Tord Gustavsen Quartet
The Well
ECM Records
2012

Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen may not have attained the level of success, say, of a Keith Jarrett or Chick Corea with his 2003 ECM debut, Changing Places, but it clearly struck a popular chord, as well as garnering no shortage of critical acclaim. Subsequent touring around the world, including a number of North American dates, honed the trio that would subsequently release The Ground (2005) and Being There (2007). But with its third ECM release, those who follow the German label knew that Gustavsen's next record would have to introduce a change. Sure enough, the pianist--whose playing and writing is reflected in his soft-spoken and considered nature--explored a variety ...

Barry Harris
Village Vanguard
New York, NY
January 15, 2012

Ambling in from the back of the room, Barry Harris introduced his trio to the crowd at the Village Vanguard as the musicians filed in ahead of him: Ray Drummond on bass, Leroy Williams on drums, and then he announced, with a wink, “I'm Barry Johnson." Of course, everybody in the audience was well familiar with the name of the living legend they were there to see.

One of the great early disciples of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk--the latter a close friend--Harris isn't simply a keeper of the flame of bebop; he's one of the great exponents of classic jazz. He's toured ...

Ron Cole Trio
MarkTwo Pub and Restaurant
Vientiane, Laos
January 21, 2012

The fact that a jazz trio came from Bangkok to play a swish new venue in the Laotian capital--one that wouldn't look out of place in the City of Angels--says something about the rapid pace of change in Laos. This was no embassy-sponsored gig either; this was private enterprise in action, something that Communist Lao is getting pretty darn nifty at. Another sign of these changing times--and a very encouraging one--was the guest appearance of several Lao jazz musicians, self-taught at that. This is newsworthy in itself, as jazz is about as far removed from the average Lao psyche as is hurrying.

The concert came ...

Sterns Music's lovingly put-together compilations of work by stars of Francophone West African music's “belle époque“--the decade and a half accompanying and immediately following the independence years of the 1960s--are now digging further into history with releases featuring more obscure, but just as entrancing, figures from that era.

For different reasons, Senegalese singer and songwriter Ablaye Ndiaye Thiossane, and Guinean singer, guitarist and ngoni player Sory Kandia Kouyaté, have not been celebrated outside Africa like Mali's Rail Band, Senegal's Orchestra Baobab or Guinea's Bembeya Jazz, Keletigui et ses Tambourinis and Balla et ses Balladins.

In 2012, not before time, Thiossane and Kouyaté return to the limelight.

Ablaye Ndiaye Thiossane
Ablaye Ndiaye Thiossane
Sterns Music
2011

Ablaye Ndiaye ...

Julius Hemphill / Peter Kowald
Live at Kassiopeia
No Business Records
2011

Out of the blue comes this double disc set featuring two distinguished alumni, both sadly now departed, of two parallel streams of musical pioneering. German bassist Peter Kowald was one of the authors of European free improvisation. Though initially in the shadows of his more assertive compatriots, saxophonist Peter Brotzmann and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, he came into his own through giving full rein to his open spirit and almost obsessive desire to communicate, culminating in his Global Village concept and appearances with virtually every free jazz luminary.

American saxophonist Julius Hemphill was one architect of the groundbreaking St Louis Black Artists Group, evincing a ...

John Geggie / Ron Miles / David Occhipinti
Geggie Concert Series
NAC Fourth Stage, Ottawa, Canada
January 14, 2012

For his first concert of 2012, bassist John Geggie reaffirmed the astute ability to bring together musicians in unheard-of configurations that's made his longstanding Geggie Concert Series an Ottawa institution. Despite living in a city that would have a hard time getting classified as a jazz mecca, Geggie's leadership of the Ottawa International Jazz Festival's late night jam sessions, touring with groups such as Chelsea Bridge and artists such as pianist D.D. Jackson, and his current role as an educator at Suny Potsdam in upstate New York--not to mention possessing the networking skills to take advantage of every ...

Josh Arcoleo
Beginnings
Edition Records
2012

Over the decades since Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young were making their reputations, forging in their wake two very different paradigms for the tenor saxophone, the instrument's players have acquired something of the aura of the gunslingers of the American Frontier. Other instruments lend themselves to compare-and-contrast, too, but there is something uniquely high noon about the tenor and its place in jazz legend.

Although Britain's Josh Arcoleo may or may not see it quite like this himself--and he probably does not, being disarmingly modest of mien--the 23-year old is the new fast-draw in town. Beginnings, Arcoleo's debut album, reveals a precociously mature player, who, if he has not yet completely ...

Way Down That Lonesome Road: Lonnie Johnson in Toronto 1965-1970
Mark Miller
Paper; 160 pages
ISBN 978-1-55128-148-3
The Mercury Press
2011

The life of singer and guitarist Lonnie Johnson has been chronicled well enough for a blues performer. But leave it to Mark Miller to find an adjunct that adds a whole new dimension to Johnson's biography--the last five years of his life, which he lived in Toronto.

Miller has an aptitude for seeing things in a way few writers do. His accomplishments are many, whether he is covering the history of jazz in Canada as he did in The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada (The Mercury Press, 2001), or focusing on a particular ...

Peloton
The Cable Factory
Helsinki, Finland
November 2011--January 2012
January 8, 2012

Many a gigging musician has spent lengthy formative hours in an opera house pit, a symphony orchestra stand or, in this case, under the modern equivalent of a big top. With contemporary circus entertainment more compact--even low key at times--venues are typically former industrial project buildings rather than a portable canvas canopy, but other than the acoustics it's the same for the musician: regular work, but with the spice of live performance.

The Peloton Quartet is certainly no stranger to the circus world, with Funeral, Circus and Other Music (Lilith, 2009) and most performances in recent years being alongside dance and performance artists. During ...

Meet Al Scott:
Al Scott has been playing the piano for over 10 years, and first became influenced by the music of Michael Jackson. It must have been the Quincy Jones element that influenced him. Although his main passion is for jazz music, Al has done session work for various producers, and featured live alongside DJs in the dance music scene. Back in Manchester he had a Trio, which played various venues including Matt and Phred's, a well-known Jazz club up north. Currently been living in London for the past four years, is involved with various other groups.

Plans for this year involve recording a Trio/Quartet album later in the year.

Influences from artists such as Bill Evans Trios, Herbie ...

Paul Dunmall / Matthew Bourne / Steve Davis / Dave Kane
Vortex Jazz Club
London, UK
January 9, 2012

Although saxophonist Paul Dunmall performs in London with reasonable frequency, he rarely appears in the same configuration twice. But for anyone who's heard his excellent Moment To Moment (Slam, 2009), tonight's gig was not to be missed, as the reedman renewed his acquaintance with the young trio of pianist Matthew Bourne, bassist Dave Kane and drummer Steve Davis.

In front of a select Monday night crowd at Dalston's Vortex jazz bar, the group explored a refreshing variety of different territories beyond the norm, taking in classic John Coltrane, the saxophonist preaching in A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965) mode ...

Sean Noonan & Pavees Dance
The Douglass Street Music Collective
December 15, 2011

It might seem as though drummer/composer Sean Noonan was enjoying a quiet year in 2011, playing fewer gigs than usual. The reality is that he's been busy scribing new works, in preparation for a twin album onslaught in 2012. He's also planning an extensive reissue drive for his existing catalogue. Six months ago, Noonan played at The Stone with his Boxing Dreams String Quartet. Just as it sounds, that involved Noonan's drumming together with a more aggressive than usual ring of cello, viola and two violins. This gig at the intimate Douglass Street Music Collective studio (a loft environment on the ground floor) presented another band concept ...

Keith Rowe & John Tilbury
E.E. Tension and Circumstance
Potlatch
2011

It happens every year. Just as the old year is drawing to a close, after the best-of-the-year lists have been compiled and published, a release arrives just too late to make those lists but deserving to feature in their upper echelons. For 2011, E.E. Tension and Circumstance was the one.

Pairing Keith Rowe on guitar and John Tilbury on piano for the first time since Rowe's departure from AMM in 2004, E.E. Tension and Circumstance has to be seen as a companion piece to the pair's first (and only previous) recording as a duo, the double CD Duos for Doris (Erstwhile, 2003). Where that album ...

Parker / Lee / Evans
The Bleeding Edge
Psi
2011

The coming together of American trumpeter Peter Evans, Korean (now New York-based) cellist Okkyung Lee and English saxophonist Evan Parker is a fine example of the trans-continental links that connect improvising musicians across the world. Despite their coming from three continents, it was no surprise when the three finally played as a trio; if anything, there was an inevitability about their coming together to play in October 2009 during Parker's two-week residency at The Stone in NYC. In 2008 Lee and Evans had played in the fine trio with pianist Steve Beresford (himself a member of Parker's quartet) that recorded Check for Monsters (Emanem, 2009). Evans and ...

Day 1 | Day 2 2012 NYC Winter Jazzfest, Day 2
New York, NY
January 7, 2012

Gregoire Maret

The harmonica, like the accordion and other free reed aerophones, doesn't come with as much built-in room for expression as other wind instruments, which is what makes Gregoire Maret's playing so unique. For his quartet show at Zinc Bar, Maret relied on loose melodicism, carefully organized ornaments and just the right amount of “out" playing to give his playing the necessary amount of personal style. Amidst soulful jazz, the chromatic harmonica tends to recall Stevie Wonder and while Maret's melodies certainly hinted at Wonder's inflection, he was easily adept at shredding, pulling down lively and impassioned bebop-based lines that ...

These two albums make it abundantly clear that bassist Sebastian Liedke doesn't look at music as a unidirectional art form, and his life experiences likely have a lot to do with his outlook. The young, Berlin-based artist had put his instrument on the back burner while he was gainfully employed as a civil engineer, but lack of enthusiasm for his chosen career helped him find his way back to the bass. This circuitous route to the music camp clearly helped Liedke to understand that finding one's own way and/or diverting from a given course is fine as long it's done with sincerity, conviction and a firm sense of purpose, and these traits ring true on both of these outings.

Sebastian ...

Phronesis Pitch Black
Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall
London, England
November 16, 2011

Latecomers might have thought the Purcell Room was experiencing technical difficulties. The punctual, however, knew the lights were out for Pitch Black. This project, unveiled at Brecon, featured Phronesis playing in total darkness. Officially the show simulates the experience of bassist [Jasper] Høiby's blind sister but it also indulges the trio's penchant for challenges.

Illuminated for the first half, the visual contact underwriting the band's coherent blend of fiendishly complex rhythms and guiltily melodic piano lines was evident. As the lights faded for the second half, however, they offered a revealing final glimpse of the trio exchanging looks of unfeigned trepidation. Stripped of visual ...

Freedom, it could be argued, is most deeply understood by those who have been somehow constrained against their will, or who have been prisoners of their own skewed vision of what it means to be free. Trumpeter Enrico Rava knows the meaning of musical freedom; he was part of the free-jazz scene of the 1960s and 1970s where chords were frowned upon, and made recordings almost at will in the 80s and 90s, “many of which were not necessary," he freely admits. Rava has learned that true artistic freedom does not lie in allegiance to a school centered on a highly conceptual approach to music, nor does it mean recording at the drop of a hat. True freedom, Rava has ...

Day 1 | Day 2 2012 NYC Winter Jazzfest, Day 1
New York, NY
January 6, 2012

No one could argue that jazz didn't have a tumultuous 2011. For the better, bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding's Grammy for Best New Artist marked the first time a jazz musician was awarded that honor, and veteran tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins was honored for his lifelong (and continuing) achievement at the Kennedy Center. For the worse, the winter was a gloomy season, having lost living, active legends like drummer Paul Motian, saxophonist Sam Rivers and trombonist/arranger Bob Brookmeyer. On a more interesting note, jazz may have even begun undergoing a socio-political reclamation as trumpeter Nicholas Payton and others have challenged the word “jazz" ...

Gov't Mule
Beacon Theatre
New York, NY
December 30-31, 2011

Though Gov't Mule had played hardly any gigs since January 1, 2011, it nevertheless presented a hearty welcome to 2012 with a two-night Beacon theatre run that marked the tenth anniversary of the its New York City tradition.

No question, Gov't Mule took its time after casually taking the stage December 30. “Devil Likes It Slow," goes one of the band's vintage tunes, and so did the band this night as it worked its way through an instrumental jam that eventually turned into Funkadelic's “Maggot Brain." Anyone who thought the quartet was going to charge into action instead found a decidedly different tone set for the weekend: ...

Meet Richard Conde:
My work has been featured in National Geographic and recently chosen for their permanent stock collection. Most of my work consists of jazz photography, travel photography and dance performance events. Currently I am the senior staff photographer for the Jazz Museum in Harlem and the club photographer for the Birdland jazz club in New York City. I am also represented by the HP Garcia gallery in New York City. I have earned a Masters of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. For the past few years I have worked on assignment for several travel organizations. My work has been published in the New York Times, ...

When the Another Timbre label was launched in the autumn of 2007, its proprietor, Simon Reynell, said he intended its output to be a balance between electro-acoustic improvisation (eai), European free improv (EFI) and modern composition. While acknowledging that there are areas of overlap between these categories, at the time he added, “My interest in contemporary classical music has continued alongside my passion for improv, so I was very clear that I wanted Another Timbre to cover both areas. However, I soon discovered that most classical music is prohibitively expensive to bring to disc, unless you have a wealthy patron or commercial backer. So whereas I'd really like a third of the releases to be classical, the reality will be ...

Woody Allen's 2011 film, Midnight in Paris was a hit summer film in the U.S. and Paris, and also a theme that resonated during my annual two-month sojourn to the City of Light. At that hour, I was often happily sitting in jazz venues, my spirits lifted both by the music and seeing the clubs filled with listeners of all ages.

Jazz is easy to locate in Paris because music venues are listed by type in the events section of two weekly mini-magazines--Pariscope and L'Official Spectacle--that are issued every Wednesday, and available at newsstand kiosks. Among the many free music publications are LYLO (les yeux/les oreilles--eyes/ears) and Paris Jazz Club, found at venues and FNAC music/book stores, where advance tickets ...

For my entire childhood, up through the moment I graduated high school, I was told of the importance of the SAT Reasoning Tests and attending college. I believe this was a message my entire generation heard from our parents, teachers, and society at large. While I was in eighth grade, I was introduced to jazz and immediately fell in love with the music of John Coltrane. I shared this passion with my twin brother, trombonist Joe Beaty. We were lucky enough to attend Interlochen Arts Academy on scholarship to finish high school, graduating in 2001. At that time, Interlochen's tuition was $24,000/year. The school prepared me well for my college auditions and I was accepted to The New School, in ...

The Birdland Big Band directed by Tommy Igoe
Birdland
New York, NY
December 28, 2011

On a chilly Wednesday night in December, drummer and bandleader Tommy Igoe directed the fifteen-piece Birdland Big Band as part of its weeklong headlining residence at the club the group has been calling home since its inception in 2005. The ensemble kicked off the set with an intriguing piece that shifted tempos, going from swing to blues, depending on who was soloing. The tune started directly, with alto saxophonist Nathan Childers' solo, moving on to the other members and finally ending with an extended feature for bassist Tom Kennedy, who shifted between upright and five-string electric throughout the set.

The band tackled ...

The Dave Douglas/Donny McCaslin Key Motion Quintet
Jazz Standard
December 8, 2011

This was the first of four Dave Douglas nights at the Jazz Standard, each of them highlighting a different performance perspective. The unexpected has become the expected where this high-wire trumpeter is concerned. Douglas is perpetually scouting for fresh settings, new musical concepts and unfamiliar terrain where he's able to stretch his abilities, to heighten an already fearsome virtuosity and communicative playing passion. Three out of the four combos were premiering unexplored parameters. The second evening teamed Douglas with the new music ensemble So Percussion and the third unveiled a new acoustic quintet featuring saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and pianist Vijay Iyer, whilst the closing session was the only ...

Guitarist Rez Abbasi is part of a generation of jazz musicians who came of age after the conservative backlash of the 1980s. He and his peers are making their mark on America's art form by contributing their rich and varied cultural backgrounds and with an embrace of popular culture that was heresy in some quarters for far too long.

Rez Abbasi personifies several of the attributes on display in his music. He puts forth a quiet confidence, with a clear point of view on a variety of topics. He is capable of and open to ideas, surprises, and wonder. Though he has a singular vision for his various musical projects and approaches his art with a sense of purpose and ...

World of Glass and 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
Tallinn 2011
Von Krahl and Port of Tallinn
Tallin, Estonia
December 20-22, 2011

Having visited Tallinn earlier in the year for its annual Jazzkaar jazz festival--an even more special event, thanks to additional funding as part of Tallinn 2011 (the city's celebration as European Capital of Culture), including an invite to Norway's Punkt Live Remix Festival for a two-day festival-within-a-festival that turned out to be one of the year's best live events--and learning of the myriad of projects in play for the year, two in particular stood out. Originally scheduled to take place later in the year but months apart, however, there seemed little chance ...

The Birdland Big Band directed by Tommy Igoe
Birdland
New York, NY
December 28, 2011

Establishing a foothold in the world of big bands today is no easy feat. Strong label support and distribution (Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, for example), constant touring, television appearances and festival appearances (as with Wynton Marsalis and the LCJO), the weight of big band history (in the case of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra), and/or a unique, high brow concept in musical presentation (thinking of Maria Schneider Orchestra) often help big bands looking to build a following, but The Birdland Big Band has managed to carve a place for itself without any such benefit. Its weekly Friday Happy Hour gig at its ...

Back in September, the review of Inner Spire (Leo, 2011) by the Québec duo of alto saxophonist Francois Carrier and drummer Michel Lambert with Russian pianist Alexey Lapin, closed with the words “This is an impressive debut from a fine trio. Let us hope a sequel follows soon."

Shortly after that review appeared, news leaked out of not one but two sequels to Inner Spire, and now they are both released. While Inner Spire was recorded in Moscow on December 19 2010, by the following day, the scene had shifted to St. Petersburg where All Out and In Motion were recorded on 20 and 21 December respectively. So, these two new releases complete a neat three-day trilogy.

Francois Carrier, Michel ...