Tyshawn Sorey – Oblique – 1

CD-RECENSIE

Tyshawn Sorey – Oblique – 1
bezetting: Tyshawn Sorey drums; Loren Stillman altsaxofoon; Todd Neufeld gitaar; John Escreet toetsen; Chris Tordini bas
opgenomen: 5 juni 2011
release: 27 september 2011
label: Pi Recordings
tracks: 10
tijd: 76:35
websites: www.tyshawnsorey.net – www.pirecordings.com
myspace: www.myspace.com/tyshawnsorey/music
door: Jan Jasper Tamboer

Wie denkt dat een slagwerker alleen verstand heeft van ritme, ziet zijn ongelijk bevestigd door de Newyorkse drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Op diens album ‘Oblique – 1′ zijn alle composities van eigen hand. Hij schreef die zeker niet voor louter trommels en cymbalen. Het is echter niet voor te stellen dat die muziek helemaal uitgeschreven is, er wordt in een aantal stukken volop ruimte ingevuld door improvisatie.

Het slagwerk neemt lang niet altijd een prominente plaats in op ‘Oblique – 1′. Opvallend dat Sorey zichzelf op veel nummers slechts een bescheiden rol toekent. De drummer bedoelde het nummer ‘Eighteen’ zelfs voor alleen altsaxofoon en op onder meer het ingetogen ‘Twenty-Four’ beperkt hij zich tot het gedoseerd aanbrengen van accenten.

Sorey toonde in zijn samenwerking met Misha Mengelberg al aan dat hij delicaat en dienend kan spelen, terwijl hij juist bekend staat om zijn onstuimige en duizelingwekkende acrobatiek bij onder anderen Steve Lehman. Waar het muzikale verloop dat toelaat kan hij ook op ‘Oblique – 1′ complex en dominant uit de hoek komen, want er zit genoeg afwisseling in de plaat.

De muziek doet soms denken aan ICP Orchestra, om het dicht bij huis te houden en het samengaan met Mengelberg te verklaren, maar sluit ook aan bij de vocabulaires van John Zorn en Fred Frith. Geen makkelijke melodieën dus, geen eenvoudige harmonieën en geen toegankelijke ritmes. Wel spanning, onvoorspelbaarheid, verwarring. En ja, toch ook soms gewoon aangename tonen, dat hoort eveneens bij deze postmoderne benadering. In het trage ‘Thirty-Five’ speelt gitarist Todd Neufeld vrij conventionele jazznoten, die in een traditionele ballad niet zouden misstaan. De hermetische klanken van de beloftevolle pianist John Escreet zijn daarentegen af en toe onnavolgbaar. 

Voor wie met eerder albumwerk van Sorey als bandleider en componist vertrouwd is, zal ‘Oblique – 1′ niet meer verrassend zijn. Voor wie de slagwerker vooral kent van zijn podiumoptredens in dienst van anderen, is  de plaat wellicht een teleurstelling, omdat spectaculaire turbulentie hier niet de boventoon voert. Blijft over degenen die voor het eerst kennismaken met de Newyorker, zij leren een veelzijdig musicus kennen, met een uitgebreid idioom in theorie en techniek.

Tyshawn Sorey’s Oblique
2012 New York City, Winter Jazz Fest

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‘Nina Simone (a)live’ op 10 mei in première in MC

22 feb – De nieuwe MC theatervoorstelling ‘Nina Simone (a)live’ gaat op 10 mei in première in het MC Theater in Amsterdam. In de voorstelling, geïnspireerd op het leven van de Amerikaanse jazzangeres, gaan de makers op zoek naar Nina en de Nina in henzelf. Rollen zijn er onder meer voor Sabrina Starke en Hans Dagelet.

Sabrina Starke is een van de performers in ‘Nina Simone (a)live’.
Foto © Ron Beenen.

De zeven makers/performers gaan op zoek naar het verhaal achter de muziek.  De Amerikaanse zangeres, die als Eunice Waymon ter wereld kwam en als Nina Simone wereldberoemd werd, spreekt nog steeds tot de verbeelding. Bevlogen, onvoorspelbaar en ongeëvenaard. Simone weigerde gedurende haar leven om aan de verwachtingen en definities van anderen te voldoen, maar dat ging ten koste van haar eigen geluk en dat van haar familie.

De voorstelling wordt gespeeld in een concertsetting zoals Simone eind jaren zestig haar optredens deed. MC koos voor Nina, omdat zij één van de iconen is van deze tijd en een inspiratiebron voor veel kunstenaars. Nina Simone weigerde zich in een hokje te laten plaatsen. Niet alleen door media en platenbazen, maar vooral ook door haar publiek. Het gevecht om haar eigen identiteit op te eisen, niet alleen als zwarte vrouw, maar ook als het soort artiest dat ze was, is herkenbaar en heel actueel.

De rollen worden gespeeld door Sabrina Starke, Hans Dagelet, Gery Mendes, Aisa Winter, Liesbeth Peroti, Alvin Lewism en DJ Lovesupreme.

‘Nina Simone (a)live’ in het MC Theater (Westergasfabriek) loopt van 8 tot en met 20 mei, de première is op 10 mei. Kaarten á 17, 50 zijn te bestellen via de website van het MC.

• MC Theater Amsterdam

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Article source: http://www.jazzenzo.nl/?e=1888

JOHN KELMAN,

John Kelman

Managing Editor – Since 2003

With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, John wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.

2,212 articles published | Recent:

• 1982: Pintura
• Yonkers
• Portico Quartet: Portico Quartet
• Tord Gustavsen Quartet: The Well
• Say And Play

Published: February 22, 2012

1982
Pintura
Hubro Music
2011

In a world where technology is becoming a bigger partner in everything, for better or worse, there are still some artists who strive for purity?at least within certain contexts. The trio that has come to be known as 1982, when it first came together for its self-titled 2010 NORCD debut, was absolutely resolute in its acoustic purity?so much so that when it performed a showcase set at the top of Mount Ulriken in Bergen, Norway as part of the 2010 JazzNorway in a Nutshell, the success or failure?in this case, an unconditional success?was literally dependent on which way the wind was blowing. With no PA system for assistance, 1982′s show could have been a disaster; instead, playing for a group of about forty people, the trio’s unique approach to spontaneous creation?combining serious lyricism, potent dramaturgy and the occasional taste of humor?ranged whisper-light to powerfully loud at the drop of a hat, and did it all without the benefit of any amplification.

If 1982′s short set represented further honing of the music on its previously recorded debut, then Pintura exhibits further development still, as the trio delivers another eight untitled (and simply numbered) pieces that belie, at least to some extent, the individual backgrounds of its participants. An evocative violinist and one of his country’s preeminent proponents of the sympathetic-stringed Hardanger fiddle, Nils Økland is perhaps better known for his forays into the music of Norway’s past on Lysøen: Hommage à Ole Bull ( ECM, 2010), a duo recording with fellow 1982er, pianist and harmonium player Sigbjørn Apeland, even while he takes his roots in Norwegian traditionalism into more modern territory on albums like Bris (Rune Grammofon, 2001), again with Apeland, but spread on a larger sonic canvas. Drummer Øyvind Skarbø may be the youngest of the three, but he’s already making a name for himself as yet one more creative percussionist?in a country that seems disproportionately stuffed to the gills?in particular on Bergen Open (NORCD, 2011), his more highly charged date with a plugged-in group featuring the electrifying work of another emerging artist, guitarist Thomas Dahl.

If the emphasis remains largely acoustic on Pintura, a wall socket is, at the very least, required now for Apeland, who introduces the swirling Wurlitzer electric piano to “4.” The album’s second shortest track, supported by Skarbø’s minimal backbeat it signals a shift for 1982 as Økland creates a droning backdrop over which Apeland incorporates Middle Eastern tonalities and more in an unexpectedly virtuosic but never superfluous performance.

The trio continues to prove its mettle at rubato tone poems so quiet that it’s almost knee-jerk to start leaning forward into the music, even with headphones. Pintura demonstrates even greater out-of-the-ether compositional focus on the hymnal “2,” where Apeland’s reed organ-like harmonium meshes almost seamlessly with Økland. That’s not to say 1982 doesn’t head for more outré territory, or that its players’ ears haven’t become even more finely attuned, as the lengthy “3″ finds Apeland’s trills moving with Økland in marvellous simpatico, while Skarbø’s textural brushwork interacts with equal accord. Hints of ambient and minimalism imbue “5,” while Apeland’s near-relentless density on “6″ and the entire trio’s more reckless abandon on “7″ give Pintura both narrative shape and broader stylistic diversity than its first disc.

For those who believe that free improvisation is nothing more than aimless meandering, self-centered expressionism and the worst of art for art’s sake, groups like 1982 and albums like Pintura suggest otherwise. It may be necessary to dispense with certain preconceptions in order to let the music in, but deep listeners like Økland, Apeland and Skarbø make it easy, in a brief, 35-minute set that moves from profound beauty to more challenging terrain, all within an overall arc that makes every moment meaningful, and even the more unapproachable segments completely relevant in the context of a greater whole.

Tracks: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8.

Personnel: Nils Økland: Hardanger fiddle, violin; Sigbjørn Apeland: harmonium, Wurlitzer; Øyvind Skarbø: drums.

ERIC MILLER,

Eric Miller

Contributor – Since 2012

Eric Miller lives and works in Oklahoma City.

0 articles published | Recent:

• Ornette Coleman: The Missing Years, 1968-1972

Published: February 22, 2012

Among Ornette Coleman’s periods of relative quiet, the turn of the 1960s into the 1970s may well be the most frustrating. More than three years of musical life?from the final Blue Note sessions of April-May 1968 to the release of Science Fiction on Columbia in 1972?remain shrouded in mystery and obscurity. Every recording made under Coleman’s name during this period was done live; worse, all are either unavailable or unauthorized (to slightly varying degrees), forcing fans to hold out for rare original LPs, purchase cheaper quasi-bootleg CDs, or even resort to extra-legal means like internet downloading. This is highly unfortunate, in part because their collective mental energy would be better spent willing for an official release of the 1973 Morocco tapes, but also because at least two vital documents of Coleman’s career?classics, even?exist in this out-of-print grey area.

Ornette Coleman
Ornette at 12
Impulse! Records
1969

Ornette at 12 is one such classic. The 32-minute album consists of all that remains of a May 1968 performance at Berkeley, CA, and feels in many ways like a direct continuation of what Coleman was doing at Blue Note. The rhythm section of Charlie Haden on bass and Coleman’s son Denardo on drums (first heard on his father’s 1966 Blue Note recording, The Empty Foxhole) returns, as does tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, fresh from Coleman’s New York Is Now! and Love Call (both Blue Note, 1968) sessions. Indeed, on the opening “C.O.D.,” Redman takes the first solo and appears to pick up where he left off on New York is Now!‘s “The Garden of Souls”?aggressive yet deeply eerie playing replete with deliberate overblowing and speaking/singing through the instrument for multiphonic effect. Coleman also turns in an inventive alto solo on “C.O.D.” before switching to trumpet for “Rainbows.” Despite an almost prototypical sing-song theme and trace elements of Texas blues in Redman’s solo, something sinister lurks in Haden’s uncharacteristic reliance on arco and Denardo’s exceedingly free approach to tempo (or, more accurately, lack thereof)?a nervous energy further honed by his father over the course of two careening trumpet solos. The mental image summoned forth is closer to falling shrapnel than anything resembling a rainbow.

“New York” is the album’s free “ballad” statement. It suits Denardo’s unconventional drumming just fine, and indeed he appears to audibly grow in confidence as the track progresses. His contribution to the record as a whole is a cut or two above his much-derided (at least at the time) turn on The Empty Foxhole; the technique is sharper, the communication with Haden clearer and more idea-filled, even while his relative inexperience continues to serve his father’s purposes in the form of freedom from ingrained musical cliché. The closing “Bells and Chimes,” finds Ornette mounting his own assault against tradition as he picks up his violin and saws his way through a defiant piece of free jazz which nevertheless resonates around an unmistakably bluesy and practically catchy line. There must be at least a fans for whom Coleman’s violin playing is a source of endless fascination. At this stage in his career, it was so outwardly lacking in discipline, so unlike his alto in tone and texture that he seems to have tapped into some previously unreachable corner of his inner being in order to make it possible.

Ornette Coleman
Crisis
Impulse! Records
1972

The angst at times implicit in Ornette at 12 reaches a boil in Crisis. The title, of course, suggests something amiss in Coleman’s world or in ours; the LP cover, depicting the American Bill of Rights in flames, establishes a direct connection to the social turbulence of the late sixties, and an exceedingly dark mood pervades every track, in outbursts of chaotic noise and in moments of recoiled tension. Unusual in its political bent if not its very anguish, Crisis is the product of another university appearance?New York University, March 1969. The previous lineup of Ornette and Denardo Coleman, Redman and Haden is back, augmented by cornetist/flautist Don Cherry, who alters the group’s dynamic in immeasurable ways. Actually, he only get one proper cornet solo, on “Comme Il Faut,” but it very much defines the track, seeming to cry out in the most wounded yet somehow elegant of tones. “Space Jungle” opens to the unexpected (and unaccompanied) strains of the double Indian flute, a reflection of Cherry’s then-burgeoning interest in a World music as yet undefined.

More Photos of Ornette Coleman

Article source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41459

Een nieuw album van pianist Gwilym Simcock met Tim Garland op sax en Asaf Sirkis op drums en percussion

Article source: http://www.jazzcenter.nl/?p=1540

301, is de naam van de studio waar het album ”Leucocyte” werd opgenomen. Uit het restmateriaal van ruim 9 uur is dit album samengesteld.

Article source: http://www.jazzcenter.nl/?p=1544

Na zijn succesvolle album ”Water” van vorig jaar, komt Gregory Porter met een nieuw soulfull jazz project.

Article source: http://www.jazzcenter.nl/?p=1343

Eerste namen November Music 2012 bekend

20 feb – Festival November Music in Den Bosch heeft de eerste namen bekendgemaakt. Zo treden pianist Harmen Fraanje en de Italiaanse trompettist Enrico Rava voor het eerst samen op. Daarnaast is saxofonist Colin Stetson te zien, net als de groep Octurn die een samenwerking aan gaat met zes Tibetaanse monniken. Bigband Tetzepi treedt op met klarinettist Louis Sclavis en ensemble AskoISchönberg voert ‘Music for 18 Musicians’ van Steve Reich uit.

Enrico Rava geeft een duoconcert met Harmen Fraanje tijdens November Music 2012. Foto © Eddy Westveer.

De komende maanden vult November Music (7 tot en met 11 november 2012) het programma verder aan. Op de zaterdagavond van het festival vindt na het succes van vorig jaar de tweede editie plaats van ‘November Music: ECM Artists in Concert’ met onder andere het gelegenheidsduo Harmen Fraanje/Enrico Rava. Op 1 april gaat een aantal concerten al in de voorverkoop met een ‘vroegboekkorting’.

• Kijk op www.novembermusic.net voor de laatste ontwikkelingen.

Zie ook:

• 15-11-11 Droomwereld ECM prachtig verklankt (recensie November Music 2011)

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Article source: http://www.jazzenzo.nl/?e=1884

Diana Krall in najaar naar Nederland

21 feb – Na Norah Jones (28 mei in Carré) komt ook Diana Krall naar Nederland. De Canadese zangeres en pianiste geeft in het najaar twee concerten, op 2 november in Carré en op 7 november in Muziekgebouw Eindhoven. De voorverkoop start vrijdag 24 februari.

Diana Krall in Oranjeshirt tijdens North Sea Jazz 2010.
Foto © Eddy Westveer.

Diana Krall verscheen voor het laatst in Nederland op 11 juli 2010 tijdens het North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. Krall speelde in een shirt van het Nederlandse voetbalelftal vanwege de wk-finale die dag: Nederland – Spanje.

Krall brak in 1999 door met haar album When I Look in Your Eyes, dat prompt een Grammy won. Daarna verschenen talloze succesvolle albums waaronder de veel bejubelde Live in Paris, dat ook op dvd verscheen.

Krall, geboren in 1964 en getrouwd met Elvis Costello, is ook te horen op het onlangs verschenen album Kisses On The Bottom van Paul McCartney.

De kaartverkoop voor de concerten van Diana Krall start op vrijdag 24 februari.

• Carré – Muziekgebouw Eindhoven – Diana Krall

Zie ook:

• 02-02-12 Paul McCartney maakt jazzalbum, beluister hem hier
• 08-02-12 Norah Jones in mei naar Carré

Diana Krall – Look Of Love
(dvd Live in Paris)

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Article source: http://www.jazzenzo.nl/?e=1885

DOM MINASI,

Dom Minasi

To describe him (Dom Minasi) adequately, one would need a new vocabulary…(just as) he is creating a new vocabulary on the guitar.

2 articles published | Recent:

• What’s The Point, Part 2
• What’s The Point, Part 1

Published: February 21, 2012

This is the second entry for my new column at All About Jazz. I actually published What’s The Point? in my own blog in January 2012. All About Jazz asked if I would be interested in writing for them; I was surprised and honored. I decided to update and rewrite the original article; because of the response and all the emails I received, I wanted to expand and make some of my points longer and clearer. I have increased the piece by two thousand words and broken it into two parts.

The Late Eighties and Beyond
Self-Producing
What’s the Point?

Joe Williams was alive, my wife and I caught Joe at The Blue Note. Between the cover, music charge and one drink apiece, it cost $150. I suspect it is more now. There are some jazz clubs that have lesser-known musicians performing that pay, but be prepared to do some serious hanging out in order to get a gig. I guarantee you they are booked at least six or more months ahead.

In the last few years, because of the escalation of New York City’s rent, Brooklyn has taken the place of what the City once was. The Roulette and The Knitting Factory now reside in Brooklyn, with more performance spaces popping up every day. Along with the performance spaces there are many bar gigs, which are also door gigs. The prices at some of these door gigs are dictated by the clubs/venues and sometimes by the musicians. Some places call them “donations.” If you want to perform, these are the conditions you have to deal with. The problem is, you must bring in an audience or you will not make any money nor work there again. This means before you play, you have to promote the gig. It will cost you money to decently promote. AllAboutJazz.com, NYC jazz Record, The Jazz Insider and the NY Press are some of free outlets where you can promote for free. Getting your gig listed in the NY Times and Time Out New York is the coup de grâce, and even if you have a wonderful reputation with a great press kit, there is no guarantee you will get listed .

If you intend to treat your musicians with some dignity, you pay them out of your own pocket and you keep whatever is made at the door. Ninety-eight percent of the time you will lose money, especially if the venue wants a guarantee. This means they get a cut, whether there is money to be made or not. You also shouldn’t book a gig three nights in a row at different venues or even one per week unless it is a steady paying job. You want as many people to come to your gig so it is best to have one door gig a month or every few weeks. You can’t expect your friends, family and fans to show up three times in a week. You’re lucky if they come once a month. This is why you only see name acts perform here every two months or so. Even with their great draw, not even they can attract an audience every week, or once a month.

It’s happening not only with jazz and improvised music, but with rock ‘n’ roll music too. My son is a wonderful rock ‘n’ roll guitarist and he does freebees and door gigs. I got an email from an ex-student, a rock singer/songwriter who does very well in Europe but when he’s here he’s expected to work for the door.

A few months ago at a performance venue in New York City, an argument over money ensued between the leader of the group and one of the managers. It became violent and the manager punched the musician in the eye. The musician wore glasses. He ended up in the hospital getting stitches and is lucky he is not blind. Word spread throughout the musical community and many musicians have banned that venue. This was beyond unforgivable. This is no way to treat artists and musicians. Needless to say, no one I know has worked there again.

Self-Producing