Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Cold As Weiss (February 11, 2022 Colemine Records)

Over the course of the last five years, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio have established themselves as the world's premier funky organ trio. The organ trio, along with founder and manager Amy Novo, continues to devise the perfect blend of raw, passionate music and engaging industry practices. Through a firm partnership with label Colemine Records, the trio has garnered Billboard charting albums, sold out shows, tens of thousands of albums sold, and millions of streams. Lofty accomplishments for an instrumental organ trio.

Now, with permanent drummer Dan Weiss behind to kit, DLO3 is proud to present Cold As Weiss, their third studio album to date that finds them tighter than ever, and continuing to push funky instrumental music to a new generation of fans.

1. Pull Your Pants Up

2. Don't Worry 'Bout What I Do

3. I Wanna Be Where You Are

4. Big TT's Blues

5. Get Da Steppin'

6. Uncertainty

7. Keep On Keepin' On

8. Slip 'N' Slide

9. This Is Who I Is

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David Binney Quartet - A Glimpse Of The Eternal (January 2022 Criss Cross Jazz)

Between 2004 (Bastion of Sanity) and 2016 (The Time Verses), alto saxophonist David Binney made nine albums for Criss Cross as either leader or co-leader, presenting predominantly his distinctive original music. Much of it emanated from his interactions in New York – his home from 1981 until 2018, when he moved to Los Angeles – with a cohort of local musicians comprising a who’s who of contemporary improvisers. During that intense and productive 12-year span, Binney recalls, he often spoke with Gerry Teekens – who founded Criss Cross in 1981 and sustained the label until he died in October 2019, leaving a legacy of over 400 albums, all of them good, some of them classics of the jazz idiom – about making a ballads record. Teekens´ son promised his father to keep the legacy alive and the label going, and after an 18-month recording hiatus he approached some of his´ father’s favorite artists to revive Criss Cross and launch it into the 2020s. One was Binney, who took the opportunity to suggest, “Maybe I should  inally do that ballads record in honor of your father.”

The tenth Criss Cross album with Binney’s imprimatur, A Glimpse of the Eternal, is, he says, “completely different than anything I’ve ever done – chilled out, an honest and pleasant vibe, nothing too complicated or intense.” If that self-description seems at odds with the intense, complex tonal personality that Binney has presented on his 30-album discography since 1990...well, that was his intention. He explains: “Initially, I wanted to do something like those almost commercial records from the ’50s or ’60s or ’70s, like a Gene Ammons record I have where he plays these balladlike tunes for 2½-3 minutes.” He adds: “All the guys were superenthusiastic about doing a straight-ahead ballads record.”

1 Our Place 03:09

2 In A Way 04:50

3 Ambivalence 06:47

4 Vibe Changer 04:13

5 Craig 03:08

6 Blue Sky 05:45

7 Nightfall 08:34

8 Dave 02:35

9 Group 01:27

10 A Glimpse Of The Eternal 03:32

11 The Cat And The Moon 04:55

12 Craig 2 01:49

13 I Had The Craziest Dream 06:06

David Binney - alto sax

Graig Taborn - piano

Eivind Opsvik - bass

Dan Weiss - drums

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Dan Weiss / Miles Okazaki - Music for Drums and Guitar (October 29, 2021 Cygnus Recordings)

"This music is hyperacute and superdynamic, with myriad strategies at play"

- Nate Chinen, WBGO

The Memory Palace and Middlegame were both written in 2020 for the “Stone Commissioning Series,” a project created by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. The Memory Palace (by Miles Okazaki) debuted on February 26th, 2020 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY. Middlegame (by Dan Weiss) was planned to debut a month later at the same venue, but was postponed by the onset of the global pandemic. Although these two musicians have appeared on a number of projects within various groups, this recording documents for the first time the language that they have developed over the course of 25 years performing together as a duo.

This project was made possible by John Zorn’s “Stone Commissioning Series” and by the generous support of The Shifting Foundation.

1. The Memory Palace, Part I 00:18

2. The Memory Palace, Part II 05:46

3. The Memory Palace, Part III 03:11

4. The Memory Palace, Part IV 07:15

5. The Memory Palace, Part V 02:40

6. The Memory Palace, Part VI 06:04

7. The Memory Palace, Part VII 05:18

8. The Memory Palace, Part VIII 06:26

9. Middlegame, Part I 00:34

10. Middlegame, Part II 06:21

11. Middlegame, Part III 04:18

12. Middlegame, Part IV 05:11

13. Middlegame, Part V 12:52

14. Middlegame, Part VI 03:59

15. Middlegame, Part VII 00:51

PREORDER

Ohad Talmor Trio with Dan Weiss and Miles Okazaki - Mise En Place (October 15, 2021 Intakt Records)

Saxophonist and composer Ohad Talmor follows up his album Long Forms with the Ohad Talmor Newsreel Sextet (Intakt CD 341) – a trio recording with his closest musical friends in Brooklyn: guitarist Miles Okazaki and drummer Dan Weiss. Ohad Talmor is the very definition of a cosmopolitan artist, holding three passports – American, Swiss and Israeli – while being based in the polyglot borough of Brooklyn, New York. Although mentored by the late, great altoist Lee Konitz, Talmor has musical obsessions that range far and wide. From iconic tenor saxophonists like Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter to such disparate European composers as Bruckner and Ligeti to theintricacies of Hindustani classical music. 

Talmor has taken this album’s title, Mise en Place, from a French phrase often used to refer to the preparation and organization of all ingredients and implements ahead of cooking although, more pertinently, it’s also a colloquial French term for rhythmic accuracy in jazz. A fluent, precise “time feel” is a prime trait of his trio with Okazaki and Weiss. The trio plays as one, lithe and muscular. “Despite the technical demands of these pieces,” Talmor says, “our goal is to eschew stock licks, to really listen, to really improvise – to always be in the moment with the music.”

1. Kamali

2. Mixo Mode 19

3. Shymal Bose Chakradar

4. Pairs

5. Theme and Variations

6. Wise One

7. Rupak Tukra

8. Back of the Plane

9. After the Rain

Ohad Talmor: Tenor Sax

Miles Okazaki: Guitar

Dan Weiss: Drums

Compositions by Ohad Talmor (SUISA) except “Wise One” and “After the Rain” by John Coltrane (Jowcol BMI).

Recorded January 8, 2020, at SEEDS, Brooklyn, NY. Mixed and

mastered by Katsuhiko Naito, Brooklyn, August 2021.

Cover art: AvikArt Design.

Graphic design: Jonas Schoder.

Liner notes: Bradley Bambarger.

Produced by Ohad Talmor and Intakt Records, Patrik Landolt, Anja Illmaier, Florian Keller.

Published by Intakt Records.

PREORDER

Dan Weiss 3 @ Soapbox Gallery (3/27)!

8-9pm EST!

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue - Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses (April 2, 2021 Pi Recordings)

Jen Shyu is a groundbreaking, multilingual vocalist, composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, 2016 Doris Duke Artist, and was voted 2017 Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Female Vocalist. Shyu is widely regarded for her virtuosic singing and riveting stage presence, carving out her own beyond-category space in the art world.

1. Living's a Gift | Part 1: Springtime

2. Living's a Gift | Part 2: Everything for Granted

3. Living's a Gift | Part 3: My Unsolved Regrets

4. Living's a Gift | Part 4: Joyful

5. Lament for Breonna Taylor

6. The Human Color

7. A Cure for the Heart's Longing

8. Body of Tears

9. When I Have Power

10. Finally She Emerges

11. Display Under the Moon | 月下の陣

12. Father Slipped Into Eternal Dream

13. With Eyes Closed You See All

14. Life As You Envision

Jen Shyu: Composition, vocals, percussion, piano, Taiwanese moon lute, Japanese biwa

Ambrose Akinmusire: trumpet

Mat Maneri: viola

Thomas Morgan: bass

Dan Weiss: drums

Pre-order

Jacob Sacks - Fishes (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018)

It makes so much sense for a Portuguese record label to release a new opus of the New York pianist and composer Jacob Sacks, considering his many connections with the jazz scene of this country and musicians like João Lencastre, Sara Serpa, André Matos, Gonçalo Marques and Demian Cabaud. Sacks is widely recognized as one of the most creative musicians in his hometown, and “Fishes” presents him in the company of other notable protagonists of the New York jazz scene, all of them members of the Clean Feed family: Ellery Eskelin, Tony Malaby, Michael Formanek and Dan Weiss. Here is a meeting of giants led by someone who has already covered the entire range of that music we call jazz, by the side of the greatest: Clark Terry, Joe Maneri, Charles Gayle, Paul Motian, Lee Konitz and too many more to mention, going from mainstream to the most audacious exploratory music. Inside this recording you’ll find all the identifying characteristics of Sacks’ personal style and more: harmonic subtleties, structural simplicity, deep and mysterious meanings, a refined sense of form, poetic beauty, rhythmic drive and lots of soul. You start to be overwhelmed by the way the little pieces of the clock function, until you let yourself go with the balance produced by the sculptures of time coming track by track.

Jacob Sacks  piano

Ellery Eskelin  tenor saxophone

Tony Malaby  tenor & soprano saxophones

Michael Formanek  bass

Dan Weiss  drums

All compositions by Jacob Sacks; Jacob Sacks Compositions BMI

Recorded April 13th, 2017 at Systems Two Studios, Brooklyn, NY, by Mike Marciano | Mixing and mastered by Mike Marciano | Mixing and mastering produced by Chet Doxas

Produced by Jacob Sacks | Executive Producer by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos

Dan Weiss - Starebaby (PI RECORDINGS 2018)

Starebaby is the upshot of drummer/composer Dan Weiss’s long-running dream to bring together some of the most accomplished players on the jazz scene to play music that combines the improvisation nature of that music with the power of heavy metal and electronic new music. One of the most in-demand drummers in jazz, Weiss performs with such disparate artists as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Chris Potter, John Zorn and Jen Shyu, evidence of the breadth of his artistry. As with his two critically-acclaimed previous releases — Fourteen, which was named one of the best releases of 2014 by The New York Times, and Sixteen: Drummers Suite, — Starebaby is a decidedly original work that is largely without precedence, reflecting the power of conviction coming from a single, brimming wellspring.

Weiss has wanted to put this particular project together for over a decade. As with his prior output, it reflects his catholic taste in music, where jazz improvisation, doom metal, electro-acoustic music, Indian beat cycles, and innumerable other influences are all compounded into an outpouring of personal expression completely beyond musical boundaries. Starebaby, though, definitely tilts towards the heavy, and Weiss, in particular, cites as influences metal bands such as Meshuggah, Burning Witch, High on Fire, Gorguts, early Metallica, Wormed, and Confessor; electronic and electro acoustic composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernard Parmegiani, and Luc Ferrari; and every type of jazz ranging from Sidney Bechet to Threadgill. It is also inspired by Season 3 of the television show Twin Peaks, whose surreal, ominous emotional landscape helped shape the overall feel of this music. The music ebbs and flows, surging to thundering swells of foreboding doom before tempering to quiet reflection, finding a deep space where brutal aggression meets ghostly vulnerability. The expansive soundscape ranges from fortissimo to pianissimo, grave to presto, and dense, roiling dissonance to exquisite, pellucid melodies.

All of the musicians: Craig Taborn and Matt Mitchell on keyboards, piano, and electronics, Ben Monder on guitar, and Trevor Dunn on bass, along with Weiss – some of the heaviest hitters in the jazz/improvised music scene – share a love for heavy metal. It’s an astonishment to hear them play in this distinctly different setting, but perhaps the absolute authority they display should not be a complete surprise. Weiss played with the doom metal band Bloody Panda a dozen years ago and Dunn was a member of the experimental rock bands Mr. Bungle (with Faith No More singer Mike Patton) Fantômas (also with Patton), and Secret Chiefs 3. Weiss’s thundering gestures and Dunn’s shuddering, sludgy bass serve as the backbone of this music. Mitchell and Taborn are well known for their adroit experimentation on electronics, and they deliver to the music a huge variety of swirling textures and color. Monder’s own music usually tilts toward the spacious, so it’s somewhat of a surprise to hear him outright shredding with overdriven distortion. Together, they perform this music with complete conviction, melding meticulous precision, prodigious power, and masterful improvisation.

According to Matt Mitchell: “One thing I admire about Dan’s composing it’s how he manages to transcend stylistic issues. Although heavy music is undoubtedly the primary inspiration for this batch of material, I notice here many updated examples of forms that I associate with Dan’s composing: strong, direct melodies; long cycles allowing for building towards ecstatic climaxes; multiple instruments asymmetrically orbiting each other. Unique to this project is the combination of a very strong and distinctive compositional voice and extensive contribution from each of the musicians. Although this is Dan’s music through-and-through in a very specific way, he asked for a lot of input, especially regarding timbre, and he provided many novel spaces in which to improvise or act as a sonic free agent. All these qualities taken together result in an extremely powerful and multifarious musical message, one in which it is a privilege to take part.”

1. A Puncher's Chance 03:10

2. Depredation 05:32

3. Annica 09:04

4. Badalamenti 06:53

5. Cry Box 06:20

6. The Memory of My Memory 10:18

7. Veiled 04:23

8. Episode 8 14:28

Dan Weiss (drums, compositions)

Ben Monder (guitars)

Trevor Dunn (electric bass)

Craig Taborn (keyboards, piano)

Matt Mitchell (keyboards, piano)

Noah Preminger: Genuinity via CRISS CROSS RECORDS

Genuinity

Thirty-one-year-old tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger's Criss Cross debut is his tenth leader CD, and fifth in the pianoless quartet context with trumpeter Jason Palmer and bassist Kim Cass, joined for the first time on this ocassion by the brilliant drummer Dan Weiss. Unlike Preminger's four previous no-chordal-instrument dates, the hour-long program consists entirely of the leader's original pieces. Each evokes a different mood and tonal ambiance with strong melodies underpinby percolating grooves that provoke unfailingly cohesive, thematic improvisations by the horns.

In preparing his nine songs, Preminger hewed to his recent m.o. of "sitting down with my saxophone every day, recording what I do, and listeling back-a stream of consciousness. "He contrasted this process with writing on the piano, as he did on his first-ever date, the eclectic 2007 album Dry Bridge Road, Kimbrough, guitarist Ben Morder, trumpeter Russ Johnson, bassist John Hébert and drummer Ted Poor.

"I was writing at the piano a lot then, so I was writing with the piano in mind," he says. "Then the record label I'd signed with had a certain vision for me as an artist, and I was pushed in directions I might not have gone in if I hadn't been guided that way. On this record, the basslines, the harmonies everything came from my horn. I feel taht's a more genuine way to express who I am as an artist than coming up with a form and then writing a melody over it. I play piano just fine, and I still write on piano as well as guitar. But the saxophone is literally my voice."

It's fun to play the name-that-influence game with Preminger, whose vocalized, caress-all-the-notes, reflective-yet-vigorous tonal personality coalesces and refracts a broad swath of tenor saxophone language. "I've dipped my feet in he attended Dave Liebman's Pennsylvania jazz camp. sparking an enduring, fruitful relationship with the elder master, who he calls "my first main guru." He credits Liebman and saxophone sages George Garzone and Jerry Bergonzi (mentors when Preminger attended New England Conservatory between 2003 and 2007) for nurturing his loose, relaxed approach.

"These guys have deep history in their playing," Preminger says. "They understand what has come before them, and each established an individual voice. Each one has a sort of free quality to their improvisation. They're not so confined by changes on a form. I really relate to that. I don't feel necessarily tied to 4/4. or tied to a pulse. That's fun. I don't feel like I'm stuck. It makes me enjoy what I do more."

After graduating NEC, Preminger moved to New York, finding work with elders like Cecil McBee, who employed him, and Billy Hart, whose skills he retained on several occasions. Thrust into the fray, Preminger -who cites a chronological influence tree that moves roughly fron Joshua Redman to Joe Lovano to Ornette Coleman to John Coltrane- grew into the realization that "I want to play every time like it¡s my last day on earth, which is what separates the masters from your Grade-B cat. "As his career evolved, Preminger -who returned to Boston in 2015 to get a Masters degree, and still lives there- has made in his business "to surround myself with cats who understand that."

Each of Preminger's partners herein qualifies for that encomium. You couls describe Palmer, 38, himself the leader of six small ensemble dates, as Preminger's aesthetic doppelganger for his gorgeus tone, broad knowledge of just back in Boston, beelined to Wally's Jazz Café, where Palmer has led the house band most weekends since 2004.

"He's like Don Cherry with chops, " Preminger jokes. "He knows every song ever written in the history of the American book, but he's a true improviser, a real artist, which you don't offen find. We have a special connection on the bandstand."

The Preminger-Kim Cass connection dates to their shared undergraduate experience at NEC. "Kim is a one of a kind player who does things other people can't do, with a unique harmonic and rhythmic approach, " Preminger says. Throughout the proccedings, the Maine-born bassists's catlike reflexes, impeccable time feel, and centered tone stamp him as an occupant of the upper branches of his instrumental tree circa 2017.

Preminger observes that his recent compositions suited the mammoth skill sets of drummer Dan Weiss, familiar to assidous Criss Cross listeners -and an internationel cohort of fans and connoisseurs- for his contributions to six albums by David Binney, and as well as his own sui generis leader albums and sideman work with such upper echelon improvisers as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Rez Abassi, Miles Okazaki, Amir El-Saffar, Jen Shyu, Matt Mitchell and Joel Harrison.

"Dan has incredible energy," Preminger states. "He lets things feel open rhythmically, and whether you're in 4 or 13, it will never fall apart. It will always be tippin', it will always have energy, and he'll be right next to me the whole time. He understands arc, he understands form, and he understands phrasing, which a lot of people don't."

Weiss's prowess in the arts of rhythmic design and thematic development immediately come to the fore on the opening track, Halfway To Hartford, a kinetic opening salvo that evokes and Old and New Dreams ambiance. After Preminger's gnarly, 38-second intro, and then a bravura 50-second-long Premimger-Palmer unison on the melody, each soloist engages Weiss in extended conversation.

Preminger and Palmer exchange ideas and play overlapping lines over Weiss' "stinky funk groove" on Mad Town, Preminger's slightly melancholic depiction of a frigid, snowy winter weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin, where the saxophonist was "for a moment contemplating doing a Ph.D."

At Preminger's request, Weiss puts a Clyde Stubblefield 6/4 groove on T.S., a gentle refrain named for the initials of a special friend with whom Preminger has "listened to a lot of music and gone dancing, and who's into what she calls the smile-and-sway. "Preminger's neologism aptly describes the quality of his interplay with Palmer during the tune's first section, after which Cass unleashes his chops onmultiple choruses of dialog with the leader. "Let's say you've had a few drinks, and you're listening to something that really grooves," Preminger continues. "You kind of just smile and sway. I wrote it for her and the arc of her life."

A drum fanfare introduces A.H., for guitar hero Allan Holdsworth, who passed away in 2017. "As I was writing this melody on my horn, and the counter-line below it with the bass, I imagined it as something Holdsworth migth have come up with," says Preminger, whose creative solo, spurred by Cass' and Weiss' instanneous, interlocking responses, includes a quote from Sonny Rollins' Paul's Pal. Palmer assumes the baton, bulids the momentum further, then guides the flow into a closing unison.

Preminger describes the elegiac, medim-slow, not quite rubato My Blues for you as "a gospelly blues that I wrote in freshman year of college." After his achingly soulful melody statement, first Palmer and then the leader testify with a primal-yet-restrained quality on the elemental raw materials, evoking the ambiance of such recent collaborations as the albums Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground and Meditations on Freedom.

Weiss' pointillistic beats are a portal into Nashua, named for the New Hampshire city where Preminger, soon after returning to Boston, took a teaching job that "lasted about two weeks". The querulous tme hints at New England Rust Belt dystopia-Cass, Palmer and Preminger remain true to the melody in their solos.

Preminger wrote the Ornette Coleman-esque Walking On Eggshells after listening to an interview on National Public Radio "with somone who wrote an article how it's difficult to be a white person who's concerned about racial injustice, which he said is like walking on eggshells." He continues; "I started playing this, and then wrote an entire melody like it-the feeling was like skipping along, like walking on eggshells."

The date closes with Acknowledgment, no relation to the opening movement of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, but nonetheless vibrationally akin to the man Preminger calls "the very top as an improviser." "If you¡ve got 100 levels, Trane is on 100 and everybody else starts at level 60," Preminger says. "To me, Coltrane had the most incredible balance of technique and emotional artistry." After Preminger's bluesy rubato introduction, Cass begins a dialogue, Preminger recapitulates the simple melody, Weiss offers Rashied Ali-like ametric beats before morphing to 4/4 freebop at 3:30, leading to another elegant, forceful Palmer statement, and a closing Preminger solo, patient and intense.

"I don't know why I came up with the title," Preminger says. "Maybe it's acknowledging what's going on in my life-where I am, what my beliefs are, receiving acknowledgment. My style of playing is maybe an acquired taste, but I have a very honest way of performing, and a lot of energy. It's not commercial whatsoever. It's weird-I'm not out here touring that much, but I'm leaving a trail of work. Sure. I'd like to be appreciated for what I do. But I love making albums, and I love laying down my personal statement. I like the procces. I'm happy. That's most important."

Ted Panken

Michael Dessen Trio - Somewhere In The Upstream (CLEAN FEED RECORDS 2018)

Praised as a “musician for this moment” (Downbeat) for his imaginative work with music technology, trombonist Michael Dessen culminates over a decade with his electro-acoustic trio in this fourth Clean Feed release, an homage to the late Yusef Lateef.

After studying with Lateef for several years and making his debut as an improviser on one of Lateef’s albums in 1996, Dessen has since carved his own individual path through jazz and contemporary music worlds, acclaimed both for his “black belt” trombone playing (praise from close collaborator Mark Dresser) as well as for his unique work as a composer-bandleader that “straddles the line between the avant garde and the accessible better than most” (All About Jazz). Here Dessen honors Lateef’s memory with Somewhere In The Upstream, a longform “scorestream” in which notations are displayed on screens for the improvisers to interpret, shifting unpredictably for each performance.

Fluidly melding intricate composition, radically open group improvisation and otherworldly live electronic soundworlds, the music of the Michael Dessen Trio has been recognized with major awards and commissions from Chamber Music America, the Fromm Foundation, and New Music USA. This album distills the core qualities that critics have praised in the band’s music over their previous three releases: Compositional structures deeply shape the music but at the same time are always elusive, abstracted by the band in such a way that the focus remains on the organically unfolding interactions among the improvisers and the incredibly wide-ranging expressive dynamics of an entire set.

Dessen wrote this music specifically for his longstanding trio members, virtuoso improvisers Chris Tordini (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums), and the album was recorded in a single take to capture the immersive feel and powerful chemistry that the band is known for in their live performances. Tordini deftly grounds the music’s kaleidoscopic polyrhythms and constantly surprises the listener with endless gradient explorations of sound, and Weiss similarly combines a broad timbral palette with his renowned rhythmic sensibilities. Dessen completes the trio with his own playing on both trombone and computer, using live processing and sampling in ways that  complement but never overwhelm the band’s acoustic foundation.

Combining the band’s live aesthetic with extraordinary recording quality and a heightened attention to sonic detail that will reward repeated listening, Somewhere In The Upstream is a singular compositional achievement by one of the truly original bands of our time.

1. Part 1 7:07

2. Part 2 2:55

3. Part 3 7:20

4. Part 4 6:24

5. Part 5 3:37

6. Part 6 6:19

7. Part 7 6:17

8. Part 8 10:05

Michael Dessen  trombone and computer

Christopher Tordini  bass

Dan Weiss  drums

All compositions by Michael Dessen (Cronopio Music, ASCAP)

Recorded at Systems Two in Brooklyn on June 6, 2016 | Recording Engineer: Max Ross | Mixed and mastered by Rich Breen

Produced by Michael Dessen | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul

Noah Preminger - Genuinity (CRISS CROSS RECORDS February 16, 2018)

Thirty-year-old tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger's debut on Criss Cross in a piano less context with trumpeter Jason Palmer and bassist Kim Cass, who record here with the brilliant drummer Dan Weiss for the first time on this occasion. The hour-long program consists of nine Preminger originals. Each evokes a different mood and ambiance with strong melodies and percolating grooves that provoke unfailingly cohesive, thematic improvisations by Preminger and Palmer. Genuinity is consistently compelling, and repays repeated hearings.

Matt Mitchell - A Pouting Grimace (PI RECORDINGS 2017)

A regular member of Tim Berne’s Snakeoil and the Dave Douglas Quintet, pianist / keyboardist / composer Matt Mitchell has recently appeared on Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Bird Calls (2015) and Jonathan Finlayson’s Moving Still (2016). Mitchell has worked with a broad array of top-name artists including Steve Coleman, John Hollenbeck and Mario Pavone. Mitchell is a chameleon, able to take on completely different musical personas across of fast array of situations. His own Vista Accumulation (2015) was one of the most highly regarded releases of that year. Frequently in demand, he has managed to produce ten albums as a leader or co-leader. The most recent, A Pouting Grimace, is an eclectic collection that defies categorization.

Mitchell’s previous albums have been elatively small formations -solo through quartet and so the twelve- person ensemble on a A Pouting Grimace is new territory for him, as a leader. In that company of players are exceptional names. Saxophonist Jon Irabagon (Mostly Other People Do the Killing), flautist Anna Webber and percussionists Ches Smith and Dan Weiss are on hand, and Tyshawn Sorey serves as conductor on two pieces.

The very brief “Bulb Terminus” is a bit of programmed reverie that leads to the loosely structured “Plate Shapes,” a multifaceted maelstrom of cadences and noises with an impulsive sense of movement. Irabagon and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck spend much of the time searching for their own alternate routes. “Brim” is the centerpiece of A Pouting Grimace as it provides a platform for the development of the surrounding compositions. At the core of “Brim” is a phantasmagorical, full-ensemble mélange that feels omnidirectional and free-flowing. The longest piece on the album, “Sick Fields” is an episodic anomaly that moves in fits and starts; it is as unstoppable as it is—at times—impenetrable. “Ooze Interim” concludes the album with a floating, solo electronics performance from Mitchell.

The free nature, density and complexity of A Pouting Grimace does not give way to blowout solos or overall chaos. The musicians wander a marauder’s map, at times, interacting with each other, or occasionally looking for their own opening. This is an album focused on detail; it can be identified in slight, contrasting hues and in unflinching statements. It is certainly a unique and challenging listen.

1. bulb terminus 01:10

2. plate shapes 08:12

3. mini alternate 05:32

4. brim 06:49

5. deal sweeteners 01:38

6. squalid ink 00:15

7. gluts 04:28

8. heft 04:16

9. sick fields 09:10

10. ooze interim 05:07

Produced by David Torn and Matt Mitchell 

Mixed and mastered by David Torn 

Matt Mitchell - piano, Prophet 6, electronics 

Kim Cass - upright bass 

Kate Gentile - drums, gongs, percussion 

Ches Smith - vibraphone, glockenspiel, bongos, timpani, gongs, Haitian tanbou, percussion 

Dan Weiss - tabla 

Patricia Brennan - vibraphone, marimba 

Katie Andrews - harp 

Anna Webber - flute, alto flute, bass flute 

Jon Irabagon - sopranino sax, soprano sax 

Ben Kono - oboe, English horn 

Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon 

Scott Robinson - bass sax, contrabass clarinet 

Tyshawn Sorey - conductor

Rez Abbasi - Unfiltered Universe (WHIRLWIND RECORDINGS October 6, 2017)

Guitarist/Composer Rez Abbasi Melds Jazz and South Indian Music with a Bold, Original Vision on Unfiltered Universe, due out October 6

The third part of a trilogy with Abbasi's South Asian-inspired supergroup Invocation, the album features Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, Johannes Weidenmueller, Dan Weiss and guest cellist Elizabeth Mikhael

"Producing so vivid a music that it can almost be tasted, Abbasi sounds like no one who has gone before him. His compositions are sheer genius." - Raul D'Gama Rose, All About Jazz

"Abbasi creates a sinuous, sometimes haunting and always evocative blend of contemporary jazz and Asia influences." - Time Out NY

Pre-order Unfiltered Universe and receive ‘Thin-King’ as instant download

(click the player below to listen)

It seems natural to refer to the music of Rez Abbasi as a hybrid, given the guitarist/composer's penchant for combining the traditions of South Asian music with his own modern jazz voice. That description ceases to fit as soon as one hears the music, however. In Abbasi's singular approach, this merging of influences feels less like a chimera, a patchwork of distinctive yet still identifiable parts; it is instead an evolution, a wholly new creature that bears distinctive traces of its antecedents yet has a form and beauty all its own.

Such is the case with Abbasi's 12th album, Unfiltered Universe (due out October 6, 2017 on Whirlwind Recordings), the third album in a trilogy exploring different South Asian musics with his stellar quintet Invocation. The band brings together five leading voices in forward-looking jazz, all of whom have extensively studied diverse South Asian traditions, often in collaboration with one another: Abbasi, saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, pianist Vijay Iyer, bassist Johannes Weidenmueller, and drummer Dan Weiss.

Where Invocation's 2008 debut Things To Come highlighted the influences of North Indian Hindustani music with guest vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia, and their 2011 follow-up Suno Suno, the Qawwali music of Abbasi's native Pakistan, Unfiltered Universe takes as its point of departure the Carnatic music of South India. Abbasi's experience with Carnatic music can be traced back at least to Mahanthappa's 2008 release Kinsmen, a collaboration with South Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath that merged jazz and Carnatic musicians, and continued through a 2015 project with the Indian-American Ragamala Dance Company. His studies and listening have persisted throughout the intervening years, allowing him to absorb its influence and create new music under its sway that is far from a literal interpretation of its surface qualities.

The title Unfiltered Universe refers to the way in which a lifetime of globe-spanning influences were allowed to emerge directly from Abbasi's subconscious into his music. "The idea was to operate from my intuition first while creating these compositions and then later use the thought process to manipulate the music, he says. "It's unprocessed and unfiltered, shining a light on the universe within me. It really brought the fruits of my experiences to the forefront."

Such an intuitive approach to composition was a fresh experience for the guitarist, who likens the approach to Jackson Pollock's action painting. "I wanted to let the influences hit the empty canvas and allow that to speak to me as opposed to having a foundational idea of what I was going to create," Abbasi explains. "I didn't want to impose preconceived rhythms or ideas; I wanted to get the essence and energy of what I've taken away from playing with Carnatic musicians and dancers, and to tie that in with everything I've done previously."

To realize the music Abbasi reconvened his quintet Invocation, a supergroup of innovative jazz artists who have explored similar territory in disparate ways in their own work. Both American-born musicians of Indian descent, Mahanthappa and Iyer have both delved into South Asian traditions with highly acclaimed results. Weiss has brought intensive tabla studies to his inventive approach to the drum kit, while Weidenmueller has co-authored books on metric modulation via his studies in Carnatic percussion.

It's a rare group of musicians whose experiences and collaborations have made them uniquely prepared to seize on every nuance of Abbasi's compositions. "I chose these individuals because I knew that whatever I bring to the table, it's going to be supplemented by the wide-ranging history that each carries. With this group, that history contains a fortified education in Indian music and so we don't need to discuss anything Indian, per se - it's already there. For instance, if Dan plays a particular rhythmic idea from his tabla studies, all of us will be able to grab onto it intuitively. That's one reason why the communication is so stimulating within the ensemble."

Throughout Unfiltered Universe, the music surges with a uniquely propulsive groove, with sinuous melodies that follow surprising, exotic contours. The title track morphs from meditative to frenetic, while opener "Propensity" bristles with a darting, angular energy. "Thin-King" earns its play on words by managing to juggle the cerebral and the playful, while the 12-minute "Turn of Events" gathers from the abstract to the urgent and disintegrates back again, "Disagree to Agree" captures the tenor of discourse in our current moment in its teeth-gritting tension, and "Dance Number" closes the album with a buoyantly erratic groove that both tempts and challenges the listener to move.

The end result of these converging lifetimes of experience, creation, collaboration and study, (un)filtered through the lens of Abbasi's intuitive writing approach, is a strikingly individual voice that never explicitly references its influences but instead evokes the atmospheres and feelings inherent to them. "As a jazz listener you may not necessarily hear the Carnatic influence," Abbasi says, "but you'll definitely hear something different, and ultimately that's what counts."


Abbasi has received multiple composition grants in recent years. Unfiltered Universe was supported in part by a New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Foundation. It is the 2nd CMA grant he has received for his group Invocation. Most recently he was commissioned by the NY Guitar Festival to compose and perform a live score to the 1929 Indian silent film, A Throw of Dice. The premiere took place in NYC in May with a reprise performance scheduled for September 16th at the Ellnora Guitar Festival in Urbana, IL.

Rez Abbasi

Guitarist and composer Rez Abbasi is an artist who continually pushes new boundaries. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, and raised in Southern California, he studied at the USC and the Manhattan School of Music in jazz and classical music, supplemented by a pilgrimage in India under the tutelage of master percussionist Ustad Alla Rakha. Abbasi's music is a vivid synthesis of all the above stated influences and genres. Voted #1 "Rising-Star Guitarist" in 2013's DownBeat Critics Poll and placed in the "Top-Ten Guitarists" in 2015 & 2016, guitarist and composer Rez Abbasi has become one of the most significant musicians on the current scene. Making New York home for the past 25 years, Abbasi has created a unique sound that is stimulated by his jazz pedigree and Indian-Pakistani upbringing. With twelve albums, multiple awards and composition commissions, Rez Abbasi continues to find creative ways to enrich diverse audiences with his musical projects.

www.reztone.com

Quinsin Nachoff - Quinsin Nachoff's Ethereal Trio (ft. Mark Helias & Dan Weiss) WHIRLWIND RECORDINGS May 19, 2017

Saxophonist/Composer Quinsin Nachoff Discovers New Approaches to Melding Exploratory Jazz and Classical Music with his Ethereal Trio

The adventurous trio's self-titled debut, out May 19 from Whirlwind Recordings, features bassist Mark Helias and drummer Dan Weiss

"There's a push and pull between the visceral and cerebral, between jazz and modern classical... intensity and modernity, a brashness and in-your-face confidence of delivery." - Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

"Rather than lazily hewing to tradition, saxophonist/composer Quinsin Nachoff and his fellow provocateurs push against boundaries and expectations using every tool in their kit. The results are as stimulating as they are sagacious." - Michael Roberts, Jazziz

Saxophonist/composer Quinsin Nachoff has become renowned for his unique and ingenious mergers of modern jazz and contemporary classic music. His music daringly ventures to the farthest edges of both idioms while dancing elegantly along the often uneasy borderline between them. While it shares the same roots, Nachoff's new Ethereal Trio takes a somewhat different approach - as the name implies, there's something looser, more elusive and free-ranging, about this trio as opposed to the more rigorous hybridization of some of Nachoff's other ensembles (Flux, the Horizons Ensemble, Magic Numbers).

In part, that's due to the musicians involved. The Ethereal Trio - whose self-titled debut will be released May 19, 2017 via Whirlwind Recordings - teams Nachoff with two of modern music's most forward-thinking artists: bassist Mark Helias and drummer Dan Weiss. Both are inveterate explorers well-versed in absorbing a variety of complex musical vocabularies and expressing them in personal and compelling fashion. But the singularly, well, ethereal feeling of this music can also be credited to Nachoff's astute compositions, which blend methodically composed material with free improvisation in a way that leaves enticing, inspirational space for all three to roam.

"As a contrast to some of my other recent projects," Nachoff says, "this ensemble allows me to explore as a saxophonist, visiting different pillars and languages within the jazz tradition but striving for a personal sound and narrative."

The Ethereal Trio was birthed directly from the composer's interest in merging jazz and classical influences. Nachoff was commissioned by the Penderecki String Quartet to compose "Stars and Constellations: Scorpio," a piece for string quartet and saxophone trio, which prompted the New York-based, Canadian-born saxophonist to further the idea of establishing a chordless trio as a distinct project away from his larger ensemble successes. A stand-alone concert with seasoned Helias and Weiss created the conceptual spark, and following the writing of new material early in 2016, a series of concerts in New York, Toronto and Montreal neatly led to this recording.

"I enjoy writing this way as it gives me two distinct voices that I can really work with," Nachoff says. "As a bassist, Mark Helias is such an experienced musician - I can compose harmonically or contrapuntally and he always expands it to such an extent that we're never missing harmony; if we play in more of an open setting, it leaves us more freedom. Dan Weiss is a master of dealing with anything rhythmically -so he can be very free within even something very structured. All three of us love to investigate different colors and extended techniques, so many different directions are possible. Once we've understood what the direction is for each composition, that's when the magic starts to happen."

Each piece on the album has its own plot and internal logic, yet the trio's predominant vibe is searching and otherworldly - hence the "ethereal" tag, which should not be understood as implying something delicate or dreamlike. This is fiery, passionate, relentlessly venturesome music that boldly seeks new discoveries in the far reaches of Nachoff's structures. The titles seem to juggle left and right brain notions in provocative ways, suggesting a mixture of art and science that finds equal stimulation in both the speculative and the cerebral.

"Clairvoyant Jest" opens the album with Nachoff's saxophone dancing across rhythmically twisted swing, characterized by double-stopped, open-stringed bass and harmonics which highlight the harmonic motion. "Gravitas" follows, focusing on freer response and reflection as its questioning saxophone motifs are interpreted by arco bass. Suggesting a change in our imaginative picture of the world, "Imagination Reconstruction" pairs sax and Helias' bass harmonics magnificently, and the ten-minute progression of "Portrait in Sepia Tones" ramps up into a superbly percussive maelstrom. "Push-Pull Topology" possesses an underlying walking bass thread, stretching and pulling different rhythms - fives over fours over threes - while the bristling landscapes of "Subliminal Circularity" summon the leader's equally raw and rippling saxophonic tones.

Quinsin Nachoff relishes the freedom and the opportunities this trio offers: "I'm regularly involved in projects which include a lot of composing, arranging and organizational effort to make them happen. This Ethereal Trio album became much more about simply playing the saxophone, which was extremely fun and rewarding - and these musicians are such a pleasure to play with. That's the world I like to live in."

Quinsin Nachoff Website