Light Made Darker

Craig Taborn, Avenging Angel
ECM Records
 
Craig Taborn - piano
 
I’ve come to appreciate Craig Taborn due to an earlier CD, Light Made Lighter, his appearances on a couple of Drew Gress albums and his pivotal role on Michael Formanek’s The Rub and Spare Change. But Avenging Angel is a different beast. It sounds as if it might be fully improvised, yet each piece contains logic and structure. There’s a quiet intensity to it, even a sense of foreboding. It’s a nighttime CD, although more frenetic sections are contained within.
 
There’s a hint of vintage Jarrett in Taborn’s overt classical influences, the use of repetition in the development of certain pieces, the occasional sly allusions to gospel and the blues. But this is not to say we’re dealing with the rolling ostinatos of The Sun Bear Concerts, and Taborn definitely has his own approach. 

There are parts that gave me chills. If you even thought you might be a Taborn fan, get this. If you’re a solo piano fan, get this.

Jazz in the Seventies

When I think of Jazz during the Seventies, my reflexive thought is of a time when fusion ruled the planet, leading to an abuse of power and numerous excesses. Of course, there were a few jewels among the dross, but I think the tendency is to write off much of the work during that decade, as we waited for the Eighties to set us all straight (ahead).

A recent post by Pete C on Jazz Corner's Speakeasy got me thinking about the accuracy of my recollections, however. He opined that "Tyner's Milestone output is one of the great bodies of work in jazz, and is one of many proofs that the 1970s was far from a jazz wasteland." I also dug out Dexter Gordon's Homecoming set from 1976, and I had forgotten how great it sounded. So, here is the start of a list of all that was great about Jazz in the Seventies, from a non-fusion perspective: 

- McCoy's Milestone albums

- Dexter Gordon's return to the U.S., including the Homecoming album

- Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra's albums

- The golden age of ECM: many classic albums during this time

- Several albums on CTI that successfully navigated between commercial accessibility and sufficient Jazz content

- The series of albums on Horizon

- The series of albums on Artist's House

- The emergence of Anthony Davis and the "New Haven" scene, including the albums on India Navigation

- The loft jazz scene: Studio Rivbea et al

- Anthony Braxton's series of albums for Arista

- The new West Coast players like David Murray 

Anyone care to add?

4/20/11 What I'm Listening To

Louis Armstrong and King Oliver 

Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines 

Sidney Bechet - Portrait 

Duke Ellington - Live at Newport 

Mal Waldron - Mal One and Two

Red Garland - Saying Something

Circle - Circulus

Bob James - One 

Thad Jones and Mel Lewis - Suite for Pops

Sonny Fortune - Awakening 

Dexter Gordon - Homecoming 

Steve Lehman - Camoflage

4/14/11 What I'm Listening To

Charles Brackeen, Rhythm X
Ornette and Prime Time, Opening The Caravan of Dreams
Walter Davis, Jr., Davis Cup
Ingrid Laubrock & Anti-House, live in Austria 8/28/10
Bill Evans/Tony Scott Quartet, Complete Recordings
Kaufmann/Dresser/Eisenstadt, Starmelodics
Anthony Braxton, Three Orchestras (GTM) 1998

Lesser Known Trumpeters

Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music blog referenced a nice, informative post about some of the great, but lesser known, trumpeter players through the years. It's on a blog called Curt's Jazz Cafe. It's worth checking out; one of them, Louis Smith, I wasn't familiar with.

A Great Time for Jazz

There was a recent post in JazzCorner's Speakeasy Forum that stated that "The players in New York are too busy slinging old hash around at Smalls or bellowing to the rafters at the Stone, while everybody else seems more fascinated by beeps and blips—you know, "texture"—than music." 

I agree to a point, but right now is an incredibly fertile time for Jazz that combines composition with improvisation in interesting ways. Some of the players who I think are emblematic of this area are Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Ingrid Laubrock, Kris Davis, Satoko Fujii, Myra Melford (note how many are women), John Hebert, Tyshawn Sorey, Ken Filiano, Harris Eisenstadt, Liberty Ellman, Russ Lossing, Adam Lane, Matt Bauder, Nate Wooley, John Hollenbeck, Tomas Fujiwara (note how many are drummers), Tony Malaby and Peter Evans. I'm sure I've left many people out as well. 

There was a recent post in that same Forum about the meaning of Third Stream Music. I think a lot of what these artists produce could be considered a new type of Third Stream, one that integrates many types of musics with jazz and creates an organic blend in which the elements mesh seamlessly. 

This is a great time to love Jazz, even if it puts a strain on your wallet!