Simak Dialog, The 6th Story

The Indonesian fusion group Simak Dialog makes music like nobody else. They are into I believe by now their 6th album, aptly titled The 6th Story (MoonJune 056). It plays on my computer as I write this.

The new album continues the trajectory set by the others. A three-piece Indonesian percussion section lays down a hip combination of traditional rhythms and more fusoid beats. The bass guitar of Adhitya Pratama, the guitar of Tohpati, and the keys of Riza Arshad layer on top in a deft combination of contemporary fusion and melodically Indonesian elements.

Chick Corea in Java? Not exactly. Riza is the composer and engineer for these sides and he plays some very respectable keys, both solo and ensemble. His compositions have heft and much originality. Tohpati can rock-fuze out in his own original way and he does. The melody lines often feature intricate guitar-key lines that keep the ears perked up. And Tohpati gets some excellent guitar solos going now and again for you plectrum fans.

By now there is a very strong music meld between group members. They are tight and very simpatico. They may rock a little less hard on some numbers than on some previous albums but there is continuous flow throughout and the music is challenging in interesting ways, always.

It's another winner. You might do well to start with one of the earlier ones if you don't know the band (do a search in the appropriate window on this page for reviews of older albums), but this one gives you Simak Dialog in full bloom. Listen and dig!

Sao Paulo Underground, Tres Cabeças Loucuras

Sao Paulo Underground takes the fertile and endlessly productive Brazilian strains of samba and other indigenous outcroppings and combines them with modern electric jazz in some very new, creative ways. This you can hear to good effect on their latest, third album Tres Cabeças Loucuras (available as CD or LP)(Rune 325).

The group features cornet-composer extraordinaire Rob Mazurek, who has been doing some remarkable music in and around Chicago as well as around the world in various configurations (covered in these blogs), including his large ensemble Exploding Star Orchestra.

He teamed with Mauricio Takara, initially as a duet, to form the Sao Paulo Underground. The first recording was a duet (Takara is a very together drummer and percussionist, plays the cavaquinho, the small guitar often featured in Brazilian samba ensembles, and joins with Rob in giving the group sound colors from a battery of electronics). By now the band is more fully fleshed-out with the addition of Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics, samplers) and Richard Ribeiro (drums).

The third album is an unusual mix of rhythmic excitement, cornet-wielding goodness, hip tunes and neo-psychedelics. It's an excellent listen, modern and electric without a trace of cliche.

Sylvain Leroux, Quatuor Creole, Featuring Karl Berger

Pardon my week-long silence. Hurricane Sandy came to our shores and wreaked some havoc. Almost lost a roof but thankfully did not. Spent six days without electricity, heat, internet or phone, a rather sobering experience I would not want repeated. We are more than ever dependent upon incoming voltage in our everyday lives, which this week underscored bluntly. All sympathy goes out to those less fortunate than I facing the storm and its aftermath.

The week gets off to a suitably bright and upbeat start with an excellent album of Afro-jazz by Sylvain Leroux. Quatuor Creole (Engine 046) puts together a very compatible quartet of Sylvain Leroux on tambin (Fula flute), flute, alto sax, khaen, dozon ngoni, Karl Berger on piano and vibes, Sergo Decius on conga and percussion, and Matt Pavolka, contrabass.

The band works together for a lively Afro groove that will appeal to all with a sense of time. The quartet format gives it an intimate quality but the music rollocks and rocks steadily with tribal and Afrobeat influences front and center.

Sylvain sounds convincing and very together on his instruments; Karl Berger is right there with nicely ethnic touches and his good sense at piano as well as expectedly rangy and compelling vibes; Sergo Decius plays very hip congas and hand drums, making this session pop; and Matt Pavolka gives the groove that all-important woody bottom with taste, drive, dexterity and a nicely fat tone.

Afro-jazz that ranges far and wide, from a Bach quotation to infectious groove-reveling? You'll find it in abundance on this one. It's sheer joy!

Anna Estrada, Volando

World citizen and jazz vocalist Anna Estrada returns for a new recording up today: Volando (First Flight Productions FFP 003). Arranger Ray Scott and a shifting array of musicians give Anna a hiply Latin-jazzed carpet over which she gives out with a pleasing medley of Latin and songbook-rock standards.

She has a straightforward but nuanced vocal instrument which is shown to very good advantage here. The songs range from "Wild is the Wind" to Lennon and McCartney's "Happiness is a Warm Gun/I Want You." Then there are the always-nice-to-hear-done-well Latin gems like "Mais Que Nada".

This is not a record to set the world on fire, particularly. But it is very, very nice. Latin Jazz crossover listeners take note.

Surface to Air

The influence of the band Oregon is with us still. And why shouldn't it be, since they along with McLaughlin did much to create an acoustic chamber jazz that showed some Indian classical roots but added a Western harmonic pallet and a mostly through-composed melodic lyricism of their own?

I suppose that's a rhetorical question, but never mind. Today we have a trio that clearly has gotten something from that new tradition and taken it somewhere along the way to a new place. I refer to the trio Surface to Air and their new self-titled album (NCM 40133).

Surface to Air is Jonathan Goldberger on acoustic guitar, Rohin Khemani on tabla and other eastern percussion, and Jonte Siman on the upright bass.

This is music that foregrounds acoustic guitar compositions with lively tabla and bass work. There is room for improvisation and it comes in where you expect it. Goldberger however is not the sort of guitarist that is going to wow you with 32nd note runs. He is subtle, a little different, and after an overall matrix, as is the band.

Aside from that fact that they are playing in this vein, the compositional frameworks and total feel is what makes this album well worth hearing.

Gary Morgan and PanAmericana, Felicidade

It's time for a switch of gears today, to a Latin-world-jazz big band of note: Gary Morgan & Pan Americana and their album Felicidade (CAP 1014). It's a full big band under Gary's direction, playing some very nice charts worthy of our ears for the grooving Latin qualities as well as for some very tight big band sounds, played with plenty of verve and fire. That is to say that is as much a very good big band as it is a very good Latin big band.

That is to say that the arrangements hold their own whether you are listening for the Latin qualities or just experiencing a big band in full flower. The program is divided more or less evenly between Gary Morgan originals, and they are quite good, and Latin compositions by the likes of Jobim and Pascual.

There are very decent soloists to be heard, the rhythm team hits it and the section work is virtually flawless and full of spunk.

This one has been out since 2007, but it should not be missed if you are into the big band modern style and/or the Latin thing. Bueno! Bueno!

Lionel Loueke, Virgin Forest: The Complete Sessions

Vocalist, guitarist, composer, leader Lionel Loueke came upon the scene with a flourish with his Virgin Forest album, released in the U.S. five years ago.

The album is out as Virgin Forest: The Complete Sessions (Obliqsound) to celebrate Obliqsound's 10th anniversary and it's an auspicious occasion. Auspicious because the entire session is a wonderful mix of traditional African elements, Afro-Jazz and much else besides. Herbie Hancock and Cyro Baptista make their appearances in good form and there are six additional acoustic performances.

Loueke plays a nylon stringed guitar in a jazz-meets-Afro-meets-Brazilian samba style and it's a wonder to hear him. There are tribal, dance and modern African forms mixed into Lionel's unique guitar-centered style and it works very well. The songs are very memorable, his voice is masterful and damn, this is some wonderful music.

Hendrik Meurkens, Gabriel Espinosa, Celebrando

Brazilian jazz is not new age, not smooth jazz. New age & smooth jazz are often vulgar corruptions of Brazilian jazz, combined with an elevator music mentality. That original heat-in-mellowness that continues to energize samba-bossa jazz has ultimately nothing but a superficial relationship to the smooth and new age bastardizations that came after.

So with the Hendrik Meurkens/Gabiel Espinosa album Celebrando (Zoho 201204) there is a mellowness, sure. But this is the real thing. Hendrik is a first-rank harmonica player. Gabriel Espinosa plays bass and sings, teaming in this latter with Allison Wedding, who sounds quite good in the wordless bag. They are joined by a very hip and appropriate band who can get in the groove and flex the time so that it gently or not-so-gently swings samba-style.

It's an arranged sort of music with room for nice soloing--of course Hendrik on harmonica, Anat Cohen sounding very limber and lithe on clarinet and tenor, Jim Seeley on a nicely brandished trumpet and fluegel, Misha Tsiganov well-represented on piano and Rhodes. Antonio Sanchez and Mauricio Zottarelli share the drum duties. Both provide that all-important swung samba style.

The songs are originals by various members of the band for the most part and they are quite melodic and well-constructed. If this is a post-CTI sort of Brazo-jazz, it is a well done version and it is not in any way formulaic.

In short this is a Brazo-jazz winner. I am glad to have to hear again!

Anna Borges & Bill Ward, Receita de Samba

Lovers of jazz samba will get 32 minutes of good music on Anna Borges & Bill Ward's Receita de Samba (self released).

Anna has a nicely tuned and rhythmically hip vocal style, within classic parameters but with her own kind of warmth. Bill Ward plays quite nicely on the nylon stringed guitar, samba-bossa style, and he can sing too.

They get a small, good rhythm section together for the album and give a light but heated reading of some wonderful samba tunes.

Oh yeah, this is nice. Very, very nice!

Hendrik Meurkens Live at Bird's Eye, Contemporary Samba Jazz

Vibist and harmonica adept Hendrik Meurkens fronts an able quartet in a set of lively samba jazz on Live at Bird's Eye (Zoho 201114). Misha Tsiganov does a fine job with a kind of hard bop/Tynerish modern samba feel and turns in nice solo work. The rhythm team of Gustavo Amarante (bass) and Adriano Santos (drums) does the push-pull swing of jazz samba well and keeps the fires burning, as it were.

Hendrik plays a well burnished chromatic harmonica with real jazz phrasing, good solo ideas and a terrific tone. His vibe work is a fine example of mainstream playing in the samba zone. There are Brazilian standards, songbook standards done with the samba swing and a couple of good Meurkens originals.

It's all very good and worthwhile. Now if they could nab a first-tier firey tenor of the Joe Farrell caliber and/or a trumpetiste of the Woody Shaw brassiness school they would kick it up a notch into near-nirvana I suspect.

But they have plenty of good things going as it is.

Macy Chen, "After 75 Years" Fuses Jazz Vocals with Chinese Elements

Macy Chen is doing something unusual, and doing it well. Her recent CD After 75 Years (Twinz) gathers a small jazz-oriented ensemble to set off her vocals and the unique repertoire presented. And that repertoire is what sets the music apart. Six are Shanghai pop-jazz tunes from the '30s, then there are a couple of jazz standards sung in Mandarin and a couple of originals.

The resultant program wears well after many listens. Ms. Chen is in good voice, and the jazz artists expand the late-night tone with lots of nicely done obligatto.

The 75 years in the title refers to her grandfather's career doing jazz in Japan. Seventy-five years later Ms. Chen steps forward with another take on the Asian-jazz nexus.

The CD comes with an elaborate, well-conceived scrapbook-like booklet.

This is different. Different and very well-done.

Grupo Falso Baiano, "Simplicidade: Live at Yoshi's"

Choro is Brazilian music. Choro is samba-laced. Grupo Falso Baiano is a San Francisco Bay area quartet that plays some very nice instrumental choro with a dash of today. The members play seven-string guitar, mandolin, tenor sax/soprano/flute, and percussion. For around half the cuts the group is expanded with a pianist (doubling on accordion & flute), and a second percussionist.

Their new (second) album Simplicidade: Live at Yoshi's (Massaroca 20111) brings them in front of an appreciative audience and turns them loose with traditional choros and more contemporary numbers. The piano and reeds give it all a jazz feel.

It's some well-played, rhythmically infectious music that will add some variety and spice to your musical program. Quite nice, really.

The Four Bags: "Forth," with Trombone, Accordion, Electric Guitar and Reeds

Don't think there's nothing new under the sun. Some days there isn't much sun, but if you seek it out there is always something new. The Four Bags quartet has a new one called Forth (NCM East 40132), and it is something out of the ordinary.

The quartet has been on the New York scene since 1999. They have the unusual instrumentation/lineup of Brian Drye, trombone, Jacob Garchik, accordion, Sean Moran, electric guitar, and Mike McGinnis on clarinet and bass clarinet. They are perhaps even more notable in their compositional approach than they are as improvisers, though all are quite respectable players, certainly. All four contribute pieces and there are some unusual covers as well--of an electronic piece, a Persian classical song, and a Brazilian Forro.

With the instrumentation a kind of avant cabaret spirit prevails. However they cover a wide spectrum of influences, from the world, as we note above, avant jazz, classical and a sort of folk flavor, all kept very much alive through very interesting arrangements and four-part writing. They manage to capture a kind of post-Weillian something that has been in the air for a while and transform in into something that seems very New York and, if you will, hip Downtown-like.

It's enough I hope to say that this is one of the more refreshingly musical disks I have heard this year. They carve out a group sound carefully, almost note-by-note.

This is definitely one of those new things under the sun. Check it out by all means!

Jose Rizo's Mongorama: Charanga Jazz With Plenty of Kick

Jose Rizo and a group of hip West Coast Latin jazz adepts pay tribute to congalero and musical icon Mongo Santamaria on Mongorama (Saungu SR003). They are joined by guests Hubert Laws on flute and Mongo's protege, Poncho Sanchez on conga. All contribute some nice solos, as does Oscar Hernandez on piano, Justo Almario on tenor sax and Dayren Santamaria on violin. Almario stands out in particular.

Musical director and flautist Danilo Lozano puts together an attractive program of originals and music associated with Mongo's great bands and their sound. The arrangements are hot and eminently musical.

It's the sort of disc that will make you want to dance and listen at the same time. Beautiful. Very recommended.

Bill Smith, "Folk Jazz" with Jim Hall, 1959

There are recordings that fall through the cracks. Then you find out about them eventually. That is the case for me and clarinetist-composer Bill Smith. His Folk Jazz (Contemporary-Jazz Classics) recording from 1959 was literally off my radar. I don't think I ever even saw it in my many bricks-and-mortar adventures.

Then a little while ago in the course of interviewing bassist Michael Bisio he mentioned his association with Bill Smith in his Northwest Coast days, then mentioned Folk Jazz with high praise (the interview is online at All About Jazz). I did not need to be told twice. It may be OOP but there are copies around on the net if you look.

It survives as a reissue of the Contemporary LP in the form of a Jazz Classics CD--and since Concord took over the label(s) appears to no longer be in manufacture. Now of course Contemporary was so prolific it would have been easy to miss. I did.

Bill Smith, to backtrack, first came to notice as one of the members of Dave Brubeck's experimental Octet in the beginning of the careers of both. Smith was a fellow colleague in the Mills College Milhaud days and participated in a number of Brubeck's first recordings, then went his own way. He has garnered a reputation for his deceptively cool clarinet and his compositions. Folk Jazz if I am not mistaken was a one-off project that did not have a sequel.

You have Bill on clarinet, Jim Hall, guitar, Monty Budwig on bass and Shelly Manne on drums. It's on the surface a typical West Coast session with a typical line up. But the music! Bill takes eleven well known folk melodies and proceeds to burn them up! With a cool fire. . . . There is some relation to Jimmy Giuffre's work of the time, which is helped by the presence of Jim Hall who had an important association with Jimmy, and both the clarinet work and treatment of themes invite comparison.

However, Bill Smith is his own person on clarinet and sounds wonderful here. The group is more overtly concerned with swinging than the Giuffre Trio of the time and the presence of Budwig and Manne changes the tenor dramatically. Hall is doing his very hip, very subtle best and the rhythm team is taking no prisoners, though their mission does not include such things anyway. Smith and Hall work together like hip clockwork throughout.

It's a killer, folks. A diamond and not in the rough, just hidden from the public ear for too long. Grab a copy while you can still find it and I think you'll be very happy you did.

Eugene Marlow's Heritage Ensemble's Judeo-Latin Jazz Adventures: "A Fresh Take"

Dr. Eugene Marlow, pianist, arranger and founder of his Heritage Ensemble has had an idea and has made it work. The idea: take some cornerstone Jewish folk songs and liturgical melodies and rethink them for a crack ensemble in a style that has much of the Latin tinge as well as Brazilian, hard bop and post-bop jazz sensibilities. His new one is a remake of Making the Music Our Own, which the ensemble released in 2006. This time out it is dubbed A Fresh Take (MEII).

I have not heard the original, so my comments will not touch on that part of the music. In many ways what counts is the new one. First of all the band: there is Latin percussionist/congalero Cristian Rivera, who blazes away in fine fashion. Frank Wagner walks and talks on acoustic bass with eloquence and hard swing. The beautiful and well-appreciate Bobby Sanabria is on drums, and he makes the session pop as he does with his own bands and just about any time he is in the mix. Michael Hashim combines Judeo minor strains with a hard-charging modern sound on soprano and alto. Eugene Marlow has some expansive opportunities to solo and he transposes the Semitic tonality into jazz phrasings--a freely voiced bop and beyond pianism that forms a high point to the disk.

Combine all that with very interesting arrangements and good grooves and you have the album in a nutshell. The Heritage Ensemble is doing something that no one else is doing in quite this way. And they do it very well. Needless to say the diaspora, as we saw in the last posting, can become a center, musically speaking. It does here. I certainly recommend this one.

Harold Lopez Nussa & Trio Give A New Twist on the Afro-Cuban-Jazz Nexus: El Pais de las Maravillas

The melding of Afro-Cuban music and jazz has been going on since the rise of son and the "Spanish tinge" of Jelly Roll Morton began a slow but steady convergence from early mid-20th century practices through to today. If Latin jazz will no longer get the Grammy coverage it has had in the past, it is not of importance, ultimately. It is true in varying degrees for all music, but Latin jazz in particular is not a music that gains much from official recognition, save a career boost to (and better prospects for the survival of) the artists involved. Latin jazz is a music of the barrios, the streets, the clubs, a ground-swell music of personal involvement, not so much of racking up high chart numbers, though again that is a nice plus for the music when it happens.

We have seen in the altered attitude on the part of world leaders more accessible inroads to current Cuban resident Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban artists, exemplified in the international rise to prominence of pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba over the past 30 years.

Happily another good pianist is emerging into the spotlight outside of Cuba--pianist Harold Lopez Nussa. His trio (with saxophonist David Sanchez guesting) has a CD out, El Pais de las Maravillas (World Village), and it's a good way into Sr. Nussa's music. On this album Nussa often works closely around and within the Latin rhythmic tradition for both his comping and as implicit or explicit in his soloing. The jazz element takes everything post-bebop as its foundation, from Latin hardbop to Corea-and-beyond fusion. It's a music of stop and go fusionic kicks, steady-state Latin grooves and good solo performances from Nussa and Sanchez.

The rhythm section never flags. They set up the all important clave, post-clave and implied clave that the melodists work off of with success. There are enough contrasts and varied approaches in the 11 cuts that generalizations may not fit absolutely everything. Suffice to say that there is plenty of space for Harold Lopez Nussa to exhibit his gifts as improviser, harmonist, vital rhythmic catalyst, and tune-meister.

An excellent addition to this year's batch of Latin jazz offerings. I suspect we'll be hearing a great deal more from the pianist. Happily.

Jane Bunnett and Hilario Duran's "Cuban Rhapsody": Music to Your (or Anybody's) Ears

Jane Bunnett and Hilario Duran's Cuban Rhapsody (Alma 789) has an exceptional combination of roots and innovation. It is rooted in its vibrant renditions of Cuban classics. It is innovative in the wonderful duet performances of Duran on piano and Bunnett on soprano and flute.

It is music with all the drive of the classic dance forms, but it uses the duet situation to suggest the essence of classic Cuban sounds while heightening the jazz inflections and improvisatory nuances of the players with their natural stylistic personalities. Think of the Chic Corea-Gary Burton duets for their spirit--now imagine that same sort of spirit, only very different players doing very different music.

It is Latin jazz in a kind of chamber setting. And what a setting. Superb performances of wonderful music!!

Latin Bassoon? Daniel Smith's "Bassoon Goes Latin Jazz"

There are many reasons why you aren't going to find a huge selection to choose from if you are looking for a Latin Jazz Bassoon disk. The rapid, syncopated staccato execution a good Latin solo requires may be beyond the means of some players. And the truth is there are not many bassoonists who seek to play this music. Daniel Smith does, as you can see from this review posting.

This isn't Mr. Smith's first album, though I believe it's the first in this genre. I reviewed his blues album in June of 2009 (see www.gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.com). He's a "try anything" kind of fellow. And on that album he shows how he can synthesize mainstream jazz playing and adapt it with success to his instrument, with some fire and charm.

His new Bassoon Goes Latin Jazz (Summit 560) finds him taking on an expanded sort of Latin repertoire: An Afro-Latin version of Lee Morgan's "Mr. Kenyatta," Dizzy's "Manteca," Latin funk over Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," Brazilian samba on "Korg In," Bernstein's West Side Story vignette "Mambo from the Dance at the Gym," and so on. He's assembled a fine group with Neil Clarke on Latin percussion, Daniel Kelly doing creditable Latin jazz on piano, some guests (Sandro Albert on guitar, Roswell Rudd on two numbers! etc.) And the supporting cast lives up to expectations. The arrangements are simple, crafted to bring out a Latin groove with a good deal of space for bassoon solos and head-melodizing.

Daniel aquits himself most of the time. Other times his phrasing can be less than stellar--when he takes on the staccato Latinisms directly.

On the whole this is a fun album and quite unusual when you think of what's out there. It isn't going to win any Grammys (and of course nothing else will in Latin Jazz either, since they shamelessly have eliminated the category along with some others. Boo!) It will win a spot in your listening cycle if you crave variety and respond to a Latin groove.

Ark Ovrutski and his Sounds of Brasil CD

Ark Ovrutski, bassist, rooted in Russian, Ukranian, and New York City culture. . . .So why does he do a Brazilian flavored jazz album, Sound of Brazil (Self-Produced)? Why does anybody do anything? He's into the style is the obvious answer. What counts is the music, of course.

So he got together with drummer Duduka da Fonseca and put together a nice quintet of Brazilian and American musicians, namely Craig Handy (flute, alto, tenor), Jorge Continentino (flutes, tenor, bari), and Helio Alves (piano). They amassed some hip tunes and arrangements and. . . well there you have it. Duduka, Helio and Ark have much to do with getting a samba groove going and then the reeds get their solo shots (along with good piano and bass solo slots). Everything gels. If this sometimes sounds more like the Corea ventures into samba territory than, say, the Zimbo Trio, that can be understood. There are Afro-Latin elements (quasi-Tyner-esque?) in the rhythm department too, but that fits in fine.

This is an album that gets in good solo time, gets a Brazilian-American groove hopping with a modern jazz looseness, and pleases without pandering.