[JPL] bopndicks ten picks, Jan 2008

[Dick Crockett]

Bopndicks 10 picks Jan 2008
JOSHUA REDMAN      BACK EAST     Nonesuch Records
In 1957, Sonny Rollins recorded a trio album with Ray
Brown and Shelley Manne, a new voice called “Way Out
West.”
Fifty years later, saxophonist  JOSHUA REDMAN answers
with a new inventive BACK EAST.
Sonny Rollins new verse was considered hip and
inventive. Most thought it was very progressive.
Sacrilege, no doubt for it's departure from the bebop
norm. 
For some, change isn't necessary, not easy. It's the
only constant thing. Sacrosanct as the classic tribute
, father to son, Dewey to Joshua on Coltrane's
“India.”  Pass along the treats of modern music to the
new generation. Hear it as Dewey and Josh trade licks
on Coltrane's “India.” 
I don't know why it's so emotional for me. It's multi
generational. Son watches dad plow the fields and dad
eventually turns the plow over to the son.
Enter the new Joshua Redman cd and ecstasy is raised
everywhere in the music spectra-bop.  Could this be
the culmination of a form of saxophone transmigration.

A highly regarded alumnus of Saxophone High School,
Joshua Redman begins to post bebop through hard bop
and the post modern on “Back East”....post modern
sounds diffuse and ethereal, doesn't it...or doesn't?!
This is what this music is about, making it trippy,
funky and functional, so a side row viewer can watch
and make it happen.
It's all about tying all the saxophone acclimations
together in some kind of bow, since the beginning of
New Orleans jazz row.
“Back East” is a nomenclature for the jazz sardonic
us, the beginning, the middle, for there's no end,
only replicates,  for we the dedicated jazz iconic
consumers.
Redman covers two songs, “The Surrey With The Fringe
On Top” and “I'm an Old Cowhand,” right from “Way Out
West,” out to the post modern “Back East.” Joshua
Redman takes us on a ride through some  of the great
saxophonist contribution, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane
and a quite a tribute to his father's rebellious
spirit in his interpretation of Dewey's “GJ.”
Joshua Redman's new “Back East” is a looking back,
paying tribute and moving forward, for this, a myriad
thing we call modern jazz is all good.
ALAN PASQUA     THE ANTISOCIAL CLUB    
Cryptogramophone Records
Alan Pasqua's keyboard tight stylistic reminisces ,
avantgard, one way, another a nostalgic tale of Martin
Denny's “Quiet Village,” especially the  introduction
to the title tune, that reverberates with the acoustic
horn accompaniment of Ambrose Akinmusire's trumpet and
Jeff Elwood, saxophones. This is a more modern Quiet
Village. A 21st century Villa Nirvana by the sea with
the musical soundtrack by the Alan Pasque group. In
fact, it's quite an adventure from the very start.
“George Russell,” reverential to the avant gard
composer is more to a George Duke riff at first then 
exploring different unmarked pathways with Nels Cline
guitar supped up angst. The idea of combining R&B with
avant gard antics might border on the absurd, unless
you're a free thinking surrealist as Alan Pasqua,
where the music is multi lensed and layered with a
coated post modern candy cane.   Nels Cline's searing
guitar solo cuts through the changing nature, making
“George Russell” a more contemplative driving force.
“Prayer” is meditative, a ride around the secluded
cove with the offshore cool summer breezes easing your
inner mind. “New Rhodes” is rapid funk interchange
with Pasqua's Rhodes, Cline's driving rhythm guitar
rhymes, horn accents and volatile percussive mixtures.
 Scott Amendola, drum and electronics, Jimmy Haslip,
bass and the great Alex Acuna on percussion complete
this exciting band. “Fast Food” is a straight ahead
rock fest with Nel Cline playing some mind ripping
guitar.  A treat just to listen to Cline  go up and
down the wa-wa” freeway. They're all in there, the
whole magnificent seven on this, just jamming their
primrose lanes off. The shoe laces are completely
untied on this “Fast Food!” “Wicked Good”  is just
what the song title says:  It's wicked good man, when
right amount of hard bop straight ahead is mixed into
this wicked intoxicating musical brew.
It'll surely intensify your electric Miles. 
Then a “Message To Beloved Souls Departed” is an
anthem to be repeated on infinitum. 
The Alan Pasqua group has the musical introspection
and scope to carry this  new “Anti Social Club” beyond
superficial memory to unalterable state of maximum
consciousness. 
3 COHENS        BRAID     Anzic Records
Anat, Avishai and Yuval Cohen, a family of jazz
musicians growing up listening to jazz in Tel Aviv, a
love of music passed from their relatives. 
Hard bop was an early influence, along with ethnic
folk and classical music. The three attended Berklee
School of music and settled in NYC, the most vibrant
of jazz scenes.   
In some respects, “Braid” resembles in part what the
Mangione brothers were imparting on the Riverside
“Brooks Brothers” album with Sal Nistico as cohort.
It's reflective in Yuval Cohen's fluid horn
arrangements on “Freedom”and “Elegy For Eliku,” 
Avishai's   inventive trumpet solo with Anat's
haunting clarinet and Yuval's soprano  on “Beaches”
and “Lies And Gossip,  Anat plays a marvelous tenor
saxophone on her Latin based, “U-Valley” and “Tfila
(Prayer).” 
You'll find beautiful mainstream post modern
selections written by these very talented musicians,
composers and arrangers, the Cohens.
“Navad”(The Wanderer) has a subtle Klezmer musical
mesmerism; the wandering troubadour spreading the
dance and joy, ensconced in a hard bop frame. The
horn, reed contrapuntal dynamics are most
invigorating, implying a robust gusto in the song. 
Then “Gigi et Amelie” has Gil Evans tonality with
delineative time signatures sprinkling like   falling
rain, an impressive jazz piece.
Anat,  Avishai and Yuval Cohen, three very talented
jazz musicians who appear on this new “Braid”cd are
highly skilled composers, arrangers and expert on
their instruments.   This new cd is reflective of
their developing talent, which, by the way you'll
thoroughly
enjoy as post new bop, a varietal inspiration to the
new modern jazz. 
Avishai Cohen's “Shoutin Low” concludes with an
inspiring jazzy sequences where counterpoint commands
the other to the moment of truth to bring back the
swallows to Capistrano. Well, I guess!
DENA DEROSE   LIVE AT THE JAZZ STANDARD  VOLUME ONE   
MAXJAZZ
Dena DeRose is a piano player who sings. Dena DeRose
is a singer who plays piano. Either way will do. She's
certainly a special jazz performer who'll command an
audience.
She'll ascribe as the Grand Dame of ebullience, bliss
and brevity. Dena DeRose has the whole package, a
certain kind of magnetism and charm of a  Bobby Short,
where the main theme is to entertain the audience.
She's a jazz player, who loves taking chances. It's
all about improvisation, never singing/playing the
same phrase, the same way, twice. A daring DeRose also
features new material in this live set, “This Is
Love,”by Philippe Patrucciani,  lyrics by Dena DeRose
and “A Table Set For Solitude,” a new song by Rob and
Adena Begard.
One important point of this performance is Dena DeRose
is having fun and it rubs off.  That's her charm and
she leaves an impression on you, wanting more.
She has another ability to make that standard her own
as “Alone Together”  with a bright hip version with
elongated piano runs, skipping over scat misanthropes.
 She leaves you wondering, what did she?... Motivating
you to play it over again. Then the classic “Green
Dolphin Street”  and  you have to do the same. Play it
again, Sam.
Drummer Matt Wilson provides humorous accents along
with bass player, Martin Wind's accentuated nerve
endings. 
Saxophonist Joel Frahm participates on”I Fall In Love
Too Easily.” 
The repor with DeRose and Frahm is romantic, cubist,
Coltrane-ish. 
Then she trips off a light fantastic Fats stride open
on “Lover,”  to a multitudinous avant  encounter of
the third kind of gorgeous inventive signatures with a
rhythm section full of vigor and scamp!
The new live Dena DeRose has the love, mood and
ambiance to have you two, 'dancing in the dark.'
GREG DUNCAN QUINTET      UNVEILED    OA2 Records
Trumpet player Greg Duncan and a quintet of very
dedicated players, for this is a post modern age, much
like new wave French cinema of the sixties, whose
sophisticated exaggeration worked on a sublime level. 
This assemblage will remind you of The Jazz
Messengers, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, The
Mangiones and other musing hard boppers of the era.
The strength lies with the muscle and command of the
horn players, Greg Duncan, trumpet and Dan Nicholson,
saxophone, and we mean wicked chops.
Duncan mentions, “No Return” as written with Terence
Blanchard in mind. There's an early Freddie Hubbard in
Duncan's styling as in other pieces in this cd, as
well.
Duncan has great command and tone. Good trumpet
players have to take care of themselves to retain the
'lip.'
“Guardian Angel” has the feel of it in overdrive,
where spirits of Blue Mitchell and  Hank Mobley 
reside.
There was a brief period before the The Beatles, where
bands used to play like this.
These are the dedicated young sophisticates, Dan
Nicholson, saxophones, Marcin Fahmy, piano, Jon
Deitemeyer, drums and Jeff Greene,bass.
Duncan's “Unveiled” is a proper vehicle for some treat
solos on trumpet. There's a mythas, nostalgia and pro
tempore to coolness. “Tony's City” is the hip booty
you know, may not remember, when Wayne Shorter would
roll his R's with Hubbard for added effect.  It's what
bop is about. Then the quintet gigs on Joe Henderson's
classic “Black Narcissus” with a slow introspective
bass open by Jeff Greene, for lasting effect, then the
horns kick in...The mood is tangential cool gray and
profuse with atmospheric blue.
You know how bottled blue ink from a pen sinks into
and absorbs the paper with every stroke, the writing
becomes integral with the page.  The Greg Duncan
Quintet and “Unveiled” become the process of blending
originals with jazz classics creating a  permanent
stain on your dress shirt pocket where the ink plays
it's jazz ritual with your post modern. And you're
cool with the mark on your jazz character.
PETER BEETS TRIO     NEW GROOVE   Criss Cross Jazz
Peter Beets, Dutch jazz pianist with a traditionalist
attitude and a joyful prose, similar to an Oscar
Peterson( bless his soul.)  This could be a homage to
the man.  And if things don't happen for a reason, or
is it just a syncopated coincidence?  It's very
evident in Beets' version of “In Your Own Sweet Way.”
There are two different rhythm sections in these
piano, bass, guitar treatments. One is Joe Cohn,
guitar and Reuben Rogers, bass on “I'm Old Fashioned”
Blues For Giltay,” a Peter Beets original, “Easy
Listening Blues” by Joe Cohn, “But Beautiful” and the
classic Oscar Pettiford, “Tricotism.”  The other group
is Dutch guitarist, Martijn Van Iterson and Ruud
Jacobs, bass.
The Beets version  of “Nuages” has a Django Reinhardt
European frame- folk music like- the blues here. 
Joe Cohn's session on “Three Little Words” will bring
back memories of Les Paul and ecstatic picking of the
royal Charlie Christian and the frenetic prose of
Beets blazing speed on the keys. 
You may make a comparison to the great Oscar- like
here. The arrow points as such.
Then Cohn's “Easy Listening Blues” will cinch it, with
scores of the forties and fifties, what it's like and
used to be... All in one breadth of the prolific jazz
pianist, Peter Beets.
Then the great Oscar Pettiford's “Tricotism,” the
essence of bebop and Peter Beets never loses the beat
and significance of this repertoire on our
incandescent and ever involving jazz history. “New
Groove” is post/past modern memories of a great jazz 
period.
PETER LERNER    CRY FOR PEACE    bluJazz
Guitarist Peter Lerner is a hip wave to the past, a
hard bop Sunami from start to finish.
It starts right off with a blues bop signature, a Don
Sickler production, ensconced in classic jazz format,
memorable as a Steve McQueen film and lucid as  Grant
Green and Tina Brooks in a short stay, especially with
the opener, “Lerner Burner” with Mat Hazeltine of
Hammond B-3, Jerry Dodgion and Eric Alexander, reeds.
A mind blower for hard boppers.  These are some of the
best jazz  men around.
Saxophonist  Eric Alexander fills it up with some mean
Chicago tenor on this,  the 'burner.' Excoriate your
time and space and settle down for some new mainstream
groove as Peter Lerner lays out some  Wes Montgomery
on this tune.
Lerner is a well versed guitarist, especially on
“Billies Bossa” where he confides a more simpler, down
to earth sound.
However there's more to Lerner than you'll learn by
playing this,so listen carefully as his guitar as the
others spin a musical web on this cd, as others in
Gigi Gryce “Minority” and Herbie Hancock's “Dolphin
Dance,” that's to suffice enough as Jim Rotundi's
flawless solo in Octet musical modern where a parlay
of jazz musicians come to play. Peter Lerner 's  “Cry
For Peace” features some of the most original tasteful
and modern mainstream compositions with some of the
best jazz musicians in the world. It's that cool!
DAVID LIEBMAN       DREAM OF NITE      Verve Music  
A soprano saxophonist as inventive as John Coltrane
and Steve Lacy and a relevant modality as  David
Liebman's,“Dream Of Nite, a sequential day/night 
bright full undertone.   International saxophonist
Liebman plays with a young trio, Roberto Tarenzi,
piano, Paolo Benedettini, bass and Tony Arco, drums. 
Especially, the long selection “Feel”  as appropriate
as the rest to the modality.   This is what the modal
masters request.. Then “Fran Dance”  with a delightful
measure, mindful of  modern dance with a Liebman
twist. This very young active Italian trio, mentioned
above, invigorating to this American saxophonist as he
plays it out in the Miles Davis original, “Fran
Dance.” “En Noir” is a pre-bop Roberto Tarenzi
original, when the forties are the nineties and
beyond.  Easy to look back and beyond. This trio with
David Liebman is a going group with a young avant gard
post modern energy, similar to the kind of vitality
Tomasz Stanko exhibits with his young trio. Liebman
demonstrates a singular knowledge on tenor saxophone
on the title tune.
This is a cd, capturing David Liebman in his essential
form, a live performance recorded in various Italian
venues, Caruso Jazz Cafe in Florence, Bohemian Jazz
Cafe in Bari and Teatro Umberto in Lamezia Terme.
You may not be specifically aware  of the locals,
doesn't matter for the jazz is well recorded and
indicative of Liebman as a creative progressive
musician in the best venue, live,  for we jazz
aficionados. Roberto Fellini on a return engagement.
CHARLIE HADEN   THE BEST OF QUARTET WEST   Verve Music

Hollywood is all about myth, allegory and metaphor.
Whether or not you choose to accept or reject the
preponderance of the fiction is your own accord and
may not have anything to do with this accord, however,
there's this dream-like ethology of Southern
California, unbeknown to the rest of us but apparent
to the silver screen and telling us to come to
America.   This West Coast quartet is about Charlie
Haden's implication to this surreality. It's moody,
romantic and expanding, until the land, water and
expansion go away and sold back to Mexico to pay an
unpaid debt.
There are many Charlie Haden movements from albums and
cd's in this compilation. Still, the romantic vision
of bassist Charlie Haden implies... 
The group is comprised of Ernie Watts, tenor
saxophone, Alan Broadbent, piano, Billy Higgins and or
Lawrence Marable on drums. Guests Stephan Grappelli on
the English translation, “Where Are You, My Love” with
Ernie Watts exchanging  thoughts and attitudes on
better love, better life and less sorrow. Isn't that
noir, especially with the morphing into Django
Reinhardt, Gianni Safred, Stephane Grappelli in the
1949 recording  of such.  A wonderful way of
remembering all the many goodbyes. “Here's Looking At
You” arranged with strings  by Alan Broadbent. “Alone
Together” is a bass triumph of expression by Charlie
Haden  morphing to Jo Stafford singing the lyric with
Paul Weston and Orchestra. Elevating the mellodrama.
Where's  Alan Ladd and Elizabeth Montgomery.  
Our eyes and ears need this mod romanticism.
“Lonely Town” is a Leonard Bernstein tune sung by
Shirley Horn from the  1945 play “On The Town.”
It's all about the silver screen drawing us away from
the reality of where we are and how we exist.
Charlie Haden, “The Best Of The Quartet West” comes to
play
this holiday of everyday life, an interpersonal play
for the rest of us
It's a personal thing and a love of the music for all
of us.
PETER PAULSEN      CHANGE OF SCENERY SEXTET   Wahbo
Records
Bassist Peter Paulson regarded educator, jazz
arranger, writer and musician takes a Lenny Neihaus
reedist language into this sextet project.  It's
excitingly ethereal and non complacent which means you
can speed walk your favorite bike trail and dig this
imperial post neo modern mood romantic cadmiums few,
very casually, unless you'd love to clue in your
special friends that it's all pre-ordained, harmonious
and blue. “Change Of Scenery”  is an example of Peter
Paulsen's prowess as a bass player and with bass
clarinetist Greg Riley, classically trained as such,
this a very advanced cd.     
These musicians are ready for the vital heady
experiment, avant bop new classicism. I know it sounds
somewhat hip effusive. Within the modern jazz spectra
on composition.
Paulsen is not Mingus, more Russell in his conception
with a list full joyful noise. “B's B,” Bob Meashey
trumpet player is absolutely here and on key post bop
tune.
Soprano saxophonist Chris Bacas and Greg Riley make
this thing sing, hence the light aeration post bop
Lenny Neihaus.
The Peter Paulsen version  of Wayne Shorter's
“Nefertiti” is ample way of going  out.  Paulsen's
bass line on this version is absolutely for your
absolution. Think of Mingus and ponder your fate.
The new PETER PAULSON cd, an interposed measuring
sound of so milky a mono caliente that a missive
approach to a lost player art/musician sound is
absolute and permissive. 
Go figure...  
ONES TO WATCH:   
GAIL PETTIS    MAY I COME IN?    OA2 Records.  She's
soft, subtle in her appearance with a dash of soul in
her lyrics. Her mantra is let the lyric take a modern
course with festive jazz underpinnings.  Gail Pettis
has her own style, not pretentious. Long lasting
stylish over the rest. 
Remember George Shearing elegance and mainstay, this
girl,
Gail Pettis will be here, right in the center, when
most will leave for other things.
TARDO HAMMER    LOOK, STOP & LISTEN    Sharp Nine
Records
Tardo Hammer interprets bebop pianist Tad Dameron's
great music on this cd.  And there's humor, reflection
and  the tempo of those great bebop years in Hammer's
playing.
STACEY KENT    BREAKFAST ON THE MORNING TRAM   Blue
Note
Stacey Kent has a reflective soft 'Blossom Dearie'  up
lifting innocence in her voice.  Husband/saxophonist 
Jim Tomlinson arranges this to a more intimate
sensitivity. Kent's reflective interpretation of two
French songs is almost Edith Piaf, the pain, pleasure
of the romantic encounter. Stacey Kent's
interpretation of “I Wish I Could Go Traveling Again”
is a soft Doris Day romantic 'American In Paris'
rendezvous.
 
Dick Crockett
“The Voice” 88.7fm
4623 T Street, Suite A
Sacramento, Ca 95819-4743
audio streaming Live 365
accesssacramento.org



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