Jazz Consumer Guide (13):
Muscling Up and Rocking Out

Some get by with subtlety, but thrashing ferocity works great too

by Tom Hull

Pick Hits

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Bright Side (Material) This Austrian guitarist is hard to characterize. He avoids power chords and single-note bebop runs, does without a funk lick or even a blues move. He gets a soft, metallic tone, sometimes tweaking it with effects. His early work suggested fusion, but lately he's gravitated toward a kind of chamber music. He cites Bach's lute works, Glenn Gould, and Bill Evans as influences -- indeed, he plays more like a pianist than any guitarist I know. Solo (Material) offers a detailed exposé of his bag of tricks, but his small group records are more immediately accessible. Friendly Travelers (Material) is an engaging dialogue with drummer Brian Blade. But richer harmonically is this record by his trio, with a pair of twins on bass and drums doing his bidding. A MINUS

Anders Nilsson's Aorta: Blood (Kopasetic) A second album, *Janus*, is more varied and virtuosic, with saxophonist Mattias Carlson much more prominent. But this debut stakes guitarist Nilsson's conceptual claim to the mother of all arteries and its pulse of life. Bass and drums thrash, as in dozens of Scandinavian post-punk fusion bands, only the fretwork here is something else -- fond of power chords, but able to pick around them when he wants, with the sax adding menacing overtone to the flash and finesse. A MINUS

Club D'Elf: Now I Understand (Accurate) As the name implies, this is less a group than a meeting place, with a website listing more than 100 conspirators beyond a core -- bassist Mike Rivard, drummer Eric Kerr, and oudist Brahim Fribgane -- that favors fast grooves and world fusion. Special guests abound, with keyb whiz John Medeski, avant-violist Mat Maneri, and turntablist DJ Logic the best known. My faves are the kids on the reggae "Just Kiddin'" and the rapper who sounds like Dr. Dooom. A MINUS

Satoko Fujii Four: When We Were There (Libra) The high point of her eight albums last year, mostly because the Mark Dresser-Jim Black rhythm section relishes her fusion groove as well as her predominant and wildly varied avant interests. Also because trumpet-playing husband Natsuki Tamura continues to mature as a steadying, lyrical accompanist. A MINUS

Gato Libre: Nomad (No Man's Land) Ten pieces, named for cities and months of a tour through Europe, with Spanish guitar by Kazuhiko Tsumura and Italian accordion by Satoko Fujii establishing a folkish milieu for leader Natsuki Tamura's plaintive trumpet. Tamura has been working his colors into Fujii's chaotic canvases all along; here his impressionism flowers. A MINUS

Vijay Iyer + Mike Ladd: Still Life With Commentator (Savoy Jazz) We are living through an era of endless war and atrocity, but experience it as virtual, as sight and sound filtered through media, quarantined from experience, interpreted by commentators. Iyer's programming is appropriately synthetic, chilling Ladd's words, which flit through the ether, not making sense so much as suggesting profundity -- an effect heightened when he translates some into Japanese, others into operatic Italian. A MINUS

Steve Lacy Quintet: Esteem (1975, Atavistic) After fifty prolific years, the soprano sax legend's posthumous career gets underway with widow Irène Aëbi sorting through some 300 private cassettes for a series titled "The Leap." The first installment is a raw and deliciously noisy quintet, with Steve Potts doubling the sax on alto and second soprano, plug ugly bass and drums, and Aëbi herself. I never could stand her arch vocals, but there's acid wit in cello and violin. A MINUS

Joe Lovano & Hank Jones: Kids (Blue Note) Third time's the charm, as they clear away the concepts and clutter -- the ballad trough on I'm All for You, the all-star rhythm that made Joyous Encounter routine -- and get down to business. Three tricky pieces by brother Thad are highlights, as is Lovano's "Charlie Chan," about a saxophonist Jones made sense of {sixty|60} years ago. A MINUS

Bob Reynolds: Can't Wait for Perfect (Fresh Sound New Talent) This tenor sax debut reminds me of the young, fighting-weight Ben Webster, suggesting that he has a great ballad album in the distant future. Main difference is that he grew up on funk instead of swing. Less impressive are one cut on soprano and some synth programming, signs of the overheated times. A MINUS

Sound in Action Trio: Gate (Atavistic) Two drummers: Robert Barry, from Sun Ra Arkestra, and Tim Daisy, from Triage and numerous Ken Vandermark projects, including the flagship 5. One horn, Vandermark's, constantly on the spot. Half originals, all dedicated to drummers; half modern jazz pieces, with Dolphy offering a clarinet feature, and Coltrane setting up some ferocious tenor sax. A MINUS

David Torn: Prezens (ECM) Rip Torn's cousin played guitar on some fusion albums in the '80s, working with such usual suspects as Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, before moving on to soundtrack work and the group Splattercell. Here he employs Hard Cell -- Tim Berne's trio with keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Tom Rainey -- for a dark, demonic comeback. Berne's alto sax adds bite to Torn's power chords, Taborn juices up the electronics, and the always superb Rainey muscles up. A MINUS

Frank Wright: Unity (1974, ESP-Disk) A saxophonist so far out he would have slipped by unrecorded were it not for ESP's "only the artist decides" philosophy. But two 1965-67 albums registered his name, and occasionally a live tape surfaces, such as this one from the Moers Festival. It builds on a terrific rhythm section: Bobby Few's crashing piano, Alan Silva's volcanic bass, and on drums Rashied Ali's brother, appropriately named Muhammad. Wright always brought the noise, and in the end even rocks out. A MINUS

Dud of the Month

Turtle Island String Quartet: A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane (Telarc) The title suite has lately lost its untouchable status, but nowhere else has it been so trivialized. Jimmy Garrison's signature bass line barely registers on cello, and the violins can't lead at all. With the last two movements reduced to 2:44 and 2:47, all they acknowledge is a lack of ideas. And they don't let you off easy: the album slogs on to 64:17 with standard fare like "Naima" and "My Favorite Things" -- no chance hoping for "Ascension" just to hear them croak. C

Honorable Mention

The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project: Simpático (ArtistShare) A steady stream of bubbly percussion, tasty alto sax, and bright trumpet.

Vittor Santos: Renewed Impressions (Adventure Music) Trombone samba, the rapid-fire puffs muscling up sly rhythms and flighty melodies.

Carneyball Johnson (Akron Cracker) Rubber city lounge lizards, hold the tango.

Anat Fort: A Long Story (ECM) Slow, a soft piano cushion for Perry Robinson's jagged clarinet.

Gordon Grdina's Box Cutter: Unlearn (Spool/Line) Vancouver guitarist propells François Houle's clarinets through a world-beat maze.

Joel Frahm: We Used to Dance (Anzic) A tenor sax lover's album, modeled on Stan Getz with three-fourths of his late quartet.

Anat Cohen & the Anzic Orchestra: Noir (Anzic) Israeli-Brazilian big band struts with some barbeque.

BassDrumBone: The Line Up (Clean Feed) Short for Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway, and Ray Anderson, a trio dating back to 1979, hard again.

Bob French: Marsalis Music Honors Bob French (Marsalis Music/Rounder) Even post-Katrina, what worked for Papa Celestin works for his heir.

Jerry Granelli/V16: The Sonic Temple: Monday and Tuesday Songlines Twin guitar group does eight song set twice, first night more daring, second bluesier -- just like life.

Satoko Fujii/Natsuki Tamura: In Krakow in November (Not Two) Stripped down to piano-trumpet duets, where parry and joust waxes and wanes.

Uri Caine Ensemble: Plays Mozart (Winter & Winter) Or plays with Mozart, like cat with rat.

Russell Malone: Live at Jazz Standard: Volume One (MaxJazz) In a different venue, could be Smolderin' at the Half Note.

Les DeMerle: Cookin' at the Corner, Vol. 1 (Origin) Small-time Louis Prima type -- Bonnie Eisele is his Keely Smith, but he gets the best laugh with "Bennie's From Heaven."

Michael Brecker: Pilgrimage (Heads Up) Impending death focuses the mind, thaws the heart, brings out the best in friends.

Carl Allen & Rodney Whitaker: Get Ready (Mack Avenue) Motown rhythm guys keep the quiet storm loose and limber.

Duds

John Abercrombie: The Third Quartet (ECM) Subtle and self-effacing, hiding behind Mark Feldman's violin.

Vijay Iyer & Rudresh Mahanthappa: Raw Materials (Savoy Jazz) Rough, unfinished, ill-fitting duets.

Wynton Marsalis: From the Plantation to the Penitentiary (Blue Note) As viewed from the penthouse.

Addresses

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: 1509 (graded 20: 1237; additional 13: 272).

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 redundant. 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

All pending records have been moved forward.

Notes

Cover letter to Rob Harvilla:

Jazz Consumer Guide column follows. Don't have a title or tag line.
Thought what you did last time was fine, so figured I'd let you
take another crack at it. One statistical anomaly is the number of
guitar records: both pick hits, Torn, Grdina, Malone, Abercrombie.
Granelli is really a guitar record too, led by the drummer.

My word count is 1882. Last time you ran 1553. This could even wind
up shorter, given that the reviews on average are a bit shorter this
time, so the three-line headings and white space take more out. Hate
to see anything go, but first priority is to get the oldest stuff out,
and to hold clusters together (Fujii/Gato Libre, Iyer/Mahanthappa).
That suggests as possible cuts, in rough order by section:

  Pablo Aslan
  Sonic Liberation Front
  Kahil El'Zabar + Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (HM)
  Joe Lovano/Hank Jones
  Frank Wright

  Frank Carlberg
  Phil Bodner
  Jason Lindner
  Dave Liebman
  Les DeMerle
  Carl Allen/Rodney Whitaker

  Wynton Marsalis
  Mark Murphy

I actually have a few more reviews written, but already cut them
(Maria Anadon, Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake, Joshua Redman, Logan
Richardson; HMs: Kieran Hebden/Steve Reid, Nicole Mitchell).

For the duds this time, I wrote short lines like I do for HM, to
provide some small measure of explanation. You could kill those
if you want to keep to the standard format. Abercrombie, Iyer,
and Marsalis are all grade B; Murphy is a D, truly horrible.

Both pick hit records are somewhat old. In both cases I mention
more recent releases, but went for the older records because I
thought they more clearly demonstrated the artists' merits.
Muthspiel seems to be pretty well known in Europe, but is a
complete blank here. (Just heard he will be in NYC at Iridium
Sept. 5-6.) Nilsson is based in NY, so may have a local profile.
I originally heard him on Fay Victor's record, an A- I didn't
manage to get written up.

Contacts for cover scans:

  Muthspiel: Ann Braithwaite 
  Nilsson: Anders Nilsson 

In a jam I can scan these, but the equipment isn't running at
the moment.

Accents:

  Muthspiel: exposé
  Lacy: Irène Aëbi (last name three times)
  Lynch: Simpático
  Grdina: François Houle

Once this is done we should talk about the future. I'm thinking
that my Recycled Goods format (albeit shorter) might work better
if we could do it more often (at least every other month, could
even be monthly): 6-8 paragraph reviews + brief notes (1-3
clauses) with no firm sort by grade. You can look at the RG
archive at:

  http://tomhull.com/ocston/arch/cg/

Thanks.