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.

Perfect Sounds Listening Booth, Fall 2010: Adam Lane

• Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra: Ascan Rantings (Clean Feed, 2010) - Adam Lane's talents as a distinctive bassplayer, composer and bandlander continue to shine on Ashcan Rantings. While the speed and agility of the music Lane has played in nimbler, smaller ensembles has always been full of excitement, the full punch and power of his compositions came into fruition on his previous record with the Full Throttle Orchestra, New Magical Kingdom, a brash and joyfull record by a "little big band" that seemingly took its cues from Charles Mingus and David Murray's Octet while simultaneously being spurred on by an affinity for the noisier realms of rock. At least half of the ten compostitions on Ashcan Rantings have appeared on previous Adam Lane related albums. The ominous title track, for example, was a highlight on the 4 Corners album from 2007 that Lane recorded with Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilsen Love and Magnus Broo, but appears here in a more fully formed version. The band on Ashcan ..., an octet consisting of several up-and-coming players -- such as trumpet player Tylor Ho Bynum -- sounds great; full bodied yet loose, with the man himself leading from the center with assertive basslines. While the music here shares the boisterous energy and brash confidence as well as the occasional excursions into skronkier territories that was typical of much of New Magical Kingdom -- as for example in "Nine Man Morris" and the playful "House of Elegant" -- the compositions and arrangements are now more lush and expansive. Ashcan Rantings is just as fierce and lively as it's predecessor, but it is also much more than that. Listening to songs such as the closing "Bright Star Calypso", you realize that it is also at times very, very beautiful. (Reassessed grade as of Dec. 1st, 2010 10/10). *

* 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.

Note: the write-up has been slightly corrected and edited for clarity since it was first posted.

Jazz in 2007 + the Village Voice's Poll

A tad bit late, but a post that was meant to coincide with and comment on the Village Voice's 2007 Jazz Poll. My initial reaction after seeing the list was to question whether I was completely out of touch with the knowledgeable people polled. My second reaction, after reading Francis Davis' enlightening comments, lessened that feeling but rather mirrored some of the reactions to Destination-Out!'s 90s Poll, strengthening the contention that we are indeed in an age where there seems to be less and less consensus about what good jazz is. Nonetheless, the top of the list is filled with old timers (Mingus (!!!), Brecker, Lovano/Jones, Hancock, Lincoln). No harm in that as such, but most of those records operate in fairly safe waters, in my opinion (and some of them I don't think are all that good). It leaves me with the feeling that the real winner this year were those who feel that jazz was better "back in the day" and/or played by those old enough to remember "how to". The first album on VV's poll to appear among my favorites is Andersons/Drake's From the River to the Ocean at 16. My list would look something like this:

1. (((Powerhouse Sound))): Oslo/Chicago: (((Breaks))) (Atavistic)
2. Assif Tsahar/Cooper-Moore/Chad Taylor: Digital Primitives (Hopscotch)
3. Adam Lane/Ken Vandermark/Markus Broo/Paal Nilssen-Love: 4 Corners (Clean Feed)
4. Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Shamokin'!!! (Hot Cup/CD Baby)
5. Billy Bang Quintet Featuring Frank Lowe: Above & Beyond: An Evening in Grand Rapids (Justin Time)
6. Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake: From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey)
7. Tyshawn Sorey Quartet: That/Not (Firehouse 12)
8. Matthew Shipp: Piano Vortex (Blue Series)
9. David S. Ware Quartet: Renunciation (AUM Fidelity)
10. Kahil El'Zabar's Infinity Orchestra: Transmigration (Delmark)
    

Happy to see Tyshawn Sorey do well both in the main poll and getting top spot for best debut. He would get my vote for debut of the year.

Honorable mentions to:

• Matt Lavelle Trio: Spiritual Power (Silkheart)
• Jewels and Binoculars: Ships With Tattood Sails (Upshot)
• The Claudia Quintet: For (Cuneiform)
• David Murray Black Saint Quartet: Sacred Ground (Justin Time)
• William Parker: Corn Meal Dance (AUM Fidelity)
  

Matt Lavelle is probably the one record out of those most likely to push for a top ten spot. Murray and Parker both made good but slightly disappointing records (even having a similar post-bop-with-vocals starting point). Yet to hear Happy Apple's Back on Top - praised by Tom Hull - in any length, but it does sound promising.

Digital Primitives

Digital Primitives (Hopscotch) is rapidly becoming one of my favorite jazz records of 2007. As opposed to two other favorites this year - the crunk jazz of 4 Corners, and the muscle funk of (((Powerhouse Sound))) - Assif Tsahar, Cooper-Moore, and Chad Taylor take a minimalist approach to jazz not unlike some of Kahil El'Zabar's 90's output.

Assif Tsahar plays tenor sax and bass clarinet, blowing simple yet forceful melodies and themes. Chad Taylor on drums and m'bira adds skittering beats, while multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore for the most part controls the low end (their MySpace-page lists hand crafted instruments - diddley bo, banjo, mouth bow, flute, drums. He played piano on one of the best jazz records of the 90's, William Parker's Peach Orchard, which Tsahar also played on).

The result is a kind of subdued funk, with traces of both blues, African music, and a touch of minimalist electronica in feel if not so much in sound. There is a song number as well, Ol' Saint Peter sung by Cooper-Moore, a lovely quiet blues.

Their website, as well as their MySpace, has sound clips from the album as well as videos of live-performances (click on the images). If you can't find the record at your local shop, Digital Primitives can be bought through the Jazz Loft (and probably through Hopscotch's web-site, though I'm not sure).