16 Lynne ArrialeBeing Human
Lynne Arriale; Alon Near; Lukasz Zyta
Challenge Records CR 73572 (lynnearriale.com/shop/being-human-1)

Luminous pianist, composer and arranger Lynne Arriale has graced the stages of the most prestigious temples of jazz throughout the world and with the release of her 17th recording, Arriale is joined by internationally renowned musicians, bassist Alon Near and drummer Lukasz Zyta. Ten moving and insightful original compositions are included in this jazz suite, with Arriale having taken inspiration from remarkable individuals such as environmental activist Greta Thunberg and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, as well as from positive human qualities and the variety of emotions and needs that we all share – musically and etherically eclipsing the “great lie” of human separatism.  

First up is Passion dedicated to Thurnberg. This arrangement is rife with youthful enthusiasm, tinged by the melancholy of the high emotional price that young people can pay for their dedicated, nascent mono-vision, having connected with their pure, focus-driven path early on. Written by Arialle for the Human Race, Love is stunningly beautiful, and a reminder of how unique every soul is and that the potential for illumination resides in each one of us. Arriale’s playing here embraces both the contrapuntal aspects of a classical composition, as well as a refreshing purity and simplicity. Near and Zyta are in a rarefied communicative state with Arriale, at once supportive and creative, imbuing each nuance with their individual sound and skill.

Highlights include the free Curiosity, dedicated to autistic mathematician/physicist Jacob Barnett, where universal mysteries and chaos are plumbed. The swinging Soul (dedicated to Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate) is a groovy, rhythmic trip that not only features a hard-driving four from the rhythm section, but Arriale’s dynamism and encyclopedic knowledge of the bop canon. The suite closes with a reprise of Love utilizing “voices” on the Yamaha Clavinova, which underscore faith in humanity and a mutual commitment to unity and a brighter, inclusive future.

17 Bruno Raberg 10Evolver
Bruno Raberg Tentet
OrbisMusic OM1323 (brunoraberg.com)

Music – especially the music called jazz – is always an evolutionary process. So having workshopped this music for a considerable period, its shepherd, Bruno Råberg rightfully, albeit whimsically, called its recorded iteration Evolver. Listening to it being played by the ace alliance he calls the Tentet you will be beckoned seductively by the dramatic twists and turns of each piece on this record. 

Plunge in then as if you intended to discover the secrets of the source of the music, as if it were the water of life to its composer. The technical aspects of this music – arranged for ten performers who read exceedingly well – is one way to regard the music of Evolver with its six individual pieces and the final four-part work, The Echos Suite. However, penetrating the skin of the music to mine its secrets is more spiritual, shamanic and ephemeral.

In ephemeral terms the wellspring for Råberg’s compositions are perceived as shamanic affirmations translated into musical synchronicities. The melodies, harmonies and rhythms are signs he is doing precisely the right thing at the right time. This is how his labyrinthine melodies flow into harmonious tributaries and eloquent and complex rhythmic variations. 

Thus, Råberg marshals his musicians through a masterful expansive musical odyssey; Greek myths (Peripeteia, Erbus and The Echos Suite), the Swedish countryside (Stilytje) and with Mode Natakapriya, through the diabolical complexities of the South Indian music tradition.

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18 Jack WalrathLive at Smalls
Jack Walrath; Abraham Burton; George Burton; Boris Kozlov; Donald Edwards
Cellar Music CMSLF008 (jackwalrath.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-smalls)

Devotees of the titan of music and musical successor to Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, will remember trumpeter Jack Walrath from Me Myself an Eye (Atlantic, 1979), from the final era of Mingus’ epic oeuvre. That album began with Three Worlds of Drums, the bassist’s composition for large ensemble with two bassists and three drummers. Why remember Walrath? It was the trumpeter who gave wings to Mingus’ idea for the work, which the bassist “…noodled into a tape recorder,” said Walrath.  

Many years after that epic recording, a wizened Walrath made what I believed to be his finest recording. Invasion of the Booty Shakers (Savant, 2002), with the brilliant vocal gymnast, Miles Griffith. That recording began with Walrath’s iconic piece, Black Bats and Poles, a work that graced Mingus’ album Changes Vol. Two (Atlantic, 1974). Having his song immortalised on a Mingus album says a lot about Walrath, the trumpeter. Mingus didn’t simply “pick” trumpeters, he bonded with the best. (Remember Johnny Coles, and the great Clarence Shaw?)

Like those men, Walrath is an artist of the first order, a master of his instrument. He shows us just that on this brilliant recording Live at Smalls. He is a player of remarkable virtuosity and expressive élan. He announces his compositional provenance especially on the erudite Grandpa Moses, and the brooding Moods for Muhal. Saxophonist Abraham Burton, pianist George Burton, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Donald Edwards interpret Walrath’s compositions with idiomatic brilliance.

Earlier this year, Canada’s newspaper of record, the Globe & Mail, took a full two weeks to publish a story on the death at 100 of Phil Nimmons, arguably Canada’s dean of modern jazz. Media priorities differ, although reporting on the demise of pop music performers seems to happen almost immediately, but in a way this reflects the perception of jazz as a young person’s art. That’s about as bogus as any other musical cliché, and right now there are numerous improvising musicians creating memorable sounds in their late 70s and 80s.

01 Two TriosTake Argentinian-American clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio, 82 for instance. An academic dealing with architecture and art history, he played improvised music at the same time and has intensified his musical interests since he stopped teaching. Two Trios (ESP 5047 espdisk.com/5047) involves live sessions featuring the clarinetist with either cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and vibraphonist Carrie Biolo or contralto clarinetist Iván Barenboim and cellist Nicholas Jozwiak. In sync chamber improv in both cases, the first finds the vibist alternating between front line shimmers and rhythmic thumps as Lonberg-Holm sharpens the program with string slices and stops while Gregorio elaborates themes with reed glissandi, flutters and chalumeau register lowing. Although most tracks are almost lyrical, with an emphasis on harmony, others like Degrees of Iconicity and Improvisation toughen the program with the equivalent of bell-ringing motifs from Biolo, sul ponticello emphasis from the cellist and Gregorio’s timbres fluctuating from andante to presto as he squeals split tones upwards. Even more energized, the second trio set uses contralto clarinet tones as a huffing ostinato mixed with string strums for bouncing expositions as Gregorio distills aggressive or pastoral trills from his horn, interjecting vibrations at many speeds. Still like the session with the other trio, a track like Out of the Other Notes is an interlude confirming that intense free music can also be well-balanced, moderated and linear. 

02 Cerntral ParkFull time musicians and early members of Chicago’s AACM, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist/organist Amina Claudine Myers, both 82, combine to celebrate the grandeur of New York’s Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens (Red Hook Records RH 1005 redhookrecords.com/rh1005). A seven-part suite, with six tracks composed by Smith and one by Myers, the mood throughout is moderate, unhurried and precise as well as discriminating in its depiction. With the pianist usually concentrating on quiet plinking and expressive cadenzas, the park’s spaciousness is reflected in Smith’s sophisticated storytelling. Squeezing out a tapestry of perfectly rounded notes, his portamento is pensive and passionate in equal measure. Jubilation is most obvious on a track like Central Park at Sunset when he spreads grace notes all over the exposition, with the subsequent descending tones cushioned by darkened soundboard rumbles and a hint of gospel piano. Myers’ composition When Was is initially recital-like formal, but loosens up with a profusion of curvaceous tones at elevated pitches and by the end is the closest to unmetered free music on the disc. Smith’s mournful didacticism isn’t just obvious on a brief track matching his Harmon-muted flutters with organ burbles attached to faint ecclesiastical suggestions, but at greater length on Albert Ayler, a meditation in light. Named for the late saxophonist who lived near Central Park’s northern boundary, Smith’s half-valve smears and slurs in this threnody turn to defiant yet graceful trills at the end. Beside him Myers’ thick chording likewise slides into gentleness by the conclusion.

03 GiftThere was nothing gentle or melancholy about the live meeting between British saxophonist Evan Parker, 80, and members of the French Marteau Rouge trio on Gift (FOU Records FR-CD 51 fourecords.com/FR-CD51). A self-contained unit that boomerangs among tough improv, rock and electronics, guitarist Jean-François Pauvros, drummer Makoto Sato and synthesizer player Jean-Marc Foussat bring a furious energy to their playing. Finding a prominent place for himself among Pavros’ twangs, frail and arco string bowing expressions, Sato’s steady beat and Foussat’s processed drones and field recorded samples doesn’t faze the saxophonist who has faced down big bands and electric-acoustic ensembles with the same aplomb. He outputs what could be termed anthracite lyricism at points, his usual strategy, especially on Into The Deep, the more than 34-minute centrepiece. Building on earlier synthesized, organ-like thrusts, constant string strums and drum rumbles, Parker alternately soars over the interface with whistling timbral variations or snorts and snarls that whir as much as programmed voltage, as vibrating reed pressure finds a place beside the guitarist’s intense flanges and twangs. In contrast though, while the saxist fragments textures into slurps and split tones – the better to challenge Sato’s drum clunks and clips and Foussat’s yodels and yells produced by both his voice and machine programming – Parker’s straight-ahead tone touches on melody. Going his own way slowly and logically, reed timbres are partially affirmed by the others so that there’s a song-like as well as a sinewy essence to the final improvisation.

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04 MusingsAnother venerable musician, whose most recent CD is almost completely lyrical is upstate New York’s Joe McPhee, 83. He is someone who has proven his prowess on the soprano and tenor saxophones and pocket trumpet over the years in settings ranging from large ensembles to solo. Sometimes he also raps or recites poetry and on Musings of a Bahamian Son (Corbett vs Dempsey CvD CD 109 corbettvsdempsey.com/records) he verbalizes 28 of these lyrics as well as playing soprano saxophone on nine instrumental interludes backed by Ken Vandermark’s clarinet or bass clarinet. The disc ends with a profound free-form duet between McPhee and Vandermark and each interlude is distinctive, expressing moods ranging from a tough march tempo to poetic harmonies with Vandermark’s spiky snorts and caustic slurs nicely contrasting with McPhee’s vibrating trills and horizontal connections. Although a vocalized piece like The Grand Marquis with its couplet about “wearing the blues like a Mona Lisa smile” sets up the subsequent bluesy improvisation, most tracks focus on the prose and poetry. The recitations mix absurdist humor (The Last Of The Late Great Finger-Wigglers); Edward Lear-like imagery (The Ship With Marigold Sails); sardonic couplets that harangue divisive politicians and fret about climate change; and even attack AI (“music comes from people not tape machines,” he states on Party Lights). McPhee’s musical experience means that his verses about jazz greats also go way beyond name checking. Tell Me How Long Has Trane Been Gone (for James Baldwin and John Coltrane) for instance cannily blends song titles and book titles to make its point, while The Loneliest Woman (for Ornette Coleman) is turned into a plaint for lost love with Lady Marmalade’s choruses sung pointedly among the melody. Musings of a Bahamian Son is no introduction for those who have never experienced McPhee’s music – there are literally about 100 discs on which to hear that – but it will fascinate both those who have followed his career so far as well as poetry fans. 

05 BrewOldest of these improv masters is American bassist Reggie Workman, 87, best-known for his 1960s tenures in John Coltrane’s quartet and the Jazz Messengers. But like the others cited here he’s still accepting new challenges more than a half century later. Heat/Between Reflections (Clean Feed CF 642 CD cleanfeed-records.com/product/heat-1998-99-between-reflections-2019-2cd-set) is a two-CD set of the Brew trio, consisting of the bassist, percussionist Gerry Hemingway and koto player Miya Masaoka, both of whom are two decades younger than Workman. Although the admixture may seem odd, there’s no fissure. As a matter of fact, when the others add implements like a monochord, vibes and electronics to their playing, Workman expands the textures on From Above and Below for example by using his expertise playing musical saw to answer the koto’s reflective patterns and drum rattles before reverting to a powerful bass line. Although it’s his responsive, but understated pulse that keeps the tunes horizontal, his strings can also create high-pitched violin-like sounds to top off Masaoka’s multi-string strums (on Morning) or complement with mid-range pops and scrapes from high-register koto twangs to harp like glissandi (on Between Reflections). Additionally Hemingway’s vibraphone sustain on One for Walt Dickerson is given more of a ripened sound when the bassist surrounds it with low-pitched arco swells. Overall, Workman’s positioned throbs are so forceful that the pace and direction of tracks never deviate even on those featuring jagged koto-string stabs, lug-loosening and cymbal rubbing beats and additional whistles and hisses from electronic programming.

Like politicians, not all musicians ripen and mature with advancing age. However, the musicians here, in their late seventies and eighties certainly make the case for lifetime inspiration and performance. 

01 Paul Novotny Robi BotosSummertime in Leith – In Concert at the Historic Leith Church
Paul Novotny; Robi Botos
Triplet Records TR10026-ATMOS (tripletrecords.com)

When two of Canada’s finest, most skilled and internationally acclaimed jazz musicians come together in a performance of phenomenal symbiosis, it is an occasion worthy of celebration. As the title of this fine recording would suggest, bassist/producer Paul Novotny and pianist (and Oscar Peterson protégé) Robi Botos graced the stage of the Historic Leith Church in Annan, Ontario on Georgian Bay and performed much loved compositions for an enraptured audience. With exquisite production, all of the electricity and spontaneity of the live event has been captured here. 

Six dynamic tracks are included in the recording – each one a rare jewel. Appropriately Gershwin’s Summertime opens the programme. The arrangement begins with a deep, languid bass pizzicato, which intertwines with diaphanous upper register piano keys as the tune morphs into a sensual, timeless journey. Novotny’s solo is lyrical, facile and loaded with emotional colours, and Botos answers with deeply rhythmic ideas, never overplaying.

A stand-out is the duo’s take on Wheatland from Peterson’s Canadiana Suite. Novotny and Botos capture the majesty of central Canada, grooving à la the iconic Peterson and yet putting their own, contemporary and harmonically complex stamp on it. Novotny uses the full scope of his bass to create fluid, gravitas-laden tones that are imbued with a profound sense of rhythm and joy, and Botos is just simply breathtaking.  

Another highlight is The Flick which comes from Earl VanDyke (Motown’s “Soul Brothers”). This track is pure adrenaline, excitement and elation, with Novotny relentlessly laying it down while Botos fearlessly dives deep into blues and American soul. On this brilliant and well-produced project, the pair have created not only an auditory delight, but healing music for our very souls. Bravo!

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02 Andrea SupersteinOh Mother
Andrea Superstein
Cellar Music CMR082823 (cellarlive.com)

Despite often deifying our mothers, as men we tend to allow ourselves to – wittingly or unwittingly – either ignore motherhood or push it so far into the background as to forget it might even be “a thing.” On her wonderfully lyrical jazz recording Oh Mother, and after sharing her experiences as a mother of course, Andrea Superstein reminds us of both the potent struggles and unfettered joys of motherhood.

The album comprises mostly originals, except for Everywhere by Christine McVie, May You by Ayelet Rose Gottlieb and So In Love by Cole Porter. The apogee of this fine record is, however, Superstein’s The Heart Inside, with its long, sculpted lines, arranged by Superstein and Elizabeth Shepherd, delivered with uncommon grace and beauty by Superstein. Here, as elsewhere, her vocals are light, plaintive and display a colourful, many-splendored sonority. 

Superstein’s introspective vocal exhortations are boosted by inspirational instrumentation that lift the songs into a higher realm. Best of all these are honest sounds of love, joy, and serenity – all of which are de rigueur the province of a woman who has made a life in which art and parenthood are aglow with success and pride.

The performers inhabit the songs with idiomatic allure, and a children’s choir adds charming recitations which are spliced into Superstein’s memorable vocals. This is a musical treat not simply for mothers – young or old – but for lovers of fine vocal music everywhere.

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03 Daniel JankeAvailable Light
Daniel Janke Winter Trio
Chronograph Records CR-104 (danieljanke.com)

Daniel Janke has had a varied career over several decades as pianist, composer, filmmaker and more. He is based in the Yukon where you might see him composing for and conducting the Problematic Orchestra, recording in his studio, playing jazz in a local lounge or directing a film. But a month later he could be in Berlin as the Musical Director for a Bowie retrospective, performing at a new music festival in Kitchener, Ontario or taking part in a music residency in France, which is where he met Basile Rahola (bass) and Ariel Tessier (drums). 

Available Light is his second album using the name Winter Trio and it contains original and traditional pieces emphasizing Janke’s gospel roots. For example, the final song Gospel for Betty is a gorgeously deliberate piece named for his mother who sang gospel songs. The traditional Blessed Assurance receives a beautiful treatment beginning with a sparsely improvised solo piano building into the full trio and then lightens into a modestly stated melody. Available Light is an elegant and subtle album that contains jazz and new music sophistication while never straying too far from its gospel fundamentals.

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