HomeMusic The week on disc (25)

The week on disc (25)

August 25, 2008 By dev Comments are Off

In case you missed the last one…

Glenn White, Sacred Machines (OA2): Smoking, evocative originals by the tenor saxophonist and a quintet (sometimes sextet). Produced by David Binney. The second horn is Jamie Baum’s flute — a refreshing twist. Roberta Piket, Gary Wang, Jeff Hirshfield and Patrick Hay play forcefully and beautifully.

David Murray & Mal Waldron, Silence (Justin Time): A lost 2001 session. Wish there were more of Murray’s bass clarinet, but we hear it on the opening Waldron-Roach number “Free for C.T.” and the closing “Soul Eyes.” The 10-minute reading of “Jean-Pierre,” Miles Davis’s hypnotic eight-bar theme, moves from spooky pedal point harmony to saloon-style blues.

Darrell Katz & Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, The Same Thing (Cadence): Crazy, avant-garde, third-stream, god-knows-what big band composition that manages to stay in touch with what Julius Hemphill called “the hard blues.” The title track is an old Willie Dixon tune; “Everybody Loves Ray Charles” romps in a similar vein. Jim Hobbs’s alto is a killer. A tiny sample of Paula Tatarunis’s text on “I’m Me and You’re Not (Ha Ha)”:

Tonight our band is Me Myself and I.
They’re known, in France, as Trinite Nouvelle.
Self-expression is their specialty —
contrary motion, mirrored intervals,

counterfugue, inversion, counterpoint,
retrograde antiphonals — oh, they’re
them alright, and it’s a jumpin’ joint.
I recommend the prime rib, bloody rare.
Elio Villafranca, The Source In Between (Ceiba Tree): There’s not enough rhythmic firmness and punch in the Cuban pianist’s line playing, but his new batch of originals is fiery, thanks to Eric Alexander on tenor, Yosvany Terry on alto, Dafnis Prieto on drums and more.

Satoko Fujii’s ma-do, Heat Wave (Not Two): If there’s a more prolific jazz musician on the planet, I don’t think I want to know. The Japanese pianist has also given us Cloudy Then Sunny (with John Hollenbeck), Trace a River (with Jim Black) and a few others to mark her upcoming 50th birthday. Her ma-do, a Japanese acoustic quartet, is bound for Philly on September 3.

Bob Gullotti/Leo Genovese/Dave Zinno, Planet Safety (Soul Note): Burning, open trio music from the Fringe bassist and Genovese, one of the most gifted young pianist-keyboardists on the scene. He’s effective in Esperanza Spalding’s pop-jazzy band but really gets loose here.

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