tnycjr201305

Time Travel
Dave Douglas Quintet (Greenleaf Music)
by Robert Milburn
In describing trumpeter Dave Douglas, the word
‘complicated’ definitely comes to mind. Douglas’
elusive tone mixes deliberately blemished inflection
with vocal-like relatability. The sound is as agreeable
in his brass band, Brass Ecstasy, as it is potent in Sound
Prints, a Wayne Shorter-inspired group co-led by
renowned saxophonist Joe Lovano. Such versatility is
nearly unprecedented.
Case-in-point, his 2012 release Be Still, which
framed traditional hymns against the bucolic sweetness
of vocalist Aoife O’Donovan. On Douglas’ most recent
release, Time Travel, he employs the same quintet, sans
O’Donovan. The disc draws inspiration from the
theory of moving backward and forward in time, as
expressed in David Toomey’s The New Time Travelers,
and attempts to capture that confusion of cause and
effect. The concept is a befitting exposé of the
trumpeter’s amalgamated approach.
Douglas’ eclecticism is best heard on “Law of
Historical Memory”, which fuses classical romanticism
with jazz instrumentation. The song’s depth invokes
the color of a Chopin prelude, with saxophonist Jon
Irabagon providing rich, pastel-like shading beneath
34 May 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
the track’s crests and valleys while Douglas summons
notes of clarion proportion. This is followed by
“Beware of Doug”, which could very well have been
on Be Still for all its playful folksiness. Here the rhythm
section provides significant depth, inspiring brilliant
soloing all around (of note, the feisty persistence of
drummer Rudy Royston). Furthermore, “Garden State”
features Linda Oh’s driving bass leading Douglas into
an open dialogue of postbop intrigue, his timbre set to
an unvarnished consonance.
Douglas is obviously a student of Miles Davis. On
“Bridge to Nowhere”, the title track and “Little Feet”,
Douglas invokes elements of Davis’ second great
quintet, each bolstered by lingering qualities of
cerebral tension from, say, Nefertiti or Miles Smiles. In
particular, “Bridge to Nowhere” balances between
moments of swing and the feeling of controlled
disintegration, whereby any sense of direction seems
to evaporate into spirited and spontaneous abstraction.
This year, Douglas plans to celebrate his 50th
birthday by touring all 50 states with this group. His
new release and his dynamic new quintet should do
much to foster the image of modern jazz as he travels
the country.
For more information, visit greenleafmusic.com. This group
is at ShapeShifter Lab May 30th. See Calendar.
Eponymous
Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
(Honest Jon’s)
by John Sharpe
Kelan Philip Cohran and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
do exactly what it says on the tin. Built around layers
of brassy riffs, each track develops a mesmerizing
groove, barely interrupted by a series of swinging
solos. Cohran should know all about swing. Now 85
years old, he cut his teeth in pianist Jay McShann’s
legendary hard-driving Kansas City group before
moving to Chicago in the mid ‘50s. There he joined Sun
Ra’s Arkestra, featuring on the early masterpiece
Angels And Demons At Play (Saturn, 1965). When Ra
uprooted to New York City, Cohran stayed put,
becoming a founding member of the Association for
the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). As
well as teaching music in schools and prisons, he also
raised a large family. Eight of them form the Hypnotic
Brass Ensemble.
That might explain the tightness of the band.
Fashioned from darting interlocking lines stacked one
upon the other, the Latin-tinged bounce of
“Cuernavaca” gets proceedings underway at pace.
Though no personnel details are given on the sleeve,
trumpets, sousaphone and trombone are all in
evidence, along with drums, percussion and electric
bass, which help launch the combo into an overdrive
that doesn’t let up until the mid-tempo processional of
“Ancestral”. Another of the unit’s distinguishing traits
becomes prominent here, as the unearthly sound of
Cohran’s bowed zither provides one of the piece’s
incidental flavors. Similarly the odd percussive effects
that echo around the periphery of “Stateville” or the
flourish from the leader’s jangling harp, which opens
“Spin” before a funky bass digs in, signify an unusually
expansive conception. The final “Zincali” rounds off
the album in great style as a brass chorale, at one point
parting to spotlight harumphing tuba in counterpoint
to Cohran’s electrified thumb piano.
In spite of the veteran’s avant garde credentials,
this good-natured studio set, captured in the Windy
City during November 2011, stands as really great
dance music, with the kick-ass rhythms the star. Solos
are short though sweet, but like Cohran’s exotic
instruments, mainly serve to add just one more layer of
interest to the infectious momentum of the well-crafted
tunes. As the liners intimate, the Hypnotic Brass
Ensemble has appeared in festivals around the world
and that would seem the perfect setting in which to
sample their joyful noise.
For more information, visit honestjons.com. The Hypnotic
Brass Ensemble is at Blue Note May 10th. See Calendar.
IN PRINT
Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History
(Voyageur Press)
by Clifford Allen
The history of music through visual means -
ephemera and so forth – allows one to glean an
inordinate amount of context that would be
otherwise difficult. A recent entry is Miles Davis: The
Complete Illustrated History, a coffee table book
bringing together rare photographs, poster images,
handbills and album art and related material
alongside often curious and illuminating essays by
Ashley Kahn, Francis Davis, Sonny Rollins, Clark
Terry, George Wein, Bill Cosby and others. These are
woven together with more objectivist historical
writing by Garth Cartwright, none of which provides
particularly new information but it is solid writing
for the neophyte and general interest reader. The
essays are mostly a quick read but some of them do
merit frequent returns - especially those of Davis
and Cosby.
For an illustrated history the images are
interesting and well-chosen; of course, one could
always argue for more detailed archival finds -
letters, contracts, tape boxes, session notes would be
so much icing on the cake - but alongside the oftreproduced
images are rarer images of Miles onstage
in Europe in the early ‘60s or colorfully leading the
Lost Quintet at Ronnie Scott’s in 1969. Doubly
fascinating are the show handbills for such lineups
as the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, Miles
with folksinger Laura Nyro (Fillmore East, 1970) or
three nights opening for the Grateful Dead (Fillmore
West, 1970). Advertisements for Bitches Brew (1969),
Quiet Nights (1962), Martin trumpets and an
attractive BMI ad from 1961 are included, as well as
a diverse range of alternate sleeves for LPs and
singles (as well as those of Jamey Aebersold playalong
records). Of course, Miles’ dress and vibe
throughout his career is a subtext and his style from
the ‘50s-80s could be its own book.
This is a solid and enjoyable tome and while it
may not shed any new scholarship on Miles’ work
and career, that’s not really the point. Rather, it is a
chance to take a gander at some of the contextual
leavings that remain from the Miles Davis era.
For more information, visit voyageurpress.com. Miles
Davis tributes are at Iridium May 23rd-25th and Smoke’s
Miles Davis Festival May 24th-Jun. 30th. See Calendar.