Difference between revisions of "J-gro"

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If you are here, hear this!

You have found the secret cauldron where the next season's issue of jes' grew gets stirred up & out into cupcake molds. Sometimes there is (the) resistance.

Maria Schneider's Data Lords falls into that category.

Whereas Wagner once said “don’t look at the trombones, it only encourages them", I had the sense that Maria Schneider must keep looking at the trombones a lot. And they certainly deliver here.^[1]

Bob Moses, When Elephants Dream of Music, 1983.

Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, "Ethio", 2011.

with Michael Leonhardt (trumpet, mellophone, cornet, vibraphone).

Steve Turre, "Morning" (Yusef Lateef), 1995.

Bouncy shells & low brass.

Béla Fleck & Edmar Castañeda, Live at Big Ears Festival, 2019.

A banjo and a harp. No trombones, promise. "Jaco" wins. :)

More memorable titles

Mosquito Coast

The Sorcerers, In Search of the Lost City of the Monkey God, 2020.

A well-spent hour at Banzzaï (France Musique) led me to this memorable title,^[2] which is apparently the soundtrack to a documentary about the (re)discovery of ancient ruins in Mosquitia.^[3]

With unexpected citations and funny deformations throughout—wait! what are you doing to Antônio & Luiz in the trunk, there ?!—this made for a doubly smooth tour. (@ bandcamp)

Sons of Kemet, Your Queen is a Reptile, 2018.

Shabaka Hutchings (tenor sax) Theon Cross (tuba), Joshua Idehen (poetry), five drummers. Congo Natty (jongleur)

Arve Henriksen, "Patient Zero", 2017.

from a CD called Towards Language which gets thumbs up from the maskèd many (§). The bamboo sound of his mouthpiece-less trumpet^[4] led me back to Steve Turre in Vienne in 1997 and the (very different) sound of some sanctified shells.

Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran, "Hagar's Lullaby", "Prayer", "Sand Rhythm", NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert, 2016.

Menagerie

Artemis, "The Sidewinder", Artemis, 2020.

Both the Rolling Stone reporter covering the Newport Jazz festival in 2018^[5] and the president of the Blue Note magic department took note of the spellbound crowd.^[6] With such star power the solos are short and the textures are deep. Lee Morgan & Joe Henderson's famous piece (§) is the last song on the album. It is cut in half, slowed down and reworked into what Sketches of Spain might have sounded like with a bass clarinet and a sax fused into the brew. It conjures up slitherin' sidewinders getting on with a sunny day very nicely.

Eliane Elias, "A Ra (The Frog)", 2009.

Eliane Elias (piano + vocals), Marc Johnson (bass), Rubens de La Corte (guitar), Rafael Barata (drums)

Tomoko Omura, "Revenge of the Rabbit," Branches, v.1, 2020.

Tomoku Omura (violin), Glenn Zaleski (piano), Jeff Miles (guitar), Pablo Menares (bass), Jay Sawyer (drums).^[7]

Michael Leonhart & Avaramina 7, "Theme for a Jaguar Shark", The Seahorse & the Storyteller, 2010.

19 credited & most creditable musicians. :) There is a Steely Dan/War (-ish) feel to at least one song ("Dreams of an Aquarian") on the non-instrumental version of the album.

Camille Bertault, "A quoi bon", Le Tigre, 2020.

Camille Bertault (vocals), Jacky Terrasson (piano), Christophe Minck (D. Bass), Donald Kontomanou (drums), Minino Garaï (perc.), Stéphane Guillaume (winds), Michael Leonhart (producer, brass & perc.); "Tous ego" is a fun reminder that the tiger is the boss of its carosse, even in "Le Tube".

Rabih Abou-Khalil, 1) "Maltese Chicken Farm", The Cactus of Knowledge, 2001. . . . 2) "Is there wine?", The Flood and the Fate of the Fish, 2019.

. . .

1) Rabih Abou-Khalil (oud), Eddie Allen & Dave Ballou - (trumpet), Gabriele Mirabassi (clarinet), Antonio Hart (alto saxophone), Ellery Eskelin (tenor saxophone), Tom Varner (French horn), Dave Bargeron (euphonium), Michel Godard (tuba), Vincent Courtois (cello), Jarrod Cagwin (drums), Nabil Khaiat (frame drum)

2) Rabih Abou-Khalil (composer, oud), Kudsi Ergüner (ney), Jarrod Cagwin (percussion), Eri Takeya (violin), Gavion Murgia (cantu a tenòre, launeddas), Luciano Biondini (accordion)

Under Cover

Lonnie Smith (2009), "As the World Weeps", Rise Up!

Lonnie Smith's original studio version finishes with a choir reminiscent of Donald Byrd, A New Perspective, but over the voices, there's a rebellious saxophone.

Anat Cohen Quartet & Paquito D'Rivera, "As the World Weeps", Claroscuro

Anat Cohen & Paquito D'Rivera (clarinet), Jason Lindner (piano), Joe Martin (bass), Daniel Freedman (drums), Sixth & I, Washington DC, 2011.

It's arguably a bit closer to the original than the Artemis cover of "The Sidewinder" above, but it unarguably brings down the house made the crowd rise up! (Quod erat factum.)

The album version also features a trombone -- (what else?) -- making occasional sounds, which gives a very different feel to the piece.

Mulatu Atsatke, "Yèkèrmo Sew", 1972.

In Memoriam

Ryo Kawasaki, Juice, 1976.

as described on the label

Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) Concierto de Aranjuez

         

Ryo Kawasaki (1947-2020), 1981. (guitar)       Dorothy Ashby (1932-1986), 1984. (harp)      Miles Davis (1926-1991), 1960. (trumpet)

!jazz

Ox on the Roof

Darius Milhaud, Le bœuf sur le toit, 1920.

Sea-sounds

Dominique Guiot – L'Univers De La Mer, 1978.

most excellent prog food :)

Some bob-foolery

overheard at the 2020 Wikiwiki BotSlam gala,^[8] from Easy Rider (1969) (lyrics)

Roger McGuinn, "It's Alright Ma, I'm only bleeding" (Bob Dylan), 1969.

Cf. Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery" (1948) & then "Rainy Day Women #12 and #35", 1966.

What could possibly go wrong?

Mary Halvorson / Bill Frisell – The Maid With The Flaxen Hair: A Tribute to Johnny Smith, 2018.

I'm one of those people who had never listened to Mary Halvorson until someone who shall remain nameless got me looking into prolific women in jazz. I've included the subtitle, so the title doesn't mislead you into thinking this CD is all about Debussy. In fact, it is a tribute to a guitarist who once taught Bill Frisell "old fuddy duddy corny schmaltzy stuff". Frisell has since recanted this view and has dedicated songs and now, along with Mary Halvorson, an album to him. Described as a case study in "the bankruptcy of modern jazz guitar",^[9] it's ipso facto worth a listen, or even several. :)

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels, "Vanished Gardens", 2018.

Charles Lloyd (tenor sax), Bill Frisell (guitar), Eric Harland (drums), Greg Leisz (dobro, pedal steel), Reuben Rogers (bass). The album also features Lucinda Williams (vocals) on five of the ten tracks (including "Dust"). "Vanished Gardens shows how the many currents of American music all flow into a single stream",^[10] maybe somewhere between Cairo, Memphis and the Atchafalaya.

Previous issues

• été 2020

Refs

1. ↑ Sebastien Scotney (24 July 2020), "Album: Maria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords", The Arts Desk.
2. ↑ Nathalie Piolé, Fabien Fleurat & Emmanuelle Lacaze (25 Jun 2020), Les ombres amis, Banzzaï, France Musique.
3. ↑ Douglas Preston, Dave Yoder (2 March 2015), Lost City Discovered in the Honduran Rain Forest, National Geographic.
4. ↑ John Lewis (1 June 2017), Arve Henriksen: Towards Language review – pushing the trumpet's sonic capacities, The Guardian
5. ↑ Hank Shteamer (6 August 2018), Newport Jazz Festival 2018: 14 Best Things We Saw, Rolling Stone
6. ↑ Alex Dutilh, Fabien Fleurat, Emmanuelle Lacaze (11 September 2020), Artemis, sept déesses chez Blue Note, Open Jazz, France Musique
7. ↑ JT Video Premiere: “The Revenge of the Rabbit” by Tomoko Omura, 4 September 2020, Jazz Times
8. ↑ ^Lev!v^ich (4 Aug 2020), "well that didn't go as planned, 2020 WikiSlam Bot Bracket, InedibleHulk's TP.
9. ↑ Martin Schray (28 January 2019), Mary Halvorson / Bill Frisell – The Maid With The Flaxen Hair: A Tribute to Johnny Smith (Tadzik, 2018) The Free Jazz Collective.
10. ↑ Hank Shteamer (27 June 2018), Review: Charles Lloyd and Lucinda Williams Fuse Jazz and Roots on Vanished Gardens", Rolling Stone.