MARCH 2021—ISSUE 227

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MARCH 2021—ISSUE 227
ON THE COVER : MELISSA ALDANA

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NEW YORK@NIGHT

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INTERVIEW : SUSAN ALCORN

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Staff Writers
Duck Baker, Stuart Broomer,
Robert Bush, Kevin Canfield,
Marco Cangiano, Thomas Conrad,
Pierre Crépon, Ken Dryden,
Donald Elfman, Phil Freeman,
Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland,
George Grella, Anders Griffen, Tyran Grillo,Alex Henderson, Robert Iannapollo,
Mark Keresman, Marilyn Lester,
Suzanne Lorge, Marc Medwin,
Jim Motavalli, Russ Musto,
John Pietaro, Joel Roberts,
John Sharpe, Elliott Simon,
Anna Steegmann, Scott Yanow
Contributing Writers
Dan Bilawsky, Jordannah Elizabeth,
Pierre Giroux, George Kanzler,
Franz Matzner, Steven Loewy, Kyle Oleksiuk
Contributing Photographers
Jack VartoogianFact-checker
Nate Dorward

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OBITUARIESALBUM REVIEWSMISCELLANY

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by jim motavalli

by tyran grillo
by john sharpeby anders griffen
by alex henderson
by kurt gottschalkby suzanne lorge
by andrey henkin

On Mar. 12th, 1987, Congress officially designated March as “Women’s History
Month”. Since that time, 124 women in 84 countries have been Heads of State but,ironically, not in the U.S. But, in 2021, we celebrate this Women’s History Monthhaving come the closest with recently elected Vice President Kamala Harris. Of course,
American history is often two steps back for every step forward so this may not signala substantive, longterm change. Still, any progress these days feels monumental.
Jazz has been somewhat ahead of the curve, with substantial, longterm contributions
from women throughout its history and continuing even more verdantly in the presentday. We dedicate this March 2021 issue to a wide range of female practitioners: tenor
saxophonist Melissa Aldana (On The Cover), who was the first woman to win the
Thelonious Monk competition; pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn (Interview);
vibraphonist Patricia Brennan (Artist Feature); percussionist Marilyn Mazur (Encore);and pianist Dorothy Donegan (Lest We Forget); plus a special section of CD Reviews(pgs. 12-20), focusing on an international and multigenerational cast of women in jazz.
There is an old couplet: “Man may work from sun to sun / But woman’s work is neverdone.” At the time of its writing this referred to menial housework. Now it can beappropriated to mean that there is much to be done and many milestones to reach withplenty of obstacles still littering the path. While Congress was well-intentioned, every
month should celebrate the contributions of women in all fields.

On The Cover: Melissa Aldana (© Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos)
All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited. All material copyrights property of the authors.

2 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD© JACK VARTOOGIAN/FRONTROWPHOTOS

ON THE COVER

MELISSA ALDANAVISIONSby jim motavalli

Imagine Chile-born tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana

as a racecar driver, hitting her stride on the Mulsanne
Straight at the 24 hours of Le Mans, ahead of all thecompetition, when all of a sudden the red flag comesout. The race is stopped! Something similar to that
happened to Aldana when COVID restrictions were
imposed.
The Berklee graduate and Thelonious Monk
International Jazz Saxophone Competition winner (in2013, when she was 24) was teaching (at the New
School), recording (five albums so far) and touring
prolifically until last spring. “The year 2020 was hard,”
she said, with a divorce part of the mix. But Aldana,
who is both very disciplined and inherently optimistic,chooses to see things in a more upbeat light.
“From a personal perspective, it was the mostbeautiful year,” Aldana said. “I had time to get to know
myself better. I did a lot of soul searching, got closer tomy friends, worked through some drama with myfamily. I have to say that a lot of positive things
happened that wouldn’t have otherwise, because I was
always busy with something else.”
Aldana, who lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn, also has
been able to spend a lot of time with her working band
who, with the exception of guitarist Lage Lund in
Norway, all live locally. That’s harder now, too, but thegroup is a COVID bubble of sorts. Lots of in-person
time is necessary, because for the most part Aldana
writes her own through-composed music and it’s not
only gorgeous, but also highly complex, not meant forsight-reading on the bandstand.
The group includes fellow Chilean Pablo Menares
on bass and Kush Abadey on drums. For Aldana’s
most recent album Visions, released on Motéma Musicin 2019, she added pianist Sam Harris and vibraphonist
Joel Ross (Tommy Crane on drums). The latter ’spresence has drawn comparisons with Eric Dolphy’s
Out to Lunch, featuring Bobby Hutcherson. The music(inspired by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo) is similarly
spiky, hovering in that enchanted space between bebop
and the avant garde, but Aldana sounds nothing like
Dolphy. She’s got a big, broad tone, with maybe Joe
Henderson a better comparison.
Nobody gets on that plane effortlessly and for
Aldana it’s been a lifetime of study. It helps that dad
and grandad were saxophone players. Dad Marcos washimself a Monk semi-finalist in 1991. But that doesn’tmean that jazz was around when she was growing up.
Much of what the young musician learned wasfrom records and being the diligent student she is,transcribing solos was a big part of her education.
Aldana began playing when she was all of six, under
the careful tutelage of her dad. She began on alto via
allegiance to Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley,
but then switched to tenor after being introduced to
Sonny Rollins. Her first tenor, a Selmer Mark VI,
belonged to her grandfather. When other kids were out
playing, she was listening. During a recent “Before andAfter” session, Aldana was played a Joe Henderson
piece, “Y Ya La Quiero” from The State of the Tenor: Liveat the Village Vanguard, Vol. 2. She got it instantly.

“I love this recording,” she said. “This was one of thefirst things my dad made me hear when I was growing
up. He’s a big Joe Henderson fan and I did a few
transcriptions many years ago from this album with
Ron Carter and Al Foster.”
When asked about the “Santiago jazz scene” backthen, there was a pregnant pause. “There was nothing,”
she said. “There’s more now.”
But American musicians did make it down there
occasionally and she heard shows by Chris Potter (shewas 13), Wayne Shorter with his quartet (she was 15)
and Mike Stern in a big Santiago theater. She wasdazed. “Wow, these people are real,” she said, not justalbum covers. Potter became a big influence on
Aldana’s playing, as did Michael Brecker and Mark
Turner. “I heard Mark and that was it,” she said. “I fellin love with his playing.”
Danilo Pérez was Shorter ’s pianist on that gig in
Chile and he suggested that Aldana continue herstudies at Berklee in Boston. Perez, who is Panamanian,is the founder and Artistic Director of Berklee’s Global
Jazz Institute. “I’d heard about Berklee and knew it
had a certain image,” she said. “Growing up, I didn’t
get a chance to hear many musicians who played on ahigher level, especially women. Coming from SouthAmerica, it’s hard to make that happen. But Berklee
exposed me to that kind of player.”
Aldana worked closely with tenor player George
Garzone and graduated in 2009 and within a few days
was in New York, where she continued her studies
with George Coleman. A year later she’d made her firstalbum, Free Fall, on Greg Osby’s Inner Circle Musiclabel with pianist Michael Palma, bassist Lyles Westand drummer Ralph Peterson. In 2012, she recorded
Second Cycle for the same label, trumpeter Gordon Au
joining her in the frontline. She was working fast. The
next year she won the Monk competition, the firstwoman and the first South American to do so.
If Aldana had a hard time establishing herself inthe city that jazz built, she doesn’t say so. But that’s
part of her character, too. Sexism? She didn’t let it
bother her. “I have to say, maybe because of how andwhere I grew up, some kinds of things were justnormalized and I didn’t let them bother me,” she said.
“I feel I haven’t suffered. Some people said I won the
Monk competition because I’m a woman, but that kindof thing doesn’t get to me. Later, when I was playing in
the [all-female band] Artemis, I realized that other
women had paved the way to making it, so I didn’t
have those issues as much.”
Aldana played in Artemis with Renee Rosnes(piano), Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Anat Cohen (clarinet),
Noriko Ueda (bass), Allison Miller (drums) and Cécile
McLorin Salvant (vocals). Each one is a standout player
and Cohen and Salvant have remained close to Aldana
after she left the band.
“She puts a lot of effort into everything she does,”
Cohen said. “She’s very dedicated, very serious. At ayoung age, she decided to conduct a disciplined searchfor her own voice through a real study of her idols andthat meant a lot of transcriptions and studying as she

developed her style. I used to play tenor and I love theway she approaches the instrument. She takes no
prisoners. It’s inspiring to be standing next to her andplaying.”
Salvant agrees. “Melissa has deeply influenced mywork ethic,” she said. “It was crazy to be on the roadwith her. She never stops—always working on her
sound, her tone and constantly writing. She has anextremely curious mind and she’s relentless andunstoppable in pursuit of more knowledge. If we havea lobby call at 7 a.m., she’d be up at 5:30 working on
her music.”
Salvant said that Aldana “loves to get her ass
kicked”. She puts herself in tricky situations withmusicians who challenge her. And the more she learns,
the more sophisticated her music gets. “It’s the little
turns and surprises in her music that make it unique,special and entertaining,” Salvant said. She last worked
with Aldana on a jazz cruise about a year ago. “Sitting
in an airport; that’s the last time I saw her,” she said.
Aldana makes a guest appearance on Salvant’s
The Window album, a duet with pianist Sullivan Fortner,
released in 2018. “It wasn’t a planned thing,” Salvant
said. “She sat in on a couple of tracks recorded on a
crazy night at the Village Vanguard. That’s her on ‘The
Peacocks’, a piece we both had in our repertoires.”“The Peacocks”, written by Jimmy Rowles, starts offvery quietly, and that’s the way Aldana enters, playing
breathily in a way that recalls Stan Getz—or maybe
Archie Shepp in a more meditative mood. There’s anamazing moment where Salvant is singing and Aldana
is tracking her so closely she’s almost vocalizing the
lyrics through her horn. The saxophonist concludes thepiece with a note so low you’d swear she was playing
a baritone instead of a tenor.
Aldana knows the way to Carnegie Hall—practiceand you’ll get there. One of her favorite quotes is fromthe late tenor player Jimmy Heath, who said, “Her tone
is as beautiful as her personality... I am sure you willagree.”Why Frida Kahlo? Aldana says the Mexican painter“was just herself, very honest. I respect that.” Beingherself is critical for Aldana. She recently left Artemis
because she wants to explore her own music further.
And she is about to sign to a new label, so there’s someextraordinary music ahead. v
For more information, visit melissaaldana.net. Aldana livestreams at barbayeux.com Mar. 3rd and smokejazz.com
Mar. 12th-13th.
Recommended Listening:• Melissa Aldana—Free Fall (Inner Circle Music, 2010)• Melissa Aldana—Second Cycle(Inner Circle Music, 2012)• Melissa Aldana—Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio
(Concord, 2013)• Melissa Aldana—Back Home
(Word Of Mouth Music, 2015)• Melissa Aldana—Visions (Motéma Music, 2018)• Artemis—Eponymous (Blue Note, 2019)

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 3

NEW YORK @ NIGHTSTEPHANIE NILLESI PLEAD ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
THE WHITE FLAG
SSC 1606
AVAILABLE 3/05/21—“Stephanie Nilles is possibly the most compelling jazz
piano/lounge punk singer since Tom Waits started chain
smoking and singing about sailors.” AudioSuede
Stephani Nilles knows that the fight against racism is a universal cause and that the power of Mingus’s work artistically assists that cause, thus the creation of her moving newrecording,DAN BLAKE
DA FÉ
SSC 1616
AVAILABLE 2/12/21—Saxophonist/Composer Dan Blake finds hope for abetter future through compassionate action on his inspiring new album.
—Da Fé is an outgrowth of Blake’s activism.

Under the aegis of the Queens Jazz OverGround,a local artists’ collective founded on similar principles
to those of its southern neighbors the Brooklyn Jazz
Underground, Korean-American pianist Eugenia Choe
kicked off the second of three events of theorganization’s Winter Jazzfest with a short but rousing
set at Culture Lab LIC in Hunters Point (Feb. 17th). The
live-streamed concert captured some of the ambianceof a club performance through the presence of a small
but lively (beer was served) crew and studio audience.
Traveling cameras and a glitzy lighting scheme added
to the pageantry, but the robust set, buoyed by Choe’s
go-to rhythm team of bassist Danny Weller anddrummer Alex Wyatt, generated its own excitement.
The original repertoire revealed her painterly approachto composition, favoring soft textures over hard edges,
broad strokes over sharp lines. Like Bill Evans, she
encourages vigorous participation by her compadres,allowing Weller in particular ample room to stretch his
creative legs. The opening numbers, “Verdant Dream”
and “Breathless”, served as warmups for the harderhitting “Koquirri” (Korean for elephant). “Odd Birds”
led from a pensive solo piano rumination to a vamping
theme, followed by a free-blowing middle section
before the final vamp. The last piece, “Sunday Fatigue”,
contained interesting rhythmic shifts and some of thestrongest solos and closest interaction of the set,leaving the crowd pleasantly dissatisfied that there
was no time for an encore.
—Tom Greenland“I love a piano,” wrote Irving Berlin, “a grand piano,

Eugenia Choe @ Culture Lab LIC

Kris Davis @ Steinway HallO ne positive way to view the extended quarantine isthat it gives musicians plenty of time to woodshed.
Remember how Sonny Rollins sounded after two years
practicing alone on the Williamsburg Bridge? Guitarist
Gilad Hekselman showed a similar flowering of his
compositional and improvisatory skills when he led
a quartet with keyboard player Aaron Parks, bassist
Burniss Travis and drummer Marcus Gilmore at The
Jazz Gallery (Feb. 4th). He must have been putting his
downtime to good use because he had a slew of newtunes and chops honed to a diamond edge. Combinethat with the fact that his group was jonesing to play
‘live’ and you’ve got two sterling sets of jazz, thesecond even more resplendent than the first. On his
tunes “Rebirth” and “Long Way from Home” (which
opened both sets), “Urban Myth” and “Scoville” one
could discern influences of Pat Metheny and John
Scofield, but Hekselman’s unique facility with chord
melodies came into its own on pieces like the moody“Na Vanad” (which also featured fine work by Parks),“Magic Chord” and “Cycles”, during which his long
fingers stretched delicately along the neck, likea climber scaling a sheer rock face, moving from stable
three-point holds into exciting “dynos”. His final solo,on the second set version of “Magic Chord”, was his
most inspired. For those of us watching at home, theGallery experimented with a few new camera angles,
one pointed just over Gilmore’s left shoulder, creating
the sense that we were sitting in with the band.
(TG)

G uitarist/vocalist Glenn Crytzer has for many

it simply carries me away.” Roger that sentiment; thelive-streamed Eight x 88 (Feb. 4th) was a deep diveinto the thrills of piano love. Filmed at Steinway Halland benefitting the Jazz Foundation of America, Kris
Davis, Aaron Diehl, Orrin Evans, Sullivan Fortner,
Aaron Goldberg, Kevin Hays, Fred Hersch andChristian Sands played a dazzling assortment of pieces
from hymns to bebop. The program was conceived byGoldberg and Hays and furthered by Hersch, offeringa terrific embarrassment of piano riches in its 90
minutes. Goldberg led off with a jaunty Haitian folksong, “YoYo”, painting a vivid musical picture of theeponymous marketplace seller. In contrast was animmersion into the contemplative with Diehl’smasterful rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Reflections in
D”. He was matched in a meditative mood by Evans’
own “Clean House”, which flowed seamlessly from
Folliott Pierpoint’s 1864 hymn “For the Beauty of the
Earth”. Hersch also reached into the way-back, playing
a huge hit from 1918, Turner Layton’s “After You’ve
Gone”, proving that a standard is just that and thearrangement is everything. Davis’ original, “Pandemic
Mood” was a derivative miss, but she excelled intechnique in a duo with Hersch of Monk’s “Misterioso”.
Also making much of Monk were Hays and Sands with
“Bye-Ya”. Eight x 88 ended on a joyful note, Diehl andEvans out on a lighthearted, swinging “I Want to Be
Happy” (Vincent Youmans).
—Marilyn Lester

MICHAEL WOLFF
LIVE AT VITELLOS
SSC 1615
AVAILABLE 3/19/21
MICHAEL WOLFF piano
MARK ISHAM trumpet & flugelhorn
MIKE CLARK drums
JOHN B. WILLIAMS bass

MICHAEL THOMAS
NATURAL HABITATSSC 1611
AVAILABLE 2/26/21—Michael Thomas is a Grammy-winning saxophonist,composer, and arranger—The New York Times: Michael writes “energetic, tuneful music for both combos and large ensembles”
MICHAEL THOMAS alto sax, bass clarinet
JULIAN SHORE piano, keyboards
HANS GLAWISCHNIG bass
JOHNATHAN BLAKE drums

www.sunnysiderecords.com

TOM GREENLANDDAN BLAKE soprano and tenor saxophones
CARMEN STAAF piano, fender Rhodes
LEO GENOVESE moog, keyboards, piano*
DMITRY ISHENKO acoustic and electric bass
JEFF WILLIAMS drums

4 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

pandemic months been live-streaming his quartet,featuring American Songbook standards by the year.
This latest (Feb. 21st) covered 1934, well suited to
Crytzer ’s signature style of hot-jazz-influenced swing.
For aficionados of the genre, Crytzer produces a verysatisfying sound, with a collection of tunes anchored in
melody. They were not only written for vocalists andfor dancing, but also came from Broadway and film.
And because of recording constraints of the day, thenumbers are relatively brief, allowing Crytzer to packa bunch of goodies into one short hour. Highlights
were some lesser-known numbers, such as “Midnight,
the Stars and You” (Harry M. Woods-Jimmy CampbellReg Connelly) with its silky slow fox-trot rhythm,
repeated in “Two Cigarettes in the Dark” (Lew Pollack)and an obscure Harold Arlen tune, the swinging “AsLong as I Live”. Trumpeter Mike Davis and clarinetist
Ricky Alexander claimed a bright spot with call-andresponse and splendid harmonies on Richard Rodgers’“Blue Moon”. As per the standard of the era, bassist
Andrew Hall provided pre-Jimmie Blanton, steady
one-two timekeeping. Cryzter ’s solos often took him
into the gypsy-jazz realm, most evident on “Stompin’
at the Savoy” (Edgar Sampson), arranged to the 1934
Chick Webb version, rather than Benny Goodman’s
1936 iteration. His virtuosity was on display withplayout number “What a Little Moonlight Can Do”(Harry M. Woods) at a super-charged tempo.
(ML)V alentine’s Day came a little early this year at Dizzy’s Lee Konitz, a founder of jazz’ “cool school”, was an
Club with Brianna Thomas celebrating with a set ofsongs of love and romance. Taking the stage (Feb. 11th)
for the second of the month’s regular Thursday night
live-streamed shows, Thomas, a red rose pinned to herhair and a dozen more on a stand beside her, got things
started promising the virtual audience, “we’re going topour our hearts out for you.” Bassist Ryan Berg walked
the band into the singer ’s soulful take on “You Leave
Me Breathless”, which featured swinging solos by
guitarist Marvin Sewell and pianist Conun Pappas on
top of the steady groove of Darrian Douglas’ drums
and Fernando Saci’s percussion. Citing the inspirationof Ella Fitzgerald and Ellis Larkins’ album of duets, thesinger delivered a heartfelt reading of the Gershwins’“I’ve Got A Crush On You” she began with a recitationof the song’s verse. Delving into their new CD
Everybody Knows (Breathline), the band kicked up theenergy level with a percussion-driven arrangement of“Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying” and Thomas’
gospel-tinged “How Much Forgiveness”. They
returned to Ella/Ellis repertoire with Berg’s Caribbeanflavored arrangement of the Gershwins’ “Maybe”,
buttressed by vibrant electric bass. Thomas paired
stirring readings of “If I Should Lose You” and her own“I Belong To You”, singing both with palpable emotion.
She dedicated the Freddie Mercury/Queen anthem“We Are The Champions” to her fellow artists, thenclosed with her “Lovin’ Attitude”.
—Russ Mustoicon. The saxophonist’s COVID-related death in April,
the height of lockdown, didn’t allow for honors to beproperly set, thus Soapbox Gallery’s live-streamed
Tribute to Lee Konitz (Feb. 3rd) carried a certain
significance. Pianist Sebastien Ammann, saxophonist
Lena Bloch, bassist Cameron Brown and drummer
Michael Sarin, all connected to Konitz, presented both
his compositions and those in his wake. “He touched
us with his music and his legacy lives on,” Ammannstated. “So, we pay tribute to Lee and his art.” Opener“Subconscious-Lee”, a classic of the genre, bop-fueled,medium tempo, featured each quartet member, thoughnone seemed to enjoy the moment more than Brown,
glowing as he played, leaning over his instrument as
the pulsations locked solidly with Sarin’s ride cymbal.
Bloch’s tenor in its mid-to-high register tempered the
big horn over the terrain of Konitz’ fleet alto with noloss of tone. On several selections while doubling on
soprano, Bloch travailed only further out west. Her
improvisations wrapped about Ammann’s often
Tristano-esque piano, fueling his aerial counterpoint
patterns as Sarin’s sticks danced with a touch so lightas almost to float over drums and cymbals. And thetireless Brown, as always, stood as the heartbeat,a ceaseless drive that sang of both coasts simultaneously.
Bouncing off this soundboard, however, each andevery low moan runs cool. The concert would havemade Konitz proud.
—John Pietaro

W H AT ’ S N E W S
In another loss to the pandemic, it is being reported that
Washington, DC’s Blues Alley, open since 1965, may beceasing operations.
On Mar. 26th, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will
present the virtual concert “Voice of Freedom”, featuring
the music of Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln andNina Simone with guests Melanie Charles, Shenel Johns,
and Ashley Pezzotti. For more information, visit
jazzatlincolncenter.squarespace.com/virtual-season.
United States Artists has announced its 2021 class ofFellows, each receiving $50,000 in unrestricted funds. This
year’s Music Fellows are Martha Gonzalez, Edward “Kidd”
Jordan, Tomeka Reid, Wadada Leo Smith and Mazz Swift.
For more information, visit unitedstatesartists.org.
The Alternative Guitar Summit will take place online Mar.
20th at 8 pm (Honoring Pat Martino with Adam Rogers/Peter
Bernstein, Dave Stryker/Paul Bollenback, Rez Abbasi/Jeff
Miles, Oz Noy/Nir Felder, Sheryl Bailey, Ed Cherry and Joel
Harrison and Kurt Rosenwinkel solo) and Mar. 21st at 2 pm
(solo performances by Nguyên Lê, Nels Cline, Michael
Gregory Jackson, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Mary Halvorson,
Henry Kaiser and Anthony Pirog. Additionally, the AGS online
camp takes place Mar. 6th-7th with Bill Frisell, Mike Stern,
Adam Levy, Ben Monder, Cline, Rogers, Bailey and more. For
more information, visit alternativeguitarsummit.com/concerts.
The first-ever East Coast Jazz Festival will take place
online Mar. 20th with participating venues Scullers Jazz
Club in Boston, Smalls and Birdland in New York, Chris’
Jazz Café in Philadelphia, Keystone Korner in Baltimore
and Blues Alley in Washington, DC. For more information,
visit page.inplayer.com/eastcoastjazzfestival.
The Jazz Loft, music venue and museum, located in Stony
Brook, has completed a renovation project of its basement,
now known as the “Coal Bin”, via funding from a $40,000
grant from The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, Inc.
and a matching gift from Jazz Loft patron Dan Oliveri, as amulti-use work space for Stony Brook University student
interns in an archiving, inventory project and digitalizing
project of the more than 10,000 historical jazz artifacts in thepossession of the museum.

Brianna Thomas @ Dizzy’s Club

Lena Bloch @ Soapbox Gallery

Streaming live before a limited-capacity audience at P oet, performance artist and filmmaker No Land has
Smalls (Feb. 6th), the latest edition of the band
Palladium, featuring tenor saxophonist Nicole Gloverand vibraphonist Sasha Berliner with pianist Sean
Mason, bassist Russell Hall and drummer Victor Lewis,
continued its mission to explore the music of Wayne
Shorter. Two sets interpreted the many compositions of
the legendary tenor/soprano saxophonist, ranging
from his early days with Art Blakey and the Jazz
Messengers on through his years with Miles Davis to
Weather Report and his other intrepid groups. The
quintet eased into its second set with an arrangementof “El Gaucho”, Lewis tapping his snare rim to set up
the loping tempo of the rhythm section’s original
prelude to the piece, which preceded Glover stretchingout over a bossa nova rhythm in a dark sinewy tone.
Berliner took her turn next, lightening the mood witha bright sound, and then Mason, digging in deep withHall and Lewis, guiding the band to a soaring finish.
Glover introduced an atmospheric rendition of“Nefertiti” unaccompanied, which was followed by anepisodic reading of “Ana Maria” featuring
downhome Capetown-tinged piano, a powerful basssolo and an extended drum outing. A medley of“Sanctuary” and “Pandora Awakened” had Glover
exploring her horn’s tonal range and Mason
demonstrating alternating earthy and ethereal
melodicism. The set ended with the band getting down
on Lewis’ “Seventh Avenue South”.
(RM)

increasingly been bringing her work into our local
improvised scene, often in the company of bassist
Luke Stewart. While the latter ’s reputation was grown
on upright playing, in partnership with No Land, hefavors electric bass guitar, his musicianship effortlesslytranslating between the two. For this set via Arts forArt’s On_Line Salon series (Feb. 16th), segments of No
Land’s film footage and visual artwork were fused into
the whole, culminating in a multimedia piece, which
carried a minimalist brand of theatrics. Shufflingthrough mounds of verse, sometimes while seated on
the floor, otherwise standing in a lean, hair draped
over face, No Land recited as Stewart painted aural
backdrops. Prominent use of mic reverb offered a vocal
and instrumental blend, but unfortunately challenged
the very words central to the performance, bathing her
voice in dark acoustics that too often drained. One
wonders if the desired result was more about sounditself than actual poetry. As she declaimed, appearing
nonplussed, Stewart’s effects pedals turned his Fendernear-synth, throbbing, pulsating and then alternately
clean and driven only by perpetual motion. Most
intriguing was the emulsion of visuals onto the livestream itself, with voice and music heard beneatha variously focused/unfocused lens and found clips ofaging 35 mm footage. There may be a degree of Dada
in all of this, but while No Land’s conceptual vision is
obscure, her amalgam of arts remains intriguing. (JP)Disney Parks’ Epcot Center has announced The Soul of
Jazz: An American Adventure, based on the recent Pixar
film Soul, as a special exhibition, celebrating “the distinctly
American musical art form, originated by African Americans
and fusing the influences of many different cultures.” For
more information, visit disneyparks.disney.go.com.
The Monterey Jazz Festival has announced the debut of
Evolution of a Groove: the Monterey Commissions,a series of commissioned performances from the Monterey
Jazz Festival archives. For more information, visitmontereyjazzfestival.org/evolution-of-a-groove.
The Apollo, as part of its fifth bi-annual Women of the World
Festival, will feature a conversation, “Hazel Scott: The
Darling of Café Society”, led by Karen Chilton, author of
Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist withguests Damien Sneed and Camille Thurman. For more
information, visit apollotheater.org/spring2021/#WOW.
Applications for the 2021 DCJazzPrix are now being
accepted. The deadline is Apr. 27th and the prize $15,000
and a year-long association with the DC Jazz Festival. For
guidelines and to apply, visit dcjazzfest.org/dcjazzprix.
The archives of Mister Kelly’s, the Chicago nightclub
founded by George and Oscar Marienthal active from
1953-75, will be preserved at Chicago’s Newberry Library.
For more information, visit newberry.org.
Jazz WaHi has announced the winner of its 2021
Composition Competition, Robert Fernandez, who will
compose a work to be premiered at the fourth annual
Washington Heights Jazz Festival in November 2021.
Submit news to ahenkin@nycjazzrecord.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 5

SUSANALCORNby tyran grillo

Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, Susan

Alcorn has upended expectations of what the pedal steel guitar
can do. After getting into slide guitar by inspiration of RobertJohnson, Son House, Blind Willie McTell and others, she
encountered the pedal steel in 1975 and never looked back. She
cut her teeth in Houston, TX, where she schooled herself bothon stage and through formal instruction in jazz improvisation.
Over time, she felt a longing to do something more than wasstereotypically expected of the instrument. This set her on apath of deep self-examination and rethinking of musicalparadigms, eventually leading to solo performances in whichboundaries were a thing of the past. Equally informed byclassical, jazz, country, South American protest songs andfolk music, Alcorn feeds on the nutrients of the creative spirit
to cultivate her own across a woefully misunderstood
fretboard. Through it all, her sense of heartfelt appreciation
comes through. Whether playing by her lonesome on 2015’s
Soledad or, most recently, with a quintet on 2020’s Pedernal,
her spirit is uniquely alive in every note. Her upcoming
album, Bird Meets Wire, which finds her in the company ofsaxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and cellist Leila Bordreuil, isscheduled to be released in May.
The New York City Jazz Record: The pedal steel guitar
is rarely associated with jazz. Does the instrument
have any sort of improvisational history?
Susan Alcorn: Not a long history. There’s improvisationin country music, of course, but it’s usually very
short—maybe 16 bars at most. I tend to improvise a lot
when I’m practicing and get ideas from that. But thecountry steel players, especially the Nashville ones,
come up with a repertoire of intelligent licks, which
they then string together when playing solos. The
problem with that is you tend to run out of licks, as
opposed to playing bebop, where you have to invent
and tell a story—you don’t know where it’s going next.
On the other end, [master pedal steel guitarist] Buddy
Emmons put out an album [in 1963] called Steel Guitar
Jazz. But as far as free jazz is concerned, there’s very
little history with the instrument.
TNYCJR: Is the pedal steel typecast?
SA: A lot of people automatically think of country music
when they hear the pedal steel. Some reviewers of pedal
steel music still like to talk about it as having an“Americana” sound, so yes, it’s certainly been typecast.
TNYCJR: Stereotypes aside, how do you define yourapproach to the instrument?
SA: What I try to do is find the aspects of the instrumentthat will go farther abroad and, at the same time,maybe a little bit deeper. Over the years, I’ve developed
techniques to evoke a Ligeti choral work or the
microtonalism of Xenakis.
TNYCJR: On that latter note, there’s clearly a classicalthread running throughout your work, not least of all
in your 2007 album And I Await the Resurrection of thePedal Steel Guitar, which grew out of your love for
Olivier Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.
In that respect, where do the techniques of Ligeti and
Xenakis fit into free jazz?
SA: There’s a tendency to throw around the term “freejazz”, but what does that mean? It’s a label that can beconstrued in several ways and misconstrued in evenmore. If you look at the Art Ensemble of Chicago and
Sun Ra, for example, you’ll find more of an openness
to 20th Century classical music than among bebop
musicians. Classical structures and harmonies havebeen with me for as long as I can remember. My momsang in a choir with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra
under George Szell. She also played piano—church
tunes, mostly—and sang. I would sit under the pianoand listen. My father was known for mimicking big
band singers, which was a thing back then. People
would put on a record and basically mime the entire
performance. I never got to see any of that, but I hear
he could be quite the life of the party. My parents had
a lot of classical and jazz records when I was growing
up. One day it might be Mussorgsky or Ravel and thenext it might be Duke Ellington, Count Basie or Ella
Fitzgerald. I think I’ve always had an ear for something
different. While all my friends were listening to The
Beatles, I liked The Dave Clark Five. I was also into themusic of Edgard Varèse in junior high school.
TNYCJR: When and where did you experience youreureka moment with the pedal steel?
SA: Before pedal steel, I used to play blues slide guitar.
I really got into the blues in middle school and it stuck.
Seeing Muddy Waters was what made me want to doslide. It was the notes between the notes, all at the sametime, that grabbed me. With a regular guitar, you put
your finger on the fret and that’s it, but there’s so much
power in even the slightest movement of the slide. And
then one night, when I’d just turned 21, I was at a bar in
DeKalb, Illinois, listening to a country rock band with apedal steel player. From where I was in the back, I could
see the instrument just barely; it looked like the bar was
floating. I decided that’s what I wanted to do. I boughta pedal steel guitar two days later and went looking fora teacher. I had played a bunch of instruments before
that, but from then on I concentrated pretty much
exclusively on the pedal steel guitar.
TNYCJR: Was instruction easy to come by?
SA: At the time, I couldn’t find anyone who was
willing to teach me. These were men in their 30s-40s,
which seemed really old to me at the time, and none ofthem wanted to share their bag of tricks.
TNYCJR: Was this due to any stigma against women?

6 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

SA: You don’t always know if people are acting
a certain way due to sexism, but at times you wonder.
With country music, I think if you can play well, you’re
an asset to the band and it helps if you’re consideredeye candy. You could be in the most conservative, racist
and sexist band imaginable, but they’ll respect you as
a musician, though you’re not privy to their ‘boys club’world. But there have been a few times when people
made it more obvious. One time I was sharing the stage
with a highly-regarded local steel player. I was no
virtuoso but I knew my way around the instrument.
He would kind of butt in whenever I’d take a solo. So,
when he took a solo, I started playing harmony with				
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 31)

ginaschwarz.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTINTERVIEW

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTARTIST FEATU RE

PATRICIABRENNANby john sharpe

Before everything ground to a halt as the pandemic

hit, the presence of vibraphonist Patricia Brennan on
the bandstand was a sure indicator of both adventureand quality. She graced outfits as diverse as John
Hollenbeck’s Large Ensemble, the Anna Webber/Angela Morris Big Band and Michael Formanek’s
Ensemble Kolossus as well as at the more intimate endof the spectrum with Matt Mitchell’s Phalanx
Ambassadors and Tomas Fujiwara’s Seven Poets Trio.
But she’s not been idle since, juggling a busy but
fulfilling teaching schedule at NYU, The New School
and Brooklyn Academy of Music with the release ofher leadership debut album Maquishti.
Brennan was born in the melting pot of Port of
Veracruz, Mexico in August 1984. Music was everpresent during her childhood, thanks to the Latin
percussion of her father and a grandmother who wasa concert pianist. She studied classical percussion andpiano from an early age, eventually moving to theprestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia
for her undergrad, by which time the vibraphone andmarimba were her prime instruments.
Brennan explains the allure: “One of the traditional
instruments back home is Mexican marimba. That was
one of the earliest memories and I even had a little
instrument when I was very little. As a percussionist
I was just drawn to it as it had that harmonic and melodic
element and as I was a pianist it was a good way to
combine all the instruments. I was even able to playsome of the piano repertoire on marimba at the time andalso keep that physical and raw feel that you have withdrums and percussion. But then later on during college
when I had to start playing in chamber music situations,
I was playing more vibraphone. One of the things that
attracted me the most to that instrument was the ability
to sustain the sound and the tone quality of the
instrument. There’s just nothing like it.”
Although to this point her repertoire was largely
contemporary, composers like Iannis Xenakis or John
Cage, she took a sharp left turn by deciding to do her
Masters in jazz and composition. “I was just always
drawn to improvisation. All that music back home had
improvisation in it. Even as a percussionist a lot of therepertoire, even if it’s not jazz type of improvisation,
there’s a lot of aleatory moments in the music where
you have to improvise with the textures that you have.
The jazz program was the closest thing I could
find that would help me develop my mind as an
improviser. It wasn’t necessarily just the style of jazz,
but it was overall the idea of improvising andcomposing that I looked for.”Among her inspirations were jazz players like
Gary Burton and Bobby Hutcherson, as well as
contemporary marimba players and composers like
Keiko Abe and Toru Takemitsu, but once she hit New
York City, percussionist and composer Hollenbeck had
an enormous impact. “He’s a huge person in my life
because he was one of my first mentors and employer.
One of the things that I connected with him was that he

For more information, visit patriciabrennanvibes.com
Recommended Listening:• Michael Formanek Ensemble Kolossus—
The Distance (ECM, 2014)• John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble—All Can Work
(New Amsterdam, 2017)• Tomas Fujiwara—7 Poets Trio (RogueArt, 2018)• Matt Mitchell—Phalanx Ambassadors (Pi, 2018)• Anna Webber/Angela Morris Big Band—
Both Are True (Greenleaf Music, 2018)• Patricia Brennan—Maquishti(Valley of Search, 2018)

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studied classical percussion like I did. I connected withhis music because you can clearly hear those
influences.” Further work followed with the likes ofVijay Iyer, Formanek and Mitchell. “I wanted to be an
improviser in the more open end of the spectrum.
Those kind of musicians, I connect with their music. It
tends to be more open and you can cross styles. They
wanted to explore beyond the jazz language and use
texture, use color, use compositional structures. That’s
where I feel comfortable.”
All of those ingredients occur in abundance on
Brennan’s wonderful Maquishti on Valley of Search.
Why such a bold move? “As a classical musician a lotof the first records that people release is a solo album.
But also the work I was doing at the time happened tobe solo work. So it was a culmination of those twoelements.” The pieces, while overwhelmingly airy andmeditative, also suggest a rigorous compositional
outlook, even on the improvs. One track, “Magic
Square”, unites the abstract and rhythmic at the sametime. “One of the influences is definitely the cerebral
part where I use a preexisting mathematical formula towrite something. Also the influence for that song was
my musical memories from my early childhood, like
Cuban son and one of the patterns in that piece is a
piano montuno, that I adapted. That’s a reflection of themix of my entire musical journey from Cuban African
rhythms, that have been part of my life since I was avery young child, to a more academic approach. Thenin a lot of the other pieces I explore space, using rests
in music as part of the momentum of the composition.
Sometimes there’s a misconception that a rest isliterally a time to rest and the music stops, when
actually that space is sometimes the most powerfulpart of music. A lot of that mindset was influenced bycomposers like Cage or Morton Feldman, who are twoof my favorites. I really love that idea of how they
explore silence as part of the music. Also the idea of
exploring different textures and using texture as alanguage, as a compositional element and not just as ashimmering color on top, which push me to use guitar
pedals as part of some of the tracks, but also using
bows, using bending pitches. There’s a piece that I
even use binder clips to play the keys so it sounds likea kalimba type of effect.”Once some degree of normality returns, Brennanplans to promote her project MOCH, based around anelectro-acoustic duo with her husband, electronic
percussionist Noel Brennan. As part of John Zorn’sCommissioning Series at National Sawdust, in
December 2019 they premiered an eight-partaudiovisual suite, Raíces Jarochas (Roots from Veracruz),
inspired by sounds and memories from Brennan’s
homeland,with
Formanekand
AfroCuban
percussionist Mauricio Herrera as guests. “We’ve beenworking on this duo and my role was to eventuallydevelop something with that project, potentially arecording.” If progress so far is any guide, it’s likely toprove worth the wait. v

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QUEEN OF THE NOISE VIOLIN“LIVE IN CONCERT MIA ZABELKA IS AN
ELECTRIFYING PERFORMER, AS A RESULTOF WHICH SHE HAS BECOME THE FOCUS
OF INTENSE AUDIENCE INTEREST.“-JOHN EYLES/ ALLABOUTJAZZ (UK)MIAZABELKA.COM
MIAZABELKA.BANDCAMP.COM
SOUNDCLOUD.COM/MIAZABELKAMUSICTHE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 7

ENCOREMARILYN
MAZUR
by anders griffen
Marilyn Mazur is a unique artist: percussionist,composer, vocalist, dancer and multi-instrumentalist
who has pioneered her own path. In a fantastic career
spanning almost 50 years, over 200 album credits andnumerous awards, she has worked with a variety ofartists, including Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Gil
Evans, John Tchicai, Jeanne Lee, Irène Schweizer,
Lindsay Cooper, Jan Garbarek, Niels-Henning Ørsted
Pedersen, Eberhard Weber, Dino Saluzzi and Pierre
Dørge’s New Jungle Orchestra, among many others.
Born in New York City, Mazur and her family
relocated to Copenhagen when she was six. In Denmark
she started violin lessons at seven. She didn’t take tothat instrument but began dreaming and made aconnection between music and magic. “I establishedmy ‘secret world’, where my fantasy dance teacher[Mrs. Mysticulum] would teach me the steps of
Le Sacre du Printemps, my absolute favorite music,
which has been rooted deeply inside me my entire life.
I would draw the curtains in our living room, so I wasalone on our red carpet, put the record on and dance.”
At nine she began piano and ballet lessons, whichwere much more to her liking. She was serious but
maintained her secret world where both dance andmusic were magic and creative ways of living. As ateenager, she was inspired by records. She enjoyedCream and Frank Zappa, but when a friend sat her in adark room with headphones to listen to Bitches Brew it
made a huge impression. It was also as a teenager thatshe started experiencing more live music. “I started tolisten to live music and would always dance, rather
wildly, at live concerts with my favorite groups: [Alex]
Riel/[Palle] Mikkelborg V8, led by two Danish jazz
icons, who I later got to work with extensively, andKenneth Knudsen’s Coronarias Dans.”
Around 16 she left school and joined The Creative
Dance Theatre and toured with them for about three
years. Sometimes they worked live with musicianssuch as Dollar Brand, Karl Berger and the Swiss group
OM. Her piano teacher wanted her to attend the RoyalMusic Conservatory to receive an advanced musicaleducation. At that time, in Denmark and the Statesalike, music studies were strictly classical and Mazur
had no aspirations of becoming a classical pianist, so
she pursued the music education track and began tofocus on percussion, among other things.
“I joined the new education [called AM] at theConservatory, which was meant to train music teachers
and included conducting, arrangement, choir andmore. This gave me a broader perspective while I wasdeveloping as a jazz musician. Being into body
movement and rhythm, it felt very natural to get myfirst drumset and study classical percussion as mymain instrument and this really took hold of me.”As a pianist, she formed her first group as a leader,
Zirenes, which included two Swedish women she met atthe Vallekilde Jazz Summer course and augmented bydrummer Riel and saxophonist Uffe Markussen. “Going
to Vallekilde in the early ‘70s made it clear that the others
were practically all men and that they had different‘rules’ than me. So, it was tempting to bond with the few
other women and find our own musical path.”
Although she has had many inspirations, different
sounds and her imagination, rather than a particular
tradition, have always led the way. Her approach
results in a personal sound with a homemade touch. In
the beginning she collaborated with free jazz musicians,
avoiding the established route into jazz. “As adrummer, I found that I could communicate easily by
ear and feeling, so I didn’t worry much about traditionand [i.e.] bebop. This doesn’t necessarily mean that
I am breaking rules—which I am not applying in thefirst place—because I use lots of energy on fitting intoand enlarging the actual musical expressions,whichever these are.”By the late ‘70s Mazur had established herself as apercussionist through numerous collaborations,
including those with Tchicai, Mikkelborg and The

Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. She created the allwomen music/theater ensemble, Primi Band, “tofurther explore the female qualities” and to focus ondance, rhythm, voice and experimental performance.
Since Denmark is a small country, especially when
performing music that is not mainstream, touring wasalways the norm. She could maintain her groups andvarious collaborations while traveling Europe toperform with various musicians in other countries.
However, that changed in the ‘80s when she became aworld traveler. In 1985, Mazur was part of Mikkelborg’s
recording of his suite of compositions in tribute toMiles Davis, who was the soloist on the session, whichbecame the album Aura. Soon after, Davis invited
Mazur to join his band.
“It was a fantastic adventure to meet and play andtour with Miles and I really learned a lot about grooving
and musical presence through those years. Miles gave
me a lot of freedom, but his music at that time waspretty concrete, which demanded a certain ‘masculine’
energy from me, although Miles probably wanted me
to bring more air and poetry into the band. Yes, I was
the only woman in Miles’ bands, but that was only oneof the ways I was different from the rest and I was used
to being an ‘outsider ’. It felt strange in the beginning[1985], the second Miles band I was in [1988] was moresocial, but, wow, what an experience with Miles’
leading power and inspiration—to tour the wholeworld under those grand circumstances and have thechance to give whatever possible to Miles’ music!”That experience was followed by touring andrecordings with the Gil Evans/Laurent Cugny Big
Band Lumiere in 1986 and a world tour with Shorter in1987 and then back with Davis in 1988. In 1989 Mazur
formed her own dream band, Future Song, and from1991 to 2005 she had a fruitful collaboration with
Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek.
After all of these amazing experiences, she fondly
remembered the Primi Band like family. So, when the
Copenhagen Jazz Festival asked her to revive the groupin 2015, she was thrilled. Putting the original groupback together was not possible at this point, but a sortof new version was assembled called Shamania.
				(CONTINUED ON PAGE 31)

Donegan could be difficult for bassists and drummers tokeep up with. Danish bassist Mads Vinding, who playedwith Donegan during the ‘80s, recalls, “Dorothy could
play different melodies in either hand at the same time.
We had no setlists and she never gave a clue as to which
melody she was playing. Sometimes, she changed
melody or key in the middle of a solo. Quite difficult tofollow sometimes, but it was a good exercise for theears.” Another bassist, Jon Burr, played in Donegan’s
trio extensively during the ‘90s and remembers her as
someone who wanted to make sure that the audience
had a good time. “Dorothy was unique,” he explains.
“I heard it said about her that Dorothy maybe wasn’t thegreatest jazz pianist, but she was certainly the greatest
pianist in jazz. She was recognized as such by otherpianists and she was an entertainer; that was the focus ofher show. Dorothy had a comedic aspect to her
showmanship. She would walk out on stage wearing
flats, carrying high heels. Then she would sit down on
the piano bench and the first thing she would do ischange the shoes. And she would do stuff like play thelast note with her foot... It was said that nobody wanted
to follow her because she was such a dynamic entertainer.
She would often get a standing ovation very early in theset and by the end of her set, people would be roaring.”
Burr describes playing with her as an adventure inwhich the surprises were constant: “There was never
any rehearsal. There was never any indication of what
was coming. Dorothy would do stuff like, she could beplaying ‘Cherokee’ in A to begin with and then, newkey. She wouldn’t call out, ‘Go into B flat’ or whatever.
She wouldn’t call it out, she would just go there. And
after a while, I started to get the hang of it.”Donegan died of colon cancer on May 19th, 1998 at
76. According to Burr, the living musician who has themost in common with her musically is pianist/singer
Johnny O’Neal. “Johnny has the incredible spontaneitythat Dorothy had.” Burr continues, “Dorothy would
get faster, she would get slower and the effect of it was
really emotional. I haven’t heard anyone else do that...
You would be playing something fast and the next
thing you know, you’re suddenly playing a ballad. But
it would be a different tune. With Dorothy, anything
was liable to happen at any time.” v

LEST WE FORGET

DOROTHY
DONEGANby alex henderson
Dorothy Donegan was never easy to categorize.

During her long career, the native Chicagoan pianist
performed everything from boogie woogie, swing,blues, bop and stride to European classical music. But
whatever she played, Donegan was a virtuoso.
Born on Apr. 6th, 1922, Donegan was six when she
began studying piano. Her early influences included
Art Tatum, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Fats Waller, Count Basieand Duke Ellington as well as classical piano and at 12
she performed with the Chicago Symphony. Donegan,
who was first recorded in 1942, later absorbed theinfluence of Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson and other bop
pianists. Although she didn’t record as often as her
admirers would have liked—and no studio albums at
all from 1964-74, Donegan built an impressive catalog,
which included dates for mostly independent labels.
In her discography were many live albums. She wasfamous for her shows, which were as fun as they were
unpredictable. Because she was so spontaneous,

8 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Recommended Listening:• Dorothy Donegan—Donnybrook with Dorothy(Capitol, 1959)• Dorothy Donegan—It Happened One Night(Roulette, 1960)• Dorothy Donegan—The Many Faces of Dorothy
Donegan (Mahogany-Storyville, 1975)• Dorothy Donegan—Makin’ Whoopie (The Definitive
Black & Blue Sessions) (Black and Blue, 1979)• Dorothy Donegan—The Explosive Dorothy Donegan(Progressive-Audiophile, 1980)• Dorothy Donegan—The Incredible Dorothy Donegan Trio
(Special Guest Dizzy Gillespie) (Chiaroscuro, 1991)

L ABEL SPOTLIGHTCARRIERby kurt gottschalkCategorizing the unclassifiable is a fool’s errand, to be
sure, one upon which the channels of music production
and distribution—marketers and distributors to
broadcasters and journalists to merchants andstreaming algorithms—largely rely. It’s a model thatrarely reflects consumer preference and which forces
the avoidance of genre to be considered a niche.
There are, of course, enterprises resisting theconfines of race, region and definition of style. Carrier
is one such endeavor. Launched in New York City in2009 by composer/performers Sam Pluta and Jeff
Snyder, the label has grown to have partners in four
cities and a catalogue attracting the attention of such
uncategorizable artists as Fred Frith and George Lewis.
“The goal of the label was to make a place for allthese different musical worlds we find ourselves inthat seem to be separate,” said Pluta, speaking from
Paris where his wife, composer Sky Macklay, has afellowship. (He is fulfilling his obligations at the
University of Chicago, where he is an assistantprofessor in the Department of Music, online.) The
label, he explained, began as a way to put out music bySnyder, himself and their friends, setting an eclectic
agenda from the outset. The first two releases were by
the composer/performer collective Wet Ink Ensemble
and a sort of electro-chamber drone project called
Glissando Bin Laden. Pluta is a member of both groups.
Label management has since expanded with the

Two Live Sets
Peter Evans/Sam Pluta

Wet Ink: 20
Wet Ink Ensemble

addition of composers Katie Young in Atlanta andDavid Brynjar Franzson in Los Angeles, with eachbringing projects to the table to be voted on and thenseen through production by one of the four. “We eachhave really different tastes, so hopefully there’s abreadth of different musical ideas,” Pluta said.
Some recent releases leaning toward the improv
sector of the Carrier umbrella were brought in by Pluta:
Lock Me Up, Lock Me Down, a trio by Fred Frith withelectronics improviser Cenk Ergün and Sudhu Tewari,
who works with “recuperated junk”; Rainbow Family, anarchival recording by George Lewis with Derek Bailey,
Douglas Ewart, Steve Lacy and Joëlle Léandre; and The
Cat of Sadness, a soprano saxophone trio by Dan Blake,
Jon Irabagon and Ingrid Laubrock.
Rainbow Family came about after Lewis emailed
Pluta saying he’d come across a 1984 Betamax recordingof some early electro-acoustic experiments recorded at
Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique in Paris. “George is very well known for the
Voyager project but I didn’t even know about thisRainbow Family project,” Pluta said of his former
instructor at Columbia University. “What he was doingin 1983-84 with electronic instruments and improvisation
is what I try to do in my work. To be able to put out thisheavyweight, major document in the field was really
important.” Releasing Rainbow Family and Ted Moore’s
bruit, a set of contemporary acoustic/electronic
improvisations, outlined a four-decade continuum ofwhat the label sets out to document. “This is so central
to the core of what we do,” Pluta said. “For us to be able
to release this and then the Ted Moore album and toshow those things next to each other and lay out a
tradition, that is important.”

The Cat Of Sadness
Blake/Irabagon/Laubrock

Carrier has gone to DL-only for some releases, suchas the new Frith trio. Others have only a limited
physical run. “To make a CD is very expensive, to makean LP is absurdly expensive,” Pluta said. “Even thebest-selling CDs don’t make the money back for us.”With the label founders working in audio productionand engineering, the sound quality is, across the board,
to a high standard. Most releases are recorded specificallyfor release, often by Pluta or Snyder. When they’rebrought a recording, they often still are involved in
mixing and production. In the case of the Blake/
Irabagon/Laubrock trio, they were brought a live
recording but then invited to record at the Princeton
University Electronic Music Studio, which Snyder
directs. Snyder engineered the recording and Pluta
mastered it for release. “The music, we thought, was justincredible, but the recording was a little unpolished,”
Pluta said. “Jeff and I are both recording engineers, werecord or mix or produce half the records.” Pluta and
Snyder have from the beginning set out to realize a fuller,
more contemporary production than many recordings ofexperimental music and contemporary composition—
closer to the studio sound of current pop bands than the
traditional concert hall document. For a recent recordingwith Wet Ink singer Kate Soper, for example, Pluta
combined recordings of her made in multiple locations,far from the audio verité that many labels strive for.
But as it was 12 years ago, the main intention is justto get music into the hands and ears of people who might
not otherwise hear it. “Our goal is that someone will
come to our Bandcamp page looking for George Lewis
and realize that Dana Jessen is totally awesome.” v
For more information, visit carrierrecords.com

Rainbow Family
George Lewis

Lock Me Up, Lock Me Down
Fred Frith/Sudhu Tewari/Cenk Ergün

VOX NEWSVOCALMUSICIANS
by suzanne lorge
In November 2000, Lara Pellegrinelli published an article
in The Village Voice that took Wynton Marsalis to task forthe dearth of female instrumentalists in the famed Jazz at
Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO). The historic piece,
thorough and thoughtful, still stands as a clarion call forgender equality, even as several of the players
mentioned—pianist Renee Rosnes, trumpeter Ingrid
Jensen and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington—have set
strong precedents for women in jazz. Further, in the years
since the article was published, Marsalis has opened up
the JLCO to female instrumentalists and in 2018 he gavea permanent chair in the ensemble to a woman for the
first time. That player—saxophonist Camille Thurman—
is also a kickass jazz vocalist. Thurman is not the only
jazz singer who excels at an instrument typicallychampioned by virtuosic male players, the elite against
whom all others are measured. The contributions of
singer-instrumentalists like Esperanza Spalding (bass),
Bria Skonberg (trumpet) and Nicki Parrott (bass), toname three out of scores, have long challenged the tired
tropes that women players are not good musicians andthat singers are perhaps not musicians at all.
Curiously, around the time that Pellegrinelli wascalling attention to the jazz world’s sins of omission,some of today’s most promising newcomers were firstpicking up their instruments—and the mic. Though just25, singer/trombonist Hailey Brinnel has alreadyplayed prominent stages like Dizzy’s Club and The
Kennedy Center, often alongside groundbreaking
musicians like Sherrie Maricle’s DIVA Jazz Orchestra.
Her debut as a leader, I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles(Outside In Music), reveals why Brinnel was tapped forthese early honors: her mastery of these two instruments
defies expectations for one so young. Or, perhaps, sets
new expectations. Opener “Orange-Colored Sky”
introduces the listener to Brinnel’s judicious use of backphrasing and relaxed approach to a lyric and the ballad“You Go To My Head” or the blues “What’s The Use In
Getting Sober” shows off how expressively she wields
her delightful voice. But it’s when she scats on “Give Me
The Simple Life”, a bass-voice duet, that the sophisticatedunderstanding of jazz is fully unveiled, with her precise
enunciation, clever allusions and intricate vocal
improvisations. Brinnel will release the new album via
Facebook and Instagram Live (Mar. 13th).
Brinnel’s clear talent has landed her a spot in the
finalists’ circle for the 9th Annual Sarah VaughanInternational Vocal Competition, one of five selectedfrom dozens of submissions. These finalists usuallysquare off in November, but that didn’t happen in 2020,
when performance venues throughout the New York
metro area remained closed owing to the pandemic. The

competition was slated instead for this month, but thenwas bumped again to Jun. 6th. This June Brinnel won’t
be the only horn player on the ticket: New York-based
trumpeter Benny Benack III, a finalist in the 2014
Thelonious
Monk
International
Jazz
TrumpetCompetition, will also compete—the third male singer
ever to do so. The shifting composition of winners inthese high-profile competitions indicates that pretty
soon we’re going to have to stop noting when musicians
demonstrate excellence across genders and instruments
and genres. Consider that Thurman placed as a finalist
in the Sarah Vaughan competition in 2013, its second
year, and that other singer-horn players have followed.
Three Grammy-nominated singers offer online
concerts this month: Jazzmeia Horn performs in the Live
From Dizzy’s Club series, a pay-what-you-wish event(Mar. 4th). Thana Alexa, whose Ona is up for two Grammyawards this year, reprises the album via live-stream from
ShapeShifter Lab (Mar. 7th), a week before the Grammy
broadcast. And Jane Monheit launches Come What May(Club 44), a celebration of her 20-year career, with aconcert at Feinstein’s at Vitello’s (Mar. 12th).
In honor of Women’s History Month, free improviser
Judi Silvano joins Cheryl Pyle’s Musique Libre Femmes
ensemble as part of the 19th annual Lady Got Chops
Festival (Mar. 7th). This gig follows on the heels of therelease of Unity (Muse-Eek), an explosion of vibrantambient sound by Sonic Twist, Silvano’s masterfully
eclectic duo with guitarist Bruce Arnold. v

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 9

IN MEMORIAM

HOWARDJOHNSONby andrey henkin

PAVEL BLATNÝ (Sep. 14th, 1931 - Jan.
20th, 2021) The Czech Third Stream
composer had his works performed by
SHQ and orchestras (often led by Gustav
Brom) with soloists Karel Krautgartner,
Jaromír Honzák and Jaromír Hnilička.
Blatný died Jan. 20th at 89.
DAVID DARLING (Mar. 4th, 1941 Jan. 8th, 2021) The cellist got his start in
the Paul Winter Consort then entered
the world of ECM via Ralph Towner,
going on to debut as a leader for thelabel in 1980 and release another eightdiscs for it, either as a leader or inpartnership with the likes of Terje Rypdal and Ketil
Bjørnstad, plus more dates under John Clark, Sidsel
Endresen and Pierre Favre, all this to go with sidemancredits with Spyro Gyra, Michael Bocian, JD Parran andvarious New Age artists. Darling died Jan. 8th at 79.

H oward Johnson, brass and reed player known mostly

for playing tuba, baritone saxophone and bass clarinet
but also clarinet, flugelhorn, cornet and pennywhistleon hundreds of records since the mid ‘60s, died Jan.
11th at 79 after a long period of poor health.
Johnson was born Aug. 7th, 1941 in Montgomery,
Alabama and raised in Ohio. He was self-taught onbaritone and joined his middle school band, where
he would also pick up the tuba, getting, as he told ourown John Pietaro in a 2019 interview, “all of thefingerings down just by watching the tuba players.”
After a stint in the Navy he moved to Chicago and then
New York. Soon after he came into the circle of bassist
Charles Mingus. As he related to Pietaro, “I wandered
into The Five Spot and someone pointed out to Mingus
that there was a tuba player in the house... He called
the band a Jazz Workshop so he could do anything,including audition tuba players onstage.” Though he
had already recorded with Bill Dixon, his time with
Mingus’ large ensembles of 1964-66 got him noticed.
From there he would never stop working,appearing on albums by Hank Crawford, Gerald
Wilson, Archie Shepp, Hank Mobley, Big Black, Freddie
Hubbard, Gary Burton, McCoy Tyner, Leon Thomas,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jimmy Owens, Charlie Haden,Charles Tolliver, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Gil Evans,Michel Portal, Bob Northern, George Russell, Warren
Smith, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Andrew Hill,
Carla Bley, David Sanborn, Beaver Harris, Gato
Barbieri, Bob Moses, George Benson, Jaco Pastorius,
Buddy Rich, Frank Strozier, Dexter Gordon, Clifford
Jordan, The Heath Brothers, Bob James, Chet Baker,
Quincy Jones, George Gruntz, Jon Faddis, Ralph
MacDonald, Terumasa Hino, Edward Vesala, Manu
Dibango, Muhal Richard Abrams, Franco Ambrosetti,
Arthur Prysock, Abdullah Ibrahim, Ray Anderson,
John Scofield, TS Monk, John Clark, Mike Gibbs, Janis
Siegel, Tom Harrell, Marty Ehrlich, Catherine Russell,
Salim Washington, Joseph Daley and many others.
These were just his jazz credits; he also had myriad
pop and rock gigs with everyone from Melvin Van
Peebles and Angela Bofill and Lou Rawls to Taj Mahal
and Levon Helm and John Lennon and was also part of
the Saturday Night Live band. Despite all this activity,
somehow he found time to release his own albums on
Verve, mostly with his multi-tuba ensemble Gravity,
which played the 1996 Monterey Jazz Festival.
Unfortunately declining heath meant that Johnson
was far from his typically active self since 2018.
A tribute to Johnson was held at Merkin Hall in 2019with Gravity, Paul Shaffer and The Levon Helm Horns,
all to benefit InterSchool Orchestras of New York,a cause close to Johnson’s heart and a fitting bookend
to a career that had started so propitiously all those
decades before in a junior high band room.

BOBBY FEW (Oct. 21st, 1935 - Jan. 6th,2021) The pianist was part of one of themost important avant garde groups ofthe ‘70s alongside Frank Wright andAlan Silva (releasing a handful ofrecords on the French Center Of The
World label) after earlier credits underBooker Ervin, Marzette Watts, Noah Howard, Alan
Silva, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler and Hans Dulfer,
staying in Europe and waxing his own dates for Sun,
Free Lance, Vogue, Black Lion, Disques Adès, Miss You
Jazz, Bleu Regard, CIMP and Boxholder alongsidecollaborations with Sunny Murray, Steve Lacy, Talib
Kibwe, Eve Packer, Avram Fefer, Kali Z. Fasteau,
Jacques Coursil and others. Few died Jan. 6th at 85.
CAROL FREDETTE (Apr. 15th, 1945 - Jan.
24th, 2021) The vocalist got her start withSal Salvador and Neal Hefti, worked with
Mike Abene, Steve Kuhn and DaveFrishberg and had albums on Devil Moon,
Electric Bird, Owl, Brownstone andSoundbrush. Fredette died Jan. 24th at 75.
MALCOLM GRIFFITHS (Sep. 29th,
1941 - Jan. 19th, 2021) The British
trombonist was a crucial figure in his
country’s early avant garde scenes,
getting his start—as many did—in Mike
Westbrook’s big bands, then going on towork with John Surman, Alan Skidmore,Peter Brötzmann, Chris McGregor, Michael Gibbs,
Norma Winstone, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Rutherford,
Hugh Hopper, Graham Collier, Stan Tracey, John
Warren, Ray Russell, Harry Miller, Tony Coe,Gil Evans, Louis Moholo, Paul Dunmall, Keith Tippett
and more. Griffiths died Jan. 19th at 79.
JANET LAWSON (Nov. 13th, 1940 - Jan.
22nd, 2021) The 1982 Grammy-nominatedvocalist had a handful of albums on Inner
City, Omnisound and Cambria plus
sidewoman work with Eddie Jefferson
and David Lahm and a long career as an
educator at New York University and the
New School. Lawson died Jan. 22nd at 80.
JEREMY LUBBOCK (Jun. 4th, 1931 - Jan.
29th, 2021) The British pianist’s albums
were primarily classical but he did record
with Herb Alpert, Al Jarreau and Michael
Bublé and had songs recorded by The
Manhattan Transfer, Lee Ritenour,Ramsey Lewis/Nancy Wilson, Ernie
Watts, Diane Schuur, Pat Metheny, Helen Merrill, Milt
Jackson, Nina Simone, Janis Siegel/Fred Hersch, Quincy
Jones and others. Lubbock died Jan. 29th at 89.

10 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDJUNIOR MANCE (Oct. 10th, 1928 - Jan.
17th, 2021) The pianist’s credits stretch
all the way back to the mid ‘40s,
comprising a Who’s Who of jazz in Leo
Parker, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt,
Lester Young, Dinah Washington, Joe
Gordon, Cannonball and Nat Adderley,
Wilbur Ware, Art Blakey, James Moody, Johnny Griffin,
Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Green, Clark Terry, Eddie
Jefferson, Etta Jones, Ben Webster, Howard McGhee,
Jimmy Scott, Dexter Gordon and more, later credits
being with Ken Peplowski, Frank Vignola, Al Grey,
Takashi Ohi, Tony Falanga, José James and Richard
Davis, all this plus dozens of leader dates since the mid‘50s on Verve, Jazzland, Karusell, Riverside, Capitol,
Atlantic, Milestone, East Wind, Sackville, Nilva, Bee
Hive, All Art, Lob, Chiaroscuro, Enja, Trio, M&I Jazz
and, in the new millennium, his own Jun Glo. Mance
died Jan. 17th at 92.
GINO MORATTI (Jan. 15th, 1937 - Jan.
18th, 2021) The longtime private
investigator and amateur musician
channeled his passion as the lattertowards his role as Artistic Director of
Jazz at Kitano from 2006-20, making it
one of New York’s finest jazz rooms anda home for such pianists as Don Friedman and Frank
Kimbrough. Moratti died Jan. 18th at 84.
SAMMY NESTICO (Feb. 6th, 1924 Jan. 17th, 2021) The legendary
composer/arranger released over adozen albums since the ‘80s, many inthe new millennium in collaboration
with Germany’s SWR Big Band, in acareer going back to the mid ‘50s andwork for Charlie Barnet, Glenn Miller and, mostnotably, Count Basie, many of his charts performed
and recorded by big bands from all over the world,
ranging from high school and college to military, plus
movie music credits for Million Dollar Infield, The Color
Purple and Little Children. Nestico died Jan. 17th at 96.
KEITH NICHOLS (Feb. 13th, 1945 Jan. 20th, 2021) The British pianist andragtime specialist had albums on OneUp, Stomp Off, G.H.B. and other labels
and work with the New Paul Whiteman
Orchestra, Cotton Club Orchestra,
Harry Gold, Red Roseland, “Pam”
Pameijer and Benny Waters. Nichols died Jan. 20th at
75 of complications from COVID-19.
JOHN RUSSELL (Dec. 19th, 1954 - Jan.
18th, 2021) The British guitarist waspart of his country’s second generationof free improvisers, recording since themid ‘70s for Incus, Caw, Acta, Emanem,
FMP, Nur/Nicht/Nur, Another Timbre,
psi,
dEN,
Extraplatte,
Bocian,Va Fongool, Weekertoft, FMR and other labels incollaboration with Toshinori Kondo, Maggie Nicols,
Steve Beresford, John Butcher, Paul Lovens, Radu
Malfatti, Roger Turner, Evan Parker, Maarten Altena,
Sabu Toyozumi, Michel Doneda, Mats Gustafsson,
Raymond Strid, Eddie Prévost, Thurston Moore andothers. Russell died Jan. 18th at 66.
BURT WILSON (Jan. 24th, 1933 - Jan.
6th, 2021) The trombonist founded the
Sacramento-based Silver Dollar Jazz
Band, was a participant in numerous
Sacramento Dixieland Jazz Jubilees,
authored A history of Sacramento jazz,
1948-1966
andproducedthedocumentary The Roots of Sacramento Jazz. Wilson diedJan. 6th at 87 of complications from COVID-19. v

’S
WOMENRYHISTO HMONTALBUM REVIEWS

Dromedaries II
Keir Neuringer/Shayna Dulberger/Julius Masri(Relative Pitch)
The Coalescence
Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy (ESP-Disk’)by John Sharpe

Bassist Shayna Dulberger has covered a lot of territory,

not only jazz with her own groups, which have featured
saxophonists Darius Jones and Yoni Kretzmer, but also
noise and electronics with Hot Date with guitarist Chris
Welcome and avant rock via the quartet Chaser with Ava
Mendoza.
Herrichsure-footed
sound
and
adventurousness has also led to frequent sideperson
stints, notably William Parker’s Sunrise In The Tone World(AUM Fidelity), recorded at the 2008 Vision Festival.
Dulberger is one point of the equilateral triangle
Dromedaries alongside saxophonist Keir Neuringer anddrummer Julius Masri. The followup to an eponymous
debut in 2015 continues the egalitarian ethos with fourslices of spontaneity captured at Seizures Palace in 2018.
Dulberger cycles through repeated patterns, which
mutate to create a sturdy sense of movement and nonmetric swing. While often the least obtrusive member,she is maybe the most important in keeping things
afloat. Neuringer, whose profile has risen thanks to hisrole in Irreversible Entanglements, thrives at the edge,
either in streams of distorted emotionally freighted
invective or slurred phrases interrupted by scalar runs,
both often extended into unbroken ululations by circularbreathing. Masri favors a tappy clatter, on the rims as
much as the heads, which can cohere into a staggered
beat, especially when Dulberger sets up the sort ofgroove of which Parker would be proud, as on“Thereafter (Those Steppes Again)”. But she’s also
comfortable as part of a prickly free-ranging discourse,
as evidenced by “Ether (Commie Beast)”, one of thehighlights, where bow in hand, she moves in tandemwith Masri from stop-start dialogue through to a roilingfinale, where Neuringer splutters and wails. It forcefully
illustrates a key trait: the ability to add an aura ofstructure to free expression, without either becoming
predictable or constraining invention.
Dulberger is also part of another exotically-named
collective, Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy, whose
29-minute The Coalescence dates from the same 2007
session that resulted in the Splintered Visions LP on
Blackest Rainbow. Dulberger shares bass duties with
Gene Janas, stalwart of the NYC experimental arena.
Completing the eclectic crew is drummer Adam Kriney,
who hails from a psychedelic rock background, andAustrian saxophonist Mario Rechtern, best known forhis connection with vocalist Linda Sharrock. A punkish
raw energy pervades the three tracks, emanating inparticular from Kriney’s take-no-prisoners attitude to
his kit and Rechtern’s adherence to the school of
ecstatic skronk. Reflective moments pop up amid themayhem, which Kriney does his best to ignite, usually
succeeding. Giving credit for bass outcomes is fraught
with uncertainty, though Dulberger is likely responsible
for the wiry pulse which anchors the episodic freeform while Janas may be behind the wilder arco
scribblings. Regardless, they periodically respect the
time-honored trope of contrasting bowed and plucked
tonalities and together provide an almost subliminal
throbbing undercurrent to give depth to both the highoctane exchanges and more drifting textural interludes.
For more information, visit relativepitchrecords.com andespdisk.bandcamp.com. Dulberger live-streams Mar. 4th
with Elliott Sharp at roulette.org.

End of Softness
Amirtha Kidambi/Lea Bertucci (Astral Spirits)
by Jordannah Elizabeth

The surreal, apocalyptic musical offering End of Softness

is the second collaboration between vocalist Amirtha
Kidambi and sound artist Lea Bertucci. The album iscomprised of carefully woven musical shards from theirdebut album Phase Eclipse and a live performance the
duo reworked and retexturized in order to create thisnew collection of darkly-themed songs.
End of Softness is an artistic illustration of the endof days and patriarchal-induced confusion anddecimation erected and produced during Kidambi and
Bertucci’s personal isolation due to the COVID-19
pandemic. It can be assumed that the stark collaborative
readjustment was a deeply embedded source ofinspiration as the tracks are heavily coated with soundsof empowered desperation, resulting in a kind of
freedom that can only be earned through perseverance
and ingenuity during this time of global loss.
The album opens with “Siren Call”, reimagining
the powers of the mythological water beings who
entranced unassuming sailors with their eerie feminine
singing, causing them to shipwreck on the three islandsof Sirenum scopuli. Kidambi’s voice is layered andlooped by Bertucci into transcendental sounds ofbeauty and chaos. “False Profits” is a darkly fanciful
sonic collection of breathy vocals and speaking voices
mixed and rearranged into a swirling, fast-paced andhigh-pitched piece of sound art purposely created to
overwhelm and disorient the listener. “Alter of Time”,“Must I Burn?” and the title track continue to drive thelistener through a journey of death, pain and rebirth
as the duo creatively orients songs into stealthily, yetheavily produced vocal tracks that twist further andfurther into bleak historical themes of mysticism andthe terrorization and assault on feminine power.
“Hysteric Arch”, “Destroying Angel” and ‘Epilogue”(only on the digital release) end the album with
Bertucci manipulating, molding and encapsulating
every morsel of Kidambi’s voice into electronicallydisorienting illustrations, seamlessly closing the blackhole of sound and despair.
This album is not for the faint-hearted. It can beconsidered an art piece of intentional doom that does
not pacify the listener by placing a flowery incantationof softness and healing. It is the End of Softness andoffers the sharp edges of reality and uncomfortable
themes explored by these two brave experimenters.
For more information, visit astralspiritsrecords.com. Bertucci
live-streams Mar. 4th with Elliott Sharp at roulette.org.

various electronics to this 45-minute CD, which was
produced by Silvano and engineered by Arnold. The
vocalists who have inspired Silvano in the past
continue to influence her on Unity, like Sheila Jordan,
Betty Carter and Jeanne Lee. All of them became
masters at interpreting familiar lyrics and so did
Silvano. But on Unity, while some of the selections
contain lyrics, including “That’s What That Is” and“I Saw That”, Silvano mostly expresses herself withwordless scat improvisation.
Silvano and Arnold enjoy a strong rapport
throughout this album and one of the things thatmakes them compatible is Arnold’s use of space. He
favors an airy, floating sound along the lines of Pat
Metheny and the late Jim Hall. But what Arnold doeson Unity is much more left-of-center.
None of these selections rely on traditional song
structures or a head/solos/head format. Silvano andArnold’s improvisations are quite free form, but neverin a combative way. This is the type of avant garde
expression that values subtlety and understatement
rather than going out of its way to clobber the listener.
Inside/outside offerings like “Bruce’s Boogie”,“Hovercraft”,“Confabulation”
and“ShimmerDown”—all improvised—are never abrasive. Unity
doesn’t confront; it floats and reflects.
2021 marks the 30th anniversary of Silvano’s firstrecording as a leader, Dancing Voices. Silvano hasrecorded a lot more albums since then, making her
mark with a wide range of projects and collaborators.
This CD makes maximum use of her avant garde
talents and Arnold is a consistently intuitive
collaborator for the veteran singer.
For more information, visit judisilvano.com/recordings/unity.
Silvano live-streams Mar. 7th with Cheryl Pyle at judisilvano.com.

Joanie Pallatto’s songs
are like a modern radio...
JOANIE PALLATTO
featuring Fareed Haque
MY ORIGINAL PLAN
~ Available April 16th, 2021 ~Jazzy-Pop!
Fourteen Original Songs fromAward-Winning Singer-Songwriter
Joanie Pallatto
Produced by Haque and Pallatto

Unity
Sonic Twist (Muse-Eek)
by Alex Henderson

Sonic Twist is a duo of Judi Silvano on vocals andBruce Arnold on guitar; both of them contribute

12 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD“Listen closely and find out how to dream and how to use
those dreams...With Joanie, the personal becomes universal.”
Stephen Cole, award winning songwriter and playwrightSouthport Records
www.chicagosound.com
Real Jazz Made in Chicago

WOMENHISTORY’S
MONTHI’m Forever Blowing Bubbles
Hailey Brinnel (Outside In Music)
by Elliott Simon

The title track on this debut from vocalist/trombonist

Hailey Brinnel was written over a century ago by John
Kellette. It fits Brinnel’s youthfully expressive vocals
perfectly due to its naiveté, which fronts for a mix ofheartache and amusement. Her arrangements of thisand seven other songs from her grandfather ’s
generation are largely spot-on and work to feature her
vocal chops and trombone prowess. Brinnel’s voice
sparkles during the changes and she deftly moves
through pensive waltz, swing, Dixieland and backagain. Pianist Silas Irvine, bassist Joe Plowman anddrummer Dan Monaghan are a fine rhythm section
dexterously navigating these vagaries. Brinnel is oneof many women associated with drummer Sherrie
Maricle, with half of these compositions recorded atDrummers, Maricle’s Philadelphia based in-homestudio/concert space.
The program opens with a stellar version of Milton
Delugg-Willie Stein’s “Orange Colored Sky”, which
includes lovely arco work from Plowman, who is verymuch at home in these environs and integral to thesession. Cole Porter ’s usually sedate “Easy to Love”
swings harder than it ever has with a clipped trumpet
solo from Andrew Carson that does battle with
Brinnel’s potent scat.
Brinnel’s trombone/vocal combination is at its
best in the bigger band contexts and when clarinetist
Sam Bishoff joins with Carson on a couple of cuts
things really swing. However, a duet with guitarist
Dariel Peniazek on J. Fred Coots-Haven Gillespie’s“You Go to My Head” and with Plowman on Rube
Bloom-Harry Ruby’s “Give Me the Simple Life”
showcase a sultry innocence. Busby Meyer ’s “What’s
the Use of Getting Sober” and Hoagy Carmichael’s“Stardust” do not fare as well vocally but on the whole
Brinnel can blow the hell out of her trombone and I’m
Forever Blowing Bubbles is a wonderful blend ofleadership and Swing Era sensuality.
For more information, visit outsideinmusic.com. Brinnel
live-streams Mar. 13th at facebook.com/haileybrinnelmusic.

Artlessly Falling
Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl (Firehouse 12)
by Marc Medwin“You arrive with daggered hands,” begins and ends

“Walls and Roses”, but, as with the music sliding inand out of focus and cognition on Code Girl’s second
album, are they really the same in the end? Lorraine
Hansberry once spoke of the universal needing to beunderstood in its details, a lesson guitarist Mary
Halvorson has learned well. In this revamped version
of Code Girl, she has found the perfect vehicle fora vision shuttled between minutia and grandiosity,where each element arrives with the twin daggers of

intuition and cognition at the ready.
The first Code Girl album, Halvorson along withvocalist Amirtha Kidambi, bassist Michael Formanek
and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, was a statement in andof itself, no mean compositional feat for artists whose
multivalent careers have been rife with them. It wasvery good, but this one is a triumph due in no smallpart to the addition of saxophonist and vocalist María
Grand and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill. The group has
now taken on the intimacy, precision and unassuming
grandeur of a chamber music ensemble, but one skilled
in negotiating the spaces, somewhere between subtlety
and sucker punch, that have always opened up in
Halvorson’s genre-bending compositions.
For the latter—and its title gives the heads-up—“Walls and Roses” alternately blasts and cajoles its
distorted and crystalline way through the repetitions
modified by perception and context, those destroyersof all cyclical and categorical tidiness. A similar but
smaller series of disconnects opens the title track,
whose deliciously accessible guitar harmonies jitter indizzying blanket formations, dissolving the saltinessof old patterns, as Halvorson’s lyrics suggest in
Kidambi’s gorgeous delivery. A middle ground isfurrowed in “Bigger Flames”, where Halvorson’s
ubiquitous pedal warpings never quite derail theliquid harmonies bolstering the exquisite horninterplay and succulent sustain, all melding perfectlywith Robert Wyatt’s beguiling intonations.
Unexpectedly, the thankfully irrepressible Wyattlends his magical vocal arts to three of the album’s
tracks. What a joy it is to hear him in contexts so
expertly shaped for him by someone who knows so
intimately the nature of his instrument! The expertly
timed overdubs, on strategic lines of the wistful“Lemon Trees” just to cite one example, evoke his solo
work while placing a new frame around that instantly
recognizable vocabulary. His vocal transparency,
underpinned by the deepest humanity, remains thehallmark of his art. Is it Kidambi or Grand, a kind of
vocal soulmate for Wyatt’s ethereality, singing thestunningly understated background as Halvorson,
Formanek and Fujiwara anchor each chordal plateau toO’Farrill’s filigree? Even that brief pastorality isrendered moot as the track builds, slowly but
inexorably, toward Fujiwara’s solo, a model of color
and raw energy.
To speak of band interplay in such a Protean
environment would be akin to the parabled blind man
describing the elephant, no job for one writer. The
process by which angst-ridden pointillistic group
improv—with Formanek in particularly fine form—
merges with the tendrils of sonority and Kidambisneered-and-supplicated vocal lines in “Last-Minute
Smears” is just one point of the music’s fluid definition;
there are many. Here again, like the elevated points ofdistorted precision of “Walls and Roses”, the music
moves gracefully but only toward what it is while
continually discarding what it was, just as Halvorson’ssolos on that track dive headlong into a blues feelingwhile completely eschewing its syntax.
The parts are surpassed only by the whole. Like
Carla Bley, Halvorson’s forms depend on theirstructures to solidify and obliterate them and like
Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, the poetic forms she explores areoperators behind the scenes, foregrounding various
shades of reference. What Paul Haines devotee
wouldn’t get a kick out of the seriocomic malevolenceof hiccupping cops?
Artlessly Falling is Code Girl’s coming of age. That
it arrived to mark the end of Halvorson’s 40th year
surely demonstrates a similar trajectory for thecomposer. Her music was always very good, but now
it’s great and she has become a forceful poetic andmusical voice with which to be reckoned.
For more information, visit firehouse12records.com. Halvorson
live-streams Mar. 21st at alternativeguitarsummit.com.

G LO B E U N I T YDream Disobedience
Elisabeth Harnik/Michael Zerang (Not Two)BeyondFutari (Satoko Fujii/Taiko Saito) (Libra)
Kleine Trompetenmusik
Birgit Ulher/Franz Hautzinger (Relative Pitch)by Tom Greenland

Conversation is an art form, reliant on an ability to‘speak’ clearly and, most importantly, listen closely.
Three duo outings reveal how different and yet how
equally enlightening such conversations can be.
Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik seems to thrivein duo settings. Michael Zerang, a Chicago-based
drummer, is with her on Dream Disobedience, a live
recording made at Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2019. The
conversation, unabated for 35 minutes, is rather
subdued, Harnik usually initiating each new topic,
alternating traditional approaches with more unusual
in-the-box techniques while Zerang eschews straighttimekeeping for a more reactive role, adding themusical equivalents of ‘Hmm!’ or ‘Uh huh!’ and otherencouragements to keep things flowing. The episodic
narrative progresses through short lulls followed bybursts of energy, as if small squalls were blowing
through, a grand tempest arriving near the end, one
final cloudburst before irenic frog croaks and bird
songs return, the pond at peace.
Futari (Japanese for “two people”) is pianist
Satoko Fujii, well known for her prolific output andinternational collaborations, and vibraphonist Taiko
Saito (also Japanese, but based in Germany), who,
though a generation younger, shares many of Fujii’s
aesthetic sensibilities. Their 15-year friendshipfinally blossomed into Beyond, recorded in Japanafter the third gig of their first tour. As such it has aquality of fresh discovery—people figuring out how
to play together. Although Fujii can be extremely
assertive, here even in her most ecstatic moments—
as when she crowds the bass register with dense
twining lines and chords—she never overpowers
Saito, whose light shimmering tones in the upper
register maintain a strong presence. The pieces,mostly Fujii’s, include honed melodies (“Ame No
Ato”, “Mobius Strip”), short motives with improvisedelaboration, through-composed pieces and texturalsketches, a nice balance of freedom and control.
Kleine Trompetenmusik, by German trumpeters
Birgit Ulher and Franz Hautzinger, was recorded in
the former’s flat in May 2018, but sounds as if could
have been made this winter by two people cooped
up inside by COVID-19 quarantine. Foregoing
traditional trumpet tones, the pair instead explores
various extended techniques producing all mannerof pops, knocks, clicks, creaks, rattles, buzzes, rubs,
slaps, growls and a host of aspirated attacks aping
boiling teakettles, pressure cookers, hissing radiatorsand droning motors. One technique (heard on“Griesel”) sounds just like the saliva suction tube
that dentists use. The five tracks are of a piece, eachan interlocking conversation in which one states anidea in the form of an unusual tone or timbre,
maintaining it as the other (mixed in the opposite
channel) overlays the first idea with a second,creating a new context for the original idea, until thissecond idea is itself overlain with a third and so on.
For more information, visit nottwo.com, librarecords.com
and relativepitchrecords.com. Harnik live-streams Mar.
19th at youtu.be/bhdgIuixdwM.

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Listen Here
Roseanna Vitro (Skyline)
by Dan Bilawsky

V ocalist Roseanna Vitro is looking both ways as shejoined the septuagenarian club on Feb. 28th. Eyeing
the future, she’s readying two new albums—a guestenhanced celebration of Charlie Parker ’s music and ameeting with pianist/longtime collaborator Kenny
Werner. And digging into the past, she’s working withher husband—producer/engineer Paul Wickliffe—to
digitize and rerelease early recordings. As logic would
dictate, that project begins with Vitro’s dazzling debut.
Originally released on vinyl in 1984, the album is
now available on CD and streaming platforms for the
first time. And, boy, is it long overdue. Enlisting pianist
Kenny Barron’s trio with bassist Buster Williams anddrummer Ben Riley for primary support, tapping Fred
Hersch to write arrangements, spicing up a pair of
tracks with percussionist Duduka Da Fonseca andcalling on some bandmates from her Houston days—
pianist Bliss Rodriguez, saxophonist Arnett Cobb andguitarist (and then-future bassist) Scott Hardy—Vitro
positioned herself for victory before she ever uttered anote. But the singing—the real draw, of course—is
sensational, carrying the program to tremendous
heights. With a signature blend of power and poise,

serious flexibility and range and pitch-perfect clarity,
Vitro grabs the ears from the get-go.
After opening in samba territory with “No MoreBlues”, Vitro quickly shifts gears again and again.
There’s a coolly swinging 5/4 take on “You Go to My
Head”, the slow-and-bluesy “Centerpiece” (Rodriguez
and Cobb soulful and true), an appropriately chipper“Love You Madly” and the balladic beauty of “A Time
for Love”. And that’s just for starters. Vitro rides thebeautiful flow of a bossa nova foundation during “ThisHappy Madness”, delivers a hip “It Could Happen to
You” (that gives Cobb and Riley a chance to trade),stylishly strolls down “Easy Street” and drops into a
few other welcoming jazz haunts. Sounding fresh andsmart decades after its release, there’s no dust to befound on Listen Here.
For more information, visit roseannavitrojazz.squarespace.com

An Evening in Houston
Patty Waters (Clean Feed)by Mark Keresman

F ew singers have a history rich with mystery andlegendhood as Patty Waters, who turns 75 this month.
After being relatively quiet for much of the ‘70s-80s,
Waters returned to performing and recording in the

14 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD‘90s. Her voice is slightly deeper and a touch raspierand she is more of a conventional singer, but still treatswords and syllables in the manner in which an
instrumentalist interprets sighs, coos and shrieks.
Pianist Burton Greene was her accompanist in the ‘60s
and returns on this April 2018 recording with bassist
Mario Pavone and drummer Barry Altschul. What
separates this from her classic ‘60s sets is that her
approach is somewhat more straightforward. Waters
treats oft-heard standards with respectful warmth yet
recasts them as only she can.
“Hush Little Baby” is stripped down to Waters
taking the chorus and repeating it, fracturing it andbreathlessly chanting it over the trio’s thorny
improvisations. Via Waters the word “hush” becomes afantasia, a slice of wishful thinking, an anguished plea,
an insistent ritualistic chant, until it dissolves in theether. Country classic “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
is transmuted into a near-gothic lament—almost every
syllable rings as if from a cathedral. On “Nature Boy”,
the phrase “just to love” evolves into a mantra, therepeated word “love” embodying both aching yearningand affirmation—what was once a song becomes ritual.
Thelonious Monk’s “Off Minor” gets a rollicking,brittle and completely instrumental rendition wherein
Altschul gets to shine in a crackling, roiling solo spot—a
joy to behold, as he is otherwise restrained andsublimely supportive. “Lonely Woman” is a number
where the whole ensemble goes into explorationalmode while avoiding meandering self-indulgence—
there’s a hushed urgency, adding to the drama.
With both humble delight and an occasionallyharrowing mindset Waters truly reinvents thesefamiliar tunes with subdued passion.
For more information, visit cleanfeed-records.com

WOMENHISTORY’S
MONTHAdventures of the Wildflower
Yelena Eckemoff (L&H Productions)by Dan Bilawsky

Beyond her obvious skills—sophisticated pianist,composer, writer and painter—Yelena Eckemoff’s
greatest strength may be an ability to draw on life’s
surroundings to guide and enrich the aural experience.
This prolific artist’s work is constantly nurtured byenvironment—hers and ours, collectively—and she’s
always uncovering narratives hidden within. One need
only look at Eckemoff’s discography to glean that
information. She captured the temperature of apersistent winter in a trio with bassist Mads Vinding
and drummer Peter Erskine on 2010’s Cold Sun;harnessed the light in emotion with help from tenor
saxophonist Mark Turner, vibraphonist Joe Locke,
bassist George Mraz and drummer Billy Hart during
2014’s A Touch of Radiance; explored the divine beautyof shores and tides in the company of saxophonist Tore
Brunborg, bassist Arild Andersen and drummer Jon
Christensen on 2015’s Everblue; and defined life invaried shades with drummer Manu Katché through2019’s Colors. That list barely scratches the surface
considering that Eckemoff delivered 15 releases
between 2010 and 2020, but it clearly makes the point.
So too does this evocative and absorbing double-album.
Reuniting with vibraphonist Panu Savolainen,
bassist Antti Lötjönen and drummer Olavi Louhivuori,
who assisted the pianist in making musical sense ofscents on 2017’s Blooming Tall Phlox, and adding two
more notable Finns—saxophonist Jukka Perko andguitarist/multi-instrumentalist Jarmo Saari—Eckemoff
sets off to tell the tale of a wildflower ’s life and times.
The perennial, given the fitting name Columbine,
starts out as a seed seeking full life. Eckemoff andcompany conjure the warm glow of its growth inmoving from mellow and curious environs to brighter
atmospheres on the “In the Ground” opener. At theother end of the program, with seedlings at the aged
protagonist’s side, the music dances to the pulse of life
in “Baby Columbines”. Between those points, there’smuch to admire in exchanges, improvisations andcomposed expressions. “Germination” peaks out indifferent directions, with sprigs represented in jangles
and angles. “Rain” falls gently, early, in simple motivic
play and development. “Drought” sounds to arid
climates and, later, reflection. And “Buds and Flowers”
presents as a fantastical gardenscape. This music, richin representation, is magical and Eckemoff andcompany blossom right along with it.
For more information, visit landhproduction.com

ekhidna
Hedvig Mollestad (Rune Grammofon)by Franz Matzner

There simply isn’t a particularly convincing way tocatalogekhindaby

Norwegianguitarist

HedvigMollestad. Certainly, jazz history is replete with genre
evolution and merging; it may be an essential
distinguishing feature. Further, contemporary jazz
provides plentiful examples of stylistic bouillabaisse.
Yet little can prepare the ears for ekhinda’s torrents ofbristling force, which lurk as much in its still corners as
its pounding rhythms, erudite soloing, slashing guitar
and psychedelic layering. This is not fusion as usually
understood. It’s a binding of melted shrapnel leaving asonic sculpture of jagged edges.
Supported by a concussive set of compatriots,
Mollestad is able to switch seamlessly from power
chords to intricate figures to sonic squalls. Tunes like“antilone” detonate as if by chemical reaction,
sounding like what a gene-splice between Herbie
Hancock, Rancid, Metallica and King Crimson mightbirth. At the other extremity, the minimalist forays
hover with barely restrained, scorching heat, as on the
opening “no friends but the mountains”, which
plunges the mind into darker interiors, as if gazing
into a black mirror searching for flickers of self. Then,after more incendiary aural collisions, ekhinda closes by
suturing its polar points with “one leaf left”. The songunfolds like a Noh play’s prolonged scream before
erupting into a sudden, final shockwave.
Mollestad accomplishes so much with her guitarthat it may be easy to understate the contributions ofher bandmates. This would be a mistake. The sounddepends equally on the clear, searching flights of
Susana Santos Silva’s trumpet, the textural layering
provided by Marte Eberson and Erland Slettevoll on
Rhodes, moog and electric piano, which alternately
add a tapestry of competing discord and reinforce
textural depth, especially during tunes’ densest frisson.
Finally, ekhinda’s hurtling intensity and rich dynamics
are propelled by percussionist Ole Mufjell anddrummer Torstein Lofthus’ thundering beats anddaedal rhythms.
ekhinda may appeal most to musical omnivores,
but anyone willing to plunge into its depths willundoubtedly discover music both potent and inimitable.
For more information, visit runegrammofon.com

Rah! Rah!
Claire Daly Band (Ride Symbol)
by Ken Dryden

Claire Daly, perennial favorite in annual polls for best

baritone saxophonist, first issued this music privately
in 2008 and it didn’t get the wide distribution it
merited. Enter jazz industry veteran Donald Elfman,
who offered to reissue it on his Ride Symbol label; nowa greater audience can appreciate her heartfelt tributeto Rahsaan Roland Kirk, a pioneer known for playing
multiple instruments simultaneously and skilled useof circular breathing, in addition to blending brilliant
songwriting, improvisations, lyricism, protest and atake-no-prisoners attitude.
Daly remains true to herself and doesn’t try toplay like Kirk in any way, other than performing at the
top of her game. Joined by bassist Dave Hofstra (withwhom she has worked in various bands led by Joel
Forrester), pianist Eli Yamin and drummer Peter Grant,
Daly puts Kirk’s works in settings that capture his
spirit, yet the music is transformed by gift for melody
and her big tone. She also composed two songs that arecontrafacts of Kirk originals: “Blue Lady” was inspiredby his “Lady’s Blues”, a loping, spacious opener with abluesy groove, while “Momentus Brighticus” is a flutefeature derived from “Bright Moments”, which evolves
from a jazz waltz into a breezy bop vehicle.
Daly also takes the initiative to segue from a gritty,
insistent rendition of Kirk’s “Volunteered Slavery”
into Sly Stone’s 1969 R&B hit “Everyday People”,
adding a sincere vocal in the latter. Her robust
renditions of Frank Foster ’s “Simone” and Charlie
Parker ’s “Blues For Alice” invite comparison to Kirk’srecordings of the pieces. This outstanding salute to
Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s music makes one wonder what
other gems await discovery by today’s jazz musicians.
For more information, visit ridesymbol.com

UNEARTHED GEM

Early Blue: 1958-1968 (Treasures of Dutch Jazz)
Ann Burton (Nederlands Jazz Archief)by Scott Yanow

The Netherlands’ Ann Burton (née Johanna

Rafalowicz 1933-89) survived a difficult childhood(which included a few years hiding from the Nazis)
before she began to work towards becoming a jazz
singer. So grateful was she when the Americans
liberated her country she spent her career exclusively
singing in English, never displaying an accent.
In 2020, the Nederlands Jazz Archief acquired
her archives, including unreleased acetates. Alongwith some other holdings, they serve as thefoundation of Early Blue. Other than four songs from1965 previously released as an EP by Dutch Decca,
the performances have mostly never been out before
or were released on tiny European labels. Burton
just made one LP (1967’s Blue Burton for the Dutch
Artone label) during the period of time covered bythis release. Early Blue gives listeners an opportunity
to hear Burton before she became well known andregularly called her country’s top jazz singer.
A very subtle vocalist who dug deep into lyrics,
Burton had a quiet and fetching voice with her
improvising being fairly minimal. She often simply
stated the melody but made the songs her own
through sincerity and relaxed phrasing. She loved
the recordings of Billie Holiday and, although hertone is very different, sometimes she hints at Lady
Day on the ballads as on this version of “I’ve Got A
Right To Sing The Blues”.
Early Blue contains 24 concise selections (onlyfour are slightly longer than four minutes), Burton
accompanied by a variety of different groups,
ranging from trios to a string quartet, the Metropole
Orchestra and (for three songs) a trad septet (theDown Home Jazz Band). No matter what the settingor the year, Burton consistently uplifts the material
during these mostly well-recorded performances.
Highlights include “Kansas City”, a swinging“Exactly Like You”, “They Didn’t Believe Me”, “Let
There Be Love” and a version of “I Could Have Told
You” that makes one think of Shirley Horn.
Burton, who only recorded one album in
America (1979’s New York State Of Mind), never
became famous in the U.S. but, on evidence of thisexcellent release, deserves to be remembered.
For more information, visit jazzarchief.nl

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IN PRINT

The Lady Swings: Memoirs of a Jazz Drummer
Dottie Dodgion and Wayne Enstice(University of Illinois Press)by Kevin Canfield

Dottie Dodgion was a professional jazz singer as ateen, but she would make her name plying a
different set of skills. In a career that began in the‘40s and continued for seven-plus decades, the91-year-old author of this often-engaging memoir
drummed with legendary musicians and played
storied venues, distinguishing herself in a malecentric milieu. “The guys were not going to give itup—the drummer was the balls of the band—andI really had to prove it,” she writes. Dodgion andco-author Wayne Enstice acknowledge that she haslong “languished in obscurity” and they understandthat some readers might be more familiar with Jerry
Dodgion, an accomplished saxophonist she marriedin the ‘50s (they later separated). The Lady Swings
is “an eleventh-hour rescue” mission meant tobolster her status as a pioneer who paved a routefollowed by Terri Lyne Carrington and otherprominent women drummers.
Her youth in California was shaped by music
and by several deeply painful incidents. When she
was five, Dodgion says, her father, a jazz drummer
who had split with her mother, “kidnapped” herand took her along as he played West Coast“roadhouses and strip joints”; one night, an intruder
broke into her father ’s room and locked her in acloset. Her first stepfather raped her; her second
died in World War II. At 16, she was the singer ina touring band led by Bay Area jazz guitarist
Nick Esposito.
Her father didn’t teach her to drum, but she wasnonetheless drawn to the instrument. Though she
worked numerous “humdrum gigs”, Dodgion
briefly served as the drummer in bands led by Benny
Goodman and Dave Brubeck. She took the stage at
the Village Vanguard and the Half Note. And when
she toured Europe with Melba Liston’s band,celebrated jazz writer Leonard Feather praised her
in print. A Manhattanite in the ‘60s, she was always
ready to work: “If a drummer took sick, was late,
had habits, or lived in New Jersey and couldn’t get
across the bridge, I was there.” As of the winter of2020-21, Dodgion was still playing shows at a
California hotel.
Dodgion is good on craft. Her description oflearning how to keep “a standard swing rhythm”—
she’d silently repeat “apple pie”, then “duplicatethat sound on the stand-up tom”—is vivid andmemorable. But if her recollections of overcoming
sexist agents and musicians are inspiring, this book,like many memoirs, contains questionable
quotations and scenes that read like embellisheddepictions of reality. Dodgion quotes fromconversations she neither witnessed nor took part inand virtually everyone she encounters simply
adores her. This is an interesting book about an
eventful life in music, but you wouldn’t necessarily
call it an authoritative version of events.
For more information, visit press.uillinois.edu

ConcertOTO
Marilyn Crispell/Eddie Prévost/Harrison Smith(Matchless)
Streams
Yuma Uesaka/Marilyn Crispell (Not Two)by Tyran Grillo

To say that pianist Marilyn Crispell, who turns 74 thisGlimmer Glammer (Solo Trumpet)
Lina Allemano (Lumo)
The Same Is Always Different
Susana Santos Silva (s/r)
by Steven Loewy

Solo improv albums are difficult ventures: when theymonth, has charted new territory would be anunderstatement. It would be just as accurate to say she
has redrawn maps of old territory. At her hands, thekeyboard leaps like a compass gleeful over its
sentience, directing notes with the same force ofintention that a seafarer would a ship carrying precious
cargo. Whether solo or, as in the two discs presented
here, in combination with others, she brings a reverent
sense of space honed over decades.
For ConcertOTO, she planetarily aligns with Eddie
Prévost (drums) and Harrison Smith (bass clarinet,saxophones) for a traversal of freely rendered terrain.
Recorded live in November of 2012 at London’s CaféOTO, the album documents most of what went down onthat stage. On the one hand, it’s a study in contrasts. “AnExploratory Introduction” opens with just that, reacting
to space as much as defining it. The “Finale” balances itwith forthright exposition. At many points between
them, however, something powerful happens—a magicalkind of coalescence that only musicians who truly listen
to one another can achieve. And so, whereas “A
Meditative Interlude” is a dreamy combination of
pianistic icicles, moonlit bass clarinet and hand-swept
drums, its quiet moments are no match for the mainconcert portions flanking it. In those, one will find averitable catalog of touchpoints linking chains aroundthe ears. In this respect, Crispell is a master collage artist.
Because nothing is planned, passages of exhale make theinhalations that much tenser and wilder with possibility.
Prévost is a fabulous player, never losing track of theinner thread even when he severs it while Smith treats
time as a physical dimension. Their occasional exchanges
in absence of piano are just as visceral. An interestingcoincidence that the club’s name is homophonous with
the Japanese word for “sound”, as this is a gift articulated
in that very medium.
Streams pairs Crispell with Yuma Uesaka(saxophones, clarinets), whose compositions constitutethe set in its entirety. If ConcertOTO was about being in
the moment, then this meeting of minds is about
connecting moments as one would a constellation:
each piece is minimally indicative of its title and, overtime, seems to take on those characteristics as if bydefault. If anything connects the two projects, it’s
willingness to move wherever the winds of inspiration
blow—this, despite the through-written nature ofevery melody Uesaka offers on the altar of
improvisation. Hence the beautifully contradictoryatmosphere at play. The title track and “Torrent” areexactly as they should be. The former feels like waterthat pools and eddies when blocked by fallen branches;
the latter like a cannonball dive. Further dichotomies
of description abound in the prophetic tinge of“Meditation”, in which a bass clarinet courts the
piano’s deepest growls. Elsewhere, dialogues arepushed to extremes, each infused with equal parts
catch and release, before funneling into “Ma / Space”,
for which the duo welcomes Chatori Shimizu on theshō (Japanese mouth organ) for an added touch of
sunlight through branches.

succeed they inspire but at their worst descend tosolipsism. The two entries here, by Canadian Lina
Allemano and Portuguese Susana Santos Silva, offer
dramatically different perspectives on solo trumpet.
Allemano’s Glimmer Glammer is a highly listenable
and enjoyable venture filled with a plethora of ideas.
Her roots are in the hardbop tradition, as is clear
on three of the pieces: “Butchfink”, highlighting muted
trumpet with bucket-like runs, rapidly repeatedphrases and an attractive tone; opening of “Portrait ofSticks”, with its simple melodic head and confident
spiraling and sometimes dazzling strings of notes andoccasional distorted tones and trills; and closing “OneMan Down”, which ends with simple whistling,following an accessible series of more traditional open
jazz phrasing, interspersed with whooshes and muted
trumpet. “Clamour” takes a different tack, built on
circular breathing: a single growling tone, unchanging
unless you listen closely and notice the variations—an approach that Silva takes to another level on her
date. What is most fascinating, though, is the variety of
approaches and strategies pursued by Allemano. The
title track, the most compelling piece, opens withpercussion-like ‘materials’ and morphs to all sorts ofadvanced techniques, from rapid-fire notes toswooshes, muted tones, sucking and popping sounds
and more. Although less than 40 minutes in length, thisimportant album is a worthy part of Allemano’s
repertoire and further evidence of her growing skills.
Recorded at her home in Porto, Portugal, The SameIs Always Different is Silva’s exploration of the extremesof silence and pure sound, a conceptual recording
applying an austere mindfulness to solo trumpet. Silva
has a distinguished career and has explored a varietyof genres, including important albums such as This
Love, with pianist Kaja Draksler and with a more jazzoriented quintet on Impermanence, an album that, aswith The Same Is Always Different, addresses the way
we view changing phenomena. On lengthy opener“The”, she drones for more than 20 minutes, adding
only a metal cookie box as a mute, causing a buzzing
sound. If you listen very closely, the single notechanges slightly in its timbre, focus and vibration,
though not much in its middling volume; it is slow andmysterious and may be perceived as spiritual by thosein an open frame of mind. “Same” is overdubbed,
lasting only a couple of minutes, but with a bit more
movement. “Is” amplifies dramatically a swooshingsound, which, at first blush, seems static, but crackles
and changes over time. “Always” features overdubbed
sounds, producing a long drone, which, as with “The”,
evolves slowly over its 12 minutes but may be a tadmore accessible due to manipulated sounds. The
closing “Different” is probably the most welcoming,with a scratchy, louder vibration that moves slowly
and with a single tonality, but clearly transforms
slightly throughout. Silva has produced something,a document of our times, when many people are forced
to stay in their homes, facing potential sameness andconsequential boredom, a special album with a lot to
say about life, but one that is difficult listening.

For more information, visit matchlessrecordings.com andnottwo.com

For more information,susanasantossilva.com

16 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

visit

linaallemano.com

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Some Kind of Tomorrow
Jane Ira Bloom/Mark Helias (Radiolegs Music)
by Jim Motavalli

These duets between longtime collaborators Jane Ira

Bloom (soprano saxophone) and Mark Helias (bass)
were recorded via the exchange of files in COVIDlimited New York during 2020. They capture some ofthat period’s isolation but sound hopeful too. If theoverall tone is melancholy, maybe that’s just what thisparticular combination of soprano and bass is going toyield. Bloom definitely has her own sound on the
instrument. Helias is all empathy.
These two met back in the ‘70s in New Haven,which had a lively jazz scene at the time. The manifesto
for this recording: “We didn’t have to write anything.
We didn’t have to plan anything. We didn’t even haveto talk.” But they talk plenty on their instruments andspontaneously create some indelible music. The title
piece, for instance, is wistful and keeps sounding likeit’s about to segue into a standard.
Helias has his bow out for “Star Talk” and Bloom
plays short phrases in the horn’s upper reaches. It’s
Earthrise on the Mars, or maybe whales calling to eachother across a lonely ocean. “First Canvas” is more
open, but at 1:03 it’s over before it begins. “Magic
Carpet” features playful soprano dancing over deep
bass rumble, but also contains several meditative
passages that build on closely heard responses.
Helias sets the tone for “Traveling Deep” witha cool three-note figure that inspires Bloom to somealmost flute-like runs, then jumps the tempo before
retreating back. “Willing” also gets the duo close toswinging before Bloom raises the emotional pitch withsharp cries. “Roughing It” has Helias laying down awalking pace as Bloom weaves around it. When Bloom
slows—are they making camp for the night?—Helias isright there with her. This is the longest piece andtypically shape-shifting.
“Far Satellites” brings out Helias’ bow again. It
attains almost a call-and-response feel, but with sparetones from a slow night at the space station bar andgrille. “Pros and Cons” has some of Bloom’s prettiest
playing , contrasting with the more unsettled reality of“Drift”; Helias plays some amazing stuff halfway
through the latter, an agitation waltz.
A lot of territory covered, without the players
having to leave their socially distanced home bases.
More than 40 years of intense collaboration in myriad
settings obviates the need for up-close studio intimacy.
For more information, visit markhelias.bandcamp.com

album Binary (recorded with a bassless trio of pianist
Matt Mitchell and drummer John Hollenbeck), shetook passages from compositions for percussion bycomposers like Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Morton
Feldman, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse andIannis Xenakis and expanded them into pieces for achamber jazz ensemble. On Both Are True, the 2020
debut of a big band she co-leads with fellow
saxophonist Angela Morris, the 19-member ensemble
played music that was cinematic (bringing to mind
Lalo Schifrin, J.G. Thirlwell and even Ennio Morricone’s
weirder scores) but also highly adventurous and whichused the studio as a tool to terrific effect. Webber issomeone who thinks before she plays and designs
obstacle courses for her bandmates to navigate.
This album is pretty much the opposite of all that.
It’s a live recording featuring Webber, pianist Marc
Hannaford, bassist Adam Hopkins and drummer Mark
Ferber. Hannaford and Hopkins are part of the MorrisWebber Big Band; Ferber is making his first appearance
in her catalogue. It’s a single 35-minute piece, recorded
live in Queens in December 2019 on a portable Zoom
recorder and later polished in a studio by engineer
Nathaniel Morgan, who really deserves credit as a fifth
member of the group.
The music is an adaptation of “Reflections 3”,
which was split into three chunks on Binary. On thatalbum, it was little more than a jagged, stuttering
melody line, played a few times as interludes between
longer compositions. Here, that same melody is
disassembled and refracted with a kind of disciplined
relentlessness; when Webber is extrapolating phrases,
long breath after long breath, seemingly withoutpause, it’s easy to think of Roscoe Mitchell’s adventuresin repetition and intensity. Hannaford, Hopkins andFerber lock in behind her, creating a pounding rhythm
that oh-so-gradually shifts into fluid swing. Through it
all, Webber moves implacably forward, never looking
back, making what could have been a forbiddingly
intense performance into something raucously alive.

album. They’re not just talented musicians but also
smart ones, who don’t just suggest a mood but convey
a scene, with setting, lighting and time of day. It’s
really a lovely record.
There are a couple of respites during the hour inthe inclusion of compositions by other departed
masters, reflecting the voices of the duo. Muhal Richard
Abrams’ “Peace on You” and Leroy Jenkins’ “Albert
Ayler (His Life Was Way Too Short)” are palpable andbeautiful resting points, almost oases in the intense
dialogue. One can almost picture Hawkins and Reid
stopping to listen, even while they’re playing.
For more information, visit intaktrec.ch

For more information, visit outofyourheadrecords.com

Shards and Constellations
Alexander Hawkins/Tomeka Reid (Intakt)
by Kurt Gottschalk

As is my general practice, I listened to this recording
several times before reading any explanatory materials.
I’m a fan of both pianist Alexander Hawkins and cellist
Tomeka Reid and was excited to hear them together.
In keeping with the trite-and-true maxim, I wanted to
let the music speak for itself. Here’s a note I madewhile re-listening, before reading the liner notes:
It’s all too easy to pigeonhole intense and dynamic piano playing as“Cecil Taylor–esque”. It’s a loving tribute to the departed master, but
is reductive enough to be nearly meaningless. Not entirely so, but very
nearly. What it’s meant to suggest is a performance (specifically on
piano, but it needn’t be so) in which ideas fly by too fast to fully grasp.
It isn’t just tempo, it’s in the intelligence of the playing.

Rectangles
Anna Webber (Out Of Your Head)by Phil Freeman

Saxophonist Anna Webber makes spiky, challenging

art music that owes as much to modern composition as
to the jazz tradition and probably more. On her 2016

I feel the need to preface that note because in his
liner notes the pianist and Pulitzer Prize-winningcomposer Anthony Davis likens one of the album’s
eight improvised pieces to Taylor ’s early recordings.
So, easy or not, the comparison, it seems, is apt andDavis and I are both right. But not as right as Hawkins
and Reid, who are responsible for this exceptional

18 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORDCONGRATULATIONSSUSANNAH B’S GIRL GONE WILDER!
NAMED AMONG THE BESTJAZZ RECORDINGS OF 2020
BY LA JAZZ SCENESUSANNAHB.COM

WOMENHISTORY’S
MONTH

Wabi Sabi
The Tiptons Sax Quartet & Drums (s/r)
I Love To See You Smile
3D Jazz Trio (Diva Jazz)
Eponymous
Artemis (Blue Note)
by John Pietaro

In 1925 Lil Hardin Armstrong guided husband Louisstage-front and led his Hot Five from the shadows.
Since then, women have taken the lead many times
over, but the journey was in spite of a maledominated industry.
Some 60+ years later this reviewer, rushing toward
the downtown express at Union Square, became
enraptured by the sound of four saxophonists playing
magically interwoven lines. The train was missed but
it was worth it. “We’re the Billy Tipton Memorial
Saxophone Quartet,” Amy Denio announced to thewhooping crowd. Tipton, who died in 1989, was atransgender male-identifying musician and bandleaderof the ‘30s-70s whose closeted life inspired Denio andbaritone saxophonist Babs Helle (now John Otto). The
two founded the band in Seattle in 1988, though manyothers have come through the ranks, particularly after
Denio and Jessica Lurie’s 2006 reformation of it as the
Tiptons Sax Quartet. With two powerful altos (Lurieand Denio, doubling soprano and vocals, respectively),
the current iteration is completed by Sue Orfield(tenor), Tina Richerson (baritone) and drummer Robert
Kainar. If the band in its infancy was gripping, today
it’s simply outstanding.
Wabi Sabi was inspired by the Japanese aesthetic
principle of transience and imperfection and, ironically,
produced an album that’s pretty damned perfect. On
Richerson’s opener “December Dance”, the listenerexperiences tractor-beam transport to the Latin Quarterof long ago. Thriving on Kainar’s stormy presence,
shifting mambos beneath pasodobles of a sort, the horns’
moves are unstoppable. This energy only strengthens
through Denio’s fascinatingly arranged “El Gran
Orinador”, flooded with solos. The title cut by Orfield
maintains the dancefloor action before moving into aslower theme with soaring vocalized melody out front.
Denio’s uniquely mournful voice shines in her “RootDance” both before and during the start of a beautifully
Balkan-inspired 7/8. The piece effortlessly melds thistradition with New Orleans, casting joyful lament. The
second half of the album, then, stretches the concept
further, a global embrace of culture championed throughimprovisation. Listen for Brazilian- and West Africaninspired sounds, Eastern European modes, even jazzrock. The closer, Orfield’s “Working Song”, is anthemic,grown from a soft pentatonic strain, a call to order,
perhaps to arms, as the saxophone choir insistently,
symbolically sings and shouts over a steady beat.
I Love To See You Smile from pianist Jackie Warren,
bassist Amy Shook and drummer Sherrie Maricle, is aset of (mostly) standards sitting firmly in the ‘40s-50s
piano jazz tradition, though in this case, drummer-led.
3D, short for three divas, shines throughout, each with
moments but always focusing on the whole. Their
version of “Besame Mucho”, with layers of rhythmcascading from the drumkit and featuring crisp,
swinging breaks, brings new life to an old gem.
Danceability, not so much as a goal but rather a
profound byproduct, propels the eight selections.
While some of the adaptations are as expected, others
are singular in approach (“Moonglow”). And the richarco bass out front of “Angel Eyes”, accompanied bydark piano chords and only the subtlest of brushes,utterly lures in the ear. By the time bluesy piano—
heavy on right-hand ostinato—takes the lead, even thecasual listener will recognize the strength this track

would have as a single. The closer, “L.O.V.E.”, abeloved ballad, is heard uptempo with heat turned up
during the trading of fours by Maricle and Shook,enlivening the entire set.
Jazz has always had “supergroups”, usually
record label manipulations, ill-fitting ensemble
members seeking the next bus out of the one-off. Not
so Artemis, organized thoughtfully with a vision
toward durability. As per musical director/pianist
Renee Rosnes, “We came together when a European
promoter requested an all-female ensemble, but after
the second tour, we chose to make this a regular band.”In addition to Rosnes is clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor
saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen,
bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller andvocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. The international,
multi-generational septet was signed to the covetedBlue Note label to wide fanfare in later 2020.
The sounds on their eponymous debut are as tight,
professional, swinging and hip as one would expect.
Miller ’s opener “Goddess of the Hunt” is a rollicking
venture calling on the listener to join said foray withthe band’s namesake. Miller offers layers of pulsations,driving the rest with Latin-esque fills ending in
crackling accents. Locked in are Rosnes and Ueda,
adding sparkle through heavy rhythm under melodic
passages recalling Quincy Jones’ moving, throbbingscores. “Frida”, a minor-key work by Aldana with herroving tenor out front of clouded harmonies, carries
much of the complexity and emotional distance in thegreat artist’s paintings. By contrast, Rosnes’ “Big Top”
is overt, filled with rapid-fire runs and a sizzling drum
solo. The strength of the pianist’s improvisation
segment matches that of her comping, but
unfortunately, this intensity doesn’t survive the rest of
the date. The album embraces ‘inside’ playing, well, tothe softer side – surely this isn’t problematic, but in thecompany of the many mellow sounds that just fit thedreaded “light jazz” genre, this hunt braves a moredangerous path than intended. Artemis’ level ofartistry can and should ignite still newer generationsof musicians, female and male, toward the untold
strength of womanhood. It’s here, impatiently waiting,still struggling to be unleashed.
For more information, visit thetiptonssaxquartet.com,
divajazz.com and bluenote.com

More Than Another Day
Lisa Hilton (Ruby Slippers Productions)by Mark Keresman

P ianist/composer Lisa Hilton counts both the

influence of European-based classical music and jazzas her inspirations. More Than Another Day is her latest
album and she has got a couple of aces up her sleeve:bassist Luques Curtis, who has a considerable Latinjazz resumé, and drummer Rudy Royston, often heard
to good effect with trumpeter Dave Douglas, Bill Friselland many others.
The title track, one of nine Hilton originals, is theopener and sets the pace nicely. It’s beautifully
midtempo and has a cheery, sunshine-y feel. Cole
Porter ’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, the set’s sole
standard, is played for muted shadows; it’s still upbeat,but in a slightly guarded manner. Rich, gently rolling
chords in the ornate introduction, framed by bass anddrums, are faintly dramatic, adding a bit of turbulence.
“Karma Chaos” is a nice midtempo cooker, Curtis andRoyston laying down a choppy magnetic rhythmic
figure with Hilton jauntily essaying away over-top.
One of the dandiest aspects of Hilton’s playing is hertidy, slightly witty sense of restraint. The closer, “Today
I Looked At Love”, features lusciously lovely rhapsodic
piano and crisp, considerately probing drumming.
More Than Another Day is a batch of easygoing jazzof considerable substance. It doesn’t cut corners nor isit high-handedly “artistic”. Hilton is an inheritor/
successor to the mantle of Erroll Garner: classy,
intelligent and accessible without bowing tocommercial-type compromise.
For more information, visit lisahiltonmusic.com

IN PRINT

Nothing but the Music
Thulani Davis (Blank Forms Editions)by Kurt GottschalkThulani Davis is a witness. She’s not just that, ofcourse. She’s a talented poet. She’s a playwright,
journalist, librettist, novelist and screenwriter. She’sa scholar and assistant professor of AfroAmerican
studies at the University of Wisconsin.
She’s also a fan. Davis knows the musicians she
references in Nothing but the Music well but remains
and writes as a fan, which gives her expert testimony
all the more weight.
Her expertise added voice to the Blank Forms
reprinting of the late multi-instrumentalist Joseph
Jarman’s Black Case Vol. I & II: Return From Exile in2019, a poignant and revealing collection of poetry,prose and diary entries originally published in 1974.
She wrote an introduction to that edition with theunique insight of having been married to the author.
Her circles through the orbits of Jarman and the
Art Ensemble of Chicago (the band through which
Jarman became a name in outré jazz households)
and their associates of the decade after Albert Ayler
and John Coltrane left the playing field inform thisslim volume.
The book includes dedications to Cecil Taylorand Henry Threadgill, but also to Thelonious
Monk—in a poem written on the day of his death in
1982—and choreographer Dianne McIntyre andan unknown street musician. They’re not always
poems about those figures, but they’re inspired byencounters with their art. They’re verses aboutbearing witness.
Writing at, or soon after, or about a gig by
Taylor, Andrew Cyrille and Jimmy Lyons, in a poem
titled “C.T. at the Five Spot”, for example, Davis
seems to reflect both internal and external states ofbeing there: “commandin’ a state / of the meanness/ of the sweetness / of the time it takes / of thespace it needs / of the weight of old air / it breathes/ & sees like knives thru the thickness of flesh / &the blindness of our very selves / I have heard thismusic / ever since I can remember / I have heard
this music.” Davis’ vivid poems document momentsfrom those fabled days not with setlists but withsnapshots of her mind and soul.
For more information, visit blankforms.org/publication/
thulani-davis-nothing-but-the-music

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 19

’S
WOMENRYHISTO HMONT

Daring Mind
Jihye Lee Orchestra (Motéma Music)
Vanishing Points (Plays The Music of Dirk Strakhof)
The Composers’ Orchestra Berlin/Hazel Leach(Jazzhaus Musik)
Pannonica
Gina Schwarz (Cracked An Egg)
by George Kanzler

solid ensembles. Disc Two doesn’t make much use of
the strings and tracks rarely coalesce beyond
dissonance and unfulfilled aspirations. Exceptions are
the Middle-Eastern themed “Baharat” and “Road Trip
A22”, with a Philipp Nykrin piano solo right out of
Cecil Taylor or Don Pullen.
For more information, visit motema.com, jazzhausmusik.de
and crackedanegg.com

Adventurous ensemble writing, as well as surprisingvariety, can be found on these three albums, featuring
differently sized and configured ensembles, allincidentally led by women. Jihye Lee’s Orchestra isconfigured in the classic big band mold—brass, reeds
and rhythm—but she eschews the usual swing tropes,
suggesting comparisons to Maria Schneider or Darcy
James Argue (who produced Daring Mind). The
Composers’ Orchestra Berlin [COB] mixes three reeds,
two trumpets and a tuba, with a four or five-piece string
section, plus piano, guitar, bass and drums. Bassist Gina
Schwarz’ Pannonica ensemble is a nonet with trumpet/
flugelhorn, trombone, soprano saxophone/bass clarinet,
violin, cello, piano, guitar and drums.
Daring Mind is a consistently fascinating auraladventure. Lee creates distinct sonic landscapes in her
arrangements, often beginning, as on “Suji”, all inmajor chords, from a small kernel from one instrumentthat builds across and up sectionally to a climactic
unfurling of solos (piano, clarinet). Lee often employs
rhythms not normally associated with big band jazz,from martial 2/4 and 4/4 to floating, semi-rubato
waves. Her take on a flagwaver, “I Dare You”, is full ofwhirling reeds and clashing riffs, Quinsin Nachoff’s
tenor wailing over jangling riffs before spirited massed
ensemble shouts take it out. A metronome-like time
centers “Relentless Mind”, featuring guest trumpeter
Sean Jones, who also appears on the power ballad“Struggle Gives You Strength”. “Dissatisfied Mind”
mixes instruments in a cubistic dissonance,
individual voices emerging and submerging into theswirling ensemble before a baritone coda. The closer,“GB”, builds from trumpet and piano up to a big
brassy, cinematic climax (Lee hopes to write music forfilms in the future).
Conducted by C.O.B. founder Hazel Leach,
Vanishing Points features the compositions of bassist
Dirk Strakhof, whose interests run all the way from‘60s horror TV shows and hurricanes to paintings, J.S.
Bach and Egyptian music. The latter gives us the CD’s
two best tracks: “Tahir Square” begins with a roundfrom the strings, answered by tuba-led horns morphing
into a bright, bouncy theme before cleverly mixing
strings, trumpet and saxophone in a Middle-Easternversion of New Orleans polyphony, while “Dos
Danzas”, “inspired by the Egyptian music of Mohamed
Abdelwahab”, features guitar over rhythms led by the
Egyptian dharbouka drum, violin, trumpet and cellosoloing over the contagious rhythms. Strakhof’scommand of strings is impressive throughout, as heblends them with horns fluently as on his Bach tribute,“Passacaglia”, and his blend of strings and trumpets
on “Belphégor”, his reminiscence of a ‘60s TV show. He
also incorporates electric piano and guitar into a headysonic mix of “Four Steps Into The Dark”.
Pannonica consists of two CDs, the first, with 11
tracks, an hour long; the second, with 12 tracks, about
half that. Three short tracks on Disc One are bass solos;
six short tracks on Disc Two are ensemble mashups.
Schwarz’ compositions on Disc One range from inside
to outside, in and out of tempos, foot-tapping toanarchic. The full ensemble, with strings, is employedfor various effects on most of the long tracks, the best,
like “Dark Glasses”, “Four Steps” and “Lily of theNile”, building momentum through enticing solos andExolinger
Sarah Bernstein (577 Records)
Solo Songs For Instruments
Ig Henneman (Wig)
MYASMO
Mia Zabelka (Setola di Maiale)
by John Pietaro

O n Exolinger, Sarah Bernstein delves into the fathomsof mystical terrain she’s carved out for some years,
albeit this time alongside only her violin- and voicegenerated
effects.
Bernstein’s
strengths
asinstrumentalist and composer have been matched inrecent performances and recordings by her mastery ofdigital sound. Cavernous reverb, echo at multi-speeds,
orchestral hits and caustic percussives triggered live
accompany her prodigious playing, high-lonesome
vocalizations and spoken word. The overall effect isriveting, tapping into the territory of Laurie Anderson
but with a naked embrace of not only post-punkaesthetics but also its inbred nihilism. To call this music“hardcore” would be unfair, yet Exolinger could be theunderground soundtrack bridging no wave andsteampunk. In this sense, the industrial electronics of“Ghosts Become Crowds”, its layers of oppressive
sound beneath relatively pure vocalization, act as alatter-day Lydia Lunch. However, on “The Plot” thepoetry is set plainly against effects of “music, soundand language”, at points is reminiscent of Adrian
Belew/King Crimson’s “Elephant Talk”: “word/sounded language/stated listening/of dancers/
subliminal language/ chaos of carelessness….
unfamiliar music shared in an unknown tongue”. Her
inclusion of the accelerando riff from “21st Century
Schizoid Man” wasn’t missed and on this cut it evolves
into the darkest of soundscapes. The density maintains
into the following selections. Bernstein surmises in“We Coast”: “How strong is your will/ It lasts a few
hours/ And then we coast”. With Exolinger, taken as anentity, the will is abiding.
For Solo Songs For Instruments, a collection of fivepieces, Dutch violinist/composer Ig Henneman forgeda new standard in the integration of artform, with eachselection viscerally inspired by works of international
literature. As Bas van Putten writes in the liner notes,“Ig Henneman analyzed five poems for the musicalelements within and behind the words”; however it’s
clear that each instrumental work, all of which
incorporate improvisation, were shaped as much about
the performer as writer. Opener “Solo Song for Cello –As If” is an immediate attention-grabber performed by
Lidy Blijdorp. Based on Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a
Cleaving in my Mind”, the piece showcases 20th
Century music’s unleashing and well captures theconflicted and bipolar struggles of the author.
Blijdorp’s attack, her adaptation of the composed piece
as well as free playing, all speak of Dickinson’s tortured
words as does the poem’s frail recitation. This leads
effectively into “Solo Song for Violin – In the Storm ofRoses” performed by Diamanda La Berge Dramm most
icily, with only the slightest evidence of bowing
vibrato. The associated poetry is by Ingeborg
Bachmann, the post-war Austrian poet and librettist
whose works explored Fascism’s latter-day effects on

20 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

women. The piece bears great melodic leaps and theuse of false harmonics and double-stops only solidifies
the emotional impact of the poem, sang hauntingly.
The following three works are “Solo Song for Bass
Clarinet/Clarinet – the Motion Caused”, inspired by
Anneke Brassinga’s “Garden”, performed by Annavoor de Wind; “Solo Song for Viola – Ten Lines”,
inspired by Nanao Sakaki’s “Soil for Legs”, performed
by Elisabeth Smalt; and “Solo Song for Bassoon –Hardwood Floorboards”, inspired by Sarah Lawson’s“Hans and Anneke’s Lakeland Terriers”, performed byDana Jessen. It is only with selections three and five,with wind instruments concurrent to spoken word,that the identity of the uncredited speaker comes into
question. Henneman may just turn out to be that
forlorn, wandering voice.
MYASMO by Austrian violinist Mia Zabelka
achieves a uniquely old-world quality as each of thefour works, recorded across much of northern Europe
in 2018 and 2019, are respectively titled “London”, “LeHavre” [France], “Vienna” and “Tønsberg” [Norway].
Though a major voice in European free improvisationand new music, Zabelka holds a special place in the
NYC experimental music scene touting collaborations
with Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran and Lydia Lunchand important dates at The Kitchen and New Music
America, among many more. As per usual, Zabelka is
working in a purely improvised setting. MYASMO
opens with dramatic bowing drawing on the
instrument’s most vocal tendencies: angling the bow
during strokes, rapid percussive rebounding attacks
and pizzicato accents bring out a mournfulness
unachievable without such expansive techniques orsuch a powerful improviser. While solo recordings arefar from uncommon within the avant garde, Zabelka’s
performances carry gripping melody that taunts andlures in the ear; “London” is an excellent example ofthis. The quickly moving passages, particularly when
blended with her whispery, staccato vocalizations,conjure visuals that can be described as vividly ghostly,
yet stunningly beautiful. Perhaps the piece is really for
wayward souls of the infamous Tower of London?
“Le Havre” makes use of extended techniques andpercussive vocalizations as a central aspect, the latterrecalling Yoko Ono, and the piece offers a more definedanger, almost a madness. Dizzying presto strokes thatare all-encompassing contrast greatly to full-bodied
long tones, which build a theme before erupting into
harmonic-laced shrieks. “Vienna” begins as anextension of the first, somewhat unifying the set with
explorations of dramatic themes that splinter andshred. Listen for the 6’35” point when an undefinable,
exhaustive aura of sound leaves your stereo smoking.
For
more
information,
visit
stichtingwig.com and setoladimaiale.net

577records.com,

Valentine
Bill Frisell (Blue Note)
Rainbow Sign
Ron Miles (Blue Note)by Thomas Conrad

enough density and dissonance to remind you thatthey come from Moran. But it is fitting that Rainbow
Sign is less about private brilliance and more aboutcommunal creativity. Most often the solos are collective
ventures, like on “This Old Man”, where everyone
including Morgan weaves in and out of Miles’ muted
lines. It feels wrong to call Rainbow Sign a concept
album. It is more like an offering.
For more information, visit bluenote.com. Frisell live-streams
Mar. 6th at alternativeguitarsummitcamp.com

Defying the pandemic, the Blue Note label has been

on a roll. One sure sign: It beat out ECM in the latest
JazzTimes Critics Poll. Blue Note albums by people like
Ambrose Akinmusire, Gerald Clayton, ImmanuelWilkins and Joel Ross were all over the “Best Of” lists
for 2020. Here are two more high-level releases fromBlue Note, one great (Valentine), one very good(Rainbow Sign). Both feature the preeminent guitaristof our time, Bill Frisell, the first in his optimal format,
the trio, the second in an allstar band. Ron Miles’ othersidemen are no less than Jason Moran, Thomas Morgan(who also appears on Valentine) and Brian Blade.
Frisell has played with bassist Morgan anddrummer Rudy Royston for years, but they had neverrecorded as a trio. Frisell intends Valentine as “evidence”
of this ensemble’s “magic”, which he defines as“everyone trusting each other…you feel safe enough totry anything.” In presenting his evidence, Frisell draws
upon his preferred musical genres. There are standards
like Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing”.
It takes 30 seconds to coalesce from floating guitar
figures, but once Frisell has found the song he nevertruly leaves it, even as he sometimes breaks it off midphrase and appends new melodies. There are originals,
some new (“Electricity”, a wicked little set of hooks)
some old (“Winter Always Turns to Spring”). Frisell has
never been sufficiently acknowledged as a composer.
He writes tunes so fine they can be played alongside
Strayhorn. A representative Frisell album must containsome Americana. “Wagon Wheels” resonates as sharedhistory. There are staples of popular culture like “Whatthe World Needs Now Is Love” that Frisell utterlytransfigures in his stinging, glistening, ringing guitar
language. There is a traditional, “We Shall Overcome”.
It is the final track on Valentine. Frisell often closes his
concerts with it. He says, “I’m going to keep playing it’til there is no need anymore.” He sustains the faith of
this song while making it new for our present moment.
It is unusual for a major leader to work in otherpeople’s bands, but Frisell, who possesses uncommon
energy, curiosity and generosity, has been popping up
as a sideman for years. His contributions to Rainbow
Sign are always vivid and surprising. Overall, it is hard
to imagine that Miles could have found four more
articulate voices to join him in fleshing out his originalpieces. Most were composed in the summer of 2018
while his father was dying. But Rainbow Sign neversounds mournful. Its pulsing momentums sound likelife. Miles says that he wrote these songs while serving
as a caregiver to his father in his last days, during
which time the two reached a new level of closeness.
Press notes call this album a “spiritual document”.
While Miles’ compositions are stronger in theaggregate than individually, they create, cumulatively,
an uplifting sense of affirmation, a glow of tenderness
and reconciliation. Miles is the only soloist who
stretches out. He plays cornet instead of trumpet,
in a warm, open tone and his journeys are always
fulfilling, even when, or especially when, they wander
off course, like on “Binder”. The other players allpractice concentration and concision but they maximize
their moments, including drum maestro Blade. Friselland Moran are both capable of stopping the show.
Frisell’s statements are burned into the air of thishumane album and the piano interludes have justWithout Dimensions (featuring Ben Monder)
Júlia Karosi (Doublemoon-Challenge)
Slip Sliding (with Ben Grayson)
Rob Burke/Ben Monder/Tom Rainey (FMR)
Live at the 55 Bar
Ben Monder/Tony Malaby/Tom Rainey (Sunnyside)by George Grella

Modesty is generally considered a virtue, but too muchcan be a vice. That may be too strong for music, especially
jazz, but it’s a useful metaphor for looking at how
guitarist Ben Monder fits into different groups andmusical situations. Because fit in he does—a musician’smusician and ensemble player par excellence, he often sits
in the ambiguous position of being both complementary
and the best part of the overall proceedings.
That’s the general case with these three albums.
On one, Júlia Karosi’s Without Dimensions, his presence
makes up a fraction of the music, but he looms large
over the whole, to the relative detriment of the leader.
On the two albums credited to groups of musicians,
he’s often the strongest and most interesting voice andthough everyone is trying to play together, the successof the music hangs on how well the other musicians
integrate with Monder. The oddity of each situation isthat Monder for the most part is playing modestly,
following the concepts and values of others.
Without Dimensions sits a bit apart from the othertwo albums. Karosi is a vocalist, to begin with, and it’sa vocal album though one with little in the way of text.
The other feature is that the music is centered around
Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, with more than half the
tracks being jazz arrangements of themes from the two
Hungarian composers. The original material is from
Karosi and it is very much flavored by her two
Hungarian musical forebears: minor key; lightly
dissonant, folk-like melodies; uneven meters. Monderis the featured artist and he’s quoted in the booklet
expressing his pleasure to be part of the project andsaying, “Bartók has probably been the single mostimportant composer to me.” And he does shine, hisfuzzy, distorted tone deliciously doubling the singer ’ssilvery, pure voice, his solo turns full of energy andcommitment and the crunchy wash of his sound in the
background on many tracks one of the best things
about the album. He’s the most interesting element
and in this context brings some slight, but meaningful,disappointment with the record. The melodic andrhythmic contours of Bartók seem to be the only things
the leader hears in his music; there’s no exploration ofcolors (Bartók was an outstanding orchestrator) andnothing that touches on the sexuality and violence thatis important in his music, this even with quoting fromthe Prologue to Bluebeard’s Castle. Not a bad record, but
a promise hinted at and unfulfilled.
Drummer Tom Rainey is the other common linkthrough the other two albums, both credited
collaboratively, though Slip Sliding is under theleadership of saxophonist Rob Burke. It’s also the most
focused of the two. The last four tracks are a group
improvisation, but the rest is organized around Burke’s
composed material and there’s further post-production

integration from Ben Grayson, credited with “Electronics
and Editing”. Monder and Rainey are a tight rhythm
section, the former skillfully defining the tempos andmeters of the music, setting the downbeats into which
Burke steps and Rainey colors. The various grooves andtune-based music works and Burke is a strong andinteresting lead voice with Monder behind him. It’s the
improvisations, “Discordat 1-4”, which are hit or missand where the sheer power and attraction of Monder’splaying overpowers everything else. His colleagues areno slouches, but this feels very much like sandlot
ballplayers and Mike Trout.
The Live at the 55 Bar trio has the same issues,
though the setting makes them less pronounced, andthe heights, when reached, are considerable. There arethree tracks, “Suite 3320” in three parts, each following
the same shape of a quiet, yet dramatic opening, risingin an arc as the musicians improvise. Monder ’s playing
is mostly about timbre, a multidimensional soundworld into which saxophonist Tony Malaby and Rainey
fit. There is time spent in each part as the musicians
suggest ideas and circle around each other, then a point
where everything gels and the music is magnificent,slabs of involving, expressive sound. It can take sometime to get there, though; “Part II” is 29 minutes andit’s only around the last seven where everything comes
together. Throughout the album, it sounds like Monder
is content to create possibilities for Malaby and Rainey,
neither of whom sound quite connected to each other,
but when the guitarist takes a more active role,
everyone catches fire. If only he was less modest!
For more information, visit doublemoon.de, fmr-records.com
and sunnysiderecords.com. Monder live-streams Mar. 6th atalternativeguitarsummitcamp.com and Mar. 10th with
Jerome Sabbagh at smallslive.com.

Sola Masafrets—Aforismen Aforisme
R PaulAforismes (Evil Rabbit)
Eckemoff—Adventures of thee • Yelena
Wildflower (L&H Prod.)(Libra)c •• Futari—Beyond
Elisabeth Harnik/Paal Nilssen-Love—
Tangram (Catalytic Sound)o • Claron
McFadden, Kristina Fuchs, Oguzm Büyükberber,
Tobias Klein—37FERN(Trytone)m • Stephanie
Nilles—I pledge allegiance to theflag—the white flag (Sunnyside)e • Tomeka Reid/Joe Morris—Combinations(RogueArt)n • Veronica
Swift—The Bitter Earth(Mack Avenue)d • Aki Takase/Christian Weber/Michael Griener—Auge (Intakt)e • Yuma
Uesaka/Cat Toren/Colin Hinton—
OcelotRecords)
d Laurence(577Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor• Ab Baars, George Dumitriu, Ig Henneman,

Ibn Ali—Metaphysics: The Lostn • Hasaan
Atlantic Album (Omnivore)
Cherry—The Summer House Sessionse • Don(Blank Forms)
Cymerman/Charlie Looker—
w • Jeremiah
A Horizon Made of Canvas (Astral Spirits)

r
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l
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a
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• Futari—Beyond (Libra)• Alexander Hawkins—Togetherness Music(For Sixteen Musicians Featuring
Evan Parker + Riot Ensemble) (Intakt)• Julius Hemphill—The Boyé Multi-National
Crusade For Harmony(mbari Production Company)• Kari Ikonen—Impressions, Improvisations
and Compositions (Ozella)• Calvin Keys—Shawn-Neeq(Black Jazz-Real Gone)• Zeena Parkins/Mette Rasmussen/Ryan Sawyer—
Glass Triangle (Relative Pitch)• Yuma Uesaka/Marilyn Crispell—
Streams (Not Two)
Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 21

Talking Drums
Bobby Wiens (Cellar Music)
by Marco Cangiano

As this is Bobby Wiens’ debut CD, a few bio notes are

warranted. Born and raised in Calgary, Canada, thedrummer received a Bachelors degree in Jazz Studies
at Vancouver ’s Capilano University. He eventuallycompleted a Masters of Music degree from the
University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, where hecurrently resides and recorded this CD last July
wearing masks and respecting social distancing as atestament that life and music won’t stop.
A funky piano-drums duo opens “Speaks Volume”
and sets the scene for a most pleasant and swinging
affair. Pianist Spencer Zweifel relies on a very rhythmic
use of his left hand, a reminder of how underrated
Horace Silver ’s influence remains. Austin Cebulske’s
playful tenor saxophone states the theme jointly withDavid Baker ’s walking bass. At the center of it all
Wiens drives and pushes his partners. The CD’s title
may thus be slightly misleading as his approach is very
far from being the typical bombastic one showcased bymany drummer-led groups; he drums almost sotto voce,
as on Bud Powell’s “So Sorry Please”, a trio featuring
guitarist Jack Roben’s warm sound, with a seamlessswitch from brushes to sticks and almost subdued

exchanges. The same trio shines in Thad Jones’ “Little
Rascal on a Rock”. Wiens gives the impression of
thinking through every accent, never relying on patterns
or falling into the temptation of showing off technique.
He is also not loathe to pause here and there, adding to
the dynamics in a subtle yet most effective way.
The choice of the material, originals with mostly
lesser known standards, provides for a varied menu
within which each player sounds extremely comfortable
stretching their boundaries. This is the case with
Cebulske’s “A la Georgie”, featuring another Silver-ish
intervention by Zweifel. Roben sounds particularly atease, taking his time at picking the right notes anddelivering fluidly. “Doll of the Bride” is the longest
and most complex piece, offering Wiens and his
partners the opportunity to explore the traditional
tune though a long Middle Eastern introduction
featuring unhurried drums leading halfway through tothe bouncing theme. Wiens’ “Bill” is a languid balladwell interpreted by restrained tenor and featuring
a tuneful bass solo. Harold Mabern’s “Beehive”
concludes the proceedings on a high—and fast—notewith all hands on deck. A brilliant debut.

has a funky urban swagger punctuated by vocal-liketenor and the solid groove of Hunter and guest
percussionist Mayra Casales. Leon Russell’s “Superstar”
is best known from The Carpenters’ 1971 gold record,
though it has been recorded by other vocalists. Stryker
strips it down to basics, with his guitar replacing the
vocal, as Gold and Hunter (the latter on brushes)
provide a perfect backdrop in this miniature.
Both CDs are valuable additions to the alreadysizable Stryker discography and reinforce his status asone of the top guitarists of his generation.
For more information, visit davestryker.com. Stryker livestreams Mar. 20th at alternativeguitarsummit.com.

DROP THE NEEDLE

For more information, visit cellarlive.com. This project livestreams Mar. 6th at museperformancespace.com.
I’m Funky Now
Melvin Sparks(Westbound-Tidal Waves Music)
by Anna Steegmann

Melvin Sparks (1946-2011), a Texas native, started
Blue Soul (with Bob Mintzer and the WDR Big Band)
Baker’s Circle
Dave Stryker (Strikezone)
by Ken Dryden

Most of guitarist Dave Stryker ’s dates as a leader or

co-leader have been in small groups, so the invitation
to record with the North German state-funded WDR
Big Band was a rare opportunity too good to miss. His
friend Bob Mintzer wrote the orchestrations and mostof the arrangements and Stryker sounds very inspired.
The soul-infused opener, Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble
Man”, in a chart penned by Stryker with his regularorgan player Jared Gold, has creative background riffs
backing his hip solo. Gaye’s biggest hit, “What’s GoingOn”, is all too often given a pedestrian setting but the
Stryker-Gold arrangement avoids that pitfall with abrisker tempo and effective use of horns and reeds,
adding Karolina Strassmayer ’s passionate alto
saxophone and Billy Test’s hip organ to complement
soulful guitar. Stryker ’s blistering scoring of Prince’s“When Doves Cry” is almost unrecognizable comparedto the tedious original. Jimmy Webb’s “WichitaLineman” will forever be associated with the late
Glenn Campbell, but jazz musicians like Stryker havefound much to like about this ‘60s song. Mintzer ’s
faster tempo and richly textured background writing,along with the superb rhythm section, buoy thefeatures for trombonist Andy Hunter and the leader.
Baker’s Circle is from Dave Stryker’s quartet withGold and drummer McClenty Hunter, both of whom
are frequent collaborators. Tenor saxophonist Walter
Smith III is a new addition, though he is also a veteran
player with chops to spare. This studio session has the
feeling of a live gig with its high energy level, an
audience all that’s missing. The playlist runs fromcatchy originals to R&B, Brazilian music and standards.
The leader’s “Tough” is brisk postbop with plenty of
sparks from each of the soloists. Cole Porter’s“Everything I Love” enables Stryker, Smith and Gold tooffer a virtual master class soloing in a ballad setting.
Stryker’s longtime interest in R&B and soul is reflected
in his inventive arrangements of Gaye’s “Inner City
Blues” and Lloyd Price’s “Trouble (No. 2)”. The latter

22 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

to play guitar at 11. At 13, he worked with B.B. King;in high school, he joined The Upsetters started by
Little Richard, a band that backed Curtis Mayfield,
Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye. An excellent guitar
player full of exuberance, he mastered soul jazz,
hardbop, blues and funk equally well and in his
own words played “jazz over a funky beat.” He wasmuch in demand during the ‘60-70s as a session
musician and released 11 albums as a leader. The
anniversaries of his birth (Mar. 22nd) and death(Mar. 15th) are coming up, so Tidal Waves’ release of
a deluxe vinyl edition of I’m Funky Now will surely
be welcomed by his fans.
The album was recorded in Detroit in 1976 forWestbound. Disco had become more popular thansoul, jazz and blues. Clubs had replaced live bands
with DJs. We don’t know much about the musicians
who backed Sparks. Most likely, they were part of
Funkadelic and Parliament. The seven tracks on thealbum feature disco, soul-jazz and funk as well as
slow jazz tunes. It’s a great album. Unfortunately,
Westbound (now Ace Records) decided not torelease it until 2017.
The opening title instrumental is an impressive
funky dance tune with a great groove that will makelisteners get up and move to the beat. Next is “Disco
Booty”, a Sparks composition mixing disco andfunk. The rest of the tracks are by Sam Kennedy,
Lulu Laurent and Cole Simon.
His career at stake, Sparks jumped on the disco
bandwagon and blended it with funk. The lively,
joyous “Make It Good” features him scatting andsparring with the horns. The rhythm section keeps it
funky. The tempo slows down in “Love Tones”,“The Truth Hurts” and “You’re Gonna Make It.”
These tracks—dreamy, jazzy, and laid-back—should
appeal to his old fans less captivated by disco. “I’m
Gonna Funk You Up” revisits the funky dancefloormusic of the opening track and presents not only hiselectrifying guitar playing but also his vocals.
This album is an important addition to any
record collection.
For more information, visit tidalwavesmusic.com

Long involved in various forms of improvised music,
California-based guitarist Henry Kaiser has ranged fromrock-informed music to Yo Miles!, his long-standing
exploration of Miles Davis’ electric years. He has also
created soundtracks, through it all emerging as one of
the guitar’s most specific virtuosos, a master of alteredsounds and dimensions uncanny in their complexity andfreedom from the instrument’s traditions.
A special dimension of Kaiser ’s career is his
relationship to cold water. A scientific diver in theAmerican Antarctic program, he has both experienced
that world and created film soundtracks in theenvironment. In The Arctic Dreamtime is a series ofimprovised duets with Norwegian fellow guitarist Ivar
Grydeland, a new soundtrack for explorer Roald
Amundsen’sclassic
documentary
Ellsworths
flyveekspedition 1925, charting his attempt to reach theNorth Pole. The guitarists’ mastery of reverberation ishardly a technical exercise: echo and delay transformsustained guitar sounds into hauntings, phantom
voices emerging through the resonance, suggesting
spectres in a frozen world and strange summonings,

in the mid ‘60s: John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme andMeditations. It’s definitely electric. Kaiser ’s guitar
ensures that, but the band also includes Mike Watt onelectric bass and Wayne Peet on Hammond and Yamahaorgans. Vinny Golia is on saxophones and John
Hanrahan drums. Those suites represent both
Coltrane’s acknowledged masterpiece and a key workin his final tumultuous period, in large part owing to
Pharoah Sanders’ presence on the first released version
of Meditations. This 66-minute suite seeks its own
ground amid Coltrane’s most intense work, but it also
hews to a complex sequence of distinct thematic
structures. There are infernal and celestial energies set
loose and the band never makes the common mistakeof trying to tame Coltrane’s music. It’s the combinationof Golia and Kaiser that makes this so powerful. The
former approaches this music with his own sound andan approach that owes at least as much to Sanders as
Coltrane. Interestingly, so does Kaiser. When the tworeach “Joy” (included on the earlier quartet recording
but not the first released sextet one), Kaiser finds anextraordinary guitar sound, his wavering sustained
tones resembling a shakuhachi, which then breaks toan overdriven electric guitar sound. He often adds thekind of sonic mayhem Sanders provided, combining
with Golia to create the illusion of two saxophones as
they pass through and over the sheer heft andcomplexity of drums, organ and bass. The presence ofelectronics adds another distinctive quality: brighterand funkier than Coltrane (that Hammond a soul jazzsignature), adding a different social dimension whilepressing toward the music’s exalted and elegiac power.
For more information, visit runegrammofon.com,
577records.com and cuneiformrecords.com. Kaiser livestreams Mar. 21st at alternativeguitarsummit.com.

OL
NOD S
JOCHO
KE O
! L

In The Arctic Dreamtime
Ivar Grydeland/Henry Kaiser (Rune Grammofon)
The Secret Handshake With Danger, Vol. One
Olie Brice, Binker Golding, Henry Kaiser,
N.O. Moore, Eddie Prévost (577 Records)
A Love Supreme Electric (A Salvo Inspired by John Coltrane)
Vinny Golia, John Hanrahan, Henry Kaiser,
Wayne Peet, Mike Watt (Cuneiform)by Stuart Broomer

lost spirits calling out to entranced seamen. In “To theNorth,” droplets of cold, bright sound crystallize into
glassy, light-filled spheres, eventually drifting into
clouds of fuzzed sound suggesting the wakes of sea
creatures. It’s a sonic world in which stillness seems toreveal motion and movement leads toward a still,
pristine world. There is great beauty, sometimes lightly
mobile, as in the dance-like patterns emerging in“Spitsbergen”, sometimes ominous, as in the irregularand dissonant patterns of “N25”. The music aims torepresent the Arctic experience of “time out of time” or“everywhen” and seems to succeed, even in the
cascading, echoing runs of the concluding title track.
Secret Handshake With Danger, Vol. One is Kaiser ina quintet with English musicians exploring terrain
similar to that of Yo Miles! but taken further: drummer
Eddie Prévost has a 55-year history with free
improvisation in AMM and other groups, while bassist
Olie Brice and tenor saxophonist Binker Golding are
driving forces, bringing jazz fundamentals and funkelements to the fore. Guitarist N.O. Moore, a frequent
Prévost collaborator, plays guitar with a radical
aplomb as electronic as Kaiser ’s own. The music is
genuinely free, with two extended forays embracing
different voices and rhythms, moving together plurally.
Tenor swirls as basslines drive forward. Meanwhile,
patriarch Prévost knits everything together, including
the mad tapestry of blips, whizzes and blasts that
Kaiser and Moore generate, part of a collective dance
willing with the others to sacrifice conventional orderfor sonic ecstasy. It’s a deal worth making, since there’s
coherence almost everywhere, and sonic ecstasy isdefinitely at a premium.
A Love Supreme Electric may be the most ambitious.
This two-CD quintet session seeks its own relationshipwith the past, linking two interrelated suites recorded

DISCAHOLIC AUCTION #3
jazz, free jazz & improv vinyls,
posters, flyers and more.
bid start: march 1st
bid end: march 31storder the catalogue:mats@matsgus.com
http://matsgus.com/discaholic_corner
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 23

Share the Wealth
The Nels Cline Singers (Blue Note)by Robert Bush

G uitarist Nels Cline is one of the few who can push

the envelope yet remain accessible to a large audience.
For the last 20 years, one of Cline’s most arresting
ensembles has been The Nels Cline Singers, a trio with
Trevor Dunn (bass) and Scott Amendola (drums), whobeganmakingrecords
with
Instrumentals(Cryptogramophone, 2002). Cline has doubled thegroup, adding Skerik (saxophone), Cyro Baptista(percussion) and Brian Marsella (keyboards) for thislatest document. Share the Wealth functions as a potent
love letter to the jazz-fusion era of the ‘70s, especially
Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and Miles Davis.
The disc opens with “Segunda”, the lone cover(written by Gal Costa.) Droning guitar sets up a
hypnotic vamp for saxophone to shriek in the mannerof mid ‘60s Pharoah Sanders or early Gato Barbieri. On“Beam/Spiral”, the band makes effective use of space
and the additional instrumentation. Especially striking
is the rubato ballad “Nightstand”, which features
Skerik and Cline having a conversation recalling the Joe
Zawinul/Wayne Shorter duet on “Blackthorn Rose”
from the Weather Report album Mysterious Traveler.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a real Cline album
without some wicked, over-the-top distortion, delivered
up on “Princess Phone”, a jam straight out of Davis’ Big
Fun. This one serves as an effective calling card for
Marsella’s Fender Rhodes and the leader’s fuzz-tone,
wah-wah explorations. Dunn gets the spotlight on “The
Pleather Patrol”, laying down a super funky Bootsy
Collins vamp over the slamming beat of Amendola.
Cline and Marsella unveil an enticing duet between
Dobro and toy piano on “Ashcan Treasure”, one of themost concise moments on the album.
There are two epic jams that characterize theexpanded lineup. The first, “Stump the Panel”, isa prolific free-jazz-rock groove that encourages ballsout contributions from the entire band. One can easily
hear strains of Davis’ Live/ Evil or Hancock’s Crossing,with perhaps a dash of Sun Ra tossed in for goodmeasure. The other epic jam, “A Place On The Moon”,
veers off into a Weather Report-inspired explorationthat wouldn’t sound out of place on I Sing the Body
Electric or other monumental records of that era.
For more information, visit bluenote.com. Cline live-streams
Mar. 21st at alternativeguitarsummit.com.

Flow States
Marshall Allen, Roscoe Mitchell, Milford Graves,
Scott Robinson (ScienSonic)
by Kyle Oleksiuk

F low States is an answer to the question: what woulda free jazz arcade game sound like? The album, byreedplayers Roscoe Mitchell, Marshall Allen, Scott
Robinson and the recently-deceased drummer Milford

Graves, includes long stretches in which the only
sounds to be heard are electronic chirps backed bylight drums and saxophone. This is by no means the
majority—it takes up probably 15 of 70 minutes—but it
is by far the most striking thing about it. The purposeof these 15 minutes seems to be to convince the listenerthat the cutting edge of jazz is in fact the Super Mario
Bros. soundtrack. This is said just to tease the album,
not demean it. It is a strong album that can withstandteasing and is an adventurous album that invites it.
The adventurous approach taken likely has
something to do with the unique recording location:
ScienSonic Laboratories, a New Jersey recording
studio/record label/dispensary of “creative and farreaching musical experiences”, run by Robinson, who
describes its recordings as including “a miniature
symphony for contrabass sax and 7-ft. banjo... a solo
multi-instrumental performance based on doctoral
work in chaos theory… [and] the giant bells of Space
Farms.” Among this milieu, the 15 electronic minutesof Flow States are well within the bounds of normalcy.
The remaining 55 minutes are a high-energy freejazz atmospheric fugue (in the “fugue state” sense),
worthy of addition to the browsing music of any
adventurous record store. This section is relatively
standard; it is the kind of thing that most free jazz fanswill feel they’ve heard a thousand times before but,like the blues, one never gets tired of hearing it.
For more information, visit sciensonic.net. Robinson livestreams Mar. 26th at kerrytownconcerthouse.com/edgefest.

Future Stride
Emmet Cohen (Mack Avenue)
by Scott Yanow

Emmet Cohen is a brilliant pianist who has a wide-

ranging and flexible style. In fact, as he shows on thisCD, he has several. Cohen has featured such greats as
Benny Golson, George Coleman, Ron Carter, Jimmy
Cobb and Albert “Tootie” Heath on his albums andworks regularly with Christian McBride, Herlin Riley
and Veronica Swift.
Naming one’s CD Future Stride could lead listeners
to believe that the set features futuristic stride piano as
it could have been played by Ran Blake or Jason Moran.
Actually the title of Cohen’s Mack Avenue debut
should not be taken too seriously for it is simply thename of an original, not the concept behind the set.
The enjoyable trio project, with Cohen’s longtime
rhythm section of bassist Russell Hall and drummer
Kyle Poole, begins with the most exciting performance,
a wonderful revival of the obscure “Symphonic Raps”,
a piece rarely played since the 1928 recording of Carroll
Dickerson’s Savoyagers featuring Louis Armstrong
and Earl Hines. Cohen’s playing (particularly his two
unaccompanied choruses) makes the case that he canhold his own with any stride pianist around today. He
also plays stride piano briefly on other selections but
mostly is heard in a modern bop style.
Three selections add both tenor saxophonist
Melissa Aldana and trumpeter Marquis Hill while theclosing ballad “Little Angel” has Hill overdubbing
himself on a second trumpet. The horns add to themelancholy mood of the atmospheric “Reflections at
Dusk”, Aldana is particularly adventurous on “Toast
To Lo” (which could have been subtitled “Future HardBop”) and they get to take heated but concise solos tothe uptempo romp “You Already Know”.

24 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

The trio pieces include a slow and quietly
emotional “Second Time Around”, a witty andsurprising “Dardanella” and a relatively straightahead“My Heart Stood Still” with Poole sitting out on Duke
Ellington’s “Pitter Panther Patter”, which has fineinterplay between Cohen and Hall. As for the title
track, while Cohen plays some hot stride in a humorous
way during the opening and brief closing melody, it isotherwise a boppish minor-toned blues.
Perhaps Cohen can be persuaded to record a fulllength album of stride. That would be a joy to hear.
For more information, visit mackavenue.com. Cohen livestreams Mondays at emmetcohen.com/live-from-emmets-place.

IN PRINT

Poems and Drawings
Earl Freeman (50 Miles of Elbow Room/Wry Press)
by Pierre Crépon and David Grundy

In pictures, the face of upright and electric bassist

Earl Freeman, who would have turned 90 this month(he died in 1994) is shielded from the camera by
heavy goggles and a pilot cap. Tall and thin, wearing
custom military attire on and offstage and sometimes
carrying a whip, he stood out among the alreadydistinctive ranks of the ‘60s jazz avant garde.
Although the Korean War draft cost Freeman a lung,leaving him with mobility issues, he was widely
traveled. Born in Oakland, Freeman entered jazzhistory via France, by way of Franco’s Spain. Alreadyresident in Paris, in 1969 he appeared on several of
the BYG-Actuel and America sessions. Without
advance notice to the leader, Freeman can be heard
reciting poetry on a Selwyn Lissack date. Returning
to America, Freeman later counted among his
admirers fellow bassist William Parker and recorded
ambitious, if sporadic, projects of his own, for which
he drew cover art. Something of a renaissance man, inthe course of his travels, he left behind poems and ink
drawings. 12 of the former and 4 of the latter havenow been collected in this silkscreened box jointly
published by 50 Miles of Elbow Room and Wry Press.
Reflecting the peripatetic nature of Freeman’slife, the material is presented not as a conventional
book, but as unbound, unnumbered facsimile
postcards. The drawings combine sketchiness anddensity. Curlicues and tangled lines depict Black
Panther George Jackson, a headless nude andpatterns left by wind. Radically departing fromclichéd ideas of “jazz poetry”, Freeman’s poems aregothic and surreal, combining out-of-context
anecdotal fragments, non-sequiturs and rulebreaking punctuation—piled-up dashes and equals
signs, commas breaking into the middle of words.
Shadowy forces appear, from a “narc” to “the Anglo
Texan tax man” to villains from popular culture. In
one instance, the robot gunfighter from sci-fi
western Westworld joins Dracula as “A true squire to
the economy securing our military superiority /over the heathen”. Elsewhere, there are fragmentary
portraits of people and places. Poems and Drawings isa fascinating contribution to our sense of the multidisciplinary undercurrents of the jazz avant garde.
For more information, visit 50milesofelbowroom.com

sequence with Preminger at his very best and Fromanpaying his dues to Jones segues into Versace’s almost
Lennie Tristano-like single lines, adding tension as
they proceed. Then Liebman descends from thestratosphere and engages Froman in an exciting
conversation until Feinberg brings everybody home
and initiates a series of exchanges among the principals.
If one needs to argue jazz is alive and well, this CD is
the hard evidence.
From Where We Came
Michael Feinberg (SteepleChase)by Marco Cangiano

MARILYN

MAZUR

For more information, visit steeplechase.dk. Feinberg livestreams Mar. 22nd at soapboxgallery.org.

F rom the brief yet authoritative bass intro to“Louisville”, inspired by boxer Muhammad Ali, bassist
Michael Feinberg’s new CD delivers a hard-edged
Charles Mingus-like attitude. His sound, phrasing,drive and very concept of the group conveys a unique
respect for and appreciation of jazz history while
pushing the envelope further.
With each tune inspired by the geography related
to some of the jazz greats and athlete inspirational
figures, this CD continues Feinberg’s earlier dedications
to figures such as John Coltrane and Elvin Jones. Eightoriginals show diversity in tempo and musicality
across and within each piece, the group shifting fromfull ensemble to duos, trios and the leader ’s frequentsolo features.
The group is as tight as it can be and yet quite
relaxed, from the joyful and somewhat aggressive“Cairo” through modal “East St. Louis” and delicate“Tryon” and “Tokyo”. Noah Preminger is one of themost spirited and original tenor saxophonists on
today’s scene. Ian Froman’s supple drumming has
been associated with Feinberg in a number of projects,
most notably the Coltrane tribute Whatever Possessed
Me. Gary Versace, who concentrates on piano this time,
is a most attentive accompanist and brilliant solo
player, reasons why he is so sought-after. And finallyDavid Liebman, who certainly does not need any
introduction, raises the tension each time his sopranoenters the picture. The blending of the saxophonists isvery effective, much as their juxtaposition inapproaching the material, Preminger developing his
solo through slow combustion while Liebman tends tobe more explosive, as illustrated by the exchanges in“Pontiac”, a nod to Elvin Jones, and their interaction in“Hamlet”, which is, of course, Coltrane’s birthplace.
While giving the impression of taking a back seat,in reality Feinberg drives the proceedings with firm
hand and exceptional taste. With his solo intros, four
overall, he communicates the direction and mood but
then lets his partners develop the material. “Pontiac”
is the perfect example: after stating the theme, thepiece takes different turns at each solo, shifting fromfull ensemble to trios and even duos. An initial trio

MARCH 26 ON OPEN STREAM MUSICBRIAN DRYE’S “TRIO LOVE CALL” WITH
HANK ROBERTS AND CHES SMITH

Unsung: Porter Plays Frishberg
Randy Porter Trio (HeavyWood Music)
by Pierre Giroux

Dave Frishberg is the epitome of the hip, witty,

creative pianist, songwriter and lyricist who shouldhave been born in New York but wasn’t. He was bornand raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, but he eventuallyfound his way to the city where he created his musicallife and built his reputation as a pianist andinterpreter of material full of wit and irony. In
today’s social media-linked world, it is a style ofwriting and performing that is unlikely to be either
replicated or imitated.
Randy Porter is an Oregon based jazz pianist who
plays with style, swing and curiosity. In this outing, hetackles the compositions of Frishberg with his trio.
Generally, they are almost always offered in a vocal
setting, because the tunes are all about the inventive
and often goofy lyrics. Knowing that Frishberg, whoturns 88 this month, had chosen to retire near Portland,
Porter informed Frishberg of this recording. If there
were any misgivings about Porter ’s approach, thealbum would have appeased them.
Porter ’s chops are undisputed and are certainly
put to the test in dealing with the quirky time signaturesand melodic juxtapositions in such numbers as“I’m Hip”, “ I Want To Be A Sideman” and “Peel Me
A Grape”. Given that each of the these tunes has an ear
worm character, Porter slides brightly through eachwith melodic excellence.
In the other tunes not unnecessarily burdenedwith lyric familiarity, Porter and his cohorts, bassist
John Wiitala and drummer Todd Strait, show that they
can work together in a thoughtful and compelling
flow. On the opening “Snowbound”, they establish
a lightly swinging groove filled with clean expression
and understated insight. Another jaunty offering is“Dear Departed Past” in which Porter dashes off somedarting lines while Wiitala delivers a big-toned,
energetic intervention. Perhaps the attention given tothis interpretation is due to Frishberg’s autobiography,
chronicling his life, career and the stories behind thoseidiosyncratic songs, which was released in 2017 andwas called My Dear Departed Past. The closer is“Zanzibar” which has an uncertain layered quality
through the opening choruses. Porter then embarks on
bubbling single-note runs while Wiitala and Strait
support his efforts with percolating rhythmic figures.
In a Francis Davis-penned article for The Atlantic
in February 1998, Frishberg commented that when heheard other singers performing his songs he thought:“I wish they wouldn’t sing so much.” With this release,he got his wish.
For more information, visit randyporter.com

Danish drummer-composerbandleader and world music
pioneer Marilyn Mazur
has, over the course of five
decades, established herself
as a master percussionist
and musical visionary.

Marilyn Mazur’s Future SongLIVE REFLECTIONS
The band’s first live release:nine Mazur compositions,
including two previously
unreleased recordings
from 1990 and 2008
Marilyn Mazur (percussion)Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet)
Hans Ulrik (saxophone)
Makiko Hirabayashi (keyboards)
Eivind Aarset (guitar, electronics)
Klavs Hovman (bass)
Audun Kleive (drums)
Tone Aase (voice, electronics)
Aina Kemanis (voice)Elvira Plenar (keyboards)
Krister Jonsson (guitar)

SUNDANCE.DK

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 25

2021-03_NYCJR-2 Thirds page.pdf

37 th

edition1

2021-02-16

10:26

festivalinternational
musiqueactuelle
victoriaville

fimav
2021

7 days ofsound art installations
in public spaces
May 17 to 23
Estelle Schorpp« écosystème(s) »Sonia Paço-Rocchia« Lames @ FIMAV »AuXauralités« Le cristal de l’oreille »Tom Jacques« 7 mouvements d’air »Isabelle Clermont« Auris / À fleur d’oreille »Maxime Corbeil-Perron« La fin du média »Nady Larchet« Flûtocratie »Ggroundd« Cristal métal »Pascal Audet« Quatuor »fimav.qc.ca

Tongue in a BellPeter Brötzmann/Paul G. Smyth (Weekertoft)
The Catch of a Ghost
Peter Brötzmann/Maâlem Moukhtar Gania/Hamid Drake(i dischi di angelica)
by Steven Loewy

These two albums, recorded while Peter Brötzmann

was in his mid to late 70s, affirm the great German
saxophonist’s legacy as one of the most innovative
practitioners of free jazz improvisation, still worthy of
his status as enfant terrible, a disrupter of usual
practices. While his take-no-prisoners approach has
not diminished, there has been a maturation, which
gives some of his playing a slightly less radical feel,though the changes are often subtle. Turning 80 thismonth, Brötzmann seems ageless and unstoppable.
Tongue in a Bell is a duo with Irish pianist Paul
Smyth, who has previously recorded with saxophonists
Evan Parker, John Butcher, Lol Coxhill and Charles
Gayle and whose strong muscular approach makes
him a strong partner. There is lots of red meat here,
particularly on the opening title track, which takes up
most of the recording, Smyth and Brötzmann wrestlingeach other with abandon. There is also enough variety
to entice the most skeptical listener, as Brötzmann(alternating on tarogato) engages in his patented flair
for unmitigated intensity, pounding out notes andsoaring to altissimo potency, Smyth dazzling in
support. The remaining two pieces, “Falling out of All
the Towers of Space” and “Eyes Wide”, are more
controlled and less dramatic, though each exciting intheir own right. The former opens with Brötzmann on
clarinet, showing a somewhat different side witha highly controlled presence, an initially gentler
approach, which naturally breaks out into something
more intense. Smyth focuses on dense chords while
Brötzmann, having switched to tenor, flies in thealtissimo register over thrashing chords as the velocity
increases. Similarly, “Eyes Wide” offers a gentler
saxophone and extended techniques on piano.
Brötzmann sounds as good as ever on The Catch ofa Ghost, in part due to the wonderful interaction of
drummer/longtime collaborator Hamid Drake andMaâlem Mokhtar Gania, who is the brother of late
Gnawa master Maâlem Mahmoud Gania, whose 1996
concert in Wels, Austria with Brötzmann and Drake,
released on Okka Disk, is a seminal document. The
opening title track, which takes up almost half of thealbum, is thoroughly engaging, with Gania’s guembri
sounding somewhat like an acoustic bass and his
melodic chanting a delight. Drake lays down a perfectgroove and, after a mesmerizing contribution by therhythm duo, Brötzmann joins in, enjoying the challenge.
While he plays with his usual muscle, including
characteristic shrieking and overblowing, it is thevariety and the integrated heft of the trio that make thissomething a bit special. “Almost with the Sun” openswith the saxophonist in a rough-edged mode, but Gania
and Drake provide a beautiful underpinning, whichallows Brötzmann to stretch. Tarogato on “Sound that
Shivers” pounds the pavement over the rhythm section,interjecting small phrases. The Closing “Dip and Dive”
opens with a dramatic display by guembri, followed
later by deep chanting and Brötzmann delivering shortthrusts while Drake and Gania do their magic. This
proves to be a totally splendid trio that delivers
wonderfully with an accessible groove.
For more information,
aaa-angelica.com

26 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

visit

weekertoft.com

andB OXED SE T

Playing Probabilities
Joachim Kühn & Trummerschlunk (ACT Music)
Touch The Light
Joachim Kühn (ACT Music)
by Jim Motavalli

Playing Probabilities is not specifically a jazz record,

though it’s overwhelmingly an improvisational one.
Pianist Joachim Kühn sat down with electronica
experimentalist
Klaus
Scheuermann(aka“Trummerschlunk”) at the former’s hideaway on theisland of Ibiza to “explore the potential of the unlikely”.
And they fulfill that mission. There are five pieces on
this digital-only release. On some of them, including“Glückszahl 23”, Kühn is the dominant partner and thework comes across as probing piano solos with effective
coloration. On “High Entropy” the Cecil Taylorinfluenced keyboard is so dense it’s hard for electronics
to find space. The appropriately titled “A New Balance”
is more usefully collaborative: Scheuermann creates aroiling sense of menace, which Kühn enhances. The
album comes together on two of the longer pieces, “A-RT-E-N-E” and “The Probe”. The latter begins with arepetitive electronic figure, almost like a tolling Big Ben.
Kühn enters in high drama, riding on that base with acompelling theme, perhaps pre-imagined, maybe asudden inspiration. There are computer-generated
handclaps as the music builds. The musicians arelistening closely to each other and you won’t want it toend—but it does, in mildly swirling dissonance. “A-R-TE-N-E” lets Scheuermann dominate, with a percussive
beat, until Kühn makes a memorably skittering entrance
halfway in. Again, the pianist finds an earworm theme
that repeats with variation. It’s the most ‘commercial’track, but that hardly matters. This track is the best
showcase for the third collaborator, Tom Berkmann on
bass. Those are his deep tones moving the music forward.
Touch The Light is a solo ballads project, also
recorded (on the artist’s Steinway) at home on Ibiza.
And here jazz is relevant, though the material draws on
a long lifetime of experience. Let’s recap. Kühn, whose
brother is the clarinetist Rolf, grew up in what was thenEast Germany and got his start as a concertizing
prodigy, but Rolf steered him into jazz, which he’s beenplaying since the very early ‘60s. The album opens,enchantingly, with Mal Waldron’s “Warm Canto”. The
theme, played so memorably on the original by Eric
Dolphy’s bass clarinet, is here essayed on the piano andit’s insanely gorgeous. The allegretto from Beethoven’s
Symphony #7 comes across as one of “the best-loved
melodies of the classics”, a record package once hawked
on TV. Joe Zawinul’s “A Remark You Made” is a balladthat comes via Weather Report’s Heavy Weather and it’svery poignant here. The pianist’s treatment of Milton
Nascimento’s “Ponta de Areia” is another moment ofstill beauty, with a haunting melody. The record moves
through some disparate material, via Prince, Bill Evans,
Hoagy Carmichael, Bob Marley and more, from “Fever”
to “Blue Velvet”. In each, the pianist finds the living
heart of the song and wrings out every drop of
emotional heft. The tempos are glacial, full of space.
Musicians made whole careers out of playing pretty—
and a record label, Windham Hill, was based on it—but
this is far from “New Age”. The intensity of Kühn’scommitment will have you turning the record up, notplacing it in the background. When the solo ballads
album was first proposed, Kühn, who turns 77 thismonth, laughed and said, “Maybe when I’m 90.” We
can be glad he didn’t wait that long.

The Boyé Multi-National Crusade For Harmony
Julius Hemphill (mbari Production Company)
by Duck Baker

Many discovered Julius Hemphill via two mid ‘70s

records on the Arista Freedom label, Coon Bidness
and Dogon AD, every bit as impressive as classic
titles by Anthony Braxton and Oliver Lake the label
released around the same time. Hemphill’s voice as a
saxophonist was as well defined and his musicalvision just as clear. But it’s fair to say that Hemphill
had something else, as exemplified by the title of thelong track on the B-Side of Coon Bidness, “The Hard
Blues” (actually recorded at the earlier sessions
which produced Dogon AD, though few 1975 listeners
knew this). Hemphill’s feeling for the blues was not
only deeper than that of most jazz musicians of any
era, it was deep even by the standards of Lightnin’
Hopkins or Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.
In his excellent notes in the accompanying booklet,producer Marty Ehrlich warns us, though, that
Hemphill never saw tradition, or even the blues
feeling, as something that should define or confine
artists. His records on Freedom were as much about
expanding the tradition as referencing it and thisbecame clearer as time went on. His 1977 releases, Blue
Boyé and Roi Boyé & The Gotham Minstrels, relied on
overdubbing to get multiple horn voices, a direction
he could more fully investigate with the formation of
the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ) that same year.
He would also write for saxophone sextet, big band,orchestra, piano and various chamber ensembles, aswell as collaborate with poets and dancers.
A lot of this wide-ranging activity is represented
on the present collection of archival music, much ofwhich is as strong as anything heard on Hemphill’sbest recordings. He never had much time for thebusiness side of music, but seems to have approachedhis rare gigs and tours as unique events and written
new music for each one. Consequently most of thepieces here will be unfamiliar to Hemphill fans. Even
the names he used for some of the groups are unlikely
to ring bells, though they include plenty of musicians
we know, from stars like Dave Holland and Jack
DeJohnette to such frequent collaborators as trumpet
master Baikida Carroll and Abdul Wadud, thebluesiest cellist who ever lived.
To give a brief summary, one entire CD isdevoted to the Hemphill/Wadud Duo, another tocollaborations with spoken word artists and a third
to chamber music that would be classified (howeverclumsily) as Third Stream. Two more discs featuresmall groups along the general stylistic lines of
Dogon AD and another leans toward some kind ofbent fusion, at least insofar as we see the cello being
replaced with electric bass and guitar. The last CD is
the concert with Carroll and Hemphill and the powerrhythm team of Holland and DeJohnette. Whateverstyle one prefers, this is all tremendous stuff. Any of
the five all-jazz CDs would have placed in many
writers’ top ten lists if released singly and several
could have topped these lists—that’s how strong theset is. It didn’t all just happen, of course; it is theresult of hours of work by Ehrlich, organizing
materials at the Julius Hemphill Archive at NYU andthen coordinating with New World Records.
Hemphill grew up in Fort Worth and moved to
St. Louis in 1968, where he co-founded the Black
Artists Group, a collective that included musicians
who would remain important collaborators
throughout his career: Carroll, Lake and Hamiet
Bluiett. BAG also counted dancers, painters, writersand stage directors among its members, like Malinké
Elliott, who made an appearance on Hemphill’s firstrecording, the 1971 collaboration with poet K. Curtis
Lyle called The Collected Poem for Blind Lemon
Jefferson. Lyle and Hemphill never followed up on
this forgotten masterpiece, but Disc 4 is mostly
drawn from rehearsals of separate performancepieces with Lyle and Elliott. Trading ideas withartists working in other disciplines seems to haveinfluenced Hemphill’s vision almost as much as
listening to other musicians. His use of theatricalnoms de guerre like Roi Boyé reflects this.
The Chamber Music disc features two amazingpieces for wind and brass quintet that utterly defy
categorization, as well as the solo piano piece,“Parchment”, performed brilliantly by Hemphill’slongtime partner Ursula Oppens, and three fascinating
arrangements of Mingus tunes brought to life by the
Daedalus String Quartet. Ehrlich’s comparison of thesewith Hemphill’s arrangements of pieces like “LushLife” and “What’s Going On” for the WSQ is wellmade; Hemphill seems to enter the spaces created bymaster musical architects and remodel them fromwithin. Initial hearings may have the listener
wondering if Hemphill was inspired by string quartetsby this or that composer, but then we realize that what
it sounds like is his own writing for horns, dating backto the overdubbed lines heard on his late ‘70s LPs.
One wonders what Hemphill would have done
without Wadud and vice-versa. They give theimpression that they could have played together
every day of their lives without ever ceasing to find
new areas to explore and new approaches to try.
Unfortunately the necessity of earning a living meantthat their collaborations became rarer as time wenton, so we are lucky to have an entire CD of previously
unknown duos more tightly organized than the twolargely improvisational records already extant and insome ways more satisfying. These pieces were written
specifically for this duo, to explore possibilities thateven master improvisers like this would neverdiscover by chance. We also hear these musicalbrothers in several small group contexts scatteredthroughout the remaining discs, nearly 100 minutes’
worth, in fact. Also present on many of these tracks is
the musician who had an even longer association
with Hemphill, Carroll. Drummers on these sessions
include the likes of Philip Wilson, Warren Smith andMichael Carvin. We also hear a good deal of Alex
Cline, barely out of his teens on his earliest
appearances here, yet holding his own masterfully.
There is also a quintet track that unites Hemphill withhis teacher from Fort Worth days, John Carter, on
clarinet, as well as a series of short but satisfying duos
with Jerome Harris on electric bass and a delightful
quartet version of “Pigskin” on which guitar virtuoso
Jack Wilkins sounds like Tal Farlow on acid.
The concert with Carroll, Holland and
DeJohnette was a one-off in Woodstock, where all
three men were living, and provides a perfect coda.
Listeners wondering what Wilson, Smith, Cline andCarvin have left for any drummer to discover will belaughing at themselves when DeJohnette gets goingon the opening “Mirrors” and Holland is at theabsolute peak of his powers. It’s a pity Carroll andHemphill didn’t get to do several dozen tours withthis quartet, but honestly, one wonders whether they
ever could have sounded much better than this.
For more information, visit newworldrecords.org

For more information, visit actmusic.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 27

www.nottwo.com
nottwo@nottwo.com

n E w

r E L E A S E S

ParisMike Westbrook (ASC)Love and Understanding (featuring John Surman)
Mike Westbrook (My Only Desire)by Andrey Henkin

J ust as attendance at Eton College followed by Oxford

1014
At t h E f I E l D S E D g E
Theo Jörgensmannchristopher dellchristian Ramond
Klaus Kugel

1012
l O N g tA l l S u N S h I N E
Barr y Altschul’s
3Dom FAc tor
featuring
Jon Irabagon
Joe Fonda

1011
th E pu RIt y O f D ES I RE
Ivo Perelman
Gordon Grdina
Hamin Honari

1009
StEp IN
VIOlA lA tENDRESSE
Joe Fonda
carlo morena
Felix Lecaros Herrera

1008
D REAM D IS O B E D I E N CE
Elisabeth Harnik
michael Zerang1013
3 cd boxJoëlle Léandre
B E Au t y/ R E S I S tA N C E
mateusz Rybicki
Zbigniew Kozera
Rafał mazur
Zlatko Kaučič

1015
michael marcus
StONE JuMp
denton darien
John Austria
Tyler mitchellwarren Smith
Lawrence Feldman

1010
StREAMS
Yuma Uesaka
marilyn crispell

University gave students a pretty good chance of
becoming Britain’s Prime Minister, so too did
membership in Mike Westbrook’s bands prognosticate
similar musical ascension. Here is just a sampling of
those who were students of this august institution: Roy
Babbington, Guy Barker, Chris Biscoe, Gary Boyle,
Lindsay Cooper, Mike Gibbs, Brian Godding, Malcolm
Griffiths, Alan Jackson, Chris Laurence, Henry
Lowther, John Marshall, Harry Miller, Phil Minton,
Mike Osborne, Paul Rutherford, Alan Skidmore, John
Surman, John Taylor, Trevor Tomkins, Alan Wakeman,
Ray Warleigh, John Warren, Kenny Wheeler andNorma Winstone.
The old Don turns 85 this month. Two recent
releases show very different, though intertwining
aspects of his craft: a 2016 solo piano recital and a 1974
archival recording with the Swedish Radio Jazz Group.
Paris was recorded in concert over two days at the
19 Paul Fort gallery in that city’s 14th Arrondissement.
Like fellow piano-playing bandleader Duke Ellington,
Westbrook prefers the orchestra as his instrument and,as such, Paris is his first solo recording since 1978. The
album is 20 tracks, mostly in the two-minute range butwith a couple of more expansive pieces, split into four
sections: The Front Page; Bar-Room Piano; Love
Stories; The Blues; plus a short encore. The pieces arefrom Westbrook’s vast oeuvre, alone or with wife/
musical partner Kate (some co-credited to D.H.
Lawrence, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Elizabeth
Barrett Browning), John Lennon-Paul McCartney, Billy
Strayhorn, Ellington, Thom Bell-Linda Creed (“YouMake Me Feel Brand New”), Eric Maschwitz-Manning
Sherwin (“A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square”)
and Bessie Smith (“Good Old Wagon”).
While presumably edited together, the effect ishighly reminiscent of Abdullah Ibrahim’s modern solo
recitals. Westbrook puts the varied material—his own
works, Philly Soul, British pop, blues, classic jazz—
through an austere prism, such that everything flows
despite the eclectic pedigree. In general, with only acouple of pieces peppier by a few percentage points,
Paris is coldly beautiful, understated and gentle,
pushed gingerly along by the spaces Westbrook leaves
between his notes and phrases, the drops of melting
snow at the top of a mountain rather than the turbulent
rivers of other solo pianists.
Love and Understanding duplicates the allWestbrook program found on his 1975 RCA album
Citadel/Room 315 but predates it by almost a year.
Whereas the latter was a London studio recording,with a cast including many of the players mentioned
above, this newly unearthed release was waxed live inSweden—the suite commissioned by Swedish Radio—with local musicians, but with Surman still the featured
performer. While many of the names may be unfamiliar,
some should be known to American listeners, like thereed section of Arne Domnérus, Claes Rosendahl,
Lennart Åberg and Erik Nilsson and rhythm team ofRune Gustafsson, Bengt Hallberg, Georg Riedel andEgil Johansen.
Coming after early large-form works like Marching
Song (1969), Love Songs (1970) and Metropolis (1971), by
this point Westbrook was a highly assured composer
and arranger. The nine pieces, plus a short “Overture”

28 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

and “Finale”, flow from jazz-rock vamp to dreamy
fanfare, funky honky-tonk to ballad, electric bebop to
fantasia. Surman is the lead soloist on his three horns(baritone and soprano saxophone, bass clarinet) but
some of the Swedes also get spotlights, most notably
two trumpeters, Jan Allan on the title track and Bertil
Lövgren on “Pastorale”. Those two pieces are thehighlight of the suite, the former for its soul-jazztrappings, the latter for its swelling of volume anddensity for and under Surman’s soprano lead. Also
fascinating is the massed horn polyphony on “Bebop
de rigueur” and trialogue of clarinet (Domnérus) andtwo bass clarinets (Surman and Nilsson) to open
“Sleepwalker Awaking in Sunlight”.
What is most compelling about the date, however,is that, with what one assumes to be relatively minimal
prep time and a completely new set of players—after
having spent a decade getting to know the regulars in
his British band—the music is so cohesive and full of
character, both that of its composer and group at hand.
For more information, visit westbrookjazz.co.uk andmyonlydesirerecords.com

Thank You Mr. Mabern
Leon Lee Dorsey (Jazz Avenue 1)
by Alex Henderson

If Harold Mabern were still alive, he would turn 85 on

Mar. 20. The pianist, 83 when he passed away in 2019,
was a master of hardbop as well as soul-jazz andembraces both on Thank You Mr. Mabern, an intimate
trio with bassist Leon Lee Dorsey and veteran drummer
Mike Clark recorded only two months before Mabern’s
death. Although technically a sideman, Mabern is themain attraction and Dorsey and Clark serve him wellwhether he is drawing on John Coltrane’s influence oroffering funky, R&B-influenced grooves.
The trio celebrates different periods of Coltrane’s
career. An exuberant performance of “Moment’s
Notice” acknowledges the saxophonist’s hardbop
period of the late ‘50s, but on Frank Foster ’s “Simone”,
Oscar Hammerstein’s “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise”
and George Gershwin’s “Summertime”, the mood ismuch closer to Coltrane’s modal work in the early ‘60s.
On the Ray Henderson standard “Bye Bye Blackbird”,
however, Mabern recalls Red Garland’s late ‘50s/early‘60s output for Prestige.
The pianist’s more R&B-influenced side prevails
on groove-oriented selections like Herbie Hancock’s“Watermelon Man”, Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” andhis own “Rakin’ and Scrapin’”, an infectious boogaloo
he first recorded for Prestige in 1968. While the original
version had horns, this version’s aesthetic is quite
similar: hardbop with a large dose of R&B.
Clark, 74, is perfect for the album. Although jazz is
Clark’s main focus, the eclectic drummer has done hisshare of blues and R&B sessions over the years. Clark
is the antithesis of a jazz snob and his ability to play
Coltrane-minded modal jazz one minute and a New
Orleans rock ‘n’ roll classic like “I’m Walkin’” the next
makes him right at home on this trio date. Similarly,
Dorsey is a broad-minded musician whose resumé
ranges from Frank Sinatra to Anthony Braxton.
Mabern’s recording career lasted for about 60
years. Thank You Mr. Mabern finds him in solid form
during the final months of his life.
For more information, visit leonleedorsey.com

spins on old classics by Armstrong (the title track),
Gene Ammons (“Jungle Soul (Ca’Purange)”),Adderleys Nat and Cannonball (“Cyclops” and “Shake
A Lady”, respectively), Pee Wee Russell (“Pee Wee’s
Blues”), Teddy Wilson (“Blues in C Sharp minor”), in
addition to some six Knuffke originals and one byregular Knuffke employer Matt Wilson (“Wind Spirit”).
Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tight
Like This may not be one for the ages, but it’s a very
weird, very memorable and very entertaining creation.

Tight Like This
Kirk Knuffke (SteepleChase)by Kyle Oleksiuk

For more information, visit steeplechase.dk

The union of two great underused horns, the cornet

and the tuba, is the basis of Kirk Knuffke’s Tight Like
This. The collaboration is reminiscent of Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Dead (or, for the kids, of The LionKing 1½, starring Timon and Pumba): hearing the twoof them share the spotlight for the album’s hour-longruntime is like an indulgent vision into a bizarro
world where the true jazz giants are the players of
eclectic instruments like harp, euphonium andchromatic harmonica. But while jazz fans remain on
this mortal coil, they will never get to hear anything as
bonkers as Louis Armstrong tunes rearranged for the
penny whistle and the kazoo; the closest they can get isTight Like This.
Knuffke leads the trio on cornet. Bob Stewart, a
giant of a giant instrument, now 75, has made some of
the most significant tuba recordings since the ‘70s andrecorded with a variety of musical greats. He adds acombative punch, which complements and contrasts
with the warm, mellow tones of Knuffke.
Drummer Kenny Wollesen keeps largely to thebackground, holding the trio together with understatedbut serious competence while the two horns put new

new releases

The Lowdown
Ian Hendrickson-Smith (Cellar Music)
by Marco Cangiano

Cory Weeds is one of the most active jazz impresarios

these days, besides leading his own recordings andjoining forces with some of the most prominent yet
relatively under-appreciated artists. This is the casewith alto saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith’s The
Lowdown, a thoroughly enjoyable recording doubling
as a tribute to Lawrence Leathers, a well-known, NYCbased drummer who was murdered in 2019.
Hendrickson-Smith is the prototypical musicians’musician capable of covering different musical styles—

he has had a six-year stint on The Tonight Show starring
Jimmy Fallon among his many other contributions. The
group he has picked up for this outing could not be
more congenial. His alto and Weeds’ tenor blend
beautifully in a program evenly split between originals
and fresh takes on standards, recorded at the glorious
Rudy Van Gelder studio, the distinctive peaked roof ofwhich figures into the cover art.
The opening title track has a funky groove
reminiscent of Horace Silver ’s late groups over which
the leader soars. Weeds takes over with a moremuscular sound, building slowly measure after
measure. The rhythm section of Rick Germanson(piano), John Webber (bass) and Joe Farnsworth(drums) bounces over the spare melody while keeping
the pulse through a series of stops and starts.
Two more originals by Hendrickson-Smith,“Savin’ Up” and “10:30”, share the relaxed atmosphere,
conducive to thoughtful solos by the two saxophones
and soulful piano. Farnsworth emphatically introduces“10:30”, a brisk hardbop number where thesaxophones follow each other in an old-fashioned
chase leading to a drum solo.
Turning to the three standards, Jimmy Van
Heusen-Phil Silvers’ “Nancy” is given a bossa nova
dressing while Axel Stordahl-Paul Weston-Sammy
Cahn’s “I Should Care” is approached at a mid-touptempo, unleashing spirited solos, including blockchords from Germanson. Finally, Billie Holiday-Arthur
Herzog, Jr.’s dramatic “Don’t Explain” is underlinedby floor tom at first and brushes later. It features
Hendrickson-Smith’s most inspired solo, which savors
the lyrics. Weeds also provides an intense reading,with traces of Don Byas.
For more information, visit cellarlive.com

Complete catalogs: www.steeplechase.dk
CD - download - streaming

SCCD 31909

SCCD 31911

SCCD 31905

SCCD 33142

US distribution:www.statesidemusic.com email: info@statesidemusic.com

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 29

MISCELLANY
ONbyTHISDAYAndrey Henkin

Featuring Graham Coyle
Alan Lee (Swaggie)
March 5th, 1961

The 100 Club Concert 1979
Elton Dean ((Reel Recordings)
March 5th, 1979

Live
Stu Goldberg (MPS)
March 5th, 1982

Great Sacrifice
Tisziji Muñoz (Anami)
March 5th, 1999

the instrument we now
recognize as the vibraphone waspatented in 1928, it was called thevibraharp due to its similarity to the“harp” stop on a theater organ. That iswhat Australia’s Alan Lee (also apercussionist, active into the newmillennium) is credited as playing on
this EP released on Swaggie, foundedby Aussie legend Graeme Bell. Joining
Lee is pianist Graham Coyle, bassist
Derek Capewell and drummer Ted
Vining on four tunes drawn far from
the Melbourne recording location inclassics by Jelly Roll Morton.

British alto saxophonist Elton Dean’s

Pianist Stu Goldberg has composed

A childhood wrist injury led to

Zurich 1959
Sonny Rollins/Horace Silver (TCB)
March 5th, 1959

A quick glance would make this seem

like another chance to hear tenor
saxophonist Sonny Rollins and pianist
Horace Silver collaborate outside thegroups of the former, Art Farmer or
Miles Davis but they play separately
at the Kongresshaus. Rollins is with
Henry Grimes (bass) and Pete La Roca(one of three at the drumkit for this,Rollins’ first European tour) while
Silver’s band of Junior Cook (tenor),Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Gene Taylor(bass) and Louis Hayes (drums)
waxed Finger Poppin’ and Blowin’ The
Blues Away on either side of this set.

When

Ninesense, active in the late ‘70s-early‘80s with two period LPs on Ogun
and three posthumous live CDs in the
new millennium, of which this is thelast, grew out of the earlier bands of
pianist Keith Tippett. Joining the pairat London’s The 100 Club are regulars
Alan Skidmore (tenor), Nick Evans(trombone), Marc Charig (cornet),
Harry Miller (bass) and Louis Moholo(drums), plus newer additions Radu
Malfatti (trombone) and Harry
Beckett (trumpet), on two CDs’ worthof Dean (plus one Evans) tunes.

music for media as wildly diverse as
Police Academy 4, The Amazing Raceand Minecraft. But, before that, he wasa fusion generator as a keyboard
player with Mahavishnu Orchestra,
Alphonse Mouzon, Toto Blanke,
L. Subramaniam and Air Pocket. His
own few albums were more mellow
affairs featuring acoustic piano. This
live date from Münster finds him withpart of Keith Jarrett’s European
Quartet, bassist Palle Danielsson anddrummer Jon Christensen, for four
originals and one by Danielsson.

guitarist Tisziji Muñoz being unable
to play chords; as such, he has devoted
himself to a style of single-note lines
evoking muse John Coltrane. After a
debut on India Navigation in 1978,
the bulk of his output has come on his
Anami label, like this live date fromthe now-defunct Knitting Factory. Hisband is made up of old friends Paul
Shaffer (synthesizer), Bernie Senensky(piano, also on Muñoz’ debut album),
Don Pate (bass) and Bob Moses(drums) for four originals and four
covers, including a pair by Coltrane.

BIRTHDAYSMarch 1†Glenn Miller 1904-44†Teddy Powell 1906-1993†Benny Powell 1930-2010
Gene Perla b.1940
Ralph Towner b.1940
Vinny Golia b.1946
Norman Connors b.1947
Elliott Sharp b.1951

March 6
†Red Callender 1916-92†Howard McGhee 1918-87†Wes Montgomery 1925-68†Ronnie Boykins 1935-80
Peter Brötzmann b.1941†Robin Kenyatta 1942-2004
Flora Purim b.1942
Charles Tolliver b.1942
Dom Minasi b.1943
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb b.1979

March 2
†Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis
1921-86†Doug Watkins 1934-62†Buell Neidlinger 1936-2018
Bob Neloms b.1942
Wolfgang Muthspiel b.1965

March 11
†Miff Mole 1898-1961†Mercer Ellington 1919-96†Ike Carpenter 1920-98†Billy Mitchell 1926-2001†Leroy Jenkins 1932-2007
Vince Giordano b.1952
Judy Niemack b.1954

March 7Alexander von Schlippenbachb.1938Herb Bushler b.1939
March 8†George Mitchell 1899-1972
Dick Hyman b.1927
George Coleman b.1935†Gabor Szabo 1936-82†James Williams 1951-2004
Biggi Vinkeloe b.1956
Anat Fort b.1970

March 3
†Barney Bigard 1906-80†Cliff Smalls 1918-2008†Jimmy Garrison 1934-76
Luis Gasca b.1940
March 4
†Don Rendell 1926-2015†Cy Touff 1927-2003†Barney Wilen 1937-96†David Darling 1941-2021
Jan Garbarek b.1947
Albert Pinton b.1962
Dana Leong b.1980

March 17
†Paul Horn 1930-2014†Grover Mitchell 1930-2003†Karel Velebny 1931-89
Jessica Williams b.1948
Abraham Burton b.1971
Daniel Levin b.1974

March 12†Sir Charles Thompson
1918-2016†Hugh Lawson 1935-97
Ned Goold b.1959
Peter Knight b.1965

March 18
†Al Hall 1915-88†Sam Donahue 1918-74
Bill Frisell b.1951
Joe Locke b.1959

March 13
†Dick Katz 1924-2009
Roy Haynes b.1926†Blue Mitchell 1930-79
Michael Jefry Stevens b.1951
Akira Tana b.1952
Terence Blanchard b.1962
Shoko Nagai b.1971

March 19
†Curley Russell 1917-86†Lennie Tristano 1919-78†Bill Henderson 1930-2016†Mike Longo 1939-2020
David Schnitter b.1948
Chris Brubeck b.1952
Michele Rosewoman b.1953
Eliane Elias b.1960

March 14
†Joe Mooney 1911-75†Les Brown 1912-2001†Sonny Cohn 1925-2006†Mark Murphy 1932-2015†Shirley Scott 1934-2002
Gianluca Petrella b.1975

March 9†Ornette Coleman 1930-2015†Keely Smith 1932-2015†Kali Z. Fasteau 1947-2020
Zakir Hussain b.1951†Thomas Chapin 1957-1998
Erica von Kleist b.1982

March 5
†Gene Rodgers 1910-87†Bill Pemberton 1918-84†Dave Burns 1924-2009†Lou Levy 1928-2001†Wilbur Little 1928-87†Pee Wee Moore 1928-2009
Nils Winther b.1944
David Fiuczynski b.1964

March 16
†Ruby Braff 1927-2003†Tommy Flanagan 1930-2001
Keith Rowe b.1940
John Lindberg b.1959
Woody Witt b.1969

March 23
†Johnny Guarnieri 1917-85
Dave Frishberg b.1933†Dave Pike 1938-2015†Masabumi Kikuchi 1940-2015
Gerry Hemingway b.1950
Stefon Harris b.1973
March 24
†King Pleasure 1922-81
Dave MacKay b.1932†Kalaparusha Maurice
McIntyre 1936-2013
Steve Kuhn b.1938
Paul McCandless b.1947
Steve LaSpina b.1954
Renee Rosnes b.1962
Dave Douglas b.1963
Joe Fiedler b.1965
March 25
†Cecil Taylor 1929-2018†Paul Motian 1931-2011†Larry Gales 1936-95†Lonnie Hillyer 1940-85
Makoto Ozone b.1961

March 20
†Marian McPartland 1920-2013†Sonny Russo 1929-2013
March 26
†Harold Mabern 1936-2019†Abe Bolar 1908-2000†Jon Christensen 1943-2020†Flip Phillips 1915-2001†Andy Hamilton 1918-2012
March 21
†Brew Moore 1924-73†Hank D’Amico 1915-65†James Moody 1925-2010
Mike Westbrook b.1936
Maurice Simon b.1929†Herbert Joos 1940-2019
Lew Tabackin b.1940
Amina Claudine Myers b.1942 Hiromi b.1979

March 15
†Jimmy McPartland 1907-91†Spencer Clark 1908-1998†Harry James 1916-83†Bob Wilber 1928-2006
Charles Lloyd b.1938
Marty Sheller b.1940
Joachim Kühn b.1944
Anne Mette Iversen b.1972

March 10
†Bix Beiderbecke 1903-31†Pete Clarke 1911-75†Don Abney 1923-2000
Louis Moholo-Moholo b.1940
Mino Cinelu b.1957
Bill Gerhardt b.1962
Ofer Assaf b.1976

March 22
†Fred Anderson 1929-2010
John Houston b.1933†Masahiko Togashi 1940-2007
George Benson b.1943

March 27
†Pee Wee Russell 1906-69†Ben Webster 1909-73†Sarah Vaughan 1924-90†Harold Ashby 1925-2003†Bill Barron 1927-89†Burt Collins 1931-2007
Stacey Kent b.1968
March 28
†Paul Whiteman 1890-1967†Herb Hall 1907-96†Thad Jones 1923-86
Bill Anthony b.1930†Tete Montoliu 1933-97
Barry Miles b.1947
Donald Brown b.1954
Orrin Evans b.1975
Jen Shyu b.1978
March 29
†George Chisholm 1915-97†Pearl Bailey 1918-90†Allan Botschinsky 1940-2020†Michael Brecker 1949-2007
March 30
†Ted Heath 1900-69
Lanny Morgan b.1934
Karl Berger b.1935
Marilyn Crispell b.1947
Dave Stryker b.1957
Frank Gratkowski b.1963
Dan Peck b.1983
March 31
†Santo “Mr. Tailgate” Pecora
1902-84†Red Norvo 1908-99†Freddie Green 1911-87†Jimmy Vass 1937-2006
Christian Scott b.1983

SHOKO NAGAI

March 13th, 1971
As a teenager in her native
Japan, Shoko Nagai wastrained on the Yamaha
Electone and performed pop
music. She then came to theStates to study at Berklee,
eventually landing in New
York. She now concentrates
on piano and accordion andhas worked with John Zorn,
Erik Friedlander, Ikue Mori,
Marc Ribot, Frank London,
Matana Roberts, Satoshi
Takeishi,
Butch
Morris,Elliott Sharp and others andappeared on recordings by
Notekillers, Fire of Space,
Sanda Weigl, Leslie Pintchik,Friedlander and Roberts. She
also composes for film andleads her own groups,
recently releasing Taken
Shadows, a 2014 live datefrom Roulette with a quintetof Todd Reynolds, Jonathan
Goldberger, Stomu Takeishi
and Jim Black.
(AH)

CROSSWORD
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ACROSS

DOWN

1. First tune
7. Traditional tune “____ In Gilead” covered byArchie Shepp, Nina Simone, Charles Lloyd and others
11. Zorn Rock Band?
12. Konitz or Morgan
13. Italian drummer Cavallaro
14. Rivers and Newsome
15. AKA Sonny Rollins
17. Banjo player Johnny St.
18. Am I a drummer or am I a mouse?
19. 2011 Floridis/Skopelitis/Temiz Morgenland album
Three Of ____
21. John McLaughlin’s are beyond?
22. A U.K.-based avant garde label may be named forthis Italian religious icon?
23. Dolphy Miss?
24. Sam Coslow tune “(You’ll Have To Swing It) Mr. ____”
sung by Ella Fitzgerald in 1961
26. Notes of an A7sus4 chord
27. Knock a 1957 Clark Terry/Thelonious Monk album
out of alignment?
31. Vocalist Rodriguez with album in homage to Graciela
32. 1993 Steve Lacy/Mal Waldron SLAM album
Let’s Call This.... _____
33. Jaco Town?
34. 2013 John Zorn/Thurston Moore album you’ll needto email?

1. Electric bass pickup mode
2. 1964 Horace Silver Blue Note album Song For My Father(Cantiga Para Meu ____)
3. Finnish keyboard player Kotilainen
4. Miles Davis had an infamous exchange with her at theWhite House
5. He directed the film that led to the burning down of
St. Nick’s Pub
6. With Wobbly, avant garde jazz label
7. Paul McCandless and Sara Schoenbeck
8. John Damberg and Mark Manners
9. Cellist Khari
10. P.C., Hands, Joy and Gone
16. Joey DeFrancesco or Barbara Dennerlein
17. This Hamilton, NY college was one of many having
a student Dixieland band in the late ’50s
19. 1990 Floridis/Chancey/Kowald/Moholo Om album
Human ____
20. Songwriter Sacha who has written for Max Raabe
25. Sole release by Bulgaria’s Jazz Quintet, which included
drummer Peter Slavov, Sr.
28. Longtime Carmen Lundy producer Elisabeth
29. Member of 30 Down informally
30. Borgmann/Morris/Nicholson trio

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By Andrey Henkin 			

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visit nycjazzrecord.com for answers

30 MARCH 2021 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

(INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6)
him and copying everything he was doing, only
backwards—I felt a little bit like Ginger Rogers.
TNYCJR: Has anyone ever said something to or about
you that was especially affirming?
SA: Somebody once said something that always stuckwith me. It was back sometime in the early to mid ‘80s.
Back then, I was mostly playing country-western musicin big dance halls. This woman who was standing by
the stage, holding up her young daughter, said, “Lookthere, sweetie; that’s a woman. A woman steel guitar
player.” Like the project documented on the newalbum, Bird Meets Wire, it’s three women, but it neverentered my mind. It’s just me, Ingrid and Leila andthat’s all it needs to be.
TNYCJR: How did that project come about?
SA: Kevin Reilly from Relative Pitch put us together
for a couple of gigs before we recorded the album on
Easter Sunday in a little studio in Queens. He hit therecord button and we started playing. It’s as simple
as that. We played everything with no discussion
beforehand. We simply started playing, each using ourears and sensibilities to guide us along. This was backin 2017. It was wonderful improvising with these twomusicians. I’m really glad that this music we made was
documented. Huge thanks to Kevin.
TNYCJR: It’s poignant to think of how different theworld was when you recorded that album compared to
the world into which it is soon to be released. What
have you been working on since the pandemic hit?
SA: When everything stopped in mid-March 2020,
I took it as a great opportunity to write and record somereally difficult music that I wouldn’t have had time to
get into had I been touring. I started working on analbum built around Messiaen’s Quartet for the End ofTime, particularly the section called “Abîme desoiseaux”. It was originally written for clarinet and thescore calls for these tiny volume swells, which theclarinetist would normally create with the breath. I
spent hours and hours trying to recreate that effect withmy volume pedal, until my ankle eventually gave out.
There were months during which I could only play forfive minutes at a time. In any case, you live and learn.
I think, I hope, that maybe I know my instrument alittle better than I used to and hopefully myself as well.
TNYCJR: When did you develop an interest in
improvisation and who were your greatest teachers?
SA: At a fairly early age. I guess I just started bynoodling. I was able to improvise over blues or country
music—anything with one key center, but jazz seemed
like an entirely different thing. I could play the tunes,
but improvising did not come easily. Someone had told
me to think of the scales for each chord. But then I met
Conrad Johnson, an iconic jazz musician and educatorin Houston, who taught me a way to play over chord
changes using pentatonics. Then everything slowly
began to make sense. Ornette Coleman andHarmolodics have also had a lot to do with how I hear
improvisation. Another teacher I had, on pedal steel,was Maurice Anderson in Dallas, Texas. I only had one
lesson with him, in the middle of which he stopped
and said he wouldn’t charge me, but we stayed intouch his whole life. He was a great jazz musician who
is little known outside the steel guitar community.
Pauline Oliveros and her Deep Listening approachsignificantly changed how I approached the instrument
as well. She showed me a different way of seeing whata note is, what surrounds the note, the space that
contains it and sound, including noise as music.

TNYCJR: Who do you admire currently in the pedal
steel community?
SA: As far as people doing something different with
the instrument, there’s a player in New Orleans named
Dave Easley who was the first to play steel at theVillage Vanguard, where he played with Brian Blade.
In France, Lionel Wendling just put out an album
called Steel World. I admire Hal Merrill out on the West
Coast. There’s also Bob Hoffnar, based in Austin, whodoes a lot of microtonal things and who studied withLa Monte Young; Chas Smith, who studied composition
at Berklee and was close friends with the late Harold
Budd. There is a non-pedal steel guitarist Mike Neer
whose work I am also quite fond of. Then there are
Nashville players, like Paul Franklin and TommyWhite, true virtuosos who can play anything. Buddy
Emmons was the ultimate pedal steel guitarist. Whenhe was in his prime, his energy was boundless. He wasthe Paganini of the pedal steel.
TNYCJR: Do you think of yourself differently whenplaying solo versus in a group?
SA: Playing solo is different with the pedal steel, which
can be very orchestral. When played in a certain way,
it can fill up a whole sound world so that people don’t
miss the presence of another instrument. And, of course,
if I feel like changing something, I can do that at a
moment’s notice. With a group, you have to follow what’s
going on, but there’s a certain something about all thosecombinations of timbres that’s really beautiful, as well as
the interaction with other instruments and other musicalminds. There’s a sense of communion I feel with themusic and the people with whom I’m sharing thisexperience. With a band, in many ways, you’re playing
for each other. Of course, you’re playing for the audience
too and you hope they like it, but attention is, by necessity,often focused on the other musicians and that one wild
and crazy moment—the groove—when, like magic,
everything just seems to fall in place. v

Big Band before the cancellations started as a result of
the pandemic. Live recordings of Future Song from2015 were released in August as the album, Live
Reflections. When venues and travel open up again,
Mazur will have plenty to do with regular groups alongwith several loose projects and a number of invitations,her priority being the projects she leads: Shamania, twoquartets, a trio and solo performance. She co-leads the
13-piece semi-big band Maluba Orchestra and works
regularly with the Makiko Hirabayashi Trio along withher husband, bassist Klavs Hovman. She is excitedabout a new composition for a chamber music festival
this summer, a new trio with Jon Balke and Torben
Snekkestad and a festival appearance featuring Norma
Winstone. “In these quarantine times, it is clear to me
how music can add to the spiritual well-being and keeppeople company even when isolated. For me, music
and other abstract art forms are like openings into theessence of life itself. You can share and transform
emotion, moods, experiences into energy, colors.
Especially with improvised music we are able to live inthe moment and react to each other.” v
For more information, visit marilynmazur.com
Recommended Listening:• Pierre Dørge—& New Jungle Orchestra(SteepleChase, 1982)• Lotte Anker/Marilyn Crispell/Marilyn Mazur—
Poetic Justice (Dacapo, 2000)• Marilyn Mazur/Jan Garbarek—Elixir (ECM, 2005)• Jean-Michel Pilc/Mads Vinding/Marilyn Mazur—
Composing (Storyville, 2015)• Marilyn Mazur—Shamania (RareNoise, 2017)• Marilyn Mazur ’s Future Song—Live Reflections(Stunt, 1990/2008/2015)

For more information, visit susanalcorn.net. Alcorn livestreams
Mar.
3rd
at
youtube.com/channel/
UCnKdQfHYKdGCgDQlK_dzihw.
Recommended Listening:• Susan Alcorn—Uma (Uma Sounds, 1999)• Susan Alcorn—And I Await The Resurrection of The
Pedal Steel Guitar (Olde English Spelling Bee, 2007)• Ellery Eskelin/Susan Alcorn/Michael Formanek—
Mirage (Clean Feed, 2011)• Susan Alcorn—Touch This Moment(Uma Sounds, 2010)• Susan Alcorn/Joe McPhee/Ken Vandermark—Invitation to a Dream (Astral Spirits, 2017)• Susan Alcorn—Pedernal (Relative Pitch, 2019)(ENCORE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8)
Among this group of highly respected musicians fromdifferent countries, saxophonist Lotte Anker is the only
original Primi member. The name Shamania, Mazur
explains, is a female form of Shaman and mania,“symbolizing the act of setting Woman Power free. I
believe that music at its best is a kind of magic, uniting
humanity, freeing us from physical conformity.”
There have always been women musicians of thehighest caliber. When asked if there are more today orjust more opportunity to hear them, Mazur replied,“Compared to my youth, there are more great female
music artists now… The amount isn’t so important, but
it’s great to hear strong female expressions and that it
is possible to influence the music and be a part of thescene and development.”
Mazur had a good start to 2020 with Shamania anda new version of “Bitches Brew” with the Danish Radio

THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | MARCH 2021 31