Jazz Consumer Guide (12):
No Training Wheels Necessary

Ferocious homage mingles with daring fusion, looking both back and beyond

by Tom Hull

Pick Hits

Nils Petter Molvaer: ER (Thirsty Ear) Molvaer's fusion is the proper heir to Miles Davis's in two respects: he's a master at getting the rhythm tight, and his trumpet adds a bare minimum of human voice without detracting from the machines. His programmed beats grow more complex and varied each time out, here opening up new paths ranging from chill out to a striking Sidsel Endresen vocal. Three cuts return from An American Compilation, which also overlaps Streamer in Thirsty Ear's campaign to catch up with Molvaer's Europe-only releases. Consumers can weigh the redundancies and bait, but this is where the others were heading. A

The Vandermark 5: Free Jazz Classics Vols. 3 & 4 (Atavistic) Two bonus discs from early editions of studio albums, one exploring Sonny Rollins's compositions from the '60s, the other engaging Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Both sources manifested freedom less in form than through their outsized personalities. The V5's front line of two saxes plus dirt trombone spreads their singularities out and formalizes their innovations. But they also preserve the familiar heads, providing handles for the mischief that follows, and eliciting some of the group's most boisterous, and accessible, play. A

Omer Avital: The Ancient Art of Giving (Smalls) The second installment in Avital's archives, *Room to Grow, starts to make the case for the Israeli bassist as a catalyst for cutting edge postbop in the late '90s, but this is the album where the payoff comes clear. His quintet is structured for hard bop, but he lets the rhythm slosh around, and once they get warmed up, Mark Turner's tenor sax and Avishai Cohen's trumpet, break loose. A MINUS

Ignacio Berroa: Codes (Blue Note) Like Chano Pozo in 1947, trap drummer Berroa moved to New York in 1980 and found a job in Dizzy Gillespie's band. But his Afro-Cuban roots were attenuated -- he blames Castro for suppressing Yoruba religion and restricting his schooling to the Euroclassics. Even here, Gonzalo Rubalcaba's piano and Felipe LaMoglia's saxophones provide the Cuban rhythms, not trad percussion. An effective pan-American synthesis, codified. A MINUS

Scott Hamilton: Nocturnes & Serenades (Concord) Slow standards, with "Autumn Nocturne" and Serenade in Blue" justifying the title, "You Go to My Head" and "Chelsea Bridge" more instantly recognizable, and "Man With a Horn" his calling card. He's made virtually the same record before, and he'll no doubt do it again. After all, who does it better? A MINUS

Hat: Hi Ha (Fresh Sound New Talent) Sergi Sirvent is an up-and-coming Barcelona-based pianist with a handful of tantalizing albums -- duets with guitarist Santi Careta and drummer Xavi Maureta, a Free Quartet with two drummers, a Monk-inspired group called the Unexpected. Those all seemed like rough sketches, but guitarist Jordi Matas fills out a finely balanced quartet here. A MINUS

Frank Hewitt: Fresh From the Cooler (1996, Smalls) A bebop pianist who almost slipped through 66 years of life without leaving a trace, Hewitt built enough of a cult during his Smalls residency to inspire a label in no small part dedicated to his legacy. His fourth posthumous release features a trio that steps gingerly around jazz standards such as "Cherokee" and "Monk's Mood" -- nothing fancy, just a rare touch with for melodic nuance. A MINUS

Andrew Hill: Pax (1965, Blue Note) The recent Time Lines, the avant-pianist's second return to Blue Note, strikes me as his career average album, but his elevation to living legend has spurred the label into restoring his catalog. A few years ago only the universally revered Point of Departure was in print. Now, recommended reissues include Black Fire, Smoke Stack, Judgment!, Andrew!!!, and the rediscovered Dance With Death. On another obscure one, he holds the center down so firmly that Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson can go as far out as they ever got. A MINUS

Maurice Hines: To Nat "King" Cole With Love (Arbors) Gregory's big brother comes close enough to the mark to beg the question -- why not stick with the originals. Hines's smooth, agile baritone can't touch Cole's one-of-kind voice. But the band spans Cole's career, with more muscle than the Trio and none of the dross of his orchestras. And because Cole was the hippest of pre-rock pop stars, by a margin that has only grown since, the songs live on. A MINUS

Kidd Jordan/Hamid Drake/William Parker: Palm of Soul (AUM Fidelity) Driven from his home by Katrina, storied but little documented avant-saxophonist Jordan headed for New York to a cult hero's welcome. At 70, he shows signs of mellowing a bit -- or maybe he's just amused by his playmates, who augment their world-class bass and drums with world-class toys like guimbri and tablas. A MINUS

Diana Krall: From This Moment On (Verve) The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra doesn't split the difference between Billy May and Nelson Riddle so much as aggregate the virtues of each, but they're no more useful than May and Riddle without a commanding singer. And Krall, who's always been able to put over a song, exerts the necessary authority. And if songs like "Come Dance With Me" and "It Could Happen to You" invite Sinatra comparisons, she's up for that too. A MINUS

Bucky Pizzarelli: 5 for Freddie: Bucky's Tribute to Freddie Green (Arbors) The rhythm section tracks Basie's legends well enough -- Mickey Roker for Jo Jones, Jay Leonhart for Walter Page, John Bunch for the Count -- and Pizzarelli can certainly keep the engine humming. But Green was famous for never taking a solo, which leaves the guitarist in need of someone else for the spotlight. Enter Warren Vaché as Sweets Edison, even lighter on cornet, just enough voice to focus these old swing warhorses, and totally at home. A MINUS

Dud of the Month

Warren Vaché and the Scottish Ensemble: Don't Look Back (Arbors) Fronting a phalanx of strings has been a stock dream of virtuosos since before Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins, but few have made anything interesting out of the opportunity -- two exceptions are Stan Getz's Focus, because of the futurist strings, and Art Pepper's Winter Moon, in spite of them. Vaché might have fared relatively well here, as he has in such intimate settings has his Bill Charlap duet 2Gether, but the 12-strong, baroque-rooted Scottish Ensemble is dead weight. B MINUS

Honorable Mention

Maurice El Médioni Meets Roberto Rodriguez: Descarga Oriental: The New York Sessions (Piranha) An Algerian-Sephardic twist on Rodriguez's Cuban-Ashkenazi synthesis.

Billy Stein Trio: Hybrids (Barking Hoop) After decades of quiet refinement, subtle shadings of guitar, bass and drums.

Sergi Sirvent & Xavi Maureta: Lines Over Rhythm (Fresh Sound New Talent) They start with six from Bird, then lose the training wheels.

Ellery Eskelin: Quiet Music (Prime Source) The avant saxophonist's title isn't irony, but his sprawling trio-plus-voice doesn't make quiet any easier.

Regina Carter: I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey (Verve) One last swing through the '40s, in rememberance of Mom.

Tomasz Stanko Quartet: Lontano (ECM) Slow, bleak, haunting, so subtly understated you'd think inscrutability was the point.

Von Freeman: Good Forever (Premonition) At 84 he finally learns to relax and stretch out on a ballad.

Mark Helias' Open Loose: Atomic Clock (Radio Legs Music) Bassist-led sax-drums trio, with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey on the rough edges.

Samo Salamon Quartet: Two Hours (Fresh Sound New Talent) Slovenian guitarist hires Mark Helias' Open Loose trio for backup -- a gutsy move.

Sathima Bea Benjamin: Song Spirit (1963-2002, Ekapa) A jazz singer 40 years out of Africa -- the roots thin out, but the pianists keep coming.

Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet: Way Out East (Songlines) Where wild but princely bassoon and cello roam.

Frank Morgan: Reflections (High Note) Sooner or later, some of Bird's children grow up.

Dennis González Boston Project: No Photograph Available (Clean Feed) Working the kinks out on the road to NY Midnight Suite.

John Hicks: Sweet Love of Mine (High Note) Cut a month before his death: poignant solo piano, plus further proof of how he lifted everyone around him, even Elise Wood flutes and Javon Jackson sax.

Sonny Simmons: I'll See You When You Get There (Jazzaway) Minimal Sonny, his alto sax or English horn solos barely clad in admiring bass, piano or drums.

Kali Z. Fasteau/Kidd Jordan: People of the Ninth: New Orleans and the Hurricane 2005 (Flying Note) She fêtes the hero of New Orleans, and he centers her eclecticism.

Duds

Cheryl Bentyne: The Book of Love (Telarc)

David 'Fathead' Newman: Life (High Note)

Charles Tolliver Big Band: With Love (Blue Note/Mosaic)

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: 33; Word count: 1553 (graded 18: 1216; additional 15: 337).

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

Working on the following (both new and old). When done they will go to the print or done or flush file. When the column is published, the done entries will be dumped into notebook.