What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XIII)
Posted by: Richard Dane on 01 January 2017
2017 has arrived today, so time to start this thread afresh.
Last year's thread can be found here;
Now Playing.......
Enrico Rava & Stefano Bollani - The Third Man
Enrico Rava (trumpet) and Stefano Bollani (piano)
Steaming on TIDAL...... Continuation of the ECM Records catalogue exploration. The opening track certainly grabs your attention, quite beautiful, a lot of synergy between the trumpet and piano. Very nice! I know there will be more of listening to these two together.
Note on the ECM Records website here:
They have been playing together since the early 1990s, Bollani hailing trumpeter Rava as his mentor, and Rava regarding Bollani as “perhaps the most gifted pianist since Art Tatum”. After Rava’s highly acclaimed “Easy Living” (quintet featuring Bollani) and the Rava/Bollani/Paul Motian collaboration “Tati”, comes this superb duo set, recorded in Lugano in November 2006. Here is marvellous linear playing and melodies plucked from the air, two master improvisers making freely lyrical jazz together – inspired by jazz history, South American music (an important source for both musicians), the Italian song tradition, contemporary composition and more, all developed, under Manfred Eicher’s supervision, into a unique programme. The repertoire includes compositions by each of the protagonists, two takes of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s famous ballad “Retrato Em Branco Y Preto”, a reinvention of “Estate” by the Italian singer Bruno Martino (whose own inspirations included Neapolitan folk song as well as jazz ) and spontaneous –yet profoundly melodic – free improvisation on the title track.
Just relaxing music.
Hungryhalibut posted:I know that Haim is having a restorative break from ECM, whereas I’ve been listening to a lot recently, though more of the New Series. I’ve listened to John Potter on Ambrose Fields’ Being Dufay, as well as his first Downland Project before lunch, both of which have been really uplifting. And now, between siesta and walk, it’s this.
HH,
The New Series has a lot of quality recordings. The only Carla Bley I have is on the WATT label which is affiliated with ECM records:
My favorite piece is Musique Mécanique performed with Steve Swallow. This is with her orchestra:
Earlier today - nice display of what might be coming...
Always pleasant to hear Oscar...
Now Playing........
Enrico Rava Quintet - Tribe
Enrico Rava (trumpet), Gianluca Petrella (trombone), Giovani Guidi (piano), Gabriele Evangelista (double-bass), Fabrizio Sferra (drums), and Giacomo Ancillotto (guitar)
Streaming on TIDAL....... After listening to Enrico Rave and Stefano Bollani's 'The Third Man' album it was easy to look for another to continue on........ Enjoying Enrico's work quite a bit.
Note from ECM Records found here.
Since his return to ECM with “Easy Living” in 2003, the grand master of Italian jazz has gone from strength to strength, in a series of truly exceptional recordings including “Tati”, “The Words and The Days”, “The Third Man”, and “New York Days”. Enrico Rava is currently playing at a peak of lyrical invention, and his newest Italian quintet is amongst his strongest ensembles. Gianluca Petrella is retained from “The Words and the Days” line-up. Voted Rising Star Trombonist in the Down Beat Critics Poll of 2005, he has a front-line relationship with Rava which recalls Enrico’s affinity with Roswell Rudd back in the heyday of the New Thing. Fast-moving, quick-witted exchanges abound. Enrico has always encouraged younger musicians, and pianist Giovanni Guidi (born 1985) is a real find, a player of creativity and imagination: “When I notice the gifts of a young musician, I immediately involve him in my groups. This is not motivated by altruism,” Rava insists. “Giovanni Guidi is like Bollani and Petrella: he astounds me every time.” Bassist Gabriele Evangelista (b. 1988), another young player of promise, works splendidly alongside widely-experienced drummer Fabrizio Sferra, whose resume includes work with Chet Baker, Paul Bley and Kenny Wheeler. Material on “Tribe” includes new and old tunes by Rava and a brace of collective improvisations.
Now Playing.......
Bill Frisell - Selected Recordings :rarum
Bill Frisell (guitars, banjo, guitar synthesizer), Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone), Billy Drewes (alto saxophone), Ed Schuller (double-bass), Paul Motian (drums), Jan Garbarek (soprano saxophone), Eberhard Weber (bass), Michael Dipasqua (drums), Kenny Wheeler (trumpet, cornet), Joey Baron (drums), Lee Konitz (alto saxophone), Dave Holland (double-bass), Paul Bley (piano), John Surman (soprano saxophone), Jamie McCarthy (recorder), Roger Heaton (clarinet), Alexander Balanescu (violin), Martin Allen (vibraphone), John White (piano), and Gavin Bryars (double- bass).
Streaming from NAS........ Arrived today in mail and ripped to NAS, first time playing and enjoying Bill as I always do. Nice album with 14 and Bill appears on the first 13 tracks and the 14th is composed by Gavin Bryars in honor of Bill.
Review on All About Jazz found here:
Whatever the musical context, guitarist Bill Frisell has always been a team player. From the edgy avant-garde of Naked City to the deeply melodic music of the Ginger Baker Trio and several wide-ranging groups of his own, he's proven repeatedly that he has the versatility and perceptiveness to fit into wildly different surroundings. His ECM work has for the most part been of the quiet, melodic sort. Since he last recorded under his own name for the label in 1987, he's forged onward with a more country/blues orientation on his own recordings. Some critics have slapped the term "Americana" on this new material, but Frisell dismisses the label: "People say this has come into my playing in recent years. I think it's been there all along." Perhaps so. Regardless, this set documents a fertile period during the '80s when Frisell was finding his own voice.
In his solo recordings, Frisell prizes space and texture. The solo guitar piece "Introduction" (from the Paul Motian band recording Psalm ) has as much silence as sound. "In Line" (from Frisell's record of the same name) explores extremes of timbre and pitch overlaid on a solid, pulsing acoustic foundation. Then there's his work with saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Paul Motian. In trio or quintet settings, these players have a very rare kind of cohesion. Surely Lovano has developed his sound substantially since the '80s—this material emphasizes his sure grasp of melody, but it lacks the deftness of tone and angularity of phrasing which he acquired in the '90s. But in some sense, the '80s were golden years for these players. They deliver some of their strongest, most memorable playing on these tunes.
Frisell's work with trumpeter Kenny Wheeler (documented here on three tunes from 1984's Rambler ) has a sharper edge, more extreme in tone and color than the rest of the collection. Frisell plays here and there with effects to thicken atmospheric backgrounds and sharpen his crispy improvisations. You can hear the roots of his post-ECM music in the soft blues of "Lonesome" and the stretched, gossamer meanderings of "Alien Prints." Just in case you thought you had Frisell pinned down, he tosses out "Hangdog," a punchy, dissonant fragment from the same record, 1987's Lookout for Hope.
Five tracks with an exquisite balance between lyrical jazz and chance taking with hard bop.
Now Playing........
Andrew Cyrille Quartet - The Declaration of Musical Independence
Andrew Cyrille (drums, percussion), Bill Frisell (guitar), Richard Teitelbaum ( Synthesizer, piano), and Ben Street (double bass)
Streaming from NAS....... Arrived today in mail and ripped to NAS, I have played this a couple of times, streaming on TIDAL, and enjoyed it so much I needed to add it to the music collection. For me it is a very enjoyable album!
Note from the ECM Website: The great avant-jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille – whose associations have ranged from a long, vintage collaboration with Cecil Taylor to co-leading current all-star collective Trio 3 with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman – makes his ECM leader debut with The Declaration of Musical Independence. Featuring a quartet with guitar luminary Bill Frisell, keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum and bassist Ben Street, the album kicks off with an artfully oblique interpretation of John Coltrane’s “Coltrane Time,” led by Cyrille’s solo drum intro. The disc then features a sequence of sonically arresting originals, including Street’s luminous “Say…” and Frisell’s deeply felt “Kaddish” and “Song for Andrew,” with Frisell’s guitar alternately cutting and billowing, the edge evoking some of his most illustrious past ECM performances. There are three atmospheric spontaneous compositions by the band – including the dynamic soundscape “Dazzling (Perchordally Yours)” -- that highlight Cyrille’s individual sense of percussive drama. Cyrille appeared on classic ECM and WATT albums by the likes of Marion Brown, Carla Bley and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, but this album puts a deserved spotlight on an icon of jazz drumming.
Now Playing.........
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
Herbie Hancock (piano), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), Ron Carter (bass), and Tony Williams (drums)
Streaming on TIDAL...... I enjoy Herbie and Freddie quite a bit, so thanks to Haim above for the mention of 'Maiden Voyage.' Through the second track and enjoying the music and synergy between five musicians, very nice!
Jimmy Buffett. Coconut Telegraph. On vinyl from 1981. A singer-songwriter I underestimated back in the day. No longer.
Carole King. Tapestry (1971). On re-issued vinyl from 1977. A gifted songwriter at her artistic best.
This engaging and stylish collection brings together four of Haydn’s piano trios dedicated to two women he met in London: Rebecca Schroeter, for whom No. 39 (among others) was written, and Therese Jansen, the recipient of Nos. 43-45. Both women were pianists–Jansen was one of Clementi’s foremost students–and so the piano’s prominence in these works is no great surprise. But the Trio Wanderer (pianist Vincent Coq, violinist Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabedian, and Raphael Pidoux) performs superbly as a team; it’s as if they were a single creature wielding three instruments. Their attacks have military precision, their rhythmic kicks are as precise as any Rockettes lineup, and each phrase is polished to its best shine. Their dazzling articulation, particularly in the bubbly presto finale of No. 43 and the meaty concluding Rondo of No. 39 (“In the Gypsies’ stile”) is a special pleasure. So what’s my reservation? All the slow movements whiz by at a steady clip–it’s as if the players were so afraid of dragging down the music’s overall high spirits that they decided it would be better to zip right on through. Even so, this recording is a delight, complemented by full and well balanced sonics.
Nice intimate collection of songs...
Not a big fan of Christmas music in general however, this is an excellent CD.
2017 - Tidal...
Yazz Ahmed - 'La Saboteuse'