Hot on the heels of his trombonist brother Roland’s impressive playing on John Alvey’s recent Loft Glow comes this Jazz Music City release by saxophonist Rahsaan Barber, his fourth for the Nashville label. No prizes for guessing whom the Barbers senior named their twins after.
There’s an eight-part suite reflecting the power of music through six words – inspire, unify, heal, grieve, protest and expression – and it’s a melodic piece of mainly ensemble work with the emphasis on composition and arrangement. But it also incorporates imaginative solos by each musician, from the thoughtful and contemplative (The Long Wait For Justice and Remembering Roy), to the danceable (Sun Dance), whilst cutting loose with greater abandon on Dreams Of Goliath.
There are fine excursions from pianist Matt Endahl, but it’s the front line of the Barbers and trumpeter Pharez Whitted that attracts attention, showing they can mix the rough and forceful equally with the lyrical and expressive, at times bringing to mind the enduring influence of Wayne Shorter. As a bonus there’s an extra eight-minute track, not included on the listing, which serves as a coda, giving each player several bars soloing with ensemble support.
Michael Sarian: Live At Cliff Bell’s (Shifting Paradigm Records SP208)
Trumpeter Michael Sarian and his quartet recorded this live at Cliff Bell’s, a Detroit art-deco styled club built in 1935 with proceeds from Bell’s lucrative years running speakeasies during prohibition. Some of the tracks have an Armenian influence running through, whether directly, on Yis Ku Ghimetn Chim Gidi (translated as I Don’t Know Your True Meaning, a poem by 18th century Armenian poet Sayat Nova) and Glass Mountain, or indirectly, Portrait Of Haile, relating to the Ethiopian ruler who saved a group of Armenian musicians who had fled genocide.
The more contemplative Aurora is a meditation on the killings in the town in Illinois, and no doubt a reflection on the manifest imprudence of American gun laws.
For those unfamiliar with Sarian’s work, there are similarities of style and approach to Enrico Rava, evidenced through the opener, Primo, as well as on The Pilgrim, a direct tribute to Rava’s 1975 recording The Pilgrim And The Stars (ECM). This could be described as mid-60s Miles Davis with free-form elements and this mixture is in the final piece, Living At The End Of The World, a blues-orientated number with tempo changes, in which the rhythm section continues its thoughtful, and often assertive, support. Pianist Santiago Leibson, bassist Martin Kenney and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell all deliver worthwhile contributions throughout the album, both collectively and individually.
John Butcher, Florian Stoffner, Chris Corsano: The Glass Changes Shape (Relative Pitch Records RPR1207)
Another live concert, this time at the Loft, Cologne and with a very different approach to improvisation. Guitarist Florian Stoffner, saxophonist John Butcher and drummer Chris Corsano are all mainstays of European improvised music, having played and recorded together over the last couple of years, and this is a good reflection of their collaboration and interaction.
Butcher is possibly the most familiar to readers and he is well known for his variations of style as he ranges from delicate sparks through abrasive trills and rasps, blurring notes and foghorn depths. Nor is he averse to entering the lush lower register of Webster-land.
He’s complemented by Stoffner, who opens his box of tricks to reveal a cornucopia of sounds – bowed and scraped strings, sinewy to distort the sound; flurries of pops and stops; bent, sliding and single-note appendages, often done with precision and clarity. Corsano drops in and out, providing a curiously adhesive wall, albeit fragmented, to which the other two are firmly linked, a bonding for the turbulence and a springboard for commotion.
In the past Butcher has shown his ornithological leanings, overtly or otherwise, and these are never far away, Territorial Songbirds is a giveaway, from gravelly rooks to high-pitched wrens. Even Corsano pitches in, with woodpecker sounds on Terminal Buzz.
Although on the surface there may be elements of chaos, an underlying sense and structural building blocks keep the listener engrossed, whether it’s on the creaks, drips and floating disturbance of Hidden Bell and Gentle Wiring, or the open and expansive Homer’s Lizard, uninhibited and direct. An absorbing album, worthy of repeated listening.
Monkin’ Around: 4 In 1 (Ubuntu Music UBU179)
In 1971 I saw Thelonious Monk during the Giants of Jazz tour with a close friend, Jeff Langford. He was the ideal companion as he had written articles, Monk’s Horns, for Jazz Journal earlier in the year. He had made the point that as Monk had a horn-like tone it was not surprising that his influence should have been primarily on horn players.
This excellent release illustrates this, underlining the idea with five tracks of pianoless trio in which bassist Luke Fowler and drummer Billy Pod help saxophonist and Monk devotee Dave O’Higgins explore the space and freedom Monk’s compositions give the horn player. The other tracks have either a quartet or quintet, effectively adding pianist Sean Fyfe and trumpeter Martin Shaw. The results show the interpretive skill and dedication of the musicians well as they develop the themes and mix the simple and complex.
Evidence, Off Minor, Epistrophy, the title track Four In One and others are all here, reworked and losing none of their originality, although with less of the disjunctive pianistic surprise of their creator. A few lesser-known ones appear, including Two Timer, which Monk himself never recorded (his son, TS Monk, was later to do so), but which appeared on Jackie McLean’s Blue Note album A Fickle Sonance as Five Will Get You Ten, attributed to pianist Sonny Clark. The story was that Clark had pocketed the music whilst at the flat of Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter and put the proceeds towards his addiction. Later issues correct it to include Monk as co-writer.
This was an encouraging and uplifting end to the year. All this monastic stimulation had me delving into the Monk shelf – the perfect antidote to the seasonal shopping mall sounds of Slade, Lennon and Mariah Carey echoing in my head. Happy new year!