Juneteenth Music

 This, from Bandcamp.com:

On June 19 (from midnight (PT) June 19 to midnight (PT) June 20), we’ll hold our annual Juneteenth fundraiser, where we donate 100% of our share of sales* to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to support their ongoing efforts to promote racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education.

This annual fundraiser is part of our larger, ongoing commitment to racial equity, and we’ll continue to promote diversity and opportunity through our mission to support artists, the products we develop, those we promote through the Bandcamp Daily and Bandcamp Radio, how we work together as a team, who and how we hire, and our relationships with organizations local to our Oakland space (some of which we’ve highlighted below).

We hope you’ll help us spread the word about the upcoming fundraiser, and thank you for being a part of the Bandcamp community!

Ethan Diamond
CEO & Co-Founder of Bandcamp

Here's a few suggestions:

Trombonist/tubaist, composer, and educator Bill Lowe has created this work partially based on Jean Toomer's groundbreaking 1923 novel "Cane" as well as a musical biography.  The program also includes compositions from Frank Foster whose Big Band the trombonist performed with months after moving to New York City and Bill Barron who was not only a fine composer but a Professor of Music at Wesleyan University when Lowe was a Visiting Artist-in-Residence (Author's note: Professor Lowe taught in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program and was my first teacher when I went there to get my Master's Degree). For this album, Lowe organized the Signifyin' Natives Ensemble featuring Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet, flugelhorn), Hafez Modirzadeh (alto saxophone, percussion), Luther Gray (drums), Ken Filiano (bass), Kevin Harris (piano), and the impressive young vocalist Naledi Masilo.  

Here's "Karintha" one of the three tracks from the "Cane Suite":

Go to https://billlowe.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-cane to hear more and purchase the album.

Here are several more suggestions (both of which I purchased):

The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra – "60 Years" (self-released) – This, hopefully, is the first of numerous retrospectives of the six decades of music created by the PAPA, founded in Los Angeles. CA, by pianist and composer Horace Tapscott. It's a great story of perseverance, creativity, promise, and self-determination.

Listen to "The Ballad of Deadwood Dick" recorded in 1995:

Go to https://panafrikanpeoplesarkestra.bandcamp.com/album/60-years to find out more and to purchase the album.

James Brandon Lewis/Red Lily Quintet – "Jesup Wagon" (TAO Forms) – This impressive album has been out for several years and should be in everyone's collection. Based on the life and work of American botanist George Washington Carver, tenor saxophonist Lewis created the music with an impressive ensemble including long-time associate Chad Taylor (drums, mbira), Kirk Knuffke (cornet), William Parker (bass, gimbri), and Chris Hoffman (cello).  Powerful story, powerful music!

Listen to "Fallen Flowers":

For more information, go to https://jamesbrandonlewis.bandcamp.com/album/jesup-wagon.

Questions for JP Schlegelmilch

Several months ago, I had the joy to review "Throughout", the new solo piano recording from J.P. Schlegelmlch (pictured left).  The pianist arranged 10 pieces composed by Bill Frisell, helping listeners realize several aspects of the guitarist's music, i.e. 1) - his piece have a bit more complexity than meets the ear and 2) - one can hear numerous influences in the music.

As for the interpreter, Schlegelmilch is a busy musician, working with several ensembles including Old Time Musketry, Two of Anything, Minerva, and NOOK.

JP took the time to answer questions that I posited and those answers are what follow. My thanks to him.

Personal musical history: I started playing classical piano at age six and began exploring jazz, rock, and improvisation in high school. Since then I've been trying to connect the dots between these formative musical experiences, working towards an aesthetic that embraces all of them. I would say that "Throughout" is more of a "jazz" album than my other recent projects. 

Accordion in your arsenal: When I moved to Brooklyn I started hearing the accordion in all kinds of contexts from experimental improvisors like Andrea Parkins and Ted Reichman to traditional virtuosos like Slavic Soul Party's Peter Stan. There is also a big interest in Balkan folk music among the Brooklyn jazz community which can be heard in the work of musicians like Chris Speed.  I used to play saxophone and sometimes I miss playing a wind instrument, so in some ways the accordion helps me get closer to that. I think the accordion has so many possibilities and I'm just starting to scratch the surface in my approach to the instrument. 

Discovering Bill Frisell: The first Frisell music I heard was the "Live" album of his trio with Joey Baron and Kermit Driscoll. I had just started school at Berklee and had very little knowledge of modern jazz, my listening was still focused on the 50's and 60's. Hearing the total freedom that Frisell's trio had in terms of moving between different musical styles blew my mind. It had the energy of rock music, great melodies, exciting group interplay, and weird electronic sounds. All of this spoke to me on a deep level. Later, as I discovered more of Frisell's work, particularly the studio album "This Land", I gained even more respect and admiration for him as a composer, his unique voice as a guitarist, and his choices in putting together ensembles. 

The new CD: I recorded the music on "Throughout" in two sessions during December 2011 and March 2012. Before that I played a handful of solo piano shows focusing on this material, which were the first solo performances I had ever done. 

Live "Throughout": I played a CD release concert in March at Cornelia St Cafe in New York where I performed most of the music on the album. I think I will continue to keep some of these pieces in my repertoire when playing solo while also branching out into new material. 

(Link to video of "Hangdog" from Cornelia St concert)

http://youtu.be/s5JX1aCM8po

More of this type of exploration: I don't have any other repertoire projects planned at the moment, I'm going to be focusing more on my own compositions. My next solo project will involve combining acoustic piano with electronic sounds using a keyboard, effects, and a sampler. 

To find out more and hear selections from the CD , go to jpschlegelmilch.com.

Music, Memory and Loss

This can be both a beautiful and wonderful time of year and the older we get the more the pendulum swings between the 2 sides.

On a personal level, 2009 was a tough year, especially with the death of several friends (including one very close to our entire family.  On an artistic level, this was a great year for music and certainly for the jazz I like to listen to.

Most of the time, I listen to new music, CDs I plan to review or others I've downloaded for fun.  Every once in a while, I dig into my collection for music I haven't checked out in a while.  Thanks to bassist Christian McBride's loving tribute to Ray Brown on jazz.com (read it here), I've dug out some of my recordings featuring the great bassist, including his duo with Duke Ellington ("This One's for Blanton" on Pablo) and Sonny Rollins' classic "Way Out West." Both wonderful recordings (the latter released in 1957) that still hold up.

This morning, I was reading poetry by Carl Sandburg, spurred on by several pieces on the upcoming Sam Sadigursky release "Words Project III." Drummer/composer Matt Wilson, like the poet a native of Illinois, named his debut CD as a leader after a line from one of Sandburg's pieces and has been working on a large-scale project using a selection of the poet's works. Wilson recorded his CD with the fine bassist Cecil McBee and his employer at the time (1998), saxophonist Dewey Redman (Larry Goldings adds keyboards on 3 tracks.)  Pulling out the Wilson CD, I had forgotten the beautiful trio version of "Body and Soul" and listened in rapt attention, especially moved by Redman's playing.

This experience made me ruminate on all the music that has really touched me over my lifetime (I've been aware of my love for and need of music for over 55 years) and, believe me, I'd be hardpressed to create a list of the artists. What makes us return time and time again to our favorite tracks?  Certainly, the familiarity of the melody or the words and the memory of where or when we first heard the music.  Even though we know what's coming, there's that tingle, that thrill (i.e., the opening chords of "Hard Day's Night", Peter Townsend's guitar intro to "I Can't Explain", Paul Chambers leading the band into "So What", John Coltrane's majestic "A Love Supreme", Julius Hemphill's thorny yet seductive "Hard Blues" and so much more) that shakes us and shapes us.

In the time spent listening this Holiday morning, I thought about the emotional weight of music in my life and how it has made me who I am (for better or worse.)  I do enjoy being with friends sharing food, wine and conservation.  Chatting with my daughters and their respective mates and/or friends gives me great joy as does a quiet drive through an autumnal countryside with my wife (my best friend for over 4 decades.) But there are moments in a club or concert hall, in my living room or sitting on the porch under headphones being swept away by the power of a drummer, the finesse of a bassist, the fleet runs of the pianist, the flurry of notes from the horns or the plaintive cry of the singer that can just take away my breath, can eliminate the blues (even for an hour) and can help affect a change in attitude.

I know others feel this way about music (no matter if it's opera, country or African high-life) and trust that you try to share this passion, even if there are times when you fell you're the only one. We are born alone, often die alone but, in the lifetime between our first and last breaths, we needn't be alone.

Happy, healthy, New Year!

Favorites of 2009 (Part 1: Individuals & Small Groups)

I am of the opinion that 2009 has been an excellent year for creative music, jazz, folk and more (and I'm not alone.)  To try and narrow down a "Top 10" has been fun and, in the end, an impossibility.  Therefore, I've split up the list (the larger groups follow later this week.)  The following is in no set order of preference.

Marcus Strickland released 2 CDs in the space of a month this spring and both are excellent. "Idiosyncracies" (StrictMuzik) is a trio recording with brother E.J. (drums) and Ben Williams (bass), the approach descended from the legendary Sonny Rollins Trio recordings of the 1950s.  The band is tight, the material intelligent (originals mixed with works by Stevie Wonder, Bjork, Oumou Sangare, Andre 3000 and Jaco Pastorious) and the results a delight. "Of Song" (Criss Cross) adds pianist David Byrant to the mix and is a "ballads" programs.  Recorded 18 days after the Trio CD, the repertoire is all "cover" tunes save one and the band just as focussed. Taken together, this is 2 hours of great listening.

Bassist-composer Linda Oh entered the scene with "Entry", a self-released Trio disk that is quite mature and musical.  With trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Obed Calvaire, the music moves in many and varied directions.  Oh plays with spirit and fire, her lines both supportive and interactive.

Another trio CD that has caught just about everyone's ears is Vijay Iyer's "Historicity" (ACT.)  Pianist Iyer, bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore create a swirling mass of melodies and rhythms that is challenging and seductive, mesmerizing and thoughtful. 

Clean Feed, a label based in Portugal, released a number of fine CDs this year.  Three that made my list include the highly satisfying "Things Have Got To Change" featuring the Marty Ehrlich Rites Quartet. Saxophonist Ehrlich, who has worked tirelessly to keep the music of his mentor Julius Hemphill (1938-1995) alive, works with a fine group including James Zollar (trumpet), Erik Friedlander (cello) and Pheroan ak Laff (drums.) 3 of the 8 tracks are by Hemphill, including 2 that have never been recorded until this CD and a smoking take of "Dogon A.D." 
Also on Clean Feed is the quiet and exploratory "Pieces of Old Sky" by trombonist Samuel Blaser's Quartet and the cool yet sparkling music of "Canada Day" created by drummer/composer Harris Eisenstadt and a empathetic quartet.

Firehouse 12, the splendid recording studio and performance space in New Haven released several strong CDs in 2009 but none more impressive than "Byzantine Monkey" from bassist John Hebert.  3 reed players (Michael Attias, Tony Malaby and Adam Kolker) work alongside drummer Nasheet Waits and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi to bring Hebert's fascinating works to life.  There's great rhythmic fire and interplay with melodies that draw on the bassist's familial home (Louisiana) and the influence of pianist Andrew Hill. But the music does not sound Cajun nor do the majority of the pieces sound like Hill - in fact, it's hard to pin down influences. So, don't.  Let the music play and bask in the creativity.

Among the other releases that caught my ears is the exciting and raucous "That's Gonna Leave a Mark" from the Matt Wilson Quartet (Palmetto), "Paris/London: Testament", a riveting solo piano release from Keith Jarrett (ECM) that is his most musical and emotional work in a long time, and "Spirit Moves", a modern brass band quintet known as Brass Ecstasy led by trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas (Greenleaf.)  The joy emanating from this group's music is palpable and very seductive.


I'm already at 11 and there are even more so here's the rest of the list:
"It's a Gadget World" - Ron Horton (ABEAT Records)
"Luna Menguante" - Lucia Pulido (Adventure Music)
"Obsession" - Tessa Souter (Motema), featuring a smashing take on "Eleanor Rigby."
"Similar in the Opposite Way" - Jeff Albert Quartet (Forasound)
"Small Spaces" - Mike Baggetta Quartet (Fresh Sounds New Talent)
"Mosaic" - Kendra Shank Quartet (Challenge)
"The American Dream - Frank Carlberg (Red Piano Records), featuring Chris Cheek (saxes), John Hebert (bass) and the expressive vocals of Christine Correa.
"Esta Plena" - Miguel Zenon (Marsalis Music), a truly exciting blend of Puerto Rican roots music and jazz.
"Perennial - Rob Garcia 4 (BJU Records), great work from pianist Dan Tepfer and saxophonist Noah Preminger (whose playing is subtle and experimental yet aways musical.)
"Today on Earth" - Joe Morris Quartet (AUM Fidelity)

A New Beginning

December 14, 2009:
The Hartford Courant has finally decided to close down SEE! HEAR!, the column I started writing about the arts in 1997.  The print edition was discontinued in October 0f 2008 but the blog has continued to live. Until now, that is.

Step Tempest will be my outlet for reviews, previews and links to jazz, classical and other music that touches my life (and that I like to share.) There is lots and lots of music out there and plenty of people blogging about it - through my writing, I hope readers discover new artists or rediscover composers or performers who they may have forgotten over the years.

We'll see where this obsession leads. Feel free to contact me at richard_b_kamins@snet.net.