WWW.JAZZIMPROV.COM MAY 2007 Ira Gitler’s Apple Chorus Jazz Club Profile: Village Vanguard Plenty of Reviews of Cool CDs PERFORMANCE REVIEWS: Michael Weiss, Anat Fort, and more JAZZ IMPROV LIVE! Convention & Festival 2007 Oct. 25-28, 2007 • NY, NY Register by May 31 for Early Bird Discount! TRIBUTE TO Oscar Peterson: CARNEGIE HALL of JUNE 8, 8:00 PM Master Swing WITH Hank Jones, Billy Taylor, Mulgrew Miller, Roger Kellaway, Clark Terry, Russell Malone, Houston Person, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash, Jimmy Heath and many more! INTERVIEWS: Kate McGarry Buster Williams Antoine Roney Slide Hampton Jeremy Pelt BUSTER WILLIAMS KATE McGARRY JEREMY PELT 4 Generations of Miles Jazz Standard • May 10-13 Village Vanguard • May 1-6 Iridium • May 10-13 FREE Live Performance Reviews Venne introduced “Delicious Bite-Size Morsels” nalists contracted, stretched, and skewed the beat The Semifinalists by way of a solo chord melody crackling with a tone into a succession of grooves. Walton built up a fer- Live at Puppets Jazz Bar steeped in haunting beauty. Levin provided sympa- vent improvisation whose energy grew to its logical November 7, 2006 thetic strokes of his brushes while Walton’s melody climax, only to come down for a drum solo and rise waed through the room. Levin had switched to again with Venne’s unaccompanied reintroduction By Dimitry Ekshtut sticks by the time Walton’s solo was underway and of the melody. “Salute to the Sandbox” reiterated the two drove the energy ever upwards. e Semi- Venne’s fresh vocabulary of chords and voicings that One of the most popular and hotly-contested nalists oen mirrored the openness and playfulness oen utilize open strings, tonal clusters, and smaller discussions at this year’s annual conference of the of Pat Metheny’s trio, while at other times echoing intervals rubbing against each other. Undulating be- International Association for Jazz Education was the the structural ingenuity of Dave Holland’s various tween a regular and half-time feel, the band also for- debate over jazz’s musical identity and relevance in projects. While these inuences are certainly pres- ayed deep into the corresponding triplet pulse. e our time. While no two people share the exact same ent, Venne was wise enough a composer to keep his constant modulations, so well executed, created a denition of jazz, their versions ranging in diversity own signicant voice at the fore. sense of temporal lightness that made e Seminal- from strict bebop to all sorts of improvised music, we A band with a name like e Seminalists ists appear to oat above the tune’s complex rhyth- can all agree that in order to survive, jazz must do seems fated to have a title tune. “e Seminalists” is mic underpinning. Hornick joined Venne in unison what it has always done — evolve with the times. In one of the band’s strongest pieces and eloquently syn- against the drums while Walton took a solo, the two the sonic Petri dish that is the New York music scene, opsizes the kind of musical aesthetic Venne, Walton, then hitting upon a polyrhythmic vamp for Levin’s a young contingency of innovative experimentalists Hornick, and Levin are all about. Hornick’s groov- uid solo. are slowly making their mark on and shaping the fu- ing Afro-Latin feel was all the more astounding as it Mashing up styles and breaking down musi- ture of jazz music. Standing out among this myriad was comprised entirely of double stops. Levin entered cal barriers, e Seminalists demand and deserve of talent is e Seminalists, a cunningly hip quartet with a like-minded drum groove, followed soon af- attentive listening. e success of this experimental led by the nimble playing and shrewd compositional ter by a chromatic, o-kilter melody in unison from music lies predominantly with Venne’s composi- prowess of guitarist Dan Venne. Brooklyn’s cozy Venne and Walton. On a dime, a metric modulation tion gems. Di!cult to read on the page but highly Puppets Jazz Bar provided e Seminalists with a shied the entire song to a slower and even deeper, enjoyable in e Seminalists’ capable hands, these laboratory-like setting in which to test and ne-tune funkier groove above which the melody was clev- intricate tunes and their eects upon the musicians’ its percolating concepts. erly readjusted and retted. e subdivision of the approach to their improvisation are indicative of the “Bear” began with a majestic combination of beat kept changing throughout the song, constantly one thing jazz truly values and respects most — an big, robust chords from Venne, the bowed bass of creating a new basis for grooves. On a fast, swing- individual voice with something worthwhile to say. Scot Hornick, and eervescent mallet-work from ing feel, Walton wailed away, bending in and out of drummer Sam Levin. Riding the rhythm section’s notes with real emotion. Hornick and Levin must be crest, Heath Walton joined in on the tenor saxo- credited with authoritatively holding down each and Anat Fort phone to play the intricate melody. Venne’s composi- every groove and seamlessly transitioning between Birdland tional penchant for frequently changing time signa- them all. ey both displayed a remarkable ability to March 13, 2007 tures made for an exciting and rhythmically diverse abruptly change the type of energy their music was sound. Jazz musicians have long been experimenting exuding while sustaining its high level. By Dan Adler with incorporating odd times in their music and the Venne’s classical side emerged again on “11.5,” popularity of writing maze-like meter changes is at a composition that captured the transparency and Personnel: Anat Fort (Piano, Leader); Perry Robin- an all-time high. Only a handful do it with the - clarity that Venne’s classical training allows him to son (Clarinet), Ed Schuller (Bass); Roland Schneider nesse of e Seminalists, a band that swings and bring to his music and which allowed plenty of space (Drums) grooves in any fraction and achieves a striking sense for the rhythmic complexity of his ideas. A peace- of suspended time. One of the few sections of “Bear” ful, soothing energy caressed the music as Venne is special evening at Birdland was a CD re- that remained consistently in 4/4 time featured a lightly arpeggiated chords while Walton doubled the lease party for Anat Fort’s debut release on ECM. true-to-life fugue that found all four musicians in- top, melody line. Walton’s big, bold tone had plenty e new CD, “A Long Story”, features Paul Motian, tertwined in a dance of radiant melody. of juice in it for a strong solo. Levin turned o the and is comprised entirely of her original composi- snare and utilized the toms extensively for his drum tions, with one joint eort between Fort and Perry solo, capturing an earthy quality that complimented Robinson. Unfortunately, Paul Motian could not ap- Venne’s designs. pear at this live performance, but his shoes were more “Grizzle” featured more raw energy and dis- than adequately lled by Fort’s regular working trio sonance than Venne’s other compositions. Walton’s drummer, Roland Schneider. tenor sax and Venne’s guitar were by design set at Pianist Anat Fort (www.anatfort.com) was odds, resulting in a captivating friction and melodic born in Israel and began her classical music educa- tension between the two that relented only slightly tion there at the age of ve. Her early attraction to for each other’s solos and more fully as they transi- improvisation and interest in jazz ultimately led to a tioned to pre-composed interludes. A frenetic solo by summer session at the Eastman School of Music and Walton capitalized on the tune’s great energy and led enrollment in the jazz program at William Paterson perfectly into a hard-grooving nal section punctu- University. While there, she started composing and ated by Levin’s ferocious drumming. continued to perform dierent styles under the guid- An inventive and adventurous harmonic struc- ance of jazz notables Rufus Reid, Norman Simmons, ture distinguished “Reformation,” a slower tune in Harold Mabern and Vic Juris. Upon graduation, three with extra beats tacked on now and then. Like Anat moved to New York and studied classical com- Available online: www.MercyMonet.com other compositions in their repertoire, e Semi- position with Harold Seletsky and improvisation 6 May 2007 • Jazz Improv ® Magazine’s New York Jazz Guide • www.jazzimprov.com To Advertise CALL: 212.889.0853 “…finding the soul in with Paul Bley, further reinforcing her diverse musi- klezmer clarinet and some humorous quotes which each note with his cal inclinations. Anat’s 1999 debut CD containing he built to an exciting climax. Fort’s piano solo con- no-frills approach.” original compositions, “Peel”, was followed by the tinued to build on the early Keith Jarrett vibe estab- formation of the Anat Fort Trio with bassist Gary lished by the group, and she kept developing exciting Wang and drummer Roland Schneider. melodic ideas over the relatively simple harmonic ))) e room at Birdland was lled to capacity structure. e live version of this tune was even more with fans and well-wishers buzzing about until the satisfying than the much shorter version on the CD rst sounds of Birdland’s excellent Bösendorfer pia- as it gave these excellent musicians a chance to really no lled the room. e trio opened the evening with stretch out and le the audience with the feeling of a the song “Morning: Good” from the new CD. From happy ending to a long story. that rst moment on, the audience was completely si- lent, almost in a trance as the relaxing sounds of Anat Fort’s music told a long story of dreams and lullabies Mamiko Watanabe and took them on journeys to far-away deserts.