Mathias Eick, Skala (2011)

Mathias Eick’s intensely melodic trumpet occupies the centre-stage in this album of self-penned tunes which will appeal to an audience beyond “jazz”. Against the powerful backdrops offered by his sleek, modern band, driven by two drummers, he delivers richly lyrical soliloquies. Although regarded as a 'jazz' album by virtue of its instrumentation (trumpet, saxophone, rhythm section, plus occasional harp and keyboards), trumpeter Mathias Eick 's second ECM recording as leader is as likely to draw inspiration for his fluent, accessible compositions from pop and classical music as from jazz.

True, Jan Garbarek's 'plaintive cry' is cited as among the sources of one of the album's most striking pieces, 'Edinburgh' (Tore Brunborg featured on tenor), but other tunes have their sources in rock music: 'Oslo', for example, is discernibly influenced by Radiohead's trademark melancholic soar over assertively scurrying drums; 'Joni' nods to the great Candian singer/songwriter via the sincerest form of flattery by using her hypnotically compelling, long-lined verse structure – centred on Andreas Ulvo's rolling piano – as the basis for one of the album's standout tracks.

Eick's trumpet style relies, in his words, on an attempt to 'create a tone that was a mix of all the sounds I loved' (among his trumpet models are Kenny Wheeler, Chet Baker and Tomasz Stanko), and there is indeed a haunting purity in everything he plays, particularly when set, as in the album's closer, 'Epilogue', against the vigorous drumming of Torstein Lofthus.

There are moments on this attractive, immediately appealing album when a ravishing soundscape (cf. another recent ECM album featuring Brunborg, Manu Katché's Third Round) cannot quite compensate for the lack of two of jazz's (arguably) defining features, grit and unpredictability, but overall, Eick admirers will find Skala irresistibly seductive.

01. Skala

02. Edinburgh

03. June

04. Oslo

05. Joni

06. Biermann

07. Day After

08. Epilogue

Mathias Eick: trumpet, vibraphone, guitar, bass;

Tore Brunborg: tenor saxophone

Andreas Ulvo: piano

Morten Qvenild: keyboards

Audun Erlien: electric bass

Torstein Lofthus: drums

Gard Nilssen: drums

Sidsel Walstad: harp

info |

http://www.ecmrecords.com/Catalogue/ECM/2100/2187.php?cat&we_start=0&lvredir=3092

Battles, Gloss Drop (2011)

Nuevo disco de esta superbanda (ya menos con la salida de Tyondai Braxton), parece que han intentado suplir su ausencia con algunas colaboraciones... 

1. Africastle

2. Ice Cream - Battles & Matias Aguayo

3. Futura

4. Inchworm

5. Wall Street

6. My Machines - Battles & Gary Numan

7. Dominican Fade

8. Sweetie And Shag - Battles & Kazu Makino

9. Toddler

10. Rolls Bayce

11. White Electric

12. Sundome - Battles & Yamantaka Eye

Pitom, Blasphemy and other Serious Crimes (2011)

In their second CD for Tzadik, a sonic homage to the Day of Atonement, Yoshie Fruchter and his remarkable band Pitom continue their exploration of the New Jewish rock sound with their unique blend of punk, noise rock, metal and jazz filtered through the Jewish tradition. Echoes of the Melvins, Mahavishnu, Zappa and Masada make this a fiery and soulful CD that you will listen to again and again. Intense new Jewish Music from this exciting quartet of punk rebels. (tzadik.com)

1. In the Merit of…

2. Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes

3. Head in the Ground

4. Resentful Repentance

5. Stumbling Block

6. Confusion of the Heart

7. A Crisis of Faith

8. Neilah

9. An Epic Encounter

10. Vos Zogt Ir

11. Azazel

Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz: Bass 

Yoshie Fruchter: Guitar 

Kevin Zubek: Drums 

Jeremy Brown: Violin, Viola 

info |

http://www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=8158

http://www.pitommusic.com/

http://www.myspace.com/pitom

Ron Anderson’s Pak, Secret Curve (2011)

Ron Anderson es un intuitivo creador multi-instrumentista en cuyas composiciones, bandas, colaboraciones y proyectos en solitario combina un intenso heavy rock con improvisaciones y un nivel de complejidad compositiva rara vez combinados. Paraeste tercer CD con su banda PAK, ha evitado la guitarra eléctrica y ha orquestado un sonido rico y orquestal con los teclados, cuerdas, trompetas y electrónica. Una de las más enloquecedoras publicaciones que ha creado, Secret Curve es un agitador de mentes y una de las obras maestras de Ron. Con colaboraciones de los mejores jugadores de la escena del downtown, es una brillante nueva dirección para este valiente explorador musical que ha trabajado con artistas tan diversos como Elliot Sharp, Sun City Girls, Otomo Yoshihide, James Chance y Haco. (tzadik.com)

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Ron Anderson is a multi-instrumentalist intuitive music maker whose compositions, bands, collaborations and solo projects combine heavy rock intensity with improvisation and a level of compositional complexity rarely matched. For his third CD with his band PAK, he has avoided the electric guitar and orchestrated a rich and orchestral sound with keyboards, strings, horns and electronics. One of the most maddening releases he has ever created, Secret Curve is mind blower, and one of Ron's masterpieces. Featuring some of the best players out of the downtown scene, it is a brilliant new direction for this brave musical explorer who has worked with artists as diverse as Elliott Sharp, Sun City Girls, Otomo Yoshihide, James Chance and Haco. (tzadik.com)

01 overture 01:08

02 let me tell you something 06:29

03 caffeine static rendezvous 03:24

04 no future 02:30

05 caro-kann 09:40

06 secret curve 06:13

07 mamas little anarchist 01:05

08 e4 or d4_ 03:00

09 trebuchet 04:58

10 blinding light 02:34

11 kempelens automaton 05:17

Ron Anderson: Bass Guitar 

Anthony Coleman: Piano 

Keith Abrams: Drums, Percussion 

Tim Byrnes: Trumpet, French Horn, Keyboards 

Jérôme Noetinger: Electronics, Tape Manipulation 

Eve Risser: Piano, Prepared Piano 

Tom Swafford: Violin 

Stefan Zeniuk: Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Bass Saxophone, English Horn 

info |

http://www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=8079

Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis Feat. Norah Jones, Here We Go Again (2011)

Celebrating the genius of Ray Charles

Once in a while the stars align and something magical happens...as on the night Jazz at Lincoln Center presented a salute to the late, great bluesman, Ray Charles. Two musical iconoclasts, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis, along with the stunning songstress Norah Jones, collectively brought their unique musical perspective to the legendary artist's hits such as "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Hit the Road Jack," and "Unchain My Heart."

Country music legend Willie Nelson and Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz artist and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis share more in common than their multiple GRAMMY® awards. They also share great respect and admiration for the late musical pioneer Ray Charles. Nelson and Marsalis joined musical forces for a two-night Jazz at Lincoln Center concert event at New York City’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Their set list explored the legacy of Charles, cleverly sequencing the songs to tell the story of a love affair from beginning to end and beyond. This fine idea was made finer by the inclusion of fellow multiple GRAMMY® winner Norah Jones, whose style suggests a middle ground between Nelson and Marsalis. The sold out performance was captured and the resulting footage expertly mixed and mastered for the brand new CD, WILLIE NELSON AND WYNTON MARSALIS PLAY THE MUSIC OF RAY CHARLES. (bluenote.com)

01 Hallelujah 

02 Come Rain or Come Shine 

03 Unchain My Heart 

04 Cryin' Time 

05 Loosing Hand 

06 Hit The Road Jack 

07 Movin' On 

08 Busted

09 Here We Go Again 

10 Making Whoopie 

11 I Love You So Much It Hurts 

12 What'd I Say 

info |

http://www.bluenote.com/ArtistDiscography.aspx?ArtistId=926555

TV on the Radio, Nine Types of Light (2011)

TV on the Radio have been many things in the decade since they first dive-bombed New York City's outer boroughs. Arty a cappella reductionists on 2003's Young Liars EP; sky-bound funk-slop visionaries on 2004's still-epic Desperate Youth,Blood Thirsty Babes; tenacious, politically ravaged anthemists on 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain; and most recently, a manic pixie dance band on 2008's Dear Science. Throughout, their songs have been marked by lead singer Tunde Adebimpe's to-the-heavens demon howl, producer/multi-instrumentalist Dave Sitek's searing gospel-funk hoedowns, and an ineffable sense of drama -- theirs is a sound that is meaningful but shaded, aggressive but delicate. It can burn as quickly as it can fade away. TV on the Radio make Important Music for Important Times.

So, as the country claws its way back to sanity, if not normalcy, Nine Types of Light begins as a surprise of sorts: It's lovers rock. Which isn't to say this band has never loved. Guitarist Kyp Malone's "Lover's Day" from Dear Science remains an oft-quoted Brooklyn sex jam, and they are an undeniably physical band -- not quite hip-thrusters, but Adebimpe's wounded, off-kilter sensuality is a particularly unusual brand. They just haven't been this intimate about their feelings before. "I'm gonna keep your heart / If the world falls apart / I'm gonna keep your heart," Malone sings softly on the chorus of the stuttering, mandolin-accented "Keep Your Heart." Later, on "You": "You're the only one I ever loved." "Will Do" is a torch song that begins with such plainspoken unfussiness that it could appear on a Taylor Swift album.

While drummer Jaleel Bunton and bassist Gerard Smith were Science's lifeblood, pumping and chugging out some fractured take on disco, now they're barely audible at times. And is that a banjo on "Killer Crane"? It all raises another question: What happened to the lupine fury? The apocalypse of the soul once proffered with such ferocity? It's still there intermittently -- "New Cannonball Blues" and the stomper "Caffeinated Consciousness" jerk the wheel into the oncoming traffic of blues rock.

But mostly Nine Types of Light feels like the liquefying of a band, ten years and four albums deep, into the soft tenderness of pre-middle-age satisfaction. Like, maybe family life sounds pretty good right about now -- and it fits them well. Interpreting the album's title is a dicey proposition, but taken literally, it's revealing: TV on the Radio have shifted constantly, from the humble visible form of light that brightens the world in their earliest days to the violent gamma explosions of Return to Cookie Mountain, straight to the cosmic light of the sky -- a destination not unfamiliar to this band during Dear Science. And here, they return to the earth's surface, intact, with their eyes open to what's right in front of their faces.

They want to be -- and have the chops to be -- all kinds of bands. And this album has a there-and-back quality, one they couldn't have pulled off five years ago. TV on the Radio have flashed unknowable cool, have been a troupe for our times, and have shaken their asses to kingdom come. Acquiescence is no simple trick when you've conquered. But then, what's wrong with a night on the couch with a loved one?

By Sean Fennessey (http://www.spin.com/reviews/tv-radio-nine-types-light-interscope)

1. Second Song 

2. Keep Your Heart 

3. You 

4. No Future Shock 

5. Killer Crane 

6. Will Do 

7. New Cannonball Blues 

8. Repetition 

9. Forgotten 

10. Caffeinated Consciousness

info |

http://www.tvontheradio.com/

Paul Motian, The Windmills Of Your Mind (2011)

In March 2011, Paul Motian celebrated his 80th birthday, and on this occasion Winter & Winter releases its new album "The Windmills Of Your Mind" with Bill Frisell (guitar), Thomas Morgan (bass) and Petra Haden (vocals, and daughter Charlie Haden), an original group. Paul Motian presents tubes Broadway as "Let's Face the Music and Dance ", or "I Love You Porgy" and original compositions. Stefan Winter recorded the concert in September 2010 without any digital manipulation, performing a special two-track analog output and true high-definition. The album was also pressed in limited release as 24-bit and 180 grams vinyl collector.

01. Introduction (1)

02. Tennessee Waltz

03. The Windmills Of Your Mind

04. Let's Face The Music And Dance

05. Lover Man

06. It's Been A Long, Long Time

07. Little Foot

08. Easy Living

09. I've Got A Crush On You

10. Backup

11. I Loves You Porgy

12. Trieste

13. If I Could Be With You

14. Wednesday's Gone

15. I Remember You

16. Introduction (2)

Bill Frisell: Guitar

Thomas Morgan: Bass

Petra Haden: Vocals

Paul Motian: Drums

info |

http://www.winterandwinter.com/

Van Der Graaf Generator, A Grounding In Numbers (2011)

Six years after their surprise reunion, it still seems unreal to be listening to a new Van der Graaf Generator record. That's strongly art rock oriented album without typical (of the band) dark atmosphere and brass section. With lots of Canterbury sound and space rock motifs and themes connected in faultless psychedelic way.

01. Your Time Starts Now

02. Mathematics

03. Highly Strung

04. Red Baron

05. Bunshō

06. Snake Oil

07. Splink

08. Embarrassing Kid

09. Medusa

10. Mr. Sands

11. Smoke

12. 5533

13. All Over The Place

Peter Hammill — vocals, pianos, guitars, bass

Hugh Banton — bass, 10-string bass, organs, piano, harpsichord, glockenspiel, guitar

Guy Evans — drums, percussion, guitar

Hiromi Uehara - Voice (2011)

Hiromi started learning classical piano at age 5. She was introduced to jazz by her piano teacher Noriko Hakita when she was 8. At age 14, she played with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. When she was 17, she met Chick Corea by chance in Tokyo, and was invited to play with him at his concert the next day. After being a jingle writer for a few years for Japanese companies such as Nissan, she enrolled to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There, she was mentored by Ahmad Jamal and had already signed with jazz label Telarc before her graduation.

Since her debut in 2003, Hiromi has toured the world and appeared in numerous jazz festivals. She performed live at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 8, 2009, and at the Paris Olympia in Paris on April 13, 2010 and toured in the summer of 2010 with the Stanley Clarke Band.

1. Voice (9:13) 

2. Flashback (8:39) 

3. Now or Never (6:16) 

4. Temptation (7:54) 

5. Labyrinth (7:40) 

6. Desire (7:19) 

7. Haze (5:54) 

8. Delusion (7:47) 

9. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8, Pathetique (5:13)

Hiromi Uehara: Piano

Anthony Jackson: Bass

Simon Phillips: Drums

Yuji Takahashi, Finger Light (1995)

Finger Light es uno de los primeros álbumes que John Zorn, como productor ejecutivo, lanzó al mercado en 1995. Formando así su propia discográfica a la que le puso el nombre de una letra del abecedario hebreo: Tzadik, "El justo sobre el cual el mundo se sostiene. Como está dicho: El tzadik es el fundamento del mundo" (http://www.dimensiones.org/canales/topicos/Letras%20Hebreas/18%20tzadik.htm).

Alumno de Xenakis entre 1963 y 1966, estudió música estocástica (http://www.quienesxenakis.com/?p=172) y ha interpretado piezas de importantes compositores de vanguardia, ha grabado interpretaciones de clásicos para Denon, así como ha colaborado con figuras importantes de la música contemporánea de vanguardia como Ned Rothenberg, Ryuichi Sakamoto o John Zorn.

Siendo el primer álbum de Takahashi editado en Estados Unidos (ya que en Japón ha editado más de 100) trae a nuestros oídos sonidos tradicionales de la música de Japón, usando instrumentos como el shamisen (instrumento musical de cuerda de origen chino llamado sanxian), doble shamisen y shô (órgano de boca japonés) aunque aplicando diferentes técnicas que difieren de las maneras tradicionales de tocar dichos instrumentos. Mezclando vanguardia y tradición, Takahashi nos introduce en un viaje sonoro que roza la música espiritual o ritualística pero que también atraviesa momentos de avant-garde, como cuando oímos la voz del poeta Vladimir Tonkha recitando un poema de Osip Mandelstam(*) en "Mimi No Ho", los duetos vocales en "Kagehime No Michiyuki" o con su "Yubi-Tômyô" una pieza para "solo piano" con una duración de algo más de veinte minutos, donde los diferentes patrones de movimiento se combinan y se transforman a lo largo de la pieza, que es interpretada por Takahashi en la última parte del viaje ofrecido en esta grabación realizada para Tzadik.

(*) Leído en ruso en la grabación

My ears extend the sensitive sails,

Widened eyes turn black,

And voyage silently

The voiceless chorus of the midnight birds.

I am poor as Nature

and simple as the sky

and imaginary is my freedom

as the voices osf the midnight birds.

I see the dead moon

and the lifeless flaxen sky

Your ailing and strange world

I accept, in emptiness.

(Osip Mandelstam, 1910) 

Estas composiciones nos muestran una mirada única de un compositor de vanguardia y tradición como parece ser Takahashi, uno de los maestros del piano que el siglo veinte ha dado, y que hace ya más de 15 años grabó uno de los primeros álbumes en una de las discográficas más vanguardistas que existen hoy en día situada en el Downtown de Nueva York y dirigida por uno de los grandes maestros de la música: John Zorn.

                                                                          Bruno Praena (11 Marzo de 2011 | 02:50 a.m.)

Yuji Takahashi es uno de los principales pianistas del siglo veinte, y con su composición"Yubi - Tomyo" realiza un esperado regreso al piano. Finger Light mezcla composiciones de Takahashi para shamisen (instrumento musical de cuerda de origen chino llamado sanxian), doble shamisen y shô (órgano de boca japonés), aplicando técnicas alternativas a estos instrumentos tradicionales.

Takahashi se dio a conocer como compositor de avant-garde en los años sesenta con el grupo "New Directions" junto con Toshi Ichiyanagi y Kenji Kobayashi. Antes de que se editara el disco Herma de Xenakis, una obra para "solo piano" dedicada al propioTakahashi, había estudiado música estocástica (http://www.quienesxenakis.com/?p=172) como único alumno de Xenakis entre 1963 y 1966. Como compositor ha trabajado un amplio rango de formatos: orquesta, opera, improvisación, música con ordenador, instrumentos tradicionales e incluso música popular. En 1978 organizó una banda llamadaSuigyu para interpretar canciones protesta asiáticas. Como pianista, Takahashi ha grabado piezas de John Cage, Earle Brown, Roger Reynolds y Toru Takemitsu, así como su propia música, y en los años setenta hizo amplias grabaciones de Bach, Satie y otros paraDenon. Ha colaborado con artistas de avant-garde como Musica Elettronica Viva, Ned Rothenberg, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carl Stone y John Zorn. Aunque Takahashi ha publicado más de 100 álbumes en Japón, Finger Light es el primero que se edito en un sello norte-americano. Tzadik.com (http://www.tzadik.com/index.php?catalog=7010)

01 Sugagaki Kuzishi

02 Mimi No Ho

03 Kagehime No Michiyuki

04 Yubi-Tômyô

Ishikawa Ko: Shô (mouth Organ) 

Ayumi Shimonoto: Shamisen, Vocal 

Kishiko Suzumi: Viola 

Kazuko Takada: Shamisen (hosozao), Vocal, Shamisen 

Yuji Takahashi: Piano 

Yumiko Tanaka: Bass Shamisen (hutozao) 

Vladimir Tonkha: Poetry Reading