Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra, Live in Ljubljana

There is no doubt in my mind, Adam Lane is not only one of the finest jazz bassists playing new music out there today, he is also a top composer and bandleader. That he continues to thrive is clear on the recent Full Throttle Orchestra release Live in Ljubljana (Clean Feed 307).

It was set down for posterity at the June, 2012 edition of the Ljubljana Jazz Festival in Slovenia, happily. Though this is a rather large group, an octet, playing some of Adam Lane's more ambitious and difficult-to-execute pieces, everything clicks magically. That is a testament to the musicianship of the players as well as their inspiration.

The band is excellent, in a word. Nate Wooley and Susana Santos Silva are on trumpets, Reut Regev on trombone, David Bindman on tenor and soprano, Avram Fefer on alto, Matt Bauder on baritone, Igal Foni on drums and of course Adam on bass. There is a good deal of solo prowess, the looseness that makes it all swing and cohesive ensemble playing, as you might have suspected by such a lineup.

Six intriguing Lane composition-arrangements get fully focused and exuberant treatment, with space for freedom in collective and solo contexts and a lot of heart. The octet handles the multi-part counterpointed music with all the verve and contemporary awareness you would expect, just about ideally so.

If nothing else it is a confirmation of Adam Lane's centrality, but the something else is that is has all the excitement of a live date when everything goes right.

Bravo! Very strongly recommended.

Derek Bailey, Joëlle Léandre, George Lewis, Evan Parker, 28 rue Dunois juillet 1982

If you know about free improvisation and its legacy, you perk up when you get a previously unissued recording of Derek Bailey, Joëlle Léandre, George Lewis, and Evan Parker. That's what you get with 28 rue Dunois juillet 1982 (Fou Records CD06). Fou is Jean-Marc Foussat's label. He himself recorded the foursome during their July appearance at Paris Theatre Dunois.

There are a number of reasons why this is worth hearing and why it is of central importance. The European free music scene was beginning to get global attention by 1982, and in the trajectory of these four masters they were in a period of significant growth. Derek Bailey had rapidly established himself as a prime innovator in free guitar; trombonist George Lewis had come to the attention of the world in a big way with Anthony Braxton but continued to expand his playing in the very free context, contrabassist and vocalist Joëlle Léandre was really grounding herself as a primo free new music innovator but had not gotten a lot of recognition as yet, and of course saxist Evan Parker was quickly getting world recognition as a major innovator but with these three in tandem had not performed, as far as I know.

To hear these four together back in 1982, in great form, playing uncompromising avant open-form music in an extended program is revelatory and exhilarating. These are masters of the art. They show themselves as some of the most thoroughly original of all of them, carving out a language that would become part of the common vocabulary in years to come.

And so we need to study this recording--and of course experience it with joy. Yes!

Jonathan Badger, Verse

When something hits you, it hits you. Jonathan Badger, electric guitarist and composer, hits me. At least his album Verse (Rune 394) does. He was a student of Robert Fripp and you can tell by listening to this album for its multiple guitar, "League of Crafty" influence. But then he goes beyond it into his own zone, even though the interlocking guitars are there in a different way.

The lineup is Jonathan Badger on electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, piano, computer, percussion; Ruby Fulton on flugelhorn; Patrick McMinn on trumpet; Tiffany DeFoe on tenor and baritone saxophones; Shodekeh as human beatbox; Alexandra and Victoria (the Sisters Wick), mezzo-sopranos; Michael Gates on violin; and Sasha Keen on cello.

Now all that is well and good, but it is in the music that Badger makes his originality known. This is a kind of symphonic tapestry for guitars, voices, well-produced instruments and alterations.

I wouldn't want to describe it here except to say that it is contemporary avant rock-oriented composition and multiple-guitars are central to it.

I strongly suggest you hear this one. All the words in the world won't begin to describe it and all the labels I could put on it don't quite work either. If you want to go to a new place, just get the recording!

Jean-Philippe Gregoire, Sounds from the Delta

In the realm of modern jazz guitar we have the entrance of Jean-Philippe Gregoire, a player of excellent abilities. His album Sounds from the Delta (Big Round 8935) gives us a telling portrait of his playing, his composing and a very capable band that stays with and matches him for getting it together.

Baptiste Herbin is a swinging hard-charging man on tenor and other saxes; Martin Guimbellot has strong contrabass tone and a rock steady sense of time and harmonic dynamics; Nicolas Charlier plays some nicely swinging, loosely inventive drums.

The title no doubt refers to Jean-Philippe's New Orleans roots? No, he was born and bred in France. This is not Delta blues, though there is a bluesiness to Gregoire's playing. Rather, it is cutting-edge hard- and post-bop contemporary jazz. It doesn't matter what the title means because the music is pretty great.

The tunes are very good, all Gregoire originals except the couple of standards, one by Debussy. And they set the table for the "blowing meal" well.

Gregoire has roots in classic bop guitarists and brings it all up-to-date with his own synthesis. Whether a ballad or an up-tempo stormer, Jean-Philippe has an excellent lining and chording sense that manages to be his own though deeply rooted. He is something to hear! Herbin is right up there with smart and very musical fire and tenderness, so there is never a lag.

Excellent music!

Mississippi Heat, Warning Shot

Mississippi Heat gives us the real blues, urban with a little country, Chicago style. The band is headed up by harmonica wizard Pierre Lacocque. They join us in their latest, Warning Shot (Delmark 839), and raise up a fuss.

If the blues have never left it's for a reason. And they have not! You spend any time in Chicago you know why. It is a life. It lives and breathes a life. Like right now I am not in Chicago but we ain't got much heat and it's snowing outside. Still, I know the sun's gonna shine someday--in my back door. That's what it feels like and the blues give you what you need. Mississippi Heat knows all of that. And they come through on this album with it.

Big ole mama Inetta Visor belts out the vocals for much of the numbers here, all but one written by Lacocque. The songs are in the soul-blues tradition and the band has the horns and backup vocals that exemplify the way to do it. But then they can get a slide boogie going too. Michel Dotson and Giles Corey play some fine guitar--along with Carl Weathersby on two cuts. They do the honors like they should. And the whole band rocks it. Lacocque shines on harp.

It's the blues for those that know the blues. It's a modern incarnation for those who know the blues will never leave, long as we got the world going round the way she do.

So dig into this...

Joe Morris Quartet, Balance

Guitarist Joe Morris has over the years virtually single-handedly carved out his own free-form avant jazz idiom on his instrument. By now he is at a classic stage where it all flows together with inventive grace. You can hear him at a high artistic altitude these days virtually in whatever he does. But it is especially true of the recent quartet album he made, Balance (Clean Feed 306).

Part of that has to do with having Mat Maneri on viola in the front line. He too has honed his art so that phrasings fall naturally from his instrument that manage to be both very idiomatic to the open tonality that Joe favors, yet also completely original in note choice and with a genuine feel for getting a darkly burnished tone from his viola. There is never a question of him sounding like a violinist. And this tone blends wonderfully well, especially when Joe emphasizes his middle-range.

With Chris Lightcap on contrabass the quartet has moments where there is a sort of string trio feel born of the three together. Chris can bow and pizz with real artistry and makes for an excellent addition to the sound. Then Gerald Cleaver on drums has that immediacy (especially it seems of late) of an unforced natural freedom that listens to what is going on and creates a fourth voice that is not the obvious but works extremely well in the four-way conversation.

This is a six-segment set that brings in various moods and subtleties with a togetherness that has as much a group dynamic as it does inventive soloing. If for any reason you don't know Joe Morris' work this is a great place to start. And if you already do this one gives you some of his very best. Either way, it is one to hear!

Jack Bruce, The 50th Birthday Concerts, DVD Set

The loss of Jack Bruce this past year was huge. He contributed so importantly in all the genres he touched that his legacy is assured. Jack Bruce the electric bassist, the inimitable vocalist, the songwriter, the style innovator in hard rock/blues rock, in electric jazz, art song, it goes on.

Some if not most of that is nicely captured in the release of the live German broadcasts of The 50th Birthday Concerts (MIG 90610). It is available as a two-DVD box set, a 3-DVD & bonus CD set, or two DVDs and a CD in "digi-format." I watched the two-DVD version.

It covers much ground and was culled from several live Rockpalast concerts that took place in Cologne in November of 1993. Jack was in fine form throughout.

We get a tantalizing bit of his cello playing, some songs with Jack singing and playing piano, joined by Gary Husband on keys and then drums. Then saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and the legendary Ginger Baker on drums join Jack for some progressive jazz, surely a good thing to hear. From there it goes on to a shifting array of electric musicians and horns for a nice selection of songs Jack did with Cream and later solo efforts. Bernie Worrell, Gary Moore, Baker and many others lend a good deal to the lively music. Drummer Simon Phillips is not to be missed, either!

Another surprise is the two cello and guitar renditions of "As You Said" and "Rope Ladder to the Moon."

But it all is worthwhile, well recorded and a real tribute to Jack and his artistry. His bass playing is beautiful, his vocals wonderful, the songs sound as great as ever and everybody seems stoked. The Cream reunion of 2005 might have stolen some of the thunder from these concerts, but Jack is more completely presented here in all his guises. As a live retrospective in 1993 we cannot do much better! It reminds us all-too-vividly of his absence now.

A real treat for all who love Jack Bruce. RIP.