Notes on Jazz Best of Jazz 2021 : Post Pandemic Jazz Offers a Year of Beauty, Promise and a Look back.

The Year 2021 stubbornly evolved into what is a post-pandemic year for most of us. Miraculous and effective vaccinations effectively conquered the likelihood of getting seriously ill, or even worse, becoming a casualty from the mutating Covid virus. At least the science seems to have it at bay for now. Isolation, masks, and limiting traveling all added to our safety. For artists in all disciplines of the performing arts- music, theatre, dance, film & fine visual arts- the chance to meet safely with collaborators, to record with colleagues, or even to perform to a live and encouraging audience was practically nil and lingered on for an interminably long period. The shutdown was dreadful for most artists. The creative juices are often stimulated by the chance to interact,  collaborate,  inspire with peers, and receive valuable feedback that is best emotionally transmitted by the visceral response of a live audience. Was this pandemic going to be responsible for the total evisceration of the arts? Fortunately, many artists found the isolation that the angst that Covid brought on over the last year and one half became a chance to dig deeper into their creative wellspring. Strangely, we were all the beneficiaries of that self-imposed period that allowed some deep reflection, some serious reevaluation, and in the case of musicians some inspired creativity and brilliance in new music.

As the year of 2021 ebbs to its close, it is a tradition of those of us who review jazz and contemporary music, to select some of the music in the genre that we have heard and found worth noting over this past year. It is impossible to pick a "best of list" since it is a totally subjective opinion and certainly restricted to what this reviewer has been able to carefully listen to over this past year. Acknowledging those inherent limitations I humbly offer this one person's ideas of notable, creative, and often promising music of 2021. I also found some rewarding reissues and historical recordings that are definitely worth a listen. I list the music in no particular order. I know there is much more music that is worth your serious attention, but I hope my list helps you navigate and hopefully introduce to you the plethora of deserving artists who have created some magical music this year. Happy Holidays to all. Listen and have fun.

                                Reissues and Historical Releases: 

Roseanne Vitro: Listen Here  originally recorded in 1982

https://roseannav.bandcamp.com/track/centerpiece

Roy Hargrove & Mulgrew Miller: In Harmony  recorded in 2006 & 2007: Resonance Records

https://youtu.be/tRo6aPZs-Bo

Harvie S Trio w Mike Stern & Alan Dawson: Going For It: Savant Records recorded live in 1985

https://youtu.be/OFYasSheQSU

Wolgang Lackerschmidt and Chet Baker  w  Larry Coryell, Buster Williams and Tony Williams.  Wolfgang Lakerschmidt Chet Baker Quintet Sessions  recorded in 1979; Dot Time Records

https://dottimerecords.bandcamp.com/track/balzwaltz

                                        New Issues:

Jakob Bro: Uma Elmo : ECM Records w Arve Hendriken and Jorge Rossy

https://youtu.be/lIj3XLGoQqE

Chick Corea Akoustic Band: The Akoustic Band Live: w John Patitucci and Dave Weckl: Concord Records

https://youtu.be/BhBamw_cRys

Steve Gadd:  Steve Gadd Band At Blue Note Toyko: w/ David Spinozza, Jimmy Johnson, Walt Fowler, and Kevin Hays:  BFM Jazz

https://youtu.be/k19gdWO-D28

Lyle Mays: Eberhard: OIM 

https://youtu.be/BylqOtOIMdE

Chris Potter Circuits Trio: Sunrise Reprise: w James Francies and Eric Harland: Self-Produced

https://chrispotterjazz.bandcamp.com/track/southbound-2

Alex Sipiagin: Upstream: w Art Hirahara, Boris Kozlov and Rudy Royston: Posi Tone Records

https://alexsipiaginjazz.bandcamp.com/track/upstream

Lorne Lofsky: This Song is New: Modica Music w/Kirk MacDonald, Kieran Overs and Barry Romberg

https://modicamusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-time-being

Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Soundprints: Other Worlds: Greenleaf Music w/ Lawrence Fields, Lind May Han Oh and Joey Baron.

https://soundprints.bandcamp.com/album/other-worlds

Dave Holland: Another Land: w Kevin Eubanks and Obed Calvaire: Edition Records

https://daveholland.bandcamp.com/track/another-land

Pharoah Sanders w Sam Shepherd and the London Symphony Orchetsra: Floating Points: 

https://floatingpoints.bandcamp.com/album/promises

Kirk Lightsey: I'll Never Stop Loving You: Solo Piano on JoJo Records:

https://soundcloud.com/user-957185833-419687414/01-kirk-lightsey-ill-never

Nnenna Freelon: Time Traveler: Origin Records 

https://youtu.be/m90rHFNkQmQ

Marc Johnson: Overpass: Solo Double Bass ECM 

https://youtu.be/PNdB8szK9Rk

John Daversa Jazz Orchestra featuring Justin Morell: All Without Words: 

https://youtu.be/1CsY5FzA2Gc

Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette : Skyline : 5 Passion Records

https://youtu.be/heeYsq5Asbw

Sinne Eeg and Thomas Fonnesbaek: Staying in Touch: Stunt Records

https://youtu.be/gSLYf6_hTlA

Carlos Henriquez: The South Bronx Story: Self Produced

https://youtu.be/jxyS24VBh5o

Kate McGary + Keith Ganz Ensemble featuring Ron Miles and Gary Versace: What to Wear in the Dark: Self-Produced

https://youtu.be/V_78N7jo5R8

Mike LeDonne: Mike LeDonne: It's Your Fault: w The Mike LeDonne Groover Quartet +Big Band: Savant Records

https://youtu.be/sKB-uzSBzz4

Dave Zinno: Dave Zinno and Unisphere :Fetish: Whaling City Sound

https://youtu.be/7knLmgA0JKo

Rachel Eckroth: The Garden: Rainy Days Records w Tim Lefebvre, Donny McCaslin, Christian Euman, Andrew Krasilnikov and Nir Felder. 

https://rainydaysrecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-garden

Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trios: Songs From My Father: Whaling City Sound

https://youtu.be/g1gz-kqR_js

The Baylor Project: Jean Baylor and Marcus Baylor : Generations: Be A Light Records

https://youtu.be/HDPkmQNt6kI

Roberto Magris and Eric Hochberg: Shuffling Ivories: JMood Records

https://youtu.be/NNFCdonAlW4

Ross Hammond: It's Been Here All Along: Solo Resonator Guitar: Self Produced 

https://rosshammond.bandcamp.com/track/welcome-back

David Kikoski w Boris Kozlov: Sure Thing: High Note Records

https://youtu.be/OJDaagAdNLw

Gabor Lesko: Earthway: 

https://gaborlesko.bandcamp.com/track/earthway

Slowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead: Edition Records

https://slowlyrollingcamera.bandcamp.com/album/where-the-streets-lead

Michael Wolff: Michael Wolff Live at Vitello's: w Mark Isham, Mike Clark, and John B. Williams: Sunnyside 

https://michaelwolff.bandcamp.com/track/ballade-noir

Jim Snidero: Jim Snidero Live at the Deer Head Inn: w Orrin Evans, Peter Washington, and Joe Farnsworth: Savant Records 

https://youtu.be/ChET8p6m5B8

Scott Reeves Quintet: The Alchemist: w Russ Speigel;, Mike Holober, Howard Britz, Andy Watson; Origin Records

https://scottreeves.bandcamp.com/track/without-a-trace-2

Chuck Owen and The Jazz Surge: Within Us; Celebrating 25 Years of the Jazz Surge: Mama Records

https://youtu.be/s5lKeUZ0c_8

At Fifty Years Old the Trumpeter Dave Douglas takes his Music to the Fifty States

Dave Douglas at Firehouse 12

On March 24^th of this year the creative musician Dave Douglas turned fifty years old. The trumpeter decided to celebrate this personal milestone by  starting a tour with his quintet that would take him to all fifty states of the union. On Friday evening, in New Haven CT, the Douglas quintet brought their music to the state of CT. Mr. Douglas had last been at the Firehouse back in October of 2005, the first year the now established venue had started their remarkable quest to present top quality music in the beautifully renovated firehouse on Crown Street.  Eight years later Douglas has blossomed as both an artist and a composer. His music is a skillful amalgam of many elements of jazz, American and European folk, avant-garde, Klezmer and classical forms that has influenced his psyche along the way. To many, he represents the epitome of the independent artist, who despite the difficulties of a shrinking music industry, has managed to find his niche and flourish doing it his way. Since 1993 the prolific artist has released over thirty albums as a leader, the last 17 on his own label Greenleaf Music which he started in 2005.

His latest quintet is a brilliant young, adventurous group that includes the pianist Matt Mitchell, the tenor saxophonist Jon Irabagon, the bassist Linda Oh and the drummer Rudy Royston.  On this night at the Firehouse the only change in personnel was the bassist Chris Tordini who took over duties for Linda Oh.

The Firehouse 12 is the perfect setting to experience an artist like Douglas. Entering the compact, starkly beautiful venue- a chrysalis that allows you to watch up close the immersion of a butterfly-you get the feel of being a part of a privileged elite.  You are enveloped by the artist’s vision and with an artist like Douglas it is a profoundly moving experience.

Dave Douglas Quintet

The set started out with the dirge-like“The Law of Historical Memory” from his latest album Time Travel, with a piano ostinato by pianist Matt Mitchell and some rolling drums by Rudy Roylston. The front line of Irabagon  and Douglas playing solemn lines in perfect synchronization. 

The band got into a swinging “Bridge to Nowhere” with its Monk-like phrasing. I hear elements of Dizzy and Freddie in Douglas’s trumpet solos with a tremendous introspective edge that make them deeply personal. Drummer Roylston and Bassist Tordini anchor the music which is at times a difficult task.

On the beautifully touching “Be Still My Soul”, a hymn that features Todini’s solemn ,bellowing bass, and a marvelous dual line by Irabagon and Douglas, the inventive Roylston predominantly plays cymbals as Douglas reaches to the higher register during his solo in a passionate serenade. The song is a part of Douglas’s 2012 release  Be Still,  which is a  compilation of hymns and songs favored by the trumpeters late mother who passed away in 2011. Knowing she was dying, she requested that her son  play some of these songs at her funeral and the poignancy of this music to Mr. Douglas is palpable in his playing.

Time Travel The Dave Douglas Quintet

“Beware of Doug” is a song Mr. Douglas explained was based on his experience at a concert camp in Colorado. An aging Mountain Lion, named Doug by the locals would unnervingly wander through the camp where Mr. Douglas was staying. The raucous fast paced music had an sense of adventure to it, with Irabagon and Douglas leading the way. Mr. Iragabon, the winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone competition, is a fluid player with a deep resonant tone.  He masterfully negotiates his lines with the ease of a veteran and seems the perfect foil for his front line partner Mr.Douglas. Irabagon uses honks, slurs, screeches and deadened flaps during his solos. He pronates his toes and lifts himself on the balls of his feet during particularly reaching parts.  In contrast Douglas is more pensive in his approach, using penetrating, liquid lines, that is until he reaches for the stars. The trumpeter pushes out his higher register notes with a fury that overtakes his face in a rush of blushing color that approaches crimson. He is totally absorbed in his music and he reels you in like a fish on a hook drawn to the glitter of the stunningly attractive gleam of the lure.

Dave Douglas

Perhaps the most moving piece of the night was Mr. Douglas’ poignantly evocative duet work with pianist Matt Mitchell on the hymn  “Wither Must I Wander.”  Pianist Mitchell is new to me. For the predominance of the night he played a rhythmic left hand and a dancing right, but his sound is glass-like, translucent. When he dances in crescendos up and down the keyboard it’s like listening to the crystals on a massive chandelier being blown gently in the wind. So when Mr. Douglas plays this extraordinarily moving song, his trumpet’s clarion call is framed within Mr. Mitchell’s opulent glass palace. When Mr. Tordini and Mr. Royston join the song they do so with the most profound reverence with Royston playing cotton mallets and the bassist adding burnished chords. The song builds to a triumphant explosion of hope with Douglas’s human voice-like sound coming from his horn. The audience sat in stunned silence, realizing they had witnessed something special , until the spell snapped and  they broke out into  appreciative  applause.

Be Still The Dave Douglas Quintet

The final song of the first set was titled “The Pidgeon and the Pie.” Mr. Douglas starts out with a catchy repeating line relentlessly builds up tension. Royston is especially cacophonous playing all over the entire drum kit, as Irabagon and Douglas continually ascend behind Matt Mitchell’s repeating piano lines. Saxophonist Irabagon solo, using repeated circular vamps that he builds from. He searches these ideas creating rhythmic loops within himself from which he emerges with new ideas, almost like a centrifuge whirling his admixture to the outer edges to discover what was embedded within. Mitchell offers a dazzlingly robust piano solo that has a wandering elegance. Royston’s powerful drive is backed by Tordini’s pulsing bass. The trumpeter and the saxophonist use the last few minutes of the song to bring it to a soft landing.

In speaking to Mr. Douglas after the set he indicated that he has many more states to go to complete his goal of bringing his music to the outer reaches of the country.  To those who wish to see him here is a link to a schedule of his tour.

Review of Donny McCaslin’s “ Perpetual Motion”

Perpetual Motion
Donny McCaslin

Perpetual Motion Greenleaf Music

Recorded at Systems Two, Brooklyn, NY September 2010

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin is a stalwart of the New York jazz scene and has played as an effusive sideman for many of New York’s finest musicians. He usually can be found as a member of the Maria Schneider orchestra as well as the Mingus Band and has lent his talents to the works of pianist Danilo Perez, vibraphonist Gary Burton, trumpeter/composer
Dave Douglas and the progressive group
Steps Ahead ,where he replaced the late Michael Brecker. His development as a both a player and a composer of his own music has been like watching a rare flower unfold before your eyes. From his recent recordings as a leader
“Recommended Tools” and “Declaration” , McCaslin has left an ever expanding palette of music to listen to and savor. On this latest offering, he was purportedly nudged by friend, producer and fellow saxophonist David Binney,
to work in a more electric format.

From the beginning notes of this new album from the saxophonist, you can feel the energy and enthusiasm that has been injected into this effort. With a rolling fusillade of action packed into the opening by master drummer
 Antonio Sanchez, “Five Hands Down” sets the tone for what is to follow. McCaslin’s angular attack is filled with aggression and frenzy, as he pierces the high register of his horn or stabs with punctuated notes in conversation with Sanchez.

On the title track, “Perpetual Motion”, McCaslin circuitously plays in concert with the Fender Rhodes and acoustic piano sounds of Adam Benjamin before he states the fragment of a melody that catches your attention, an ever escalating cry of exclamation. Tim LeFebvre’s bass and Sanchez’s drums follow McCaslin’s explorational solo, a cascade of notes, a plethora of changing tones, with multiple variations of attack and timbers. A demonstration of free and inspired playing. Benjamin takes an airy solo that makes perfect use of the Fender Rhode’s s late seventies fusion sound. When McCaslin returns to his barest of melody lines, in the last quarter of the song,  he whips it into a frenzy of poignancy.

The composition “Claire” finds McCaslin honking away in a staccato exchange with Sanchez. It is these dueling masters that make for some of the most memorable moments on the album. Sanchez seems to be everyone’s drummer of choice these days and it is easy to see why, as he is a master of percussive communication with seemingly inexhautible vitality. McCaslin, for his part, alternates between high screeches to mellow, low register sustained notes. Benjamin is again effective in utilizing the unique sound quality and feel of the Fender Rhodes. As Sanchez and Lefebvre dance in the background, Benjamin takes us on an astral adventure that is delightfully buoyant.

Much of McCaslin’s music uses the barest armature of a structure, be it melodic or rhythmic, upon which to build his musical excursions. On “Firefly”, the use of electronic sounds, presumably by Binney and Benjamin over Sanchez’s cymbals, set the background for McCaslin’s saxophone wandering. He flutters through the electronic haze like a firefly through a fog before reaching for daylight and clarity towards the end of the piece.

“Energy Generation” has a backbeat that that allows McCaslin to stretch out his more funky side, but even in this vein his playing has a sense of urgency and a lack of cliché. With Sanchez and Lefebvre driving the beat you can’t help but feel the groove.

The second part of this album takes a sharp turn into funky town and seems a bit disconnected to the first part. On “Memphis Redux”, the energy level is palpably turned down a notch to simmer like a slow cooking gumbo. McCaslin’s soulful side is on display here and he has some fine moments of raw, gutsy playing. Benjamin’s solo on piano is peppered by electronic sounds from Binney, making this music sound less dated.

On “L.Z.C.M.” the sound is an electronic funk with a driving beat by Guiliana and Benjamin on Rhodes. Despite the plethora of electronic sounds and McCaslin’s  clarion saxophone work, there is less excitement and less continuity to my ear.

“East Bay Grit” is thirty seconds of fading into a groove.

“Impossible Machine” has a quick paced, complex line that features a splendid duet with Binney on alto and McCaslin on tenor pacing each other in precise synchronicity. This is drummer Mark Guiliana’s best work of his four cuts on the album. McCaslin and Binney play extremely well together and the ending is tart, crisp and surgical.

Uri Caine’s solo piano on the finale “For Someone” is a pretty ballad but somewhat detached from the rest of the album and in my mind a strange way to end what is on balance, such a high energy outing.

Musicians: Donny McCaslin (tenor saxophone); Adam Bejamin (Fender Rhodes & Piano)tracks 1-7 &9 ; Tim LeFebvre ( electric bass) ; Antonio Sanchez ( drums tracks 1-5) ; Mark Guiliana ( drums) tracks 6-9; Uri Cane (piano) tracks 4 & 10 (Fender Rhodes & piano) track 8; David Binney (alto saxophone ) track 9 (electronics ) multiple tracks.