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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Recent Listening: Wofford, Mahanthappa, Pelt

August 13, 2013 by Doug Ramsey

gollum_not_listeningA few major record labels survive, but most jazz albums come from independent companies, many of them one-man or one-woman operations. Digital technology makes recording relatively simple and inexpensive for small independent labels. It also makes it easy for musicians to be their own record companies. Some record at home in living rooms or basements. Those with good gear and a modicum of engineering skill can achieve high quality sound. The business of making records has come a long way since the painstaking, labor-intensive process the film in this recent Rifftides piece illustrates. One of the results is that at a time when the audience for jazz is holding at about two percent of the record market, more jazz CDs than ever are being recorded.

Until fairly recently, the non-technological roadblocks to do-it-yourself record businesses were distribution, promotion, advertising and publicity. Internet uploading, the rise of social media and the expanding population of independent publicists have changed that. Indeed, some musicians are their own publicists and distributors by way of their websites, Facebook pages, email lists, the postal department, FedEx and UPS. Getting a record out and calling attention to it is relatively easy. That presents the listener with an embarrassment of riches (to be optimistic about musical quality). The reviewer must face the impossibility of giving thorough hearings to even a small percentage of the CDs that show up on his doorstep, sometimes as many as a half-dozen a day.

All the reviewer—this one, at least—can do is try to listen to as much as possible, write the occasional full-length review and otherwise share impressions of some of what he hears. Here are recommendations, some in brief, of recent and a few not-so-recent arrivals.

Mike Wofford, It’s Personal (Capri)

In this album with the apt title, Wofford’s harmonic and rhythmic approaches to Johnny Carisi’s “Springsville,” make the piece his own. A few seconds into the track, the listener abandons the idea of51bccG+w5GL._SX300_ comparing Wofford’s version with the indelible 1957 Miles Davis-Gil Evans recording. At some points the pianist seems to be floating, as if the piece were a leisurely nocturne rich with underlying chords. And yet, the pulse that powers his performance continues throughout, however subliminally. The unfailing jazz feeling of his playing and his ingenuity with chord voicings are evident everywhere in the dozen tracks of this solo album, a highlight in Wofford’s extensive discography. He imparts his personal stamp to pieces by Jackie McLean, Dizzy Gillespie, Gigi Gryce, the guitarist Larry Koonse, among others.

Wofford gives Duke Ellington’s and Billy Strayhorn’s “The Eighth Veil” a reflective reading quite apart from the rhythmic insistence of Ellington’s 1962 big band recording. He includes a medley of two pieces with the same name, “Once in a Lifetime.” The first is the 1960s standard by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. The other is by the new wave band Talking Heads. He makes the Talking Heads song a solid jazz vehicle while retaining the rock group’s whimsy. Among Wofford’s original compositions, “Cole Porter” captures something of the drama and elegance of its namesake and his songs. “It’s Personal” opens with melodic foreshadowing and harmonies that may have to do with John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice,” then it blossoms into a distinctive ballad. “Hines Catch-up” is a medium-tempo F blues dedicated to Earl Hines. It is a knowing appreciation of the father of modern jazz piano, with side trips through a couple of Art Tatum runs. It is also a self-portrait by a pianist capable of paying homage without lapsing into imitation or parody or being anyone but himself. In this track, the album’s good feeling, relaxation and solid values are at their zenith.

In Brief

Rudresh Mahanthappa, Gamak (ACT)

An alto saxophonist, Mahanthappa melds his American jazz values and Indian cultural heritage—alongMahanthappa Gamak with a number of other ingredients—into original music that cannot be categorized. The album is dedicated to the proposition that melody rules, and that melody and wild excitement can go hand in hand. To an extent, the music is built around Dave Fiuczynski, a guitarist who can reach instant intensity. But Mahanthappa is the guiding spirit, a powerful soloist and a leader with a vision that Fiuczynski, bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Dan Weiss help him achieve with unity, superb musicianship and riveting energy.

Jeremy Pelt, Water And Earth (High Note)

Pelt applies the warmth and brilliance of his trumpet playing to his original compositions and a piece byPelt Water And Earth bassist Stanley Clarke. The rhythm section features Fender Rhodes piano and electric bass throughout and, occasionally, muffled singing. The album has a jazz fusion aspect that reaches back to the 1970s, with occasional use of heavy drum echo and other electronic sounds. Interesting soloing by Pelt and saxophonist Roxy Cross, who is notable on tenor, usually overcomes the lounge atmosphere. The credits list “Jeremy Pelt: trumpet, effects.” Sometimes, in “Boom Bishop” for instance, the effects win. When his trumpet is unadorned, he wins.

Next time: more brief reviews.

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Comments

  1. Steven Cerra says

    August 18, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    “All the reviewer—this one, at least—can do is try to listen to as much as possible, write the occasional full-length review and otherwise share impressions of some of what he hears. Here are recommendations, some in brief, of recent and a few not-so-recent arrivals.”

    I’ve been trying to find a way to express this same sentiment for some time now. As usual, Doug, you said it best.

    One the one hand, it’s overwhelming to try to keep up with the flood of Jazz recordings that arrive for consideration, on the other hand, so little time and all that Jazz!

    • Doug Ramsey says

      August 18, 2013 at 4:58 pm

      The latest profiles on Mr. Cerra’s excellent Jazz Profiles blog are of Wayne Shorter and the late Donald Byrd.

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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Blogroll

All About Jazz
JerryJazzMusician
Carol Sloane: SloaneView
Jazz Beyond Jazz: Howard Mandel
The Gig: Nate Chinen
Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong
Don Heckman: The International Review Of Music
Ted Panken: Today is The Question
George Colligan: jazztruth
Brilliant Corners
Jazz Music Blog: Tom Reney
Brubeck Institute
Darcy James Argue
Jazz Profiles: Steve Cerra
Notes On Jazz: Ralph Miriello
Bob Porter: Jazz Etc.
be.jazz
Marc Myers: Jazz Wax
Night Lights
Jason Crane:The Jazz Session
JazzCorner
I Witness
ArtistShare
Jazzportraits
John Robert Brown
Night After Night
Do The Math/The Bad Plus
Prague Jazz
Russian Jazz
Jazz Quotes
Jazz History Online
Lubricity

Personal Jazz Sites
Chris Albertson: Stomp Off
Armin Buettner: Crownpropeller’s Blog
Cyber Jazz Today, John Birchard
Dick Carr’s Big Bands, Ballads & Blues
Donald Clarke’s Music Box
Noal Cohen’s Jazz History
Bill Crow
Easy Does It: Fernando Ortiz de Urbana
Bill Evans Web Pages
Dave Frishberg
Ronan Guilfoyle: Mostly Music
Bill Kirchner
Mike Longo
Jan Lundgren (Friends of)
Willard Jenkins/The Independent Ear
Ken Joslin: Jazz Paintings
Bruno Leicht
Earl MacDonald
Books and CDs: Bill Reed
Marvin Stamm

Tarik Townsend: It’s A Raggy Waltz
Steve Wallace: Jazz, Baseball, Life and Other Ephemera
Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest
Jessica Williams

Other Culture Blogs
Terry Teachout
DevraDoWrite
Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
On An Overgrown Path

Journalism
PressThink: Jay Rosen
Second Draft, Tim Porter
Poynter Online

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