Mark Dresser Quintet, Nourishments

Mark Dresser, acoustic bass master, has not had an album under his own name in some time. So something new in that guise is an event, and in the case of his quintet doing Nourishments (Clean Feed 279), it's something of a triumph, too.

Dresser has assembled a unit of heavys and given them some appropriately tensile and involved originals to work with.

Rudresh Mahanthappa can pretty much be counted upon to blaze forth in whatever context he is in, and here on alto he does so, in addition to co-writing one of the originals. Michael Dessen is a trombonist who has color, power and finesse. He makes an excellent counterfoil to Rudresh in the front line. Denman Maroney has impressed over time as a pianist who can take things just about anywhere and do it his own way, and he shows that again on this date. At times he changes the sound of the piano radically by inserting something metallic onto the strings for a prepared-slide feel that is very interesting to hear. Tom Rainey and Michael Sarin alternate in the drum chair. Both have what it takes.

The band is very together, well-attuned to one another and well-routined in what they do. There's room for Dresser's impressive bass playing, as you would hope, and each band member gets his say.

Important free music this is, on any number of levels. A highlight of the season for me! Hear it, buy it, keep it!

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.

Jason Robinson and "The Two Faces of Janus"

Jason Robinson has been keeping excellent company of late. And he has been showing at least three sides of his impressively wide-ranging musical personality. He recently made a very presuasively coherent duet album with Anthony Davis (see gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.com for a review of that), he has made a very interesting solo album with electronics (see the above-mentioned blog tomorrow) and he has made a larger ensemble, harder-driving contemporary jazz album with some electricity and rock-fire momentum.

It's the latter of the three records that is up for discussion today, The Two Faces of Janus (Cuneiform Rune 311). First off, the lineup. It is a well-chosen, very lucidly fluent ensemble indeed. There's Jason on tenor, soprano and flute; Marty Ehrlich on alto and bass clarinet; Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto; Liberty Ellman on electric guitar; Drew Gress on the contrabass; and George Schuller on drums. This is a band with a definite identity. The rhythm team of Gress and Schuller can do anything and they do it well, whether it touches on the realm of swing, elaborated rock inflected time or freetime. They provide the spark when needed, and do so in very sophisticated ways. Liberty Ellman is a guitarist that can do ruminative, reflective chord and line statements or charge heatedly into the fray with electric-edged chromatic flow-torrents. The horn lineup is perhaps the most impressive of all: three distinct masters of saxaphony, Rudresh the chromatic firebrand, Marty the deft abstractionist, and Mr. Robinson, who holds his own in such illustrious company as a very limber post-Trane exponent that manages to stay clear of some of the phrases and certain uses of multiphonics some players tend to overuse.

This is a full-length CD with ten very interesting Robinson compositional vehicles, from the ultrmodern balladic, to the open-ended motifs and the hard-edge chromatic contrapuntal lines that form a catalyst for burning ensemble improvisations. Some of the collective horn improvisations are stunning. All of it gives notice to anyone within earshot that these players have plenty to express and do so with a convincing directness and, when called for, a soaring turbulence of note-creating.

Jason Robinson is a force to be reckoned with on the contemporary jazz scene, that is clear. The Two Faces of Janus is excellent modern jazz on all fronts, compositionally, improvisationally, and in terms of group dynamics. Take note: Jason Robinson is somebody to listen to closely in the coming decade.

Start with this album. I believe you'll agree once you've given it a close listen.

Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition with Abassi & Weiss

South Asian classical music has one of the richest heritages of any on the planet. In the right hands the tradition can be extended into Western improvisational contexts with movingly impressive results. We've had Mahavishnu and Shakti, of course, and others.

One of the best of recent endeavors comes out of a meeting of three of the most accomplished of the new wave of players. Alto saxman Rudresh Mahanthappa heads up the group known as the Indo-Pak Coalition. Their CD Apti (Innova 709), out for a couple of years, is one of the most singular and moving of such efforts. The trio includes Rez Abbasi on electric and acoustic guitar and electric sitar, and Dan Weiss on tabla.

I've covered all three players on the Gapplegate blogs, and for good reason. Mahanthappa is one of the more exciting alto men to come along in recent years. He has an unmistakable sound and a way of improvising in complex chromatic-modal blazes of fire that soar with their own trajectory. Abassi is a guitarist that has gotten my attention for a number of years as an extraordinary adept improviser who manages to negotiate the thickets between McLaughlin, Metheny and Abercrombie without sounding like any of them. And technically he is one of those monsters, but one who places personal expression and good musical sense before pyrotechnics. A rapidly articulated line always has a musical reason for existence with Rez. Dan Weiss is a drummer who to me did the incredible: he played a CD-length drum set solo based on the talas and bols of Hindustani music (see my www.gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.com pages for a review of that recording). And he did some amazing things there. He also has played with some notable others and has a couple of interesting recordings with his own group as well. Here he is on tabla, and I suppose I should not be surprised (I've never heard him on tabla in any extended way) but he is in excellent form.

What the Indo-Pak Coalition do on Apti is, like Shakti before them, combine rhythmic, structural and melodic aspects of South Asian music with the harmonic and improvisatory components of the jazz that each of them do so well. The Coalition do it all with their own distinct musical identities intact. It is music of a very high level of accomplishment and innovation. Mahanthappa and Abassi show mastery in what they play, the ensemble routines are quite complexly appealing and Weiss plays some very forward moving tabla.

Apti takes Indo-Pak-jazz-fusion onto very personal turf in ways that are exhilarating and filled with musical abundance. It is awe-inspiring music.