Their recording histories encompass dozens of collaborations, but in their new albums two of the most prolific recording artists in modern music go it alone.
Bill Frisell, Music Is (Okeh)
Guitarist Bill Frisell reaches into his storehouse of compositions to revisit several that he has recorded before, and to play others for the first time. Frisell is alone, yes, but with the help of producer Lee Townsend and engineer Tucker Martine he overdubs guitar layers and uses looping, applying the electronic wizardry that is a major component of his distinctiveness. The opening track, “Pretty Stars,†is a stunning example of Frisell’s use of looping as a means of creating subtle abstractions within uncomplicated music. Later in the album he revisits the “Stars” theme as “Made To Shine†on acoustic guitar without enhancement. In the blues “Winslow Homer,†in less than three-and-a-half minutes Frisell uses looping that builds toward what amounts to a conversation with himself—that is, between his acoustic guitar and its electronically enhanced counterpart. Another blues, “Go Happy Lucky,†all on acoustical guitar, is even shorter, and expressive in a different way that can’t be explained merely by the fact that it’s in a different key. It’s a different way of interpreting, of feeling, the blues. “Monica Jane,†named for Frisell’s daughter and first recorded with pianist Paul Bley three decades ago, loops in electronic counterpoint interjections that seem be heading for a conclusion in extraterrestrial regions. But the piece ends on a conventional C-major triad. Surprise! Frisell is full of surprises, and of satisfactions. The longest track in Music Is barely exceeds five minutes. Close listening to this album kept my ears occupied for a couple of days.
Brad Mehldau, After Bach (Nonesuch)
While Frisell gives the listener new approaches to his own music, pianist Brad Mehldau pays tribute
to Johann Sebastian Bach. Mehldau flawlessly plays five selections from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, for nearly 300 years a touchstone of classical music. He follows each of the Bach pieces with an improvisation that it inspired.
For example, his performance of Bach’s Prelude no. 3 in C# Major moves Mehldau to spontaneously create “Rondo,†the first of his After Bach impressions. It’s a lively venture in 5/4 time, loaded with the harmonic inventiveness that Mehldau has long practiced in his jazz playing. His answer to Bach’s brief Prelude No. 3 in C Major from Clavier Book II is his own “Pastorale,†a minute longer than the Prelude and rich with contrapuntal lines that Bach might well have admired. After the last of the Clavier pieces, the Fugue No. 16 in G Minor from Book II, Mehldau improvises “Ostinato,†an exercise in determination. He finishes with “Prayer for Healing,†bathing the album’s closing minutes in peacefulness.
Reader comments have converted what began a couple of weeks ago as a <em>Rifftides</em> post about Claude Thornhill’s version of â€Robbins’ Nest†into a seminar on keys, pitch, “Cornet Chop Suey,†Fletcher Henderson, “Stardust†and Glenn Miller, among other matters. It makes for a long, interesting read. If you’d like to catch up, 
A few weeks ago the Rifftides Monday Recommendation was Jeff Sultanof’s new book Experiencing Big Band Jazz. You can read the recommendation 
Research on yet another extracurricular (i.e., non-Rifftides) project involving John Coltrane has led me into several byways that the great tenor saxophonist took in his pre-“Giant Steps†days of the 1950s. One of those paths branched off from the association with Miles Davis that formed a milieu in which Coltrane flowered. After he left Davis, he formed his own band and played an essential role in changing the music’s direction. In the studio on his own in the fifties, he often had Davis’s rhythm section with him. In the case of his 1957 recording of “You Leave Me Breathless,†he took two-thirds of the section; pianist Red Garland and bassist Paul Chambers, with Arthur Taylor on drums rather than Davis’s Philly Joe Jones. Coltrane created a spell with a lavishly slow take on the 1938 Hollander-Freed song.
Martin Wind gathers a coterie of distinguished colleagues and demonstrates why for two decades he has been a mainstay bassist in the US and Europe. In settings that range from a piece inspired by “Sweet Georgia Brown†to the edge of free jazz in “Power Chords,†Wind employs the energies and imaginations of drummers Matt Wilson and Duduka Da Fonseca, saxophonist Scott Robinson, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, clarinetist Anat Cohen and pianists Gary Versace and Bill Cunliffe.
Now that the powerful tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb has moved from Los Angeles to the Pacific Northwest, he frequently collaborates with elite Seattle-area jazz musicians. One who recently asked him to join her for an engagement is the increasingly impressive vibraharpist Susan Pascal. They played at the vital downtown Seattle club Tula’s. Jazz Northwest host Jim Wilke says that in his broadcast on Sunday, along with tributes to ChickCorea and
Oscar Peterson, Pascal and Christlieb will celebrate Stan Getz’s recordings with vibes players including Cal Tjader and Gary Burton. The rhythm section is a top-notch trio of Northwest jazz veterans: pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Chuck Deardorf and drummer Mark Ivester. Air time is Sunday, February 25, at 2 PM PST. In the Seattle area you can hear Jazz Northwest on KNKX at 88.5 FM. It will be online around the world at 
The Chicago pianist’s low-key approach to solo piano might lead to wool-gathering that would justify the name of his label. But he bolsters the album’s harmonic depth and melodic originality by including Johannes Brahms’ B-flat-minor Intermezzo and John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.†Every other track on the recording, including Clearfield’s interpretation of the Coltrane piece, takes a harmonic back seat to his interpretation—even adoration—of Brahms’ glorious invention.
In an album striking for its quietness and its daring, British vocalist Norma Winstone and her augmented trio interpret music from motion pictures. The augmentation is important; Mario Brunello’s cello and Helge Klaus Norbakken’s percussion add breadth and depth to arrangements that buoy Ms. Winstone’s flawless singing and the lyrics that she wrote for the recording. Clarinetist and saxophonist Klaus Gesing and pianist-arranger Glauco Venier continue their essential roles in the trio.
The young veteran Washington, D.C., jazz critic Mike (aka Michael J.) West took to Facebook today to make an announcement:
Thornill’s “Robbins’ Nest†emphasizes the uncanny empathy of the band members and the genius (no other word for it) of arranger Gil Evans. (Thornhill is pictured right). The version Sultanof chose is a 1947 radio transcription available on YouTube. After a setup paragraph describing the instrumentation, the orchestration and a few solo moments, he writes this:
Bassist Bren Plummer’s live radio broadcast a couple of days ago (scroll down two items) prompted me to check out the KNKX-FM website. There, I found a post about another Pacific Northwest jazz luminary, alto saxophonist Brent Jensen, who was recently video-recorded in one of the station’s live sessions. (Jensen and bassist Jeff Johnson are pictured left.) KNKX host Abe Beeson put together an entry that includes four pieces by Jensen and his quartet with Johnson, guitarist Jamie Findlay and drummer Steve Tate. Here they are with Desmond’s composition “Embarcadero.”
Wesla Whitfield, a singer of uncommon talent, taste, musicianship and courage, died yesterday in St. Helena, California. Her husband and accompanist of more than three decades, the pianist Mike Greensill, announced her passing. She had been under treatment for bladder cancer and was recently in hospice care but died at home. She was 70. I once wrote,
quintet. At 12:15 pm PST, they will play music from Plummer’s album