Archives for July 2017

Following flights across the United States and the Atlantic Ocean and a gorgeous car ride from Copenhagen to Ystad, the Rifftides staff is looking out the window of our room in the storied Saltsjöbad hotel (opened in 1897) on southern Sweden’s Baltic shore. The customary collection of summer swimmers, tanners and loungers is on the beach, and the bike path is busy. I’ve shown you similar shots in the runups to previous Ystad Sweden Jazz Festivals, but this view is hard to resist.

The piano playing of Jan Johnsson (1931-1968) is also hard to resist. Johansson influenced jazz pianists everywhere. They included the young Jan Lundgren, who earned international acclaim and became the founding artistic director of this small medieval town’s world-class festival. The 2017 edition gets underway tomorrow evening and will run through Sunday. A couple of weeks ago we brought you video of Lundgren playing “Emigrantvisa” in a two-piano performance with the Czech pianist Emil Viklicky. Here is Jan Johansson playing that traditional Swedish song, also known as “They Sold Their Homestead.” His quartet mates in this 1961 Swedish Television appearance are Rune Gustafsson, guitar; Gunnar Johnsson, bass; and Ingvar Callmer, drums.

I am running soon for a plane headed to Sweden. But first: I must tell you about a discovery by blogger, Rifftides reader and tune-detective-first-class Tarik Townsend. Mr. Townsend (pictured) writes that he has found a recording of one of the most elusive quotes that Paul Desmond ever worked into a solo. As evidence, his story incorporates three videos, one of which has the quote itself. It’s a valuable and entertaining discovery. I congratulate Mr. Townsend for his diligent pursuit of a piece of Desmond ephemera that might have remained obscure but for the Townsend determination. To read his report and hear the music, go to his blog, which he named, It’s A Raggy Waltz. Come back here after you listen, for a final thought

In the Townsend piece, you heard Dave Brubeck voicing his enthusiasm for his partner’s wit. The appreciation the two had for one another’s work was frequently on display. They did not hold back their admiration for humor and harmonic resourcefulness. When the enthusiasm surfaced it was one of the factors that drew audiences in and helped make them—as Brubeck put it—the fifth member of the quartet.

Dave loved to laugh. Paul was happy to help.

It is impossible to review even a smattering of the dozens of albums that land in the Rifftides mailbox. With the Sweden trip looming, time allows for mentions of a few relatively recent releases that have caught the staff’s attention.

Maryanne de Prophetis, Tell A Star (ENNArecords)

In this collection of her compositions, Ms. de Prophetis melds a clear voice and solid musicianship with a sense of daring. The title song begins as a straightforward ballad with a story-telling lyric. A beguiling section of Ron Horton’s flugelhorn and Frank Kimbrough’s piano follows. When the singer re-enters, her lyric becomes abstract, but not as abstract as other songs with wordless vocals that also provide settings for Horton’s and Kimbrough’s improvisations. Drummer Satoshi Takeishi contributes patterns that reinforce and reflect the firmness or gentleness of Ms. de Prophetis’s singing and the bold, often witty, musings of the instrumentalists.

Kevin Eubanks, East West Time Line (Mack Avenue)

Playing electric guitar on some tracks and acoustic on others, Eubanks shows the skill and versatility that made him well known on television during his years as music director of the Tonight Show band. The album presents him with all-star quintets, one recorded in New York, the other in Los Angeles. His collective sidemen include trumpeter Nicholas Payton, pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Dave Holland, tenor saxophonist Bill Pierce, drummers Marvin “Smitty” Smith and Jeff “Tain” Watts. Eubanks wrote all of the music for the New York band. In L.A. he drew on compositions by Duke Ellington, Chick Corea, Ray Bryant and Marvin Gaye, plus the standard “My One and Only Love.” Eubanks restructures Bryant’s “Cubano Chant,” giving it an intriguing slinky feeling. Payton has a superbly contained solo on the opening “Time Line” and another in “Something About Nothing.” Pierce and Eubanks share the melody to great effect in “My One and Only Love.” Throughout, Eubanks is, in turn, relaxed and incisive. It’s a comfortable album.

Mary Halvorson Octet, Away With You (Firehouse 12 Records)

Expanding her band to eight musicians, guitarist Halvorson assembles young New York players whose esthetic matches hers. Their leanings toward unfettered expression are balanced by exacting musicianship. Ms. Halvorson’s writing here underlines the craftsmanship of her composing, arranging and improvising. I can imagine Igor Stravinsky smiling at the audacity of her ensemble constructions in the opening piece, “Spirit Splitter.” Pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn not only generates contrasts between her and Halvorson, as in the title tune, but also emphasizes how they complement one another, as in the piece called “Fog Bank.” Alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, trombonist Jacob Garchik and the vigorous tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock are splendid in the ensemble and in solo. Bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith are a formidable rhythm team. This album further establishes Mary Halvorson at the forefront of today’s avant garde.

Terry Gibbs, 92 Years Young: Jammin’ at the Gibbs House (Whaling City Sound)

Coaxed by his drummer son, vibraphonist Gibbs came out of retirement to record and insisted that he do it at home. The session with son Gerry, pianist John Campbell and the rising young bassist Mike Gurrola finds the vibraphonist playing with energy, speed and ebullience that has amazed his listeners and colleagues for seventy years. In a session that ran four days, Gibbs called tunes as he thought of them. The quartet recorded them as first—and only—takes and came up with an album that is enjoyable from beginning to end. Campbell is in great form, particularly impressive nailing “Donna Lee” in counterpoint at high speed as Gibbs and company finish a romping “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Among the 14 tunes “Yardbird Suite,” “Take The ‘A’ Train” “Imagination” and “All the Things You Are.” The old man sounds young on all of them.

Jeremy Pelt, Make Noise! (High Note)

The adventurous trumpeter has succeeded in the past few years with various applications of electronics. Here, however, he and his band are all acoustic. Whatever the loss in trendiness, there’s a gain in clarity and accessibility. Pelt’s command of the instrument is in clear relief in a set that also gives his sidemen plenty of exposure. Percussionist Jaquelene Acevedo introduces the opening track with a prelude on congas that sets up the title tune. She is a driving source of energy on several pieces, including the Latin-spirited “Bodega Social.” The rhythm section of pianist Victor Gould, bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Jonathan Barber are impressively attuned to one another. An individualist from the time of his first album, Pelt nonetheless is straightforward in acknowledging his heroes, as he does Miles Davis by way of tone and phrasing in “Prince,” a reflective piece that the liner notes emphasize has nothing to do with the late rock musician.

Roscoe Mitchell, Bells For The South Side (ECM)

If you have followed Mitchell’s searching music over the past 50 years, Bells For The South Side will reassure you that the septuagenarian composer, saxophonist and tireless avant-garde inspiration continues to innovate. Mitchell’s music makes demands on listeners—and rewards them for their attention.

This is not a rehash of his work in the 1960s with AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), or of Mitchell’s free jazz pioneering with his Art Ensemble of Chicago. It is brand new. He is one of the great avant garde experimenters, and in this two-CD set there is plenty of experimentation. Some of it involves his arsenal of woodwinds ranging from bass saxophone to sopranino and flute. Other pieces are fiestas of bells, gongs, cymbals, woodblocks and assorted drums. The moments packed with percussion may call into question Mitchell’s commitment to his famous dictum that music is half sound and half silence. Never fear, he lives up to that notion. Quietness is an aspect of what makes for absorbing listening to the ensembles in the opening “Spatial Aspects of the Sound,” and in “The Last Chord,” Cards For Drums and The Final Hand,” and an exhilarating reprise of his 1973 Art Ensemble composition “Odwalla.”

As he continues his adventures, the 77-year-old Mitchell’s colleagues are pianist Craig Taborn, trumpeter Hugh Raglin, trombonist Tyshawn Sorey, saxophonist James Fei, bassist Jaribu Shahid, and percussionists William Winant, Kikanju Baku and Tani Tabbal.

Denny Zeitlin & George Marsh, Expedition: Duo: Electro-Acoustic Improvisations (Sunnyside)

Pianist Denny Zeitlin, Mitchell’s contemporary and fellow native of Chicago, is equally dedicated to ceaseless artistic growth. This is how he concludes a paragraph of notes for his latest collaboration with drummer-percussionist George Marsh,

We often feel like we are some kind of galactic orchestra.

That does not mean that they are space cadets. Their unplanned mutual inventiveness is so logical that it often sounds as if it must have been conceived on manuscript paper, but no; it is spontaneous improvisation, forged in experience and trust that go back to Zeitlin’s 1960s trio with Marsh, his music for the 1970s remake of the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and to Riding The Moment, the duo’s previous Sunnyside album. Zeitlin uses electronic keyboards, a synthesizer and creative engineering to fashion, among other things,  impressions of horn sections, an arco bass, a guitar and what might be a trumpet or—wait a minute—it’s a trombone (if a trombone could play that high).

Marsh’s cymbals crashes on “Not Lost in The Shuffle” are priceless. Throughout, he accompanies Zeitlin’s permutations with drumming that occasionally echoes and always complements his partner’s piano-synthesizer-organ-trumpet-saxophone-trombone-guitar-orchestra creations. That sentence may read like the prescription for a complex disaster waiting to happen. There is no disaster. The music has a bebop feeling of forward motion in “Traffic;” turns as lyrical as a minor-key Schubert sonata in “Spiral Nebula;” recalls the classic Zeitlin trio with Marsh when “One Song” gets fully underway; makes you want to dance during “Watch Where You Step;” and swings hard during Zeitlin’s electro-faux trombone solo on “Shards Of Blue.”

The album is a remarkable technical accomplishment. More important, it is a solid musical achievement that has the virtue of being—if you’ll pardon the outmoded, uncool, expression—entertaining.

Nat King Cole Trio, Zurich 1950 (TCB)

Nat Cole was of a musical generation that did not consider whether it was cool to be entertaining. He welcomed it as an obligation passed along by musicians who included Louis Armstrong and Cole’s hero and role model Earl “Fathah” Hines. This album in the invaluable TCB series of rescued live recordings is from the end of the period when Cole had established himself as a singer but still considered the piano his main instrument. His piano playing here will remind anyone who may have forgotten that with his keyboard touch and refined harmonic sense, Cole was one of the major influences on players of the instrument. Directly or indirectly, he touched every modern jazz pianist who emerged during and after the 1940s. Yet, his fame as a popular singer was so great that it is not unusual for someone to exclaim, as I heard recently, “Oh, he played the piano too?”

This is a typical Cole set from the period, with featured spots for the lightning-fast bongo playing of Jack Costanzo, guitarist Irving Ashby’s lyricism and bebop quotes, and bassist Joe Comfort solid lines. The pianist has notable solos on “Body and Soul” and “Poor Butterfly.” He rather uproariously emulates Hines on “Saint Louis Blues,” which melds into what must be must be one of the earliest covers of Milt Jackson’s “Bluesology.” That piece was on its way to becoming a classic when Jackson first recorded it for Savoy less than four months before this Cole concert. The Swiss audience liked it so much that their enthusiastic applause demanded a reprise.

Yes, Cole sings —good versions of “Embraceable You,” “Little Girl,” “Sweet Lorraine” and “Route 66,” which had been a hit for four years when this was recorded. Cole, the band and the audience were in good spirits and the sound quality captured by Radio SRF at Zurich’s Kongresshaus is generally excellent. This is an important addition to the Nat Cole discography.

On July 12 we lost Joe Fields. During his long career Fields was the guiding spirit of record labels committed to unalloyed jazz. He started the Cobblestone label and later changed its name to Muse. Among the dozens of musicians he recorded on Muse over three decades were Woody Shaw, Houston Person, Grant Green and Pat Martino.

In the 1980 Fields absorbed the Savoy and Landmark labels, whose holdings encompassed recordings by major figures including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson. In the late ‘90s, he and his son Barney created High Note Records, whose prominent artists include Person, Tom Harrell, Russell Malone, Ron Carter, Wallace Roney, Eric Alexander and Freddy Cole. One of the most recent High Note releases is pianist Cyrus Chestnut’s There’s A Sweet, Sweet Spirit, one of several Fields projects for which he asked me to write liner essays.

Joe was businesslike, determined and, when it came to musical quality, uncompromising. Indications are that Barney Fields will now direct High Note’s fortunes.

From one of several Houston Person encounters with bassist Ron Carter on labels overseen by Joe Fields, here is “Mr. Bow Tie.”

Before long, the Rifftides staff will be flying to Europe for the 2017 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. As always, the festival lineup will include prominent visiting American artists. Among them are tenor saxophonists Jerry Bergonzi and Joshua Redman, trumpeter Tim Hagans, drummer Al Foster and guitarist Al Di Meola.

In addition, the Ystad artistic director, pianist Jan Lundgren, has engaged some of Europe’s intriguing young musician—and a few older ones. For instance, the veteran pianists Louis van Dijk of Holland and Iiro Rantala of Finland will perform in separate solo concerts. Lundgren himself will appear twice, first in a duo with a fellow Swede, the celebrated trombonist Nils Landgren. Later in the week, Lundgren will perform with his Potsdamer Quartet of Scandinavian all-stars. Also exploring the freedom allowed in duets will be the seasoned Swedish artists pianist Bobo Stenson and saxophonist/ flutist Lennart Åberg.

Returning to the festival after five years will be the Japanese pianist Hiromi, in a duo with the Colombian harpist Edmar Castañeda. Reviewing her previous Ystad performance, I described Hiromi as a whirlwind. Castañeda’s virtuosity is said to match hers. Maybe we can expect a double whirlwind. Another duo concert (do I detect a trend?) will be by Swedish bassist Hans Backenroth and Danish guitarist Jacob Fischer. Other performances to anticipate:

• Three Swedish singers in tribute to the late Swedish diva Monica Zetterlund, with Jan Lundgren at the piano.
• Trumpeter Bobby Medina, an American musician tightly connected to Sweden, featured with the XL Big Band.
• Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen with the style-bending group David’s Angels led by bassist David Carlsson.
• The energy and drive of tenor saxophonist HÃ¥kan Broström and his new big band, the New Places Orchestra.
• Soprano saxophonist Karolina Almgren moving into a leadership role with a quintet that includes a cello.
• The New York band called The Rad Trads playing a concert in the ancient courtyard of Per Helsas gÃ¥rd after leading the festival’s opening parade through the streets of Ystad.

To see the complete schedule, go here.

In what may be considered a preview of the Ystad festival, let’s hear saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi with trumpeter Tim Hagans at last year’s jazz festival in Copenhagen, up the road from Ystad and into Denmark by way of a long bridge and a tunnel under an arm of the Baltic Sea. Bergonzi’s fellow tenor saxophonist is Thomas Franck of Sweden. Carl Winther is on piano, Johnny Åman on bass, Anders Mogensen on drums. All of them but Franck will be in with Bergonzi in Ystad. They play “Scorpio Dance.”

Today’s early morning cycling expedition took me past a magnificent pear orchard in the hills west of town. Here is the orchard…

…and here are pears taking on color and that lovely pear shape.

Apples are the principal cash crop in this area of Eastern Washington State, but in a good year pears do nicely for their growers.

Mulling over what music about pears to use with this post, I quickly ran out of options. You’d be surprised how few songs there are with “pear” in the title. So, I made the obvious choice. Erik Satie (pictured left) wrote Trois morceaux en forme de poire (“Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear”) in 1903. The legend is that it came in reaction to ClaudeDebussy’s suggestion that Satie should pay more attention to form in his music. The accuracy of the legend has been challenged, but it makes a good story. And Satie made good music. This is one of his best-known compositions. We hear and see it by the duo piano team of Giovanni Carmassi and Giuseppe Fricelli.

Our Rifftides Russian correspondent, Svetlana Ilicheva, writes that one of her favorite listening spots in Moscow is the Zhurfac café. Not far from the Kropotkinskaya metro stop on Gogol Boulevard, the Zhurfac is in a neighborhood of major cultural interest because of the State Art Museum named for writer and national icon Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). Nearby on the bank of the Moskva River is the massive Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The district is a few blocks southwest of the Kremlin.

Now that you have your bearings, let’s visit the Zhurfac café. Its owner is Suren Gabriel, a journalism graduate of Moscow State University who lives in two countries, Russia and Israel. Svetlana received Mr. Gabriel’s permission for Rifftides to show you a video he made recently of a performance at his establishment. Guitarist Georgy Yashagashvily is warming as as we pass the greeter, Mr. Dobson. Mr. Dobson’s stern gaze is despite, or perhaps because of, his being made of rubber.

Svetlana (pictured right) tells us about the band.

The musicians are quite well known in our Jazz community. Anatoly Tekuchyov is considered to be the best vibist in Moscow. Igor Ivanushkin is a very popular bassist, energetic and enthusiastic, who always creates a festive atmosphere wherever he plays. Georgy Yashagashvily is a fine guitarist, head of the Jazz-manush community in Moscow (the followers of Django Reinhard). Every time I have the opportunity to hear this trio, I take it. Zhurfac café is a nice place for that purpose. Here, they play “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”

With the abeyance of certain physical annoyances, cycling is back in more or less full swing. Glorious weather makes it a pleasure to be on the road again, but only if the cyclist leaves before the morning heat gets serious. August temperatures here on the dry side of the Cascade Mountains often go above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or nearly 38 degrees Celsius. Toward the end of this morning’s ride, I had to stop on a freeway overpass to make way for a semi truck and trailer, and I’m glad I did. There was Mount Adams, 60 miles to the southwest, swaddled in its perpetual snow.

This evening, recovered from the ride and relaxing on the deck, we watched the full moon. As in the case of the Mount Adams picture, the only camera available was in a cell phone. This shot may not be museum quality, but it captures something of the mood our beloved satellite created tonight.

Also resonating with the mood is “Moon Love,” inspired by the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. This version is from an early Chet Baker quartet album with Russ Freeman on piano.

Kurt Rosenwinkel, Caipi (RAZDAZ Records)

From his emergence in the 1990s, Rosenwinkel has been a relaxed guitar improviser even when negotiating the complex pieces that make him one of the most interesting composers at work today. He retains his leisurely approach to soloing in this collection, which is redolent with feelings and flavors of modern Brazilian music.

Rosenwinkel’s guitar solo on “Chromatic B” is a highlight. On that piece and several others he also plays piano, bass, drums, synthesizer and electric keyboard—and sings. In comparison with the singing of Pedro Martins, who is captivating in the title song, vocal performance is not Rosenwinkel’s strong suit. Martins is also impressive in “Little b” and “Summer Song” (Rosenwinkel’s composition, not Dave Brubeck’s piece with the same title). Eric Clapton sits in as a guitar soloist on Rosenwinkel’s “Little Dream.” Among several other guests, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner stands out on “Casio Escher,” as does vocalist Amanda Brecker. Chris Weisman’s liner notes do not explain the meaning of “Casio Escher,” or of “Casio Vanguard,” “Little b” or “Caipi,” the name of the album. The closest Portuguese word I’ve been able to find is “Caipirinha,” a Brazilian sugar cane brandy.

But what’s in a name? The music is what matters, and this Rosenwinkel album has substance as well as lighthearted consistency. The intriguing eccentricities of his adaptations, and his too-few guitar solos, honor the harmonic and rhythmic subtleties that came out of Brazil half a century ago and captivated the world.

Fanny Gunnarsson Quartet, Mirrors Havtorn Records

The Swedish pianist and singer Fanny Gunnarsson of the band  We Float, also leads her own quartet. Mirrors features Ms. Gunnarsson’s vocals on her original songs, performed in flawless English. “Airplane,” as an example, is a love song consisting of a vocal chorus by Ms. Gunnarsson that, in a minimalist achievement, tells a complete story. At the piano she then pursues an emphatic duet with the increasingly impressive soprano saxophonist Karolina Almgren.

Ms. Almgren’s playing throughout has tonal and harmonic depth and an affecting Scandinavian melancholy. She is notably moving on the concluding slow pieces “For Kerstin” and “Shine” (not the 1910 popular song, but a new one by Ms. Gunnarson). As in We Float, the bassist and drummer are Kristian Rimshult and Hannes Olbers. The title tune begins as a peaceful duet with Ms. Gunnarsson’s piano and Ms. Almgren’s saxophone. Rumshult and Olbers enter so quietly as to be nearly unnoticeable, but the music swells into a sort of chorale with Ms. Gunnarsson’s overdubbed voice powerful in two registers (or is it three?) before the song ends as tranquil as it began.

This is an evolving band whose development is worth following.

(Mirrors appears to be available in the US only as a download. Havtorn Records indicates that physical copies may be ordered by sending an email message here.

It is always a challenge to decide how Rifftides should celebrate the anniversary of the independence of The United States Of America. In 2017, we are observing it with pieces by artists whose careers began on the west coast of the US before their names and their music became familiar around the world. Both works are short traditional songs that express feelings of profound importance to millions of Americans.

The first piece, “America The Beautiful,” is from Clare Fischer’s 1967 album Songs For Rainy Day Lovers. Published in 1910, the song had a lyric by Katharine Lee Bates. Fischer’s elegant writing combines strings and his piano in a classic version of a song that has become, for many jazz musicians, a standard part of the repertoire.