Music – Page 24 – Scratch My Brain

Dudes whose name starts with W

I’d been hearing about this Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis collaboration, and to be honest had trouble imagining how it could work. That must have been a me issue, because apparently Willie and Wynton imagined it working quite well…and it does work quite well. I do still have a little trouble getting over www.willieandwynton.com or their Facebook page. All the pics of Wynton in vest and tie, and Willie in his hat with that beat up old guitar. It’s almost like the president of the Young Republicans going on a date with that pierced/tattooed chick with green hair. THEY probably had a great time, but everyone else can get too stuck in their ideas of genre or their prejudices to see that.

Genre is a problem for this record. Genre is a problem in general (see DJA for some good thoughts on this idea). This isn’t a jazz record, but it’s got some enjoyable improvising from musicians that would be considered jazz musicians. It’s not really a country record, or a blues record. Is Americana a genre? It might be that.

The good new is, that regardless of what you call it, it is fun to listen to. There is a real depth and honesty to what Willie does, and that makes me feel good. It grooves hard, and that makes me move parts of my body as I listen. Come to this music without preconception, and chances are it will grab you.

It is easy to have preconception about Wynton. Every time I hear him do that spot for his XM show, when he says “we’re gonna hear some cats who CAN PLAY!” I always think, “what, everyone else sucks?!?!” I don’t think he means to imply that only those endorsed from his Swing Seat can play, but it can come off that way. Then he talks about hearing “what’s happening on the real jazz horizon,” right before the voice over names a few famous dead jazz heros. It’s easy to look at the fashion ads and all of that and think hat Wynton is not really about music but about other stuff. I don’t think that is the case, but either way, just clear your mind, forget who it is, and listen.

It’s not about high art (pun intended), but it does address the basic values of much of American music, and it sounds good. It works.

Full disclosure: a copy of the CD “Two Men with the Blues” was provided to me.

Words from the wise

Yesterday I had the pleasure of playing on a Luther Kent recording session, that was all Wardell Querzergue arrangements. Wardell arranged a large percentage of the classic New Orleans stuff.

Wardell (to band): “That’s definitely the right mood you’re putting in there. Now put some right notes in there too and we’ll have it.”

Pros and Cons of home mixing

With the leaps in technology, it is now possible to have everything needed to mix and master a CD in your home studio/office. This can be a real benefit to the cash strapped artist, or those of us that are making music that doesn’t have a huge commercial base. We can really take our time, and revisit mixes days or weeks later without incurring additional costs.

The downside is that sometimes you might get interrupted by your kids telling you that the cat threw up on the couch and Jessica accidentally sat in it.

Weekend in NY

I was in NY for a portion of the Vision Festival last weekend. I don’t really have the time nor inclination to write a blow by blow review of what I heard, although there are plenty of those out there. I do want to mention a few things though.

One of the biggest things I learned was about the tenacity of music lovers. The venue was very warm and pretty uncomfortable and it was still packed pretty much every moment I was there. From the stage Joelle Leandre said it felt like a sauna, and she was probably being polite. It was really freakin’ hot in there. They also had those really crappy plastic folding chairs. They might not be too bad for smallish people, but they are very uncomfortable for us larger folks. The fact that anyone was sitting packed like sardines in these conditions listening to anything is amazing to me, but we were all there wanting to hear what was being offered. If it is any consolation, I caught some of the New Languages Festival around the corner at the Living Theater, and their a/c was less than effective as well, and they had the same crappy chairs.

On to the music…

The Gebhard Ullmann/Steve Swell 4tet was a good show. It was nice to hear Barry Altschul live, and Hill Greene sounded great. Steve is a great trombone player, a really nice cat, and a great supporter of other musicians. I try to hear him whenever possible.

I really enjoyed observing the process of Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quintet. Watching him wave stuff in and out, and watching the players sometimes do what he appeared to be asking.

I caught some of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society over at New Languages and they sounded great. Very dynamic performance of excellent material. Both of those aspects are hard tricks to pull off with a large ensemble.

I was looking forward to hearing the Matthew Shipp Trio with Joe Morris and Whit Dickey, and they didn’t disappoint.

George Lewis and Joelle Leandre were probably the highlight of the weekend for me. I knew George Lewis was bad, but he is way badder than I anticipated. The communication and playful interaction between Lewis and Leandre was great. They reminded us all that it is ok to laugh during a “serious free jazz” show, and that is an important thing to remember.

The weekend also included good cheap Chinese food, cannoli, and a trip to MOMA, along with seeing some friends I don’t get to see too often, and making a few new ones as well. Not a bad way to spend a couple of days.

Recent listening

I have been listening to quite a bit of new (to me) music lately, but don’t really have time to write about much (or any) of it, so I am going to rock it as a shout out post. I scored most of this stuff on eMusic, so a search there should yield sound sample and purchasing opportunities. I have been listening to and enjoying these things:

4 Corners 4 Corners (Clean Feed)

Dennis Gonzalez NY Quartet Dance of the Soothsayer’s Tounge (Clean Feed)

Fieldwork, featuring Vijay Iyer, Stebe Lehman & Tyshawn Sorry Door (Pi)

Empty Cage Quartet Stratospheric (Clean Feed)

Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey)

Jason Adasiewicz Rolldown (482 Music)

Steve Lehman On Meaning (Pi)

Steve Lehman Quartet Manifold (Clean Feed)

…may be a trombonist…

Romance: “Jacob Garchik may be a trombonist but he marches to the tune of a different drummer.”

That’s the opening line of the AAJ review of Jacob Garchick’s Romance. Is that a trombone slam? Am I being too sensitive?

BTW I ordered Jacob’s CD the second I found out it was available, and I like it very much. Check it out.

Shevitz video

Jason Adasiewicz (friend, vibraphonist, Lucky 7s member, coffee meister, dog lover, secret weapon) has a new CD called Rolldown on 482 Music.

Check out the following video of his band. It was recorded at Strobe Recording Studio in Chicago, which happens to be the same place the soon to be released (well, soon as in sometime this decade) Lucky 7s CD was recorded.

Zeitgeist Creative Music Series

Myspace.com Blogs – Zeitgeist Creative Music Series – Helen Gillet MySpace Blog

There is going to be a very cool summer concert series at Zeitgeist this year, and it is curated by the marvelous Helen Gillet. I am playing on it on May 27th.

Hit Helen’s MySpace blog for the full rundown.

new live mp3s

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I would post some excerpts from my April 19 quartet show at Brown Rice in Chicago, with Matt Golombisky, Quin Kirchner, and Greg Ward.

There are mp3s of 4 pieces from that gig here: Jeff Albert » Brown Rice – Chicago – 19 April 08

non-fest Jazz fest fun

It is Jazz Fest time here in New Orleans. I didn’t get to the Fairgrounds at all on the first weekend, but still heard some great music, and made some fun music as well.

Hamid Drake was in town playing in various settings with Rob Wagner. On Friday night at the Saturn Bar, tuba player Jon Gross and I were one of the various settings. Rob wrote some new music for the group. I don’t know that I would call them tunes, but they were great improvisational mood setters. That night, I learned that one of the secrets to living a happy life, is to play with great drummers.

Sunday night was my first visit to the new Zeitgeist space, and it is quite nice. It sounds great, and is nicely appointed in a minimalistic sort of way. The first show that night was James Singleton and friends, with Larry Sieberth on piano, Scott Bourgeois on alto sax, Helen Gillet on cello, Justin Peake on drums and laptop, and of course James on bass…and cornet. James’ cornet playing has come a long way. He is starting to really make the thing sound pretty good. The set was largely improvised, but there were also appearances by some of James’ composed material.

The later show that night at Zeitgeist was a group that I put together to feature Dan Godston, who was visiting from Chicago. It ended up being larger than anticipated, and lots of fun. I enjoy large groups of well behaved improvisers almost as much as small groups of poorly behaved ones. I played Dan’s slide trumpet for a bit. That was a trip. It is likely that all or part of that set will end up posted on jeffalbert.com at some point fairly soon.

As a side note, Zeitgeist will host an 8 week creative music series, running every Tuesday from late May into July. I believe that it will be curated by Helen Gillet, which should be very cool.

Later Sunday night, I went to the Dragon’s Den to hear Rob and Hamid in the trio from the CD, with Nobu Ozaki on bass. I ended up sitting in for a good chunk of the second set, along with Cocheme’a Gastelum on alto sax. Cocheme’a is a friend of Hamid’s, who was in from NY for Jazz Fest. He sounded great, and the three horn texture brought out some nice aspects of Rob’s tunes, that don’t always make themselves obvious in the trio format.

The conclusion of the first weekend was actually Monday night at the Big Top, with the Peter Brötzmann/Han Bennink duo show. I think Brötzmann’s playing is evolving, and I know my listening is evolving, because everytime I hear him live, I get it a little bit more. He played some very earthy rich melodies Monday, but I am also starting to hear more of the melodies contained in the flurries of noise as well. Mr. Bennink (as Brötz referred to him) was as impish as usual. Han played the encore on a wooden stool as he sat on the floor in front of the stage, causing Peter to give in a little and take a seat on the edge of the stage. The music was great. They make a wonderful duo.

Photo courtesy of John Sharappa.