Juhani Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto, Conversations

I sometimes find that I have underestimated or not paid enough attention to an artist. I've heard some of his (or her) albums, didn't dislike them, but somehow nothing "took" in my mind. I'll admit that has been the case with reedist Juhani Aaltonen.

The "aha" moment has come for me however with the two-CD album duets he has made with pianist and fellow Finn Heikki Sarmanto, Conversations (TUM 024-2). It's the two of them going over the music of Sarmato, a few collaborative, spontaneously improvised efforts composition-wise, and a couple of standards.

Juhani sticks to the tenor, Heikki to the piano and they weave some rather magical speals and spells. Sarmanto seems like the ideal partner in such a dialog. He is concerned with a spontaneously advanced tonal platform and has many moments of brilliance in a kind of post-Paul-Bley world. He too I have not paid sufficient attention to, and in this context he sounds great.

Juhani on tenor is a fully formed presence. There are intimations of Trane and Ben, Archie and the grand tradition of tenorism, but put in a context that is firmly modern and Aaltonian.

These are marvels of expressive freedom grounded in all that has come before, but re-found in a new playing situation, so to speak.

Very impressive! Very beautiful. Try and give this one a listen!

BassX3, Transatlantic: Gebhard Ullmann, Chris Dahlgreen, Clayton Thomas

Gebhard Ullmann has been making a name for himself over the last decade in various contexts, most notably as co-leader of a quartet with trombonist Steve Swell.

BassX3 is a most unusual proposition of reeds and two basses--Ullmann on bass clarinet and bass flute, and the contrabasses of Chris Dahlgreen and Clayton Thomas. Their second recorded effort, Transatlantic (Leo 625) finds them exploring freely the kinds of unusual timbral color combinations and group sounds attainable through imagination and inspired improvisation.

Only one piece has freely walking basses and "jazz-oriented" bass clarinet soloing. But there are moments of fire-energy typical of "free jazz" at its most outgoing. The rest make use of the contrast between reeds and the low and complex sounds two basses can produce via arco and sometimes relatively unconventional playing techniques. Throughout this contrast forms a basis for the music that comes about.

The end result is an improvised new music that fascinates and brings new sounds into your listening world with forethought and a dramatic sense.

Mark Sherman, The L.A. Sessions, Exemplary Bop for Vibes and Organ Trio

When a vibesman of the stature of Mark Sherman teams up with a crack organ trio (Bill Cunliffe, Hammond; John Chiodini, guitar; Charles Ruggiero, drums) for a set of bop/hard bop standards ("Woody N' You," "Whisper Not," "Bag's Groove") and not-so-standards ("Quasimodo," "Celia," "Serpent's Tooth") you expect a certain thihg. And on Mark Sherman's L.A. Sessions (Miles High 8617), you pretty much get it.

That "it" is some nicely swinging ensemble grooving and good-bopping solo work. The drumming kicks it up, guitar and organ solos get inside the genre well, and... Mark Sherman does the entire set WITHOUT sounding like Milt Jackson. The bop lines are there with all lucidity, but he has a sound that's softer than Bags, a little more crisply articulated.

Like the moldy fig New Orleans disks made in the '40s and '50s, bopping is the new traditionalist cottage industry. And like that era's revivals, the current turn backwards doesn't always uncover new avenues or open up additional vistas.

Mark Sherman brings a slightly different articulation to it though. And everybody so thoroughly grounds themselves in the idiom that you can't help but appreciate what's going on. These guys FEEL the music. It's inside their bones. And so it comes off as authentic, genuine.

That's something.

Nakatani Tiner Drake, Ritual Inscription. Limited LP Release . . .

Today, some music on vinyl--a limited edition release of Tatsuya Nakatani, Kris Tiner and Jeremy Drake's Ritual Inscription (Epigraph LP-001). It's a live recording from the Metro Galleries in Bakersfield, California.

Tatsuya sounds excellent on drums and percussion, getting a vividly wide set of timbres from the set up he assembles--bowed metallic objects, sharp clang, rumble and swat punctuations, and an inner sense of improvised freedom-as-form. Kris Tiner's trumpet and flugel give you a sound and style that stem from Don Cherry's bugle-call post-boplicity and Bill Dixon's thickness of sound color, handled in a very personal way. Guitarist Jeremy Drake makes his own form of electronic timbre-textures, not sounding like Derek Bailey (not easy to do these days) but energizing from the same fountainhead.

Together they work their magic in an impressive short set. You are ready for more when the second side ends. Let's hope we can hear them again. In the meantime this is exemplary outness.

Mockuno NuClear, "Drop It"

The current avant scene may not be in the focal sights of the mass media or the general public, but it thrives nonetheless. As Edgard Varese once said, and Frank Zappa espoused, "the present-day composer refuses to die." That can also be said for the improvising musicians out there in new jazz land.

A not as yet well-known group from Europe, Mockuno NuClear, serves as an example. Their CD Drop It (No Business 37) gives you evidence (if you needed any) that the work of innovation and synthesis, advance and retrenchment continues on in ways that show vitality. Now you may have to search it out. The era where there was for example Sam Goody stores in multiple neighborhoods routinely stocking the newest avant music may be a thing of the past (though tomorrow in the States it is Record Store Day), and important small boutique labels like No Business (centered in Lithuania) may not find themselves on display in a chain like Best Buy, but the music is still being made and much of it is very good and innovative to boot.

So today we take a look at Drop It. Mockuno NuClear is a trio of Liudas Mockunas on soprano, tenor and bass saxes; Dmitrij Golovanov on piano and keys; and Marijus Aleksa on drums; augmented by the bass of Vytis Nivinskas on two cuts and the second drumming of Darius Rudis on one.

This is a band that has the freedom of the "new thing" tradition with some of the power and electricity of post-Milesian psychedelia and the kind of zany avant compositional style and improvisational insouciance of ICP and the Ganelin Trio. Liudas has his own coloristic-noteful facility on all three saxes, Dmitrij has out improv key chops but can rock out too when needed, and Marijus feels equally comfortable in out-swing, out-rock, or out-out settings.

With all this as a backdrop, the band covers its territory with energy and creativity. You may not know what is coming next as you first listen, but that is a good thing, isn't it? And once you piece together the whole set in your head after a few listens, if you are like me, you'll find that this is an impressive effort. Perhaps the biggest surprise is "Elephant Tango," where, after various moods and transgressions against what is supposed to go with what have taken place, they burst into a burlesque Bechet-does-a-tango thing that will make you smile with appreciation.

That's how this album goes. It's rather irresistible once you surrender to its ways. Encore!

Charles Gayle Trio, Streets

What is Charles Gayle doing dressed as a clown on the cover of his new trio recording Streets (Northern-Spy 018)? The answer is that it is a character persona Charles donned in the '90s to comment on his days of homelessness.

Charles Gayle has been recorded pretty extensively since his breakthrough days as a "pure" avant-free jazz saxophone voice. He has been rather well documented. So what would induce you to shell out your money for another release? The answer is that he has developed his voice and sound on tenor to a point where it is quite obvious he has undergone a period of growth. The album is of a piece; Charles on tenor, Larry Roland on acoustic bass, Michael TA Thompson on drums, playing an hour of free excursions. But it's not just any old hour. Charles is magnificently limber, impassioned and fired up. Roland and Thompson give him the cushion of excellent free-styling.

It's a complete statement of the place where Charles Gayle is at today. A master of expressive freedom. If you want to know Charles Gayle at his full power, this gives it to you in all its glory.

Dennis Gonzalez Yells at Eels, Resurrection and Life, with Alvin Fielder

Legendary drummer AACM founder Alvin Fielder was on the verge of death in Chicago when he miraculously revived, fully recuperated, and joined Dennis Gonzalez in Texas in 2010 to work on the latest Yells at Eels project. The result, appropriately titled Resurrection and Life (Ayler 125), has that special something that perhaps reflects triumph against the odds, revival after near extinction.

This is another beautiful Yells at Eels effort. Fielder on drums and Dennis on trumpet, cornet and fluegel are joined by the latter's two sons Aaron on contrabass, Stefan on vibes and drums, and the trombone of Gaika James.

Fielder and all three of the Gonzalez clan contribute the compositions, and they are sparkling. Alvin has the freetime-swingtime mix in good form, Aaron sounds beautiful on the bass, Stefan's vibes are quite good and add much to the group sound, and Gaika plays an extroverted trombone that goes very well with Dennis's soulfully dexterous brass work.

Fielder triumphs, the band triumphs, and Yells at Eels puts together one of its best ever!