{"id":10492,"date":"2018-10-25T21:06:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T04:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=10492"},"modified":"2019-01-16T16:53:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T00:53:46","slug":"annie-chen-woody-shaw-and-dexter-gordon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/10\/annie-chen-woody-shaw-and-dexter-gordon\/","title":{"rendered":"Annie Chen, Woody Shaw And Dexter Gordon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent Listening In Brief<\/strong><\/p>\n

Annie Chen<\/strong> Octet, Secret Treetop<\/a><\/em> (Shanghai Audio&Video Ltd)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chen is a singer and composer born in China who lives in New York and has an eclectic musical palette with colors from sources as disparate as Turkey, Taiwan and Mongolia. With a rhythm section augmented by guitar, violin, saxophone and trumpet, she employs her robust voice in nine original compositions. Lyrics are in various languages, most of them having helpful English translations in the accompanying booklet.<\/p>\n

With impressive effect, the blends of voice and instruments set distinct moods, notably so on the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s title tune. Chen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vocalizing in that piece has elements of bebop-like phrasing over complex backgrounds. It produces a feeling of joyous abandon that contrasts with its disciplined setting. Several solos by violinist Tomoko Omura, alto saxophonist Alex LoRe, trumpeter David Smith, pianist Glenn Zaleski, and guitarist Rafal Sarnecki provide further interest. Chen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voice, gloriously in tune, is an essential element of the arrangements, not only in her solo performance but also as part of the rich blends achieved in Sarnecki\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrangements.<\/p>\n

More Briefs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes, important recordings linger too long on the Rifftides”\u00a0<\/em>recent-arrival shelf. That happened to a couple of CDs in Elemental Music\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s invaluable series of albums either rescued from obscurity or never issued in the first place. Here, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re calling attention to a pair of fresh albums recorded long ago in Japan by modern jazz masters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Woody Shaw<\/strong>, Tokyo 1981<\/a><\/em> (Elemental Music)<\/p>\n

This catches Shaw as he was further refining his adaptation for trumpet of departures that\"\"<\/a> saxophonist John Coltrane had introduced only a couple of years before in his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Giant Steps\u00e2\u20ac\u009d period. Shaw was taking harmonic adventuring a step\u00e2\u20ac\u201dseveral steps, in fact\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbeyond what Freddie Hubbard had achieved conceptually on the instrument. He had a sympathetic frontline partner in trombonist Steve Turre, slightly younger than Shaw, who heard music in much the same way and had the facility to perform in Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advanced league. The rhythm section for the Japan trip was top of the line in the advanced coterie of young modernists developing in jazz. Pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Stafford James and drummer Tony Reedus supported Shaw with a solid understanding of how the music was developing in the early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc80s. Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compositions \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rosewood,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Song Of Songs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153From Moment To Moment\u00e2\u20ac\u009d remind us that at 37 he had honed his compositional ability in parallel with his achievement on the trumpet. His pieces hold up impressively alongside Thelonious Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s familiar \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Round Midnight,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the second track on the album.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dexter Gordon<\/strong> Quartet, Tokyo 1975<\/a> (Elemental Music)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The great tenor saxophonist is featured at Tokyo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eminent Yubin Chokin Hall with the quartet that appeared so often halfway around the world at Copenhagen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Montmartre club in the years when Gordon lived in Denmark. Indeed, during that period his quartet could nearly be considered the Montmartre house band, with Kenny Drew, piano; Niels-Henning \u00c3\u02dcrsted Pedersen, bass; and Albert \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tootie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Heath, drums. They were on the road with him in Japan. Nor does the repertoire differ much from that in Copenhagen, with Gordon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fried Bananas,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It Could Happen To You,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Days Of Wine And Roses,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Misty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Billy Eckstine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blues \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jelly, Jelly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gordon indulging himself in a vocal. They played to a Tokyo audience whose enthusiasm was occasionally on the verge of delirium. Elemental has added bonus tracks from concerts in Laren, Switzerland (Monk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rhythm-A-Ning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, 1973) and New Haven Connecticut (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Old Folks,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 1977). Espen Rud is the drummer in Laren. The rhythm secton on the Connecticut track is Ronnie Matthews, piano; Stafford James, bass; and Louis Hayes, drums. The enthusiasm in both places matches that of the listeners in Japan. If anything Gordon sounds even more ebullient.<\/p>\n

Elemental Music deserves credit for discovering and releasing these important installments in the careers of two major artists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent Listening In Brief Annie Chen Octet, Secret Treetop (Shanghai Audio&Video Ltd) Chen is a singer and composer born in China who lives in New York and has an eclectic musical palette with colors from sources as disparate as Turkey, Taiwan and Mongolia. With a rhythm section augmented by guitar, violin, saxophone and trumpet, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}