Josh Berman, Keefe Jackson et al.

[Larry Kart]

Cross-posted from the "Jazz/Indie Rock" thread on "Miscellaneous Music" because if you haven't been following that thread etc.:

Went to hear Josh Berman and Matt Schneider last night; unfortunately, Schneider had severely broken a leg in several places several weeks ago while skate-boarding (these are the problems when you've got a scene full of younger musicians) and couldn't make it. Waited around for Berman's set and was richly rewarded. Josh, when he saw me, jokingly said something like "Oh, no, we're going to play 'free' tonight" -- meaning that his normal bands are less this way, that there would be more chances of error or outright failure this way, and therefore I shouldn't be there to witness it, also that (as it turned it) these four particular guys (Josh, Keefe Jackson, Jason Roebke, Marc Riordan) had never played as a group, though they'd all played before with each other, along with others, in some cases many times -- Keefe is Josh's most frequent musical partner.

Josh, BTW, was my door to this scene. Met him around 2000 or so when he was working at the JRM and became bemused by how much stuff he'd listened to at his young age (then mid-to-late 20s). Almost nothing could come up that he hadn't heard and had knowledgable things to say about -- and I've got an almost 40-year head start on him. I knew he played the trumpet (later the cornet), had studied with Brad Goode and a CSO player-teacher, but I'd never heard him play. Then he mentioned that he had an upcoming gig with a quartet (altoist Aram Shelton, drummer Dave Williams, bassist Brian Dibblee) at a an Uptown coffee house. I felt I had to go but wondered what I'd say if I thought they weren't very good -- though I did know Williams and Dibblee from their work in some fairly straightahead settings, and they certainly could play.

In any case, that band was openly Ornettish -- playing actual Ornette tunes and originals in that vein -- and while Shelton clearly was the further along player, what Josh was doing was very interesting. His key models, as he would freely admit, were this unlikely trio: Don Cherry, Ruby Braff, and Tony Fruscella. He loved the lower register and ... I was going to say "bent" notes but -- and this taste has persisted over time and become much more under control and less decorative -- they're more like "shaped" or "cupped" notes, in that what's involved is mostly not an outright change in pitch but a flowing change in timbre within the note, this usually achieved without the use of mute, plunger, etc. and to the point where the change in timbre is almost where one might say the "melody" is, or that the actual melody and this auxiliary and at times almost contrapuntal melody of timbral shifts coexist.

On the other hand, at that point, Josh's phrases tended to be fairly short and "abstract" -- in both cases, though they fit the style of the music they were playing, one wondered whether it was also that he HAD to play that way. Over time, the latter probably proved to be the case; after he bought a lovely cornet, which fit what was he was going for like magic, and began to practice a good deal harder, I think, and play in public more frequently, the phrases began to link up and his overall command of the instrument became unquestionable -- in terms of facility and range, in particular.

Now I'd been around a good bit during the early days of the AACM, later been a big fan of the Hal Russell Ensemble, but after Hal's death my contact with the local avant-gardish scene had kind of withered away, as perhaps the scene itself had to some degree -- I can't say for sure because I was kind of elsewhere, in part because in the late '80s I left my newspaper reviewing gig and became an editor in the paper's Books section, eventually the editor of that section, which was a very demanding, time-consuming job (but great fun).

When the whole Vandermark thing began and was up and running for a while, I went to some of his things and realized right off that I wasn't, and probably never would be, a fan -- though clearly some of the guys he was working with (e.g. trombonist Jeb Bishop, reedman Dave Rempis) were impressive players. The whole Tortoise, et al. alt-rock thing, and the Chicago Underground Duo/Trio thing I came to know only from recordings -- Rob Mazurek I think was just about to leave town, if he hadn't already left, when I began to go out to hear a lot things, but I have heard a fair amount of Jeff Parker in-person since then and some Chad Taylor (who also left town).

So after hearing Josh's quartet at that coffee house in 2000 or 2001 (I have a privately pressed CD that band made and am holding it for ransom), I began to go to all sorts of things in that seemingly ever-widening circle of youngish players (terrific players have flowed in from other cities and regions with regularity and generally have stayed) and became aware that this was a scene the likes of which I hadn't witnessed since, again, the vintage days of the AACM.

Terry Martin BTW has jokingly/tartly referred to these players as the New Austin High Gang, implying that their relationship to the music of the vintage AACM is analogous to the relationship between the original Austin High Gang and King Oliver-Louis Armstrong, both in terms of race and influence. This I feel, and Terry now I think mostly agrees, is an amusing line but not really accurate -- there is knowledge of and fondness for the vintage AACM here, of course, and contact with the current AACM, but these players collectively come from a whole lot of other places as well; I hear, for one, at times a whole lot of wisely and utterly assimilated Morton Feldman, an understanding of exactly what Feldman meant when he said to Stockhausen that his (i.e. Feldman's) "secret" was that "I don't push the sounds around." (Stockhausen's plaintive response, according to Morty was, "Not even a little bit?")

Getting back to last night's music -- it was free in that it was not pre-planned, but given that, the goal was not to determinedly stay "free" or "out" (if you will) at all times but to allow whatever form-making impulses that were or might be present to emerge -- passages of fairly straight swinging "time" were possible, as well as the feeling that a collective "tune with changes" feeling had been arrived at for a while. (I should add that the one constant on this scene is that everyone in every group that's any good tries to think and act "compositionally." The actual sounds that result can be stylistically quite diverse, but it's such an important, constant thing that it almost takes its absence where you expect it to be to remind you of how rich that constant compositional feel is and how much it matters. For instance, a very talented, fairly well-known, mid-40ish rhythm section player settled in the area a few years ago; he began to play on the scene a lot, but his approach was pretty clearly "I am the virtuoso," which he pretty much was. To my mind, he stuck out like a sore thumb at first, as gifted as he was, but over time he got the "compositional" thing, which was weird in a way because he came from a scene in another major city where one had thought that was in the air too --but no, or not nearly as much.

Keefe Jackson (originally from Arkansas) got to me the first time I heard him, maybe back in 2002, when he was regarded by some local mavens as a second-line or even a third-line figure who probably would just stay there. I thought he had some problems in terms of sound -- he just didn't seem to make the horn vibrate as much I thought he should (this was out of then-prevailing temperamental diffidence, I believe, rather than lack of ability) -- but what I think of as his gifts as a shape-maker and his unquenchable in-the-momentness (in both respects he reminds me of "Sound"-vintage Kalaparusha/Maurice McIntyre) -- convinced me that he had great promise and was damn good right then. As it happens, Keefe's sound last night on both tenor and bass clarinet was as rich as I've think I've ever heard from him; he filled the room with overtones without the least sense of strain, and Elastic is a fairly "dry" space. Also, his rapport with Josh, and Josh's with him, is just ... I was going to say "uncanny," but I've heard it often enough that I can't say that; how about "canny"?

Roebke's stylistic flexibility and spontaneity within whatever might be going on is pretty amazing; in Mike Reed's People, Places and Things, for example, he plays some of the hardest-walking time this side of the late George Tucker; here he can lay out for considerable stretches, thinking about where and how to come in, and then just surprise the crap out of you by how he swoops in what he decides to do once he lands. Also, he's got such a lovely, big sound, with a lot of useful "pluck" to it.

Drummer Marc Riordan is one of the scene's many emigrees, from the Boston area, and he just fascinates me with the essentially cool, contained, crisp aptness of everything he does -- and I've heard him in lots of settings, from straightahead cooking things, to a neo-Bill Evans trio, to free, to my son's singer-songwriter band Medium Sized Rabbit, which is not that far from Sam Prekop territory. Riordan (who's also one heck of a piano player) sounds like himself, but I think I can hear in him a fondness for Tony Williams, Roy Haynes (the crispness), and Joe Chambers -- Chambers' sort of compositional "cool" in particular.

One odd thing is that while I don't often like to look at anyone while they're playing -- in part because I hear better with my eyes closed, in part because it can be distracting when you think you're seeing one thing and are hearing another -- Riordan, more than any modern drummer I can think of, makes no move that doesn't correspond precisely to what you hear. In part that's because he's not a big person and doesn't have long arms, thus he stays quite centered and physically economical amid his kit. I imagine that Baby Dodds also might have had that "what you see is just what you get" quality. By contrast, the marvelous Frank Rosaly may be the most "what you see may not be at all what you hear" drummer I've ever encountered -- and Frank is marvelous.

So that's a bit of what last night was like, with some context thrown in.

[jimi089]

Great post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Larry.

[Johnny E]

Yeah, thanks larry. It's good to get a bit of insight into what's happening in Chi now-a-days.

[Hot Ptah]

Larry, I see in my current issue of Rhythm & News that at least some of these artists have been recorded by Delmark. Are there other recordings on other labels which you can recommend? And are the Delmark releases representative of what you have been hearing live from these artists? Thanks.

I am envious of anyone who can shop at the Jazz Record Mart as their local store.

[Larry Kart]

Larry, I see in my current issue of Rhythm & News that at least some of these artists have been recorded by Delmark. Are there other recordings on other labels which you can recommend? And are the Delmark releases representative of what you have been hearing live from these artists? Thanks.

I am envious of anyone who can shop at the Jazz Record Mart as their local store.

Yes, the Delmarks are representative, though some are more successful than others; usually the closer to the present, the better. I'm particularly impressed by Keefe Jackson's "Just Like This" and Jason Ajemian's "The Art of Dying." Another recent very good one is Jason Adasiewicz's "Roll Down" (482 Music).

I''ll try to assemble a more comprehensive list, but I don't think you can go wrong with those.

[Hot Ptah]

Larry, I see in my current issue of Rhythm & News that at least some of these artists have been recorded by Delmark. Are there other recordings on other labels which you can recommend? And are the Delmark releases representative of what you have been hearing live from these artists? Thanks.

I am envious of anyone who can shop at the Jazz Record Mart as their local store.

Yes, the Delmarks are representative, though some are more successful than others; usually the closer to the present, the better. I'm particularly impressed by Keefe Jackson's "Just Like This" and Jason Ajemian's "The Art of Dying." Another recent very good one is Jason Adasiewicz's "Roll Down" (482 Music).

I''ll try to assemble a more comprehensive list, but I don't think you can go wrong with those.

Thanks, and I would be interested in the more comprehensive list.

[.:.impossible]

Roll Down is one of my absolute favorites of the last few years!

[Hot Ptah]

Roll Down is one of my absolute favorites of the last few years!

I see it on page 17 of the issue of Rhythm & News which just came to me, in the mail. (That is the publication of Jazz Record Mart). It is described on page 17 as:

"Jason Adasiewicz--"Rolldown" (former employee along with former employee Frank Rosaly and current employee Josh Berman)."

My order is on the way!

Pertaining to nothing in particular: Adasiewicz--As a Wisconsin native, I love that quintessential Upper Midwest name. My brother had a good friend named Alasciewicz.

[.:.impossible]

Another 482 release from this scene that I own is Aram Shelton Arrive.

Aram Shelton, Jason Adasiewicz, Jason Roebke and Tim Daisy

I can't say that it grabbed me the two times I have listened to it since I bought it two summers ago. Maybe I'll go back and give it another listen. Generally speaking, I am less a fan of Daisy and more a fan of Rosaly. I'm only making the contrast because of the similar line-up to Roll Down (Josh Berman, Aram Shelton, Jason Adasiewicz, Jason Roebke and Frank Rosaly). I feel like the compositions didn't reach me.

Anyway, I'll give it a go tonight and see how it sounds.

BTW, Roll Down seems to be the only album available on vinyl from 482. Strange.

[.:.impossible]

Larry, any thoughts on the following?

Loose Assembly Last Year's Ghost

Loose Assembly Speed of Change

Josh Berman/Keefe Jackson/Anton Hatwich/Nori Tanaka/Jason Adasiewicz Luminescence

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten The Year of The Boar

[Larry Kart]

Larry, any thoughts on the following?

Loose Assembly Last Year's Ghost

Loose Assembly Speed of Change

Josh Berman/Keefe Jackson/Anton Hatwich/Nori Tanaka/Jason Adasiewicz Luminescence

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten The Year of The Boar

Sorry, don't know those. Line-ups looks promising. Are you sure that "Luminesence" is still available? Think I tried to get a copy a while back and was told it was self-produced in (as is typical) small numbers and by that time was OOP. I believe (though I hope I'm wrong -- there is a link for it below) that the same thing happened to a Jason Ajemien album from a few years back that I really like, "Who Cares How Long You Sink?":

http://www.luckykitchen.com/spark2/lk025.html

with these players:

Matt Bauder - tenor saxophone

Stewart Bogie - clarinet

Jeff Parker - guitar

Kyle Bruckman - oboe

Aram Shelton - alto saxophone

Ernst Karel - trumpet

Dan Sylvester - marimba

Tim Daisy - marimba

Jason Ajemian - bass

May take me a while to assemble that list of things from this scene that I can vouch for, because a lot of my CDs are inaccessible to me right now (still dealing with the aftermath of a basement that sprung a big leak in February, many things packed away) , and I don't want to rely on memory alone but would prefer to actually look at everything and re-listen when that seems like a good idea.

[Larry Kart]

"The Gift Economy" by Toby Summerfield's very large ensemble Never Enough Hope, I highly recommend:

http://www.contraphonic.com/con/neh.php

Dig the photo of Toby, BTW.

Two disclaimers: Toby and my son Jacob are members of the rock band Crush Kill Destroy, which is neither here nor there actually, but I think I should mention it, and I do know that some very good players on the Chicago scene we've been talking about think that Toby's Never Enough Hope is ... too spacey, I think is what they think. On the other hand, some other very good players on the scene, who play with those other players I just mentioned, are committed members of the ensemble.

[jlhoots]

Larry, any thoughts on the following?

Loose Assembly Last Year's Ghost

Loose Assembly Speed of Change

Josh Berman/Keefe Jackson/Anton Hatwich/Nori Tanaka/Jason Adasiewicz Luminescence

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten The Year of The Boar

Both of the Loose Assembly CDs are excellent IMHO.

I also suggest People Places & Things: Proliferation on 482.

Mike Reed is the "leader" on all 3.

[srellek]

Larry, any thoughts on the following?

Loose Assembly Last Year's Ghost

Loose Assembly Speed of Change

Josh Berman/Keefe Jackson/Anton Hatwich/Nori Tanaka/Jason Adasiewicz Luminescence

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten The Year of The Boar

Sorry, don't know those. Line-ups looks promising. Are you sure that "Luminesence" is still available? Think I tried to get a copy a while back and was told it was self-produced in (as is typical) small numbers and by that time was OOP. I believe (though I hope I'm wrong -- there is a link for it below) that the same thing happened to a Jason Ajemien album from a few years back that I really like, "Who Cares How Long You Sink?":

http://www.luckykitchen.com/spark2/lk025.html

with these players:

Matt Bauder - tenor saxophone

Stewart Bogie - clarinet

Jeff Parker - guitar

Kyle Bruckman - oboe

Aram Shelton - alto saxophone

Ernst Karel - trumpet

Dan Sylvester - marimba

Tim Daisy - marimba

Jason Ajemian - bass

May take me a while to assemble that list of things from this scene that I can vouch for, because a lot of my CDs are inaccessible to me right now (still dealing with the aftermath of a basement that sprung a big leak in February, many things packed away) , and I don't want to rely on memory alone but would prefer to actually look at everything and re-listen when that seems like a good idea.

The Berman/Keefe cd is very good, as are all of the releases on D Bayne's Luminescence label. I can't recommend highly enough Bayne's PREMONITION cd from a couple years back. Stunning.

Full disclosure: I did/do the artwork for the releases on Luminescence. The live cds are limited editions, only 100 copies of each. It is a labor of love. I have an extra copy of the Berman/Keefe cd if someone is interested. It's such great music, I hate to keep an extra around that might find a loving home in someone's collection. (Send me a pm.)

Also, there is more on the website:

http://www.luminescencerecords.com/default.asp

If you email or call D he might have some more of the limited editions as well...

[Hoppy T. Frog]

I believe (though I hope I'm wrong -- there is a link for it below) that the same thing happened to a Jason Ajemien album from a few years back that I really like, "Who Cares How Long You Sink?":

http://www.luckykitchen.com/spark2/lk025.html

with these players:

Matt Bauder - tenor saxophone

Stewart Bogie - clarinet

Jeff Parker - guitar

Kyle Bruckman - oboe

Aram Shelton - alto saxophone

Ernst Karel - trumpet

Dan Sylvester - marimba

Tim Daisy - marimba

Jason Ajemian - bass

The website indicates it is still available. 15 Euros shipped to the USA.

[jimi089]

Larry, any thoughts on the following?

Loose Assembly Last Year's Ghost

Loose Assembly Speed of Change

I'm a fan of both Loose Assembly records - a band led by drummer Mike Reed, and featuring Josh Abrams, Jason Adasiewicz, Tomeka Reid, and Greg Ward. I think the newer of the two is a superior effort, FWIW.

[relyles]

In the past two weeks I have purchased a few of the recordings mentioned in this and another thread related to the Chicago scene. I started by listening to tracks from the recordings by Jackson, Ajemian, Reed, etc. on Rhapsody. I really enjoyed what I heard and felt compelled to order a bunch of the CDs. They are just starting to arrive now and the only one I have been able to spend any time with is Jason Ajemian's Delmark recording. It is great how much good music is coming out of Chicago and how distinct the sound is from a lot of what I hear from the east coast scene. Keep the recommendations coming!

[papsrus]

... I have been able to spend any time with is Jason Ajemian's Delmark recording. It is great how much good music is coming out of Chicago and how distinct the sound is from a lot of what I hear from the east coast scene. Keep the recommendations coming!

Yes. I very much agree. I hesitate to say this, because it's just a feeling I have based on a small sample, but it seems to me that the music I've listened to coming out of Chicago recently is exciting, forward-leaning, fresh, unafraid.

[jazzypaul]

Yes. I very much agree. I hesitate to say this, because it's just a feeling I have based on a small sample, but it seems to me that the music I've listened to coming out of Chicago recently is exciting, forward-leaning, fresh, unafraid.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Hot Ptah]

Larry, I see in my current issue of Rhythm & News that at least some of these artists have been recorded by Delmark. Are there other recordings on other labels which you can recommend? And are the Delmark releases representative of what you have been hearing live from these artists? Thanks.

I am envious of anyone who can shop at the Jazz Record Mart as their local store.

Yes, the Delmarks are representative, though some are more successful than others; usually the closer to the present, the better. I'm particularly impressed by Keefe Jackson's "Just Like This" and Jason Ajemian's "The Art of Dying." Another recent very good one is Jason Adasiewicz's "Roll Down" (482 Music).

I''ll try to assemble a more comprehensive list, but I don't think you can go wrong with those.

I ordered Jason Adasiewicz's "Roll Down", Jason Ajemian's "The Art of Dying", and Keefe Jackson's "Just Like This" from Jazz Record Mart by mail order. They arrived less than a week later.

How do I put this--these albums knock my socks off.

Jason Adasiewicz's "Roll Down" is one of my three favorite new jazz releases of the past 10 years. The following comparison is not perfect, but I keep thinking as I hear "Roll Down" that if the musicians on Eric Dolphy's "Out to Lunch" album had stayed together as a full time working band for several years, they would have recorded an album like "Roll Down". The comparison is not perfect because there is no one like Dolphy, ever. It is an extremely impressive and very enjoyable album.

Keefe Jackson's larger ensemble work, "Just Like This", gets better and better for me with each listen. This is one of the finest jazz large ensemble works of our time. The depth of writing and expression are very impressive. To think that these are younger musicians makes it more staggering. This album blows away virtually every large ensemble album I have heard in the past 20 years. I usually rotate jazz CDs in my car constantly, but "Just Like This" will not come out of the CD player. I am just enjoying it too much.

I have not listened to Jason Ajemian's "The Art Of Dying" as often yet, mostly because I can't stop listening to the other two. I was very impressed with it too, in my two listens.

Larry, if you have any other CD recommendations from this music community, I would really like to get them!

[.:.impossible]

Another from this scene that I recall listening to quite a bit when I first bought it was Josh Abrams Cipher. Jeff Parker on electric guitar, Josh Abrams on bass, Argentine Guillermo Gregorio on alto and clarinet, and German trumpeter Axel Dörner.

Quite different than the Keefe Jackson album you are enjoying so much, but a stand-out in my collection in its own right.

I'll listen now.

[Hot Ptah]

Another from this scene that I recall listening to quite a bit when I first bought it was Josh Abrams Cipher. Jeff Parker on electric guitar, Josh Abrams on bass, Argentine Guillermo Gregorio on alto and clarinet, and German trumpeter Axel Dörner.

Quite different than the Keefe Jackson album you are enjoying so much, but a stand-out in my collection in its own right.

I'll listen now.

Thanks for the suggestion. I want to get deeper into the recordings of this Chicago scene.

[papsrus]

Yes. I very much agree. I hesitate to say this, because it's just a feeling I have based on a small sample, but it seems to me that the music I've listened to coming out of Chicago recently is exciting, forward-leaning, fresh, unafraid.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Ah, the rest of my thought, which I didn't complete, was ... "much more than the music I've heard lately coming out of New York, which seems too often to be predictable." (that was the "I hesitate" part).

A good thread to keep an eye on.

[.:.impossible]

I also really liked Jeb Bishop Trio/Quartet Afternoons alot and certain tracks on Cipher remind me of this album.

Jeb Bishop (trombone); Kent Kessler (bass); Tim Mulvenna (drums); Jeff Parker (guitar)

Cipher can almost be separated into two, maybe three, parts, though the album is not sequenced that way. I think if you are familiar with Axel Dörner, you will not be surprised by any of it. In the notes, Abrams mentions that he hopes this recording will mark the beginning of a "band". I wonder if they have played together since, and if they have found ways to better blend the musics they are exploring. There are a large handful of tracks on the album that certainly do.

Liquid Nitrogen cool Tristano school blended with exploration of sonic textures. A great appreciation and respect for space and rest. Guillermo Gregorio and Axel Dörner show ways to use their instruments outside of the generally accepted methods. Parts sound like they could be Chicago Underground.

Which makes me wonder why Chicago Underground hasn't received but a passing mention in these threads? Too much liquid nitrogen lately? I may pull my CU albums out this weekend for a revisit. I have always been impressed with Mazurek's ability and embouchure, though I certainly wouldn't recommend Silver Spines to anyone.

[Clunky]

Now that we know where Larry is, I thought I'd up this for more suggestions....