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Hats Off To Tim Berne!

Gary Lucas — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 14:22:45 +0000

Hats Off To Tim Berne! Gary Lucas October 16, 2024 - 10:22

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So proud of Tim Berne getting his due again in the New York Times with this new article.

I grew up friends with Tim and his entire family in Syracuse, and in 1985 got him signed to Columbia Records. They were looking for "New Age" music (haha), which is how I got him in the door.

I played the head of Columbia Records A&R department the intro to the first cut of an indie duo album Tim had recently put out with Bill Frisell as his sparring partner, which opened with a minute or so of languid acoustic guitar jazz chords in the clear (which sounded vaguely New Age-y).

The A&R guy started kibitzing, waiting for Tim to come in, hovering over the turntable in his office and chanting in a low whisper:

"Come on, Tim, Blow! Blow Baby, Blow!!"

Suddenly, after all this Frisell acoustic guitar loveliness, Tim comes in with a single wailing note--a cracked, strangulated, Ornette-ish cri de coeur.

The A&R guy winced--but gave me a budget--the princely sum of 5000 Iron Men, all-in, to record this album (oy!). But Tim had his foot in the door, and we were off.

This windfall enabled Tim to leave his day job at the late Tower Records on West 4th and Broadway, where many excellent musicians toiled in the vinyl vineyards trying to eke out a living in the greater New York area.

Tim turned in a spectacular album to Columbia titled Fulton Street Maul. It was recorded at Chick Corea's Mad Hatter Studios in LA, with Bill Frisell on guitar, Hank Roberts on cello, and Alex Cline on percussion.

I was the nominal producer, and my main contribution was instructing Nels Cline (who did the hands-on engineering/mic placement/mixing) to "Turn Up Frisell!" when we started mixing.

And also, writing the liner notes--a gallimaufry of surrealist stream o' consciousness pitter patter that opened with something like "Inside the glass, smoked...")--which was me trying to depict the experience of sitting inside the recording booth chain-smoking joints while peering out through the glass wall that looked onto the studio where all this phenomenal music was being created. The marketing guy read this as a reference to crack pipes (!) and tried to deep-six my liner notes.

As noted in this article, the album received terrific notice, with Jon Pareles giving it a rave review in The New York Times.

But did it click with the New Age audience?

'Fraid not--there being lots and lots of outside playing and usage of tritones ("The Devil's Interval") aplenty all over the album. Very strong and melodic heads, though--and then, psychedelic jazz-rock insanity.

Me? I thought it was the most exciting music I'd ever been involved with since my days playing with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.

HATS OFF TO TIM BERNE!

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How Your Great-Grandma Rocked Out

C. Jefferson Thom — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 00:22:50 +0000

How Your Great-Grandma Rocked Out C. Jefferson Thom March 24, 2024 - 20:22

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Glenn Miller Orchestra

Benaroya Hall, Seattle

If your great-grandmother wanted to piss off her parents when she was a teenager, she might have slipped into her Keds, pulled on a flared skirt, and danced all night to the risqué sounds of Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. If she were really into the hard stuff, maybe she would have swung with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, which we were doing here in Seattle this past Friday night… and grandma rocks hard.
It began with a moonlight serenade. God, I love this music! It was so joyous, celebratory, innocent, and contradictory to what was happening outside the venues it first played in. I suppose a decade weighed down by The Great Depression, followed by a World War II chaser, necessitated some cheering up. And so, starting in the late 1930s, the Glenn Miller Orchestra began that effort and has continuously brightened the spirits of audiences up to the present day.

While the begrudging grasp of time has denied us any remaining original members, this manifestation of the Glenn Miller Orchestra is part of a tradition that has carried on bearing its originator’s name for nearly eighty years. Erik Stabnau, the band’s present Music Director and a man with more hands than Vishnu, glides seamlessly through the many hats he gracefully wears. Playing a mean saxophone, singing in a clean and golden baritone, introducing the numbers, and offering a little backstory without turning the music into ancient history, Stabnau makes weaving his tapestry look easy.

The band itself is immaculate. With fourteen dedicated musicians seated behind the trademark stand fronts, these legendary songs are kept alive. The brass section bursts with an exuberant celebration, the drummer bounces the rhythm between the snare and high hat, and the woodwinds wail with a heightened vibrato that makes me miss my grandparents. Listening to these soothing sounds makes it easy to see why people often think life used to be simpler and better and it just made more sense back in the day. While I don’t subscribe to those theories, this music makes me wax nostalgic for times I never knew. The band is joined by vocalist Jenny Swoish, who initially came on pretty strong, verging on the forced, but ultimately backs her swaggering confidence with powerful vocals.

If you have either an appreciation for or a curiosity about the swing era, a living tradition is tuned to scratch that itch. Like Zoroastrian priests tending to the sacred flame of Yazd, the Glenn Miller Orchestra carries the torch of a beautiful moment in music, breathing fresh life into it today. Bravo to the Seattle Symphony for its diverse and diligently curated programming. If you haven’t checked out what they have going on at Benaroya Hall, I highly suggest looking at their calendar to see what’s waiting to draw you in.

For more information and show dates for the Glenn Miller Orchestra:

https://glennmillerorchestra.com/

Seattle Symphony: https://www.seattlesymphony.org/

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Song of the Week: "Trinity"

Dusty Wright — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 16:20:04 +0000

Song of the Week: "Trinity" Dusty Wright June 17, 2022 - 12:20

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Love Snarky Puppy's vibe and chops -- like early Herbie Hancock (think "Watermelon Man") meets Earth, Wind & Fire's lyrical inventiveness. As this new video/song "Trinity" shows, the band swings regardless of the environment. Written by guitarist Mark Lettieri and arranged by Lettieri and Snarky Puppy, this hypnotic groove is perfect headphone fodder. The new album was recorded over a week of performance sessions at Dallas' Deep Ellum Art Company and serves as the group's love letter to the city that nurtured them after they formed while in the Jazz Studies program at the University of North Texas. The record sadly marks the final recorded performance by funk legend (and the collective's "musical Godfather") Bernard Wright before his tragic death shortly after the sessions. Their new record Empire Central will be released on September 30th via their own label GroundUP Music label.

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During a Pandemic, An Infectious Album for the Betterment of Us All

Tyler Stallings — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 19:07:51 +0000

During a Pandemic, An Infectious Album for the Betterment of Us All Tyler Stallings April 22, 2021 - 15:07

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Alan Sondheim and Azure Carter: Plaguesong (ESP-Disk')

The album Plaguesong, contains twenty-three tracks, which feature the duo of Alan Sondheim on instruments and Azure Carter as singer-songwriter on half the tracks, while Sondheim presents solo instrumentals on the other. The album, released in 2020, came out at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues a year and half later into the middle of 2021, hence, the album's title. Overall, the album is sonically infectious during a time of infection.

The first track, "As Above, So As Below," sets the listening experience. It begins with Sondheim on harmonica and Carter singing, "I'm taking a trip to heaven, to heaven I will go, I talk to God, and She did say, as above so as below…The world's a world without its end." In a sense, the album begins with an imaginary death but to a "heaven" that is different than one taught about in Sunday school.

Many of the tracks underscore the simplicity of this duo with Carter singing original lyrics and Sondheim on a variety of instruments that also include pithkiavlin, viola, guitar, and qifteli. These are alternated with instrumental tracks only in order to showcase Sondheim's multiple talents, especially with ancient string instruments, such as on track six’s "Guqin," which features lovely playing; or track eleven's "Musima" stressing his guitar inventiveness, and then the very lovely "Rababa" that uses what is considered one of the oldest string instruments in the world originating from Egypt.

Just past mid-way through the album, we have what feels like a climax, if one considers it as a continuous narrative of linked tracks. "Plague Hymn" on track 14 revives Sondheim on a rare Hohner Chordomonica harmonica, slower and lower pitched, and without Carter's lyrics; as if his partner has succumbed to the plague, to the pandemic. However, as if presenting the other side of the coin, it is followed by the track "Promised Land." Sondheim plays solo on the viola de Braga, yet it is pluckier and more upbeat, as if there is hope ahead. The speed of Sondheim’s strumming creates a sense of anticipation, as if I were running down the road and up the hill with him to see what’s ahead; hopefully to find Carter on the other side.

Carter returns on track 16 with "Pulse," simply reciting 93/79, 93/80, that is, blood pressure readouts. And then later in track 21, "Temperature," she again recites simply the bodily sign of "98.6." It is as though for most of the last half she is perhaps the untouched partner taking the pulse and temperature of Sondheim, who has perhaps been suffering, and that this album is a result of a "pandemic fever"?

However, by the end of the album on track 23 with "World," both are re-united. Carter sings her lovely complete phrases again and Sondheim plays an Irish banjo in such a way that you can detect a sense of tentativeness in his fingers. Carter sings, "What I have wanted to describe, what is indescribable, the tendency of my work…the idiocy of the real, when there is death…." She proceeds to describe the mundane details of a room, wondering if "the chair needs repainting?" Perhaps she is distracting herself from a chaos outside the door or, maybe, she indicates that she and Sondheim have come out the other end of their emotions during a pandemic.

Overall, the album's recording has the sensibility of Carter and Sondheim walking along the lonely roads of a pandemic-ridden world with his instruments and her notepad for lyrics; stopping on occasion at a vacated house to record Carter's expressive words and Sondheim's instrumental musings and improvisations; doing it for themselves, but taking the time to make a recording as well, in order to share with us that there is still human vitality in the world worth listening to.

Mr. Stallings is a writer, filmmaker, and curator living in Southern California. His most recent book-length collection of essays is Aridtopia: Essays on Art & Culture from Deserts in the Southwest United States. He also co-curated and co-edited Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the America. More information at www.tylerstallings.com

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How Charlie Parker Taught Me to Fly

Brian Boston — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 15:51:41 +0000

How Charlie Parker Taught Me to Fly Brian Boston November 11, 2019 - 10:51

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It was just another Thursday on campus when my professor put on one of the Bird's popular recordings of "All the Things You Are" as an example of his work. Sitting in darkness in the back row, I found my mind racing as I was suddenly fourteen years old again, trying to make sense of that very same recording and why such a seemingly plain song was so important to jazz.

“All the Things You Are” is often the first standard that budding jazz musicians will learn as it encompasses some of the most common chord changes -- 2-5's, chords moving in fourths diatonically, the chromatic walkdown at the end of the form, and that unmistakable intro/outro made famous by Bird himself. However, when lectured on the significance of this just a few years ago, I was left frustrated and confused with all questions and no answers.

Coming into high school, I was a drummer -- nothing more. Three music classes a day, five days a week, and I still couldn't tell you what made up a scale or name a note on the staff. Each day brought humiliation. Ready to throw in the towel and daydreaming about transferring schools, those walks to the band room filled me with dread. While my peers worried themselves over Chemistry and History, Jazz had become the bane of my existence.

As a teenager, Bird allegedly had a cymbal flung at him on the bandstand. If a sixteen year-old Parker could persevere, why couldn't I? Mama didn't raise no quitter after all. I relocated my lunch period to the practice rooms, and after school I spent hours hulked over the Vibraphone, fumbling over scales and arpeggios. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and soon I had upgraded from two mallets to four mallets, working on chord voicings and comping patterns.

A summer of regimented practicing came and went, and I began sophomore year confident in my abilities. "All the Things You Are" showed me that I couldn't be any more wrong. I had all my scales down, minor, major, dominant, bebop, diminished, whole step, you name it. I was successful in teaching myself not only treble but bass clef in the span of a year. I could read down a lead sheet and comp the chords no problem. What I could not do, however, was improvise.

The sole basis of all jazz music is improvisation. The art of instantaneous composition, of creating your own ideas and phrases over chord changes to tell your story -- that’s what makes the music. It’s what the greats from Monk to Miles were all renowned for. They say that the page is just a road map, a loosely interpretable guide to the music. Even still, staring at the first four chords (Fm7, Bbm7, Eb7, Abmaj7) I had no idea what to do with them, no understanding of what they had to do with each other. I was a dog, and my owner put the leash in my mouth and left me to walk myself.

A new door had opened before me, a door to a previously unexplored world. Countless lessons and innumerable hours of practice later, I played my first solo at a concert (over Mingus' "Love Chant," in case you were curious). In time I was piecing together the puzzle, understanding the functions of each chord and what I could do to best serve them in my own playing. Armed with a new kind of confidence, it was hard to believe that music had seemed so grim and daunting just a few months prior. My playing evolved past any and all prior expectations I had reserved, and I began to experiment, pushing past my preconceived limits.

The year I learned how to blow over "All the Things You Are" was the same year that I first composed music of my own. The same year that I took up playing the bass to sub in for a musical. The same year that I transcribed my first solo, Miles Davis' two choruses on "So What." The same year that I led a section for the first time, taking control of the drumline to arrange parts for the marching band’s repertoire. Although I began playing as a child, the flower of my musical career found the nutrients to blossom in high school.

During those four years in high school, I had the privilege of meeting many great musical minds, orchestrating and performing my own written works, and learning four more instruments than I came in knowing. If I were lucky, I got to go home right after classes three or four days a month as I spent most of my time practicing in rehearsals or solo after school. I’ve played venues from the likes of Carnegie Hall to the streets of Little Italy and Chinatown. All of the things I am today, all thanks to Bird's "All the Things You Are."

Mr. Boston is a Staten Island native studying Environmental Science at the Macaulay's Honors College at CCNY. This is his first article for CultureCatch.com.

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Beautifully written piece ,…

Beautifully written piece , awesome article !

Great article. All hail Bird.

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Legendary '70s Jazz Sessions Reissued

Steve Holtje — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 06:19:24 +0000

Legendary '70s Jazz Sessions Reissued Steve Holtje December 13, 2017 - 01:19

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Michael Cosmic: Peace in the World / Phill Musra Group: Creator Spaces (Now-Again)

For fans of avant-garde jazz who like to dive deep into the music's history, this combination of two rarities is the reissue of the year. Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra are twins who were born, respectively, Thomas Michael Cooper and Phillip Anthony Alfred Cooper in Chicago in 1950. Falling under the influence of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians after being recruited as teens by AACM member Roscoe Mitchell, they studied with Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, and AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams. A year at the University of Wisconsin (1970-71) gave them the opportunity to take Cecil Taylor's class, after which they moved to Boston along with fellow student Jemeel Moondoc.

Boston in the early '70s was a hotbed of avant jazz, and associate producer Clifford Allen's detailed liner notes say the brothers got to play around the Boston/Cambridge scene fairly often. Both albums were recorded during their Boston period, specifically in 1974; current N.Y.C. scene elder Cooper-Moore, then a young man sharing the Boston scene with the Cooper brothers, is cited as saying they were the only band he would go out to see in Boston. He expounds further: "[appreciating their music] had nothing to do with technique; it had all to do with their spirit, their feeling, and their connection, and when they finished, you felt what they were playing."

Though there are differences between the two records, the similarities are great. The composed "heads" (opening themes) are Ayleresque in their simplicity and fanfare-like qualities, but in general are more rudimentary and rhythmically stiffer than the folk-songish tunes Ayler wrote (the flute melodies of Phill's "Egypt" and Michael's "We Love You Malcolm X" are lithe exceptions). Once past the heads, though, the brothers' creativity blossoms; their spontaneous improvisations, which don't seem related to the heads, are limber and natural-sounding, and they often intertwine horn lines with twinnish empathy. The brothers exhibit command of multiple instruments -- both played various saxophones and other wind instruments, along with "little instruments" (an AACM influence, here percussion or ethnic winds), with Michael also contributing Sun Ra-ish piano and organ (sometimes overdubbed atop group improvisations). Structurally, though themes occasionally reappear in the middle as signposts, things are generally quite free-form in a nicely organic way, and while there is serious energy on display at times, these are not Frank Wright-style blowouts, instead ebbing and flowing. The polyrhythmic contributions of drummer Hüseyin Ertunc, present on all but the last bonus track (see below) are crucial to the group's sound, both accenting in the moment and holding things together. Devotees of this period will recognize the general style and freedom concept while reveling in the twins' highly personalized take on it.

The vinyl version in stores (in N.Y.C., the Greenpoint and East Village outlets of Academy Records, perhaps others) and available through Forced Exposure is two LPs and contains all the music on the original releases and pasted-on B&W cover "slicks" in homage to the originals' DIY ethos. It includes a download of both albums plus three additional tracks. The latter tracks are also on not only the three-CD version but also the limited-edition three-LP version available only from Now-Again's Reserve Edition record club. The previously unreleased recording of "The Creator Is So Far Out" finds Musra and Ertunc, and possibly Cosmic, joined by guitarist Rene Arlain and bassist Wes Riley on a more meditative (because of no organ overdubs) and more extended undated version with a cleaner delivery of the head than on the album. There is also a 1973 recording, "Phyllis," with a similar group and, most significantly, a previously unreleased 1972 concert recording by World's Experience Orchestra, another underground Boston ensemble of great significance. The Coopers don’t play on this recording, but they performed in this group at other times, and leader John Jamyll Jones is the bassist on Cosmic's album; anyway, having this music is such a boon that the oddity of its inclusion here is immediately rendered irrelevant. - Steve Holtje

Free From Conformity

Steve Dalachinsky — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:18:40 +0000

Free From Conformity Steve Dalachinsky April 27, 2017 - 11:18

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Photo by Peter Gannushkin

On the occasion of their new mega-release on Leo Records, The Art of Perelman-Shipp Vols. 1-7 and their ensuing CD release party at Le Poisson Rouge on May 7th at 9:30 P.M. with Italian Surf Academy, I asked Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp the following questions.

Steve Dalanchinsky: How long have you been associated both as collaborators and friends?

When did you first encounter each other's music?

What projects are planned in the future after this mammoth undertaking?

Talk a bit about how your musical languages differ and where they merge/intermingle.

In brief, discuss your philosophies about free music inside/outside lyricism tune structures as well as spiritual/social ideas/ideals in the music.

Do you feel there are any relevant messages in the music if any?

Is there anything either of you want to add about the ongoing energies/ forces that unite and bind you to each other as artists and to the music?

Here are the results:

Perelman: I first heard of Matthew Shipp in the late '90s. I had been living in NY for some four or five years. I went to The Knitting Factory and he was a sideman playing piano for Roscoe Mitchell. I really enjoyed the music. His playing really caught my attention; in fact, there were several people there in the audience just talking about the new guy back then, Matthew Shipp, and how original and creative his music was. So soon after, coincidentally, his wife -- who was working in a restaurant waitressing back then -- overheard a conversation I was having at my table. She found out I was a musician. She asked, "Do you know Matthew Shipp?"

I said, "Sure I do. I love his music."

Then we exchanged numbers and soon after I invited Matt to do a recording, which was a duo. We had never played together and we went right to the studio. It's called Bendito of Santa Cruz, released by Cadence Records. After that, we did a few other things and then we hit big again as of five years ago with the recording The Hour of the Star, which included Joe Morris and Gerald Cleaver. Matt and I went to Brazil a few times (where I am from). We just released the seven CDs, as you say a mammoth undertaking, and we are looking forward to playing live a whole lot more. We enjoy doing that as well besides the studio work, and we will continue releasing special projects. We feel that playing in duo settings we still have a lot to discover and expand on.

Now talking about our musical languages, how they differ and where they merge and intermingle, I come from a very different background than Matthew. My background is in Brazilian pop and folk music, Jewish music, and classical music, mainly guitar music. I was a classical guitarist up until my late teens, especially the music of Villa-Lobos and only later on as I was getting older, around seventeen, eighteen years old, I started listening to jazz. My first influences were different than Matthew. I was into Stan Getz, especially his bossa nova association.

Where we merge and intermingle is at the core of music’s creativity. We deal with sounds in a very personal and creative way. Our two worlds are very distinct, very different from each other, but where we meet it makes our music just one and complete.

Spiritual social ideas and ideals in the music: Well, we just hope for it to show through. I can only speak for myself when I say that I just hope that the music I’m playing will open up in people, different views and understandings as well as their sensibilities to appreciate music that has no preconceived ideas, no preconceived formats and music that, although fed and informed by previous masters, is music that is trying to be true to itself and to its originality.

Shipp: 1. I think we met in the mid-1990s. I don’t remember exactly when, but it was around that time.

2. I saw a few articles or reviews of Ivo and then I went to the Knitting Factory one night when he was playing in a band with Marilyn Crispell, I think. I made a note to myself that some day I might play with him.

3. This is our big bang. I assume we will do a few other things; since these are done ostensibly under Ivo’s name, I will let him say what he feels about them.

4. Ivo is not the usual Lower East Side avant Vision Festival type of player, if such a creature can be postulated to exist. First of all, his Brazilian heritage does enter into his playing. Second, he has an intense interest and knowledge of classical music. Third of all, having studied to be a studio musician and giving that all up, to go into free jazz makes him a little different type of player. We both have a vision of the universe after Coltrane that is inspired by that but goes in a diametrically different direction and we both like the “old” jazz sound, whether its Ben Webster or Fats Waller. As far as why we work well together, I don’t think there is any analysis for that. It’s like a marriage. The chemistry works or it does not, and there usually is no logical analysis for that.

5. There is no inside and outside. The music is what it is when it is played. Inside and outside is social propaganda. We link ideas. That is the tune structure -- we try to make our instruments sing. Hence lyricism rises.

6. Steve, you know the spiritual ideas of my metaphysics and you have expanded on them in linear notes you have written over the years. I am proud to be an outright mystic. The keyboard is my instrument to generate circles and spheres in nature and spirit. (S.D.: refer to Logos and Language: A Metaphysical Dialogue between Shipp and myself on Rogueart Books and a recent interview with Yuko Otomo in All About Jazz, among various other sources.)

7. The forces that bind us are being alive at the same time and partaking in the same language pool. Language is a mysterious force. Who is to say why the universe picks two people to have musical conversations with each other?

Steve's Favorite New Jazz Albums of 2016

Steve Holtje — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 23:20:51 +0000

Steve's Favorite New Jazz Albums of 2016 Steve Holtje February 9, 2017 - 18:20

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Okay, it's time for me to stop trying to listen to more 2016 albums and just wrap up this list. In the past I would split my jazz list into a new releases part dedicated to current recordings and a historical part combining first releases of archival material with reissues. This year I'm skipping reissues, partly because some projects were so gargantuan that little guys like me weren't serviced with them, partly because the vinyl renaissance means everything is being reissued at once, and partly because so much stuff is just rehashing the same material in new packaging, with or without a gimmick or a little additional material added. So first releases of archival material are lumped in here. Maybe that's not entirely fair to the current guys, but on the other hand I don't include many archival items on my list.

1. Matthew Shipp & Bobby Kapp: Cactus (Northern Spy)

Two generations of free jazz combine for this duo: drummer Kapp, from the '60s; pianist Shipp, from the '90s (Shipp previously played on a Kapp-led band album). There's a greater-than-usual sense of Shipp having fun, and sounds I haven't heard from him quite how they appear here -- such as the quiet lyricism of "During," which Kapp counterpoints with a semi-martial beat that somehow is perfectly apt. Kapp has what some drummers tragically lack -- taste! -- as well as stylistic flexibility. Completely improvising each track, their telepathic interaction is one of the joys of this record. Without making any compromises ("Snow Storm Coming" sure isn't lightweight), this is one of the most immediately accessible free-improv albums I've ever heard. [Note: I manage the ESP-Disk' label, which has released albums including each of these artists.]

2. Joe Morris: Shock Axis (Relative Pitch)

If this album came from a guitarist I didn't know as a jazz guy, I might categorize it as metal; the trio of electric guitar, electric bass (Chris Cretella), and drums (Dave Parmelee) makes music far more texturally dense and intense than most jazz, though of course it has its roots in the sort of free-improvisation Sixties free jazz a la Albert Ayler and Frank Wright, with Morris's guitar in the roll of the tenor saxophone but wreaking even more sonic mayhem. The album is great, but it's only about 50% of the impact this group's huge sound makes in person. [Note: Morris is another conflict of interest for me, though at least not a current ESP artist.]

3. David S. Ware & Matthew Shipp Duo: Live in Sant'Anna Arresio, 2004 (AUM Fidelity)

That we can receive previously unreleased Ware four years after his passing would be a blessing under any circumstances; that it is his first duo release that I am aware of, with longtime DSW Quartet pianist Shipp, makes it inherently interesting; most of all, it is Ware at his peak of musical imagination. Shipp is no slouch in the musical imagination department either, and is clearly inspired by working with Ware in this challenging context. Here they are both powerhouse players of incredible stamina, but there is also a distinct effort made to vary the dynamics and density of the textures they're putting forth, and their timbres as well -- Ware, of course, was a master of intense tenor sax tones -- making this 46-minute concert a stimulating and engrossing listen.

4. Ivo Perelman/Karl Berger: The Hitchhiker (Leo)

Brazilian tenor saxophonist Perelman's 2016 output included two quartet albums and three duos (and another six that came out in Europe last year but aren't available in the U.S.A. until this year -- reviews soon to come). I could have made half of this list be Perelman albums, but confined myself to one album per artist and chose this one to represent Perelman because Berger isn't already on this list, unlike Matthew Shipp and Joe Morris, who each had a duo album and a quartet album with Perelman -- and because it distinguishes itself from Perelman's other activity. A major figure on the New York avant-jazz scene since the mid-'60s, Berger plays vibraphone here after a previous duo with Perelman as a pianist. A thoughtful and broadly experienced player, Berger straddles 'inside' and 'outside' playing and seems to innately structure even his free improvisation; this is a more tonal album than most of Perelman's releases , and all the more interesting for letting us hear Perelman in such a context -- though for his 'out' side, there's the solo sax (actually, just sax mouthpiece) track "Pride and Prejudice"; Berger also gets a solo track, the tellingly titled "Extremely Loud While Incredibly Quiet." There's a quiet playfulness to their interaction ("Twilight" is a good example of this) that is especially attractive.

5. Ches Smith/Craig Taborn/Mat Maneri: The Bell (ECM)

Smith, the leader on this session, composed all the tracks and is the drummer. He's no ordinary drummer, though, and this is no ordinary trio session. Smith often uses his drums as pitched instruments and for timbre, and I'm not just referring to his occasional inclusion of vibraphone and timpani; he scrapes his cymbals for eerie sustained tones, plays his toms melodically, and is an equal member of the ensemble rather than a time-keeper (though he could groove if he wanted to, as his solo starting at 8:52 and the rest of "Isn't It Over?" prove). Maneri, here on viola, as usual plays microtonally and is one of the most expressive players around; I couldn't say he's expressing specific emotions, but his slippery sound seems to speak profoundly beyond words; he and Smith are a perfect match in sensibility. Taborn, long one of my favorite pianists for his unclichéd approach to the instrument, is lyrical or abstract by turns but never does anything that sounds like another jazz pianist; here he often grounds the group as the others swirl around him, and he has the knack of playing very simple parts that are exactly what the music needs and not an iota more. Though there are moments of vehemence, as on the end of "I'll See You on the Dark Side of the Earth," there's often a sense of space between everybody's notes here that hints at Zen koans and philosophical enigmas probed through meditative intuitions. It's a very ECMish album.

6. Donny McCaslin Group: Beyond Now (Motema)

This year's Kamasi Washington, in the limited sense of a jazz guy getting way more exposure than usual thanks to an association with a big name outside the jazz realm. In the case of saxophonist McCaslin, it's because he and his band featured prominently on David Bowie's Black Star. McCaslin dedicated this album to Bowie, and even plays Bowie's instrumental "Warszawa" and, with guest vocalist Jeff Taylor, "A Small Plot of Land." There are some other non-jazz covers as well: Deadmau5's "Coelacanth 1" and MUTEMATH's "Remain." Even these are a good fit, since McCaslin's jazz is more electric (largely thanks to keyboardist Jason Lindner) and modern in its rhythms (drummer Mark Guiliana) than what purists might like. (But hey: lol@purists.) Presumably it was precisely this group's outside-the-box thinking about genre that attracted Bowie in the first place, and while their playing here is more jazz-oriented than on Black Star, open-minded non-jazz listeners shouldn't find it difficult to relate to.

7. Nikolett Pankovits: Magia (self-released)

This might be the most hybridized album I heard this year (Zorn [#9] is beyond hybrid into sonic collage]; much of it is Latin jazz takes on Hungarian cabaret and folk music. The first track is a Hungarian folk song Béla Bartók arranged; there are two more collected by Zoltán Kodály, with one of these given Spanish lyrics by Pankovits's husband, guitarist Juancho Herrera, who had a hand in all the arrangements besides the Bartok one. A cabaret song with lyrics by Hungarian author Mária Szepes (under the pen name Maria Orsi), is sung in Hungarian and in Pankovits's English translation as "Don't Ask Me Who"; we also hear the most famous Hungarian song, "Gloomy Sunday," in both languages. Pankovits can do straight-ahead jazz as well, shown by her take on Johnny Mandel's "Where Do You Start?" with the stripped-down accompaniment of pianist Jason Lindner and saxophonist Greg Tardy. The most promising sign, though, is the sole original on the album, Pankovits's "Stop for a Moment," with sophisticated harmonies over a cool Latin ballad groove and the album's most uninhibited solos, especially those of Herrera and trumpeter Josh Deutsch. Beautifully moody, this is a most impressive debut.

8. The Wee Trio: Wee+3 (Bionic)

James Westfall (vibes), Dan Loomis (bass), and Jared Schonig (drums) are joined by guests Nicholas Payton (trumpet), Nir Felder (guitarist), and pianist Fabian Almazan on three tracks each. The core trio is by itself on two tracks, one of them a cover of Meshell Ndegeocello's "Lola." All other tracks are written by trio members. My favorites are the ones with Felder, who sounds like a Pat Metheny acolyte; the album closer, "Apparition," is particularly thrilling. Speaking of Metheny, most everything here has the heartland melodicism that the original Pat Metheny Group delivered, but wrapped in the more intricate structures and rhythms typical of the younger generation of mainstream jazzers nowadays, though with more New Orleans flavor on the tracks with Payton, especially "Belle Femme de Voodoo.".

9. Larry Young: In Paris: The ORTF Recordings (Resonance)

It practically goes without saying that this two-disc set is great, because organist Young always was. He'd already established himself with classic albums on Prestige and Blue Note by the time of these 1964-65 sessions for French radio. He died young (of pneumonia at age 38), so every bit of his genius is treasured. He'd come out of bebop but was starting to make his style more modal in this period, and really stretches out on a few of these pieces (switching to piano for one, which is of great interest). And on seven of the ten tracks here, the horns include trumpeter Woody Shaw and underrated tenor saxophonist Nathan Davis, so there's great playing all around. Kudos to Resonance for packaging this invaluable material superbly, with lots of photos and insightful interviews with Young's peers and collaborators.

10. Gebhard Ullmann/Achim Kaufmann: Geode (Leo)

I don't know if it's fair to say 2016 was the year free jazz got quiet or whether that's just what attracted me most at this point in my life, but here's another example, though with its moments of vehemence. Ullmann (tenor sax, bass clarinet) and Kaufmann (piano) are longtime favorites, and together they make spontaneous music of subtle intensity. My favorite track is "Bone, Gristle and Quartz," on which Kaufmann plays prepared piano and inside on the strings to create a miniature gamelan orchestra over which Ullmann plays with sounds (sometimes just breathe going through the horn with no notes produced) for sounds' sake. Each player also takes a solo track, increasing the intimacy of the music. More conventional tracks are still quite exploratory on this rewarding album for attentive listeners.

11. Nova Express Quintet: Andras: Book of Angels vol. 28 [John Zorn: Masada Book Two] (Tzadik)

The prolific John Zorn often defies genre boundaries; though there is no doubt in my mind that this instrumental album can safely be filed in jazz, it's jazz in a distinctly Zornish style drawing on influences including classic Ornette Coleman, the modes of Jewish folk and cantorial music, tango, Ennio Morricone, spy movie soundtracks, '50s exotica, the Modern Jazz Quartet, hard bop, and the sinister sound of the organ on "Keresin" (a la Gregg Rolie on Santana's Caravanserai) -- and that's just the first four tracks! The point, of course, is that it is immediately identifiable as Zorn. John Medeski (piano, organ), Kenny Wollesen (vibraphone), Trevor Dunn (acoustic and electric basses), Joey Baron (drums), and Cyro Baptista (congas, percussion) comprise Nova Express Quintet; all have collaborated with Zorn many times and proven adept at the turn-on-a-dime style switches his music requires. This is Zorn at his most melodic and accessible.

12. Gary Monheit/Dan Krimm: New Shoots (Another Pass)

With drummer Scott Amendola (Nels Cline Singers, Charlie Hunter, and his own Scott Amendola Band), this Bay Area group is a piano trio, but with the significant difference that Krimm plays fretless electric bass rather than the usual acoustic upright. Krimm's melodic bass lines recall Scott La Faro and Steve Swallow, especially on his own tunes -- Krimm and Monheit wrote four tracks each on this, their third album (Krimm's 1986 debut, Sentience, and a 2010 co-bill, Fortune Smiles). Monheit's piano playing sounds like a cross between McCoy Tyner's chording and Lyle Mays's right-hand lyricism, so this is a very tuneful and immediately appealing album of straight-ahead jazz that I like more each time I play it. - Steve Holtje

Reviews of #1 and #9 first appeared in the magazine The Big Takeover.

Album of the Week: Swiss Movement

Dusty Wright — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 15:21:51 +0000

Album of the Week: Swiss Movement Dusty Wright August 20, 2016 - 11:21

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jazz

Les McCann & Eddie Harris - Swiss Movement (Atlantic, 1969)

I don't profess to have the deepest critical knowledge of jazz, especially with managing editor Steve Holtje being our resident expert, but I definitely have a deep appreciation. Regardless, Swiss Movement by Les McCann and Eddie Harris remains of one of my favorite live jazz albums. I just picked up a super-clean used copy of it at one of my favorite vinyl shops in Akron, Ohio.

The above track -- "Compared to What," written by Gene McDaniels, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in1969 -- was one of my favorite soul jazz tunes when I was just getting into jazz. And I still never tire of this timeless classic, nor the album. The rest of the set burns with the same ferocity sans vocals. And while I thought I knew everything about this album, I recently discovered that saxophonist Eddie Harris and trumpeter Benny Bailey had never played or rehearsed together with the Les McCann Trio before hitting the stage in Montreux. I suspect that's why they have such energy on stage. Atlantic/Rhino (8122798047) reissued the album back in 2010.

I would also suggest you seek out another scorching version of "Compared to What" by Brian Auger's Oblivion Express from their Closer to It album (RCA, 1973). Brian's churning and burning organ really pump up the vibe. I recently reviewed it here. In fact, I would encourage a listen to both albums as soon as possible.

Top 25 Twenty-First Century Jazz Albums

Steve Holtje — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 05:44:38 +0000

Top 25 Twenty-First Century Jazz Albums Steve Holtje April 30, 2016 - 01:44

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jazz

Today being international jazz day, there will be much celebrating of the greatness of its history. I’ve done that in the past; it is a great history. But it is not all back in historical times; jazz lives, and evolves, and continues to be great. Yet how many lists of the greatest jazz albums include anything from the current century?

That they do not is no indictment of them; only sixteen percent of the years when recorded jazz has existed (not counting the present year yet) are in the twenty-first century, after all, and some prefer to bestow the label of greatness after more perspective has been achieved than sixteen (or fewer, for newer releases) years.

Nonetheless, if people are to respect jazz as a living art form, a look back at the best of its more recent releases seems worthwhile. Here’s one man’s Top 25 of the best jazz issued from 2000 through the end of 2015.

The rules:

No more than one album per artist.

No more than three albums per label.

No historical releases or reissues.

No compilations.

No ESP-Disk’ releases due to conflict of interest.

1. Mal Waldron: One More Time (Sketch/Harmonia Mundi)

In the making of this 2002 release, Waldron stared death in the face and, musically speaking, didn't flinch. There are two solo piano tracks, bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel duets with Waldron on four (including a dually credited free improvisation), and longtime Waldron collaborator Steve Lacy joins them on "You" and "Soul Eyes." The solo pieces find Waldron looked over the edge of the abyss, their stark beauty unnerving but uplifting. In contrast, the tracks with Lacy are loving, even nostalgic; "Soul Eyes" is one of Waldron's oldest and most famous pieces. Waldron's liner note (in its entirety) states, "Measured against eternity, our life span is very short, so I am extremely happy to have this record as a high point of mine." It truly is a high point.

2. David S. Ware & Planetary Unknown: Live at Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2011 (AUM Fidelity)

Tenor saxophone giant David S. Ware overcame medical problems to add a few final masterpieces to his immense legacy as one of the greats of free jazz, his power and creativity undiminished. This quartet reunited Ware with pianist Cooper-Moore, who was on his first album decades earlier. They were joined by bassist William Parker and drummer Muhammad Ali,who operate at the same exalted level. As I wrote on eMusic.com at the time, "we get, in one concentrated hour of three long improvisations, the essence of the interaction between these four free-jazz veterans. ... The infinitely inventive, always powerful Ware may seem to dominate (his solo after the six-minute mark of track 3 is especially haunting), but there’s plenty of time for the others to shine."

3. Richie Beirach: Impressions of Tokyo (Outnote)

There's a certain self-contained poise in Beirach's solo work that casts a special aura, perhaps because by himself his exquisite Impressionist harmonies and nobly elegant melodic sense can achieve their most unfettered expression. I'm sure there were no more lyrical pieces in 2011 than "Haiku 2 - Butterfly" and "Haiku 12 - Shibumi." There's more to this album than prettiness, though. "Togashi-san" is a dark lament for the late Masahiko Togashi, a brilliant drummer (with whomBeirach worked on multiple occasions) who passed away in 2007. Other tracks are freer, more Expressionist than Impressionist; "Haiku 3 - Cherry Blossom Time" and "Haiku 11 - Tragedy inSendai" recall Henry Cowell. In his four-decade-plus career, Beirach has made several of the greatest solo piano albums in jazz history; this is one of them.

4. Martial Solal: NY1: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note)

Solal is one of the greatest pianists alive, though the U.S.-centric jazz world only notices that in fits and spurts because he’s based in France. His trio here, with bassist François Moutin and drummer Bill Stewart, is superb. But this album was recorded in NYC a week after 9/11. You think that didn’t ratchet up the stakes a little? After that tragic event, a little musical catharsis was called for, and he delivered.

5. William Parker: Double Sunrise over Neptune (AUM Fidelity)

This performance at the 2007 Vision Festival -- founded by bassist/composer Parker (above) and his wife, dancer Patricia Nicholson Parker -- is an even greater achievement than Parker's already high norm, helped by an all-star band with Rob Brown, Barnes, Bill Cole, Sabir Mateen, Dave Sewelson, Jason Hwang, Mazz Swift, Jessica Pavone, Shiau-Shu Yu, Joe Morris, Brahim Frigbane, Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, Shayna Dulberger, Gerald Cleaver, and Hamid Drake. Bursting with emotional breadth and humble ambition, this is one of the great free jazz albums.

6. Matthew Shipp: One (Thirsty Ear Blue Series)

This was just Shipp's fourth solo acoustic album. His distinctive personal style continues to shift and evolve; here he often pares back the density and at times gives his music a more composed feel. Sometimes modal, sometimes "outside," his improvisations unfold organically, occasionally lyrical, more often probing and spiky. Shipp has made many excellent albums (he's one of the main reasons I had to limit myself to one album per artist for this list), and it’s debatable whether this is his best in the twenty-first century (2013's Piano Sutras culturecatch.com/music/matthew-shipp-piano-sutras is a strong contender), but there's an especially strong sense of timelessness to this 2006 release.

7. Billy Bang: Vietnam Reflections (Justin Time)

On the spectrum of avant-identified jazz violinists, the late Billy Bang is on the bluesier end. Bang made many fine albums before cancer took him from us; this one stands out for his use of several traditional Vietnamese songs, complete with two Vietnamese musicians. An Army veteran of the Vietnam War, Bang moved past the nightmares and worked for cultural reconciliation. Even without those striking tracks, this would be a toughly tender modal jazz album featuring a sterling supporting cast of trumpeter Ted Daniel, drummer Michael Carvin, percussionist Ron Brown, conductor Butch Morris (all fellow Vietnam vets), alto saxophonist/flutist James Spaulding, flutist Henry Threadgill, pianist John Hicks, and bassist Curtis Lundy. But Bang’s still the focal point with his gritty fiddling and tensile compositions.

8. Andy Bey: American Song (Savoy)

A singer's singer with a richly textured baritone voice, Bey should be a superstar, yet inferior singers not worthy to shine his shoes get the big promotional push while he's unfairly stuck in cult status. That usually means low recording budgets, but this sterling 2004 release with horn arrangements by Geri Allen is a welcome exception. True, it neglects his own wonderful compositions, but it shows him to be a master of jazz standards. He personalizes every rendition without ever straying from impeccable taste, through both his refined sense of phrasing and his own superb piano accompaniments.

9. Ran Blake: All That Is Tied (Tompkins Square)

A pianist who created a highly personal style outside of the popular Herbie Hancock/Oscar Peterson/McCoy Tyner/Bill Evans templates, influenced by Thelonious Monk but not imitative, Blake is one of the supreme solo pianists of our time. “Unique” is an overused term, but Blake fully merits it: nobody else plays piano like him. He had long concentrated on solo playing, but over the previous decade had ramped up his collaborations. Going it alone again on this 2006 album, his playing has a bit more bite than usual but is still full of quietly concentrated beauty, film-noir shadows, and a vein of quirkily expressed soul.

10. Allen Lowe: Mulatto Radio: Field Recordings 1-4 or: A Jew at Large in the Minstrel Diaspora (Constant Sorrow)

Allen Lowe has (at least) a double identity: jazz composer/saxophonist, and scholar of early American jazz and pop. This 2014 four-CD set combines those identities even more than usual as it contains a whopping 62 original compositions, many inspired by the sounds and personalities of early jazz and pre-jazz (both kinds of ragtime, etc.), as detailed vividly in his extensive accompanying notes. But this album is no regression; it's one of the rare continuations of the unification of early jazz and modern freedom. Besides the sheer joy I get from this incredibly diverse and colorful music, this ambitious project gets points for sheer vastness of scope.

11. Keith Jarrett: The Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM)

Jarrett's solo improvisations are no longer the lengthy (as in 20, or 40, or even 60 minutes), uninterrupted free-form excursions familiar from so many great albums, especially the classic Koln Concert. There are 15 tracks on this two-CD set, ranging from 3:03 to 9:18. Jarrett's never been one to fit into neat categories, but on September 26, 2005 the amount of sonic territory covered was stunning; some of the pieces early in the program sound more like avant-garde classical compositions than jazz improvisations. There are many moments of transcendence, including the closing encore, a rhapsodic reading of the Vincent Youmans/Harold Adamson/Mack Gordon standard "Time on My Hands."

12. Fay Victor Ensemble: Absinthe & Vermouth (Greene Avenue)

Victor has blues, soul, and jazz at the root of her sound, and a richness of timbre that recalls Betty Carter, as does some of her phrasing, along with the sheer joyfulness overflowing from some of these songs. On this album of original material, Victor favors Dolphy-esque angularity even in the composed melodies and can go outside with the best, mixing in abstract sounds. On some tracks, she becomes another instrument in her band. And what a band. Electric guitarist Anders Nilsson draws a wide range of sounds and styles from his instrument, and double bassist Ken Filiano is agile and phrases like a melody instrument. On the longer tracks, most notably "The Sign at the Door," they all go on anything-can-happen excursions into the outer reaches.

13. Bill Carrothers: Duets with Bill Stewart (Dreyfus Jazz)

This 2002 album (in the U.S., at least; it came out earlier in Europe) won a French Diapason d'Or de l'année and a German Schallplatten Preis. Pianist Bill Carrothers served as a sideman on albums by Dave Douglas, Bill Stewart, Ira Sullivan, and more; this is his most high-profile release as a leader. "Puttin' on the Ritz" becomes a sinister vamp. He plays the head of Thelonious Monk's "Off Minor" in impressively idiomatic fashion before launching into an imaginative improvisation often more thickly chordal than Monk that nonetheless sounds entirely apt. His original "A Squirrel's Tale" has an amusing nervous jerkiness and skittishness that fits its subject. On ballads -- "Alone Together," the original "Vito," a gorgeous re-imagining of the Civil War song "Tenting on the Old Campground," "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" -- Carrothers conjures lushly suspenseful stillness. Throughout, drummer Bill Stewart and Carrothers mesh with a singleness of purpose that doubtless stems from not only a shared vision but also their many past collaborations.

14. Simon Nabatov: Spinning Songs of Herbie Nichols (Leo)

Spinning Songsdocuments a 2007 solo concert by this Russian-born pianist, who clearly grasps the strengths of Nichols's compositions. He uses those strengths in two ways, either accentuating them or letting them fend for themselves – which, as he trusts, they can do -- as he uses them as launching pads for improvisations that can sound avant-garde or Impressionist. I have not heard such a stunningly imaginative album-length tribute from one jazzman to another since Giorgio Gaslini's Ayler's Wings (Soul Note) two decades earlier..

15. Tim Berne's Snakeoil: Shadow Man (ECM)

As I wrote in The Big Takeover when this came out in 2013, "Alto saxophonist Berne's compositions tend to be knotty yet perversely compelling, never more so than with his quartet Snakeoil with clarinetist Oscar Noriega, pianist Matt Mitchell, and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith (on the opening track Smith creates a blurry wash of sound on the vibes that's almost electronic-sounding). Once in the improvised middles of the tracks, anything can happen: free jazz squalls of black-hole density, or loose and light squiggles spiraling around an unstated center. This is one of the most exciting bands in jazz right now. A version of the late Paul Motian's 'Psalm' is the calm before the storm of three heavy and lengthy tracks that close the album."

16. Bill Dixon Orchestra: 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur (In Concert at Vision Festival XII) (AUM Fidelity)

When trumpeter Bill Dixon put together this special project for the 2007 Vision Festival, many greats of the NYC avant-jazz scene responded. Increasing the array of instruments, especially in the hands of such fine players, allowed Dixon even more creative options than usual, and the Gil Evans of the avant-garde took full advantage. He did so with a perfectly judged balance of sound and space; rarely did the whole band play all at once.It’s a highlight of his late-career renaissance. Full review here.

17. Dave Douglas: Witness (RCA)

Most attempts to "update" jazz end up merely condescending, cheesy, pandering, or otherwise misguided. Trumpeter Dave Douglas has never fallen into any of those traps; he's naturally forward-looking, and catholic in his musical tastes. He called this 2002 release, which includes electronics in its sound, "my largest ensemble recording to date, but this is truly small ensemble music." That's certainly reflected in the creative reflexes of the players involved: Chris Speed (clarinet, tenor sax), Bryan Carrott (vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel), Joshua Roseman (trombone on four tracks), Mark Feldman (violin), Joe Daley (tuba), Drew Gress (bass), Michael Sarin (drums), and Ikue Mori (electronic percussion). Douglas's concern for instrumental color is present more than ever with such a kaleidoscopic range of timbres available to him.

18. McCoy Tyner: Quartet (McCoy Tyner Music/Half Note)

By the time of this 2007 album, the iconic McCoy Tyner, in the fifth decade of his sterling career, had a superb compositional catalog to draw on in concert. With bassist Christian McBride and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts (on his best behavior) rounding out the band, this date is by turns fiery and magisterial in its improvisational brilliance and motivic power, with Tyner still at the top of his game. Even if you've already got a couple dozen McCoy Tyner albums, pick this one up -- you can never have too many.

19. Ivo Perelman/Joe Morris/Gerald Cleaver: Living Jelly (Leo)

Living Jelly was a bit of a surprise when it appeared in 2012; I think guitarist Joe Morris play more chords here than throughout the rest of his recordings combined. They're rarely triads, though, and tend to be dissonant, and seemingly spur saxophonist Ivo Perelman to especially fervid free improvisation. When Morris solos, he returns to the knotty, asymmetrical lines and rhythms he usually favors; when they solo simultaneously, it's positively orgasmic (not for nothing does Morris refer to Perelman in the booklet notes as "the passionate abstractionist"). Of course, Cleaver's a big part of the album's success as well, contributing complex, nearly indefinable pulses that energize the proceedings without settling into regular beats.

20. Kamasi Washington: The Epic (Brainfeeder)

This received more publicity than any other jazz album this century thanks to Washington's Kendrick Lamar connection and Thundercat's participation, but 2015's The Epic lived up to the hype. It's a three-CD set of what's now become known as "spiritual jazz," and looks back to that style's heyday of the late '60s and early '70s, but with enough modern production touches (synthesizers, electric bass, drum mix) that it's not entirely a retro exercise. Yes, the main players' styles here are clearly recognizable as derived from earlier models (Washington, for instance, uses an amalgam of John Coltrane's and Pharoah Sanders's tenor styles), but they are wielded deliberately, and effectively. Washington's many originals are well-written and enjoyable, and the arrangements are expertly done. This album gets extra credit for making the case for jazz's continued relevance to mainstream music.

21. Vijay Iyer Trio: Accelerando (ACT)

Speaking of Herbie Nichols, Iyer plays his "Wildflower" on this 2012 release, along with a Henry Threadgill tune and Duke Ellington's rarely heard "The Village of the Virgins," plus even less expected material by electronica artist Flying Lotus and '70s R&B band Heatwave. Miles Davis beat him to "Human Nature," but Iyer makes it more intricate. The other five tracks are Iyer compositions, always welcome; he's managed to create a distinctive new style that merges the harmonies of modal jazz with the hypnotic pulse of electronica (perhaps via Minimalism) and the melodicism of indie rock. He's one of the most interesting pianists of his generation, working within a trio that's honed its interactions for years.

22. Paul Flaherty: Whirl of Nothingness (Family Vineyard)

A solo saxophone concert of kaleidoscopic variety and emotional profundity. Flaherty, a legend on the free-improv scene, reined in his wild style ever so slightly on this 2006 release, but quieter doesn't mean less intense -- quite the opposite. The more closely one listens to this, the more one gets out of its infinite shadings of timbre. Totally free playing, conceived in the moment, that yields a timeless accomplishment.

23. Paul Motian/Bill Frisell/Joe Lovano: Time and Time Again (ECM)

Another 2006 album. Despite the greater fame of Frisell and Lovano, drummer Motian remains the leader, as he was when the group formed two decades ago before the relative youngsters were well known. Whether there is a connection to that fact or not, the work Frisell and Lovano have done with him in recent years has outstripped their fine work as leaders by being more spontaneous, probing, and adventurous, particularly Motian's piece "In Remembrance of Things Past," on which Lovano deploys some emotive quiet altissimo. As usual, a Thelonious Monk tune inspires them to witty heights; this time out it's "Light Blue."

24. Odyssey the Band: Back in Time (Pi)

In 2005 guitarist/vocalist James "Blood"Ulmer teamed for the third time on record with electric violinist Charles Burnham and drummer Warren Benbow in the group that best combines Ulmer's free jazz and blues leanings (along with rock and funk). Ulmer's drawling, Hendrixian singing and imaginative harmolodic playing -- he's one of the most distinctive guitar stylists alive-- are complemented by Burnham's elastic, microtonal fiddling and Benbow's unique combination of fife-and-drum rhythms and funk grooves. Ulmer reimagines some of his best material, which sounds as good as ever in this context, and adds some new classics to his repertoire.

25. Andrew Hill: Time Lines (Blue Note)

On this 2011 album pianist Hill, one of the greatest composers in jazz history, returned to Blue Note for the third time in his lengthy career, reunited with trumpeter Charles Tolliver (who's also making an inspired comeback on Blue Note), and made another knotty, deeply involving album. Greg Tardy (tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet) is crucially versatile; bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson -- Hill's regular rhythm team at the time -- are sensitively responsive; the leader proves again that a pianist doesn't need flashy technique to make startling, engrossing music.