Soft Machine, Switzerland 1974, with Allan Holdsworth

The legendary Soft Machine could hardly be said to have gone "soft" by 1973. Quite the contrary. Yet when guitarist Allan Holdsworth joined the band that year it gave the group a big boost and added a decidedly articulate new voice into the mix. They had up until then managed to carve a most distinctive sound by placing keyboard wizard Mike Ratledge into at times the role of the guitar soloist in the band and it worked very well indeed. Yet after seven albums and a great deal of wonderful music, there was a point where someone of the extraordinary caliber of Holdsworth, a one-in-a-million guitarist of genius, would give the band another sound shading and provide some new life. So they were fortunate that Allan was available and set about creating a new repertoire, much of which was included in their eighth album Bundles, another milestone recording for the Softs that was timely and of course well-received.

In the band at the time was Mike Ratledge, the only remaining original member, along with piano-saxman Karl Jenkins, bassist Roy Babbington and the potent John Marshall on drums. In tandem with Holdsworth they had a great deal of depth and versatility. Bundles showed that very much.

Now we have the treat of hearing the band live at Montreux, on the previously unreleased Switzerland 1974 (Cuneiform Rune 395/396) in a combo CD and DVD package.

The sound is pristine, the music complex and energized, and Holdsworth most definitely at his best. What's fascinating is that Allan had very much the fleet facility of his mature days, yet his sound is rather different, not as violin-like as in later years. That gives you another take on what he is playing and no the less interesting for it.

The music has it all and the band by then was in top form.

Of course you should have Bundles if you are a serious student of jazz-rock and fusion. But this live date has the spontaneous looseness and fire you get less of in the studio. The rhythm section kicks it hard, Ratledge and Babbington weave magic, and Allan Holdsworth gives notice to the world that he is a world-class player.

Very much recommended!

Copy this url into your browser to stream a nice excerpt: https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/switzerland-1974

Mark Lettieri, Futurefun

Mark Lettieri? Good guitarist. Electric. Plays a prog sort of jazz-rock on his new album Futurefun (self-released). He's got some nice rythmic sensibilities and can come out with rapid-fire lines that end in a bluesy-rock territory but can get there in various ways, and he doesn't quite sound like anybody else.

It's a trio-quartet setting and a platform for Lettieri's good sense and interesting written launching pads. It's beyond cliche and it shows you what he's got, which is some chops but a musical mind that works in ways that make the music worth hearing. It's not technically astute fireworks in the end. It's music.

Here's a cat that's got something really nice going!

Darts & Arrows, Eyes of the Carnival

It is by no means an easy thing for the music variously dubbed jazz-rock/fusion/prog/jamband to lay right, to sound naturally grooving, to be able to pair down and get leverage before it launches out. There are outfits that can play incredibly difficult technical things yet never really get rocking. This I most definitely would not say about the combo Darts & Arrows on their album Eyes of the Carnival (self released).

Here we have 30-plus minutes of an EP that gets that leverage. Like early Soft Machine and at the same time middle-period Gary Burton, they establish grooves and stay there as a foundational premise. The compositional matrix laid down, mostly penned by guitarist Bill MacKay with one by keyman Ben Boye (that one balladic), sets the possibilities and then the players open up to them.

Bill MacKay's guitar and Ben Boye's keys have leverage and sound as soloists too. They aren't trying to wow you with chops and more chops, but rather say something musical and at the same time express a sound. They do it well. They don't take long solos either. In fact sometimes it's more about the tune and playing it with feeling, opening up to it. But that is fine if they do it right. They do.

Kyle Hernandez on bass and Quin Kirchner on drums are in that same way concerned with feel and less with "wow" technique.

And so in the end you react like you have been hearing real music in a zone that in other hands sometimes loses the music-first thread. Nobody here is going to cut the greatest technical players. But what they do sounds very right. In the end the music satisfies. Good tunes played with conviction. That's very cool with me.

TriPod

TriPod? Yes. Here we have a trio in the realm of such ensembles as Morphine--sax, bass and drums with vocals. But they don't precisely sound like Morphine. It's a prog-fuse, song-centered hard fullness created by the presence of Clint Bahr on 12-string bass and lead vocals (a twelve-string bass is composed of the standard four strings on an electric bass, plus two-octave strands per regular string...so 4+8=12), Steve Romano on drums and percussion, and Keith Gurland on alto and tenor, clarinet, effects and backing vocals. All this on their self-titled album just out on MoonJune (MJR004).

The music is somewhere in the realm of King Crimson progressivity, in its own special way. There are hard-edged, intricate arrangements, prog song niceties and a program that combines the two elements in judiciously balanced contrasts.

Clint Bahr's bass playing has a fullness that might make you think there's a guitar in there as well, but there isn't. He's playing the 12-string so that the bass and chordal possibilities come out strongly. Keith Gurland's saxophony is well-suited for the music and gives the music the second melodic voice in the ensemble that fleshes it all out. Steve Romano plays a LOT of drums as is fitting, and that sounds great too.

The songs-vocals put it all in focus. This is some heavy prog that should not be missed if you like the edgy Crimsonian thrust as I do.

And Clint's 12-string bass alone is a listen in itself. It's first-rate prog-fuse in any event.

Mr. Moonjune Recommends, Vol. 2, "Letting Go"

Mr. Moonjune, aka Leonardo Pavkovic, the driving force behind MoonJune Records, has come up with a second volume anthology of prog-fuse music by artists and bands that may not be well known to you, but nonetheless deserve a hearing. The anthology contains 25 worthy tracks and you can get them as Mr. Moonjune Recommends, Vol. 2, "Letting Go" for a modest donation of $1, or whatever you'd like to contribute above that.

It's a wonderful bargain, of course, but most importantly it introduces you to internationally stationed artists who are playing some extraordinary or at least far-from-ordinary prog fuze. There are wonderful guitarists, tight bands, space rockers and notes galore.

For a buck you hear: Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe, Matt Garrison; Asaf Sirkis; Mark Wingfield & Rene von Grunig; The Avengers; Apostolis Anthimos; John Sund Acoustic Sense; Dialeto; Uzva; Michel Sajrawy, and 16 others. Some may not yet be totally original in what they are up to but everything sounds very good, sometimes excellent.

Here's a bunch of music worth hearing, for almost nothing. It's a no-lose proposition.

Go to http://www.moonjune.com/mjr_web_2013/home_mjr/ and click on the album cover to find out the complete details and to get your download.

Hammer Klavier Trio, Rocket in the Pocket

Today we have the sophomore effort from the Hamburg-based progressive jazz Hammer Klavier Trio, Rocket in the Pocket (Jan Matthies Records). They are pianist Boris Netsvetaev, bassist Phil Steen, and drummer Kai Bussenius. I write "progressive" because that seems like a good word to describe this sort of group. Influenced by Monk, Nichols, perhaps Brubeck, partaking in electrification as it strikes them, combining an improvisational stance with an emphasis on non-traditional compositions-arrangements.

They are in line with other such trios like Bad Plus and even the Necks in the way they genre defy. There's a bit of the classical in there as well as rock influences. To their credit they do not sound like other groups in this progressive trio mold. They have compositions and arrangements that are moving in original directions. Yet they share with other such groups attention to the more advanced ensemble rhythmic feels available out there included meter shifts and unexpected emphases.

They come across as well-directed, musically astute, and well on the way to self-realization as a trio on this second outing. If you are into the prog jazz trio thing you should definitely check this one out.

Spectrum Road, A Tribute to The Tony Williams Lifetime

When the Tony Williams Lifetime hit the ears of listeners in 1969 with their double-album release Emergency!, few people were prepared for it. Brilliant drummer Tony Williams had just left Miles Davis's band after a long tenure and was eager to try something of his own, something very different. He got together with then mostly unknown guitarist John McLaughlin and veteran organist Larry Young to make a music that was so unusual as to be inimitable. That first album sounded like nothing that had gone before. It was rock heavy yet rhythmically and harmo-melodically light years away from what was going on then. And Tony's vocals were...well they certainly weren't what you expected from jazz, rock or jazz-rock, as it was then known. The innovation took on life as improvisation, ensemble and song-form. It was NEW in the biggest sense, so much so that many audiences generally couldn't get on their wavelength when Lifetime first hit the venues.

Jack Bruce joined the band as the fourth member and bass-vocal powerhouse. The album Turn it Over followed. And it was a continuation of what they first set out to do. The band folded, Tony and Larry reformed with new members and the album Ego came to light, which had some masterpieces but was not completely on the level of what went before.

Many years have gone by since those days, and while those sides were enormously influential no band has ever come close to realizing the sound of the original Lifetime. Until now.

Jack Bruce has joined with guitarist Vernon Reid, organist John Medeski and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana to revisit the classic Lifetime music. The first CD is out, and they call themselves Spectrum Road (Palmetto).

They cover many of the significant numbers from the first three albums and one or two I do not recognize. Jack and Cindy do the vocals and the band gets it uncannily close in the ensemble to that original thrust. As individual players of significant clout, however, much of who they are, right now in 2012, individually and collectively, gets into the mix, especially in the solo sections. That's what you would expect and that's what works best in these sorts of situations, to my mind.

It's a very heady tribute to an incredibly important band, but more than that, it extends that original music in ways Tony would have liked. It's Lifetime music with the here and now built in.

And it's some landmark music, whichever way you look at it.

Allan Holdsworth, Hard Hat Area, Reissue

Allan Holdsworth over the course of his dozen or so studio albums has established himself as a guitarist with a style so distinctive, so musical and a sound so inimitable that he is in a category of one: guitarists who sound exactly like (because they are) Allan Holdsworth.

His eighth album, Hard Hat Area (MoonJune 044) in a welcome reissue, gives a great example of how that is so. In Barry Cleveland's excellent liner notes, he emphasizes that this recording was the product of a working band, and so has a kind of cohesiveness and interactive ESP some of the others do not always have.

It's Allan on guitar and synthaxe along with Steve Hunt at the keys, Skuli Sverrisson on electric bass, and Gary Husband on drums. They tackle seven substantial Holdsworth compositions that have an almost orchestral dimension thanks to the fullness of the arrangements, the synthesized harmonies and the richness of the players' approach.

All the elements are in place and when Allan gives out with his inimitable solo work, it is an integral part of the musical matrix in the same way a concerto for violin and orchestra might be. It's much more than an exercise of Allan's formidable technique and beautiful harmonic sense and tone, though it certainly is that. It's music. Very good music indeed.

One of his very best. Great to have it available again.

Chad Wackerman, Dreams, Nightmares and Improvisations, with Allan Holdsworth

Chad Wackerman was perhaps the most talented of all the drummers to grace the stage in Frank Zappa's bands. As he has matured his playing and his group concept have blossomed, so that if he no longer so much wears his prodigious technique on his sleeve, he makes music that is as astoundingly virtuostic as it is challenging and interesting.

For the new Dreams, Nightmares and Improvisations (Chad Wackerman CD-5) he gets together with long-associated colleagues Allan Holdsworth, Jim Cox and Jimmy Johnson on guitar, keys and bass, respectively. Their many years spent together and some roadwork that Chad and Allan did recently, working on spontaneous composition/free improvisation, has given birth to a vibrant ambient album of music half-composed, half-jammed. The two halfs of the puzzle fit together without seams showing, and the results are very good; excellent in fact.

Chad sounds beautiful, a percussion orchestra unto himself. Allan plays the guitar in his own instantly identifiable way and as usual has a wealth of ideas. The translation of his playing to the synthaxe on some cuts gives him an expanded sound. As much as I tend to dislike the digital guitar interface, Allan's playing with it satisfies me the most--partly because the striking nature of his lines transcends the sound of the output, and also because the compressed nature of his guitar sound is not as far away from the synthaxe sound as some other players' guitar sounds can be. So there is more compatibility there in the first place. Similarly Jim Cox's synth work is so compatible with Holdsworth's style it is sometimes difficult at first to mark where Allan leaves off and Jim comes in--at those points where Allan is on the synthaxe. Jimmy Johnson has chops and excellent taste and so adds much to the session.

It's a driving yet ambient fusion style that these four have worked out by now. The monstrously accomplished Wackerman and Holdsworth never sounded better together. This one will curl your toes!

Guitarist Chris Taylor Makes Some Great Sounds on Nocturnal

Guitarist Chris Taylor is one of those guys you want to cheer on. After 30 years of gigging around, he comes up with a debut album that is a corker. Nocturnal (Abstract Logic 029) doesn't come out of outer space. He's listened to and absorbed some of the things that have been going on, like Weather Report, Allan Holdsworth and Pat Metheny, but he's come up with something very much his. There's a cosmic psychedelic element, a world-music element, and there is what is best termed a CHRIS TAYLOR element, something you aren't expecting that he brings into the mix to give it another direction than the one you assumed was where the music was going.

His playing is electric, sculpted in ways that are his own, and very musical. The same goes for his compositions and arrangements. It's a kind of fusion, yes. It's a new kind of fusion, without the hackneyed riffs, diarrhetorically noteful cliches and other devices we hear people use and reuse until there is little life left in them.

It's an ensemble music with guitar in almost a concerto-like position--though there's also some great tenor-soprano soloing as well. The rhythm section is ON it, whether funking-rocking with taste or swinging hard. And Chris plays like a mother when he gets cranking.

This is primo new jazz-rock. It is a very impressive first album for anybody. Coming after 30 years of dues-paying Chris Taylor must be feeling some satisfaction. He should be. Dig this one and you will not regret it, I suspect.

Carlo de Lorenzi and His Jazz-Rock Opus "Four Seasons in One Recess"

Something can have commercial appeal and still have musical interest. I know that's hardly a shocking thought, but personally I have found myself in musical periods (and this is one of them) when the commercial music-mill increasingly pre-selects what it pushes on factors other than musical merit. I don't mean to sound elite or arrogant about this, but there has been a high percentage of drivel, gruel and pablum coming out of the mill in the last ten years on a whole.

So when something has a bit of a "radio-friendly" cast to it, I sometimes need to force myself to listen and see if there's is more than just "product" at play. In the case of Carlo de Lorenzi's Four Seasons in One Recess (self-released, no cat #) I found my efforts rewarded. Carlo plays piano and keys, writes songs and puts together some nice music tracks.

About half are "real songs" with guest vocalists, the other half are jazz-rock things of an instrumental sort, with room for de Lorenzi's key soloing, which (the soloing, that is) has a melodic flair and a hint of early Jarrettian gospel funk. The supporting cast of musicians vary but generally contribute in the realm of the overall sound more than they wipe one out with devastating solo work. (Jason Sadites's guitar solo on "Change of Pace" is nicely put together in a rock-jazz zone though.) Some of it could be used as music you hear when you are on hold with some company for an hour; others are too good for that treatment.

I found that the melodic qualities of several songs and some of the instrumental writing are on a superior level though. "Ode to Raven" and "Edge of the Rainstorm," with the lead vocals of Steffany Venneri and Jessie Lefebvre, respectively, are especially memorable, nature-centered and hopeful. They are songs to remember and the vocalists have personality.

If other things sound like they might be backing tracks to some unreleased Steely Dan album, I cannot say that they are in any way especially puerile or vapid. If he did a pop-jazz-rock album with more of those songs, and one or two singers in more consistently featured roles, he might get the attention of even more people. I say that only because it is rare to pull off that sort of thing, to come up with songs that could be both popular and substantial. And he does that a couple of times on this album.

Bassist Peter Scherr Crafts "Son of August"

Not familiar with Peter Scherr? That may be because he lives in Hong Kong. (But if you are reading this in Hong Kong, you may know of him?) He is an acoustic and electric bassist who writes some nice material. He assembled a sextet in 2008 to record Son of August. This year it enjoys its official global release (1 Hr Music 013).

Turns out this album is quite listenable. It's an electric jazz-rock excursion with good weighty playing from Michael Blake (who was a Lounge Lizard in the '90s) on tenor and soprano, the twin electric guitars of Brad Shepik and Tony Scherr, and Mike Sarin on drums.

Blake, Shepik and Tony S. do some effective soloing. Michael is bluesy and beyond, and the two guitarists shred, hammer and finesse with taste and good tone. The rhythm section keeps things close to the vest in an attractively loose way, then takes it out towards the end. Leader Peter contributes some not uninteresting solos here and there as well.

The compositions make this a distinctive date. Tempos are generally in the slower rock mode (but not everything) and set up appropriately the anthemic melodies and well-conceived chord changes for each piece.

In terms of overall thrust and a balance between piece and improvisation, this has affinities with middle-period Gary Burton. It does not sound like that however. After a few hearings I felt that the disk stood out sufficiently to be ranked among the best recent rock-oriented jazz of its kind. Good solos, interesting pieces, smart arrangements. A most pleasant surprise! Recommended.

Guitarist Todd Clouser's A Love Electric

Guitarist Todd Clouser has assembled a crack outfit that includes trumpet man Steve Bernstein for his third outing as a leader.

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric (Ropeadope) draws on a jazz-fusion, jazz-rock orientation for a personal blend of sounds that brings in a retro Fender Rhodes-organ centered groove rock that doesn't balk at taking things a little out when the spirit moves. His relocation to Baja Mexico in 2006 after a stint at Berklee has enabled him to come to terms with his own musical vision without the pressure to follow trends or spend most of his time in the scuffle to stay afloat.

What he most certainly done is to free himself up to return to his initial fascination for the electric sound colors that players like Hendrix and Jimmy Page made such an important part of the vocabulary of the electric guitar in the late'60s-early '70s. He goes his own way with those inspirations, injects a healthy dose of the soul-jazz from that era, and works well with Mr. Bernstein as a two-man front line that provides contrast and grits in equal measure.

The originals are good forward-moving vehicles for the musical gymnastics and grooves that take place here.

All in all a solid effort; a pleasure to hear.

Brian Drye's Bizingas: The Heft of Rock; the Musical Girth of Jazz

Trombonist Brian Drye shows convincingly in his debut Bizingas ((NCM East 40130) that the power and excitement of contemporary rock can be joined with the compositional and improvisational inventiveness of the best contemporary jazz.

The quartet Brian put together and the roles that each play are critical to the success of the outing.There is of course Brian on trombone (and keys) and Kirk Knuffke on cornet. The horns function as a two-man frontline part of the time, playing written parts that suggest the entire history of jazz and the many brilliant moments such tandems have produced from NOLA to Duke and through to today. That too is the case with their improvisational interactions, which are worth the price of admission alone. Guitar and drums-percussion sometimes split off and function as a rhythm team, or take part in a four-way dialog, provide rock and avant riff power, and/or add their texture to the mix. Brian's piano and synth give the ensemble a fifth voice that can provide foundational chording or weave lines in and out of the mix, coupling improvisationally-compositionally with a myriad of possible instrument combinations.

The compositions are quite expressive and weighty. There are new wrinkles on out rock-funk, shred jazz, contrapuntal form, and thematic through-ness and/or written-improvisational vehicles where the two elements are integrated so thoroughly that there is an of-the-moment immediacy to all of it. Brian writes some really interesting lines that are not in the least bit hackneyed, but totally fresh and inventive.

Then there are the musical personalities of the players, which are distinctive. Brian the full-bodied limber trombonist with ideas to spare; Kirk Knuffke and his coronet, who manages to sound both timeless and very contemporary. Jonathan Goldberger plays some outstanding electric guitar, subtly free at one point, powerfully crank-rocked another. Ches Smith on drums has been turning in performances lately that put him among the best of the "new" players. He is versatile and knows all about the deeper sound production aspects of the drum kit. And he can be anchor-propulsive.

On just about any level you can think of--compositionally, conceptually, improvisationally, freely, propulsively--this is outstanding music. It bodes well for where the new jazz is and will be in the future. I mean that. Thank you Brian Drye. Give us some more, please. We need a second helping!

Vintage Soft Machine: "Drop" with Phil Howard

March 4, 2009—When an established working band changes a member the result is unpredictable. And when that member is the drummer, the entire attack and direction of the band can alter dramatically. The classic Coltrane Quartet, for example, sounded quite different when Roy Haynes substituted for Elvin Jones. The same thing can be said about Soft Machine in 1971. Original founding member, singer and drummer Robert Wyatt was gone. In for a time to replace him was Phil Howard, a musician with a very different approach to time. We can be thankful that the Howard version of the band was faithfully captured on tape while on tour in Germany that Fall for a full hour of music. This recording of the group in full flower has just been released for the first time on MoonJune Records.

Drop shows vividly what can happen when the chemistry of the group alters. Howard was less concerned with laying down a rock groove and was more of a free-floating, boldly bashing, loose-limbed dynamo. He’s in and out of time on this set, cajoling and catalyzing band members to play with high energy and driving them a bit more over the top than they had been used to with Wyatt. It inspires reedist Elton Dean to blow harder and less introspectively; it gives Mike Ratledge an increased number of rhythmic options in response to the wide wash of accents laid down with drums and cymbals; and it challenges bassist Hugh Hopper to become ever more of a rock-solid anchor (which he was anyway) in the looser dialogue that develops.

This band just doesn’t groove as much, but we have that in abundance with the Wyatt version of the band and, later, with the equally brilliant drumming of John Marshall. But that is OK; there is plenty of all that. Drop gives us a glimpse of what Soft Machine was all about at the time, and what they might have become. It’s a valuable document in the evolution of the band and a very listenable excursion into the higher realms of jamming. Soft Machine aficionados will jump at this one; those new to the band who like a free rock approach will appreciate it as well. It’s a nicely different moment in the band’s relatively long tenure. A good recording can take us back faithfully to a slice in time. This one really does that and we get something to ponder in the deal. Give it your ears and you’ll be rewarded.

The Necks' "Hanging Gardens": Play it Again Sam, and Again, and Again

Australia produces its share of music worth hearing. The Necks are one of its more interesting exports in recent times. They are a keys-bass-drums trio that specializes in a kind of jazz-rock minimalism with long trance-like grooves that owe something to the early, more rock oriented minimalist endeavors, like Riley and Cale's Church of Anthrax. Yes, and the classic first phase of electric Miles Davis too.

Their 1999 Hanging Gardens (Fish of Milk 02677) shows all that pretty clearly. It's a one-hour-long cut. It begins with a high-hat tatoo and bass riff that pretty much continue through the piece. Chris Abrahams comes in on Hammond as well as piano, electric piano and various other keys. After a while I realized that the whole project took more than a little something from Miles Davis's In A Silent Way, especially the Hammond work combined with high-hat pulse. The differences are just as dramatic though. Of course there's no ravishing Miles, but really no solos at all. The riff and the drums continue ad infinitum and the level of the music gradually raises through the sound color ambiance of the keys and, sometimes, some counter riffs.

It's looking to develop a trance-through-repetition effect. That's what the Necks do so well. In spite of the fact that an hour is a rather long time to keep up a particular schtick, the Necks' strong suite is they sustain it by various event clusters, an additional variation on the riff, for example, a section where the drums lay out, prepared piano rattle-drones, and so on.

In the end, the Necks create a musical world you can inhabit gladly, provided you do not impatiently await some sort of foreground (soloing). It's a long mesh of background complexities brought forward. But it would fail utterly if it didn't evolve over time in ways that keep one's interest. It does not fail!

Soft Machine with Allan Holdsworth

January 30, 2009—Soft Machine had a long and productive run and still exists today in the guise of Soft Machine Legacy. Sometime in the mid-‘70s the group had seven albums under their belt and were in a regrouping phase. Drummer Marshall and keyboardist Ratledge were still on hand from the second and first major phase of the group’s existence, respectively, but there were also several fairly new members as well—Jenkins on reeds, Babbington on bass. They switched labels from Columbia to Harvest and, most importantly, added guitarist Alan Holdsworth to the fold, a young, extraordinary musician at the beginning of his career.

The LP Bundles came out in 1975, simultaneously heralding the beginning and the end of this lineup, as Holdsworth left shortly thereafter to join Tony Williams’ New Lifetime. Just before that a live date was recorded, which found its way recently onto MoonJune Records (check out their site). That’s excellent music but I have already reviewed it for Cadence. Bundles was the beginning of this short-lived incarnation and it is really worth a listen for what Holdsworth brings into the band.

Yes, there is a subtle continuation of the shift from jazz-rock to fusion, if such categories ultimately matter in the long scheme of things. But what is most remarkable is how Ratledge’s initial concept and compositional clarity is widened by Holdsworth’s presence. And there are strong pieces by all members save Babbington. Misty minimalist excursions, forward-charging anthems and everything in between are present. It is a continually shifting prism of light twirling on a string. Well, no, maybe it isn’t. It’s great music. Holdsworth had then much of everything he was to carry forward into his playing with Williams and later his own series of bands: that wonderful tone and melodic sense, the rock drive and the dazzling runs of sophisticated note patterns. I am sorry I missed the album when it first came out. But it sounds good here in the new century. It sounds as good as anything out there now in this sort of bag. Grab onto the disk if you can find it.

Alex Macguire and A Kind of New Canterbury School

Originally posted on December 5, 2008

When keyboard/pianist Alex Macguire puts together a sextet that includes guitarist Michel Delville and other key members of The Wrong Object (see previous blog entries) as well as saxman Robin Verheyen, one expects something worthy. And that’s what you get on Macguire’s new Brewed in Belgium release (MoonJune).

It has moments of jazz freedom and also grooves with pulses and riffed based improvisations that hearken in part to the Canterbury School of jazz-rock. The live situation seems to inspire all to create coherently elegant improvisational prose in an hour of well-paced music. Although Macguire shows himself to be adept at both freely articulated AND forward driving line weaving, it is a group effort with good contributions from all. This is yet another example of today's rich development of the jazz-beyond-rock genre that MoonJune Records captures and extols with good taste and intelligence. We have a winner!

Delta Sax Quartet Do Soft Machine

Originally posted on March 27, 2008

This next one is not average fare. If you liked the progressive rock group Soft Machine, you know that over the course of their initial run, they were likely to give you intricate compositions that touched on minimalism while remaining firmly rooted in the jazz-rock and psychedelia modes. There is a new release out that covers some of the best of those pieces, but done by the Delta Saxophone Quartet (Dedicated to You. . . but You Weren’t Listening) (MoonJune). It’s a rather vital recreation of some of Soft Machine’s best, only transformed to a different musical medium.

As I listened for the first time, I thought to myself, “Hey! We were right all along about these guys.” Because the music still sounds fresh and in the moment. My favorite cut is “Facelift” which joins the quartet with Soft Machine’s bassist Hugh Hopper on his instrument and loops. This is a solid outfit and it’s the kind of CD that sounds good just about any time of day or mood you are in—at least for me.

Jazz-Rock Fusion Today with Belgium's The Wrong Object

Originally posted on March 17, 2008

The world of jazz-rock has had its ups and downs in the past several decades. Once disco-funk invaded the world of fusion it seemed fashionable to turn away altogether. From around the time of the millennium, however, serious jazz-rock seemed to turn another page and the music began coming back.

One of the bands who is in the new vanguard is “The Wrong Object,” a horn and guitar oriented mid-size group that hails from Belgium. They began by playing covers of Frank Zappa’s music and broadened out with their own originals. A recent collaboration with the late Elton Dean, wind man for the Soft Machine and its modern-day offshoots, brought them to my attention (See my review in this past January’s Cadence Magazine). Moonjune Records has followed up with the band in its own full-flown glory, Stories from the Shed.

Bass and drums are in the tight yet busy and driving vein. Fred Delplanco on tenor and Jean-Paul Estievenart on trumpet and flugelhorn, respectively, form a solid ensemble and can solo with weight. Guitar and Electronics man Michel Delville plays an idiomatic axe that can groove as well as wail and writes much of the band’s material. Like the Later Soft Machine and Zappa, it is certainly the music itself that sets them apart. There is much of musical merit to digest on this disk and I recommend it highly.