Unleashed Cooperation: Trust (MultiKulti MPPA005)
New to me, the superb Polish ensemble Unleashed Cooperation features Krzysztof Kusmierek (ts), Patryk Rynkiewicz (t), Patryk Matwiejczuk (p), Flavio Gullotta (b) and Stanislaw Aleksandrowicz (d) – with Anna Gadt (v) contributing compelling lyrics and vocalese to four of the eight tracks which make up the 44 minutes of the all-original programme. Hear her especially on the two (post-Urszula Dudziak) suspended yet ascensional “sound poems” that are Coincidence 1 & 2 and the now melancholic, now vivid Laura’s Theme.
I don’t get to hear all that much new Polish jazz. But what I have heard and reviewed recently for JJ has been very good. I’ve been particularly impressed by trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski’s two releases on April Records, the eponymous debut that was Tomasz Dabrowski and The Individual Beings and the subsequent Better.
The name of Dabrowski’s group was inspired by the musical and spiritual legacy of the late Tomasz Stanko, the music likewise – albeit very much in its own register. Similarly, marked as it is by both the blazing affirmation and the deeply reflective lyricism of the sort of Slavic soulfulness one associates with Stanko and his legendary associate, the pianist Krzysztof Komeda, it’s hard not to intuit the presence of ancestral spirits in this utterly compelling music from Unleashed Cooperation – their second release, following the 2022 debut Eight Years.
Equally, however, it’s impossible not to be struck by the way this rhythmically vibrant yet space-conscious, limpid and beautifully wrought music is as creatively fresh and arresting dynamically as it is poetically mesmeric in its flowing, often intimate melodic sensibility. Here is a tempered cornucopia of most intelligent, sensitive yet impassioned individual musicianship and exemplary group interaction; diverse, nourishing grooves and arresting ad libitum meditation.
Relish, e.g., the spare opening unison sax and trumpet phrases and initial mellow ambience of the intriguing String Theory, with its potent, ever-building coda; the initial lop-sided figures, shifting textures and eventual cooking swing of Strange Dream, or the liquid and building reveries of Beautiful Dream. And don’t miss the searing power of the tenor solo towards the end of the ostinato-pumped The Sea.
There have been many terrific releases in 2024 (see below, for example). But this cracking album, throughout as literate as it is imaginative and courageous, has to be my record of the year.
Arild Andersen: Landloper (ECM 751 2580)
The sleeve details Andersen as playing double bass and electronics throughout this June 2020 solo concert from Oslo’s Victoria National Jazz Scene. A short note, presumably from Andersen himself, tells us that ”Double-bass and effects pedals are the only instruments played on the recording. Not reverting to pre-recorded tracks, all of the loops were produced live, during the concert.”
Although the concert is relatively short at just a fraction over 34 minutes (with no announcements by Andersen and no intrusive applause from the appreciative audience) it features nine pieces, sometimes arranged in a suite-like manner. The level of the wide-ranging yet integrated programme, where Andersen consistently gets to the essence of things, and the surpassing quality of his singing sound and intonation, rhythmic flurries and melodic phrasing are such as to invite an immediate replay of the recital.
Of all the members of Norway’s so-called Big Four of the late 1960s and early 1970s – Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen – in the first decades of the current millennium, to my ears it is Andersen who has evinced the most imaginative and inspiring creativity. He has worked in all sorts of striking contexts, including sessions with Tommy Smith and Paolo Vinaccia, Vassilis Tsabropoulos and John Marshall, Carsten Dahl, Eivind Aarset, Nils Petter Molvaer and Patrice Héral; Markus Stockhausen, Stian Carstensen, Andy Sheppard and Ketil Bjørnstad, Yelena Eckemoff, Tore Brunborg and Jon Christensen; Clive Bell, Pat Metheny, Helge Lien and Gard Nilssen; Shri, Samo Solomon and Ra-Kalam Bob Moses, Marius Neset, Daniel Sommer and Rob Luft – and the 12-piece Trondheim Solistene (see the 2018 Victoria concert below).
Featuring the traditional Old Stev as well as pieces by Andersen (Dreamhorse, Landloper, Mira), Ram-Kalam Bob Moses (the opening, arco-led and hauntingly beautiful Peace Universal), Albert Ayler (Ghosts), Manning Sherwin (A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square), Ornette Coleman (Lonely Woman) and Charlie Haden (Song for Che) Landloper offers wondrous music from one of the finest improvisers of the past six and a half decades. Just what is it that they put in the milk up in Norway?
Louis Sclavis, Benjamin Moussay: Unfolding (ECM 656 1404)
French clarinettist and soprano saxophonist Sclavis (born 1953) has made a raft of diversely conceived, often richly textured albums for ECM and other labels. He can be a most assertive and exciting player rhythmically – I recall a splendidly charged gig at the Berlin Jazz Festival in the early 2000s – but is also known as a telling explorer of ad libitum moods and modes.
It’s that latter side of his personality which dominates here, in the company of his compatriot, the elegant pianist Moussay (born 1973). Sclavis sets his soprano aside and gives plenty of space to his measured and (sometimes) seemingly elegaic musings on bass clarinet. There are a few welcome passages of tempered ostinato impetus but mostly this is a mood-rich legato outing, very beautiful in its overall summoning of a limpid, impressionist-like reverie: sample Unfolding and Snow, the opening and concluding pieces.
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian: The Old Country (ECM 659 7656)
The front cover subtitle of this hugely enjoyable release – More from the Dear Head Inn – refers to the long highly rated 1992 ECM recording At The Dear Head Inn, while relatively short sleeve notes from both Jarrett and producer Manfred Eicher supply contextual information about this one-off meeting of this particular and rather special trio.
Never one especially drawn to modesty, Jarrett tells us “I think that you can hear on this tape, what jazz is all about.” Listen to the heart-melting solo introduction to I Fall In Love Too Easily, which sent me back to the transcendent beauty of Jarrett’s reading of I Loves You Porgy on the 1999 The Melody At Night, With You. Or groove to the snappy moves the trio essay on the Monk blues Straight No Chaser and Porter’s All Of You.
Further special delights include beautifully paced takes on Frank Churchill and Larry Morey’s Someday My Prince Will Come, Nat Adderley’s The Old Country and the Gershwins’ How Long Has This Been Going On. But in truth, there’s not a moment in these 74 or so minutes which will not bring a smile to your face – or, at times, a tremor to your heart. So yes, I guess this music, recorded with great sound by Bill Goodwin, is indeed “what jazz is all about”.
2024 favourite
Unleashed Cooperation: Trust (MultiKulti MPPA005) – see above for reasoning.