{"id":8492,"date":"2017-07-19T22:05:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T05:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8492"},"modified":"2017-07-19T22:10:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T05:10:49","slug":"recent-listening-in-brief-mitchell-zeitlin-cole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/07\/recent-listening-in-brief-mitchell-zeitlin-cole\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening In Brief: Mitchell, Zeitlin, Cole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roscoe Mitchell<\/b>, Bells For The South Side<\/a><\/em> (ECM)<\/p>\n

\"\"If you have followed Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s searching music over the past 50 years, Bells For The South Side<\/em> will reassure you that the septuagenarian composer, saxophonist and tireless avant-garde inspiration continues to innovate. Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music makes demands on listeners\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand rewards them for their attention.<\/p>\n

This is not a rehash of his work in the 1960s with AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), or of Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s free jazz pioneering with his Art Ensemble of Chicago. It is brand new. He is one of the great avant garde experimenters, and in this two-CD set there is plenty of experimentation. Some of it involves his arsenal of woodwinds ranging from bass saxophone to sopranino and flute. Other pieces are fiestas of bells, gongs, cymbals, woodblocks and assorted drums. The moments packed with percussion may call into question Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commitment to his famous dictum that music is half sound and half silence. Never fear, he lives up to that notion. Quietness is an aspect of what makes for absorbing listening to the ensembles in the opening \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spatial Aspects of the Sound,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Last Chord,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cards For Drums and The Final Hand,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and an exhilarating reprise of his 1973 Art Ensemble composition \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Odwalla.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

As he continues his adventures, the 77-year-old Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s colleagues are pianist Craig Taborn, trumpeter Hugh Raglin, trombonist Tyshawn Sorey, saxophonist James Fei, bassist Jaribu Shahid, and percussionists William Winant, Kikanju Baku and Tani Tabbal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Denny Zeitlin & George Marsh<\/strong>, Expedition: Duo: Electro-Acoustic Improvisations<\/a><\/em> (Sunnyside)<\/p>\n

Pianist Denny Zeitlin, Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contemporary and fellow native of Chicago, is equally\"\" dedicated to ceaseless artistic growth. This is how he concludes a paragraph of notes for his latest collaboration with drummer-percussionist George Marsh,<\/p>\n

We often feel like we are some kind of galactic orchestra.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That does not mean that they are space cadets. Their unplanned mutual inventiveness is so logical that it often sounds as if it must have been conceived on manuscript paper, but no; it is spontaneous improvisation, forged in experience and trust that go back to Zeitlin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1960s trio with Marsh, his music for the 1970s remake of the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/em>, and to Riding The Moment<\/em>, the duo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s previous Sunnyside album. Zeitlin uses electronic keyboards, a synthesizer and creative engineering to fashion, among other things, ”\u00a0impressions of horn sections, an arco bass, a guitar and what might be a trumpet or\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwait a minute\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a trombone (if a trombone could play that high).<\/p>\n

Marsh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cymbals crashes on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not Lost in The Shuffle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are priceless. Throughout, he accompanies Zeitlin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s permutations with drumming that occasionally echoes and always complements his partner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s piano-synthesizer-organ-trumpet-saxophone-trombone-guitar-orchestra creations. That sentence may read like the prescription for a complex disaster waiting to happen. There is no disaster. The music has a bebop feeling of forward motion in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Traffic;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d turns as lyrical as a minor-key Schubert sonata in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spiral Nebula;\u00e2\u20ac\u009d recalls the classic Zeitlin trio with Marsh when \u00e2\u20ac\u0153One Song\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gets fully underway; makes you want to dance during \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Watch Where You Step;” and swings hard during Zeitlin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s electro-faux trombone solo on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shards Of Blue.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The album is a remarkable technical accomplishment. More important, it is a solid musical achievement that has the virtue of being\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll pardon the outmoded, uncool, expression\u00e2\u20ac\u201dentertaining.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nat King Cole<\/strong> Trio, Zurich 1950<\/a> (TCB)<\/p>\n

\"\"Nat Cole was of a musical generation that did not consider whether it was cool to be entertaining. He welcomed it as an obligation passed along by musicians who included Louis Armstrong and Cole’s hero and role model Earl \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fathah\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hines. This album in the invaluable TCB series of rescued live recordings is from the end of the period when Cole had established himself as a singer but still considered the piano his main instrument. His piano playing here will remind anyone who may have forgotten that with his keyboard touch and refined harmonic sense, Cole was one of the major influences on players of the instrument. Directly or indirectly, he touched every modern jazz pianist who emerged during and after the 1940s. Yet, his fame as a popular singer was so great that it is not unusual for someone to exclaim, as I heard recently, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, he played the piano too?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

This is a typical Cole set from the period, with featured spots for the lightning-fast bongo playing of Jack Costanzo, guitarist Irving Ashby’s lyricism and bebop quotes, and bassist Joe Comfort solid lines. The pianist has notable solos on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Body and Soul\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Poor Butterfly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He rather uproariously emulates Hines on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Saint Louis Blues,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which melds into what must be must be one of the earliest covers of Milt Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bluesology.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That piece was on its way to becoming a classic when Jackson first recorded it for Savoy less than four months before this Cole concert. The Swiss audience liked it so much that their enthusiastic applause demanded a reprise.<\/p>\n

Yes, Cole sings \u00e2\u20ac\u201dgood versions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Embraceable You,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Little Girl,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sweet Lorraine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Route 66,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which had been a hit for four years when this was recorded. Cole, the band and the audience were in good spirits and the sound quality captured by Radio SRF at Zurich\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kongresshaus<\/em> is generally excellent. This is an important addition to the Nat Cole discography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roscoe Mitchell, Bells For The South Side (ECM) If you have followed Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s searching music over the past 50 years, Bells For The South Side will reassure you that the septuagenarian composer, saxophonist and tireless avant-garde inspiration continues to innovate. Mitchell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music makes demands on listeners\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand rewards them for their attention. This is not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8493,"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-8492","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\/8492","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=8492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}