JENNY SCHEINMAN

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CD REVIEWS Capricorn Climber Kris Davis (Clean Feed) by John Sharpe The Song That Sings You Here Pianist Kris Davis has perfected a great trick, dressing her elaborate compositions in the guise of improvisation so successfully it’s barely possible to tell one from the other. By doing so she retains the freshness and unpredictability of unscripted interaction while at the same time keeping a taut conceptual grasp. In this she’s abetted by an allstar cast, including frequent collaborators like saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey. Davis sets the mood with her purposefully intelligent promptings, only cutting loose herself on “Pass The Magic Hat”, before setting up the sort of involved interplay characteristic of all the pieces here. For her contribution Laubrock alternates between flowing but asymmetric rounded tones and heated timbral distortion, but meshes well with her frontline partner, violist Mat Maneri, during some tricky unisons. Elsewhere Maneri is angular and abrasive, sliding between notes in a way that ups the surprise quotient. In fact, it’s impossible to anticipate the trajectory of any of the selections. Much credit for such flexibility falls to the rhythmic ingenuity of Rainey allied to the nimble yet assertive bassist Trevor Dunn. Each number is event-strewn but cohesive. The title cut provides as good an example as any: Maneri and the leader pontificate dreamily to start, before building to an energetic crescendo of intersecting layers. A saxophone/viola theme emerges from the swirling chaos, providing a cooling interlude, which morphs into a tappy coda of sustained drones, culminating in a chiming conclusion recalling an oldfashioned clock. While highlights are too many to enumerate, one that sticks in the mind is Laubrock’s forceful tenor solo on “Trevor’s Luffa Complex”, goosed by some explosive comping from the leader. One of the treats of this tremendous album is to savor the appealing blend of the cerebral and affecting, with new quirks revealed on every listen. For more information, visit cleanfeed-records.com. Davis is at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center Mar. 4th, Cornelia Street Café Mar. 5th with Ingrid Laubrock and 30th as a leader and Korzo Mar. 26th. See Calendar. AMANDA & THE MICHAELS AMANDA MONACO - GUITAR MICHAEL BATES - BASS MICHAEL PRIDE - DRUMS SEEDS BROOKLYN 617 VANDERBILT AVENUE WED, MAR. 20TH, 10 PM $10 AMANDAMONACO.COM 14 March 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD Chris McNulty (Challenge) Champian Sings and Swings Champian Fulton (Sharp Nine) Mississippi Belle (Cole Porter in the Quarter) Daryl Sherman (Audiophile) by Marcia Hillman The Great American Songbook - tunes mostly from the ‘20s-50s written by the Tin Pan Alley masters for Broadway shows or movies - is the mother lode for singers in all genres in search of material to express themselves. Three different songbirds have recently mined it for their respective albums, testifying once again to its inexhaustible richness. Australian-born vocalist Chris McNulty possesses a mature, expressive voice and sings a little behind the beat, which allows her to explore some innovative phrasing on The Song That Sings You Here, accompanied by bassist Ugonna Okegwo, drummer Marcus Gilmore, guitarist Paul Bollenback, pianists Andrei Kondakov and Graham Wood, tenor/soprano saxophonist Igor Butman and guest vocalist Anita Wardell. McNulty opens with a lightly swinging version of “How Little We Know” (featuring Butman’s high-flying tenor solo) and continues with a soft and easy rendition of “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”, proving that she can handle both sides of the emotional coin. Most notable is the inclusion of Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz”. Who ever knew there were lyrics to this song? There are, by Richard Maltby Jr., and just as playful as Waller’s personality. McNulty has a lot of fun with this one. Champian Fulton is a double-threat performer, possessing a powerful voice and some heavy piano chops, both captured on Champian Sings and Swings, where she is joined by Hide Tanaka (bass) and Fukushi Tainaka (drums), with the addition (on selected tracks) of trumpeter Stephen Fulton and tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. The album is nicely paced, with opportunities to show off her vocal talent (edgy at times and softer at others) and her instrumental ability, with several tracks (“I Cover The Waterfront” and Bud Powell’s “Celia”, for example) done in a piano trio setting. Fulton’s two skills meet on “Samba de Orfeo”, the leader first singing a wordless lyric and then scatting along with her playing. On “It’s Too Late (Baby Too Late)”, Fulton gets especially bluesy, aided and abetted by wailing tenor work from Alexander (who also smokes on an uptempo version of “It’s Alright With Me”). Stephen Fulton contributes inspired horn on “You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me”. Vocalist/pianist Daryl Sherman is no stranger to the club scene as a singer of standards, but on Mississippi Belle she has chosen to focus exclusively on the Cole Porter songbook, presenting a program of underdone and even obscure songs. Recorded in New Orleans in salute to the resilience of the city after Katrina, Sherman’s group is a trio with tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Tom Fischer and bassist Jesse Boyd, with a guest appearance by New Orleans vocalist Banu Gibson on “By The Mississinewah”, a duet in English and French. Sherman’s skill as a storyteller stands out, as does her close musical connection with Boyd, starting with the opener, “Let’s Do It”, where she goes through the multi-choruses of the song with just bass and a touch of piano behind her. Other highlights include Fisher’s sax on “Looking At You” and his clarinet work on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. The combination of some freshly done material and Sherman’s straightforward approach make this album delightful. This triumvirate of CDs by a trio of ladies, each with their respective talents and styles, once again demonstrates why the Great American Songbook deserves the superlative! For more information, visit challengerecords.com, sharpnine.com and jazzology.com/audiophile_records.php. Chris McNulty is at Jazz at Kitano Mar. 7th. Champian Fulton is at The Garage Mar. 7th and 30th. Daryl Sherman is at Knickerbocker Bar and Grill Mar. 8th-9th and 15th-16th. See Calendar. UNEARTHED GEM Bigbands Live Benny Goodman Orchestra (feat. Anita O’Day) (Jazzhaus) by Andrew Vélez This is only one part of a treasure trove of live recordings from the archives of the German Southwest Broadcasting Company. The 3,000 hours in its archives represent possibly the most comprehensive reservoir of unpublished jazz recordings worldwide. In this instance it’s a performance at the Stadthalle Freiburg, West Germany from 1959. So here’s a Jewish-American bandleader performing in a country where his Swing Era music was once banned by the Nazis as “decadent”. Showcasing a first-rank lineup including Red Norvo (vibes), Russ Freeman (piano), Flip Phillips (tenor sax) and some luscious vocals from Anita O’Day, this is first-class big band music just as rock ‘n roll was about to explode popular music into a new era. But for now Goodman’s clarinet blending with Norvo’s ever-swinging vibes on “Air Mail Special” evoke a still thrilling whiff of peak Swing Era sounds. If this is not quite the Goodman and Company of his legendary 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert, it still packs a swinging punch. The distilled simplicity of Red Wooten’s bass makes a perfect nest for the succulent sweetness of O’Day on “Honeysuckle Rose”. A medley of Gershwin’s “But Not for Me”, “Four Brothers” and “Blues” has O’Day swinging ever so easily. She veers from seductive to rambunctious highstratosphere scatting, all unique and all captivating. “Raise the Riff” is an opportunity for Goodman to swing big time with Wooten and Freeman each taking hot turns until Norvo sweeps in like the Swing Era master he was. There’s a taste of Goodman as composer with “Breakfast Feud”, on which he wails against trumpeter Jack Sheldon and again those Norvo vibes, each taking a piece of the action before a happy finish by the whole gang. For a taste of Goodman at his sweetest, there’s his old favorite, “Memories of You”. The closing medley - including “Stompin’ at the Savoy”, an irresistible “Moonglow” and “Bei mir bist du schein” - brings to a tumultuous close a session that demonstrates what had made Goodman “The King of Swing” decades earlier was still at play. For more information, visit jazzhaus-label.com
Elephant Wings Gunhild Seim & Time Jungle with Marilyn Crispell (Drollehala) by Stuart Broomer Play Braxton Marilyn Crispell/ Mark Dresser/Gerry Hemingway (Tzadik) Marilyn Crispell is a pianist of special vision and tremendous lyric sweep, with a capacity for finding passion in a keyboard that has linked all of the different musical dimensions she has explored since emerging in the early ‘80s. She was initially associated with Cecil Taylor for her dense, high-speed improvisations, but Crispell is a complete musician who, over time, has revealed myriad facets to her work, from spacious ballad playing to concentrated rhythmic interplay. Crispell has worked extensively with Scandinavian musicians and on Elephant Wings she joins Norwegian trumpeter Gunhild Seim and her quartet Time Jungle. Seim has a capacity for brevity and focus whether it’s a composition reduced to dramatic gestures or the clarity of her trumpet phrases. Time Jungle is an effective instrument for her compositions. Alto saxophonist Arild Hoem is a good foil, whether contributing abstract, out-of-tempo squiggles or long-lined solos in contrast to Seim’s economy. It’s a conversational group and bassist John Lilja and drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen choose their notes carefully, complementing the melodic focus or developing a web of overlapping rhythmic figures. It’s a band with a distinctive conception and Crispell raises it to another level, not by doing a guest-star turn but by burrowing into the music, adding optimum framing to the other musicians’ lines and turning in solos that sparkle in their aptness, like the fleetly floating invention she brings to “Joni”. Crispell’s gift for collective creation first flowered in the Anthony Braxton Quartet between 1983-95 with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Gerry Hemingway, a genuinely great band in which Braxton mixed and matched scores from his entire body of compositions, solo to orchestra. Somehow the four managed to find ways to negotiate that shifting terrain and make coherent art. The trio reunited to pay tribute to Braxton on his 65th birthday and this recording came about as a result. There may be music as complex or as playful, but not both. This CD includes many of the moods of Braxton, from the densely layered rhythms and harmonies that live in synch on “Composition 116” to LIBRA Records 32 CDs of limitless creative vision by pianist/composer Satoko Fujii & trumpeter/composer Natsuki Tamura. Solo, duo, trio, quartet, big band and orchestra. Artist owned! Stay tuned for more releases soon! www.librarecords.com the atonal bop of “Composition 23C” and the hanging isolated tones of “Composition 40N”. Crispell is magnificent, displaying the breadth of her playing, from the flying clusters of “Composition 69B [8.2]” (Crispell sounds most like Cecil Taylor when reading an excerpt from a through-composed Braxton piano solo) to the weird block-chord groove of “Composition 40B”. Dresser and Hemingway play at a level of thought and interaction most can only imagine and all three navigate this music with an intimacy that blurs compositional and improvisational methodologies into indivisible music. It’s a masterpiece in itself, as well as an invitation to investigate all the original quartet’s recordings, spread over more than a decade, with notable performances on Leo, hatHUT and Victo. For more information, visit gunhildseim.com and tzadik.com. Crispell is at Symphony Space Peter Jay Sharp Theatre Mar. 22nd as part of a Paul Motian Tribute. See Calendar. Down Here Below Ran Blake/Christine Correa (Red Piano) by George Kanzler Aurora Sara Serpa/Ran Blake (Clean Feed) Ran Blake is a pianist who never plays a superfluous note. He can be spare and angular, but always satisfyingly complete. Few pianists in jazz have been as masterful, or comfortable, playing alone or in duos. Blake has made duo albums with vocalists before, including Jeanne Lee and Dominique Eade, as well as two others with Indian singer Christine Correa and one other with Portuguese singer Sara Serpa. The two are poles apart as vocalists and stylists. Correa brings an immediacy and raw edge to her delivery, as if melding method acting with singing. Down Here Below honors Abbey Lincoln, who also brought an acting sensibility to her singing. The title song bookends the album, the first track beginning with highly charged wordless chanting, followed by a piano solo suffused with mystery before Correa returns with Lincoln’s lyrics, delivered in a conspiratorial tone rising to a devotional pitch. The album closes with Correa’s very different a cappella and low-key performance of the song. Correa can be raw and angry, as on “Freedom Day” (two versions, with and without Blake), adding petulance to the anger on “Retribution”. Her tone can be dry and harsh, as she bends melodies to extremes on “Little Niles” and “African Lady”, slide from steely to cool on “Bird Alone” or be downright sweet and engaging on the winsome “How I Hoped for Your Love”. Correa and Blake make “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” as singular and heart-wrenching as Lincoln did, but in their own unique way. Serpa is, to say the least, an acquired taste. She doesn’t emote much. Her a cappella version of “Strange Fruit” on Aurora is freeze-dried. Her delivery of torch songs like “Saturday” and “When Autumn Sings” are wooden, staid and calm. In fact, on the latter, Blake brings the passion with his piano jabs as Serpa’s voice flattens and sours. The most successful duo track is the wordless “Dr. Mabuse”, co-written by Blake and featuring a threenote motif and pleasing blend of deep piano chords and trilling vocal vowels. The longest track is Blake’s masterful, brooding piano solo on his own “Mahler Noir”, a worthy addition to his growing body of “Noir” pieces. Three standards on this outing are vehicles for deconstruction. “The Band Played On” lurches on an off-kilter waltz rhythm for the opening vocal, followed by some stride from Blake, Serpa then returning in a higher key, or just purposely over-singing until she is performing wordless, operatic-like vocal scales. “Fine and Dandy” also has hints of stride piano and a vocal that shreds the melody with weird sharps and flats close to caterwauling. “Last Night When We Were Young” is best in the piano intro, worst in the fey and strained vocal. For more information, visit redpianorecords.com and cleanfeed-records.com. Blake and Correa are at Symphony Space Peter Jay Sharp Theatre Mar. 23rd as part of “CI at 40”. See Calendar. IN PRINT Shall We Play That One Together?: The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland Paul de Barros (St. Martin’s Press) by Ken Dryden English pianist Marian McPartland’s professional jazz career spanned over 60 years and she became a jazz icon thanks to her multi-award-winning, longrunning NPR radio series Piano Jazz. Paul de Barros, a renowned jazz journalist, did in-depth research and conducted many interviews to craft a detailed portrait of the witty yet complex musician. McPartland’s early life covers a difficult relationship with her mother over abandoning classical studies to play jazz, prompting a comment that the pianist often shared with her audiences: “You’ll come to no good. You’ll marry a musician and live in an attic,” followed by, “And she was right!” While touring with the USO in World War II, she met Chicago cornetist Jimmy McPartland. After she joined her new husband in America, he encouraged her career, though she would become the more widely known player, thanks to her extended gig at The Hickory House in New York City and later the Piano Jazz program. Not all was rosy in McPartland’s life. Her ongoing affair with her (married) drummer Joe Morello caused problems as did sparse recording opportunities in the early ‘60s and bouts with depression. But she rebounded with jazz writing and education, launch of her record label Halcyon, the NPR series and her signing to Concord Records. The author’s insights as a jazz journalist help him document McPartland’s growth as a pianist. Not one to establish a set repertoire and remain stagnant, she continuously explored new material and took chances on Piano Jazz, playing with new people from diverse backgrounds. One of her triumphs was playing duets with Cecil Taylor, not at all intimidated by his wild improvising and showing off her own considerable abstract chops. With over 700 Piano Jazz programs recorded between 1978-2010 (she formally retired in 2011), much of the book is devoted to her broadcasts. Sadly only a few dozen have been commercially issued and a fraction of the others made available as podcasts; it is a shame that there wasn’t room in the appendix to list all of her guests. For more information, visit us.macmillan.com/SMP.aspx THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | March 2013 15
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Page 10 and 11: ENCORE Valerie Capers by Brad Farbe
Page 12 and 13: LABEL SPOTLIGHT Libra Records by Ke
Page 16 and 17: GLOBE UNITY: NORWAY Memnon: Sound P
Page 18: New Blues Aki Takase (Enja/Yellowbi
Page 21 and 22: Play the music of Benny Carter Coun
Page 23 and 24: Music is Emotion Ryan Keberle and C
Page 25 and 26: The Exterminating Angel Kirk Knuffk
Page 27 and 28: Sojourner Truth (1797?-1883) led a
Page 29 and 30: It would be hard to overstate the e
Page 31 and 32: Ellington Saxophone Encounters Mark
Page 33 and 34: The Sirens Chris Potter (ECM) by Je
Page 35 and 36: Numerology (Live at Jazz Standard)
Page 38 and 39: CALENDAR Friday, March 1 êPreserva
Page 40 and 41: Friday, March 8 êPaquito D’River
Page 42 and 43: Tuesday, March 19 êJoseph Bowie’
Page 44 and 45: Thursday, March 28 êClaire Daly’
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Page 48: presents John Williams, Guitar John

JENNY SCHEINMAN

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