Ben Crosland Quintet: North York Skies
I’ll admit to knowing nothing of the titular skies, but given that the music inspired by them is, unusually for this era, melodically rich, unpretentious post-bop jazz I’ll admit to a certain hankering after seeing them.
Listening to the album while writing this also discloses the sound of five accomplished musicians thoroughly enjoying themselves as they go about the playing of Breathing Space, something which I guess a lot of us could do with these days, both literally and otherwise. Steve Waterman (on flugelhorn) states the theme with a grace far too uncommon in this era of technique-for-its-own-sake jazz, and his solo follows through on that with a sense of economy on a par with that of the late Art Farmer, while Crosland coaxes warm tones out of his bass guitar, and so highlights how that instrument can function nicely in a straightahead jazz context.
The embarrassment of elegant riches that is The View From Room 12 adds up to the kind of stress-buster music that exhibits a large portion of the kind of musical substance that comes with understatement as standard, and the work of a group that’s finely but not overly rehearsed. The result is beauty of an unassuming but telling order.
Ultimately I liked it a lot, certain in the knowledge that the music needs no hype, in the sense that it could sell itself to many people fortunate enough to hear it, and that the big marketing dollars will continue finding their way to the latest batches of earnest young people busily recycling their parents Grover Washington Jr., Eric Gale and Lonnie Liston Smith albums to widespread acclaim.
Discography
The Optimist; North York Skies; Howardian Undulations; Ballad Of Lilla Howe; The Blakey Lions; George And Monty; Breathing Space; Fat Betty; Purple Is The Colour; Vigilamus; The View From Room Twelve; Ain Howe Farewell. (67.04)
Steve Waterman (t, flh); Steve Lodder (p, elp, org); Chris Allard (g); Crosland (b); Nic France (d). Temple Music Studio, Sutton. 2-4 April 2023.
Jazz Cat JCCD 121
Jason Robinson: Blue Salience: For Yusef Lateef
Jazz has very much been in the business of dedications, “reimagining” and paying homage for a good while now, which makes this dense, rewarding set something of an anomaly in the sense that the music and the musician it’s for are by no means notable for continuity. Instead Robinson seems to have taken what might be regarded as the exploratory spirit of Lateef’s art and recorded legacy and brought forth music infused with his own sense of adventure. Robinson has 21 albums out there either exclusively under his own name or as a co-leader, and he is currently professor of music at Amherst College in the US. These biographical points are pertinent to the depth and substance of the music here.
If breadth and diversity are watchwords for creative jazz, as indeed they ought to be but only infrequently are, then Manifold Oneness exudes those qualities in abundance, from the nominally Ellingtonian figures in the brass to the ruminative quality that in varying degrees prevails throughout, all of it serving to emphasise how the music mitigates against notions of grandstanding or shouting. Indeed the feeling of the piece being a musical world in itself is underscored by the sea change from relatively predetermined to relatively spontaneous proceedings at around the 4.30 mark, this being a point at which substance becomes even greater, as do the demands asked of the listener.
This is one of those very rare instances where the 300-word limit on a review is inadequate. With that in mind I’ll hope that brief reference to Fathom (Remembering Water) can get the point that this is a body of music rich in character and personality across. The orchestration is sparse yet rich, dense yet becalmed, while solos from Michael Dessen on trombone and Bill Lowe on bass trombone (among others) enhance that setting.
Discography
CD1: The Curved Path; Soul Keepers (Title Sequence 1); Blue Salience; Fathom (Remembering Water); Bright Spirits; Equipoise; The Cabin (71.37)
CD2: Horizon; Manifold Oneness; Fifth Saga; The Heron; Gates Of Truth; The Golden Hue (63.43)
Robinson (pc, ts, af, tubular bells, cuica, syn, clav, train whistle; sleigh bells); Bijon Watson, Mike Piepman, Haneef Nelson, Zoe Murphy (t); Randy Pingrey, Chris Gagne, (tb); Angel Subero (btb); Bill Lowe (btb, tu, spoken word); Allan Chase (as, f, bar); Marty Ehrlich (as, f, bcl, Bb cl); Felipe Salles (ts, picc, f, af, Bb cl); Ian Buss (ts, f, Bb cl); Brian Landrus (bar, bcl, bf); Kevin Harris (p); Eric Hofbauer (g); Avery Sharpe (b); Richie Barshay (d, pc, tymp, gong, samba whistle); Michael Dessen (tb) on Fathom (Remembering Water). Terry Jenoure (vln, v) on Horizon plus special guests. Fraser Performance Studio, WGBH, Boston, 12-14 May 2025.
Circumvention Music 059
Francesca Han: Sisyphus
This album is a must for anyone who prefers their contemporary jazz exquisitely crafted, polite and in terms of volume and (lack of) variation of mood so unassuming that the ear (as indeed my ear did) might well become disengaged long before the album’s run its course.
Of the seven tracks only Cowelessi and Detour up the stakes from a mood of reserve bordering on a kind of timidity when it comes to any gesture that might be impolite or not in “the best possible taste”, but even here the many, many precedents for piano, bass and drums trios, particularly of the contemporary jazz persuasion, and more specifically those that find their way on to the ECM label, spring too easily to mind, and in a manner suggesting we might well have reached some sort of saturation point, or a point of no return.
If that can be reviewed as anything more than a rhetorical point then Chrysanthemum (For Kikuchi) changes the landscape slightly in view of its almost funereal tempo. Where once this approach might have drawn the listener in, when for example the likes of Paul Bley, Steve Swallow and Barry Altschul were making the music, here the result is music which suggests this trio has drunk deeply from that well without managing to bring much of themselves to proceedings.
Seventy four words to go. The solo bass intro to the title track recalls the work of Barre Phillips, albeit without the intrigue, and when the full trio pads softly in (sorry, any notion of kicking-in simply has no place in this music) they sound at their most engaged and by sheer dint of volume the ear pricks up and concerns about lack of identity can briefly be put on hold.
Discography
Petit Soleil; Chrysanthemum (For Kikuchi); Sisyphus; Circle; Cowelessi; Count Yourself; Detour (42.39)
Han (p); Takashi Sugawa (b); Shun Ishiwaka (d). Studio Dede, location unknown, 21 March 2017.
Hanji HJCD004
