Recommendations/Reviews – Page 8

internet radio – accujazz

Thus far, I haven’t really been a big internet radio listener. I don’t know if it is that I haven’t found a station that I really liked, or if it is that when I sit at my computer, I have access to a >100GB music library that I have already vetted. I guess if I had a cubicle day job I would have sorted this out much sooner.

Yesterday, I got an email alerting me to the existence of accujazz.com . So far so good. There are multiple “subchannels”, apparently with more to come. The “New School” channel has served up Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Cecil Taylor, Mal Waldron & Steve Lacy, and other good stuff much of which hasn’t been in my collection. It has also served up some Wynton, and some odd not-in-English “jazz” vocals.

If you are looking for a new listening place, accujazz.com is worth investigating.

Recent Listening

I don’t really have the time or inclination at this point to write full on reviews, but here are some albums that I have picked up recently, that I have really been digging.

Josh Roseman New Constellations Live in Vienna

Josh Roseman’s New Constellations band is a marvelous synthesis of several bags that I love. The Jamaican vibe is present throughout. Can instrumental music be conscious music? This CD makes me say, “yes, it can.” Josh is a real creative voice, both as an instigator and trombonist.

Keefe Jackson’s Project Project Just Like This

This is Keefe’s second release under his name for Delmark. 3/4’s of the Lucky 7s are on this CD, plus many of my other wonderfully creative Chicago friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, so I am predisposed to like this CD. It is a great mix of tasty large ensemble writing, and spirited improvisations.

Luis Bonilla and Trombonilla Terminal Clarity

I haven’t been too familiar with Luis Bonilla, other than in his role as a member of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. I read a review of Terminal Clarity on AAJ, and it looked interesting. It is. Really interesting modern jazz improvisers, with a groovin’ latin rhythm section, and the freedom/resposibility of no harmonic instrument.

Zing!

This is a new disc from some Chicago area friends/colleagues. Matt just laid a copy on me this past week, and I have been enjoying it greatly. More info/samples/purchasing info can be found here.

I’ll get to hear them live (and you can too) at the Ears and Eyes Festival in Chicago on December 9, 2007. They will perform right before BoX3 (which is a trio of trombone and electronics that i do with Dan Oestricher and Justin Peake).

Everybody digs Matt Wilson

A few months ago Matt Wilson seemed to be all over every jazz mag that showed up in my mailbox. I didn’t really know his work, other than having heard him with Lee Konitz’s New Nonet at the 2006 Chicago Jazz Fest.

I guess all the press made me curious. The first thing of his that I picked up wasn’t his recent release that spawned the media blitz. Somewhat randomly I downloaded his album Humidity. I grabbed it in the middle of one of those eMusic end-of-the-month-grab-fests, that occur when I lose track of how many tracks I have (or haven’t) downloaded. It sat in my new music playlist for a while. One day in the car I heard something that grabbed me, and realized it was this album. It has the combination of things I like in music. Some groove, some humor and irreverence, some great improvised moments…

A few months later I heard a cut from the press pushed new CD (Scenic Route) on XM, so I grabbed it as well. A rather different vibe from Humidity, but a similar essence. More Matt Wilson that I liked.

Not too long after that a Cryptogramophone pre-release of “The Big Picture” by Trio M showed up in my mailbox, and who was the M in the drum chair, but Matt Wilson. The other M’s are Myra Melford and Mark Dresser. Another good CD with the drummer everyone digs.

I don’t think I have a man crush yet, but Matt if you read this and need a trombone player for your next project…

European Recommendations

A number of discs by European artists have arrived in my mailbox recently, and I’d like to mention some of the good ones.

The internet really has made the world smaller in some ways, especially in our ability to make friends with people who have similar interests and dissimilar states (or continents) of residence. Austrian trombonist Robert Bachner is one such friend. Robert and I have been sharing CDs of our exploits for some time now, and Robert recently sent me an excellent bunch. All three are by fairly large ensembles. The disc by Robert’s own big band is called Moments of Noise, and it is full of very well played, pretty straight up modern big band stuff. The Vienna Art Orchestra 3 is a three disc set themed around visionaries and dreams. The third disc Robert gave me is Opium by the Flip Philipps/Ed Partyka Dectet. This one is full of interesting colors and resourceful writing. I get a little Gil Evans vibe from it, although there is a lot of other stuff in there too. The Dectet disc also has the coolest cardboard packaging.

Another interesting mailbox surprise has been a disc from Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma, called A Journey That Matters. At times her playing reminds me a bit of Kenny Garrett. It’s a good disc that is worth exploring.

Rob Wagner, Hamid Drake & Nobu Ozaki

Last weekend I had the pleasure of catching two nights of the Rob Wagner Trio with Hamid Drake and Nobu Ozaki. They played Sunday night at The Blue Nile, and Monday night at the Dragon’s Den. Monday also featured a guest appearance by Kidd Jordan.

It is always interesting and illuminating to get the chance to hear the same musicians multiple times in close temporal proximity. The similarities and differences can be quite enlightening. This is not a regularly working trio. They played a gig in New Orleans in December 2005, the night before the recorded their CD, and then did not play together again until June of 2007.

On Sunday, I only caught a few minutes of the first set, and most of the second set, because I was working down the street and could only get to the Blue Nile on our break, and then after my gig. Hamid had just flown in that day. The Blue Nile doesn’t have a very intimate vibe in its current layout, and the music seemed a touch tentative at times. I think some of it was the process of re-acquaintance, combined with the vibe of the room, and the day’s travel. Rob’s music can be pretty introspective, and tends to bob and weave more than all out burn, and it can take a while to get that vibe to settle in. As the gig progressed, I could hear the the trio finding each other.

Monday night at the Dragon’s Den was great. The night started with the trio plus Kidd Jordan. They did some improvised things, as well as one tune from the CD. Kidd sounded great, and his presence brought out some cool stuff in Rob. It pushed him to places he doesn’t usually go on his own. The second set consisted mostly of tunes from the CD, and the trio had found their good space. The Dragon’s den is a great sounding space, so I am sure that contributed to the night’s good feel as well. They graciously asked me to sit in towards the end of the night. It was a lot of fun.

Robin Eubanks – EB3

I keep hearing that the future of the music biz is video. Robin Eubanks is doing his part to prove that idea correct. His new release is a CD/DVD double disc by his band EB3, called Live, Vol. 1. The DVD is primarily performance footage of the live concert that produced the music on the CD. I love the fact that it is selling at Amazon for $16.98. That is both the CD and DVD in one package for $16.98. Right on Robin… or whoever made that decision. The DVD is provided to add to the music lover’s experience, not as an excuse to jack up the price. That’s good for one’s karma.

EB3 is an interesting band. It is a trio made up of Robin, Orrin Evans, and Kenwood Dennard. Each member of the group covers the bass role at some point. Watching Kenwood Dennard play keyboard bass and drums at the same time is a trip. That is part of the reason I think I prefer to listen to the CD, rather than watch the DVD. When I watch, I get too caught up in trying to figure out the magic trick, or who is doing what. I can deal with the music on a more pure level in audio only mode, but I must admit having the DVD there is a huge plus. I imagine that I will be in the minority in my preference for the CD over the DVD.

The music is electric. It is all electric keyboards, with lots of electric trombone and a good bit of live loop building. It is at times very funky, and pretty trippy in a few places too. Heavily electronic stuff can come off as gimmicky to me sometimes, but this disc avoids that trap. I get a vibe of very honest expression in this music. It seems to me that Robin has found a voice and setting in this band that are truly his and that he is comfortable with.

Full disclosure: This release was sent to me by a PR firm, but I was planning on buying it before the free one showed up in the mail.

Ray Anderson in several settings

Ray Anderson, like Gary Valente, is a trombonist who has grown on me over the years. When I first heard recordings of Ray, my conservative JJ drenched mind heard him as crude and rough and gimmicky. As I have matured musically, I have come to hear him as vibrant and expressive and gimmicky. Gimmicky isn’t all bad. I would give certain left body parts to be able to execute some of Ray’s gimmicky stuff. Really “gimmick” isn’t right word. The crazy outlandish stuff he does with a trombone seems to be an honest part of his expression, as opposed to an attention grabbing gimmick. From a purely trombonistic angle, it is pretty amazing too.

In the last few weeks I have acquired three new (to me) albums that feature Ray Anderson in fairly varied settings.

The first is Bennie Wallace‘s celebration of Coleman Hawkins called Disorder at The Border. It utilizes a nine piece band on a program of Hawk tunes, or tunes associated with Hawk. This is a fun, swinging, spirited CD. The band has the right balance of smallness and largeness, with the power of a big band when needed and the agility of a smaller group. Ray Anderson is in classic Ray form on “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho.” Full disclosure: I didn’t buy this music, it was sent to me by a promotions firm.

I’ve scored a couple of good Gerry Hemingway albums on eMusic. The first was a quintet album, called Double Blues Crossing, that I stumbled upon while looking for stuff with Frank Gratkowski, or maybe Wolter Weirbos. They are both on it. Somehow that eventually led me to Devil’s Paradise by the Gerry Hemingway Quartet with Ray Anderson, Ellery Eskelin, and Mark Dresser. This album is a great balance of the looseness and freedom available to this type of quartet instrumentation, and the attention to composition and arrangement that can provide coherence and focus. The music was recorded in 1999, and Anderson sounds great on it. It is also interesting to hear Eskelin out of the context of his own groups. (There are a couple of Ellery Eskelin CDs that I bought with the intention of blogging them, but that doesn’t seem to have happened…)

The third album in this little Ray Anderson trilogy is The Line Up by BassDrumBone, which is Hemingway and Anderson with bassist Mark Helias. These guys have been playing together in this format for 30 years, and you can hear the communication and comfort. In this case the comfort of old friendships adds spark not complacency. Helias plays both electric and acoustic bass on this album. I like the electric. It can hold its place as an equal voice with the trombone. The upright swings harder. Having both just allows for the best of both worlds.

Jazz Fest – first weekend redux

I had a very busy, but fun and fulfilling first weekend of Jazz Fest. It really started on Thursday night with The Thing at the Big Top. This band really must be heard. The music is hard to describe (isn’t most good music hard to describe verbally?), but as I told a friend who missed the show, it is like speed metal free jazz with good taste. There is definitely a noise element there, but there were also beautiful melodies and precise ensemble playing. It was a great way to start the weekend of music.

Later Thursday night, I played with George Porter Jr and the Runnin Pardners at Southport Hall. We did a bunch of stuff from the new CD, and it was lots of fun. George said he feels like this is his best CD yet, and I am proud to have been a small part of it.

I was at the Fairgrounds most of the day Friday. First thing I heard was a little bit of the Xavier University Jazz Band. I teach trombone at Xavier, and it was nice to hear the band sounding so good. Next stop was the Jazz Tent for the Rob Wagner Trio. The sound was very good, due in part to Rob (or maybe Ben) being smart enough to bring their own sound guy (Mark Bingham in this case). The poor fest engineers have a lot asked of them and most of them do a good job, but nothing beats having an engineer that is good AND really knows you and your music. Rob’s set was very good. I dig his melodic sense in that setting.

From there I headed over to the Accura Stage to perform with George Porter. It is quite a view from the stage to look up and not be able to see the end of the people. I had a blast playing with George (I always do). We had the “every member of the pool” horn section on the gig with Tracy Griffin, Alonzo Bowens, Brian Graber, Mark Mullins and me. I spent many a night in college listening to this band with those guys playing in the horn section, so it is a real honor, and a little bit of a trip, to now be a part of that band.

The rest of Friday included hearing parts of sets from Dr. John (which was fabulous), Astral Project, the James Carter Organ Trio, and Bonerama. It was all good. Friday night I played with Luther Kent and Trickbag and got some hard blowing blues added to the weekend’s musical mix.

I didn’t get to the fest on Saturday, but had a great day on Sunday. It started with hearing an ensemble from Julliard that featured trombonist Marshall Gilkes and New Orleans natives Jonathan Batiste and Victor Goines. I only caught a couple of tunes, but it was very happening. Next I played with Vivaz. We had a fun set, and the crowd seemed to dig it. I then hurried over to the Jazz tent to catch as much of Kidd Jordan as I could. He had Alvin Fielder, Joel Futterman, Clyde Kerr, Kent Jordan, and Maynard Chatter, Jr. on the set. It was good, but it is sometimes hard to come in on the middle of a free jazz set and get the flow of what has been happening. The big festival setting also lacks the intimacy that can make that type of listening so rewarding. But, even with the difficulties, it is always good to hear Kidd.

I was on my way to hear the New Orleans Social Club, when I was sidetracked by running into Lolet Boutte. Lolet is the mother of Tricia “Sista Teedy” Boutte, and used to manage Teedy’s reggae band Cool Riddims, which I played in in the late 90’s. Lolet has been displaced to Houston, and it was a real joy to run into her and get to visit for a while. She told me that Teedy was getting ready to go on stage with Bob French at the Economy Hall tent, so of course I had to go see her as well. The Boutte’s had been on my mind lately, so it was a real blessing to see them.

I did finally catch some of the New Orleans Social Club, as well as a bit of The Revealers, Dr. Lonnie Smith (who had a fabulous sounding Peter Bernstein in his band), and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.

The find of the day however was Banda el Recodo. I saw their three huge tour busses emblazoned with their logos when they arrived earlier in the day. Fortunately Ben Lyons prodded me to go check them out. Imagine if you put Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, the Jackson 5, and the Rebirth Brass Band in a blender. Add a touch of Ricky Martin and the LSU Tiger Marching band. That would get close to the vibe of these guys. The first thing you notice are the matching intricately decorated blazers and the slick choreography. Then you realize that there are 4 clarinets. It isn’t until later that I noticed that what I though was a stringed instrument of some sort playing the upbeats was actually two alto horns. These guys were so tight I couldn’t hear that it was two people, I had to see that it was too people. The sousaphonist was astounding. It was quite a show.

The highlight of the weekend however was playing with Bonnie Raitt to close out the Gentilly Stage on Sunday evening. A horn section made up of Tracy Griffin, Alonzo Bowens, Reggie Murray and me joined Bonnie and her band for a medley of New Orleans classics to close her set. Ivan Neville was also sitting in at that point, and when Irma Thomas walked out during “I Know”, the crowd went nuts. Bonnie’s band is great. It is always inspiring to hear the tops of the professional music world, and these guys are the tops. They are clean and precise and deeply soulful all at the same time. What a treat.

And what a great weekend. Of course, when your weekend ends with a kiss on the cheek from Bonnie Raitt, that’s usually a sign of a good weekend.

Ed Neumeister and Artist Share

I want to write a post on Ed Neumeister‘s Artist Share projects, and I am not sure if I should start with Ed or the Artist Share concept. Each subject warrants many words.

I’ll start with Ed. My first exposure to Ed was through my favorite big band of my early adulthood, The Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. The guys in that band were my heros. Real working NY pros. In the late summer of 1990, I was in NY for a week visiting my friend Andy, who lived on Long Island when not rooming with me in New Orleans. I heard Ed in a quartet at Visione’s one night, then a few nights later with Mel’s band at the Vanguard. (I don’t think they had yet gone to the Vanguard J.O. name, even though Mel had passed away earlier that year.) That night at the Vanguard I asked Ed if he was available for a lesson. The next day I took the train to the town he lived in (Croton-on-Hudson as I recall), and Ed picked me up at the train station and took me to his house, where I got way more than an hour’s worth of a lesson.

We dealt mostly with practice routine. This was Ed’s suggestion. He said if we would have been in a situation where the lessons would be recurring that he could be more specific, but since this was a one shot, we would cover the most important stuff, which is organizing and focusing your practice. We also hit some improv stuff and I asked lots of general kind of “how do you make it in NY” type questions. Ed was honest and sincere, and very helpful and encouraging. That lesson still shapes the way I practice and teach.

He also gave me some interesting advice on moving to NY. He said that if my goal was to make a living playing music, then I should come on up. There was work to be had. Then he said if I wanted to play creative music that I should look at other places too, because in NY Ron Carter or Freddie Hubbard are trying to get booked also, and if the club owner has a choice between me and Freddie…

I never did move to NY. It has worked out ok for me so far.

In recent years I have become fascinated with trying to discern business models that will work for modern creative artists. In an recent internet forum discussion of piracy and DRM, my good friend trombonist David Gibson made the point that fans that feel like they can develop a relationship with the artist are less likely to pirate that artist’s recording, because there is a face associated with it, not just a record label monolith.

This is the basis of the Artist Share model. Taking advantage of internet capabilities to allow the listener to see and experience aspects of the artist and the artist’s process that can be experienced from a CD and its accompanying liner notes. When you buy in, you become a participant, and the different packages are called participant offers. I have become a participant on a few offers. The most basic level is pretty much like buying the CD. You get the CD in the mail, and access to some online goodies, and it costs about the same as buying a CD in an expensive national chain store, but you get the goodies too.

I bought Ed’s Reflections CD this way, and also bought a couple of Ingrid Jensen Artist Share CDs at a live performance, and they came with a code to enter to enroll in the participant stuff online. It is a pretty slick system. The participant content ranges from lead sheets and podcasts to video commentary and recording session footage. Ed has some very frank discussion of his career and motivations on one of his audio conversations. It is quite insightful.

One possible drawback to the Artist Share system is that sometimes the amount of stuff can be overwhelming. Some of it is streamable only, so it ties you to your computer, and I don’t always have the time to fully explore everything that is available. I guess too much of a good thing is still good. To wander off path for a minute, I wonder how appealing Artist Share is to non-musicians. I think all of this inside info is great, but does Joe Blow jazz fan care about a leadsheet to the tunes on the CD? Is there a Joe Blow jazz fan that isn’t a musician? Can we survive with only other musicians as our audience? Are we already doing that?

Sorry, I’ll try to get back on track.

Ed’s newest project is called the NeuHat Ensemble. I was sent a recording of this group from the most recent IAJE conference. This is a very interesting group. Ed composes the music and conducts, but doesn’t play trombone. It is kind of a big band with strings and more interesting woodwinds, but that description is too simplistic. Jazz is definitely the foundation of the music, but there are lots of shapes and colors that come from other areas. Improvisation is prevalent, and the improvisers are good. The studio CD should be great. It is being made possible through Artist Share participation. There are some very cool participant offers, including composition or improvisation correspondence lessons. Go here to see all the offers.