Contemporary music recommendations

[A Lark Ascending]

Short review from the Scotsman - sorry, tried to link but would not work:

SAXOPHONIST Julian Siegel won the Best Instrumentalist category at the BBC UK Jazz Awards in 2007, and this two-CD set alongside with New York-based musicians Greg Cohen (bass) and Joey Baron (drums) will add further lustre to his reputation. Saxophone trio is a very exposed environment, but all three musicians respond to the challenges in exhilarating fashion.

Siegel is an inventive and unorthodox musical thinker, and the two Americans – well used to playing without the harmonic support of piano or guitar, not least in John Zorn's great Masada quartet – respond to the energy and serpentine melodic logic of his improvisations in equally imaginative fashion.

Eight tunes by Siegel and cover versions of Alfie and One Mint Julep are given extended and absorbing treatments, although both the writing and their freewheeling musical interplay may prove a little oblique and abstract for some tastes.

Cohen and Baron you know. Siegel plays tenor, bass clarinet and clarinet and is a member of the wonderful Partisans (mentioned earlier in this thread). He is also that rare beast, a jazz musician from Nottingham.

Think the world of Sonny Rollins at the Vanguard.

Edited November 29, 2008 by Bev Stapleton

[Alexander Hawkins]

Yeah - Derby has somewhat cornered the musician market in that part of the world

[A Lark Ascending]

Yeah - Derby has somewhat cornered the musician market in that part of the world

I often see Julian and Phil Robson slugging it out on the central reservation by junction 25!

[Chalupa]

You can listen to some samples here:

http://www.myspace.com/dakshinaband

(be sure to watch the videos too.)

[.:.impossible]

You can listen to some samples here:

http://www.myspace.com/dakshinaband

(be sure to watch the videos too.)

I love the cover art.

[clifford_thornton]

Not exactly contemporary but I just received 2 new Homeboy Music cd-rs from my friend Roy Morris; Arthur Doyle Trio Nature Boy and Joe Rigby's Praise. Hope to listen this weekend.

They're both great. Will be writing them up for January print in Signal To Noise.

[Stefan Wood]

Another vibes player recommendation. All of Khan Jamal's discs are fine, but this one is exceptional. Check out the lineup: Charles Tyler, Johnny Dyani and Leroy Lowe. This session is upbeat, challenging, and swings! "Hucksterman" and "Dark Warrior" recall Hutcherson's finest Blue Note moments, and the rest of the tunes are equally strong. An overlooked album from 1984.

[Stefan Wood]

Overheard this at a local used music store and picked it up on the spot. A MUCH stronger compilation of unissued tunes than volume 1, with a lot more emphasis on the funk. "Holiday" is classic Roy Ayers -- a plea for a holiday for Martin Luther King, now a moot point. "Funk in the Hole" is a slamming jazz funk tune, and could fit into any blaxploitation soundtrack. "Liquid Love" is another variation of "Sunshine," but sweet nevertheless. Speaking of "Sunshine," this unreleased version has Ayers himself singing with a different set of musicians, and has a much rawer, more intimate feel. An excellent compilation!

[paul secor]

Another vibes player recommendation. All of Khan Jamal's discs are fine, but this one is exceptional. Check out the lineup: Charles Tyler, Johnny Dyani and Leroy Lowe. This session is upbeat, challenging, and swings! "Hucksterman" and "Dark Warrior" recall Hutcherson's finest Blue Note moments, and the rest of the tunes are equally strong. An overlooked album from 1984.

Yes - a very good one. Just checked & Steeplechase added an extra track on the CD, as they occasionally do. Frustrating when you already have the LP, as I do. Think I'll stick with my LP.

[Stefan Wood]

I need to pay attention to the local artists. While doing some holiday shopping on Amazon, I stumbled across this gem, released last year on Glow-in-the-Dark Records. Based in DC, Panacea is a duo that makes beautiful, funky "underground" hip hop with jazz and progressive fusion touches. Look, I'm 38 so my keeping in touch with the younger generations' sound has become sketchy, but this cd is a unique, creative effort that flows from beginning to end. I can hear Tribe Called Quest in some of the tracks, samples of jazz guitar on others. No gangsta rap bellyaching, just clean solid writing. Check out their myspace page: Panacea

[Stefan Wood]

Recorded earlier this year, with Rez Abassi on guitar and Dan Weiss on Bass. This is, as Mahanthappa explains in the liner notes, his second version of a group that fuses Indian music with jazz (the first version when he was in Chicago, but he felt uncomfortable with the attempt). I think he succeeds, though I like his other recent release, Kinsmen more, probably because of the larger ensemble. With a trio, everything is stripped to the essentials, and on a couple of tracks it seems like the fusion of elements isn't completely there. But on others, especially, Apti, Adana, Palika Market, and IIT, are exceptional.

A link: Mahanthappa

[skeith]

Perhaps my favorite new release in a non- jazz vein is Patty Loveless's "Sleepless Nights"

Edited December 23, 2008 by skeith