Tim Green and Massimo Magee - Abeyance (November 12, 2021 577 Records)

Abeyance was recorded 3 days after the Cyclone Trio studio sessions that produced the album The Clear Revolution (577 Records, 2021). After a 5-year break, Tim Green and Massimo Magee returned to the recording studio to revisit the improvisational investigations they had left off in Brisbane in 2014. Magee and Green are longtime collaborators, having explored multifaceted and adventurous improvised music together for more than a decade, on drums, saxophone and clarinet, with and without electronic manipulation. Abeyance is a complete free improvisation by the duo, recorded in one take and without edits or prior planning. Though entirely unpremeditated, it works with long-form structures, centred around a repeated, severely truncated phrase adapted from part of the classic ‘Epistrophy’ tune by Thelonious Monk, and traverses a wide spectrum of improvised music, from late 60s free jazz to more recent electro-acoustic developments. 

By tracing a path from one to the other, through various intermediate points, it makes a spontaneous attempt to embed a teleological narrative—one view of the contemporary progression of avant garde, jazz-inflected improvisation into recent times. Functionally speaking, it could be said that this re-asserts the idea of progress, a necessary step before progress can again be made. Abeyance will be available digitally via 577 Records on November 12, 2021.

1. Abeyance

2. LITTLE SAMPLE FROM ABEYANCE

Tim Green - Drums 

Massimo Magee - Electro/acoustic alto saxophone, clarinet at New River Studios, London, UK

Recorder by Massimo Magee on March 14, 2020

Mixed and mastered by Theo Carbo

Cover painting: Untitled by MiHee Kim Magee

Album design by Mark Smith

Music by Tim Green and Massimo Magee (Five Seven Seven Records Music, ASCAP)

Orbit577 is part of 577 Records

Brooklyn, New York

PREORDER

Michael Jenner - Feed The Kitty (July 30, 2021 Breakfast for Dinner Records)

This album was recorded in one six-hour session on September 29, 2006. We set up in the main room at Word of Mouth in Algiers Point, no rehearsal, and hit it! Other than a couple of brief discussions about how to end (and sometimes not even that) my only directions were to play exactly what you want. I chose this group to make this record because I LOVE them and they just happen to be some of the greatest musicians I know. Jason Mingledorff is one of the most soulful and skilled cats I’ve ever met. When Jason’s on the gig you know he’s gonna make everyone around him sound better. Brian Coogan is an absolute magician. His ability to take my simple little tunes and re-harmonize them on the fly and create stunning soundscapes will never cease to blow my mind. Simon Lott is so much more than a drummer.

His love of music and life comes through in every note he plays. He also has one of the greatest laughs I’ve heard in my life. And Tim Green… Anyone that ever got to experience the great joy of being around Tim can attest to the fact the he’s probably the kindest person to ever walk the earth. I think about Tim a lot since his passing. He was one of those people that made you want to be better. And what a sound!

I would also like to acknowledge Tim Stambaugh, Tracey Freeman, and Chris Munson. They are the unsung members of the band. This record would not be what it is without their contributions. Love you cats!

I hope you will experience a little bit of the joy we had making this record.

MJ

1. Julia Stiles 14:31

2. You Still Make Me Nervous 08:19

3. Off The Ground 13:09

4. Cantabile 09:42

5. A Mid September Night's Dream 13:01

6. Waiting For Tuesday 10:16

7. Let's Waste The Day 07:51

8. Message From Tim 00:50

This recording is dedicated to Tim Green and Eric Traub

All compositions by Michael Jenner except Cantabile by Simon Lott.

Michael Jenner - Tenor Saxophone

Tim Green - Tenor Saxophone

Jason Mingledorff - Tenor and Alto Saxophone

Brian Coogan - Organ and Piano

Simon Lott - Drums and Cymbals

Recorded September 29, 2006 at Word of Mouth by Tim Stambaugh

Mixed by Tracey Freeman

Mastered by Chris Munson

Artwork by Katey Jenner

Layout and design by Mary Pendarvis

Pre-order

Michael Dease - Decisions (2015)

BY S. VICTOR AARON / somethingelsereviews

I’ve might have said this before: Michael Dease is the rightful heir to the trombone legacy of Curtis Fuller, and even Fuller himself might agree. Rare is the trombonist who can match the technical proficiency, inventive phrasing and genuine feel that seems to come easily to Dease.

After making a triumphant foray into big band for his Posi-Tone debut Relentless, Dease gets back to small ensemble business for Decisions (August 28, 2015). Heading a five-piece band with Tim Green on alto sax, Glenn Zaleski on piano, Rodney Whitaker on bass and Ulysses Owens behind the drum kit, Dease makes good use of the talent he’s assembled using mostly his own compositions with a couple of standards tossed in for good measure.

Dease serves up prime post-bop in all sorts of flavors. “Grove’s Groove” has a nice shuffling groove courtesy of Owens’ precise drumming, but Zaleski’s spry solo is the high point of a series of fine solos by nearly everyone. The rhythm section forges a crisp, contemporary groove for “Jason’s Gonna Get Ya” that the horns nimbly syncopate around, but Dease composed a complexity to the song that goes well beyond being just a riff. He does the same for “Right Place Wrong Time,” a track where Green’s expressive alto steals the show. Whitaker’s taut bass work anchors a lilting swing for “Decisions,” again a highlight for Zaleski. And Owens gets to show off on the blues based “The Big D.”

Take those stellar individual performances away and you can still be blown be dazzled by Dease’s trombone. He makes it sing on “Gorgeous Gwen” and on ballads like “Everything Must Change” he knows just how much emotion to invest in his trombone to make it believable.

A model of consistency, style and grace, Michael Dease stays at the head of the class among jazz trombonists with his seventh album, Decisions.

01. Grove's Groove

02. Jason's Gonna Get Ya

03. Trayvon

04. Gorgeous Gwen

05. Decisions

06. Right Place Wrong Time

07. Everything Must Change

08. Three And One

09. You're My Everything

10. The Big D

Michael Dease: trombone

Tim Green: saxophone

Glenn Zaleski: piano

Rodney Whitaker: bass

Ulysses Owens Jr.: drums

BUY THIS ALBUM!!!

VÍCTOR