Everywhere

It is a truth so commonplace that it has become a cliché: You needn’t be American to be a first-rate jazz musician. The United States of America brought together and mixed the elements that made jazz. But it is not, after all, something in the water, the genes or the sociology of The United States that makes good jazz improvisers. Rather, it is talent, inspiration, hard work and experience—the combination that creates artists in any field. Some black musicians used to say of white ones, “They’re stealing our music.” Some American musicians used to say that of non-Americans. America gave jazz to the world. To borrow Dizzy Gillespie’s wonderful phrase, you can’t steal a gift.

Hardly a week goes by when the mail or the express truck does not bring at least one reminder that the gift is coming back, generously expanded, from all regions of the planet. I have yet to hear a jazz CD from Mongolia or Yemen, but when one shows up, I won’t be greatly surprised. Here is a list of a few recent arrivals that I have liked, with brief comments. Some of these albums will be hard to find. The links may help.

Roberto Magris Europlane, Check In (Soul Note). Forthright modern mainstream music from Magris, an Italian pianist. His quintet includes his countryman Gabriele Centis on drums, saxophonists Tony Lakatos (Hungary) and Michael Erian (Austria) and the impressive Czech bassist Robert Balzar.

Yaron Herman, Variations (Laborie). Herman is a young Israeli living in Paris. I might quibble with his harmonies on “Summertime,” but he takes stimulating solo piano flights on a couple of Fauré pieces, a rarity by Clare Fischer and several originals.

Flip Philipp-Ed Partyka, Something Wrong With You? (FF Records). The Austrian vibraharpist Philipp and American trombonist Partyka, superb players and writers, lead a ten-piece band populated mostly by Germans. Their music draws on the Birth of the Cool tradition, European avant-gardism and humor.

Hiromi, Spiral (Telarc). This tiny Japanese pianist (last name, Euhara) sometimes channels her formidable technique into new-age meandering. Her electronic keyboard manipulations can curl your teeth. But, as in the title track, she is capable of lyrical creativity.

Eldar, Live at the Blue Note (Sony Classical). The piano prodigy from Kyrgystan (last name, Djangirov), now nineteen, has chops to spare, but the surest sign here of his maturity is his restrained, beguiling Latin ballad playing on “Besame Mucho.”

Fay Claassen, Two Portraits of Chet Baker, (Jazz ‘N Pulz). Two CDs. In the first, the Dutch singer wordlessly replicates Baker’s trumpet in a recreation of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Baritone saxophonist Jan Menu plays Mulligan’s role, most impressively. In the second CD, Claassen sings, beautifully, songs that Baker sang. Jan Wessels handles the trumpet solos with a Baker orientation. Hein Van de Geyn is the noteworthy bassist.

Enrico Pieranunzi, Live in Paris (Challenge). Van deGeyn is also the bassist on this two-CD set, joining pianist Pieranunzi, the dean of modern Italian jazz pianists, and drummer Andre Ceccarelli. A stimulating couple of hours of trio music that owes much to Bill Evans.

The Dutch Jazz Orchestra, The Lady Who Swings the Band: Rediscovered Music of Mary Lou Williams (Challenge). “File Under Jazz/Historical,” it says on the back of the CD box. Don’t file at all, is my advice; play daily. Nine of these thirteen pieces by the brilliant composer-arranger have never before been recorded. If you’re not familiar with this sterling big band there is no finer introduction than this gem.

You will find further recommendations in the next exhibit.