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Top 10 Jazz, Feb. 2013

Top 10 Jazz Albums, February 2012

by Seth Colter Walls

A new archival release from a "lost" Miles Davis group and the latest album by Ingrid Laubrock's adventurous quintet mix it up with some below-the-radar late-2012 hits in our latest Jazz Roundup.

You may think you know what Miles Davis sounded like alongside Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette and Wayne Shorter -- after all, that core group (along with a few other folks) made Bitches Brew. But the album was famously futzed-with in the studio, both by producer Teo Macero and Miles himself (who was getting into tape effects, in addition to electric amplification). The latest edition of Sony's "Bootleg Series" highlighting various Davis bands through the years finds Miles just before he went electric with that group. It's a kick to hear "Spanish Key" and "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" as the experimental hard-bop pieces (with Corea's keyboards) that they apparently originally were.

Here in 2013, though, there's no shortage of great new jazz. Most exciting for me was the return of Anti-House, the quintet of German saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock: her emerging partnership with Mary Halvorson's guitar keeps getting better, and the two will likely appear on some more records yet to be released in 2013.

For the rest of this month's lineup, I spent time catching up with albums released late in 2012. Titles that come out in the fourth quarter of a calendar year are doomed to be under-represented in year-end summations, but this past winter brought us an especially hot oversight. Only two jazz critics in our Rhapsody poll voted for Rafiq Bhatia, but if the young guitarist's full-length debut, Yes It Will, had come out even a month earlier, I suspect that would have changed. No matter: We can celebrate the album's tricky rhythms and math-rock energy -- as well as Rhapsody poll-victor Vijay Iyer's gala guest appearances -- right now.

We can also herald the top Latin album in our poll, Bobby Sanabria's Multiverse, as well as the quiet but consistent quality of albums put out on the Criss Cross label. From Afro-Cuban to post-rock -- with plenty of swing in between -- this month's picks should keep you engaged until the first "big event" jazz album of the year: the Wayne Shorter album that comes out in early February and has one really satisfying surprise on it. Stay tuned.

Yes It Will

Rafiq Bhatia

Wooly jazz lines meet math-rock energy and classical polish in this guitarist's amazing first full-length, produced by one of Bjork's old mixing hands. The rhythm section is virtuosic, and Jeremy Viner's woodwind playing enlivens yet another ace band. While Vijay Iyer is often the younger guy paying tribute to jazz elders, on opener "Background Music" -- with a theme that brings the riffage -- the pianist sits in to tip his hat to a junior. Avant-classical musicians also guest. But the main attraction is Bhatia's playing: busy, no doubt, but not cluttered. And he closes with a Sam Cooke cover.

Strata EP

Rafiq Bhatia

Strata is the EP that preceded guitarist Bhatia's major album statement, Yes It Will -- but its value goes beyond serving as a table-setter. "Sunshower" and "Greenhouse" are both less manic than the centerpieces of the full-length -- and so the extent to which they work as lush soundscapes only hints at an even bigger future for this band, beyond its chops-based reputation. High Priest's vocal on "Statements" is OK, while the new arrangement of Flying Lotus' "Pickled!" is more successful. These tunes came out first, but they go down great as "bonus tracks" after a full listen to Yes It Will.

Strong Place

Ingrid Laubrock Anti House

The German saxophonist, now based in Brooklyn, reunites her great East Coast quintet here. The first tracks flirt with modern classical textures, but aren't without moments of inspired soloing (Mary Halvorson's guitar on the opener; the leader on "Der Deichgraf"). But some shorter pieces prove the real winners. "From Farm Girl to Fabulous, Vol. 1" has more than a great title: It moves from a free-improv section to a grooving one, and finishes with a great, written outro -- in under six minutes. And the folk abstractions of "Cup in a Teastorm (for Henry Threadgill)" do its dedicatee justice.

Today's Opinion

Yosvany Terry

Criss Cross must be the most slept-on label in jazz. They don't have a publicity team; they just focus on documenting the cream of the mainstream crop. This 2012 album from alto player Yosvany Terry mixes post-bop and the Afro-Cuban tradition with great style. Opener "Summer Relief," with its chanting vocals and burning ensemble play, sets the bar for excitement rather high. Not all the other tracks can meet it at that level, but the throwback feel of "Inner Speech" and the slow-but-sure development of the mercurial "Contrapuntistico" prove just as intriguing.

Multiverse

Bobby Sanabria & Acension!

This veteran percussionist did more than anyone to convince the Grammys to reverse their (detestable) plan to strike Latin Jazz as a category. And so these 10 cuts -- ranging from band-member originals to recastings of Ellington to a burning version of The French Connection theme (really) -- are a fitting follow-up to Sanabria's activism. His band is powerful, with top honors going to Jeff Lederer's tenor sax solo in "Cachita." And while the jazz history rap-invocation on the last track may not be to your taste (sometimes activism can't be stylish), everything else here is incontestably hip.

A Voice Trough The Door

Conrad Herwig

Herwig has chops on his trombone -- and with his composing pen. As a longtime fixture and musical director of the legacy Mingus Big Band, he also knows how to steer an ensemble. Ralph Bowen's tenor work is solid throughout, but note how when a (fine) Herwig solo starts off a tune, Bowen's subsequent improvisation seems kicked into some higher gear (as on the cooking blues of "The Sun Within"). The combination of original tunes (Herwig wrote everything here, aside from the standard "All or Nothing at All") and a great band makes for an album that shouldn't be ignored.

Today is Tomorrow

Dayna Stephens

This collection -- a Criss Cross label debut from tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens -- is as crisp as most releases on the imprint, emphasizing as it does standard swing rhythm and harmonies derived from blues and post-bop languages. The album's covers are fine (particularly the guitar on "Black Narcissus"), but its originals are even more striking: The rhythm switches in "Kwooked Stweet," composed by the leader, are as smart as his soloing. This album, unjustly overlooked in 2012, offers useful pushback to the idea that sophisticated writing and bluesy playing need be at odds.

Open Circuit

9Volt

As a look at the players' respective biographies might indicate, this is jazz at the crossroads of post-rock, classical minimalism and free improvisation. "3 and 2" starts out spacey, with Rick Parker's trombone and Eyal Moaz's guitar both the beneficiaries of electronic modification and effects geekery; but after guest saxophonist Tim Berne's solo, the tune hurtles into a driving, almost prog-metal closing section. If the compositional transitions aren't always faultless, the overall effect remains highly enjoyable -- thanks in no small part to Yonadav Halevy's funk-goes-free drumming.

World Without Form

Nat Birchall

If you've spent much time with Coltrane's classic quartet, it won't take you long to locate the North Star in Birchall's aesthetic sky. His opening tenor strains are pure Crescent-era 'Trane, so much so that it's not even a backhanded compliment to note that Birchall keeps his project alive under the weight of such a heavy influence. The work on vibes by Corey Mwamba helps give the project some needed distinctness (check his cool-factor in the theme to "The Black Ark"). And the lighter-touch stuff, like the ballad "Dream of Eden," works, if only for playing against the weightier material.