Larry Coryell - Spaces Year: 1970
Style or Subgenre: Fusion
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Guitarist Larry Coryell is on fire on this very advanced for its year fusion outing. Teams up with the ultimate fusion drummer, Billy Cobham, and amazing bassist Miroslav Vitous, the trio shred hard, but with style and lyricism, making this much more than a mere athletic exercise. Chick Corea brings his electric piano for a few tunes and Mahavishnu John McLaughlin adds a second fusion guitar for a couple of cuts, making for a nicely varied and seriously spirited set overall. This is undoubtedly essential fusion right here.
Erik Truffaz - Lune Rough Year: 2019
Style or Subgenre: Modern Jazz, Crossover Jazz, Ambient Jazz
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This is far from the farthest out jazz I will listen to, but it may be the furthest outside my wheelhouse. From the hip hop inspired beats to the ambient nonsense seemingly as unimaginative as the bland album cover, this is not my speed. Vocals appear occasionally from male soul style to female indie, the former being fully listenable but uninspiring and the latter being worthy of the "next" button. That said, there is some real creativity on this album and some songs really worth digging; it's just more the exception than the rule.
Masahiko Satoh - Holography Year: 1970
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde, Free Jazz
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Two sides of pure free improv solo piano..... and I was fully engaged throughout. Really, the ebb and flow of this music kept me captivated. I found myself having aquatic visions, as the sounds coming from Satoh's piano reminded me of turbulent waters, rhythm shifting, intensity waxing and waning, but always churning, always active, always bringing forth a random but somehow structured pulse of the planet. Things build in a sneakily harmonic way and then a great wave of melody bursts forth in a most satisfying climax. Yeah, this was a big hit with me.
Deniss Pashkevich Trio - Room Year: 2013
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde, Modern Creative
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90 minutes of live performance at Pashkevich's club in Latvia featuring all his various winds and a dynamic rhythm section. Although the overall sound can be sparse, Pashkevich's playing is smooth but expressive and bassist Edvins Ozols (playing both upright and electric) generates some real momentum alongside drummer Artis Orubs. This performance was part of a Black History Tour and the set is bookended but pieces including readings of Langston Hughes poetry by George Steele, whose speaking voice is dynamic and most attuned to both the text and the music.
Veronica Swift - Veronica Swift Year: 2023
Style or Subgenre: Vocal Jazz
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Released just this Friday, I picked Veronica Swift's self-titled release for my Saturday Night Vocals. Not being familiar with Swift, I had no idea whatsoever to expect. What I encountered amazed me. This seemingly young performer has a fantastic natural girt delivered with tremendous range. Nominally a jazz album, there is also blues, funk, classical, songbook, showtune, torch, and even punk! There is zero letdown across this crazy range. Really, I think there's nothing this artist couldn't sing and sing exceptionally well.
The opening I Am What I Am starts with an amiable, welcoming scat after which Swift settles into a musically more laid back but lyrically forceful and unapologetic verse. It would be so easy for this to be a gross mismatch or for the vocalist to settle into the wrong cliché in delivery, but she totally sells it and right from the first song, you can tell this is one talented interpreter of lyrical verse as well as nonsense syllabic memory. Later scatting drifts squarely into classical territory, and again, this should probably come off as gimmicky, but I'll be darned if it doesn't work every bit as well as before! Then for the final verse, swift brings a grand Broadway stage presence delivery and again, she nails it. Incredible.
As great as that lead off cut was, I found the second track, Closer, to be the first listen highlight of the album. Starting off as a blues-funk, it wasn't what I was looking for. But right off the bat, this thing was hot! And after that super hot funky opening, Swift launches into an equally hot scatting session. Can't say I was ever a huge scat fan, but damn, this was hot! Great sax solo to follow, then back into the funky groove with Swift's vocals setting the place on fire. Yeah, this was.... well, you know....
The following Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me heads down the delta and finds ultra heavy blues balladry that is positively incendiary. Swift brings a Janis Joplin vibe into her delivery that serves the song in astonishing fashion. Add in a scorching electric blues guitar solo that would make Buddy Guy proud and you've got another winner.
After three fire breathing cuts, we finally get a genuine ballad in The Show Must Go On. Surely now we'll find the chink in Swift's vocal armor, right? Nope. She brings a deceivingly mature element to the low and slow opening, and then seamlessly slips into a calypso without missing a beat. Flawless and exemplary.
For I'm Always Chasing Rainbows, we get a classical Liberace piano intro eventually transitioning into strings setting up an impossible task for the vocalist to follow. To her credit, Swift doesn't try to match the flourish of the intro, but wisely takes the gentle, understated route and we easily settl in right with her and the lush orchestrations. Beautiful.
In the Moonlight, based on the melody of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata finds the nexus between R&B and torch song and it turns out to be a stellar overlap, at least in Swift's hands, who give an intense and convincing performance.
Severed Heads is the first song I didn't totally love. I didn't take as well to the duet with Austin Patterson, whose voice is just no match for Swift.
For Je Veux Vivre, Swift shifts to French, and brings in the full Parisienne sound with violin and accordion, putting you right there at a sidewalk cafe in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. To be honest, this one did sound a little gimmicky, but was still a nice addition to the album.
Sticking with the European theme, Chega de Saudade is delivered in its native Portuguese and comes across as more authentic. It's not a song to wow you off the bat, but as it progresses, Swift somehow manages to gradually turn up the beauty quotient and by the end, well..... wow!
Now for the biggest surprise so far.... Keep Yourself Alive (yes the Freddie Mercury/Queen staple)! This straight ahead hard rocker subject to great bombast is instead turned into a horn filled gospel blues, and it's brilliant! But still not the biggest surprise on the album...
.... which falls to the closer, Don't Rain on My Parade. So what does one do with a Barbara Streisand standard? Take it and go full on punk, that's what! Yeah, we got a jazz singer doing a punk version of classic Streisand! And yes, it works. To a T! It probably won't sit well with traditionalists in any of those realms, but for those ready to finish with deep irreverent fun, it'll be great fun and provides the perfect bookend to an album that started off by saying "I Am What I Am"
Grady Tate - After the Long Drive Home Year: 1969
Style or Subgenre: Soul
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I inadvertently extended Saturday Night Vocals last night. I was actually in the mood for some cool/bop oriented jazz and recognizing the name Grady Tate as the drummer on many of my favorite albums ranging from Mingus to Montgomery, I figured I'd find how he does a leader. Multiple sources list After the Long Drive Home as a jazz or even specifically a hard bop album. It turns out that's just lazy reporting there. Turns out, there's no hard bop here, not even jazz of any type here. This is a down-the-middle-for-its-time soul/R&B album. Furthermore, there's really nothing engaging in the drumming here and it's all about Tate's vocals! Recipe for tremendous disappointment.
But I listened, and it turned out to be well worth the ear time. Tate's voice is wonderful; just right for this genre, and musically, it's a dandy example of the genre. The album is so in the pocket for its time and style that I had nice nostalgic feeling along with the general music appreciation. So not what I wanted, but in the end not really a disappointment. The unexpected can be fun, and as it turns out, is often welcome.
Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8 Year: 2021
Style or Subgenre: Ambient Jazz
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There was interesting bits underlying the overarching ambient atmosphere, especially in the drumming. When given some space on one cut, Nubya Garcia's tenor is also a highlight. But even with the good bits, across the length of the album, I still get some of the yawn factor that comes with ambient music for me.
James Brandon Lewis - Eye of I Year: 2023
Style or Subgenre: Avant Garde, Spiritual Jazz
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This year's release from James Brandon Lewis is a gem, but with some rough edges, and there's nothing wrong with that. Lewis is a fine sax man bringing avant hard ranging from easily digestible to genuinely challenging. There's a noticeable element of spiritual jazz in his work as well. Spiritual jazz is often associated with "far out" or forms of spirituality not normally traditional to America. Interestingly, Lewis's gospel roots shine though and when mixed with more far out spiritual jazz, make a fine blend. I found the album to start strong, then wander a bit too far afield for a couple cuts, and then finish strong with the last two cuts making for positively powerful listening. When present (two tracks) cornetist Kirk Knuffke brings wonderful additional color to the front line.
Marc Ribot - Party Intellectuals Year: 1970
Style or Subgenre: No Wave, Avant Garde
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Well, if I was looking for a path to be able to tolerate no wave "art" noise, this is probably it. There's no shortage of noise on this album, by that I mean abandonment of identifiable melody and traditional harmony, and there's all manner of distortion applied to multiple instruments. But the album has a flow, and individual songs have discernable rhythm; sometimes things even get funky. When Ribot takes his guitar out in the clear, his skill, execution, and melodic flow are nothing short of exhilarating. Gotta slog through some unwelcome ambient industrial (there's a contradiction in terms, eh?) chunk at times, but it's well worth it for the good stuff.
Larry Coryell - Buried Treasures Year: 1967
Style or Subgenre: Cool Jazz, West Coast Jazz
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This is a live date from Mexico City in 1967, and yes, there's Paul Desmond, and yes, there's a take on Take 5, which is excellent. Desmond really shines right off the bat in the opening "Mr. Broadway." Similarly, Brubeck is particularly interesting on the later "Forty Days." The real pleasant surprise, and the thing that makes this album approach the essential category is their wonderful expression of "Koto Song." I'm starting to think there's no such thing as too much Brubeck, as I'm ready to add this to my collection without reservation.
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