Jazz 08 Part Two: Superlatives!

Chances are you read my end-of-the-year essay on the state of jazz (I pronounced it alive and well, albeit in a sub-cultural way) and said to yourselves, "damn, what insight," but I'm glad to see that someone disagrees with me on Sonny Rollins. I have heard from numerous (occasionally reliable, but mostly drunken) sources that Sonny is as great as ever live. I heard his new record (review forthcoming), and I suppose it's good; there just isn't anything new or ground-breaking about it, especially in a year in which Marian McPartland plays free jazz and Lee Konitz releases albums with teenage wunderkinds. I also saw him live a year or so ago at Lincoln Center and was dully unimpressed; granted, word on the street is that Sonny has on nights and off nights going back to the fifties. Either way, the point of this post is not to argue about Sonny Rollins' relevance to the jazz world right now, but to name some superlatives as a companion piece to my top ten, which will make it to this site in the near future.

Biggest Upset: Jon Irabagon's surprising (yet well deserved) win at this year's Monk Competition

Craziest Saxophone Solo: Greg Tardy's absurdly funky, out choruses on Bill Frisell's version of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come."

Most Likely to Cut An Idol: Rudresh Mahanthappa; just check out the fours he trades with Kadri Gopalnath on the title track of "Kinsmen."

Best Straight Bluegrass Record from A Jazz Musician: Charlie Haden's "Rambling Boy"

Most Meteoric Rise: This one's a tie. Esperanza Spalding, who was pretty much unknown outside of dorky jazz circles last year, released a hit record and was named Rising Star Bassist of the Year in Downbeat. Mathias Eick, who has played on every Norwegian record with a trumpet in the past few years, gained international acclaim at the final IAJE Conferencer ever and released one of the best albums of the year with "The Door."

Hippest Singer You've Probably Never Heard of: Becca Stevens

Jazz' Most Beloved Indie Pop Duo: The Bird and the Bee

Jazz' Most Beloved Bluegrass Duo: Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer

Movement to Gain Most Steam: Rural Jazz

Least Likely to Release an Album for Another Ten Years: Brian Blade

Most Predictable Yearly Downbeat Poll: This is a tough one. Most years this category would wind up being a tie between Downbeat's annual Critic's Poll and Downbeat's annual Readers' Poll, but I suppose the edge this year goes to the readers, who were so predictable that I wish I had done a "guess the Readers' Poll" feature.

Quite DAPPer

Andy Milne hates it when people compare his music to that of his mentor, the M-Base founder and possibly the most important figure in 80s jazz: Steve Coleman. In interviews, Milne tries to dodge the subject of Steve Coleman's leadership, and instead attempts to steer the conversation away from his time in Coleman's band and towards his solo work. It's kind of stupid, in all honesty, because when you listen to Milne's band, Dapp Theory, you can hear that it is absolutely permeated with Coleman's influence; the odd-meter funk, the hip-hop influence, the spoken word vocals- it's all pure Coleman. But it also isn't. Milne has taken Coleman's music and done something a little bit different with it. Yeah, it's a pretty subtle difference. But it's enough that makes Dapp Theory one of the most interesting bands around right now.

"Layers of Chance" is Dapp Theory's second record, and its first in five years. There are numerous personnel changes from 2003's "Y'all Just Don't Know," but the most notable is the contribution of young alto and soprano saxophonist Loren Stillman, who is new here. Stillman, once a child prodigy, is interesting for his biggest influences; in terms of his tone and ideas, his major idols seem to be Lee Konitz and Steve Coleman (with more Konitz than Coleman, oddly enough), not exactly an easy combination to reconcile. He sounds great here, and has chances to solo on almost every track; his work on "Three Duets" is particularly cool, in spite of the fact that there are apparently no actual duets. Stillman keeps the record unpredictable, playing licks that would sound out of place on a Steve Coleman or Greg Osby record, but that somehow seem to fit fine here.

The title track of "Layers of Chance" also adds some new voices (literally) with contributions from Latanya Hall and Becca Stevens. Stevens seems poised to be the new Cassandra Wilson, with an interesting and not particularly "JAZZ" album, "Tea Bye Sea," and a (the) starring role in Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra project. Milne has never been averse to using singers in his work, and has collaborated with folk musician Bruce Cockburn before. The most interesting contribution from a voice, however, is not melodic; John Moone, credited with "percussive poetry," does just that. As his credit would suggest, Moone acts as a percussionist, creating an added layer of rhythm to the proceedings with his poems.

The album, like anything good influenced by Steve Coleman, is incredibly funky. Tracks like "Bodybag for Martin" and "Monk Walks" would be danceable if they weren't, you know, in odd times that make them impossible to dance to. Milne, like Coleman, isn't interested in soothing purists, and so "Layers of Chance" is all over the place, and isn't "straight ahead" in any sense of the term. That said, I would recommend it to adventurous listeners.

Record Reviews: "Karibu," "Enjoy"

I don't think there's any question that Lionel Loueke is probably THE guitar player working right now (or at least THE post-Rosenwinkel, post-big three guitar player). I suppose Mike Moreno is trying to make a claim at that, what with all of his sideman work for Josh Redman, Nick Payton, Greg Osby, and too many others to mention, but Loueke's legend is much better-known: after an audition for the Monk Institute (during which Loueke played "Footprints," no less), Wayne Shorter stood up and exclaimed Loueke his African brother, and Hancock hired him on the spot to be in his working band.

Loueke has just released a new record, his fifth overall and first for Blue Note, and like a number of recent Blue Note debuts by young artists (Robert Glasper's "Canvas" from a few years back comes to mind), this album is buried under annoyingly glossy production and features appearances by Loueke's more established friends. Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter both show up on this album, to it's detriment; the tracks with Shorter and Hancock break the flow of the record, and the tracks they appear on are formless. Additionally, the chorus effect that shows up on a few tracks ("Karibu," "Nonvignon") takes urgency away from Loueke's performance.

That said, however, there is a lot to like about this album. Loueke's originals are as good as ever, as is his guitar playing. And while performances of songs that he has already played before on numerous occasions don't compare to the other versions ("Benny's Tune," "Nonvignon"), they show that Loueke is always looking for different ways to play his songs. I'd recommend this album, but tepidly; the songs and performances could have been great if only they weren't mired by the production.

"Enjoy," the first effort by Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra, is a very interesting record. If you can imagine a combination of the big band pop covers of the late sixties ("Mercy Mercy Mercy" by Buddy Rich, "Basie's Beatle Bag") and Charlie Haden's Liberation Orchestra circa 1982 ("Song of the Fallen" is a great record that no one ever listens to) that is solely devoted to the repertoire of Bjork Gudmundstudder, you can imagine what Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra sounds like.

The album has some great contemporary big-band arrangements, calling to mind Dave Holland's work in the idiom to a degree, and everyone's playing (the band includes Alan Ferber, Ben Monder, Sullivan, and another fifteen people) is pretty killer. The stand-outs are "Hyperballad," "Alarm Call" and "Hunter," but each arrangement has something to recommend about it. In all honesty I was surprised at how well this record worked. Highly recommended.