Michel Petrucciani: Jazz Club Montmartre (Storyville Records 1038541)
This previously unreleased live double album from Copenhagen’s Jazzhus Montmartre features the French master in a magnificent trio with Gary Peacock (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). The trio existed only for a studio session in 1987 and a short European tour the next year, of which this recording is a document. At the Jazzhus they play six Petrucciani originals, plus standards and jazz standards.
The recording dates from the midpoint of Petrucciani’s meteoric career – 12 years after his Paris debut, and 11 before his untimely death. His disability meant that he was in constant pain, yet his playing reveals his joy and passion for life. As Wayne Shorter commented so beautifully, in conversation with David Hajdu in his book Heroes And Villains, “There’s a lot of people walking around, full-grown and so-called normal – they have everything that they were born with at the right leg length, arm length … but they live their lives like they are armless, legless, brainless, and they live their life with blame. I never heard Michel complain about anything … Michel was a great musician … ultimately, because he was a great human being…”
There is no Petrucciani album that is less than effervescent, and Jazz Club Montmartre is a storming, fiery celebration.
Drummer Roy Haynes died recently aged 99, and I was reminded of this wonderful quote from an interview by Philip Clark: “Thelonious Monk … once told me he thought that most drummers only had three favourite tempos that they could or would play. And if a pianist or saxophonist started a tune at any other tempo the drummer would gradually change it to one of those three tempos. To some extent he may have been right. I’ve grown more since I was with Monk in the late 1950s, but he called me a “bitchin’ drummer” which, coming from him, was a real compliment.”
I’m not certain about the tempos, but Monk’s comment is fully justified by Haynes’ playing on this album.
Among the originals, the standouts for me are She Did It Again and It’s A Dance. As well as being a fine composer, the pianist created masterly interpretations of standards and jazz standards – here, Autumn Leaves and an uptempo My Funny Valentine, with a storming calypso coda would you believe. The version of Ornette Coleman’s Turnaround is a rare (relative) failure. When compared with Hampton Hawes’ amazing interpretation on Charlie Haden’s The Golden Number – one of his greatest performances on record – it’s a rather anonymous blues. That track aside, there are riches here indeed.
Neta Raanan: Unforeseen Blossom (Giant Step Arts)
Tenor saxophonist Neta Raanan’s excellent debut as leader was recorded live at Brooklyn’s Bar Bayeux. Her partners are vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Simon Willson and drummer Kayvon Gordon. The saxophone-vibraphone combination echoes classic collaborations between Eric Dolphy and Bobby Hutcherson, and more recently Mark Shim and Stefon Harris – there are strong echoes of the latter partnership in Unforeseen Blossom. The producers are trumpeter Jason Palmer and drummer Nasheet Waits.
Unforeseen Blossom is a long album, entirely made up of original compositions by Raanan. Violet is a ballad with uptempo sections, while Blue Jay begins as postbop and becomes funk. Raanan has a soft, vibrato-laden tone. As she comments, “An airy sound came very naturally to me … influenced by the tone of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Ben Webster… It expresses an introspective warmth and smokiness”. Compositions are inventive, and improvisations are strong and compelling. This is an album that richly rewards close attention, and Neta Raanan is clearly a talent deserving the widest recognition.
Collin Sherman: Noir (Ex-tol Recordings EX0008)
On this solo album, Sherman plays acoustic instruments that are manipulated in the studio through loops and overdubs. Its spacious atmosphere contrasts with Sherman’s previous releases, with their focus on free jazz. In contrast, Noir is sparsely instrumented, deploying just Bb clarinet, electric cello and MIDI piano, with shruti box added to one track. The minimalist ethos is inspired by the chamber music of Cage-school master Morton Feldman – the opening track is titled For Feldman. As Sherman writes, “This project began as an attempt to approximate the music of Morton Feldman in an improvisational setting.”
He’d always felt that Feldman’s chamber ensemble pieces, like Clarinet and String Quartet (1983), Piano and String Quartet (1985) and Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello (1987) had a cinematic, film-noir quality, and appreciated their slow-moving harmonies. They inspired the album’s minimal instrumentation. As Sherman comments, the resulting pieces, though spare, are still busier than Feldman’s. As he explains, “I continued to explore various tones and harmonies while keeping with a consistent approach and instrumentation, the focus of the album as a whole started to drift away from the initial Feldman inspiration and became more of its own thing.”
Noir is a worthy attempt to apply the ethos of Morton Feldman to improvised music. The results are not totally pulling me in, and it’s a tough listen – but maybe, like some rewarding albums, it takes further listens before the listener is convinced. A worthwhile effort, in any case.
2024 favourites
This is always a tricky task, because of the plentiful production of really excellent albums – maybe we don’t have acknowledged masters of the stature of Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman… But there are players who may come to be recognised as great, and among these is pianist Kris Davis, whose Run The Gauntlet (Pyroclastic) is my album of the year. Other contenders include Bill Frisell: Orchestras (Blue Note), The Necks: Bleed (Northern Spy), Stephan Crump: Slow Water (Papillon Sounds) and The Mayfield: The Mayfield (Intakt).