Jazz Consumer Guide (10):
Shine Balls

Tricky pitches to baffle the bluocracy

by Tom Hull

Pick Hits

Jon Faddis: Teranga (Koch) Take Wynton Marsalis, strip away the shameless propaganda ministry and his Pulitzer-seeking compositional conceits, endow him with a sense of humor and sharpen his chops a bit, and you'll be narrowing in on a description of Jon Faddis. Faddis spent most of his early career working as Dizzy Gillespie's stunt double, because he was damn near the only one up to the job. Later he moved into the institutional milieu at Carnegie Hall, a modest parallel to Marsalis's Lincoln Center coup. Releasing a mere nine albums, mostly throwaways, over 30 years, Faddis has remained out of sight and out of mind, which makes this album a revelation. The core quartet is perfectly balanced, lithe and propulsive, but the surprise is that the guest shots fit in seamlessly--African drums, Russell Malone guitar, Frank Wess flute, and best of all, Clark Terry mumbling. As for Faddis, he shows us everything worthwhile a trumpet can do. A

World Saxophone Quartet: Political Blues (Justin Time) The political situation has gotten so dire that the old masters feel compelled to write tirades. David Murray and Oliver Lake go so far as to step up to the mike, while Hamiet Bluiett recruits gospel heavyweight Carolyn Amba Hawthorne to excoriate the nation's "Amazin' Disgrace." In the first recorded understatement of his career, Murray complains that "the Republican Party is not very nice." But like most Americans, they'd still rather party than protest, so they bring their friends in. In the spirit of anger, Craig Harris weighs in on the "Bluocracy"--Lincoln Center's, presumably, they've been on the front lines of that political struggle all their careers. All Blood Ulmer has to offers is "Mannish Boy," but why not? They've always struck me as uptight without bass and drums, but with a backbeat and their blood up they're the champs. A

Rabih Abou-Khalil/Joachim Kühn: Journey to the Centre of an Egg (Enja/Justin Time) Kühn is best known for his duets with Ornette Coleman, a connection reaffirmed when he switches from piano to alto sax. He's an attentive partner on either instrument, pricking and prodding but never overwhelming Abou-Khalil's muscular oud. And the most valuable playing comes from someone whose name isn't on the spine--spare, propulsive frame drummer Jarrod Cagwin. A MINUS

Bill Carrothers: Shine Ball (Fresh Sound New Talent) The analogy to the banned baseball pitch is that Carrothers also applied foreign substance to his piano. The idea is to surprise the batter, or listener, with an unpredictable break, but in both cases the real trick is control. As with many spitballers, the prepared piano may itself be a feint--mostly it comes through clear and sharp, while the improvs sneak past. A MINUS

Ramón Díaz: Diàleg (Fresh Sound New Talent) Neither a throwback nor a dissertation in postmodern harmonic theory from a conventional hard bop quintet--trumpet and sax, piano, bass and drums. Rather, they sound like a straight step forward, a bit fancier, a cleaner sound, but with all hard bop principles intact--led by the Art Blakey of the Canary Islands. A MINUS

Eric Friedlander: Prowl (Cryptogramophone) ITT honcho Harold Geneen used to preach that if you make your quarters, you'll make your year. This quartet succeeds on the balance and poise of its constituent pieces. The leader's cello, Andy Laster's reeds, Stomu Takeishi's electric bass, Satoshi Takeishi's percussion--each stands out in turn. Exception: "A Closer Walk With Thee," which starts fractured and gains power as it slowly assembles itself into a whole. A MINUS

Manu Katché: Neighbourhood (ECM) Like many session drummers, he calls in chits for his own rare albums, then builds around his guests. In his ECM 'hood, the chosen neighbors are Jan Garbarek and three fourths of Tomasz Stanko's quartet. Like many sessions drummers, Katché knows how to adapt, and here he's managed a near-perfect facsimile of the ECM aesthetic--slow, free, with the horns and, especially, pianist Marcin Wasilewski out front. A MINUS

Adam Lane Trio: Zero Degree Music (CIMP) As avant-jazz goes, this seems remarkably simple. Lane's pieces are all bass pulse, some slow, most fast. Vijay Anderson drums along, feeding rather than fighting the current. What save this from tedium is saxophonist Vinny Golia, whose rapid-fire sax riffs, on tenor and squeaky soprano, never lose interest, even when he too opts for repetitive patterns. A MINUS

Joe Morris Quartet: Beautiful Existence (Clean Feed) Alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs will turn some ears here. I notice a handful of guys like him every year: scattered appearances over a decade or more, nothing that remotely looks like a career trajectory. Guitarist Morris favors long, abstract single-note lines in relatively relaxed settings. He has a sizable catalog, but he's rarely recorded with horns or a rhythm section that would push him. This group features both, and it's gratifying how seamlessly Morris fills in. A MINUS

Francis Wong: Legends & Legacies (Asian Improv) Two of Lawson Inada's poems detail the beginning and the end of America's WWII internment of Japanese Americans, while a third testifies that "something grand" can still come out of their ordeal. Glenn Horiuchi's shamisen and Miya Masaoka's koto are the sounds of the past, while tuba and Wong's reeds flesh out a jazz band of the future, straddling the globe they came from. The odd piece out is about police harassment of Latinos--or so those who don't know history would think. A MINUS

Zentralquartett: 11 Songs -- Aus Teutschen Landen (Intakt) These German Volkslieder themes recall medieval dances and marches with the spritz of circus music, but the razzle-dazzle is in the way the avant-jazz group tears them up and tosses them around. Conrad Bauer, who mangles trombone as gruffly as anyone since Albert Mangelsdorf, is the main perpetrator, with piano, reeds and drums getting their share of the action. A MINUS

Dud of the Ages

Kenny G: The Essential Kenny G (1986-2004, Arista/Legacy) With 30 million records sold, G is by far the most popular, and most hated, man in jazz, if you even grant him that categorization. His degree was in business, and his skill with contracts achieved such coups as his duet to Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" -- sacrilege to those who ignore how crappy the original strings are. And he certainly knows niche marketing. But his greatest breakthrough has been in brain chemistry, where he's discovered neurons that, when stimulated by his unnaturally pretty soprano sax, cause some people intense pain and others mild anaesthetic pleasure. Exempt from either reaction, I'm left disinterestedly analyzing his craft, and concluding he's a mere hack. C

Honorable Mention

Trio 3: Oliver Lake/Reggie Workman/Andrew Cyrille: Time Being (Intakt) Journeymen on jazz's leading edge, a hundred collective man-years in the trade and they've never sounded more like themselves.

NOW Orchestra & Marilyn Crispell: Pola (Victo) Coat Cooke's Vancouver-based free ensemble is provincial enough to feel the need to keep the anarchy intact, even when their guest breaks out.

Batagraf: Statements (ECM) Short phrases or pregnant words like "blowback" offset by percussion and fragmented sound effects.

Johnny Valentino: Stingy Brim (Omnitone) Postmodern guitarist picks from the past--organ trios, Italian roots, the days when tuba ruled bass.

Dave Burrell/Billy Martin: Consequences (Amulet) Old pianist shows young drummer what real percussion is all about.

Carl Maguire: Floriculture (Between the Lines) Tricky compositions, all the harder to pull off after Monk took the low-lying fruit.

Michael Musillami's Dialect: Fragile Forms (Playscape) Guitarist Musillami dares pianist Peter Madsen to bust them up.

Helen Sung Trio: Helenistique (Fresh Sound New Talent) Overachieving mainstream pianist tackles the standards and writes one herself.

Trio-X: Moods: Playing With the Elements (CIMP) Your basic Joe McPhee--free as a bird, equally adept on sax and trumpet.

Erik Truffaz: Saloua (Blue Note) Trumpet-frosted jazztronica with trans-Mediterranean rap--lessons for Israelites and Ishmaelites alike.

Unexpected: Plays the Blues in Need (Fresh Sound New Talent) Pianist Sergi Sirvent's trio twists Monk for old and new needs.

Industrial Jazz Group: Industrial Jazz a Go Go! (Evander Music) Andrew Durkin's big band unveils new models--Dion, Elmore James, Pérez Prado, Oliver Nelson.

Dave Frishberg: Retromania: At the Jazz Bakery (Arbors) Plays piano and sings, mostly about baseball players from his youth and further back, especially names rhyming with Van Lingle Mungo.

Randy Sandke and the Metatonal Big Band: The Subway Ballet (Evening Star) Only in New York can you imagine each subway stop as a dance, and find a big band to orchestrate it all.

Buck Hill: Relax (Severn) The mailman always delivers, even when he takes his sweet time.

Dom Minasi: The Vampire's Revenge (CDM) One bite too many from Anne Rice, but when your friends are the who's who of the underworld, you get amazing guest solos.

Duds

Randy Brecker w/Michael Brecker: Some Skunk Funk (Telarc)

Larry Goldings: Quartet (Palmetto)

The Ed Palermo Big Band: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (Cuneiform)

Addresses

Notes

Rated

This table provides a working guide to how the JCG is shaping up. This does not include anything moved to bk-flush: these include items relegated to Surplus, reviewed in Recycled Goods, or just passed over. Entries in black are written, gray graded but not written, red ungraded but with prospect notes (all these are at the bottom of their approximate grade levels, alphabetized). A-list, B-list and Duds are alphabetical; HM lists are ranked, with breaks for three-two-one stars.

Album count: 31; Word count: 1607 (graded 15: 1240; additional 16: 367).

Prospecting

I try to write up an informal note on every jazz record I hear the first (or sometimes second) time I play it. Those notes are collected over the course of a week, then posted in the blog. They are also collected here.

Surplus

The surplus file collects final notes when I decide that I cannot realistically keep a record under active consideration for the Jazz Consumer Guide. These notes are mostly written at the end of a JCG cycle and posted to the blog when the column is printed. In effect, they are the extended copy to the column. There are various reasons for this. For especially good records, it is often because Francis Davis or someone else has already reviewed it and my two cents would be redundnat. For old music it is often because I wrote something in Recycled Goods and figure that was enough. Sometimes good records have just gotten old. Most of the time the records aren't all that interesting anyway. I can handle 25-30 records per column. It just doesn't make sense for me to keep more than 60-80 graded records in the active list at the start of a new cycle. In many cases, I decide the prospecting notes or Recycled Goods review suffices, so note that in the file.

Pending

This column is finished. All pending records have been moved forward.