WNUR Jazz Report, 1/5/97

NEWS

• Note that this week's top 35 covers a three week period. Happy New Year!

ADDS THIS WEEK

[New releases]

• Agasul Orchester: No Turning Back (Unit)
  On this fine disc the Swiss quartet led by saxophonist Jurg Solothurnmann draws heavily on the sound early-60's, pre-"energy" jazz avant-garde (Coleman, Dolphy, etc.). Eight originals plus Carla Bley's "King Korn".
• John Carter & Bobby Bradford: Tandem 2 (Emanem)
  More newly unearthed recordings by this duo who worked together consistently for several decades yet never released a duet record. Carter is now perhaps best known for his series of discs on Gramavision for large groups, which downplay his playing in favor of his composing and arranging. But discs like this one (and his wonderful solo disc for Moers) showcase his magnificent clarinet playing in a more radical context.
• Continuum@: Continuum (9 Winds)
• Robert Dick & Mari Kimura: Irrefragable Dreams (Random Acoutics)
  Violinist Kimura may be familiar from her disc on Victo with Kaiser, Oswald, and O'Rourke.
• Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang: Ask the Sun (OkkaDisk)
  This percussion duo's yearly concerts marking the Winter Solstice are now an institution -- they sold out three shows last month, two at sunset and one at sunrise (!!). On this recording they demonstrate their mastery of both frame and trap drums. "Sound" pieces in free meter are mixed in with hypnotic pieces based on long rhythmic cycles.
• Erik Friedlander@: The Watchman (Tzadik)
  Sometimes mournful, sometimes Middle Eastern-tinged chamber music for paired strings (Friedlander on cello, Drew Gress on bass) and clarinets (Chris Speed on B flat, Andrew D'Angelo on bass), which I think of a compositionally more substantial alternative to John Zorn's Bar Kokhba project.
• Gerry Hemingway Quintet: Perfect World (Random Acoustics)
  Dominated by two long works: "Perfect World" is energetic and expansive, "Little Suite" is "an extended ballad" that unobtrusively incorporates some of Hemingway's recent experiments with MIDI-triggered sampling. Also: an Ellington cover and some ersatz South African music.
• Quincy Jones: Q Live in Paris Circa 1960 (Qwest)
  Big band date, previously unreleased except as a bootleg. Features Clark Terry.
• Kirk Lightsey Trio: Goodbye Mr. Evans (Evidence)
  With Tibor Elekes and Famoudou Don Moye.
• Mwendo Dawa@: Enter the Outloop (LJ)
  Quartet led by label head Susanna Lindeborg (see next entry).
• P.A. Nilsson@: Random Rhapsody (LJ)
  More music from Sweden; LJ's web site is at http://www.lj-records.se/lj-records. Nilsson plays soprano and baritone sax; some of the parts are electronically generated by software based on fractal patterns.
• Northwoods Improvisers: Spinning (Arc)
  Michigan trio's second for Trevor Watts' label. At their straightest they're a vibes-bass-drums trio; on other tracks they mix in cheng, zither, and miscellaneous "little instruments". They describe their music as "a blend of eastern music, jazz, and collective improvising."
• Ivo Perelman: Cama de Terra (Homestead)
  It's Ivo and the Homestead house band: Matthew Shipp and William Parker.
• Fabrizio Puglisi & Guglielmo Pagnozzi@: La Negresse Oblige (Stile Libero)
  Piano/sax duets from Italy. In places, the meditative feel and Puglisi's dark chords on piano inevitably bring to mind the duo of Lacy & Waldron, but the disc is quite diverse. On one track Pagnozzi plays "Edofono", which if I'm deciphering the Italian right is a tuba with a saxophone mouthpiece.
• Sam Rivers: Concept (Rivbea)
  Trio disc with a young rhythm section. Rivers has been based in Florida for the past few years, leading a big band as well as this trio and other projects. On this record he plays with undiminished fire and precision, and the rhythm section (the bassist sometimes playing electric) gives the music a hard, sharp sound. Sam's back! Contact Rivbea at rivbea@magicnet.net.
• Mario Schiano: Social Security (Victo)
  The elder statesman of Italian free jazz, live at Victoriaville, May 1996, with current collaborator trombonist Sebi Tramontana plus Evan Parker, Barry Guy, and Paul Lovens. I'd prefer this disc without Parker, not because he plays poorly, but because Mario Schiano records are pretty hard to come by on this side of the Atlantic, so it would have been nice to hear him in a setting he dominated instead of having to accommodate Parker's strong personality. Anyway, this is still fine music, wide-ranging free improvisation "not averse to melody or even a good joke" (liner notes). This concert was Schiano's first ever performance in North America. (He and Tramontana also swung through Chicago.)
• Roger Smith: Unexpected Turns (Emanem)
  Acoustic solo music by this all-but-invisible guitarist of whom most recorded evidence, either solo or during his 18-year stint with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, is now unavailable. But thanks to Emanem we now have the SME's Hot and Cold Heroes and this new solo disc. Modest sometimes to the point of inaudibility on that disc, here Smith steps forward with decisive, rhythmically intricate improvisations that contain clear traces of transfigured folk and ethnic musics.

[New reissues]

• Dexter Gordon: Plays the Blues (Prestige)
  12-bar blues extracted from various albums.
• Coleman Hawkins: Plays the Blues (Prestige)
  Likewise.
• Lennie Tristano: Manhattan Studio (Jazz Records)
  Trio date from 1955-6, mostly standards, previously released on Elektra as New York Improvisations.

[Not new, but new to WNUR]

• New Orchestra Workshop: The Future is N.O.W. (9 Winds)
• Richard Tabnik Trio: In the Moment (New Artists)
  With Cameron Brown and Carol Tristano. Tabnik's website at http://www.inch.com/~rctabnik/ contains an interview with him as well as several articles on Lennie Tristano, cool and free jazz, and other jazz-related topics.

JAZZ SHOW TOP 35

* denotes reissue, @ denotes not real new.

1. David S. Ware Quartet: Godspelized (DIW)
2. Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls: Rebel Roots (Naim)
3. Masada: Zayin (Seven) (DIW)
4. Northwoods Improvisers: Fog and Fire (Arc)
5. Rich Corpolongo: Just Found Joy (Delmark)
6. Sun Ra*: The Singles (2 CD's) (Evidence)
7. Ornette Coleman*: Body Meta (Harmolodic)
8. Ivo Perelman: Sad Life (Leo)
9. James P. Johnson*: The Original James P. Johnson, 1942-1945 (Smithsonian Folkways)
10. John Patton Quintet: This One's for Ja (DIW)
11. Ornette Coleman@: The Belgrade Concert (Jazz Door)
12. various*: The Birth of the Third Stream (Columbia)
13. Ellery Eskelin: The Sun Died (Soul Note)
14. Scott Rosenberg: Arc (Super J)
15. Cinghiale: Hoofbeats of the Snorting Swine (Eighth Day)
16. Konec Leta@: Summer's End (Black Point)
17. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: Lausanne 1960, 2nd Set (TCB)
18. Jodie Christian: Front Line (Delmark)
19. Louis Hayes Quintet: Louis at Large (Sharp Nine)
20. Joe Henderson: Big Band (Verve)
21. various: CIMPosium (CIMP)
22. Myra Melford: The Same River, Twice (Gramavision)
23. Betsuni Nanmo Klezmer: Waltz (Nani)
24. Tony Oxley Celebration Orchestra: The Enchanted Messenger (Soul Note)
25. ICP Orchestra@: Bospaadje Konijnehol II (ICP)
26. James Blood Ulmer: Music Speaks Louder Than Words (DIW)
27. Dougie Bowne: One Way Elevator (DIW)
28. Greg Cohen: Way Low (DIW)
29. Count Basie*: Count Basie & the Kansas City 7 (Impulse!)
30. Matthew Shipp Duo: With Roscoe Mitchell (2.13.61)
31. Branford Marsalis Trio: The Dark Keys (Columbia)
32. Hamiet Bluiett: Bluiett's Barbecue Band (Mapleshade)
33. Christoph Baumann: Mentalities (Unit)
34. Jon Jang Sextet: Two Flowers on a Stem (Soul Note)
35. Anthony Braxton & the Fred Simmons Trio: 9 Standards (Quartet) 1993 (2 CD's) (Leo)