Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa Steps Out with First Recording as Leader

Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa had a good idea when she thought of what she would do for her first album as leader: she took some musical fragments played by artists she had especially admired, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Dolphy, Ayer, Ornette, Kirk, Sun Ra, and built performance pieces out of them. There are also good cover versions of Captain Beefheart's "Lick My Decals Off, Baby," (it stays in the mind) and Steve McCall's "I'll Be Right Here Waiting." Then she chose to work with musicians she had long associated with: Aaron Bennett, tenor, John Finkbeiner, electric guitar, and Vijay Anderson on the drums.

Into the studio and now out comes What is Known (Clean Feed 192) by Lisa Mezzacappa and Bait & Switch.

The pieces hang together well. The band does too, via better living through (musical) chemistry and because in part they know each other musically from long association.

Bennett's tenor is raucous and energized, Finkbeiner plays some abstract and electric lines worth your ears' attention, Lisa M. has a forcefully strong tone and convinces with what she does. Vijay plays as a group member. What he does is right and it's thought through.

Now perhaps one could say that about alot of bands but in this case the material Lisa has put together moulds the end result to be smart, varied and quite stimulating.

This is a really nice first album and it plays repeatedly in my musical listening cycle right now. Definitely recommended for some worthwhile and very modern jazz improv!

Dan Hicks and His "Tangled Tales"

Dan Hicks (and His Hot Licks) did for string band swing in the late '60s - early '70s what Jim Kweskin did for jug bands. He revived his version of it and made it popular, at least for a time.

Mr. Hicks has resurfaced in the last decade and made a number of albums that show him undiminished. There's one from 2008, Tangled Tales (Surfdog), and we take a peek at it today. It's Dan and his laconically droll vocal style along with female backing vocals, the chunk of an archtop rhythm guitar (is that him?), some guitar leads (some really pretty darned good. . . him?), a violinist and rhythm section.

All that goes together to create a kind of modified rock meets Django's backup band meets western swing overtones meets a little blues connotation. As always this is fun music not meant to be purist (whatever that might mean). He does some originals, a vocal version of Horace Silvers' "Song for My Father," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Blues My Naughty Baby Gives to Me," and on from there.

This may not be his absolute best record, but it does divert and amuse, which is what it's meant to do.

I found it a nice refreshing change from my usual fare. You might also.

Bassist Lindsey Horner and "Don't Count On Glory"

Lindsey Horner plays a very solid bass, in solo or as an important building block to a band. He is also a gifted composer-arranger. All these skills come to the fore on his Cadence CD Don’t Count On Glory.

The concept for this one is a large band ensemble (of 16 members) containing a small band of rhythm and good soloists. There are some heavy cats in this ensemble, notably Marty Ehrlich on alto, Bobby Previtte on drums and some nice guitar contributions from Colter Harper and Eric Susoeff. There are plenty of high moments. It’s a contemporary date with a variety of feels and a sense of exploration. What’s most impressive is the writing and arranging. It’s very, very good. Mr. Horner is another guy who deserves to be better known. This CD is a delight. Check the Cadence link for more on the disk.

Originally posted on March 19, 2010 at www.gapplegate.com/musicalblog.htm

Cynthia Felton Sings Ellington

Cynthia Felton? Ellington? Sings? Yes. Take a singer with the sweetness of a Syreeta Wright, add a sharp musical intelligence, nuance, and terrific interpretation abilities. Then cherry pick some of Ellington's (plus Strayhorn's and Tizol's) most singable songs. What you get is this album. Cynthia Felton has that something that makes a singer worthy of your attention.

We are talking about the CD Come Sunday (Felton Entertainment 0002).

She's backed by a group of notables that include Cyrus Chestnut, Tain Watts, Ernie Watts, Wallace Roney and others, and they give everything the right framework.

She can scat and swing but I especially love her attention to musical detail on the more balladic numbers like "In A Sentimental Mood," "Come Sunday," and "Prelude to A Kiss."

The best singers can do a song that's been done countless of times and find a way to make in sound new. Cynthia Felton has that. And to do Ellington? Oh yes, that's a great idea. This one will speak to anyone. . .who listens. Wow, thanks Ms. Felton.

Matta Gawa's Avant Shred on "bA"

Engine Records is one of those small NYC boutique labels that provide alternative music seekers with some excellent avant jazz-improv. They use two-color offset printing onto sturdy brown stock for an underground looking no-frills all-music package. (Shades of the graphic arts classes of my youth! Lunch tickets!)

I've reviewed a number of their releases on my blogs and always look forward to a new installment. The arrival of Matta Gawa's bA
(Engine 035) defied my expectations (since after a while the unexpected becomes a kind of "expected"). This is a potent duo of Edward Ricart on a very electric guitar and Sam Lohman on freetime drums. Edward cranks out of a vintage Fender tube amp. He relies on loops as underlying ostinatos or sonic backwashes much of the time.

What surprised me (and not unpleasantly) was the uncompromising avant-shred ambiance of the recording. There are moments that sound like an extension of the more outside moments on the early Hendrix albums, only Matta Gawa develop their feedback and high intensity line-chord assaults in ways that (pardon the unintentional pun) sustain interest in the longer-form expositions and give musical utterance to a wider melodic-sound color palette.

It's full-steam ahead all the way, a flat-out blast off into the spacier realms of aggressive psychedelics. Now I happen to like that approach (as I do many others as well) and I must say this scores quite high on the freak-out meter. If you appreciate Sonny Sharrock at his more extreme and have a soft spot in your heart for the spacey jams that were sometimes a part of the Dead's stage show (especially in the early incarnations) this will certainly appeal to you.

Matta Gawa go their own way with the subgenre and they do it very well. Ricart and Lohman score a weirdo coup here. Listen and get zoned with these sounds. Encore!

Garrison Fewell's Variable Density Sound Orch: Sound Particle 47

We take a virtual trip to Boston today for the larger ensemble sounds of Garrison Fewell's Variable Density Sound Orchestra and their second album, Sound Particle 47 (Creative Nation Music 016).

This is advanced ensemble improvisation that begins where Mingus's larger ensemble works leave off and takes the music to further outposts and way stations in the realm of new sounds. For this recording we have a nine-piece group: Garrision on electric guitar plus Roy Campbell on trumpet, Steve Swell, trombone, Eric Hofbauer, guitar, Achille Succi, alto sax and bass clarinet, and other players, all on the game. The music was composed by Fewell and his sidemen along with a few by John Tchicai.

You get a roll-and-tumble music that has plenty of solo space, sometimes collectively. Swell and Campbell stand out, as do the guitarists, but everybody puts in their time with creative results. The ensemble size grows and shrinks within pieces in ways that provide listeners with contrast and aural adventure throughout the set.

The arranged-written parts come and go at various points, avoiding a head-solos-head approach.

Sound Particle 47 brings to you an uncompromising look at what thoughtful compositions and intelligent improvisation can do when built up by a very talent group of musicians. This is a first-rate performance of cuttingly acute music. Definitely recommended for an excellent example of what is going on right now.

7 Day Binge: Bluesy Metal

Sometimes the promo review copies pile up and I feel like I am on a factory treadmill, to be frank. Yet each one has behind it a musician or group of musicians that put (one assumes) much time and effort to get to the point where I can hold the plastic jewel case in my hand. I take my somewhat humble role seriously. If something deserves to be heard I cannot let myself become blase.

So if I listen and review a CD by a group called 7 Day Binge, in fact a self-titled album of that description (Rock Ridge 61265), it behooves me to pay attention and not come forth with some kind of blithe horse manure designed to flatter my own notion of self-worth.

This is a band that draws upon and builds upon the bluesier elements of hard rock/metal. To suggest a group like Free or Led Zep has some relation to this music is not at all a stretch. There's also a Southern rock aspect to them. Yet they pull together with songs that do not sound as if they were cloned from the parental stock.

This is a now sort of venerable way to proceed: blazing guitar, punchy bass, hard, organic drumming and soulful rock vocals. It's not so much formula as style.

Seven Day Binge do a good job of it.

A band like this merits the attention of those who dig this kind of music.