Steve Swell's Nation of We, The Business of Here, Live at Roulette

New York used to be now, according to Ornette's album title. It still is. It may not be a place to make much money, most of the time these days though--if it ever was for some things. But it is a place where trombonist-composer-bandleader Steve Swell could assemble 22 of the finest avant jazzmen and form the out big band Nation of We. And make an artistic success of it to boot.

They've had one or two releases out. Now we have the best yet, The Business of Here. . . Live at Roulette (Cadence Jazz Records 1238).

The business/logistic end of a project like this can be somewhat daunting these days: gather the musicians, rehearse, get the gig, play and record the proceedings, get the CD produced, pay the musicians, get the release out there, etc. Thanks to the persistence of all concerned, especially Maestro Swell, we have the release in our hands, in our ears, and it is worthy of all the efforts against all odds.

So here we have it...22 musicians holding forth at the Roulette club in NYC. There's Steve Swell of course, on trombone, composition, arrangements, conduction. And there are cats like Jason Hwang, Daniel Levin, Guiseppe Logan, Darius Jones, Sabir Mateen, Ras Moshe, Matt LaVelle, Dave Taylor, Chris Forbes, Todd Nicholson, Jackson Krall, and others.

Like the big bands of Sun Ra when on a certain planet, and those of Alan Silva and Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra, this is BIG sounding music. This is "free" big band, with motifs, conductions, collective and individual solos. Most importantly it projects--excitement, complexity, energy, a hugeness of sound. And it does all that in the high tradition of the spirit feel.

In the second decade of the millennium, THIS is a big band that should be getting recognition. The Business of Here is a tour de force of imagination and execution. It is a band I hope we get to hear a great deal more from. In the meantime grab a copy. Everyone with an interest in the lively free arts should have one and listen carefully! The music is important.

Alexander von Schlippenbach - Globe Unity Orchestra, Globe Unity - 40 Years

In 2006 the venerable European Avant Big Band celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special appearance at JazzFest Berlin. That and a concurrent studio appearance were captured electronically for the release Globe Unity - 40 Years (Intakt 133 2007). Sometime around then when I had actual money to buy CDs this was one of my purchases. Being nothing if not systematic I am just now finding it at the top of my ancillary "to review" pile. I say all this only to explain why I am reviewing it a little later than I ordinarily would. As it's an important disk, better now than never seems to be applicable.

The 40th anniversary edition of the band has a stunning lineup of members associated with Globe Unity and the European avant scene. Of course von Schippenbach along with Wheeler, Schoof, Capozzo, Dorner, Evan Parker, Dudek, Petrowsky, Mahall, George Lewis, Rutherford, Bishop, Johannes Bauer, Lovens and Lytton.

The aggregate charges through some great charts by Herrs Schlippenbach, Breuker, Wheeler, and Lacy ("The Dumps").

There's nothing bad to say about this one. Some of the best in the free-avant fold pack a soaring, hard-hitting punch individually, collectively and compositionally. When the full band improvises as a whole, look out! And of course the churning rhythm section provides an everywhere-at-once cushioning for the advanced soloing that graces the soundstage.

This is a burner, a scorcher and flat-out out the window much of the time. There are many great releases one can sample of this band over the years. This is definitely one of them.

The ICP Orchestra Continue Their Remarkable Odyssey in Self-Titled Album

The Netherlands have as one of their most enduring and worthy cultural exports the madcap ICP Orchestra. They've just concluded a US tour and their rather recent self-titled CD (ICP 049) maps out why they remain a vital musical organization, whether caught live or, the next best thing, through the electronic medium.

The ICP folks have been "post-modern" long before the term had currency; and they continue to be now that the term is on the outs. Just like most musical categorization catch-phrases (except perhaps the ill-fated "Boston Sound" moniker attached to rock bands like Ultimate Spinach in the late '60s), a phrase for all its reification does point to a certain stylistic bundle of features. So if you try to apply the phrase to the ICP, you would not be incorrect to point out how the big band combines the avant with the street-corner song of some early 20th-century iceman, bebop and swing with a dusty old polka refrain, dead serious art with a giant pie-in-the-face. Polystylistic tendencies, then. But what's so interesting is that whatever they do, it has a recognizable ICP sound. Like the Art Ensemble, or to go further afield, Spike Jones and his band of the swing era.

The self-titled album is quite typically brilliant. It documents two 2009 ICP appearances at their famed Amsterdam home, the Bimhuis. It's a ten-piece lineup with a potency derived (like Duke's) from the unique musical personalities of the key members of the unit over the years, i.e. Mengelberg and Bennink along with Baars, Moore, Wierbos and so on. The rest, the pieces, the arrangements. . .

It's the combination of virtuostic anything-goes free improvising with anything-also-goes arrangements, here of a couple of Herbie Nichols and Duke Ellington gems along with a host of wildly varying sonic onslaughts of fun and work; originals that is.

They have become more and more influential as they continue to thrive. If you missed their tour of the States like I did, the next best thing is this CD, which I do highly recommend.