Andrew Sterman's Album "Wet Paint:" Tenor and Ensemble in A Post-Trane Present

Tenor jazzman Andrew Sterman, judging from his pleasingly melifluous album Wet Paint (Innova 771), works out of a post-Coltrane, Ornette-Coleman-via-Dewey-Redman, Jan Garbarek (more in the lower register though) inspiration to a music that is well balanced, lyrical and a leap into a place within that stylistic world. This has a sort of ECM-extroverted feel to it. The band is good: Sterman on tenor and a little alto flute plus Nick Rossi, piano, Kermit Driscoll, contrabass, and Tim Horner, drums. They are joined for around half the tracks by Richie Vitale on Wheeleresque trumpet and fluegel. Most of the rest has Todd Reynolds on violin, that Bang-On-A-Can all-encompassing singularity.

The rhythm-plus-piano team operates squarely within the style mentioned and give Sterman a great backdrop to hang his full sound onto. And Rossi's soloing is very well thought-out post-Tyner.

It's forward moving modern jazz of the best sort and so highly recommended.

Laszlo Gardony Gets Into Odd-Time Signatures and Pianistic Singularity on "Signature Time"

While you've been doing what ever you've been doing Hungarian-born pianist-composer-bandleader Laszlo Gardony has just completed his ninth album. Signature Time (Sunnyside 4011) is the name of it, which rightfully suggests that this is Laszlo's personal stylistic statement, and also that time signatures will be a factor. Both are quite true.

It's a goodly trio part of the time with Laszlo at the piano, John Lockwood on bass, and Yoron Israel at the drums. Tenorist Stan Strickland productively cameos with the group at key points.

Those are the preliminaries. Gardony's pianistic style is eclectic and well-executed. He is most effective expanding on a theme he has devised, working off of an ostinato, getting into an odd-time signature groove and using dynamics (in a post-Jamalistic way) to heighten a swinging feel.

I've mentioned the originals, which are appropriate vehicles. Then there are some quirky versions of various standards, the Beatles' "Lady Madonna" and "Eleanor Rigby;" Duke's "Johnny Come Lately," Shearing's "Lullaby of Birdland" (done in four but sounding in it's own way like it's in an odd signature regardless!). So then not everything is irregular in meter. Things can and do swing or funk in regular time and that serves to contrast the various times well.

Stan Strickland sounds very good on his moments. Everyone is in the groove. Mr. Gardony does not sound like anyone's clone. And the music is quite good.

Julio Resende's Piano and Trio Shine Warmly On "You Taste Like A Song"

Portuguese pianist Julio Resende has a kind of poetic touch. His trio date You Taste Like A Song (Cleen Feed 216) waxes that way. A reflective Silencio--For the Fado opens the album with a beautifully glowing balladic-free piece that seems full of saudade longing.

The trio has alternating bassists and drummers and they all do good yeoman's service accompanying and abetting Julio's improvisations, getting space of their own as well. The original pieces have something musical to grab onto virtually all the time and Resende plays like he means it.

There's a hint of mid-period Jarrett in terms of brightness, but not enough to say that he is a disciple. It's Julio's own way that comes to the fore on the CD. The title cut is especially attractive, with a fairly up bossa-rock feel and a kind of luminescent chordal melodic progression that enchants the senses.

There are some effective acoustic funk-rock trio forays, more helpings of balladic charm, moments of Bley-like freedom and use of trio space, a little of the Guaraldi-Jarrett gospel chordings, and plenty of different feels to keep the soul in a zone that rubs on one's musical concentration like Alladin on the magic lamp. And the CD closes with Monk's "Straight No Chaser" in a very personal sort of version.

It's another good one from Cleen Feed. It's a very good one for Julio Resende. Modern piano trio nuts should find plenty to crack here.

Soft and Hard Running Bop from Pianist-Composer Faulkner Evans

Faulkner Evans write some early -mid-sixties style Blue Note hard and soft bop pieces that have a nice solidity. That is, on his CD The Point of the Moon (CAP 1024). The pieces range from a sort of Mobley meets Andrew Hill hipness, to flat-out hard bop, all arranged well for a sextet that includes Matt Wilson, drums, Belden Bullock on bass, Gary Versace on organ or accordion, Ron Horton, trumpet, Greg Tardy on tenor, and of course Evans on piano. Versace plays on two tracks only, so perhaps it's better to call this a quintet. It's a good lineup, as you can see, and there is sometimes a Kind of Blue and beyond spatiousness to it all.

Faulkner plays a "composer's piano," meaning that he does not technically overwhelm, but plays appropriate strings of fairly short lines that fit with the changes and swing pretty well. The rest of the band puts out the kind of performances you'd expect of them. There's a nicely arranged version of one of my favorite Alec Wilder songs, "While We're Young," which like many of the others has some nicely put together voicings for the horns.

The title track to my mind is the most interesting piece, with a swing-quasi-tango feel heightened by Versace's accordion, a pointed bass line doubled in the piano, and a long winding head line. It also shows Ron Horton in a very lyrically productive solo mode.

It all is quite good--perhaps not indispensable, but good.

Ernie Krivda Stokes the Flames with "Blues for Pekar"

Tenorist Ernie Krivda has unassumingly been at it for decades, building up a rather voluminous discography of hard swinging jazz with roots in the hard bop of the mid-late '50s through early sixties. Many of those disks are quite fine; many were made for the Cadence-CIMP label complex Bob Rusch heads.

And herewith, a new offering [Blues for Pekar (Capri 74110-2)] (dedicated to jazz writer/critic Harvey Pekar) for his quartet-quintet (tenor, piano, bass, drums and an added trumpet/fluegel on four of the seven numbers). It's a solid band of Detroit-associated veterans. Sean Jones or Dominic Farinacci bring additional excitement to the mix and very good interplay with Krivda on the pieces where they are present.

Mr. Krivda embodies a jazz tradition without enslaving himself by copying one or more of the past master-playing styles. Like Scott Hamilton does for late swing/early bop, Krivda does for middle-hard bop. He plays himself and he plays with great authority and swinging imagination, set solidly square into the style he quite obvious favors.

This is a good one if you want to hear what he is up to. He runs down some effective blowing vehicles and a few classics-standards in a very engaging set. A favorite of mine is his balladic treatment of "More Than You'll Know," which packs a wealth of musical ideas into the hard-yet-wide, penetrating sound that is a Krivda trademark. But there is much else to enjoy as well. Recommended.

The Bebop Trio Takes A Tradition and Makes it Personal

You hear a name like the Bebop Trio and you think, "Oh, OK, I think I know what this one is going to sound like." In the case at hand, you'd probably be wrong. The trio's self-titled debut (Creative Nation Music 018) is not at all the business-as-usual rehashed bebop bag. It has an unusual instrumentation: Lefteris Kordis on piano, Alec Spiegelman, clarinet, and Thor Thorvaldsson on the drums. They alternate spontaneous improvisations with unusual treatment of some terrific and mostly neglected classics: Powell's "Celia," Shearing's "Conception," Hope's "Boa," Ellington's "Zurzday," Nichols's "Change of Season," and Tristano's "317 East 32nd."

Comparisons are inevitable with clarinetist Don Byron's Ivey Divey, an album that featured Byron, Jason Moran and Jack DeJohnette in a program of Lester Young associated music. There IS some relation between the two. But the Bebop Trio hold their own because they are saying something of their own.

What is so interesting about this group is how they combine freely articulated improvisations with bop styles and even swing. They do it very creatively. Some of the early-mid Giuffre trios come to mind, for the obvious presence of Spiegelman's limpid clarinet, the open spacious sort of approach, and also Kordis's sometimes apparent similarity to Paul Bley in his freely rubato reworking of bop. But again, there is enough different that you only recognize the lineage.

Thorvaldsson's drumming is open, creative and both rhythmically and coloristically distinct. He plays an important role in getting an uninhibited rhythmic asymmetry into the mix. Then there's the interplay between the three, which is fabulous. Both Kordis and Spiegelman have something definite to say on their instruments and they benefit greatly from the open-ended format.

The treatment of the classic bop pieces works seamlessly into the free improvisations that frame them.

This is exceptional music, a true breath of new life. These are players that need to be heard. You can help that along by listening. I think you'll be very glad you did.

Claudio Scolari Defies Expectations with "Colors of Red Island"

Colors of Red Island (Principal MISV04) has what you might not expect to find. It's a disk by two drummers (Scolari and Daniele Cavalca) plus a trumpet (Scolari Simone). OK fine, you think, I can imagine what this will sound like. Well it does not, to my ears. First off, the drummers play other instruments as well (Scolari on flute, piano and synths; Cavalca on vibes and bass; both on percussion). So you get a chamber jazz-rock sort of ambient music.

It's a well sequenced and contrasting series of miniature sound worlds of a post-ECM sort. There is a minimalist shimmer without a lot of repetition; there are occasions where there is something vaguely African about it; there is some fine drumming (and you WOULD expect that) often in a pulsating quasi-rock context. And there is a balance between improvisation and a compositional-conceptual attention to structured eventfulness.

It's wide-ranging and consistently attention-getting, in spite of its 79-minute length. And with the various instruments unleashed in the course of a particular segment, it never sounds thin. It's almost orchestral.

Recommended if you are looking for a different spin.