~ If you liked Vijay Iyer’s version of Julius Hemphill’s “Dogon A.D.” from Historicity, check out the one from Things Have Got to Change, by Marty Ehrlich’s Rites Quartet. Reeds, trumpet, cello and drums as opposed to piano trio. Different angles and colors.
~ If you liked FLY’s Sky & Country, don’t miss Diego Barber’s Calima, featuring the young nylon-string guitarist with, well, FLY — Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard. I’m an acoustic guitar freak, so naturally I’d find more to love on the Barber release.
~ If you liked Tyshawn Sorey’s trio release Koan, try Samuel Blaser’s Pieces of Old Sky, with Sorey’s lineup (Sorey/Thomas Morgan/Todd Neufeld) plus Blaser on trombone. The aesthetic is similar, but the horn adds breath and a deeper well of mournful mystery.
~ If you liked Mike Reed’s About Us, the second release from his chordless two-sax quartet People, Place & Things, you’ll also like Charles Rumback’s Two Kinds of Art Thieves. It shares not only the same instrumentation, but the same alto saxophonist, Greg Ward.
~ Speaking of Chicago players, the Windy City creative jazz scene continues to explode, with strong releases by James Falzone (Tea Music), Nicole Mitchell (Renegades), Rob Mazurek (Sound Is), Josh Berman (Old Idea), Aram Shelton (The Way, Two Cities), Herculaneum (Herculaneum III), Pluto Junkyard (Lucky 7s) and more.
~ The year in Monk tributes: A mammoth book by Robin D.G. Kelley; live commemorations at Town Hall from Jason Moran and Charles Tolliver; strong guitar albums by Peter Bernstein (Monk) and Bobby Broom (Plays for Monk); a Monk (and Ellington) duo record called Mockingbird, from pianist Jesse Stacken and trumpeter Kirk Knuffke; and three compelling versions of “Think of One,” from Robert Glasper (Double Booked), Kevin Hays (You’ve Got a Friend) and Sam Yahel (Hometown). The last is organist Yahel’s debut recording on acoustic piano, and a fine one.
~ The year in Stevie Wonder arrangements: David Ryshpan’s Indigone Trio gave us “Visions” (from Cycles, actually late 2008); Jen Chapin gave us Revisions: Songs of Stevie Wonder; Adam Rafferty gave us a DVD of Wonder for solo fingerstyle guitar.
~ The year in saxophone trios: Lots of momentum here since last year’s Recommended Tools by Donny McCaslin. In 2009 we got Marcus Strickland’s Idiosyncrasies, J.D. Allen’s
Shine, Jerome Sabbagh’s One Two Three, Joshua Redman’s double-trio disc Compass and of course FLY’s Sky & Country. Not to mention a left-field debut from altoist Darius Jones called Man’ish Boy (A Raw and Beautiful Thing).
~ End of jazz wars update: Altoist and 2008 Monk Competition winner Jon Irabagon released The Observer, featuring mainly Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Victor Lewis, about as straightahead a lineup as can be imagined. Irabagon also played in the quintet of guitarist Mary Halvorson, whose work is full-on outside, 180 degrees in the other direction. On a similar tip, pianist David Bryant appeared on Jen Shyu’s fairly experimental Jade Tongue, but also played straightahead jazz with Marcus Strickland (Of Song) and Myron Walden (Momentum).
5 Comments
On the Monk tip: Hollenbeck's versioning of "Four in One" as "Foreign One?"
Great recap, btw.
Thanks – oh, you're absolutely right, should have mentioned Hollenbeck!
While we're nitpicking, might I also add Vijay's version of "Big Brother" to the Stevie Wonder list?
Oh dammit, yes. Should have mentioned that too.
hey David, link is fixed at ABS — thanks!