Steve Swell, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Improviser, Solo Trombone Improvisations

Steve Swell is in many ways the leading trombonist in modern avant jazz today. Sure there are others, good ones, but Steve has done more noteworthy music on the instrument in the last decades than anybody else I can think of. His playing reflects great attention to timbre and color, and he in his own way channels the trombone jazz tradition encompassing the early tailgaters, the big-band innovators, boppers and afterboppers, all of it, and gives it his own spin as an important stylist in his own right. As composer and bandleader he has excelled as well. I've covered a fair amount of his music on these pages and now it is time for another good one.

As seminal and all-pervasive an artist as he is, Swell nonetheless to my knowledge has never recorded an all-solo trombone album before. So it is timely that he has finely, finally done so--The Loneliness of the Long Distance Improviser (Swell Records SDS 001).

Last fall he went into a studio in Brooklyn and now we have it. Open horn, muted, sound-oriented, note-oriented, new music and jazz-rooted free improvisations leap forth at us in 15 short segments.

There is a spectrum of expressions that come into play; lots of good ideas and feelings go into the performance; all flows with the surety of a master improviser that he most certainly is. If it seems effortless it is because all the work and shedding that has gone into his music has taken place already, though nobody who continues to produce good things ever really stops that process.

There is a wealth of freely architectural building to be heard and experienced. Freedom is a word that expresses the music, but it is a freedom that has required a good deal of preparation, the structuring coming about while and after he spent years working on multiple sound models and spent considerable time interacting in group situations. You might compare his solo trombone work here with that of Stuart Dempster or George Lewis. You might find that he falls into a place somewhere between the two, but in any case there is soulfulness on display increasingly as the set proceeds, but there is also a new music conjoining of sound-color clusters, both in a virtuoso zone, both arriving at places it takes considerable musical abilities and ears to get to.

And that's where Steve is now. A master of the art of the trombone, going it solo for a set of adventurous and very musical results. Solo albums by individual avant artists can sometimes get boring, if things are not quite right for whatever reason. Loneliness is the opposite. It is vital expression, filled with immediacy and flourish, captivating trombone utterances.

Anyone who appreciates full-blown spontaneous excitement, a no-nonsense getting to it by a single naked instrument, a masterful example of the solo trombone at the hands of a brilliant exponent...here is an album for you! Kudos!

Enrico Rava Quartet with Gianluca Petrella, Wild Dance

Ever since the 1967 release of Steve Lacy's The Forest and the Zoo many of us in the US have had the happy chance to follow trumpet master Enrico Rava's evolution and development. Some nearly 50 years later the music continues to flow. Recently we had the Enrico Rava Quartet plus trombonist Gianluca Petrella in a new album, Wild Dance (ECM B0023623-02).

It is a fine gathering of 13 original Rava numbers and one collective improvisation, played by Rava, Petrella, and quartet members Francesco Diodati on electric guitar, Gabriele Evangelista on double bass and Enrico Morello on drums.

The collective sonance is special, Petrella and Rava forming a spectrally unified yet two-in-one individual front line, guitarist Diodati comping sparely and soloing carefully and creatively when called upon, and the rhythm team of Evangelista and Morello giving us an open, pulsating looseness that moves the band forward in a swingingly laid-back fashion. But it's not all meditative. Listen to the afterbop motion of "Infant" or "F Express," for example, and you will get another dimension.

Rava sounds as sprightly as ever, but more and more concentrated in his solo work and the dual trumpet-bone double improvs. His tone is ever-ravishing. He has perhaps turned more to the spaciousness of a modern ECM sound than what he was doing 50 years ago, but one should expect development in a great artist and we certainly get that with Enrico.

Evangelista has some of the rootsiness of Roswell Rudd, with whom Enrico did some stellar work. He sounds perfect here. Diodati's guitar has a little of the Abercrombie space lining, but adopted and furthered in original terms. Hear also Envangelista in a solo framework and you get another dimension of the artistry there.

The album is going to appeal to Rava fans, for sure. It gives us new and excellent examples of his special ways, furthered to move on to the present-day. Anyone who appreciates a painstakingly sculpted modern/postmodern jazz sound that has adventure and lyricism built squarely into the presentation will love this one.

Bravo, Enrico!

Stefano Battaglia Trio, In the Morning

When I get an abundance of good things for review, I sometimes find there is more to cover than there is time. But I do make a point of getting to everything worthwhile even if I have a backlog. That is the case with the fine album from last year by the Stefano Battaglia Trio, In the Morning (ECM B0023620-02), concentrating on the music of Alec Wilder, who wrote some classics that belong in the Great American Songbook and also was a fine composer of chamber music.

Now Wilder music predisposes me to pay attention to a group and its release, but beyond that Stefano Battaglia and his trio outdo themselves with some stunning improvisations here. There is a post-Jarrettian attention to modal-zonal grooves that have a quasi-world sound, but also some really fine harmonic-melodic realizations and excursions by Battaglia and bassist Salvatore Malore, and some excellent drumming by Roberto Dani.

They manage to work with the stunning Wilder song forms and make of them something personal and improvisationally advanced. It's a live recording at the Torino Jazz Festival, 2014, and it is quite obvious that they are in a very inspired frame of mind.

What is evident and praiseworthy is the way they make tracks beyond the open yet structured freedom of the Jarrett Trio at its peak and use it as a foundational basis to build considerably and fruitfully upon.

This is some magic music, I tell you true. The more I hear it, the more it speaks to me. It is probably and in fact undoubtedly one of the landmark piano trio recordings of last year. It tickles my musical being, and I think it will do the same for you.

Kudos!

Naima, Bye

New music nearly always involves a jump into a stream of the unexpected, especially if you are not familiar with the artists-creators. That experience can be invigorating, if everything is right. I felt that special something on the first hearing of the Valencia, Spain-based electroacoustic piano trio Naima and their recent recording Bye (Cuneiform Rune 418).

It is a distinctive and distinguished threesome that combines the sophisticated harmonic-melodic impact of early Jarrett trios and perhaps even a touch of Evans trio interactivity with some of the arranged complexities of the Bad Plus--and the immediacy and electricity of jazz-rock. Naima is Enrique Ruiz on piano and synths, Luis Torregrosa on drums, and Rafael Ramos Sania on acoustic bass. This is their fourth album. It uses electric effects and synthesizer in conjunction with the acoustic instruments to break the music into multiple sound-color cells, which with the largely Ruiz-Torregrosa compositions and arrangements manages to carve out an original approach, all of which ends up sounding like none of their possible influences.

They avoid typical head-solos-head structures for more unexpected composed-improvised sequences. Some of it has a kind of minimalist-rock repetitive mesmerizing moment but integrated at all times into a harmonic-compositional vertical edge. And the music has a continual linear unfolding that keeps the ears very much on the alert.

There are a couple of Jaga Jazzist and Elliot Smith covers which sound fine but mostly it is a set of originals that expresses at times the loss of love ones, two in particular, that band members suffered through recently. Those feelings form part of the impetus behind the music heard here.

So there is at times a pointed expression of that loss, transformed artistically into trio music of impact and ultra-musicality.

I will not give you a track-by-track rundown of the album. Each number has its own pristine quality. It is best heard than described. But I will say that this is a beautifully talented outfit who give us some substantial trio music that has unpredictably explosive electricity in its arsenal (which it unleashes at special times for great dramatic contrast) and all the subtlety of a crack piano threesome.

Most unusual and original, this. If you want something that refuses to be pinned down yet is filled with musical abundance, this one is for you. Jump into the musical stream of Naima and find your way into their currents!

Wadada Leo Smith & John Lindberg, Celestial Weather

Wadada Leo Smith is one of those few artists whose every release these days should be heard. That list of artists for me is small but his music, his trumpet playing and composing show us a creator who keeps getting better, deeper, never flagging, ever.

So though I am late in posting on this, his album of duets with long-time bassist associate John Lindberg is another essential listen. The album is entitled Celestial Weather (TUM 046). I can't remember hearing John Lindberg doing something I did not like, either, for that matter, so not surprisingly this one makes me smile.

The Finnish label TUM does its usual exemplary job with the audio and physical packaging.

And so the music....It is an hour of excellent things to hear. There are three multi-part numbers involved. The first, by Wadada, pays tribute to the wonderful bassist and human being from the AACM and especially the Art Ensemble of Chicago. "Malachi Favors Maghostut - A Monarch of Creative Music" does the late master honor. John's bass playing seems suitably puckish here and Leo plays something that Malachi would no doubt have loved to be a part of. Both fill the air with some fine, outgoing extroversions worthy of the tribute.

Next follows the two-some's collective five-part "Celestial Weather Suite." It is open-freedom music, each part named after an unusual weather event, "Cyclone," "Hurricane," etc. They explore various creative possibilities, each interacting sensitively and soulfully to the other. There is agitation, there is relative calm, but there is never a loss as to what to play.

The final is the two-part Lindberg piece "Feathers and Earth." As with the others the compositional element is so integrated into the improvising that it is not all that easy to separate the two, but here there is a head melody/motif beginning the second segment. What matters is the totality and that there is no denying. It is essential.

In the end we get inspired trumpet and bass playing, a duet far beyond the expected status quo, whatever that might be, and into some SERIOUS (Sirius) stellar explorations that while spontaneous as a whole are the product of two lifetimes of committed musical direction.

So of course I can only recommend this to you. It is celestial in the best sense. And the listening is nothing but pleasure.

Bathysphere, Jorrit Dykstra, Pandelis Karayorgis and Big Band

From the adventurist Driff label comes Bathysphere (Driff 1502) a rather exciting big band project from Jorrit Dijkstra and Pandelis Karayorgis. The 15-piece band features some of the best on the Boston scene, plus a few imported from elsewhere. The original charts are divided up between the two leaders, with four by Karayorgis and three by Dijkstra. They were written with the players in mind and so have a kind of organic resonance reinforced by the close relationship between the written and the improvised.

The band sports a full contingent of deep-noted players: Charlie Kohlhaus on baritone (and tenor), Jeb Bishop and Jeff Galindo on trombones, Josiah Reibstein on tuba, plus Nate McBride and Jef Charland on basses.

Tony Malaby and Seth Meicht join Kohlhase and Dijkstra in the reed section (and Dijkstra also plays some analog synth). Then there is Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet plus Forbes Graham and Daniel Rosenthal on trumpets, Luther Gray on drums, Andrew Neumann on analog electronics, plus of course Pandelis at the piano.

It is then a very potent group of players. The Bathysphere, that round iron diving rig that allows for very deep sea explorations, is an apt metaphor for the music, which has much depth, is exploratory and of course carries plenty of deep tone clout in its makeup.

The charts very happily prevail--covering a considerable stylistic distance from references to big band tradition and the bop and after giants to the outside contemporary avant realms. The piano of Pandelis, the alto of Jorrit and the solo power of other key players enrich the music considerably. Pandelis does some great work on piano especially. The compositional element is foundational, memorable and nicely alive.

This is primo avant big band music. Along with Michael Formanek's Ensemble Kolossus (covered yesterday) it is one of the most exciting large ensembles you can hear out there these days. The album is a showstopper for sure, so definitely give it your undivided attention. I hope the lineup can flourish and continue to evolve in the years to come despite the formidable economic obstacles such ensembles face today. For now, though, they come at you full-blaze! Do not miss this.

Michael Formanek, Ensemble Kolossus, The Distance

If you are like me and have been following composer-bassist-bandleader Michael Formanek and his music with interest but not as closely as perhaps one should, you are in for a rather shocking surprise. His debut recording of the 18-piece big band Ensemble Kolossus, The Distance (ECM 2484) is a milestone in contemporary modern jazz composition. Mark Helias conducts the ensemble in a program of beautifully advanced music. Formanek cites a wide array of creators that have influenced the ultimate sound of the unit, from Messiaen's organ music to the large ensemble sounds of Mingus, Sun Ra, Threadgill and Braxton.

Along with Formanek is an unusually full rhythm section of piano, bass, marimba, guitar and drums, all of which get put to important usage throughout.

Chris Speed on sax and Ben Gerstein on trombone have stellar solo roles, but then Formanek and others do as well. The massive full-blown sound of the ensemble cannot be denied. It is powerhouse music.

The ultimate effect is impressive. There is great compositional detail in the arrangements and the outcome has originality and great expressive thrust. It is quite simply a tour de force of ultra-modern jazz big band music, one of the seminal jazz composition triumphs of the present. It is both a summation and a cogent furthering of where we have been going in serious jazz composition in the past decades. Get it without fail!