Catching up... Darius Jones & post-summer jazz records

I really should set, and stick to, a goal of writing at least one post a week, preferably on a specific day. Lately, other projects have prevented me from wiritng much here, and it's not been for lack of want or lack of music or topics to write about. A more structured time table should allow me to juggle various tasks more easily, and give me time to write more regularly here. There's been no "Music of the Week" for a while, and my much touted update of the 2009-list has not come to fruition.

So, I'd thought I'd use some space to do some catching up with a couple of the best jazz records I've come accross since sometime this summer (a few of them have been included on previous MotW posts). I'll only write a few lines about most of them, but the first certainly deserves extra space.

• Darius Jones Trio: Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing)

Darius Jones is an up-and-coming saxophonist living in Brooklyn in New York having arrived form Richmond, Virginia in 2005. The Southern heritage is apparent in much of the music on this stunning debut. The record is bluesy, and (like the title says) both raw and beautiful, with Mr. Jones often using simple melodic lines as the basis of the music, much like Albert Ayler used to. There's a similarity between Jones and Ayler in the physicality of their playing and the wailing tones as well, 'though Jones can certainly hold his own and more often switches to softer themes than similar players tend to do. The band - with elder statesmen Cooper-Moore on the bass-like (and ancient) diddley-bo(w) as well as piano, and Rakalm Bob Moses on drums completing the trio - swithch between fairly loose structures and stricter blues based rhythms. Cooper-Moore has a knack for blending the seemingly simplistic and potent, as he does with his own band Digital Primitives.

On "Cry Out", for example, Cooper-Moore plays a rough blues walk on the piano, Bob Moses shuffles and Jones plays a slightly plaintive melodies on top. The tune has a certain noir quality to it. "Chasing the Ghost" is another highlight, with Cooper-Moore playing vibrating low bass notes on the diddley-bo(w), Bob Moses skitting over and under, while Jones plays variations and improvised lines over a strong melodic theme. The "chasing" of the title sends ones thoghts to one of Coltrane's classic work-outs, while the "ghost" part, well, it certainly opens up to other interpretations of what the piece is about. The result is nonetheless both beautifully disturbing and powerful. Having been roughed up by much of the music on the album, the simplistic loveliness of the closing "Forgive Me" becomes extra heartwrenching by the juxtaposition alone. Cooper-Moore plays a Satie-like chordal theme, with Jones seemingly exorcising his demons with a softer, almost weeping tone. It is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've heard all year. A bonus track with Adam Lane on bass Jason Nazary on drums is more in line with a rougher blues-bop tradition, but it's still a collaboration I'd like to hear more from, Lane himself having a similar knack for roughing things up.

• Digital Primitives (Cooper-Moore, Assif Tsahar, Chad Taylor): Hum Crackle & Pop

Bluesy, slightly funky, free and with a hint of eastern and African melodic sensibility. Much like their previous record, but equally good.

• Quartet Offensive: Carnivore

Baltimore band, improvising over rock riffs and beats, made more apparent by the inclusion of a fuzz driven guitar. "Rock" means both Led Zeppelin and Fugazi here, and the result is often quite rivetng.

• Henry Threadgill Zooid: This BringsUs To, Vol. 1

The great man in a playful mood (when has he not been?) with what is probably his most interesting and flexible group since the amazing Sextet(t) of the 80s.

• J.D. Allen Trio: Shine

Tenor saxophonist J.D. Allens best record yet, a slightly more traditional post-bop sax, bass & drums trio, but one that has not gone untouched by later musical strains. The rhtyhm section blends simplistic power with great mobility, and Allan plays strong melodic themes as well as flying improvised solos. The track "Sonhouse" in particular is a favorite.

• Marcus Strickland Trio: Idiosyncracies

Another sax, bass, drums trio. Strickland plays tenor and soprano. The music is slightly soulful jazz, and rhythmically the music has tinges of modern R&B and hip-hop. The album includes reworkings of music by Björk, OutKast and Oumo Sangare, to name a few interesting choices. "Set Free", though, has a Coltrane-like quality.

Mike Reed's People, Places & Things - About Us

While we're waiting for the official release of exciting young drummer/composer Mike Reed's new offering, About Us, this post is to let you know that the entire album can be streamed from his homepage here (or click the image above).

First impressions: bloody good, as the English might put it. Mostly a bit slower tempo wise than the more ferocious Proliferation, a record I liked a lot, so I'm thinking while the previous record was inspired by Chicago's hard boppers such as Wilbur Ware and Johnny Griffin, perhaps this is a nod to more orchestrated Chicagoans such as Sun Ra and Muhal Richard Abrams. I'm just guessing. That said, there are enough uptempo tracks on About Us to convince me that Reed's inspirations are split pretty evenly between the two PP&T records.

Threadgill previewed * Destination: Out!

Head on over to Destination: Out! now for a preview of Henry Threadgill's upcoming album This Brings Us To, vol.1. Some thoughts by the man himself in that very same post.

Closing with a qoute from Studs Terkel:

“It would be difficult to overestimate Henry Threagill’s role in perpetually altering the meaning of jazz..…He has changed our underlying assumptions of what jazz can and should be.”

Decades

A few days ago, I finished a quick piece for the fanzine I write for (FAN) about music from 1984, 'though in part it was also about how I feel 1980s popular culture have been misrepresented and treated with unfair disdain. I think, possibly, this was in part because many of the critics of 80s culture grew up in the 60s and 70s, a time where rock (and related) music was a shared thing - almost what you could call a monoculture - between most young people everywhere. Of course, there may have been Stones vs. Beatles feuds, but everybody knew who they were. (Now, I'm not saying there werent obscure and/or underground artists. Just wanted to set the record straight).

But by the 80s (or even late 70s), the shear amount of music - in part because of the spread of DIY on the one side and easier, cheaper, and faster ways to mass produce music (e.g. Stock Aitken Waterman) on the other - may have lead to the situation where the older critics just couldn't keep up. What had previously been a shared youth culture was by the 80s many separate youth cultures. Add to this, the birth of MTV lead to increased focus on image, something critics of rockist leanings would dislike, and images tend to stay in the consciousness for a while. So, since many popstars of that time wore bright colors and puffy clothes (to get noticed, you know), that's what they remember, and not the kids who wore jeans and Chuck Taylors at the R.E.M. gig, just what some might wear today.

Mostly, though, my gripe has been with Norwegian critics. I feel it's been different in other countries. The Brits have been proud of how the Smiths and the Housmartins were parts of their popular culture, while Americans have understood more than most others that there were several plains in popular culture in the eighties, e.g. the birth of AmerIndie, the birth of hip-hop, as well as mainstream giants like Springsteen and Prince (who at the same time, may have shared many values with the underground cultures at the time). Few critics have been better at writing about the music of the 80s than Robert Cristagau. He found, and still does find, values and sounds to be treasured or loathed all across the board. My kind of listener.

But I waffle. I just thought it a funny coincidence that I had just recently been writing about how a decade has been (mis-?)perceived, and that this week Pitchfork have started a 2000s countdown, with lists, essays and what not. Now, I like history and a can enjoy a good list like any other jerk, and I may have a "Best Jazz of 2000-09" or something to that effect by the end of the year myself, but I thought this was a bit too early. I had almost forgotten we'd come to the end of a deade.

Anyway. Decades, huh? Strange, isn't it.

Rashied Ali, R.I.P.

Dang! Only got the news today - attending Øya usually means I have very little time reading news online, and I've yet to read a word about Ali in a Norwegian paper. Rashied Ali is probably best known as the drummer for John Coltrane in the '60s, but he played on plenty of other great records as well, with Touchin' On Trane with William Parker and Charles Gayle a personal favorite.

Some nice words for Ali over at Do the Math.

MoldeJazz '09, final pt.

Managed to see both Leonard Cohen and Mario Pavone Double Tenor Quintet yestereday, though as expected, I had to leave the Canadian early.

What to say about Cohen? Sound impeccable, very solid band (especially his Catalan classical guitar player and his bassist, their names escape me), most of his good songs done exquicitely, my favorites yesterday being "The Future" and "Democracy", perhaps because they have more groove the most of his other material and work a bit better in such a stadium context where the quieter moments can fizz out. "Dance Me to the End Of Love", "Ain't No Cure for Love" and "Tower of Song" were good too. Left just after the second set started.

Mario Pavone's men had played for almost half an hour when I arrived. Have to say I'm begining to like Pavone's music a lot. Although he has a foot in the loft swing/free bop tradition, his albums can vary a great deal in terms of attitude, tempo, sound and tone (Deez to Blues, for example, due to the addition of tuba and violin). He is also a solid, original but unflashy (and I mean that in a positive sense) bassist. His Double Tenor Ensemble reminds a bit of Reggie Workman's albums from the mid '90s, though this band adds a piano player in the mix, Peter Madsen. The rest of the group is Tony Malaby and Jimmy Greene on tenor and soprano saxophones (both) and Gerald Cleaver on drums. I like Green's playing in this band, he adds a certain funkiness to the rest of the bands more '60s post-coltrane vibe. Great gig to end my stay at this years MoldeJazz.

Steve Lehman Octet - Threadgillian stuff

In what looks to be a decent year for large ensemble jazz records - Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and Hypnotic Jazz Ensemble, to name but two - the preview from Steve Lehman Octet's new record posted by Destinatio: Out! the other day sounds especially promising. The track, "Echoes", does the trick of sounding at once very contemporary and modern, especially in the way the horns and bass riff and in Tyshawn Sorey's hip-hop influenced drumming, while at the same time echoing (right!) the works of past masters. I have to agree with Ben Ratlif in hearing a similarity with Henry Threadgill's music in the ways the riffs and beats are orchestrated. Steve Lehman himself has a wail that is reminiscent of the great Eric Dolphy both because of his gruff tone and in how his solo leaps out and swirl around the rest of the music. I'm very much looking forward to hearing more of this record.

Travail, Transformation and Flow is released by Pi Recordings and is available from, among others, Jazz Loft and amazon.com (see below).

I mentioned that the talented Tyshawn Sorey plays on the record. In this Q&A he reveals himself as a man with diverse (and almost impeccable) tastes. Beefheart, Nirvana, Braxton and Prince. Gotta love it.

Carl Wilson on speech & music, plus rare Air recordings.

Fantastic post by Carl Wilson (Zoilus) where he goes through some of the most notable efforts made by musicians to transform the human speech into music (or connect human speech and music). He has also posted some videoes and sound bites for further insight. It's like the blogging of old, when we had had the time and took the effort to write longer posts on interesting themes.

Not completely unrelated, the other week I came across some rare rocordings of Air with the poet Amiri Baraka (thanks to the Rare Music Curator) made by German radio. I've been able to separate those recordings from the podcast and have uploaded them for your listening pleasure. In my opinion, they represent a fairly successful marriage of poetry and jazz, much due to Baraka's reading, since he seems to be in tune with th music, raisng his voice and tempo according to the music as well as the words (much like a singer would, mind you, althoug Baraka does not sing).

Air (Fred Hopkins, Steve McCall, Henry Threadgill) feat. Amiri Baraka, 20. March, 1982 Koln, Germany, WDR radio broadacast:

"I Love Music"



"Against Bourgeois Art"



"Class Struggle In Music"

Air Song reissue

Good news. The label Why Not is about to re-issue Air's first album, Air Song, (from 1975, originally on India Navigation) on February 17. Hopefully, this will mean that Air Raid, my favorite of the two India Navigation-records, is on the way too. Let this be the year when Air finally get's the recognition they deserve.

Favorite Jazz of 2008

May as well get it over with, especially since the Village Voice Poll was posted last week.

1. Mostly Other People Do the Killing: This Is Our Moosic (Hot Cup)
2. Fieldwork: Door (Pi Recordings)
3. Ben Allison & Man Size Safe: Little Things Run the World (Palmetto Records)
4. Anthony Braxton, Milfor Graves, William Parker: Beyond Quantum (Tzadik)
5. Rob Brown Ensemble: Crown Trunk Root Funk (AUM Fidelity)
6. Vijay Iyer: Tragicomic (Sunny Side Records)
   
7. Roy Campbell: Akhenaten Suite (AUM Fidelity)
8. William Parker: Petit Oiseau (Aum Fidelity)
9. Vandermark 5: Beat Reader (Atavistic)
10. Mike Reed People, Places & Things: Proliferation (482 Music)

The rest, in no particular order but all graded 7 or better (i.e. recommended):

• By Any Means (Rashied Ali/Charles Gayle/William Parker): Live at Crescendo (Ayler Records)
• Hamid Drake/Anders Gahnold/William Parker: Last Dances (Ayler Records)
• Adam Lane, Lou Grassi, Mark Whitecage: Drunk Butterfly (Clean Feed)
• Bill Dixon: 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur (Aum Fidelity)
• William Parker: Double Sunrise Over Neptune (Art for Arts/AUM Fidelity)
• Fight the Big Bull: Dying Will Be Easy (Clean Feed)
• Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet: Tabligh (Cuniform)
• Atomic: Retrograde (Jazzland Rec.)
• Mattew Shipp Quartet: Cosmic Suite (Not Two Records)
• Empty Cage Quartet: Stratostrophic (Clean Feed)

(the links go mostly to CD Baby and Jazz Loft, but the records may also be available from other retailers).

I'm tempted to borrow Christgau's phrase from his review of Air's Air Lore in order to describe Mostly Other People Do the Killing: "Demonstrating not only that ragtime (...) and New Orleans (...) are Great Art consonant with Contemporary Jazz, but also that they're Corny. And that both Great Art and Corn can be fun."

MOPDtK rip out the intervoven molodies and the joie de vivre of vintage Dixieland and fuse that with the power and speed of post bop and hard bop, verging on the avant garde, at least in terms of their fondness for the odd skronk. There is also a post modern wit to their music, which makes me want to pit them with Pavement, of all bands, also due to their loose approach. This Is... may on occasion feel darker (e.g. "East Orwell") than their previos record, but then again think of the duality of their excellent moniker: the serious accusation that we're not as evil as the others sounds quite funny at the same time. I liked This Is... so much that I picked up and played 2007's Shamokin!!! again, and it is just as good.

The other "winner" this year may be Vijay Iyer, who has two entries on my list: the powerful and percussive Door by his trio Fieldwork (with last years newcomer of the year Tyshawn Sorey and Steve Lehman), and the straighter quartet session Tragicomic.

Ben Allison demonstrated the simplicity can be more, musically, on Little Things...

2008 was in some regards Anthony Braxton's year, not only because of great records like Beyond Quantum (with William Parker and Milford Graves), but also due to the Mosaic box set that re-issues his Arista records. Finally the excllent Creative Orchestra Music 1976 is available again.

William Parker was all over 2008, a testament to how highly I and others hold him in the world of contemporary jazz. He played bass on Beyond Quantum and Rob Brown's excellent free bop quartet session Crown Trunk..., among others. As for his records as a leader, I preferred the groovy quratet album Petit Oiseau to the large ensemble Double Sunrise... (I'm still not 100% comfortable with the vocals of Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay).

There are still some records I am sifting through, Matana Roberts The Chicago Project among others, but the top 10 should remain unchanged.

Best jazz record originally released in 2007 that I discovered in 2008: Sonic Openings Under Pressure: Muhheankuntuk (Clean Feed)

Happy New Ears

I've been on the road for much of the festive period, hence the lack of updates and Songs of the Week. Regular posting should resume by the end of the week, including my annual year in jazz thing-a-ma-jig. In the meantime, you can have a look at this year's Village Voice's jazz poll, won by none other than Sonny Rollins.

Happy New Year to all.

Black Saint & Soul Note on eMusic.

Stef at Free Jazz blog, brought the news recently that eMusic now have ECM titles available for download, which reminded me that I've forgotten to write that they (i.e. eMusic) have also acquired a large amount of the back catalogues for the Italian labels Black Saint and Soul Note.

I have an ambiguous relationship with ECM, but I love a lot of Black Saint and Soul Note records. A quick history: Black Saint and Soul Note became refuges for some (though not all) of the most adventurous American jazz musicians in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. Most of David Murray's best work (e.g. Ming, Murray's Steps, Home, The Hill, Sweet Lovely) were recorded for Black Saint, though these have been available on eMusic for a while. The new batch includes records by Air, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, John Carter, Julius Hemphill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, Don Pullen, Cecil Taylor to name only a few.

Unlike ECM, Black Saint and Soul Note records can be hard to come by in some corners of the world. The fact that eMusic now have them for download is nothing short of fantastic. What's more, eMusic's prices are so good that you can easily afford to by a physical copy of a record you may come to love, that is if you can find it.

I should add that the Jazz Loft carry many titles by Black Saint and Soul Note at reasonable prices (SquidCo also have a few titles). You could also try Black Saint's homepage.

Wildflowers on CD

Wildflowers, the intriguing snap shot of the 1970s New York Loft Jazz scene, looks to be available on CD again ('though, it's been available as a download through eMusic for a while). This seminal compilation gives a look into one of the most interesting scenes in recent jazz history, and features tracks from Air, Anthony Braxton, David Murray, Sunny Murray, and Sam Rivers among others. Neither JazzLoft nor SquidCo look like they have it in stock, but I have seen it in stores. Try Douglas Records' homepage for info.

To whet your appetite, have a listen to the opening track, "Jays", by Kalaparusha (Maurice McIntyre) on tenor sax, feat. Chris White on bass and Jumma Santos on drums.

My 90s Jazz List, with comments and some honorable mentions

My contribution to Destination: Out's 90s Jazz Poll was in today's post, so I figured I'd just get these comments out ASAP.




As previously mentioned, I was asked by the excellent Destination: Out crew to contribute a list to a 90s jazz poll they were compiling, inspired by a similar poll on 80s jazz which had been done by the Village Voice in the early 90s. I was honored, of course, and set about sifting through my records. Say what you will about lists, but for me at least they make for a good short hand way to recommend records, and writng them forces you to take a stand about the records, however arbitrary that stand may be. Also, as was the case for me this time, having to do this list meant I got to pull out some records I hadn't listened to for a while and check if they still moved me the way they once did. Moreover, the several contributions as well as the final list may inspire me to check out records I didn't know about before, or just skipped for whatever reason.

Anyway, after much agonizing, this is the list I contributed:

1. Charles Gayle, William Parker, Rashied Ali: Touchin' on Trane (FMP, 1991)
2. Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages (Axiom, 1991)
3. William Parker: The Peach Orchard (Aum Fidelity, 1998)
4. James Carter: Conversin' With the Elders (Atlantic, 1996)
5. David S. Ware: Flight of I (Columbia/DIW, 1994)
6. Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy: The Fire This Time (In & Out, 1992)
7. David Murray: Shakill's Warrior (Columbia, 1992)
8. Ken Vandermark: Barrage Double Trio: Utility Hitter (Quinnah, 1996)
9. Pharoah Sanders: Welcome to Love (Timeless, 1991)
10. David Murray: Special Quartet (Columbia, 1992)

A list can never tell the whole story, of course, so I figured I'd add a few comments as well. But first, a bit of background.

Although music was a big part of my life throughout the 90s, jazz didn't enter into it in a big way until the latter part of the decade. There were several reasons for this. One was the fact that coverage of jazz, old or new, was and still is severely lacking in the Norwegian press. In addition, foreign publications were hard to come by in sub-urban Norway, apart from Guitar Player and the likes, which didn't really talk about music in the way I wanted to read about it. Also, the records stores didn't offer much help; if they stocked jazz records at all, they uncritically had ECM records because of the Norwegian connections, stocked Blue Notes 'cause they were Blue Notes, Verve records ditto, and a few Impulse! titles 'cause Coltrane had made records there.

Moving to the city helped, of course. Not only because of better record stores, but also because I was now able to get a hold of foreign magazines such as The Wire and Down Beat. Additionally, better book stores meant I discovered resources such as the Penguin Guides and, perhaps surprisingly, Spin's Alternative Guide to Music, which played a big part in turning me on to jazz musicians beyond Coltrane and Coleman. But perhaps most important was the fact that I now had daily access to the Internet where I could more easily stay up to date with current jazz through the likes of Village Voice and the Allmusic database, and access to online shopping meant I could buy those records without having to search through the shops in town (before I started to work in a record shop myself, that is). What all of this means is that, apart from the latter part of the decade, discovering 90s jazz records has been every bit the archival job as discovering records from the previous decade had been.

The music I discovered, either by digging in the past or "being there", is reflected in the list. For me, David Murray continued his excellent form from the 70s and 80s. Although I don't think Shakill's Warrior, with it's organ driven funkiness, or Special Quartet is quite up to par with, say, Ming, both are tremendous records. SQ is the most straight forward of the two, but the playing is impeccable, and it has quite a line-up: Murray, Fred Hopkins, McCoy Tyner, and Rashied Ali. Special indeed.

Another player who had already established himself but continued to grow throughout the decade, was William Parker. His powerful playing style and inventiveness had featured on many records under the leadership of others, among them my number 5 pick, David S. Ware's Flight of I. Now, though, he was beginning to apply his inventiveness and originality to his own work. Parker is one of my favorite contemporary composers, and if I was asked to compile a 00s list right now, I wouldn't hesitate to put Mayor of Punkville somewhere near the top. The Peach Orchard is a terrific record and thoroughly deserves its number 3 slot.

Speaking of David S. Ware, the opener on Flight of I, "Aquarian Sound", is probably my favorite jazz composition of the decade. Majestic, is what I would call it.

Of all the new talent to emerge in the 90s, James Carter was one of the few to capture my interest. The guy can seemingly play anything - and literally has - and make it sound interesting. The Real Quitestorm is a lovely record, but Conversin' displays his versatility as well as tipping the hat to the old guys who contribute on the record. One of them , Hamiett Bluiett, made a similar sentiment of recognizing both the old and new generation with his excellent Young Warrior, Old Warrior, which stayed in the race, so to speak, right up to the end.

As for the trends of jazz in the 90s, M-Base and similar styles never really sounded interesting to me. In Norway, musicians had started to mix elements of electronic dance music and jazz. Most of it sounded pretty uninspired in my opinion, but trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær made a couple of great records in which he seemed to further the ideas of John Hassel. He nevertheless did it in a his very own distinct way, not least through his chilling but equally compelling trumpet sound and the dense rhythms. Solid Ether from 1999 dropped just outside the top ten for me.

Still, what struck me as fresh about some of the 90s jazz I came to love, was that it seemed to have a distinct punk influence that set it apart from similarly energetic jazz of the previous decades. This may in part be imagined, but Matthew Shipp once stated his love for Black Flag's Damaged, and some of the new players, most notably Ken Vandermark, had obviously grown up on that kind of music as much as jazz. Whether I imagine this influence or not, the truth remains that some of the new jazz was able to convey the much of the same energy of the punk music I loved. Vandermark in particular made a huge impact on me when I heard him for the first time ca. 1998. Both Single Piece Flow and especially Target or Flag are powerful records - the latter is probably the one record I most regret not having found a place for inside the top ten. Still, Utility Hitter with the Barrage Double trio does the trick in spades. Highly energetic, and with Hamid Drake behind one of the two drum sets you can't go wrong. The name of the band, Barrage, does a good job of describing what you get here. Sadly, the distribution of the record has been poor, meaning not many people have been able to hear it. You may be able to find copies through Amazon or Gemm.com, or you can try Quinnah's website.

Speaking of rock influences: Sonny Sharrock's Ask the Ages was one of the records I initially discovered through the Spin book. The record seems to divide critical opinion into "great" and "average", but I belong among those who champion it. The opener, "Promises Kept", is a close contender for composition of the decade. Sharrock has a knack of sounding both powerful and vulnerable at the same time, a rare thing among guitar players, who often seem to paint themselves into one of those two corners. Sadly, like so much of his material, this record is out of print for the moment.

Lester Bowie didn't show any signs of "rocking out", at least in a punk influenced way, but The Fire This Time is still a fabulous record. The live record is made up of highly original takes on both jazz classics by the likes of Rahsan Roland Kirk, and pop classics by Michael Jackson, and every tune is treated with passion, "fire", and respect. The cuts never sound corny, and the end result is still highly enjoyable. Probably the most out-and-out fun jazz record of the 90's, and that, thankfully, without a trace of feeling guilty about it.

Pharoah Sanders welcomed us to love. I accepted, and was treated to one of the most beautiful ballad albums ever recorded in jazz.

Which leaves us with the top spot, Charles Gayle's Touchin' on Trane. Gayle may have a somewhat mixed discography, but this amazing record should save his reputation for some time. Perhaps it's with the same humility as displayed in recent interviews that he has named the album, as if to imply that he can never be as great as 'Trane himself. But this record does more than merely touch on 'Trane, it takes one of Coltrane's many strengths, the improvised solo, and forces it through the horn of a guy who has practiced in the subways of New York. The result is a sound that can be specifically associated with the city, much like a careening subway car, but it doesn't need to be. It does sound like someone trying to control something which has gone slightly astray, and if I was to bring reception studies into this, that is exactly what life in the nineties felt like too. With the help of William Parker on bass and Rashied Ali on drums - his best sidemen in my opinion - this push and pull is achieved to great success.

I noticed after I wrote the comments above that several contributors to the poll had more than ten records on their list. I almost wished I had done that too, but I think my top ten is a nice distillation of what I consider the most important jazz of the decade. Still, several records deserve an honorable mention of some sort, and so these are some of the records that went in-and-out of the list before the final result was handed in (a few of them are mentioned above):

• Muhal Richard Abrams: Blu Blu Blu (Black Saint, 1991)
• Big Satan: I Think They Liked it, Honey (Winter & Winter, 1997) - added points for best group name of the decade
• Hamiet Bluiett: Young Warrior, Old Warrior (Mapleshade, 1995)
• Peter Brötzmann, Fred Hopkins & Rashied Ali: Songlines (FMP, 1994)
• James Carter: The Real Quietstorm (Atlantis, 1995)
• Marilyn Crispell & Eddie Prévost: Band on the Wall (Matchless, 1994)
• 8 Bold Souls: Sideshow (Arabesque, 1992)
• Kahil El'Zabar Ritual Trio: Renaissance of the Resistance (Delmark, 1994)
• Kahil El'Zabar w/David Murray, Fred Hopkins: Love Outside of Dreams (Delmark, 1997)
• Joe Lovano: From the Soul (Blue Note, 1992)
• Nils Petter Molvær: Solid Ether (ECM, 1999)
• David Murray: South of the Border (DIW), Jazzosaurus Rex (Red Baron)
• Other Dimensions in Music: Now (AUM Fidelity, 1998)
• Matthew Shipp: The Multiplication Table (Hatology, 1998)
• Cecil Taylor: Celebrated Blazons (FMP, 1993)
• Vandermark 5: Target or Flag (Atavistic, 1998)
• Reggie Workman: Summit Conference (Postcards, 1994)

In the long run, contributing to this poll will help beef up my Jazz section too, but it's been a busy month and I haven't come that far yet.

NB: I'm adding this note in 2011. There is a chance my ballot would have been slightly different had it been submitted today, both because of reassessments of the above as well as the fact that since then I've come across several great records I hadn't heard at the time (most likely to get a bump: 8 Bold Souls. Most likely to get relegated: James Carter). I won't alter the list here, and stand by my choices at the time. All of my top 10 choices are great records, and the top three would remain as it is here even today. I'll point you to my jazz lists if you are curious about which other 90's releases I enjoy.

Brilliant 4 Corners: Lane, Vandermark, Broo, & Nilssen-Love make a beautiful racket

When some of my favorite "young" guns teamed up for a record, the result was always going to be interesting.

4 Corners is the four-headed monster that is Adam Lane (bass), Ken Vandermark (reeds), Magnus Broo (trumpet), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), who recently teamed up for some live dates and a subsequent recording thereof for the Portuguese label Clean Feed.

Adam Lane impressed me with three very good records last year - his two playful trio outings with Vinny Golia and Vijay Anderson, but especially his powerful Full Throttle Orchestra release New Magical Kingdom, which ended up being one of my fave records of 2006. Lane is a talented composer and bandleader with plenty of fresh ideas, but I'm equally impressed with his skills as a bass player. His approach to the bass mirrors that of his compositions; one foot in the harder post-bop/free-bop tradition, the other in fields such as noise rock. On 4 Corners, he shifts between rapid and bouncy walks across the bass' register - as on "Spin with the EARth", something of a Lane standard - but he just as often sink into low-end riffs, at times playing through a distortion pedal, which may seem like a novelty act to purists but the result is heavy and groovy.

With Vandermark and Nilssen-Love by Lane's side, 4 Corners was bound to have a tougher edge than his trio dates with Golia and Anderson. Vandermark's tone is gruffer than Golia's, and he also plays heavier horns here, and Nilssen-Love is no stranger to the punkier side of jazz through his projects with noise makers such as Mats Gustafson and Thurston Moore.

The fourth man is Magnus Broo on trumpet, a colleague of Nilssen-Love in Atomic. I've often felt that trumpet players have sounded out of place - too clean and light - in similar power-jazz / post-bop settings, which for my tastes have been better suited for reed instruments. But Broo asserts himself well here; his tone is powerful and gritty - more Booker Little than Miles.

Vandermark and Lane split the writing credits 3 to 4 between them. Through much of the well over 7o minutes of music here, this group proves my two notions that speed thrills - as on "Tomorrow Now (for Lester Bowie)" - and that at a slower pace, a deep swining groove rocks (check e.g. "Alfama (for Georges Braque)", which nods to both Funkadelic and Black Sabbath, and the closing of "Spin...").

But it's not all gung-ho. They're smart and dynamic enough to balance not just between speed and groove, but they also let things calm down at times. The lovely ballad (!!!) "Lucia" is a welcome breather midway through the set, as the group start grooving again on "Ashcan Rantings" (a tribute to the Ash Can School, per chance?).

4 Corners is an exciting project and record displaying a dynamic, fresh, and powerful approach to jazz that is most welcome. I sincerely hope to hear more from this group in the future. Any festivals interested in a show stopper?

Clean Feed's records may be difficult to find in record shops, but 4 Corners is available at these online shops:

• Clean Feed.com (ships from Portugal, Europe)
• ejazzlines.com
• Squid Co.com (ships from the U.S.)
• eMusic (mp3 downloads) - offers sound bits/tasters through this link.

Favorite Jazz Albums of 2006

I had initially planned this to be posted on the Norwegian blog as a response to the increasingly narrow scope of Norwegian Jazz critics - this year exemplified by Dagsavisens Roald Helgheim choosing to flag an all Norwegian top 10 (enough of the self-congratulations already). I guess the lack of space afforded to Jazz in the dailies, plus the few records that companies do send, limit what the critics can write about. But I would hope that love and appetite for music would make them search for new music as well, and not just sit back and take whatever is handed to them. Maybe they do search, but if so that doesn't show in their columns, reviews, or top ten lists. They are usually filled with familiar faces, not to speak of the same record labels (most notably ECM). There is nothing new about this situation, though. I had qualms last year too. Anyway, Zoilus's call for more Jazz top lists prompted me to post mine on the regular page, so here goes:

1. Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar)

Ornette's tone and sense of melody is as strong and beautiful as ever. Coleman's themes, which sound fresh and new yet oddly familiar at the same time, are given added color by the use of two basses; Tony Falanga playing melodies with his bow, Greg Cohen providing as steady a pulse as Charlie Haden once did. Ornette's kid Denardo bangs the drums. Not only my fave jazz record, but my overall favorite of 2006.

2. Adam Lane Trio - Zero Degree Music (CIMP)

Punkish Jazz. Bassist and band leader Adam Lane has many projects going, but this trio recording is my favorite. Lane's bass lines are assertive and prodding, and he is augmented by the excellent saxophone of Vinny Golia, who goes from a whisper to a scream at the drop of a hat. Vijay Anderson is just as solid behind the drum kit (originally released in 2005).

3. Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra - New Magical Kingdom (Clean Feed)

Swings like a motherfucker. It is easy to hear Lane's debt to Charles Mingus, but where Mingus used politics to fuel the energy of his music, Lane uses his love for avant rock, hence the guitars. Powerful stuff.

4. The World Saxophone Quartet - Political Blues (Justin Time)

The Quartet is augmented by James Blood Ulmer and a backing band to help them bring the outrage, blues style-e, as they pick a fight with the current administration . But they also bring the funk, much thanks to Jamaladeen Tacuma's bass. Inspirational verse: "I've got the political blues, now we're stuck with Bush, Cheney and Rice / I've got the political blues, the Republican Party is not very nice"

5. Ben Allison - Cowboy Justice (Palmetto)

Another young bassist and leader, and yet another small big-band with guitar for added chops - and it works. Allison is Haden to Lane's Mingus, which helps explain his somewhat mellower approach both as a bassist and as a songwriter. This doesn't mean they don't "rock out" when it's called for, and Allison's not too fond of "Tricky Dick" Cheney either.

6. Odyssey the Band - Back in Time (Pi Recordings)

7. Kidd Jordan, Hamid Drake, William Parker - Palm of Soul (AUM Fidelity)

8. Bobby Previte - Coalition of the Willing (Ropeadope Music Entertainment)

9. Mario Pavone - Deez to Blues (Playscape)

10. Atomic - Happy New Ears (Jazzland)

Honorable mention:

• Adam Lane Trio - Music Degree Zero (CIMP)
• Nels Cline - New Monestary: A Journey Into the Music of Andrew Hill (Cryptogramophon)
• Jon Faddis - Terranga (Koch)
• Erik Friedlander - Prowl (Cryptogramophon)
• Sonny Rollins: Sonny Please
• Trio 3 (Lake, Workman, Cyrille) - Time Being (Intakt)
• David S. Ware: Balladware (AUM Fidelity)

For all my gripes about the Norwegian press, you'll probably be able to find patterns in my choices, too: Four of the records were led by bassist; three records were explicitly political in titles and imagery or even words; James Blood Ulmer was involved in two of the records in the top 10; nine - 9! - of the records were by American artists. Well, there you go.

For other lists of Jazz records from the year that went by, head over to Jazzhouse's list section here.