Chris Pasin Releases Album After 21 Years in the Can

In the music scene there are tales of greats, near-greats and just plain old folks who abandon the music world after the scuffling and frustrations prove to be too great. I suppose I was one of them, though I am in it again on some level now. I look back at my Berklee College of Music class and how few of them stayed on the scene. Some, spectacularly, true (Joe Lovano comes to mind, not to drop names). Many not.

As so the back story of trumpeter Chris Pasin has interest because he recorded a very good modern hard bop album in 1987. Split the scene completely. And now, 21 years later, he is releasing the recording and playing again, thanks in part to the musical awakening of his children.

Pasin's Detour Ahead (H20) would or should have been well received back when it was recorded. And today it still sounds current. Pasin has that Brown through Shaw school brassiness and might have made a real name for himself. He still might. His accompanying band is top drawer, with the great Dannie Richmond on drums and some very nice work from reedist Steve Slagle, not to mention Benny Green and Rufus Reid. The music is solid and noteworthy. The Pasin originals have a classic sound to them.

I wish Chris Pasin much success on his return, and his children too!

The Incredible Flautist Richard Craig

If you have any interest in the new concert music and the arsenal of flute tone production techniques that have developed over time in that musical form, you must give a listen to Scottish flute exponent Richard Craig.

Right now Mr. Craig has made a recital recording of his unaccompanied playing available as a high-quality download for free, which you'll find under AGP73 in the Avant Garde Project Archives at www.avantgardeproject.org. It consists of a number of pieces by composers I am not familiar with. They are not encore pieces. These are fully worked out compositions of great interest.

Like Gazzeloni before him, Mr. Craig plays with incredible range and dexterity, utilizing both traditional and modern techniques to transform the flute into something with an almost infinite palette of tone color. Those who are interested on how it is all done will appreciate Mr. Craig's performance notes included in the download.

I think you will be quite thrilled with his flute artistry. I was.

Correction, A EuroJazz Avant Piano Trio

One thing I am learning in my ongoing survey of Ayler Records' Download Series, that's how much is going on in Europe these days. Not that I didn't already have some idea, but Ayler manages to unearth a host of previously unknown players (to me), many of them quite interesting.

The young piano trio Correction (Sebastian Bergstrom, Joacim Nyberg & Emil Astrand-Melin) is a good example.

Their self-titled CD shows them swinging in an out manner, playing musical bean bags with phrases, and taking unaccompanied solo spots. They don't show any obvious influences, and that is saying something. What they do show is a spirit of exploration that gives their program the immediacy of the unexpected.

If you like the advanced piano trio improv format, I think you'll find this one to your taste. I hear there's a new one coming out soon. That's a good thing.

Glenn Wilson's Baritone Sax, 1984

There are household names on the Jazz scene, names just about everybody recognizes--Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis and on from there. These people got their fame mostly on the merits of their music. There are other names we wont mention, who perhaps do not live up to their fame by the quality of their playing. Then there are those musicians who bask in the dim light of obscurity for various reasons, often little to do with the how well they can play.

Take baritone saxophonist Glenn Wilson. He attracted some attention on the New York scene in the '80s, then decided to move out of the spotlight, settling in a smaller locale far away from the limelight. Although he has continued to play, he is a player who is not often thought of and gets little to no exposure in the jazz media.

So in 2000 when Cadence Jazz records re-released his first recording from 1985, it was rather an act of faith in his musicianship than a high-stakes entrepreneurial maneuver. That album, "Impasse," I believe remains in print. It's a fine recording, showing Wilson's baritone artistry at its best. He is surrounded by some players who may be more well-known today (Harold Danko, Dennis Irwin, Adam Nussbaum) than Wilson, but he is right up there with them. And as a far as baritone players go, he is a very good one. Possibly great.

"Impasse" gives the listener a varied program of standards and originals, but all of it has the drive and energy of a good post-Coltrane session of that era. It is well worth your time and energy. Glenn Wilson may not be a Miles Davis, but he does the finest version of Glenn Wilson available today. And that's pretty cool.

Go to www.cadencebuilding.com for more info.

One More for Michael Jefry Stevens, This Time in a Quartet

That pianist Michael Jefry Stevens has entered an especially prolific stage is evidenced by the number of inspired releases he has been in on of late. Today we have him in a quartet setting. The Southern Excursion Quartet, namely. It's a fertile bed that produces a bountiful harvest on their album Trading Post (Artist Recording Collective). Stevens is joined by tenor exponent Don Aliquo, bassist Jonathan Wires, and drummer Tom Giampietro, with all four contributing original compositions.

This is a group effort all the way, with piano and tenor wielding most of the solo space, but with bassist Wires getting some time in the spotlight as well. Every piece has its own special ambiance, with the emphasis on tonal and somewhat cool approaches to the music. That is not to say, however, that this is in any way smooth or emasculated in its resulting sound. There are quiet yet intense fires burning throughout. It is a very lyrical, tuneful and satisfying set.

Now if they turned up the burners a little, I think I would like them even better.

Michael Jefry Stevens On A Roll, with No Ham or Baloney

Pianist Michael Jefry Stevens has been particularly active of late, with various tours and albums on Cadence, Konnex, and others. And now here's another, A Scent in Motion (Konnex), finding Stevens in a trio setting with bassist Steve Rust and drummer Harvey Sorgen. Stevens combines the propulsively swinging, harmonically rich vocabulary of the best that sort of pianism has to offer with more outside ventures. He does that here, and he does that in a way that makes him one of the more important 88-operators active today.

Rust and Sorgen have the knack to make this trio a fully three-way affair. This is not a pianist with accompaniment. The numbers are originals by Rust or Stevens, and one group collaboration. They are always captivating. Stevens, like Paul Bley, never entirely abandons the harmonic tradition, yet like Bley he does everything with impeccable pianistic execution and imagination. And he does it in the manner of Michael Jefry Stevens. Perhaps his time has come.

Baertsch Weaves Solo Piano Magic

In our continuing look at Nik Baertsch's first albums on Ronin Rhythm Records, we are now perched over his third, Hishiryo (2002), for solo piano. This is an opportunity for Baertsch to get a full orchestral resonance out of a prepared piano, and he most certainly does that. String dampening via various objects is the main component of his piano preparation and it serves to heighten the percussive effect. The rhythmic qualities of his music and the sound of the piano itself invite comparisons to John Cage's iconic piano works. Certainly such comparisons would not be unwarranted.

Much of the music involves ostinato patterns over which second and sometime third melodic voices are heard. There are moments of "groove" as we might expect of Baertsch's approach, but also more quiescent, mystically Eastern sounding pieces, and that's when the Cage influence is strongest.

Nobody should think that all new music must be freshly invented out of the nothingness of space, the ether, or what-have-you. That Baertsch builds upon the work of others is only natural. All musicians do that. Baertsch succeeds in creating a captivating suite of piano pieces here by transforming his influences in interesting ways.

So long as you aren't expecting a full-flush funk-out, Hishiryo will bring you pleasure, I think. It is one of his more essential offerings.