Miles Okazaki - Thisness (March 20, 2022 Pi Recordings)

"convulsive beauty, propulsive rhythm, elusive meaning...a spontaneous and unpredictable work of art, accordingly discordant, subversively accordant, a pendulum crushing the cage of temporality. This is Surrealism in practice. This is jazz. This is freedom."

- from the liner notes by Robin D.G. Kelley

Thisness is Miles Okazaki's third volume of compositions for Trickster, a quartet featuring Matt Mitchell on piano, Anthony Tidd on drums, and Sean Rickman on drums. The album is a set of themes that are shuffled and connected in different ways to make four large movements. Okazaki describes the process in the liner notes:

"Our previous albums were made up of what I would simply call "songs," but for this project I decided to expand the format. The intention was to make something like an exquisite corpse, the collective improvisations developed by the Surrealists. So for this album my job as composer was to bring in some ideas, set them in motion and then listen, trying to recognize the value of serendipitous events at transitional points in the music and lead the band down whatever path may be opening. The borderlands are where the Trickster hangs out, the undefined space where logic dissolves and creativity thrives. My hope was that the listener would enjoy the experience of passing through these boundaries between contrasting episodes."

The music draws on a few sources of inspiration that have connected creative elements: a magical "far off place" called Salt Creek, from a watercolor by Linda Okazaki, the writings on Surrealism by Robin D.G. Kelley, architectural concepts from producer David Breskin, and the poetry of Sun Ra. The idea that this band has been working toward since their first album is most fully realized on Thisness, a sound that discards notions of logic and control and strives toward something more like collective dreaming.

1. In Some Far Off Place

2. Years in Space

3. I'll Build a World

4. And Wait for You

Miles Okazaki – Guitar, Vocals, Robots

Matt Mitchell – Piano, Fender Rhodes, Prophet-6

Anthony Tidd – Electric Bass

Sean Rickman – Drums

PRE-ORDER

Steve Coleman - Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 2 (MDW NTR) October 29, 2021 Pi Recordings

Recorded live in performance at the renowned Village Vanguard in New York City, "Mdw Ntr," finds MacArthur Fellow Steve Coleman exploring new terrain in his use of non-linear performance practices in his music. Featuring his long-running flagship ensemble Five Elements, he utilizes spontaneous and pre-composed modules, or motivic cells that can be played in any order, allowing each musicians to spontaneously jump forward or backward to different sections – even between compositions – highlighting different strata of the music and reinventing the form each time in a completely interactive way. Coleman often composes these modules by envisioning them as chains of tonal dyads that are strung together along rhythmic patterns to create melodic structures, something he sees as an analogue of DNA sequences. 

The work also reflects his research into the connection between language and music, in particular the early attempts at music notation using shapes and glyphs in ancient Egypt and the structural and functional similarities between spontaneous composition and Mdw Ntr, a transliteration of the writing system usually called hieroglyphics. Coleman’s use of complex rhythmic cycles is a consistent hallmark of his work, and the roiling, surging momentum found here is no exception. Featured prominently is a long-time collaborator, spoken word artist Kokayi, who brings a freewheeling, rhythmically-acute, almost tent revival aesthetic to the proceedings. Together, they continue to push the possibilities for spontaneous composition and improvisation. 

1. Menes to Midas

2. Unit Fractions

3. Little Girl I'll Miss You

4. Compassion (drum solo) - Ascending Numeration - DeAhBo (Reset)

5. Pad Thai-Mdw Ntr

6. 9 to 5

7. Mdw Ntr

8. Rumble Young Man, Rumble

9. Khet & KaBa

10. DeAhBo (Reset)

11. 9 to 5 - Mdw Ntr

Steve Coleman (alto saxophone)

Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet)

Kokayi (wordsmith)

Anthony Tidd (bass)

Sean Rickman (drums)

PREORDER

Steve Coleman and Five Elements - Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (The Embedded Sets) PI RECORDINGS August 10, 2018

Steve Coleman and Five Elements - Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (The Embedded Sets) PI RECORDINGS August 10, 2018

Alto saxophonist Steve Coleman’s Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. I (The Embedded Sets) is his first live release in over 15 years. It captures his band Five Elements in two joyous sets at the historic New York venue where some of the most famous jazz recording from the likes of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Bill Evans have been made. Coleman’s personal history is tied deeply with the club: One of the main reasons he moved to New York City from Chicago was for the opportunity to play in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, of which he was a member from 1978 to 1980. After playing there with singer Abbey Lincoln in 1984, there followed by a hiatus of over 30 years before he was invited to perform at the club as a leader in 2015. Since then, he has led his band Five Elements at the Vanguard every year, including these two sets recorded in May, 2017.

Unlike his two most recent releases, Morphogenesis (NPR Critics Poll #2 album of 2017) and Synovial Joints (New York Times #1 jazz album of 2015), both of which are highly composed and arranged, Coleman’s recent goal has been to compose as spontaneously as possible, often completely extemporaneously. Interspersing the set with tracks that feature these new compositional tactics with long-time Coleman favorites, the musicians tackle Coleman’s typically intricate music with an effortless grace. The band’s mastery over the cross-hatching rhythms, tricky counterpoint and percolating funk, inspired by the magical vibe of the Village Vanguard, is captured here at its absolute peak.

1. Horda 7:35

2, Djw 6:47

3. Little Girl I'll Miss You | Embedded #1 16:53

4. idHw 6:46

5. twf 7:16

6. Figit Time 8:05

7. Nfr 8:06

8. Little Girl I'll Miss You 7:36

9. Change The Guard 7:00

10. rmT | Figit Time 16:18

11. Nfr 9:47

12. idHw 7:42

13. twf 6:36

14. Horda 6:26

15. Embedded #1 6:58

16. Djw 7:34

17. rmT | 9 to 5 14:55

Steve Coleman - alto saxophone

Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet

Miles Okazaki - guitar

Anthony Tidd - bass

Sean Rickman - drums