[JPL] Bopndicks 10 Picks Nov 2008

[Dick Crockett]

Bopndicks
10 Picks  November 2008
JAMIE BAUM    SOLACESunnyside Records
“Solace,”
a multitude of melodic settings created through inventive
orchestrations by flutist Jamie Baum. She has the flexibility of a
septet with brass and  reeds to convey this very modern, yet period
feeling. Early on, “Solace” stimulate the thought of Chet Baker
and Frank Strozier and their melodic encounter in “Baby Breeze”
in the mid sixties, a ground breaking album. Ms Baum displays a same
pop semblance, as a sixties Gary McFarland, an attempt to break away
from the norm with captivating allure, for those wanting to hear it,
more and more.  
Ms.
Baum credits Charles Ives, modern classical composer and trumpet
player Kenny Wheeler as major inspirations on this cd with  “Wheeler
Of Fortune”  and “The Ives Suite”  with adventurous solos by
alto saxophonist, Douglas Yates, Vincent Yancey-French horn, George
Colligan-piano, Johannes Weidenmueller on bass and Jeff Hirschfield,
drums.  Jamie Baum's especially formative solo on  “In Passing,”
every breath of her playing transforms her to her music. “Pine
Creek”  continues this outward bound movement of this project
joyous frenetic style and motion,  pairing Jamie Baum's  supine lyric
flute with Ralph Alessi's flirtatious flugelhorn.  “Dave's Idea”
continues this notion of bright dynamic pressures as the company
(septet) reverts to old/new notions of West Coast modern jazz with
all due respect, Frank Strozier, Chet Baker , Hal Galper from “Baby
Breeze.”  
Jamie
Baum moves along that path with a profound ease and digestible post
modern sentimentality.
JAVON
JACKSON     ONCE UPON A MELODY Palmetto
Records
Javon Jackson takes us to a place where bop became hard
bop to that higher plain of post modern tenor excellence. And he has
the players on this cd whose expertise creates an imagined level that
old boppers appreciate and young boppers merge and cultivate!  Eric
Reed, pianist has an innate feel for this history with bassist
Corcoran Holt and the great Billy Drummond on drums especially on the
blues infused “Mr Jones.” It'll make sure the beauty of this trip
through post modern jazz is a fruitful one. So take off the pop
repetitive  safety belt and stroll around the cabin of nod infinitum
through alternative universes, rendered by those before us and travel
along Javon Jackson's string theories through Eddie Harris
reverberations, on Wayne Shorter “One By One.” It sounds as
though recent sessions with Les McCann have opened a vein to the
euphoria of very swinging, very hard and very cool “Mr Taylor.”  
In fact, you can pin a Storyville label on this project,
especially with Eric Reed's hard blues solo, which would have the
audience jumping out the crowd in concert.  
Javon Jackson will bring back memories of Stan Getz on
“Will You Still Be Mine” and McCoy Tyner's “Inner Glimpse.”
Then a very Getz modern version of the pop singer
Corrine Bailey Rae's “Like A Star,” takes your breath away, all
those nostalgic places, the prima-facie faces.  “Once Upon A
Melody” for you'll know  this Javon Jackson shines on with  the
greatest!
DAVE
HOLLAND SEXTET   PASS IT ON Decca/Emarcy Records
What is it that makes Dave Holland jazz bassist and
composer, Ray Bradbury's, “The  Illustrated Man,” and why is
“Pass It On” so exceptional? Like Charles Mingus, Dave Holland is
able to orchestrate his horns and reeds so well, either in big band,
or a sextet configuration with sax, trombone and trumpet ensembles.  
Holland has assembled some of the best with Alex
Sipiagin, trumpet, Antonio Hart, saxophone and Robin Eubanks,
trombone with original free flagellate flowing compositions in post
modern accessibility.  The music resembles post 60's Miles Davis
articulations in Eubanks “The Sum Of All Parts” and the hard bop
cooking, “Fast Track” with Mulgrew Miller's wicked solo among a
clattering horn section in a scattering of the hard bop.  Holland's
intro on “Lazy Snake” is an arrangement with vapors of Shorty
Rogers orchestrations.  
After
all,  Dave Holland was house bassist at Ronnie Scott's and worked
over the years with Miles, Chick Corea, Sam Rivers, John Abercrombie
through various absorbing periods, 60's, 70's, 80's and forming his
own bands and writing some hefty charts through many award winning
cd's. Then the grand contrapuntal “Double Vision” with drummer
Eric Harland, whose Elvin Jones of the 21stcentury.
There's a playful Latin rhythmic exchange and the
urgency of Robin Eubank's trombone solo message indicates an avant
gard twist for Dave Holland takes you on a wondrous trip of sinuous
emergencies. Antonio Hart's solitary solo on “Equality” a
profound ballad, an excursion in the mysticism of noir. You can
almost smell the  mellifluous grates of midtown Manhattan.  
“Modern
Times” could be a musical score of the June Taylor dancers and yet
the band gets into this uproarious 'me first' counterpoint-harmony
thing that's all too cool... “River's Run” seems obvious, a 'Sam
I Am' fore runner to a 25k avant gard, as Sam Rivers is and will
always be a bona fide, unmistakable  leader.  “Processional” is a
perfect antecedent to the aforementioned. Then “Pass It On” stays
close to home to the real post modern.
For how can Dave Holland, modern jazz illustrated man
create through combatant communicative modern jazz be a resourceful
then as now?
It's what the music makes you. “Pass It On.”
PETE
ZIMMER QUARTET   CHILLIN' LIVE AT THE JAZZ FACTORY  Pippin'
Records
Peter Zimmer is a straight ahead jazz stylist in the
vein of Roy Haynes, Philly Joe Jones and Jimmie Cobb.  Zimmers talent
has been honed with extensive music training at New England
Conservatory of Music and eventual move to Queens putting him right
in with the greatest young jazz talent in North America.  “Chillin's
recorded live on 2 track to give it early sixties ambiance and live
audience repor. This is one of those great understated live sessions
that make this music, special, groovy and relaxed with  a bootleg
authenticity with Jeremy Pelt sounding as though Chet Baker crept
into his cortex in “Common Man”  with guitarist Avi Rothbard
supplying the rhythm back and some tantalizing lead signature. Other
straight ahead classics, Sonny Rollins “Doxy” and Kenny Dorham's
“Una Mas” make this a classic retro set. Rothbard's solo on “From
This Moment On” cooks with the kind licks that make old folks feel
glossy all over and Pelt kicks it up a notch with explosive
technique. Imagine tap dancing with a glass in your right hand and
not spilling a drop, that's Pelt here on trumpet! Pete  
Zimmer's quartet in this kind of live setting is casual
and cool  to the live gigs that top musicians used to play so much
so, as a live gig in Buffalo with Sal Nistico and Chet Baker's
acetylene decades ago.
BOZ
SCAGGS    SPEAK LOWDecca Records
Boz Scaggs is reclusive, a reluctant pop blues star, not
given to much fame,  introspective enough to cast a blue lighted
translucence in his live performances for  loyalists who bask in the
shimmering quality of his thoughtful reflections.
It's called being a fan and I am, for one.  
And “Speak Low” is a long time coming,  as Boz
expands his influence to jazz fans, worldwide.
Pianist Gil Goldstein deserves the credit for creating
the kind of ambiance which Boz thrives on,  “Save Your Love Love
For Me,” melding the real R&B Boz for decades to these classic
ballads, “Ballad Of The Sad Young Men,” “Skylark,”the
classic”Invitation,””She Was Too Good To Me.”
In the liner notes Boz mentions the dark moody ambiance
of the studio with “a lamp between us” (Boz and Gil Goldstein.)
It adds dramatic atmosphere for Boz, a one on one intimacy on  “Speak
Low.”  
Not only has Boz Scaggs achieved a higher degree of
influence in his already remarkable career with this inventive
reformation to jazz of popular standards, Gil Goldstein has also
achieved a vast array of articulate musical makeups, for this is
romantic play time for two in a rather hectic high tech wash away
world of instant obsolescence.  
We know this cd captivates art to gracefulness and can
only hope that Boz and Gil Goldstein will re- create another immortal
romantic message, sometime soon.
This is what Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle were all
about...
DENA
DEROSE     LIVE AT THE JAZZ STANDARD  VOLUME TWOMAXJAZZ
What stands out on this, as in many MAXJAZZ live
performances is preserving the continuity- the spontaneity of the
moment. Dena DeRose in an articulate moment and that is momentous-
it's what improvisational jazz is,  and Dena DeRose shines in these
moments.  And with bassist Martin Wind and Matt Wilson on drums,
veterans who're a step ahead, psychic in their listening-
anticipation- participation, an antecedent to a great live session in
“Detour Ahead,” exactly why we go to the clubs, to feel the
breeze, and walk away in balance with positive reaffirmation.
“I
Fall In Love To Easily” is a condition of pyretic romantics, those
who feel the gist of the moment without any reflection to the future.
Then DeRose gets lost in a jazz blues frame on piano with Brubeck's 
“In Your Own Sweet Way,” sewing to the ears of late, that this
lady has chops. Remember the rhythm section that drives this DeRose
message. It all applies to a very succinct“I Can't Escape From
You.”
“Laughing
At Life” demonstrates this happiness, love for the band, to and for
each other. Dena DeRose has a tendency to take a half step on a lyric
for emphasis and with a Les McCann take on this groove is all the
better for a happy ever after look at how these three can jam,
joyously in gospel-a homily to happily.
Then the Frankie Lane good by, “We'll Be Together
Again,” a distinct, definitive Dena DeRose saying it so well on
this cd with a warm memorable performance.
And Volume One and Two will do you, your friend and
those to ask at the universal cocktail party in space, who is that
unique and wild woman on piano?  
BILL
FRISELL      HISTORY, MYSTERYNonesuch Records  
Jazz
guitarist Bill Frisell is always searching, reeling,imagining the
imaginative scope of songs resembling 50's foreign film soundtracks,
mid west radio shows and Les Paul's coming home fifties to roost and
a past treasured avant gard in the first four of side one of a two cd
set, “History, Mystery.” It's the kind  of music you find
rummaging through stacks of old vinyl 33's, 45's and some even pop
classical 78's in 2ndhand record stores. Are they around anymore?
Could this be a first, Rockabilly Chamber Music, or a
David Lynch concoction?
We subscribe to this Chamber Music idea in what Bill
Frisell's intention through original music back to a “Baba Drame.”
This music isn't easily categorized and is free of any convenient
frame for advertisers.
Then the live version of Sam Cooke's “A Change Is
Gonna Come” with Frisell playing the blues and saxophonist Greg
Tardy with a statement from Ron Miles, cornet on “Jackie-ing.”
that sounds as though the Lake String Quartet had an epiphany with
the locals and instead of patriotic music, they played this Jakie
Byard tribute. 
“History Mystery” is full of these American
music motifs as if Mark Twain was present as in “Boo And
Scout,””Struggle Part 2,” “Heal” in string quartet. All
this on part 1 of this special tribute cd to American music, it's 
humble origins and classic horizons.
Part Two is more of Bill Frisell's past, present and
future post operative imprint on modern American music. It's an
artist's way of planting flags, drawing roots and seeing the future.
We all revert back to our early lives and family, where
“Early Robinson” seems an heroic adventure. “Faces,” no doubt
“Sub-Conscious Lee” after folk rocker Lee Townsend is only
speculation as it cooks up some good avant gard ribs with saxophonist
Greg Tardy.
“Monroe
Part Two”  is old, yet new with a fresh approach. “Lazy Robinson
Part Two” hangs in there with some nice small town Georgia blues.  
Then
some smattering of live performances as in “Waltz for Baltimore,”
make this bona fide “History, Mystery” tribute, a heroic, honest-
to- goodness American
Flyer.  
PATRICIA
BARBER   THE COLE PORTER MIX Blue
Note
Sheik,
elegant, entranced with sophistication with a purposeful stride, a
shy strode to compliance and ever so slightly eccentric and loving
every moment of her iconoclast, this is the enigmatic Patricia
Barber. She has an existential quality in her lyrics as  “The Cole
Porter Mix” blends nice the Cole Porter panache with Barber's own
words in “Late Afternoon And You,” a delicious affair, “Snow,”
a most perfect, very frank conversation between two lovers and a
revealing wonderment of each to the other in “The New Year's  Eve
Song,” another time, will it be the same next New Year's Eve.  
Patricia
Barber's low slung vocal tone blends like expensive liquor with
cabaret smoke filled blues jazz viscera. It's all about her
interpretation of the lyrics and Cole Porter in a perfect settee for
songs of life's regrettable turns as she lets these moments play out
with irony, through the most progressive arrangements of Porter's
music with Chis Potter's languished saxophone and guitarist Neal
Alger's lonely, sometimes comforting chord progressions as in ”I
Concentrate On You,” bold and enlightening in “The Still Of The
Night” with Potter jamming as the song takes off the flat ends of
the earth. “What Is This Thing Called Love” is where Barber's
lyric with piano and rhythm section flows as in “Casablanca” 
with an elegant softness of Alger's  evolving slide guitar.  Then
“Miss Otis Regrets” has an unforgettable dynamic presence with
Alger's strident pose opposite Barber's stoicism to create the
dynamic tension of the understatement.
Patricia
Barber's “The Cole Porter Mix” is required for expatriates of
benign structured activity, those tired of the daily bombardment of
mixed messages, corporate thinking and corporal mismanagement...
Oh ,you
who desire to return to a more Cole Porter romantic side of self...
(Traditional Love.)
Oh,
those willing to create a more mammalian side of family and
discourse...(Unconditional love.)
And
those prurient beasts left to their own devices...(Sporting
obsession)
This
new Patricia Barber mix is for you.
COREY
CHRISTIANSON    ROLL WITH IT Origin
Records
“Roll
With It” beckons those days when a one Grant Green tune would take
up one side of 33 1/3 vinyl record, when the Hammond B-3, vital
rhythm guitar runs and a blues infested saxophone ruled the all night
shows on big city early FM radio. “Your Way” will take you there
a little more up tempo but the Corey Christiansen licks are honest
and true with a more funk from David Halliday's saxophone followed up
with Pat Bianchi's steady B-3 chords and Matt Jorgenson's driving
beat with ample cymbals  suggesting a more post hip coolness as Corey
keeps it jamming with pure electric funk, having you believe that
late night in Philadelphia night clubs of a last era had another
sighting, “I swear Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine were just
here, a minute ago!”
That's what this new Corey Christiansen cd
does...putting you back where you wanna go. Corey Christiansen has
relentless blues of center technique with Pat Bianchi strutting in
high boots on the title tune. “Steele” reminds you of how John
Patton or Pat Martini and Joey De would shift in high gear without a
clutch, just ramming it home with feel!  
“Kaiya's
Dance”  is a ¾  warm soft sound with light accents from Pat
Bianchi and David Halliday with Christiansen playing with incredible
nuance with enough room, embellishing the talents of all the above.
“Sideways”
is traditional, yet modern in composure, frenetic with a Christiansen
scaling  slide giving it a free jazz variation  on theme with pop
counterpoint in the end.
Now “Half Pay” has that magnanimous 'Booker T' pop
make up as it gets groovier with Pat Bianchi's insistence, as lights
going off all over with Big Jay McNeely insistence as good from the
many sides of town.
“Roll
With It”sounds so cool and Corey Christiansen makes his bones on
this,  no doubt about it!
GENERATIONS TOUGH GUYSICA
“Tough
Guys” is a  classic hard bop band comprised of today's best, paying
dues to those great musicians who moved the music forward.  The
sextet consists of Eric Alexander, Marcus Belgrave, Jimmy Cobb, Ray
Drummond, Andrew Speight and Ronnie Mathews who passed on this June.  
“Jean
Marie” and “Song For Leslie” are remarkable tributes on this CD to Ronnie Mathews innate capabilities as a musician/composer in true
hard bop.
Therefore,
this CD may even be a celebration, for those who toil on without much
fanfare and are later honored for their contribution.
The
real classicism of this CD is the great interpretations of bop
standards, Monk's 
“Rhythm-A-Ning,”(Visions Of Miles and Monk
at Newport,)  Miles own “So What” and “Freddie Freeloader”(
Remembering the 1959 historic Quintet- Sextet versions,) Jimmie Cobb,
the drummer on the original session, who embellishes the bop attitude
on the care free and natural “W.K.,” a loose remarkable rendering
for Wynton Kelly.
Many
thanks for the performances here from Marcus Belgrave and Ronnie
Mathers and their joyful input and to the young Eric Anderson, who
always enjoys playing this music it shows, big time, and Ray
Drummond, el supremo bass player with James Cobb, whose been there,
done that and happy to give it up.  
Alto
Saxophonist Andrew Speight is congratulated for his fiery solo on
“It's Just One Of Those Things” and co production on this CD.
And if
you ever have to see and hear this band, live, do celebrate the
occasion with fond  memories of the great Ronnie Mathews.
Dare to
stand up for the swagger to celebrate hard bop and pick up on this
rare CD, “Generations” with the “Tough Guys” and get your
motors runnin'.
ONES
TO WATCH:
CHARLIE
HADEN  FAMILY & FRIENDS   RAMBLING BOY Decca
Records
A very personal note from Charlie Haden & Family,
unlike any you've ever heard from this renowned jazz bassist and the
origin of his music from Shenandoah Iowa where he and  his family
performed on the radio and at The Grand Ole Opry in 1945. Then he 
attended a Charlie Parker concert, a transforming event in his
musical journey.  Charlie Haden has played with the best in jazz. His
history began in roots music and lingers to this day and still is an
inspiration on his family, his wife Ruth, son Josh and the Haden
triplets, Rachel, Petra and Tanya. Many prominent blue grass artists,
Ricky Scaggs, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck share some space with  Pat
Metheny, Elvis Costello and Jack Black  on this CD.
You hear it. Music from the heart. And “Rambling Boy”
is real unsung Charlie Haden.  We could say a “Good For The Whole
Family” platitude. It's good enough, you'll just have to try it on
for size!
S.M.V. THUNDER HEADS UP
Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten are
masters in the art of funk and all articulate funkadelics,  which
you'll experience in a divinity of  aplasma- organic mantra to the in
maxima faxima degree! These higher masters of rhythm and bass guitar
electronics begin with “Maestros de la Frequencias Baja” and it
all but struts, stomps and romps in a big fuzz from there.  
Make sure your woofers and tweeters are on message and
working overtime, for SMV will keep you up all night.
ANTONIO
CIACCA QUINTET     RUSH LIFEMotema Records
A pianist, composer Antonio Ciacca has a great feel for
hard bop and it begins with his tune, “Squazin,” with a 'Wynton
Marsalis' squeeze to “Flat 5 Flat 9,' showing so much gusto to
sixties re- bop masters.  Ciacca graduated 'G.B. Martini'
Conservatory Of Bologna with a degree in Contemporary Music and
Masters in Africa American Music at Siena and continued throughout
Europe in gigs with Steve Lacy, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Lee Konitz,
Johnny Griffen, then Detroit with Marcus Belgrave, Roy Brooks, James
Carter, Rodney Whitaker, and then NYC where he played and studied
privately with Jaki Byard, Kenny Barron and Barry Harris.
Ciacca's jazz  journey started when, at twenty, he first
heard Wynton Marsalis in concert.
Now, he's Director of Concert and Programming
Administration of Jazz at Lincoln Center. It's been a remarkable 17
years for this talented pianist.
“Rush
Life” features some fine NYC players, Frank Magnarelli on trumpet
with splendid posts on “Without A Song” and “I Remember
Clifford.”  Young Stacy Dilllard on tenor saxophone, who plays the
low registers better the anyone on “Squazin” “Riverdale,”
with rare explosiveness.
Antonio Ciacca has learned his music well, that gestated
in jazz hostels in Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, only
now he defines the neighborhood as world wide.

BILL
HEID       ASIAN PERSUASION Doodlin
Records
Bill Heid makes the Hammond B-3 cool, smooth and
straight ahead like the old days in Philadelphia.  Guitarist Peter
Bernstein and his affinity for this sort of thing adds admirably the
Heid funk perspective on this, articulation of which is more than
presentable in “Mac Duff Type Of Thing” with Heid pulling off
some Buckner riffs. “Kimchi Bop” has the same hop, fermented
cabbage with bop, so don't stop and flop on the next passage, as TV
angels spread discontent for profit where “Politics Of Dancing”
doesn't apply.  
Expect the best when you combine Bill Heid's
unquestionable skill on B-3, Peter Bernstein's will to be the best
session player, especially in an intimate Hammond B-3 quartet
setting, with the preferred Mike Petrosino, drums and George Jones,
congas providing  the old style cooking in “Minor Glide,””Crumb
Cake” and “It's A Living” where Bill Heid provides some hip
Delbert McClinton soft side vocalization.
We have to keep reminding ourselves TV's not important,
that this“Asian Persuasion” is the perfect anecdote to the
everyday stuff your mail box with nonsense, so listen to “Asian
Persuasion,” read a good book, use discretionary caller ID and
write relatives far and wide.  
JEFF
COFFIN MU'TET     MUTOPIACompass Records
You couldn't say any than “Mutopia,”  a space-funk
outer level odyssey of unlimited possibilities. Imagine you're on the
“Endeavor” mission, clad in space pajamas listening to “Tag,”
the cargo door opens, now you're digging “Als Greens” while
floating, motionless, high above the little blue transparent planet,
Home and the seque was so cool you didn't even notice. Then Bela
Fleck flies by, banjo a hummin, Victor Wooten's bass a bunchin to a
wild stellar commotion of R&B soul riffs in “One In, One Out.”
Then Jeff Coffin plays saxophone nice and sweet for you on “Turiya.”
It's a slow dance so make you move. “L'Esperance” will take you
away to the Islands off Brazil.  
“Mutopia”
is a contemporary “Ground Control to Major Tom,” of how and where
this music is coming and going.
Dick Crockett
“The
Voice” 88.7fm
4623 T Street, Suite A
Sacramento, Ca. 95810-4743
accesssacramento.org