The Best Jazz of 2019 by Slate |
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snobb
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Posted: 05 Dec 2019 at 1:42pm |
The Best Jazz of 2019Including the new album from Joe Pesci.By Fred Kaplan It hasn’t been the most leisurely year for listening to music. Between tracking Trump for Slate’s War Stories column and writing a book, I may have missed a few albums that belong on this list. (Feel free to protest in the comments section.) That said, from what I did hear, 2019 has been a very good year for jazz records—including a couple of newly discovered gems from the vaults, several releases (a majority of the list) on very small or artist-owned labels, and one surprise that’s so jarring you might wonder if I’m joking, but I’m not. The first five albums are listed in the order of what I like best. The next five are ranked somewhat arbitrarily, reflecting the mood of the moment as much as anything; consider them tied for sixth place. 1. Paul Bley, Gary Peacock, and Paul Motian, When Will the Blues Leave
This album, struck from newly found (and professionally
recorded) tapes of a 1999 concert in Switzerland, is one of the most
engaging piano-trio albums of the past 30 years. The legendary but
rarely recorded trio—pianist Paul Bley, bassist Gary Peacock, and
drummer Paul Motian—spin through ballads, blues, and heady
improvisations with inventive elegance, stating a theme, then darting
off on separate trajectories, swirling in and out of each other’s paths,
trading off melody, harmony, and rhythm, and always winding back to the
same point, stirring emotions as much from silences or subtle rubato as
from sheets of sound. It’s seamlessly wondrous. 2. Stan Getz, Getz at the Gate
Another lost treasure, this two-disc concert, recorded at New
York’s Village Gate in 1961, finds the silky-toned tenor saxophonist
coaxed to new heights of expressive powers by a quartet that included
pianist Steve Kuhn and drummer Roy Haynes, both of whom had recently
backed John Coltrane in his transition to turbulent adventures.
Gorgeous, even breathtaking, especially the spiraling ballads. 3. Ted Nash, Somewhere Else: West Side Story Songs
This is a very cool album: the drummerless trio of saxophonist
Ted Nash, bassist Ben Allison, and guitarist Steve Cardenas, taking a
quietly disruptive amble through Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway score,
tracing crisp lines, fleet tones, and crafty interplay. Spare, lush, and
swinging in a dancing-in-your-head kind of way, it’s breezy, jaunty,
and endlessly surprising. 4. Rob Schwimmer, Heart of Hearing
I’d never heard of Rob Schwimmer till a musician friend thrust
this album into my hands, and he turns out to be a mesmerizing pianist
of astonishing drama, wit, and virtuosity. The album is a mix of
originals, classics (Chopin, Obukhov), soundtracks (the theme from Vertigo),
and a range of what he calls “Hallucinations on Popular Songs” (for
instance, “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” seguing out of “
’Round Midnight”). On one track he plays the theremin—and on another the
Haken Continuum—with an eerie magic. 5. Etienne Charles, Carnival: The Sound of a People Vol. 1
Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles won a Guggenheim
fellowship to explore the musical roots of his homeland, but this result
of his research is the opposite of dry or academic: It’s a raucous
party and drum-tight, a buoyant fusion of jazz, reggae, R&B, and
kongo—Thelonious Monk channeled through Bob Marley, and more. Charles,
still in his 20s, blows the trumpet with a gleaming verve and clarity.
His skilled band revels in colorful textures. 6. Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba, Hallowed
Pianist Michele Rosewoman has been delving into Afro-Cuban
music for more than 30 years, and her latest venture is her deepest dive
yet: a 14-piece big band, heavy on horns and percussion but not so
heavy they overwhelm the sparkling melodies, blooming horn harmonies, or
undulating rhythms. 7. Billy Lester, From Scratch
Pianist Billy Lester, 73, is one of those artists who’s almost
completely unknown but who, once you hear him, stays melded in your
mind. Like most jazz musicians, he starts out with the melody of a tune,
then takes it in unexpected directions, but Lester ambles into
uncharted alleys and wormholes while retaining an unassuming lyricism,
and that’s rare. It seems like random wandering, but it’s rooted in deep
knowledge of jazz and extensive ear-training, inspired by the
free-improvising pianist Lennie Tristano and his acolyte Sal Mosca, who
taught Lester for many years. From Scratch joins Lester to the
sort of agile, top-notch rhythm section that he’s long deserved—bassist
Rufus Reid and drummer Matt Wilson—but rarely enjoyed, and the results
are engrossing. The album is available on vinyl only, but the label,
Newvelle, offers free downloads of alternate takes, most of them as enchanting as the masters. 8. Ran Blake and Claire Ritter, Eclipse Orange
Ran Blake, 84, is another oddly compelling jazz pianist: He
can’t swing for more than a few bars, and he changes keys at random
intervals, but few artists can evoke more colors from a keyboard. He has
called himself a filmmaker without a camera, and his music casts a
cinematic trance: a narrative drive wafting out of a dream. Here he and
Claire Ritter, an accomplished pianist and former student, weave through
20 standards and originals, alternating between duets and solos, and
it’s riveting. 9. Joe Pesci, Still Singing
Here’s the surprise: Joe Pesci, jazz singer. Yes, the actor
who’s played some of Martin Scorsese’s most menacing mobsters croons a
dozen ballads and standards with flair and artistry. His voice is
strangely sweet and gruff (inspired by Little Jimmy Scott, to whom the
album is dedicated and who sings in duet on one track), but his phrasing
is sure-footed, his notes (including the off-center ones) are
pitch-perfect, and he taps into the essence of a song. He also hired
great musicians, including, on some tracks, pianist Kenny Barron,
bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Lewis Nash. This was recorded
over several years (Scott died in 2014, and three tracks were mixed by
Phil Ramone, who died in ’13); then the megalabel BMG sat on it for at
least two more years. (The CD case says 2017, though it was released in
late November of this year.) The execs are probably putting it out now
to cash in on Pesci’s comeback star turn in The Irishman. But unlike, say, Jeff Goldblum’s ivory-tinklings, this is the real thing. 10. John Zorn, Masada Book 3—The Book Beri’ah: Keter
John Zorn is a protean artist of our age: a wildly versatile
saxophonist and a celebrated composer of symphonies, concertos,
oratorios, sonatas, and jazz tunes, notably the Masada songbook, some
500 pieces, all written in the “Jewish scales”—a
major scale with the second note flat or a minor scale with the fourth
note sharp. On roughly 70 albums in the past 30 years, dozens of varied
ensembles have traversed these tunes—jazz quartets, string sextets,
electric rock bands, etc., etc.—but this one features Argentine
mezzo-soprano Sofía Rei, who also tacked on lyrics, and
guitarist-percussionist JC Maillard. Rei’s voice is pure and sensual,
with roots in Renaissance folklore, which, since moving to New York,
she’s meshed with jazz, pop, and punk. This is more lyrical than most
Zorn ventures and maybe the only Masada offshoot with Latin cadences. Edited by snobb - 05 Dec 2019 at 1:44pm |
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