R.I.P. Fred Anderson

More from the Chicago Tribune.

R.I.P. Bill Dixon

Sad to hear Bill Dixon passed away yesterday, June 16th, apparently after long time illness, which has not prevented him from making music: His last album, Tapestries For Small Orchestra, came out as recently as late last year. Stumbled accross the clip below, which was record during his residency with Firehouse 12 (the label that released Tapestries...).

JJA Jazz Awards 2010 - a comment

The 2010 JJA Jazz Awards took place last night. You can see the full list of winners and nominees here.

Many congrats to Vijay Iyer, who won the award for musician of the year. Well deserved recognition for a guy who contines to deliver exciting and fresh music. I must say, though, that some of the picks seem totally uninspired to me.

It may just be a simple matter of taste, of course, but when the consensus is that a safe (but rather dull) Joe Lovano record is the pick of the bunch in a year when there were plenty of really good jazz records - many of which released by fairly young artists - you'll have to question whether the majority of the voters have bothered to look beyond name recogniton when they checked out new records. Or it may simply be that their tastes are too damn conservative. Yes, I've been on that horse before. To me, part of the joy and excitement of jazz is a willingness to experiment, try new things, twist'n'turn and look at things a bit differently, seek new paths, whether indivudual voices or the structures of jazz music itself. After all, that has been a large part of the history of jazz. When did those qualities stop being important?

The "Bassist of the Year" category is a case in point. Won by Dave Holland (63) - who admittedly still delivers from time to time but is still a pretty safe pick - and where only Christian McBride of those nominated is under the age of 50 - Ron Carter (73), Charlie Haden (72, bless him), John Patitucci (51) filling the other spots. None of them can really be said to be particularly adventurous these days either. Where are the Adam Lanes and the "Moppa" Elliotts? William Parker (who is over 50, but is more experimental than those nominated), Joe Morris, Ben Allison, Hilliard Greene or Linda Oh? I could go on.

I may do a rundown of the categories later this week if I feel like it. Allthough I disagree with a good few of the picks and nominees, others were not too shabby. To close this post, though, I want to congratulate Nate Chinen on winning the Helen Dance-Robert Palemer Award for Review and Feature Writing. Chinen is a seeker, and kudos to him for that.

Vision Festival XV

This year's Vision Fest kicks off next Sunday (the 20th of June) in downtown Manhattan, and the line-up is full of treats.

The first day is dedicated to various combos of words/poetry and music. Darius Jones Trio, with Adam Lane on bass and Jason Nazary on drums, and Lowest Common Denominator (Tim Berne ++), as well as William Parker's Little Huey Septet and the Roy Campbell Trio would be my picks for Monday the 21st. Celestial Funk Band, with Parker, Cooper-Moore, Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, Vernon Reid and others should be worth checking out on Tuesday 22nd. Wednesday is packed with various ensembles that include several of the above-mentioned musicians, as well as Rob Brown, Matthew Shipp and others. Muhal Richard Abrams plays two gigs on Thursday, one solo and one trio.

But those are just a few picks from the first days. The festival continues right on through to Wednesday the 30th, with Billy Bang and David S. Ware among those playing in the second week, so I suggest you click the link above and check out the full line-up for yourself. Once again, though, I'm stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic, but I'm hoping to be able to attend next time around.

Perfect Sounds Listening Booth, week 23, 2010

• The Mark Lomax Trio: The State of Black America (Inarhyme, 2010) - A drums, bass and sax-trio, and like a couple of the good trio records from last year (of which there were a few), noteably JD Allen Trio's Shine and Marcus Stricklands Idiosyncrasies, it has shades of post-Coltrane. But where Allen's had a groovy blues feel, and Stickland's added R&B-like rhythm patterns, The State of ... rumbles and screeches a lot more when it needs to, and the bluesier and slower songs feel a lot more rough-hewn and raw, befitting the theme as hinted to in the record's title. At times this resembles Charles Gayle's own great Coltrane-homage Touchin' the Trane, if not quite as free. The opening track, "Stuck In a Rut", is especially riveting, starting off with the group setting up a theme, before bassist Dean Hulett plays a two note bass vamp as if to say "wait for it ... waaaait for it", and then BOOM, the tune blasts off. Hulett's bass playing is deep, raw and solid, using the lower register of the instrument to great effect. Drummer Mark Lomax II and sax player (tenor) Edwyn Bayard let themselves go more often than Hulett, but the interplay is excellent. The production gives the music an intimate and "up close" feeling, as if they are playing in a small club. A powerful and enjoyable set. (8/10)*

* Grades are tentative, based on three or four listens, sometimes a few more. Much of the writing is done during listens, and should be considered notes more than final reviews.

R.I.P. Arne Nordheim