Video for Airbag by Julio Resende Trio

Here's a video of the Radiohead song Airbag performed by the Julio Resende Trio, with photos by Ann LT:

The (Real) Art of The Trio

Achim Kaufmann, Verivyr
Pirouet

Achim Kaufmann – Piano
Valdi Kolli – Bass
Jim Black - Drums

Achim Kaufmann should be considered in the top rank of jazz pianists, but his albums don't seem to get as much attention as they deserve. I first became aware of him with the release of Double Exposure (Leo) with Michael Moore and John Hollenbeck, and his album Starmelodics (Nuscope) with Mark Dresser and Harris Eisenstadt is a little gem.

Verivyr got a 5 star review on Stef's blog, and it's hard to quibble with the rating. It has the perfect blend of abstraction and beautifully melodic playing that is unique to Kaufmann.

Jim Black has been a great engine for Satoko Fujii's trio, and he's equally magnificent here, giving just the right amount of coloration and drive. I wasn't familiar with Valdi Kolli, but he proves to be an adept partner, interacting as an equal.

Julio Resende Trio, You Taste Like A Song 

Clean Feed 

Julio Resende – Piano 

Ole Morten Vagan – Bass
Joel Silva - Drums
Joao Custodio – Bass on Track 8
Bruno Pedroso – Drums on Track 3

This record caught me off guard; it's tender and lyrical and touching without lapsing into sentimentality. It has relatively straightforward melodies, rhythms, harmonies - everything I usually hate! But You Taste Like A Song really moved me.

It’s almost become a cliché for jazz pianists to include a Radiohead song, and I rolled my eyes when I saw Resende had done the same. But he takes Airbag, a song I’m not familiar with, and crafts a beautiful reverie. Later in the set he tackles a John Mayer tune with equally good results.

Song is lyrical but not easy listening. Resende throws in some curveballs to keep it interesting, like playing inside the piano or chopping up the rhythms when he improvises

Listening to this reminded me of those times when you were a kid lying on the side of a hill, looking up at the clouds going by, trying to grasp the universe and your place in it. It's a beautiful listening experience.

Sam Rivers Has Passed

People are posting on Jazzcorner's Speakeasy that Sam Rivers has passed away. He was a magnificent saxophonist and composer from Oklahoma who studied at the Boston Conservatory, and who first came to national attention with a short stint in Miles Davis' Quintet in the early 60's. His intense, often gut-wrenching style wasn't a good fit for that band, but he went on to record some wonderful dates for Blue Note during the rest of that decade and for Impulse in the 1970's. He's also notable for being a pioneer in the NYC "Loft Jazz" movement by opening Studio Rivbea. The Wildflowers sessions, originally released on Alan Douglas' label, were recorded there.

He eventually moved to Orlando, Florida in the early 90's, where he cultivated a group of sympathetic musicians to play his music, many of whom worked in the theme park orchestras around the area. Some of his recent big band performances were recently released by Mosaic Records as a Mosaic Select set called Trilogy.

I remember walking into my local record store as a high schooler in the 70's and picking up his Blue Note Reissue Series two-fer Involution. That record blew me away, his intense style really speaking to me. He's always been one of my favorite tenor players, with a style above Coltrane in my opinion. I was less enthralled with his soprano and flute playing, but I tend to like those horns less no matter who is playing them.

If you've never heard Rivers' work, a good place to start is with one of the reissues of his Blue Note work, such as Fuschia Swing Song or Contours. He was also part of a classic ECM date by Dave Holland, Conference of the Birds with Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. If you can find a copy of  Crystals, his big band recording on Impulse from 1974, grab it.

Here's probably Sam Rivers' best known composition, Beatrice, named after his wife:

Brutal Juice

7k Oaks, Entelechy
die Schachtel

Alfred 23 Harth – Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, Pocket Trumpet, Electronics
Luca Venitucci – Keyboards
Massimo Pupillo – Bass
Fabrizio Spera – Drums

I read a review of this on Stef’s blog and was intrigued enough to give it a go, especially since I’ve been a fan of Alfred 23 Harth since his POPendingEYE came out back in 1992. I’ve hardly seen his name since, however. Entelechy (“a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality”) grabs you from the start, with electronic noise, bass feedback and skittering, nervous drums setting a menacing tone, Hearth joining in like the unholy love child of Albert Ayler and Peter Brotzmann. The intensity lets up only in spots on the first track, Seon Avalanche, but through it all there's a cohesion between the four; they listen and react like the most seasoned jazz group.

The middle section of the concert, marked on the disc as Tracks 2 and 3, lets in a little more light, and Hearth gives an impassioned reading of Chic's (!) At Last I Am Free to close the set that made the hair on my arms stand up, his gruff tenor cutting right to your soul. 

It's a white knuckle ride, so strap on your strap on and brace yourself…

Samuel Blaser Quartet in Action

Here's a clip of the Quartet playing part of the Boundless suite:

Regarding Nicholas Payton's Blog Post

Recently trumpeter Nicholas Payton posted on his blog a free verse rumination of why Jazz isn't cool anymore. It's definitely worth reflecting upon, and I agree with some, though not all, of what he says. Two main ideas stuck out for me:
 
"People are holding on to an idea that died long ago.  
Jazz, like the Buddha, is dead.  
Let it go, people, let it go."
 
Jazz, if you define the music very narrowly, is not exactly dead, but more accurately a codified art form. There's still a lot of people playing traditional jazz across the world, and the rules are well-known by now. However, if you define jazz broadly, there's a wealth of musicians taking different influences and incorporating them with the language of jazz. To me, it's a very vibrant art form, although that doesn't necessarily equate to being popular.
 
"It’s the colonialist mentality that glorifies being treated like a slave.  
There is nothing romantic about poor, scuffling Jazz musicians."
 
I believe that anyone who is playing jazz/improvised music as a profession is probably scuffling, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.