{"id":2478,"date":"2011-04-02T15:18:15","date_gmt":"2011-04-02T22:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=2478"},"modified":"2011-04-02T15:18:15","modified_gmt":"2011-04-02T22:18:15","slug":"recent-listening-smith-vu-lynch-akinmusire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2011\/04\/recent-listening-smith-vu-lynch-akinmusire\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Smith, Vu, Lynch, Akinmusire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hundreds of CDs have piled up around Rifftides<\/i> world headquarters. At a meeting, the staff voted whether to write, long, exhaustive analytical reviews of three of them or highlight many more in an effort to keep up with a jazz scene that—take our word for it—is not dying, at least not in terms of sheer recording output. Short and pithy won the vote over learned, diagnostic and likely to put you to sleep. This survey will go on intermittently, with other matters popping up, as usual. <\/p>\n

Sean Smith<\/strong>, Trust<\/em><\/a> (Smithereen).
\nIn Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career of more than 20 years as a bassist, he has been so busy with Bill Charlap, Gerry Mulligan, Clark Terry, Tom Harrell, Art Farmer, Peggy Lee, Jacky Terrasson and others that he has taken time to be the leader on only two previous albums. His first CD in ten years features his new quartet with saxophonist John Ellis, guitarist John Hart and Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longtime colleague Russell Meissner on drums. The group stirred anticipation with web videos<\/a> that popped up a few months ago. Their album more than meets expectations raised. <\/p>\n

Admired as a composer by Charlap, Phil Woods, Bill Mays and others\"\"<\/a> who have recorded his music, Smith wrote all 12 of the tunes. Unlike many albums laden with originals, Trust<\/i> has variety, from the harmonically demanding Wayne Shorter tribute called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wayne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s World\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the sunny waltz \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bush League,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Voices,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an affecting ballad. On \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Voices,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solo highlights the darkness and heft of his tone and his ability to play successions of high notes as music, not the strain of acrobatic exercise. Ellis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tenor sax tone and his phrasing are key to the success of the piece. <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Graham Ewan,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a duet with Hart, is a brief demonstration of Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skill with the bow, a lull in the proceedings. If Catherine of the Italian Renaissance Medicis inspired \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ditty for Ms. de\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Medici\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, she must have danced a mean soft shoe between intrigues and poisonings. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a happy piece. Ellis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tenor playing on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u2122de Medici,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d You Say?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and a few other tunes is so distinctive that it leads one to wonder why he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave the soprano in its case. There is no law that, in the wake of Coltrane, every saxophonist must double on soprano. In Ellis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eroding his comparative advantage.<\/p>\n

Often in albums led and produced by bassists, the sound designs make it clear who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in charge, sometimes to the point of ear pain. This one will not have you lunging for your tone controls. Sound reproduction and balance match the quality of the music. <\/p>\n

Briefly<\/strong> <\/iframe><\/div>\n

Cuong Vu<\/strong>, Leaps Of Faith<\/em><\/a> (Origin).
\nLike Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Vu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is a pianoless quartet, but the instrumentation is rather different: his trumpet, two electric basses and drums. He begins with three standards, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Body and Soul,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All The Things You Are\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \"\"<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Funny Valentine,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d assuring listeners that he is about more than 21st century space music. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clever strategy. Vu, bassists Stomu Takeishi and Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor bring plenty of adventurism to the classic ballads, but Vu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long lines and lyricism carry over into the collective improvisation of his title tune. Then he edges \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Leap of Faith\u00e2\u20ac\u009d further and further out until it vaporizes in the exosphere of electronic distortions. Vu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s musicianship is so solid that when he mixes jazz, pop, street grunge and amplified random noise, it somehow works, is even reassuring. That is as true of his calming treatments of the Beatles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Something\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Jackson Browne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Opening Farewell\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as it is of his kaleidoscopic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Shall Never Come Back.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Brian Lynch<\/strong>, Unsung Heroes<\/em><\/a> (Hollistic MusicWorks).
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unsung\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is right. Lynch pays tribute to his trumpet predecessors or contemporaries Tommy Turrentine, Joe Gordon, Charles Sullivan, Idrees Sulieman, Charles Tolliver, Claudio Roditi and Louis Smith. Known to few but the most committed and attentive listeners, all have\"\"<\/a> earned respect of their peers and critics. In some cases, Lynch plays compositions by his heroes. In others he composes pieces in their honor. In all, his arrangements are as impressive as is his playing in a tight sextet that includes alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, tenor saxophonist Alex Hoffman, pianist Rob Schneiderman, bassist David Wong and drummer Pete Van Nostrand. Among highlights of the album, which is itself a highlight, are Lynch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treatment of Sulieman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Saturday Afternoon at Four\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and his own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153RoditiSamba.\u00e2\u20ac\u009dwith memorable solos by him and Herring. Hoffman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gliding, muscular work comes as a pleasant revelation. The CD is a followup and companion to Lynch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2000 album Tribute to the Trumpet Masters<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ambrose Akinmusire<\/strong>, When the Heart Emerges Glistening<\/em><\/a> (Blue Note).
\nAlways approach the latest universally heralded trumpet prodigy with caution; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my motto. Caution, however, dissipates rapidly in the \"\"<\/a>face of Akinmusire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s musicianship, the evenness and warmth of his sound, his passion and the unity of his quintet. Though his mastery of the horn is stunningly complete, music comes before virtuosity. Displays of trumpet fireworks are incidental, as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Walls of Lechuguilla.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Regret,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as affecting slow playing as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard recently, has little to do with virtuosity, nearly everything to do with expressiveness. Akinmusire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s duet on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with pianist Jason Moran, who produced the album, is pure invention, a la Tony Fruscella<\/a>, until near the end when he lands on the last few bars of the melody. Tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III; pianist Gerald Clayton; bassist Harish Raghavan; and drummer Justin Brown are finely in tune with Akinmusire and one another. His band of young men are significantly beyond hard bop or post bop emulation. This is——to reach back for a phrase used by swing era musicians who wished to bestow high praise——original stuff. <\/p>\n

More to come<\/strong>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of CDs have piled up around Rifftides world headquarters. At a meeting, the staff voted whether to write, long, exhaustive analytical reviews of three of them or highlight many more in an effort to keep up with a jazz scene that—take our word for it—is not dying, at least not in terms of sheer […]<\/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-2478","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\/2478","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=2478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}