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Top 10 Jazz, March 2013

Top 10 Jazz Albums, March 2013

by Seth Colter Walls

Next time you read an article about the "death of jazz," or about the supposed end of the "standards tradition" in jazz, feel free to direct the writer of said piece to this month's Jazz Roundup (and playlist).

Between the new Wayne Shorter (an early candidate for Album of the Year), a blistering live box set from free-jazz pioneer Peter Brotzmann, a crisp debut from a new group led by Jason Marsalis, and a keen new cover of "No Church in the Wild," there should be a little something for everyone in the 10 releases selected for March. (This doesn't even include the new one from Nicholas Payton, which I intend to get around to next month.)

Moreover, the Duke Ellington tradition is served well in multiple ways: Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington uses "Money Jungle" to make a very contemporary political point, while the Buffalo Philharmonic take symphonic Duke to a new performance height.

For fans of folk- and/or rock-inflected improvisation, there's a new title from the leader in that field, Pat Metheny. But guitar fans will also want to be sure to check out the new one from Timucin Sahin's quintet. (Any band with Tyshawn Sorey on drums is apt to have a lot of power, as well as subtlety -- and this group has both.) Elsewhere in the realm of the avant-garde, we have a hot one from Oliver Lake, the legendary member of the World Saxophone Quartet (as well as the Black Artists Group): All Decks is a fine addition to the top tier of his late period. It has the blues, the experimental fire, and much more besides.

Add to this month's haul a key reissue from the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- the long-hard-to-find Reese and the Smooth Ones, paired with two other familiar classics -- and it's hard not to consider that the tradition seems in rather rude health. Get a taste of all of the albums from the attached playlist (if you care at all about jazz, make sure to listen to the Shorter album in its entirety). If you'd like to spend an hour being bashed around (and occasionally made to dance like mad), skip straight to the finale: a one-track, 52-minute set of Peter Brotzmann playing in a band with bassist Bill Laswell, drummer Hamid Drake and Maâllem Mokhtar Gania, who plays the guembri, a West African lute-style instrument.

Without A Net

Wayne Shorter

It's a big deal whenever the sax titan who wrote for Miles and Blakey plays some new songs and old classics with a great band. So, how good is this outing? As an acoustic cut, "Plaza Real" finds a power beyond Weather Report's fusion approach, while "Orbits" feels graver than the take on Miles Smiles. The new stuff is deep, too: "Myrrh" leaves a haunting burn, and "S.S. Golden Mean" quotes Dizzy's "Manteca" before finding its own groove. Yet the jaw-dropper is "Pegasus," an extended opus for jazz group plus wind quintet that reveals Shorter's undiminished compositional and instrumental genius.

All Decks

Oliver Lake

The veteran Black Artists Group and World Saxophone Quartet alto master reunites a trio that gelled on For a Little Dancin', and also adds Nils Wogram on trombone; the newcomer contributes the New Orleans-flavored "Listen to Your Woman" and solos memorably on Lake's "Sketch 4 Four." The title track sets the tone: A tune may start off quietly, and progress on to some spare bass or drum motifs, but before it's over, you're likely to hear some spitfire soloing grounded in the avant-garde as well as the blues. Add this concise but varied title to Lake's legacy.

Cover Art

NEXT Collective

This pickup group of individuals who lead other bands (and write original music) knows that jazz needs some new pop tunes to interpret. Thus, we get new takes on Pearl Jam's "Oceans," N.E.R.D.'s "Fly or Die" and The Throne's "No Church in the Wild." (In "Church," Christian aTunde Adjuah's trumpet takes on the Frank Ocean hook.) The idea isn't to lead listeners to the land of cheap crossover, but to update the standards tradition. Bassist Ben Williams, guitarist Matthew Stevens, and pianists Kris Bowers and Gerald Clayton help keep things sufficiently smart on this mainstream-friendly album.

Long Story Short

Peter Brotzmann

The German free-jazz icon put on the festival documented by this five-CD set. If you think that only means blowouts, think again. "Sonore," from his sax trio with Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson, has a touch of lyricism. Two groups with Chicago vibes man Jason Adasiewicz reach for dreamy intensity. A trio with Nasheet Waits and Eric Revis wants a dance riot. And Brotzmann also presents other acts: Check Japanese avant-god Keiji Haino's multi-tracked vocals workout. If you want the hard-energy stuff, go for "Hairy Bones." Snag full personnel details online and get lost in this.

Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue

Terri Lyne Carrington

As provocative as it seems for an artist to reinterpret Money Jungle -- the trio album by Ellington, Mingus and Roach -- it's very much in the jazz tradition to try, and drummer Carrington's approach finds some success. She uses the title to call out crony capitalism (with audio clips of King and Obama on the opener), and it helps that she's got the chops to move from standard swing to abstraction to pop gestures (check the R&B of "Backward Country Boy Blues"). By the album's midpoint, the concept feels a bit diffuse, but the band -- featuring Gerald Clayton and Christian McBride -- is solid.

In A World of Mallets

Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet

The drummer turned vibes-man has stirred up controversy, in very Marsalis fashion, by beefing with what he calls the "jazz nerd" tradition of our postmodern day. But thankfully, he proves a subtler musician than theoretician on this swinging and complex album. Marsalis' compositions "Ballet Class" and "Blues for the 29%ers" have enough twists to fill a professor's chalkboard, while "The Blues Can Be Abstract, Too" proves its own point -- even if Marsalis may be arguing against a straw man. (Who is saying the blues can't be abstract?) An ace band has his back, and also adds some fine originals.

Inherence

Timucin Sahin Quintet

This session, led by a Turkish guitarist who toggles back and forth between fretless and traditional axes, also finds drummer Tyshawn Sorey in fine form. Test out the title-track opener, which drifts from a dreamy main theme to a funk-influenced breakdown in the middle section. At first a playground for Sahin and Sorey (and bassist Christopher Tordini), it occasionally adds the sax and trumpet voices back, to surprising effect. The influence of Ornette Coleman looms over a few of these compositions, but the distinctness of the individual players helps the session find its own style.

A Jackson in Your House / Message to Our Folks / Reese and the Smooth Ones

Art Ensemble of Chicago

The leaders of the then-New Black Music cut 13 LPs during 1969-70, their season as the toast of France. The titles go in and out of print, so this reissue of three albums is key. The contents are mind-boggling: The title track for A Jackson in Your House starts off abstract before brewing a fine New Orleans stomp, "Get in Line" has free-bop, "Old Time Religion" updates gospel, and "Rock Out" deconstructs R&B. The long-form Reese and the Smooth Ones even has an electric guitar freak-out on Side B. Plus the band proves handy with Bird's "Dexterity." Forty years later, it all still sounds new.

Ellington: Black, Brown and Beige

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor JoAnn Falletta hereby testifies in support of Duke's contention that his music exists "beyond category." When leading the Buffalo Philharmonic through Maurice Peress' symphonic arrangements of two big Ellington pieces, she makes sure they don't forget to swing, either. In "Harlem," these players register as tougher and bluesier in this music than earlier, lead-footed symphonies. And if not as stomping as the composer's own band in "Black, Brown and Beige" (they almost trip in the finale), they do have some new things to say about its moments of dissonance and wallop. A key release.

The Orchestrion Project

Pat Metheny

After the innovations of Orchestrion -- in which "computer-operated acoustic instruments" were controlled from Metheny's axe -- he took his mechanized act out on the road, culminating in this double-live set. There's a fuller production sound, but otherwise the performances of Orchestrion's songs don't sound so very different. (Such is the drawback of being as measured a player as Metheny.) The expected rock touches are there, as are the smooth ones. But the guitarist gets a bit wild when playing Ornette Coleman's "Broadway Blues." And Metheny fans should hear both "Improvisations," too.