This is my first combination review of unrelated CDs. . . .I have decided to celebrate my approaching senescence by dealing simultaneously with all the CDs I receive for which there are no liner notes. Why artists decide that their music speaks for itself with no explanation is beyond me - what worked for Miles and Trane can be justified in their case because they were known quantities. The artists discussed below are, while all talented and professional, likely unknown to the vast majority of readers of this journal (myself included). As someone who has been involved in the making of numerous CDs, I can attest to the fact that including a short blurb or bio on a packaged disc adds little or nothing to the cost and has the incalculable benefit of introducing yourself to a new audience - certainly to be expected when being reviewed in a journal of knowledgeable collectors. While an internet search would doubtless turn up much information, I have decided that I am no longer willing to do primary research to fill in gaps left by artists . . so, here are my thoughts, based solely upon listening!
Joyce Cobb with the Michael Jeffrey Stevens Trio Archer Records
Joyce Cobb (vocal), Michael Jeffrey Stevens (piano), Jonathan Wires (sb), Renardo Ward (d)
Moanin' / Jitterbug Waltz / Skylark / Man, That Was a Dream / My Heart Belongs to Daddy / I'm in the Mood for Love-Moody's Mood for Love / Blue Skies-In Walked Bud / If You Know Love / If You Never Come to Me / I Thought about You / Daydream / It's All Over Now-Well, You Needn't
The Black Butterflies
1 De Mayo
self-produced
Mercedes Figueras (ss/as/ts), Tony Larokko (ss/as/ts/percussion), Dan Tepfer (keyboard), Nick Gianni (sb), Kenny Wollesen (d), Fred Berryhill, Bopa "King" Carre (various percussion)
1 De Mayo / Afro Blue / Pipi's Blues / Spiritual Travels / Yah- Yah / Music Heals All Wounds
The Carsten Dahl Experience
Humilitas
Storyville
Jesper Zeuthen (as), Carsten Dahl (p/percussion), Nils "Bosse" Davidsen (sb), Stefan Pasborg (d)
Andedans / Okto / Stop One / Psykocalypso / Small Intermezzo / Do You Know Homeless? / Statements / Stop Two / Dem Tanzen Fur Thomas / 15 Gode Grunde
Uli Fiedler Trio
Tre Pane
Nagel Heyer
Stephan Holstein (clt), Josef Holzhauser (g). Uli Fiedler (sb), Jacob Haas (cello on #5 and 8)
Ogni Anno / Excited About You / The Game is Over / Italian Cake / Quiet Love / Cenaia / Long View / Tre Pane / Boat Salad / Slow Wind Under My Feet / Journey
The Pulse
Storyville
Mads La Cour (tpt), Jakob Dinesen (ts), Heine Hansen (p), Daniel Franck (sb/v), Thomas Blachman (d/v)
Ballad of St. John / Bring Me Back Home / Super Young Island / We Make Love / The Bliss / Pumping / Hello / Irritation / Family Thing / What Kind of Music Do You Like?
This recording by Joyce Cobb contains an interesting variety of selections, with an obvious affinity for the tunes of Thelonious Monk. Cobb is a singer clearly inclined to the hard bop repertoire, although with a wide streak of R&B. The first track - Bobby Timmons' Moanin' - has the heaviest pop-influence, with the overdubbed vocals and the singer's sole outing on harmonica.
Cobb is best featured on the medium-to-up-tempo numbers. Jitterbug Waltz, It's Over Now/I Mean You and Blue Skies/In Walked Bud all demonstrate her facility with complicated melodic structures and rapidly articulated lyrics. On the slower selections she yields to a highly mannered and florid delivery that often obscures the melody (Skylark for example) and her style suggests that scat syllables might have been more musically appropriate in some of these settings.
The accompanying trio is very good - I would assume it is a regularly working unit in Memphis, and its cohesiveness on each track is impressive. Stevens is featured on the first out of tempo chorus of Skylark and has effective solo innings on Moanin' and I Thought about You. Wires and Ward are both less prominent in solo, although the bass on "Jitterbug" and the drums on Man, That Was a Dream are very good. The trio had obviously evolved an arrangement of My Heart Belongs to Daddy as a tango that succeeds admirably, although it inspires Cobb into a campy rendition replete with what sounds like a Peter Lorre imitation. This strain is also evident in the first part of I'm in the Mood for Love (before the transition to the impressive version of Moody's Mood) that reminds me of nothing as much as the Spike Jones takeoff on the same tune.
I'm not entirely sure how to describe the style of The Black Butterflies, and perhaps that's the way they want it. With a battery of percussion instruments including congas, djembe, whistles and rattles, this group incorporates elements of African, Indian and Middle Eastern music into their performance. While no vocalists are credited, there is a group vocal effort on Yah-Yah that suggests primal chant as well.
My main problem with this recording is that I have no idea who plays what. Two saxophonists are listed, but on only two cuts do they play together. The fact that they both play the same instruments gives further difficulties in sorting out solos, although at a guess I'd say it is Figueras who is featured on her compositions Pippi's Blues and Music Heals all Wounds while Larokko probably does the heavy lifting on his Spiritual Travels and Yah-Yah.
The only standard on the program is Mongo Santamaria's Afro Blue which here receives a very free treatment featuring an extended improvisation between the two (alto and soprano) saxes. The keyboard and bass are both effectively featured on the title track and the drums do an admirable job of maintaining the intensity on Afro Blue. Yah-Yah is primarily vocal at the beginning, with layers of wordless chants and riffs creating a complex texture that is relieved by a melodic female vocal. After seven minutes, horns finally enter to create an entirely different feel while exploring various extended instrumental techniques.
For me, the most accessible track is the final one - Music Heals All Wounds. Figueras (if it is she) here calls to mind the 1960's work of Albert Ayler, especially his Goin' Home album. The gospel-ish melody is hypnotic and her playing conjures the chant-like atmosphere that Ayler was wont to create with his elastic intonation and chattering phrases.
This is another album that begs the question: Is it jazz? It would be helpful to know if the artists intended it to be.
This 2008 recording by the Carsten Dahl Experience is something that today might be considered revivalist - but not in the sense of Traditional Jazz. This revival is of the tradition of the European avante-garde, which thrived in the 1960s and 1970s in the wake of the innovations of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler.
Again, with no details available about the music it is difficult to draw many conclusions, although the integration of the ensemble is impressive. The rhythm trio is considerably less out than Zeuthen's saxophone playing, which is plaintive yet tortured, utilizing a pinched sound that can make for uncomfortable listening at times. Zeuthen is the composer of the first two and last tracks on this disc and they each have in common an elegiac mood and rubato tempo, interrupted only by a powerful rhythmic shift at the end of Anedans which represents the best collective playing of the session.
Dahl's compositions tend to be more organized, with Psykocalypso and Dem Tanzen fur Thomas being fairly intricate. These two also present the sharp angles and humor that I imagine was inspired by Thelonious Monk - indeed, some of these performances seem to owe more to Monk than Coleman. Dahl's playing is likewise influenced - the two tracks mentioned and Small Intermezzo (a duet between him and Zeuthen) show him to have formidable technique but not the need to use it all the time. Davidsen is featured on the two arrangements (Stop One and Stop Two) credited to all four musicians and Pasborg does fine solo work on Do You Know Homeless? as well as very complimentary work on all the other tracks.
The disc by the Uri Fiedler trio is good acoustic chamber Jazz - with just bass, guitar, clarinet) and a cello added on two tracks), the sound is warm and intimate. With such limited instrumentation, the sound can also be a bit monotonous, but the group does a creditable job of varying textures and rhythms. All tunes are credited to Fiedler, and they run the gamut from straight ahead Jazz (Cenaia), blues-like (Excited about You), classical (Quiet Love) to Latin (Boat Salad and Italian Cake).
The players are all highly accomplished and impressively integrated. Holstein has a warm, expressive sound that is highlighted best on slower tunes, although sometimes his intonation clashes with the guitar on the more tightly arranged passages (Boat Salad for example). His playing on Excited about You is especially vocal and passionate. Holzhauser has superb guitar technique - without resorting to clich�d rhythmic devices, he effortlessly carries the chordal burden, in which he is well-supported by the leader's solid bass lines.
The Pulse is the name of the album - the band too, even though it's not specified!
Led by drummer and vocalist Thomas Blachman, the crew features his original compositions. While the instrumental style is very much in the classic hard bop quintets of the late 1950s and early '60s, most of the tracks include vocal solos/duets that are overlayed on the texture of the music as in some forms of contemporary Hip-Hop.
While not vocals in the ordinary Jazz sense, these are more like incantations that appear and reappear at odd intervals and function as a melodic unifier. On a tune like Bring Me Back Home the vocal is similar to the chanting on A Love Supreme, while on Hello it is almost a poetic setting.
The unusual quality created by the recurring vocals sometimes takes away from the instrumental contributions, which are impressive. The ensemble itself is polished and obviously rehearsed in Blachman's music, which are compositions rather than simply arrangements of tunes. We Make Love is an involved piece featuring tempo changes and rhythmic shifts that highlight all the players, with especial honors going to Dinesen on tenor saxophone. Dinesen is also featured to good effect on Bring Me Back Home and The Bliss. Trumpeter La Cour (who may also play flugelhorn in some places) takes honors with his Miles-derived outings on those two tunes as well. Hansen takes numerous solos, but is featured best on Family Thing and Pumping on which he demonstrates great control of tonal coloration.
John Clark
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