Nearly 30 years have passed since ECM released Nils Petter Molvær’s popular ‘Khmer’ album. It was a departure from the ECM fare of the day, and not without risk, but it found a receptive audience and sold like hot cakes. NPM (Molvær) laid down a new direction for Jazz, and the 1990s saw a subsequent rise of ambient-leaning improvised music (a genre variously labelled as Jazz acoustic/electronica, future jazz, Nu jazz, etc). It has exerted an increasingly pervasive influence on other Jazz forms over time.
Since the release of ‘Khmer’, NPM has released dozens of albums, and his status on the European jazz scene is unimpeachable. Many of his albums, such as the original ‘Khmer’, were studio-recorded, but, superb as those albums are, this music thrives on live performance. It is mostly danceable, and the club lighting and pulsating audience create a feedback loop, intensifying the atmosphere. In ‘Khmer Live in Bergen’, you can sense that added energy.
There is an unmistakable filmic quality to this mood-dominant music, conjuring up imaginary worlds that linger on the outer edge of reality. The listener is invited on a journey, and a narrative unfolds, but it remains elusive. Unless you immerse yourself. The song titles hint at a narrative, but the ebb and flow of the music fleshes it out. Ambient-leaning music always exalts mood over the strictures of form.
Song of Sand
Despite the title, this is not an exact recreation of the original ‘Khmer’ album. There is no ‘Khmer’ track, for instance, but there are four tracks from the original. As much as a fresh take on the title track might have appealed, the inclusion of ‘Song of Sand’ more than makes up for it. If ever a track evokes powerful dreamscapes, it is this. A distant pulse is heard, soft at first, followed by muffled voices – then the trumpet as the music becomes more immediate, the sound of a caravan navigating its way through dunes, perhaps – each step evenly paced, as it advances over the vast sand-blown landscape. Five of the tracks have appeared on other albums. Of those, I particularly liked ‘Vilderness’, with its Jon Hassell-like resonance, punchy basslines and soaring multiphonic interludes.
This is an ensemble in the truest sense, and in many ways, a traditional offering in fresh raiment. Everything you hear, including the samples, is created in real time. This is a collective improvisation that moves freely inside a flexible form. Sculpting sound in this way requires many deft hands. Four of the musicians played on the original ‘Khmer’ album: Molvær, Jan Bang, Eivind Aarset and Rune Arnesen. The full ensemble: Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet), Eivind Aarset (guitar & electronics), Jan Bang (live sampling), Pål “Strangefruit” Nyhus (DJ, MPC, programming), Audun Erlien (bass), Per Lindvall (drums), Rune Arnesen (drums, percussion).
It is on Edition Records and will be released on August 5, 2025. You can pre-order from Bandcamp now.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
A few months ago, an album was recorded in New York that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on. The pre-release featured several tasty tracks, and its evocative cover image also intrigued. The stars were aligned for a significant album, and so it was. How could it miss with pianist Michael Cain, guitarist Keith Price and drummer Pheeroan akLaff?
It is one of those albums that jazz lovers, whatever their taste, are bound to enjoy. The cover art was prophetic, as its soft golden light and evocative silhouette figures characterised the music perfectly. It is an album to be played through, then played again, and each listening will delight. There’s a sense of place (or should I say places) evident, as the titles reference far-flung locations, but the most important maps traversed are those engraved on the human heart.
‘O’Neil’s Bay’ (Price) is lovely – a bluesy Americana-fused number. The bay in question is familiar to me, nestled against New Zealand’s forest-clad Waitākere Ranges–a hidden bay accessible only on foot. Price lives nearby and has captured the mystical essence of that wild, unspoiled coastline, keyboards, guitar and drums painting with sound.
Another track has the intriguing title ‘Poetry Legroom Okinawa Children’ (akLaff). It unfolds like a miniature suite, adding layer upon layer. Cain’s keyboards arpeggiate over Price’s shimmering chords; the mesmerising drums adding to the feeling of suspension. Like every track that unfolds, you sink inside, holding the moods carefully so as not to spoil the moment.
With ‘Solodos’ (Cain), you understand why Cain is such a well-regarded pianist. The history and the wonder of his music are encapsulated there.
In an album of gems, ‘Waxing Gibbous’ (Cain/Price) is the kicker. Underneath the tune’s languid minimalism, endless aural vistas unfold, displacing time and space into the eternal now. Never has spoken-word poetry been so carefully encapsulated, and the open-hearted colourist drumming of akLaff astounds.
All three musicians have written tunes for the album, and while their approaches differ, they drink from the same creative well. There are no burners, although a quiet intensity is evident as the meditative moods draw the listener into beguiling atmospheric worlds. We live in an era of madness, and albums like this are exactly what we need to assuage our battered senses. Shifting Paradigm Records Bandcamp and streamers.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
Darren Pickering’s third Small Worlds album, ‘Three’, is a welcome addition to the earlier volumes. While it follows the successful formula developed in volumes one and two, it sounds fresh and endlessly explorative. Throughout the album, snaking lines float, dreamlike, over repeating patterns and carefully layered grooves. Out of this comes the quartet’s cinematic sound. Jazz and cinema are twin arts as they evolved together, often feeding from the same well of resonance. Because of that focus on imagery, you can get inside the sound and experience it on many sensory levels. Listening to this is like watching a great movie – in a theatre – on a rainy day.
This is a superb quartet; unsurprisingly, after two previous albums, they are hyperaware of interplay. This is particularly important in an album like this, as the soundscape is so open. The liner notes indicate they have equal input into the artistic direction, which makes sense; the democratised approach is evident. This is jazz for our times, probing but gentle and unashamedly open to influences.
As with the first two albums, the tune times vary in length, enhancing the listening experience. Nothing is extended beyond its natural endpoint. Like the written word, contrasts like this punctuate the ebb and flow. There are small, meaningful solos, but they are skillfully interwoven into through-composed pieces.
Immediately noticeable is Pickering’s touch, and the underlying digital or analogue wizardry never overwhelms. While often understated, his pianism shines throughout. Pickering is a thoughtful composer and writes to his strengths.
Guitarist Heather Webb is pitch-perfect throughout, her sound is so distinctive, with lines that fold effortlessly into the mix. Her avoidance of anything showy or unnecessarily loud marks her as a mature player. I wish more guitarists understood this. The same can be said for the drummer Jono Blackie and bass player Pete Fleming. Both blend into the mix, thus enhancing the music, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
The rainy day groove is particularly evident in ‘Soft Life’. With Webb running her silken lines over Pickering’s synthesised arpeggiation, and the measured, but perfectly placed, beats like slow-dancing footsteps. And the faster-paced ‘Tauhou Waltz’ has a similar vibe. The album maintains this flow, touching on various moods, but always speaking in a calm voice. The album can be accessed from Rattle Records or Bandcamp. https://darrenpickeringsmallworlds.bandcamp.com/album/three
Under Ocean (Chris Cody/Charlie Tait)
I have long been an enthusiast for Chris Cody’s work, and his two latest releases, each different from what went before, enhance an already impressive discography. Cody has a gift for examining cultural intersections. He gathers events and places, past and present and puts them under a musical microscope, always leaving us with a sense of what it means to be human.
‘Under Ocean’ is a fresh approach with electronic enhancements and a duo format. The album traverses mental and physical landscapes in unexpected ways and, in doing so, expands not only Cody’s repertoire but the boundaries of improvised ambient-style music. The album is co-led by Charlie Tait, a multi-instrumentalist, sound designer and engineer. Tait is no stranger to sonic creations like this, and the resultant cross-fertilisation of jazz, classical, and ambient electronic music is fascinating.
There is an increasing imperative for improvising musicians to create music like this as a reaction to the realities of our overly commercialised modern life, to examine our interior landscapes or the natural world. It also reacts to the ugliness that intrudes on the quieter spaces. They combine new and old musical technologies to good effect, as evidenced in the atmospheric opening track, ‘Salt’, which contrasts with ‘Rumble’s’ free playing and the melancholic ‘Lost World’, bringing different moods together as a satisfying whole.
Mountain to Sea (Chris Cody)
Landscape itself is a featured guest artist on most of Cody’s albums, as his writing always conveys a strong sense of place. I am not referring to specific geographic locations, although they sometimes feature, but to something deeper – cerebral. Cody has a gift for inviting introspection, and as we listen, we examine our relationship to the landscapes and regions he evokes. It is the first thing you become aware of when listening to his albums; ‘Mountain to Sea’ is no exception.
His compositions and arrangements impress here, but his thoughtful playing is also notable. His lines and voicings convey an instinctive lyricism, an organic sound that has always defined him. The tunes contain nostalgic echoes, but speak of hope too, a heart-on-the-sleeve musical humanism. And, as in previous albums, he conveys more with less. There is ample room for his bandmates to shine, and they do. The care and loving attention each one brings to the project is evident. It is no wonder the unit sounds so good when you consider the musicians, a mix of veterans and younger players, but all exemplary: bass player Lloyd Swanton (a member of The Necks who appeared in Auckland recently) and who appeared on an earlier album ‘The Outsider’ (reviewed recently on this blog), and Sandy Evans, an acclaimed saxophonist on the Australian jazz scene, and lastly Tess Overmyer, a gifted young Australian alto saxophonist, presently based in New York.
‘Mountains’, a ballad, opens with Ellingtonian chords that speak of grandeur, followed by two beautiful solos, lifted to further heights by bass lines that never intrude, but soar like a raptor. Similarly, ‘Quiet’ reminds me of Evan Parker’s opening on Kenny Wheeler’s ‘Sea Lady’ (Music for Large and Small Ensembles). Ripples, bird calls, lead into an elegiac anthem for the natural world, a place not separate from humankind, with alto, tenor and soprano perfectly balanced, drawing from the same musical well. This is also evident in ‘Dream’.
As with previous albums, Cody’s daughter Maya has created marvellous cover art.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
Rattle Records released these excellent albums a few weeks apart. They demonstrate that New Zealand’s improvising musicians are of the highest calibre. Both feature Hayden Chisholm, and the albums enrich each other as if by design, although recorded at opposite ends of the world.
Embers (Unwind)
This album is the fifth by Unwind, and their second as a trio. The Unwind albums have all been striking for their unadorned beauty, each feeling like a high point. Yet the inventiveness appears endless as they maintain their upward creative trajectory. Only the best musicians can react to each other with such nuance, their quietism filling any listening space.
Much rests on Hayden Chisholm’s alto saxophone sound, which is preternaturally pure. It’s as clean as Desmond or Konitz, yet utterly unique. It has softness, but a softness that conveys strength and a fluidity that affords him endless possibilities. When playing live, his impact on audiences is palpable. The flute-like alto sounds he creates speak with unusual clarity, creating a balm that the world needs. Feted internationally, known for his skilful use of micro-tonality and throat singing, all his strengths are evident on this album.
A distinctive sound like Chisholm’s requires just the right musicians. Norman Meehan and Paul Dyne are that. In part, because they have been bandmates for years, but it is more than familiarity. On bass, Dyne carries the weight effortlessly, while Meehan’s blues-infused minimalism says as much in between the spaces as in the moments when the hammer meets the wire. You can feel the weight of his ideas behind every note. Thoughtful musicians like this know best how to optimise opportunities. They react instinctively, and nothing is overthought.
The first number, ‘Around Again’, opens with Chisholm’s plaintive alto keening through the silence, then Meehan’s evocative gospel chords follow. It is an elegant piece and a lovely opening to an album brimming with gems. It exudes a gentle strength that is the hallmark of this band.
Another number, ‘Good Friday’, conjures subtle emotions. It captures a nostalgic essence, as if evoking a time long past. One we cannot fully recall – a reaction best described by the Japanese term ‘Sabi’. I have seldom heard a piece of Western music that captures that emotion as perfectly as this ballad. And everything in the album flows similarly. Meehan’s compositions are a joy.
During the album release concert, a particular moment had the audience gasping. After setting the shruti-board drone in motion, the alto began the intro. The pianist was ‘laying out’, listening intently, unaware that his foot had depressed a pedal. An ethereal resonance soon became evident as the harmonics of the alto reacted with the piano. Realising, Chisholm edged closer to the piano and worked with it. A sublime moment of happenstance that had musicians and audience smiling in delight.
It is our good fortune that Chisholm regularly returns to Aotearoa, the country of his birth. He has an extensive offshore discography, but when playing with old friends, there is a special Kiwi kind of synergy. A reminder that spiritual jazz lives here too. The album is available from Rattle Records in either digital or CD form. https://rattle.co.nz/catalogue/releases/embers
Release and Return (Chisholm/Crayford)
‘Release and Return’ is a duo album featuring Jonathan Crayford on piano and Hayden Chisholm on alto saxophone. It is another standout album, but in a different way from Unwind (reviewed above). It feels more exploratory and is not as consciously introspective. The album captures the joy of master musicians engaging without preconception. As a duo album, the sonorities can be explored more fully.
Both of these musicians are adept at working with harmonic resonances: Crayford, who prefers audiences to refrain from clapping until the decaying echoes of a final chord are exhausted, and Chisholm with his skillful use of microtonality.
Mature improvisers like these can draw on everything that they have experienced; it is what forms musical character. Both have travelled widely and listen with open minds to what other cultures or genres offer, be it classical, Carnatic, Spanish or Japanese traditions.
Crayford’s lovely ‘JC Ballad’ hints at Bach, and in Chisholm’s playing, the influence of Eastern musical traditions is evident, especially when he plays against a drone. In ‘Eldest Daughter’, the wistful opening tune (Crayford), the melody plays softly above, while Crayford’s right hand sounds at times like a feather stroking the strings of a Koto, his left hand, meanwhile, finds the pulse and swing.
Release and Return stirs deep emotional responses in the listener with its visceral lines, sometimes tender, sometimes raw, as the human condition is examined. This album speaks of freedom and the uncontrived nature of the music that makes it so.
The artists profiled here have some things in common. Both have Swiss heritage, work in countries other than the ones they were born in and take a fearless approach to improvising. They are separated in years and in experience but not in their approach. Both seek to extend the language of improvised music and have something interesting to say.
Alex Ventling ~ The View
This is a beautiful duo album; it will stay with you if you listen with open ears. It is fresh and original but snatches of the tradition are still evident, nestling in the compositions. From the opening track, ‘Spiders Steps’, Monkish elements creep in, as jagged spidery lines evolve into a gentle swing. The tune is perfectly rounded. It says a lot and yet does so concisely and simply. It is the perfect beginning for a superb album. Ventling’s pianism is evident throughout, but strikingly so in his resonant ‘In the Mists’. Good pianists know what to play and when, but gifted pianists understand how to sculpt sound and curate even the decaying chords. There are synths but they are used in ways that never once spoil the acoustic mood. That is so on ‘First Train to Finse’ which features guest artist Kim Paterson on trumpet. How lovely to hear him again in this ‘Silent Way’-like setting.
It is an album of surprises as the moods shift constantly. Importantly, they do so without once breaking the flow. Out of it all shines a radiant simplicity, a ‘mysterioso’ simplicity. One blended with oblique Monkish references and a northern European sensibility, a very Nordic soundscape, evoking open spaces, where the music breathes.
With Ventling is a gifted drummer, Phelan Burgoyne. He is the perfect foil for the pianist as he is a master of subtlety. He possesses an acute sonic awareness and understands how to work in the spaces between the notes. He is especially attuned to the harmonic possibilities as he adds his textural touches. This is a masterclass in colourist drumming and I cannot imagine any drummer doing better. He is co-credited as a composer, a collaboration which goes back years. Their synergy is evidenced in every minute of this recording.
This is a very mature album for a musician embarking on his musical journey. The album was released by the Trondheim label Sonic Transmission Records and is available on vinyl and digitally via Bandcamp (or the streamers).
Nik Bärtsch Ronin ~ Spin
Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin has been around since 2002, established following his earlier Ritual Groove Music album (2001). Since then Ronin has released 9 albums with cultural and musical influences scattered throughout; the most obvious being Steve Reich, John Cage and Morton Feldman. He was a drummer before he was a pianist and intricate rhythmic patterns and cycles are evident in everything he does. The other important influence is his abiding interest in Zen Buddhism and taken as a whole, those influences have coalesced, resulting in a unique musical path. His style has been dubbed Zen Funk, but it is improvised music of the highest order and the band has been delighting Jazz critics and Jazz-festival-goers for many years. His seven ECM albums brought him wide critical acclaim.
‘Spin’ works the rich seams opened in earlier albums. This band adheres to its minimalist principles while introducing freshness and open exploration. I have always been drawn to mesmeric or trance music, and this music is, but the tunes also invite quiet reflection. There is freedom within constraints, and that appeals to the heart and intellect.
The first track, ‘Modul 66’, was composed to showcase bass player Jeremias Keller, who recently joined the band. This highlights a subtle shift in emphasis, without changing the ever-present groove. The deep grooves are especially evident in ‘Modul 70-51’ which is mesmerising. A pulse that pulls you deeper into the music without once dulling the senses. This is achieved by surprising chordal and modulation shifts which function like Zen surprises. This is apparent in ‘Modul 40’ which is endlessly inventive.
The way this band works together is extraordinary, moving the emphasis mysteriously as they dance around each other like voodoo priests. It was recorded live at the Big Ears Festival, so ‘Spin’ should be enjoyed in one listening; each ‘module’ informs the next. I recommend that you listen with headphones or in a quiet room. It would be a shame to miss the subtlety. Nik Bärtsch (piano, Keyboard), Sha (bass clarinet, alto saxophone), Jeremias Keller (bass), Kasper Rast (drums). ‘Spin’ is self-released and available on Bandcamp or the streamers.
Other Recommendations to Check Out.
Rob Luft and Kit Downes are artists I have profiled before. Both appear on an interesting album by vocalist Paula Rae Gibson. The album, ‘The Roles We Play To Disappear’ has been referred to as ambient, electronica, and Avante-jazz. It seamlessly embraces many genres and is evidence of how improvised music is growing in multiple directions. Albums like this bring fresh audiences and that is a healthy thing. It is refreshing in these days of awful commercial music to see artists forging uncompromising artistic paths. It is available as a CD or download from Bandcamp.
Rob Luft and Elena Duni recently met with Manfred Eicher to discuss a new ECM release. This is welcome news as the first two releases were stunning. I interviewed Luft during lockdown and have reviewed his albums often. If you haven’t done so already check them out. My review of ‘Lost Ships’ is on this site at http://www.jazzlocal32.com/?s=Luft
Alex Ventling and Kim Paterson recorded on Ventling’s recent tour through New Zealand. ‘Conversations’ is a lovely standards album and is available on Spotify.
One of my favourite Jazz musicians Chris Cody (Sydney/France) has just released two interesting albums. The first is ‘Mountain To Sea’ with Sandy Evans, Tessie Overmyer and Lloyd Swanton. The second and most recent is ‘Under Ocean’, co-credited to Charlie Tait, an ambient improvised album conjuring powerful images. An interesting development from an artist who never fails to please. More on this soon.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
Aaron Parks’ latest album, ‘Little Big III’, is the third in a series titled Little Big and his fourth album featuring a guitarist. The album (and series) also expands the soundscapes and ideas explored on his successful first Blue Note release, Invisible Cinema (2008). It is an album with a big heart which embraces the listener with rich textures and a tapestry of gorgeous melodic lines. Parks is highly regarded as a pianist and composer and never appears to rest on his laurels, reaching further with each new recording.
The band is in perfect sync, and each player is given the space they deserve. Parks’ compositions are always compelling, but they reach for the heartstrings here. There is considerable technical mastery, but a sense of humanity strikes you most. The tune titles tell you this, ‘ Locked Down’, or ‘Heart Stories’, inviting you into an expansive and unfolding narrative. It feels like a story of our times, but one reminding us of the beauty we may have overlooked amidst the turmoil.
Parks is a distinctive pianist who has never had trouble finding the best musicians to accompany him. Jazz lovers in Aotearoa New Zealand can rightly feel proud in this regard. ‘Invisible Cinema’ and ‘James Farm’, featured bassist Matt Penman. On Little Big 111 and the two earlier iterations, we hear guitarist Greg Tuohey (who first recorded with fellow Kiwi Penman over twenty-five years ago). Tuohey’s playing is magnificent and, along with his bandmates, he contributes tunes too.
The sharing of the compositional duties has yielded riches. Parks has a distinct style; his tunes are as compelling as they are memorable. I particularly like ‘Flyways’; a pulsating ostinato chant that frees the drums and bass, while the breathtaking melodic lines soar. There are four Parks compositions, all interestingly different. Oriental references are evident in ‘Delusions’ while the lovely ballad ‘Ashé’ has a wistful, folkish vibe.
Three tunes are Tuoheys, expanding the palette to include funk and Americana. His tune ‘Willamina’ is a joy, it is here in particular that you hear what a great guitarist and composer he is. It evokes tumbleweed towns and gentler times; memories we hold onto lest they slip from our grasp. Bass player David Ginyard Jr’s ’Little Beginnings’ has a beguiling loping pulse and uses a larger palette, to great effect. The drummer, Jongkuk Kim, is new to me, crisp, imaginative and impressive. I hope there is a Little Big IV in the wings. ‘Blue Note Records ~ available in stores and by streaming.
Hania Rani (Hanna Raniszewska)
I subscribe to jazz author Ted Gioia’s Substack posts, as all improvised music lovers should. In a recent issue, Gioia highlighted a handful of modern Polish improvisers he suspected would be unknown to audiences outside of Northern Europe. He particularly liked Hania Rani, who he described as his new favourite pianist.
There is something ethereal and achingly beautiful about her music and everyone who stumbles across it, feels like they’ve uncovered a secret. What initially strikes you as a few simple fragments of melody on repeat, is music for deep listening. Underlying the ostinato phrases are endless changes, finely wrought. She layers and loops while catching her listeners in a silken web of sound; sometimes reaching inside a grand piano, using an upright piano for percussion and adding small digital effects. It is an ever-expanding pedal point over a pulsing drone which may be the key to its appeal. She magics up something complex and deeply satisfying, crafted out of simplicity. As if that were not enough, she also sings beautifully.
Although not a household name, she gets 7 million views for her YouTube clips, performs at the Louvre and has appeared in an NPR Tiny Desk concert. I have included a clip from a recording she made in Studio 2 in Warsaw, a favourite venue due to its acoustic properties. Sometimes the best things are hiding in plain sight. This is improvised music, but genreless, touching on classical, Jazz and house, but somehow free of those confines.
Rani mainly records for Gondwana Records with seven albums released. It is worth checking her out on YouTube.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
The two albums reviewed feature musicians from Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand. The first is by guitarist Callum Allardice, an award-winning musician with an impressive résumé. The second is an EP by vocalist Ella Dunbar-Wilcox (Ella Sophie), her first release.
Elementa ~ Callum Allardice
Elementa is a fine album and Allardice’s best to date. With this release and with this band, he has found the perfect vehicle to showcase his astonishing guitar fluency and compositional chops. He is known for crafting fine charts and melodic compositions and has won the APRA award for best jazz composition three times, but here, he shines as a fully rounded guitarist at the top of his game. There is no mistaking the lineage he arises from, Rosenwinkel and Moreno, and this album sees him vying for a place alongside those who extend that vocabulary, like Charles Altura or Gilad Hekselman.
Allardice’s supporting musicians are well-known in the Trans-Tasman music scene. The quartet includes accomplished Australian pianist Luke Sweeting, respected Australian-based Kiwi bassist Thomas Botting, and a tasteful drummer Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa from Wellington. These musicians have previously collaborated with Allardice in groups such as The Jac and The Antipodeans, and are familiar figures to jazz audiences in New Zealand.
His accompanying musicians will be familiar. A lineup of Trans-Tasman stalwarts who have played alongside Allardice before in bands such as The Jac and The Antipodeans. The Australian pianist, Luke Sweeting, is a familiar face to jazz audiences in Aotearoa, as is the Australian-based Kiwi Thomas Botting, a respected bass player. The tasteful Wellington drummer Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa rounds out the quartet.
There is a lot to like here, with the first track, ‘Stone Eyes’, setting up the rest of the album nicely (embedded). It has an otherworldly quality, and like the title track, it reveals Allardice’s remarkable technical skill as he spins out his mesmeric lines. His tone is inviting and warm. The guitarist is virtuosic throughout, but never just for virtuosity’s sake, and this is the clearest indicator of his maturity as a player. Also of note is a fine solo by Sweeting on ‘Odyssey’.
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The album is on the Australian Earshift Music label and will be released shortly. It can be purchased via the artist’s website or from www.earshift.com
Ella Sophie ~ Almost Love
‘Almost Love’ is the first release EP by Ella Dunbar-Wilcox (Ella Sophie), a New Zealand vocalist, pianist and composer. She is studying for her Masters on the West Coast of America after completing a BMus at the New Zealand School of Music. When I played the album, it was hard to believe that I was hearing a first release. You could add this to a playlist of well-known Jazz vocalists and it would fit in perfectly. The approach is old school, but in the best way, as she interprets by subtle means, making the tunes her own.
The album is mostly Song Book ‘standards’, but her original, ‘Take a Clue’ is a fine composition and fits in nicely. Taking a more traditional approach has paid off. There is an ease, a certain cool, teased out by her playful phrasing and minimal but deft touches of vibrato. Much of that is technique but there is much more on display here. She draws you in, conveys intimacy as she tells a story and makes you a believer. Embedded is ‘I’m Old Fashioned’.
She is receiving airplay in her home country and elsewhere and her voice has been compared favourably to some iconic jazz vocalists. When I played the EP, Anita O’Day and even Blossom Dearie came to mind, with that hint of playfulness in her sound and phrasing. She is also a pianist, but she has engaged a pianist and some LA musicians for this album, and they are just right for her. The other musicians are Alex Frank, Ryan Shaw, Josh Nelson, Talley Sherwood, Ben Burget, and David Donnelly.
‘Almost Love’ was released by ‘TriTone’ and is available digitally on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
One of the most pleasing formats in Jazz is the B3 trio. It endures because it has warmth and groove in equal proportions and it makes us happy. To unleash the full potential of the B3 a bass pedalboard must be used, and this difficult-to-master art is increasingly rare. There are hands, knees and feet, all doing different things, there are two keyboards and a bewildering array of sliders and knobs to be coordinated. On the new Music Soup album we not only have a skilled pedaling-organist in Evgenia Karlafti but on two tracks a guest pianist (Kym Purling) is added into the mix. This adds to the complexity, as three chordal instruments can clash and crowd each other out; so skilled musicianship and the right compositions are called for. That is what you get with ‘Upbeat Mood’.
The guitarist, Nestor Demopoulos, co-founder of the trio with Karlafti, can power up the groove with solos reminiscent of Pat Martino, Grant Green or Paul Bollenback. His tone is a warm embrace and his comping urges the soloists to greater heights. The other trio member is drummer Vagelis Kotzabasis and his contribution nicely rounds off the core trio. They respond to each other throughout, enhancing the swing feel by their interplay. It is particularly evident on the opening track, ‘Korean Apartment’, a masterclass in Groove.
There is variety throughout, but all of the tunes are imbued with a sense of intimacy—the sort you might experience in a small Athens Jazz club on a balmy summer night. Unsurprisingly, Music Soup has come to the attention of notables like Tony Monaco and Pat Bianchi, the latter supplying liner notes for the album. The tunes are all originals by Karlafti and Demopoulos, except for Burt Bacherach’s ‘The Little Red Book’. The album can be purchased as a CD at www.musicsoupband.com or accessed on streaming channels.
Personel: Evgenia Karlafti (B3 organ), Nestor Demopoulos (guitar), Vagelis Kotzabasis (drums) with Kym Purling (piano – tracks 3 & 6) and Henry Gergen (trumpet track 8).
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
The Bird of a Thousand Voices is an astonishing project, and as I listened and wrote, I weighed up the various superlatives. No other term sufficed. And, to describe it as a concept or a themed album would woefully undervalue it too. The depth and breadth of Tigran Hamasyan’s project is breathtaking and evaluating it requires fulsome engagement. I am not implying that it is unapproachable as there are delightful melodies as light as air, and exotic rhythms to engage, but underlying every note are other worlds, endlessly unfolding–worlds that beg exploration.
It is a transmedia project with the parts slotting together like pieces of a deliciously exotic puzzle. There is a film, an ancient manuscript, imaginative artworks, an interactive game, a stage show, and a timeless story, all wrapped in and around the extraordinary music of Tigran. It is utterly unique. His sound, touch, and visionary approach as he creates improvised music is singular, and few could pull this off so convincingly.
The project was inspired by an ancient Armenian folktale (Hazaran Blbul), involving an anthropomorphic bird. The fable tells of an era of great unrest, so the bird embarks on a spiritual quest, seeking world harmony. Still, as with all great quests, physical, spiritual and psychological difficulties are encountered along the way. Tigran states in his summary, that it struck him as a metaphor for the problems confronting today’s world; conflict, inequality and ecological disasters.
While the project references an ancient Armenian folktale, the bird theme is universal. Birds are sacred to most Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Northern European cultures. They are frequently seen as messengers from the gods who can predict the future. Some believe they represent the soul or beauty and offer hope of peace. And, it is not just in myths. They warn us today of biodiversity loss, begging us to do better.
Among the promotional material is a video referencing a medieval illuminated manuscript from Armenia. Inside the manuscript, birds dance out of the vellum pages as Tigran’s Steinway is filmed being airlifted to a mountaintop, and the music dances too. Tigran’s distinctive pianism is immediately recognisable, but a deeper otherworldly quality appears during this recording. His delicate filigree motifs repeat and evolve, choirs or a single voice, echo key phrases and staccato percussive interludes rise, then fade; however, what stays with you is not technique but something more elemental. The project is a prime example of improvised music reaching beyond the familiar as improvised music should.
illustration excerpted from Armenian archives image
The album engages on many levels and should be enjoyed as the creators intended; by listening, watching, gaming, and contemplating. In collaboration with Tigran, Dutch filmmaker Ruben Van Leer has created cinematographic wonders integral to the music, as has illustrator Khoren Matevosyan. As you enter the website to participate in the game or to enjoy the illustrations and installations, you will find dozens of gifted collaborators credited. While there are too many to mention, the principal musicians are Tigran Hamasyan (piano, keyboards, drum programming, compositions, concept), Areni Agbabian (vocals), Sofia Jernberg (vocals), Vahram Sargsyan (vocals), Nate Wood (drums and bass).
The vinyl album can be purchased via tigranhamasyan.com His music is also available on the usual streaming platforms.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
I was idling my way through the morning when a message from a friend in the UK lit up my phone. ’I’m sitting in a Jazz club in Dublin, and I have a Kiwi couple with me whose daughter is an Auckland-based jazz musician. She plays in a band with guitarist Keith Price, do you know her?’ I know Price well and have attended many of his gigs but the name Francesca Parussini didn’t ring a bell. I had missed Price’s last gig so I checked through my invitations and saw that she was a saxophonist and a member of Price’s new band LacLu. The other band member was Maximilian Crook, a versatile, tasteful up-and-coming drummer. I messaged Price for more information and learned that LacLu had recently recorded, resulting in an EP album, due for release later in the year.
Fast forward to last week, when a review download arrived. I listened and was delighted by what I heard. The LacLu album taps into an expansive realm akin to Spiritual/Astral Jazz, whose definition has expanded over the years to encompass improvised music reverencing the natural world. As human-induced chaos and degradation of the environment assails us, music that invites us to reflect on nature is increasingly appealing. The influences cited in the liner notes are Frissell, Lovano and Motian. While influences are evident — touches of Americana, colourist drumming and content-rich minimalism — the album is forward-looking and more than a tribute.
The opener, ‘Winter Fog Morning’, is in two parts. Beginning with haunting pedalled phrases on the guitar, gentle drum and cymbal taps, and whispery phrases from the horn, each underscoring the other as they paint a landscape with deft sonic strokes. You hear what could be bird calls rising out of the fog. The scene has been set and part two expands the vista. What follows at a lilting gait is a melodically and texturally rich tapestry that is both raw and caressing. I live where Price lives, among the Waitākere hills, ragged coastlines and foggy wooded valleys, and the band has captured the beauty of that landscape.
The third track, ‘Stella by Starlight’, pays tribute to a loved standard but pared back, reduced to its essence and done in a way that only skilled improvisers could pull off. Scant phrases of the loved melody appear, change and evaporate. Here especially, Price shows us what he is made of, his playing is evocative and tasteful. This is a gem and it is hard to believe that the drummer and saxophonist are not seasoned performers like Price. They are recent jazz school graduates, but despite the disparity in years and experience, the band performs as equals. The last track, ’Friends and Whanau’ rounds the album off nicely, reminding the listener of our human connections, and the interconnectedness of all life. Here the warm shadings of Americana are most evident.
Throughout there is spaciousness, seamless interaction and open improvisation around composed motifs. The name Laclu references a lake in Ontario and a general locality. The area is described as having ‘indistinct boundaries’. Price grew up near there but never visited the lake and perhaps that is the perfect metaphor for the album. What appears to be place-specific is more than that. It is any place where nature rules, places we can call home if we work with nature, not against it.
Keith Price (guitar), Francesca Parussini (tenor saxophone), Maximilian Crook (drums) – Ainsley Duyvestyn-Smith cover photography, recorded at the Kenneth Myers Centre Tāmaki Makaurau. The album is available on Bandcamp and streaming platforms – click through here at laclu3.bandcamp.com/album/laclu-self-titled
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
Earlier this month ‘Blue Note in My Suitcase’ was released by B3 Master Michel Bénébig. It is his sixth album and his first with a Jazz orchestra. The album hits the groove spot immediately, and as you listen you realise what a perfect pairing Bénébig’s B3 and the Le Grande B3 Orchestra is, aided convincingly by Lachlan Davidson’s lovely arrangements. The charts are well constructed, giving free rein to the soloists and never overwhelming the organ. Davidson is a respected Australian arranger, teacher, band leader and multi-instrumentalist and his influence is strongly felt here.
It is always a pleasure to hear Bénébig’s in-the-pocket playing but with an orchestra like this charging the atmosphere, he digs deeper than ever into the groove. The ten tunes on the album are excellent groove vehicles, all written by Bénébig, with Davidson credited as co-composer on ‘Try To Explain’. I have always appreciated Bénébig’s writing but he has excelled himself here.
The opener ‘Alenka’s Mood’ is warm and funky, immediately infecting you with its slinky rhythm. It offers up a promise which is fulfilled throughout. As you work through the tunes you are drawn back to the days when infectious danceable music like this was loaded onto jukeboxes and played in steamy groove joints pulsating with dancers. The music brings a smile to your face and fills you with joy and, like his earlier ‘Shuffle’ album, you will reach for it repeatedly. Joining him is Bénébig’s daughter Lucia who is responsible for designing the album cover and creating animation for a promotional YouTube clip. I have posted the YouTube cut ‘Black Cat’ from the album.
A time-honoured B3 big band tradition is followed here, featuring 13 horns which lends considerable heft to the rhythm section. It would be easy to drown out soloists and to eclipse the organ with a behemoth like this but the soloists get plenty of room to shine, and shine they do. The album is available now on Spotify and a vinyl edition is on the way for audiophiles.
Mick Fraser (trumpet 1), Shane Gillard (trumpet 2), Gianni Mariucci (trumpet 3), Rob Planck (trumpet 4), Roger Schmidl (trombone 1), Ben Gillespie (trombone 2), Jessica Jacobs (trombone 3), Adrian Sherriff (bass trombone), Lachlan Davidson (alto sax 1/flute 1/sop sax), Rob Simone (alto sax 2/flute 2), Anton Delecca (tenor Sax 1/clarinet 2), Paul Cornelius (tenor sax 2/clarinet 1), Stuart Byrne (baritone sax/bass clarinet), Jack Pantazis (guitar), Gideon Marcus (drums), Michel Bénébig (A105 Hammond organ Leslie 147), Phil Noy (recording engineer), Lachlan Carrick (mastering Engineer), Lucia Bénébig (front cover art)
~Random Delights~
Sambandha: Heartcore For Nepal
Recently, I received a press release from colleague Arlette Hovinga. The project outlined was the vision of Mikaela Bokova, the manager of Kurt Rosenwinkel’s independent music label, Heartcore Records. The object was to raise money for disadvantaged children in Nepal, and on board for this recording are an impressive list of jazz and world music luminaries: John McLaughlin, Christian McBride, Terri Lyne Carrington, Gerald Clayton, Kit Downes, Anmol Mahara and Dinesh Pun. Sambandha was written by combining two traditional Nepalese folk tunes, and it’s performed by the 20-piece children’s choir Bokova organised while running a music workshop at Mangala School, Babiyachaur, Nepal.
The revenue from the release will go towards buying the children’s musical instruments. In your browser or here, click on heartcore-records.com then once opened, locate Sabandha and purchase your download (5 Euros). It can also be purchased in Bandcamp. Please pass on the word and enjoy. I play this often. You will also find a delightful video on YouTube on the making of this by typing Heartcore for Nepal Sambandha. There is a deficit of joy in today’s world, but giving to those in the greatest need is a sure way to top up the supply.
Skilaa: Tiger In The Water
The cut I am posting is tagged ‘psychedelic R&B’ and the descriptor is intriguing. Everyone featured in this band is an accomplished jazz musician and it shows. Boundaries have been deliberately blurred until a new, fresh kind of music emerges, which catches your attention because it is familiar but not familiar. The concept, compositions and delightful artwork are those of vocalist Chelsea Prastiti. Her boundless energy is evident here. In Aotearoa, it is not unusual for Jazz-trained musicians to make inroads into Indie-Rock, Soul-Funk and Indie-Pop and do it well, even better (think The Beths). Skilaa will be a band to watch. The band are Chelsea Prastiti (vocals, compositions, artwork), Tom Denison (bass), Adam Tobeck (drums), and Michael Howell (guitar) with guest vocalist Crystal Choi (recorded by Callum Passels).
The ‘Astounding Eyes of Rita’ – Trio Natalino Marchetti, Francesco Savoretti, Mauro Sigura
I have previously posted on Mauro Sigura, an oud improviser. He recently sent me this clip of his trio featuring oud, with accordion and percussion. The tune is a well-known composition by Anouar Brahem, ‘The Astounding Eyes of Rita’. Improvised music like this is prevalent across the Mediterranean region and deserves a wider audience. This is such a lovely tune and so beautifully realised here. Mauro Sigura (oud), Francesca Savoretti (percussioni), Natalino Marchetti (fisarmonica). Recorded in Rome.
The first album reviewed is the latest release by Myele Manzanza, a Wellington-born musician who is now a significant presence on the London scene, the second is another clip of finalists from the recent edition of the 7VJC competition.
Crisis And Opportunity Vol.4 – Meditations
Those following New Zealand-born drummer/composer Myele Manzanza have been amply rewarded over the years. He has in recent times established himself as a strong presence on the London scene, releasing many successful albums and, capturing the diverse mores of modern improvised music while bringing his distinctive voice to bear.
‘Crisis and Opportunity Vol 4’ may differ from the preceding volumes, but the over-arching trajectory makes perfect sense when you examine his output as a whole. Manzanza is an artist who refuses to rest on his laurels and with that comes constant re-evaluation and soul searching.
The tune titles from his various albums are embedded stories in miniature. In the liner notes he makes the point that, unlike earlier albums, he is not trying to make us dance. Here he has chosen to lean back into his Jazz roots and to do that he has located just the right bandmates. Bassist Matt Penman and pianist Matthew Sheens are perfect for this project as both hail from the South Pacific and are successful in New York.
When musicians establish careers in countries far from where they were born, homesickness is common, and heartfelt creativity emerges. This particular album is meditative and reflective, but despite that, there is still that innate sense of propulsive energy. An energy that always characterises Manzanza’s work. He may not be trying to make us dance but as we listen we feel the dance of life through his tunes.
The sparkling opener, ‘Crayford’s Room’, with its sparse piano and lovely arco bass at the beginning has particular resonance for me. It is a homage to New Zealand-born pianist Jonathan Crayford. Many musicians have been mentored by him and inspired by his musicianship. This is a fine album and it is also a love letter home. Highly recommended.
The album can be found at myelemanzanza.com or on Bandcamp under the artist’s name.
Chai Masters (Netherlands)
The band was formed from a musical connection forged at the Amsterdam Conservatory in 2018. Their debut album, ‘Magical Realism’, garnered critical acclaim. Since then they have added a vocalist, whose wordless vocal lines have merged effectively and seamlessly into the musical mix. They are an interesting group with a distinctive sound and play to their strengths. They draw on many sources, and a uniquely heady brew is the result.
What first caught my attention was their name. I am a teahead and to locate the finest tea I rely on tea (chai) masters. These are the gurus of tea and they understand the importance of sourcing; and how to locate the places where the trees grow best. This matters because the finest teas come from unique terroirs, where the essences of flowers, minerals, and herbal aromatics are absorbed deep in the earth’s ecosystem. So it is with the group Chai Masters. They draw from the raw materials around them, rendering them into music like alchemists.
The clip posted is the one submitted to the 7VJC competition. The sextet’s vocalist, Līva Dumpe has a pure, well-modulated voice and while not overshadowing the other instruments, she is a powerful presence in the lineup. Her wordless vocal lines add to the overall texture in ways another instrument could not. This contrasts (and merges) brilliantly with the two horns as they execute rapid-fire unison lines, underpinned by minimalist piano, tight basslines and colourist drumming. The composition must also receive its due here, as the unit and the compositions are as one. This is a group to watch as they have found their sweet spot. The clip is titled ‘The Seer’s Dream’. The sextet can be located at chaimastersmusic.com
There is something about the oud that awakens the deepest of emotions. Like the sound of an ancient temple gong, it resonates soulfully. It is primarily a modal instrument, using ‘Maqams scales’, a system as complex and varied as the modes used by Coltrane. So, when the chance arose to interview a Jazz oud player, I jumped at it.
Mauro Sigura was born in Turin, where he began his Jazz career playing the bouzouki and guitar. Later, he moved to the island of Sardinia where he found a uniquely ancestral form of music, one for which he developed a deep musical connection. Since then, he has performed throughout the world and participated in numerous festivals. His ensembles reach beyond the confines of genre. They have originality, depth, rhythm and groove. Younger listeners especially, are hungry for such music.
I heard Sigura’s current Quartet while judging the Italian-based 7VirtualJazzClub competition. His entry enthused the judging panel and he deservedly picked up first prize in the Pros & Amateurs section. Shortly after, we exchanged contact details and set up the interview.
~ ~ ~
Mauro, congratulations again on your, 7VirtualJazzClub Competition win. Your music has a rare beauty which pulls on the heartstrings. It is as if you have unearthed a forgotten memory from the distant past. This effect may be evident because the oud is the forbear of many stringed instruments like the guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, lute etc. It is like an echo flowing through time, bringing past and present together.
Q. Could you tell me what the oud means to you, and why you chose it?
A. First of all, thank you for your kind words! As you said, the oud is an instrument that somehow crosses time, has an ancestral link with the cultures of the past, [it] tells of trade exchanges, travels, and meetings between cultures. I came to oud through bouzouki and Greek music, where it is easy to listen to an oud. Then, I started studying Ottoman classical music.
Q Your last album, Terravetro, paired the oud with a minimalist piano. On your recent album, Dunia, there was a Fender electric guitar and an electric bass. Did you have that relationship between ancient and modern in mind?
A. Yes, all my music always tries to connect distant places not only in space but also in time. everything must tie together, but the challenge is to try to do it in the most natural way possible.
Carthago (from Terravetro)
Q. Your recent quartet is great. It could be viewed as either mainstream jazz or as World Jazz. The contrasts and textures are interesting. Especially so with ‘La Danza di Amarech’. Notable are the tight bass lines and edgy drum rhythms, the oud’s earthiness against the electric guitar’s brighter sounds, and that hint of funk over Middle Eastern rhythms and melodies. Could you tease that out and provide an insight into your compositional approach?
A. It depends on the compositions. For example, in ‘La Danza di Amarech’ I started from the bass line and its connection with the drums, the theme came last. I often start from the bass line to then create the theme, then, once a basic theme has been defined, I intervene by inserting more jazz-like modulations. However, it is not a fixed rule, in fact sometimes I have an oud groove or a theme in my mind and that becomes the starting point, or it can start from a traditional rhythm of Ottoman music. For example, ‘Dunia’ is built on a traditional Ottoman rhythm in 10/8, [called] the ‘semai’.
Q. Tell me about your current quartet drummer. She is amazing.
A. Evita is amazing! She has ability,and creativity, she is an excellent composer, so she was able to give us useful advice in [the] studio. In Italy, she plays with the best musicians, such as Enrico Rava, but she often also plays with DeeDee Bridgewater. I saw her play in Sardinia in 2021 and I said: “this girl must play on my record at all costs!” and I succeeded. This year she released her first solo album as a singer-drummer, for Paolo Fresu’s record label. She has a great career ahead.
Q. Do you have any ongoing projects with this particular quartet?
A. It is a quartet that I created for Italy and Western Europe. In fact, with the acoustic quartet, I often play in Eastern Europe and I needed something more attractive to Central-Western Europe. So I’m working to try to propose it to these geographical areas. The album was released on October 8th, so we are still in a phase where Dunia is looking for the best direction.
Q. You record on ’S’Ard’, a Sardinian label but I see you were born in Turin.
Are your forebears from Sardinia?
A. My father was born in Sardinia, but my mother was born near Turin. In 2005 I moved to Sardinia, retracing the path taken by my grandparents in the 1950s, when they left Sardinia to go work in Turin.
Q. Sardinia has produced jazz greats like Paulo Fresu. It evokes an ancient past and a Phoenician connection. The bagpipes may have originated there, but is there an oud tradition?
A. No, there is a tradition of the guitar, but not of the oud, although some elements of the traditional Sardinian guitar certainly have a North African origin.
Q. You have a distinctive sound and approach. Different from Dhafer Youssef or Anouar Brahem. Part of that is due to the pairing of the instruments, but there appear to be regional influences too. Would you like to comment?
A. Yes, certainly, Sardinia, with its ancestral atmospheres, has a strong influence on my compositions. The spaces, the light, the nature are much stronger here than in other parts of Italy and the musical tradition is also very strong, alive and wild and this more or less unconsciously influences me every time. My next challenge will be to look for the influences that Phoenician, Carthaginian and Arab music have left in the Sardinian musical tradition, in particular in the vocal tradition. I would like to start from there, building a Sardinian project that justifies the presence of oud.
Q. Who are your musical influences?
A. Obviously, the ones already mentioned by you Dhafer Youssef or Anouar Brahem influenced me a lot, but also Jan Garbarek and Eivind Aarset. I am used to listening to all good music, from rock, to jazz, to pop to metal and I let myself be influenced by everything without prejudice. I have listened to a lot of Pat Metheny, Miles Davis, Kenny Garrett, but also traditional Greek music (rebetiko), Ottoman classical music, Arabic and Kurdish music, but in general I like all the traditional music. I am very interested in music played with a few simple instruments, especially the music of nomadic people. My music comes out of all this.
Q. I see you studied philosophy. Did any particular philosopher inform your approach to music?
A. No. Perhaps philosophy has influenced my approach to the concepts of my albums. I try to create the album around a concept, but beyond this, no. No philosopher has influenced me by directing me to music.
Q. You performed throughout Europe, but what grabbed my attention was that you performed in Petra, ‘the city that time forgot’. Tell me about that experience.
A. It was an amazing experience! We were invited by the Amman Jazz Festival and the Dante Alighieri Society in Jordan. When they [approached] us about the option for a concert in Petra, I couldn’t believe it. We played for the Bedouin community that lives inside the site. It was a concert for a few close friends, in a unique atmosphere suspended in time. While I was playing I found myself in a sort of emotional trance and I lost the sense of the duration of the concert. It was a strange sensation, but it was as if those rocks were carrying the music forward independently of us [as the players].
Q. Do you see yourself as being in or extending the Sufi oud tradition?
A. I’m very flattered by your question, but I don’t know the Sufi tradition well enough and I always want to have a respectful approach towards those elements of traditional cultures that I don’t know in depth. So, to answer your question I would say no, even if a certain idea of mystical-transcendent trance is present in many of my compositions. If we can take people to another, different, new place, where everyone is on the same level, then we can start talking again.
Q. Who was the vocalist on Dunia and were there any guest artists?
A. Her name is Elena Ledda and she is the most famous Sardinian singer and, also, one of the most famous in the Italian world music panorama. She gave me a great gift of herself by putting her splendid and unmistakable voice in the song. Elena is the only guest in Dunia.
Q. I look forward to hearing more of your albums. Thank you for your time and for the detailed and illuminating answers.
A. It has been my pleasure!
You can order these recordings from Mauro Sigura’s website, from S’Ard records, or locate them on Deezer, Spotify or Apple Music.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
News that a live recording of Alice Coltrane’s previously unreleased 1971 Carnegie Hall concert was about to drop caused excitement in Jazz circles. 2024, designated by Impulse ‘The Year of Alice’, will see other Alice projects realised, and Shiva Loka is the opener. The quality is great, even though it doesn’t have the degree of sound separation a studio recording has, but that is no bad thing. Being live, the album captures the excitement in the moment and invites us to breathe the spiritual air surrounding Coltrane. And as you take in what is unfolding, the sheer joy of it, it is impossible not to picture the audience sitting about you in rapt absorption. This is an immersive experience and, as such, it reveals the beating heart of Spiritual jazz.
There are four tracks and from the first note played you are present in that great hall. Track one ‘Journey in Satchidananda’ is a tranquil, mesmerising piece. At first, gentle cymbals reminiscent of a temple gong, then a long vamp on bass and with drums answering; out of nowhere, harp strings, Coltrane making them sing like a choir of celestial angels. At that point, you discern voices quietly chanting, followed by flute, then saxophone. The magic has arrived and it never leaves throughout.
The second track, while also tranquil, has a questioning spirit. Arpeggiating harp, arco bass, tiny percussion instruments and then the saxophones keening. Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders interact conversationally, as new sonic textures are opened up. An intensity develops as the album unfolds with the tranquil opening tunes followed by incrementally wilder, ecstatic pieces.
We hear two sides of Alice Coltrane in this recording. Both are astonishing in different ways and there is never a moment of doubt about who holds the musical centre. On the first two tracks, she reigns as a peaceful goddess; on the last two, surrounded by an army of titans, she is the epicentre of an ecstatic storm. There was a time when she was primarily regarded as the keeper of John’s flame, but here, she is revealed as the unrivalled queen of Spiritual Jazz, extending his legacy and claiming her own.
The last two tracks ‘Africa’ and ‘Leo’ are compositions by John Coltrane, but it would be wrong to regard these as mere covers as they transform the material into something not heard before. For these last two numbers, Coltrane switches from harp to piano and the fiery goddess radiates her power. She is percussive, with stinging chords, and snatches of chromaticism. Here, and in the last track especially, the rawness and power of the band has been fully unleashed. Thunderous percussion and pounding bass, staccato utterances from the horns and raining down on the keys, Coltrane’s hands.
It is hardly surprising that she chose these particular musicians as they have all been associated with her or John at some point. Coltrane on harp, piano and vocals, Pharoah Sanders on saxophones and flute (at times chanting through the flute), Archie Shepp on saxophones and flute, Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee on bass, Ed Blackwell and Clifford Jarvis on drums, Tulsi Reynolds on tamboura, Kumar Kramer on harmonium. As you listen you marvel at the beauty and raw power. It is an album that will stay with you for a long time. It is out on Impulse too, which explains the warm embrace of the sound.
The concert was recorded the year she released ‘Journey to Satchidananda’, her fourth Impulse album and not long after another acknowledged masterpiece ‘Ptah, the El Daoud’. My first thought was, why wait so long to release such an exceptional album, but on reflection, it was a good decision. Now is the time to fully acknowledge Alice Coltrane’s legacy. Available online or from the better local retail outlets.
Ancient Relics ~ Lucien Johnson
As ‘The Year of Alice’ gets underway it is great to acknowledge this release by Aotearoa/New Zealand saxophonist-composer Lucien Johnson. It is fresh material that references the tradition of Astral/Spiritual Jazz and it does so with reverence while bringing a local perspective. It is natural for those born under our South Pacific skies to gaze upward; far-dreaming Pacific star-gazers discovered our islands. That sense of worlds beyond is evident throughout, as it references space clutter and objects left over from the past. It could also reference the cluttered inner orbits of our minds.
As the album begins, the unhurried pace appeals instantly, informing you that this is a place for deep listening. On the title track, ‘Ancient Relics’, Johnson’s effortless melodicism floats over texturally rich vamps reminiscent of drones while piano and harp shimmer, and merge. This opener is unmistakably Alice-like and wonderfully so. The languid measured bass lines are perfect too, anything more would have spoiled the mood, with the gentle pulse from percussion and drums, whispering, quietly through the mix.
My favourite tracks are ‘Space Junk’ and ‘Satellites’, evoking the wonders of space while reminding us of our responsibilities as galactic sojourners. Space is the theme, but closer to home than the distant stars. If ‘Ada’ refers to the protocol of distance between objects in orbit, then all of the tunes appear to reference space junk; the ever-increasing proliferation of satellites circling the Earth. A recent report pointed out that every reentry leaves debris and puts the Earth’s magnetic field at risk.
This is an exceptional group of musicians and the right ones to bring Johnson’s vision home. All are from Aotearoa/New Zealand, some receiving accolades beyond our shores. Johnson is better known in Europe where he gained a reputation playing in free-jazz ensembles and composing for theatre. Since returning he has quickly established himself as an important local recording artist, recently receiving a Jazz Tui for composition.
Jonathan Crayford on piano (also a Jazz Tui recipient), has a solid international reputation, often playing in London, New York and across Europe. Percussionist Julien Dyne is another internationally recognised artist as is harpist Natalia Lagi’itaua Mann. Rounding off the ensemble bassist Tom Callwood, and drummer Cory Champion, both respected musicians. I was especially delighted to see improvising harpist Mann in the lineup as it has been a while since I saw her perform. Her World-Jazz Rattle album ‘Pasif.Ist’ is an absolute gem.
The album is available at Rattle Records, Bandcamp
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, a contributor to All About Jazz, poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
Before I became aware of the trio albums, I was already familiar with the Ingi Bjarni Quintet through his Tenging album, which I can only describe as extraordinary. Tenging is an album of breathtaking beauty and invention, evoking an ECM aesthetic. I love to hear musicians who boldly tell unique stories and flirt with the unexpected. There are many things to like about this album, such as the folksy, often Slavic-referencing modal melodies, the minimalism and the way the tunes are structured, often atypically. The essence of the group is especially evident in the title track, “Tenging”.
There is excitement but also a sense of space and calm. Throughout, the music fully engages the listener. They are all excellent musicians, achieving a unity of purpose that is rare in a young band like this. The Norwegian trumpeter Jakob Eri Myhre has a Nordic edgy breathiness about his sound, and the Estonian guitarist Merje Kägu is just marvellous. My first encounter with this Quintet was as a 7VirtualJazzClub judge. Guitarist Merje Kägu was a knockout during that clip, a Nordic version of Mary Halvorson.
Fragile Magic, the trio album, will be released in March. Advancing the concepts explored in earlier trio releases. Here, the bass, drums and piano achieve perfect balance. As with the larger ensembles, the players breathe the same musical air. The interplay is of the highest order. The compositions often arise from Satie-like minimalism and build on that, expanding the themes. Here, the exquisite touch, a feature of Skúlson’s playing, is accentuated. The pianist can also adopt a more percussive approach, contrasting his gentle minimalism.
Ingi Bjani (full name Ingi Bjani Skúlson) is a celebrated musician in Iceland. Now, the wider Jazz world is starting to notice. His trio albums and quintet are the best known, but he has an established quartet and performs in a duo and solo. He attended the F.I.H. School of Music in Reykjavík, Den Haag Royal Conservatory in the Netherlands and undertook a Jazz Master’s in composition at Oslo and Copenhagen conservatories. His mentors have included many notables, including Aaron Parks and Anders Jormin. If you are new to his work, start with Tenging” and take it from there.
The musicians on Fragile Magic: Ingi Bjarni Skúlson (Piano), Bárður Reinert Poulsen (bass), (Faroe Isles) and Magnús Trygvason Eliassen (drums). Bandcamp, {Spotify ~ (sample track)}
The musicians on Tenging: Ingi Bjarni (piano, compositions), Jakob Eri Myhre, Merje Käju (guitar), Daniel Andersson (bass), Tore Ljøkelsøy (drums) ~ Ingi Barjani Quintet is available on Bandcamp @ https://ingibjarni.bandcamp.com/album/tenging
Flicker & Polar Bird ~ Andrea Keller (Australia)
Andrea Keller’s recorded output is bold, engaging and original. This album is no exception. “Flicker & Polar Bird” is a double album and her twenty-third release as a leader. The album is the result of her time as the Coombs Creative Arts Fellow in 2022 and also features various commissions undertaken between 2010 and 2022.
The first disk, Flicker, has a deliciously melancholic feel. Not one of weighty sadness but the pleasant melancholia of Shakespeare: ‘A melancholia of mine own…a sundry rumination of my travels. Flicker is just that, as Keller reflects and reimagines older works and places them alongside new compositions. Composers like Keller arouse deep emotions in a listener, aided by pianistic minimalism and the judicious use of open sonic textures. The relationships between pieces are carefully thought through, as are the musicians she chooses to realise her visions. Completing the trio is John Mackey, a superb tenor saxophonist and Miroslav Bukovsky, the trumpeter who appeared with Keller on The Komeda Project album. Completing the complement of musicians are two six-piece string sections (Canberra & Sydney) and two voices.
The second disk, “Polar Bird”, brings in the voices of Rachel Toms and Liam Budge, reciting a poem, singing wordlessly and reading prose. The addition of human voices is in keeping with the overall vibe, as they blend into the mix. The vocalists are instruments. Everything on these albums invites a deeper listening, as the beauty of the playing and the compositions stir varying emotional responses. Anyone who follows Keller will know to expect originality and excellence and how nice hearing an E.E. Cummings poem intoned so beautifully.
The trio musicians are Andrea Keller (compositions, arranging, piano), John Mackey (tenor saxophone) and Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet). All of Andrea Keller’s albums are available on Bandcamp in digital, CD or vinyl formats @ https://andreakeller.bandcamp.com/album/flicker-polar-bird
Devotion ~ Muriel Grossmann (Spain)
When I saw an invitation to review Devotion in my inbox, I listened, intrigued. It halted me in my tracks; how had I not been aware of this musician before? What started as layered electrically-tinged grooves morphed into spiritual jazz and referencing other genres as it seamlessly navigated pulsing vamps. What appeared at first to be a classic groove unit was that, but also something else entirely. During the first track, “Absolute Truth”, pulsing and unhurried, the groove mesmerises; then Muriel Grossmann winds her way into a solo that builds its momentum and wows you. From there, we hear one stunning solo after another, amazingly cohesive, considering that each soloist takes a different approach to effect.
It’s hard to know how to unpack a cornucopia like this. It doesn’t feel like a studio album, but it is. Imagine descending a flight of stairs to find yourself in the jazz club of your dreams. A heady zone that affects you at the molecular level as the music and vibe wash over you. The tunes captivate one by one, great compositions, but also the ideal vehicles for collective and individual improvisation. I love a good groove unit, but it has been a long time since I was this blown away by one. There are echoes of Lonnie Smith, Pat Martino and Pharoah Sanders, but the album stands steadfastly on its merits. It borrows echoes from the past and creates something uniquely new.
Grossmann is a multi-instrumentalist with nine instruments credited, and out of this comes the expansive sound. The listener quickly realises that her compositions and the various textures under her fingers elevate the extraordinary soundscape. All of that, and they can swing like crazy. The musicians: Muriel Grossmann (tenor, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, percussion, tambura, upright bass, kalimba, harmonium), Radomir Milojkovic (guitars), Abel Boquera (Hammond B3 organ), Uros Stamenkovic (drums). This double album available digitally, on CD and vinyl, through Bandcamp @ https://murielgrossmann.bandcamp.com/album/devotion-2
“In Green” EP ~ Taylor Griffin (Aotearoa/New Zealand)
“In Green” is a groove-based EP due to be released around now. A debut album written and produced by Taylor Griffin, a drummer from Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland and co-produced by well-known Auckland Jazz musician Nathan Haines. The title track, “In Green”, opens with an inviting piano segment, played against background club chatter, shortly after dropping you into a deep and pleasant groove. The rest of the album flows nicely from there, maintaining the groove of the opening track.
The album oozes the warm sounds of summer with its danceable urban groove feel. The laid-back vibe and accessibility are the result of well-constructed compositions and the skilful integration of vocal lines woven into the instrumental mix, a clincher for me. The vocalese of Rachael Clarke, Saia Falou and Griffin is perfect, complementing and blending with Nathan Haines’s airy flute lines and soprano saxophone. The playing is tight and the mix is just right, everyone sounds good.
This is a fine debut release for Griffin. The band: Taylor Griffin (drums, compositions, percussion, vocals, arrangements), Leo McMenamin (Keyboards), Robert Picot (guitar), Guy Harrison (trumpet synths), Charlie Isdale (alto and tenor saxophone, flute), Geoff Ong (guitar, bass), special guests Nathan Haines (flute, soprano saxophone), Michal Martyniuk (Rhodes, synths).
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and apoet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
There are many ways to navigate troubled times. You can deny reality, scream into the void, surf the waves of absurdity, bitterly declaim, or seek quiet while you gather your thoughts. Many prefer the latter, although the other responses are also valid. The last few years have felt particularly untethered as a growing flock of anxieties encircle us. In this space, I reach for artisan teas from China and the type of music that invites reflection. All the albums I review here slow the world’s orbit to a sensible pace and invite reflection.
Inverted ~ Auckland Jazz Orchestra
We lost Phil Broadhurst back in 2020, but his legacy is enduring, and unsurprisingly, he is constantly in the thoughts of the musicians he worked with. Here, we have a loving tribute to the man and his music, appropriately performed by the AJO, a jazz orchestra peopled with musicians who knew him well. It is the AJO’s fourth album and arguably their finest to date. Tribute albums may be commonplace, but tribute albums like this, born out of fondly remembered connections with the subject artist, stand out from the rest.
Phil Broadhurst was quiet-spoken but a colossus on the local music scene. He was a musician with many musical talents, all informed by his passions. This was particularly evident in his post-millennium Rattle albums, with their Francophile influence. As a composer, he was particularly gifted, so it is fitting that the compositions on the album were all drawn from that period. Mike Booth, Tim Atkinson and Andrew Hall crafted the arrangements and what an extraordinary job they have done. The arrangements are ‘voiced’ beautifully and thanks to the skill of the musicians, perfectly realised. The album has significantly raised the bar for local jazz orchestras and it places Tāmaki Makaurau firmly on the jazz orchestra map.
Fortunately, Phil was able to guest on some of these tracks before he passed and it is moving to hear him. We know that he was delighted with what he heard. It is also moving that his beloved partner, Julie Mason, appears on piano on the remaining tracks. I won’t name all the personnel or soloists here because the list is long, but check out the album on Bandcamp.
I rate everything on the album, but my favourite tracks are ‘Pat’, with Phil teasing wistful magic out of his lovely tune, and Pukeko. Pat features Broadhurst, McNichol on tenor, and Booth on trumpet, the latter, rising to the occasion (Booth arranges both). Pukeko features Gianan on guitar and Booth on flugelhorn. The album is available at Rattle Jazz on Bandcamp.
Volume Two ~ Darren Pickering
Deep listeners will appreciate this album for its subtle interplay and warm embrace. It is a fine example of today’s forward-looking improvised music, drawing as it does on the sounds we can all too easily overlook as we drown in the endless iterations of soulless commercialism. Cinematic phrases, slow textural electronic grooves teasing out rich soundscapes, the kind you might hear fleetingly emanating from a softly lit apartment on a summer’s night, wanting to hear more.
It is an album that will reward repeated listening as the subtle minimalism if examined with open ears, will reveal an expansiveness. Pickering has previously demonstrated other musical sides, but I am glad he has chosen to further this one. The band were perfect for what he has created here, understanding that space serves sound.
There is balance and variety. The opener ‘Oneroa Bay’ sets the tone nicely for what follows. For those who crave something more traditional, there is ‘Blue Mind’, a blend of the crystalline ECM aesthetic and the warm embracing Impulse grooves. Or ‘Mazawati Tea’, an update on the swinging groove trio/quartets we love.
There is also a degree of abstraction, sometimes floating under a slow-wending evocative melody line as in ‘Reverse’ or pushing at the outer edges of form as in ‘La Perla (for Benjamin)’. The production is of the highest quality thanks to the deft curation of Pickering, Rapaki Studios and the Rattle crew.
Released by Rattle Records and available on Bandcamp; Darren Pickering, piano, Modular, iPad, composition; Mitch Dwyar, guitar; Pete Fleming, Bass; Mitch Thomas, drums.
Dahab Days ~ Rob Luft
Rob Luft and I often meet up when I pass through London, but it’s been a while. However, I managed to conduct a long-form interview with him late one winter’s night during the pandemic lockdowns. We were relaxed as we ranged over many topics, including the possibility of this album.
With gigs cancelled everywhere as the world slipped into an enforced state of hibernation, Luft found himself becalmed in Egypt. He remained there for a considerable time, but far from being dismayed, he embraced the situation and opened himself to the sights and sounds of North Africa. The musical and other influences he explored at that time have informed this album.
You hear the colours and sounds of Egypt, not by emulating an Oud or street caller, but by creating a musical world that throws up filmic images. It is especially so on ‘African Flower’, an interpretation of Ellington’s tune, which in Luft’s hands knits east and west, past and present together seamlessly. His ‘Endless Summer’ is where Luft’s compositional skills are most evident. The skilful integration of the human voice lines tells me that the influence of Kenny Wheeler lives on in the current generation of London jazz musicians. Most of the compositions are Luft’s.
The last track, an arrangement by Luft of a traditional tune, Lamma Bada Yatathanna, is as respectful as it is innovative. We hear and sense the Arab streets. Collaborating with Elina Duni has added depth to his compositional chops and this album benefits from that. Luft’s powerful presence on guitar is evident, but he has left his bandmates ample room to shine. The result is that the album is more than just a guitar album. It works on many levels. I wish more guitarists grasped this.
Since we spoke last, Luft has co-led a second ECM album with vocalist Elina Duni and returned to a full schedule of touring and gigging. He has always been an artist to watch. If you listen to Dahab Days, you will hear why.
Rob Luft, acoustic and electric guitars, kalimba; Joe Webb, piano and Hammond organ; Tom McCredy, bass guitar; Corrie Dick, drums, percussion; Alice Zawadzki, violin, vocals; Byron Wallen, trumpet;, Steve Buckley, alto saxophone, penny whistle.
Dahab Days is available on Rob Luft Bandcamp in digital or vinyl format.
‘Ondulation’ ~ Alan Brown
Alan Brown’s ‘Ondulation’ album epitomises the sentiment expressed in the post’s header: a quieter place in times of turmoil. It explores quieter regions differently, radiating all-encompassing warmth and conjuring a world of sensory imagery. It is not the first of Brown’s albums to explore ambient improvised electronically enhanced music, but this album opens a portal into something new. It expands on earlier work by adding new digital voices. The resulting textures are rich and nicely contrasted by gently probing piano lines.
Brown has been exploring this genre for quite a few years. The deeper he dives, the richer the rewards for the listener. The first track, ‘Decider’ is particularly appealing, especially when a young woman’s voice emerges like a beckoning siren. The voice is faint but compelling. The harder we strain to catch the words, the deeper we fall inside the music.
The rest of the album flows like an otherworldly, beguiling narrative, and the journey should be enjoyed for itself, not over-analyzed. These are worlds crafted for our senses to interact with. We may hear them differently according to mood or disposition. Jazz experimentalism is common in northern Europe. Here, we have a way to go to catch up. Albums like this help us on that journey, and in my view, what Brown has achieved here compares favourably with the works of Aaset, Molvaer and Bang.
Humans have been shaping sound since the beginning of time by bending notes, creating new textures, creating new chords and playing with harmonics. But while the circuit board and its predecessors extend the sonic possibilities, it is due to the creativity of musicians like Brown that something uniquely human results. You can purchase and check out the album at Seventh House Rattle Records.
Alan Brown, Piano, Ondomo, electronics
LacLu ~ Winter/Fog/Morning
Screenshot
This last piece, Winter/Fog/Morning, is a teaser for a Rattle album due to appear later this year. Like the other albums reviewed, it fits nicely into the theme of a quieter place in times of turmoil. It is atmospheric, so I immediately wondered if that was Te Henga Valley morning, where the guitarist lives. Price, like me, lives in the Waitakere Ranges foothills. The seasons and rainforest mists make a spectacular showing there.
It is good to see younger emerging players alongside experienced ones. Price’s guitar work is gorgeous and never overstated, his gentler side is evident here. I have been to several gigs where Max Crook played and he is establishing himself as a reliable band member, open to new ideas. This is my first time hearing Francesca Perussini but I will watch out for the album with interest.
Keith Price is a Canadian guitarist living in Aotearoa. He is the Convener of Jazz Specialization, School of Music, Faculty University of Auckland. Francesca Parussini, on tenor saxophone and Max Crook, drums, have been involved in the Jazz programme at UoA. Cover art by Ainsley Duyvestyn-Smith.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
William Butler Yeats said, ‘The world is full of magic things, waiting patiently for our senses to grow sharper’. I believe this absolutely and am reminded of it when my senses connect with a certain kind of music. Music that transcends mere form and engages with the cosmos. That is the domain of improvised music, a calling requiring a musician to discover magic during a tricky tightrope walk. Then, to cast a spell over those open enough to receive it.
With the advent of applications like ChatGPT, a future unleashing self-generating algorithms is at hand. When that happens, the quantum of magic in the world will diminish and experiencing the magic of creativity goes to the core of what it means to be human.
When an improviser engages with an instrument, the weight of human history informs every choice. It is not number-crunching. The music can arise from ‘form’ or from a conscious decision to avoid elements of form. It can go wrong but still be ‘right’. It is a journey feeding off human interactions, drawing power from those on a bandstand, a live audience or a perceived audience. It is time travel backwards and forwards, but rooted in the eternal now.
Jazz musicians often talk about music as a form of magic, mention the intuitive responses between high-level players, talk about creating new worlds out of beauty or pain, out of nostalgia for a past they never had, and how what we term as ‘character’ is required for a musician to make music that speaks to us. The earliest written references to music refer to ceremonial occasions, funeral rituals, grand processions, weddings or attempts to appease the gods of nature.
Rhythm and pulse are powerful trance mediums, and we respond to unease by embracing trance. Does an algorithm delight in beauty, express pain, have character, feel uneasy or nostalgic?
Tomasz Stanko stated that improvising is about transcendence. He saw it as a form of magic and as religion. The improviser who chimes with our innermost being expresses something about what it means to be human; our propensity for storytelling, our empathy or disquiet, and revealing our innate curiosity.
It is no accident that many improvisers are stargazers or that album covers and tune titles have countless cosmic references. Improvising musicians reach beyond and embrace the improbable. And it is not just the musicians. The listeners participate—if we dare. Our receptivity triggers deep listening, and we react to what we hear by urging the musicians on. We share in the magic because listeners are part of the equation.
Like many, I have watched the advent of generative algorithms with fascination and dread. AI provides valuable tools that will benefit humanity, but there is an urgent need for boundaries and rules. It is for scientists, bioethicists, machine learning gurus and politicians to wade through this minefield. We hope before it is too late.
For creatives, there is a degree of clarity finally emerging, and it was heartening to see the script writers strike, drawing a firm line in the sand. They sought assurance regarding their intellectual property. They wanted to create boundaries and protect what is human.
The clever algorithms do not behave like human learners or human creatives. They can learn in nanoseconds by scanning vast databases and sucking up everything within reach. Software like chatGPT does not concern itself with ethical considerations or the need to verify information or concern itself with intellectual property rights. The algorithms are attracted to ‘noise’; homing in on controversy—like a bee to a pretty flower.
There are reports by writers that novels have been stolen, rejigged and blended to create so-called ‘new’ works. Such theft is beyond human mimicry. A plagiariser can be sued, issued a desist order or required to pay compensation. An array of zeros and ones cannot.
Music industry pundits are evaluating these developments, but I am not holding my breath. The prominent players in the industry utilise such tools to enrich themselves, and always at the expense of the content creators.
The industry has an appalling record of disrespecting artists’ rights and not remunerating them fairly. Inversely, AI is also being deployed by some to identify similarities between segments within tunes. As the software improves, tiny musical sequences come under the digital microscope. Lengthy court battles follow, lick versus lick. Educators, fearful that they may not be able to recognise AI-assisted examination cheating, rely on A1 programs to sniff out other AI programs. It is a strange new world in which past inequities are made worse.
The most pressing issue for the creative sector is to draw a clear line between human-directed creations and purely AI-generated works. Then, setting boundaries and sorting out the copyright implications. And as is often the case, we are late to the party as our inventions wreak havoc.
I love music machines and software, whether analogue or digital, amplifying, distorting or sampling. They enrich the music we listen to. I love to see a guitarist or keyboard player tweaking a peddle board, iPad or slider. I love to watch a recording technician or a student hunched over a mixing desk or computer screen. Humans direct all of the above activities and extend the possibilities of the machines at their disposal.
What humans do with software is astonishing. The music of Eivind Aasart, Jon Hassell or Alan Brown would not be possible without this clever circuitry. Thanks to such specialised equipment, they can capture the nuances of natural acoustic environments or dream-scape worlds. All of the above artists use the devices as extensions of self.
It’s about the magic, and only humans can conjure that up. I attended a jazz gig recently where an 18-piece student band from the University of Auckland Jazz School played alongside Michel Benebig, a master B3 player. They had worked hard to realise his charts and performed well. The delighted smiles on the student’s faces as they experienced the music swirling about them was an essential part of the performance. It was not flawless, but it was better for that. Human imperfections speak of promise, of possibility. As I age, I need the quantum of magic in my life to increase. The deadman’s hand of AI-generated music does not do that for me.
JazzLocal32.com was rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
Komeda is one of the most intriguing characters in the European Jazz Pantheon. A man referred to as the Chopin of modern Polish music. So, who was he and why did a musician who only released one ‘official’ Jazz album have such an outsized influence on European Jazz? The book I review here answers many of those questions, but it also adds to the mystique. He was an exceptional composer and an innovator but merely a ‘good pianist’. He was shy and hated interviews so the story of his life is mostly fleshed out by others. And, as the narrative unfolds we enter deep inside the creative life and times of Soviet-era Poland.
Komeda died at a tragically early age. A quiet and often distant presence; as if he had some premonition of the difficulties and tragedies that were dogging his every footstep. Functioning as a musician in Soviet-era Poland was never easy; functioning as a jazz musician during an era when jazz was either banned or discouraged all the more so. And the fact that he was closely associated with Roman Polanski and by implication the Manson murders, gives the story a stranger-than-fiction tinge.
The first chapters of the ‘Komeda’ book begin with hilarious accounts of the first sanctioned Jazz Concert held at Sopot, Gdansk. Before the bands played, the compère had issued guidance to the audience; a how-to guide for jazz appreciation instructing the audience how and when to applaud. They were warned that the music could be challenging and offered various tips on how to react.
‘You are expected to clap, even while the band is playing, but no cat-calling… (You) are also warned not to be alarmed if the musicians walk about on stage during a performance, hum, or even talk to each other while playing.
The narrator reports later:
‘The authorities are putting their support behind the festival. In mid-July, Komrade Roman Kosznik, chair of the Sopot town council confided in a Przekroj journalist: ‘Personally’, I’ve been interested in Jazz for a while.
An official had suggested Swanee River as an excellent example of a Jazz tune and so it was played to open the festival. Years later the official was deeply embarrassed to learn that it was not a Jazz tune and that it was played by white men blacked up—the epitome of Western oppression and appropriation. (The tune opens Polish Jazz festivals to this day. It is played no doubt cognisant of the embedded irony.)
The running of the festival had been left to a tram driver, recently transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Arts and while the committee had planned for 10,000, an estimated 60,000 fans turned up. The word had spread like wildfire and soon there were no hotel rooms left in Gdansk and the tickets had sold out. What had been billed as ‘from Ragtime to Jitterbug’ was something else entirely and was getting badly out of control.
After the repressive Stalin years the ‘Khrushchev Thaw’ let a cork out of the bottle and groups of unruly youths dressed in strange costumes converged on the event. There were alarming reports of semi-naked girls roaming the streets and drunken males carrying strange signs with DUPA emblazoned on them (the worst swear word in Polish meaning “arse”). Observing all of this was Komrade Zygmunt Wisniesky who had been sent by the central committee to write a report on the event.
The festival ran for three days with Komeda’s band stealing the show; the audience had been wildly enthusiastic. Many of the other bands though, were not so accomplished. An official report states that one of the trombone players finished half a bar behind the pianist.
Because the seating and tickets were sold out before the festival started, the fans who had missed out rioted. Fences were torn down and chaos followed. The officials soon gave up trying to bring about order and spent the next week writing official reports, each blaming the other.
It is somewhat of a mystery why the festival was allowed to proceed in the first place as it was the same year that the famous Poznan Bread Rebellion occurred and a few months after Khruschev’s astonishing denouncement of Stalin in the Dumas. Perhaps they needed a distraction.
The narrative jumps about a bit but it doesn’t matter. After the initial chapters on the first jazz festival, we start at the beginning and follow his life to its conclusion.
Krzysztof Trzciński was born in Poznan, Poland in 1931. As a child he contracted polio, and when the war forced his parents to flee the advancing Nazi army, they carried him on their backs. As a disabled child, he turned to music, taught by a Jewish piano teacher (until she was discovered by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp where she perished). When the Red Army drove Hitler’s army out a few years later, the dangers remained and the family learned that the Russians could be as dangerous as the Nazis.
Sections of the book will be of interest to those fascinated by postwar European history. I am. The Poles had long been accustomed to the liberators becoming the oppressors and what we learn in a fragmented fashion is drawn from first-hand accounts. Nevertheless, a vivid picture is painted. We know that Warsaw had been reduced to rubble and then rebuilt by determined Poles. Out of the countryside, they came, with wheelbarrows and picks. Proudly in charge of their destiny – until the Russians returned with their secret police and controlling ways. In those first two years following the war, jazz was allowed, and then, just as suddenly, it wasn’t.
Because Krzysztof showed an aptitude for music, he was permitted to join a school music programme. Later, he applied to a music academy, but the communist authorities declined the application. Denied that option he studied to become a doctor, but he never wavered from his desire to be a musician, sneaking into the family living room when everyone was asleep and listening to Radio Free America (the Jazz Show hosted by Willis Conover). He and his friends would transcribe tracks by Coltrane or Miles, gradually teaching themselves Jazz.
While Jazz had been forbidden under Stalin, attracting harsh penalties, after Kruschev came to power, things became less restrictive (at least in Poland). In August 1956, a miracle occurred, and a Jazz festival was held in Sopot, a beach suburb of Gdansk (the bulk of the Russian advisers had just departed). At that point, Komeda stepped briefly out of the shadows with his student jazz band. The bandstand was a wartime Nisen hut and the fire brigade was sent to neighbouring schools to grab all the chairs available.
Also at the festival is a school friend of Komeda’s, Andrezj Trzaskowski. His school days recollection is as follows.
‘’I was suspected of being one of a group of conspirators at Sobieski high school where I was a student. Two of my school friends had been planning to rescue one of their fathers from prison… the first one died during the chase; the other boy was executed”.
Andrezj Trzaskowski was released from prison after three months. He passed his exams that year but for political reasons, he did not get a place at the university.
We don’t learn if the young Krzysztof was caught up in this horror.
Trzaskowsky later became a brilliant and original Jazz pianist and the author of books on musicology. He and Komeda would sometimes swap places at the piano during gigs.
There is something mystical and otherworldly about Polish Jazz from the Soviet era. That vibe comes through in this book. It was a time when creativity was confined and perhaps because of that, forms of vibrant and original music (and film) flourished underground.
The book describes the difficulties faced by Jazz musicians and the determination with which they were overcome. The popularity of the 1958 Gdansk festival appeared to have alarmed the officials, but after a year of testy, to and fro debating, they allowed the festival to continue. Jazz was not yet encouraged and the authorities’ tolerance proved to have limits. This is known as the ‘jazz catacombs’ period.
There were Jazz performances before that first official festival (in the years between Stalin’s death in 1953 and 1956), but it was strictly an underground scene. During this ‘catacomb jazz’ era, musicians honed their skills well away from the public gaze and held invitation-only gigs in their reluctant parents’ basements. Lookouts would be placed in the street and if a policeman approached, they would switch to the Polish version of happy birthday.
“The number of guests is increasing as time went by, with as many as fifty gathering in small thirty square meter rooms. Now and then the doorbell (would) ring unexpectedly. Upon which the musicians would burst into ‘Sto lat’ (happy birthday).
Komeda had recently qualified as a doctor, although he only ever treated one patient. During this catacomb period, the book introduces us to the jazz musicians and friends who would surround him for the remaining years of his life. Most importantly, Jerzy Milian, Jan ‘Ptaszyn’ Wróblewski, Andrzej Trzaskowski and his girlfriend Zofia Lach (soon to be his wife and referred to variously as Zofia, Sosia or Zoska).
If the band sought permission to travel or lodged funding applications, the requests were usually declined. Zofia would then send a follow-up letter, co-signed by a senior party official (forged). The official who had initially declined the request would then hastily grant it. It was forgery and it was dangerous, but it worked.
Komeda notwithstanding, Zofia gets the most attention in the book. Talented, beautiful and fascinating, but by all accounts troublesome. She managed most of the better Polish Jazz bands (and was on the board of several Jazz organisations). According to the musicians interviewed, she was a brilliant manager, brow-beating reluctant communist officials to get what she needed for the musicians (visas, tours, gigs etc). The musicians, however, were all scared of her as she could also be violent when drunk, especially if a female fan showed too much interest in Komeda.
The book examines her traumatising childhood years during the horrors of the Nazi regime and this is offered as an explanation of her subsequent behaviour. That sort of childhood would scar anyone.
When the Rock era arrived in Poland, there was a clamour to experience it. Zofia had a plan, as she always did.
“Zofia gets colourful shirts for the bands made out of curtains”, They still play Jazz.
.We learn about concerts and festivals and the views of various critics, fans and musicians. There are more riots by DUPA hooligans and endless trouble with the officials, but against that background of poverty and struggle, Komeda is expanding his musical conceptions.
At one point, there was a cultural exchange festival in Moscow, but the band is denied permission to perform by the horrified bureaucrats. The students have other ideas and set up private gigs in the backstreets. Eager to hear the forbidden music the Russian fans mob the venue.
It is all worth reading, but I couldn’t wait to reach the chapter covering 1964, the year of the first Warsaw Jazz Jamboree, and most importantly, the year Astigmatic was recorded. I discovered Komeda through this album and it was love at first listening. I probably became aware of it as I browsed through the Penguin Guide to Jazz, my bible at the time.
“We cannot recommend this album highly enough, and we can only envy anyone hearing it for the first time, and with no prior knowledge of Komeda”.
It was awarded the essential-listening crown in the guide and lauded by others.
When Astigmatic was recorded, Tomasz Stańko had only recently joined, and Komeda had been gradually developing his unique free jazz style. While the tune Astigmatic has a basic structure, the piece follows its inner logic, vamps and recurring motifs, probing rhythms, slowing, speeding up and with long passages of ecstatic freedom. It was the beginning of a particular melodic approach to freedom that was very Northern European. Kattorna, the second piece is a model Slavonic masterpiece. Then Svantetic, named after the Swedish poet Svante Foerster (later an adviser to the ill-fated Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme).
A couple of the tunes had been aired at the 64 Jazz Jamboree but with a different configuration.
“All of a sudden Polskie Nagrania wanted to record Astigmatic, Svantetic and Kattorna, right here and now, pronto”.
Komeda frantically gets a band together. Those playing with him at the moment were Tomasz Stanko (t), Zbigniew Namysłowski (as) Rune Carlsson (d) and a bassist from Albert Manggelsdorf’s band, a visiting musician. Immediately after finishing their festival performances, the Jazz musicians dashed over to an improvised studio at the Philharmonic.
“There was no time for rehearsals, we learned it during the hundred minutes of recording. Astigmatic was pure Jazz”.
This was the only ‘official’ jazz recording that Komeda was to release. There were of course lots of recordings but they were classified as Ballet, theatre or film music, probably to obscure the jazz content. At the time of recording Astigmatic, Polish musicians had only been allowed to travel out of the country for a year (and that was only to Sweden, a neutral country).
An official invitation from Sweden was sent via the ZSP (The Polish Students Organisation) and this made the trip more acceptable to the authorities as it was viewed as a cultural exchange. The tour was a great success and the Gyllene Cirkeln Jazz Club reached capacity every night, turning away hundreds. A leading critic in Sweden wrote:
‘Anyone who thinks that the Polish quartet are well received just because ‘they are Polish’ is badly mistaken. Komeda’s quartet is ‘really’ outstanding at an international level.
Their next gig is in the famous Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, where the fans had been waiting expectantly
‘A week before they arrived at the Jazzhus Montmartre there had been a seven-day screening of Polish Films. The club walls are still hung with posters for (Polanski’s) Knife in the Water and Innocent Sorcerers. The Danish Jazz fans are waiting expectantly for ‘Ballad for Bernt’ and ‘Crazy Girl’.
While in Denmark, Komeda records Ballet Etudes. He had been forbidden to record outside Poland but he ignored that instruction. The other event of note was the defection of the band’s bassist Roman Dyląg. Later the band purchases a diamond necklace with their performance fee as there was no ability to exchange Kroner for Zloty. When it was sold back in Poland, much of the money went to the authorities. On subsequent trips they purchased second-hand cars and recording equipment to ship home.
With a few months left on their visas, although forbidden, Komeda, with Zofia in tow, slips over the border and travels to Amsterdam, then Paris. He has received two film score commissions. This is an important focus in the book. Komeda’s film work offered him security.
He had once helped a second-year film student, who begged him to write a movie soundtrack. Unsure if it was something he could do, he cobbled together some music and the short film went on to win an award at Cannes. The student film-maker was Roman Polanski. He and Polanski remained close friends after that and Polanski repaid the debt many times over.
Polanski:
‘I was intimidated by him (at first), by his reticence. But he was a shy fellow, who spoke calmly. (He) didn’t make large gestures? He didn’t have a big smile but (it was) a gentle one.
Komeda composed over sixty film scores during the remaining ten years of his life, and this cross-pollination enriched both genres. He worked fast and produced scores that made even average movies great. They were essentially jazz albums, often embedded inside well-written orchestral scores.
Being a largely self-taught Jazz musician, I wondered if the book would cast a light on where he picked up these arranging skills. No one interviewed can recall him being tutored, it just appeared to come naturally. The one exception is Rosemary’s Baby, where he subbed out a small section of the score to a Holywood arranger, in order to meet a deadline.
There is something extraordinary about Komeda’s compositions as they are endlessly amenable to interpretation. Edgy modern Jazz ensembles like EABS combine his Ballet Etudes with hip hop and it works perfectly well. Tunes like Rosemary’s Baby ‘Lullaby’, or Crazy Girl can be hummed and are appealing, but underlying that is a degree of complexity. Stańko played the Lullaby years later in his Komeda Tribute, Litania. He was surprised to find that there was an extra bar in the chorus that didn’t follow the form. It was not noticeable unless it was pointed out and slid by subliminally. This kind of device is where tension is created.
I would have liked to learn more from the mouth of Komeda but he hated interviews and seldom spoke to anyone about his creative process. In this, he followed Miles, remaining enigmatic and trusting the musicians to step up and stretch themselves.
From that first meeting onwards, Polanski was always in his life whether at work or play. He relied on Komeda to create magic and the musician delivered. As Polanski’s star rose so did Komeda’s and the awards and growing recognition eventually took both to Hollywood. While there, two scores were written, several more were begun, and then tragedy.
Accounts of Komeda’s final days are as eerie a sequence of events as it is possible to imagine. He rented a place in Hollywood Heights and while partying to celebrate the success of Rosemary’s baby, he fell and injured his head. Soon after he slipped into a coma from which he never recovered.
Present at the fateful gathering were Roman Polanski, the actress Sharon Tate, Gabby Folger and Wojciech Frykowski. Tate, Folger and Frykowski were murdered months later by Charles Manson’s acolytes. Polanski would normally have been at home during the massacre but he was out of the country signing a film contract, in part to raise money for Komeda’s medical care.
The final short chapters deal with Komeda’s return to Poland by medivac flight and his death soon after. The flight was held up by authorities at the border and many believe this to have been deliberate.
The joy of being a Komeda fan lies in the musician’s open-ended legacy, and it keeps expanding; as if the cosmos can’t contain it. New compositions come to light and previously unknown recordings emerge. Bands all over the world discover his works and each one interprets the pieces differently, be it hip-hop or with orchestra. His compositions are so well-constructed that the possibilities are endless. And now, thanks to this fascinating biography, we can further appreciate him through the eyes and ears of those who knew him best.
Written by Polish author Magdalena Grzebałkowska and translated by Halina Maria Boniszewska. Published by Equinox Publishers – Series edited by Alyn Shipton for Royal Academy of Music London. All of the photographs are from the book with the exception of the Astigmatic cover art (one of two versions).
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission
This post is the first of two book reviews. The books I review dovetail as they are part of the same story. Tomasz Stańko and Krzysztof (Komeda) Trzciński were bandmates, but they were more than that. They were innovators and extraordinary musicians, leaving behind them a rich legacy. One that is rightly elevating them to positions of greater significance. Anyone who watched the Homeland series on TV will be familiar with Stańko’s music, even if they don’t know his name. With Komeda, it is the same as his film themes live on in memory.
My grandmother was Polish. She would probably have disliked the music these musicians created. That combination of melodicism edging on dissonance, but that said, she would have recognised the Slavic modes and rhythms underlying it. Their music draws on the themes and modes of Cold War Poland. You hear fragments of marches, eastern European rhythms, and mostly, you can detect a melancholic filmic quality
I admit to an obsession with Komeda and an enduring one, but why? After all, he only officially released one jazz recording, Astigmatic. That single recording was enough to secure his place in the jazz pantheon, and, like so many others, I was bewitched at first hearing. It begged the question; how could such extraordinary music emerge from such difficult conditions? Jazz in Poland during the Soviet era was either forbidden or marginalised by the state apparatus. The two books I review here provide rare insights into those times by opening a window into the creative life of an extraordinary group of musicians and their willing enablers.
For years the only sources of information about this era were articles written for papers like the Guardian or Jazz magazines. Fascinated, I wanted to learn more about Krzysztof ‘Komeda’ Trzciński and Tomasz Stańko, so when the English language editions of these two books appeared, I ordered them immediately. They did not disappoint. Each has a different style; one an autobiography, a prompted stream-of-consciousness recollection, the other relying on interviews with musicians, fans and filmmakers (plus assorted private archives).
Tomasz Stanko, Desperado,an autobiography:
The compelling thing about this autobiography is the easy narrative flow. Throughout, Stańko responds fulsomely to the occasional prompts of interviewer Rafał Księżyk. He is a natural communicator, his responses taking us deep inside his creative process. And, unlike Komeda, who was shy and hated interviews, Stańko bares his soul, never dodging awkward topics.
Interviewer: ‘What attracted you to jazz?
Stańko: I realise now that I have a penchant for the unstable, the anarchic…this is all nonconformist music.
And on life in Soviet Poland,
“The Vodka flowed like a river. During communism, people drank because what else was there to do?
When he smoked a joint for the first time, he said: ‘Well, bugger me: that’s my thing”.
He was desperately poor during his early years as a musician and often homeless, but notwithstanding that, he was a deft navigator when it came to pursuing his musical dreams. He recalls sleeping in a basement storeroom underneath the Klub Hybrydy in Warsaw, where friends had painted a window on a wall to make it more bearable. Musicians were not considered productive and so were not entitled to the accommodation privileges provided to others by the state.
He began discreetly gigging while still in high school, as jazz was only tentatively emerging from the forbidden and moving into the ‘jazz catacomb’ era. He describes the jazz of that era as a hybrid Trad, rapidly moving towards modern. Like Trzciński (Komeda) he taught himself jazz by covertly listening to Conover’s Voice of America. When he joined the Komeda Quintet a few years later, he and many others had moved through the ‘modern’ styles to become free players (creating a Euro-free style). On this topic, he is illuminating.
Regarding his free-jazz album TWET:
‘I’d laid the groundwork for the quintet. Even the older musicians like Wojciech Karolak who didn’t like free, respected my music. And then playing free became widespread (in Poland). Nowadays, young musicians, whether they’re capable of it or not, are keen to play ‘free’. The less capable the keener they are. Not everybody does it well.
Later
‘Something that had begun in Europe, which they didn’t have in the States. It was a joining-together of melodic playing and free . . . A rather unconventional kind of scale and the particular application of two voices. My signature language is not so much based on scales as on a certain melodic atonality . . . my aesthetic imposes this otherness and accentuates it. I move into the realm of beauty, but at the same time, break it up completely, finding myself in a different world. All my compositions and ballads employ simple ideas, but sometimes a counterpoint will appear that knocks everything sideways. You don’t always hear it consciously, but it works underneath”.
And this.
“When we played (free) in the quintet, we completely switched off. Everything worked based on intuitive listening. We were sensitive to delicate nuances which gave us some kind of form to latch onto. Whole structures emerged: some sort of symphony began to take form. But there is a problem with pure improvisation. It is simply the best type of music – if it works. Only, unfortunately, it is beyond our control and so it doesn’t always work. I have had moments of complete freedom and played at my best, except the best moments playing free can’t be repeated. My style (today) uses free with some form.
He explains that, while they were not playing jazz exactly like the Americans, it came from a related set of circumstances. It may have been different, but of all the European nations, the Poles understand best what oppression means. Polish history can be summarised as a thousand years of suffering. The word Slav is the origin of the word slave.
‘It was a different aesthetic and even though it was an American art form, we had been cut off from the black experience. We had another set of difficult conditions and it is those difficult conditions that created our artists. Free jazz was a kind of underground. It was theatrical as well and it appealed to young people. I sometimes felt a bit strange on the scene, with my romantic melodiousness, but I survived because of the quality of my sound.
There is no bitterness in these recollections, telling Księżyk that he found constant pleasure in the richness of life. He did not like Moscow-styled communism but considered himself a lifelong lefty.
“I would argue about Communism (as opposed to Socialism) with John Surmon, Peter Brotzmann and Tony Oxley. I’d say it (communism) was all crap. The most interesting people in the West were those with leftist intentions. They were always my best friends and the finest people: intelligent, open, tolerant, and modern, artistically. They were lefties, and it’s still like that. The right in the artistic field is inextricably linked to failure, compromise, a lack of talent.”
Throughout, he comes across as thoughtful and self-aware. As the reader, you are the privileged voyeur, almost holding your breath, not wishing to break the spell. Learning about the structure of his music, gaining insights into his motivations, and sensing what it was like to be an impoverished Soviet-era jazz musician.
He describes himself as definitely optimistic but with a melancholic nature. He goes on to explain that all Polish music of those times was melancholic. His fellow musicians give a name to this which is zal. Zal is a nostalgia for what you never had – a very Polish concept.
‘(Music) deals with the order of things in its ‘own’ way. It doesn’t need any questions, any words or any conclusions. Creating new worlds and beauty… a state that is both mystical and deep… And which we celebrate without posing those big unanswerable questions.
‘Magic is in the same domain as art. It exists in the mind, externalises itself, interacts with the outside world… Rhythm produces trance, and trance is a response to unease. So we create new worlds and artistic beauty. Improvising is about transcendence.
‘I play motifs, maybe two and then open them out. I create (a) mood, then the magic arrives and I’m lost deep inside the music.
Stańko was a musical mystic, extremely knowledgeable about art, poetry, philosophy, the cosmos and science. He draws upon these themes constantly. We learn that he would often visit a galley and sit in front of a painting for weeks until a new tune or album emerged (Dark Eyes). Or contemplate a poem for a long time. An example of this is Wisława, dedicated to his friend the Nobel Laureate poet Wisława Szymborska. He was also fascinated by philosophy.
He had a fruitful, collaborative and enduring relationship with ECM as well, and his high regard for Manfred Eicher is evident throughout. For fans of ECM these accounts will be illuminating.
I lingered over his every recollection. Chuckled when he described how the Polish free players improvised during the inaugural performance of Penderiki’s modern classical masterpiece, much to his consternation, but the last paragraph was the one I liked the best. The place where I felt that I glimpsed his essence.
‘I am going to keep moving forward because there is a space ahead of me. Like those Portuguese sailors in Lisbon, who stood looking out at the ocean, knowing there is something out there but didn’t know what. They sailed not knowing what but believing that there was something wonderfully mysterious. I still have that sense of mystery knowing that musically something strange is going to happen, that I will be moving into areas (previously) unknown to me. And that is where I will be found.
I have read a lot of Jazz autobiographies and biographies over the years but seldom has a biography spoken to me as powerfully as this. Maybe it was the geek in me, delighting in the words and thoughts of a musician I love. Whatever, I strongly recommend it. Play the albums as they are mentioned and follow a profound musical journey. A very Cold War journey towards freedom and release.
The English edition is published by Equinox (Series editor by Alyn Shipton, Royal Acadamy of Music, London. Tomasz Stańko is interviewed by Rafał Księżyk, translated by Halina Maria Boniszewska.
Disclaimer: the tenses and word order can be different in Polish and this comes across in the quotes. I have mostly kept them intact. Acknowledgment: The photos used from the book are credited to Anna Stańko.
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and apoet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
It is on the margins that the most interesting discoveries are made. The manifestations are bolder because they are not as beholden to the gravitational centre. Whether freshly minted or previously overlooked, the best of them radiate an eternal essence. Norway and New New Zealand are far from the centre and the musicians performing in the shadows of the Cold War were too. Creating on the margins can even be a blessing and these albums all feel like that to me.
Alex Ventling/Hein Werstguard (Aotearoa, New Zealand/Switzerland/ Norway)
‘In Orbit’ is a freely improvised album recorded in Denmark recently. It is an exploration that teases the sonic possibilities of both instruments, utterly transcending their physical limitations, a duo of prepared piano and guitar. And the consequent freedom arises from in-the-moment imaginings unfettered by restrictive form. It is a very Zen concept and a desired state in Buddhist meditation. In a duo, this requires trust and openness, and as with all such artistry, it occurs when the disciplines of form have been understood and then transcended. To again use Buddhist terminology, form and formlessness are not separate.
The first piece, ‘Overture’, is beguiling, with its painterly spacious soundscapes. It is the perfect first track, opening the listener to what follows. The beauty of the piece is palpable. As the journey unfolds, the focus alters, and the engaged listener is gifted a glimpse of what the musicians see, of things great and small examined in their minutia or marvelled at as they float past like miasma. I like this approach very much, as the stories are as long or short as they should be. Some like delicate miniatures under a magnifying glass, others robust and energy filled. There is much to enjoy in this release. Their journey ahead will be worth following.
This is a direction that many of the more adventurous musicians embark upon, reminding me of how I felt when first encountering the Ganelin Trio or Ivand Aaset. The music speaks of the earth’s highest places, lonely outer edges; of the overlooked things we pass over all too easily, and cerebral locations where interesting ideas grow.
Alex Venting – prepared piano, Hein Werstguard – guitar – released in Trondheim by alexventling.bandcamp.com
I Had The Craziest Dream: Bebop/Hardbop in Postwar London Vol 2
This absolute gem of an album had been released as an adjunct to the 2022 Barbican exhibition titled Postwar Modern: New Art in Brittain. It appeared on Bandcamp last month. The album features various artists, many of them bebop players, covering the period of the mid 1940s through to the late 1950s. This was a time of postwar recovery when few American LPs were available and because of post-war austerity measures, tours by American Musicians were infrequent. Periods of grey austerity often provide fertile breeding grounds for counter-cultures to flourish in London, setting the scene for the youthful embrace of Modernism. While demobbed parents yearned for a peaceful life, their children did not. The new Jazz forms bore little resemblance to the big band swing of their parents, soon a subset of youth flocked to Soho to hear exciting players pushing the boundaries. The Beat-influenced hipsters had arrived.
The Jazz musicians were either London-born locals like Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes or Stan Tracey or coloured musicians from the Caribbean British Colonies. Afro-Caribbean musicians like Joe Harriott, Dizzy Reece and Shake Keane, who blazed like comets, and surprisingly, none had learned their craft in the USA. They arrived self-taught, bringing a deep appreciation of Charlie Parker and Dizzy, overlaid with the rhythms of Jamaica or St Vincent. Soho was seedy and a melting pot of cultures. In that environment, exciting music happened.
London’s postwar jazz should have been better known outside of England. The players were world-class, but because of their lower profile often struggled to get cut through. Although it is over 60 years too late, there is a growing appreciation for their contribution. This recording is just a sampling of what is now available on vinyl, CD, streaming apps and Bandcamp. While Ronnie Scott is the best-known Jazz musician from that era, people should check out the recording legacy of Tubby Hayes and Joe Harriott. Both burned out young but left an indelible mark on the musical landscape. Some on the compilation later made it to America, like vibes player/pianist Vic Feldman, who featured on the Miles Davis disk ‘Seven Steps to Heaven’ or the excellent blind pianist Eddie Thompson (who learned to play at a blind institute alongside George Sheering).
The two tracks I posted grabbed my attention. I had forgotten how much I love Bebop and these tracks took me back. On the Tubby Hayes track ‘Blues for Those Who Thus Desire’, I was amazed to learn that he played every instrument on the track except bass and drums. I initially found it hard to believe, but a reviewer later confirmed that Tubby played Baritone Sax, Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Vibraphone and Piano. It was possibly an out-take and only included in a compilation album much later.
The second posted track featuring Joe Harriott on alto is with the Tony Kinsey Quartet. As they play ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ Joe tears through the head, paring it back to the minimum, gives a quote and then lets forth a flurry of fluid Bebop lines. Joe Harriott always takes my breath away. Later he moved on from Bebop to explore Freejazz and is regarded as a true pioneer of the genre.
Ganelin Trio: Eight Reflections of the Past Century
This album was recorded in 1999 and released in 2013 by the avant-garde Israeli label Auris Media. It has recently found its way to Bandcamp and I am delighted to have located it there. I always thought highly of the Ganelin Trio and like many fans of European free music, regarded ‘Slava’ Ganelin as a trailblazer. The trio was once famously described by critic Chris Kelsey, as ‘arguably the world’s greatest Free Jazz Ensemble’. Their undisputed impact is all the more amazing when you consider that the Ganelin Trio were formed in the Soviet Union at a time when Jazz was all but forbidden by the higher authorities.
My first encounter with this engaging music was to purchase ‘Non-Troppo’, followed by ‘Poco-A-Poco’. The Albums were always hard to get, and consequently, the band drifted from my mind. I was therefore delighted when ‘Eight Reflections of the Past Century’ and several other albums appeared on Bandcamp. It is worth checking those and other Ganelin albums on the streaming platforms, or if you’re lucky, finding a rare reissue or second-hand copy.
Ganelin frequently strikes out for new ground and each project sets the bar a little higher. He was never a musician to run out of ideas and nor do the band members. I am sure that this music would trip up many sidemen, but like is traded for like here. Unlike his earlier trios, there is no saxophone. Instead, the leader plays piano and synthesizer, which adds unusual colour to the palette. The album has moments of abandonment, crazy joy and moments of raw beauty. It is one of those albums which wraps itself around you and puts you in a room with the band.
Slava Ganelin and I are roughly the same age, growing up during the Cold War. My viewpoint was from the safest of possible distances, the South Pacific, although the whole experience still terrified and fascinated me. Ganelin’s childhood was spent in Stalin’s Lithuania but in defiance of the restrictions, or perhaps because of them, artistic freedom was embraced to the fullest. I have just finished reading a translation of the Tomasz Stanko biography. Many Soviet-era Polish improvisers also took a similar musical path. The desire for freedom becomes a lifeblood when it is denied. Stanko talks of experiencing freedom through self-directed musical expression and transcendence. While I can only glean fragmentary references about Ganelin’s life as a Jewish man in Soviet Lithuania, his courageous music tells me everything I need to know. This is free music fizzing with soul.
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, a poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
The Outsider is the latest release by acclaimed Jazz Pianist Chris Cody, and as with his previous albums, he unflinchingly holds a mirror up to life past and present. Cody has demonstrated an uncanny knack for drawing back the veil on what we wilfully overlook; colonisation, alienation, belonging and dislocation. And he does so while offering us hope and sublimely beautiful music. This album elevates his already impressive discography to new heights as he chronicles the new reality.
The title of the album is apt, for its reference to Camus and because we have all of us become outsiders to the lives we once knew. Camus, a French Algerian, wrote his famous novel in 1942 when the European peace was in tatters, the menace of fascism threatened and when the colonised were challenging the hegemony of the old world order. We are living through similar times with a pandemic isolating us, authoritarians threatening us and the postwar consensus looking shakey. We are also confronting our colonial pasts as indigenous voices speak truths.
The echoes of the world that Camus wrote about are familiar to Cody as he has lived in and performed extensively in France and the former French colonies. Although Australian, his creative milieu is the world at large. He is not only well qualified to tell this story but his skill as a composer, arranger and pianist enables him to tell it well. As the narrative unfolds a rich textural palette is utilised. The octet sounds bigger or smaller depending on the mood.
The inclusion of the Oud not only broadens the palette but it highlights Cody’s arranging skills. The Oud is a spectacular instrument with evocative brightness and because of its authoritative voice, it is mostly heard with small jazz ensembles. Here, the Oud was woven beautifully into the whole, the three horns giving pleasing contrast. North African stories have immense clarity when spoken through an Oud.
This is a great lineup, and consequently, they deliver a tight performance whether supporting the soloists or leaning into those delightful bittersweet orchestral voicings. I strongly recommend this album which can be purchased only on Bandcamp either digitally or in CD form. I would opt for the CD, as the artwork by Maya Cody is stunning. Very few album covers match the music as well as this cover does. Purchase at chriscody.bandcamp.com
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and apoet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
It is not the first time Kevin Haines and Dixon Nacey have recorded together and I hope it won’t be the last. There is a symmetry binding these musicians, one born of respectful dialogue between generations. Both are well-established and neither has anything to prove. When the stars align in this way, the conditions are right for intimate conversations and that is what we get here. In a departure from their earlier trio albums with Samsom (Cross Now and Oxide), there are a number of standards here, which are balanced by originals composed by the pair. From the swinging rendition of ‘Stompin’ at the Savoy’ to the Nacey original , ‘Sco’, the album establishes the depth of its conversational credentials.
It is surprisingly rare to come across ‘standards’ gigs these days as new music is in the ascendency. It was at such a gig that I first saw Nacey, Haines and friends, play these lovely tunes, vehicles that have stood the test of time. In a quieter moment during the second set, they played Herb Ellis’s Detour Ahead. It was extremely well realised and I thought at the time; these guys should record a few standards as their interpretations bring something fresh to bear.
The album arose from a MAINZ project and there is an irony in that MAINZ (Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand) is considering closing the school. That would be shameful and a disservice to the wider community. There has seldom been a time in human history when we need the arts as much as in the present times. This is especially so with music which can guide, calm, challenge and interpret life’s vicissitudes. The pandemic, however, has given cover to the philistines and everyone from Councils to Academic institutes is wielding a destructive knife.
The album was self-released and is available on streaming platforms. If you type ‘Dixon Nacey & Kevin Haines, Conversations’ into your search bar you’ll find it. Past and present sit comfortably here and a touch of nostalgia is always welcome in troubled times like these.
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and apoet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
Mark Lockett has released his seventh album Swings & Roundabouts, arguably his finest. The project had been in gestation for a while but like many projects, it was delayed by the pandemic. Still, once the travel restrictions were lifted he headed for New York, engaged some of New York’s finest Jazz musicians and set up the session in the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, Queens—a studio versed in the intricacies of recording jazz tracks.
Lockett may be a Wellingtonian and from Aotearoa, but he is very much a citizen of the world. He has spent his most productive years dividing his time between New York, Melbourne and his hometown, and frequently touring in between. Over recent years, he is most often caught with chordless configurations, especially saxophone, bass and drums. His drumming style is interesting and these configurations afford him more room compositionally (and as a player). He is first and foremost a storyteller, and his ability to amplify his stories benefits from this type of spaciousness.
I have often seen Lockett perform with chordless trios, but adding another horn has created interesting possibilities. He has always preferred these configurations and this is another step along the way. These are often referred to as saxophone quartets or trios but unlike Lee Konitz’s famous ‘Motion’, where the drummer kept as much in the background as possible, this is a very democratic unit where everyone shines. The compositions are all by the leader and there are unmistakable references to Ornette, and perhaps even Jerry Mulligan’s chordless quartets (Happy go Lucky). In reality, the term cordless is misleading as chords feature in the head arrangements, but above all, these compositions provide an opportunity for untethered linear improvisation.
It is hard to imagine a better unit for this project. Dave Binney on alto saxophone, whether moving with his light-as-air alacrity or gently probing at the compositions, locates the most interesting pathways forward. And as he goes, flashes across the firmament with rapid-fire lines. I love what he does here. Duane Eubanks is also well-suited to finding the essence of these interesting tunes and burnishing what he finds. A respected veteran who delivers and provides the counterweight of solidity. The unison lines and the moments where these two converge in counterpoint are immaculate. It is also, always a pleasure to hear Matt Penman and he is so consistent in what he brings to a performance that I have come to doubt that he could ever put a foot wrong. His sound is woody and rich and his lines are perfect. Above all, he lifts those around him.
And none of this would work with a mediocre or reticent drummer and Lockett is far from being either. His unusually melodic approach to the kit and his ability to react in the moment gifts his band some real meat to chew on. I have never heard him play better. If the release tour heads your way, don’t miss it, and buy the album. Swings and Roundabouts is available on all platforms and is released by Thick Records, www.thickrecords.co.nz
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and apoet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
This lovely album by Allana Goldsmith and Mark Baynes is timely because it arrives at a crucial historical juncture. For a long time after the period of colonisation the beautiful indigenous language, Te Reo Maori, was suppressed in Aotearoa/New Zealand. After determined efforts by indigenous speakers, the decline was reversed, but there is a long way to go. Albums like this are indications of a gathering momentum.
‘E Rere Rā’ has been well received by Jazz audiences (and beyond). It has received critical acclaim offshore. It is a Te Rao Maori journey which takes its place alongside genres as diverse as opera, hip hop and pop. It is a joy to see this flowering of our indigenous language. Te Reo Jazz vocals were earlier brought to audiences by Whirimako Black, who recorded Jazz Standards and performed at festivals. Goldsmith has also been a pioneer in this field, performing Te Reo Jazz for a number of years, writing many of her own lyrics in Te Reo and composing tunes as vehicles.
Goldsmith’s association with the respected broadcaster, educator, and Jazz pianist, Dr Mark Baynes goes back a number of years and the collaboration has been fruitful. They appeared about town in the clubs and bars and toured further afield. They recently appeared at the Wellington Jazz Festival. Baynes is constantly widening his repertoire and he’s a pianist willing to take on new challenges. The last time I saw him was with a Latin ensemble where he delivered compelling solos while effortlessly navigating the complex rhythms.
The album is stylistically broad, with a generous nod to soul and funk. It evokes the vibe of singing late into the night; gathering friends and family close. Such events are a timeless Aotearoa tradition; evoking warmth and sometimes sadness. It is especially so with ‘Tipuna’ (grandparents and ancestors) and with the heartfelt ballad ‘Whakaari’ (a volcanic island off the North Island/Te Ika-a-Maui coast). The lament ‘Whakaari’ references the terrible eruption of the Whakaari Island volcano. When it erupted, many lives were lost or blighted. It is a sacred place for Maori, but a place with layers of sadness. This ballad captures that perfectly.
Allan Goldsmith (co-leader, vocals compositions/arrangements) Mark Baynes co-leader, keyboards, compositions/arrangements) Hikurangi-Schaverien-Kaa (drums), Riki Bennett (Taonga Puora), Dennson, Alex Griffith (5) & Will Goodinson (2) (bass), Kim Paterson (trumpet, flugel) (3,10), Cam Allen (saxophones) (5), Mike Booth (trumpet, horn arrangement (5), Jono Tan (trombone) (5) and Michael Howell (guitar) (4,8). The album can be purchased from music outlets, Bandcamp or accessed via streaming platforms. Please support local music and especially music that tells our unique stories.
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and apoet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
A famous conductor of classical music once stated that a good composition would please almost everyone, but that a truly great composition should divide an audience. With improvised music, it is hopefully different, as early experimentalists like Sun Ra, Terry Riley, John Zorn, Jon Hassell and Miles opened our ears to limitless sonic possibilities. Each of them reached beyond the strictures of conventional form and brought us to new and interesting places. Julien Wilson has achieved that with his double release ‘Meditations and ‘Mutations’. These are albums for our times. Albums for deep listeners and open-minded explorers. They are an exquisite curation of sound itself.
We are living in strangely unsettling times and that is when true creatives embark on their bravest quests. In troubled times most of us reach for the comfort of the known, but true creatives reach for the unknown. This speaks to the deeper purpose of art, to find meaning amidst a world of seeming chaos. These two albums are extraordinary in every sense of the word. Here, overlooked acoustic riches are revealed incrementally and rare beauty is revealed. The forms do not appear randomly but are crafted into an unfolding narrative.
Solo saxophone albums are rare, but such open and free explorations are rarer. There is however a lineage for this and for me it began with the astonishing John Surmon. Surmon’s ‘The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon’ set a very high bar and few have dared to follow. While there is a similarity, Wilson brings fresh ideas and an enhanced sense of spaciousness to the equation. He also utilises effects as he sculpts the sound. On both albums, his primary horn is the tenor saxophone (on Meditations he also plays soprano and on Mutations a Bb clarinet and alto saxophone). To achieve such depth and orchestral breadth with horns is astonishing.
And more so, when you consider that the cuts were recorded in one take (without overdubs); working with and capturing the acoustics at hand. The saxophones and human breath may be the originators of the sounds, but it is Wilson’s imagination and deft manipulation of the devices at his disposal that make this project something special.
Wilson’s influences are either close to home or beyond the confines of our ephemeral world. He reflects on what he has experienced, on the wonders of the cosmos and on who has inspired him. While on ‘Meditations’ he pays tribute to the lamented saxophonist Mark Simmonds, on’ Mutations’ it is to James Webb and the subsequent cosmic revelations. To the latter album, he has added Bb clarinet and alto saxophone as contrasting voices. On Mutations, Wilson evokes a rawness and an honesty that is entirely fitting when confronting the immensity of the beyond. It is on Mutations that the albums are at their most experimental and where listeners truly experience the unknown. I love both and for different reasons but they belong together and both are indispensable. Especially so for those who consider themselves engaged and open-eared.
The albums were recorded in Melbourne during the first lockdown and are available from Lionsharerecords in vinyl, CD and in Hi Fidelity digital formats including 24bit/96kHz. All of the above are available through julienwilson.bandcamp.com If you search for Wilson on Spotify you won’t find him, he is opposed to the exploitation of those mega streamers – like Wilson I implore you to support Bandcamp. To date, the platform has returned well over a billion dollars to the content creators which is where the money rightfully belongs.
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, a Judge in the 7VJC International Jazz Competition, and apoet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
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