This post is not a review but to tell you about two albums that lovers of small group Creative Black Music should enjoy.
Giant Step Arts, the recording label owned by photographers Jimmy & Dena Katz, sponsored a series of live concerts in Central Park in New York City in late Spring/ early Summer 2021. They were held on the grounds that once was Seneca Village, an area where a group of free Blacks had established a village in 1825. Within 20 years, Irish and German immigrants had moved in but the City took the land through eminent domain and everyone was kicked out. For Juneteenth 2022, Giant Step releases two recordings; the first one "Live from Summit Rock in Seneca Village", features Jason Palmer (trumpet, compositions) leading a group including Mark Turner (tenor saxophone), Edward Perez (bass), and Jonathan Blake (drums). The quartet plays five pieces, three from Palmer's 2020 album inspired by a number of art works in Boston, MA's famous Isabella Stewart Gardner, one from 2019's Giant Step album "Rhyme or Reason", and one from his 2014 SteepleChase album "Places".Monday, June 20, 2022
Juneteenth Music
Monday, June 13, 2022
Wadada Leo Smith Tells Stories with String Quartet & Conversations With Drummers
Wadada Leo Smith is quite the musical adventurer with a fertile mind and desire to continue to grow as a composer, arranger, and musician even as he moves through his ninth decade in this world.
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Photo: Jimmy Katz |
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Photo: Kot Nockels |
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Photo: Kot Nockels |
Next to the work created by Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet/ Quintet and his Great Lakers Quartet, my favorites among his many recordings are his trumpet and drum duets. Because his trumpet sound is so strong and expressive, the conversations with drummers are incredibly absorbing. Mr. Smith has done a slew of these recordings since his first one, "The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer" (Kabell) with Ed Blackwell in 1986. Since then, he's recorded with Soyo Toyozumi (1992 and 1994), Adam Rudolph (2002), Gunter Baby Sommer (2006), Jack DeJohnette (2008), Louis Moholo-Moholo (2011), and Milford Graves (2016). The intimacy and excitement of these collaborations make for an engrossing listening experience. "The Emerald Duets" (TUM) collects five more duet albums, two with Mr. DeJohnette plus one each with Pheroan akLaff, Han Bennink, and Andrew Cyrille. The recording sessions began with Mr. Bennink in 2014, then Messrs Cyrille and akLaff in 2019, and Mr. DeJohnette in January of 2020. In the booklet that accompanies the set, Mr. Smith writes "My own favorite duet music of all time is Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines performing "Weather Bird," and Parts 1 and 2 of "Mu" by Donald Cherry and Edward Blackwell." The spirit of those duets, the bursts of creativity that went into those recordings, how those individual voices merged to forge "new" music, all that and more is in the DNA of these five albums.
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Photo: Enid Farber |
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Photo: Ton Mijs |
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Photo: Enid Farber |
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Photo: Enid Farber |
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Photo: Jimmy Katz |
Monday, June 6, 2022
Piano Music with Deep Memories & Music of the Natural World & Inspired by the Pandemic
Like many musicians from Eastern Bloc countries (in this instance, Ukraine) pianist and composer Vadim Neselovskyi first studied classical music before he and his family moved to Dortmund, Germany. Yet, the pianist had already been turned on to jazz by sailors visiting his home city of Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea. In Germany, Neselovskyi continued his classical studies while working as a jazz musician at night. He moved to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music where he came into contact with Pat Metheny and Gary Burton. In fact, it was Metheny who produced a promotional recording that featured the pianist alongside bassist Esperanza Spalding and trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Neselovskyi moved on to the Thelonious Monk Institute (now the Herbie Hancock Institute) in Los Angeles, CA, where he played alongside Mr. Hancock as well as Terence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and many others. He came back to the East Coast to work with his former Professor Gary Burton, appearing on, composing for, and arranging for the vibraphonist band and for recordings.
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Photo: Martin Bernetti Atacama desert, Chile |
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
What I'm Listening To (2)
I continue my journey through the new releases of 2022.
Guitarist and composer Gilad Hekselman started work on his new recording (his debut on Edition Records) just as the world was shutting down in March 2020. Slowly but surely, the guitarist learned the process of "self-recording" as well as "distance" recording, building the songs layer by layer. He moved back to New York City in December 2020 and continued the process for another six months. The results can be heard on "Far Star"––you can't help but notice that the results are more joyful than introspective, the songs steeped in melody and rhythmic excitement.![]() |
Photo: Lauren Desberg |
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
What I'm Listening To (1)
Pianist and composer David Virelles, born and raised in Cuba, moved to Canada in the early 2000s at the behest of musician. Jane Bunnett. While attending college, he recorded with the flutist and came into contact with saxophonist Steve Coleman. On the strength of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Virelles moved to New York City to study with Henry Threadgill, going on to record with the saxophonist/ composer as well as artists such as Mr. Coleman, Chris Potter, Paul Motian, Wadada Leo Smith, Mark Turner, and many others. As a leader, he's recorded for both ECM and Pi Recordings.
Hear "Ghost Town":
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Photo: Frank Schemann |
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
The Digital Side of Newvelle Recoirds
Over the past year, the vinyl-only, subscription series, record label Newvelle Records has been issuing digital versions of albums from its first four "seasons". While the digital releases go a long way to capture the impressive "sounds" of the Lps, one does not get the brilliant art work that accompanies each package. Nevertheless, the lesser expensive alternative is a great way for music lovers to learn about the great work that Artistic Director Elan Mehler and engineer Marc Urselli of NYC's East Side Sound are capturing.
Noah Preminger has two releases on the label including "Some Other Time" released in Season One (2015). It's a ballads album that features the tenor saxophonist playing alongside guitarist Ben Monder, bassist John Pattitucci, and drummer Billy Hart. This is not a typical standards collection; yes, there are pieces from Billy Strayhorn "My Little Brown Book"), Duke Ellington ("Melancholia"), Victor Young ("A Ghost of a Chance"), and Jimmy Campbell's "Try a Little Tenderness" but there's also Bob Dylan's "Boot of Spanish Leather", "Porcelain" from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Una Limosnita por Amor de Dios ("An Alm for the Love of God") composed by guitarist AgustÃn Barrios Mangoré (1885-1944). Preminger contributes "Semenzato", a piece that is not only quite melodic but features a great bass solo plus the saxophonist's strong give-and-take with Hart.There's a touch of Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster in Preminger's tone on pieces such as "Ghost of a Chance" that also features splendid bass playing and smart brushes work. That breathy and bluesy sax sound permeates the Leonard Bernstein piece that gives the album its name. Here, the interactions of all four musicians stand out with kudos to the wonderful rhythm guitar of Monder plus the high-energy saxophone coda. The guitarist's "atmospheric" sound is a delightful foil to Preminger's attack––note how Monder weaves in and out of the melody on the opening of "Melancholia" as well as his "ringing" chords behind the bass solo.
Hear "A Ghost of a Chance":
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Photo: Anna Yatskevich |
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
A Sonic Taste of "Thisness" + Classic "Thatness"
In 2015, guitarist, composer, and conceptualist Miles Okazaki built a new ensemble which, ultimately, took its name Trickster from its 2017 eponymous debut Pi Recordings. Utilizing the brilliant rhythm section, bassist Anthony Tidd and drummer Sean Rickman, from Steve Coleman's Five Elements plus pianist Craig Taborn (replaced in 2018 by Matt Mitchell). The music couldn't help but be affected by the guitarist's many appearances with Coleman's group. But, the music has matured.