Review by Michael G. Nastos
Vijay Iyer has captured the ears of critics and listeners like only a handful of the most elite jazz pianists since McCoy Tyner, Cecil Taylor, or Misha Mengelberg initially burst onto the scene. There's no other single player who sounds even remotely like him, few who can match his inventive and whimsical sense of play or seriousness, and absolutely nobody who presents the stunning, highly intelligent music he dishes out. With Historicity, he touches on many different levels of acumen, influenced by contemporary alternative rock, Motown, show tunes, pop fusion, the early creative music of the '70s, and ethnic strains. Iyer also revisits two of his older compositions, with the majority of this progressive jazz — whether "covers" or originals — done completely in his own scintillating style. Iyer's working/touring band of drummer Marcus Gilmore and bassist Stephan Crump is more than up to the task, with this well-rehearsed music retaining a spontaneous, liquid, chameleonic urgency that consistently staggers the imagination. Iyer's mind-blowing virtuosity on the title track/opener is loaded with mutated repeat phrases that tumble from his brilliant, busy hands. Clearly, he is not like all the others. His love for Andrew Hill is demonstrated during "Smoke Stack," a scattershot, inventive, tangential swinger, while Julius Hemphill's deeply bluesy and tribal "Dogon A.D." is perfectly interpreted in its thorny, craggy, unpredictable rhythmic base, as Crump's bowed bass and Gilmore's juggernaut funk stagger the mixed meters, very faithful to the original.

M.I.A. fans are treated to "Galang" in a hardbound big beat with summarily contrasting bright or dark piano lines, while Stevie Wonder's "Big Brother" sports a tom-tom-fed New Orleans syncopation contrasting Iyer's strident piano. The suggestive, introspective original "Helix" is different for the pianist in a diffuse setting, and he conversely incorporates a circle-the-wagons approach on the romantic Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim evergreen "Somewhere," juxtaposed against a bluesy swing, again atypical. Perhaps the most unusual choice is R&B fusioneer Ronnie Foster's "Mystic Brew," a straight funky version, not at all smooth, but way cool. The recapitulated tracks include "Trident: 2010" in a roiling, nearly boiled motion, while "Segment for Sentiment #2" is magnificently spiritual, again a twist for Iyer's more animated notions. Crump's bass playing and especially his soloing should be something to marvel at for anyone who appreciates finely crafted, artistic jazz musicianship, while Gilmore is amazing in his ability to keep up and push the more complex sounds. Vijay Iyer has mad skills, overwhelmingly and powerfully demonstrated on all of his recordings, but especially this one. He's also maturing at a rapid rate, while at the height of his powers on this incredible effort that sounds like much more than a mere piano-bass-drums mainstream jazz trio. This is an incredible CD, and a strong candidate for best jazz CD of 2009.

Benno schreef:
Eerst ICP Orchestra en nu Prince Lasha... de jazz begint nu toch wel aardig te knetteren. Goede keuzes!

pretfrit schreef:


Doe je er ook iets mee?

Je was me al eens opgevallen. Je schijnt aardig wat jazz te kennen. Kunnen we daarvan in de toekomst op mume nog beoordelingen en wellicht wat mooie recensie's verwachten?

(annoniempje) There has been much fuss during the past years about this cuban pianist. If it is chops that you're after - you've got it. On the other hand, if you're looking for music - turn elsewhere. Chops are what this guy is all about. Techniquely he is truly awesome, but he doesn't really have the faintest clue about the aesthetics of jazz music. The word "groove" cannot even be used in this context, since Gonzalo has no idea of how to swing in a jazz-like manner. His typewriter-like phraziation sounds hysterical as he rushes the time like crazy. Harmonically he makes a huge fool of himself in "Giant Steps", where most of the notes he plays are total garbage and have nothing to do with the chord changes. If you really do want to listen to mr. Rubalcapa, my suggestion is that you try out some of his earlier stuff where he operates in a more latin-american context.

(annoniempje II ) Gonzalo Rubalcaba is the best I've heard in quite some time. I am a jazz pianist with five CD's in the stores and on Amazon. If you haven't heard Gonzalo, you are really missing out on greatness. Gonzalo will be around for a very long time. I had the pleasure of hearing him at syphony hall here in Chicago and he blew me away.

we tigers schreef:
Dans les Arbres staat volgende week in Paradox in Tilburg.

Standard Of Language verdient net als Kenny Garrett's vorige cd Happy People veel aandacht en respect. De plaat is minder gefocust op de smooth jazz; het spel gaat meer richting de experimentele, vrije stijl van John Coltrane. En waar zo'n ambitieuze onderneming door een mindere saxofonist waarschijnlijk zou stranden, is het in zeer goede handen bij Kenny Garrett. Over de hele lengte van Standard Of Language, is Garrett's energieke spel te horen, in negen door hem zelf geschreven en geproduceerde nummers. Daarnaast beschikt hij ook nog over een band met grote jazzsterren als Chris Dave, een puike drummer, die wel met Tony Williams vergeleken wordt; Charnett Moffett (ook een veteraan uit de Tony Williams' band) op akoestische bas, die nog recentelijk met McCoy Tyner en Ornette Coleman heeft gespeeld en pianist Vernell Brown, een veteraan uit de free jazz school. (RM)

Though the record includes a lot of worthy music, it does raise the question of who deserves credit for it, Skalpel or their sample victims?

Review by John Bush
Ray Barretto's Latin/soul crossover record of 1968, Acid includes a few tracks of his ebullient, instrumental salsa, but also plays off the boogaloo craze of the past few years with a few Latin soul numbers. The crossovers "A Deeper Shade of Soul," "Soul Drummers," and "Teacher of Love" (all written by Barretto himself) are a lot of fun, but the (relatively) straight-ahead salsa of "El Nuevo Barretto" and the title track easily edge out the competition. It's nowhere near as psychedelic as the title would indicate, but Acid holds up nevertheless as a great document of the late-'60s confluence of Latin, funk, and soul.

Review by William York
Composed by pianist/leader Vyacheslav Ganelin, Ancora Da Capo is an inspired major work consisting of two parts, recorded live on two separate occasions in 1980 and each nearly 40 minutes long. The Ganelin Trio's brand of loosely structured free jazz was something really distinctive, though unfamiliar listeners might use the Art Ensemble of Chicago as a loose comparison since the two groups share several common elements: multi-instrumentalism (the trio's members play 16 instruments among themselves here); liberal uses of space, miscellaneous percussion sounds, and traditional/folk music references; and an anything-goes sense of humor. All of these qualities are evident on Ancora Da Capo. The piece has a few pre-composed themes (which are actually more alluded to than they are clearly stated) and an overarching form that guides the playing along, but the bulk of the music is heavily improvised within this larger framework. "Part 1" begins quietly with several minutes of chimes, shakers, and rattling percussion sounds before Ganelin and Vladimir Chekasin switch to piano and clarinet, respectively, improvising sparsely and patiently around a skeletal theme. Things heat up about halfway through when a new theme enters, as percussionist Vladimir Tarasov slides into a more propulsive free jazz groove and Chekasin's saxophone begins honking and vocalizing. Subsequently, there are more rattling percussion noises, some violin scrapes courtesy of Chekasin, a Ganelin piano solo that veers from fluid bop references to inside-the-instrument plucking, and a raucous finale that finds Chekasin quacking and literally screaming through his horn before he works his way back to the closing melodic theme. "Part 2" incorporates moments of actual toe-tapping, swing-like rhythms, along with primitive synthesizer sounds, more wild soloing from Chekasin (who sometimes blows two horns at once) and Ganelin, and, finally, a folk-like closing theme that brings things to a rousing conclusion. Ancora Da Capo has a rare balance of form and freedom, wildness and restraint that makes it continually surprising (at times even jarringly so) as well as remarkably durable in terms of repeated listening. [Note that Ancora Da Capo originally came out in the form of two separate LPs; the CD combines includes the original release of "Part 1," recorded in Leningrad, with a different version of "Part 2," which was performed weeks earlier in Berlin but not available for release when the original LPs came out.]

door "Godwaffle"
Bold. If your going to attempt a tribute to that one of a kind gypsy, Django Reinhardt, you'd better be bold. Luckily James Carter has bold covered. From the first bass sax notes on the opener, "Nuages (Clouds)", bold is stamped all over this. Carter plays the bass saxophone on three tracks and considering the damn thing is almost as big as Carter himself (check the photo on the inner sleeve), it's amazing to hear the dexterous and sultry moods he pulls out of the thing. Of course anyone who has listened to Carter knows he's an extroverted innovator and one of the few who truly deserves to be called one of the "Young Lions" of jazz in the last twenty years. He's leagues above anything by the likes of contemporaries like Rick Margitza, or the equally fiery but much safer David Sanchez, for example.

The blending of Carter's various saxes (he plays bass, tenor, f mezzo and soprano on this) with the Stephane Grappelly-like violin of Regina Carter, the steel string guitar flourishes of Jay Berliner and nylon string touches of Romero Lubambo, the accordian of Charles Giordano, along with the detailed percussion of Cyro Baptista, drums of Joey Baron and bass of Steve Kirby, is intoxicating.

Carter is going for moods here, not slavish recreations of Reinhardt's works but on Reinhardt standards "Nuages", "Manoir De Mes Reves (Django's Castle)", "I'll Never Be The Same", "Oriental Shuffle" and "Artillerie Lourde (Heavy Artillery)", he transports you to pre-W.W. 2 Paris. Your drinking red wine, smoking a cigarette and languidly gazing between the beautiful girl seated next to you and the bandstand. And on something like "Django's Castle", the mood is pitch perfect, the tenor of Carter and the duel guitars of Berliner and Lubambo musically drawing in every period detail, including the final, "it's time to go back to your place" look from that girl.

There's a great swinging groove on "Heavy Artillery", and the exchanges between Regina Carter and James are ebullient and thoroughly infectious. Like I said earlier though, this isn't some slavish, clinical recreation of the inimitable Reinhardt oeuvre. No, this album is interested in moods and emotions. That said, Carter knows his shit and his original, "Chasin' The Gypsy", sounds like something that could have been written and performed by the great Le Quintette du Hot Club de France themselves, Carter's manic soprano replacing Reinhardt's guitar, and the equally manic violin of Regina Carter, seeming to spiritually channel that mid-thirties madness. It's way too much fun!

At other times, like "La Derniere Bergere (The Last Shepherdess)", "Imari's Lullaby" or "Avalon", Carter emphasizes the feel of Reinhardt's era without submerging his own identity or the contemporary, while still staying true to that nostalgic vibe. Regina Carter deserves special mention for her performance on "Oriental Shuffle". It's sensitively rendered and never once slips into the superfluous. Every note is just right and the same can be said of James' swooning f mezzo saxophone.

The violin/accordian intro of "I'll Never Be The Same", in which Carter comes in with a caressing, soothing groove on that massive bass sax is mesmerizing and goosebump inspiring. And you know it's time to inspire those goosebumps with some quality shit.

Bold and a touch brash (I mean you have to be brash to wear the suit Carter gets away with on the back cover), this straddles a line in the perfect balancing act between tribute and contemporary conceptualizations. The originals are a perfect synthesis of this impressive aesthetic. It's rare to find such originality in a tribute work but rarer still to find modern jazz musicians so solidly aware of their past while boldly forging into the future. Exemplary.

Penguin Guide
This remain's Charle's masterpiece, full of pungent writting from various hands. The record is a showcase for some of the sharpest arranging minds of the day: Giuffre, Brookmeyer, Waldron, Evans and especially George Russell, whose 'Lydian M-1' makes an extraordinary climax to the date.