Hidden Forces Trio - Crows Are Council (2014)

Hidden Forces Trio - Crows Are Council (Knockturne Records, 2014)

Personnel:
Gustavo Domínguez: bass clarinet, clarinet & didgeridoo 

Marco Serrato: double bass 

Borja Díaz: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Invocation / Crows are council

02 - Chalybs

03 - El ejecutor

04 - Thimble Capp

05 - Gĉod

06 - Tender Fisting Blues

Gustavo Domínguez (clarinets), Marco Serrato (double bass) and Borja Díaz (drums) are back. Crows are Council (Knockturne Records / Clamshell Records 2014) is their second record, an album where all their different experiences (from heavy metal to symphonic music, from street standards to free experimentation) collides connecting within themselves for then to start all over again. Because, in order to preserve something, it is necessary to go forward in circles but always looking backwards. Abstract searching (“Gĉod”) or unbridled rage (“Crows are Council”) always go hand in hand with keynotes and the right tempo (“Thimble Capp”, “Chalybs”), even if they are not to be played. A record co-released by Knockturne Records and Clamshell which makes it clear that there is life beyond Orthodox, and where improvisation and structured dark chaos are created mixing elements from free jazz instrumentation with extractions from heavy metal and contemporary music.

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Arnold Hammerschlag - No Face, No Name (2015)

Arnold Hammerschlag - No Face, No Name (Skirl, 2015)

Personnel:
Arnold Hammerschlag: trumpet

Sam Barfeld: violin

Will Holshouser: accordeon

Brian Glassman: bass
Aaron Alexander: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Reflection

02 - Boat Float

03 - No Face No Name

04 - Waiting

05 - Jo

06 - Slow Road

07 - Sailor Song

08 - Picnic House

09 - Bert

10 - The All New Bunny Hop

On his long-awaited second release, No Face, No Name, trumpeter/composer Arnold Hammerschlag blends influences from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America with cinematic scope and wide-ranging jazz invention. The album, out now on Skirl Records, features ten original compositions that offer Hammerschlag’s unique twist on a mash-up of folk traditions, performed by an unconventional ensemble: Sam Bardfeld (violin), Will Holshouser (accordion), Brian Glassman (bass), and Aaron Alexander (drums).

“The idea behind the album is that each composition is like a painting in a museum,” Hammerschlag says. “All together they make up an exhibition – a whole world.”

Hammerschlag originally conceived the project under the title “Songs From Sun, Sand and Stone,” an evocative concept that illustrates the way that his music conjures landscapes. These compositions bring to mind at once the actual places where the trumpeter’s inspirations originated and an imaginary terrain where all of them overlap and dissolve into one another: the vivid Klezmer-meets-rock of “Boat Float,” the title track’s summoning a Middle Eastern crossroads cafe, a bridge between Brahms and Piazzolla on “Jo.”

The unusual quintet was born from Hammerschlag’s experience playing in a wedding band led by Klezmer- jazz pioneer Greg Wall. “In the space of one wedding we would play several different styles of Jewish, Israeli and Yemenite music, along with sets of jazz and rock and roll and top 40,” the trumpeter recalls. No Face, No Name places those sudden shifts in tone within the space of a single composition, often layering one style atop another to create bold and original juxtapositions.

The title No Face, No Name is derived from a Zen Buddhist koan relating to the practice of contemplating one’s face before birth, a spiritual grounding for the blank but richly loaded slate from which Hammerschlag approaches his compositions. It’s also a playful nod at the fresh start provided by the twelve-year wait since his debut CD, Sailing Neptune’s Waters. The mesmerizing piece “Slow Road,” with its suggestion of a mysterious caravan wending its way through an unchanging desert landscape, thus becomes something of a mission statement: “It’s an analogy for a journey that unfolds gradually over time,” Hammerschlag explains. “Most of the things I’m interested in – meditation, composition, tai chi – can’t be hurried. You grow with them over a lifetime.”

Hammerschlag’s journey began in Seattle, where he came of musical age alongside fellow jazz originals like Jim Black, Cuong Vu, Andrew D’Angelo, and Chris Speed. He studied under Jerry Granelli, Julian Priester, Jay Clayton, and Jim Knapp at Cornish College of the Arts, where he co-founded the ahead-of-its-time band Timebone. Hammerschlag arrived in New York City in 1994, where he’s since worked with a host of artists including Greg Wall, Matt Darriau, Michel Gentile, Owen Howard, Pete Epstein, Alex Harding, Tricia Woods, Chris Komer, Brent Arnold, Katie Down and Phil Haynes. [Official site]

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Curtis Hasselbring - The New Mellow Edwards (2006)

Curtis Hasselbring - The New Mellow Edwards (Skirl, 2006)

Personnel:
Curtis Hasselbring: Keyboards [Casio], Effects, Sounds, Trombone

Chris Speed: Keyboards [Casio], Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone
Trevor Dunn: Bass
John Hollenbeck: Drums, Melodica, Percussion

Tracklisting:
01 - White Sauce Hot Sauce Boss?

02 - The Infinite Infiniteness Of Infinity

03 - Abcs Of The Future

04 - Plubis Epilogue
05 - Double Negative

06 - (I'm The Annoying Guy Who Always Yells) Freebird

07 - Insaniterrier (The Radio Dog)

08 - Scatology

09 - Ana Black Francis

10 - Far-Away Planet

11 - Mamacita

Сurtis Hasselbring's New Mellow Edwards is a group that was originally formed in 1988. Known back then as the Mellow Edwards, the trio of trombone, electric guitar and drums explored a unique combination of free jazz and heavy rock that was very unique for it's time. Continuing through the 90s as a sextet with a similar musical onus, Hasselbring reformed the group as an acoustic quartet in 2002 and has made the New Mellow Edwards the focal point of his composing and band-leading. Curtis's compositions and the New Mellow Edwards' playing defies traditional jazz conventions and favors primal garage rock-derived grooves, textural explorations and classicaly-influenced structures. The repertiore of the group can be humerous, dark, accessible and exciting, often simultaneously.

The debut album by the ingenius composer\trombonist Сurtis Hasselbring. Сurtis's composing and The New Mellow Edwards' playing defies traditional jazz conventions and and favors primal garage rock-derived groove, textural explorations and classically-influensed structures. Curtis's tweaked version of a modern instrumental supergroup features strong performances from three New York's most innovated musicians, Trevor Dunn (Mr. Brungle, Electric Masada, Melvins), John Hollenbeck (Meredith Monk, Theo Bleckmann, Claudia Quintet), and Chris Speed (Human Feel, Bloodcount, Pachora).

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Bruno Vansina Orchestra - Morning Forest aka Nose Up Bottom Down (2014)

Bruno Vansina Orchestra - Morning Forest aka Nose Up Bottom Down (Rat Records, 2014)

Personnel:

Bruno Vansina - alto saxophone
Christian Mendozza - piano
Bert Cools - guitar
Stefan Lievestro - bass
Teun Verbruggen - drums

(on tracks 1,2,4,5,7):

Malik Mezzadri - flute
John Ruocco - clarinet & tenor saxophone
Kristien Cueppens - oboe
Kensuka Taira - bassoon
Bart Indevuyst - french horn
Steven Dellanoy - tenor saxophone
Wietse Meys - tenor saxophone & clarinet
Carlo Nardozza - trumpet
Jeroen Van Malderen - trumpet & flugelhorn
Frederik Heirman - trombone
Tom Verschoren - trombone, bass trombone & euphonium
Kobe Proesmans - percussion (2, 4, 5)

Tracklisting:

1. Dark Night (10:31)
2. Fiesta Festivo (12:31)
3. Morning Forest aka Nose Up Bottom Down (5:21)
4. Ploink (11:31)
5. Groove Along (13:09)
6. Symphony Of The Fried Bananas (8:45)
7. Bike Insprivation (11:11)

Belgian saxophonist Bruno Vansina crooned and shouted his way through the Zappa-esque art rock-jazz of 2009's Nirvana Bonus and the Demons of Shame but, in sharp contrast, his Bruno Vansina Quartet (plus guest vibraphonist Steve Nelson) released the sparkling, beautifully expressive creative jazz album Stratocluster in 2012. The often stunning 2014 Rat Records album "Morning Forest aka Nose Up Bottom Down" -- credited to the Vansina Orchestra -- falls squarely on the saxophonist's creative jazz side, but on a comparatively massive scale. Here, the Vansina Quartet has expanded into a five-piece -- with leader/composer Vansina on alto, drummer Teun Verbruggen, pianist Christian Mendozza, guitarist Bert Cools, and bassist Stefan Lievestro -- augmented by an 11-piece grouping of horns and reeds arranged by Dree Peremans (and with percussionist Kobe Proesmans added on three tracks). With composition titles including "Ploink" and "Symphony of the Fried Bananas," one might expect the Vansina Orchestra to plow some of the same sometimes oddball Zappa-influenced turf as Vansina's Demons of Shame outfit or Peter Vermeersch's Flat Earth Society big band, to which the saxophonist has contributed for years. But Vansina clearly had something else in mind for his own large ensemble. Instead, Morning Forest takes inspiration from the likes of Gil Evans and Charles Mingus, sweeping the listener along through the multi-layered arrangements and deep color palette of five spacious full-orchestra compositions in the ten- to 13-minute range.

Opener "Dark Night" begins sparsely, the leader's alto reinforcing a mysterious mood over pulses and washes from the quintet before high reeds and then forceful horns open the composition to the modal explorations of clarinetist John Ruocco, the supporting ensemble building around him in a balance of beauty, tension, and drama. The pace remains measured and even ritualistic, but the piece's ultimate brightening suggests darkness giving way to a lovely sunrise. In sharp contrast, "Fiesta Festivo" and "Ploink" -- the former arranged by Vansina and Peremans and the latter by Vansina alone -- kick up the tempo with highly infectious grooves. "Fiesta Festivo" has a strong Afro-Latin flavor with numerous rhythmic shifts, ensemble permutations, and solo showcases, the track's ebullience highlighted by the freewheeling flute and exuberant vocalizing of Malik Mezzadri, while the stuttering syncopations and sharply jabbing horns of "Ploink" push into animated circularity before building to an ultra-tight finale highlighted by Verbruggen's rolling drumwork. The horns and reeds provide comparatively subtle coloration to "Groove Along" as Vansina and then Mezzadri explore the interstices formed by a slow and irregularly accented pulse, while "Bike Insprivation" brings the album to a rousing conclusion. Along the album's multifaceted journey, outliers come in two tracks from the unaccompanied quintet: the slow tango-esque title track falls within the small-combo Stratocluster aesthetic, while "Symphony of the Fried Bananas" tumbles between angular composed lines and noisy, skronky improv (with wild, effects-laden axework from Cools). The latter comes as a particular surprise, but it's as excitingly immediate as Morning Forest's full-orchestra tracks are gorgeous, atmospheric, and vibrant.
[Allmusic.com]

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Jerry Granelli & Jamie Saft - Nowness (2014)

Jerry Granelli & Jamie Saft - Nowness (Veal Records, 2014)

Personnel:
Jamie Saft: keys

Jerry Granelli: drums

Tracklisting:
1 - First Thought Best Thought
2 - Loves Fool
3 - Tail Of The Tiger
4 - Shasta Road
5 - How To Know No
6 - International Affairs
7 - Fortune Tellers   
8 - A Heart Lost And Discovered

"You can't hear a piece of music in advance. When you listen to music, you are hearing the present music at that time. You also can't undo the past, the music that you've heard already. You can't do that; you hear the music of the moment. Now is a vast thing. Past and future can't exist without now."- Chogyam Trungpa

"NOWNESS" is the latest full length from Jerry Granelli & Jamie Saft. 100% Green Forestry Certified Eco Wallet with deluxe art and poetry by Jerry Granelli, texts from Chogyam Trungpa, and calligraphies courtesy the Nalanda Translation Committee.

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Lark - Lark (2013)

Lark - Lark (Skirl, 2013)

Personnel:
Ralph Alessi: trumpet
Ingrid Laubrock: tenor saxophone
Kris Davis: piano
Tom Rainey: drums

Tracklisting:
1. Thieves In A Pod (11:54)
2. Nit-Splitting (18:54)
3. Hypnotic Jerk (7:03)
4. Nobody's Human (10:03)
5. DDP 9963 (For Mat Maneri) (7:44)
6. Defensive Indifference (5:23)

L
Ingrid Laubrock
Ingrid, originally from Germany now a resident in Brooklyn via th UK, performed and recorded with: Anthony Braxton, Dave Douglas, Kenny Wheeler, Tim Berne, Mark Helias, Michael Formanek, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Evan Parker, Steve Beresford, John Edwards, Veryan Weston, Luc Ex, Django Bates' Human Chain, Evan Parker, The Continuum Ensemble and others.As part of the F-ire Collective, she won the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation in 2004,was nominated for the BBC Jazz Award for 'Rising Star' in 2005 and won a Fellowship in Jazz Composition by the Arts Foundation in 2006. She won the 2009 SWR German Radio Jazz Prize the and was one of the final nominees for the 2009 Westfalen Jazz Preis.

A
Ralph Alessi
Jazz Times magazine says Alessi has "drop-dead trumpet chops" and calls his music "as clean and airy and sophisticated and disciplined as post-modern progressive jazz gets." Ralph Alessi was born in San Francisco,CA, the son of classical trumpeter Joe Alessi and opera singer Maria Leone. But after taking degrees in jazz trumpet and bass-he studied under the legendary Charlie Haden at CalArts-he lit out for New York, where he swiftly became an ubiquitous presence on the downtown scene. He's been a frequent collaborator with such notable musicians as Steve Coleman, Jason Moran, Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, Fred Hersch, Uri Caine and Dafnis Prieto. Alessi has recorded nine albums of original compositions which draw on everything from post-bop to neo classical music. In 2013, Ralph will release "Baida", a quartet CD on ECM records and "Only Many", a duo recording with pianist Fred Hersch on CAMJazz. As an educator, Ralph is the director of the School for Improvisational Music as well as an adjunct professor at New York University and New England Conservatory.

R
Tom Rainey
Tom Rainey was born in Pasadena, California in 1957. Since moving to New York in 1979 he has performed and or recorded with the following artists:John Abercrombie, Mose Allison, Julian Arguelles, Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Jane Ira Bloom, Nels Cline, Ted Curson, Mark Ducret, Mark Feldman, Michael Formanek, Drew Gress, Mark Helias, Fred Hersch, Andy Laster, Ingrid Laubrock, Joe Lovano, Tony Malaby, Albert Mangelsdorff, Carmen McRae, Mike Nock, Simon Nabatov, New and Used, Anita O'Day, Andrea Parkins, Herb Robertson, Angelica Sanchez, Louis Sclavis, Brad Shepik, Tom Varner, Ken Werner, Denny Zeitlin

K
Kris Davis
Pianist-composer Kris Davis has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers "uncommon creative adventure," according to JazzTimes. The Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-residing Davis was dubbed one of the music's top up-and-comers in a 2012 New York Times article titled "New Pilots at the Keyboard," with the newspaper saying: "Over the past couple years in New York, one method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis." Reviewing one of the series of striking albums Davis has released over the past half-decade, the Chicago Sun-Times lauded the "sense of kaleidoscopic possibilities" in her playing and compositions. [Squidco]

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Omaha Diner - Omaha Diner (2013)

Omaha Diner - Omaha Diner (Royal Artist Group, 2013)

 

Personnel:
Steven Bernstein: trumpet, slide trumpet
Skerik: saxophone
Charlie Hunter: 7-string guitar, tres-doble
Bobby Previte: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Locked Out of Heaven
02 - Thrift Shop
03 - Single Ladies
04 - The Reflex
05 - Wishing Well
06 - Lose Yourself
07 - Another One Bites the Dust
08 - War
09 - Big Girls Don't Cry
10 - Love Train


Sitting in a diner in Omaha, Nebraska in 1954, Todd Storz noticed that a teen-age waitress selected the same song on the jukebox over and over. At that moment, Top 40 radio was born, joining the TV dinner, the Reuben sandwich, the bobby pin, the ski lift, and (some claim) fuzzy dice on the list of famous and infamous inventions from the city that sits atop the Strategic Air Command.

Now comes the latest invention, OMAHA DINER - four storied musicians attempting to re-define a format that forever perverted the way we experience music. You may love Top 40 (doubtful), you may hate it (probable), you may not care about it at all (liar), but you cannot escape it.

Top 40 as you've never heard it before - OMAHA DINER.

*** OMAHA DINER's Ironclad Guarantee: all songs have touched, however briefly, #1
on the Top 40 pop chart.
OMAHA DINER BIOGRAPHY
OMAHA DINER is many things: the world's definitive virtuoso of the seven-string guitar, the pioneer of saxophonics, a recipient of the 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship for composition, and a Grammy nominee. Omaha Diner is at home in all situations in and beyond the world of music - not only scoring one of the films of legendary director Robert Altman, but performing in another one as well.

In its 125 years of experience the Diner has worked in some capacity with an unlikely and astonishing array of artists: Aretha Franklin, Sting, John Mayer, Levon Helm, John Adams, Roswell Rudd, Linda Ronstadt, Pearl Jam, Elton John, My Morning Jacket, Courtney Love, The San Francisco Ballet, Sam Rivers, Marianne Faithfull, The Moscow Circus, Roger Waters, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Michael Tilson-Thomas, R.E.M., Johnny Copeland, Bonnie Raitt, Lukas Foss, The Meters, Ween, D'Angelo, Les Claypool, Alvin Ailey, Digable Planets, Sonny Sharrock, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Tom Waits.

Omaha Diner has toured every continent with the (possible) exception of Antarctica, playing rock arenas, iconic Jazz clubs, Carnegie Hall, and hardscrabble Kentucky roadhouses. The Diner turns up in other places as well - author of the liner notes to Miles Davis' 'In Concert' record, actor on Saturday Night Live, dancer, sous-chef, teacher. [Fast Atmosphere]

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Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra - The Reason Why Vol. 1 (2013)

Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra - The Reason Why Vol. 1 (Headspin, 2013)

Personnel:

Goran Kajfeš: Trumpet, Cornet
Jonas Kullhammar: Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Flute, Lyricon
Per "Ruskträsk" Johansson: Baritone Saxophone, Sopranino Saxophone, Flute, Piccolo Flute
Andreas Söderström: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Jesper Nordenström: Organ
Robert Östlund: Organ, Electric Guitar
Mats Äleklint: Trombone
Johan Berthling: bass
Johan Holmegard: drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Yakar Inceden Inceden
02 - Storstad
03 - Desire Be, Desire Go
04 - The Nodder
05 - Okwukwe Na Nchewube
06 - Badidoom
07 - Es War Enmal
08 - Karina

Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra reveals the DNA of X/Y on new studio album The Reason Why - Vol.1.

2011 Nordic Music Prize winner and his large jazz ensemble reimagine Turkish psych, Brazilian soul, German psychedelic electronica and progressive jazz/rock on the follow up to the hugely successful X/Y. In preparation for his fourth studio recording, trumpeter Goran Kajfeš trawled his personal record collection to choose seven pieces of music that join the dots between the diverse array of influences in his music.

The Reason Why - Vol.1 sees Goran Kajfeš’ Subtropic Arkestra reimagine such colourful music as the Turkish psych of Edip Akbayram, the soulful groove of Brazilian singer Arthur Verocai, the German psychedelic electronica of Cluster and the progressive jazz/rock of Soft Machine, Bo Hansson and Tame Impala, among others.

The Reason Why - Vol.1 is in many ways a direct extension of his ambitious X/Y project and acts as a tribute to Kajfeš'  myriad inspirations and also as an attempt to push jazz away from the beaten track and into new territories.

Croatian-born (Sweden-raised) Kajfeš is a tireless innovator and a key figure of contemporary Swedish culture. In addition to his work as a bandleader, sideman and producer, he has worked with film, theatre, art and dance. In 2012, he released X/Y, an ambitious two-part recording through which he expressed contrasting aspects of his musical personality. Described as "a total work of art" and awarded 5/5 by The Independent (UK), given 4/5 by MOJO (UK) and voted Best Album of 2012 by Rob Young (The Wire) in Artforum Magazine, X/Y earned Kajfeš the prestigious Nordic Music Prize ahead of favourites Bjork and Lykke Li.

With a nod to Sun Ra legendary cosmic jazz ensemble, the 10-strong Subtropic Arkestra comprises the cream of the contemporary Swedish music scene with saxophonists Jonas Kullhammar and Per Johansson, guitarist Andreas Söderström (Ass, El Rojo Adios), bassist Johan Berthling (Fire!, Tape) and drummer Johan Holmegard (Dungen, The Amazing), Andreas Werllin (Wildbirds&Peacedrums, Tonbruket) among others. [Headspin]

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The best jazz album of year so far! Hardly recommended!

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Rakka - Soutu (2012)

Rakka - Soutu (Nordic Notes, 2012)

Personnel:

Kusti Vuorinen: accordion, organ, percussion
Masa Orpana: tenor saxophone, flute
Jykä Ahola: trumpet, flugelhorn
Ville Rauhala: double bass
Janne Tuomi: drums, percussion
+ Simo Laihonen: percussion on 4 tracks

Tracklsting:
1 - Rosinante
2 - Reverence
3 - Soutu
4 - Try Not
5 - Laululintu
6 - Autuaita Ovat Autuaat
7 - Route 325

Rakka's members started to play together in the early nineties. They have played in many well-known Finnish bands such as Suurin Onni, Circle, Black Motor or Anssi Tikanmaen Film Orchestra. In its debut album "Soutu" ("Rowing"), the band mixes sounds from a mystical feeling, calm sights and improvised jazz. Songs from the album are written by Kusti Vuorinen who was nominated for Jazz Emma 2011, Masa Orpana who is one of the top Finnish saxophone players and Ville Raauhala who has played with many great jazz players like Raoul Björkenheim, Peter Brötzmann, Iro Haarla or Verneri Pohjola.

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