.jpg "MattWilson_Q_Leave_main") |
Whatever else is going on in jazz — fractured meters, indie-pop fusions — it's always good to hear a couple of horns burning through the changes over swing cymbals and a hard-walking bass groove. Reedmen Andrew D'Angelo and Jeff Lederer play the top half of that equation on drummer Wilson's latest while the leader and bassist Chris Lightcap cover the bottom end.
At times, this album exudes the glorious free bop that emerged from the '70s and '80s avant-garde. D'Angelo kicks off the album with an alto-sax annunciation that's as smooth and speedy as Charlie Parker, with Eric Dolphy's sharp angles. This is especially cheering because, only months before this September '08 recording session, D'Angelo had been treated for a malignant brain tumor. Here he's in full command.
Lederer's tenor tears varied phrases through the standard "Two Bass Hit," smooth runs shifting into testifying honks. And the free-squall monkey gets turned loose on Lightcap's Ornette-ish "Celibate Oriole." Not that there aren't moments of reflection, like the 12-tone chamber arrangement for clarinet and bass clarinet, "Lucky," the traditional hymn "Come and Find the Quiet Center," and the vocal-number finale, War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?" Why indeed.
Related:
The doctor is in, Frank Carlberg | The American Dream, The Fully Celebrated | Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones, More 
- The doctor is in
That Stanley Sagov plays jazz at all is impressive. That he plays it at such a high level is stunning.
- Frank Carlberg | The American Dream
Other jazz musicians have set the poetry of Robert Creeley to music. Here poetry takes on the form of incantation in the repetition of Creeley's short, oblique verses.
- The Fully Celebrated | Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones
After two albums with cornettist Taylor Ho Bynum, and now dropping "Orchestra" from their name, this venerable Boston avant-garde street band are again a trio — and they're still a virtuoso ensemble.
- 2009: The year in jazz
Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and concerts I wrote about in 2009.
- Wendy gets Bad
Wendy Lewis's association with the Bad Plus goes back to her shared Minneapolis roots with David King and Reid Anderson.
- Cornball bliss
Not until entering the Roxy a week ago Thursday did I comprehend what a normal kid feels the first time he sees a big-league ballpark.
- Streaming
It's standard operating procedure these days for young jazz bands to mix the free and the formal.
- Review: Humcrush | Rest at World's End
Replete with bands who weave jazz, modern composition, and electronic music, the Rune Grammofon label captures a thriving scene of Norwegian improvisers and composers.
- Inside out
Charlie Kohlhase's love affair with jazz began with the avant-garde. As a high-school kid in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he found that it was Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago who rocked his world.
- Diana Krall | Quiet Nights
Jazz as the language of love is the theme of this hitmaker's 12th album, an achingly pretty tribute to the spirit, pace, and sound of the bossa nova.
- No identity crisis
If great art and great artists are supposed to contain multitudes, then in music, at least, pianists have the edge: 10 fingers theoretically capable of 10 different simultaneous paths for the music to take. Of course, it's not that simple.
- Less
Topics:
CD Reviews
, Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, More
, Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker, Eric Dolphy, Eric Dolphy, Matt Wilson, jazz, Indie Rock and Indie Pop, Less
