Xgau's Consumer Guide & Molde Jazz '10

The more observant of you may have noticed that I've put up a section on the right hand bar of this blog called "Subject to Change". The idea was (and is ) to post links to things that I find worth reading, but don't feel the need (or the time) to comment on myself.

At the top of that section as of now, is a link to Tom Hull's comments regarding the demise of Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide, which I do feel the need to say something about myself.

The influence of Christgau's CG can be felt on several planes. His great writing - joyful celebrations of the art form as well as acerbic put downs and the in-betweens - has inspired me and others to try to reach for a higher level of how to write and think about music, especially in how to convey those thoughts to others. And Christgau could unfold the essence of a record using fewer, but more telling, words than most. His immense appetite for music has meant that he has discovered more gems than most other critics, which has certainly also meant sifting through hours of crap. With the CG, he had an opportunity to cover more of that music in writing per month than any other critic.

Much of the above has been said by many commentators allready. But what has perhaps been his biggest influence on me has only been mentioned in passing or by extention by others.

Christgau crystalized the idea that music communicates - implicitly and/or explicitly - attitudes, values, ideas and emotions, and the question becomes not only what those qualities are, and if or how they resonate, but also how they are communicated. No one "genre" has the monopoly on the attitudes and ideas I find valuable (even if, at first glance, some may seem better equipped to convay them more than others, or certain "genres" seem to have more of one attitude or value than the next). That is the reason I more often than not have tended to agree with Christgau's accessments: because our world views are similar. Sure there have been disagreements, as there should be if you're an autonomous being, but these disagreements have just as often as not tended to regard how well or not I've thought the above mentioned qualities have been communicated more than what was valuable in the first place.

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On a different note, Molde Jazz 2010 kicks off today, and for the first time since setting up this blog I won't be in attendance. This is partly because of practical reasons, but also that barring Sonny Rollins and the Brötzmann/Kondo/Pupillo/Nilssen-Love project Hairy Bones, there really wasn't much that tickled my fancy. Instead, I hope to bring extended coverage of Oslo Jazz Festival in August, which has a great line up this year with Ornette Coleman, Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Charles Gayle and Archie Shepp among the highlights.

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

The State of Mark Lomax Trio

WOW!

More and hopefully more eloquent on this at a later date.

But, DAMN!

Mid-week jazz related linkage

Simply because there are a couple of very interesting stuff out there:

• Richard Davis, jazz bassist extraordinaire, was recently celebrated with a marathon broadcast on WKCR, with interviews and selected tracks that included everything from his work with Dolphy and Hill up to sessions with Van Morrison and Springsteen. Archival files of the programmes should still be available @ Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches. Massive kudos to Hank Shteamer!
  
• Destination-Out! on Steve and Iqua Colson. The overlooked AACM. The last track previewed there is from The Untarnished Dream, which is available from CdBaby. Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille plays on it, damn it!
• A belated note that Nels Cline was interiewed by Jason Crane on the Jazz Sessions recently. Cline plays with Wilco, of course - who had a very good gig in Oslo this past Monday - but also has his own projects. Initiate, the Nels Cline Singers' double album released earlier this spring, and the basis for most of the conversation, is highly recommended.
  

R.I.P. Hank Jones

Pianist Hank Jones, older brother of trumpet player Thad jones and drummer Elvin Jones, passed away on May 16th, aged 91.

My knowledge of his work as a leader is sketchy at best: only The Hank Jones Quartet-Quintet is listed in my jazz section (which needs to be updated, btw), but his work as a sideman is pretty impressive, having played with Charlie Parker, and on Coleman Hawkins' Hawk Flies High, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk's We Free Kings to name only a few. Tom Hull has a longer list.

Air's Air Raid reissued

Note to self: read my e-mails once I get them!

Received notification from the JazzLoft on May the 13th that they have Air's second studio album, Air Raid (Why Not, 1976. 2010 reissue by Candid), available for orders (original recording details, courtesy of Lars Backström).

Air Raid is at times edgier and tougher than their first record, Air Song, and perhaps even better. The title track and opening piece of the record, starts off at rip roaing speed, but travels through some mellower patches, only to return to the "action" the title suggests we're in for. It's both a disturbing and almost beautiful contemplative piece of music. Fred Hopkins' powerful bass lines, or should I say "thundering runs", are particularly enthralling. That's not to say that Threadgill and McCall are out of step, by no means; Air Raid proves that this was a gorup whose interplay was second to none. The embodiment of free jazz' democratic principles, as outlined by Ornette Coleman.

Having said that about the album's opener, I thought I'd leave you with teaser of the second track instead. "Midnight Sun" slows things down after the heady run of "Air Raid", and stands as an early proof that Threadgill was developing a knack for a writing a damn good tune. Have a listen:




Note: the embedded track was lifted off a previous reissue of the album, and may not be indicative of the sound quality of the new version.

The Singles Jukebox debacle

I visit the Singles Jukebox nearly every day. Recently, I wrote this comment under the reviews of Robyn's "Dancing on My Own" which sparked some back'n'forth:

"Funny how how certain Singles Jukebox reviewers occasionally turn “rockist” or use the very same “indie scenester” logic they claim to oppose, as long as it suits their agenda.

“(…) scores two American top tens in the nineties, ignored by the rock press and Pitchfork; burrows into a studio with Klas Ahlund a few years later; rediscovered by Stylus and Pitchfork indie kids even though her American handlers treat her like she’s Amerie.”

“It’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans” as Sloan once so accurately put it. Once in a while, it would be wise to hand people a little more credit when it comes to their likes (and dislikes), even if this may lead to a windfall of praise for one artist you may not “get” or deem unworthy. Or better yet, write about the god damn music."

It was the quoted passage in the middle there that rubbed me the wrong way, but perhaps I should've taken a short breath before I wrote the comment.

I've enjoyed the Singles Jukebox as a safe haven away from the worst sins of the anti-pop post-Adorno music journalism, where pop fans are treated as a herd bereft of their own opinions, a rhetoric most often associated with certain "indie scenesters". One reason why the quoted passage annoyed me, was because it used a similar argument but turned it against "indie kids", as if the recent appreciation of Robyn by that paricular group of people was a good reason to dock a grade or two.

But I have no idea what stance the author of the review has re: rockism and "indie scenesters", and Matos took me to court for that (he also wrote "writing about the music is a nonstarter to me. Music encompasses everything around it, just like any other subject." to which it would've been tempting to comment "What?!? And you write about music?!?", but I know his writing well, and understands what he meant, and if you're used to reading my stuff you know I don't treat music as if it was in a vacuum either).

So what I perhaps should have written in the comments is something along theses lines:

"It was a bit dissappointing to see a review use a (bad) rhetoric usually associated certain "indie scenesters", when I'd considered the Singles Jukebox a safe haven from such low blows"

The rest is fine, though maybe I should've added "Write about the god damn music in a social context" to avoid (deliberate) misreadings.

There's one other thing that has puzzled me recently on the SJ. One Alex McPhearson doesn't seem to enjoy much of the music he's asked to review. The last ten reviews he's done for the site are graded like this: Roll Deep ft. Jodie Connor - "Good Times" 2; Christina Aguilera - "Not Myself Tonight" 5; Joy Orbison - "The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow" 6, M.I.A. - "Born Free" 3, Robyn - "Dancing on My Own" 3, Robyn - "Fembot" 0, The National - "Bloodbuzz Ohio" 4, Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Bittersweet" 3, Kate Nash - "Do Wah Doo" 2, Marina and the Diamonds - "I Am Not a Robot" 1. That's an average of 2,9 per song.

Two song by one artist apart, that's a pretty low average for what I deem to be a decent spread in both sound and quality. And only twice during the five reviews before those does he go above 6, Hole receives an 8 for their/her "Pacific Coast Highway" and Nas w/Damien Marley a 10, while tracks by Kelis (4), Titus Andronicus (3), and LCD Soundsystem (0).

Said writer also considers the opening of TA's track "A More Perfect Union" faux-desperate, comparing it unfavorably to Hole (whose singer I find to be the biggest melodrama queen of all, and lately not very convincing at that.) Chuck Eddy, on the other hand, says it sounds like "Hold Steady if they really meant it". Hmmm.

Still, I've written about the zero grade before, so go read there for further info. What I'll say for now is this: if you consider LCD Soundsystems "Drunk Girls" - a pretty dumb, unoriginal, straight forward stomper, though not without a certain silly charm - only worthy of a 0, you're living a too sheltered life.

Perfect Sounds Listening Booth, week 17, 2010

• Steve Swell's Slammin' the Infinite: 5000 Poems (Not Two, 2010) - I know trombonist Steve Swell from his plying on records by William Parker, Ken Vandermark, and Bill Dixon, but allthough he has also been putting out records as a leader or co-leader since the mid-nineties, this is only the second record I've heard with him in that role. The other one being the 2008 self titled Rivers Of Sound Ensemble release, with Hilliard Greene on bass, Roy Campbell on trumpet, and Sabir Mateen on saxes and Klaus Klugel on drums. Klugel and Mateen return on this fourth (if I'm correct) Slammin' the Infinite release, together with Matthew Hayner on bass and John Blum on piano. The music here seems rooted in NY's loft jazz tradition from the 70s - and by that I mean free jazz with a strong sense of propulsion and swing - where strongly stated opening riffs are used as a launching pads for improvisation. Bassist Hayner's riffs are prominent themes or anchors on at least two occasions, and the walk that both opens and closes "The Darkness Afoot" has shades of Mingus. Amid the violent sections and sound clusters the band conjure up, with Blum in partiuclar hammering away on the piano, they also slow down and use space and near silence, which are both welcome breathing spaces as well as serving as suspenders for the next turn of events. As such, the music is also quite playfull. Such playfulnes can also be found in the opening of "Sketch 1", where Swell plays with a mute, giving it a noir-like atmosphere. (7/10)*

• Mike Reed People, Places & Things: Stories adn Negotiations (482 Music, 2010) - The third installment of Reed's PP&T project, where the aim is to revisit Chicago's considerable hard-bop to free-bop legacy, up to the Vandermarks of the city via AACM. On the first album of the project, Proliferation, the piano-less quartet (Reed on drums, Jason Roebke on bass, Tim Haldeman and Greg Ward on saxes) played mostly material by the citiy's past masters. The second, About Us, consisted of mostly self-written material, and added Jeb Bishop on trombone, David Boykin on tenor, and Jeff Parker on guitar on various tracks. Both are highly enjoyable free-bop records. On Stories and Negotiations, Boykin and Parker are gone, but three elder statesmen join in: Julian Priester on trombone and Art Hoyle on trumpet, both former members of Sun Ra's Arkestra, and Ira Sullivan on tenor. The Sun Ra link is mirrored in the music too, as S&N has more of an avant swing feel to it. There are also shades AACM co-founder Muhal Richard Abrams' work on records such as Blu Blu Blu. Recorded live in Chicago's Millennium Park, the group rev up some great numbers, finely balanced with some mellower moments. The opening, "Song of a Star", is especially good. The musicians start off individually, plying little trills and riffs, as if arriving from separate places, only to convene at the same place/piece at around 2:30 in, and the song lifts into a riveting piece of hard grooving avant swing. That kind of ebb and flow, propulsive rhythms, mixing fine solos and skronk, bouldering basslines and purpuseful swing makes this a very enjoyable record. (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.

Buy:

Rollins and Threadgill on The Jazz Sessions

Here's a shout out for Jason Crane's The Jazz Sessions.

Together with Stef at Free Jazz blog, the lovely guys at Destination: OUT!, npr's A Blog Supreme, Bad Plus' Do the Math (and, not to forget, my main man Tom Hull, Nate Chinen and the boys at NY Times, Gary Giddins, and a host of others), Crane is doing as much as anybody in spreading the word of jazz on the internet right now. His interview series takes an all-embracing view on the jazz world, and is conducted with equal parts curiosity, knowledge and respect. In the past, he's done sessions with such Perfect Sounds faves as Cooper-Moore, Vijay Iyer, John Hollenbeck, Matt Lavelle, Steve Lehman, Joe Morris, Mike Reed, and Matthew Shipp.

If you're unfamiliar with the series, now's a good a time as any to start listening, because this week, Crane brings out the big guns with interviews with Sonny Rollins and, available from Thursday 29th, Henry Threadgill.

Make yourself a fresh batch of coffee, sit down, and listen!

Ludvigsen R.I.P.

You foreigners won't get this, but one of my first musical heroes, Gustav Lorentzen a.k.a. Ludvigsen of the musical duo Knutsen & Ludvigsen, passed away yesterday. I can't begin to explain what their music and (mostly, but by no means always, nonsensical) lyrics have meant to me, and indeed whole generations of Norwegian children, young and old. Thanks for the memories.

Perfect Sounds Listening Booth, weeks 14-16, 2010

Wrote this a week or so ago, and had initially thought I'd have at least two more before I threw it out there, but the blog needs some action. So here's the first PS Listening Booth.

• Brad Mehldau: Highway Rider (Nonesuch, 2010) - Sure, he's melodically strong, and yes both his playing and the band is exceptionally solid and well tempered, but I find very little of what I look for and enjoy most in jazz in Mehldau's music; the tempered playing means the music is emotionally moderate and one dimensional as well. There's very little heart, no guts, no push and pull, no fun, no bursts of energy. His music feels brainy as in cold and calculated, not as in witty and smart. Highway Rider only confirms those impressions, though at times there are slightly more expansive and even filmatic themes here, augmented by a string section here and there and perhaps bent that way by Jon Brion's production. At their best, the band has a nice shuffle, reminicent of, say, Randy Newman (without the bite), but even here I miss something. Maybe it is vocals. At other times it's pretty, but very little else. For melodically strong low key jazz I'd rather look to Ben Allison. (5/10)*

* 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.

EMP Pop Con 2010 - I fail, KEXP delivers

Failed to deliver on my promise to preview the panels/abstracts for Saturday and Sunday, but the fine folks at KEXP's blog have been doing reviews. Part one, part two, part three.

EDIT:

Christgau has a report on EMP here.

EMP Pop Conference 2010

The 9th annual EMP Pop Conference kicks off tomorrow, so I figuered I'd browse the abstracts to see if anything tickled my fancy.

The theme this year is The Pop Machine, and revolves around "stories of sounds and the machines that make them", which sounds a bit drier than the body and music-theme of last year. However, the first thing on the schedule tomorrow is a discussion between Nile Rodgers, Joe Henry, and Janelle Monáe, which should be very interesting.

Being a jazz fan and critic, Jason Toynbee's paper on "Jazz and the Politics of Recording" seems interesting: "It's been suggested that recordings of jazz are unrepresentative of the genre, even untrue to it. (...) In this paper I want to question the assumptions that lie behind the critique of jazz recording. Interestingly, that critique runs counter to the conventional wisdom in rock and pop criticism which has embraced recording not only as predominant medium, but also as a kind of muse, and sometimes even as the essence of the form (...)" (Friday, April 16)

Geeta Dayal will talk about Brian Eno and the studio as an instrument. (Friday, April 16)

As much as I'm tired of discussions on hipster culture (and the inevitable hipster bashing), Elizabeth Keenan's talk on the Dirty Projectors and cultural capital could be worth checking out. (Friday, April 16)

Douglas Wolk will do a talk on the future of listening to music (the abstract doesn't say, but I'd assume a discussion on Spotify, Rhapsody and the like may come into it at some point). (Friday, April 16)

Allen Lowe, musician, jazz historian, and compiler (and the man behind the great American Pop: An Audio History and the That Devilin' Tune-book and compilations, has a paper called "Looking at Down from Up: Blues from Blackface to Whiteface (or: All the Blues You Could Play By Now if Stanley Crouch was Your Uncle)", in which he among other things seems to take on Wynton Marsalis (who does deserve a beating every now and then). The subtitle of the paper, inspired by Charles Mingus' brilliant "All the Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother", is also the title of one of Lowe's own composition, which you can hear from his website here. (Friday, April 16)

Will have a look at the schedules for Saturday and Sunday tomorrow.

Shutterbug

Updates coming during the week. 'til then:

Criticism, Bill Eaton, Alex Chilton, Glenn Kelly and me

"(...) a post-gig hangout with Chilton in the late '70s during which Supertramp's hit "The Logical Song" comes on the jukebox. Eaton is all ready to sneer at the thing when he sees Chilton bobbing his head to it. Once he gets over his initial shock and confusion, he processes his problem as, well, everybody else's problem. "[R]ock snobbery is an exercise in aural flagellation--a way to punish yourself because girls ignored you back in high school."

(...) a lot of people look at the critical impulse, and the work that it sometimes produces, as some kind of attempt to kill their buzz. And, beyond that, to force-feed them stuff that they don't like. It never occurs to Bill Eaton that the fact that he needed Alex Chilton to approve of a Supertramp song before he could do likewise actually says more about Eaton's own insecurities than anything else, as far as I'm concerned."

Glenn Kelly takes on Bill Eaton in Snobbery, Projection, Resentment

Agree with mr. Kelly here. Try to view criticism as a step in a disourse, with arguments - some may be good and some may be bad, some convincing while others less so - to make ones case. You may agree, wholly or not, to the arguments and the conclusion, or disagree by joining in on the discourse, whether in writing or more usually in your own head or in conversation with friends, but by golly, don't blame the critics because you haven't been able to make up your own mind.

Soon...

... I promise.

Music of the Week 11/10

I'm planning a change to this. Updates have been infrequent at best. Something along the veins of Tom Hull's jazz prospecting and Rhapsody Notes may be a good option: I could write down a few lines on any bunch of music, good or bad, I hear during a week. Not reviews as much as just jot down some impressions and thoughts, maybe even tentative grades. Updates would need to be on a specific week day, though. I'll see what I'm able to come up with. For now, quite possibly the last Music of the Week.

• Titus Andronicus: "A More Perfect Union" (from The Monitor, XL Recordings)
• Tomboyfriend: "Almost/Always"
• The Great Plains: Lenght of the Growth 1981-89 (Old 3c Records - lovely rediscovery!)
• Little Women: "Thoat 1" (AUM Fidelity)
• Steve Swell's Slammin' the Infinate: 5000 Poems (Not Two Records)
  

R.I.P. Alex Chilton

Had planned a post on Chopin, but just got the news that Mr. Chilton passed away yesterday. Too sad. Thanks for the music. More from The Commercial Appeal.

Happy birthday Ornette!

The great man turns 80 today. The good people at WKCR will celebrate the day with a special Birthday Broadcast dedicated to the man and his music. Go listen!

FAN and jazz-links

FAN #11 will be out tomorrow, so I have now posted my article on Mostly Other People Do the Killing, written for the previous edition, on the Norwegian section of Perfect Sounds.

Chicago drummer Mike Reed, whose last few records I have liked a lot, talked to Jason Crane on the frequently enjoyable Jazz Session podcast at the end of January. Mr. Reed is in the middle of a three album project inspired by Chicago's considerable, but underrecognized, hard bop-and-beyond jazz music. Around the same time, WFIU did a show on that very topic, discussing and playing the music of some of the unsung heroes of Chicago hard bop. You can listen to the program here.

Belated by:Larm reports

The Nordic mini-version of South by SW that is by:Larm went ahead and finished just over a week ago, and just like last year I watched some gigs and did some writing. If you're interested, the paper I wrote for can be downloaded here. I only had entries for the Friday and Saturday editions, and the gigs I reviewed were Massely, Pow Pow, and Supersilent for the Friday edition, and Anna von Hausswolf, plus Kira Kira as well as Kråkesølv at the Stereogum stage for the Saturday edition.

Didn't get to see much, though, so I really can't comment on the hypes. My pick of the ones I did get around to see would be Masselys, whose electronically seasoned no wave funk caught me off guard. In a good way. Here's a taste, a song called "Better and Better", albeit not my favorite of theirs.

Music of the Week 6/10

One pretty decent song off a not-so-great album by a returning funky spoken word hero, a chirpy one from Hot Chip, a joyous piece of garage pop by a re-named band, a new monster of a tune by a power jazz group, and a re-discovered (at least for me) recording by a "super group" (via Destination-Out!)

• Gil Scott-Heron: "I'm New Here" (XL)
• Hot Chip: "Brothers" (Astralwerks)
• The Soft Pack: "C'mon" (Heavenly/Kemado)
• Fight the Big Bull: "Mothra" (Clean Feed)
• New York Contemporary Five: Consequences (Fontana)
  

Coming back ...soon + Lavelle on Davis on the New Thing

I don't intend to use this blog on a too personal level outside the spheres of music consumption and the like, but I have had a few very busy weeks, hence the lack of updates. As things calm down, posting will resume.

Meanwhile, I stumbled across a post by jazz trumpet player Matt Lavelle on the Brilliant Corners blog, discussing the grumpy side of Miles Davis and his problems with "the new thing". Go read!

Jerome David Salinger, 1919-2010. R.I.P.

He was getting old, it was bound to happen at one time or another. Still, I was very sad to learn that J.D. Salinger has passed away. A fine tribute over at NYTimes.

Favorite Jazz of 2009

I've put off posting my 2009 jazz list for long enough. Pazz & Jop came up the other week, and most other lists were done even before then. I had a plan to revisit records that placed high on some of those lists, and got through a few. For the most part, I stand by my initial opinions, which I dare say I nearly allways do. A few I didn't get too, others have been slightly upgraded or down graded, albeit not by much. I also thought about writing a few words about every album here, but in the end figured there's really no need (only a few of the lists at Jazz House have comments, so I guess I'm home free). Anyway, here goes:


A few months back, 2009 looked like it was going to be a good year for larger ensembles, with interesting records by the Steve Lehman Octet and Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, and later on records by Wadada Leo Smith and Graham Collier, among others. Then a flurry of sax/bass/drum-trio records tickled my fancy, notably Fully Celebrated, J.D. Allen Trio, Marcus Strickland and later on FLY. Add to those the less traditional trio set-ups of Darius Jones Trio and Digital Primitives, as well as the Matthew Shipp, Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey records, and jazz trios certainly made their mark on Perfect Sounds in 2009. A very welcomed and strong comeback by Henry Threadgill and his Zooid and a new incarnation of David S. Ware's Quartet (guitar replacing piano) saw old(-er) masters plow new ground.

My favorite jazz (and overall) record of 2009 is Darius Jones Trio's Man'ish Boy (a Raw & Beautiful Thing), with Darius Jones on alto saxophone, Cooper-Moore on the bass-like diddley-bo and piano, and Rakalam Bob Moses on drums. Raw and beautiful are certainly fitting words to describe the music on Man'ish Boy. The melodies are often rough-hewn and blues-like, and Darius Jones' ability to switch from teeth grinding grit, as on the epic 'Trane-crashes-into-Ayler "Chasing the Ghost", to the subtle and almost carfully quiet, as on the painfully lovely "Forgive Me", makes him a stand out saxophonist in today's jazz.

That said, Cooper-Moore is all over Man'Ish Boy. He is no stranger to the raw and beautiful himself. Often playing, as he does on several tracks here, the diddley-bo (or bow, if you will), an ancient instrument that functions more or less as a bass. It sounds at times like a slapped upright, at other times like a talking drum. His piano playing is assured and can sound jagged, almost Monk-like at times. Especially note the rough blues walk on the noir-like "Cry Out". His lovely Satie-like playing on "Forgive Me" demonstrates his range as a pianist as well.

Listening to Man'ish Boy from start to finish can give the impression of a journey of some kind: the get-up call of "Roosevelt", the confident and playful stride of "Cry Out", the harrowing ride of "Chasing the Train", and the thoughtful and beautiful "Forgive Me" at the end (that is, barring the bonus cut "Chaych" with the equally talented bassist/composer Adam Lane, as well as Jason Nazary on drums). Man'Ish Boy is a great album and well deserving of my top spot.

Now, for the list:

1. Darius Jones Trio: Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing) (AUM Fidelity)
2. The Fully Celebrated: Drunk On the Blood Of the Holy Ones (AUM Fidelity)
3. David S. Ware: Shakti (AUM Fidelity)
4. Digital Primitives: Hum Crackle & Pop (Hopscotch)
5. Henry Threadgill Zooid: This Brings Us To, Vol.1 (Pi Recordings)
6. Matthew Shipp: Harmonic Disorder (Thirsty Ear)
7. Vijay Iyer Trio: Historicity (ACT)
8. Tyshawn Sorey: Koan (482 Music)
9. Abdullah Ibrahim: Senzo (Sunnyside)
10. Brötzmann / Kondo / Pupillo / Nilssen-Love: Hairy Bones (Okka Disk)

11. Wadada Leo Smith: Spiritual Dimensions (Cuneiform)
12. J.D. Allen Trio: Shine! (Sunnyside)
13. Mike Reed's People Places & Things: About Us (482 Music)
14. Steve Lehman Octet: Travail Transformation & Flow (Pi Recordings)
15. Marcus Strickland: Idiosyncrasies (Strick Muzik)
16. John Zorn: Alhambra Love Songs (Tzadik)
17. Allen Toussaint: The Bright Mississippi (Nonsuch)
18. Graham Collier: Directing 14 Jackson Pollocks (Jazz Continuum)
19. Darren Johnston: The Edge of the Forrest (Clean Feed)
20. Fly: Sky & Country (ECM)
21. Tresspass Trio: Was There to Illuminate the Night Sky (Clean Feed)
22. Bill Dixon: Tapestries for Small Orchestra (Firehouse 12)
23. Quartet Offensive: Carnivore (Self released)
24. Ben Allison: Think Free (Palmetto)
25. Linda Oh Trio: Entry (Linda Oh)

Others of note: Darcy James Argue Secret Society: Infernal Machine (New Amsterdam), Gerald Cleaver, William Parker, Craig Taborn: Farmers by Nature (AUM Fidelity), Profound Sound Trio: Opus de Life (Porter), Circulasione Totale Orchestra: Bandwidth (Rune Grammofon), IPA: Lorena (Bolage), John Hollenbeck: Eternal Interlude (Sunny Side Records)

Lazy ears

Some of the points made by composer Graham Collier in this post, for example this passage "there is a pack mentality among many critics which, unfortunately for some of us, means they rarely look beyond the pile of CDs they receive to see what else is around", squares with what I wrote a while ago about how certain ever-presents on year end lists made me think too many jazz writers have "lazy ears" (That said, we all have our biases, of course. I wont deny I have mine).

I still have issues with a few of his points:

1. Seeking out new jazz (or new music in general) is time consuming work, but should be part of any reviwers job. Not merely sit and wait for CDs to fall into ones lap. However, being as it is that jazz writing in particular is being cut from the arts pages of newspapers and magazines, as well as the fact that it doesn't pay very well and that jazz PR is virtually nonexcistent these days, it can also be expensive work. We're more in need of word-of-mouth and communication - critic to critic, fan to fan, critic to fan and vice versa, musician-to-critic and vice versa - than most other arts writing departments. This need not necessarily take the form of free, physical copies being mailed to us, but dropping a line about upcoming releases does help. (For my own part, I pay for 99% of the jazz I write about. It's fair to say my jazz writing is a labour of love. I make my money from doing other things).

2. The comment borrowed from Chris Kelsey about some of the "formally conventional" big band records, is A): something I feel is not entirely correct in all instances (more formally conventional, perhaps, than Collier's) and B): makes me want to point out that paying attention to formality is something that, while certainly especially important to jazz composition, must not take the place of other important aspects of music, such as attitudes, values, stories and meanings, and the musicianship necessary (or adequate) to convey these. This is, for example, where critics of classic cinema often fail. Formality is part of the package, and can inform other aspects, but it is not the be all and end all.

By the way, at #49, is Vijay Iyer Trio's Historicity the highest placed jazz record on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop in recent years? (Album list here. Other jazz records I've spotted so far: Darcy James Argue, Henry Threadgill's Zooid, Wadada Leo Smith, Ben Allison, Darius Jones Trio (whoop-whoop!), Steve Lehman Octet and John Hollenbeck. There are probably more).

RIP Kate McGarrigle

Touching words from Carl Wilson here.

RIP Teddy Pendergrass

RIP Jay Reatard

As you may know by now, Jay Reatard, née Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., passed away in his sleep last night. He lived (and played) fast, that's for sure, but I didn't expect him to die so young. More here.

MOPDtK's Forty Fort is a winner

I have to say that Mostly Other People Do the Killing is fast becoming one of my favorite bands of recent times. 2007's Shamokin!!! won me over with it's high energy and catchy tunes (and remains one of my fave albums of the noughties), the follow up This Is Our Moosic confirmed that here we had a unique and magnificent band with a refreshing take on the jazz idiom, and the new Forty Fort hammers down that they are truly a great band. The record is currently top of my (admittedly early and short) 2010 list.

Forty Fort is available at Dusty Groove America and SquidCo, with more merchants to follow.

Ben Ratliff on NYC Winter Jazzfest

Go read Ben Ratliff's piece on the NYC Winter Jazzfest, which featured Perfect Sounds favorites such as Vijay Iyer, JD Allen Trio, Mike Reed's People Places & Things and others. It drew a crowd of about 2.500 on Saturday. That's a creditable turn out, I think.

2009 Voice Jazz Critic's Poll + Happy New Year

My personal fave jazz records of 2009 with comments will be posted sometime over the weekend. My apologies for the delay. Until then, a happy new year to all readers & music fans (jazz and other), plus a few thoughts on the 2009 Voice Jazz Critics' Poll results that were posted on Tuesday (29th of Dec.).

The list turned out to be pretty interesting. The top two of Vijay Iyer's Historicity and Henry Threadgill's This Brings Us To, Vol. 1 are both great records and near the top of my list, too. Darcy James Argue's on 4th (winner in the debut category) and Steve Lehman's on 5th are also enjoyable releases. My fave of the year, Darius Jones Trio's Man'ish Boy made it into the top 20 (17th, 2nd best debut), while J.D. Allen Trio, David S. Ware and Tyshawn Sorey also made the list. Nice to see Allen Toussaint, Bill Frisell, Wadada Leo Smith and Ben Alison there, too. I've yet to hear the latest Bill Dixon as well as the FLY record.

Dissapointing, though, not to see personal favorites (and great records) such as Fully Celebrated's Drunk On the Holy Ones, Matthew Shipp's Harmonic Disorder, and Mike Reed's About Us anywhere. Perennial entries by Joe Lovano (ok-ish record) and Keith Jarret (yawn) makes me think too many Jazz critics have lazy ears, don't search hard enough for good music anymore, or are plainly just too conservative. Fair enough, I just wanted to have a pop there.

Xgau on Monk

The only thing disappointing thing with this piece on Monk is that Xgau fails to mention Wilbur Ware. For me, Ware's distinct, percussive approach to the bass fit Monk more than any other bassist he worked with. He is all over Monk classics such as Monk's Music and Thelonius Monk with John Coltrane. For more, see Ethan Iverson's piece on Do the Math from 2006 (via Wayback Machine). Other than that, the Dean is spot on.

Listmania, Nate's a mate, & more

NY Times' Nate Chinen's 2009 list proves that the expressions of values, emotions and attitudes he looks for in music is not found merely within one "field" (I'm loathe to use "genre") of music. This is a view that seems to be a rarity among jazz-based music writers, who perhaps are just being protective of their field of expertise, which is understandable. We wish to make the point that jazz can be and still is a relevant music today. However, I think Chinen's juxtaposition of different types of musical expressions in his 2009-list argues that point in a more convincing way than "genre" specific ones.

Nate's picks are interesting in their own right, too. The only record I don't like particularly well is the Grizzly Bear one, though I'm yet to hear Fly's Sky & Coutry. Brad Paisly's "Then", Sonic Youth's "Antenna" and Miranda Lambert's "Making Plans" are all my favorite songs off their respective recent records, too.

The only other jazz-based writer I can think of off the top of my hat who seems to think about music in a similarly "all-inclusive" way is mr. Tom Hull (see e.g. his Pazz & Jop ballot).

Ironically, just to regress to the genre specific, I plan to post my year in jazz here in a few days time. I don't think I'll bother with a decade overview. My much touted 25 anniversary celebration of 1984 will have to wait a bit because of technical issues, but it's pretty much finished.

'Til then, happy holidays!

Perfect Sounds - in Norwegian is alive

Perfect Sounds - på norsk is up-and-running again, but will only be used for the purpose of linking to or posting articles I have written for publications in Norway. Many of the articles I've now put up there are taken from the free music mag FAN Fanzine, and have been posted on the blog as they were when I sent them in, sans editing (more info at the bottom of each article). Since FAN is a paper only magazine, the idea is that once a new issue is published, I'll post the article from the previous issue on PS - på norsk.