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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Everywhere, Part 2

May 29, 2006 by Doug Ramsey

Here are more recommended CDs by jazz artists not from the United States.
Gilad Atzmon, Musik: Rearranging the 20th Century (Enja). It is unlikely that Atzmon can separate himself from Israeli-Palestinian politics–or that he wishes to–but this CD is more about music and less about ideologies than, say, his Exile. The context of the album is, I suppose, world music, but it has plenty of Atzmon’s fearsome, lovely, sax and clarinet work. I have heard private recordings of his straight-ahead jazz tenor playing. Why isn’t that on CD?
Watch Out! Svensk Jazzhistoria,Vol. 10 (Caprice). The final box set in Caprice’s monumental survey of jazz in Sweden from its beginnings covers 1965-1969. It has Bengt Hallberg, Rolf Ericson, Monica Zetterlund, dozens of other Swedes, and distinguished visitors like Red Mitchell, George Russell and Don Cherry.
Ed Bickert, Out of the Past (Sackville). This comes from 1976, when guitarist Bickert, bassist Don Thompson and drummer Terry Clarke constituted the rhythm section of what Paul Desmond affectionately called his “Canadian Group.” Issued for the first time, this CD by the trio reaffirms the reasons for Desmond’s affection.
Moutin Reunion Quartet, Red Moon (Sunnyside). It opens with an exhilirating duet on “Le Mer” between French bassist Francois Moutin and his drummer brother Louis. When pianist Baptiste Trotignon and saxophonist Rick Margitza join for the title tune, the energy level–improbably–increases.
David Dorůžka, Hidden Paths (Cube Metier). A young Czech who studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and is back in Prague, Dorůžka is an abstractionist who often fragments or floats his lines. He can also dig in, as he does on Monk’s “Evidence.” A guitarist to watch.
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, The Bass in the Background (Storyville). A compilation of the late bassist in support of and soloing with Bud Powell, Coleman Hawkins, Svend Asmussen, Ben Webster, Zoot Sims and others. And what support. NHOP was a marvel.
NHOP is the bassist on Thad Jones and the Danish Radio Big Band Live at the Montmartre (Storyville). Recorded during a residency in 1978, before Jones moved to Copenhagen, this CD is packed with his extraordinary arrangements. The ensemble playing is superior. There are solos to match it by saxophonist Jesper Thilo, pianist Ole Kock Hansen, trombonist Vincent Nilsson, and trumpeters Allan Borschinsky and Idrees Sulieman. Jones’s only cornet solo–on “Old Folks”–is memorable.
ICP Orchestra, Aan & Uit (ICIP). The bizarre and the beautiful. The irrepressible pianist Misha Mengelberg seems to be the guiding spirit in this project of ten musicians, most of them Dutch, who include the avant garde drummer Han Bennink. Just when you think the hi-jinks are getting out of hand, a gorgeous piece of arranging takes over. Their treatment of Hoagy Carmichael’s barely-known “Barbaric” is a highlight. Now zany, now touching, this is music for the open-minded listener with a sense of adventure and a sense of humor.

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Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

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