Karl Ackermann's Best Creative Music Of 2023

2023 was an exceptional year for pushing envelopes. The music took leaps backward and forwards in time, espousing social consciousness while embracing fundamentals laid down by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. What distinguishes this year from the pre-pandemic era is the palpable feeling that artists vented in the form of fresh enthusiasm that can only come from overcoming and surviving adversity. The list is not in order of preference.

Mette Henriette
Drifting
ECM Records

Norwegian saxophonist and composer Mette Henriette established herself as a major talent while in her teens, becoming a vital member of the country's creative music community. In 2015 Henriette released her self-titled debut on the ECM label. The highly praised double album featured a trio on one disc and a large orchestra on the other. It seemed that the debut was the exciting start of a limitless career. But eight years passed without Henriette following up on the album. Drifting, a trio recording, is the long-awaited return of a standout artist. Drifting's destination is nebulous. Henriette's music combines elements of quietly atmospheric jazz and classical music, creating a sound that is both ethereal and spiritual. She builds bridges with collaborators experienced in exploring similar possibilities. The leader's melodic phrases and gentle tone were part of her diverse debut album but they dominate the inspiring Drifting. It is an excellent album, timeless, with a circular quality, and best listened to in its entirety.

Sebastian Rochford
A Short Diary
ECM Records

London-based drummer Sebastian Rochford and pianist Kit Downes have a long working history but have recorded only once as a duo on the EP Live @ The Vortex (Loop Collective, 2012). They reunite on the poignant and cerebral A Short Diary. Rochford began his relationship with ECM Records as part of the Andy Sheppard-led Trio Libero (2012). Rochford's pieces, as implied by some of the titles, reveal a personal catharsis. "This Tune Your Ears Will Never Hear" is melancholic; Downes' very individual method evokes emotional misgivings and then finishes with a brief dramatic flash. Similarly, "Communal Decisions" and the piano solo "Night of Quiet" barely rise above a whisper. Both pieces exist in minimalistic spaciousness but Rochford and Downes let in enough light to place music over mood. Despite a conspicuous wistful quality, A Short Diary has an unmistakable warmth. Downes frames Rochford's compositions penetratingly, while the drummer's work is characterized by subtlety, understatement, an effortless flow, and a unique rhythmic sensibility.

Jonah Parzen-Johnson
Friendship Music for Turkey
Self Produced

The Brooklyn-based Chicagoan Jonah Parzen-Johnson has created clever, thought-provoking lo-fi music across all six of his previous releases. Each is a solo performance with Parzen-Johnson on baritone saxophone and a customized analog synthesizer. His work is entirely unique but with a passing nod to the birthright of great Chicago saxophonists. Istanbul's Berke Can Özcan is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, who describes himself as something of a continual work-in-progress. Özcan met with Parzen-Johnson for only a few hours before the duo recorded the drummer's compositions for Friendship Music for Turkey. Johnson's agility and mastery of extended techniques pair nicely with the subtle, global style of Özcan. The album is moving, with minimal music that evocatively swells to make its broader point.

George Dumitriu
Monk on Viola
Evil Rabbit Records

George Dumitriu's Monk on Viola, an unusually inventive reading of Thelonious Monk's work. The Romanian multi-instrumentalist and composer, a virtuoso on violin, viola, and guitar, the Amsterdam-based artist led the group, Dumitrio on two albums, played in the Kaja Draksler Octet and quintet, and has co-led an eclectic mix of Eastern European hybrid recordings. On Monk on Viola, Dumitriu's first solo release, he interprets nine of the legend's best-known compositions. Monk's unforgiving keyboard style was complex, with unconventional harmonic and rhythmic structures, dissonance, and angular melodies. Dumitriu's viola trades the more jarring aspects of Monk's music in mesmerizing ways. He approaches complicated compositions with a clear uncluttered style, but he does not avoid experimentation as on a barely recognizable "Round Midnight." Dumitriu's accentuation of aural waves and Eastern European folk influences bring a purposeful eccentricity to "Locomotive." He whirls through an energetic "Boo Boo's Birthday," and a peculiar take on "Crepuscule with Nellie" where he literally drags the piece across the viola's strings. In de-emphasizing complex mechanical rhythms and accentuating fluid phrasing, Dumitriu exposes the vital facets of Monk's role in the development of bebop and post-bop styles. Monk on Viola succeeds in offering an innovative look at some very familiar music.

Sylvie Courvoisier
The Rite of Spring: Spectre d'un songe
Pyroclastic Records

Two daring jazz improvisers take on a cherished hundred-year-old classical ballet masterpiece with radical roots on The Rite of Spring: Spectre d'un songe. The composition has been elevated considerably from the 1913 Igor Stravinsky debut, but the music remains complex and sometimes uncomfortable. It is a fitting vehicle for the singular talents of pianists Sylvie Courvoisier and Cory Smythe. The piano duo brings us a fascinating interpretation of Stravinsky's magnum opus followed by a Courvoisier composition. Courvoisier and Smythe take a nuanced approach, both to their improvising and their interactions. The tension, while in plain sight, is open to a give-and-take as both pianists shift their positions amid structure and invention. Parts of Stravinsky's score for "The Rite of Spring" have been incorporated in the recordings of Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, The Bad Plus, and other jazz artists. The best-known interpretation was that of Hubert Laws. Despite an all-star ensemble including Ron Carter, and Jack DeJohnette, that recording lacks any visceral sensation. It is that challenge that Courvoisier and Smythe meet and surpass in every moment of this excellent recording.

Satoko Fujii
Torrent
Libra Records

Satoko Fujii has released more than one hundred albums in her recording career and only a small percentage have been solo projects. With Torrent, Fujii's end product is evidence of a willing and ceaseless innovator and experimenter. Her music reflects diverse influences, from traditional to free jazz, to the uncategorical, all playing a part in defining her sound. The cinematic qualities in Fujii's work are not obvious; the listener fleshes out the story with their imagination. Fujii's playing is characterized by its complexity, dissonance, and improvisation, creating soundscapes that are both challenging and rewarding for the listener. Like so much of her solo work, Torrent provides a wealth of inventive material for listeners interested in exploring the fringe possibilities of jazz piano.

Bo van de Graaf
Shinjuku
icdisc

Saxophonist and composer Bo van de Graaf is not well known outside Western Europe despite being one of the most interesting and creative figures in music. His Dutch ensemble, I Compani, has been active for almost forty years. Van De Graaf composes original scores based on classic films of Fellini, Bertolucci, Greta Garbo, and others. He fashioned a fascinating jazz opera based on Verdi's Aida (BV Haast Records, 2001), and a big band, Latin jazz tribute to food-themed multi-media. On his release, Off the Record: Eccentric Music for Audio Hunters (ICDisc, 2019) van de Graaf featured pieces with twenty-five car horns, dual hurdy-gurdy players, and an improvised work directed by texted suggestions from audience members. If that all sounds like gimmickry, the finished product is not; van de Graaf produces serious if occasionally playful music. His semi-solo Shinjuku reveals the artist in frequently utilitarian settings and the results are powerful. The album is soulful, urgent, and very satisfying; it is worth seeking out for fans of solo and duo saxophone performances.

East Axis
No Subject
Brother Mister Productions

Pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Kevin Ray, and drummer Gerald Cleaver return for No Subject, the sophomore release from the quartet East Axis. One point on the axis has changed with the journeyman, multi-reedist Scott Robinson replacing saxophonist Allen Lowe. While not an obvious choice in the company of top-tier avant-gardists, Robinson brings new layers to the music of East Axis with his expertise on a broad array of instruments. In a leaderless quartet of this caliber, it is challenging to single out players charting the course of this music but Ray and Robinson definitely influence the dynamics to a great extent. The latter plays the tarogato, alto clarinet, trumpet, tenor saxophone, and slide cornet. Ray is the often-understated glue holding this mesmerizing collection together. His understanding of collective improvisation and ability to create melodically singing lines place him among the best bassists in creative music. No Subject is unadulterated, creative music full of layers, shadings, and unexpected rhythms; it thrives and metamorphosizes on repeated listening. The album takes listeners to an open but unusually accessible soundscape that defies labels.

Matthew Shipp
The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp
Mahakala Music

In a broad-themed 2023 interview with All About Jazz, Matthew Shipp described The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp as his "grand statement for who I am now." With this solo release, we have a time-stamp in the composer's constantly evolving portfolio. As we trace Shipp's music from his first solo work, Symbol Systems (No More Records, 1995), through a quarter century, a sense of composing and playing in the moment becomes career-defining. Intrinsic to Shipp's music is his remarkably developed and communicative language. There can be many interpretations of Shipp's broad range of ideas and that is both the challenge and enjoyment of listening. The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp advocates a less complex, more thoughtful unearthing of Shipp's analytical revelations. He employs dense clusters of notes and rapid-fire arpeggios, creating a rich and intricate tapestry of sound. His use of extended techniques adds to the diversity of textures and tones in his performances. It is clear that introspection has a stronger presence here, articulated in ten unadorned pieces. Shipp has shaved off unnecessary gesticulations, hovering in spiritually extensive spaces while driving towards a higher level of innovation. The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp is enhanced with repeated listening.

Steve Lehman
Ex Machina
Pi Recodings

When native New Yorker Steve Lehman releases an album, the odds are it will turn up at the top of year-end polls. If the composer & saxophonist has a formula for success, a listener would be unlikely to discern a methodology across his previous sixteen leader releases. What sets Lehman apart is a hunger for knowledge and risk. No two recordings under his direction sound alike, and yet his work has an unmistakable bearing. Continuing his decades-long association with Pi Recordings, Lehman has assembled an unusual trio and the fifteen-member Orchestre National de Jazz (OJN) for Ex Machina.

Palle Mikkelborg
Strands
ECM Records

Strands brings together three of Denmark's finest artists, in their ancestral home. Palle Mikkelborg and Marilyn Mazur have a substantial history together, as does Jakob Bro but to a lesser extent. Bro penned five of the six compositions, one with Mikkelborg, who also contributed one of his pieces. Opening with "Gefion" and "Oktober" the trio establishes an intimate setting under brooding skies. Mikkelborg's searching flugelhorn conveys boldness without breathing fire. The Mikkelborg & Bro piece, "Returnings," breaks the mood with a piercing trumpet, electric guitar, and Mazur's exotic rhythms. A forceful, hard-edged attack suddenly dissolves, quietly buzzing to a near silence. The title track resumes the initial atmospherics, closing, almost twelve minutes later with faint detachment from the theme. The ethereal "Youth" is a gem of slightly distorted melancholy with Bro's excellent acoustic guitar and the muted haunting of Mikkelborg's brass. The plaintive closing piece, "Lyskaster," is an elegant, if too brief, conclusion to the program.

Aruán Ortiz
Pastor's Paradox
Clean Feed Records

When clarinetist and saxophonist Don Byron and pianist Aruán Ortiz teamed up for the recording of Random Dances And (A)Tonalities (Intakt Records, 2018) they brought an unprecedented wealth of stylistic experiences to the studio. The result was an unconventional duo sound that blurred the distinctions between their collective comfort zones. Byron and Ortiz return on the gorgeous Pastor's Paradox, sounding joined at the hip and untethered, simultaneously.

Jaimie Branch
Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))
International Anthem Recording Company

The overflowing joy of Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War)) is countered by the despair that trumpeter Jamie Branch did not live to see its completion and release. The cheerfully insubordinate artist, only 39 at the end, left listeners with her best work to date; a genre-less kaleidoscope of jazz, island music, free improvisation, hip-hop, country, and the kitchen sink. It all works beautifully. There is a craving for adventure in every note of the music and fans of Branch will hear familiar elements but ones that give way to new approaches. With cellist Lester St. Louis, Jason Ajeman on bass, and drummer Chad Taylor, Branch set out to create a living, breathing musical entity with longer pieces, more variety, and ceaseless energy. Such a complex, ambitious tactic can easily fail but not where Branch is the center from which everything emanates.

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