Turnarounds; 2011

Joseph Murphy | May 24, 2012

In a year of global turmoil, occupied streets and roiling markets, jazz continued its plodding pace in the new millennium – doing the dialectical two step with tradition and innovation, reworking and shaping the existing languages while reminding us how deep and rewarding the tradition remains. Here are a few recordings that exemplified recombinant resilience and forward determination to seize the moment as well as the future.
One always laments, with the announcement of Grammy award nominations in December, the lack of recognition for the innovators. With nods to high profile artists such Chick Corea’s, Forever Trio and Terri Lynne Carrington’s glossy all women “Mosaic” project, we again see the obvious trend to pick up on the high concept `haute’ cuisine and leave the meat and potatoes behind.
Such pandering leaves little room for the likes of my record of the year, Apex, featuring the twined altos of Chicagoan’s Bunky Green and Rudesh Mahataphatta, Jason Moran on piano, Scott Colley on bass and Jack Dejohnette on drums. If you’re looking for dense kinetic no holds barred modern jazz then this release (on pi’) comes highly recommended. Giving post Bird language a new twist by combining Mahatapattha’s sinewy Bengali modalities with Green’s muscular blues by way of Dolphy, . Throw in the high test sensitivity of pianist Moran – who shades and fills here with careful attention to the intricacies of form –and Dejohnette – whose profligacy on the scene occasions a sometimes pedestrian performance - - who finds the open modal forms just to his poly-rhythmic liking.

One truly worthy recipient of the Grammy nod this year was Sonny Rollin’s, whose Road Show Vol II drew from his 80th birthday performance last September in documenting the highest level of improvisation ion in the tradition spanning sixty years. His guests in this endeavor include regular cohorts Bob Crenshaw, Kobe Watson and Sammy Figueroa as well as ringers Christian McBride, Jim Hall, Ornette Coleman and Roy Hargrove, with everyone delivering at the top of their game. Hargrove’s solo on “I Can’t Get Started’ and OC and Sonny’s exchange on “Sonnymoon for Two’ (with Roy Haynes on drums) are instant candidates for enshrinement in jazz legend, Jim Hall on “In a Sentimental mood”, a study in tonal perfection and melodic precision. A recording that will make you smile.

As will, for different reasons, another live set taken from the second great quintet of Miles Davis. From their 1967 tour of Europe, Miles Davis Live In Europe 1967 (Columbia). Anyone in the business of rating the “best” working jazz groups of all time are going to be hard pressed to leave out the Hancock/Shorter/Carter/ Williams from their top five; Taken at the peak of their four year run, this recording gets every hyper-intuitive parry and feint, every harmony stretched to its possible limit and every laser sharp unison this band was capable of. With material – some standard to the Davis book such as “Round Midnight” and “Green Dolphin Street and some freshly minted from the pen of Wayne Shorter such as “Footprints” and “Masquerlero” this Davis group played free within form and so restyled what standard jazz was capable of doing - the epitome of small group acoustic jazz at its crest in the moment before the coming new wave of electric fusion came ashore. If everyone listened to each other as hard as these guys were , we would be further along. With a great DVD of the German and Swedish dates, you’ll not find a more eloquent example of the poetry of rapport.

Speaking of Chicago (aren’t we always) we come to The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill. (Mosaic) Ok, most of these ten sessions were recorded elsewhere and Mr Threadgill no longer there resides but even a cursory run through these sides shows him to be a true son the Windy City and student of the Bronzeville academy that spawned Braxton, Mitchell and the rest of the AACM. Threadgill, founder of the coop trio AIR, composer in all forms and languages and entertainer par excellence brings an epicurean approach to the music - throwing in spices and fusing cuisines like some madly creative chef. From circus music to string ensembles, pixelated marches and cinematic dirges to taut and humorous takes of Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton Threadgills sense of drama and humor suffuse all. He contains multitudes but hears color in a way few do …his peers are Ellington and Mingus ( with a touch of Zappaesque humor) in the use of the medium small ensemble and range of color - all the time tempering and shaping with the of his astringent alto that cuts like Johnny Hodges and Ornette through the tapestry of his creations.

“music is action:the sound of bodies in motion. when we hear a rhythm, we imagine the act that gave
rise to it. some call it neural mirroring, or empathy. music and dance are linked in this way:
bodies listening to bodies, if music has ever moved you, then you already know."

So goes the introduction by Vijay Iyers to this no holds barred recording of, well, “dance tunes”, “Accelerando” (ACT) that draws down the aforementioned Henry Threadgill and Duke Ellington as well as Michael Jackson, Herbie Nichols and Heatwave …all by way of creating greater space to receive an accelerating world in our bodies. This is music that heals in a distinctly homoeopathic manner out of the Indian Carnatic tradition. Not too many people are exploring this territory but for genetic markers in Ellington and his heir Cecil Taylor, Mr. Iyer has an intensity and scalar identity all his own. Bracing and meditative.

2011 was also the year that jazz paid proper tribute to one Stevland Morris ( if not by that name) .
While jazz Sonny’s Rollins and Stitt have cherry picked a couple of Wonder melodies and Roland Kirk memorably transformed, “My Cherie Amour”, last year found pianist Vijay Iyer doing a rumbling take on “Big Brother” funky and minatory all at once, The SF Jazz Collective’s “Music of Stevie Wonder” and Chicago’s Deep Blue Organ Trio deeply grooving “Wonderlove”.
Both records are done with keeping the groove in mind while explicating the extraordinary coloratura that not so little Stevie has always brought to the music. Wonder’s melodies – always opulent and charged (Think Mingus) his harmonic range and context seems to expand horizontally (think Ellington) to the horizon. Many regard Wonder as the Cole Porter or Gershwin of his generation, to which I would again add the name of Mingus for sheer opulent exuberance and luscious chord changes.
These two discs show why some music is truly beyond category.