Heroes by Leandre, Maneri and Taborn.

 

Joelle Leandre (double bass)- Craig Taborn (piano) - Mat Maneri (viola) 

hEARoes 

RogueArt ROG 0127

released 2023

Thirty nine minutes of a live concert, recorded in France in February 2022, a first time meeting for Leandre and Taborn but for Maneri and Leandre the two have jousted for 30 years apparently.   Given the high ranking I attribute to them this was a session I could not resist.  Musically, the vast experience that Leandre brings to the table  is reflected in the mix.  The metre and mood appear to come from the right hand side of the sound mix where Leandre is placed. Being louder than the other two only emphasises that impression. The left hand side is where Taborn's less than clear piano is located which at times is so cloudy its difficult to know what he is doing, if anything.  Maneri's viola sits in the middle of the sound stage and is the most recessed of the three instruments. The similar sound of the bowed strings from Maneri and Leandre only adds to the uncertainty I felt when trying to keep track of who is playing what. One clue however was the noise that accompanied the microphones used to record the bass, every time it drops out, so did the hiss. Leandre doesn't sit out much so you have to try and ignore it. Feeling distracted yet?    

Whilst the music commands my attention, the compromises in sound quality definitely distracted me with thoughts dominated by how the mix emphasises Leandre at the expense of the other two.  This has the effect of suggesting that she dominated the music rather than there being an equal spread of lead and response between the musicians.  Does the recording truly reflect what happened at the event?  The impression given is most likely misleading, an unintended consequence of the balance of the instruments but i am surprised how the mix of a concert affected my interpretation of the music.  

Have RogueArt made wise decisions in releasing a less than ideal sound recording?  Leandre is down as one of two people who mixed the recording and Leandre's is the instrument that is dominant.  Did the other two get to hear this before release?  Leandre clearly remains at the top of her game with strong musical ideas. Fortunately! My problem lies with the managerial decisions. Releasing this live concert is not showcasing the musicians in their best light and I did not anticipate the extent to which my interpretation of a piece of music could be influenced by the sound mix. 

Corea, Hiromi, Kikuchi and the piano.

Duet : Chick and Hiromi

Stretch (2008)

Black Orpheus: Masabumi Kikuchi

ECM 2459 (2016)

If you like piano jazz it would seem entirely plausible that two fine pianists playing as a duet would offer greater thrills than either one alone.  If one of those pianists is Chick Corea, chances are you would sit back and prepare to hear quality that 50 years experience confers.  Well, wouldn’t you?  The inventiveness, dexterity and joyfulness that comes across in Chick Corea’s playing is undeniable but you sense this review is not going to be one of all round approval.

Hands up those of you who found the duets with Herbie Hancock (released in 1978 as An Evening With Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert , Columbia) far from satisfying. Similarly, the combined talents of Cecil Taylor with Mary Lou Williams failed to translate into something of greatness.  With both hands on the keyboard it quickly becomes clear that too many notes can suffocate. Furthermore, when the pianist has the capability of dizzyingly fast runs across the keys there is both density and speed which easily becomes overwhelming.   

So, I approached the duets of Chick Corea and Hiromi Uehara with some reservation. Sadly, all my fears were realised in this double CD, recorded in Japan in 2007.   Far from exhilarating I found it tiring such that by the third track of CD1 I was reaching for the eject button on the remote.  Doubtless, the pair generate electricity and spur one another on in ever increasing displays of prowess but this listener soon failed to care what was going on.  The songs under examination were a good mix of show tune standards (Summertime), jazz standards (Bill Evan’s Very Early) or standards by Corea (Windows) or tunes by Hiromi but technical wizardry killed remove any sense of space or delicacy in too many of the tunes.

Whilst Hiromi is one of Japan’s favoured pianists of the decade, it far less clear to me what place Masabumi Kikuchi has in the nation’s hearts and minds. Kikuchi died in 2016 after man years away from any spotlight, quietly chiselling away at his music in New York.  Kikuchi had been a star back in the 70s as a progressive player of electric keyboards.  His later work with Gary Peacock and the late Paul Motion (recording under the moniker Tethered Moon) are glorious examples of how he was moving towards playing fewer notes and leaving greater emphasis for the gaps, the haunting decay of the chord. 

Kikuchi’s last release came out in 2016 just after he had died.  It is a recording of a solo concert in Japan at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall from October 2012 and it shows a man far less assured than Corea or Uehara.  The improvisations are mostly slow to medium paced and the poignancy of the pauses draw you in as you anticipate what notes will played next. The hesitancy, far from suggesting that Kikuchi lacks the chops, reflects the quest Kikuchi was taking on in order to create his own true sound. A video entitled Out of Bounds can be recommended as a documentation of this late phase (as it turned out to be) in Kikuchi’s search for his musical self. The film (by Thomas Haley) portrays a musician refusing to be content with technique but digging for a style of playing that feels weighed down with reflection and not a little sadness.

The contrast in the approach to jazz piano between Corea (and Hiromi) and Kikuchi will suit differing tastes. Not that Corea avoids delicacy or bittersweet in his ballad playing, indeed  I am often drawn back to his tremendous interpretation of But Beautiful (Solo Piano: Standards , part 2. Stretch), but where Corea has retained an interest in technically adept methods as part of his palate, Masabumi Kikuchi chose the opposite direction, paring down the number of notes and looking for a more reflective sound.

Maybe if was a teenager all would be different.  The enthusiasm of Corea and Hiromi must be inexhaustible but for this old wheezy bronchitic, I need time to sit down and collect my breath. 

LONDON  LEIPZIG BERLIN

Axel Dorner,  trumpet
Roger Turner,  percussion
Ra Ra Da Boff, electric organs, little instruments

Euphorium Records EUPH 047  2015

Recorded  18th December 2013.


Can't be many of us who have recordings filed under Ra Ra Da Boff.  This is certainly my first, even taking into consideration that it is a working name for Oliver Schwerdt, but a welcome one.  Axel Dorner and Roger Turner are well recognised practitioners of free improvisation where the emphasis is on the development of small soundscapes, immediate responses to the situation.  And what a wonderful vision the three musicians create.  Fortunately, nobody dominates the situation. chamber music is the balance here, although Ra Ra da Boff tends to set up the atmospheric backdrop onto which Dorner and Turner move about like mice.  For those who like this type of music, the scurrying dance that ensues makes for captivating listening. The pattern of each of the three tacks might be too similar to justify listening to the entire CD in one sitting but the quality, by which we mean inventiveness and emotion generated are sufficient to draw one back soon enough.

The cities listed may reflect the origin of the three musicians. What a great advert for the benefits of collaborating within the European Union. How will you vote?

Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan sing the best of Irving Berlin

Mercury MEP 9535 turquoise blue label 

Made in England by Nixa Record Co Ltd. 

 Recorded 24, 25 April 1957 in New York with charts arranged by Hal Mooney. 

The shape of piano trios to come, I’m told.

In the Hall of Mirrors.  John Zorn (Tzadik, 2014)  

Alloy. Tyshorn Sorey (Pi Recordings, 2014).

In a recent batch of CD purchases, I subsequently realized I had two piano trios featuring classically trained pianists at the helm.  As the work horse of the jazz rhythm section, the piano trio remains attractive for the listener because you can hear what everyone is contributing to the performance.  Given the wide span of styles, anything from Teddy Wilson and Erroll Garner through Paul Bley and Herbie Nichols or further  outward to Cecil Taylor, great satisfaction is to be had from piano bass and drums, be it the pace, the space or the density of the music.  The two  recordings flagged here offer a glimpse into what happens when jazz bass and drums accompany a pianist that brings the classical music approach to the piano part. More specifically, in the case of John Zorn’s 2014 release In the Hall of Mirrors the part is (apparently) scored by John Zorn and played by Stephen Gosling.   With Tyshorn Sorey’s  Alloy the relationship is not clear but similarly the pianist, Cory Smythe,  is a recognized modern classical musician.   Is this the latest version to merge classical music with jazz? 

I like the chamber music end of jazz but am uneasy  with the idea that people trained in classical music are best suited to fronting jazz combos.  Clearly, gifted musicians can bring interesting things to the party, but I remain suspicious.

Tyshorn Sorey is listed as a man with catholic musical interests, including modern classical music, and Alloy  does not state how much was scored and how much was left to the pianist to improvise. The music moves between delicate and sparse through to more frenetic passages and the trio sound nicely poised throughout. There is no sense of the pianist leading with drums and bass simply following. Instead the trio move nicely as a unit with common purpose of expressing the themes and ideas as appropriate for the mood.  You can expect a jazz pianist to have absorbed influences from the greats.  But here,  you don’t expect to hear phrases or licks typical of pianists handling the standard repertoire  and this is part of the thrill of listening for the first time to a unit in which you have no clear expectation of what is to come.  

What then is the focus for a recording where the pianist is brought in to interpret the music of John Zorn on the piano?   What is the role or function of the bass and drum accompaniment?  Surely they will be there to simply supply pulse and chordal outline?     Tyshorn and Greg Cohen are players unlikely to simply provide a backing track but instead play with much style and panache to give the recording that sense of three players interacting on the go, dancing with ideas and each other to provide a spontaneous feel.   However, I am left with this nagging uncertainty over how to approach the music.  It bothers me that this is not a piano trio but a pianist with a bassist and drummer improvising to it.  The pianist will be focusing on the score  and not on the contribution of the bassist and drummer. To my mind that is not the point of a piano trio.  

It could be argued that  piano trio with Bud Powell at the keyboard is a format where the drums and bass are more likely to simply provide pulse and shape since the outpouring of lines from Powell can be dominant and leave little room for interplay.  Yet Powell’s trio music is essential and compelling.  Should In the  Hall of Mirrors be considered to be a similar style of recording , simply adjusted to give more free range for the accompanying musicians?

In the liner notes Greg Cohen is stated as saying that this is the future of jazz.  These two recordings are to welcomed and there are great moments in this music to enjoy while you contemplate where you stand on such things.  

Jazz on BBC Radio 3

Jazz on BBC Radio 3.

A report on the quality of music programming at the BBC has been made available this week.  For those of us who are interested in jazz, it makes for pitiful reading.

This is what the BBC think about their jazz output on Radio 3 (and remember you will not hear any jazz on any of the other BBC radio channels) :

''Some stakeholders feel jazz is not treated as a priority by Radio 3. We recognise the importance of Radio 3’s support for jazz and world music, but these are not currently the core of Radio 3’s offer, so we would not necessarily expect them to be a regular part of its daytime offer. ''


This statement comes from the BBC Trust Service Review Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music and Asian Network, published March 2015. 

Am I alone in thinking the BBC uses tax payers money to fund hours upon hours of Classical music and gives a vanishing fraction of money to jazz and other so-called minority interests.  This feeble statement indicates that Radio 3 will continue as it is.  Sounds like a kiss of death to me.