http://www.kzmu.org/listen.m3u ~ Use this link to access the show online.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Bruno Canino and Enrico Pieranunzi - Americas (CAM JAZZ 2017)
Two absolutely superb piano players from different musical worlds: Bruno Canino, as a representative of art music, and Enrico Pieranunzi, as a representative of jazz. Two Americas, the Northern one and the Southern one, and some of the greatest composers from both. To what extent is music beautifully gifted with making a universal language flow out, beyond genres, places, artists, composers, performers? Listening to Americas one is again led to realize that apparent contrasts are actually bonds consisting of irresistible mutual attractions, common points, osmotic relations.
The Americas project has been conceived for two pianos intertwining like cultures and musical worlds do. Here, between Canino and Pieranunzi, it matters little who is playing “what” and “when”. What one is listening to is the search for sonic beauty, starting from the romantic Argentina by Carlos Guastavino through the stylised though forceful Cuba depicted by Aaron Copland in Danzón Cubano and the innovative tango and milonga by Astor Piazzolla. And then there is the ragtime by William Bolcom and George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”. Is it a journey? A passionate dialogue? Or a tale? Whatever the image this record conjures up in listeners’ minds, Americas is definitely great music, confident that culture is not entrenching in what one already knows but breaking conventions, boundaries, mutual inflexibility.
Like Bruno Canino and Enrico Pieranunzi did by playing face to face, each backed up by his own strong cultural background and, for this very reason, splendidly creative and versatile.
1. Muchacho Jujeño
2. Danzón Cubano
3. Fuga Y Misterio
4. Old Adam
5. Las Niñas De Santa Fe
6. Milonga Del Ángel
7. I Got Rhythm Variations
8. La Muerte Del Ángel
Rale Micic, John Abercrombie, Peter Bernstein, Lage Lund - Inspired (ARTIST SHARE 2017)
There has not been, nor will there likely be, a dearth of guitarists acknowledging a very large debt to and paying homage to Jim Hall. However, the nonchalant, playful charm of Hall’s musical genius can neither be masked, nor underscored with greater profundity than in the exquisite performances on Inspired by this quartet that includes John Abercrombie, Peter Bernstein, Rale Micic and Lage Lund. Each of the guitarists frames this recital with sizeable performances either solo, in duo, trio and quartet formations. In all instances the music takes the form of a vignette that is hushed and reflective, where the guitarists purr seductively and there are numerous magical moments gifted to the listener by each of the musicians throughout the recording.
One cannot help but feel that Micic, Bernstein and Lund look to John Abercrombie to lead with the sublime delicacy of his thumb and finger picking. It should come as no surprise that this should be so. Abercrombie’s artful musicianship is well-formed and well-suited for this purpose. His maturity and his style remain deceptive, his limpid, euphonious tone artfully leavening his logical, but nonetheless oblique and unpredictable melodic thinking. It’s just the kind of thing you would want to draw into the music if you were Micic, Bernstein and Lund in the first place. As if to capitalize on this priceless gift from Abercrombie each of the others adds his own warmth, swelling dynamics and subtle inflections to three of Jim Hall’s original compositions on this recording: “Dream Steps”, “Bon Ami” and “All Across the City”. In each of these three charts the Inspired guitarists prove adept at creating monumental, all-pervading ensembles while leaving – in each instance – breathing space for the voice of the individual. The pieces played solo – “Alone Together” by Micic, “My Ideal” by Bernstein, “Body and Soul” by Lund and “Embraceable You” by Abercrombie – a performances of insurmountable beauty.
Luke Sellick “Alchemist” CD Release Show Wed., Mar. 8th 10:30pm @ SMALLS (JAZZ PROMO SERVICES)
Luke Sellick: double bass
Benny Benack III: trumpet
Jordan Pettay: saxophone
Andrew Renfroe: guitar
Christopher Ziemba: piano
Billy Drummond: drums
The elusive “universal elixir” has resulted from the group’s impeccable swing on this album.
-Ron Carter
Having now traveled the world and performed at The Village Vanguard, Jazz Standard, Dizzy’s and other iconic venues, Luke presents his inaugural album as a bandleader and composer. Alchemist, (Cellar Live Records) is a 9-song exposition featuring some of the most prominent instrumentalists of New York’s next generation. It is an auspicious artistic statement combining themes relating to faith, upbringing, mentorship and an ongoing quest for knowledge, from the distant past to the present day.
Prelude and Hymn are reflective meditations on Sellick’s Christian faith, which was instilled in him during his Canadian upbringing. This upbringing is celebrated in the playful but relaxed Brothers (of which Sellick is the eldest of three), Dog Days, a tune that embodies the pace of that hottest time of year, and the R&B-tinged feel-good anthem, Home.
The timelessness of these themes is tied together by two compositions dedicated to ancient wisdom, the mysterious waltz Abacus and post-modern epic The Alchemist. Sellick likens the jazz composer to the medieval alchemist, who reworks common material to produce gold, something greater than the sum of its parts. Just as the alchemist concerns himself with immortality, so the artist aims to capture the eternal, and to create a work that becomes greater than the artist himself.
1. Prelude 1:01
2. Q-Tippin 6:45
3. Brothers 4:49
4. Hymn 6:02
5. The Alchemist 7:03
6. Dog Days 4:47
7. Abacus 4:00
8. Uptown! 4:52
9. Home 5:05
Jimmy Greene — tenor saxophone [2,4,6]
Jordan Pettay — alto saxophone [1,3,5,7,9]
Benny Benack III — trumpet [1,3,5,9]
Mat Jodrell — trumpet [2,7]
Adam Birnbaum — piano
Andrew Renfroe — guitar
Kush Abadey — drums [2,4,6,7,8]
Jimmy Macbride — drums [1,3,5,9]
Andrew Gutauskas — bass clarinet [1]
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services
Ph: 845-986-1677 / jim@jazzpromoservices.com
Michiel Borstlap - Velvet (2017)
Michiel Borstlap, pianist, componist en boegbeeld van een nieuwe muziekgeneratie die minder in hokjes en vakjes denkt. Componist van de eerste Arabische opera, die met Ludovico Einaudi en Gino Vannelli muziek maakte. Gezegend met een virtuoze speeltechniek blijft Michiel Borstlap de pianist die zoekt naar balans tussen hoofd, hart en onderbuik, teruggaand naar de oorsprong van muziek die ontstaat uit akkoorden, melodie en ritme. Sinds hij meer solo is gaan spelen, krijgt het hart meer kansen om op de voorgrond te treden. “Je vaart op je gevoel om zowel jezelf als het publiek in een bepaalde stemming te brengen." In de albums, die sinds die keuze verschijnen, is te horen hoe de muziek zich ontdoet van ballast, hoe de stilte een plek tussen de noten vindt.
Het 'less is more' sluipt zijn muziek in. Michiel Borstlap kan het naar zijn eigen hand zetten, ook al horen we fluisteringen van Chopin, Skriabin, Satie of Philip Glass. In zekere zin loopt hij met zijn benadering nog voor de troepen met sterren als Nils Frahm of Ludovico Einaudi uit.
01. Velvet
02. Blue Ballet
03. Cinq ans
04. Prelude in D minor - The Optimist
05. La Commedia
06. Piri Reis
07. Muse in B minor
08. Homerun
09. Rimzi the Robin
10. Rainflowers
11. Rialto
12. Voyage
13. Hallelujah
14. Ode aan Johan in C (Tribute to Johan Cruijff)
15. Open Boogie
Billy Mintz - Ugly Beautiful (THIRTEENTH NOTE RECORDS 2017) 2 CD
Being in the moment does not mean being unprepared. Indeed, from Mintz’s point of view, preparation is a prerequisite for spontaneity. At the age of 69, he still practices every day; not just out of a highly developed work ethic, but out of sheer joy and love for the process.
The band members are also well-prepared to dig into the Mintz repertoire. (They clock a total of 75 years playing with Mintz.) Their intimate familiarity with Mintz’s music is a catalyst for a freedom and spontaneity that was more common in the bygone era of six-month six-night-a-week nightclub engagements.
Take the two versions of “Flight”. These musicians have played this simple 32-bar gem on the order of, not years, but decades. Only a combination of preparation and abandonment to the moment could produce two such disparate takes: one a model of swinging tonal exposition and the other a pure distillation of the tune’s essence.
Mintz’s last CD, the 2015 release The 2 Bass Band…Live, featured his compositions and arrangements for his venerable nine-piece group. On Ugly Beautiful, he returns to the small group format, choosing for his front line west coast underground tenor legend John Gross and noted tenor and soprano master Tony Malaby.
“I met John in 1981 when I moved to LA. We’ve been playing together ever since. I love his conviction, the depth of where the music is coming from. I met Tony in the 90’s. He was living in Phoenix and Joey Sellers connected us. He’s so free and loose.”
On piano, organ and keyboards, Mintz chose another longtime colleague, Roberta Piket, whom he also met on a Joey Sellers gig (and who also happens to be his wife). On Ugly Beautiful, she confidently shifts between swinging lyricism and clustery abstraction. “She’s a great musician, and very hardworking.”
Respected bassist Hilliard Greene is a newcomer to Mintz’s music. Like the other band members, he is drawn to both straight-ahead jazz and free improvisation, having played with Little Jimmy Scott as well as Rashied Ali and Daniel Carter.
Mintz met Greene on a Piket gig. “Even though we’d only played together once, about eight years ago, I thought of Hill for this music because of the big, deep, dark sound he gets on the bass,” he declares.
In concert, Mintz likes to draw the listener in, rather than loudly announcing his presence from the first note. He has been known to play so quietly that the drums can barely be heard over the room noise, until the audience gradually realizes something extraordinary is happening, and the clamor evaporates. Similarly, on Ugly Beautiful, the program starts with two understated ballads: “Angels” and “Vietnam”. The latter is his first original composition, written at the age of 18.
“Cannonball”, a 24-bar blues with Hammond B-3, is a reference to the great alto saxophonist, while “Shmear”, “Dit”, and “Relent” provide open forms for free improvisation.
More about that first “Flight” track, which offers Mintz’s three-horn take on the tradition of the sax soli: The soli overdubs were played by Malaby and the alto saxophonist Anton Denner, who also added some guide tones at Mintz’s request. “I had never written a soli before. There was a lot of trial and error. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to learn things formally. I like to learn by doing it.”
Flight is not the only track on which Mintz takes advantage of overdubs for the first time. On “Umba” and “Tumba”, swirling Wurlitzer, bluesy piano motives and hypnotic Clavinet and Rhodes riffs were added by Piket and mixed in by Mintz with characteristic care and attention to detail. “I started playing the Tumba vamp at the piano,” he explains. “I like to play vamps. I’m not a piano player, so some of my tunes are vamp-oriented.”
The title tune is referred to in the Mintz-Piket household as “the seven-four five-four tune” for the meter it’s written in. Comments Mintz, “Roberta and I have been playing this tune for about five years. At this point I’m not sure there’s another pianist who can solo while playing that left-hand vamp.”
A veteran of both the LA and New York jazz scenes, Billy Mintz is that rare breed of jazz musician who is as comfortable playing standards in a piano trio as he is performing in the “creative music” scene. During his formative years in New York City, Mintz played and recorded with the Lee Konitz Nonet, Kundalini with Perry Robinson and Badal Roy, the Eddie Daniels Quartet, Gloria Gaynor, and the Harold Danko Quartet.
In 1981 Mr. Mintz relocated to Los Angeles where he was a member of the Mike Garson Trio with Stanley Clarke, ¬¬the Kim Richmond Sextet, the Bobby Shew Quintet, the Joey Sellers' Jazz Aggregation, and the Vinny Golia Quartet. In 1988 he toured Europe with Charles Lloyd. Since 2003 Mr. Mintz has lived in New York where he has recorded and performed with the Alan Broadbent Trio, the Hal Galper Trio, the Russ Lossing Trio, the Mark Feldman-Sylvie Courvoisier Quartet, Ellery Eskelin, and others. He also has performed numerous solo drum set concerts worldwide. Billy has two CDs on Thirteenth Note Records: 2013’s Mintz Quartet, and 2015’s The 2 Bass Band…Live.
Of his commercially dubious decision to release a two-CD set, Mintz says simply, “I had a lot of music I wanted to record. I don’t know when I might record again.
“I don’t think too hard about the musicians I want to play with. If it’s right, you don’t need to over-think it.” For Mintz, there was no grand plan on that December day other than bringing together the talents of these four musicians to play his music. This recording captures that moment.
CD 1
Angels
Vietnam
Dit
Flight
Flight (Ballad)
Cannonball
Smear
Dit (alternate take)
Umba
CD 2
Tumba
Dirge
Love And Beauty
Ugly Beautiful
Relent
Retribution
After Retribution
Cannonball (extended)
John Gross: tenor saxophone
Tony Malaby: tenor and soprano saxophones
Roberta Piket: piano, Fender rhodes
Nord Keyboard, Hammond B3
Hilliard Greene: bass
Billy Mintz: drums
Ricardo Izquierdo / Mauro Gargano / Fabrice Moreau - Ants (GAYA MUSIC PRODUCTION 2017)
Le processus d'intégration consciente des styles et des formes musicales provenantes d'autres cultures est au centre de leur démarche créatrice. Le travail de fond sur le jeu et les compositions il s'est construit sur plusieurs années.
En transformant leur héritage musicale librement, ils ont supprimées les barrières stylistiques en privilégiant le dialogue de l'instant, toujours dans une démarche artistique personnelle, tout en restant toujours mélodiques dans l'acception de notre époque post contemporaine.
Ce premier opus est le fruit d'un travail intense de répétition dans les sous-sols parisiens,
ces mêmes sous-sols qui abritent les musiciens improvisateurs d'aujourd'hui et d’hier.
Chano Dominguez - Over the Rainbow (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS 2017)
Of course, Dominguez has been highly regarded as the leader in marrying the Spanish folkloric musical style of flamenco to the more improvisational concepts of jazz music. Dominguez hails from Andalusia, the home of flamenco, and was steeped in the musical tradition from a young age. His growing appreciation for jazz helped him come to a realization about the connection between the two forms of music: both were created by persecuted peoples, namely the gypsies of southern Spain and the African American population.
Jazz and flamenco are very different and it takes a special musician to make the combination work. Dominguez has brought this special approach to many projects, including his work with Paco de Lucía, Martirio and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchetra, to name a few. His work has allowed him to branch out to musicians all over the world, whose influence can be heard in the material he chose to record on Over The Rainbow.
The recording begins with a poignant take on John Lewis’s “Django,” Dominguez utilizing patience in the rise and fall of the composition. Eliseo Grenet’s “Drume Negrita” is a masterpiece of Cuban song played here with a dancing flair. Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence” is played in a haltingly fascinating arrangement and is followed by Chilean folk legend Violeta Parra’s “Gracias A La Vida,” beginning as a subtle, poetic ballad and picking up steam, ending in a dynamic exclamation of joy. Dominguez reinterprets his former collaborator Cuban composer Marta Valdés’s “Hacia Dónde” beautifully as a stirring ballad.
The evocative take on Argentinean folk legend Atahualpa Yupanqui’s “Los Ejes De Mi Carreta” seems to capture gauzy rustic scene as the piece ambles along. “Mantreria” and “Marcel” are pieces Dominguez wrote in dedication to his children, the former being rigorous and enchanting and the latter a thoughtful rumination that blossoms into a heartwarming, gospel tinged ode. “Monk’s Dream” is done in a refreshingly direct manner lending to Monk’s stride piano influence. The recording concludes with Harold Arlen’s “Over The Rainbow,” a perfect song for Dominguez to showcase his rhapsodic mastery.
The solo concert is the most exposed place for a musician to bare his or her musical soul. Chano Dominguez puts his fabulous technique and artistry on full display on his new recording Over The Rainbow.
1. Django 06:53
2. Drume Negrita 05:17
3. Evidence 05:15
4. Gracias A La Vida 09:36
5. Hacia Dónde 07:11
6. Los Ejes De Mi Carreta 05:11
7. Mantreria 06:18
8. Marcel 09:02
9. Monk's Dream 06:02
10. Over The Rainbow 07:39
Chano Dominguez - piano
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