Articles by Ted Gordon
Paul Motian / Chris Potter / Jason Moran: Lost in a Dream
by Ted Gordon
Consider this album a blind date of sorts: Drummer Paul Motian-meets-pianist-Jason Moran, introduced by the matchmaker, saxophonist Chris Potter. Though Motian had worked once with Moran in 2006, this collaboration is a stunning example of the versatility and mastery of Motian's veteran technique. Recorded over a week of concerts at New York City's Village Vanguard, Motian's stomping grounds, this album is held together by the trio's seemingly effortless exploration of slow, melodic ballads. At 79, Motian has proven to be ...
read moreDarcy James Argue's Secret Society: Infernal Machines
by Ted Gordon
From the first listening of this album, it is clear that Darcy James Argue intends to make a strong statement about the boundaries of musical genres--of jazz and new music--as well as about musical aesthetics and technology. This album consists of Argue's compositions for big band" (or large ensemble," depending on whom you ask) with a dark, modernistic edge; most numbers contain pulsating drumbeats and wildly spiraling minor and diminished harmonies. An electric guitar, often distorted, also pops up here ...
read morePeter Brotzmann - Sweet Sweat & The Brain of the Dog in Section
by Ted Gordon
Peter Brotzmann / Paal Nilssen-Love Sweetsweat Smalltown Superjazz 2008 Peter Brotzmann / Fred Lonberg-Holm The Brain of the Dog in Secton Atavistic 2009 This is healthy music--the sounds of vim and vigor, the exhaust of physical, musical and mental exertion--sweet sweat, indeed. Like attending a Bikhram yoga session of the will and the mind, ...
read morePaul Motian: Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. II
by Ted Gordon
This is indoor music: music for contemplating, sitting and smoking, letting it smolder in the ears and grow. Paul Motian, the veteran drummer whose mature, idiosyncratic percussive language has been shaped by years of playing with Bill Evans, Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett and others, shines on this album: he seems completely at home, considered, even slow at some points. Nearly a generation after he recorded the legendary session at the Village Vanguard with Evans in 1961, Motian returned with his ...
read moreDave Douglas & Keystone: Live at Jazz Standard
by Ted Gordon
In 1961, Bob Thiele set up a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder at the Village Vanguard to record John Coltrane's quintet. Though there was no official plan for releasing the tapes, Thiele knew that recording every single night of these performances had to be done. The resulting release proves his historical foresight. In 2006, Greenleaf music took up a similar project in recording and releasing over 22 hours of the Dave Douglas Quintet live at Jazz Standard. And two years later, ...
read moreBoston Modern Orchestra Project: Gunther Schuller: Journey Into Jazz
by Ted Gordon
What might seem the most innocuous music is often the most avant-garde, the most challenging; the spark that forces the question of what defines the boundaries of jazz. Gunther Schuller's Journey Into Jazz," composed in 1962, is just that: a children's narrative, telling the story of one Eddie Jackson, a boy who learned about jazz," a communal mode of music-making that is free, ostensibly, of all the restraints that come with genre labels. Though the piece is over 40 years ...
read moreCooper-Moore: The Cedar Box Recordings
by Ted Gordon
Cooper-Moore, at first glance, can be compared to a savant subway musician: eccentric, obsessed with repeating melodic and rhythmic patterns, fast, passionate, eye-catching. Though many subway musicians would never sound good besides the brief respite they afford a too-crowded platform, occasionally there is one that is so moving, so original and so well-composed that they warrant another listen. That's kind of how it feels when listening to Cooper-Moore's The Cedar Box Recordings. This collection archives both his amazing ...
read moreLotte Anker / Sylvie Courvoisier / Ikue Mori: Alien Huddle
by Ted Gordon
On the face of it, Alien Huddle may seem like another notch on the belt for three well-seasoned veterans of experimental improvised music--each with her own language, capturing their collaboration and conversation in the studio, rather than in a club. Yet the experience of listening to this album proves that the meeting of these three musicians is more than chance, more than a mere session: it is a combination that works exceedingly well, an alchemic formula that smelts gold out ...
read moreBoston Modern Orchestra Project: Gunther Schuller: Journey Into Jazz
by Ted Gordon
What might seem the most innocuous music is often the most avant-garde, the most challenging, and the spark that forces the question as to what are the boundaries of jazz. Gunther Schuller's Journey Into Jazz," composed in 1962, is just that. A children's narrative, it tells the story of one Eddie Jackson, a boy who learned about jazz," a communal mode of music-making that is free, ostensibly, of all the restraints that come with genre labels. Though the piece is ...
read more