The Lou Grassi Po Band with Marshall Allen, Live at the Knitting Factory Volume 1, 2000

A couple of years ago Porter Records released a 2000 performance of an all-star configuration of the Lou Grassi Po Band Live at the Knitting Factory Volume 1 (Porter 4051). I am just (happily) catching up with it so I am sharing the experience with you, my much appreciated readers.

Lou is of course on the drums, the always incandescent Marshall Allen makes his presence vibrate on alto and flute, then there's Paul Smoker on the trumpet, Steve Swell on trombone, Perry Robinson, clarinet, and the late Wilber Morris on bass.

Needless to say this was a formidable gathering of avant jazzmen and I am glad to say the results live up to expectations. Three longish segments fill the disk: two collective improvisations and a Paul Smoker piece, "LouRa."

You could just listen to Lou Grassi on the drums and get something out of it. He is inventive rolling thunder personified. But everybody is onto the main stem in classic new thing ways so there is much to hear. The group improvs are sometimes extraordinarily tumultuous in part thanks to Marshall's patently raucous war cries as inspiration, but there are plenty of spaces less dense as well.

It's a very good blow-out that I would have been very happy to have caught live. For all that there is the document disk available as consolation. Avant fans will find this one very stimulating, as I did.

Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, Christmas Time is Here

When it comes to holiday music, I feel strongly that it should be volunteerisitic. If I turn on the TV and they are singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" on November 22nd with the words changed to emphasize how much you'll save at x store, I find it a most annoying imposition. But when the time is right, I am there, if it is something ancient or tasteful, or, if I am in certain mood, tasteless even.

Today's disk goes under the "tasteful" category. It's the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, a solid big band, doing arrangements of 12 perennials. A chorus makes an appearance on a few numbers, and there is a nice sounding singer for one of the carols, but this is primarily a set of arrangements that are middle-of-the-road mainstream for an outfit that does a fine job making them swing. Soloists Gregory Tardy, Tim Green and Dan Trudell add the nutmeg to the musical eggnog.

It's most definitely something that would go well with get-togethers and such. If it won't change the world, it should add some good cheer, and we all need some of that this year.

Noah Howard Quartet, Live at Glenn Miller Cafe

Noah Howard is no more. But his music lives on. An interesting, previously unreleased quartet performance can be had as Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe (JaZt Tapes 030).

It features Noah on alto and tenor in good form from 2000 with the always lively Bobby Few on piano and a game rhythm section of Ulf Akerhjelm on bass and Gilbert Matthews, drums.

It has the late Trane general free feel as far as group dynamic goes much of the time--implied, open pulse at times, all-over chordal piano in Bobby Few's own way, Noah incantatory.

This is not copycatting, though. It extends the music tradition and it's doing so through the creative passion of Noah. And there are musical excursions into other zones in the course of the two sets represented here on disk.

The sound is very decent. It may not be the best thing Noah recorded but it extends what we have of his later period quite nicely and gives you some soulful freedom in the process.

Go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 to find out more about the series and how to order a copy.

Maya Dunietz, John Edwards, Steve Noble, Cousin It

Cousin It? (Hopscotch 23). No not the hairy character from the TV show. Instead, a trio of Israeli pianist Maya Dunietz with bassist John Edwards and Steve Noble on drums.

Maya has made a name for herself over there, and this trio gives you an idea why. She is extremely plastic in her conception, able and willing at any given moment to dive into inside-the-piano and prepared sounds, then give out with an extension, an original phrasing that shows an absorption of the piano jazz that existed (and exists) in another time. John Edwards and Steve Noble are ideal partners. They respond not by stepping on her lines but by setting up complementary pulsations, phrases, sounds that complete the musical picture.

This is music of freedom, piano trio avantness of distinction. It is very in there and it is very out there! It's something that most definitely adds something to the piano trio scene, and it does so in ways that make you smile and keep digging.

Zen Widow featuring Wadada Leo Smith, Screaming in Daytime (Makes Men Forget)

Wadada Leo Smith has been on a roll lately, there is no doubt. His recordings as leader, composer, trumpet master have been some of the most important releases of the last several years. And now he makes a rare appearance as sideman, in great form, with the group Zen Widow.

Screaming in Daytime (Make Men Forget) (pfMENTUM 069) is a very productive meeting between Wadada and the members of Zen Widow (Gianni Gebbia, alto, Matthew Goodheart, piano and electro-acoustic gongs and cymbals, and Garth Powell, drums and percussion).

It's a varied offering of adventuresome new music-avant jazz that gives plenty of opportunity for all to express themselves freely, yet has a compositional and interactional program that keeps the music moving in the best ways. The members of Zen Widow make their kinetic improvisations speak, as does Wadada, as one comes to expect of course.

This is carefully conjured, serious new music. It works on all levels. Highly recommended.

Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut, Live at ABC No Rio, NYC, 2007

The JaZt Tapes series seems to me a very good idea. It is a series of limited-edition releases by mostly avant jazz artists, music they want the music community to hear, as a promotion of their music and as a way of introducing the music to the public in hopes of a larger-scale release in the future.

Today we take a look at one such release by Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut, Live at ABC No Rio, NYC (JaZt Tapes CD-029). It is a 2007 performance with a shifting set of improvisers that includes Shurdut on piano along with Chris Welcome, Robyn Siwula, Ken Silverman, Blaise Siwula, Marcus Cummins, Raymond Todd, Shayna Dulberger and Scott May.

It is nice sort of free-energy anarchy that gets going on this set, put in to orbit with Shurdut's all-over density at the piano, with Silverman's guitar and Blaise Siwula's alto and clarinet some of the other more outstanding voices in the general tumult.

It's music that does not compromise. It is music that should fascinate those into the "new thing" because the mix is very dynamic, ever-changing and sonically diverse. It's worth the effort to track this one down. Some Shurdut is no doubt essential to any free improv collection and this is a good one.

Go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 to find out more about the series and how to order a copy.

Trespass Trio, Bruder Beda, Kuchen-Zanussi-Strid

Today, a look at an attractive release from the Trespass Trio, Bruder Beda (Clean Feed 251). It is named after (and centers around) the Jewish WWI hero, priest and minister who was persecuted and martyred by the Nazis.

Fittingly the music has a serious, sober, commemorative cast. Other than one collective improvisation, these are Martin Kuchen compositions, who plays alto and baritone. Per Zanussi is on double bass, Raymond Strid on drums.

The music is free, compositional, structured, passionate, anguished, moving. Much of the music in in a minor tonality, in keeping with the theme. On alto and baritone Martin is quite convincing and the rhythm team brings an intensity of focus to the session in keeping with Kuchen's own musical commitment.

It is one of the most distinctively alive avant trio disks to come out this year to my mind. This is music of intensity, of tenderness, rage and transcendence.