Rich Rosenthal, Falling Up

Rich Rosenthal's album Falling Up (MSK 301) has real bite to it but also enough bark to warn you to pay attention. It's in a free-ish jazz zone without necessarily getting completely into the fire music aspect. The electricity and energy of Rosenthal's guitar has enough jolt that there is a near-rock edge, the compositions are well thought-out, the solos are hip and the rhythm section cooks with an easy sort of lope or undaunted determination, depending.

All compositions are by Rich save for Steve Lacy's "No Baby" and Jimmy Lyons' "Wee Sneezawee" (both good choices, underperformed in the repertoire). Rich is joined by the "talent-deserving-wider-recognition" Joe Giardullo on soprano. Then there's Craig Nixon on upright bass and Matt Crane at the drums.

Rich solos with an outside edge, sometimes with a kind of deliberation that works well and is a little rare in this kind of guitar style; at other points he swings for the musical fences and connects. He picks some hip chord voicings and can wind a phrase in ways that take it to the edge and keep your attention. Joe is someone to hear too, as always, and sounds well.

It's a disk that goes from station-to-station without flagging. It's a very nice guitar effort and it's equally cool on the group togetherness end.

Listen in, listen on...

Sarah Bernstein & Stuart Popejoy Go For A Big Sound on Iron Dog Field Recordings 1

Sara Bernstein embodies surprise. For example she teams up with bassist Stuart Popejoy and (for half the cuts) drummer Tommaso Cappellato in the series of live recordings from 2005-2006 we're taking a look at today. What's surprising about Iron Dog Field Recordings 1 (Iron Dog Music 001) is the kind of experimental metal approach. Sarah gets a big, electrified and sometimes distorted sound most of the time, as does Stuart.

It's not your everyday metal though. The notes, the wider melodic range, the improv approach (with or without the drums), all of this tends to put this in a league of its own. And it's also not always full-out, full-throttle electricity.

Whatever it is, you end up with the impression of being in the middle of some very original music. It has a drone aspect. It doesn't have a lot of harmonic movement, which is in keeping with the metal aspect.

This is a very interesting disk. It gives you yet another side of Sarah Bernstein the artist. And it will defy your expectations while providing some thought-provoking voltage readings.

Inzinzac: Avant Philadelphia Musical Madness At Its Best

The Philadelphia trio Inzinzac comes through with raw, wild, avant blasts of adventurous sound on their first, self-titled release (High Two 028). Alban Bailly skronks out on electric guitar and wrote the music; Dan Scofield shows some power on soprano and tenor; Eli Litwin mans the drums.

There are moments that have the scratchy asymmetry of Beefheart's Trout Mask band. There are jagged ensemble passages that invigorate the ears. There are abstract expressionist takes on jazz-rock that transform the premises of the form into something different. There are moments of anarchic frenzy that envelope the listener with waves of complexity.

Mr. Bailly has a guitar style somewhere between early Sonny Sharrock and perhaps Marc Ducret. It is an interesting approach. But it's the prearranged written compositional side of the band that shines forth most brightly.

It's not as if the band is covering territory never set foot on by musicians in the past. But they nevertheless get it right and hit you hard right in the aural lebanza. A serious, good, intense ear workout for the prepared. Encore!