August round-up
This month’s Jazz Choice (see left) heads up a selection of releases that do nothing to settle the old arguments regarding where jazz begins and ends, yet they all carry aspects of jazz into their own territories. Multi-instrumentalist ECM veteran Stephan Micus, for example, gives each project a freshly-minted context that any open-minded jazz listener could relate to. Winter’s End offers hypnotic explorations of a range of instruments including the 12-string guitar, the charango (Andean stringed instrument), the kalimba (also known as the finger harp, originating from Africa) and more. A collector of instruments and musical ideas from many cultures, his career began at a time when world music also meant the quest for an actual ‘world music’ – a kind of global musical lingua franca – in which mixing sounds and forms from multiple cultures was seen as desirable rather than appropriative. ECM’S lucid recorded sound serves the music perfectly, as ever. (ECM 2698) ★★★★★
The drumkit-free combination of two horns and a bass (with occasional voice, piano and percussion) gives us Maridalen, a name which efficiently covers a trio of Norwegian performers, its eponymous debut album, the second track on that said album, and the name of the church in Oslo where the music was recorded. The music on Maridalen the album blends pastoralism, stripped-down folky quirkiness and euphonious frontline harmonies to good effect, adding a few gently leftfield interventions such as a watery field recording and a percussion part consisting of breath and rhythmic reed-clicking. Highly involving. ( Jazzland Recordings
377 9356) ★★★★
The whole idea of the two-horn front line is neatly subverted by clarinettist Joris Roelofs on his quintet album Rope Dance, where he shares these duties with bassoonist Bram van Sambeek. The latter instrument’s admittedly patchy history in jazz often nudges the music towards a vaguely Weill-like avant-cabaret style, which is one of the elements here, alongside mideuropean folk and contemporary chamber music influences. The sum of these parts is in fact much more friendly than it sounds, and the excellent recording quality marks what may be the first appearance of the Swedish BIS label in this column. BIS continues to support the SACD format and this release is an example, but as ever the disc also has a standard CD layer. (BIS BIS-2453) ★★★★★
Where, though, does all this extrospection leave the jazz composer, which is the larger of the two hats worn by bassist Matt Ridley?
He describes his sextet release The Antidote as ‘my humble attempt at creating music that reconciles the differences between us’. No pressure, then, but his assuredness shines through in this set of taut, modernist originals and his band is engaged and supportive. (Ubuntu UBU 00068) ★★★★
Finally, a brief (because he was interviewed last issue) but entirely deserved mention for pianist and vocalist Jon Batiste, whose guestheavy album We Are engages with current social and political issues while also exuberantly shuffling the pack of Africanamerican music, grafting barrelhouse piano onto Motown, rap onto jazzy R&B, funk onto gospel and generally reminding us that all musical development is a continuum, not a series of compartments. Indeed, see above. (Verve 60969243) ★★★★★