Trio 3D, Remi Alvarez, Joe Fonda, Harvey Sorgen

Tenorist Remi Alvarez is Mexico's secret weapon. No, not in some military sense. If there are such things as cultural wars, then Remi is Mexico's avant jazz equalizer. Well of course avant jazz doesn't have much bearing on international politics, but my point is that Remi Alvarez is a formidable player.

He has a slightly dark tone a la Sam Rivers, and he is very inventive. His work on the recent Trio 3D (Konnex 5286) is some of his very best. He is in excellent company with Joe Fonda at the Bass and Harvey Sorgen on drums. They run through twelve varied three-way collective improvisations in the course of the album, with everybody on top of it and working together very well.

But it's Remi Alvarez that especially shines here. He is a tenor for today and this is one of his very best performances on disk, so you need to catch it if you can. And this trio is a hum-dinger.

Jane Monheit & Sara Gazarek, Come Spend Christmas With Me

If you are sick of too much of the same holiday songs and would like something new, there's one just out that's has a nice ring to it, "Come Spend Christmas with Me," (Palmetto) by vocalists Jane Monheit and Sara Gazarek.

All proceeds from this single release will be donated to the ASPCA, in support of animal rights, so that's an added plus.

You can hear the song on soundcloud by pasting the following url into your browser window and hitting enter: http://soundcloud.com/palmetto-records/come-spend-christmas-with-me

You can purchase it here or on iTunes or amazon: http://www.palmetto-records.com/album.php?album=190

Cheers!

Mikkel Mark Trio Featuring Luther Thomas, 2007

Freebop is not bebop. That's obvious I suppose. Freebop often uses the bebop repertoire and sometimes the changes. Freebop may reference bebop lines in the course of the improvisations. But freebop takes the music past bebop in ways that would probably have gotten many players kicked off the bandstand if they had played some of those lines/harmonies at Mintons back in the day. And of course the players are not trying to play bebop as much as they are commenting on the form and making something new of it.

This is what runs through my head as I listen to the Mikkel Mark Trio Featuring Luther Thomas (JaZt TAPES CD-028). It's a 2007 live date from Copenhagen featuring Mark on piano, Thomas on alto, Guffi Pallesen, bass, and Kresten Osgood at the drums.

The band runs through some bop and beyond classics, "Straight No Chaser" and "Groovin' High" but also "All Blues" and "Equinox." What we get is a nicely loose blowing session with a solid rhythm section. Luther Thomas is in very good form, coming up with some blazing lines and going at it with conviction. Mikkel Mark comps sparingly and with expansive harmonic sensibilities and solos in a sparse, super-monkish way much of the time.

It may not be a recording that will set the jazz world aflame this year, but it is quite enjoyable and shows all in a nice place. Go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 to find out more about this release and the JaZt TAPES series in general.

Lou Marini, Starmaker

I never paid much attention to Lou Marini in the past, even though he's been pretty ubiquitous. Listening to his new solo album Starmaker (BluJazz 3394), I hear something that gets my attention. It's a straight-ahead, somewhat commercial, somewhat electric date, with some very competent sidemen and arrangements that are just fine. The tunes are interesting from a compositional standpoint.

But what is the main thing going for this is Lou Marini's playing. He's something else. He has a soulful rasp when he wants it and his lines are not at all typical, having bop-Trane and after in there in unusual ways. He sings a little but that's some band vocal stuff.

It's an album that shows you that Lou Marini is a player with a capital "p". Gil Goldstein, by the way, plays some hip things on piano too.

Now I'd like to hear Lou do an acoustic quartet session and let it all hang out!

Frank Lowe, The Loweski

Frank Lowe's seminal Black Beings (ESP) was what turns out to be only the first part of a concert recorded in 1973. What was initially released on that LP was one of the wildest excursions into the avant jazz of the era, with Frank Lowe and Joseph Jarman breathing fire and the rest of the band stoking the flames for an extended rant that still has the capacity to excite and unsettle.

ESP has recently released The Loweski, which is the rest of that concert, almost 40 minutes worth of unreleased music.

It's the same musicians, of course. Lowe on tenor, Jarman on soprano and alto, Raymond Lee Cheng (The Wizard) on violin, William Parker on bass and Rashid Sinan on drums.

After a short solo intro by Lowe the group launches into another collective onslaught of high energy expression. This mix is different--with Lowe and Jarman coming though at somewhat lower levels and so you hear the rhythm section and Chang's violin at the front of the audio stage for a time. And they are engaged and holding forth in very good ways, so it gives you something very much worth hearing. From there Chang plays some extreme pizzicato electrified, then back to the bow. He is possessed and inspired.

After that the horns get rolling again with just the rhythm section, but again they are low in the mix and not as audible as one might expect. William Parker steps in though with his bow and does some nice things. Towards the end the saxes become more centered for a bit and then the improvisation ends with drums and Parker's bowed dirgy two-chord plus harmonics.

So in the end this is especially interesting for what you hear of Cheng, Parker and Sinan. It is less of a horn showcase. But it is still vital free jazz of the era and will be appreciated as such by those so inclined. I am very glad to have it. Black Beings is the one to start with, however, if you haven't checked that out yet.

Marilyn Lerner, Ken Filiano, Lou Grassi, Arms Spread Wide, 2008

I am catching up with a release from 2009 that I am glad to hear repeatedly. It's an avant piano trio date recorded in 2008 for a No Business (NBCD 5) CD, Arms Spread Wide. The band is an excellent one: Marilyn Lerner at the piano, Ken Filiano, contrabass, and Lou Grassi at the drums.

All three players are inextricably intertwined in a very musical dialog. Ms. Lerner is an imaginative improviser who has listened to Cecil Taylor and Paul Bley and made her own way through those stylistic influences. Ken Filiano and Lou Grassi are well known and so need no introduction. They sound especially good here with Ms. Lerner. Lou's freetime is superb and mightily inventive; Ken is rhythmically and melodically alive in the best sense; both work with Marilyn to create long strands of improvised coherence and excitement.

It has connection with the roots of the music and yet it soars far and wide in its collective intelligence. That's a pretty good way to go! This one needs to be heard.

Claudio Scolari, Synthesis

When you aren't sure what to expect, then what you get can be anything and not surprise you, I suppose. But in the case of Claudio Scolari's second offering, Synthesis (Principal 05), I was surprised anyway. One factor that is quite unusual about his Project (as he calls it) is the instrumentation. Claudio is on drums, percussion, electronics (synth/computer) and flute; Daniel Cavalca plays drums, vibes, piano, melodica and bass; and Simone Scolari plays trumpet.

What this means is that there is some very hot drumming, some very hip trumpet wielding, and then somewhere in the middle there is the overlap/center of each piece with electronics and percussive melodic motifs.

They may not be the only group doing this sort of thing (Mazurek etc.) but they do it well; they thoroughly build sound structures for each piece. They go many places in the course of the disk but the groove quotient and free quality consistently come together well to create some memorable moments. It's a testament to the multi-instrumental flexibility of Claudio and Daniele (and the prowess of Simone) that things do not falter. It's all refreshingly DIY, faux casual, but never amateurish. And it gets you listening and liking.

Call it contemporary. Then grab an earful!