CD REVIEWS

contexts. Of particular note is her superb by Alan Ferber over horns that are also garrulous but improvisational duo Vortex, with percussionist Satoshi work their way into a something more celebratory, at Takeishi. Her newest project, Taken Shadows, was one point accompanied by the wordless vocal of Defne premiered live at Roulette and it is the recording of Sahin. And speaking of vocals, listen to the remarkable that performance that appears here on CD. take on The Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home”. After an The group includes guitarist Jonathan Goldberger, ever-so-sad intro from horns and strings, Sahin and drummer Jim Black, electric bassist Stomu Takeishi Ruben Samama sing this dirge made more fully real and violinist Todd Reynolds. Nagai has assembled a and melancholy in the instrumental writing. great band that supports her work as both a pianist/ All of this beautiful music reflects the power of

Conversations with Owls synthesizer player and as a composer. Not only do improvisation and ensemble writing tinged by the Jeff Cosgrove/Frank Kimbrough/Martin Wind these players each bring a huge breadth of experience sadness of loss. It’s strikingly exhilarating. (Grizzley Music) and technical ability to the table, they also gel musically by Mark Keresman as an ensemble in a deeply compelling way. For more information, visit bjurecords.com. This project is The album breaks the continuous performance at ShapeShifter Lab Apr. 5th. See Calendar. It could be argued that two of the most influential jazz into three tracks, demarcating transitions into new musicians ever were pianist and drummer written sections. The music begins in a relatively calm . Their inspiration is so universal their statement of some melodic material, but quickly spirals impact can be discerned in musicians that sound into a robust mess of electronic sounds and careening nothing like them. Drummer Jeff Cosgrove’s style is rhythms. Things build and recede, each time organically nothing like Motian’s, but both have an impressionistic entering into new beautiful textures. As the music approach, applying percussion almost as a painter builds again towards the second track, “Solid Angle”, does to canvas, a beat here, a rumble there. Evans and some spirited free playing between Takeishi and Nagai pianist Frank Kimbrough share what Miles Davis said (on piano at that moment) gradually settles into a of the former: [A] “quiet fire”. Kimbrough, like Evans, groove—facilitated not by the entrance of the drums, can say a lot with but a few notes and both are but rather violin. It’s always nice when instruments are decidedly lyrical players but Kimbrough’s approach is able to function in different roles and it makes the a more assertive, more inclined to judicious dissonance entrance of the drums at the top of “Solid Angle” all and free passages. Joining them is Germany-born, the more meaningful, freeing up Reynolds to lay out NYC-based bassist Martin Wind, who has got a pliant some beautiful soaring melismatic phrases. Goldberger throb and employs extended techniques to coax forth then brings a blazing guitar solo, which again leads cello- and un-bass-like sounds. into some beautiful airy, open textures about five Most of the pieces comprising this album are minutes in. Some of the most abstract free improvising credited to the trio, with no mention if these are group is saved for the lead-in to the final track and the top of improvisations. They could well be, but this group “LUCY” builds to the final melodic ideas—a ripping plays with such a palpable unity of purpose and subtle unison lick that jumps out and then hides again, interaction that it scarcely matters. “The Shimmer” revealing a piano cadenza, and then comes soaring swings in a somewhat angular fashion, Kimbrough back for the finale. playing pointedly but maintaining a contemplative vibe while Cosgrove and Wind propel the proceedings For more information, visit animul.info. Nagai is at The R • Larry Coryell—Heavy Feel (Wide Hive) forward without a fixed beat. “Stacks of Stars” begins Stone Apr. 4th with Lukas Ligeti. See Calendar. • Jack DeJohnette—Made in Chicago (ECM) with Wind’s rippling, almost guitar-like plucking, e • Marty Grosz Meets the Fat Babies— segueing into cascading piano and haunted, cyclic Diga Diga Doo (Hot Music from Chicago) drumming, then into some ominously dark swing— c (Delmark) this would be perfect in the context of a film mystery. • Mikko Innanen (with William Parker and One of the few non-originals here is a brilliant o Andrew Cyrille)—Song For A New Decade deconstruction of “My Favorite Things” in a unique m (TUM) re-harmonization, as if the trio stripped the song down • Mike Osborne—Dawn (Cuneiform) • Adam Pierończyk Quartet— to its barest essentials and then stripped it down even m A-Trane Nights (ForTune) further. With just wisps of the original melody, e • Secret Keeper (Stephan Crump/ Cosgrove rumbles like distant thunder, Kimbrough Mary Halvorson)—Emerge (Intakt) ruminates and Wind discreetly plucks and throbs. It’s a The Stereography Project n • Lucky Thompson & Barney Wilen— rendition of a standard that’s unsettling, haunting and Marike Van Dijk (BJU Records) Four Brothers (Sonorama) strangely beautiful all at once. by Donald Elfman d • Warren Vaché Quintet— This album is aptly titled. It’s a slightly disquieting Remembers Benny Carter (Arbors) excursion into the world of an inscrutable creature of Marike Van Dijk, a composer and saxophonist from e • Cassandra Wilson—Coming Forth By Day the night, conveyed by some wizards of loose-form (as the Netherlands, has created a chamber group artfully d (Legacy) opposed to free-form), heartfelt jazz with the accent on blending composition and improvisation. A string Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor probing group interaction. quartet suggests the classical, but the players work in the city’s jazz arenas. n For more information, visit jeffcosgrovemusic.com. The music evokes images and sensations of Van • Atomic—Lucidity (Jazzland) Kimbrough is at Jazz Standard Apr. 1st with Dijk’s past in the Netherlands and her new life in New e • Tim Berne’s Snakeoil— and Jazz at Kitano Apr. 16th with Jay Clayton. See Calendar. York. “I Am Not a Robot” is introduced by the bass of You’ve Been Watching Me (ECM) Rick Rosato, whose pulsations call forth first the w • Andrew Bishop—De Profundis (Envoi)

strings, then ultimately everyone to music that is • James Falzone/The Renga Ensemble— hardly all robotic but instead animated and evolving. The Room Is (Allos Documents) Rosato’s bass is ever-present through a piano solo by r • Erik Friedlander—Illuminations (Skipstone) Manuel Schmiedel that carries the bass and Mark • Mark Helias Open Loose— Schilders’ drums with it to expressive heights. The e The Signal Maker (Intakt) • Ircha (Mikołaj Trzaska Clarinet Quartet)— strings return underneath the rhythmic energy and l Black Bones (Kilogram) then stand alone to bring the tune to an elegiac close. • Charles Lloyd—Wild Man Dance “32243” begins with a lonely repeated note on the e (Blue Note) piano that becomes the underpinning of the rhapsodic a • Tiziano Tononi/Awake Nu Quartet— strings. Ben van Gelder takes a soaring and germane The (CherryCo)mpany (Nu Bop) Taken Shadows (Live at Roulette NYC) solo on alto and Van Dijk is deft in her turn on soprano. s • Steve Wilson & Wilsonian’s Grain— Shoko Nagai (Animul) Live in New York: The Vanguard Sessions by Wilbur MacKenzie Throughout this marvelous outing, the composer displays a remarkable flair for thematic development e (Random Act) Since her arrival in New York at the end of the ‘90s, and subtle, understated instrumental color. Out of the Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director pianist Shoko Nagai has appeared in numerous funk of “Christmas” comes an effusive trombone solo s

16 APRIL 2015 | THE JAZZ RECORD