COVID-19 Lockdown: Day 26

There was a little Sal listening over the weekend. Friday night, the duo tracks from Lee Konitz’ 1971 album Spirits had a spin and on Sunday night Jimmy Halperin’s Pslam had a run too. This morning I returned to Ruckus: Live at CJC (Creative Jazz Club Aotearoa) and my mood was such that I could focus in more that last week. I hadn’t heard any of DavidWard’s music in a long time and I really enjoyed re-connecting with it. He brings a slight quirky, fun approach to his music which went down well during the early start on Monday morning. Dave never was one for playing millions of notes, and this still seems to be the case. Not afraid of letting lines breathe is something that I’m aware of but that doesn’t mean it always happens! Nice band too – anything with John Bell (vibes) and Chris O’Connor (drums) is going to interest me. Rui Inaba (bass) was new to me and he slots in well. Nice sounding live recording too.

Following that, I wrapped up Sal Mosca’s Too Marvelous for Words with disc 5, containing the remainder of the Rotterdam concert and the Maastricht concert June 24 1981. In addition to some lines by Sal and Lennie Tristano, unsurprisingly, the repertoire across the five discs is drawn from the great American songbook (“Donna Lee” and “Hot House” get a couple of runs each too). He doesn’t really favour a particular tune “A Family Song” and “You Go To My Head” appear three times each, and plenty appear twice, but the set list stays pretty fresh concert to concert. Do I have a favourite concert? Well, I need to spent more time with the recordings and eventually one may stick with me a bit more than the others. Over the past several years I’ve moved away from playing standards. I still enjoying listening to them though and there’s no guarantee I won’t return to them at some stage. This set of discs serves as a lovely reminder of how much music can be extracted from these gems (and just how great Sal was).

COVID-19 Lockdown: Day 21

The morning kicked off with Steve Cournane’s Dancing Queen. The album is comprised of three trio sessions from September 2006, with Cournane joined by Roger Manins (ts) & Tom Callwood (b), Jonathan Crayford (keys) & Patrick Bleakly (b), and Joe Callwood (g) & Tom Callwood. Plenty of variety helped the morning cruise along - reggae grooves (“Plesmograph”), standards (“Alone Together”, “Evidence”) some calypso-type tunes of Steve’s (“There Will Always Be Rain”, “Toot & Repollo”), dark ballad (“John Karaitiana”) and even some ABBA (“Dancing Queen”.... and it actually works). Looking forward to giving this more air time.

Then it was onto disc 2 of Too Marvelous for Words – Sal at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam 21 June, 1981. I like that Sal’s friends/associates write the liner notes - Dick Hyman, Jimmy Halperin, Connie Crothers, Larry Bluth and Kazzrie Jaxen take one disc each. And Don Messina’s passion for the project comes through in the introduction (great work putting this together Don – thanks!). As usual, I listen to the disc at least once before reading the notes. At lunch I read Kazzrie’s notes and the first thing she mentions is Sal’s opening line on “I Never Knew” (which opens the disc) – something that leapt out at me too (and I'm sure it would grab anyone's attention). Of course there’s the influence of Tristano and the Sal’s early influence, Art Tatum, but I also hear some of the quirky, surprising twists and turners of Earl Hines’ solo work. That said, Sal is his own man and Too Marvelous for Words is distinctly Sal Mosca.

COVID-19 Lockdown: Day 8

This morning kicked off with the latest from The Melancholy Babes – The Rat of the Riot. While the music is intense, it’s not all just crash and bash... as I don’t think I could handle that so early in the morning (it’s a very “room-sounding” recording and I think that takes a little of the edge off too). I don’t have all of their recordings, but it would be worth while working through the trio’s discography at some stage.

And now for something completely different... later in the day it was Root 70’s Heaps Dub getting a spin. This album marked a departure for them, the previous outings (I can never remember if this was their 3^rd or 4^th release... out around the time of Fahvergnugen) featured all original compositions, but on Heaps Dub they tackle the work of Burnt Friedman. Surely then, this must be considered the first of the conceptual series that followed? Something to mellow out to.

COVID-19 Lockdown: Day 2

Root 70’s Riomar kicked off the day. This is quartet’s album with a string trio and it had a darker vibe than I remembered (or maybe it was the cloudy skies and pouring rain, as the music brightened up along with the weather after lunch). If they ever return to the “Conceptual Works” series, may I suggest “Root 70 Plays Root 70”, featuring compositions from the band members’ other projects.

Then later in the day it was time for Magic Ocean Tree – an EP from The Woods. I’ve only managed to catch them live once and it was a fun evening. It’s taken me too long to pick up their two recordings. If you’re after groove-heavy, feel-good instrumental music, The Woods could be place to find it. It was a nice way to mellow out at the end of the day. Very rarely do I listen to music while at work so this is making a very pleasant change.

COVID-19 Lockdown: Day 1

I’m not sure whether I’ll post every day while the lockdown is in place (probably not), but here we are at Day 1. In the morning, Root 70’s Wise Men Can Be Wrong kept me company at work. This is part 4 of their conceptual series – an all-standards outing. Then for the afternoon it was Chris Aiello’s Green Grow The Lilacs - another all-standards outing (and one I’ve been meaning to listen to for ages..... finally got around to it Chris!). On a day that has been anything but standard, it has been a “standards” day for me.

Countdown to Lockdown

As of midnight tonight New Zealand moves into lockdown in efforts to combat the spread of CONVID-19. So it seems like a good time to resurrect the blog with a series of brief posts. I purchased a bunch of albums from Bandcamp that will accompany me as I work from home over the next four weeks (or longer). Most of these were well-overdue purchases, and the first of those got a spin today too - Adam Caine and Robert Dick's The Damn Think. As Root 70’s 20^th Anniversary Tour was scuttled due to the virus, I’ve decided to bust out their catalogue. I’m working in reverse chronological order, so Luxury Habits got the ball rolling today. I've put in my order for the 20th Anniversary Box Set too - but I'm guessing that might take a while to get here.

Nautilus: Infrablue

Nautilus: Infrablue (Two Rivers)
Hayden Chisholm (as) Jurgen Friedrich (p) Robert Lucaciu (b) Philipp Scholz (d)

Over the last couple of months Infrablue has been on pretty regular rotation.
The music is unhurried which could lead some to miss the subtleties that unfold throughout. The key for me is the conversational approach to the ensemble as a whole which leads to a well-balanced group sound with no single voice dominating the album. Overall I would place the sound as understated, subtle,  intimate, warm, somewhat introverted and at times, there is a feeling of vulnerability. Occasionally things get ramped up like on "Armageddon" although it doesn't feel out of place. 

The compositions are shared amongst Chisholm (4), Friedrich (3) and Lucaciu (2). During the last couple of listens I have concentrated on Hayden's tunes. "Star Shepherd," "Inward Expansion" and "Love Rush" are on the new box set that I am slowly making my way through (most recently I've been listening to The Void Between Us and Sisyphus Runs). The latter two tunes feature duo passages between sax and piano that I have been enjoying. "Fly" must be his most recorded composition (one of my favorites) and it's great hearing artists revisiting compositions over time with different (or the same!) personnel. I think it helps listeners associate a body of tunes with an artists as opposed to an endless string of compositions. The trend seems to be to write tunes, record them, tour and then put them aside and move onto writing a new batch of compositions for the next project. Anyway, before I get too far off topic..... Nautilus played at the 2015 Jazzahead festival and video of their performance is up on Youtube.

I got my copy of Infrablue (along with the download) from Bandcamp.