Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Roadsides

Some albums are so unique one has to think for a minute before one tries to describe what you will hear. That is very true of Israeli singer-songwriter Ayelet Rose Gottlieb and her recent Roadsides (Arogole Music 021). Ayelet composed a series of 12 songs based on the work of Palestinian and Israeli poets, a gesture of solidarity with the people of the entire region one has to appreciate.

She does the singing and it has nuance and an expressive beauty. The songs are what one might call Mid-Eastern jazz with an emphasis on song form, some songs being squarely in a very modern-ish ECM-like or otherwise jazz zone, with the Mid-Eastern tonal minor element coming to the fore or receding a bit depending on the song. The ensemble that accompanies her reinforces that two-world (or is it three?) sound via an eclectic mix of oud and violin, guitar, piano, acoustic bass and drums, with the addition of traditional percussionists, etc., from time to time. Some songs have a jazz-rock underpinning, some not, but all are quite interesting in their arrangements, in their song-ful-ness and in their vocal presence.

The result is a modern pan-Israeli-Palestinian music that has much charm and substance if one opens up to it. Fascinating and rewarding listening!

Harold López-Nussa, New Day

Good, very good Latin Jazz pianists and their music don't come across my desk all that often. When something does, I take notice. Such a pianist, who is around 30 and already very accomplished, is Harold López-Nussa. You can hear him to excellent advantage on his album New Day (Jazz Village 570021).

He appears before us on acoustic and sometimes electric piano, with the backing of a good Latin jazz trio, which means acoustic bass and a drummer fleet on the set and able to cover the Latin percussion nuances as well.

This appears to be an ideal setting to hear Maestro López-Nussa. He is rhythmically very fluid in a Latin core sense and at the same time has a harmonic-melodic jazz sensibility for today, so that the music is driving and contemporary.

The set here is an excellent one. The originals have substance and originality. Harold drives without especially emphasizing the left-hand chording a la McCoy Tyner or Eddie Palmieri, which distinguishes him in part from some of the contemporary Latin jazz pianists out there, though his comping remains strong, just a bit more brittle and varied. There is a well-developed musicality that is apparent and marks him as special.

He is on tour throughout North America this September and October, so if you like what you hear, go to it! The album is a winner on all fronts, a landmark Latin jazz piano album of the last few years, surely.

Cristina Braga, Samba, Jazz and Love

Music. Where some lead, we follow. That is, if we like what we hear. With vocalist-harpist Cristina Braga, I most certainly like. At least I like her album Samba, Jazz and Love (Enja 9593 2). I like her singing, which has that quiet sweet intensity that has some relation to Astrud Gilberto, though clearly this is Cristina in her own voice, but with that gentle quality. She lays back a tad on the beat which gives the delivery a pronounced swing. And I like her harp. I generally love the harp anyway but she really can play (what she chooses to show us of it, this isn't a harp showcase per se); it's a beautiful sound she gets in this set of samba-bossa classics and some lesser known but all worthwhile. And I like the band, which is I believe all-Brazilian, with some nice vibes, trumpet, contrabass, and drums. By the way that bassist, Ricardo Medeiros, is the musical director and has no doubt much to do with the arrangements, which are quite nice.

So she leads, I follow. I mean that. To me good Brazilian samba jazz is one of the joys of life. (Of course there are many joys, but it is one.) Combine a beautiful set of songs, a beautiful voice, a loosely swinging band and that harp playing of hers, and you have something. Really something good. Just get it. You'll get it.

Albert Mangelsdorff Quintett, Legends Live, Audimax Freiburg, 1964

Albert Mangelsdorff's Quintet of 1964 was a beautiful thing. The band played new jazz versions of Asian pieces and original compositions reflecting the melodic feel of Asian music, from Ravi Shankar to Indonesia to Japan.

The quintet was a well healed outfit with Mangelsdorff of course on trombone, Heinz Sauer on tenor and soprano sax, Gunter Kronberg on alto sax, Gunter Lenz on contrabass and Ralf Hubner on drums. They released several excellent LPs that did not get much distribution in the States (to my knowledge) at the time. It was only in the later '80s that I caught up with them.

The band used the pianoless format that Ornette had made so critical an element of new thing jazz and the rhythm section had something of the force and drive of the Haden plus Blackwell or Higgins lineup of Ornette's classic group. Mangelsdorff played in a pre-multiple tone fashion that showed already that he was in his own class. In Sauer and Kronberg he had stylistically sympathetic and quite good soloists and of course the makings of a three-horn frontline that were especially prominent in working through the head structures of the pieces in the band's repertoire.

On June 22, 1964 they played a concert at Audimax Freiburg which happily was recorded in excellent sound. The master tapes have been transferred to digital format and are now available as a Jazzhaus CD (101 706), Legends Live, Audimax Freiburg.

It is I must say a thrill to hear the band in such beautiful audio quality, live and in their prime. They run through their "world jazz" repertoire in 70 minutes of inspired soloing, hard driving swing and beautifully performed arrangements.

Whether or not you have the original record releases you will find this CD enthralling I suspect, a revelation perhaps, and otherwise a fantastic go for the Quintet. It's indispensable listening.

Ibrahim Maalouf, Wind

Imitation in jazz is not something recent. It goes back. And it's true of all musical pathways. Some imitation tries to disguise itself as innovation, and that's where things get sticky. Other imitations openly acknowledge the debt and manage to say something very new with something less new as a springboard.

Music moves forward when this happens. Take Ibrahim Maalouf, jazz composer, trumpet wielder, arranger. He makes no bones about what he is doing on the album Wind (Harmonia Mundi Distribution). It's music written for the silent film "The Prey of the Wind." Maalouf set out explicitly to create the music as a homage to, and extension of Miles Davis's late '50s soundtrack to Louis Malle's "Elevator to the Gallows." At the same time Ibrahim wanted to utilize his quarter-tone trumpet to get further extensions to the sound he heard.

He assembled a quartet that included Mark Turner on tenor, a group that could not only get with that spacious, moody late-'50s Miles thing--and especially with that soundtrack, VERY spacious and moody--but at the same time feel comfortable with the Mid-Eastern, North-African elements of Ibrahim's music.

Wind is the album that came out of the project. It is dedicated to Miles, understandably. By starting out with a homage, Maalouf has created something that doesn't just extend or imitate the Miles of that point in time, it becomes strikingly its own music. Maalouf's trumpet playing is something to hear, and the compositions-arrangements feel like a complete contemporary statement, the real thing. And a very good thing at that. It's striking!

Greg Duncan, Chicago, Barcelona Connections

Trumpet/Flugalist Greg Duncan is up to something on Chicago, Barcelona Connections (New Origins 001). Something good.

First off he plays his own brand of post-Hubbard, post-Milesian trumpet and you can hear that to good advantage on this recording.

Secondly he's gathered together musicians I can only assume from both Chicago and Barcelona, Spain, and put together a Latin/Spanish Jazz repertoire, worked out some very nice arrangements, and let loose.

It's an album of high merit. Everybody and everything sounds right, including some well-sung vocals by Patricia Ortega.

Bravo!

Zusaan Kali Fasteau (Kali. Z. Fasteau), Worlds Beyond Words, 1987-89

In our continuing look at Kali. Z. Fasteau's music we have today what appears to be the first CD release on her Flying Note label (9001), Worlds Beyond Words from 1987-89.

It is one of the finest of her albums from a solo perspective, she contributes very characteristic cosmic tones on sanza, soprano, vocals, piano, ney, shakuhachi, kaval, mizmar and berimbau.
She is most notably and effectively joined by the great Rashied Ali on drums, Bob Cunningham on contrabass, Elizabeth Panzer, harp, James C. Jamison, guitar, David Cornick, percussion, and Paul Leake on tabla. The group members come in and out as needed, with Kali being the primary focus.

Rashied sounds great, all members contribute effectively, but this is Kali in a more front-and-center context than is sometimes the case. She comes through with individuality, conviction and free, yet focused energy. And it presents a free-world ethos in the tradition of John Coltrane's and Don Cherry's pace-setting music. There are memorable moments throughout--beautifully atmospheric flute, Trane-dedicated soprano, nice piano spotlights and vocals that project well and open up a sound world to us.

If you want to know where Kali is musically, this may be the best place to begin. It's a goodie.