My tandem review of Chris Potter’s new discs, Song for Anyone and Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sunnyside), in the November issue of Jazz Times. I also have a short feature [pdf] on drummer David King and his Minneapolis trio Happy Apple.
Archive for October, 2007
New in Jazz Times
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
On Charles Lloyd
Monday, October 29th, 2007My review of Charles Lloyd’s Saturday show at Montgomery County Community College, in today’s Inquirer.
TNR’s "Scott Thomas" affair
Thursday, October 25th, 2007Seemed like this had gone away, but here’s the latest. I can’t make heads or tails of it, but it doesn’t look as good for TNR.
*Update: TNR sets the record straight — while stonewalling on a FOIA request from the magazine, the Army went ahead and leaked documents to the Drudge Report, wrongly insinuating that Beauchamp had recanted. Drudge later took the documents down. TNR’s investigation is still in process and they have handled the matter honorably thus far.
The week on disc (6)
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007In case you missed the last one…
Ryan Cohan, One Sky (Motema): Chicago pianist with expanded ensemble, long-form sensibility, lyrical mainstream jazz with an edge (Bob Sheppard on tenor, James Cammack of Ahmad Jamal fame on bass, etc.).
Jason Kao Hwang & Sang Won Park, Local Lingo (Euonymous): Sparse, evocative work for violin and kayagum/ajeng (East Asian instruments). Jason will present 21st-century string quartet music from China at Symphony Space on Saturday, Oct. 27.
Normal Love, Normal Love (High Two): Psycho chamber-metal quintet from Philly releases its first.
Slow Poke, At Home (Palmetto): A 1998 home recording, reissued with two new tracks. Palmetto’s first download-only release, I believe. Slide guitar innovator Dave Tronzo on Ellington’s “Rockin’ In Rhythm” not soon forgotten.
Guillaume de Chassy, Piano Solo (BEE Jazz): Virtuosic and moving, and just one of several fine releases I’ve received from this French label.
Tineke Postma, A Journey That Matters (Foreign Media): Talented alto/soprano/tenor saxist from Holland, well-drawn compositions, fiery band (Terri Lyne Carrington on drums), three nice perspectives on Ellington/Strayhorn.
The brink
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
When you see the Turkish flag being marched through the streets you know that reason may have a hard time prevailing. Outrage over recent PKK attacks among the nationalist populace explains much about the Turkish government’s heated rhetoric. Now the gov’t is trying to tamp down that sentiment, in some weirdly Orwellian ways:
The Turkish broadcast authority today halted all television and radio broadcasts that refer to the [Oct. 21] attack, in what it said was an attempt to quell the public unrest since the incident.
The Senior Board of Radio and Television said the broadcasts “negatively affect social order and people’s moral values, create a weak image of security forces and have a negative impact on social psychology.”
This NYT report, about the simmering war between Iran and the PKK-affiliated PJAK, seems to reconfirm that Turkey is stirring up an international ruckus to mollify public opinion. If the PJAK claims are to be believed, Iran has absorbed some significant troop losses on its western front, and has been intermittently shelling in the Qandil Mountains for some time, but is not threatening a military incursion. (Doing so, of course, would be pretty foolish, considering how eager the Cheneyites are to start bombing them.) Check out the companion video and slide show, on the sidebar to the NY Times Iran story, for a very rare look at the PJAK guerrilla forces.
There’s some interesting (albeit dated) background here on the Iraqi Kurdish civil war in the ’90s and how it involved Turkey and the PKK and Saddam. Add the Iranian factor and this region is truly headspinning.
The PKK’s Hezbollah moment
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
The photo at left shows a Turkish military convoy heading toward Silopi in southeast Turkey, which is precisely where I crossed the border to Iraqi Kurdistan last year. I may well have been on this very road.
The PKK seems to have borrowed straight from the Hezbollah playbook in staging its Sunday attack and taking Turkish soldiers as hostages, a move guaranteed to inflame the situation. BBC World radio this morning had a PKK spokesperson claiming that Turkey is attacking and the militants are simply defending themselves, but this was called into question by Hugh Pope of the International Crisis Group. (I had a chance to meet Hugh in Istanbul and am currently savoring his book Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World.)
The two leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, are walking a difficult line. They are not PKK partisans, but there are indeed hardline Ocalan cultists in Kurdistan, and not just in the mountains with guns. Talabani has called on the PKK to disarm and leave, but there is a whiff of doubletalk here. On the one hand he says: “The leaders of P.K.K. do exist in Kurdistan’s rugged mountains, but the Turkish Army with all its power could not stem or arrest them, so how can we?” On the other, he says: “We will not hand any Kurdish man to Turkey, even a Kurdish cat.”
Turkey is calling for direct U.S. military assistance in uprooting the PKK, and given how well the mission in the rest of Iraq is going, I’m sure this won’t be a problem (ahem).
My friend Yigal Schleifer has a piece at Eurasianet on the crisis in U.S.-Turkish relations. In the next few days I hope to have time to collect more information on the border standoff.
Live highlights
Monday, October 22nd, 2007Just a quick note on recent shows I’ve caught while not on assignment:
—John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet, with Gary Versace subbing on keyboard bass for the group’s regular bassist, Drew Gress. This was in the same room Kidd Jordan played three nights later. Great post on the Claudia by Darcy here.
—Ensemble Noamnesia, led by bass clarinetist Gene Coleman, playing works by the late experimental composer Luc Ferrari, with guest artist Vincent Royer on viola. Music “for ensemble with memorized sounds.” Hard to explain; more info here. Jarring and jagged, yet absorbing and somehow meditative. This is one of the projects I touched on in a forthcoming essay for the Philadelphia Music Project, which helped fund the evening.
—Same night, across the street at the Rotunda, caught just a bit of baritone saxophonist Charles Evans and guitarist Erik Dutko. I’d been impressed with Evans’s record Ballads, as I noted. Following the duo came Mostly Other People Do the Killing, a “terrorist bebop band” that’s too self-consciously wacky for my taste, though trumpeter Peter Evans can leave you astounded (same goes for his debut recording, The Peter Evans Quartet, on the Firehouse 12 label).
—Wayne Escoffery tore up Chris’s Jazz Café on tenor with Mark Sherman on vibes, Joe Martin on bass and Pete van Nostrand on drums. Not Wayne’s usual lineup; he and Sherman had met for the first time that very afternoon. But the music clicked, and Wayne’s extensive touring with Tom Harrell has left him in exceptional shape. (Disclosure: I wrote liner notes for Wayne’s two latest albums.)
—Orchestra Underground presents “Hybridity”: a project of the American Composers Orchestra, also funded by the Philadelphia Music Project and touched on in my forthcoming essay. Premiered Friday at New York’s Zankel Hall, repeated here in Philly on Sunday at the Annenberg Center. The idea was compositions for orchestra across disciplines, by people who don’t write for orchestra. “Pintado’s Dream” by drummer Susie Ibarra was the standout, followed by Steve Coleman’s “The Illusion of the Body.”
Tonight at Penn’s Houston Hall, free jazz pianist Burton Greene will appear with bassist Ed Schuller and drummer George Schuller — both sons of Gunther Schuller, for whom Charles Mingus wrote “Relevations,” part of the “Hybridity” program as well. Check out the Ars Nova website (under “event calendar”) for a 1964 pic of Greene with Bill Dixon, Paul Bley, Cecil Taylor and other members of the Jazz Composers Guild.
Maher and the "truthers"
Saturday, October 20th, 2007Lively turn of events last night on Bill Maher’s show, as a handful of so-called 9/11 Truth activists attempted to disrupt the live broadcast and impose their agenda. It’s been a while since I’ve bothered to comment on the 9/11 conspiracy phenomenon, but I must applaud Maher for hammering away at this sinister bullying cult. I’d also like to recommend a site I recently happened upon called 9/11 Cult Watch. I don’t subscribe to its leftist position in every particular, but I think the analysis here is important. Be sure to check out their companion blog as well.
A number of prominent non-cultists, including Michael Moore, Robert Fisk, Howard Zinn and even the admirable human rights advocate Peter Tatchell, have made remarkably credulous statements on this “issue” of late.
George Monbiot of the Guardian had two excellent columns back in February, well worth reading in light of the Maher incident.
For a forceful rebuttal of the pseudoscience behind 9/11 “Truth” see here. And also this, from the editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics — an important follow-up to that magazine’s authoritative debunking.
Time machine
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Here is the intersection right around the corner from my house in Philly, as it appeared in 1935. (Click photo to enlarge.)
Lots more to be found at this great site, Phillyhistory.org.
Reminds me of this one, which my father-in-law sent around a while back — a virtual archive of old penny postcards from just about anywhere in the U.S.
The week on disc (5)
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007In case you missed the last one…
Dániel Szabó Trio, Frictions (Warner Music Hungary): This was handed to me on my last New York visit, had never heard of the pianist before. It’s a probing all-original date, with bassist Mátyás Szandai and drummer András Mohay. Nikoletta Szöke’s one guest vocal doesn’t knock me over. Kurt Rosenwinkel’s three guest guitar slots, on the other hand…
Westchester Jazz Orchestra, All In (WJO Productions): Hot, super-professional big band charts from the likes of Mike Holober, Tony Kadleck, Jay Brandford. Tunes by Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, etc. Highlights: Jason Rigby’s tenor solo on “Caribbean Fire Dance,” Holober’s serpentine counterpoint on “Here Comes the Sun.”
Biréli Lagrène, Just the Way You Are (Dreyfus): He swings the Billy Joel tune Hot Club-style, and does the same with “Love Me Tender” (which reminds me, I need to spin Cyrus Chestnut’s Elvis tribute). I’ve liked the French gypsy guitarist’s singing in the past, but his turn on “All of Me” is a bit hammy. The guitar work (acoustic and electric) is typically ferocious, though.
Greg Burk, Ivy Trio (482 Music): Consistently fascinating pianist, now based in Rome. This salvo starts with a disarming nu-jazz track “Look to the Neutrino” and ends with a warped, pantonal rendering of “Billie’s Bounce.” Much of interest on the intervening five tracks as well, with bassist Jonathan Robinson and drummer Luther Gray.
Rob Reddy’s Small Town, The Book of the Storm (Reddy Music): Oceanic, advanced, deeply dissonant large-ensemble suite from the soprano saxophonist/composer, who happens to be an old classmate of mine. Four parts, ranging from eight to 22 minutes in length, played by reeds, brass, strings, two guitars, bass and two drummers (Guillermo E. Brown, Pheeroan akLaff).
Gerald Wilson Orchestra, Monterey Moods (Mack Avenue): The titles are simple (“Ballad,” “Blues,” “Latin Swing,” etc.) but the music is burning, with solos by Hubert Laws, Terell Stafford, Renee Rosnes, the leader’s son Anthony Wilson and more. Born shortly before the end of World War I, the 89-year-old Wilson is sounding modern indeed.
