Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Music Week

December archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 43333 [43304] rated (+29), 10 [6] unrated (+4).

I wasn't sure when (or if) I'd find time to run a Music Week post this week, but caught up with my daily mail late Tuesday evening, so I took a few minutes to run the break, leaving me just an introduction to write before posting.

I'm preoccupied with the 19th annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll, where we are facing a Friday, Dec. 20 deadline. I've counted 93 100 ballots so far. Last year I wound up with 159, up from 151 in 2022. I think we'll probably top these figures, but there's still a fair amount of uncertainty at this late date. The main reason for hope is that I've put quite a few more invites out this year, especially to critics in Europe. On the other hand, attrition (that I know about) strikes me as unusually high, and the unknown looms larger than ever.

Still, even the worst case imaginable (which is probably down around 140) means that this is a very large, very wide-ranging poll, which will generate a lot of tips for readers to explore. I'm generating lists of albums, which show that thus far 388 different new albums have received votes, plus 96 for the Rara Avis category (new releases of older music, recorded no later than 2014).

While I caught up with my mail around 8 pm, the next couple days should be a lot of work (and if not it will be pretty depressing). Meanwhile, I'm listening to whatever I can squeeze in. The only non-jazz album below is one that I stumbled across an open tab on, and figured it's short, so why not now? Glad I did.

New records reviewed this week:

John Butcher/Florian Stoffner/Chris Corsano: The Glass Changes Shape (2023 [2024], Relative Pitch): Sax/guitar/drums trio, Corsano also credited with "half clarinet." B+(**) [sp]

Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few: The World Is on Fire (2023 [2024], Division 81): Saxophonist (tenor, I think), from Chicago, started out as one of Ernest Dawkins' Young Masters, fifth group album, album credits break into three tiers, with a core quartet (piano-bass-drums), extras -- Corey Wilkes (trumpet), Ed Wilkerson Jr. (alto clarinet), plus harp, cello, flutes -- and vocals (also a Collier credit). The latter aren't the point, but sometimes the world impinges on your art, and you have to fight back. A- [sp]

Elephant9 With Terje Rypdal: Catching Fire (2017 [2024], Rune Grammofon): Norwegian fusion trio -- keyboards (Ståle Storløkken), bass (Nikolai Hængsle), drums (Torstein Lofthus) -- 11th album since 2008, in a live set with the guitarist. Starts tentative, but they do finally catch fire, which is something to behold. B+(***) [sp]

Eliane Elias: Time and Again (2024, Candid): From Brazil, initially established herself as a postbop pianist, married her bassist (Marc Johnson), first significantly Brazilian album was an instrumental Jobim tribute in 1990, then finally sang Jobim in 1998 (quite well). Since then she has mostly gravitated toward playing and singing Brazilian standards, as she does here, with the guitar finally overshadowing the piano. B+(**) [sp]

Peter Evans: Extra (2023 [2024], We Jazz): Trumpet player, started out in Mostly Other People Do the Killing, own albums start in 2004, including many collaborations with various European free jazz figures. Trio here with Petter Eldh (bass) and Jim Black (drums), both electronics, while he plays piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano. B+(***) [sp]

Kate Gentile/International Contemporary Ensemble: B i o m e i.i (2021 [2023], Obliquity): Drummer, albums since 2015, composed these pieces for a small chamber orchestra -- a group of 7 drawn from the venerable (since 2001) and much larger (34 is the number I keep running across) artist collective, so: flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon, violin, vibraphone, piano, and the leader's drums. B+(***) [bc]

Ayumi Ishito: Roboquarians Vol. 1 (2022 [2024], 577): Japanese saxophonist, based in Brooklyn, several albums since 2015, this an "avant-punk" trio with George Draguns on guitar and Kevin Shea on drums. Evidently, Draguns goes back to the 1980s: Discogs calls him a bassist, and locates him in groups like Form and Mess, Storm and Stress, and Slag. The hard edges I associate with punk give way to synth effects here, credited to Ishito, whose horn is less evident. B+(**) [bc]

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Live at the Adler Planetarium (2023 [2024], International Anthem): Trumpet player, groups started with Chicago Underground and eventually led to this Exploding Star Orchestra (debut 2007, this is their 10th album). Fitting, at least to anyone who remembers Sun Ra, that the latter (now 9-piece) group should wind up performing in the Grainger Sky Theater. B+(**) [sp]

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra/Small Unit: Spectral Fiction (2023 [2024], Corbett vs. Dempsey): The "compact version" of the trumpeter's big band is slimmed down to six, each well known: Damon Locks (voice/electronics), Tomeka Reid (cello), Angelica Sanchez (Wurlitzer), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums). The music is interesting, but how good the album really is will turn on Locks' words, which I haven't been able to really focus on yet. But my first impression is they may be a plus. B+(***) [bc]

Milton Nascimento/Esperanza Spalding: Milton + Esperanza (2024, Concord): Legendary Brazilian singer-songwriter, active since the late 1960s, holds home court in these duets with the young American bassist-turned-singer, who complements him nicely, much as you'd expect. B+(**) [sp]

Eva Novoa: Novoa/Gress/Gray Trio, Volume 1 (2019 [2024], 577): Earlier, more conventional piano-bass-drums trio, although Gress is also credited with modular synthesizer, and the leader with Chinese gongs. B+(**) [os]

Ivo Perelman/Aruán Ortiz/Ramón López: Ephemeral Shapes (2024, Fundacja Słuchaj): Tenor sax, piano, and drums trio, improv, seven numbered "Shape" pieces, plus one called "Ephemeral." B+(***) [dl]

Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp: Magical Incantations (2024, Soul City Sounds): Tenor sax and piano duo, a partnership which goes back at least to 1996's Bendito of Santa Cruz, intensified after 2011, peaking with the multi-volume The Art of Perelman-Shipp (2017), and continuing -- this is the 11th Shipp co-credit I have filed under Perelman since 2018. Impossible to make fine distinctions, but this does seem to merit its title. A- [sp]

Ivo Perelman/Gabby Fluke-Mogul: Duologues 2: Joy (2024, Ibeji Music): Tenor sax and violin duo. Part of a series that started with Nate Wooley, although there must have been dozens of prior Perelman duos, with many more to come. B+(**) [sp]

Ivo Perelman/Ingrid Laubrock: Duologues 3: Crystal Clear (2024, Ibeji Music): Duo, both play tenor sax. This reminds me that I still haven't listened to Perelman's Reed Rapture in Brooklyn (2022): 11 two-sax duos, each given a full CD. Laubrock would have made sense in that company. B+(***) [sp]

Ivo Perelman's São Paulo Creative 4: Supernova (2024, self-released): Brazil's most famous avant-saxophonist, who seems to have played with every peer in America and Europe, returns home for a sax quartet, with Lívio Tragtenberg (bass clarinet/alto sax), Rogério Costa (soprano/alto sax), and Manu Falleiros (soprano/baritone sax). B+(**) [sp]

Neta Raanan: Unforeseen Blossom (2024, Giant Step Arts): Tenor saxophonist, from New Jersey, quartet where Joel Ross (vibes) is very prominent, especially at first. Eventually the group settles down, and gets better for it. B+(***) [bc]

Christian Tamburr/Dominick Farinacci/Michael Ward-Bergeman: Triad (2024, Ropeadope): Trio of vibraphone/marimba, trumpet, and accordion, the first two Americans, but Ward-Bergeman's bio is cagier, with study at Berklee and stops in New Orleans and Vancouver. The accordion is more common in European jazz, but also explains the Astor Piazzolla opener. The trumpet is more at home in New Orleans, which gives us a cover of "St. James Infirmary" -- one of three guest vocal spots for Shenel Johns, starting with a gutsy "I Put a Spell on You" and ending with a torchy ballad. The other guest is Jamey Haddad, on percussion (6 of 10 tracks). Album title will no doubt carry on as the group name. A- [sp]

Teiku: Teiku (2022 [2024], 577): Group led by Josh Harlow (piano/electronics) and Jonathan Barahal Taylor (drums), composers who based this on Passover songs, offered as "liberation music . . . a call for justice for all oppressed peoples," noting that "as Jews, we decry the senseless violence, displacement, and killing perpetrated in our name." Group adds Peter Formanek (tenor/alto sax/clarinet), Rafael Leafar (bass clarinet/bass flute/tenor/soprano sax), and Jaribu Shahid (bass/percussion). B+(***) [sp]

Trance Map (Evan Parker and Matthew Wright): Horizons Held Close (2024, Relative Pitch): Wright is a British "sound artist," using electronics, turntables, and various other contraptions. He released a duo album with the avant-saxophonist in 2011 called Trance Map, and they've had several more group collaborations since, including two albums on Intakt. Back to a duo here, with Parker playing soprano. B+(**) [sp]

Transatlantic Trance Map: Marconi's Drift (2022 [2024], False Walls): Trance Map was a 2011 duo album of "sound designer" Matthew Wright and avant-saxophonist Evan Parker. They've collaborated several times since, including a recent duo, two mixed group albums on Intakt, and this their most complex endeavor: "two ensembles playing simultaneously on either side of the Atlantic ocean, connected through the internet and improvising through the airwaves." B+(**) [bc]

Unionen: Unionen (2024, We Jazz): Two stars each from Norway and Sweden -- Per "Texas" Johansson (reeds), Ståle Storløkken (keyboards), Petter Eldh (basses), and Gard Nilssen (drums) -- their name referring back to the 1814-1905 United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway (and not to the Swedish trade union, which was Google's first suggestion). B+(***) [sp]

John Zorn: New Masada Quartet, Volume 3: Live at Roulette (2024, Tzadik): Zorn puts his name on so many albums he doesn't play on that it's surprising not to see it here -- not that there's no precedent for attributing it as I did (and as I've done for both previous volumes) -- where he plays his usual alto sax on his book of well-rehearsed tunes, backed by Julian Lage (guitar), Jorge Roeder (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums). Great to hear him cut loose, but this adds a whole other dimension to Lage's guitar. A- [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Tim Berne/Michael Formanek: Parlour Games (1991 [2024], Relative Pitch): Sax and bass duo, Berne playing alto and baritone, in a previously unreleased session that predates their 1998 duo, Ornery People. This is terrific all the way through. A- [sp]

Brian Calvin and Devin Johnston: Some Hours (1999 [2024], Corbett vs. Dempsey, EP): Short album (5 songs, 22:53), recorded by Jim O'Rourke, with Calvin (guitar/vocals) evidently writing the music to poet Johnston's words (who also plays guitar and offer backing vocals). B+(**) [bc]

Johnny Cash: Songwriter (1993 [2024], Mercury Nashville): Just his vocals, scraped from a demo tape from the void between Cash's Mercury albums (1987-91) and his 1994 work with Rick Rubin, with new instrumentals constructed by John Carter Cash and his crew. A couple of new songs appeared later (like "Drive On"), and some go way back (like "Sing It Pretty, Sue"). Short (11 songs in 30:53), very nicely done. A- [sp]

Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Paul Motian: The Old Country: More From the Deer Head Inn (1992 [2024], ECM): The pianist is still alive, but was knocked out of action by a stroke in 2018, so his label has ever since been scrounging around old tapes for more work by their best-selling-ever artist, as if the market for his wares is inexhaustible. This picks up where his trio's 1994 At the Deer Head Inn left off, with a set of 8 standards running 73:29, with the Nat Adderely title piece the longest. B+(*) [sp]

Soft Machine: Høvikkoden 1971 (1971 [2024], Cuneiform): British prog rock group from Canterbury, started 1968 with a set of odd ditties dominated by singer-songwriter Kevin Ayres. After Ayres split, the rest -- Mike Rutledge (keyboards), Hugh Hopper (bass), and Robert Wyatt (drums), joined by avant-saxophonist Elton Dean (curiously, the source of half of Reginald Dwight's stage name, the other bit taken from Long John Baldry) -- stretched out, with Wyatt the only vocalist, and an odd duck at that. (Wyatt's "The Moon in June" side on Third is my favorite Soft Machine track. After a fall left him paralyzed from the waist down, he went solo, working with Eno and Carla Bley -- high points include his vocals on Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports and Michael Mantler's The Hapless Child -- and ultimately releasing some notable agitprop.) While the group's studio albums, at least through Seven in 1974 (I missed three more through 1981, including one with Allan Holdsworth), tended toward pleasant noodling, several interesting live tapes have surfaced recently, as well as periodic revivals (starting with Soft Machine Legacy in 2005). The live albums, especially the Dean years (1970-72), are much more jazz-oriented, contributing to the burgeoning fusion tide. The best example remains Grides, released in 2006 along with the Legacy disc. This at best is comparable, but two long sets unedited can seem redundant and meander a bit. B+(***) [dl]

Old music:

  • None.

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Erik Jekabson: Breakthrough (Wide Hive) [01-17]

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