Todd Coolman & Trifecta, Collectables

When a bass player has virtually played everywhere and with everybody, there are good reasons for it. Todd Coolman is one of those bassists. He can fit in with everybody and does. But a solo album of his own is not all that common. In fact, what we have at hand is only his fourth, but no matter, because it in part makes up for what hasn't always been available.

He joins together with two exceptional musicians in a threesome he dubs "Trifecta." They gather together some really nice numbers and let it all breathe in the recent album Collectables (Sunnyside 4025). As Todd explains in the liners, he has amassed some collections over his life, things that have a telling sort of significance for him, be it books, fishing tackle or wrist watches. And he goes on to explain that he also collects playing experiences with fellow musicians of like mind. Collectables is by a trio of musicians that form a key part of some imaginary spatial totality but very real temporal-musical gatherings Todd has been a part of. A prize collectable element in all his group playing experiences, in other words.

Bill Cunliffe, pianist, Dennis Mackrel, drums, (and Todd), have been playing together for a while, principally as a part of the faculty of the Skidmore Jazz Institute that Todd now directs. They have had busy schedules there performing as a trio alone or backing up other stalwarts. So that is one definitely worthy collectable element on this album, the trio itself. The other is in the program of tunes. These are very worthwhile ones, some not often played these days, such as "New Rhumba" (associated with Miles and Gil Evans), "Joshua," the Victor Feldman perennial, and so forth. Some of these numbers are given special arrangements by Renee Rosnes, Bill Cunliffe, Dennis Mackrel; the others have gotten their form by the trio working it all out as they went. All have a special worked-through quality that a piano trio gets by playing together often--and so also the improvisational doings have that patina of use that makes them especially excellent examples.

Todd has plenty of chances both in ensemble and in solo to show just how fine a bass player he is. The same goes for Bill Cunliffe and Dennis Mackrel on their instruments. And the sound of them as a trio benefits from that distinctiveness but also by their irrefutably swinging wholeness.

It is the sort of trio outing that has all the jazz nuances down but also gets it all DOWN! It is a beautiful record indeed. There is nothing lacking. It is a full collection to be poured over and prized, dug and re-dug!  By all means go for this one if you want some superfine mainstream jazz as it should be played.

John Hart, Exit from Brooklyn

Guitarist John Hart entered Brooklyn in 1984, one of those hopeful young jazzmen that chose the B-town as a place where aspirations might be realized, as a part of New York City that was still affordable and chock full of similar musicians and good playing situations. There he met Bill Moring on bass and Tim Horner on drums. They clicked and though they eventually left Brookyn for the burbs, still thrive together as a trio.

Some four CDs later they are once again at it on the appropriately titled Exit from Brooklyn (ZOHO 201605). This one was designed to showcase a couple of Hart originals and a bunch of standards, jazz and songbook, so they could get the spontaneous chemistry going without a lot of preparation.

That they are successful can be felt from the first cut on. Hart is a well-schooled mainstreamist with a beautiful sense of chordal possibilities and good ideas for lining. Moring and Horner have jazz sense in abundance and yes, bring with Hart a sympatico three-way chemistry that makes this outing something very worth hearing.

John Hart is one of the best straight-ahead jazz artists operating today and the album is a definite pleasure from start to finish. The trio is in great form!

Rich Brown, Abeng

From out of Canada comes electric bassist and composer Rich Brown and his recent album Abeng (RDB 03). The title refers to the hollowed-out cow's horn which is traditionally used by the Maroons of Jamaica to call the community together for social gatherings and to communicate news and other messages. It is a kind of metaphor for Rich Brown's musical communications, dedicated to the fight against racism and the all-important Black Lives Matter movement.

This is a very worthwhile set of Afro-Fusion Jazz, with Rich Brown playing a key role as a virtuoso of the electric bass and as composer of the music heard here. He is joined by Luis Denz on alto and Larnell Lewis on drums, plus a shifting gathering of Chris Donnelly or Robi Botos on piano, Kevin Turcotte, trumpet, Kelly Jefferson, tenor, and Rosendo Chendy Leon on percussion.

The music has memorable compositions, a good deal of space for Rich's eloquent bass playing both in ensemble and as soloist, as melodist and riff master, and a very solid, tight and proficient group of sidemen that establish moving fusion grooves and lyrical suspensions as called for, improvise nicely, and realize Rich Brown's objectives fully.

Rich Brown is a bassist of stature. The album is filled with worthwhile contemporary music. You should check it out!

Sandy Ewen, Rebecca Novak, Carol Sandin Cooley, Garden Medium

Art is not only involved with the visual, of course. It is sometimes put forward for us in sound. And today we have a trio of sound artists creating spontaneous worlds-upon-worlds that in the end are most decidedly on the level of contemporary art.

I speak of the recent album Garden medium (>x< 03), that features the trio of Sandy Ewen on guitar (see recent reviews of her work here via the index) and objects, Rebecca Novak on cornet, autoharp, shortwave radio, glassware and chimes, and Carol Sandin Cooley on electronics and objects.

This is selfless music. It is all about the special sonic blends, sound poems that utilize instruments and objects, electronics and intentional sound-producing gestures to create a series of atmospheres.

Sandy creates a world of sound here that is not instantly recognizable as electric-guitar generated. Similarly the other sonic voices do not intend to stand out as personal, individual "playing" of instruments so much as modular contributions to the sound environment totalities.

Do not take that as meaning that this ensemble is not musically adept or random. On the contrary the environments are built up with care. There are dynamics, a focused use of space, a striving after a pallet of music-noise specifics that gives the music-sound a special inner-directedness.

This is avant, yes, free, yes, but very atypical in its rigorous focus. You put the disk on and it gradually has its way, in a sort of Zen rock garden of presence.

If you played guitar like Sandy does here on a wedding gig, you'd be fired and quickly at that. And the same goes for what the other trio members are doing! It is the case because the music functions in a world that is not made for commercial or widespread social consumption. It is not a product to be consumed at all, in fact. It is about process, the aural equivalent of a scumbling of paint to transform the hard-edges into something blooming, pliable, open, virtually endless.

This may not be for everybody. And things that are, after all, tend to get boring because to succeed with everybody, you need to give them something they already have plenty of, a formula, a guaranteed path to maximum consumption. This music in not so much minimalist as it is sparing and judiciously meted out a bit at a time. You must enter into it for it to work. And you must not consume it, but rather leave it to be, to realize itself before your ears.

I find it fascinating!

Dennis Rea, Black River Transect

Dennis Rea has distinguished himself as a guitarist, composer and bandleader of great talent and originality. I've covered a number of his CDs on this page in the past (type his name in the search box above for those) and they are consistently worthwhile and filled with surprises.

The new one is every bit as good as what I expect from Dennis, but perhaps even more so--one of his very best. It is his Tanabata Ensemble live in concert with a set entitled Black River Transect (Scooby Tracks). The first four pieces feature Dennis Rea on guitar, Stuart Dempster on trombone and didgeridu, James DeJoie on bass clarinet,  Beth Fleenor on clarinet, Kate Olson on soprano saxophone, John Seman on double bass, and Tom Zgonc on drums. It is great to hear Seattle avant trombone icon Stuart Dempster in this band. He sounds ever his lively self. The rest of the band is excellent as well, everyone attuned to the music, comfortable with both free and structured duties as needed.

The opener is "ASI," dedicated to Dennis' long-time partner Anne Smith Joiner. It has an unforgettable thematic quality and the septet makes of it the worthy rhapsodic stunner that it truly is. "Black River Transect" and "Harmoniker" are "guided improvisations," free but directed explorations of musical space with some excellent guitar work by Rea, certainly, and nicely together collective surges. "Swaylone's Island" is another stunning Rea composition, with a bit of classical-modern openness and some wonderfully out post-fusion guitar and ensemble work.

Following these formidably worthwhile numbers is a return to "ASI," this time scored by James DeJoie for a ten-member trombone choir and a slightly scaled-down accompanying ensemble with Dennis joined by the extraordinary, ambient Seattle drummer Paul Kikuchi. It is an even more haunting version of the piece, if that is possible, and it sends us off nicely, wanting more.

The originality and uniqueness of Rea's guitar, his writing, the ensemble are on display in ways that are very heartening. Everybody is locked in here. The results are stunning. It isn't rock, though a little of the fusion element remains and there is some unusual rock guitar outness to be heard in Dennis's solo time. It is compositional and freely improvisational in ways not at all typical, with a little of the finesse of modern classical, a lyrical sort of bent, and a result like no other.

It may not be the sort of album that is going to overthrow the order of things, but it is very wonderful, a tribute to Dennis's carefully considered direction, one that wears very nicely with repeated listens, seems unforced and natural, yet is strikingly different for all that.

Might I suggest you check this one out? It is some of the most interesting music I've yet to hear this year. It shows you that Dennis Rea keeps moving forward, striking his way through to new zones of possibility. The results are really something to hear!

Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord, Bring Their 'A' Game, The EP Series

 I happily return here to report on the second in a series of four EP disks by Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord. This one, just out, is called Bring Their 'A' Game (Hot Cup). It continues where the first, Make the Magic Happen, leaves off. (I covered that one last month here.) Yep, they continue with another vibrant set that has compositional bite with two hefty originals and once again closing with an Ornette perennial. It also has the growl of the band in improvisational fullness. Jon plays some beautiful guitar as one expects, he IS one of a kind after all. But then you get some supercharged sax from Jon Irabagon and Balto Exclamationpoint, and beautiful rhythm section effusions from Moppa Elliott (bass) and Dan Monaghan (drums).

This is take-no-prisoners out bop and more. Make no mistake. Lundbom has the subtle leadership that gets everybody to give of things their considerable all, and Jon does the same. Can I just say "chuck everything and get it"? Well I will.

The remaining two EPs will be coming out later on in the year. You can get each one as it comes out, or pre-order now for the 4-CD box set that will come out when the fourth CD does, thereabouts.

If the other two are like the first two, there is something important going on! There is already!

Sandy Ewen, Tributaries

Sandy Ewen is an avant electric guitarist both  original and iconoclastic. I covered her in a group setting several weeks ago, and today I am back with a solo effort, Tributaries (Chiastic Society 05 2016). It was originally an online only release from May of 2013 and now it is out on CD.

This is sound color improvisation, extended techniques so thoroughgoingly advanced that if you did not already know the sounds were produced by an electric guitar, you might not figure it out.

Six segments give us plenty to ponder. She clearly is at times preparing the guitar, at other times striking the strings with untraditional objects. With amplification and use of aural space the sounds come to us as from some other place, inter-planetary, extra-planetary, a zodiac-a-teria with percussive elements, aetherial feedback, orchestral fullness and mysterious sparsities.

It is not quite like what anybody else is doing with an electric guitar these days, and happily it provides us with a cornucopia of sonic universes.

Once I heard it a few times, I got it. It is a very creative take on soundscaped guitar tapestries. She is one of a kind!

Listen to this, get it, if you seek something good on the edge of possibility.