comers with independent streaks. They may be at the front end of their careers, but have already forged their own path and are doing it their way. They have done the woodshedding, so being unconventional doesn't become synonymous with being incompetent. Beyond those characteristics, there's not much else in common among these four idiosyncratic acts.

Speaking of "acts"...

ACT Act

ACT is a collaboration of some sought-after multi-instrumentalists: saxophonist/basoonist Ben Wendel (Ignacio Berroa, Snoop Dogg), bass player Harish Raghavan (Mark Turner, Aaron Parks, Vijay Iyer), and drummer Nate Wood (Chaka Khan, Wayne Krantz, Taylor Eigsti). ACT provides outlet for the three to stretch out in a trio format.

Wendel ponied up half of the eight compositions, Raghavan tossed in a couple more, and two more are covers. The songs are all in the post-bop arena, although a few of them push the boundaries, like the hot "News," the angular "Act" and an inspired version of Sonny Rollins' old classic "Pentup House." Raghaven's poetic acoustic bass brings Elvis Costello's "Shamed Into Love" to life, and Wood's restless kit work propel Raghavan's composition "Title."

Although the trio just got down to business and played when the tape rolled, not all the tracks were recorded straight up live; Wendel dubs in his bassoon and a piano to bolster the harmony on "What Was," while his alto sax cascades and caresses the notes. Wendel also adds bassoon accents to his sax lead on "Oldworld," a pensive piece where all three are contributing equally well. Act makes a fine showcase for the talents of the three members, who are all secure enough in their own abilities to not turn this into a overblown wailing session, even though the chordless format offers the temptation to do so. They get the job done with well-conceived songs, arrangements and playing with a innate sense of what sounds right, not of what sounds difficult. It makes their self-titled record an easier listen than most sax-bass-drum records.

Purchase: ACT - Act

Andy Cotton Last Stand At The Havemeyer Ranch

Andy Cotton is a bassist who can compose, produce and lead a band. All of those skills come in handy for the making of Last Stand At The Havemeyer Ranch, an undertaking involving sixteen musicians that took on the spirit of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sessions. That is to say, let the tape roll, the musicians play, and sort it all out later in the mixing and editing stages.

It's a devil-may-care approach that almost guarantees unpredictable results. In the case of Havemeyer Ranch, those results are mixed. When the record changes up and combines styles, it works, from the shuffling acid-jazz vibe of "Redux" to an Appalachian flavor for "Ouagadougou." On the other hand, sometimes-monotonous reggae grooves make up four of the six tunes. A promising soul number "Don't Let It Get To You" with some really good lead vocals supplied by Chauncey Yearwood inexplicitly cuts off at the 2:15 mark, just as the song was getting going. Still, you gotta like Cotton's moxie.

Cotton the bass player doesn't really come to the fore until the last number, a sweetly swaying country-jazz piece "Macallan's Waltz," displaying the discernment of a bassist who has once studied under Reggie Workman. So Last Stand At The Havemeyer Ranch might be a bit of a mixed bag, but if for those with a penchant for reggae and like it with a generous smattering of other idioms on the side, this record should work.

Purchase: Andy Cotton - Last Stand At The Havemeyer Ranch

Rob Garcia 4 Perennial

Rob Garcia is a little bit like Brian Blade in that he's top shelf sideman drummer for some huge names in jazz (Wynton Marsalis, Chris Potter, Joe Lovano, Diana Krall), but when it comes to leading his own ensemble, his composing and band leading comes before his world-class drumming. The Rob Garcia 4 is an advanced bop outfit that includes Dan Tepfer on piano, Noah Preminger on tenor sax and Chris Lightcap on bass. For Garcia's third release Perennial,
all of these guys follow Garcia's vision of jazz that's in the sympathetic service of the songs, all but one written by the leader.

"Joe-Pye Weed" begins the set of ten selections, a light and whimsical tune played in 3/4 time keyed by a snappy sax/piano unison line in the chorus. Later on, Garcia launches into a delicate drum solo and come to think of it, I don't recall many drum solos on waltzes (aside from Joe Morello's inforgettable one on Dave Brubeck's "Take Five"). Nonetheless, this record is more about Garcia's own compositions and his band's intelligent rendering of them. Most stay in the mid-tempo range. "A Flower For Diana" is a seductive mood piece that perhaps best reveals the spiritual depth of Garcia's composing abilities. As the only non-original, the old standby "Cherokee" is reconfigured to sound much like a Rob Garcia song, with a nimble, shuffling 13/8 rhythm underneath.

It's hard to find any fault with Perennial, a well-conceived, well-designed effort that can be appreciated for both the songs and the way they are delivered.

Purchase: Rob Garcia 4 - Perennial

Randy Ingram The Road Ahead

Randy Ingram is a pianist with a foot locker full of achievements, such as the 2007 winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer's award, scholarships to USC and the New England Conservatory, studying under Billy Higgins, Joe LaBarbera, Danilo Perez, and performing with Joel Frahm, Ben Monder and Kendrick Scott. Armed with these credentials, Ingram came well prepared into the studio last spring to record his first album, The Road Ahead, bringing along with him Matt Clohesy (bass), Jochen Rueckert (drums) and John Ellis (tenor and soprano saxophones).

With a piano/bass/sax/drums combination, advanced compositions and mostly subdued tempos, the resulting The Road Ahead shares much of the same appeal as Rob Garcia 4's Perennial album just mentioned above. But Ingram's love of major rock bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin seeps into his consciousness when composing, even covering a Beatles song "For No One" but rearranging it in such a way that he makes it completely his own. The opener "Rock Song #3" was inspired by Zep, and although it's much jazzier than anything that band had ever attempted, the building chorus at the end projects all the energy of a hard rock group, especially Rueckert's voluminous drumming. "Dream Song" is a lyrical, blues-inflected song that is clearly influenced by Ingram's deep appreciation for the unique harmonic structure of Wayne Shorter tunes. Ingram's vast interpretive skills comes to the fore again in the last track, Thelonius Monk's "Think Of One," remaking it into a very modern-sounding song.

Fred Hersch, one of the top dogs among jazz pianists today (and another heavyweight Ingram has studied with), states that Ingram "plays with finesse, thoughtfulness and passion." After listening to the solidThe Road Ahead, it would be impossible to conclude any differently.

Purchase: Randy Ingram - The Road Ahead

One Track Mind: ZZ Top "I Thank You" (1979)

2009-11-26T00:00:00.021-06:00

by Pico

There's plenty of Christmas rock songs out there, but I'm struggling to think of any Thanksgiving-themed songs. Heck, a year ago we were even able to showcase a song about the day after Thanksgiving (well, sort of). But if you expand the definition of a Thanksgiving-themed song to include any song that gives thanks, well then, the search for that right tune for the occasion gets a little easier. Which means, Turkey Day is an excuse to spin up some vintage ZZ Top, i.e., "I Thank You."

Degüello, from where this song comes from, is a ZZ Top album I remember fondly. The bearded "little ol' band out of Texas" had taken a three year breather following 1976's Tejas after producing hit after hit of some of the most memorable, tightest blues-rock of the seventies and still serve as among the best examples of the style to this day; "Tush," "Jesus Just Left Chicago" and "La Grange" only got us hungry for more. So when the trio finally followed up in 1979, it was pretty highly anticipated release, and Degüello was no letdown. At the time, the album sounded a bit like The Top had updated their sound with a New Wave flourish or two , but looking back, it sounds much, much closer to Rio Grande Mud than Eliminator. At this point in time they were still very much a no-nonsense blues-based band, even covering a Robert Johnson tune ("Dust My Broom"), and organic R&B found some space on this record, too. One such R&B styled number was the album's first track, a cover of Isaac Hayes' "I Thank You."

The intro begins with a more modern sounding guitar interrupted by Billy Gibbons' signature scruffy riffing, almost as if to signal that the band might try to keep up the times, but they weren't going to give up what got them to this point. What also got them there was the Dusty Hill/Frank Beard rhythm section, and it's as hard and impenetrable here as the West Texas ground. Singing a timeless theme about the joy of good lovin' is what this song's about: "You didn't have to love me like you did/But you did/But you did/And I thank you." Moreover, Gibbons gets it going during the short instrumental break with a solo that doesn't break any speed records but performs the more admirable job of laying down a slab of soul-stirring blues.

And isn't what it's about with ZZ Top, after all....good ol' house-rockin' Texas blues? Even after all the commercial stuff they did a few years later, they're still deservedly legends for what they did before (and can still do today).

And for that, I thank them.

Purchase: ZZ Top - Degüello

"One Track Mind" is a more-or-less weekly drool over a single song selected on a whim and a short thesis on why you should be drooling over it, too.

Anson Wright & Tim Gilson - Ukiah's Lullaby (2009)

2009-11-24T00:00:00.001-06:00

by Pico

To say Anson Wright is diversely multi-talented is like saying that the sun is hot. This true rennaisance man who graduated from Princeton has drove taxis, built cabinetry, run a trucking company and written published novels and poetry. He also knows a thing or two about playing a guitar.

He's learned guitar from such illustrious plectrists as Howard Roberts, John Stowell and Jerry Hahn, before performing on his own throughout the country and basing out of the rough-and-tumble environment of New York. Wright has also taught at NYU, Pacific University and Portland Community College. Portland (Oregon) is where he calls home these days.

Perhaps all his other activities is why Wright took a decade to follow up his first album State Of Grace (1999). On that outing, Wright took little chances then, leading a guitar-bass-drums combo and choosing mostly well-traversed standards for the song line-up. For the belated follow-up Ukiah's Lullaby, Wright makes a couple critical changes. First off, the drums are dispensed with, and Wright's only partner for this endeavor is bassist Tim Gilson. Secondly, there's no standards, but all originals; six by Wright and four by Gilson. Both of these adjustments makes for a more intimate, more personal affair.

As the co-leader of this album, Gilson merits a little mention of his background as well. Gilson came from the Portland area, before his career took him to locales like Los Angeles and Wisconsin before returning to the Northwest again. During this time, Gilson has played and recorded with the Mel Brown Quintet, Mose Allison, Bud Shank and Herb Ellis. Like Wright, Gilson is a teacher as well as performer.

Duet albums typically rely heavily on the interaction of the two players, and the empathy between Wright and Gilson guarantees that this record is not going to be a bad one. Wright's guitar, with a clean presentation and notes delivered poetic, unfussy fashion draws numerous comparisons to Jim Hall. There's no disputing that the soft tempo of these songs doesn't change throughout the entire record, maintaining it's ice-cool vibe for the entire sixty-one minutes and twenty-nine seconds.

Thus, the thing that's going to distinguish Ukiah's Lullaby are the songs themselves and the ability to stick in the listeners mind long after the last note is played. While none of these tunes are destined to become standards, several of them do have staying power, especially the first three cuts. "Ukiah's Lullaby" is well anchored by Gilson's thoughtful bass lines, and Wright spins off bird-like expressions from his guitar. Gilson's "The Healer" is a perky, buoyant number, but in keeping with the gentle mood of the album, not overly so. "Orion" is clearly derived from Miles Davis' "So What," but imaginatively reworked with a busier bass pattern. Wilson exploits one of of jazz's greatest grooves with controlled, crisp notes, before handing off to Gilson's bluesy solo.

The rest of the repertoire might not be quite as memorable, but are rendered just as well as the earlier selections. Most notably, Gilson doubles on bowed bass for "Sometimes There Are No Words," however, and makes a pretty good showing at that.

Taking in Wright and Gilson's Ukiah's Lullaby, available through Saphu Records, is like sipping a cup of hot cocoa in front of fireplace on a cold winter's night: a relaxing low-key undertaking that satisfies the soul by its warm, assuring temperament.

Purchase: Anson Wright & Tim Gilson - Ukiah's Lullaby

Duck Baker - The Ducks Palace (2009)

2009-11-22T00:00:00.007-06:00

by Pico

Some might see the acoustic guitar as an apparatus for playing folk, blues, soft rock, and anything that's smooth and gentle. Duck Baker prefers to see it as an instrument of limitless possibilities. Sure, Duck might have started out playing those predictable styles of music when he embarked on a career built around the unamplified six-string, but eventually his love for music both vintage and cutting edge inspired him to take the acoustic guitar to places it was never intended to be.

Readers of this space already figured that out when we made hay earlier this year about his solo acoustic guitar exploration of free jazz Everything That Rises Must Converge. Baker oriented himself more toward roots of all kinds with two more 2009 releases The Roots & Branches of American Music and The Waltz Lesson. And now, for his fourth release in what has been a prolific year for Mr. Baker, he returns to the boundless world of improvised music. Only this time, he's not going solo, he's enlisted the help of his friends. Which friends, you ask?

How about John Zorn, Cyro Baptista, Roswell Rudd and the late Derek Bailey? That's what I'm talkin' about, folks, a who's who of whack jazz dignitaries. Put these guys in a room, let them jam without a script, and musical magic is certainly bound to occur. That's the main allure of The Ducks Palace.

Although the release is new, the recordings are not. Not that this matters, since they are "new to us." Culled from recordings Baker had in his possession ranging from 1993 to 2004, this collection puts Baker in three entirely different settings over seven performances, nearly all of them extemporaneously composed pieces. Despite the differing musical partners over several years, it's the unconditionally free nature of these performances and the respect the musicians have for each other that gives The Ducks Palace its coherency.

It starts in 1993 with saxophonist John Zorn. Zorn has long been the king of improvised music in New York, but Baker's association with him goes back to around the beginning of his storied career, around 1978. In Zorn, Baker found a kindred spirit, a fellow appreciater of the under-appreciated jazz forward-thinkers like Herbie Nichols, Sonny Clark and Hal McCusick. Baker was in town sixteen years ago, so Zorn set up a gig for Baker. With Zorn (and percussionist Cyro Baptista) on the bill, it was certain to draw a crowd. Based on these two improv pieces---the only recordings of Baker with Zorn---the crowd got what they came for.

On "Improv 1," Zorn is just killin' it on his alto, blending lush lazy lines trace all the back to Lester Young with rapid-fire and intense deliveries that I wouldn't know was humanly possible if it wasn't for Zorn. Baptista wrings out the right tonalities from his percussion kit, evoking the African moods of Ellington and primal grooves that's fueled by instinct, not timekeeping. For his part, Baker sets up puzzles for Zorn to solve and negotiates the middle ground between the saxophonist and percussionist. With Zorn, one must be a great listener, and Baker shows he's got the big ears to do it. "Improv 5" boasts the same great rapport, but for this performance, the three start quietly, creating some wide spaces between notes in the middle of the song, and then gradually turn up the intensity knob toward the end. When the song ends around the twelve minute mark, the crowd responds with raucous enthusiasm.

Baker's 2002 home recordings with late Derek Bailey at Bailey's house are likewise his only recordings with the father of free form guitar, but the two have had impromptu jams on several other occasions. That's apparent from the affinity between the two revealed on these three tracks. They anticipate each others moves so well on "Improv 2" that it throws off the illusion of a single man with four arms playing a guitar. There's more of the same in store on "Improv 4" and "Improv 6," with the former featuring some delightful noteless explorations of sounds...plucking, thumping and atonal runs.

Duck's third collaboration for this compilation was with the famed avant garde trombonist Roswell Rudd. Baker has been a longtime fan of Rudd's and his connection to him can be found in the tendency of both to pay heavy tribute to jazz tradition while simultaneously pushing the idiom to its outer limits. The tradition-mindedness of Baker is brought out by Rudd more than the other colleagues who played on this album through two separate live performances in 2002 and 2004. "The Blues" begins as free improv with the two mixing in quotes from vintage tunes with the word "blues" in their title (Django Reinhardt's "Limehouse Blues" is conjured up, for instance) before eventually settling into all blues. Baker's signature fingerstyle approach is a natural for the relaxed, vintage blues style that emerges, and Rudd sassy style puts the pizazz on it. The second selection from this duo is another blues, "Pavement Blues," a relatively brief, 1920's styled number which is played "straight" and with a light swing that Baker has down pat. Recalling Jelly Roll Morton, a tip of the hat to the seminal jazz pianist comes at the end with Rudd shouting a phrase first heard on Morton's "Sidewalk Blues." A fitting ending to look back eighty years within an album that celebrates acoustic jazz at the outer fringes.

With just a humble acoustic guitar and some assistance from some of the best improvised music makers in the business, Duck Baker can make some scary good sounds.

The Ducks Palace comes to us courtesy of London-based Incus Records, and is available stateside via CD Baby.

Purchase: Duck Baker - The Ducks Palace

Quickies: Not one, not two, but THREE new Steve Smith releases!

2009-11-18T00:00:00.031-06:00

by Pico

Steve Smith is a man with a common name and an uncommon ability to beat the skins. Looking back at his entire career, that 1978-1985 stint with the superstar arena rock group Journey during its classic period looks like an aberration to Smith, who has made a name for himself outside of Journey as a sought-after sideman and a leader of acclaimed fusion and bop outfits.

A couple of years ago we took a hard look at Smith's latest with his fusion band Vital Information, Vitalization. Smith hasn't put out any new material since then, but in recent months there has been a total of three albums that together provide a triple delight retrospective for those wishing to explore the music and acumen of this amazing drummer. Two of these releases are "best of" compilations culled from Smith's late 90's-mid aughts tenure with the Tone Center label. Another album is a reissue of one of his earliest live documents with Vital Information. Collectively, these CD's provide the perfect introduction into the colorful post-Journey journey of one Steve Smith.

Vital Information Vitalive!

Vitalive!, taken from a live date in 1989, was originally released on the Blue Note label in 1991 and has gone in and out of print over the years. Smith himself took it out of the vaults for the third time last September 15, but not before he remastered it and tacked on an alternate take of a track "Mac Attack." This makes the third time the charm.

I have to admit, the very thought of a fusion date from 1989 made me cringe a little bit. This wasn't the most creative time for the idiom, with very impersonal sounding production values and keyboards. My fears were largely alleviated when I spun Vitalive; the musicianship is too superb, the band too tight and underneath the modern melodies is a persistent undercurrent of swing. There were some more subtle reasons, too: the remastering job by Jim Brick evidently brought some warmness to the sound (I haven't heard the original, but compared to other recordings from that time, this one doesn't come off as flagrantly "eighties-ish.") Another reason is that this was a rare time in the band's history where an acoustic bass was used instead of an electric one. It was during this brief period that a twenty-three year old stand-up bassist fresh out of Stanford with an English Lit degree was playing in Smith's band. Smith enthused that the bassist "was so strong on acoustic bass that the groove tunes felt very solid and his fresh approach to our music helped us develop a looser direction." His name is Larry Grenadier, now one of hottest acoustic bass players in the world today. The band also had a sax player at the time (a position Smith would soon drop to make VI a quartet) and that duty was handled by little-noticed Larry Schneider. The rest of the band went on to form a stable nucleus of the group with Smith for years to come: former Santana keyboardist Tom Coster and Chick Corea Elektric Group guitar whiz Frank Gambale.

Starting with the first track "One Fight Up" I wasn't sure if this wasn't just a slightly more angular variety of smooth jazz, with Schneider and Coster sounding the part. But beginning with Coster's solo and throughout much of the set, Coster make good use of an acoustic piano. As for Smith himself, he sizzles from beginning to end, whether it's the funk of "Looks Bad, Feel Good," the bouncy Brazilian groove of "Jave And A Nail" or the straight-ahead post-bop of Sammy Cahn's standard "I Should Care" (which is totally acoustic, and Coster and Grenadier sparkle in their solos). Gambale is looser here than we was during his stint in Corea's band at the same time; as I will argue again on the GHS release, he rarely sounds better than he does when playing with Smith. Schneider's shining moment comes with his own lively composition "Mac Attack," a virtuosic display of drums/bass/sax interplay that cooks intensely.

There are plenty of live Vital Information records on the loose, and I can't recommend which is the best because I haven't listened to the other ones. But it's hard to imagine any of the others being much better than this one. As Smith himself proclaims, this incarnation "was the most 'jazz' version of Vital Information to date." That strong jazz undercurrent churning underneath the fusion has helped make Vitalive! withstand the test of time a lot better than many other jazz-rock records of this period.

Purchase: Vital Information - Vitalive!

Frank Gambale~Stu Hamm~Steve Smith The Best of GHS

Smith has a reputation of being demanding on himself and inspiring his bandmates to push their abilities to the limit, too, but never does a Smith-associated project take that concept to the extreme to the extent his three records with Gambale and the boss bass player Stu Hamm did. Their GHS records were all about risk taking, virtuosity and creating in the moment. The compact trio setting allowed for that more than a larger band could. Most of the tracks they record started out as jams that were crafted into arranged and fully developed songs recorded live in the studio. This way, you get not only all the spontaneity and dynamism of a informal jam session among crackerjack musicians, but the rich, complex harmonies and ever-shuffling time signatures of fully-conceived songs.

The Best of GHS, which went on sale July 28, pulls together select tracks from the three albums these guys made together, Show Me What You Can Do, The Light Beyond and GHS 3. Don't get me wrong, these generally aren't pretty tunes, they are vehicles for ripping. And rip they do. Gambale, as I noted earlier, really thrives in this setting as he does with the Vital Information band. He goes legato like Allan Holdsworth, rips through lightning-fast metal-blues lines like Jeff Beck, plays chunky jazz chords with elegance and pulls a wide assortment of other tricks from his bag of fretwork strategies. Hamm is not a "lead" bassist or "rhythm" bassist, he's both of those, often at once. Like Gambale, his arsenal is limitless and in this challenging environment. He listens closely to what the other are doing and finds his spots to play the right role at the right time. Smith often deceives listeners into thinking that he has three arms and three legs.

Most of the songs follow the same, balls-to-the-wall blueprint, but there are a few change-ups. A solo performance a piece for each of the band members are brief, but only Gambale's searching, gentle acoustic piece "Isle Of Few" deserves a longer rendition. "Geo 100" sports a cool, funky groove that Hamm and Smith have firmly locked down. "The Challenger" is another spot where Gambale pulls out the acoustic guitar, but is joined by the others this time on a spirited, Return To Forever type tune.

So, GHS isn't the kind of fusion jazz for the weak-willed. It's in-your-face virtuosity, but you can't say you weren't warned. If you're like me, you'll have your moods for it, and when the mood is right, there's few who play intense jazz-rock better than this group of cats.

Purchase: Frank Gambale~Stu Hamm~Steve Smith - The Best of GHS

Steve Smith The Best Of Steve Smith - The Tone Center Collection

The prior two records showcase two distinct sides of Steve Smith; The Best Of Steve Smith - The Tone Center Collection attempts to pull together all the sides of Smith where he led or was otherwise involved in a straight jazz or fusion outfit from 1998 to 2005. In the span of these seven short years, the drummer's list of such bands is long: Vital Information, GHS, Flashpoint (quartet with Dave Liebman), Buddy's Buddies (traditional jazz quintet in the spirit of drumming legend Buddy Rich), Vital Tech Tones (Steve Henderson, Victor Wooten), a quartet with Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist Jerry Goodman, trio with Larry Coryell and Coster on Hammond B-3, and Count's Jam Band (a septet also featuring Coryell).

Whew!

Twelve tracks were selected for this diverse cross-section. Despite all the different configurations and styles (all within the jazz realm), the album is surprisingly coherent. It's hard to put my finger on why, but it's probably the relentless sense of swing coming from Smith and the strong grooves found on most selections. Even on the straight-jazz Buddy's Buddies selections of "Nutville" and "Ya Gotta Try," the energy and interplay matches that of the challenging fusion numbers. Possibly understanding that there was a Best of GHS album being planned at about the same time, only "Geo 100" is repeated from that compilation. Othr delights include the crisp bop of "Wrong Is Right" from the meeting with Coryell and Coster, the lazy, lean funk of Vital Tech Tones' "Drums Stop, No Good" and the Latin-tinged fusion of "Caliente" with Goodman, keyboardist/harmonica player Howard Levy and Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge.

Released on August 18, this smorgasbord of a very creative period in Smith's career would make the ideal first stop for digging into his music. For those smitten by the Vital Information and GHS tracks, see the two other albums discussed above.

Purchase: Steve Smith - The Best Of Steve Smith - The Tone Center Collection

Paul McCartney, "Good Evening New York City" (2009)

2009-11-17T08:19:00.018-06:00

NICK DERISO: What does Paul McCartney, after five decades in music and an astonishing seven previous concert recordings, still have to tell us in yet another multi-disc live offering?

Turns out, more than I thought.

"Good Evening New York City" (Hear Music/Concord Music Group), out today, commemorates McCartney's three-night concert event to open New York's new Citi Field, played in front of more than 120,000. Over two discs of music, and another DVD with the identical track listing, we find McCartney in fine voice -- and willing to celebrate the familiar even while stirring in some memorable surprises.

Did I mention the familiar?

After a gap between live albums that spanned from 1976's "Wings Over America" to 1990's sprawling "Tripping the Live Fantastic," McCartney has now issued a half dozen in less than 20 years. Unsurprisingly, that leads to some overlap, in particular since his shows focus so intently on signature work with the Beatles.

So there is much that we've heard before -- including "Something," a still-deeply moving tribute to George Harrison, which opens on ukelele (a favorite of George's); and McCartney's rousing "Sgt. Pepper's/The End" finale -- both of which were first included on 2002's "Back in the U.S."

"Paperback Writer" initially showed up on 1993's "Paul Is Live." "Got To Get You Into My Life" appeared on 1981's "Concerts for the People of Kampuchea." "Back in the U.S.S.R." was on "Tripping the Live Fantastic," as was "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Get Back." "Lady Madonna," "The Long and Winding Road," and "Blackbird" first appeared on "Wings Over America."

But it's not like Paul can credibly perform a concert set without "Hey Jude," or "Live and Let Die" for that matter. Forty-four years after McCartney and the Beatles first played Shea Stadium, where the new Citi Field now stands, he seems to understand his role as protector of that legacy.

These echoes from the past, unfortunately, don't add to the marketability of "Good Evening New York City" for longtime fans -- even if the spritely 60-something McCartney and a group of solid backing musicians including keyboardist Paul Wickens make an energetic go of things.

Luckily, this recording is bolstered by stronger material from more recent McCartney efforts -- something, for instance, that "Paul Is Live" (one of his worst selling live sets) wasn't blessed with.

He absolutely charges through a pair of stomping rockers, "Only Mama Knows" from 2007's "Memory Almost Full" and "Flaming Pie," the Lennon-inspired title track of a 1997 McCartney release. They fit right in with a searing new reading on "I'm Down," one of McCartney's more underrated uptempo Fab tracks, and embolden him into further exploring "Helter Skelter" -- Paul's heaviest offering from the Beatles period.

A soaring reading of "Sing the Changes" -- which, along with "Highway," first appeared on the terrific 2008 Fireman project "Electric Arguments" -- might just be the catchiest thing McCartney has done in years.

"Calico Skies," a collaboration with Beatles producer George Martin from "Flaming Pie," remains this quietly relevant protest song ("may we never be called to handle/ all the weapons of war we despise") tucked away inside one of McCartney's little asides on love. That connects emotionally with Disc 2's gripping John Lennon tribute: "A Day In the Life," the closing tune from "Sgt. Pepper," dissolves into John's initial solo single "Give Peace A Chance."

The setting, too, seems to reframe "Here Today," a song written in the immediate aftermath of Lennon's long-ago murder on a New York city steet. McCartney is nearly overcome at one point. Even "Dance Tonight," a tune from "Memory Almost Full" that always seemed a bit too cute, finds a fluffy grace on stage for this one night.

And McCartney mines deeper into a catalog stuffed with great music, too -- underscoring his easy command of the substantial (a grinding take on "I've Got A Feeling," from 1970's "Let It Be"), the surprising ("Day Tripper," Lennon's flipside of the 1965 single "We Can Work It Out") and, of course, the silly ("Mrs. Vandebilt," with its fun "Ho! Hey Ho!" call-and-response chorus from the 1973 Wings smash "Band on the Run").

Paul McCartney has always been each of those things, sometimes all at once. We're reminded of that again on this unexpectedly relevant new disc.

Purchase: Paul McCartney - Good Evening New York City

Quickies: A return to rock with four new releases

2009-11-16T00:00:00.007-06:00

by Pico

It's been a long time since I rock and rolled...

-Led Zeppelin

What can I say, I've let a lot of release dates on the mainstream side go by without any mention. And so, it's catch-up time. Three major acts, plus an act with a major cause. No jazz in sight, just the straight dope on righteous rock in various permutations. As we 'round the bending into the heart of the holiday shopping season, I've mustered up four new albums that may (or may not) deserve consideration for gifting.

Four records doesn't really come close to covering all the recent fresh arrivals of the last few months on the rock side, but it's a start. Now whether I'll get to finish is anybody's guess...

Norah Jones The Fall

The title might be more of a description of what Jones might think will happen to her standing among her early fans, rather than referring to the current season. Jones has always been more than a country-tinged jazz crooner, but she had previously chosen to reveal her other sides discreetly by appearing on records headlined by others (Peter Malick), participating in one-off bands (The Little Willies) or even leading a band incognito (El Madmo). 2007's Not Too Late put everyone on notice that Jones was spreading her artistic wings and at this point it would have been a shocker had she returned to the Come Away With Me blueprint for her next album.

Instead, that next album coming out November 17, The Fall, completes the transformation she's suggested for some time, now. At least on the surface, it has more in common than the tongue-in-cheek El Madmo than it does Feels Like Home, even though it's a much more serious affair. That's because the songs seem more like they were composed on guitar than piano, even when the keyboards are driving them. The jazz of Norah Jones gets altogether ignored in favor of an indie singer-songwriter presentation until the ninth track ("Back To Manhattan") and the third one, "Light As A Feather," is hardly the breezy Brazilian-flavored classic of Return To Forever, but the heavy-hearted alt-rock personality of its co-writer, Ryan Adams. She serves up a few more left turns than before, like dropping an F-bomb on "Stuck," and all the way to the charming, stripped down "Makin' Whoopie" sound-alike "Man Of The Hour."

Produced by Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse), the whole proceedings has a somewhat scratchy and muddled sound that Jones' smooth vocals clashes against. The contrast works for the most part, because the distorted sound is not overly done, but there are times when a raspier voice might have worked better, and Jones couldn't sing abrasive if she tried. She deserves a tip of the hat for defying categorization while keeping the craftsmanship high, but the artistic high point reached on Not Too Late hasn't been tested by The Fall. Like that last album, though, this one makes Norah Jones a more compelling and interesting artist than she was when she was racking up Grammies.

Purchase: Norah Jones - The Fall

Porcupine Tree The Incident

In a pretty crowded field of some rather talented prog-rock bands, Porcupine Tree stands out, enough so that they're about the only one that gets attention here on a regular basis. That last album Fear Of A Blank Planet made 2007's year-end list. Last September 15 brought the next full release, The Incident. This album continues down the path of establishing the group as a more melodically-inclined, less wank-inclined progressive rock band---so much so, that some progheads might even disclaim them. For The Incident, the tactic of having a "side-long" suite of movements that make up a larger piece sounds very much like a classic move of the genre; nevertheless, these discreet segments stand on their own.

That's no criticism where I'm concerned, though. Even well developed rock suites can be difficult to sit through for more than a few listens. Many of the tracks here are compact sized (only two of the 18 tracks run over seven minutes), which means that leader Steven Wilson was intent of moving on to the next idea just as soon as the present idea lost its freshness. If there's a few weaker numbers in the bunch, no need to hit the skip button, because they don't have to be endured for long. That said, there are several stronger selections, starting with "Time Flies" (see video of single version below), and also including "The Incident," "I Drive The Hearse" and among the handful of "non-suite" songs, "Black Dahlia" and the funky and sinister "Bonnie The Cat." At this point in their history, The Tree has a highly identifiable, polished sound, making it harder to remember which PT album you're listening to. That's an acceptable trade-off when these days it's really hard to be distinctive rock band in the first place.

In all, The Incident is a lot like most any Porcupine Tree record: falling just short of being that groundbreaking magnum opus that every notable prog-rock band has, but it's a consistently solid, enjoyable effort that puts it a cut above what nearly all its contemporaries are offering these days, even if it doesn't measure up to the idiom's classics of yesteryear.

Purchase: Porcupine Tree - The Incident

Gov't Mule By A Thread

Gov't Mule might be my favorite seventies rock band of the new millenium, if that makes any sense. Their last album Mr. High And Mighty was one of the first new releases reviewed on this site more than three years ago. This time, the band holed themselves up in Willie Nelson's Austin, TX studio, wrote the tunes there, and came up with a collection of songs that's full of grit and fire, but retains the thick soul of their prior work. The Allen Woody Memorial bass chair also got turned over again, going this time to Jorgen Carlsson. I don't now where this guy came from, but he's a monster on the four string, someone who can match the power of guitarist Warren Haynes chord for chord without stepping outside the traditional bass player's role.

By A Thread, on sale since October 26, commences with a butt-whooping track, the Texas rumble of "Broke Down On The Brazos." The song more than nods towards ZZ Top; Haynes and Billy Gibbons trade fours in an epic exchange of blues licks. The blues connection stays strong on the electrified Delta of "Railroad Boy," and the psychedelic blues of "Inside Outside Woman Blues #3." That nine-minute cut is nearly matched in length by the epic "Monday Mourning Meltdown" which isn't a straight blues, but simmers along nicely, slyly shifting into a jazz groove in the middle like a classic Allman Brothers Band jam.

For songs made up on the spot, there's a lot of varying moods, sometimes within the same songs. The playing is consistently top notch. This is a band that is now capable if doing just about anything it wants to do, without much preparation. If they can do that in a studio, you can imagine what they are capable of live. See the video of "Brazos" performed in concert below for a taste. It's refreshing to see a band who responds to success by trying even harder to stay real and rooted in its influences. Which is a big reason why Gov't Mule is perhaps the best "seventies" rock band out there today.

Purchase: Gov't Mule - By A Thread

N.E.D. No Evidence Of Disease

N.E.D. is one of those feel-good stories, mainly because all the band members' day jobs are about making people feel good. Six gynecologic oncology surgeons from all over the country literally banded together to make music that raises awareness about cancer in women. The band's name stands for "No Evidence of Disease," the prognosis they strive to give all their patients. This debut CD (technically, an EP), is a vehicle to raise funds for their N.E.D. Fund of the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation 501(c3) charity. The target is cancer of women's reproductive systems, something that doesn't always gets the awareness that breast cancer gets, but is no less important in the search for a cure.

Alright, so how's the music? The six originals, all written by the various members crafted no-nonsense, guitar-driven rock. The standout track is a mid-tempo groove where Dr. Joanie Hope takes the lead vocals, "Third Person Reality." It has a good Southern rock vibe to it. The rest of the tracks might not challenge, say, Gov't Mule, for supremacy in this field. But I can confidently state that they can play rock a whole lot better than any rock star could treat cancer. Given that this band is really just a side diversion from the high-minded and complex work of healing, this is pretty competent stuff.

Little Feat's Lowell George was known as the Rock 'n' Roll Doctor, but N.E.D. are rock 'n' roll doctors in the literal sense, hoping that making people feel better through music will translate into other people feeling better through medicine. We should wish them success in this endeavor, since the health success of many others can come from that. For more information, check out their website at nedtheband.org.

Purchase: N.E.D. - No Evidence Of Disease

Quickies: Some Fall 2009 releases by ECM Records

2009-11-14T00:00:00.002-06:00

by Pico

After forty years in the business, ECM remains one of the busiest jazz labels around, and if anything, they've been picking up steam lately. That might be because they continue to bring on exciting new artists while continuing their amazing ability to retain so many of their more major acts for not just years, but decades. The fall season is usually a busy time for record companies wanting to boost sales for the holiday season and ECM is no exception. Since I've last written about a new ECM release less than three months ago, there have been maybe a half dozen more jazz releases from them, but space and time limitations require me to pick just three of them for investigation.

This trio of CD's includes two of the marque's cornerstone musicians, Jan Garbarek and Keith Jarrett, guys who are virtually synonymous with ECM. Garbarek first recorded for them only a year after the label got started and Jarrett's long association began just another year later. Mixed in with these two giants is the relatively fresh faced Italian pianist Stefano Bollani who is no stranger to ECM because of his sideman role for yet another ECM stalwart and legend, the Italian trumpet great Enrico Rava.

All three of these fall into that famed "ECM aesthetic" which is hard to explain, but to paraphrase what that Supreme Court justic said about pornography, you know it when you hear it. One thing that can be said about the ECM sound is that it's more diverse than you might think, as these three albums illustrate the contrasts in styles even as they all neatly fit into that ECM Sound:

Jan Garbarek Group Dresden

Jan Garbarek started out a little bit on the whack jazz side but has long settled into a Nordic folk/world fusion/new age-ish blend whose distinctiveness is only surpassed by his yearning yet clinical soprano or tenor sax. Together, these components virtually spawned the whole Scandinavian jazz sound and the Norwegian-born Garbarek remains its most important proponent. Dresden, out since September 22, brings this sound out of the sterile environs of Manfred Eicher's studio and onto a stage one October night a couple of years ago in Dresden, Germany.

I really like the setup: a lean crack band consisting of Rainer Bruninghaus on keys, Yuri Daniel on bass (filling in for the then-ill Eberhard Weber) and Manu Katché on drums. Garbarek plays soprano and tenor saxes, as well as a selje flute. Secondly, Garbarek divided his repertoire fairly evenly among old originals, new originals and well-chosen covers. Garbarek's one-of-a-kind playing is in fine form here, and the other musicians get their time in the sun too, each contributing a composition a piece that showcases their own performing abilities. Katché especially dazzles, with commanding percussion work that he rarely shows even on his own albums. Through a mixture of Norwegian folk songs and probing, modern melodies, Garbarek displays a finesse in distilling a varieties of styles into his unique imprint. The highlight is the epic performance of Milton Nascimento's "Milagre Dos Peixes."

Garbarek hadn't recorded nearly as prolifically in the aughts as he had the prior three decades, but he ends this decade with the most essential Garbarek album in a long time. The double-disc Dresden is not a theme album, just an album themed on the essence of this major European artist. If you are curious about what makes Jan Garbarek such a key figure on the whole notion of blending European folk melodies with American jazz, this is a fine place to start exploring.

Purchase: Jan Garbarek Group - Dresden

Keith Jarrett Testament Paris/London

In contrast to Garbarek, a live album is more the norm for Keith Jarrett than it is not. Even a live album of solo piano is nothing unusual for Jarrett, and to take it further, a live, solo piano album of improvised songs is not a novel idea for him, either; The Koln Concert (1975) in fact remains his most famous album and an all-time best seller for ECM. Testament Paris/London is another such live solo improvised album, but is a little bit distinguished by it's sheer length: three discs chronicling Jarrett's performances last year in Paris (one disc) and London (two discs), both of which occurred toward the end of 2008.

The tracks are labelled in a strictly logical way: the city it was performed in followed by a number indication sequence. It's a little bit of a generalization to say this, but Jarrett seemed randier in Paris, playing with more abandon, and often leaving tonality behind. The first London disc contains those aspects in lesser doses, as well as more classical pieces, but ends with a beautiful ballad "London Part VI." The second London disc is the most varied, ranging from funk to free, with some generous helpings of gospel (such as in the rousing "London Part XII). Slowly developing ostinatos, a hallmark of his solo improvised pieces, form the foundation of several tracks, most effectively on "London VII."

Testament, out since October 6, marks a continuation of Jarrett's striking tightrope walks without a net that began with his first ECM Facing You from 1971. While he doesn't do this kind of high wire act quite as often as he used to, it remains an important part of his vast legacy that apparently, he is still capable of building upon.

Purchase: Keith Jarrett - Testament Paris/London

Stefano Bollani Stone In The Water

Earlier this year we found Stefano Bollani in excellent company on Enrico Rava's excellent New York Days. For his own Stone In The Water, he records with his "Dutch" trio for the first time on ECM. Jesper Bodilsen on double-bass and Morten Lund on drums round out a threesome spun off from a Rava combo who are very much in tune with each other, playing very melodic but thoughtful trio jazz not too unlike the kind Jarrett plays when he partners with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette.

Six of the nine selections were written either by Bollani or Bodilsen; they consistently form logically flowing melodies that have good foundations from which tightly woven group interplay and intelligent solos naturally develop. The rest of the tracks are covers that are far from overdone. Even the much-covered A.C. Jobim tune "Brigas Nunca Mais" sounds renewed in Bollani's hands. All throughtout, Bollani modulates his solos with the temperament of the seasoned pro that he is; Bodilsen is a lyrical bassist in the Scott LaFaro tradition and Lund with his cymbal oriented shadings is the right drummer for this music.

Trio jazz music gets plenty of workouts, but it never gets old with me when it's played so well. Stefano Bollani and his Dutch crew are meticulously reverent to this idiom in such an obvious way, you can't help but to appreciate it. And the closer you listen to it, the more enjoyable the listen. Stone In The Water came out on October 27.

Purchase: Stefano Bollani - Stone In The Water

Mads Tolling - The Playmaker (2009)

2009-11-11T00:00:00.034-06:00

by Pico

Last October 20, the up-and-coming violin wizard from Copenhagen Mads Tolling put forth his second CD The Playmaker, a celebration of the kindrid spirit shared by musicians and athletes. Yes, that's right, the connection between people who make music and people who make plays. As Tolling correctly points out, both achieve success for their band, or team, by facilitating their teammates. It's in this mindset that Tolling set out to make the sports analogy become a reality.

Our first look at Tolling came a couple of years when sizing up Stanley Clarke's back-to-the-fusion affair The Toys Of Men. As a member of Clarke's band, Tolling is out front as one of the soloists, following the footsteps for the pattern for fusion established by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. For The Playmaker, however, Tolling is even less constrained than he was on Clarke's record.

Tolling's freewheeling approach to jazz---ignoring boundaries between jazz and rock, funk, and folk---makes for a varied, adventurous and sometimes unpredictable album. But more often than not, Tolling's rich and aggressive violin style closely resembles Jean-Luc Ponty's, and indeed the French master violinist has praised his younger Danish counterpart, declaring that Tolling"has the amazing talent and skills that few young musicians can match."

The album starts out with Tolling's base configuration of electric violin, guitar (Mike Abraham), bass (George Ban-Weiss), and drums (Eric Garland). The rocking number "Just" is arguably the most straightforward tune of this collection, but this Radiohead cover nonetheless possess many subtleties beneath it's abrasive veneer. It's not really jazz, but it's not entirely rock, either. Tolling succeeds in pulling together elements of both to create impressions of both in the right measures.

Afterwards,Tolling launches into his three-part "Playmaker" suite, beginning with the Tom Brady tribute "The Playmaker." Tolling, who bears a striking resemblance to the New England Patriots quarterback, set out to make a smooth jazz number out of this song, but with a 7/4 meter and a complex bass groove often found on Ponty tunes, the harmonious composition is simply too discriminating to fall under that category. Russell Ferrante's sensitive piano work acts as the glue that holds all the other players together. The second leg of this tour through outstanding athletes is the more somber "The Contemplator," which salutes French soccer player Zinedine Zidanel with a couple of more special guests. Stefon Harris' meditative tones are complemented by Clarke's acoustic bowed bass that also works in perfect tandem with Tolling's long notes. The final segment, "The Risktaker," tips its hat to Lebron James with some engaging three-way interplay among Tolling, Harris and Ferrante on electric piano, dynamically shifting rhythms and the violin fearlessly soloing over the changes.

Mads also offers up tributes to other musicians, living and deceased. The title "Star-Maker Machinery" might suggest Joni MItchell, but the Indian modal melody and tricky unison lines is Mahavishnu Orchestra all the way. This platform for virtuosic display features Tolling soloing energetically on the slightly heavier viola. "I Skovens Dybe Stille Ro" is a traditional Danish folk song that Toling used to sing every morning as a child, but was inspired to cover it by hearing an unique arrangement of it by the Great Dane jazz bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. Tollings plays a fast ostinato over which Ban-Weiss gently plucks out the main line with his acoustic bass, then Tolling plays the lyric with his violin. The simple, rural beauty of the tune comes through clearly. Pee Wee Ellis's old r&b standby "The Chicken," (dedicated to Jaco Pastorious) brings some good, old school funk to the undertaking. Tolling plays his violin more like a fiddle...a very funky fiddle at that.

Tolling wraps it up with a couple of standards that couldn't be any further apart stylistically. A mildly swing rendition version of "Blue Monk" has more akin to the Quintet of the Hot Club of France featuring Django Reinhardt and Stehpane Grappelli than some post-bop combo. Following that is Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog," ending the album in the hard-rocking style that it started with.

As Major League Baseball just days ago wrapped up, the football season in full stride and the basketball season just getting started, the playmakers have been out in doing their thing on the court, the field and the baseball diamond. But music has no offseason, and the quest for success doesn't usually culminate in a season-ending performance; it's an ongoing process to get to the next level. At least, that's how Mads Tolling approaches it. Playing on a variety of venues and assuming a multitude of positions, Tolling plays a complete game on The Playmaker.

Purchase: Mads Tolling - The Playmaker

Somi - If The Rains Come First (2009)

2009-11-05T00:00:00.000-06:00

by Pico

One tendency I've found among musicians is that worldly artists tend to be pretty good at making worldly music. Vocalist and songstress Somi certainly qualifies. Born in middle-American Illinois but to immigrants from the East African nations of Rwanda and Uganda, Somi spent part of her childhood in Zambia. She studied the cello through much of her life, until she was inspired by her mother to take up singing. Eventually, she molded her own emblem on music; that sound of hers is a perfect blend of American jazz and soul with East African hues and rhythms. Somi calls it "New African Soul." This multicultural approach has been honed over two albums and as of October 13, Somi has a third album that's perhaps her most personal one yet, entitled If The Rains Come First.

If "New African Soul" sounds just a tad like Michael Olatuja's Speak album written about here earlier this year, well, Olatuja is very much involved on this album, too: he contributes his electric and acoustic bass playing deftness on every track, as well as producing this record along with Michele Locatelli. Having recorded this disc last spring in Paris, they were able to pull in a rhythm section from the city's vibrant local African music scene. By using musicians who instinctively understand Somi's delicate vision, Olatuja and Locatelli gives the sonic palette some depth and it's smooth as the surface of a bayou, but tastefully avoids trends of the day. It embraces the ears with the comforting sounds of acoustic guitars, gurgling electric piano and genuine African percussion. Most importantly, they allow Somi's voice, songs and musical conception come fully to life.

Somi's lithe voice carries the elegant moodiness of Nina Simone and the smokey allure of Sade. Even though Somi sings in three different East African languages as well as English, you don't even notice she's giving us linguistic change-ups because the universal language of music stays out front. She doesn't attempt to knock you over with a broad range (although as "Maybe Then" shows us, she has little difficulties hitting the upper register), nor does she over-emote, a trap too many soul singers fall into. She takes the songwriter's approach of rendering her lyrics in service of the melody.

Somi wrote the lyrics for all eleven tracks and created those melodies with some help from the producers and the other backing musicians. Though Somi doesn't play any instruments on this record, she clearly understands enough about music theory from all her years studying classical music to put together some subtle, elaborate melodies that are consistently sweet-sounding. Take, for instance, the opener "Hot Blue," which grooves along gently on a circular African rhythm but concludes with a more assertive bridge where Somi provides a lead vocal counterpoint in English to background vocals sung in one of those African tongues. Her lyrics are consistently introspective, dealing with issues of spirituality and confronting life's challenges while relishing its blessings.

The contemporary Brazilian vocal backing on "Rising" combine with African beats and jazz guitar to create a breezy three-way connection among Africa, South America and North America." Other notable touches are the tight, soothing East African grooves and airy vocals found on the title tune, the gentle piano tribute to Somi's father "Jewel Of His Soul, and the way the jazzy melody just floats above rapid percussion rumbling underneath on "Kuzunguka." Somi even supplies some effective oral percussion on the acoustic guitar based "Changing Inspiration" (see video of live version below).

The track being promoted most heavily is "Enganjyani," which means "most beloved" in the Rutooro language. Hugh Masekela guest appearance may have much to do with the hoopla on this track, but even the famed South African trumpeter takes a backseat to Somi's flair for easy flowing melodic lines and naturally heartfelt vocal stylings.

Somi came up with the heading If The Rains Come First from her mother, who told her that rains can bring blessings as much as they offer challenges. Somi took the challenge of putting together a well conceived and carried-out record of African soul and the result is a blessing for those who appreciate such a intelligent and mellifluous mixture of sounds spanning oceans.

If The Rains Come First comes to us via ObliqueSound Records, the label co-founded by Locatelli and an outfit that thus far seems to have a good eye for finding and recording those worldly musicians who make quality world music.

Purchase: Somi - If The Rains Come First

Quickies: Four fresh CD's by fresh faced guitarists from LateSet Records

2009-11-02T00:00:00.000-06:00

by Pico

When musicians get together for jam sessions at a restaurant or a music house after the marquee gigs are done, that's called a "late set." It's been a part of the NYC jazz scene at least since guys like Charlie Christian, Thelonius Monk, Kenny "Klook" Clarke, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie invented be-bop at Minton's in the early 1940's. Today there are scores of jazz musicians who are music students and teachers by day trying to hone their craft and earn notice as musicians at night. Steadfastly refusing to trade in their integrity for a real shot at a major label contract, they toil in relative obscurity knowing that many of the most respected legends of the genres got their lofty status by persistence, hard work and dedication to the craft, too.

Recently, a record company was set up to give these up-and-coming talents recording opportunities to help get their music out to listeners far beyond the nightclubs of New York. LateSet Records, a new-created subsidiary of Tokyo-based Spice Records, found four of these capable musicians and last month, released their first four CD's, one by each of these artists (the albums have been previously released in Japan). This installment of Quickies is devoted to taking a look of LateSet's debut releases, and the jazzers that are earning their stripes the right way.

There's a definite pattern about these first LateSet signees: they are all guitarists. The other main similarity is that their jazz has some distinction and is challenging, even as it's also quite tuneful. They're beyond trying to copy others and are molding their own sonic imprint. The abilities as performers, composers and interpreters are already evident; you should be hearing more from these prospects in the future. So why not hear about them now?

Gilad Hekselman Words Unpsoken

Gilad Hekselman is following a growing line of Israeli jazz musicians making an impressionable mark on the NY scene, like Avishai Cohen (bass), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Amos Hoffman, Anat Cohen and Ayelet Rose Gottlieb-Levavi. He arrived in the Big Apple just five years ago and in 2006 released his debut album Splitlife. His impressionistic guitar style recalls the cool-toned approach of Jim Hall and the fluidity of one John Abercrombie. His chops were good enough to win him the Gibson Montreaux International Guitar Competition in 2005.

For his sophomore album Word Unspoken, Hekselman utilizes prestigious help in Joe Martin (bass), Marcus Gilmore (drums), and on four tracks, Joel Frahm (tenor sax), musicians who have all recently gotten shout-outs here. All provide excellent support, especially Gilmore. As with all the other LateSet offerings, this record is a judicious blend of original and standards. He shows quietly proficient technique throughout but it's especially fun to hear it on mid-to-fast tempo tunes like his "New York Angels" and John Coltrane's "Countdown." Despite his nationality Hekselman doesn't try to create world fusion with a Mid-Eastern flavor, although his concluding track "Will The Song Ever End?" reveals an ability to craft a beautifully melancholy song that apparently comes more from Jewish tradition than the jazz tradition. Words Unpsoken speaks volumes about this young man's talent and potential.

Purchase: Gilad Hekselman - Words Unpsoken

Peter Mazza Through My Eyes

Of these four guitarists, Peter Mazza's style is probably the least subtle, but it's no less nuanced. He relishes robust chordal expressions and harmonics that blur the lines between jazz, folk, new age and rock. His clean and sophisticated lines attest to a jazz pedigree, however. With music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Julliard, he worked hard to obtain his advanced technique, but his flair for vivid compositions and arrangements of standards adds something more to the prestigious conservatory background.

At least, that's what I take away from his Through My Eyes CD. There's a certain breezy energy to his playing that somehow maintains that energy without having to stuff gobs of notes into each chord. Backed by Bill Campbell (drums), Mat Penman (acoustic bass) and Will Vinson (saxes), Mazza takes this traditional jazz quartet setup and weaves some very contemporary sounding music out of it. Choosing from a large arsenal of electric, acoustic and baritone guitars, Mazza finds the right axe for the right mood. His songs each possess distinct character, like the lightnng fast bop lines of "Burned," to the deeply mellifluous "Close To My Heart, the tender acoustic ballad "Goodbye," and the shuffling funk of "Alphabet City." Throw in a couple of Vinson/Mazza duets with a fresh take on some old covers ("My Funny Valentine," "One Green Dolphin Street") and you've got a guitar album that sounds good no matter if you're listening closely or not.

Purchase: Peter Mazza - Thrpough My Eyes

Amanda Monaco I Think I"ll Keep You

Amanda Monaco has been teaching guitar for nearly twenty years, but her own performances are probably her best clinics. She is very much traditionally-bound, and yet she has a strong adventurous streak that sometimes pushes her toward free-jazz territory. She is comfortable in a wide variety of settings, leading quartets and quintets, while also performing in big bands and jazz chambers groups. One of her main projects of late is her quartet, and it's with this group that she used to record I Think I'll Keep You.

Monaco uses virtually the same band configuration as does Mazza, but the resulting sound is more identifiable as jazz. However, like Mazza, she can mix it up. There's a lightly swinging waltz of the title song, the tango taste of "Slinky," the abrasive free form of "Hckhh Blues," or the advanced bop of "It's Like This, See..." Some no-nonsense renditions of classics like "Jitterbug Waltz" and Darn That Dream" are thrown in for good measure. As a bandleader, Monaco is quite generous to the space she allots her bandmotes, and Attias gets plenty of time in the spotlight. Monaco herself is mostly played a warm, unfussy style that swings as confidently as Kenny Burrell's. I Think I'll Keep You runs cool more than it does hot, but when cool is called for, this one is well worth absorbing.

Purchase: Amanda Monaco - I Think I"ll Keep You

Davy Mooney Astoriano

Davy Mooney hails from the Crescent City, our kind of town, and attended the well-regarded music program over at the University of North Texas. Now he's up in NYC and like the other three plectrists in this piece, and is looking to stand out there. What stands out right away about Mooney is that he's not a six-string specialist...he plays a seven-string guitar instead. It gives him a little fuller and richer sound. But fear not, Mooney doesn't believe that more strings means cramming in more notes, he's too tasteful to fall into that trap.

Mooney quickly follows up his guitar duo album with John Pizzarelli (Last Train Home (2009)) with Astoriano, a collection of nine originals and two covers. Mooney leads a cohesive base trio of himself, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Simon Lott, and adds in sax player John Ellis and organist Brian Coogan on select tracks. The songs all fall within the realm of post-bop with some light Brazilian touches here and there, but with interesting chord progressions and guys are given ample room to stretch. The arrangements are pretty good, too: John Coltrane's "Countdown" (evidently a popular cover amongst the LateSet crowd) is revitalized by a samba beat and some fantastic groovin' between Mooney and Clohesy. While the mood varies from song to song, Mooney and his crew maintains a strong sense of swing. With the fundamentals as a performer, composer and bandleader already down pat on Astoriano, the sky's the limit for Davy Mooney.

Purchase: Davy Mooney - Astoriano

Billie Holiday, "Lady Sings the Blues" (1956)

2009-10-28T09:39:00.004-05:00

NICK DERISO: Billie Holiday's voice, fragile and thin at the end, belied the strong-willed fighter she always was.

This record, dotted with tunes she'd once owned two decades before as a bubbly bird in front of big bands, makes the argument for her.

By the mid-1950s, the hard-living Holiday had lost some dexterity, but none of her gumption. Few singers in the autumn of their years would chance reinterpreting their own masterworks; fewer still would have such resounding success at it.

That starts with a new take on "I Must Have That Man!" -- one of her more famous and joyous 1930s hits with Lester Young, now transformed into a grieving cry for someone who's gone. Elsewhere, Holiday updates earlier versions of Irene Kitchens' "Some Other Spring," as well as "God Bless The Child" and the devastating protest song "Strange Fruit" (embedded below).

While it can be argued whether these are definitive, I've grown to cherish them more. Holiday adds startling new shades of meaning, turning phrases that might have seemed like ordinary rehash on anyone else's record into a demand for new reflection.

The title tune, inspired by Holiday's autobiography of the same name, is notable for its ringing intro by trumpeter Charlie Shavers. "Lady Sings the Blues," in fact, features something of an all-star septet of jazz musicians -- including clarinetist Tony Scott, pianist Wynton Kelly, guitarist Kenny Burrell -- but this is no old-school JATP blowing session.

Instead, they lay back, offering undulating music beds so that Holiday can stretch out. She does. And what Holiday has lost in traditional technique, she redoubles with feeling.

She begins by admitting to "Trav'lin' Light" -- because her lover has gone. After taking apart the once-bubbly "I Must Have That Man!" with a surgeon's precision, then accepting that her heart "won't ever mend," Holiday emerges on the title track with a radiant defiance: "Ain't gonna sit around and cry -- I know I won't die."

Finally, there's "No Good Man," one of two concluding tunes co-written by Irene Higginbotham and Dan Fisher (after the terrific "Good Morning Heartache"). A requiem for romance, it's as brutal a rebuke from a broken heart as I've heard.

Holiday had, for me, at the end an even greater power to tell her own story in a lyric. Her candid toughness, poignant musicality and unique rhythm -- things that inspired so many of the 20th century's very best singers, from Sinatra into pop music -- never left her.

Purchase: Billie Holiday -- Lady Sings the Blues

Deep Cuts: The Knack "Frustrated" (1979)

2009-10-24T00:00:00.007-05:00

by Pico

It's hard to think of a more striking example of the perils of overexposure than L.A. power pop rockers The Knack. For about six months in 1979 this band that looked like the Ed Sullivan Beatles were just about as prevalent (although their crunchy, direct brand of rock mimicked the Kinks more than their more famous British contemporaries). "My Sharona," that song that everyone loved and now everyone hates followed by the lesser hit "Good Girls Don't"...those songs had irresistible hooks, but resistance stiffed up after the songs got more worn than brake shoes with a hundred and fifty thousand miles on 'em.

Perhaps that's why you have to go to one of the deep cuts of The Knack's blockbuster debut album Get The Knack to figure out if they were really a good band or not. Like, say, "Frustrated." It's got a huge backbeat, a lively bass line and a thick slab of guitar riffs. Top it off with lead singer's Doug Fieger's impishly sung lyrics of lead-on and turn-off, and "Frustrated" makes a perfect danceable tough rocker for any party, even today.

"Frustrated" didn't get spun off as a single as I think it should have, but got some decent airplay on the album rock stations. Maybe the backlash that was in full swing by the time the second single "Good Girls Don't" started sliding down the charts had the public crying "enough" and so there were no more hits forthcoming for The Knack. Ah well. At least that means the "woulda-coulda-shoulda-been" hits from Get The Knack like "Frustrated" can be enjoyed today without that jaded feeling you get from an overplayed song like "My Sharona."

Purchase: The Knack - Get The Knack

Ben Allison - Think Free (2009)

2009-10-22T00:00:00.010-05:00

by Pico

Last year I devoted precious little space to praise a then-new album by bassist-composer Ben Allison called Little Things Run The World. The brief praise didn't really do the record justice, as Allison is a certain kind of composer and bandleader who can build rib-sticking compositions and find the right combination of musical personalities to make them sound easy to listen to and engaging all the same.

Allison must have been pleased with Little Things, too, as he went back to the studio just last June to record its follow up Think Free out last week. Allison's career goes much further back than last year's release, though, as his first record appeared in 1995. Just a few years before that, Allison helped to found the Jazz Composers Collective, a nonprofit confederation of musicians that support projects and concerts that honor and promote modern and avant garde jazz. Allison's own records have never been all that "outside" but nevertheless very modern and complex. He has a restless soul as his records have shifted gears from advanced bop and chamber jazz to jazz with hip-hop and African elements.

Lately, Allison has settled into an aesthetic that values rock and funk virtues as much as jazz. That mode began with 2006's Cowboy Justice and got going in earnest with the aforementioned Little Things. Think Free continues along the same path. As Allison put it, "I was moving away from the chamber-jazz elements of (my prior bands) Medicine Wheel and Peace Pipe and trying to incorporate other sounds into my music. I continue to try to get to something personal. Cowboy Justice, Little Things Run The World, and now Think Free are all one continuous train of thought." He also allowed that he "wanted a band that rocked."

Carrying over the trumpet/bass/electric guitar/drums combination from the prior two records but retaining only guitarist Steve Cardenas, Allison adds a violinist Jenny Scheinman to his group, a key addition. Shane Endsley (trumpet) and Rudy Royston (drums) round out the quintet. I say Scheinmann's presence is key because she deftly uses her violin as a bridge of sorts between Endsley's airy trumpet and Cardenas crunchy guitar. It fills out the character of Allison's music and makes it harder to define; it's comfortable but you'd be hard pressed to call this "jazz" or "rock fusion" or some other moniker even though it clearly contains ingredients from those and other sources.

The slightly heftier sound pays off right from the top; "Fred," with an arrangement that bears more than a passing resemblance to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," percolates on a mid-tempo California rock groove. Endsley carries the melody, but Schheiman soon join him in harmony and takes an unhurried but well-defined solo that blurs whatever lines the listener tries to draw in this song. "Platypus," a tribute to Charles Darwin, is a somber melody riding on 7/4 timekeeping. This time, the violin doubles up with Cardenas as Allison and Royston lock down the uneven rhythm. It builds in intensity for Cardenas' rock guitar solo, which instead of devolving into a mindless wailfest as many would have tempted to do, he stays focused on beautiful chord progression that Allison has set up.

The genteel and rural "Broke" calls to mind some of Bill Frisell's more folkish numbers. The muted trumpet and violin combine for harmonies that hints at Allison's chamber jazz side. "Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Godzillia" is a malevolent post-rock number that feeds from Allison's repeating-note pulses and Cardena's shimmering guitar. Sheinman's violin turns a little wicked to match the dark, slow vibe .

The rest of the songs are also Allison originals, but have first appeared on prior albums. "Sleeping Giant," a remake of "R&B Fantasy" from Buzz, pushes the limits of tonality, as Royston puts in some nice work on the tom-toms and Endsley shifts seamlessly between muted and unmuted horn. "Peace Pipe" is most intriguing for Scheinman's ability to mimic exotic instruments (the earlier version of this song featured a kora and at times, her violin sounds even more like a kora than the real thing). "Green Al" is not quite as soulful as the rearranged namesake, but it possesses a sunny melody and a gentle funk groove. If I'm not mistaken, it's also where Allison finally takes a solo himself, something he has been less inclined to do as he clearly enjoys leading a democratic group in pursuit of the best rendering of his compositions.

After a well-realized CD such as Little Things Rule The World, I didn't really want Ben Allison to change things too much for his next album. He didn't, and the tweaks he made for Think Free only enhanced his personal approach further. Not allowing himself to be boxed in by artificial definitions what makes music one style or another, Allison is saying the same message in his music as he does with this album's title.

Purchase: Ben Allison - Think Free

It's a trombone two-fer! Samuel Blaser and Wayne Wallace (2009)

2009-10-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

by Pico

The Two-fer isn't a double celebration of a single artist, but rather of a single instrument: the trombone. I've always liked that warm, brassy sound with its slippery pitch variations that gives it a colorful, almost-human character. An instrument that has been there in jazz's earliest days with Kid Ory and Jack Teagarden and through J.J. Johnson and Curtis Fuller. Gradually, though, the 'bone has lost some of its burnish as a prime horn instrument in jazz; most of the stars and innovators the last fifty years or so have been the sax and trumpet players.

That said, the slide is still alive and played with boldness and creativity by latter-day artists. Steve Turre, Robin Eubanks and Roswell Rudd are among just a few who are creating and exciting with that "long trumpet." . There are also many notable trombonists out there today making their way up the ranks, too (Michael Dease, the producer of Thomas Barber's nice new record, is one). Here we present a couple of records by trombone players who merit more attention. Both rest on opposite sides of jazz, illuminating the flexibility and endless possibilities this brass instrument offers.

Samuel Blaser Pieces Of The Sky

Although from the same Swiss town (La Chaux-de-Fonds) as fellow trombonist Raymond Droz, Blaser is a lot more apt to be compared to Grachan Moncur III than Droz. Not full-on whack jazz, not pure hard bop, Blaser's music resides somewhere in a wide, esoteric space in between the two. Having spent seven years at a Swiss music conservatory and several more cutting his teeth in NYC, Blaser now resides in Berlin. Last month Blaser introduced his forth album (and second album leading his quartet) Pieces Of Old Sky.

Retaining the trombone/guitar/bass/drums getup of the first quartet record 7th Heaven, but retaining only Thomas Morgan from the original lineup, Pieces Of Old Sky offers seven imaginative and unpredictable excursions into probing melodies and shifting moods. Blaser dives right into an extended piece at the beginning, the 17-minute suspended, contemplative "Pieces Of Old Sky." Following that is my personal favorite track, "Red Hook," which has no hook, but is a carnival ride through Dolphy-filtered Monk with a rock edge provided by Todd Neufeld's amply amped guitar. "Choral I" and "Choral II" are brief tone ballads that reveal Blaser's delicate side. Following more ruminative pieces "Mystical Circle" and "Mandala," the Samuel Blaser Quartet goes a little raucous again for "Speed Game," the freest track of the collection, and yet, contains some tightly integrated group statements.

Pieces Of Old Sky isn't a record that's likely to grab you on first listen, but there's a method to Blaser's madness that comes into sharper focus with each listen. The rapport he creates with this somewhat unusual combination of voices sets apart Samuel Blaser and his Quartet from other trombone-led small groups. His conception of sound is advanced, but rooted. That's a pretty good way to go when traversing that nether land between hard bop and whack jazz.

Visit Blaser's website here.

Purchase: Samuel Blaser - Pieces Of The Sky

Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet ¡Bien Bien!

There's nothing mysterious about Wayne's Wallace's approach to trombone-led music, it's straight-ahead, no-nonsense Latin jazz all the way, baby! San Francisco Bay area-based Wallace has been a fixture on the scene for a while, releasing records under his own name for nearly a decade, now. However, his Latin Jazz Quintet has helped to raise his profile lately, starting with last year's acclaimed Infinity. Wallace and his five peace band returns already with a second release ¡Bien Bien!, also from his own Patois Records.

There's no sound more festive than Latin music and Wallace knows all shades of this wide-ranging style. To help curious listeners, he even spells out the sub-genre for each selection ("Latin Jazz," "Bomba," "Bolero," "Cu-bop," etc.). Songs have a good mixture of Wallace originals and covers. The lead-off title track sports a formidable three trombone front of Wallace and guests Dave Martell and legend Julian Priester. Pianist Murray Low is still given the prime solo slot, who provides a smooth and rhythmically-attuned performance. The band chugs along in a irresistible Jazz Messengers groove only with a heavier Cuban accent. That fine start is matched on the very next track, a most inventive arrangement of Eddie Harris' "Freedom Jazz Dance." Guest vocalists Kenny Washington and Orlando Torriente sing lyrics (added by Eddie Jefferson) that wrap around this snaky melody and scat with aplomb and fearlessness. Wallace's re-casting of Harris' classic as Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba is genius, and the album's high point.

There's other peaks, including some interpretations of Ellington tunes (an elegant "In A Sentimental Mood" and spunky "Going Up!") and a Latin-modal exercise of Coltrane's "Africa" that contains perhaps Wallace's best solo trombone work of the album. Overall, ¡Bien Bien! is fun as you'd expect a Latin jazz record to be, but with enough imaginative arrangements and performances to appreciate as serious jazz, too.

Visit Wayne Wallace's website here.

Purchase: Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet - ¡Bien Bien!

Deep Cuts: Hall and Oates "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" (1976)

2009-10-18T00:00:00.010-05:00

by Pico

So today we open up a new series "Deep Cuts," where your friendly music guides here at Something Else pull out and call attention to a more obscure track taken from familiar, sometimes classic, records. If you're like us, you're more of an "album" guy than a "singles" guy and like to find those hidden treasure waiting to be uncovered by those who venture beyond the popular tracks on the long-player. We're here to help you find some of them. Think of "Deep Cuts" as a subset of the venerable "One Track Mind" series, the non-hits that stand alongside the hits.

The first one is by one of our favorite guilty pleasures, Hall And Oates. Although I think I said this sometime before, there is really no shame at all in liking most of their seventies output. Last week came the release of yet another H2O "greatest hits" collection, the sweeping, Sony/Legacy 74-track box set entitled Do What You Want Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates. The 1976 song that gave the collection it's main title seems an odd choice, given that the song, while released as a single, didn't fare all that well on the charts. People will still remember the other single from Bigger Than The Both Of Us, "Rich Girl," but "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" just didn't have a lasting impact.

Why it didn't have a lasting impact, I'm not quite sure. "Do What You Want..." was a well-conceived Philly-soul song at a time when songs produced by Thom Bell and Gamble/Huff were still dominating the r&b airwaves. The gracefully descending and ascending chord changes, the lurking strings, perfect harmonies...it's gives "Sara Smile" a run for its money. But let's not forget Daryl Hall's lead vocals. His control and command is so evident as he effortlessly changes his tempo, emphasis, and transitions in and out of falsetto. Today that's called "histrionics," but let's face it, some songs call for full-on belting out, and Hall seized on the opportunity. A little rock-styled guitar provides a the touch of "rock" to Hall & Oates self-described "rock and soul" characteristic, and the no-nonsense bass line keeps the song well tethered to its melody.

Maybe the "Do What You Want, Be What You Are" creed promoted on the song so typical of the "me" decade sounds a little outmoded today and doesn't relate to 21st century listeners? Could be. What counts is that the music contained within has a lasting quality. You don't hear soul this soulful these days.

Purchase: Hall & Oates - Do What You Want, Be What You Are:The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates

Thomas Barber's Janus Bloc - Snow Road (2009)

2009-10-17T00:00:00.002-05:00

photo: Chris Barber

by Pico

The history of jazz is a history of a continuum of leaders where the next generation of shining stars emerge when the leaders of the prior generation are still in their prime period. The torch of the premier trumpet player passed on from Louis Armstrong to Dizzy Gillespie to Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis, encompassing nearly the entire history of this great music form and epitomizing most of its developments. Other trumpet players, like Dave Douglas, has made their mark as much as---if not more than--- a composer and bandleader as they have as a performer. Coming in Douglas' wake is a twenty-nine year old prospect from Moscow, Idaho by the name of Thomas Barber.

Barber's biography doesn't read like someone who is content to merely participate in blowing sessions his whole life. Back at the University of Northern Colorado, he sought a classical degree to not only polish his technical ability on the trumpet, but also to develop his composing skills. Afterwards, he attended Julliard to study jazz performance. From that experience, he gained valuable knowledge in how ensembles work. Since he's moved to New York, Barber has composed for major names like Steve Turre and Joe Alessi, arranged for the Dease Bones trombone ensemble as well as a multitude of recordings, and has written scores for four films. Among all that, Barber keeps his playing chops sharp as a sideman for various groups, having performed with an impressive list of artists over the years: Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Slide Hampton, Louie Bellson, Nicholas Payton and Maria Schneider.

Even though Barber plays in smaller, quartet settings, his own large ensemble Janus Bloc is the fullest realization of his wide vision. Last July 28 came forth Barber's debut album, Snow Road, a set of mostly original compositions Barber recorded with this large group a year earlier.

For the first time out, Barber sure shows a lot of ambition. "For this group, I want to be able to switch from a jazz trio setting to an orchestral palette to a big band sound on a whim," he explains. Janus Bloc, the name of the Roman god of beginnings and endings, reflects the duality of its music. JB is expansive, sporting a seven-piece horn section, a four-part string section (aka the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet) and a three-part rhythm section. And then there's two guest soloists. Yeah, it's big.

Big...and bodacious, too. The long roster is a who's who of other young talents who stand on the cusp of making big splashes in the jazz scene: Michael Dease, Sharel Cassity, Nasheet Waits and Linda Oh. Dease also serves as the album's producer.

Barber uses all these talents in the service of his modern, impressionistic compositions, but here's the twist: each of the three sections are employed tactfully, bringing the strings or the full horn sections to bear selectively at strategic points. The opener "Song For Snow Road" puts these tactics into practice, creating a moody, texturally thick piece that utilizes the background Barber has attained from writing those film scores. Starting with the somber French horn of Sydney Braunfeld and moving on to his benign trumpet, Barber deftly uses the unique vocabulary of each instrument to get across the right sound at the right time.

It doesn't just stop there, though. These concepts play out on the next track "Shatzaquotek," which features a very tight integration of the string quartet with the jazz rhythm section. Underneath all the horns and strings playing countering lines is some pretty exquisite bass work by Oh, which comes into more focus during the piano solo by Adam Birnbaum. Oh's lines are aggressive and compelling to the point the she is co-soloing with Birnbaum. Dease's sassy trombone statement kicks off the light waltz "Elizabeth Rose." It's on this tune that we are greeted with the first appearance of eminent trumpet veteran Claudio Roditi, and while Barber likely could have handled the lead trunpet duties fine, Roditi's highly expressive and brassy style fits this subtlely Latin-flavored song better.

Barber's most advanced composition that he presents in this collection is probably the labyrinthine but elegant "The Mind Beneath." Set in 7/4 time, Barber himself takes the lead with a fat, controlled tone, and shares solo space with guest vibraphonist Tim Collins, as well as Oh and Waits. Fittingly, Barber finishes the album with an Ellington tune, "Come Sunday." Barber's arrangement called for a "strings" intro that only went to demonstrate how much the Duke respected and incorporated elements of classical music when composing his own, an ideal Barber clearly shares. Roditi contributes his refined and weighty flugelhorn in the jazzier main body of the song.

It's way too soon to say if Thomas Barber will develop into the next Ellington, Schneider or Douglas, but with such a high-minded effort Snow Road, he shows much promise as the complete package as performer, composer and bandleader. His ability to grasp not only complex musical concepts, but pull them all together effectively puts him well on the path toward the lofty status enjoyed by those predecessors. In the meantime, Snow Road can already be appreciated for a fully-realized work of jazz as a form of high art.

Visit Thomas Barber's website here.

Purchase: Thomas Barber's Janus Bloc - Snow Road

The Cannonball Adderley Sextet, "In New York" (1962)

2009-10-13T08:01:00.009-05:00

NICK DERISO: Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, a spirited, bluesy and always fun performer, seemed to burst out from a series of early live recordings during a period when that was rare.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were just too many logistical nightmares, from getting good takes in the smoky, raucous atmosphere of a nightclub, to finding a way to get music played on the radio when it often spooled out well past the typical playing time of a hit song.

The technology was bad, the sales were often poor, and the work took extraordinary patience. Thank God, then, for Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews.

There was no better way to hear the muscular soul, and the impish interplay, between the altoist, brother Nat Adderley (cornet) and the rhythm section of Louis Hayes (drums) and Sam Jones (bass) -- and between the Adderley group and its often raucous audience members. Keepnews captured it, and from the very beginning.

"In New York," taped on Jan. 12 and 14, 1962 at the Village Vanguard, bulks up a sound we first heard on the 1959 Riverside release "Live in San Francisco" by also including multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef (featured on flute, tenor and oboe) and pianist Joe Zawinul -- appearing on his first sides with Adderley, after joining the band in the summer of 1961.

Both Lateef (the dabbler who had become intrigued by Eastern music, and obscure reed instruments) and Zawinul (the offbeat Austrian who seemed born into the full-throated blues style of Art Blakey acolytes like Horace Silver or Bobby Timmons) provide a fuller, more textural background for the sibling soloists, even while adding their own offbeat and exotic vibe to what was always an R&B-infused sound for Cannonball.

"In New York" begins with one of Adderley's signature introductions, nearly two minutes long, before leaping into an inviting waltz time signature. The soloists quickly cut across that sweetly swinging rhythm, however, ramping up into a churning conversation piece -- and eliciting several excited responses from a quickly engaging audience.

"This one has two different characteristics," Adderley says from the bandstand. "I think that accounts for the reason that its composer (Jimmy Heath) decided to call this one 'Gemini.'"

That dichotomy continues to play out across this terrific recording, as Adderley's long standing collective runs parallel and then becomes intertwined with these new voices from Lateef (added just three weeks before this show) and Zawinul. Lateef provides two compositions, the sexy "Planet Earth" and a delicate, oboe-driven "Syn-anthesia," while Zawinul adds the bop breakdown "Scotch and Water."

Zawinul, who passed away in 2008 as Keepnews was at work on a digital remaster of "In New York," would of course become an integral part in the Adderley band into the late 1960s (composing "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and "Country Preacher"). He worked with Miles Davis, later formed Weather Report with Wayne Shorter and dabbled in the then-new world music genre, but always credited Cannonball for helping him find early, wider notice.

Adderley's sextet, interestingly, also covers the vamp written for one John Birks Gillespie by 1950s big-band composer Ernie Wilkins -- Cannonball, winking, says "'Dizzy's Business' and our business are pretty much the same thing: To swing!" -- before ending things with the barnburning closer, "Cannon's Theme," from Jones.

Adderley, a former school teacher, must have seemed surprisingly articulate for the uninitiated, those who thought they were stumbling in for a night of mindless, greasy grooves. But he always approached his work with as much warmth as he did intelligence, and Adderley slipped in more than a few important messages along the way.

That made him, for me, an underrated persona in the style of Gillespie -- unfortunately known more for "soul jazz," the caricature of his work, than for the more complex things (his passion for bop, the interesting side projects he tackled that used African stylings, his overt political musings) that always moved just beneath the surface. "In New York," which so completely changed the complexion of Adderley's familiar environs, only underscores how much he quietly tried to push the envelope.

Adderley, like Dizzy, was more important, more interesting than many gave him credit for -- though like Gillespie before him, the altoist never pushed the point.

With it, but never pedantic, they embodied a concept that Adderley talks about, during one mirthful moment at the mic on this long ago night: "Hipness is not a state of mind -- it's a fact of life. You don't decide you're hip. It just happens that way."

Purchase: The Cannonball Adderley Sextet: In New York

Linda Oh - Entry (2009)

2009-10-06T00:00:00.013-05:00

by Pico

About six weeks ago we saluted some amazing young women who stand poised to make a lot of noise in the man's world of jazz instrumentalists. One of those is releasing her debut album on this very day, a unique bass player who goes by the compact name of Linda Oh.

Oh was born in Malaysia to parents of Chinese descent, but was reared in the Perth, Australia area. As a child, she learned piano and picked up a variety of woodwind instruments, but gravitated to electric bass in high school, and picked up an affinity for the music of Flea and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. It wasn't until she attended the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts that she started taking lessons for the double-bass. Racking up scholarships and degrees while becoming the best up and coming Australian bassist on the other side of the Outback, Oh moved to NYC to earn a Masters in Music at the illustrious Manhattan School of Music, and picked up the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award for 2008. While she completes her studies, she plays in clubs around town and works with jazz luminaries like Billy Childs, Slide Hampton, Bill Kilson and Thomas Barber's Janus Bloc (more on Barber in an upcoming article).

Linda Oh had also been putting together her first record, Entry, and today for the first time the world at large gets to hear her own conception of sound.

Give Oh a lot of credit for the uncommon approach she's taken for her first album; Entry isn't the smorgasbord of technique and styles that she could have easily made this. "So many musicians want to do everything with their first album," Oh says. "Especially bass players who play upright and electric...I wanted to steer completely clear of that and have something kind of raw as well as challenging. Basically, I knew I wanted to do something different." The maturity beyond her years with her words are borne out in her music.

Employing an unconventional trio of drums by Obed Calvaire and trumpet from Ambrose Akinmusire, and all songs but a Chili Peppers cover were written by the leader, Oh sets up the greater challenge of introducing her own completely individual expression right out of the gate. With no guitar or piano or the like, chords are not played but implied, and there's much space to fill by such little in the way of sonic thickness. Oh and Akinmusire manage, though, by regularly swapping melody and harmony roles, as well solo and accompanist roles. Oh's choice for a trumpet as a foil service to balance the tonality of the sound: a sharp, brassy instrument that balances out her low frequency, pulsing one. For her part, Oh sticks with a stand-up bass exclusively.

From this lean configuration, Oh and her cohorts bring forth her songs, which follow a pattern of dark overtones, but with some definition, resonance, and some change-ups in both the melody and rhythms. With a four-note repeating figure introduced by Oh, "Morning Sunset" is some related fragments strung together logically with some powerful bass lines and Calvaire straining to burst out of the timekeeping. Akinmusire smartly solos casually, as the other two are carrying much of the weight already. When Oh solos, she is still holding together the harmony intact. It's the mark of a player who plays with a preference for showing off her chops with intelligence over flash.

On "Patterns", Oh shows a lot of ability to make her notes resonate and complement Akinmusire, as the two coaxes out an interesting melody. Calvaire's increasingly urgent percussional shadings gives the song the just right final element to this tune. After a solemn false intro, "Numero Uno" plunges right into a quickened pace that Calvaire just thrives on, and Oh is grooving with an insistent bass line. From the other selections, "Fourth Limb" finds Oh reaching for the higher registers of her bass. "Gunners" contains an ostinato for a theme that is revisited after numerous trips to nearly-free sections of abrupt changes and tricking harmonic lines. "A Year From Now" reveals a more ruminative side to Oh, and she subtly modulates the mood like a master. That RHCP tune, the gentle, soulful number "Soul To Squeeze," give us a glimpse into Oh's interpretive skills. She follows Flea's familiar bass pattern for the song for the most part, but ventures outside of it to provide some well-placed accents, enough to make it her own without losing track of the melody.

As one of the ten young ladies I singled out as the Young Lionesses to watch out for, everyone can now hear what I've been talkin' about all this time. Entry is a singular voice from the far side from Oz offering music that's otherworldly for such a fresh talent. We should be hearing much more from Ms. Oh for a long time to come.

Visit Linda Oh's website here.

Purchase: Linda Oh - Entry

Robert "Jr." Lockwood, "Plays Robert and Robert" (1982)

2009-10-02T00:08:00.002-05:00

NICK DERISO: An honorable, if ultimately somewhat superficial, tribute to the thing that makes Robert "Jr." Lockwood such an important element to modern blues.

Lockwood was something of a stepson to Robert Johnson. The doomed Delta bluesman would stop in to stay with Lockwood's mother in Helena, Ark., during early 1930s road trips along the chitlin' circuit, and they became fast (if unlikely) friends.

Lockwood, it seems, had begun his own musical journey at the family pump organ -- preferring, as a strong-headed late teen, to play an instrument that was less dependent on others. He was no accompanist.

Johnson, a dandified houseguest who fancied his mom, blew apart those notions. He was, after all, famously photographed not as a bedraggled roadhouse bandleader, but in the best haberdashery of the day. Those duds did more than a little to convince Lockwood of the magical opportunities for wealth out on the road, and Johnson's spidery, tendril fingers helped the youngster to see the complex polyrhythms possible as a soloist.

Johnson taught him some of his now-legendary early compositions, even helped Lockwood construct a crude homemade guitar out of pieces of an old phonograph, using baling wire for frets. Eventually, they toured together, until Johnson's untimely death (after precious few recorded tunes were captured) in 1938.

Lockwood became known as "Robert Jr.," and carried forward the style, if not the murkier impulses associated with Johnson's lifestyle, into the late 20th century. Lockwood's tune "Take A Little Walk With Me" (from early 1940s sessions for Bluebird) is thought to be an adaptation of an earlier Johnson composition. Certainly many of Lockwood's most famous songs -- "Black Spider Blues," "That's All Right" -- owe a deep debt of gratitude to his mother's erstwhile boyfriend.

Importantly, Lockwood followed the line Johnson drew out of a chord-focused traditional style and into something else: single-string exclamations that eventually found a home in broader contexts -- adding muscular duos and trios, even horns.

This idea of formulating a forward-thinking, jazzy take on Delta blues would lead Lockwood to play with Sonny Boy Williamson II (nee Rice Miller), even while he sat at home late at night engrossed in the Count Basie records of the day. He became the bridge to modernity that Johnson perhaps would have been -- appearing on a series of Chess sides, by everyone from Little Walter Jacobs to Bo Diddley. A subsequent move to Memphis expanded Lockwood's (and, thus, Johnson's) influence down to both Muddy Waters and then B.B. King, two signposts in blues music's evolution into the mainstream.

Lockwood would appear with Howlin' Wolf, Roosevelt Sykes, Otis Spann, Johnny Shines (on some cool Rounder records), Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Boyd and Eric Clapton -- becoming famous in a way that Johnson could have scarely imagined. But by the early 1980s, he was perhaps feeling a bit nostalgic. Lockwood appears on "Play Robert (Johnson) and Robert (Johnson)" unaccompanied on 12-string guitar, a loving nod back to the simplicity of where it all began.

And that's the problem. For all of the importance of Lockwood's presence over the years, the undeniable influence he has an historical marker in this music, he's never been able to convey the depth of emotion Johnson originally imbued in these tunes as a performer. Lockwood always, perhaps unfairly, paled in comparison and, thus, seemed more historian than true visionary to me.

This record suffers in particular because of it. It's the curse of following in the footsteps of a dark legend like Johnson, the most direct, lonely, chaotic and committed of all blues singers. He was someone who lived the lyric all the way up to and including his mysterious and dreadful end -- poisoned, perhaps at the hands of a jealous lover.

Lockwood is adept, and I've never argued that he isn't important as a popularizer. But "Plays Robert and Robert," more than most other Lockwood recording, shows why those unfamiliar with Johnson must to dig down to the root material to discover its lasting relevancy.

This album, later reissued by Evidence with an alternate take on "Sweet Home Chicago" (embedded below) in 1993, doesn't go far enough. Quite frankly, it can't. Even today, Johnson's original recordings have a sharper vibrancy, a roiling portent, an imaginative rhythmic brilliance, and a hard-eyed rebelliousness rivalling any of the popular music that immediately followed.

You could, in fact, call Robert Johnson the very first American rock 'n' roller.

Lockwood -- who passed at age 91 in 2006 -- comes off looking like what, I guess, he really was. A torchbearer, the kid who picked up a few licks along the way.

Purchase: Robert "Jr." Lockwood -- Plays Robert and Robert

On Track Mind: Kenny Loggins, with Jim Messina, "Two of Us" (2009)

2009-09-29T08:40:00.007-05:00

NICK DERISO: "Two Of Us," the old Beatles album cut, is reborn -- as is a long-ago relationship -- in the hands of this pair of early 1970s-era country-rock stars.

Part of a new Disney children's album "All Join In," the tune is actually one of two by the Beatles (the other being a slightly touched up "All Together Now") included -- along with a pair of Loggins originals ("Long Tailed Cat," "Moose N' Me"), Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me" (from the original "Toy Story"), the Del Vikings' 1950s classic "Come Go With Me," and others.

But it's "Two Of Us," featuring Kenny Loggins' first recorded work with Jim Messina in decades, that charms the most. The remake, which begins with some children laughing, plays a bit faster than the original, but retains the pastoral, friendly camaraderie of Paul McCartney's 1969 composition, which opened the Beatles finale, "Let It Be."

It's fun to hear Loggins weaving inside and then outside of the woody, warm vocals so long associated with Messina -- who'd already produced and played with Buffalo Springfield before forming the partnership with Loggins, and was also with Poco.

As "Two of Us" nears its end, a joyful Messina adds: "Hey, Kenny, let's take it home!," to the sounds of a plucky banjo. A merry kazoo takes the place of John Lennon's memorable whistle, and there is a fun, connective interplay that recalls their long-ago successes before Loggins left for a decidedly more pop-oriented solo career ("Whenever I Call You Friend," "This is It," soundtrack work on "Caddyshack," "Top Gun" and "Footloose."

More recently, Loggins has turned to kids' music, and he's made quite a late-career splash. His album "Return to Pooh Corner" is, in fact, the best-selling children's album of the last 20 years.

With "Two Of Us," however, he's found an entry point for young and old alike -- and a reason to rekindle his on-again, off-again relationship with Messina.

Since the release of "All Join In," Loggins and Messina have begun a reunion tour (their first since 2005), with dates through the Deep South this week and continuing out west through November.

Purchase: Kenny Loggins, with Jim Messina - Two of Us

Joe Higham & Al Orkesta - Where Are We Now? (2009)

2009-09-26T00:00:00.008-05:00

by Pico

The term "fusion jazz" has been used to refer to the melding of rock and jazz since the late 1960's, but in truth, jazz has evolved largely by absorbing other forms of music from the beginning. I think that's one of the very things that's made this music form intriguing and engaging. But British-born and Belgium-based Joe Higham, along with his nimble ensemble Al Orkesta take "fusion" to a whole 'nother level.

To understand the musical melting pot of Al Orkesta, it's first helpful to understand the man behind the band. The multi-reedist Joe Higham first got his formal music training from Newcastle College of Arts and Technology in Britain before studying jazz at the Brussels Conservatory. From there, he has played within a broad range of styles in various bands, ranging from experimental jazz to blues-soul to m-base to punk-jazz. And then it gets really interesting: Higham immersed himself in Arabic music, learning first-hand from Hamid Al Basri, one of the foremost Arabic music teachers in Europe. He has also played in a Jewish klezmer rock group, rounding out his extensive Middle Eastern music credentials. Somewhere along the way, Higham gained some know-how on performing Balkan folk music and the folk music of other parts of Europe as well. He's acquired so much expertise from his endeavors, he now teaches jazz at the prestigious Jazz Studio in Flanders, one of Europe's oldest private jazz schools.

With that kind of multi-cultural background it's a given that when Higham was ready to form his own group, named Al Orkesta, it was destined to sound like so many different things. And yet on the whole, not quite like anything else.

Higham cobbled together his five piece band with Jean-Paul Estievenart on trumpet, Jacques Pirotton on guitar, Olivier Stalon handling the bass and Stephan Pougin manning the drums. Highan plays tenor sax and clarinets to fit the occasion. Their music is a real musical potpourri that not only combines Arabic, Turkis and Slavic music forms into the jazz of Ellington, Monk, Coleman and Davis, but also makes room for the prog rock of Higham's youth, like Soft Machine, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Gong and even Pink Floyd. Strains of British jazz-rock of Nucleaus and Elton Dean's Ninesense can be found in Al Orkesta and thus, there is some of the "traditionally-defined" rock-jazz fusion to be found in this Higham's all-inclusive music, too.

Every one of the ten songs tendered on Where Are We Now? is a deft blend of these contrasting styles into a cocktail that somehow coheres, and coheres naturally. The coalescing is furthered enhanced by the compositional approach taken by Higham: for several tracks he transcribed traditional Turkish, Syrian and Jewish songs he had taped over his years of travels and combined them with original ideas to create songs that are hybrid in fact, not just in appearance.

The first two songs start off with that formula. "House Of The Marriage" has a mystically floating intro that segues into Higham and Estievenart's cagey unison lines over chord changes Higham extracted from the implied Turkish melody. Pirotton, with his aggressive Mike Stern guitar attack, provides a vital dual function of supplying the full chords that give the sound some depth and brings the rock element into Al Orkesta's powerful mix. Stalon's role is important, too, often holding down the harmony that the others improvise over, such as the Damascus-derived number "Sal Fi-na Al-lahda." Although not all tracks use this hybrid approach, there's plenty of interesting twists and turns in each tune; Higham's "Maflous," for instance, is perhaps a little more Westernized, but retains a flair for never staying in one musical spot for too long and strike a nice balance between spontaneity and structure. Pirotton's "Valse Immode" has a dark but sensitive melody, and Estievenart's muted horn fits right into it.

Higham shows off his klezmer clarinet acumen on the ten-minute-plus song inspired by traditional Jewish music, "Shpil-zhe mir a lidele." He and Estievenart exchange some musical expressions, and this mostly gentle tune builds up to a climatic raucous before settling down again. The killer track of this bunch is "Simple Dan(ce)", a whirlwind tour through full-throttle rock, Brit prog, Coltranian jazz Slavic folk and Middle-Eastern modes. It whisks the listener across a multitude of moods, retaining it's anything-goes attitude throughout. Higham, Estievenart, Jacques Pirotton all get showcased and take turns dictating the character for the song.

Where Are We Now? is an appropriate question to ask when listening to this record...you never know if the music is coming from Istanbul, Damascus, Athens, Tel Aviv, Canterbury or New York. The answer is usually that it's coming from all those places at once, and more. Joe Higham and his worldly Al Orkesta band has travelled the world of music and brings it to your doorstep as a neatly packaged, smile-inducing sonic adventure. Some of the freshest and most forward-thinking fusion jazz come from the other side of the pond. Here's a prime example.

Released last March, Where Are We Now? comes courtesy of the small Belgian label Mogno Music. Visit Joe's website here.

Purchase: Al Orkesta - Where Are We Now?

(Or, get it from the iTunes Store.)

Oz Noy - Schizophrenic (2009)

2009-09-22T00:00:00.021-05:00

by Pico

"Guitar virtuoso" for some can conjure up images of lightning fast shredders and gadget-filled guitar pyrotechnics. Some of these guys are pretty amazing technicians, to be sure, but a lot of them forget about applying their ample technique to songs that are any joy to listen to. But Oz Noy is not one of them.

Israeli-born Oz Noy has made a name for himself as a studio musician not long after moving to NYC in 1996, having toured and recorded with a diverse array of artists like Toni Braxton, Chris Botti, and Jeff "Tain" Watts. He's got a real clean, cursive style that' adaptive for most any situation, the perfect set of attributes for a session dog. But Noy has something to say musically on his own, and today marks the release of his forth album, Schizophrenic, from the Magna Carta imprint Magnatude.

The all-instrumental Schizophrenic impresses perhaps more for what it doesn't do more then what it does. It's not a lame excuse to show how fast and flamboyant this guitar whiz can play. It's not one monotonous track after another devoid of of euphonious, creative melodies. But it's certainly not lacking in dexterity, either. Instead, Noy constructs songs as memorable as his five-letter full name. He rocks you, grooves you and soothes you, and does so in such a clever way, you're not apt to notice the shifting time signatures and tricky chord changes. There's a near-perfect blend of rock, blues, funk and jazz, recast as a slick soul-gratifying fusion that makes few concessions to fads and never appears too snooty. To top it off, he pulls in some other outstanding session players for this record like keyboard player Ricky Peterson, drummer extraordinaire Dave Weckl and bassist Will Lee...and that's just for starters.

There's no hesitation to get your body to move to Noy's mighty rhythm guitar; the opener "Ice Pick" is groove-packed and Noy's liquid lead lines retains just a little sting to make it human. A couple of tracks later, the calypso-styled "Seven" displays his ability to write songs with interesting, contrasting sections that complement each other, a distinguishing feature found on a lot of his compositions for this CD.

Noy really pulls out all the stops for the title track. Noz plays a ferociously funky rhythm guitar locked into a tight groove with Lee and Anton Fig (Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Gary Moore, Miles Davis, James Brown, Steve Winwood, and Tony Bennett) and Keith Carlock (Steely Dan, Sting, James Taylor, Walter Becker, Donald Fagan), on drums. That's right...both Fig and Carlock. There to provide a heavy-metal counterpoint guitar is Toto's Steve Lukather. Peterson rounds out this super line-up on organ. Noy's guitar solo owes much to Jeff Beck and is one of few times he shows off his fleet-fingered attack, and perhaps the only gimmick he pulls out on the entire album is a sort of skipping distortion to his guitar that oddly works to add more funk. If that's not enough, the finale is a battle royale between the two world-class drummers, trading licks (not to worry, they don't overdo it).

The same line-up but with Chris Palmaro replacing Peterson on keys deliver the driving, backbeat rocker "120 Heart Beats," and Noy even gives Luke solo space at the end.

At the back third of the record, where an album usually peters out, Noy is still coming up with more ideas that mixes up the vibe of the record. The ambling "Elephant Walk" infuses lazy blues motif with a soulful, heavier chorus. "Twice In A While" is a snappy, mid-tempo number that contains Noy's tastiest licks on the whole record. "Jelly Blue" is a lean blues-rocker where Noy supplies a simmering Steve Ray Vaughan inspired solo. The astral ballad "Underwater Romance" and the fast-paced, fitful "Bug Out" bring an end to the proceedings.

Rock-jazz fusion has so many skilled practitioners that it can hard to decide which ones are going to earn the most listens. In my experience, it's usually the ones who take the challenging stuff and make it sound easy, all while making it sound easy on the ears. That describes Oz Noy. You might not understand all the technical stuff that went into making Schizophrenia, but you're apt to appreciate the results all the same.

Purchase: Oz Noy - Schizophrenic