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ad mehldau Jazz Album of the Year 1 Brad Mehldau, Live In Marciac (Nonesuch) 351 A formidable piano performance recorded during a jazz festival in southern France, Live In Marciac stands out as this year’s favorite jazz album among DownBeat readers. (See page 44.) 2 Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden, Jasmine (ECM) 336 Collaborators Jarrett and Haden delved deeply into a program of romantic standards during an intimate duet recording. The pianist and bassist play with what might be described as awesome restraint. 3 Joe Lovano Us Five, Bird Songs (Blue Note) 300 Lovano’s latest Blue Note release, from his dynamic intergenerational ensemble Us Five, breaks the mold of Charlie Parker tribute records. This CD is a thoroughly modern, thoughtful look at a titan by one of the most important voices in jazz today. 4 esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society (Heads Up) 300 The Grammy-winning bassist/vocalist creates a modern image of a chamber group with classical string trio arrangements and her own jazz/folk/pop compositions. Milton Nascimento and Gretchen Parlato contribute their genius and elegance to Spalding’s ever-deepening vision. 5 Chick Corea/Stanley Clarke/ Lennie White, Forever (Concord) 267 The trio of Corea, Clarke and White—the core of ’70s electricjazz supergroup Return To Forever—transcends nostalgia, asserting its authority from the get-go and finding its roots in crystal-clear, hard-swinging jamming. 6 Charles Lloyd Quartet, Mirror (ECM) 237 A poignant mix of tender romances and transcendent spirituals, this CD draws the listener into a world of feeling and meaning. The saxophonist has amazing sidemen in Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland. 7 Wynton Marsalis & Richard Galliano, From Billie Holiday To Edith Piaf: Live In Marciac (Rampart Street/Jazz in Marciac) 198 The trumpeter’s quintet joined with French accordionist Galliano to respectfully reflect on two very different national legacies, both bronzed in the immortality of victimization and early demise. This sweet, joyful and dynamic disc is accompanied by a smartly shot DVD of the same performance. 8 Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz) 195 Frisell continues to be a self-effacing and spectacular player, as evidenced by this recording of the guitarist’s novel trio with viola player Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston. The CD consists of short tracks based on simple ideas with a down-home flavor. 9 Herbie Hancock, The Imagine Project (Hancock) 192 Featuring a huge cast of global all-stars, Hancock’s re-imagining of the ideals of the 1960s overflows with musical interaction and artistic integrity. The pianist and impresario re-establishes himself as a true believer in the philosophy of music-as-universal-language. 10 Avishai Cohen, Introducing Triveni (Anzic) 189 The trumpeter demonstrates “terrifying control, great taste and personal style” in this setting with no fellow horns and no harmonic safety net, according to DownBeat Hot Box reviewer John Corbett. Cohen chose versatile collaborators: bassist Omer Avital and drummer Nasheet Waits. 11 Ambrose Akinmusire, When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note) 186 12 Rudresh Mahanthappa/Bunky Green, Apex (Pi) 183 13 James Moody, Moody 4B (IPO) 162 14 Dave Holland Octet, Pathways (Dare2) 159 15 Charlie Haden Quartet West, Sophisticated Ladies (Emarcy) 147 16 Dr. Lonnie Smith, Spiral (Palmetto) 135 17 Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya, Sotho Blue (Sunnyside) 126 18 Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, 40 Acres And A Burro (Zoho) 120 19 Dave Douglas & Keystone, Spark Of Being (Greenleaf) 117 20 Vijay Iyer, Solo (ACT) 117 21 Al DiMeola, Pursuit Of Radical Rhapsody (Telarc) 116 22 The Bad Plus, Never Stop (e1) 115 23 Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers, Chucho’s Steps (4Q) 115 24 Stanley Clarke, The Stanley Clarke Band (Heads Up) 112 25 Anat Cohen, Clarinetwork: Live At The Village Vanguard (Anzic) 99 26 Bryan Lynch, Unsung Heros: A Tribute To Some Underappreciated Trumpet Masters (Holistic Musicworks) 99 27 Dave Liebman Group, Turnaround: The Music Of Ornette Coleman (Jazzwerkstatt) 90 28 Danilo Pérez, Providencia (Mack Avenue) 90 29 Bill Charlap/Renee Rosnes, Double Portrait (Blue Note) 87 30 Lee Konitz New Quartet, Live At The Village Vanguard (Enja) 84 46 DOWNBEAT DECEMBER 2011
pioneer in using rock songs in the same way that earlier generations of jazz musicians used swing-era songs—as fodder for improvisation. “Playing pop tunes just seemed a no-brainer to me,” he says. “I never thought of it as particularly weird; I had Blue Note records where Lee Morgan played Beatles tunes. It had something to do with me living in L.A. from 1996 to 2001, because that’s when I started recording with the trio and started playing those songs by Radiohead and Nick Drake. Radiohead became a big band for me, because I hadn’t heard any new bands in a while, and they were really hitting it then. OK Computer was happening, and when I heard that, I went out and got the earlier albums. Not only were they a great band, but they were also here and now; they felt relevant. “It was a renaissance for me in listening to pop music, because I had put it aside when I dived into jazz, just as I had put aside classical. Classical came back to me when I was 20 in New York. Pop came back to me when I was 24 in L.A. Pop was the first music I had an emotional response to. When I was young, I had a clock radio in my bedroom and I’d wake up to the sounds of Steve Miller, the Eagles and Steely Dan, and I loved that music.” More recently, however, Mehldau has been consumed by listening to Bach’s preludes and fugues and Beethoven’s sonatas. As he gets older—he’s now 41—he finds himself exploring a single composer or work for months at a time. This allows him to dive deeply into the details. Months of listening to Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen led to Mehldau’s first long work, his own through-composed Highway Rider. That, in turn, led to him occupying the prestigious Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall for the 2010–’11 season, the first jazz artist to do so. That doesn’t mean that he is forsaking jazz to become a classical composer or pianist. “Just because I listen to a lot of Bach doesn’t mean I play a lot of Bach at my gigs,” he points out, “but the listening comes out in unexpected ways. I can study the Faure nocturnes for a few months and then later on a live date, covering a Pink Floyd tune, something will come out in my playing, and I’ll say, ‘Ah, that’s Faure.’” Mehldau has long been fascinated by canonical classical composers, especially the Germans from the 18th and early 19th centuries and the French from early 20th century, but he had never explored contemporary art music in quite the same way. That changed with his newest album, Modern Music (Nonesuch), a duo project with fellow pianist Kevin Hays based on arrangements by the classical and jazz composer (and saxophonist) Patrick Zimmerli. Mehldau and Zimmerli actually went to the same school at the same time—William H. Hall High School in West Hartford, Conn. Hays was simultaneously attending a different Connecticut high school; he met Zimmerli at a national music competition for students. Like Mehldau, Hays held the piano chair in Joshua Redman’s early ’90s bands. Mehldau is two years younger than the other two, and grew up admiring them. When he and Hays committed to a two-piano recording, Zimmerli stepped forward with the idea of improvising within structured arrangements of contemporary classical pieces. As the idea evolved, the pieces by Arvo Pärt and Henryk Gorecki dropped out, and the final lineup included four compositions by Zimmerli and one apiece by Mehldau, Hays, Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. For the album’s title-track composition, Zimmerli asked Mehldau and Hays to play a written part in the left hand and to improvise with the right. This pushed the concept of right-/left-hand independence to an extreme that even Mehldau had never attempted. But he was game, and after a few stumbles, Mehldau started to get the hang of it. “You have this burden of playing something as it’s written and also being intuitive enough to improvise at the same time,” he recounts. “Each one is challenging enough by itself, but to do both at once is a real test. The brain feels like it’s split in half.”DB DECEMBER 2011 DOWNBEAT 47
Page 1: DownBeat 76th Annual Readers Poll W
Page 6: DECEMBER 2011 On the Cover 24 Tromb
Page 10: Chords Discords makes it increasin
Page 14 and 15: Riffs Aaron Cohen Honorable Mentio
Page 16 and 17: European Scene | By Peter Margasak
Page 18 and 19: Terence Blanchard Craig Lovell Caug
Page 20 and 21: Players Michael Kaeshammer Hitting
Page 22 and 23: Players Tineke Postma Transatlanti
Page 24 and 25: No Guts, No Glory Brash Brassman Tr
Page 26: trombone shorty In the early ’90s
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Page 32 and 33: Hall of Fame " Ahmad Jamal Patience
Page 34: ahmad jamal Jamal’s restraint was
Page 38 and 39: ahmad jamal are few instrumentalist
Page 40 and 41: Jazz Artist of the Year " Esperanza
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Page 45: Jazz Album & Pianist of the Year "
Page 49 and 50: Teppei Inokuchi Newport Jazz Festiv
Page 52 and 53: miles davis Miles Davis (left) with
Page 54 and 55: 54 DOWNBEAT DECEMBER 2011 Jeff Beck
Page 56 and 57: Kurt Elling Pat Metheny Jack DeJohn
Page 58: complete results Lee Konitz 543 Cha
Page 62: complete results Mose Allison 267 K
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Page 75 and 76: Creative Flash A great “first ser
Page 79 and 80: Masterpiece ★★★★★ Excelle
Page 81 and 82: Hot The Box CD Critics John McDono
Page 83 and 84: Jazz | By dan ouellette New Twists
Page 85 and 86: Tony Bennett Duets II Columbia 0052
Page 87 and 88: Rudresh Mahanthappa Samdhi ACT 9513
Page 89 and 90: Blues | By Frank-john hadley Search
Page 91 and 92: Brad Mehldau & Kevin Hays Modern Mu
Page 93 and 94: Beyond | By Bill meyer John Fahey d
Page 95 and 96: Tá Lam 11 Mingus! Jazzwerkstatt 10
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Historical | By John Ephland ‘Boo
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David S. Ware Organica (Solo Saxoph
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Master Class Woodshed | By matt she
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solo Woodshed | by Shawn Purcell Pe
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Toolshed Yamaha SLB-200LTD Silent
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Toolshed | Gear Box Freedom Rings T
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Jazz On Campus School Notes Donal
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INSTRUMENTS & ACCESSORIES DB Buyers
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