Four Pianos

The beginning of 2014 has brought an incredible number of wonderful CDs to my attention so it's time to start posting about some of them. Today, four really nice piano works. 

Omar Sosa "Senses" (Ota 2014) continues a nice run of outings by the pianist on his own label, including "Calma" (Ota 2011) which I listed among my favorites of 2011; his duo with Paolo Fresu, Alma (Ota 2012, a mellow pairing of piano and trumpet sounds which paints a nice picture; and "Eggun: The Afro-Lectric Experience" (Ota Records 2013), a fine latin-tinged recording in various combinations of six players featuring Sosa on keyboards, Joo Krauson trumpet and Peter Apfelbaum on saxes; with additional support on various tracks by Lionel Louke on guitar and a number of other guitarists and percussionists. 

"Senses" is a set of 16 solo piano pieces, largely improvised. The pieces are very quiet and restful, tinged with some sadness, but more beautiful than melancholy. Sosa brings his Cuban roots into the equation in his subtle harmonies. These are peaceful meditations that will thrill you with their individual beauty. 

Continuing with meditations and impressionistic piano playing, Kaja Draksler "The Lives of Many Others (Clean Feed 2014) is a solo piano recording made at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival in 2013. The music here is more abstract than Sosa's and incorporates a broader palette of dynamics and harmonies. This 27 year old Slovenian has a discography dating to 2008 and has performed both solo and with her Acropolis Quintet, and uses both her classical and jazz training to produce some wonderfully diverse meditations that also incorporate folk melodies from her  home. In New York she studied privately with two of the best piano innovators today,  Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran. Great stuff.

The Danny Fox Trio had a great first release with "The One Constant" (Songlines 2011) and their new CD is equally good,  "Wide Eyed" (Hot Cup Records 2014). The trio is Danny Fox on piano, Chris Van Voorst Van Beest on bass, and Max Goldman on drums. This too is a set of impressionistic pieces that move modern trios into more innovative settings, using unusual rhythms and harmonies over rather nice melodies. The music is a blend of modern mainstream and chamber jazz.  The  tightness of the group and their interplay is a product of their working together since 2008 and each player has plenty of time to improvise within the structure of the 11 tunes, all by Fox. My only complaint -- As much as I like Edvard Munch I am not crazy about the cover art, but what a minor quibble for such interesting and invigorating music.

Now here's a cover I can get behind, Gerry Shatford Trio "When I Sat Down to Play the Piano" (Self Produced 2014). A Canadian pianist, Shatford is joined by Neil Swainson on bass and Terry Clarke on drums. This set is evidently an outgrowth of his masters thesis for York University in Toronto. It uses traditional jazz building blocks in unusual ways, combining the rhythms and harmonies with streams from the more modern and impressionistic jazz of chamber music and the abstract. there are blues here, some boppish pieces, and even some ragtime sprinkled around. But all of these strands are used in the service of Shatford's unique tunes. Its a high spirit CD full of very individualistic and unique melodies and one that deserves attention.

Four unique piano CDs, from the U.S., Slovenian, Cuba, and Canada. Jazz is certainly international and here are four wonderful excursions for the listener.

Six Quick Hits

Wrapping up notes on a lot of CDs that are sitting on my desk. Not included are the big releases that you will read about elsewhere.  Dave Brubeck and Tony Bennett, Joshua Redman, Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio, Michel Camilo, and Christian McBride all have CDs out or out momentarily. I have heard each and can recommend any of them.

But what of the ones that are not getting as much publicity, that are not necessarily by "name brand" musicians. Here is a small list of those that I am enjoying:

Neil Cowley Trio, "Live at Montreux 2012 (Eagle Music 2013): Live music by a really interesting modern piano trio from the U.K. All original music, modern approach, great energy. First class modern jazz.

Omar Sosa, "Eggun" (Ota Records 2013): Sosa is an outstanding pianist with a series of great CDs. This one is called the Afri-Lectric Experience, but the electronic portions are really very subtle and non-intrusive to what is a terrific piece of accoustical music. Commissioned as a tribute to "Kind of Blue" the all original music has the same quiet, mellow feeling and spirit of the original. Forget the labels and enjoy the music.

Will Calhoun, "Life in This World" (Motema 2013): Calhoun hits a home run on this CD as leader. The ecclectic Calhoun on drums is joined by a stellar cast --- Mary Cary on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Charnett Moffett on bass, Donald Harrison on saxes, Wallace Roney on trumpet are the most notable names joining in the fun. It's modern mainstream music that covers a range of sounds over several originals as well as covers of such tunes as "Naima", "Evidence" and "Love for Sale". Solid music, lots of great soloists, and several electric moments. 

Carsten Dahl, "Solo Piano: Dreamchild" (Storyville 2013): Dahl has been written about here on several occasions. He is a creative composer who has written 10 songs here called "Dreamchild #1 -#10". Each is a minature tone poem of beautiful measured lyricism. Quiet introspection. 

Justin Robinson, "In the Spur of the Moment" (WJ3 Records 2013): This is one of those CDs I bought based on the label and the contributing band members. The label WJ3 is Willie Jones' label, and Jones is an accomplished drummer who has a string of very good CDs himself. Here is plays in support of Robinson on alto sax, and is joined by Larry Willis on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass, and Roy Hargrove on trumpet. With that cast I figured this had to be good and it is. Robinson is strong on the alto on songs by Monk, Coltrane, Parker and others, and the band cooks. Great debut.

SFJazz Collective, "Wonder" the Songs of Stevie Wonder" (SFJazz 2013): The SFJazz Collective takes one composer each yeaar to study. The band members arrange one song from the artist's songbook and write their own songs in the artist's style. In the past they have studied Coltrane, Tyner, Silver, Coleman, Monk and last year Stevie Wonder. In addition to the annual CD produced already for Wonder's music, this is a set of eight of his songs from a live performance at New York University. Arrangements were by band members Miguel Zenon (alto), Stefon Harris (vibes), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Matt Penman (bass), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Mark Turner (tenor), Eric Harland (drums), and Edward Simon (piano), the eight musicians who comprise the current roster. A very accomplished little big band and another big time production.

Buckets of great new music lately, and more to come.