Rotem Sivan Trio, For Emotional Use Only

Who is Rotem Sivan? He is an Israel born, New York based electric guitarist who appears before us in a recent album with his fine trio, For Emotional Use Only (Fresh Sound New Talent 451).

It is a solidly contemporary jazz trio album we have here with Sivan originals (except one tune) and a freewheeling three-way interplay. Haggai Cohen Milo plays an excellent bass, walks with intelligence, solos nicely, and adds much to the mix. Mark McLean swings very well on drums throughout.

And Rotem Sivan pulls out all the stops with some very inventive improvisations that have the clarity and space of mid-period John Abercrombie and a harmonic chordal sense that sets him apart.

The three mix it up well but Rotem especially stands out. This is most definitely a guitar showcase date and he shows us what he can do in depth.

Any guitarist or guitar enthusiast will find this one an exemplary disk for the state-of-the-art of guitar improvisation in contemporary jazz. And in so doing it establishes Rotem Sivan as a new guitarist of real stature, someone I suspect we will be hearing from quite a bit in the coming years. Recommended!

Kelley Suttenfield, Tony Romano, Among the Stars

Simple ideas can end up simply gorgeous or just simple-minded, depending on many things, in terms of music on artistry and the spirit of the time the music was made, the chemistry of the moment.

Among the Stars (self-released), the album by Kelley Suttenfield and Tony Romano, starts with a very simple idea. Start with a choice grouping of standards. Take a vocalist and a guitarist. Make music.

Believe me I've heard such simple things go down the rapids because things were not right. That is definitely not the case here. Kelley is the right vocalist for this. She has a beautifully straightforward voice, an unpretentious delivery that nonetheless has an interpretive jazz knack. And then Tony Romano on acoustic or semi-hollow guitar. He gives out with some very beautiful accompaniment, picked and harmonically strong, but also with just the right patterns and note choices. He understates, as does Kelley. But they do so with excellent instincts. And then they come out with something, like "Beautiful Love," that swings and implies as much as it overtly states.

The arrangements have beauty and the playing and singing are completely surrendered to the mood of the song. It's music for reflection, for the quiet times after all the hustle of life. Kelley is a real artist. Tony is a real artist.

Beautiful!

Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart, Ramshackle Serenade

I was more or less minding my own business sometime in the early '90s, attending a free outdoor jazz festival in the courtyard of Lincoln Center in New York, when the opening act came on--organist Larry Goldings with guitarist Peter Bernstein and a drummer whose name I do not recall. I did not know these players then but I listened intently and liked what I heard.

From that time on Goldings became one of the more important, more acclaimed jazz organists on the scene. Peter Bernstein eventually went his own way and now is a highly respected player as well.

But they belong together! I am glad to have the new album in my hands of Larry Goldings and Peter Bernstein in a trio with the gamer drummer Bill Stewart. The album is Ramshackle Serenade (Pirouet PIT 3077), a collection of Goldings and Bernstein originals and a few standards, played loosely but very much in the evolved tradition of the organ trio.

To my mind Goldings and Bernstein very much are capstone cohorts in this context (and so also Bill Stewart) for their very simpatico interplay, for their facility in getting great lines going, for the way they extend the organ trio sound with some soulful but sophisticated utterances of real strength.

It is music that has enough grits and gravy to satisfy the traditionalist, yet takes it to high places that ramify what today's world is like.

An excellent recording on all levels.

Fred Hersch and Julian Lage, Free Flying

If you follow the contemporary jazz scene you are probably familiar with pianist Fred Hersch, since he has been doing some very exciting work. You may be less familiar with guitarist Julian Lage. But in fact Julian is in many ways Hersch's equivalent and equal as the "complete" contemporary jazz guitarist.

So it was a fortunate gathering when the two got together to make an album, Free Flying (Palmetto 2168). These are Hersch compositional vehicles, very good ones, with the exception of Sam Rivers' classic "Beatrice" and Thelonious' "Monk's Dream". The twosome are caught live in a NYC club Jazz at Kitano and that adds to the energy and spontaneity it would seem.

They both are on a roll here, both individually and as a group. Julian Lage can spin original and complex lines on changes with the best of them, in an original way no less, and then can get subtle and nuanced in the quieter balladic moments.

Fred Hersch is in every way himself here and so the two get quite a rapport and make for an every-moment-counts set. It's rather wonderful.

Torben Waldorff, Wah-Wah

There is innovation. Then there is everything that follows. Some of it too is innovation. Guitarist Torben Waldorff is somewhere in that cycle. He plays guitar and writes songs in ways that make it clear that Metheny, Scofield and Abercrombie have each spent some time on his CD player or i-pod. But Waldorff is so good. He is so conversant in the musical language he speaks, there is such a something about him, that you hear him on his own terms.

I speak of his recent album, Wah-Wah (Artistshare 0117). I say recent even though at least one site published a review of it last November, I believe.

Point: if this is a good album then it's good in February or November. And it's good. Torben is joined by Gary Versace on piano and Hammond, and that's very good because Mr. Versace is ace.

This is memorable music--compositionally and improvisationally. And for that reason I would recommend it. There is good harmonic sequence, there are nice lines, and a sound that has some sheen but some grit, too. Mr. Waldorff is on his way to his own guitar style. He'll get there. In the interim we have this excellent disk to savor.

Paul Kogut, Turn of Phrase, with George Mraz and Lewis Nash

Turn of Phrase (Blujazz 3395) is what happens when you turn three stellar artists loose in the studio and they are in the mood to play. It's one of those situations where it hardly matters what, could be "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and it would still sound beautiful. Well of course it isn't that that they play. Instead it's a series of appropriate and nicely turned originals by guitarist Paul Kogut, which he, George Mraz (bass) and Lewis Nash (drums) sink their teeth into over a long and swinging set.

Kogut is a guitarist in the inventive currents of the mainstream. He doesn't especially sound like anybody. He winds genuinely creative improvisational lines that owe something to the past exemplifications of Wes Montgomery, Abercrombie, Hall, Metheny and such. This is only to say that he is in the tradition of changes-based guitar masters (with an occasional jolt of electricity thrown in) and he holds his own.

George Maraz and Lewis Nash need no introduction to Jazz savvy readers. Both are exceptional players and they sound terrific with Paul on these numbers.

In fact it all sounds rather terrific. This one will get you going.

John Abercrombie Quartet, Within A Song

I don't suspect I need to tell readers of this blog that John Abercrombie has been a major force, a major influence on jazz guitarists since sometime in the '70s. I listen to many new guitarists in the round of reviews I do, and I have become more impressed in recent years with just how influential he has become.

But as with many great artists there is no ONE John Abercrombie. He changes as he sees fit, both over time and from project to project. So his latest, Within A Song (ECM 2254) has a way about it quite different than, say, the first Gateway album he did with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette way back when. Yet it is still Mr. Abercrombie that comes through, all that he is as a musical artist, and what he plays here has some relation of course to his earlier output. Perhaps that is pretty obvious.

The new album puts John with tenor original Joe Lovano, bass master Drew Gress and Joey Baron, a drummer of great depth, fire and subtlety, depending on the project.

This is an album of standards and a few Abercrombie originals. It is music in an ultra-laid-back mode, a cool sort of approach. That doesn't mean that the players aren't reaching back for inspiration and well-conceived improvisations. They are.

Abercrombie has evolved his tone so that at the moment it is unmistakably him, as always, but so mellow as to seem to be closer on first listen to a Jim Hall than ever. Yet what he plays is all Abercrombie, all the time. And even his tone has a telling Ambercrombian fullness and twist. At any rate he is in top form and must be heard with some concentration to be appreciated. Lovano sounds great too as you might expect. Gress and Baron hit more lightly but no less profoundly than usual. And the whole thing swings big!

It's an album that reminds us why John Abercrombie is such a force today. And it's a great listen too!

Mike Baggetta Quartet, "Source Material," with Rigby, Opsvik, George Schuller

Mike Baggetta returns with Source Material (Fresh Sound). He brings in a very copacetic quartet of himself on electric guitar, Jason Rigby, tenor sax, Eivind Opsvik on the upright, and George Schuller on drums. It's a working band, and they show it with the kind of interlocking understanding such a situation makes possible.

Here we have an all-originals date. Baggetta assembles a very interesting set of his compositions that go well with the artists at hand. It's an often pretty lyrical, post-ECM sort of music, with space for some excellent rapport, the harmonic and single note thoughts of Mike, the very together tenor sound and solo pointedness of Jason, plus Eivind and George doing very sensitive work fleshing it out and getting things in motion.

Mike is developing his style from a contemporary, harmonically rich and notefully striking base. The facility, imagination and taste is there and he draws on the Jim Hall-and-beyond guitar innovators as he builds his own personal foundation. He can get very contemporary-chromatic, which he does especially well on "Momentum" as George and Eivind kick up a swingtime storm. Jason gets somewhere from where we are too, with a solidly built contemporary edifice of his own.

It's a total package at this point--pieces, improvisations and group distinctiveness. Mike is a guy to watch in the coming years, and even now!

Rez Abbasi, Things to Come, 2009

Readers of my blogs know that I do not restrict myself only to the very latest releases, the flavors of the month. The idea is that good and great music may not have been recorded and released yesterday, and so it is never a bad idea to consider something that's been out for a while.

Such a recording is guitarist Rez Abbasi's Things to Come (Sunnyside 1236). It's Rez on guitar with the nucleus of the Indo-Pak Coalition that has been so fruitful for all concerned: Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto, Vijay Iyer on piano, and Dan Weiss on drums. Also appearing on this album are Johannes Weidenmeuller on acoustic bass, Mike Block, cello, and some beautiful vocals by Kiran Ahluwalia.

A look at Google makes it clear this album has gotten quite a few reviews. So I wont belabor the obvious. What's important: the wide-ranging chromatic soloing by Rez, Rudresh and Vijay, Peter's rhythmically advanced drumming and Kiran's classical Indo-Pak oriented vocals. This is Indo-Pak fusion, which is to say it is informed by the classical South Asian tradition. "Informed" is probably a good word because Abbasi and company have very much incorporated that influence into their own way of playing and improvising. The compositions sometimes have the melodic motion of the Carnatic tradition, for example, but essentially with differing note-cells. That same can be said for the rhythm. This is first and foremost a modern jazz form, electric, fused. It is a wonderful showcase for the unique style of the principal soloists--Rez, Rudresh and Vijay--and a platform to incorporate Ms. Ahluwalia's angelic vocals.

It is essential listening if you want to know what modern jazz has going for it. Rez and company have carved out their own niche and it is a vital one.

Bann Quartet Debuts with "As You Like"

BANN stands for the first initials of the last names of the four members of this heavy-duty quartet: Seamus Blake (tenor), Jay Anderson (bass), Oz Noy (electric guitar), and Adam Nussbaum (drums). As You Like (Jazzeyes 010) announces their presence with some molto kick-tail artistry.

Seamus Blake is a tenor of great magnitude. If you don't already know his work, this is a good place to start. He's a prime exponent of the modern post-Trane tenor. Jay Anderson and Adam Nussbaum are ideal rhythm-team mates. They give the swing and rock grooves a real kick start. And Mr. Anderson's note choice is superb. Electric guitarist Oz Noy is so good I am almost speechless. Guitarists beware; here's somebody coming in from the wings that is fully formed (as from the head of Medusa as the saying goes). He's so good I'm wondering if it isn't John Scofield under a pseudonym? Well if I am wrong I am going to irritate Oz; if I am right I am running the risk of blowing Sco's cover. At any rate on slide, with the pick, whatever he is doing is powerful, soulful, and filled with excellent ideas.

The tunes are a excellent mix of reworked standards ("All the Things You Are" is given a most unusual arrangement), a rock classic (David Crosby's "Guinnevere," which will make you say "gee, that's a great tune to do this way"), Monk's "Played Twice," Joe Henderson's "Isotope" and a good helping of originals that give the band a chance to get into some fine solos and might have you whistling along after a few plays.

In short this is terrific, electrically charged modern jazz. Don't stop there Bann, do more! Hear As You Like and you'll no doubt be wanting more too. A long life to them, collectively and singly!

Ratko Zjaca, Croatian Guitarist

Another guitarist you may not know by name: one Ratko Zjaca, a Croatian practitioner of the plectral arts. For his album Continental Talk (In & Out 07588) he assembles a worthy gathering of Randy Brecker on trumpet, Stanislav Mitrovic on tenor and soprano, John Patitucci on acoustic bass, and drummer stalwart Steve Gadd. They congregate around the microphones for a nice set of Zjaca originals, modern jazz of the straight-ahead sort. The songs and their changes go from simple blowing tunes to more sophisticated items, melodically and sometimes harmonically speaking.

Everyone sounds quite good. Ratko can play a ravishing, changes-based solo with mellow chordal voicings and lines of good provinence. Or he can crank out bluesy pentatonic sorts of things, especially on the rock tinged numbers. They can get into a rather advanced rhythmic and harmonic world, as in "Inner Ears." But when it comes to the soloing Ratko sticks mostly to the soulful post-Benson lines with a few odd ravishing chords here and there.

Mr. Zjaca is a fine guitarist, surely. The twelve numbers on this set give ample evidence. It is a most pleasant listen. Sometimes even more than that. Thank you Ratko.