{"id":6805,"date":"2015-07-26T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T07:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=6805"},"modified":"2015-07-26T00:01:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T07:01:59","slug":"recent-listening-jd-allen-katie-thiroux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2015\/07\/recent-listening-jd-allen-katie-thiroux\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: JD Allen, Katie Thiroux"},"content":{"rendered":"

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”FCTyPILNGWghYDMrUj0pzfzNIMIfhuw3″]<\/p>\n

JD Allen<\/strong>, Graffiti<\/a> (Savant)<\/p>\n

\"JD<\/a>Intrepid as ever in his power, cohesiveness and brevity of expression, tenor saxophonist JD Allen returns to the trio format that gives him all he needs as a soloist and a composer. Allen, bassist Greg August and drummer Rudy Royston are once again alone together in an album that has obstacle course tunes as well as simple ones, all composed by Allen. His \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Indigo Blue (Blue Like)\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is, indeed, like the blues, but because of its form it is not exactly the blues. It swings harder than anything else on the album, although sections of the title tune, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Graffiti,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d come close. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Little Mack,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d really the blues, is the track in which Allen is nearest to evoking the tenor-bass-drums trios of one of his inspirations, Sonny Rollins. Allen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s liner notes say that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jawn Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inspired by the Black American folktale of John Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (The Steel Drivin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Man) victorious duel with a steam-powered hammer\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> Not quite the classic folk song, it makes use of bracing tension-and-release sequencing. Through nine tunes, Allen, August and Royston anticipate one another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts and improvisational choices with a sensitivity that makes them one of the most satisfying bands at work today. <\/p>\n

Introducing Katie Thiroux<\/strong><\/a>(BassKat Music)<\/p>\n

After I heard Katie Thiroux at the Brubeck Institute Summer Colony 10 years ago almost exactly to the day, I wrote on the fledgling Rifftides<\/em>:<\/p>\n

In a few days, seventeen-year-old Katie Thiroux will begin her senior year at the Hamilton High Music Academy in Los Angeles. A bassist, she swings hard, solos well and develops supporting lines that inspire soloists. In the all-star combo, her rapport with pianist Julian Bransby and drummer Steve Renko was remarkable.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Not content to be merely a superb player, Ms. Thiroux sings beautifully, accompanying herself on bass in the manner of Kristin Korb, with whom she has studied. In a duet with Ingrid Jensen, she sang \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Close Your Eyes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d simply and brilliantly, with a canny understanding of the meaning of the lyrics and their relationship to the melody. She and Ingrid ended the piece with a complex unison line that culminated in a high G perfectly intoned by Jensen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s muted horn and Ms. Thiroux\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s angelic voice. Generous and giving, Katie Thiroux is a thoroughgoing musician, the antithesis of the image of the egocentric chick singer. I hope to hear more of her, for the sheer pleasure of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A decade later I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard her again, on a new album produced by drummer Jeff Hamilton. Thiroux\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bass playing reflects the tradition and examples\"Katie<\/a> of John Clayton and Ray Brown, as she demonstrates with powerful swing in her blues \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ray\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kicks.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thiroux\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s singing, faultlessly in tune and with canny phrasing, holds through the tempo changes and breathtaking pace of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In the out-chorus of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Small Hotel,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the tricky intervals she applies as she paraphrases the melody enhance it and the meaning of the lyric. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if she scats, but with phrasing like that, she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to. <\/p>\n

With the veteran Roger Neumann on tenor saxophone, Thiroux uses the final eight bars of Lester Young\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sometimes I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Happy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the introduction to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Beautiful Friendship,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d one of many indications of her sense of the music\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history. She demonstrates her skill as a composer with four pieces including a ballad, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t We Just Pretend,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that deserves a lyric. The album concludes with four minutes of virtuoso unaccompanied bass playing on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh What A Beautiful Morning.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Graham Dechter is the guitarist in Thiroux\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pianoless quartet, Matt Witek the drummer. They and Neumann accompany her with empathy, open ears, flexibility and the solidarity of a working band. Each solos impressively.<\/p>\n

This debut recording was worth the ten-year wait. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”FCTyPILNGWghYDMrUj0pzfzNIMIfhuw3″] JD Allen, Graffiti (Savant) Intrepid as ever in his power, cohesiveness and brevity of expression, tenor saxophonist JD Allen returns to the trio format that gives him all he needs as a soloist and a composer. Allen, bassist Greg August and drummer Rudy Royston are once again alone together in an album that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6806,"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-6805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805","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=6805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}