Dylan Ryan Sand, Sky Bleached

Drummer Dylan Ryan's Sand trio recording Sky Bleached (Cuneiform Rune 357), with Timothy Young on electric guitar and Devin Holt on electric and acoustic bass, is one of those avant jazz-rock goodies that stirs the soul.

Ten numbers, some penned by Holt, some a collective effort, one by the late Paul Motian, have character, electricity, notable compositional sign posts and very cool playing.

The sort of fused outness that includes memorable motives, kicking rhythmic figures, the occasional odd time-signature, and well-crafted performance-improvisations prevails.

It doesn't quite sound like any trio. Each player stakes out a musical territory that belongs to him and collectively they get a nice leveraged sound.

There are psychedelic moments, harmonically cool structures, and plenty of good drumming, guitaring and bass-ing.

Highly recommended.

Machine Mass Trio, "As Real As Thinking," with Guitarist Michel Delville

Belgian guitarist Michel Delville got together with fellow DouBt member drummer Tony Bianco to work on an offshoot project. They eventually brought in Belgian tenor man Jordi Grognard to form the Machine Mass Trio. As Real as Thinking (MoonJune 041) is the initial result, and it is a highly charged small-group rock-fuse opus that crackles with electricity. Delville, who also wields his jazz-rock pyrotechnics with The Wrong Object, stands out on this set with a brash metallic outward thrust much of the time. Jordi plays some expanded tenor in a sort of post-Leibman mode and gets some nicely spacey sounds on flute and snaky bass clarinet as well. Drummer Tony Bianco rocks with fusionoid virtuosity and takes an out-free path when needed.

There are torrid advanced out-rockers, some droning psychedelics, riff-based funkers with long floating melodies that owe something to Soft Machine and Weather Report, and some off-in-space segments where they take it out.

All-in-all it's another good spin on the genre of electric jazz-rock as evolved out of classic Soft Machine, Mothers and other innovators of the initial flowering of the music. It is first and foremost a group sound and a conceptual-compositional vehicle situation. Though compositions work to establish the mood of each number, yet it is what's put on top of it that often holds the most interest. Individual solos are there as needed and both Delville and Grognard come through singly as warranted, but it can be a matter of a three-way collective improvisation as well. A high point is Delville's long, planet-spanning guitar solo on "Falling Up."

It is a nicely turned set. It's a nicely wrought contribution to the music.

Medeski, Martin & Wood, "Fly in A Bottle" DVD

Medeski, Martin and Wood have managed to garner a pretty wide popularity in the last 20 years by creating their own personal blend of funk rock and original, more avant elements in an electric matrix. John Medeski plays organ and keyboards with a special quirky, but highly musical approach to it all. Drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood have carved out their own roles in the band too. Together they make some advanced compositional funk-rock that in some ways carries on the open stance of the original Tony Williams Lifetime. Other times they simply intuit a new sort of rock-jazz hybrid. Still other times they are in an "accessible" mode.

Billy Martin has created an interesting full-length film of the band in the studio, live, on the road and hanging out. It's called Fly in A Bottle and is now on DVD (MRI).

You experience a birds-eye view of the band discussing arrangements, getting things right in the studio, goofing around and playing some of their special blend of music. It's going to appeal very much to MMW fans and it is entertaining and not uninteresting regardless. There are three music videos included as a bonus.

Slivovitz, "Bani Ahead": A Crack Jazz-Rock Outfit from Napoli in Their Second Outing

Today a very cool effort from the Napoli jazz-rock-fuze combo Slivovitz, Bani Ahead (Moon June 039). This has compositional-arranged goodness and solos with bite, in a Zorn-Zappa meets a mid-eastern mode, Slivovitz-style. It's a seven-man band: D. Angarano, bass guitar, D. Di Perri, harmonica, M Giannini, electric guitar, S. Rainone, drums, C. Riccardi, trumpet, P. Santangelo, tenor and soprano, R. Villari, violin.

This second album for the band comes through as only something a very seasoned, well rehearsed and well-gigged band could do. They are tight and musically integrated. This is all-original music penned by various band members. The music is strong, driving and unique, with the minor mode predominating, and front line voicings in deft counterpoint with the leveraged rhythm team. Solos are strong and set off the arranged material nicely.

It's a definite corker of an album! Like the other Moon June recording artists Moraine (whose new album I reviewed on this site yesterday), Slivovitz come up with another new way to be new. There is lots of excellent music to be had on Bani Ahead. Grab a copy or get more info on the Moon June site listed in the link section.

Soft Machine Legacy Shines On with "Live Adventures"

The music world mourned the passing of Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper fairly recently. Among other things, of course, they were cornerstone members of Soft Machine and the later Soft Machine Legacy.

The good news is that the Legacy have steeled themselves with determination in the face of these losses and have generated a new lineup. Drummer John Marshall and guitarist John Etheridge remain. They are joined, logically enough, by the "other" Softs bass player, Roy Babbington, and a younger British saxophonist, Theo Travis.

The new Live Adventures CD (MoonJune 36) gives happy testimony to the continued vibrancy of the group. Of course when half the band is lost, one might expect the collective chemistry to alter significantly. Surprisingly that is less the case than might be expected. Theo Travis does not sound like Elton Dean, surely, but he fills the gap with his own twists and turns. Babbington is an old Softie and knows what to do.

With a program of band originals past and present, one part of the Soft's true legacy remains out front: they do interesting songs and they set their conceptual sites somewhere beyond fusion and into their own zone. This is always what the Softs do so well. And the Legacy band continues to evolve and grow, as a living, breathing entity and not a reunion band bent on recreating the past. They sound like themselves in the framework of NOW and they play outside of the conformed mainstream of electric jazz. For this reason alone the new Legacy album is a very good listen. But then again John Etheridge plays some fine guitar too and John Marshall is always a subtly appropriate player no matter what groove or kicking phrases he is a part of.

There's no decline here. They are fully into their best musical cups and drink heartily from them. Cheers then. Recommended!

Carlos Bica: New Jazzed-Rock From Portugal

Carlos Bica is an excellent bassist. He can bow with the best of them and his pizzicato soloing is always interesting. But he also can write well and puts together a sterling jazzed-rock congregation on his new Carlos Bica and Materia Prima (Clean Feed) CD. The band has Mario Delgado on electric guitar who contributes much to the ensemble sound and solos with taste. Keyboard/accordionist Joao Paulo does good work as well. Matthias Schriefl is perhaps the best soloist of the lot; his trumpet/fluegelhorn gets funky with a plunger mute or just glides nicely as a straight horn.

This is a group sound and they show remarkable poise on this series of live dates. The music is very enjoyable and has some real Euro-Portuguese flavored charm. The arrangements really are what puts this one over the top. Materia-Prima has considerable subtlety for an ensemble that mostly keeps in a jazzed-rock mode. Kudos for Mr. Bica!

"Platform One" by the Wrong Object

Originally posted on May 13, 2008

The healthy resurgence of jazz-rock, fusion and progressive rock has been one of the blog themes lately, just because I’ve gotten a number of items for review that seem to testify to this. The Wrong Object is a Belgium-based group in the jazz-rock bag. (See below for a review of another one of their recent CDs.)

They have a new album that’s come across my desk (see below for a review of another one of their recent CDs) and it’s a very good example of what is churning underneath the commercial surface of the music world. Platform One (JazzPrint) adds guest musicians Harry Beckett and Annie Whitehead for an impressive program that includes two Zappa covers. Michel Delville continues to be an important presence on guitar. There are plenty of horns here too and the arrangements keep the ears functioning with lots to ingest and enjoy.

McLaughlin, Pastorius, Williams, 1979

Originally posted on February 21, 2008

There was a point in the early-mid 70’s when fusion was king. Three musicians had much to do with that. I refer to John McLaughlin, guitar, Jaco Pastorious, bass, and Tony Williams, drums. Each were a big part of a group on the slicing edge of creativity at the time: the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report and Lifetime, respectively.

For an extraordinary brief space in musical time, the three banded together to form the Trio of Doom. Ostensibly the idea was to play the 1979 Havana Jam Festival. And their short 25 minute set was recorded by Columbia. McLaughlin at the time was not satisfied with the recorded results, so the band went into the studio to rerecord their tracks.

With several short alternate takes, the entire recorded output of the trio (some 40 minutes) has been released by Columbia Legacy on CD (Trio of Doom). Now this is not the best CD any of them have recorded. The nature of the one-shot appearance would certainly make that proposition unlikely. And there are only four pieces recorded multiple times. Yet the live spot is quite powerful, with all three showing why they were peerless on their instruments. And the studio set is a nice supplement. Anyone who is into any or all of these folks will certainly appreciate the CD. It is not perfect, not at all slick, and a worthy addition to your fusion collection.