Jazz Consumer Guide (16):
Funk Fusion, Bebop Terrorism in New Jazz Records

Talents old and new throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks

by Tom Hull

Pick Hits

MI3: Free Advice (Clean Feed) Spaceways Incorporated bassist Nate McBride sets up a steady rolling platform for Pandelis Karayorgis's flights of pianistic fury by fetching seductive riffs from Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Hasaan Ibn Ali. This Boston trio was originally formed to play in a rock club, churning out punk-Monk fusion with electric piano. Now, with the piano unplugged and McBride continuing to develop as a subtle and grooveful bassist, they've moved into something new: free jazz boogie woogie? A

Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Shamokin!!! (Hot Cup) Leonardo Featherweight's liner notes introduce many of the jokes: leader Moppa Elliott emulating the "classic slap-style bass playing of Milt Hinton and Victor Wooten"; Kevin Shea's drums shifting from "Gene Krupa-esque tom-tom facility to Shaggs-style freedom"; trumpeter Peter Evans' "dog whistle shrieks, Buddy Bolden quotes, and coffee grinder tone"; saxophonist Jon Irabagon's knack for "seamlessly melding Najee and Zorn"; numerous references to "livestock at slaughter." Abbreviated MOPDTK, billed as a "bebop terrorist band," they rip up history and make it anew while reusing proven hooks. A

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin: Holon (ECM) The Swiss pianist moves his minimalist rhythmic figures along with the grace of his namesake outcast samurai, his ascetic awareness imagining an ecstatic groove, but arriving at something more sublime. The six modules start sparse but gain weight as Sha's bass clarinet emerges from the shadows, lifting a group that improvises with the beat, not against it. A MINUS

Miles Davis: The Complete On the Corner Sessions (1972-75, Columbia/Legacy) Six discs collecting 16 indecisive and inconclusive studio sessions at least explain why *On the Corner* was Davis's most disparaged album: the edits tried to force excitement out of a minimal funk groove that needed long stretches of time to breathe. Davis never watered his fusion down for the masses. They came to him, and he made them wait before frosting the groove with brief bursts of piercing trumpet. A MINUS

Jostein Gulbrandsen: Twelve (Fresh Sound New Talent) Early on, the guitarist lurks in the background of his debut album, letting MOPDTK terrorist Jon Irabagon clear the field with slashing, scratchy tenor sax thrusts. Gulbrandsen's licks accentuate, then insinuate. He turns the corner with the Police's "Message in a Bottle": slow refrain, and crafty deconstruction turning the song to a distant memory. Finally, he emerges clearly in a closing duet with bassist Eivind Opsvik. A MINUS

Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette: My Foolish Heart: Live at Montreux (ECM) The dozens of albums Jarrett's "standards trio" have released since 1983 blur together, but here two Fats Waller pieces jump out, brightening the day. Jarrett is every bit as adept with "Four" and "Straight, No Chaser" and the inevitable ballad, and DeJohnette demonstrates why Jarrett has stuck in his trio rut all these years: Who else would you rather play with? A MINUS

Rafi Malkiel: My Island (Raftone) Latin jazz with all the bells and maracas and a few old-fashioned vocals; the songs broken down by style and country, ranging from Brazil to New Orleans, with Cuba predominant. The leader is an Israeli trombonist whose island is Manhattan. Occasionally a klezmer vibe slips in. A MINUS

William Parker/Raining on the Moon: Corn Meal Dance (AUM Fidelity) Parker's lyrics can get preachy or plain didactic, and singer Leena Conquest amplifies the slightest hint of gospel all too predictably. But his sweeping melodies lift them into the cosmos, and the avant-garde virtuosos in the band never wander: They fill in and extend so expertly (Lewis Barnes' trumpet stands out) that this might even be compelling as an instrumental. A MINUS

Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. 1: The Complete Abashiri Concert [1981] / Unreleased Art, Vol. 2: The Last Concert [1982] (Widow's Taste) Widow Laurie Pepper lays claim to a pair of bootlegs, recorded at a time when the great alto saxophonist was walking dead but playing miraculously. At Abashiri, even Art is taken by his "Body and Soul," proclaiming it "one of the nicest things that I think I've played in my life." He closes with a hard swinging clarinet feature: "When You're Smiling." Can't help but. A MINUS

Alvin Queen: I Ain't Looking at You (Enja/Justin Time) A journeyman drummer (who broke in with Wild Bill Davis, then graduated to Horace Silver and George Benson) emerges from the trenches with messengers who fuse the best of soul jazz and hard bop: groove from Mike LeDonne's B3 and Peter Bernstein's guitar, two-horn fireworks from Terrell Stafford's trumpet and Jesse Davis's sax. A MINUS

Louis Sclavis: L'Imparfait des Langues (ECM) I can't find a thread that ties this record together. Working with a familiar drummer and three upstarts -- Marc Baron on alto sax, Paul Brousseau on keyboards, Maxime Delpierre on guitar -- it's as if the veteran clarinetist is just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. It pretty much all does: electronic drones, free sax riffing, rocksteady beats, airy meditations, noisy fusion. The sounds of tradition passing down, and blowing back. A MINUS

Joan Stiles: Hurly-Burly (Oo-Bla-Dee) Twice she sings, but her focus is piano jazz, which she organizes as a pyramid: Mary Lou Williams is her special interest; Ellington and Monk are her guiding lights; Fats Waller, Ray Charles, and Jimmy Rowles provide further amusements. She writes things like "The Brilliant Corners of Thelonious' Jumpin' Jeep" to stitch it all together, but what moves this beyond concept is the dream band she commands in units from duo to sextet: Jeremy Pelt, Steve Wilson, Joel Frahm, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash. A MINUS

McCoy Tyner: Quartet (McCoy Tyner Music/Half Note) The Coltrane Quartet pianist's first investment in his own label is both low-budget and surefire: a live album with a new quartet that rivals the old one but fits a little more comfortably around his own substantial songbook. Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano rises to the occasion, but Tyner can still muscle in to make a point. A MINUS

Honorable Mention

Horace Silver: Live at Newport '58 (Blue Note) Minor archive find, fills a gap with Louis Smith and Junior Cook rehearsing classics, the choicest "Señor Blues."

Jimmy Blythe: Messin' Around Blues (Delmark) Classic Chicago piano from the 1920s, extracted from pianola rolls.

Nanette Natal: I Must Be Dreaming (Benyo Music) Trading dreams for blues, protesting that "living's hard when it doesn't come easy."

Ila Cantor: Mother Nebula (Fresh Sound New Talent) Guitar-sax quartet: Cantor's guitar rocks harder, Frederik Carlquist's sax honks softer.

Joe Temperley/Harry Allen: Cocktails for Two (Sackville) Hits with Brits, the baritonist setting the tone and pace, Allen as ever respectful of his elders.

Alvin Fielder Trio: A Measure of Vision (Clean Feed) With the González clan helping out, the 70-year-old master of "The Cecil Taylor-Sunny Murray Dancing Lesson."

Enrico Rava: The Words and the Days (ECM) Louis Armstrong never went anywhere without a good trombonist; Gianluca Petrella shows trumpeter Rava why.

George Lewis: Sequel (For Lester Bowie) (Intakt) Wish he played more trombone, especially for Bowie, whom he treats as obliquely as his Homage to Charles Parker.

Wallace Roney: Jazz (High Note) A brothers band like the Adderleys; too bad Antoine doesn't have a nickname to match his flair, like Cannonball.

Nicki Parrott/Rossano Sportiello: People Will Say We're in Love (Arbors) A charming standards singer who also plays bass, plus a gawky, adoring pianist.

Anthony Braxton: Solo Willisau (Intakt) For Alto redux, 35 years to the wiser, no longer shocking, but still a contrarian puzzle.

Duds

Eric Alexander: Temple of Olympic Zeus (High Note) Archetypal mainstream tenor-saxman aims for the gods, hits hubris. B MINUS

Kurt Elling: Nightmoves (Concord) Awkwardly forcing his voice through vocalese mazes, finally destroying "Body and Soul." C PLUS

Enrico Rava/Stefano Bollani: The Third Man (ECM) Wizened trumpet player, upstart pianist, they sail past one another, giving us interleaved halves of two solo albums. B

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: 27; Word count: 1360 (graded 17: 1128; additional 10: 232).

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

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.