WNUR Jazz Report, 11/12/96

NEWS

• Subjects of recent 11:00 breaks have include Joe McPhee, Terry Callier, and Masada Chamber Ensembles. John Corbett continues his Tuesday series of 11:00 breaks on the complete recorded works of Swedish pianist Per-Henrik Wallin, one album per week. Only a few more albums to go!

ADDS THIS WEEK

[New releases]

• Bernard Purdie: Soul to Jazz (ACT)
  Featuring the recently deceased Chicago tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris.
• various: A Little Magic in a Noisy World (ACT)
• Northwoods Improvisers: Fog and Fire (Arc)
  Michigan-based acoustic trio receive the honor of having their debut released on Trevor Watts' label Arc. At their straightest they're a vibes-bass-drums trio; on further out tracks they mix in cheng, zither, and miscellaneous "little instruments". They describe their music as "a blend of eastern music, jazz, and collective improvising."
• Liquid Soul: Liquid Soul (Ark 21)
  Ark 21, Miles Copeland's new label, has picked up Liquid Soul's debut which was already released locally. This very popular local group play what is called "acid jazz", but the presence of co-leader saxophonist Mars Williams, who WNUR listeners know from avant-garde projects like NRG Ensemble and Cinghiale, ensure that there's something there for jazz listeners among the beats and samples. See http://www.mcs.net/~novoarts/.
• Jeff Song: Rules of Engagement (Asian Improv)
  Bass guitarist Song performed at the recent Asian American Jazz Festival in Chicago. His group on this CD includes cellist Matt Turner, known for his work solo and with Scott Fields. Much of the disc has a delicate chamber music feel. Asian Improv is on the web at http://www.wp.com/horiuchi/improv1.html.
• Carl Leukaufe: Warrior (Delmark)
  With Lin Halliday, Jodie Christian, Robert Barry, et al. Liner notes by WNUR jazz DJ Leonard J. Bukowski.
• Jim Beebe's Chicago Jazz: A Sultry Serenade (Delmark)
• Jodie Christian: Front Line (Delmark)
  Album by Chicago pianist features alto saxophonist Norris Turney. Christian appears November 23rd at the Green Mill as a member of the Roscoe Mitchell Quartet; he also plays in Kahil El Zabar's Elders Band. (This is a more straightahead record than those two projects.)
• Rich Corpolongo: Just Found Joy (Delmark)
  Delmark seems to be specializing in giving veteran Chicago musicians their first chance to record as leaders. Corpolongo, like the late Hal Russell, is a former associate of little-known Chicago free jazz pioneer Joe Daley. On this record, an hour of listener-friendly but exploratory freebop is followed by the experimental "The Way It Is", which alternates composed sections with open improvisation.
• Ivo Perelman: Sad Life (Leo)
  Young Brazilian tenorman Perelman is joined by veterans William Parker (bass) and Rashied Ali (drums) for a both fiery and sensitive free jazz session. Liner notes by WNUR jazz DJ John Corbett.
• Anthony Braxton & the Fred Simmons Trio: 9 Standards (Quartet) 1993 (2 CD's) (Leo)
  "This gig finds [Braxton] fronting a self-contained working trio with which he's had little if any previous contact" (Art Lange). Braxton plays sax and flute, in contrast to other recent standards discs which feature his piano playing.
• Eugene Chadbourne: Boogie With the Hook (Leo)
  Lo-fi duets with Han Bennink (1990), Derek Bailey (1995), Charles Tyler (1977), John Zorn (1980), and Korean banjo player Volcmark Verkerk (the banjo is Korean; Verkerk is Dutch). This is some of the finest recorded evidence of Chadbourne's talents as a free improvisor. Anecdote from liner notes: Charles Tyler turns down a gig with Sly and the Family Stone because he refuses to wear a wig.
• Evan Parker: Synergetics-Phonomanie III (2 CD's) (Leo)
  Surely one of the most unusual intrumental lineups ever recorded: saxophone, trombone, and bass, plus komungo, imbumbu, and launeddas (look 'em up!), plus Sainkho Namchylak's Tuvan vocals, plus two live electronics manipulators -- sometimes three, actually, because in addition to George Lewis's trombone, his interactive computer improvisor is present on two tracks. Actually, that whole group doesn't play together -- this is a series of solos, duos, trios, and a few larger groups, the whole "coordinated" by Parker and recorded live in Austria in 1993. This is a fascinating and sometimes bewildering melange of nationalities and sonorities.
• Stevens/Duval Quintet: Elements (Leo)
  That's Michael Jefry Stevens (piano) and Dominic Duval (bass), with Dom Minasi (guitar), Jay Rosen (drums), and Mark Whitecage (alto and soprano sax).
• Wes Montgomery: Encores Vol. 2: Blue'n'Boogie (Milestone)
  Another disc of outtakes from 1962-63, previously only available on a 12-CD boxset.
• Christoph Gallio: A Gertrude Stein (Percaso)
  Another disc with the William Parker/Rashied Ali rhythm section (see the Ivo Perelman disc above). Gallio plays alto and soprano saxophone; Ellen Christi sings texts by Stein on composed tracks which are interspersed with improvised tracks.
• various: Switzerjazz (TCB)
• John Zorn: Filmworks VI (Tzadik)
  Music from three different films. The music for Diana Waxman's "Anton, Mailman" is not unlike the music on Vol. V, below. For Henry Hills' "Mechanics of the Brain", Zorn mixes dissonant string music with creepy sound effects. Maria Beatty's fetish/S&M film "The Black Glove" gets a quiet tape-music score based on "sounds of fire, water, and wind."
• John Zorn: Filmworks V (Tzadik)
  48 one minute pieces forming the soundtrack to a film by "gay porno director" Oki Hiroyuki of Japan. Not rapid-fire Naked City type stuff like you might expect; the primary musical influence seems to be easy-listening exotica. Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista gives the project its most distinctive musical coloration. Zorn's conditions for doing soundtracks: "I'd rather not do the project than have to do what a director wants."
• Steve Beresford: Cue Sheets (Tzadik)
  The predominant style on this compilation of film pieces by the British pianist is laconic, gently ironic Mancini-tinged jazz (Tony Coe is featured). Beresford's brand of subversion almost slips right by you -- at least until you hit one of a number of startlingly deranged moments on this very varied disc.
• Bill Evans: Turn Out the Stars (highlights disc) (Warner Bros.)
  The full release is two CD's of Evans live in 1980 with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera, only a few months before Evans' death.

[New reissues]

• various: The Birth of the Third Stream (Columbia)
  A two-for-one reissue of Music for Brass and Modern Jazz Concert. "Third stream" refers to the merging of jazz and classical traditions, although historically it's now come to be associated with the particular style represented on this album, namely very heavily composed/orchestrated jazz for hybrid big band/orchestra. The composers represented are Gunther Schuller, John Lewis, George Russell, Charles Mingus, and Jimmy Giuffre. The Giuffre tracks are fabulous; not all of the rest has aged as well, sometimes lacking Giuffre's taste and restraint. It's still a fascinating record overall.
• Ornette Coleman: Body Meta (Harmolodic)
  Prime Time is Ornette's electric band, based on the concept of twinned instruments: two drummers, two guitarists, two basses (although he had to settle for one bassist on this record). It's the first Prime Time record (well, actually it's contemporaneous with Dancing in Your Head) and it's incredibly infections, probably Prime Time's finest. An essential purchase.
• Sonny Rollins: Silver City (2 CD's) (Milestone)
  Lavishly mounted two-CD best-of selection of Sonny's 25 years on Milestone.

JAZZ SHOW TOP 25

* denotes reissue, @ denotes not real new.

1. Willem Breuker Kollektief*: The Parrot (BVHaast)
2. Myra Melford: The Same River, Twice (Gramavision)
3. Don Byron: Bug Music (Nonesuch)
4. various: CIMPosium (CIMP)
5. Jon Jang Sextet: Two Flowers on a Stem (Soul Note)
6. McPhee/Parker/Lazro: (untitled) (Vandoeuvre)
7. Gustafsson/Jormin/Jormin: Opus Apus (LJ)
8. Sun Ra*: The Singles (2 CD's) (Evidence)
9. Fredrick Lonberg-Holm: Personal Scratch (Eighth Day)
10. Chris Cutler & Zeena Parkins: Shark! (ReR)
11. AMM*: Combine + Laminates (Matchless)
12. Matthew Shipp Trio: Prism (Brinkman)
13. Cinghiale: Hoofbeats of the Snorting Swine (Eighth Day)
14. Joe Henderson: Big Band (Verve)
15. Count Basie*: Count Basie & the Kansas City 7 (Impulse!)
16. Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra: The Enchanted Messenger (Soul Note)
17. various: October Meeting 87 (Bimhuis)
18. Alice Coltrane*: Ptah the El Daoud (Impulse!)
19. Matthew Shipp Duo: With Roscoe Mitchell (2.13.61)
20. Gustafsson/Guy/Lovens: Mouth Eating Trees and Related Activities (OkkaDisk)
21. Debris: Rapture in the Church of Disreputable Daydreams (Music & Arts)
22. Charlie Parker: Legendary Rockland Palace Concert 1952 (Jazz Classics)
23. John Lindberg: Resurrection of a Dormant Soul (Black Saint)
24. Gerry Gibbs Sextet: The Thrasher (Qwest)
25. Philip Johnson's Big Trouble: Flood at the Ant Farm (Black Saint)

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