Search Results for: target=

Jim Wilke (pictured above) tells us about the next program on his Jazz Northwest, and where to hear it.

Jim Wilke sent us a weekend listening tip, illustrated:

Dave Douglas is a trumpeter whose adherence to basic jazz values justifies the title of the new album that he shares with pianist Uri Caine and drummer Andrew Cyrille in their unusual trio. How unusual? First of all, there is no bass player to help with harmonic and rhythmic responsibilities. At the piano, Caine takes care of business in both departments, abetted by Cyrille, a drummer whose strength and drive have seemed to intensify as he built on the qualities that first brought him to listeners’ attention when he worked with guitarist Eric Gale in the early 1960s. He went on to make his mark with Cecil Taylor and other free jazz leaders. Free jazz is only one of the genres that captivates Douglas. Trace his career, and you’ll find that he is familiar with–in fact, captivated by–music of all jazz eras up to and following bebop. As an example, here are Douglas, Cyrille and Caine in a piece dedicated to Mary Lou Williams. They titled it, “Rose And Thorn.” We follow it with two pieces that capture the joy in performance that helped make Williams one of the most prominent performers and composers beginning in the late 1920s and until her death in 1981.

Earlier this week at The Seasons, an acoustically blessed performance hall in Yakima, Washington, alto saxophonist Logan Strosahl and pianist Nick Sanders demonstrated the like-mindedness that makes them one of the most riveting duos in jazz. Sanders (on the left here) traveled to the Pacific Northwest from New York, his headquarters for a decade. Strosahl was visiting from Berlin, Germany, where he has been expanding his musical trilogy based on the King Arthur legend. The album cover below shows that project’s first volume.

Strosahl’s and Sanders’ repertoire at The Seasons included dazzling original compositions, jazz standards by–among others–Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and classics from what has become known as The Great American Songbook. Among the latter was the 1935 Jimmy McHugh-Dorothy Fields standard “I’m In The Mood For Love.” There is no video from this week’s concert at The Seasons, but Logan and Sanders recorded the piece recently in New York City at the club called Mezzrow.

Recent Listening In Brief

Preparing to leave for Sweden to report on the Ystad Jazz Festival, we call your attention to two of the dozens of piano trio recordings that have appeared fairly recently.

Yoko Miwa Trio, Keep Talkin’ (Ocean Blue Tear Music)

A professor at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, pianist Miwa has become a featured performer in Boston and New York clubs. Her playing and composing reflect influences in the post-bop and hard-bop milieus of the 1950s and later, but even when she plays pieces by Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus or–for that matter–by Lennon and McCartney, there is a firm lyricism in her approach. In part, that has to do with her sure but soft keyboard touch. Other factors include a predisposition to harmonies and rhythms that reflect Brazilian music. Often, that means a subtle adaptation, as in Marcelo Camelo’s “Casa Pre-Fabricada,” in which Scott Goulding’s brushes on cymbals hint at echoes of Brazil, even as Miwa’s rich harmonies steal the scene. Other highlights: Miwa’s take on Mingus’s “Boogie Stop Shuffle,” where she observes the feeling of the famous Mingus recording while managing to make the piece her own–no mean feat with Mingus looking over your shoulder. Her “If You’re Blue” is a nifty turn on, of all things, the harmonic changes of Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ On The Ritz.” Her own “Sunshine Follows The Rain” is an exquisite album closer featuring guest bassist Brad Barrett’s bowed bass and his sensitive pizzicato solo. Miwa’s primary rhythm section is bassist Will Slater and Scott Goulding, her husband, on drums.

Greg Reitan, West 60th (Sunnyside)

Fleet as ever in his keyboard forays, Reitan also achieves an aching sentimentality in the late vibraharpist Bobby Hutcherson’s “When You Are Near,” which features superb backing from his longtime sidemen, drummer Dean Korba and bassist Jack Daro. Reitan and his trio are also notably gentle in Herbie Hancock’s “Little One” and his adaptation of Aaron Copland’s “Four Piano Blues. Movement No. 3.” The eight Reitan compositions on the album range from the excitement of “Hindemith,” inspired by German composer Paul Hindemith’s sonatas, to “Epilogue,” the fast yet gentle waltz that closes the album. Throughout, Reitan has notable support from Korba and Daro. They are a trio tightly connected and conditioned by years of mutual achievement. In recent years, Reitan has written and arranged music for a variety of film and television projects, but this album is a reminder that he is prominent among contemporary jazz pianists.

Bob Sheppard, The Fine Line (Challenge)

The veteran saxophonist and flutist Bob Sheppard has worked with a cross-section of other major jazz artists including Freddie Hubbard, Billy Childs and the Akiyoshi-Tabackin big band. He has also been a major player in the film and television studios of Los Angeles. All of that activity may account for Sheppard’s not having achieved greater fan recognition. The Fine Line could change that. Sheppard’s alto, soprano and–particularly–the fluidity and forcefulness of his tenor saxophone seem bound to attract more listeners. In an annex to Sheppard’s liner notes, Dutch bassist Jasper Somsen stresses the compatibility that he and Sheppard felt at their first meeting and then developed in this project and others. They played a series of concerts in The Netherlands and eventually developed this album for the Challenge label. With Somsen, drummer Kendrick Scott and pianist John Beasley in support, the music exudes solidity and creates a sense that just around the next turn of phrase, something interesting and surprising is about to happen. The tantalizing, almost teasing, ending of “Maria’s Tango” is one example. The waltz-time treatment of Rodgers and Hart’s “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” with its compelling Sheppard soprano saxophone line, is another. That piece also provides a superior instance of rhythm section sensitivity in Scott’s, Beasley’s and Somsen’s interactions under Sheppard’s solo, as they adjust to him and one another. Few jazz artists think of the old Ralph Rainger Bob Hope theme song “Thanks For The Memory” as a contemporary ballad choice. The feeling that Sheppard pours into it may make you wonder why they don’t.

Maria Puga Lareo–Mrs. Sheppard–sings unison melody with her husband’s alto sax on his intriguing title tune, which is briefly enhanced by his flute obbligato. Bassist Somsen’s “Above & Beyond” features his bass line swinging flawlessly and opening the way for a Scott drum solo. Sheppard wraps up this satisfying album with understated tenor sax power on his reflective arrangement of Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing.” As throughout, the rhythm section supports him beautifully.

Pianist, singer and songwriter Dave Frishberg has suffered medical setbacks that have led him and his wife April to seek help in meeting his long-term health care needs. We cannot provide details about his condition but, now in his mid-eighties, Frishberg has had more than his share of problems in recent years. A fund-raising system has been set up for Frishberg admirers who would like to come to his aid. You will find details at this web address. If you are able to pitch in, remember that generosity is the Hopi way.

Greta Matassa, Portrait (Origin)

Greta Matassa has never stopped performing extensively or touring with her widely admired quintet, but it has been years since she has made a new recording. The singer’s first album since 2011 is a reminder of the rare depth of her musicianship and her ability to fnd the essence of a song. The longtime colleagues with her on Portrait are veterans of the vital Pacific Northwest jazz community. Matassa selects thirteen songs that are among the finest of the past century, going back as far as1939 and “Just For A Thrill.” Matassa plumbs the soulful depths of that Lil Armstrong-Don Raye classic at a tempo that is slower than slow, sustaining long tones and at the end interacting with Alexey Nikolaev’s tenor saxophone in one of several appearances by that Russian-born musician. Nikolaev has become a mainstay of jazz in Seattle. “Gone With The Wind” opens with Matassa and the powerful bassist Clipper Anderson as partners in rhythm for a chorus before drummer Mark Ivester and pianist Darin Clendenin join them. Ivester’s subtle way with wire brushes is key to his effectiveness, but he exhibits full-range drumming on the up-tempo “If You Never Fall In Love With Me,” which began life in 1960 when bassist Sam Jones wrote it as an instrumental called “Del Sasser.” The piece became a staple in the repertory of Cannonball Adderley’s quintet. Donald Wolf added the lyric, which Matassa sings with zest reminiscent of Adderley’s on alto saxophone.

Among the album’s ballads, Matassa invests Johnny Mandel’s and Peggy Lee’s “The Shining Sea” with sweetness matched by Nikolaev’s tenor when he winds around and under her voice as the track dissolves in a subtle key change. The two are entwined even more tightly in Bob Dylan’s “To Make You Feel My Love,” written by Dylan without the word “To” in the title and first recorded by Billy Joel in 1997 before Dylan’s own version appeared. Other highlights in Matassa’s unusual and welcome album: Ennio Morricone’s “That Day” from the film Cinema Paradiso, with a lyric by Stan Dunn; The Lalo Schifrin-Gale Garnett ballad “Down Here On The Ground; a spirited non-showbizzy “Baubles, Bangles And Beads with pianist Clendenin inspired and Matassa scatting with a musicianly understanding of what the tune is made of.

Finally, I must mention Matassa and company’s visits to the Ellington-Strayhorn song book, first in her reflective treatment of Duke Ellington’s “Prelude To A Kiss.” Ivester’s brush work and Clendenin’s piano solo are essential elements in her interpretation of that classic. The album closes with Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.” All members of the quintet support Matassa and one another in what could become known as a definitive vocal version of that masterpiece. The album’s cover painting of Greta’s mother is a work by her late father, James Goehle, whom she credits with inspiring her career.

Have a good weekend

The young Scandinavians of the Eka Trio combine the relaxed sensuosity of trends in Nordic music with their underlying commitment to the adventurousness that goes to the heart of jazz. In the album that they call “O,” the trio and two guest artists craft a collection of fourteen pieces that thrive on certain major-minor key relationships often found in music of Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as on interaction among guitarist Tomas Hornberg, bassist Anne Marte Eggen and drummer Pontus Haggblom. In addition, saxophonist Karolina Almgren and trombonist Goran Abelli provide lyrical moments and, in Abelli’s case, grit that intensifies the musical pallete. It is a delightful…and frequently surprising…album.

Thomas Cunniffe’s excellent weblog Jazz History Online has managed to find the performance by Paul Desmond and his Canadian quartet originally broadcast in 1975 by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. That is good news for listeners who continue to follow the alto saxophonist’s career after the dissolution of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, in which he starred with Brubeck for seventeen years. Cunniffe also presents the complete interview of Desmond by the CBC’s Mary Lou Finlay, with enthusiastic, nearly rhapsodic, commentary by her co-host Paul Soles. Previously, the interview has aired in the United States mostly in bits and pieces. To see all of the interview, the segment by Desmond’s Toronto-based quartet, and Tom Cunniffe’s extensive backgrounder, click here.

Thanks to Thomas Cunniffe, Mary Lou Finlay and the CBC for sharing an important moment in jazz history.

Have a good weekend.

Recent Listening In Brief: Linda May Han Oh, Aventurine (Biophilia)

The album title, aptly, seems to suggest adventure. Indeed, the CD contains plenty of that attribute in the bassist-composer’s instrumentation, textures and rhythmic values. The name was suggested, however, by a certain shiny translucent mineral that seems to glow from within, as does much of Ms. Oh’s music in this collection. The inspirations for her compositions, her choices of fellow performers and the way she writes and presents much of her work here reflect the influence not only of her recent career as a bassist in great demand in New York City, but also her continuing close connection to the Australian jazz community. Some of her Australian colleagues, including a virtuosic string quartet, are included in Aventurine. Pianist Matt Mitchell, saxophonist Greg Ward and drummer Ches Smith are New York musicians with whom the bassist frequently collaborates. In her writing for the ensemble, and notably so for the tracks with strings and voices, Ms. Oh goes deep into polytonality with dramatic results in the 1951 Charlie Parker blues “Au Privave” and, more subtly, in the Bill Evans piece “Time Remembered.” Her own two-part “Rest Your Weary Head” has writing that supports and encourages group improvisation, yet another indicator of that streak of adventurism that flavors Ms. Oh’s approach to leadership.

Below, a promotional teaser (well-named) from Biophilia Records gives a sense of Aventurine’s, range.

Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan: Epistrophy (ECM)

As in their 2017 ECM release Small Town, guitarist Frisell and bassist Morgan are captivating in their exploration of pieces whose variety extends from the harmonic challenges of Thelonious Monk to the deceptive simplicity of “Red River Valley.” This second installment was also recorded at the duo’s 2016 appearance at New York’s Village Vanguard. I write “deceptive” in reaction to their approach to “Red River Valley” because they generate power and blues feeling that have been beneath the song’s surface for the century or more since it first appeared in Canada. Those elements have been tapped by genre singers like Marty Robbins and Stevie Nicks, but with their jazz sensibility Frisell and Morgan go far deeper into the song’s harmonic possibilities.

When they come to the album’s two Monk pieces, “Epistrophy” and “Pannonica,” the interaction and serious listening to one another take on even more concentrated energy. That power does not flag—if anything it increases—in the late drummer Paul Motian’s “Mumbo Jumbo,” Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” and “In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning,” the concluding ballad.” This is an album whose chief characteristic may on first hearing seem to be pleasantness. But early on, during Frisell’s and Morgan’s development of the opening “All In Fun” by Jerome Kern, it demands and rewards close llistening.

We spent much of this Easter Sunday driving slowly through hills covered with hundreds of acres of apple and cherry trees gloriously abloom. Spring is here in full flower, with enchanting vistas that include glimpses of Mount Adams and Mount Rainier. This post comes late in the holiday, but the Rifftides staff hopes that your Easter has been equally inspiring.

“Easter Parade” is hardly a jazz standard, but Irving Berlin gave it a wonderful melody and a harmonic structure that encourages playing to match the beauty of the season. The song made a splendid vehicle for cornetist Ruby Braff and pianist Ellis Larkins in the first volume of their “Calling Berlin” series.

The recent post featuring the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet in the 1950s led a couple of Rifftides readers to suggest that we hear more of Brown’s sparkling trumpet playing. He became a major jazz artist before his death at 26 in an automobile accident in 1956 and has been a major influence on every generation of trumpet players since. Let’s listen to his composition “Tiny Capers,” with Clifford leading an ensemble that also includes Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone; Bob Gordon, baritone sax; Stu Williamson, valve trombone; Russ Freeman, piano; Carson Smith, bass; and Shelly Manne, drums…an all-star group if there ever was one…at the height of the West Coast Jazz movement.                                                               

Clifford Brown and company in July, 1954, from an album that is likely to be part of the essential jazz repertoire for years, even decades, to come.