Jazz Consumer Guide (25):
Low-End Theories

Bassist shine, even adid the dark age of conservatism

by Tom Hull

Pick Hits

Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra: Ashcan Rantings (Clean Feed) Like Mingus, Lane plays a mean bass, composes pieces that encapsulate the entire jazz tradition and then some, and runs a band that sounds even bigger than it is. The new group dispenses with guitar to deploy seven horns, doubling up on trumpet and trombone for cozy warmth as well as free wheeling. Yet below all that brass the bass dominates the tone and pulse, holding the power back so it's more implied than felt, except when the throttle opens. A

William Parker: I Plan to Stay a Believer (AUM Fidelity) Long awaited. Parker unveiled his inside take on Curtis Mayfield's political thoughts in 2001 and has shopped it around ever since, finally collecting slices from six concerts up through 2008 onto two discs. Leena Conquest sings, Amiri Baraka waxes eloquent, ad hoc choirs come and go. The groove picks up some swing and a bunch of horns. "This Is My Country" could shut down a tea party, or launch another. A

Angles: Epileptical West (Clean Feed) Leader/alto saxophonist Martin Küchen's other group is Exploding Customer. Trumpeter Magnus Broo's main group is Atomic. There seem to be scads of young Scandinavians who cut their teeth in rock bands then switched to jazz when they found they could play wilder, maybe even louder. A sextet, with trombone for extra dirt and vibes for extra sparkle, live and loose in Coimbra. A

Tommy Babin's Benzene: Your Body Is Your Prison (Drip Audio) Although the hype sheet suggests "improv/space rock," this is more dense than spacey, and doesn't rock so much as bring the noize. The bassist-leader introduces two Chads, his star MacQuarrie on guitar, and Makela beefing up the bottom on bari sax. Group name and title suggests art/music that's toxic and inflammable, and maybe that we're too far gone not to indulge it. A MINUS

The Nels Cline Singers: Initiate (Cryptogramophone) No vocals, just a guitar trio that's been around a while, took a back seat while Cline pursued other projects including a day job with Wilco, then decided they had something to prove. Two discs, a brainy one cut in the studio with lots of ideas and a few guests, and a brawny one recorded live that sounds like Cline learned something playing arenas, and that he's delighted not to be backing a vocalist. A MINUS

Anat Cohen: Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard (Anzic) A couple of songs beg comparison to Barney Bigard and don't flinch, and her "Body and Soul" is worthy of Gary Giddins's mixtape. It helps that the Peter Washington-Lewis Nash rhythm section is the best mainstream has to offer, and that pianist Benny Green keeps pace. Helps even more that she answers any reservations I had about her poll-winning clarinet work. A MINUS

Freddy Cole: Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B (High Note) Mr. B is '40s cronner Billy Eckstine, whose rich baritone and studly swagger have left him irretrievably passé. No such problem for Cole, whose soft touch pries these gems loose as surely as Houston Person's tenor sax shines them up. A MINUS

Bill Frisell: Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz) The Norman Rockwell of jazz guitarists, growing ever more comfortable framing his string-toned Americana, with Eivand Kang's viola for flair and Rudy Royston's drums for emphasis. The signposts are as familiar as "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Goin' Out of My Head." The originals cast unexpected highlights. A MINUS

Fred Hersch Trio: Whirl (Palmetto) Returning from a two-month coma: they say near-death focuses the mind, but so does working with a superior bass-drums combo -- John Hébert and Eric McPherson -- and focusing on your own legacy instead of cranking out another songbook tribute. If he sounds like his idol, Bill Evans, he isn't bouncing back. He's just being true. A MINUS

Oleg Kireyev/Keith Javors: Rhyme & Reason (Inarhyme) A Russian saxophonist from deep in the Urals, Kireyev worked his way through Poland to the U.S. where he studied under Bud Shank. His recent Mandala tapped into divers streams of world fusion, but here he teams up with pianist Javors for an album of insouciant mainstream, fresh enough to do his late mentor proud. A MINUS

Myra Melford's Be Bread: The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12) She's a dazzling piano player when she takes charge, but mostly she holds back, letting Brandon Ross's guitar, Ben Goldberg's clarinet, and Cuong Vu's trumpet shape and color her seductive compositions. When she does cut loose, the whole band lifts up. A MINUS

Sounds of Liberation (1972, Porter) Before the dark age of conservatism descended upon us, before Reagan, just before Watergate, this is what the future that might be sounded like: funky conga rhythms sprinkled with sparkling Khan Jamal vibes, topped with Byard Lancaster's avant-sax all but screaming freedom, justice, good times. A MINUS

The Stryker/Slagle Band: Keeper (Panorama) Dave Stryker's fleet guitar changes, warmed up with Steve Slagle's blues-inflected alto sax, with dependable bassist Jay Anderson and redoubtable drummer Victor Lewis keeping time: postbop journeymen pull a minor masterpiece out of decades of earnest toil. A MINUS

Henry Threadgill Zooid: This Brings Us To: Volume II (Pi) More of last year's hit, and better I'd say: the flute never flails against the tense, jagged rhythms and contrasts neatly with tuba or trombone. And guitarist Liberty Ellman makes even more taking off from those rhythms. A MINUS

Vandermark 5: Annular Gift (Not Two) With Fred Lonberg-Holm's cello and electronics broadening the palette, including what sounds like a more refined return to Jeb Bishop's guitar, the band returns to Alchemia in Krakow, and whips out a furious set that stands proudly alongside the Alchemia box. A MINUS

Honorable Mention

Paal Nilssen-Love/Ken Vandermark: Milwaukee Volume / Chicago Volume (Smalltown Superjazz) Two nights of smoldering sax and lascivious clarinet knocked about by a drummer who rocks in no known time.

3ology: With Ron Miles (Tapestry) This Colorado sax trio remain intimate enough to merit the introspective moniker as Miles' cornet fits in and draws them out.

Allison Miller: Boom Tic Boom (Foxhaven) Drummer-led trio, an even better showcase for Myra Melford's piano than her own album.

James Blood Ulmer: In and Out (In+Out) As his grizzled vocals sink deeper into the blues, his harmolodic guitar skeeters beyond.

Vijay Iyer: Solo (ACT) Can the best jazz pianist of the last decade do a solo album? Sure, easy.

Bryan and the Haggards: Pretend It's the End of the World (Hot Cup) Merle's melodies run through the mill, from Bird to Ornette to Ayler.

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin: Llyria (ECM) Precision Swiss movement, more dazzling at high speed than when they settle for ambience.

Steve Turre: Delicious and Delightful (High Note) Bright, bold flavors -- Billy Harper, Larry Willis, the trombonist of course; even the conch shell contributes.

Ralph Alessi: Cognitive Dissonance (CAM Jazz) Everyone's favorite sideman brings his trumpet out front, outshining even pianist Jason Moran.

Rova & Nels Cline Singers: The Celestial Septet (New World) Sax quartet + guitar trio, a perfectly matched band, but sometimes they cancel out each other's idiosyncrasies.

Peter Evans Quartet: Live in Lisbon (Clean Feed) With pianist Ricardo Gallo tossing bombs every which way, a tough venue for a hard-playing trumpeter.

David Murray Black Saint Quartet: Live in Berlin (Jazzwerkstatt) The piano and bass slots aren't much, but muscular bass clarinet and monster sax prevail.

James Moody: 4B (IPO) Finely aged standards, no rough edges, no flute, just tenor sax framed for posterity, or a romantic dinner.

Erica Lindsay/Sumi Tonooka: Initiation (ARC) Unheralded stars team up: spare, Coltrane-ish sax thrashes a bit with rich, loquacious piano.

Paul Motian/Chris Potter/Jason Moran: Lost in a Dream (ECM) Enigmatic drummer sets two stars adrift, trying to make sense of nothing.

Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1: 3 Nights in Oslo (Smalltown Superjazz) Five discs, two with the large band in full fury, three cleaving off subsets deconstructing the mischief.

Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton + Peter Evans: Scenes in the House of Music (Clean Feed) Trumpet enfant terrible can't rattle the old guys of the Anglo avant-garde.

Curtis Fuller: I Will Tell Her (Capri) A classic Detroit cruiser from the 1950s, the trombonist's band spiffed up with Keith Oxman's tenor sax and Al Hood's trumpet.

William Parker: At Somewhere There (Barnyard) Long bass solo, mild and creamy as those things go, followed by experiments on dousn'gouni and double flute.

Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory: Far Side (ECM) A double quartet clash: two drummers, two bassists, two thrashing pianos, trumpet sparks to ignite the leader's sax.

Nels Cline: Dirty Baby (Cryptogramophone) An art box of Ed Ruscha paintings, bracketed by a guitar tour de force on one disc, meaty scraps on another.

Gia Notte: Shades (Gnote) Tasty standards from Ellington, Weill, and the usual suspects, saxed up by Don Braden.

David Weiss & Point of Departure: Snuck In (Sunnyside) Twenty-first century Jazz Messengers, with horns sparring, guitar slinking, nothing as obvious as hard bop.

Nils Petter Molvaer: Hamada (Thirsty Ear) Two bass-and-drums eruptions break the arctic chill of trumpet and electronics ambience.

Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green: Apex (Pi) Ever the chameleon, he could pass for Green's old partner Sonny Stitt at the bebop joust.

Mort Weiss: Raising the Bar (SMS Jazz) Small businessman, picked up the clarinet at 65, plays solo on well-worn covers, gets by on charm.

Nilson Matta's Brazilian Voyage: Copacabana (Zoho) The bass pulse of Brazil, with Harry Allen's elegant sax swing and wisps of flute.

Jason Robinson: The Two Faces of Janus (Cuneiform) Backed with a fleet-footed band, with crucial interventions by Marty Ehrlich and Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Food: Quiet Inlet (ECM) Thomas Strønen's electronics overcome his percussion, devolving into ambience laced with Iain Ballamy reeds.

Brad Mehldau: Highway Rider (Nonesuch) Two discs of string-swept pastorale, dotted by the occasional Joshua Redman oasis.

Duds

Jason Robinson and Anthony Davis: Cerulean Landscapes (Clean Feed) Sax-piano duets, limited pallette, fancy abstractions. B

Metropole Orkest: 54 (Emarcy) Vince Mendoza rolls out so much red carpet for John Scofield that nobody notices the guest star. B MINUS

Puttin' On the Ritz: White Light/White Heat (Hot Cup) Sometimes when they try to kill they only maim themselves. C PLUS

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: 48; Word count: 1762 (graded 18: 1045; additional 30: 717).

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.