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CD REVIEWS HUSH POINT SSC 1358 In Stores May 21 HUSH POINT is: JOHN McNEIL: trumpet / JEREMY UDDEN: alto sax ARYEH KOBRINSKY: bass / VINNIE SPERRAZZA: drums Fortunately, you can still find bands who invest the time to evolve as a unit. Trumpeter John McNeil and saxophonist Jeremy Udden established Hush Point as a group that does just that. Also including bassist Aryeh Kobrinsky and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza, Hush Point is a working and rehearsing ensemble, and on their new self-titled album, Hush Point, the group shows a cohesiveness of concept that is only achieved through hours of practice, performance and experimentation. Release gig on May 18 and 19 (Fri. & Sat.) @ Cornelia Street Café / 29 Cornelia Street, NYC JOEY CALDERAZZO TRIO LIVE SSC 1368 In Stores May 21 JOEY CALDERAZZO: piano ORLANDO Le FLEMING: bass / DONALD EDWARDS: drums For over two decades, pianist Joey Calderazzo has been unassumingly, yet assuredly, impressing listeners with his informed and refined playing. Using elements of style from his musical heroes as a springboard, the pianist has developed his own take on the tradition, which he happily shares on this new album, recorded during a performance at Daly Jazz in Missoula, Montana. www.sunnysiderecords.com eOne Distribution 14 May 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD Who Am I? Cecilia Coleman (Pandakat) by Sean O’Connell It is unclear whom the title of pianist/arranger/ composer Cecilia Coleman’s big band release is addressing. Is she asking herself? The listener? Do we ask ourselves? Coleman made a name for herself as a performer and teacher in Southern California before making her way east; the high school yearbook-like collage on the cover proudly boasts the city of Long Beach but this album was recorded in Brooklyn. The field of big band arranging is no stranger to women. From Mary Lou Williams to Melba Liston to Maria Schneider, there has been a great tradition of musical minds combining the disparate instrumentation of a big band into a formidable and swinging unit. Although it is almost entirely irrelevant to the sound on the album, it is interesting to note that Coleman is the only woman involved in her own big band. Maybe that’s because of scheduling, the makeup of her social circle or just a coincidence. That discussion opens up a whole can of worms that someone else can tackle for their thesis. We’re just here to listen. Coleman has produced nine arrangements (eight of them original tunes) for this release, showcasing an ability to pilot a large ensemble from her piano bench. Opener “Ode to A Tip Jar” is a straightahead swinger that puts piano up front for a little bit before the full band kicks in with shades of Monk’s “In Walked Bud” and soprano saxophonist Peter Brainin gets a chance to stretch out. The lone standard, “East of the Sun”, gets a very straightforward reading with vocalist David Coss offering up an inoffensive croon. Baritone saxophonist Keith Bishop’s low honk is a pleasant presence throughout the album, especially when anchoring the funkier “Hope” and album-closing title track. Coleman has a smooth swinging touch writing for a large ensemble but unfortunately doesn’t take much of a solo spotlight on the album. Hopefully for her next release she can pen some features for herself and fully show off her wide range of abilities. For more information, visit ceciliacolemanbigband.com. This group is at Saint Peter’s May 1st. See Calendar. Life’s Magic Steve Kuhn Trio (Black Hawk-Sunnyside) by Donald Elfman This reissue of a 1986 live Steve Kuhn set from the Village Vanguard is a stunning demonstration of the pianist’s abilities. With intelligence, passion, wit and more, Kuhn has fashioned a brilliant set of music that underlines the power of his trio with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster and builds a narrative the completion of which is an artistic marvel. Kuhn, Carter and Foster are an ideal trio: each player deftly and supportively complements the work of the others. Kuhn’s ideas are fluid and both delicately crafted and spontaneously generated while Carter plays with grace, melodic and harmonic richness and a sense of forward motion. And Foster has power but knows how to use it; he is propulsive and dynamic but sensitive to the needs of every musical moment. The selection of tunes and the progression they form is exceptional: three strikingly different Kuhn originals; a glorious take on Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz”; “Yesterday’s Gardenias”, a popular tune for Glenn Miller and his Orchestra; the ballad favorite “Never Let Me Go”; a rare Hoagy Carmichael number, “Little Old Lady”, and the Romberg-Hammerstein chestnut “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise”. Kuhn has great technique and his choice of the Carmichael tune as an opener gets the set off to a dynamic start, the trio in powerhouse mode but never losing the charm of the original melody. The most dazzling interpretation is of “Jitterbug Waltz”, beginning ever so delicately with Kuhn lightly tickling the famous theme. Carter is up first as a soloist and he is both dextrous and ever so soulful, Kuhn then slowly barrels in with a sense of old jazz world and blues. The originals are just as compelling, none more than “Ulla/Trance”, which opens as a melancholy waltz and morphs into something darker, a kind of trance in which the time becomes more hypnotic. And, speaking of hypnotic, “Mr. Calypso Kuhn” grows in power and pulse, with Carter and Foster laying down a moveable carpet of island groove. Life’s Magic is one of the finest live recordings made at the Vanguard - and consider what constitutes that list - retaining, to quote Kuhn, its “freshness and vitality”, almost 30 years later. For more information, visit sunnysiderecords.com. Kuhn is at Birdland May 1st-4th. See Calendar. RECOMMENDED NEW RELEASES • JD Allen - Grace (Savant) • Steve Coleman and Five Elements - Functional Arrhythmias (Pi) • Kris Davis - Capricorn Climber (Clean Feed) • Jason Mears Electric Quintet - Book of Changes: Part I (Prefecture) • O’Farrill Brothers Band - Sensing Flight (ZoHo) • Thiefs - Eponymous (Melamine Harmonique) David Adler, New York@Night Columnist • Benoît Delbecq/Fred Hersch Double Trio - Fun House (Songlines) • Tommy Flanagan/Jaki Byard - The Magic of 2 (Live at Keystone Korner) (Resonance) • Bo Jacobsen - Free Spirit (Embla Music) • Roscoe Mitchell - Duets (Wide Hive) • New York Art Quartet - Call It Art (Boxed Set) (Triple Point) • Scott Robinson - Creative Music for 3 Bass Saxophones (ScienSonic) Laurence Donohue-Greene Managing Editor, The New York City Jazz Record • Long Story Short (curated by Peter Brötzmann) (Trost) • Robert Morgenthaler - Bone Art (Unit Records) • Sexmob - Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (Plays Fellini: The Music of Nino Rota (The Royal Potato Family) • Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light (Constellation) • François Tusques - L’etang Change (mais les poissons sont toujours là) (Improvising Beings) • Miguel Zenón & The Rhythm Collective - OYE!!! Live in Puerto Rico (Miel Music) Andrey Henkin Editorial Director, The New York City Jazz Record
Ache & Flutter Shayna Dulberger Quartet (Empty Room Music) by Clifford Allen With an inordinate amount of history at one’s fingertips, it’s often hard to imagine where a modern musician may ‘start’, but creative figures somehow do so and continue on path through combining spirit, drive and necessary homework. Bassist Shayna Dulberger has studied such masters as William Parker, Peter Kowald and Wilbur Ware; increasingly visible on the free music underground over the past near-decade, Ache & Flutter is her second disc as a leader (though the first was for unaccompanied bass/electronics). Leading a quartet with guitarist Chris Welcome, tenor saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer and drummer Carlo Costa, the music on Ache & Flutter has been in gestation since the group’s 2011 formation, if not longer. One notices Dulberger’s playing immediately - simply put, she’s a monster. With the propulsiveness of Parker, the painterly rigor and energy of Kowald and the tone of Ware, Dulberger is an extraordinary soloist steeped in tradition and often placed forward in the mix. 4 of the disc’s 11 pieces are, in fact, solo bass performances. Following the a cappella “Whim”, “Heart Like a Rabbit” opens with a slinky guitar-bass duet, soon adding Costa’s microfilamental tap and Kretzmer’s throaty and florid lines. Welcome’s guitar work is all over with respect to the beat and as Kretzmer digs in his heels, the rhythm section becomes subtly scattered. “Doorways” is maddeningly lickety-split, Kretzmer untying knots into searing snatches of Albert Ayler, Clifford Jordan and Sam Rivers. Welcome is unruly and consistently surprising; his solo section begins lushly, though he quickly splays out into wiry and scumbled shifts, leading into Costa’s airy piles. Following the tugging solo pizzicato of “The Spontaneous Combustion of Shayna Dulberger”, which almost acts as a closer to the record’s first half, “Cookie Cutter” presents martial reach and unsettled footfalls unspooled into Welcome’s jittery twang and gummy volume-pedal action. Dedicated to the late Frank Lowe, “Lowed” is chunky and skirling, saying a lot in a shade over three minutes, while “Crestfallen” adds pitch-bending electronics to the quartet’s jagged crovus. Ache & Flutter is a fine step in Dulberger’s opus, presenting muscular and sensitive group and solo music aware of its place in the continuum. For more information, visit shaynadulberger.com. This group is at Caffe Vivaldi May 2nd. See Calendar. Super Eight Secret Keeper (Intakt) by John Sharpe Sometimes you just have to put aside your preconceptions. Such is the case with Super Eight, the debut album from the twosome of guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Stephan Crump under the moniker Secret Keeper. This is not the Halvorson of the lopsided songs for quintet showcased on last year’s Bending Bridges (Firehouse 12) or the ferocious improviser of her tenure in the various agglomerations of saxophone iconoclast Anthony Braxton. Nor does Crump provide the energetic incitement that propels pianist Vijay Iyer’s tightly focused trio. Instead what we get is a sequence of 14 intimate string duets in which the two principals trade sounds in a completely unselfconscious and non-hierarchical setting. Halvorson deploys her usual staggering litany of effects, even twisting notes to evoke a sitar on the opening “Moom Song”. Crump contrasts and complements, equally adept at wielding a bow to extract eerie drones as plucking deeply resonant pedal points. Both eschew obvious displays of virtuosity but nonetheless draw a wide range of textures from their respective axes. They combine responsively to create pieces that evolve following their own inner logic, based on intuition and timbral juxtaposition rather than any preordained structure. Five tracks clock in at less than a minute while only two breast the five-minute marker. The shorter numbers conjure a self-contained mood, varying from perky “Ciclical” to abrasive “Aquarub”, while the longer cuts allow for greater development of ideas and stand out as a result. Pick of the bunch are the mercurial “Toothsea”, which contains a notable passage of catchy buoyancy amid its nine-minute span, and the dynamic bite of the concluding “Secret Keeper”. Ultimately, however, the set comes across as a series of enigmatic private conversations, which only fitfully engage, most notably on the more expansive cuts. Hopefully these successes will act as a pointer for more inclusive encounters on their next meeting. For more information, visit intaktrec.ch. This duo is at Cornelia Street Café May 4th. See Calendar. Family Tree Oregon (Sunnyside) by Alex Henderson Most of the groups that contributed to fusion’s vitality during the ‘70s are long gone. Oregon, however, is a rare example of a fusion-oriented outfit from that era that has been continuously active. The band’s new album features three of the four founding members: Paul McCandless (soprano sax, oboe, bass clarinet, flute), Ralph Towner (classical guitar, acoustic piano, synthesizers) and Glen Moore (acoustic bass). The fourth, drummer/percussionist Mark Walker, is a 1996 arrival. Oregon has always played by its own rules, using both electric and acoustic instruments, unlike traditional jazz or fusion units. While Family Tree has a lighter, folk-influenced approach than one might expect from fusion, that doesn’t mean that the album lacks depth or substance. Quite the contrary. Memorable selections include the mysterious “The Hexagram”, impressionistic “Mirror Pond” and probing “Jurassic”. World cultures continue to be a source of inspiration for Oregon, and Towner specifically, who incorporates elements of Indian music on “Bibo Babo”, Middle Eastern aesthetics on “Creeper” and sounds of the Caribbean on the good-natured “Carnival Express”. Towner wrote 7 of the 12 pieces here, with McCandless and Moore contributing a song each, along with a pair of group compositions. Of the latter, “Max Alert” finds Oregon briefly detouring into avant garde territory but in a subtle way reminiscent of such Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians composers as Roscoe Mitchell or Muhal Richard Abrams. The piece is an interesting departure from the melodic fusion that otherwise dominates this release. Although not quite in a class with Oregon’s best ‘70s output, Family Tree demonstrates that these fusion/world jazz survivors are still quite capable of delivering solid and inspired albums. For more information, visit camjazz.com. Paul McCandless is at Blue Note May 5th with Combo Nuvo. See Calendar. UNEARTHED GEM BigBands Live Duke Ellington Orchestra (JazzHaus Musik) by Duck Baker Presumably, many readers will have heard something about the JazzHaus Musik label’s archival series, including “BigBands Live”, of which this is the second release. We are told that these are being drawn from a vast body of previously unreleased music recorded for German radio, some of which dates back to the late ‘40s, and that the sound quality is superior. The last is certainly true, but much of what is on this CD, taken from a March 1967 gig, has seen the light of day previously, albeit on a little remembered LP on the English label Jazz Band (Live at Stuttgart, Vol. 1; Vol. 2 never appeared, however). If memory serves, the sound quality for this CD release is better than the original LP. In any case, this is an exciting document of Ellington’s late ‘60s working band, with an emphasis on material of then-recent coinage. For many listeners, the only very familiar tunes after the brief statement of the theme are likely to be two Billy Strayhorn masterpieces, “Johnny Come Lately” and “Freakish Lights”, which is much better known as “Blood Count” (“Freakish Lights” was a working title). In fact, the inclusion of this Johnny Hodges showcase will be one of the most significant things about this release for hardcore fans, as Ellington retired it after the definitive recording later in 1967 on And His Mother Called Him Bill and only a handful of other live versions have been released. Other titles that late-period Ellington fans will know are “Tutti for Cootie”, a staple feature for Cootie Williams after the trumpeter’s return to the fold in 1962, and “Le Plus Belle Africaine”, which entered the book in 1966 and stayed until the end. The balance of the material will only be familiar to those who have studied this period, which was certainly a strong one (the 2004 Storyville release, The Jaywalker, features many of these tunes). The Duke never rested and he and all his featured soloists (also including Harry Carney, Lawrence Brown and Paul Gonsalves) sound happy and inspired on this excellent and easily recommended release. For more information, visit jazzhaus-label.com. Ellington tributes are at Dizzy’s Club May 7th-12th and Blue Note May 21st-26th. See Calendar. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | May 2013 15
Page 1: May 2013 | No. 133 WILL CALHOUN You
Page 4 and 5: NEW YORK @ NIGHT The Hell’s Kitch
Page 6 and 7: Photo by Bill Bernstein INTERVIEW D
Page 9 and 10: ON THE COVER In accepting one of tw
Page 11 and 12: MEGAPHONE Cornet and Lineage: Ron a
Page 16 and 17: GLOBE UNITY: ITALY Sin Fronteras Ac
Page 18 and 19: $18 ADVANCE $20 AT DOOR 9/20: Roy E
Page 20 and 21: Oye!!! (Live in Puerto Rico) Miguel
Page 22 and 23: 22 May 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZ
Page 24 and 25: The View From Here Kyle Eastwood (J
Page 26 and 27: Haymaker Noah Preminger (Palmetto)
Page 28 and 29: Chants Craig Taborn Trio (ECM) by J
Page 30 and 31: LASZLO GARDONY / CLARITY SSC 4014 I
Page 32 and 33: 32 May 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZ
Page 34 and 35: Time Travel Dave Douglas Quintet (G
Page 36: BOXED SET Ten Freedom Summers Wadad
Page 39 and 40: Saturday, May 4 êCyro Baptista and
Page 41 and 42: Monday, May 13 êGil Evans Birthday
Page 43 and 44: Saturday, May 25 êMark Soskin Trio
Page 45 and 46: CLUB DIRECTORY • 54 Below 254 Wes
Page 47 and 48: KENNY BALL - The British trumpeter

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