On Sunday, June 5, I took part in the inaugural Bring Your Own Vinyl (BYOV), a new monthly listening session and hang at Barbès. Here’s the rundown of what we heard!
Archive for the ‘New York’ Category
New York @ Night: June 2011
Friday, June 3rd, 2011In the June 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record:
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From the first seconds of their show at Issue Project Room (May 5th), Starlicker sent pounding asymmetric rhythms and deft unison passages flooding into the boomy loft-like space in Gowanus. The trio’s members — cornetist Rob Mazurek, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, drummer John Herndon (of Tortoise) — hail from the heart of Chicago’s vibrant underground scene. They seemed shell-shocked and in need of rest by the end of the first tune, “Double Demon,” the title track from their new Delmark recording. This was aggressive and unrelenting stuff, yet the expansive overtones of the vibes gave the music a softer quality, even when Adasiewicz beat on his instrument like an angry man. By the time they segued to the rubato opening of “Vodou Cinque,” Mazurek was working with a mute and suggesting a more contemplative feel. There was a distinctly lyrical component, and a precise, well-rehearsed handling of themes and transitions, underlying “Orange Blossom,” “Andromeda,” “Triple Hex” and “Skull Cave.” (The set was drawn entirely from the 38-minute Double Demon, with the tracks played in order.) Starlicker is essentially a pared-down version of the quintet from Mazurek’s 2009 disc Sound Is, which included two bassists. Here the trio has a more open sound field in which to work; the result is raw but still somehow complete. Live, Herndon was the main muscle, his beats combining Elvin Jones-like suppleness with sheer punk energy. (David R. Adler)
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Seattle drummer Paul Kikuchi was among the artists featured by Steve Peters in a two-week curating stint at The Stone (May 6th). Fronting a new quartet, Kikuchi had trumpeter Nate Wooley, bassist Reuben Radding and bass clarinetist Jason Stein on hand for a fairly short set — three separate pieces, each roughly in the 12-minute range. The music was freely improvised, full of motion and dynamic flux, with attention paid to fine points of tone and timbre. Sound is very much Kikuchi’s arena, as is clear from his work with the experimental duo Open Graves (hear their latest, Flight Patterns, recorded in an empty water cistern with Stuart Dempster as guest). Drum heads struck with assorted objects, ethereal feedback from walkie-talkies, amplification on Wooley’s horn, at one point a clothespin on Radding’s bass strings: these elements made Kikuchi’s new quartet a thing of sonic intrigue, with a more thoroughly abstract sound than that of the Empty Cage Quartet (another of Kikuchi’s main projects). Standing in a quasi-circle, Wooley and Stein faced the other two as they wove an intimate yet tension-filled web. There were hoarse, passionate bass clarinet asides, broad-toned arco bass passages, plenty of unscripted duo breakaways and also leaps into guttural, unabashed free jazz with the entire band sounding off. Coaxing one processed note into the ether, Wooley slowly moved his trumpet upward until it was pointed straight at the ceiling — a gesture that seemed almost devotional. (DA)
2011 JJA Jazz Awards
Saturday, May 21st, 2011
Details are shaping up nicely for the Jazz Awards on June 11th – Randy Weston, Wallace Roney and other top players are set to perform. Plus a special slate of “Jazz Heroes” awards. View the nominees and get your tickets!
New York @ Night: May 2011
Thursday, May 5th, 2011From the May 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record:
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Pianist Dan Tepfer has absorbed untold wisdom through his many duo engagements with alto great Lee Konitz, but at Cornelia Street Café (April 9th) it was time for the young Tepfer to face another giant, bassist Gary Peacock. (Konitz was on hand to hear it.) “I’ll Remember April” made for an exploratory warm-up, with a strong but loosely felt tempo and streams of harmonic depth and fullness, qualities that spilled into the original material that followed. Inspired by long conversations at Peacock’s rural home, Tepfer wrote several new pieces with titles drawn from the bassist’s actual words. “If You Fail” was a hovering waltz with dark melodies and free-form episodes, rich in dialogue. “He Just Takes the Sticks and Plays,” a reference to Paul Motian, had a saucy midtempo swing bounce, harking back to the interplay of the opening standard. “The Gratitude That I Can Still Play,” an oddly configured ballad, gave Peacock one of many opportunities to show that yes, he most certainly can; his commanding solo spots and pithy responses to Tepfer held the room in rapt silence. The duo also tackled two of Peacock’s compositions: “Moor,” recorded as far back as 1963 with Paul Bley, began with weighty solo bass and grew from spacious lyricism to some of the night’s freest, most unsettled playing. “Lullabye” was the high point, however: a slow-crawling web of arpeggios and unisons and orchestrated give-and-take, ominous yet somehow delicate, proof that this pairing can do magic. (David R. Adler)
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Ascend to the bandstand with pianist Martial Solal, relentless as ever at 83, and you’re going to have a challenging time of it. But bassist François Moutin faced the unusually daunting task of playing duo with Solal for a week at the Village Vanguard. At the outset of their Thursday late set (April 14th), Moutin stayed out the way while Solal got into Rodgers & Hart’s “There’s a Small Hotel,” but their swinging chemistry ignited soon enough. For all of Solal’s lightning runs and flurries, he pinned his ideas to the main melody to a remarkable extent. At full steam, however, Solal will change keys at will in the middle of a section, or quote whimsically at length, then return to the tune he left behind and have it make sense. “All the Things You Are” and “Tea for Two” found themselves commingled. “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” somehow became “Stardust” and then ended, abruptly. Ditto “Caravan” and “Prelude to a Kiss.” Moutin’s reaction time through all this was swifter than anyone could rightly expect, and his solos were often as captivating as Solal’s. The two have a similar sort of wild proficiency, and the duo format gave them a unique space to roam — although Solal’s recent trio discs NY1 and Longitude show the focusing effect a drummer can have. Here tempos were taken up and cast aside, whether on ballads like “Lover Man” and “I Can’t Get Started” or romps like “I Got Rhythm” and the jubilant encore “The Last Time I Saw Paris.” (DA)
In City Arts: The Next Generation
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011I have an article in the jazz issue of City Arts, on the topic of maintaining careers in jazz and improvised music. My focus? Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Lehman and Matana Roberts. Other worthy contributions in this issue from Ernest Barteldes, Kurt Gottschalk, Emilie Pons and section editor Howard Mandel.
The 2011 JJA Jazz Awards
Thursday, April 28th, 2011Winners to be revealed on June 11 at City Winery. Congrats to all the nominees!
String Kings: Guitars at the Met
Thursday, April 28th, 2011My writeup of the “Guitar Heroes” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the new issue of JazzTimes (May 2011). I’m happy to report that Anthony Wilson’s April 10 premiere — with Julian Lage, Steve Cardenas and Chico Pinheiro — was completely amazing. There’s a live album in the works.
Gilad Atzmon to play music, foment hate in New York
Monday, April 11th, 2011In my inbox is a notice from World Village-Harmonia Mundi: Saxophonist Gilad Atzmon “makes a rare appearance in New York City beginning May 5th and is available for interviews.” Oddly I see no gig schedule listed.
In any case I won’t be interviewing Atzmon during his visit, because I’m too busy interviewing musicians who don’t claim that the Jews provoked Hitler. And don’t hail Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And don’t garner praise from neo-Nazi David Duke, or write things that end up cross-posted at racist sites that proclaim “No Jews. Just Right.”
My point, and one I’ve made many times before, is that Gilad Atzmon is a Jew-hater — and far from the only one in the UK and elsewhere who’s found it helpful to drape himself in the Palestinian cause, or the fashionable rhetoric of anti-imperialism.
But of course there’s something different about Atzmon: He’s a musician, and a strong one at that. He insists that his music is intrinsically political. And this is therefore something that every New York music journalist planning to cover Atzmon needs to weigh carefully:
How does a man of such views claim the mantle of “cultural resistance” that is so bound up with the history of jazz? How can an apologist for the Iranian regime — an apologist for Nazi Germany — claim to be “fighting oppression of every kind”?
He gets away with it only if compliant journalists allow him.
New York @ Night: April 2011
Saturday, April 2nd, 2011From the April 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record:
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A pattern emerged when the Nicholas Payton Television Studio Orchestra played its third Saturday set at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (March 5th): “Blues for Booker Little,” a simmering, Latin-tinged opener featuring the leader on trumpet and Chelsea Baratz on tenor, gave way to “Blue,” a dissonant, shadowy piece from Payton’s 2008 Into the Blue, with a sparkling Mike Moreno guitar solo. Then came “Potato Head Blues,” a roaring Louis Armstrong cover, with Anat Cohen and Michael Dease doing damage on clarinet and trombone, respectively, before Payton took up vibrant stop-time choruses. And yet more blue: first the minor-key cooker “Blues for Duke Pearson,” kicked off by bassist Bob Hurst and bass clarinetist Patience Higgins in tight unison; then the Kenny Kirkland homage “Once in a Blue Moon,” a mini-concerto for the gifted Lawrence Fields on Fender Rhodes. Payton broke from the “blue” theme with “You Are the Spark,” a dreamy bossa with a fierce alto solo by Sharel Cassity; “Let It Ride,” also from Into the Blue, expansively orchestrated and enlivened by Erica von Kleist’s showstopping turn on flute; and “Congo Square,” a go-for-broke finale built around Roland Guerrero’s percussion and Ulysses Owens’ drums. In all, a swaggering modern big band set with quasi-electric contours. One quibble: Payton’s singing (on two songs) was just serviceable, which made one wonder why the fine vocalist Johnaye Kendrick was given so little to do. (David R. Adler)
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Hearing guitarist Gene Bertoncini’s early solo set at Smalls (March 7th) was very much like gathering around the fire, and the warmth given off by his six nylon strings was plenty to fill the room. His technique seemed more ragged and imprecise than in the past, and his intonation was spotty until a tuning break right before his “So In Love/The More I See You” medley put things in order. But Bertoncini’s mastery of reharmonization, his way with tight block chording and venturesome counterpoint, remains striking, giving a modern edge to his subtle gestures and melodic tenderness. There were moments of chromatic density and deceptive cadence in “My One and Only Love,” “My Romance,” “Nuages” and other ballads that one would never expect. A good number of the songs were from Bertoncini’s Body and Soul (2000) and Quiet Now (2005), which should be counted among the finest solo jazz guitar documents on record. Of course, a nylon-string fingerstylist as adroit as this can also draw on classical repertoire at will — thus Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” and Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” did much to vary the set. (Unsatisfied, Bertoncini tried the ending of the latter a second time.) The vocal spots were the biggest surprise: On “Estate” and “Love Like Ours,” Bertoncini rendered the lyric as a fragile murmur, at times talking more than singing, almost apologizing to the crowd beforehand but determined to share the song’s inner meaning. (DA)
New York @ Night: March 2011
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011From the March 2011 issue of The New York City Jazz Record (formerly All About Jazz-New York):
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When drummer Neal Smith took the stage at Miller Theatre (Feb. 5), eyes and ears were focused on the band’s pianist, Mulgrew Miller, who had recently suffered a stroke. Thankfully, Miller’s playing was undiminished, as pliant and rhythmically confident as ever. The rest of the lineup wasn’t strictly as advertised: altoist Andrew Beals stood in for Eric Alexander, and Steve Nelson joined unexpectedly on vibraphone, supplementing Mark Whitfield on guitar and Nat Reeves on bass. Naturally, all played well, but the music was hobbled by poor sound — with too many microphones and too much volume came a loss of the timbral subtlety ideal for acoustic jazz. Miller Theatre is a choice room for classical and new music, but throw in a drum kit and electric guitar alongside horn and piano and it can be hit or miss. Reeves’ bass sound was far too muddy to provide the vigorous anchor Smith needed. Hand it to the leader, though, for his song picks: “The Cup Bearers” and “With Malice Toward None” by the underrated Tom McIntosh; “The Holy Land,” a cooker by Cedar Walton; “A Portrait of You,” a lyrical bossa by Donald Walden; and “Sophisticated Lady,” Nelson’s vibraphone feature. Still, even with Mulgrew Miller at the bench, it was questionable to begin nearly every tune with a rubato piano intro. Rotating the personnel as the set progressed was a wiser move, and yet the prevailing feeling was one of claustrophobia, of too many instruments struggling for space. (David R. Adler)
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Drummer Joe Farnsworth shares a birthday with the great Tadd Dameron, and that’s as good a reason as any to pay tribute to the late composer, arranger and bebop innovator, who died in 1965 at age 48. Taking up that task at Smoke (Feb. 11), Farnsworth led a quartet featuring Danny Grissett on piano and Gerald Cannon on bass. Tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard found himself in the supremely unenviable position of filling in for George Coleman, but the young Midwesterner brought energy and insights of his own, warming up the dinner crowd — and himself — with a briskly uptempo “Sonnymoon for Two.” No, this was not an all-Dameron set, and yet the shout-chorus idea during the drum spotlight in “Nica’s Dream,” by Horace Silver, seemed to underscore Dameron’s influence, his way of importing big band aesthetics into small group contexts. Cannon took an assertive role as first soloist on Dameron’s “Good Bait” and threw wily harmonic curves leading up to Farnsworth’s climactic drum solo on “Super Jet.” The latter is pure Dameronia — an uptempo burner of a refreshing sort, neither blues nor rhythm changes, a challenge that Grissett and Dillard took up with relish. For sheer wit and skill, however, it was hard to top Grissett’s quotation of “52nd Street Theme” during the classic Dameron ballad “If You Could See Me Now.” It was a move that captured the soul of bebop itself, enfolding the angular and complex in a framework of singing, melodic eloquence. (DA)
