February 2024 Jazz Record Reviews

Chien Chien Lu: Built In System
Lu, vibraphone; three others
Giant Step Arts GSA 010 (CD). 2023. Lu, Jimmy Katz, prods.; Katz, James Kogan, engs.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½

In jazz, it’s uncommon for a label to develop into a purpose in itself to purchase an album. At numerous factors in historical past, there have been such imprints: Blue Note, Riverside, ECM. Giant Step Arts is far smaller however belongs on this distinguished firm, artistically, sonically, and graphically.

Chien Chien Lu, initially from Taiwan, is an imaginative, full, authentic vibraphonist. Her early skilled expertise has principally been in a band led by trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, who seems on Built In System. It is essentially the most "straight-ahead" of GSA’s 10 releases to this point, however it feels very important and recent. The eight tracks are Lu originals, all completely different, all meticulously assembled, all intriguing in themselves and extra intriguing as foundations for improvisation.

Lu is fast, fluent, and instinctively lyrical on her instrument. When she solos, she thinks in lengthy strains and swish, flowing kinds. She is much less concerned about calling consideration to her chops than in celebrating the distinctive, resonant great thing about the vibraphone. The impression of selflessness extends to Pelt, who creates with focus and feeling inside Lu’s songs. Like Lu, he serves the music. Lu writes melodies that linger within the thoughts ("Träumerei" is a particular instance) and sometimes lets Pelt outline them first whereas she fills in a panorama of significant particulars, throughout him. Her comping is as distinctive as her soloing.

Lu’s preparations exploit the wealthy sonorities made attainable by her band’s uncommon vibraphone/trumpet entrance line. But the perfect observe could also be one with out Pelt, "Full Moonlight." Alone with intuitive bassist Richie Goods and delicate drummer Allan Mednard, Lu unfolds a quiet, deep, fervent private testomony.

Joel Ross, Sasha Berliner, Patricia Brennan, and Simon Moullier are main a vibraphone revival in jazz. Add Chien Chien Lu’s identify to that record.Thomas Conrad

Mareike Wiening: Reveal
Wiening, drums; 5 others
Greenleaf GRE-CD-1106 (CD). 2023. Wiening, prod.; Aaron Nevezie, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½

To date, the profession of Mareike Wiening has been pretty typical for a European jazz musician. She skilled in classical music in Germany, switched to jazz, got here west to pursue a grasp’s diploma at NYU, gigged on the New York scene for six years, and moved again to Germany. What is much less typical is that she has stored a quintet collectively for 9 years, with three Americans and a countryman. This band has now made three sturdy albums.

Wiening is on the rising record of impactful feminine jazz drummers. As a drummer, she is nuanced, clear and selective. As a composer, she crafts cautious, full, well-proportioned designs. As a bandleader, she conceives ensemble environments which can be wealthy in themselves and that urge her collaborators into inventive movement.

"Encore" and "The Girl by the Window" are consultant. Both are rapt melodic moods, the primary launched by Felscher’s darkly brooding bass, the second developed by Glenn Zaleski’s elegiac piano. Then Wiening offers each bit to a second soloist. On "Encore," it’s Rich Perry, one of many nice unsung tenor saxophonists in jazz. Quietly, passionately, he rewrites Wiening’s tune however stays true to its spirit. On "The Girl by the Window," A-list trumpeter Dave Douglas, a visitor on the album, fantastically blends Wiening’s concepts along with his personal.

The solely tune not written by Wiening is an surprising however impressed selection: "Balada," from nineteenth century Romanian classical composer Ciprian Porumbescu. But it belongs to Wiening as a lot as the opposite tracks right here, as a result of her association reimagines it within the language of her band. Wiening initiates the delicate rhythmic power. Then she permits Perry, Felscher, and guitarist Alex Goodman to current their responses to Porumbescu’s solemn, mysterious melody as Zaleski threads superb strands of piano by means of all of it.Thomas Conrad

Billy Mohler: Ultraviolet
Mohler, bass; Shane Endsley, trumpet; Chris Speed, tenor saxophone, clarinet; Nate Wood, drums
Contagious Music CGM008 (CD, accessible as LP). 2023. Dan Seeff, prod.; Pete Min, eng.
Performance ***½
Sonics ***½

Some of the knowledge within the press launch for Ultraviolet could trigger trepidation amongst purists. Bassist Billy Mohler is claimed to have "pop sensibilities." (He has performed with Macy Gray, Dolly Parton, and Ringo Starr.) Mohler and producer Dan Seeff employed "distinctive post-production methods to layer shifting sounds in every tune."

But purists can calm down. Ultraviolet is one thing useful and arduous to seek out: actual jazz for the plenty. If you’ve got ever wished for a file that may very well be used to indoctrinate associates with "pop sensibilities" into jazz, Mohler is your man.

His tunes are exuberant, catchy, and all concerning the groove. His bass strains set their hooks deep. Those post-production methods create delicate results that develop the sonic panorama of the music. Mohler’s 20-year involvement with the Los Angeles studio scene has not dulled the jazz chops he initially honed on the Berklee College of Music. Another purpose why this approachable music is actual jazz is the sidemen. Chris Speed, Shane Endsley, and Nate Wood possess unassailable jazz credentials. Speed is a fearless, free-thinking tenor saxophone improviser. Endsley is a take-no-prisoners trumpeter. They don’t simplify their work to play with Mohler, however they do provide much less diffuse, extra on-point solos, and so they take part absolutely on this album’s celebration of groove.

Take "Evolution." Speed and Endsley sound like themselves, which is edgy. But Mohler incorporates their daring into his overarching goal. His relentless bass ostinato and Wood’s crashing, hissing cymbals generate one thing uncommon in hardcore jazz: a beat you’ll be able to dance to. There is one concession to the quick consideration spans related to up to date "pop sensibilities": Ultraviolet is just 32 minutes lengthy.Thomas Conrad

Ambrose Akinmusire: Owl Song
Akinmusire, trumpet; Bill Frisell, guitar; Herlin Riley, drums
Nonesuch (WAV). 2023. Akinmusire, prod.; Adam Muñoz, Dave Darlington, engs.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

Ambrose Akinmusire continues to develop his musical palette. After scoring a movie (Blindspotting), writing for strings and voice (The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint), and showing on a hip hop landmark (To Pimp a Butterfly), the gifted trumpeter returns right here to jazz exploration.

Akinmusire, who’s been enjoying professionally since highschool, is a person of many moods and textures. Here, in a spare trio setting recorded at twenty fifth Street Recording Studio in his hometown Oakland, California, he showcases the reflective aspect of his inquisitive conception, one which’s usually extra expansive than "jazz" implies.

Drummer Herlin Riley and the good guitarist Bill Frisell, each completed texturalists, are good collaborators for Akinmusire’s angular, plaintive statements. "There was one thing great about paring all the pieces again to simply this one area, with three individuals enjoying stay, and us creating inside its limits," he has mentioned concerning the album. "When there are only some devices, you understand that moods are fragile and issues can come aside shortly." The title ballad seems in two variations. The first states the rising melody with Frisell including near-perfect stringed accompaniment to Akinmusire’s musings. "Owl Song 2" is slower, with Riley’s hushed, delicate rhythms, Akinmusire stretching strains, Frisell mirroring his tones and tempo.

In the darkly melodic "Flux Fuelings," the trumpeter’s pure tone stays in its higher vary as Frisell explores the low finish of his instrument. Tonal decisions sway forwards and backwards on "Mr. Frisell," the place the guitarist sensitively duets with the chief. The session’s most upbeat quantity, "Mr. Riley" swings as Akinmusire solos to Riley’s imaginative progressions. Another worthy chapter within the lifetime of a multidimensional artist.Robert Baird

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February 9, 2024 at 05:38PM