Alex Lubet, Spectral Blues, New Music for Acoustic Guitar

Alex Lubet on acoustic guitar is the focus of Spectral Blues (Ravello 7865). He gives us two major suites in multi-parts, "Reliquary Dances" and "Eight Ouds." These are "classical" compositions for steel-string acoustic.

Lubet combines a fine presentational technique with extended guitar sounds that include jazz-like voicings, and Eastern and Mid-Eastern string playing methods that come out of traditions of practice on the oud, koto, pipa and other non-Western, non-guitar stringed instruments. Assumed also in his music is the classical guitar tradition and modern classical sensibilities.

Put all that together and you have highly interesting work that induces contemplation and a heightened sound awareness. It is a very subtle tour de force that will appeal to all who love the pure sound of an acoustic played well, with the emphasis on music rather than spectacle.

Colla Parte, A Cast of Shadows

If you never experienced the spectrum of "serious" music out there today, you've missed quite a bit, I should think. I started like everyone else as a kid. I didn't know much of anything except what was on the radio and what my father played, his records. I followed my nose most of my life, one thing suggesting another, until I am ear-wise where I am.

I suggest this because today's CD is miles away from some of the indie rock I cover here, and yet it's something you should hear if you want to give yourself a stretch and grow.

I speak of the avant improv trio Colla Parte and their new CD A Cast of Shadows (self-released). The group consists of Daniel Barbiero on double bass, Perry Conticchio on reeds and flutes, and Rich O'Meara on vibes and percussion.

The album and its avant improvised music has as thematic the contrasts between shadow and light, as expressed musically. Of course music cannot directly express light--but the poetic thought is what motivates these three adventuresome artists. An interesting aspect of the instrumentation is Rich O'Meara's ability to get into the vibes and percussion or act as the drummer. With that option the group can grab into a chamber new music sound or a free music jazz feel or anything in between. And they do that.

Daniel puts much into play either arco or pizzicato, Perry has melodic improv ideas to spare and Rich engages in dialog and commentary in ways that extend his role and function.

If you are a young reader of this blog, you might find it consoling to know that most of the guys in this trio still have their hair, or maybe all do and one shaves his head. I don't know. But the point is that there are younger people coming up into avant music. It isn't something just for the cane and sweater set!

Colla Parte is a quite interesting example of music you can make because you have learned to hear something else than the ramrod military-march-equivalents-avec-boobs like you see and hear on the videos today! There IS much alternative music of all kinds and this is part of that. A good part.

Jason Mears Electric Quintet, Book of Changes, Part 1

Readers of this blog know that often this is where "electric music" can be found, whether the album is led by a guitarist or not. Today's disk is a great example. It is the Jason Mears Electric Quintet, a population of heavies, a loosely potent totality. The album is Book of Changes, Part 1 (Prefecture 008).

This is electric avant jazz-rock following in the footsteps of Miles Davis in his psyche-electric stage and then what Wadada Leo Smith did with that. It does not mimic. It does not imitate. It is a step all its own. Jason Mears has worked out a system of notation, without bar lines, charting out long and short notes in a specific sequence, which the players then both play and improvise with at the same time. It's a technique he's worked out with the Empty Cage Quartet (I cover some of the disks on the Gapplegate Music Review blog, see link to site on left). The album at hand goes more into the electric zone.

The group is one of an all-star sort, in terms of ability, anyway. Jason plays alto sax and clarinet, Jonathan Goldsberger is on electric guitar, Angelica Sanchez plays electric piano, Kevin Farrell is on electric bass, and Harris Eisenstadt plays drums.

In order for such notation to work, or course, the players must be highly creative, highly skilled in the improvisatory arts. These folks very much are. Mears is a mother, Goldberger can let loose and does, Angelica Sanchez is a new star on keys, as shown in her work with Wadada as well as her own groups, Farrell hits it just right and Eisenstadt is the embodiment of free-rock invention.

There is never a lag point. It just keeps going strong. The realization of the notation is at the highest level of invention. The result is a seamlessness between composition and improvisation.

If you want to know where free rock improv is going, it's here on this disk! Essential.

Specimen 13, Echosystem

Oh, yes, when something is good, you can know it the moment you hear it, sometimes.

Then the affirmation deepens the more you listen.

The prog-outness of project-band Specimen 13 and their album Echosystem (Unsung Productions) is that. Denis Rodier is drumming, giving us some vocalizing and Martin Vaniar is on guitars (and some bass and soundscaping). That's the core. Then Adrian Benavides and Markus Reuter had a hand in arranging, mixing it down. And Markus produced the recording. He plays some of his patented touch guitar too and had a hand in the sound design, which is perhaps a fancy way of saying he helped shaped the final ambiance you hear, which is rather wonderful. Adrian plays some guitar and etc., too. Then there is a cast of other musical helpmates including Trey Gunn, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, and some vocalists, and some other-others, other folks. All-in-all a hot combination!

Well now if that sounds promising, believe me it is as good as you can imagine it. It's 30-something minutes of highly evolved out prog-rock, post-Crimsonian heaviness atmos-edge. It's dem fine. You can shell down a few peanuts and get it at http://specimen13.bandcamp.com/ You should.

Al Miller Chicago Blues Band, In Between Time

I don't suppose I'll tire of saying this, because it matters to me, but here I go again: the blues tradition in the best sense is alive and well in Chicago, mostly represented on a new series of Delmark albums. Here is another goodie--the Al Miller Chicago Blues Band and their In Between Time (Delmark 826). Al has a strong pedigree as associate of the great Michael Bloomfield and member of blues group the Words. In Between Time marked his return to the Chicago fold with several new recordings. This one came out originally in 2000. I missed it the first time around but I am surely glad I haven't the second.

This is the rocking urban blues tradition that goes way back and spans Buddy Guy, Paul Butterfield and the many glorious predecessors that encompass the path to soul. Miller's harp, guitar and vocals shine forth here and the band is an excellent one.

The songs are a good mix of a few classics and worthy originals. Al is vocally solid but it's the entire band ambiance that most moves you to shout and tap your feet. It's all there!

Indians, Somewhere Else

Music is a lifeboat. When the world seems cold, perhaps just a tad evil, predatory, exploitative, nightmarish...there is music. And this music at hand today, Somewhere Else (4AD), comes to my ears when thoughts of the world predominate, for various good reasons.

It is the debut album for an outfit from Copenhagen. It helps me forget the world for a minute. Søren Løkke Juul is the fellow that's behind the music, writing, singing, playing guitar I am supposing, and there are the keys, bass, and drums too.

What hits you about Indians first are the songs--they are tuneful. And the sound envelope, which is wall-of-sound, well-ventilated, open, wistful, structured song accompaniment, spacy, mostly. The vocals are youthful and bell-like. The arrangements are nicely crafted.

So those are the elements. The total effect is indie rock art with finesse, poetry and brains. Something to forget the world with, to keep you company whether your days are happy or not-so-happy. Good music can do that. This is good music.

Nicolas Masson, Roberto Pianca, Emanuele Maniscalco, Third Reel

We can never really know the future, what the next CD that comes in the mail will sound like, though nothing comes out of nothing so it is like watching a building in the progress of construction without knowing the architectural plan that will come alive only towards the end.

Certainly I did not expect to hear the music I have been listening to with rapt interest on the CD Third Reel (ECM B0018266-02) by a trio of Nicolas Masson (tenor saxophone and clarinet), Roberto Pianca (electric guitar) and Emanuele Maniscalco (drums). Part of that has to do with unfamiliarity. I do not know these players. Part of that has to do with the ECM experience. There is always some sort of adventure in store. The rest is about the music. It is very good.

This is a Swiss-Italian rooted band of three bandleader-composer-instrumentalists of distinction. The CD comprises 16 very short to middlingly short pieces, two of them collaborative works by all three members, the rest individually written by each of the band members in turn and improvised around by the group. As Masson puts it on the press sheet I received with the advance promo copy, Pianca often centers his compositions around chordal colors, Maniscalco strives for melodic beauty and Masson tends towards the contrapuntal.

What all that translates into is the more cosmic side of the ECM sound today. This is music of substance, often with the edge of electricity from Pianca's wired, pretty cranked guitar work, which adds much to the group's ambiance. Other times Pianca gives you arpeggiated, slightly bending space chords in cloudy envelopes of less distorted sound. Masson too is key--quite nicely expansive, a post-Garbarek to Pianca's post-Rypdal. Maniscalco's drumming is creative, atmospheric and propulsive as needed. It's not all torched electricity--there is much too in the way of moody, flowing spaciness and compositional breadth. But each piece of the puzzle, 16 in all, gives you a slightly different vantage point, like that unknown building going up before your eyes. In the end you have it and it was worth the wait.

This is a new generation of ECM jazzers. They are good. I hope they continue to evolve and build on this, their impressive first offering. The music is strong!