John McLaughlin / The 4th Dimension -- John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 6: Sound Checks and Closing Night

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 While audiences see the end results of a groupa€(TM)s labors, therea€(TM)s much that they dona€(TM)t get to experience. Even for the relatively spare set-up of guitarist John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension, hours of work go on behind the scenes at every venue to make sure everything is as it should be when the doors open. McLaughlina€(TM)s soundman Sven Hoffman and tour manager Christophe Deghelt arrive on the scene as much as six hours ahead of the show to ensure all the equipment is properly set up and all the necessary rules of engagement with the venue are organized before the group arrives. The primary goal of Hoffman, who has been working with McLaughlin for a decade, and Deghelt, whoa€(TM)s been managing the guitarista€(TM)s tours for seven years, is transparency, so that the group needna€(TM)t worry about anything but the music...

Charles Gayle at the Red Rose Club, London

Charles Gayle, William Parker, Mark Sanders Red Rose Club London, England September 21, 2007 Charles Gayle was so keen to get started that he launched his opening salvo -- a short repeated squeal of a motif -- almost before drummer Mark Sanders had finished thanking promoters Birmingham Jazz for making this short English tour happen. Sandersa€(TM) initiative had brought together free jazz legend Charles Gayle and long time collaborator, NYC bassist extraordinaire William Parker, to form a trio of unassuming power and unexpected sensitivity...

Orrin Keepnews' Collection

"Listen," Orrin Keepnews' no-nonsense delivery tempered by a smile. "I'm 84 years old. I'll take my legacies where I can get them," referring to the Keepnews Collection, a series launched this year by Concord Records. An astonishing study in longevity and ingenuity, the multiple facets and accomplishments of Keepnews' career as label maverick, writer and producer need no rehearsal in these pages. His insight, wit and engagement with the music, its participants and history, so evident in his numerous writings, come through with even more clarity in the exhaustive and endlessly entertaining liner notes to these new Riverside and Milestone reissues...

October 2007

Courtois, Eskelin and Courvoisier at Roulette On Sep. 15th, French cellist Vincent Courtois, Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and Baltimore-born tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin met at Roulette, in essence to prepare for their long-awaited debut album, to be made shortly after this concert. Together since 2002, the leaderless group performed a trio of distinct, extended, untitled improvs, each lasting over 20 minutes, a€~spokena€(TM) in an extraordinarily telepathic singular voice. Each musician unfolded a colorful palette of sound and texture without lopsided self-indulgent soloing, a set devoid of ego and full of captivating twists and turns. Courtois, the trioa€(TM)s linchpin effectively situated between bandmates, frequently paired off into duos. He summoned a timbre in his arco playing that absorbed Eskelina€(TM)s breath-heavy circular blowing; the cellista€(TM)s rapid yet sensitive occasional pedal-induced playing additionally created a reverberating soft-toned effect without producing an extraneous fourth voice, again mysteriously melding with Eskelina€(TM)s horn lines. Courtois similarly complemented Courvoisier with a piano-like pizzicato approach that highlighted their shared classical background. The lattera€(TM)s prepared piano sections and improvisations within the piano brought the two string instruments even closer, as did Courtoisa€(TM) percussive bouncing and seesawing bow technique (on one occasion with two crisscrossed bows). Music can be magic and one listen to this group quickly reveals why...

Jazz Em Agosto 2007

Jazz em Agosto 2007 Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Portugal August 3-5, 9-11 The bass clef gets little love in music -- always the bridesmaid, as it were. Flying to the upper octaves represents exhilaration while a bass solo is often seen as an opportunity to chat or go to the bathroom. But the 2007 edition of Lisbona€(TM)s Jazz em Agosto paid tribute to the lower register. With just 11 sets over nine days time, the stages on the grounds of the Gulbenkian Foundation were graced with ten basses and five tubas...

Litchfield Jazz Festival 2007

Litchfield Jazz Festival Goshen Fairgrounds Goshen, Connecticut August 3-5, 2007 Connecticut may not be very high on the list of "jazz states," particularly nestled, as it is, among New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. But it does have its history and players and for the last 12 years an excellent event in the Litchfield Jazz Festival. Held in the northwestern corner of the state in Goshen, over its history this plucky summer gathering has hosted such names as Thomas Chapin, Diana Krall (in her first U.S. appearance), Slide Hampton, Phil Woods, Brad Mehldau, Tito Puente, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins and Wayne Shorter. Not too shabby...

Claudia Heurmann -- Sabbath in Paradise

Claudia Heuermann Sabbath in Paradise Tzadik 2007 Fifteen years ago, saxophonist/producer John Zorn and several of his downtown NYC musical cohorts held what was termed a a€oeRadical New Jewish Culture Festivala€ in Munich, Germany. Shortly thereafter, a similar event was held at NYCa€(TM)s Knitting Factory. At that time, Zorn and his generation of downtowna€(TM)s avant garde, while decidedly international, included a large number of Jewish musicians. Initially inspired in part by the free jazz of Ornette Coleman these musicians were coming to grips with their Jewish identity within the milieu of a recent klezmer revival and the up-front Afro-American ethnicity of rap music. In the process, they began to create exciting new music that started to define itself as a Radical Jewish Culture (RJC)...

John McLaughlin / The 4th Dimension -- John McLaughlin: On The Road, Part 5: Ottawa, Canada

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Good bands make due when faced with disadvantage; great bands turn disadvantage into advantage. While Ottawaa€(TM)s Dominion-Chalmers United Church is a beautiful venue for chamber music, or even acoustic jazz, its cathedral ceiling and ten-second natural reverb could have spelled real trouble for John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension. Even with the ever-capable Sven Hoffman at the soundboard--who has been working with the guitarist for a decade--the sound check didna€(TM)t bode well for the eveninga€(TM)s performance, despite the fact that, once there was an audience in the room to help absorb some of the sound, things would likely improve...

Living in the Shadows: Drummer Warren Smith Solos at UMass Amherst

Warren Smith Solos and Duos Series, University of Massachusetts, Fine Arts Center Amherst, Massachusetts September 26, 2007 Musicians worth their salt practice their awareness of their heritage, be that ethnic or musical. Doing so gives them not only access to a wealth of precedence but also starting blocks for their own creations. The assimilation of the past stimulates the incentive to forge ahead without hindrance -- whether to belief, expression, or opportunity. It was with this impetus that drummer Warren Smith came to perform at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on September 26, 2007 for the first concert in the annual Solos and Duos Series put on by the Fine Arts Center...

William Parker -- Who Owns Music?

Who Owns Music? William Parker Buddy's Knife 2007 Bassist and polymath William Parkera€(TM)s world is huge. Like Charles Mingus or Anthony Braxton, Parkera€(TM)s art is like an enormous quilt. He slowly, deliberately, adds squares to the fabric of a design that is probably bigger than could be completed in a single lifetime. For Parker, ita€(TM)s not just the compositions, not just working with musicians and the ways they interact. Ita€(TM)s not just the poetry and painting and dance he incorporates into performances. His work is about community in a proactive, philosophical way, the building of artistic relationships that become a microcosm of the way the world ought to behave: if the UN were replaced by his Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, wea€(TM)d have less wars and more flower gardens...

Flutes Aren't Just For Doublers: Dotti Anita Taylor, Ali Ryerson and Holly Hofmann/Mike Wofford

Dotti Anita Taylor A Morning Glory Datnotes 2007 Ali Ryerson Jammin' at the Jazz Corner Sweet Jazz 2007 Holly Hofmann and Mike Wofford Live at Athenaeum Jazz, Vol. 2 Capri 2007 Flute is not as uncommon an instrument in jazz, as many reed players double on it, but rarer is the musician who makes it their primary instrument. Two of the instrumentalists reviewed below play flute exclusively, while the third was a pianist first before adding flute...

Larry Willis: Blue Fable and Alter Ego

Larry Willis Blue Fable High Note 2007 Tony Pancella Alter Ego Mapleshade 2007 Larry Willis is one of those musicians whose name should always be remembered when the subject of terrific and, alas, sometimes forgotten pianists comes up. He has been on the scene for over 40 years -- from his early quartet work with Jackie McLean through time with Hugh Masekela, to a stint with Blood, Sweat and Tears and up through the years as a player in the Fort Apache Band and as a sort of a€~house pianista€(TM) for Mapleshade Records...

Monk Moods: Monk Abstractions, Plays Monk, Play Monk and Live 2007

Sam Newsome Monk Abstractions self-published 2007 Amendola/Goldberg/Hoff Plays Monk Long Song 2007 Stan Tracey/Bobby Wellins Play Monk Resteamed 2007 SF Jazz Collective Live 2007 SFJazz 2007 a€oeEach song is a parable of form, timing, concision and motion. The musician who investigates this material finds, additionally, a series of interlocking meditations on the fundamentals of melody, harmony, rhythm and form.a€ - Ben Goldberg (from liner notes of Plays Monk)...

Guitar Duets: Jay Geils-Gerry Beaudoin, Tom Wolfe/Gene Bertoncini, Bucky Pizzarelli/John Pizzarelli

Jay Geils/Gerry Beaudoin The Kings of Strings (feat. Aaron Weinstein) Arbors 2007 Tom Wolfe/Gene Bertoncini Floating on the Silence Summit 2007 Bucky Pizzarelli/John Pizzarelli Generations Arbors 2007 Guitars and fiddle sounds as fun as these inevitably are happy reminders of the great Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli duets, most especially on the Hot Club classic a€oeMinor Swinga€ . For The Kings of Strings, teenage fiddle phenomenon Aaron Weinstein joins with guitarists Jay Geils, famously chieftain of the rock a€~n rolling J. Geils Band and Grammy- nominated Gerry Beaudoin to amble amiably through an eclectic set of pop and Swing Era classics plus some original blues and bop blues thrown in for good measure...

Eric Alexander: Five Corners and Temple of Olympic Zeus

Dmitri Kolesnik Five Corners Twinz-Challenge 2007 Eric Alexander The Temple of Olympic Zeus High Note 2007 Originally from the rain-drenched Northwest, Eric Alexander came to New York in the late a€~80s amidst a formidable new wave of young tenor-totina€(TM) lions, including the likes of Seamus Blake, Joshua Redman, Mark Turner and a triumvirate of Chrises: Cheek, Potter and Speed. From the start, Alexander hewed more closely to the hardbop party line than his adventurous contemporaries, yet, despite his comparatively conservative approach, has managed to carve an increasingly distinctive name for himself on the bark of the jazz family tree...

Jimmy Bruno: Maplewood Avenue and Jazz Hits, Vol. 1

Jimmy Bruno Maplewood Avenue Affiliated Artists 2007 MB3 Jazz Hits, Vol. 1 Mel Bay 2006 Jimmy Bruno, one of the most technically proficient yet stylistically-nuanced hardbop guitarists to emerge from the lineage of fellow Pennsylvanians Pat Martino and George Benson, remains a guitarista€(TM)s guitarist -- if not a trendsetter, certainly a standard bearer...

Trevor Watts: Live in Karlsruhe, Drum Energy, Mutuality, Live in Sao Paulo, Brasil and Ancestry

Moire Music Live in Karlsruhe FMR 2007 Trevor Watts Original Drum Orchestra Drum Energy Hi4Heads 2007 Enjambre Acustico Urukungolo Mutuality FMR 2007 Trevor Watts/Jaime Harris Live in Sao Paulo, Brasil Hi4Heads 2006 Trevor Watts/Jaime Harris Ancestry Entropy 2007 It is as if veteran saxophonist and improviser Trevor Watts is making up for a decade of relative silence, so prolific has been his release schedule of late. These offerings expose heretofore lesser known stylistic elements and global interests that typify his work and further illuminate a long and varied musical life...

Steven Bernstein: Big Four Live and The Harlem Experiment

Big Four (Nagl, Bernstein, Akchote, Jones) Big Four Live hatHUT 2007 Various Artists The Harlem Experiment Ropeadope 2007 Retro playing is always a bit of a gambit. Musicians often in the act of recreation lose the sense of creation. Whatever his secret is, trumpeter Steven Bernstein has always been able to rise above stale retreads, bringing a sense of exuberance to almost everything he plays...

Kenny Drew: Farmera€(TM)s Market (RVG); Undercurrent (RVG) and In Copenhagen

Art Farmer Farmer's Market (RVG) Blue Note 2007 Kenny Drew Undercurrent Blue Note 2007 Warne Marsh/Kenny Drew In Copenhagen Storyville 2007 Mention to an aficionado the name Kenny Drew and the first thing to come to mind will undoubtedly be the pianista€(TM)s inclusion on the 1957 jazz juggernaut Blue Train by John Coltrane, one of the genrea€(TM)s all-time bestselling albums. Appear on a release as legendary as Blue Train and youa€(TM)re bound to become a legend in your own right. Such is the case with Drew, whose own career as a leader -- while it may live in the shadow of that beloved Coltrane set -- is hardly overshadowed by it. Between 1953 and 1960, Drew led multiple dates across all of the major labels before following so many of his brethren to Copenhagen, Denmark, where his recording career as a leader would reconvene as many as 13 years later. Three recent reissues spotlight Drew at three different stages in his prolific career: as a sideman ready to cook with the industrya€(TM)s major players; as a leader bold enough to lead an allstar ensemble in a session of his own compositions; and 20 years later as a full-on expatriate whose abilities hadna€(TM)t seemed to age one bit...

Pianissimo: Luis Perdomo, Fred Hersch and Cedar Walton

Luis Perdomo Awareness RKM Music 2007 Fred Hersch Personal Favorites Chesky 2007 Cedar Walton Trio/Dale Barlow Manhattan After Hours Twinz-Challenge 2007 Do age and experience bring musicians a gradual appreciation of widening repertoire? This may seem a facile observation, but ita€(TM)s the youngsters who insist on playing their own stuff, while the elders grow more expansive about including music from their peers. What drives this tendency early on is not merely ego and testosterone, nor a sheer overabundance of raw talent, but the lack of broadened horizons that comes with experience and interrelationships...