What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XIII)

Now Playing.....

Jakob Bro & Thomas Knak - Bro/Knak

Jakob Bro (composer, electric guitar, piano, vocals), Thomas Knak (composer), David Virelles (piano), Kenny Wheeler (flugelhorn), Jakob Kullberg (cello), Tine Rehling (harp), Jakob Hoyer (drums), Oscar Noriega (clarinet), Pamela Kurstin (theremin), Jonas Westergaard: (electric bass), Anders Mathiasen (acoustic guitar) Bill Frisell  (guitar), Thomas Morgan (double bass), Jeff Ballard (drums), Paul Bley (piano), The Royal Danish Chapel Choir  (vocals).

Interesting double album of Jakob Bro's compositions on the first album and a recomposition by Thomas Knak on the second.  First time listening to this double album.  Streaming on TIDAL.......

A review from John Kelman in All About Jazz found here:

Following three consistently fine recordings as a leader—2009's The Stars Are All New Songs Vol. 1, 2010's Balladeering and 2011's Time (all on the Danish guitarist's own Loveland imprint)—in addition to international visibility gained through work with Paul Motian on the drummer's Garden of Eden (ECM, 2006) and trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's Dark Eyes (ECM, 2010), Jakob Bro takes a considerable detour with Bro/Knak, a collaboration with Danish electronic musician Thomas Knak. Bro's laconic and, perhaps, more to the point melancholic playing is fundamental to much of this two-disc collection, but the emphasis is largely on composition and, ultimately, recomposition, as Knak takes Bro's eight pieces on the first disc, and transmutes and transmogrifies them into altogether different "rebuilds" on the second.

That's not to say improvisation doesn't figure into the picture. Nearly one-third of the first disc's 51-minute running time is taken up by Paul Bley's "Roots Piano Variation," a stunningly lyrical, free-flowing piece of spontaneous creation that clarifies the debt owed to the expat Canadian in pianist Keith Jarrett's formative years. Bley's from-the-ether musings make a great deal out of Bro's relatively sparse source material—a gentle Dane-Americana miniature that reenlists guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan from Time—but the pianist's greater emphasis on the lower register lends a weight and strength entirely different from his more commercially successful progeny.

"Color Sample," the other lengthy contribution at over ten minutes, is more clearly composed, with Bro layering his voice into a gentle one-man choir, and a middle section that combines the guitarist's ambient and occasionally reverse-attack swells with cellist Jakob Kullberg's poignant arco and harpist Tine Rehling's delicate pizzicato. But it also allows for plenty of extrapolation—collective and singular; first from Kullberg, and later from Kenny Wheeler, whose flugelhorn solo is the perfect fit for Bro's dark-hued writing.

Frisell may have been an early influence, but the way he interacts with Bro on "Roots" and "Northern Blues Variation No. II" (which, with The Royal Danish Chapel Choir, feels like something out of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western), it's clearly less a matter of imitation and more a matter of inspiration, as the two wind their way through Bro's music with the epitome of anti-alacrity.

Knak's work ranges from the electro-tinged and considerably altered ("Northern Blues Variation No II Rebuild I") to the more ethereal "Rebuild II" that closes the second disc. In between, he turns Bro's rubato "Roots" into a surprisingly propulsive, repetition- centric "Roots Rebuild," with Bro layering some additional piano. Pianist David Virelles' lyrical "G Major Song" solo is re-imagined into curiously abstract form, while the oriental textures of "Izu" becomes a little less Zen, Knak's electronic percussion giving it a more fervent pulse than Anders Mathiasen's acoustic guitar on the original.

Ambitious in scope but introspective in delivery, Bro/Knak reveals another side beyond Bro's growing reputation as a guitarist. He's already proven himself a fine participant in a growing international network of musical performers; here, with Knak, it's a different kind of collaboration, and one to which the guitarist/composer is clearly and equally well-suited.

I believe it was Kevin-W (?) who recommended this, and I must say it is top shelf.

Opeth-  Deliverance & Damnation

Released  2002

reissued 2015 

2 CD, 1 DVD-A, Box set

GraemeH posted:

Some great tracks here beyond ‘Start me Up’...’Slave’ a particularly grungy favourite. The first press cd sounds fine too. The recent 555PS addition sorting the complex mixes into music very nicely.

G

The 11 year old me went on a one and only family camping trip to the South of France and in amongst the 'National Lampoons' hysterics this was played a lot by my parents in the car and so I have a bit of a soft spot for it.  Also the last great Rolling Stones record to be released IMO.  TOPS is a favourite of mine sounds great on vinyl.

Now Playing........

Vassilis Tsabropoulos, Arild Andersen, John Marshall - Achirana

Vassilis Tsabropoulos (piano), Arild Andersen (double bass), and John Marshall (drums)

 Going with the mention from HUNGRYHALIBUT above as the exploration of the ECM catalogue continues. Streaming from TIDAL......

Through the first two tracks and enjoying the album quite a bit, worth the time to give it a listen. 

ECM Records website Review: 

Achirana introduces a special trio formed by bassist Arild Andersen with pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos and drummer John Marshall. Although the prodigious Tsabropoulos anchors equal footing in classical performance and composition, his improvising, notes Andersen, has full independence. Its rounded panache and ability to graft on to its surroundings while also maintaining an inherent melodic drive make this, his ECM debut, a thoughtful entry. That said, by the end he leaves us with a little too much to process. More on this below.

Tsabropoulos’s melodic gifts are immediately apparent in the whispered clusters with which he begins the title opener. A wistful thought, a tangle of hair about the nape, a ribbon loosed and windblown: such are the tiny pictures created by these gestures. Andersen’s playing is poignant and builds to density with such tact, magisterial yet as compressed as a teardrop, that the facets of “Diamond Cut Diamond” glitter with that much greater beauty. In this dance of thread and needle, Andersen resonates with mercurial depth-soundings. His heavy quavers are like giant arrows in the darkness, each shafted by a fallen tree and feathered by itinerant dreams, leaving their spores behind to sprout, fly, and strike their targets truly. Yet these are not weapons but instruments of writing, flowing down into “Valley” with their watery dreams fully intact. Such tracks as this clarify the album’s key element: namely, its ability to make the ineffable audible. Andersen’s poised soloing says it all, as does his pliant re-imagining of the Norwegian folk song “She’s Gone.”

The album’s remainder consists of Tsabropoulos originals, of which the breadth of “The Spell” and the upswing of “Fable” stand out for their pathos. He allows the music to breathe with such deference to the act of bringing it to life that he feels more like a ghost as the set progresses. By the final two tracks (“Song for Phyllis” and “Monologue”) he feels like an untraceable border in a Rothko canvas: nothing seems to separate his playing from his surroundings. It’s not that a jazz musician needs to stand on his head. Nevertheless, one wants to feel something embraceable, and sometimes Tsabropoulos plays a little too smokily. Compared to, say, John Taylor’s work with Peter Erskine and Palle Danielsson (as documented on Time Being, As It Is, and JUNI), the surface of Achirana is rather uniform. This is not necessarily a drawback, but it may help you decide whether or not Achirana is for you. Either way, it’s a unique swath of pianism and the formative mark of a musician who has since grown into his skin as an improviser. In this respect, the trio’s follow-up, The Triangle, is where it’s at, to say nothing of Tsabropoulos’s marvelous solo effort, Akroasis.

Barring the fact that Tsabropoulos’s name heads the roster, this is an Andersen record through and through. In addition to his creative playing, the bassist’s creative listening is patently obvious throughout, whereas Tsabropoulos tends to fill space wherever he can find it. The difference in approach is staggering and proves that jazz is more about what you don’t play. And let us not forget Marshall’s luminescent contributions, which open the listener further to that unnamable, tuneful inkwell into which masters of the art all dip their quills. In this respect, Edward Bulwer-Lytton only got it half right when he said that the pen is mightier than the sword, for what the pen leaves behind is mightier than both, as is the page, without which those markings might never reach us.

I bought this album as part of an Original Album series. Just working my way through the 5 albums starting with this 

Randy Newman - Good Old Boys

Haim Ronen posted:

A recommendation from our Stefan who visited the here briefly today without posting.  I am very thankful for the honest- good friendship maintained beyond the forum boundaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWdLOrtT5r4

Haim, it's really you that recommended most music to me, lately. And can't agree more with outside-forum friendships. There are not many left, but the ones remaining are a huge value.

Good collaboration between Spanish experience and an old American master on the guitar(s)

Annett Louisan:  Berlin - Kapstadt - Prag. Surely not everybody's cup of tea, but if you want to give it a try, listen to "Helden" (Bowie) or "Das Modell" (Kraftwerk)

Hey Stefan, welcome back after your three year break. 

Walk on, walk on, nothing to be seen here...  

Thanks, HH - feels a bit like joining a high school class reunion. Memories come back, where I needed a good forum "fix" every day - and I mean every day, wherever I was on this planet. I have no immediate plans, but I might hang around a bit, here, and see what has changed..

Eric Legnini - Rhytmh Sphere

Nice, modern jazz from jazz quartet led by Eric Legnini

• Double Bass – Philippe Aerts
• Drums – Félix Simtaine
• Piano – Eric Legnini
• Saxophone – Joe Lovano

Leonhardt’s English Suites on harpsichord recorded in 1975 on Wolf Erichson’s Seon label, now owned by Sony. Budget CD reissues are easily available and highly recommended!

Fiona Apple - "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do"  (2012)

Bob Dylan - The Collection - CD

Bought this a few years ago before the Naim System. Didn't do much then or until recently when I doubled the spacing between the boxes. Now it is great to listen to with tracks going back to my university days in the mid-late sixties. We used to have coffee after 9 o’clock lectures and a mate used to play his stuff on the jukebox. All the instruments sparkle and his voice seems more mellow. 

Phil

Vilde Frang:  Homage

A nice selection of early 20th century gems consisting mostly of transcriptions/arrangements by Kreisler or Heifetz and a selection from the likes of Auer and Szigeti.  For me it is really nice to hear a selection of solo piano music transcribed here such as from Debussy, Scriabin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Albéniz, Dvořák etc.

How can one not like Vilde Frang?  Her playing is so seductive, sweet, and beguiling.

Harper Simon  -  "Division Street"  (2013) the second release from the son of Paul and Edie

On CD:-

Sade - Promise

Lhasa - The Living Road

A BBC R3 Late Junction Record of The Year a  few years back. Still good.

Some early Gazpacho, this was their debut album. I've not listened to the remaster before available c/o Tidal.

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849):  Olga Kern (piano) | Antoni Wit / Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra

Piano Concerto No. 1 in e-minor, Op. 11
Fantaisie in f-minor, Op. 49 | Bolero, Op. 19 | Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66 | Polonaise in A-flat major

Now Playing......

RVO PÄRT: TABULA RASA
GIDON KREMER, KEITH JARRETT, TATJANA GRINDENKO, ALFRED SCHNITTKE, THE 12 CELLISTS OF THE BERLIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, STAATSORCHESTER STUTTGART, DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, LITHUANIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, SAULIUS SONDECKIS

Continuation of the ECM catalogue exploration.  Streaming from TIDAL....

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):  Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

Violin Sonata No. 1 in g-minor, BWV 1001
Violin Partita No. 1 in b-minor, BWV 1002
Violin Sonata No. 2 in a-minor, BWV 1003
Violin Partita No. 2 in d-minor, BWV 1004
Violin Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005
Violin Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006

This is the third recording of the Violin Sonatas & Partitas for Christian Tetzlaff.  The symbolism of this number and the cover photo for me is undeniable.

Joe Henry  -  "Tiny Voices"  (2003)

(2008)

A fine Canadian rock band that like to do it their own way, psychedelic grooves mixing in with heavy duty hard rock and vintage synthesisers making well considered appearances.