{"id":3533,"date":"2014-02-26T15:07:34","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T15:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3533"},"modified":"2014-02-26T15:07:34","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T15:07:34","slug":"now-playing-new-forthcoming-cds-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/26\/now-playing-new-forthcoming-cds-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Playing (new & forthcoming CDs)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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photo by Joshua Blumenfeld<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matthew Shipp<\/strong> Trio<\/strong> Root of Things<\/em> (Relative Pitch, March 18): Here\u2019s what I wrote about pianist Matthew Shipp in a 2010 Wall Street Journal piece<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cShipp’s style knows no single pattern\u2026. Even on his earliest recordings, some 20 years ago\u2014specifically those in a quartet led by the powerhouse saxophonist David S. Ware\u2014Shipp stirred up fervent rhythmic propulsion and wove fresh, web-like harmonic patterns. His playing sounded new then, and does still.\u201d\u00a0Update: Still does. The hypnotic beauty of his 2013 CD, \u201cPiano Sutras\u201d (Thirsty Ear), his seventh solo disc, argued for him entering the studio by himself every time. And yet this new CD by Shipp\u2019s trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey builds on that group\u2019s well-established rapport. It showcases in a different way than the solo format the elegant flow, the subtle shifts of mood and time, and the often mysterious glow that define Shipp\u2019s pianism, which by now stands as both emblematic and singular in terms of what modern jazz can be.<\/p>\n

Roy Nathanson & Sotto Voce<\/strong> Complicated Day<\/em> (Enja\/Yellowbird, April 8): Seems that Nathanson has changed the title of this CD from \u201cThe Nettle Tree\u201d in the months since we did an interview<\/a> about the project.\u00a0But the tune of that name, drawn from a poem by Nathanson\u2019s friend and fellow poet, Gerald Stern, is among the most gripping tracks here. There\u2019s no one like Nathanson that I know of, whose musicianship (as a saxophonist and bandleader) neither overshadows nor trails his talent as a poet and conceptualist. And there\u2019s nothing like his drummerless Sotto Voce band, anchored by beatboxer Napoleon Maddox,\u00a0and, for this CD, augmented by Jerome Harris on guitar and banjolin (a cross between a banjo and mandolin). When we spoke last year, Nathanson told me that he thought this CD marked \u201cthe closest I\u2019ve come to making the songs and song structures into their own actual poems.\u201d Good as Nathanson\u2019s pure creations are here\u2014his lyrics are satisfying reads without the music\u2014I keep returning to his remake of the 1972 Johnny Nash hit \u201cI Can See Clearly Now\u201d\u2014a song I thought I’d heard covered too many times until I listened to this Afro-Latinized version, arranged by bassist Tim Kiah and sung with purity of tone and sincerity of heart by Nathanson\u2019s son, Gabriel, who also plays trumpet on the track.<\/p>\n

Erik Friedlander<\/strong> Nighthawks <\/em>(Skipstone, May 20): I met John Zorn for an interview (in connection with his coming four-night spectacular at Australia\u2019s Adelaide Festival) just as he was finishing up lunch with his longtime collaborators, bassist Greg Cohen and cellist Erik Friedlander. The last time I heard Friedlander play, he was sitting between the colossal winged and human-headed lion and bull, each wearing horns of divinity, that guard the main audience hall of the ninth-century B.C. Assyrian palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, of northern Mesopotamia, within Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s Raymond and Beverly Sackler Gallery for Assyrian Art. (Part of an all-day celebration<\/a> of Zorn\u2019s music.) There, the sometime pleading microtones of \u201cVolac,\u201d from Zorn\u2019s \u201cBook of Angels,\u201d as voiced by Friedlander, seemed an extension of the cuneiform inscriptions that line the gallery\u2019s walls. His magnificent playing and versatility in projects led by Zorn and others sometimes make me forget what a compelling composer and leader Friedlander is. This new CD is the latest from his Bonebridge Quartet, which includes the members of his former trio, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Michael Sarin, along with Doug Wamble on slide guitar. The music blends the twang and energy of Southern rock with the edge and ambition of downtown Manhattan (along with other influences) to achieve something we might call \u201cAmericana,\u201d in the way that term refers to Bill Frisell\u2019s sound\u2014cousin to real roots music of various lineages, yet a wholly imagined space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Shipp Trio Root of Things (Relative Pitch, March 18): Here\u2019s what I wrote about pianist Matthew Shipp in a 2010 Wall Street Journal piece:\u00a0\u201cShipp’s style knows no single pattern\u2026. Even on his earliest recordings, some 20 years ago\u2014specifically those in a quartet led by the powerhouse saxophonist David S. Ware\u2014Shipp stirred up fervent rhythmic … <\/p>\n

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