:::happy? New Year:::

Posted: Friday 28 December 2012 by jazzlover in
25

Well...

Mediafire gave me a nice Christmas present 
when they had blocked access to almost all my uploads on their servers.
Sadly, I can be bothered to do it again.
Re-ups, I mean. Just too many...
I have not decided what to do with this blog yet.

It remains to be seen.

Dig it as much I you still can.
jazzlover

:::onion philosophy #5:::

Posted: Sunday 16 December 2012 by jazzlover in Etykiety: , , , , , ,
11


Machine Gun was an improvising band formed in New York City in 1986. Its members were: Robert Musso: guitars, Thomas Chapin: reeds and flute, John Richey: vocals, cut-ups, tapes, TV, Bil Bryant: drums, Jair-Rohm Parker Wells: basses. Karl Berger is featured on melodica on their eponymous first release.
The band name came from the landmark Peter Brötzmann 1968 album release "Machine Gun", an octet recording often listed among the most notable free jazz albums. One critic has written "Machine Gun" offers "a heavy-impact sonic assault so aggressive it still knocks listeners back on their heels decades later." This style significantly influence this band.
Sonny Sharrock frequently performed with the band and appears on the first release, as well as the second, Open Fire.
:::Info by wiki:::

Machine Gun - Open Fire (1989)

1. In The Beginning 5:24
2. A Sultan's Last Stand 4:26
3. Pentagon 6:15
4. Get The Gun 3:56
5. See Africa 5:10
6. Brass Tactics 6:55
7. Recreation 2:14
8. Arsenal Tech High 7:01
9. Mommie Sir 7:03
10. Obsession + Oblivion 5:11
11. Take No Prisoners 3:32
12. Muffy Fails French 5:14
13. Road Worthy 9:16
14. Chillin 1:19

Credits
Bass – Jair-Rohm Parker Wells
Drums – Bil Bryant
Featuring [Special Guest] – Sonny Sharrock
Guitar, Bass – Robert Musso
Saxophone, Flute – Thomas Chapin
Tape, Vocals – John Richey

7


The first 120 seconds or so of "Mind Over Matter" feature Joe Henderson, Stanley Clarke, and underground luminaries Lenny White (drums) and George Cables (keyboard) engaged in free-form, expressionist, abstract improv and then, in a short contained explosion, Henderson starts blowing his tenor like he's spitting out rounds of bullets from a gun. 
A torrent solo follows and, just when you think the song won't let up, in comes Curtis Fuller's trombone and then Pete Yellen's flute. The song ends with what almost sounds like the soundtrack to an absurd dream. It's a 13-minute tune broken up into suites and, although it may not be the album's best, it's possibly its most enthralling, and it typifies this album's place in Henderson's Milestone discography -- not his best, but enthralling. There are songs with nouveau-bop heads ("No Me Esqueca") and all-in burners ("A Shade of Jade"). Although the album is rhythm-heavy, it was recorded a couple years before Henderson's funk cloud would really thicken -- Joewas still swinging here ("Invitation"), which ain't so bad. Still, despite the obvious highlights, this undersold gem is a must-listen if only to check "Gazelle" (recorded live) and hear a head-nodding bassline from Ron McClure backing Henderson and Woody Shaw at their fieriest.
:::Review by Vincent Thomas:::

Joe Henderson - In Pursuit of Blackness (1971)

A1. No Me Esqueca 7:08
A2. Invitation 7:36
A3. A Shade Of Jade 7:41
B1. Gazelle 7:34
B2. Mind Over Matter 13:16

Credits
Bass – Ron McClure (tracks: A2, B1), Stanley Clarke (tracks: A1, A3, B2)
Congas – Tony Waters (tracks: B1)
Drums – Lenny White
Piano [Electric] – George Cables
Saxophone [Alto], Flute, Clarinet [Bass] – Pete Yellen (tracks: A1, A3, B2)
Saxophone [Tenor] – Joe Henderson
Trombone – Curtis Fuller (tracks: A1, A3, B2)
Trumpet – Woody Shaw (tracks: A2, B1)

:::air cavalry #5:::

Posted: Friday 14 December 2012 by jazzlover in Etykiety:
5


After the superb Coses Nostres, how can one follow up and still appear as on top of their game? Iceberg found the easy (but not so obvious) answer, to make another superb album, and believe me they did. The album actually veers a bit more jazzy in the fusion sense sometimes approaching the over-demonstrative Return To Forever or even a bit Weather Report and still the better Santana (Caravanserai) and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Some moments are so powerful that I cannot help but thinking of Journey's superb jazz-rock debut album with the incredible Ainsley Dunbar on drums.
Right from the opening title track, you know this album will strike all the rights chords if you like the above-mentioned bands, and the Spanish feel is present but nothing obtrusive (hardly any flamenco hints, but more of Rodrigo (Aranjuez) feel. Again Sunyer and Mas take the stage by storm, but the rhythm section is really on top of its game. The only small gripe I might have is that the synths sounds are a bit more "modern", but at least on this album they have been correctly reproduced during the CD transcript. To separate one track and raise it above the rest is simply impossible to this reviewer, because the album is incredibly even, with maybe Magic a bit under par. However, if I must name just one track, listen to the closer Alegries Del Mediterraneo.
A smoking album, just as excellent as the previous Coses Nostres but better rated because of no avoidable sound flaws. Among my top 40 jazz-rock albums, no problems even if I have only known it for the last few months.
:::Review by Sean Trane:::

Iceberg - Sentiments (1977)

1. Sentiments (1:50) 
2. Andalusia, Andalusia (5:37) 
3. A Sevilla (5:13) 
4. Ball De Les Fulles (5:30) 
5. Magic (6:23) 
6. Joguines (3:00) 
7. Alegries Del Mediterrani (9:17) 

Credits
- Jordi Colomer / drums, percussion 
- Josep "Kitflus" Mas / acoustic & electric pianos, synthesizers 
- Primitivo Sancho / bass 
- Joaquim Max Suñe / acoustic & electric guitars

:::off the back of a lorry #5:::

Posted: Thursday 13 December 2012 by jazzlover in Etykiety: , , ,
5


In the jazz world, one thing that keeps a lot of fans coming back for more with their favorite artists is the unpredictability factor. It may well be human nature to subconsciously form preconceptions, but with this music, it's usually best to avoid reductionist pigeonholing as, more often than not, it sets self-limiting expectations. Guitarist John Abercrombie has proven, in a career now well into its fifth decade, that just when it seems clear where he's heading, he veers unexpectedly elsewhere—though there always seems to be some thread of commonality running through it all. Since forming the quartet with pianist Richie Beirachthat debuted on Arcade (ECM, 1978), Abercrombie's release pattern with his regular groups has, however, been largely consistent, with three recordings featuring the same lineup before moving, at least, on record, to the next. Even the quartet with violinist Mark Feldmanand drummer Joey Baron that has occupied much of the guitarist's attention in the new millennium released three records with Marc Johnson before Thomas Morgan took over the bass chair to alter its complexion for Wait Till You See Her (ECM, 2009).
Despite no signs of that configuration exceeding its "best by" date, Within A Songrepresents a directional shift of sorts, while still possessing some of the markers that link all of Abercrombie's work together. Drummer Joey Baron is the only carryover in a quartet that, along with bassist Drew Gress—making his second appearance on ECM after his label debut (with Abercrombie) on saxophonist John Surman's Brewster's Rooser (2009)—also features saxophonist Joe Lovano, on his first session for the label since drummer Paul Motian's final trio recording with guitarist Bill Frisell, Time and Again (2007). It's an inspired choice for an album that pays tribute to some seminal music of the 1960s, even though Abercrombie is the only one who fits the bill of his brief liners, referring to ..."an old saying that goes: if you can remember the 1960s you probably weren't there." Abercrombie wasthere and he does remember, but if Lovano, Gress and Baron were, for the most part, pre-teens when most of the inspirations for Within A Song were first recorded, then their subsequent careers—ranging as far and wide as their leader's—have all demonstrated a near-mitochondrial appreciation and, even more importantly, understanding of that innovative period.
Abercrombie has often covered a song or two on his recordings as a leader, but he's largely focused on original material. Within A Song flips the equation, with only three original songs in a nine-song set that touches on Miles Davis, with an indigo-tinged version of "Flamenco Sketches" that's even more impressionistic than the original on the trumpeter's seminal Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959)). Abercrombie also pays tribute to saxophonists John Coltrane, with "Wise One" (from Crescent (Impulse!, 1964), and Ornette Coleman, with the free jazz founder's "Blues Connotation," from This is Our Music (Atlantic, 1961), moving effortlessly from time and changes to greater freedom, only to find its way back, mid-song, for Lovano's ambling but effervescent solo.
Within A Song never actually reaches a boil, with the opening "Where Are You" and Abercrombie's "Easy Reader" setting a relatively gentle pace. Still, the guitarist's title track—which borrows both indirectly and, ultimately, directly from the Youmans/Rose standard "Without A Song"—does turn the heat up to a simmer, while Bill Evans' "Interplay" swings vibrantly at a medium tempo thanks to Gress and Baron, whose powerful punctuations—rarely as flat-out exuberant as some of his best work in Bill Frisell's group of the 1980s/90s, but still demonstrating the occasional slap-happy bent—are unexpected but never gratuitous.
The entire quartet's behind-the-beat approach when it comes to both groove and melody may give Within A Song its generally relaxed veneer, but beneath this largely soft surface is a freer approach that speaks to Abercrombie's explanation, in a 2004 All About Jazzinterview: "I like free playing that has some relationship to a melody; very much the way Ornette Coleman used to write all those wonderful songs and then they would play without chords on a lot of them; but they still had these great melodies to draw you in and act as a reference point; I think having a reference point when you're playing this kind of music is very important."
A cursory look at the collective discography of everyone in this quartet reveals players comfortable with the tradition and in more left-of-center contexts. Given Baron's textural playing here, there are times when Within A Song actually recalls some of Lovano's wonderful On Broadway recordings with Motian and Frisell from the late 1980s/early 90s—where that group found ways to deconstruct well-heeled tunes, albeit with more overt fire, at times, contrasting a similarly impressionistic approach. But if Abercrombie is a less idiosyncratic player than Frisell, he's just as unpredictable. Time and again, on album and in performances ranging from Montreal in 2007 and Mannheim in 2009, to Ottawa in 2010, Abercrombie is both instantly recognizable and perennially fresh, never resorting to stock ideas or signature lines. If he has largely focused on string-driven chamber jazz for the better part of the last decade, with Within A Song he's delivered an unequivocal jazzrecording—one founded on the groundbreaking music of the 1960s, to be sure, but, in the hands of these fine players, resonating with fresh, contemporary relevance.
:::Review by John Kelman:::

John Abercrombie - Within A Song (2012)

1. Where Are You
2. Easy Reader
3. Within A Song / Without A Song
4. Flamenco 
5. Sketches
6. Nick of Time
7. Blues Connotation
8. Wise One
9. Interplay

Credits
John Abercrombie - guitar
Joe Lovano tenor - saxophone
Drew Gress - double-bass
Joey Baron - drums

:::onion philosophy #4:::

Posted: Sunday 9 December 2012 by jazzlover in Etykiety:
2


Larsen Rupin is a Swiss avant-jazz quartet that was founded in 1990 in Neuchâtel. This unique quartet is formed of Daniel Spanhi (drums) who was also a member of Débile Menthol, Nimal and L?Ensemble rayé, Gilbert Ummel (saxophone, vocals), André Schenk (bass) and Julien Baillod (guitars), who joined the band in 2008, to replace Pier-Luigi Pision, their first guitarist.
Larsen Rupin released three albums. Their first album, A Ban, came out in 1992 and featured only three members of the actual band (Spahni/Ummel/Schenk).
Their second album was released in 2003 and named Contredanses. On this album, you can hear a great dark, avant-progressive sound.
The third album is called Procès-verbal and was released in 2007, as a quartet with Pisino on guitars joining the trio of the first two albums. Pisino was replaced in 2008 by Julien Baillod.
With this new line-up, they still have not released an album, but we can expect something good, as all of their other material. They have recently been experimenting on mixes of pop, rock, blues and jazz.

Larsen Rupin - A Ban (1991)

1. A Ban (5:06)
2. La langue de bois (2:58)
3. Les vaches maigres (4:24)
4. Boules kiesses (4:24)
5. Vieux scratch (2:20)
6. Délaichéance (4:52)
7. La transe continentale (2:52)
8. Carnation (4:58)
9. Lascar Nivore (2:34)
10. Nice Noise (2:44)
11. Trac éléctrique (2:18)
12. Larsen_Crachat (3:58)

Credits
- Daniel Spahni / Drums
- Gilbert Ummel / Sax, vocals
- André Schenk / Bass

:::old dogs with new tricks #4:::

Posted: Saturday 8 December 2012 by jazzlover in Etykiety: , , , , ,
2


What is immediately noticeable upon listening to this delicately and superbly remastered version of Miles Davis classic first -- and only -- album with his original sextet is how deep the blues presence is on it. Though it is true that the album's title cut is rightfully credited with introducing modalism into jazz, and defining Davis' music for years to come, it is the sole selection of its kind on the record. The rest is all blues in any flavor you wish you call your own. For starters, there's the steaming bebop blues of "Dr. Jackie" -- recorded in 1955 for a Prestige session with Jackie McLean. Davis is still in his role as a trumpet master, showing a muscularity of tone that reveals something more akin to Roy Eldridge orLouis Armstrong than Dizzy or Fats Navarro. The tempo is furious as all the members of the sextet solo except for Jones. The saxophonists trade choruses and come off sounding like mirrored images of one another in the slower, post-bop blues that is "Sid's Ahead." With a slippery melody line that quotes two harmonic lines from early New Orleans-styled blues, Davis drives the band into the rhythm section's garage. It's Coltrane first with his stuttered, angular lines, hiccuping halfway through the interval before continuing on with a squeak here and the slightest squawk there. Next up is Davis, blowing fluid and straightened lines, ribbons through the rhythm section's center as Red Garland lays out and leaves it toPaul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones to provide the earnest, time-keeping 4/4 that Davis sidles to in the tune. When Adderley solos, all best are off as he plays as pure a blues as he was capable at the time. Nonetheless, there are the long lines of slurred notes, smattered against Garland's harmonies and he slips into quoting "Skip to my Lou" before knotting it back down to the basics and even then not for long.Coltrane was already exploring the edges of mode and harmony; he used an intervallic invention in the choruses to juxtapose his solo against the rhythm section and it worked -- but it must have made Davisraise an eyebrow. Chambers' solo is as tasteful and as breezy and free as only he could be. His contrapuntal soloing rides the rhythm out, Garland striding along quietly until the tune returns.
"Sid's Ahead" is followed by the track "Two Bass Hit," written by Dizzy and John Lewis. It's an off-kilter blues with a wide middle section, no doubt for Lewis' piano to fill. It's a wonderful ensemble showcase but Davis blows his ass off in his solo, riding through the two saxophonists and challenging them at the same time. But then comes "Milestones" with its modal round and interval, where harmony is constructed from the center up. It is a memorable tune for not only its structure and how it would inform not only Davis' own music, but jazz in general for the next seven years. It would also changeJohn Coltrane's life. The exploratory style of soloing was already revealing itself in Trane's playing, but he loosens it up even more here. More importantly, this is the first place we get to see it in Davis, where there is no goal at the end of the rainbow, there is merely the solo itself in the heart of the mode. The alternate take of this tune, which is featured at the end of the album, tagged on with two others of "Two Bass Hit" and "Straight, No Chaser," has an even longer and weirder solo by Davis where he plays notes he probably never played again. The album's closer is Monk's "Straight, No Chaser," which became a signature tune for the sextet even when Garland and Jones left to be replaced by Bill Evans and Jimmy Cobb and later Evans by Wynton Kelly. Like "My Funny Valentine," it was a Davis staple that accented how intuitive the band was with unusual harmonic structures like Monk's. The Adderley solo is remarkable for its fluid, bebop-style runs over Garland's extended chords and flatted sevenths.Cannonball quotes the melody in a myriad of ways and goes off the deep end each time he does, taking the new rendition to its limit, always returning it to the blues root. Davis plays it cool, slithering around the rhythm section staying firmly in blues phraseology, even quoting a reverse harmonic melodic read of "When the Saints Go Marching In," bringing it in and out three times while pushing the blues line to its edge. Coltrane's solo is all over the place, slurring notes as he plays weird scales all over the blues and triple times the rhythm section. But he knows the tune better than anyone here -- he spent six months with Monk just previous to this playing it every night. Coltrane knows how much he can stretch the intervals without breaking apart the body. He inserts his own modal interpretation on the blues halfway through his solo before slipping into the straight, swinging groove of his Blue Train album, finished only two months before. Garland, oddly enough, is the one to travel the furthest from Monk here, coming off with a Bud Powell-esque blues muscle that shifts the entire tune into a straight bebop blues before sifting in a few Errol Garland quotes as the bass solos and then the front line comes in to take it out. The alternate take is even stranger as Garland falters in his time not once but twice and has to find his way back in.
Legacy has done it proud on this series of reissues, as the sound is as fine as technology can currently make it, the notes are terrific, and the alternate takes offer additional delights to fans of the original recordings. They should also be commended for leaving them at the bottom of the album instead of placing them in with the original album's sequence, a practice that though widely used is distracting nonetheless. This is a fine issue of a classic, and treated like the piece of art it is.
:::Review by Thom Jurek:::

Miles Davis - Milestones (1958)

1. Dr. Jackle (5:47)
2. Sid's Ahead (12:59)
3. Two Bass Hit (5:13)
4. Miles (5:45)
5. Billy Boy (7:14)
6. Straight, No Chaser (10:41)

Credits
- Miles Davis / Trumpet, Piano (on Sid's Ahead)
- Cannonball Adderley / Alto saxophone
- John Coltrane / Tenor saxophone
- Red Garland / Piano
- Paul Chambers / Double bass
- Philly Joe Jones / Drums