Brecon Jazz

Brecon Jazz carnival parade

Back from an enjoyable weekend at the Brecon Jazz Festival, rescued from financial collapse by the Hay Festival people. The weather was glorious: regulars informed us that this was highly unusual. The gigs we chose were all excellent, with the highlights perhaps being Anouar Brahem in the cathedral around midnight and Denis Rollins’ Badbone with their rousing finale on the Sunday evening. All the music was superb, though there was some talk of disorganisation as a result of the late rescue of the festival and enjoyment of some events was marred a little by queueing, curtailed performance time, or less than perfect venues.

Friday evening: Empirical with Kevin LeGendre: Tribute to Cannonball Adderley

This was a really interesting presentation celebrating the fascinating life of saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. Journalist and broadcaster Kevin LeGendre illuminated the life and work of this brilliant, but, he argued, underrated saxophonist, with audio clips and analysis of his recordings, particularly Country Preacher. Although perhaps best known for his contribution to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, here the focus was on Cannonball’s soul jazz recordings and his significance as an inspirational figure in the black liberation movement of the 1960s, exemplified by his work with black civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and Operation Breadbasket. With a black president in the White House, LeGendre highlighted the poignancy of the raps given by Jackson and Adderley at concerts in this period, such as Wattstax and Operation Breadbasket (‘Hands that picked cotton now pick presidents’).

Jesse Jackson, I Am Somebody (recited at Wattstax)

I Am
Somebody
I Am
Somebody
I May Be Poor
But I Am
Somebody
I May Be Young
But I Am
Somebody
I May Be On Welfare
But I Am
Somebody
I May Be Small
But I Am
Somebody
I May Make A Mistake
But I Am
Somebody
My Clothes Are Different
My Face Is Different
My Hair Is Different
But I Am
Somebody
I Am Black
Brown
White
I Speak A Different Language
But I Must Be Respected
Protected
Never Rejected
I Am
God’s Child
I Am
Somebody

Link: Hands that picked cotton now pick presidents: Jesse Jackson on Obama’s victory, Observer, 18 January 2009

Following LeGendre’s presentation, Empirical did a short set inspired by Cannonball Adderley. This was how the Telegraph assessed their performance:

…a set from Britain’s hottest and sartorially sharpest young band…In Walk Tall, the band cleverly put Adderley’s political engagement centre-stage by weaving a recording of one of his improvised speeches, or raps, into the number. It was a witty and affectionate idea, which high-lighted Adderley’s special combination of wry humour and inspirational heat. Sack of Woe paid tribute to Adderley’s more purely musical qualities, with an ingenious harmonic pattern that circled downwards endlessly, without ever reaching a terminus – a musical equivalent of the mythical serpent that eats its own tail. Alto sax player Nathanial Facey’s arrangement of Adderley’s Jive Samba was a fabulous showcase for the tightly honed energy of this band, whose highlight was a very neatly turned solo from new recruit, trumpeter Freddie Gravita. He’s clearly one to watch.

Empirical are: Nathaniel Facey – alto saxophone, Freddie Gravita – trumpet, Tom Farmer – double bass, George Fogel – piano and Shane Forbes – drums.

Saturday evening: Courtney Pine

Transition in Tradition

He was made a CBE this year, and at the delayed start of his set, Courtney Pine was presented with a lifetime achievement award: “Few have done more for jazz in Britain than Courtney, and this award is an acknowledgement of his remarkable career to date, and it will be exciting to see what other projects he has planned for the decades to come”.

His band now features guitarist Cameron Pierre, pianist Alex Wilson, electric violinist Omar Puente, double bassist Darren Taylor, and drummer Robert Fordjour. We’ve seen Courtney several times, but this is a significantly changed instrumentation, with Courtney playing bass clarinet on most numbers, with Omar Puente’s electric violin providing a completely new texture. This is a bunch of great musicians and there were some outstanding solos, recognised by Courtney with the exchange of fist bumps.

Most of the numbers played were from his new album, Transition in Tradition: a Tribute to Sidney Bechet. ‘I want to show in these compositions how our journey as a culture is constantly in transition, things change in one tune musically just as we do in real life.’ Particularly memorable were the band’s performances of ‘Le Matin Est Noire’, ‘Afropean’ and ‘Au Revoir’. Introducing the latter number, Pine explained, ‘Having worked in the 80s with many of the exiles from apartheid South Africa, these pieces fitted the project perfectly as it was the changes in 1994, when all-inclusive elections occurred for the first time in South Africa, that inspired me to believe in the notion that this world could be a better place to live in.’

The only gripe: the gig started late and lasted less than an hour. The Market Hall is a lousy venue with views of the musicians very restricted (fortunately, there were two large video screens).

Saturday night: Anouar Brahem Trio in the cathedral

This was a beautiful concert in an atmospheric setting round midnight from Anouar Brahem on oud, François Couturier on piano and Jean Louis Matinier on accordion. The programme was drawn from his last album, Le Voyage de Sahar, summed up in this Amazon review:

Over the past fifteen years, the Tunisian oud-master Anouar Brahem has made a number of wide-ranging, culture-bridging and richly rewarding albums for ECM, including two (very different) collaborations with saxophonists Jan Garbarek and John Surman. The spare, gently unfolding and intensely atmospheric melodies and moods of the rhythmically seductive Le Voyage De Sahar develop further that subtle confluence of Arabic modes and European harmony which was evident on Brahem’s previous meeting (on the critically praised 2002 release Le Pas Du Chat Noir) with French accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier and his compatriot, pianist Francois Couturier. The trio have developed their coolly conceived, yet passionate three-way improvisation to a high art, interpreting the limpid melodies, unhurried rhythms and dappled textures of this multi-sourced, freshly conceived chamber music with playing of the highest (yet unforced) order. With its suite-like sequence of numbers, rich in reverie, and subtly evocative cover art, this enchanting hour or so of music comes over as a film-like invitation to voyage, conjured by a poetic vision part North African, part central European, and where the spirit of Debussy and Satie can at times appear to walk hand in hand with that of the flamenco masters of old. Listen with open ears – and dream well! -Michael Tucker

The way Brahem’s music resists classification is a measure of the quality of his artistic career. By eluding labels, or better by slipping through all kinds of definitions from jazz to world music, he has sanctioned a freedom of expression that is uncommon in the musical context within which he works.”

“Brahem’s questing out towards the East, from Tunisia and the Arab world towards Asia, from Turkey to India, suggests a restlessness of spirit that has never been allayed. And there is no doubt that accuracy and perfectionism are highly significant, even quintessential, traits of the art of Islamic music. On the one hand there is the “classical” legacy, a certain penchant for melodic geometries and symmetrical patterns, and on the other a capacity for abstraction: from the present, from history, and from the material world. In Brahem’s music all this combines to create a characteristically sublime and ethereal sound, a personal trademark if you will. Exploring the World With a Lute by Paolo Scarnecchia

This was rich music combining the musical heritage of the Arab and Islamic worlds, elements of jazz and 20th century classical music with Mediterranean and Oriental influences (from his native Tunisia, India and Iran). It is poetry in sound, sensual, nostalgic and meditative.

Sunday afternoon: Abdullah Ibrahim Trio

Back to a very hot in Market Hall for Abdullah Ibrahim with . The music was impeccable, though Ibrahim imposes a fierce discipline on his audience, seguing directly from one number to the next, denying opportunities for applause between songs.

The pianist was joined by his long-term collaborators, Belden Bullock on bass and George Gray on drums and the concert reprised many of his originals, played in a continuous performance.

Abdullah Ibrahim: Cape Town Flower (Lugano Jazz Festival, 1999)

Abdullah Ibrahim Trio in Leverkusen 2007

Sunday evening: Dennis Rollins’ Badbone

We wrapped things up with a joyful experience: trombonist’s Dennis Rollins and his five-piece band Badbone stomped through their repertoire of groove-based, funk and jazz. What impressed us was that Denis is now doing what Courtney PIne did for him – bringing on great young musicians, including a very new Alex Bonfanti playing very funky electric bass on only his third outing with the band. Among the numbers were: Fire In The House, Funk And Disorderly, Alibi and a rousing version of the Steve Stills/Isley Brothers Love The One You’re With from the Big Night Out album, and Tracey Chapman’s Fast Car from Make Your Move .

Badbone are: Johnny Heyes – guitar, Jay Phelps – trumpet, Alex Bonfanti – bass, Jack Pollitt – drums and Chris Gulino – keyboards. But towering over proceedings is the exhilarating personality of Dennis, bursting with infectious fun – and not a bad bone in his body. He mentioned that he’d recently been turing with Maceo Parker’s band, and how proud he was to be stepping in Fred Wesley’s shoes, and it’s like Maceo’s introduction to his ‘Shake Everything You Got’: ‘this is known as happy music…happy music is when you hear it, you start movin’ and shakin’ something automatically…and you smile a lot too’.

Dennis Rollins and Badbone, Southampton,November 2008

Maceo Parker live in Brighton 2008 featuring Dennis Rollins

Out of the Desert

Three albums that I’ve been enjoying in recent weeks originate from or are inspired by the desert lands of north Africa.

Joachim Kuhn: Out of the Desert

This review from Allaboutjazz:

Boundary busting and inventive though it was, Kalimba – the first album by German pianist Joachim Kuhn, Moroccan vocalist and guembri player Majid Bekkas, and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez – ultimately felt like Kuhn’s album more than a fully integrated, cross-cultural group exercise. Two years on, the trio’s second outing, Out Of The Desert, offers a deeper mix—and an altogether more absorbing one.

Kalimba was recorded in Germany. For Out Of The Desert, the trio travelled to Morocco. In the regional capital Rabat, they teamed up with three local adepts of gnawa, a Moroccan trance music with roots in black Africa south of the Sahara. In the remote desert town of Erfoud, they recorded with five Berber drummers and percussionists.

As the recording locations and guest musicians suggest, Kuhn, Bekkas and Lopez were aiming for a fundamentally Moroccan fix to the sessions. And boy, did they deliver. There are six tracks on the album, and on the four featuring the expanded line-up, the group dig deep into traditional Moroccan music, with the tunes—two by Bekkas, two by Kuhn—based on a generic trance aesthetic. At the bottom are Bekkas’ percussive bass register ostinatos on the guembri (a kind of lute). At the top are the insistent iterations of the karkabou (hand-held cymbals). There are call and response vocals and, a signature element of Maghrebi trance music, the use of accelerating tempos once a tune has passed the halfway mark. On top of all this lies Kuhn’s piano, at times funky and lowdown—like that of longtime Moroccan resident and musical disciple, American pianist Randy Weston—at others more free and atonal, true to Kuhn’s “diminished augmented system” (that’s “minor keyed” in plain English).

The two remaining tracks feature the Beninese vocalist and talking drum player Kouassi Bessan Joseph, and add a more pronounced sub-Saharan flavor to the music. On Kuhn’s “One, Two, Three,” at 12:29 the longest track on the album (the others average about eight), and the one with the clearest “jazz” provenance, further diversity is injected via Bekkas’ kalimba and Lopez’s tabla—and an extended, free improv section featuring Kuhn on alto saxophone.

As befits trance music, Out Of The Desert is visceral and simple in structure, although some of the rhythms may at first sound complex to ears not attuned to North African music. All the more reason to check this music out—it’s jazz, Jim, but not as most people, at least in North America, know it. We’re going to hear more of this sort of genre-mashing in jazz, from all over the world, in the future. Bring it on.

The Guardian also gave the album a glowing review:

Joachim Kühn has been a hero of unconventional European jazz for 40 years, and he’s one of the few pianists ever to have negotiated a fruitful piano/sax conversation with Ornette Coleman. His roots are wide and deep – in the Jarrett/Tyner jazz axis, but also in the classical music that occupied his early career – so to find him in his mid-60s recording in the Sahara with Berber musicians is no surprise. This gripping session is far from a routine world-music banter between jazzers and chanters. The core partnership is between Kühn and Moroccan singer and guembri-player Majid Bekkas (it’s a revisit to a 2003 meeting between them), plus Spanish drummer Ramón López. Kühn’s jabbing, needling lines, often over pulsing left-hand parts and more ambiguous percussion undercurrents, testify to his formidable resources and intelligence, with his fiery diversions on alto sax a bonus. The music is half Bekkas’s traditional throaty singing over shifting grooves and Kühn’s sensitive improvisations, and half the pianist’s own wistful slow-build ballad/swing fusions, with their haunting, Abdullah Ibrahim-like atmospheres.

Tinariwen: Imidiwan (Companions)

BBC review:

Album number four from Tinariwen reunites the Touareg troubadours with producer Jean-Paul Romann for the first time since 2001’s debut offering, The Radio Tisdas Sessions. Following 2007’s acclaimed Aman Iman, this new 13-strong collection finds the Saharan seven-piece continuing to fire on musical cylinders souped up over the best part of three decades together. That it offers a more-of-the-same proposition that hypnotically blends Malian desert blues with twanging guitar-led Tichumaren agit-prop to create a sound altogether unique, is surely recommendation enough.

Romann takes a back-to-basics, don’t-get-in-the-way approach on Imidiwan: Companions that serves the material well. Opening track Imidiwan Afrik Tendam (‘My Friends From All Over Africa’) gets things off to a warm, quietly celebratory start before Lulla sparks into enticing sirenic life. There’s vitality and colour aplenty in the magnificent invocation of a desert deer, Tenhert (‘The Doe’), and in the swirling delirium of Kel Tamashek (‘The Tamashek People’).

Insinuating itself throughout is a dark beauty that hints at the political and cultural hardships of north African life, with Chegret (‘The Thread’) an unyielding but wistful interrogation of surviving on a shifting ocean of sand beneath burning sun. No less haunting is Assuf Ag Assuf (‘Assuf, Son of Assuf’) while Tamudjeras Assis (‘Regret Is Like A Storm’) scorches with its coruscating intensity before the radiantly beautiful Chabiba (‘Youth’) and otherworldly-sounding untitled hidden bonus track brings things to a mesmerising conclusion

Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara: Tell No Lies

The Guardian called this album ‘magnificent’:

It goes without saying that West African music is at the roots of the blues and has direct links with rock’n’roll, but it takes a duo as exhilarating and enthusiastic as this to make the connection seem obvious. Two years ago, the British guitarist and producer Justin Adams teamed up with Juldeh Camara, a Gambian griot and virtuoso on the one-stringed ritti fiddle, to record Soul Science, an album that deservedly won awards for its fusion of rock energy and traditional African influences. If anything, this follow-up is even better; it’s even more confident and refreshingly varied, with songs that echo the raw exuberance of the Clash, the rolling blues of Muddy Waters and the delicacy and grandeur of the ancient griot ballads. It starts with Keli Keli, in which Adams yells: “No passport, no visa,” as Camara matches the pounding guitar riff with wild fiddle work and Fulani vocals warning of the dangers facing illegal immigrants, driven on by female backing singers and the percussion of Salah Dawson Miller. Elsewhere, the interplay between the two sounds almost effortless as they switch from slinky Bo Diddley-style riffs to rolling blues with an African edge, and quieter trance-like songs. Magnificent.

It should be noted that this is a highly democratic album: Justin Adams lets his fellow-musicians take centre stage on most of the numbers. Juldeh Camara plays the ritti, a one-stringed fiddle and West African ancestor of the violin, and was a griot, taught by his father in the Fula traditionto be poet, praise singer and repository of oral tradition. While his instrument brings to mind Delta players like Big Joe Williams, as well as Ali Farka Touré, there is a lilt in his playing that hints at the ancient links between North Africa and the Celtic world. He describes magical shapes on his ritti; one minute it’s Blues harp, the next a Celtic fiddle, then a Saharan herdsman’s flute. It is hard to believe all this emotion, range and flexibility comes from just one string.

Justin Adams has been at the cutting edge of world music since the 1990’s with Jah Wobble, Robert Plant (Adams co-wrote The Mighty Rearranger), Natacha Atlas, The Festival of the Desert, Tinariwen (producing their first and third albums) and LO?JO. Taking influences from African, Arabic and Irish traditions as well as rock and roll and the Blues, his distinctive, driving guitar style is the missing link between Bo Diddley and Munir Bashir. With Tell No Lies, Adams delves deeper into the African origins of black American music, following the roots of New Orleans and Mississippi soul right back to the Songhai, Fulani and Toureg peoples of West Africa.

“My original love when I was young was The Clash and dub reggae” says Justin. “I like to keep things raw and swinging so it never gets too pristine or too sweet. I love listening to cassettes of Moroccan music and Algerian music. I like trancey, circular rhythms and voices that are in between pleasure and pain, where it’s bittersweet.”

The reference points for this release are recordings from the 1950s by the likes of Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. To achieve the rawness and slight distortion meant a live feel was important. “The way we’ve gone for that is to record in a very live way. You’ll hear the sweat and blood of the live performance, and all the scratchy bits” enthuses Justin.

His 2002 CD Desert Road was an inspiring mix of rock, blues and Saharan ambiences.It was Desert Road that caught the ear of Gambia’s Juldeh Camara, who discovered how well his playing of the ritti, a single-stringed spike fiddle, fit in with Adams’ work. The two hooked up, quickly discovered a musical kinship that exceeded mutual expectations and recorded Soul Science, a hard-hitting instant classic that made blues-rock and West African griot music sound like a perfect blend (just as many would rightly contend they’ve always been).

Justin and Juldeh are joined by Salah Dawson Miller, a veteran of North African percussion who has played with an extraordinary array of artists including Phillip Glass, The Drifters, Dr. John, 3 Mustaphas 3 and Jah Wobble, and who studied in Algeria, Morocco, Cuba and Brazil.

Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara: Montreal Jazz Festival 2009

Siwan

I’ve just discovered this truly wonderful album – a gorgeous blend of Gharnati music from the Spanish Al-Andalus period (730-1492), Scandinavian improvised jazz and European baroque music.

Siwan, the title of keyboardist and composer Jon Balke’s latest album for ECM, is derived from a written language known as Aljamiado, which used Arabic script to transcribe Ladino, spoken by the Sephardic Jews of Al-Andalus. The word siwan means ‘equilibrium’ or ‘balance’ and Balke has created music that balances three cultures and time periods:

Magical music, trailing deep roots. The listener is at first struck by the power of Amina Alaoui’s voice, soaring above Jon Balke’s remarkable compositions for baroque ensemble – with soloists drawn from jazz, scattered improvisational traditions, and the world of early music. Behind this remarkable musical integration is a web of philosophical, historical, and literary interconnections, as Balke and Alaoui set texts from Sufi poets, Christian mystics, troubadours and more and – inspired by the tolerant and creative spirit of medieval Al-Andalus – ponder what was lost to the bonfires of the Inquisition. Setting new standards in transcultural music, Siwan shows what can be made today when artists of the most divergent background pool their energies. (ECM website)

Moroccan vocalist Amina Alaoui performs with Balke’s international group and the early music group Barokk Solistene. Balke’s band includes trumpeter Jon Hassell, violinist Kheir Eddine Mekachiche, percussionist Helge Norbakken, and zarb player Pedram Khavar Zamini.

The music is of almost indescribable beauty. Alaoui sings the poems of Al-Andalus poets, and is backed by a free-flowing group that combines the Arab violin tradition with the older Muslim Gharnati, the spacious, icy jazz of the far Northern hemisphere, and the classical discipline of the Baroque period, where improvisation intersects seamlessly with composition, where the theatrical and historical meld flawlessly and seem to grow from the same seed…Every track here reveals something unusual, brings something hidden and alien to the fore even as it beguiles the listener with its intimacy of secret histories and knowledge. Siwan is Balke’s masterpiece thus far, and will hopefully become as influential as it is groundbreaking. (Allmusic Guide)

Al Andalus was the area of Spain ruled by Muslims until 1492. In cities such as Granada and Cordoba Muslims, Christians, and Sephardic Jews lived in relative harmony and there was a free exchange of ideas and learning between scholars of all three faiths. It was from here that the ideas and knowledge that sparked the Renaissance spread to Italy, France, and other parts of Christian Europe.

Much artistic beauty and knowledge was lost when the Spanish Inquisition forced Muslims and Jews to either convert, flee, or burn. However, great poetry and music were preserved and passed on. It’s this music and poetry that provides the core of Siwan: nine tracks feature the work of poets from that region married to music inspired by the era. The earliest song, ‘Thulathiyat’ was written by the Sufi mystic Husayn Mansour Al Hallaj (857-922 CE), while Lope de Vega’s ‘A la dina dana’ dates from the era after the re-conquest: he lived from 1562 – 1635 and is considered one of the major voices of the golden age of Spanish literature for his plays and prose.

Amina Alaoui & Jon Balke: Ya Safwati

Andy Sheppard: Movements in Colour

Arriving in Manchester on the same evening as crowds of United supporters, pouring into the city centre pubs to watch the European Cup Final, we saw the new Andy Sheppard Quintet perform at the RNCM. With Andy were John Paricelli on guitars, Arild Andersen on double bass, Kuljit Bhamra on tabla and percussion and Eivind Aarset on guitar and electronics.

The playing was uniformly excellent, with the music coming across much more incisively than on the CD (about which John Fordham commented in the Guardian, ‘a bit more muscle might not have hurt’). John Paricelli alternated between classical and electric guitars and excelled on both. Arild Andersen, looking like a mischevious Seamus Heaney, provided rhythmic driveto the pieces with his muscular bass.

A key element of the group’s sound is the percussion of Kuljit Bhamra. His playing was astonishing – at one point he was rattling out polyrhythms on the kettle drum with one hand in a way that seemed impossible. He has a strong jazz feel, but his unusual mix of percussion instruments adds another dimension to the usual jazz drum sound. His interplay with Andersen on Nave Nave Moe, and with Sheppard on Bingwas especially enjoyable. Bhamra is, I discover, an experienced producer, composer and musician and a key figure in Bhangra music.

Since Sheppard was ‘hearing a texture and colour as well as clean line’ he recruited guitarist and electronics wizard Eivind Aarset, whom he met while touring with Ketil Bjørnstad. It wasn’t so much the sounds Aarset conjured up that were extraordinary – more the experience of watching him coax the sounds out of his computer by gently caressing the strings or tapping the body of his guitar, twirling dials, and at one point seeming to play the guitar with some kind of blue-light infra red device. Eivind Aarset can be heard on ECM discs with Nils Petter Molvaer, Marilyn Mazur, and Arild Andersen – and also appears on Arve Henriksen’s Cartography. Aarset’s own discs include Electronique Noir.

The Quintet performed pieces from the new album – Andy’s first on ECM – and Andy drew attention to the fact that several are named after, or inspired by, paintings – after all, he said, the band are called Movements in Colour. Here are the paintings:

Paul Gaugin, Nave Nave Moe (Sacred Spring)

Henri Matisse, Le Tristesse du Roi

Yves Klein, International Blue. In 1957, Klein developed his patented colour, International Klein Blue. This colour, he believed, had a quality close to pure space, and he associated it with immaterial values beyond what can be seen or touched. He described it as ‘a Blue in itself, disengaged from all functional justification’. Klein made around 200 monochrome paintings using IKB.

Paul Gauguin – Ta Matete (We Shall Not Go to Market Today)

Joan Miro, Ballarina II

Jazzwise review:

These seven tracks take their cue from a number of paintings and artists that Sheppard admires and have that same lightness and airiness that the saxophonist brings to much of his work. Do the artists checked here – Matisse, Miró and Gauguin – perhaps touch more deeply on Sheppard’s sense of his own creativity? I suspect so. All three were after all outside any formal school – Fauvism in Matisse’s case was at best a loose grouping of painters. At the same time, they share a profound and uplifting grasp of the power of colour and that is certainly a word I would have to use in respect of Sheppard’s music. Here it shows in the way these five musicians combine to kaleidoscopic effect that matters most rather than their solo contributions. The impression throughout is of serving the music. At times, they hint at something darker. The closing track, ‘International Blue’, and the opener, ‘La Tristesse Du Roi’, play with other emotions but in the main this is warm, upbeat, yet reflective music beautifully played and recorded.

Mathias Eick Quartet at RNCM

To Manchester tonight to see the Mathias Eick Quartet at RNCM. Despite being up at 4:30 on a Norwegian morning to fly to Manchester for this, the opening gig of their tour, the Quartet were in fine fettle. Mathias was evidently surprised by the size of the turnout – but the stir surrounding his first album for ECM as leader should explain it. He’s a multi-instrumentalist who wasn’t averse to adding complex beats on a pair of drums, and at one point joining Andreas Ulvo at the grand piano to play the upper register – and keyboards – while Ulvo played the lower register.

The Quartet performed most of the album, The Door, as well as additional songs, including one composed at a recording session in Finland. Mathias commented on the sparse, utilitarian nature of the song titles, saying they simply reflected the time or place where they were composed. Despite critics commenting on the metaphorical aptness of the The Door as a title for the album (‘the door to my inner self’, etc), Mathias said it was just that when he’d finished composing the title song, what he was looking at was – the door. Brought back for a second encore Mathias played a superb, slowed-down solo ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’.

Could this band be the new E.S.T.?

Programme notes

Mathias Eick trumpet
Andreas Ulvo piano
Audun Erlien bass
Rune Arnesen drums

‘With his warm tane, selfless allegiance ta the collective, and personal nexus of lyrical form and freedom, Eick is the most important trumpeter ta emerge from the Scandinavian scene since Henriksen and Molvr.’
John Kelman, All About Jazz

‘It’s rare to hear instrumental music that is almost poetic in its construction. Trumpeter Mathias Eick has a sound that gently beckons and, like softly spoken conversation, you instinctively lean forward to catch every gesture’.
Stuart Nicholson, Observer Music Monthly

Norway continues to astonish the world with its amazing contribution to music of all genres, with Mathias Eick, aged 28, being one of the latest talents to emerge from the burgeoning Norwegian jazz scene. He joins an already glittering galaxy of compatriots known for their outstanding musicianship and creativity. Names such as Jan Garbarek, Arild Andersen, Terje Rypdal, Awe Henriksen, Nils Petter Molvaer and Tord Gustavsen spring to mind, to name but a few.
But it is Eick’s particular achievements and sound that resulted in him receiving the International Jazz Award for New Talent in 2007. He has also been nominated for the Norwegian equivalent of a Grammy for his album The Door. Eick is a multi-instrumentalist. His first instrument is trumpet but he also plays double bass, vibraphone, piano and guitar and – to use his own words, “anything needed”.

He has worked with many bands and a diversity of musicians from Chick Corea and Pat Metheny with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, to the Norwegian rock group Jaga Jazzist of which he was a co-founder and where his multi-instrumentalism has been very much a part of the band’s sound. Recently, he has been frontlining and touring world-wide with the highly acclaimed Manu Katche band, whilst at the other end of the scale he has been working with Finnish harpist/pianist/composer Iro Haarla and her stunningly beautiful quintet.

Although no newcomer to the prestigious ECM label, where he has worked with guitarist Jacob Young on two recordings, as well as with drummer Manu Katche and with Iro Haarla, it was in 2008 that Eick made his debut recording as a leader on The Door, an album which reveals not only an outstanding musician but also a gifted composer. His spacious, atmospheric, and beautifully lyrical tunes have an unpredictable shifting edge; this is interesting music which can unexpectedly challenge before finally returning the listener to an original melodic theme.

Mathias Eick cites Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Clifford Brown and Kenny Wheeler as influences, but his subtle, pure, and crystalline sound is distinctively and undeniably his own. Already a remarkably mature player, it has been noted by more than one critic that this young Norwegian is someone we will be hearing about much more in the future.

Mathias Eick at Northsea Jazz 2007

Frøy Aagre feat. Mathias Eick at Canal Street 08

Frøy Aagre- sax, Mathias Eick- trp, Andreas Ulvo-piano, Audun Ellingsen-bass, Freddy Wike-drums at Canal Street Jazz Festival, Norway Jul 27th 2008. The tune is called Factory, composed by Frøy Aagre.

Frøy Aagre feat. Mathias Eick at Canal Street 08

Frøy Aagre- sax, Mathias Eick- trp, Andreas Ulvo-piano, Audun Ellingsen-bass, Freddy Wike-drums at Canal Street Jazz Festival, Norway Jul 27th 2008. The tune is called Long Distance, composed by Frøy Aagre.

Gilad Atzmon with strings

To the Bluecoat tonight to see the Gilad Atzmon Quartet with the Sigamos String Quartet – the last gig in his tour to promote the Gilad Atzmon with Strings project and the new album, In Loving Memory of America. Despite a late start, the result of a nine-hour journey from London, it was a really enjoyable evening. Gilad’s demonstrated superb saxophone technique, using two microphones, one of which reproduced the studio echo from the original Charlie Parker with Strings recordings which were the inspiration for this project. I like the stripped-down, less schmalzy sound that comes from using just a string quartet. All the musicians were excellent, with Frank Harrison notably shining in then second half, once he’d been given a proper sound level. Continue reading “Gilad Atzmon with strings” →

Kind of Blue is 50

Half a century ago! During March-April 1959 Miles Davis and a stellar quintet recorded what is generally regarded as the greatest jazz album of all time – Kind of Blue (#12 In Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest LPs Of All Time). The album became a landmark in modern jazz and the most popular disc of Davis’ career, eventually selling over two million copies, a phenomenal success for a jazz record.

Miles’ ‘first great quintet’ consisted of Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley (1928-1975, alto saxophone), John Coltrane (1926-1967, tenor saxophone), Bill Evans (1929-1980, piano) or Wynton Kelly (1931-1971, piano), Paul Chambers (1935-1969, bass), and Jimmy Cobb (b. 1929, drums, the only surviving member).

Here’s the review at Allmusic:

Kind of Blue isn’t merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, it’s an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album, a universally acknowledged standard of excellence. Why does Kind of Blue posses such a mystique? Perhaps because this music never flaunts its genius. It lures listeners in with the slow, luxurious bassline and gentle piano chords of “So What.” From that moment on, the record never really changes pace – each tune has a similar relaxed feel, as the music flows easily. Yet Kind of Blue is more than easy listening. It’s the pinnacle of modal jazz – tonality and solos build from the overall key, not chord changes, giving the music a subtly shifting quality. All of this doesn’t quite explain why seasoned jazz fans return to this record even after they’ve memorized every nuance. They return because this is an exceptional band – Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb – one of the greatest in history, playing at the peak of its power. As Evans said in the original liner notes for the record, the band did not play through any of these pieces prior to recording. Davis laid out the themes before the tape rolled, and then the band improvised. The end results were wondrous and still crackle with vitality. Kind of Blue works on many different levels. It can be played as background music, yet it amply rewards close listening. It is advanced music that is extraordinarily enjoyable. It may be a stretch to say that if you don’t like Kind of Blue, you don’t like jazz – but it’s hard to imagine it as anything other than a cornerstone of any jazz collection.

Last weekend BBC 4 broadcast an evocative documentary – 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz. The BBC website states:

1959 was the seismic year jazz broke away from complex bebop music to new forms, allowing soloists unprecedented freedom to explore and express. It was also a pivotal year for America; the nation was finding its groove, enjoying undreamt of freedom and wealth, social, racial and upheavals were just around the corner, and jazz was ahead of the curve.

Four major jazz albums were made, each a high water mark for the artists and a powerful reflection of the times. Each opened up dramatic new possibilities for jazz which continue to be felt: Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue; Dave Brubeck, Time Out; Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um; and Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come.

The programme concluded that the album that probably had the greatest long-term impact was the one that had the least visibility at the time, yet was presciently titled: The Shape of Jazz to Come.

Miles Davis – Kind of Blue 50th Anniversary

Miles Davis & John Coltrane: So What

Miles Davis and John Coltrane play one of the best renditions of So What ever captured on film -live New York, April 2, 1959. Cannonball Adderley had a migrane and was absent from the session. Wynton Kelly played piano-he was the regular band member at this time-but Bill Evans had played on the original recording of “So What” on March 2, 1959.

Wolfie

Last night to RNCM Manchester to see the Guy Barker Jazz Orchestra perform The Amadeus Project. I was a bit trepidatious – kind of expected jazzy improvisations on Mozart themes. However, the evening was an unqualified joy: the music was all straight-ahead jazz originals by Barker. The first half of the concert was part of a suite based on characters from Mozart operas. The second half was a re-writing of The Magic Flute in the hard-boiled style of a Mickey Spillane thriller, with narration written by Barker’s friend, the thriller writer Robert Ryan (who appeared onstage to introduce the piece). After I bought the CD, autographed by Barker.

As well as being an excellent trumpeter, Guy Barker has developed into a fine composer. Here he performed both as soloist and conductor of the band assembled to tour The Amadeus Project, which – as he explained in opening remarks – was the result of commissions in 2006 by San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival and BBC Radio 3 (strange coincidence!).

The band were: Guy Barker, Nathan Bray, Tom Rees Roberts, Byron Wallen (trumpet), Baraby Dickinson, Alistair White (trombone), Mark Frost (bass trombone), Rosario Giuliani (alto & soprano sax), Graeme Blevins (tenor sax, clarinet), Per ‘Texas’ Johansson (tenor sax, flute, contrabass clarinet, clarinet), Phil Todd (baritone sax, tuba, flute, piccolo), Jim Watson (piano, organ), Phil Donkin (double bass) and Ralph Salmins (drums).

The first half of the concert was The Amadeus Suite, pieces inspired by characters from Mozart’s operas. The band kicked off with the rousing ‘Wolfie’, the opening number from the ‘Amadeus Suite’, which showcased their musical strengths: precise ensemble work, with compelling and contrasting solos.

The second half was dZf, described by Guy as a retelling of The Magic Flute in a ‘Jazz Noir’ style, featuring the actor Michael Brandon as narrator. There were fine solos from all the band, particularly alto saxophonist Rosario Giuliani, and the compositions had a cinematic echo. In this piece Barker’s role as conductor was accentuated – ensuring both musicians and narrator Brandon came in on cue and soloist.

dZf was originally commissioned for Radio 3’s Jazz Line-Up, its inspiration a Johnny Staccato-type update, written by Robert Ryan, of the plot of Mozart’s last opera, The Magic Flute (extraordinary storyline!).

Dave Gelly wrote in the Observer:

Not content with being probably the greatest trumpet virtuoso that British jazz has ever produced, Guy Barker has grown into a quite phenomenal composer. The first disc of this two-CD set, entitled ‘dZf’, consists of a re-telling of The Magic Flute as a film noir tale, with Michael Brandon narrating Robert Ryan’s sparse, laconic script. Barker’s atmospheric score simply bursts with melodic and orchestral invention, his own sizzling trumpet setting the pace. The second disc (‘The Amadeus Suite’) contains a set of equally impressive pieces inspired by characters from Mozart operas.

BBC review:

This is British jazz with all its virtues and a few of its faults. It’s big, brassy and confident. If you like flutes and Hammond organs you’ve got ’em. If you like clarinets and trombones you’ll find them too. While it’s slightly rough round the edges in a couple of places, you can’t fault its ambition, creativity or sheer rumbustiousness.

Barker’s own playing throughout is unflagging, technically impeccable and shows a mastery of all styles and tones. All in all, it’s impressive.

John Fordham in The Guardian wrote:

Guy Barker is a world-class postbop trumpeter, but his composing skills have only recently blossomed. This Mozart-inspired double-CD features a work called dZf, which he calls a “jazz-noir” rumination on The Magic Flute, and a suite inspired by characters from across the operas. But it’s cinematically evocative contemporary jazz, not jazz/classical crossover music, with dZf framing a thriller story by Robert Ryan, narrated in downbeat gumshoe tones by Michael Brandon. Fire-breathing Italian postbop saxophonist Rosario Giuliani is also a key component, alongside Barker in front of a cracking UK big band. Sometimes the music recalls the pumping contrapuntal jostling of a Colin Towns orchestra, sometimes a Ray Charles R&B band, sometimes the slinky mean-streets insinuations of the 1940s soundtracks Barker loves – and there are also episodes of shimmering delicacy. The Amadeus Suite has the edge, for its broader idiomatic references and because the spoken storyline of dZf is somewhat cheesy. But Barker’s trumpet blazes over all the music, and the writing is consistently terrific.

Dans les arbres

Lately I’ve been greatly enjoying the eponymous album by the French-Norwegian jazz outfit, Dan les arbres. The quartet consist of:

Xavier Charles (FR) – clarinet, harmonica

Ivar Grydeland (N) – acoustic guitar & banjo w/ preparations, sruti box

Christian Wallumrød (N) – prepared piano, harmonium

Ingar Zach (N) – bass drum, percussion

This is where jazz meets contemporary classical, avant-garde (or whatever). The music is minimalist, chamber music, without any explicit melodies, yet it still has a distinctly jazz feel. It’s in that area where the music seems zen-like: there’s lots of space with percussive sounds breaking through the silence. We’re close to the music of Masahiko Togashi on the album Rings, Mark Nauseef, Kudsi Erguner and Markus Stockhausen on the album Gazing Point, or Arve Henriksen on Sakuteiki or Chiaroscuro.

The album was recorded in July 2006 at Festiviteten, Eidsvoll – Norway. More background from ECM:

Guitarist Ivar Grydeland and percussionist Ingar Zach, prime movers and catalysts for free improvised music in Norway, got in touch with Christian Wallumrød after hearing his “Sofienberg Variations” on ECM and they have since worked together in diverse combinations including, since 2004, ‘Dans les arbres’ a project completed by French clarinettist Xavier Charles. Their radical all-acoustic improvisation explores sonorities and textures that frequently sound electronic, and also often sounds ‘composed’ – with echoes of Cage and the New York School.

Andy Hamilton, The Wire:

There’s no end to the delights of this quite magical disc. The finest composition, like improvisation, ultimately relies on intuition, and these players seem to have an innate grasp of the right combination of sounds and textures. Dans les arbres must be one of the finest ECM Improv releases – indeed, releases from any label – in recent years.

Best music in 2008

The Bobo Stenson Trio

It’s appropriate to begin with some live music highlights, because, for me, this has been a year of exceptional live music. The outstanding event of the year had to be Leonard Cohen at Manchester MEN. But Wayne Shorter and his quartet playing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the Phil in January. I wish a recording was available! Two other Phil highlights were McCoy Tyner’s trio, with Joe Lovano on sax and Eric Kamau Gravatt on drums, in May and the Brad Mehldau Trio in St. George’s Hall Concert Room in October. Also that month the Bobo Stenson Trio, with Jon Fält (drums) and Andres Jormin (double bass) were superb at the RNCM (a concert later broadcast on BBC Radio 3). This led to a major exploration of Stenson’s back catalogue – and his current release, Cantando, is a brilliant album.

Thinking back over the last 18 months we have seen Joanna MacGregor perform several times in different settings. The first was at the RNCM back in June 2006 with Andy Sheppard when they performed Deep River – their original improvisations on traditional gospel songs as well as gospel-influenced tracks by Mahalia Jackson, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan and Nick Cave. That performance and that album are simply sublime (most especially, track 3, Spiritual) . Since then we’ve had the opportunity to see her a number of times (she’s an Adjunct (sic!) Professor at Hope University), introducing me to a whole new repertoire of modern classical/avant-garde music, including this year Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and a stimulating programme of American Piano Music as part of the Cornerstone Festival. This year I bought Moondog – Sidewalk Dances, another collaboration with Andy Sheppard and a wildly joyous album, as shown in this YouTube clip:

For me the year in jazz has been dominated by further explorations of the Nordic Jazz scene. Discoveries (not all 2008 releases) have included: the Tord Gustavsen Trio (especially the lyrical Tears Transforming, the opening track of The Ground); Marilyn Mazur’s collaboration with Jan Garbarek, Elixir; the work of bassist Arild Andersen, including his 2008 release Live at Belleville that also features Tommy Smith; Norwegian pianist Christian Wallumrod’s 2007 album, The Zoo Is Far; the ‘ice music’ of Terje Isungset (Iceman Is, Igloo) and, of course, Bobo Stenson. A grievous loss this year was Esbjorn Svensson, who died in a scuba-diving accident in June. E.S.T’s last album, Leucocyte, opens with the delicate piano solo Decade before moving into Premonition/Earth, a mesmerising 17-minute workout. Arve Henriksen has produced some ground-breaking work in recent years; this year I have been spellbound by his work on a truly magical album – Starflowers on which Sinikka Langeland, sings verses by the Norwegian poet, Hans Borli. There’s an interview with Sinnika Langeland here.

Here’s the official video of Leucocyte from the E.S.T album:

In world music highlights included: Andy Palacio’s Watina (another sad loss this year), Toumani Diabate’s The Mande Variations, Dhafer Youssef’s Glow, Buika’s Nina de Fuego, and the compilation Desert Blues 3. But the standout was Tchamantche – another brilliant album from Rokia Traore.Here she is singing Dunia off the album:

In rock, blues and Americana there were some great albums this year, including Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago and Fleet Foxes’ debut album – both of which sounded fresh and created their own distinctive aural environment. There was Seasick Steve’s I Started Out With Nothin’ and I Still Got Most Of It Left, Thea Gilmore’s Lifejacker (top tracks Old Soul and Dance In New York) and Rodney Crowell’s superb Sex and Gasoline -angry songs dissecting the gender divide and the representation of women. Open-heart honesty has always been characteristic of Crowell’s writing, but on Intelligent Design we get this: ‘If I could have just one wish/Maybe for an hour/I’d want to be a woman/And feel that phantom power/Maybe I’d want to stick around for awhile/Until my heart got broke/Maybe then I could find out if I’m a half decent man/Or if I’m just a joke…’.

Jim White‘s wonderful Transnormal Skiperoo helped me through a troubled summer.

Transnormal Skiperoo is a name I invented to describe a strange new feeling I’ve been experiencing after years of feeling lost and alone and cursed. Now, when everything around me begins to shine, when I find myself dancing around in my back yard for no particular reason other than it feels good to be alive, when I get this deep sense of gratitude that I don’t need drugs or God or doomed romance to fuel myself through the gauntlet of a normal day, I call that feeling ‘Transnormal Skiperoo.’ Jim White

Blindly We Go, A Town Called Amen and Jailbird were standout tracks

Blindly We Go is an unusual song for me musically, although the lyrics deal with a familiar preoccupation of mine—-the (for lack of a better term) unknowability of God. It’s something I find myself thinking about a lot. There’s that old Zen saying, “If you meet God on the road, kill him.” In the South everyone is always telling me about how God told them this and God told them that, and their recitations of divine contact always feel like constructs of hubris. I have little trust for people who tell me they talk to God and God replies in strangely anthropomorphic, culturally precise ways that exactly mirror the person’s mindset. Jim White

Towering above them all, Bob Dylan’s Tell-Tale Signs – a collection of unreleased material from Oh Mercy through to Modern Times. The opener – a version of Mississippi with Dylan accompanied simply by Daniel Lanois’ guitar is a Dylan classic:

Every step of the way, we walk the line
Your days are numbered, so are mine
Time is piling up, we struggle and we stray
We’re all boxed in, nowhere to escape

City’s just a jungle, more games to play
Trapped in the heart of it, tryin’ to get away
I was raised in the country, I been working in the town
I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down

Other highlights included a lovely Red River Shore, with accordion accompaniment, and Born In Time:

My reaction on hearing “Red River Shore” was the same as when I first heard “Blind Willie McTell,” this is the best Bob Dylan song in ages.

This, the eighth volume of The Bootleg Series isn’t only about outtakes, alternate takes, and songs never heard. It’s also about making the musical connections, connections that cover the wide canvas of American popular music. This is something that Bob Dylan has done not only during the 18 years this album covers, but for his entire career. Peter Stone Brown

Following on from that comment, it’s also worth noting that Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour went from strength to strength in 2008 – increasingly rich and fascinating, with Dylan more relaxed and humorous. ‘To listen to ‘Theme Time Radio Hour’ is to rediscover the sense of musical adventure that old-fashioned disc jockeys with strongly individual personalities offered in the days before big-money stations pinned their fiscal hopes to the rigid Top 40-style playlists that took the fun out of radio.’ Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

Guy Barker and Roger Kellaway at Pizza Express

While in London we went to Pizza Express to see Guy Barker with Roger Kellaway (piano) and Phil Donkin (bass). This was just a month after Kellaway had served as band leader and pianist during the Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl concerts by Van Morrison celebrating the forty year anniversity of the classic album that was released in November 1968.

It was a great evening of jazz – and we were seated about a foot from Kellaway’s right hand.

Brad Mehldau Trio at St Georges Hall

Last night we saw the Brad Mehldau Trio – Larry Grenadier on bass, Jeff Ballard on drums, and Mehldau piano – perform in the Concert Room of St Georges Hall. An excellent performance, though the venue’s acoustics are not ideally suited for jazz.

From the programme notes:

Virtuosic pianist Brad Mehldau is a major force in contemporary jazz, injecting fresh intensity into the music through a combination of spontaneous improvisation and formal structure. His artistry stands out as a powerful contemporary influence in a line that stretches back through Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner. Mehldau’s approach embraces a reflective and musically profound command of melodic improvisation with bursts of full-on rhythmic intensity.

Brad Mehldau has recorded and performed extensively since the early 1990s. His most consistent output over the years has taken place in the trio format. Starting in 1996, his group released a series of five records on Warner Bros entitled The Art of the Trio. Mehldau also has a solo piano recording entitled Elegiac Cycle, and a record called Places that includes both solo piano and trio songs. Elegiac Cycle and Places might be called “concept” albums. They are made up exclusively of original material and have central themes that hover over the compositions. Other Mehldau recordings include Largo, a collaborative effort with the innovative musician and producer Jon Brion, and Anything Goes – a trio outing with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy.

From the programme notes:

Mehldau’s musical personality forms a dichotomy. He is first and foremost an improviser, and greatly cherishes the surprise and wonder that can occur from a spontaneous musical idea that is expressed directly, in real time. But he also has a deep fascination for the formal architecture of music, and it informs everything he plays. In his most inspired playing, the actual structure of his musical thought serves as an expressive device. As he plays, he listens to how ideas unwind, and the order in which they reveal themselves. Each tune has a strongly felt narrative arch, whether it expresses itself in a beginning, an end, or something left intentionally open-ended. The two sides of Mehldau’s personality – the improviser and the formalist – play off each other, and the effect is often something like controlled chaos.