Gapplegate Music Blog for October 2009

Pictured is the Washburn WI64 Idol Electric, a really nice guitar for the money.

October 30, 2009—Marco Benevento falls outside the box in a number of ways. He sometimes plays the electric piano and other keys with effects/distortion and sounds like a guitar. He sometimes plays Rock tunes not normally covered by the Jazz-Fusion-Jazz Rock crowd. And he has Jamband street cred. His following is not precisely your typical Jazz audience.

And he has an ongoing project with three other like-minded musicians, called Garage a Trois. They have a new album, “Power Patriot” (Royal Potato Family) that’s been spinning on my player in the past few days. The group is Benevento plus Skerik on saxes, Mike Dillon on the vibes and the drumming of Stanton Moore.

This is an ensemble music with a bit of improvising. The songs and arrangements have an interesting Jazz-Rock-Psych flavor and at times they are quite unusual. You may find a little Miminalist mesmerizing in there, a sort of post-Zappa insouciance, a little Drums-n-Bass influence, and generally a modern outlook. It’s good music, no matter what labels one tries to tack on it. The labels don’t really matter, ultimately. “Music for Listening” is the most accurate.

October 29, 2009—How many bands do you know from Alberta, Canada? If you live there, I’m sure you can rattle off a great many. For those of us making their way elsewhere, it may be more difficult. And that’s only because we don’t get the exposure to the musical world up there.

I do know one, though, and I like them. It’s the Rural Alberta Advantage, whose “Hometowns” (Saddle Creek) album came out last summer and is just finding its way to my ears. They play a pleasing mix of Alt Rock with lyrics that tend to deal with break ups and dysfunctional situations, but in a way that transcends the pain. It’s a youthful, slightly punky-thrashy pop-influenced sound. And not slick and processed. This is music that has a live-in the-studio ambience. It has a direct, no bull attack to it. I like that.

October 28, 2009—Concert guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima has a fifty-year career in his pocket, along with more than 50 albums. He sounds better than ever on his latest CD “Merengue” (Zoho). This time out he tackles an impressively diverse set of pieces by composer-guitarists from all over Ibero-America. There are well and lesser-known classics by Villa-Lobos, Jobim, Brouwer and Almeida, as well as attractive works by a coterie of other interesting figures.

A good variety of instrumental combinations comes into play: solo guitar, guitar trio, guitar with cuatro, mandolin and Brazilian percussion, and with chromatic harmonica. This is no mere potpourri however. It’s a well conceived trip through musical-spatial territories with the accent always on Barbosa-Lima’s formidable artistry. It is a hugely pleasurable experience and a cogent tribute to the maestro’s wide ranging mastery of the many styles and sub-styles evoked. This is Classical and Post-Classical guitar wielding of the highest sort. It is warmly recommended.

October 27, 2009—When guitarist Allan Holdsworth joined Tony Williams’ new Lifetime lineup in 1977, he had received critical raves and a good reputation with the cognoscenti for his work with Gong and Soft Machine, but news of his extraordinary abilities was not on the level of generally known. Similarly, keyboardist Alan Pasqua was well-respected among fellow travelers but he did not have the general recognition he deserved.

On the other hand Tony Williams had become a huge force in the music, first with Miles and then with his gradually growing Fusion cache, thanks to his first electric albums with John McLaughlin and Larry Young, and later, Jack Bruce. On the other hand his “Bum’s Rush” release seemed slightly off track. A new contract with Columbia promised wide exposure if he could come through with a band that rivaled the original version.

Well he certainly did that. The New Lifetime had great energy and drive and, most importantly, returned to the interesting compositions that Tony’s aggregates could produce. Much of the writing on the first release, “Believe It” was in fact penned by Pasqua and Holdsworth. And Allan Holdsworth’s guitar playing put him in a class of his own. To this day, “Believe It” still sounds to me like the classic it is.

Time passed and the band faded away. Everyone went on to other things, Tony eventually turned back to acoustic music before his tragically untimely death. Pasqua did various good things, and of course Holdsworth went on to launch a solo career that confirmed him as one of the truly great “Fusion” guitarists out there—and not just in terms of the ability to play fast. Allan had, and HAS his own melodic and harmonic conception and that velvety violin-like electric tone that instantly distinguishes him.

Holdsworth and Pasqua recently decided fortuitously to reunite in a kind of tribute to Williams. One of the results is the live 2-CD set “Blues for Tony” (MoonJune) that has just come out. It’s hot! Tony’s role has been augmented by the presence of the wonderful Chad Wackerman, a longtime Holdsworth colleague. He doesn’t exactly fill Tony’s shoes. He has his own to wear. That is, he is a drummer with his own style going in the Fusion bag, and he is one of the living masters of the drums today. Jimmy Haslip of Yellowjackets fame is the bassist, and he solos effectively and plays a rock-solid ensemble. Pasqua sounds beautiful both on electric keys and the acoustic piano. And Holdsworth shows you his mature style in all its finery. It’s not that he’s lost any of his fire or prodigious technique, it’s that he’s refined his solo playing to the level of a master story teller.

Those expecting a literal rehash of the original Lifetime sound should understand how many years have passed since those first recordings. And Chad drives the band a little differently than Tony did. All said, we are talking about a NEW band with a more seasoned approach. The result is not the absolute peaks and occasional valleys of “Believe It,” but rather consistently high musicianship and inspiration throughout the set. It is a beautiful thing to hear. And it’s for everybody who loves good music. Holdsworth fans (hey, I am one of them) will not be disappointed. It’s the best thing I've heard him do in a while and certainly one of his best ever!

October 26, 2009—There are releases that come along that I appreciate but that don’t bring me to some sort of musical feeling of kismet, a feeling that fate has brought me to this music in a timely way. Admittedly that doesn’t happen all that often in my life in any event. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s “Summer of Fear” (Saddle Creek) doesn’t strike the hammer of fate for me, at least not on a Monday morning. He writes Pop-Rock-Indie tunes with a moody edge. His voice (and his music) has aspects of early Cat Stevens, early electric Dylan, just a touch of Pavlov’s Dog (if anybody remembers them). . . . and the songs have a rooted quality.

It’s done quite well but it doesn’t connect with me. That’s not to say it wouldn’t do that with you. The band has some electric, some acoustic guitar, keys, bass drums, backup vocals, the occasional horns, the occasional strings. This is the sort of artist that could have a hit and then another dimension of his career would commence. In which case what I think would be irrelevant. "Summer of Fear, Part 2" jumps out at me a little as something that's interesting. The ten-minute plus "More Than A Mess" has some definite moments.

This is his second album. There will be people out there that like it. I have nothing against it.

October 23, 2009—Ze Eduardo has been a central figure on the Portuguese Jazz scene since the ‘70s. He plies a strong acoustic bass and plays a leading role in his current trio. There’s a new recording on Clean Feed, “Ze Eduardo Unit Live in Capuchos.” Here Mr. Eduardo is joined by tenor saxophonist Jesus Santandreu and drummer Bruno Pedreso for a lively set. Once they clear out the cobwebs and get into some dynamic grooves, it becomes obvious that they are well attuned to one another and can work within various self-imposed parameters to create solid Post-Bop-Freebop Jazz with alternating density and spareness. When they get into a forward moving routine, they sound much fuller than the trio setting would suggest. That is in great part due to the rhythm team’s strongly felicitous interactions. Eduardo has strength of purpose and Pedroso builds upon that in ways that get the musical juices flowing.

Jesus Santandreau plays the soloist role with equal strength. He firmly entrenches himself in lithely moving idiomatic Post-Bop phrasing without quoting other players. He quotes himself. It seems to me that this would be a good starting CD for someone who wishes to explore what’s going on in Portugal. It’s quite engaging, once they get warmed up. And the group groove is hard to resist.

October 22, 2009—I liked the Land of Talk CD and now EP (see reviews below) so much I sought out the first EP from 2006, “Applause Cheer Boo Hiss” (The Rebel Group). A few listens reaffirmed that they are Montreal’s Indie Rock gem, or one of them.

The first EP has the initial emanations of the brashly embracing retuned guitar power progressions, Elizabeth Powell’s brittle, captivating vocal style and the strong originals. It’s another good one, perhaps a bit more raw and primal than the later recordings, but an impressive first effort. Ultimately the two albums that follow are the strongest. I would recommend grabbing this one only after getting the last two, once you find yourself irresistibly intrigued with the band. That is, if you have my reactions to them.

The Canadian scene appears to be vital. There are some great jambands up there too and I’ll cover some of them in future postings.

October 21, 2009—From yesterday’s electric Metal avant diffuseness we jump today to acoustic Folk centricity. Orenda Fink has a new one. If you didn’t know the old one, you should not worry, because it is never too late to catch up. Orenda has a very attractive voice, writes fetching songs that tell of a scary world where love can overcome, or not. This is a nicely acoustic folky sort of set with lots of attractive guitar picking along with mandolin, some fiddle and banjo. This is no self-conscious, let’s-pretend-you-are-earthy music. Orenda Fink IS earthy. “Ask the Night” (Saddle Creek) brings her into your living space with ten good songs. She is the opposite of pretentious. And I get a warm feeling listening to this CD. Mary Travers may be gone. There are contemporary folkies out there that carry the torch. Orenda Fink is one of the most original.

October 20, 2009—John Zorn’s Game Pieces were musically revolutionary at the time they were first composed for two main reasons. First off, they set up a series of interconnected musical events that encouraged focused improvisations based on specific musical and verbal instructions to each musician involved. Second, the musical styles represented in each piece could diverge widely and wildly from what one had come to expect from the avant garde. Cartoon music, Country, Jazz and experimental sound structures rubbed shoulders indiscriminately, so that the listener experienced rapidly shifting musical sensations that nevertheless had an A to B logic. The pieces also gave creative challenges to the musicians that allowed the individual qualities of their various improvisational gifts to be on display.

It’s music that involves the performer intimately in the outcome of the sounds produced. Consequently every performance can differ greatly. There really is no end to the variations the game pieces inspire.

A performance of Zorn’s “Xu Feng” (Tzadik) is now available, and it is quite interesting. Because of the instrumentation involved as well as Zorn’s compositional framework, this is a crazy-quilt of Avant Metal. Two electric guitarists (one of them being the very capable Mr. Fred Frith), two electronics people, and two drummer percussionists are the participants. The Xu Feng title derives from the venerable martial arts tradition, and Zorn’s piece reflects that orientation by directing rapidly shifting and sometimes violent sounding event clusters. It may not be immediately comprehensible for those not used to the outer spheres of modern music, but several listens will probably reassure even the novice listener that this is an exciting and completely absorbing musical experience. The madcap dashes through event contrasts will never find you with a feeling of “this is nice, but it goes on for too long.” Quite the contrary. It may have you at the edge of your seat. But in the best possible way. These are some very creative musicians tackling the complexities of the piece with real insight and virtuoso daring. And this is some truly wild music!

October 19, 2009—The group Cold Cave has a CD coming out next month, “Love Comes Close” (Matador). It was available on a boutique’s boutique label last August, sold out completely, and now is set for national release. If you are up on these things the band leader Wesley Eisold is a former member of American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost and Some Girls, then there’s Xiu Xiu’s Caralee Mc Elroy, and Prurient’s Dominick Fernow.

They play a not unattractive kind of underground pop Rock that’s laced with New Wave style synthesizers and bubbling quasi-dance beats with a Rock trajectory. The lyrics have an appealingly murky obscurity that combines a “sick of the world” stance with talk of romantic coupling and de-coupling. The male baritone (I guess Eisold) has a late Iggy/Nick Cave sort of glow and McCarey McElroy lends her innocence-meets-world-weariness vocal style to the mix.

It all has a kind of DIY indie under-slickness that wears well. It isn’t something that I would ordinarily seek out, but it does feel comfortable pumping a periodicity from speakers at strategic points of the weekly sonic menu. The synth parts have a primitive, primal feel that meshes well with the vocal directness. There are songs that remain on the edge of your mind afterwards. . . “Life Magazine,” for example. Add a guitarist that hits it a little more and this would be a satisfying musical repast. As it is there is something interesting going on.

October 16, 2009—Ahleuchatistas? Think power trio. Then think of Captain Beefheart’s pioneering writing for guitars in his band, around about the time of “Trout Mask” and “Lick My Decals.” Now forget about all of that, except in the back of your mind, because the band Ahleuchatistas goes a great deal further into the edgy realms than such a combination would suggest. Their latest album, “Of the Body Prone” (Tzadik) has the potential to scramble your brains, in a good way, of course.

This disk gives you outside avant Metal complexities that will have you tripping all over yourself as if your shoelaces were untied. I don’t imagine you will feel the urge to dance. It is close to being, however, a tour de force in intricately arranged and well executed sonic assault.

This is some kind of band. I suggest you check them out if you would like to be blown away. Beware, though. They are not for timid ears.

October 15, 2009—If you had the new album by Old Canes, “Feral Harmonic” (Saddle Creek), you could greet the morning like I am doing right now with some home grown, quilting bee or Whitman’s Sampler type Alt-Indie music. This is a conflagration that’s not easy to pigeonhole, which is the best sort of thing to be in my mind. Chris Crisci is the guiding force behind it all. He wrote the songs, sung the lead vocals and played guitar (mostly acoustic), cello and a lively mandolin, not to mention toy piano, bells, harmonica, drums, etc. He is joined by a variety of instrumentalists and backup vocalists.

The songs give you a kind of do-it-yourself, stubborn Yankee music, not like Cake really (it’s “Feral” after all, wildly outside the respectable haunts) but with a kind of charming directness that Cake can have. They build up thick textures with bashing drums and “heavy” mandolin or hit some chord progressions as a prelude to a rockish songwriter’s tune. The music is unpretentious, catchy and ingeniously instrumented. Chris’s voice has an Alt sort of feel to it and it is not unappealing. Songs like “I Will Be the Sun” sound good for this season that lasts until spring comes along again. It’s music to drive the cold winter from your door. I like it. You might too.

October 14, 2009—The Pineapple Thief is another one of those “new” Prog bands, like Blackfield, No-Sound and the Porcupine Tree, that combines a rather melancholy outlook with top-notch songs, arrangements and musicianship. The Pineapple Thief has perhaps the most orchestral concept of them all. They build walls of sound that envelop the listener like a silk Turkish carpet under bare feet; there are beautifully repeating patterns and there are rich colors to appreciate while the soft comfort of the materials gently caress the underside of your toes.

The band has been steadily gathering momentum and perfecting their art for the past nine years. Since they signed to KScope a wider potential audience has been more available to them, and many listeners have been experiencing the group for the first time through those latest albums (myself included).

Given these circumstances the band has wisely decided to compile, remix and re-present the best of the earlier tracks in a two-CD set called “3000 Days.” I’ve been listening to it and I must say it is an impressive collection. Out of the 20 tracks in the set, there are absolutely no duds.

Pineapple Thief’s vocals have a sort of youthful sound to them; their innocent tenor is belied by the worldly, bittersweet quality of the lyrics. I find that the best way to listen to the band in this early phase is to let the entire matrix of sound and meaning wash over you in its undulations. It’s the complex whole of all the elements on each track that grabs the ears in the end.

And in the end, there is much to hear and experience. “3000 Days” is an impressive testament to the musical vision of the band. It makes me keenly anticipate future releases. Where will they go from here? For now, where they’ve been is available for us to enjoy and appreciate in this very well-produced package.

October 13, 2009—Blackfield is Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Aviv Geffen, Israeli songwriter, singer and musician of notoriety. They recorded two albums after forming in 2000. Now they have released “Blackfield Live in NYC” (KScope), a sparklingly recorded date from the Bowery Ball Room in 2007.

The foundation of an exciting live act is a good drummer who is allowed to freely drive the band. Blackfield surely have that. Next up is good musicianship. Again Blackfield show themselves to be a very dynamically proficient band. Third of course are the songs, arrangements and vocals. Blackfield is beautifully strong, with Wilson and Geffen responsible for the vast part of what is performed here.

This is a live CD and DVD combo package. The DVD version brings you right into the venue with a “you are there” ambience. This isn’t the untra-slick jive that sometimes gets put out in the guise of a live presentation. There are no smoke bombs, arks of fire or the specially lit, teaming hordes of youthful fanatics waving their hands in the air. And that’s refreshing.

What’s most crucial is the way Blackfield have with handling the song form. They write distinctive songs and they perform them with real sophistication. It’s melancholy fare, as you would expect from Steve Wilson. The songs haunt. Most if not all are live re-performances of tracks from their first two albums. “Once,” “Hello,” and “Cloudy Now” are unforgettable in this live setting. It’s a new Prog Rock here if you like. One that doesn’t look back. The emphasis is on the strong material, without a lot of instrumental asides. Those there are have bite to them and Steve Wilson’s guitar work is wholly effective, if not exactly into the Jam mode. He plays parts in the arrangements, but with terrific tone.

These are two very talented guys with a great band. This is one hell of a nice live date. I am a fan after hearing this album. You might be too. Or perhaps you are already.

October 12, 2009—When nationalism became a concern of Western composers from the middle-later 19th century onwards, Spain hadn’t very far to look. The home-grown variety of musical practices had been thriving for very many centuries—so much so that even non-Spanish composers such as Domenico Scarlatti and Boccherini had been influenced by the music of the region in the late Baroque and Classical eras. So when a group of late 19th century-early 20th century composers began writing music that brought the Spanish national style to a new world prominence, their musical inspiration was already partially absorbed into the world at large. That world was ready for them, and the composers involved were especially inspired to capture and transform the essence of the style into something both modern and traditional at the same time.

Of course the guitar was a central part of Spanish music early on. Flamenco, folk song and dance forms grew up around a special style of guitar performance practice most any music lover would recognize today. A rising generation of Spanish composers found it natural to reflect the style, with or without the incorporation of the guitar into any particular piece. At the same time, the Mediterranean sunlight and concomitant transparency of the region was perhaps a natural stimulus to write music that had the influence of the Impressionist palette of tone color.

This is all applicable to the music presented on a delightful new album “Iberica” (Naïve). Here we find an engaging recital of musical transcriptions for cello and guitar plus a solo guitar suite and a suite for solo cello, as played by Anne Gastinel on the bowed instrument and Pablo Marquez on classical guitar. The disc is filled with miniature gems by de Falla, Cassado, and Granados, all principal exponents of early modern Spanish classical music. This is no light music. There is a weight to the pieces despite their brevity.

The unique form of Spanish brio that comes in part out of Flamenco and the glint of Impressionist sunlight are well captured on the brilliantly pleasing performances of this duo. This is not music with a high pyrotechnic level. Rather it is intensely melodic and expressive, and maestros Gastinel and Marquez play like they were brought to the pieces at an early age. Gastinel has a beautiful, yet unsentimental tone with the right amount of verve to bring out the not-so-latent dance rhythms implied in the music. Pablo Marquez is a guitarist of solid technique and thoughtful interpretive skills.

Many of the pieces will be well known to concert and chamber music aficionados, such as select pieces from de Falla’s “Three Cornered Hat” and “el Amour Brujo,” and the intermezzo from Granados’ “Goyescas.” There is also a stunning performance of Cassado’s “Suite for Solo Cello” that brings out with clarity the combined delicacy and strength of the work with its lyrical Spanish themes.

Well-wrought performances and the inherently sonorous cello-guitar coupling give the transcriptions an intensely vibrant quality, as if they were in fact the original expressions for these pieces, not afterthoughts. In short this is an extraordinarily engaging recording that will bring musical sunshine into the cloudiest of your days. By all means grab this one and enjoy.

October 9, 2009—We close out the five-day week with an interesting piece by John Zorn entitled “New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands” (Tzadik). Written between 1986-1990, “New Traditions” does not fit with any expectations of what John Zorn might do next, and that’s one of the things most interesting about Zorn’s opus. He is always venturing forth into new territory. This piece comes in the form of a three-part suite. Each section involves two instrumentalists and recitation—in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. For those who don’t know the languages, the speaker’s part becomes pure sound, and given the vocal inflections of the performance, has a kind of Sprechstimme (literally, speech-song) quality.

The first part, “Hu Die” teams up the speaker with guitarists Bill Frisell and Fred Frith. The latter engage in a stimulating, electric dialogue utilizing psychedelic voicings, Rock inflections and noise elements. It is bracing and beautiful at the same time. The second part (“Hwang Chin-ee”) brings out the twin drumming of Joey Baron and Samm Bennett in a rather exciting display of percussive resonance reminiscent of a Japanese Taiko ensemble. Part three (“Que Tran”) brings in Anthony Coleman and Wayne Horowitz for two-keyboard melodics that on occasion have a distinct East Asian flavor.

This is not music for everybody. (No music is for everybody in any event.) If you want to be stimulated by something unexpected and musically illuminating, it will undoubtedly give you many hours of exploration, enlightenment and enjoyment.

Mr. Zorn has such a fulminous musical imagination that one can find it hard to keep up. His music is like thunder and lightening. No one can be sure where it will strike next, its advent is “dangerous” but only if you leave yourself exposed through rigid expectations of what modern music is “supposed” to be about, and the sensual pleasure to be gained by the listening experience is rather unparalleled. Listen on if you so choose. I can promise you a journey to a place you’ve never, or rarely been before.

October 8, 2009—As far as living electric guitarists who play free improvisations go, there aren’t that many, as compared with reedmen or pianists, for example. One in the current group of free guitarists making a name for himself lately is Joe Morris. He doubles on the upright bass as well, so he finds his way onto a fair number of dates in one or another category. It is his guitar work that is the most notable, however.

So when Joe records an album playing nothing but guitar in a small group context—“Colorfield” (ESP)—it is an event of some magnitude, for those that follow this sort of thing. Here is a session that takes the high road—there are no additional stylistic references, just pure free playing. Luther Gray drums his way through the date without falling into pulse patterns; he stays with freetime inventions throughout. And he fills his role well. Pianist Steve Lantner is out of the Cecil Taylor bag, only he does not fill the spaces with supercharged, dense clusters. He rather phrases his out pianisms rather carefully and they counter Joe Morris’ improvisations.

In a way Morris proceeds from start to finish in this record with an unflagging mission: to construct smoothly flowing lines of free improvisation with a pure electric tone. The lines form a series of virtually endless melodic variations in a harmonically ambiguous territory. And the resultant sound and projectory are all his own. He and Steve engage in long simultaneous improvisations with Luther Gray providing a drum-phrasing counterpart. It is all about the long form, the extended free improvisation that starts in a certain place and stays there, stopping only after more or less temporarily exhausting the permutations available to the players’ creative imaginations.

As one might expect, this does not provide “easy listening” for those on the output end of the electronic music production chain. It is music that must be listened to. It is not background music. It is a marvelously sprawling series of musical gymnastics. If you allow the music multiple listens, you will probably find that the complexity of the interactions becomes more and more interesting. That was my take. This is an important record for those that want to hear a "new" (as in unfamiliar) guitarist in top form. But don't expect it to appeal to what Charles Ives called "easychair ears."

I read in a recent Yahoo article that a poll was given a segment of the American population on what word or phrase was most irritating to them. Turns out that “whatever” took the top slot. I like the expression. To me it has the connotation that “things are too complex and too important to form a precise judgment about them at this juncture.” Whatever. To me that is the last word on everything musical. We haven’t arrived. We never will arrive. We keep going no matter what happens around us. Joe Morris? Whatever. . . . Whatever in the best sense of the term.

October 7, 2009—The group Rashanim, with three CDs already under their belt, entered the studio recently to record an unplugged session. Jon Madoff, the moving force behind the band, unleashed his 6- and 12-stringed acoustic guitars and his banjo. Bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz brought out his acoustic bass guitar and bass banjo (!) among other things. Drummer-percussionist Mathias Kunzli, well, his drums were never electric in the first place, so he proceeded as he always did.

After the usual tracking, mixing, mastering and manufacturing, “The Gathering” (Tzadik) was ready. I hold a copy in my hands (or rather I did. Right now I’m typing). As with their previous albums Rashanim combines Jewish melody, a mid-eastern sensibility, Rock oriented arrangements, and a post-Fusion interweaving of these diverse cultural-stylistic inputs.

With the acoustic emphasis, the music has a folkish bent, like what an unidentified group of people would play somewhere on days of special collective ritual, state ceremonies or community celebrations. In a way it is that. Anyone can play this CD and it fits into whatever social or individual occasions the listener sees fit to build around it.

The point is that behind this music there is a brilliance of concept and a deft synthesis that makes for very engaging listening. The acoustic work shines; the arrangements intrigue. It brings something rather different to your everyday listening fare, and it does it with considerable musical skill.

October 6, 2009—Katie Pearlman has a new album. It is called “We Make This” (Mohawk Records). I believe we hear in this record Katie’s renewed commitment to songwriting. There are ten songs gathered there, all by her, all good. The cohesive band sound remains as a foundation feature, with Jeff Pearlman on keys, Joe Cesare, electric guitar, Tom Bowler, bass, and Katie on drums and some acoustic guitar.

The lyrics are centered around personal relationships and their entanglements, everyday life and its little trials and victories, and the feelings one can have in the middle of all of it. They engage.

The band sounds good, loose and Jamband like in a classic sense, with some of the ambience of the Dead. Short, incisive yet spirited solos by Jeff and Joe pepper the songs and give them leverage. Katie's drumming sparks the ensemble and gets it grooving.

Ms. Pearlman's voice is a real vehicle. There’s a soulful quality I’ve remarked on in earlier reviews, and it really puts the whole thing together. There are times I recall the old band Mother Earth in its rootedness when I listen to Katie’s music. Katie has a different sound than Tracy Nelson did in that band, but there’s a certain common feel there. On the other hand, there’s nothing really retro about her music. It’s more about timelessness.

“We Make This” is plush, wall-to-wall Katie Pearlman at her best. It nicely showcases Katie’s talent and gives plenty of listening pleasure. I hope it brings her much success.

October 5, 2009—Giancarlo Erra had a musical vision in 2001 that became the ongoing recording project/group Nosound. Their previous album was haunting. I reviewed it about a year ago in this blog (you’ll have to do an internal search for it; I don’t currently have an index for these posts). Nosound has a new one, “A Sense of Loss” (Kscope). It is equally haunting. Essentially most songs have a lush carpet of ambient, slowly changing chords from the MIDI-keyboards, an arpeggiated sequence on acoustic or electric guitar, and perhaps some climactic power chords, with drums and bass in a loose Progrock/Alt mode and plaintive vocals from deep inside somewhere, the bottom of a well, the inner recesses of a cave, the inside of your being. It is like walking through an aural dreamscape. It is like being alone on the beach on the last day of summer at sunset. It is the end of something and the beginning of another. It is exceedingly beautiful music.

The sense of loss hinted at in the title makes its presence felt. What has been lost? That’s entirely a matter for your personal interaction with the music. There is a yearning, pervading melancholy that is rather exquisite. Like Portuguese Fado it is a musical-poetic state of being. There is an excellence of concept and execution that puts Nosound in a class by itself. The deluxe edition of the CD includes a 24-bit surround-sound DVD version of the music with some extras. I wasn’t able to get a copy of that, but I can imagine it adds further to what is a sound stage that could be described with accuracy as ravishing. Perfect music for the advent of winter and its prelude, the long and soft farewell nature bids to those creatures who must live through to another spring.

October 2, 2009—Sun Ra’s avant garde big band really hit their stride in the 1965 release “The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume 1” (ESP). Ra was pioneering on this session in his use of the entire band in sections and with endless permutations of groupings, bass and tenor one moment, tutti horns another, solo piccolo the next, and on from there. Much of this is a vast cued improvisational set of sequences, with most of the band doubling on percussion instruments.

The music was at the time a little difficult for many listeners. It does not contain any of the more “entertaining” “cosmic” chants or the later re-arrangements of old big band classics. It is pure avant. And its revolutionary impact can still be felt today.

ESP has reissued the disk and it’s quite worthy of your attention. There is a special audiophile vinyl LP pressing available, as well as CD and download options. Check the ESP site for more details (find the address on our “Links” page).

October 1, 2009—The situation with Japanese Jazz-Improv as far as I can tell is that it is going strong, but much too little of the recordings make their way stateside. An exception is Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Ensemble. Their CD “Dreams” (Tzadik) is a very good example of their work. Here the mid-sized ensemble is joined by two female vocalists from the underground Pop scene, Togawa Jun and Phew. The first has a kind of cracked, childlike approach; the second is dramatic in a dynamic sort of way. They both engage with the band in interesting song material that ranges from nursery-rhymes-meets-Weil to traditional sounding melodies to slightly off-kilter balladic moments.

The band is strong, and the arrangements unusual, sometimes layered, sometimes sound-color inflected. The centerpiece of the disk is “Eureka” which has a plaintive melody at first sung by Phew, taken up by the band, and then mauled and throttled in a frenetic climax that will stand your hair on end (in a good way and depending on how much hair you have at this point!) The CD concludes with a incredibly chaotic kind of a flip out (“Hahen Fukue”) that brings the extremely out end of the band to the forefront. In that sense the CD is a progression from the naively simple to the chaotically complex. Otomo Yoshihide and his Ensemble sound terrific on this one and if you go for the rather eccentric sort of New Thing Jazz, this a very fine example. It really stomps out at the end; the beginning has real charm. You are guaranteed to remain awake throughout!