bringing you the best in adult contemporary. just kidding, this is a pretty slamming jazz record. craig t. is one of my favorite players in the game. pitchdork wrote about this record in detail here, so i don't have to. i saw this man play a concert of duets with the inimitable kris davis last year and it was jaw dropping. dig it.
-alibi
"I've always been interested in beats and surprised by how limited and dull most of the mainstream beat-orientated music is. It's not like it's impossible to have a great beat and still make something interesting! I simply don't like listening to music that bores me. I think it's also important to discuss the reversed situation - that experimental music doesn't have to be overly difficult or unpleasant to be interesting." That's Klara Lewis explaining her motivations for making music in an interview with The Quietus. Her words stuck with me. "Experimental music doesn't have to be overly difficult or unpleasant to be interesting." It seems to me that composers are beginning to take this sentiment to heart in big ways. I've heard some jazz this year, some real challenging game changing playing... and it's this set of tunes that reminds me that stimulating stuff need not be difficult to listen to. I can play these jams in the car on the way to lunch with my sisters. These really smart tunes do not necessarily demand one's undivided attention. However, they certainly do reward devoted listenings. Thomas Morgan is king and his bass playing speaks volumes. Jim Black's beats are so fun and off kilter that they challenge the listener to keep up. Elias Stemeseder is a pianist to follow, who, playing on his third record with this trio, is only 26 years young. That should not be impressive in and of itself. Yet when you hear the emotional intensity on this record, you marvel at the maturity expressed therein.
_alibi
if you meet a music fan under the age of forty nowadays who does not really have an appreciation for jazz, you have to go easy on him or her. someone of that age bracket grew up after the point when jazz became cheapened. did this not happen for other kinds of musics? it did, but it seems to have happened most drastically with jazz. jazz went from being this extremely cool vibrant expressive rarified cherished thing to... becoming just about the polar opposite of all of those things. this happened over the course of a decade or two, beginning in the late seventies and... ceasing to be cool all the way up to now. how did this happen? jazz became elevator music. how did that happen? lots of people are responsible. certain guitarists are definitely to blame. i'm talking about john mclaughlin in particular. when he joined miles davis' group, to me this marked the death of the cool miles birthed. countless and sundry other people were to blame, no doubt, guitarists like bill frisell and composers like john zorn just made jazz that was, well, boring. things went down a path that spawned such abominations as medeski martin and wood, which took jazz to unfashionable extremes, making stuff that sounded closer to jam bands like phish and late era greatful dead than it sounded like... you know... jazz.
well, i'm here to tell you that jazz guitar is cool again. was it ever cool, you may ask? listen to any old julie london record and then tell me jazz guitar isn't cool.
guitarists at the vanguard of jazz right now include but are not limited to jakob bro (who's records for the ecm label are available elsewhere on this site), miles okazaki (who plays closely with the best american jazz drummer in the business, dan weiss) and mary halvorson. here, on 'away with you', halverson, on guitar, leads an octet of bass drums trombone alto and tenor sax trumpet and pedal steel. it's a unique combo and this group plays together quite intimately. the compositions are complex and catchy, dynamic and measured. this is a great record to sink your teeth into that rewards repeated listenings. so, when you're tired of playing the new meshuggah record on repeat, this is a good one to reach for.
_mink nun
this record was one of my more highly anticipated releases for 2016, and i am happy to say it does not disappoint. the vibe is almost twin peaks-ish. the interplay is so sophisticated, played with great dynamics, restraint, and elegance. a shimmering, beautiful record. dig it.
_alibi
self-released on her own label. bought this cd when i saw her perform last week with craig taborn. if you know of a better contemporary jazz pianist than this woman, i want to know about him or her. kris davis is godzilla of the blacks and the whites. buy it here.
_alibi
_dj lanolin nip stains
_dj michael broomberg
_dj felch fucker
_grape ape
this is the first record to be released by what has now become one of the most important record labels of the last fifty years, ECM. they got off to a soft modest start in that this record did not really change the face of jazz as we know it or anything like that, nor did it seem to set out to do so. but, if you're reading this, chances are you are not out trying to hunt down records that re-invented jazz music. this record consists of some really well written well played piano trio jazz. music to sizzle bacon to, if you will. break some eggs while you're at it. make an omelet. you know what they say.
_mink nun