COVID-19 Lockdown: Day 9

A frustrating day of work was alleviated by some very enjoyable sounds. Kicking off the day was the new disc featuring unreleased recordings by Lennie Tristano - The Duo Sessions. It features Tristano is duo with Lenny Popkin, Connie Crothers, and Roger Mancuso. I’m a huge fan of all involved so this is going to get a lot more listening time. Due to the pandemic Dot Time Records were unable to post the physical disc but gladly sent me a digital copy.

Then I continued with my tour of the Root 70 discography with Getting Rooted. I hadn’t listened to this one for a while and was a little surprised how well I remembered it. Then I recalled just how much I used to listen to this album and I was somewhat less surprised. In turn, I started recalling the time I first heard this album - New York City, 2004 (ahh nostalgia). And realized that these two albums are linked, as NYC 2004 also happened to be when I met Connie. Time Flies. Kind of. In some respects in seems like yesterday, and then suddenly it feels like another lifetime.

Jazz April: week 2 listening

Plenty more jazz sounds bouncing around the apartment this week.
Yusef Lateef: 1984 (Impulse)
I had been on the lookout for this one for a while now (due to the presence of Mike Nock) and picked it up as part of a 2-for-1 reissue paired with The Golden Flute. There's a lot of variety here - straight up blowing of "Soul Sister," oboe and flute exotica of "Try Love," the juxtaposition of "One Little Indian," the balladry of "Warm Fire" and the searching title track - makes for a very interesting album.

Quest: Circular Dreaming (Enja)
For those unfamiliar, Quest is the long-standing group of David Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure and Billy Hart and here they focus on tunes of the 60s quintet of Miles Davis (with two thirds of the tunes coming from Wayne Shorter). And while it may be a tribute album, Quest have developed a band sound (over the past 35 years) that places a personal stamp the music. Later in the week I gave some of the tracks back-to-back listens with the original recordings by Miles' group.

Sal Mosca: Too Marvelous for Words (Candence)
This week it has been disc 3 as I make my way through the 5 disc set. I think solo piano is my preferred setting to hear Mosca - and he's really on form throughout this entire set. We're lucky he made a number of solo recordings (Sal Mosca Music, A Concert, For You, Trickle, Recital in Valhalla). Check out the opening chorus of "There Will Never Be Another You" - too marvelous indeed.

Marilyn Crispell & David Rothenberg: One Dark Night I Left My Silent House (ECM)
A very nice set of 13 improvisations between bass clarinet/clarinet and piano (with some percussion). I got this on a whim recently mostly due to my interest in duos. While I'm somewhat familiar with Crispell (having heard her live and on a few albums), I hadn't heard Rothenberg before and found the two paired well. The improvisations contain strong melodic content and a nice amount of space making for a very enjoyable album.

Charlie Haden & Hank Jones: Steal Away (Verve)
I felt like something mellow and melodic, and this album of spirituals, hymns and folk songs hit the spot. If I have one complaint about this album, it is the way the piano recorded.... it seems muted or watery.

Lenny Popkin is a favorite of mine (great sound and lines and so relaxed) and this week I had a session listening to a selection of tracks from his trio albums (LP on tenor throughout with bassists Rich Califano, Eddie Gomez and Gilles Naturel and drummers Peter Scattaretico, Carol Tristano and Philippe Soirat).

317 East 32nd {originally released on Choice as Falling Free} "Dreaming" and "Everything Reminds Me of You"

Lenny Popkin (Lifeline Records): "Trio" and "I Surrender Dear"

New York Moment (Paris Jazz Productions): "Origin" and "Another Time"
Live at Intone Festival (PAO): "Out of Nowhere" and "When You're Smiling"
Time Set (Lifeline Records): "Call" and "Circular Logic" (the latter features multi-tracked solo saxophone)

More from Kazzrie Jaxen

As I mentioned earlier the music of Kazzrie Jaxen has been pumping out of the speakers of late.

Released in late 2013, A Million Shimmering Fish (New Artists Records NA1057) comes from a 2010 duo concert with writer Mark Weber at the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The album draws largely from the first set - the 10-part poem sequence "Undulations Water & Clouds." For the most part, the format has Mark speaking followed Kazzrie freely improvising with exceptions being parts 3 & 5, where Kazzrie improvises as Mark speaks. At first I was a little disappointed with the lack of concurrent playing, but I was soon drawn into it and the sense of space it gave the album as a whole. The breaks following the poems had me waiting in anticipation for the surprises Kazzrie had in store (her playing is breathtaking).
Part 3, "On Breathing Down The Spine" also appears on Live at The Stone/NYC (New Artists Records 1046) with Mark appearing alongside the Connie Crothers Quartet.
The last four pieces come from the concert's second set - one solo piano piece ("Catharsis"), two pieces that feature Kazzire's vocals (in addition to piano) along with text from Mark ("Timebounce" & "How Deep Is The Ocean") and a delightfully fun encore. An engaging duo.

Mark has posted about the concert and the album (including the text for "Undulations") along with photographs on his blog - I wonder if the 2nd set (Kazzrie solo) will get released?

My introduction to Kazzrie's music came via the New Artists Records sampler disc which contains "Shine The Warrior's Heart" from her 1998 solo piano album For The Beauty Of The Earth (New Artists Records NA1030). I picked up not too long after hearing the sampler disc.

Around that time (2003 & early 2004) some albums that had plenty of repeated listens included:
Richard Tabnik - In The Moment (NA1015) and Life At The Core (NA1016). The trio and quartet albums that I discovered by chance at Tower Records online (if you can imagine that!).
Connie Crothers - Perception (SCCD31022)
Connie Crothers Quartet Ontology (New Artists NA1035)
These two albums of Connie's would accompany me on late night walks from Newtown over to Lyall Bay.
Lenny Popkin - Self-titled trio album on Lifeline Records (LR101) with Rich Califano (b) and Carol Tristano (d)
I was living in a flat with three other musicians and I remember them all being into trumpeter Terence Blanchard at the time. They had a live recording of his group that went on to record Bounce for Blue Note (I think it was from an IAJE performance that one of them went to). For whatever reason, it just didn't grab me. However, the half a dozen albums listed above did.