Francois Carrier, Michael Lambert, Shores and Ditches

Another good one from altoist Francois Carrier and his drumming cohort Michel Lambert, Shores and Ditches (FMR 340-0512). They start things off with a vividly bright duo, "Caldera," that reminds us how much in control Francois Carrier is on his instrument. It's very free and he executes with a tone that varies with what he wants to say, yet also opens up into an almost balladic territory. All this while Michel Lambert shows us he has great dynamic, creative sensibilities as well. Francois comes back hard after a short drum solo, then brings the balladic touch on again to close.

"Upstream" places bassist Guillame Viltard into the mix for a long empassioned improvisation. By the time "Kladi" hits the group is augmented with the addition of Neil Metcalf's flute and Daniel Thompson on guitar, who add effective counterlines and everybody brings on the main current.

The haunting sound of church bells and tinking, rattling percussion set up the title cut, which gives plenty of space once again to Francois and his almost classic-Apollonian soliloquoy.

It's a wonderful date. Carrier is essential listening in the avant free zone, and nowhere more so than here.

Tianna Hall & The Mexico City Jazz Trio, Two for the Road

With "jazz singers", "you'll know when you get there." You'll also know when you don't. In the case of Tianna Hall and her album with the Mexico City Jazz Trio, Two For the Road (Mighty Pretty Records), I knew after only a minute into the CD. Then the rest of the program continued to let me know. Tianna Hall has that creative tension that allows her to take an old standard and bring crackling electricity into its re-presentation.

She has some very nuanced ways that we expect from a singer of the "A" class. Rhythmically, she can and does break it down and rebuild the phrase structures like a horn. Her voice quality is very attractive and she can pinpoint the amount of vibrato, the emphasis on a lyric by accentuation, the limber yet taught phrasing of stanzas. She is something else!

It most certainly doesn't hurt that the Mexico City Jazz Trio is a kicking threesome. That they are.

The song choices are what works for her. So "Till There Was You" comes alive in a Tianese zone, as does "I'm Going to Sit Write Down and Write Myself a Letter". Those who read my columns know how sick I can be of standards these days. But with Tianna Hall, it's new again. She kicks it, all the way through the town and then some. And there are some songs not especially well known in standard town, too, like "Creep", that she positively takes over and owns...completely.

Hear her. There's drama and it is unfeigned. There's musicality and it is real.

Pamela York, Lay Down This World, Hymns and Spirituals

There are times when I look at a CD jacket for the first time and say to myself, "I may not like this." That's what I did think when I first turned to pianist Pamela York's Lay Down This World: Hymns and Spirituals (Jazzful Heart Music 080602). My reaction was not because I had anything against a jazz treatment of well-known hymns and spirituals. It's just that I had been disappointed in most such efforts in the past.

Turns out, happily, I was wrong. Pamela sets out with a piano trio, adds Andre Hayward on trombone for a few tracks, and proceeds to do some very convincing work. This is fully cohesive, creative piano jazz. The arrangements are varied but all on the mark, be it a kind of Tyneresque-Evansish "A Mighty Fortress is Our God". Red Garner block chords on the reggae version of "I Know My Redeemer Liveth", and on from there.

The fact is that the directness and elementality of the songs make it possible with the right set of ears to ground a very good pianism in the displacement-substitution, re-creation of the melodic-harmonic content to make a musically lively modern jazz presentation of it all.

This is music to enjoy. Pamela York has a very nice touch and very good creative imagination.

The Paul Winter Sextet, Count Me In, 1962-1963

Paul Winter is best known these days for his innovative, proto-fusion/post-fusion Consort. Many of the members of Oregon started there and both their and his own concepts have made a large impact on the scene.

Perhaps you (like I) never heard some of the first recordings of Paul's. They a part of a 50th anniversary anthology that adds 14 unreleased cuts for a very comprehensive 2-CD look at what he was doing in 1962-63. The Paul Winter Sextet's Count Me In (Living Music 44) is what we have, and it's an excellent listen.

Most of the players' names are not well-known today, except for the presence of Chuck Israels, Ben Riley, Harold Jones and, for a few cuts, Cecil McBee, Freddie Waits, Jeremy Steig and Gene Bertocini.

Otherwise it's a sextet of Winter on alto, Dick Whitsell, trumpet, Les Root or Jay Cameron, baritone, plus rhythm.

The soloists are quite decent, including Paul in a very more boppish vein than later, but the emphasis is on somewhat cool, well arranged compositions. It's substantial music, it swings, it does not sound especially dated. There's even a White House concert from 1962.

I wasn't sure at all what Paul Winter was up to then, but I am very glad to know now. It's a fine intro to early PW.

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!

Sonic Liberation Front, Jetway Confidential

Sonic Liberation Front play their own kind of Afro-Cuban-influenced avant jazz and they do it very well. We reviewed their last album Meets Sunny Murray on these pages (type in search box for that one) and, as good as that one was, the new one, Jetway Confidential (High Two 030) is even better. Afro-Cuban influenced hand drumming meets large band avant jazz composition meets collective and individual soloing of merit.

These folks are Philadelphia based, a sort of new Sun-Ra-like ensemble geographically and stylistically, only they sound very much like themselves. Drummer-percussionist Keven Diehl writes most of the compositions and is a driving force behind the 23 member band. There are vocals now and again that seem to relate to traditional Cuban Lukumi music.

This is top-notch avant music that anyone who digs Ra and after will get behind! Catch it.

Paradoxical Frog, Union

Paradoxical Frog returns with a second album, Union (Clean Feed 262), that continues in a way where the first left off (see earlier review on these pages via the search box at the top of the page). It's a trio of Kris Davis, piano, Ingrid Laubrock, tenor and soprano sax, and Tyshawn Sorey, drums and also melodica and trombone for this outing. It's a very serious venture of high modernist composition/freedom, all three contributing their pieces and all three performing with collective and individual strength and originality.

Kris Davis plays carefully thought-out, harmonically expansive lines that Ingrid Laubrock counters with her own personal take on modernity. Tyshawn Sorey is the percussive dynamo that he is, for this trio a meticulous sound sculptor as well as a driving force.

The music has the New Music spaciousness and control with some of the energy and propulsiveness of New Thing. It comes off very well because these are a well-matched, gifted threesome.

Music of the era. . . music without a commercial bone in its virtual body. . . music that stakes critical ground in the new age we live in. . . music you should hear.