BRANDON LOPEZ / INGRID LAUBROCK / TOM RAINEY - No es la Playa (February 18, 2022 Intakt Records)

Dreamlike experiences. Sparks fly and a musical interaction works without arrangement or plan. An organic musical process develops out of intuition alone. The same magic happens every time.

When Brandon Lopez, a New Yorker with Puerto Rican roots, joined the duo of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey, this wasn’t simply about adding a plus one to the Laubrock – Rainey duo. Thanks to the young bassist (born 1988), already collaborating with musicians from Dave Liebman via Zeena Parkins to John Zorn, a new dynamic has formed involving all three. In this triangular constellation a different balance is achieved and an altered play of energies. They are clearly on the same wavelength, with a similar sense and understanding of overarching form, inner structure, timing, feeling, energy, density, transparency and volume.

"Right from the first note the chemistry between them was right. The interplay between the three worked so effortlessly and naturally it bordered on telepathy. The three want to keep up the momentum and capture the magic moment," writes Christoph Wagner in the liner notes.

1. No es la Playa

2. When the Island is a Shipwreck

3. Saturnian Staring

4. Camposanto Chachacha

5. Little Distance Before

6. The Black Bag of Want

Ingrid Laubrock: Saxophones

Brandon Lopez: Bass

Tom Rainey: Drums

All music by Brandon Lopez (BMI), Ingrid Laubrock (PRS/MCPS) and Tom Rainey (BMI). Recorded April 25, 2021, at GSI studios, New York, by Jason Rostkowski. Mixed at Casa Papí, Malmö, by Jon Lipscomb. Mastered at Hardstudios Winterthur by Michael Brändli. Cover Photo: Ingrid Laubrock. Graphic design: Jonas Schoder. Liner notes: Christoph Wagner. Photo: Cecilia Lopez.

Produced by Lopez/Laubrock/Rainey and Intakt Records. Published by Intakt Records, P. O. Box, 8024 Zürich, Switzerland.

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Simon Nabatov Trio - Tough Customer (February 4, 2022)

This was the second piano trio album I recorded in the search for the perfect bandmates in this format, and it worked for me on so many levels... I owe a lot to these two incredible guys, both musically and personally.

The band stayed together, toured and recorded once again some years later (the CD "Sneak Preview").

Kevin Whitehead wrote in Village Voice in July 1993:

For a sterling piano trio, try Russian-born Simon Nabatov's "Tough Customer" (enja), with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Tom Rainey. These three are so close, it's almost a crowd. Nabatov, Ray Anderson's regular pianist, was Moscow Conservatory-trained, but he swings anyway, with great articulation and diamant-hard attack even at insane tempos."Tough Customer" features snaky bass vamps, fiendish metrical intricacies and a frequently shifting landscape. ...you'll dig this.

1. Puzzled 09:30

2. The Sage 13:02

3. Professor Of The Air Science 07:51

4. Kdreefta Molaina 08:45

5. Mark This 16:08

6. Tough Customer 12:00

7. Simple Simon 06:24

Simon Nabatov - piano

Mark Helias - bass

Tom Rainey - drums

all compositions by Simon Nabatov (GEMA), except

tracks 3, 4 - by Mark Helias (Radio Legs Music/BMI)

recorded January 27, 1992 at the WDR Radio Studio, Cologne

recording engineers: P. Esser, K. Holz, Th. Kern

produced by Dr. Ulrich Kurth

released by Enja Records in 1993

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Tony Malaby 'The Cave of Winds' – Jan. 7 via Pyroclastic Records

Saxophonist/composer Tony Malaby reconvenes his stunning quartet Sabino with guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tom Rainey

 

The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records, draws inspiration from Malaby’s Covid-era sessions under a NJ turnpike bridge

" [The] tenor and soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby has earned a reputation as one of New York’s stalwart improvisers, through an array of sideman appointments and some rigorously rewarding albums."

– Nate Chinen, New York Times

 

" Malaby will play inside, outside and all around his saxophone, but never once will it sound out of place with whatever else is happening."

– Paul Acquaro, The Free Jazz Collective 

The 2020 pandemic forced most of us indoors, musicians included, resulting in a surfeit of new solo projects and home recordings. Saxophonist Tony Malaby took the opposite approach. Having hosted regular sessions at his home for years, resulting in countless new collaborations and inspired breakthroughs, he decided to take these creative get-togethers out into the streets (both as an antidote for cabin fever and out of consideration for his suddenly homebound neighbors).

 

Beginning in July of 2020, Malaby began hosting regular sessions underneath a turnpike overpass near his home in New Jersey. Leading a trio featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Billy Mintz, Malaby invited such improvising luminaries as Tim Berne, Mark Helias, Ches Smith, William Parker and others to join him in the graffiti-covered, reverberant enclave that buzzed with the sound of nearby pedestrians, overhead traffic and the usual collision of nature and humanity that fuels the city.

 

“My artistic discipline comes from playing sessions,” Malaby says. “I just couldn't let that go. It was something I needed just to keep my head above water with everything that was happening with the pandemic and the [presidential] election. Everything was nuts, so I just had to go down there and throw sound with my guys. It got me through and kept me positive.”

 

The turnpike sessions proved to be not only a respite from Covid-related stir craziness but also a source of considerable inspiration for Malaby. The saxophonist felt rejuvenated by the freedom and unique sonic qualities of the space, elements that he wanted to carry into the studio. Feeling that a guitar quartet would make the ideal setting, he reconvened Sabino, the group with which Malaby recorded his debut album in 2000. With bassist Michael Formanek, drummer Tom Rainey and guitarist Ben Monder (stepping in for the original album’s Marc Ducret), he recorded the adventurous new album The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records.

 

While there are natural rock formations that share the name in both Niagara Falls and Colorado, The Cave of Winds is Malaby’s affectionate nickname for the turnpike bridge that he made his musical home for the better part of a year. “It was like a tunnel down there,” Malaby recalls. “Wild, crazy things would happen while we were playing in that cavern. Trucks were rolling by, sirens going off, birds singing. We would be down there in 30-degree February weather and the wind would be howling. It was incredible.”

 

The compositions that make up The Cave of Winds were directly inspired by Malaby’s tenure under the bridge. With the literal and figurative space offered by that environment, he was prompted to pen minimal pieces ripe for expansion by the trio and their guests; at the same time, they also are colored by a return to more traditional jazz contexts by this inveterate free improviser.

“Billy Mintz and John Hébert got me into playing standards and jazz repertoire again,” Malaby explains. That comes into play here. We still play freely, and so, you know, but doing that led me to think about harmonic color, the richness of my roots and the joy of playing changes with someone like Ben Monder.”

 

One of the most striking examples of this collision of the tradition and Malaby’s intrepid spirit is the album’s closing track, “Just Me, Just Me.” A contrafact based on the chord changes of the classic “Just You, Just Me” (memorably recorded by the likes of Nat King Cole and Thelonious Monk, among countless others), the tune is far more agitated experience than its jaunty predecessor, and while the title is a tongue-in-cheek play on the original it also captures the fervent individuality of these four musicians.

 

Similarly, the burnished bop melody of “Corinthian Leather” is a loose reinterpretation of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody ‘n You,” leading to unspooling invention from both Malaby and Monder as they stretch the flexible theme beyond recognition. Monder’s roaring heavy metal distortion introduces “Scratch the Horse,” which draws inspiration from the Native American ceremonies depicted in the Richard Harris western A Man Called Horse. “Recrudescence” is a hypnotic group improvisation reflecting on the cyclical nature of the musical life, interrupted though it may have been by recent events, while “insect Ward” suggests a sanctuary for Malaby’s restless, flitting soprano (parried by Formanek’s buzzing bowed bass). “Life Coach” is a duo improvisation by Malaby and Rainey dedicated to their former bandleader, bassist Mark Helias, whose presence the saxophonist insists he can hear in the rhythm and language they share.

 

The Cave of Winds marks the closing of a few chapters for Malaby. For one, it spells the end of the turnpike sessions and the period of research and exploration they represented. Coinciding with the lifting of pandemic-era restrictions, Malaby also left the New York area after more than 25 years for Boston, where he’s taken a position on the faculty of Berklee College of Music.

 

The album also brings Malaby’s career full circle as he embarks on this new venture. 20 years after the release of Sabino he revisits that quartet with three of his most longstanding collaborators. Malaby met Formanek while the saxophonist was still a student at William Paterson University, when both played with the Mingus Big Band. They were both enlisted by saxophonist Marty Ehrlich for a band that also included Tom Rainey on drums, forging a connection that would remain strong for the next three decades.

 

While Ducret was featured on the 2000 album, Ben Monder actually precedes him as Sabino’s guitarist, in an early version of the quartet that featured Jeff Williams and Ben Street. Malaby had initially heard the brilliant guitarist in Marc Johnson’s short-lived band Right Brain Patrol, then approached him at the bar of the Knitting Factory. They met again a week later on a session led by Guillermo Klein and have been working together regularly and fruitfully ever since.

 

Like the primal space its name implies, The Cave of Winds is vast and tempestuous, opening into a reservoir of mystery and inviting the curious to venture deep within. Encouraged by Malaby’s dauntless curiosity, these four stellar musicians delve into the furthest reaches and emerge with inspired riches.

1. Corinthian Leather

2. Recrudescence

3. Scratch the Horse

4. Insect Ward

5. The Cave of Winds

6. Life Coach (for Helias)

7. Just Me, Just Me

Tony Malaby - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones

Ben Monder - Guitar

Michael Formanek - Double Bass

Tom Rainey - Drums

All compositions by Tony Malaby (Chubasco Music/ Sesac) except 'Recrudescence' by Monder/ Formanek/ Rainey/ Malaby

Recorded at Samurai Hotel Studios on June 24, 2021

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Marciano at Systems Two Long Island

Graphic Design by Hidde Dijkstra

Cover Art: 'Lost in Thoughts' by Marieken Cochius

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Produced by Tony Malaby

Executive Producer: Kris Davis

Tony Malaby’s Sabino – The Cave of Winds

Pyroclastic Records – PR 18 – Recorded June 24, 2021

Release date January 7, 2022

PRE ORDER

THAR - THAR [KR​-​5] December 2021 Koshkil Records

THAR

LONG-TIME COLLABORATORS TAYLOR HASKINS AND ANDREW RATHBUN TEAM UP WITH THE BRILLIANT TOM RAINEY AND ENERGETIC MATT PAVOLKA TO CREATE A RECORDING THAT RUNS THE GAMUT FROM THE WILD TO SERENE. THEY OPERATE IN BOTH OPEN FORMS AND WITH STRUCTURE, SOMETIMES DANCING TOGETHER AND OTHER TIMES SPARRING, TO CREATE A SONIC JOURNEY THAT IS ALWAYS EVOLVING.

1. WAKE UP CALL – Taylor Haskins 03:25

2. SKWONK – THAR 01:47

3. GO AHEAD AND TRY TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ONLINE – Andrew Rathbun 02:45

4. SKWAAK – THAR 01:45

5. SLOW VIGNETTE – Andrew Rathbun 04:29

6. GLANCE – Taylor Haskins 03:13

7. SKWEEK – THAR 02:15

8. DO NOT CALL LIST – Andrew Rathbun 06:11

9. SKWERT – THAR 03:59

10. MARCH – THAR 05:11

11. SUN DOGS – Taylor Haskins 03:34

THAR

Taylor Haskins – trumpet

Andrew Rathbun – saxophone

Matt Pavolka – bass

Tom Rainey – drums

Recorded August 19-20, 2015 at SYSTEMS II, Brooklyn

Engineered by Michael Marciano

Mixed and Mastered by Taylor Haskins

Andrew Rathbun uses D’Addario reeds and products

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Out Fri. Nov. 12: "Just Me, Just Me" – Single from Tony Malaby's upcoming album "The Cave of Winds"

Saxophonist/composer Tony Malaby reconvenes his stunning quartet Sabino with guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tom Rainey 

The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records, draws inspiration from Malaby’s Covid-era sessions under a NJ turnpike bridge 

" [The] tenor and soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby has earned a reputation as one of New York’s stalwart improvisers, through an array of sideman appointments and some rigorously rewarding albums."

– Nate Chinen, New York Times 

" Malaby will play inside, outside and all around his saxophone, but never once will it sound out of place with whatever else is happening." 

– Paul Acquaro, The Free Jazz Collective

The 2020 pandemic forced most of us indoors, musicians included, resulting in a surfeit of new solo projects and home recordings. Saxophonist Tony Malaby took the opposite approach. Having hosted regular sessions at his home for years, resulting in countless new collaborations and inspired breakthroughs, he decided to take these creative get-togethers out into the streets (both as an antidote for cabin fever and out of consideration for his suddenly homebound neighbors). 

Beginning in July of 2020, Malaby began hosting regular sessions underneath a turnpike overpass near his home in New Jersey. Leading a trio featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Billy Mintz, Malaby invited such improvising luminaries as Tim Berne, Mark Helias, Ches Smith, William Parker and others to join him in the graffiti-covered, reverberant enclave that buzzed with the sound of nearby pedestrians, overhead traffic and the usual collision of nature and humanity that fuels the city. 

“My artistic discipline comes from playing sessions,” Malaby says. “I just couldn't let that go. It was something I needed just to keep my head above water with everything that was happening with the pandemic and the [presidential] election. Everything was nuts, so I just had to go down there and throw sound with my guys. It got me through and kept me positive.” 

The turnpike sessions proved to be not only a respite from Covid-related stir craziness but also a source of considerable inspiration for Malaby. The saxophonist felt rejuvenated by the freedom and unique sonic qualities of the space, elements that he wanted to carry into the studio. Feeling that a guitar quartet would make the ideal setting, he reconvened Sabino, the group with which Malaby recorded his debut album in 2000. With bassist Michael Formanek, drummer Tom Rainey and guitarist Ben Monder (stepping in for the original album’s Marc Ducret), he recorded the adventurous new album The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records.

While there are natural rock formations that share the name in both Niagara Falls and Colorado, The Cave of Winds is Malaby’s affectionate nickname for the turnpike bridge that he made his musical home for the better part of a year. “It was like a tunnel down there,” Malaby recalls. “Wild, crazy things would happen while we were playing in that cavern. Trucks were rolling by, sirens going off, birds singing. We would be down there in 30-degree February weather and the wind would be howling. It was incredible.” 

The compositions that make up The Cave of Winds were directly inspired by Malaby’s tenure under the bridge. With the literal and figurative space offered by that environment, he was prompted to pen minimal pieces ripe for expansion by the trio and their guests; at the same time, they also are colored by a return to more traditional jazz contexts by this inveterate free improviser. 

“Billy Mintz and John Hébert got me into playing standards and jazz repertoire again,” Malaby explains. That comes into play here. We still play freely, and so, you know, but doing that led me to think about harmonic color, the richness of my roots and the joy of playing changes with someone like Ben Monder.” 

One of the most striking examples of this collision of the tradition and Malaby’s intrepid spirit is the album’s closing track, “Just Me, Just Me.” A contrafact based on the chord changes of the classic “Just You, Just Me” (memorably recorded by the likes of Nat King Cole and Thelonious Monk, among countless others), the tune is far more agitated experience than its jaunty predecessor, and while the title is a tongue-in-cheek play on the original it also captures the fervent individuality of these four musicians. 

Similarly, the burnished bop melody of “Corinthian Leather” is a loose reinterpretation of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody ‘n You,” leading to unspooling invention from both Malaby and Monder as they stretch the flexible theme beyond recognition. Monder’s roaring heavy metal distortion introduces “Scratch the Horse,” which draws inspiration from the Native American ceremonies depicted in the Richard Harris western A Man Called Horse. “Recrudescence” is a hypnotic group improvisation reflecting on the cyclical nature of the musical life, interrupted though it may have been by recent events, while “insect Ward” suggests a sanctuary for Malaby’s restless, flitting soprano (parried by Formanek’s buzzing bowed bass). “Life Coach” is a duo improvisation by Malaby and Rainey dedicated to their former bandleader, bassist Mark Helias, whose presence the saxophonist insists he can hear in the rhythm and language they share. 

The Cave of Winds marks the closing of a few chapters for Malaby. For one, it spells the end of the turnpike sessions and the period of research and exploration they represented. Coinciding with the lifting of pandemic- era restrictions, Malaby also left the New York area after more than 25 years for Boston, where he’s taken a position on the faculty of Berklee College of Music. 

The album also brings Malaby’s career full circle as he embarks on this new venture. 20 years after the release of Sabino he revisits that quartet with three of his most longstanding collaborators. Malaby met Formanek while the saxophonist was still a student at William Paterson University, when both played with the Mingus Big Band. They were both enlisted by saxophonist Marty Ehrlich for a band that also included Tom Rainey on drums, forging a connection that would remain strong for the next three decades. 

While Ducret was featured on the 2000 album, Ben Monder actually precedes him as Sabino’s guitarist, in an early version of the quartet that featured Jeff Williams and Ben Street. Malaby had initially heard the brilliant guitarist in Marc Johnson’s short-lived band Right Brain Patrol, then approached him at the bar of the Knitting Factory. They met again a week later on a session led by Guillermo Klein and have been working together regularly and fruitfully ever since. 

Like the primal space its name implies, The Cave of Winds is vast and tempestuous, opening into a reservoir of mystery and inviting the curious to venture deep within. Encouraged by Malaby’s dauntless curiosity, these four stellar musicians delve into the furthest reaches and emerge with inspired riches.

1. Corinthian Leather

2. Recrudescence

3. Scratch the Horse

4. Insect Ward

5. The Cave of Winds

6. Life Coach (for Helias)

7. Just Me, Just Me

Tony Malaby - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones

Ben Monder - Guitar

Michael Formanek - Double Bass

Tom Rainey - Drums

All compositions by Tony Malaby (Chubasco Music/ Sesac) except 'Recrudescence' by Monder/ Formanek/ Rainey/ Malaby

Recorded at Samurai Hotel Studios on June 24, 2021

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Marciano at Systems Two Long Island

Graphic Design by Hidde Dijkstra

Cover Art: 'Lost in Thoughts' by Marieken Cochius

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Produced by Tony Malaby

Executive Producer: Kris Davis

(c)(p) 2021 Tony Malaby & Pyroclastic Records

Tony Malaby’s Sabino – The Cave of Winds 

Pyroclastic Records – PR 18 – Recorded June 24, 2021

Release date January 7, 2022 

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Hardcell (Berne / Taborn / Rainey) - Sensitive (April 2021 Screwgun Records)

This is a live recording of the first hardcell gig.

RAW

Found it in a box of cdr’s mislabeled as “Almost Quicksand”.

This was the first time playing w/Craig as well...I remember feeling euphoric that night ....kind of like a new chapter of insanity was about to start.

I Think i may have been right.

Mastered by TORN.

1. Heavy Mental 07:30

2. Twisted 10:24

3. The Opener 12:10

4. Thin Ice 39:02

Craig Taborn keyboards

Tim Berne alto sax

Tom Rainey drums

Music Tim Berne party music BMI

Mastered by David Torn

Recorded 12/3/2000

By Daniel Goldaracena

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Ingrid Laubrock / Tom Rainey - Stir Crazy Episode 53 (April 2021)

1. Stir Crazy Episode 53 25:44

Tom Rainey drums

Ingrid Laubrock tenor and soprano saxophones

Recorded in our apartment on 03/31/2021

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Tom Rainey Obbligato with Ingrid Laubrock, Ralph Alessi, Jacob Sacks and Drew Gress - Untucked in Hannover (April 16, 2021 Intakt Records)

With Untucked in Hannover, Tom Rainey's top-notch quintet Obbligato presents a third album of a collection of jazz standards – with Jacob Sacks on piano replacing regular pianist Kris Davis for this live recording. Wonderful jazz tunes like Stella by Starlight or I Fall in Love Too Easily are interpreted in an open dialogue with stunning joy of playing and improvisation. And though standards are the modus operandi of Obbligato, their approach is intended to be less conventional, less reverential and certainly less solo-centric than many other bands that tackles with Standards. Obbligato sometimes plays with the essences of famous jazz standards in an implied way, sometimes in a teasing and mysterious way, but always in a tantalizing way.

"Close your eyes, imagine sitting in the front row of your favorite jazz club, sit back and enjoy Obbligato playing pieces from the Great American Songbook in a way you've never heard them before: and by one of the most inventive and inspiring live bands of the last decade," writes Laurence Donohue-Greene in the liner notes.

1. If I should Lose You

2. Stella by Starlight

3. What's New – There is No Greater Love

4. I Fall in Love to Easily

5. Just in Time – In Your Own Sweet Way

6. Long Ago and Far Away

Ralph Alessi: Trumpet

Ingrid Laubrock: Saxophones

Jacob Sacks: Piano

Drew Gress: Bass

Tom Rainey: drums

Recorded October 15th, 2018 by NDR, Jens Kunze, at Jazz Club Hannover. Live sound engineer, Raphael Becker-Foss. Recording producer NDR, Felix Behrendt. Recording executive producers NDR, Axel Dürr, Stefan Gerdes. Mastered October 2020 by Michael Brändli, Hardstudios, Winterthur. Cover art: Christine Reifenberger, Graphic design: Jonas Schoder. Liner notes: Laurence donohue-Greene, Photo: Jan-Gerrit Schäfer, Jazzclub Hannover. Produced by Tom Rainey, NDR and Intakt Records.

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Simon Nabatov Quintet - Plain (February 2021)

Let's be clear from the start. There's nothing "plain" about the new recording by Simon Nabatov, if by plain you mean "not attractive" or "undistinguished". Nabatov clarifies: "in Plain I was consciously looking for that minimum of compositional conditions which would provide an interesting work frame. I mean "plain" as in simple, understandable, approachable - not as primitive or boring, and hoped to walk this thin dividing line (hopefully on the right side)." Be assured he has succeeded magnificently. Unsurprising really when you consider his background. Since leaving the Soviet Union in 1979 aged 20, Nabatov has brought a breathtaking finesse to a staggering range of styles, equally at home in modern jazz, free improvisation, the canons of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols, and Brazilian music, as well as his own works which defy easy classification.

Plain is the second in an ongoing series of recordings (after 2019's excellent Last Minute Theory) in which Nabatov reconnects with the NYC scene after some 30 years, enthused by the increasing profile there for challenging music. He's recruited some of the city's finest talents for this session. Having worked twice with Chris Speed in the past he knew he wanted the reedman on board. "I’ve been a big fan for a long time. Love his clarinet sound, love this instrument." And of course it recalls Nabatov's first significant gig with the late clarinetist Perry Robinson. Alongside him is trumpeter Herb Robertson, a consummate player who's made a career out of avoiding the obvious, who appeared on Nabatov's The Master And Margarita (Leo, 2001).

"He is definitely one of the unsung heroes of this music." Anchoring the band is the formidable tandem of Tom Rainey and John Hébert, a staple from the bands of Kris Davis and Ingrid Laubrock. While Nabatov's alliance with Rainey is longstanding, he's never performed with Hébert before. That fits the template: "The idea is to have on board at least one or two I never played with, but enjoyed their musicianship for some time."

That push-pull between familiarity and the unknown finds its echo in the material which mixes mood-morphing pieces with others where a narrative is more easily discerned. But whatever the conception, the outcome is thrilling. The mutable title track begins with a coolly elegant duet between Nabatov and Speed, on that clarinet, before becoming by turns portentous, rhapsodic, choppy and sparkling. Like all the charts here it contains more than enough leeway for the starry cast to lean into, and their sensitivity, commitment and exceptional prowess prove a continual pleasure as they ease gracefully between unfettered expression and precise notation.

Each number is its own world, often embracing similar juxtapositions. That's evident on "Copy That" where the tightly coiled theme is set amid lightly plotted interplay which includes a bristling tenor/trumpet exchange, and on "Cry From Hell" where the jaunty melody is bookended by inspired ensemble give and take. If you detect a Brazilian flavour here you would not be wrong. Nabatov is a mad keen fan of the country's popular music, and visits regularly. "The core tune is written in the genre "Choro" - a very popular instrumental genre born in Rio de Janeiro in the 1870s. The Portuguese word "choro" means a cry. And since it’s not exactly a clean authentic reading of the music - why not a somewhat ironic title?"

"Rambling On", the only improv on the date, envelops a text by Robertson, delivered through a bullhorn. "I felt its harsh nature would be a good contrast to the rest of the program. It has the compelling nature of a passionate (political?) statement, reflecting something of the zeitgeist of today." Nabatov rounds off the album with an urbane rendition of Herbie Nichols' "House Party Starting". As he explains, "It displays my take on "plain" perfectly - no hip arrangement, an unadorned, soothing conclusion."

What better way to finish. John Sharpe

1. Plain 12:00

2. Copy That 08:38

3. Cry From Hell 06:50

4. Break 07:42

5. Ramblin' On 03:03

6. Slow Thinker 10:29

7. House Party Starting 07:30

Chris Speed - tenor saxophone, clarinet

Herb Robertson - trumpet, cornet, voice

Simon Nabatov - piano

John Hébert - bass

Tom Rainey - drums

all music by Simon Nabatov (GEMA)

except track 5 (collective improv on the text of Herb Robertson)

and track 7 by Herbie Nichols

recorded June 1 2019 at the Trading8s Studio, New Jersey

recorded by Christopher Sulit, mixed and mastered by Stefan Deistler

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Ben Monder / Tony Malaby / Tom Rainey - Live at 55 Bar (February 26, 2021 Sunnyside Records)

If anything good has come from the past year, it has been an enhanced appreciation of friendship and communal interaction. In jazz and improvised music, the former is always a blessing, but the latter is a necessity. Guitarist Ben Monder set out with the intent of recording a studio album with longtime collaborators, saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey, but circumstances led to a more informal situation, providing a visceral glimpse of these stellar musicians’ rapport.

The performance world was on the brink of shutting down in early March 2020 due to the appearance of COVID-19. Monder decided to take the opportunity provided by his monthly Tuesday residency at New York City’s stalwart jazz club, The 55 Bar, to present a recurring project with Malaby, a bass-less trio with drums. Rainey commanded the revolving drum chair on March 3rd and the two sets were recorded as a remarkable live document of fully improvised music making from three masters, released now as Live at The 55 Bar.

Monder has made a mark on the contemporary jazz world as a brilliant technician, virtuosic soloist and meticulous composer. The concept for his nearly 25-year partnership with Malaby was to focus on improvisation, as the saxophonist’s energy and creativity have always provided a perfect foil for the guitarist. Monder’s relationship with the versatile Rainey goes back even farther to the guitarist’s first demo recordings in the early 1990s; their familiarity is obvious in the ease of communication between them.

There are many active elements in this type of musical approach. Monder considers performing with this amalgamation particularly rewarding because of his bandmates’ abundance of ideas and penchant for improvising compositionally. These traits allow the music to evolve naturally, in a long-form manner, granting the musicians the ability to venture into different places without repeating themselves.

Three long improvisations were recorded that night, each piece unfolding organically. The ebb and flow and the building of tension to release demonstrate just how confident these musicians are in their craft of composing on the fly, in full control of their musical choices. The recording was made by the brilliant producer Joseph Branciforte, who was able to provide gorgeous studio quality sound and help with the narrative arc for the completed recording.

The trio took the suite approach to heart, naming the three pieces as such with the date of performance. The beginning segment, “Suite 3320 – Part I,” begins quietly with guitar arpeggiations, searching tenor moans and skittering drums. The brooding feel blossoms as Malaby pokes and prods at melodic ideas and the ambient guitar harmonics begin to unfurl more and more. Rainey’s tempo and volume build the intensity, and the guitar distortion adds to the density of sound.

“Suite 3320 – Part II” was actually almost the entire second set played on the evening of March 3rd. Malaby’s playful soprano jousts with Rainey’s lightly played snare as Monder patiently builds. The percussion focuses the group in its ascendancy. The saxophone and guitar push against one another, the dissonance electrifying the proceedings. The intensity breaks with waves of controlled reverbed guitar feedback and ghostly plucked tones over pounding drums. The thirty-minute performance rolls through echoing, ambient valleys and rocky, percussive slopes.

The concluding “Suite 3320 – Part III” initially finds the trio in a hazily disjointed space. Malaby’s sputtering tenor vocalizes and bleats over Monder’s dark, densely-packed and reverb-drenched guitar manipulations. Rainey’s drums are relentless as the trio’s level of intensity remains full tilt. A sudden break finds the musicians in an icy realm of false calm, Monder’s cold ominous waves of sound only broken by Malaby’s entreating sax.

Monder, Malaby and Rainey’s Live at The 55 Bar is a rare document of the guitarist convening an impressively supportive and expansive unit in a purely improvisational setting. The recording should reinforce the importance of, and will surely whet the appetite for, live improvised music made in the moment.

1. Suite 3320 - Part I

2. Suite 3320 - Part II

3. Suite 3320 - Part III

Ben Monder - guitar

Tony Malaby - saxophone

Tom Rainey - drums

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Matt Moran Trio - Play Ball (2018)

The debut release of Matt Moran's organ trio featuring Gary Versace (Hammond B3), Tom Rainey (drums), and Matt Moran (vibraphone).

1. Play Ball 06:31

2. Fever Dream Blue Machine 08:00

3. Counterpoint 03:25

4. Dig Your Own Groove 13:51

5. Get Rich Quick 04:00

6. Try 04:04

7. That's What You Think 04:27

Out Dec. 7 – Fred Hersch Trio '97 @ The Village Vanguard

Acclaimed Pianist/Composer Fred Hersch Revisits his First Stint as a Bandleader at New York’s Most Iconic Nightclub on

Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard

Never-before-released recordings from 1997 showcase Hersch and the much-loved 1990s incarnation of his trio, with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey, on their only live album  

“[A] pianist, composer and conceptualist of rare imaginative power…”

–Nate Chinen, New York Times

"A living legend.

– Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker

For jazz fans in 2018, it might be difficult to imagine a time when pianist/composer Fred Hersch was not intimately associated with the Village Vanguard. For more than two decades the iconic New York City nightclub has been a home base for Hersch, who performs there for packed houses three times a year and has recorded some of his most acclaimed albums on its historic stage.

But there is, of course, a first time for everything – and for Fred Hersch that first time was in July 1997. Not his first time playing at the Vanguard, which he’d done regularly since 1979 with a host of legendary bandleaders including Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Lee Konitz, Ron Carter, Al Foster and others. That mid-summer week in 1997 was his first of many stints at the venue as a bandleader in his own right, placing him in the hallowed company of such icons as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus.

Fortunately, Hersch and his trio’s three Friday night sets were captured for posterity and now, after 21 years, the pianist has hand-picked his favorite moments on Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard, due for release on December 7, 2018 via Palmetto Records. The album’s eight tunes – a mix of Songbook standards, classic jazz compositions and original pieces – captures the Fred Hersch Trio of that time at the height of their estimable powers. Bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey had been working with Hersch for five years at the point that they took the Vanguard stage, and those years shine through in the band’s vigorous swing, highly charged interplay, and sheer joy in discovery that they find in one another’s playing.

“It meant everything,” Hersch says of his first week at the Vanguard. “For me, it’s equivalent to the first time a classical musician plays at Carnegie Hall. It’s the greatest jazz club in the world.”

Beyond its historical significance in Hersch’s career, this new collection is also a welcome addition to his discography in that it’s the only live recording of this much-loved trio. For those who weren’t fortunate enough to catch them live, Hersch’s work with Gress and Rainey could only be heard in its purest form on a pair of studio albums released by the Chesky label: 1993’s Dancing in the Dark and 1994’s Plays. (On Point in Time (1995) they were supplemented by trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Rich Perry, while they were joined by a full string orchestra on 1996’s Passion Flower: Fred Hersch Plays Billy Strayhorn. This release also marks the earliest available live recording by Hersch aside from his solo concert Live at Maybeck from 1993.

It had taken Hersch 18 years to graduate from sideman to leader at the Vanguard simply because he insisted on waiting until he could be joined by his own trio rather than an all-star band assembled for the occasion. “I was very stubborn about wanting to do it on my own terms with my own band,” Hersch recalls. “That’s why it took so long. I didn't want to just go in there once and then not come back. That does happen. I insisted on throwing it down the way I wanted to.”

The wisdom of that decision is amply evident in the profound chemistry shared by the trio throughout Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard. The album opens with a robust romp through “Easy To Love” that showcases the trio’s muscular but elastic way with rhythm. The sensitivity of Gress’ playing comes to the fore on “My Funny Valentine,” while Rainey’s sharp-honed propulsion drives “Three Little Words” and prompts Hersch to take sharp curves at breakneck pace in his solo. The first of two Hersch originals, “Evanessence” pays homage to one of the pianist’s most respected predecessors on the Vanguard bench, Bill Evans. “Swamp Thang,” meanwhile, digs deep into the murky groove suggested by the title.

Gress contributes “Andrew John,” introduced by a compelling solo rumination by Hersch before the trio contributes some of its most sparse and tender accents. With a contained intensity, “I Wish I Knew” exercises the bandmates’ gifts for subtle dynamic shifts, and “You Don’t Know What Love Is” ends the album at a blistering pace, at once staggeringly virtuosic and gleefully thrilling.

Listening back to the recordings all these years later, Hersch hears a band playing with remarkable confidence and abandon given the HIV-positive pianist’s personal health concerns at the time. Just over a decade later he would be placed in a medically-induced coma after a bad case of pneumonia; another ten years have passed since, affording the pianist an insightful perspective. “I was pleasantly surprised at how much authority and attention to detail everyone was playing with,” he says. “Maybe if I would have listened to it a week after the concerts I would have heard the flaws, but with this much distance I think it stacks up with any of my better trio albums.”

The album is certainly a worthy addition to Hersch’s catalogue, even at a time when his current trio (with John Hébert and Eric McPherson) is scaling unprecedented heights, as it did on this year’s highly-acclaimed Live in Europe. But just as importantly, Fred Hersch Trio ’97 @ The Village Vanguard adds another chapter to the rich history shared by a revered artist and a legendary venue.

“Having my photo on the wall of the Village Vanguard means more to me than a Grammy Award,” Hersch reflects. “That’s one of the accomplishments that I’m proudest of, and it signifies my long and deep relationship with the club. There is magic there.”

A select member of jazz’s piano pantheon, Fred Hersch is a pervasively influential creative force who has shaped the music’s course over more than three decades as an improviser, composer, educator, bandleader, collaborator and recording artist. He has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair, “an elegant force of musical invention” by The L.A. Times, and “a living legend” by The New Yorker. A twelve-time Grammy nominee, Hersch has regularly garnered jazz’s most prestigious awards, including recent distinctions as a 2016 Doris Duke Artist, 2016 and 2018 Jazz Pianist of the Year from the Jazz Journalists Association, and the 2017 Prix Honorem de Jazz from L’Acádemie Charles Cros for the totality of his career. With more than three dozen albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader, Hersch consistently receives lavish critical praise and numerous international awards for each highly anticipated new release. In 2017, he released his acclaimed memoir, Good Things Happen Slowly (Crown Archetype Books/Random House), which compellingly reveals the story of his life in music along with a frank recounting of his struggles and triumphs as the first openly gay, HIV-positive jazz musician. The book was named one of 2017’s Five Best Memoirs by the Washington Post and The New York Times. As a composer, Hersch has earned distinction with such visionary pieces as 2003’s Leaves of Grass, a large-scale setting of Walt Whitman's poetry, and the 2010 multimedia project My Coma Dreams.

fredhersch.com

Takashi Sugawa Trio - Outgrowing (November 21, 2018)

Takashi Sugawa plays cello and contrabass. He born in Japan in 1982. Boston - Brooklyn, NY - currently live in Tokyo. Please visit my website for details.

takashisugawa.com

Takashi Sugawa: contrabass (02, 05, 07), cello (01, 03, 04, 06, 08

Leo Genovese: piano

Tom Rainey: drums

1. First Meeting

2. Outgrowing

3. Violincello

4. Short Story Long

5. Motion

6. Izayoi

7. Ancient Blue

8. Uncompleted Waltz

Produced by Takashi Sugawa

Recorded September 2017 at The Bunker Studio, Brooklyn NY | Engineer: Akihiro Nishimura | Assistant: Todd Carter | Mixed and mastered at Dedé AIR Mastering Studio, Tokyo | Mixing engineer: Shunroku Hitani | Mastering engineer: Akihito Yoshikawa 

Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier and Tom Rainey - Noise Of Our Time (INTAKT RECORDS 2018)

It was only during Ken Vandermark's residency at the Jazz club 

The Stone in January 2016 that Vandermark found himself in the 

same vicinity as Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier and Tom Rainey. 

A year later they went into the studio with nine compositions – 

three each by Courvoisier, Vandermark and Wooley. 

These four musicians have well-documented, distinct personalities 

which, in this context, results in performances full of surprises, 

rich contrasts and shared responsibilities. The music sounds 

thoughtful, but never over-wrought. They play by in tuition, yet 

retain a vivid complexity. Their composing is transparent and 

un-clichéd; their improvising provided with a remarkable coherence 

and openness. And perhaps it is exactly this – a fresh collective 

unity that keeps their respective personalities and idiosyncrasies 

intact – that brings them success in this bold and collaborative 

performance. Art needs to pique and renew your interest, take 

you on inspiring and surprising journeys and sometimes even 

confront your own biases. Creating, not reviving as a way to 

evolve and to keep going forward in all directions.

Ken Vandermark: Saxophone, Clarinet

Nate Wooley: Trumpet

Sylvie Courvoisier: Piano

Tom Rainey: Drums Percussion

1. Checkpoint 05:03

2. Track and Field 06:39

3. Sparks 03:44

4. The Space Between the Teeth 06:12

5. Tag 04:32

6. Songs of Innocence 04:17

7. VWCR 04:00

8. Truth Through Mass Individuation 04:03

9. Simple Cut 05:41

Recorded August 17, 2017, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon,

New York, USA, by Ryan Streber.

Mixed and mastered by Ryan Streber.

Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder.

Liner notes: Guy Peters.

Photos: Christophe Alary, Daniel Sheehan, Cristina Marx, Denis Dalby. Produced and published by Patrik Landolt, Intakt Records.

The Nels Cline 4 - Currents, Constellations (BLUE NOTE April 13, 2018)

Guitarist Nels Cline debuts a new band with the April 13 release of Currents, Constellations (Blue Note) featuring The Nels Cline 4, an intrepid unit that builds upon Cline’s acclaimed collaboration with guitarist Julian Lage by adding the fierce and versatile rhythm section of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey. The album’s lead single “Imperfect 10” is available to stream or download today

Guitarist Nels Cline debuts a new band with the April 13 release of Currents, Constellations (Blue Note) featuring The Nels Cline 4, an intrepid unit that builds upon Cline’s acclaimed collaboration with guitarist Julian Lage by adding the fierce and versatile rhythm section of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey. The album’s lead single “Imperfect 10” is available to stream or download today

The Nels Cline 4 will celebrate the album’s release with a show at (le) poisson rouge in New York City on April 16. Tickets go on sale here on Friday, March 9 at 12:00pm ET. A European tour will follow, with Cline joined by Lage, Rainey, and bassist Jorge Roeder.

Of all the rich and varied projects guitarist Cline has pursued since his emergence as a leader in the late 1980s, his two-guitar duo with Lage, documented on the 2014 Mack Avenue album Room, ranks among the most special. “When Julian and I started playing together it kicked my ass hard,” Cline told JazzTimes around the time of Room’s release. “At the same time it inspired me and refreshed my soul.” Lage, for his part, declared he had “found his people” playing with Cline: “At last I found a scenario where … you could be free and adventurous, you could utilize sound and be extremely melodic and evocative.”

“Even in the earliest days of the duo we used to say, ‘I wonder what we’d do if we ever had a rhythm section,’” Cline recalls. In 2016 he decided to find out by inviting Colley and Rainey to collaborate with he and Lage during a residency at The Stone in New York City. “I brought in a few themes and we just kind of went for it. Everyone was enthusiastic about continuing the work.”

Known as the lead guitarist of Wilco since 2004, and one of Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists,” Cline is coming off the success of his 2016 Blue Note debut Lovers, a “quietly ravishing double-album” (NY Times) featuring Cline with a large ensemble conducted and arranged by Michael Leonhart that was “wildly inventive in its watercolored way” (Rolling Stone). On Currents, Constellations Cline embraces a sparser but edgier instrumentation, which serves the adventurous thrust of the music, brimming as it does with raw energy and wild beauty.

1. Furtive (Nels Cline)

2. Swing Ghost '59 (Nels Cline)

3. Imperfect 10 (Nels Cline)

4. As Close As That (Nels Cline)

5. Amenette (Nels Cline)

6. Temporarily (Carla Bley)

7. River Mouth (Parts 1 & 2) (Nels Cline)

8. For Each, A Flower (Nels Cline)

2018 Tour Dates:

April 16 - New York, NY - (le) poisson rouge - ON SALE 3/9

April 20 - Geneva, CH - AMR - Sud des Alpes - TICKETS

April 21 - Oslo, NO - Nasjonal Jazzscene, Victoria - TICKETS

April 25 - Berlin, DE - ZigZag Club - TICKETS

April 26 - Madrid, ES - Sala Clamores - TICKETS

April 27 - Munich, DE - Unterfahrt Jazzclub - TICKETS

April 28 - Ferrara, IT - Torrione San Giovanni - Jazz Club Ferrara - TICKETS

April 30 - Istanbul, TU - Babylon Bomonti Istanbul - TICKETS

May 2 - Kortrijk, BE - Belgium De Kreun - TICKETS

May 4 - Liége, BE - La Cité Miroir - TICKETS