clxxxvii. MUSIC MAN, THE (soundtrack)
from The Music Man.
Meredith Willson (1902-1984) -- perhaps Iowa's most famous resident -- was a very fine flautist (played under both Sousa and Toscanini!) ...
He worked in radio, composed two symphonies and scored Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), among other things, before writing this most famous of Broadway scores ...
**
Iowa Stubborn shows Willson's great skill with part-writing as well as his very clever way with lyrics:
clxxxvi. COREA, Chick (1941-2021)
from The Leprechaun.
Chick alternates between the crystaline sound of the acoustic piano with the sharp-edged synth that rises to the top of the ensemble ...
... the harmonic territory is vast and ever-expanding. And Gadd keeps the whole thing glued together with his grounding feels ...
Moran (Chick's wife) comes in at the end like an angel from heaven, floating above the blessed little people busy making great music!
clxxxv. BENEDIKT JAHNEL TRIO
Mirrors (2017)
BJ, piano
Antonio Miguel, bass
Owen Howard, drums
(9:31)
from The Invariant.
Invariant -- meaning the trio has been playing together for over a decade.
Jahnel (b. 1980) is one of those human beings who shames the rest of us mere mortals ...
Besides being a fantastic, unimaginably talented pianist and composer, get this:
He got a PhD in mathematical physics in 2014 at Ruhr University Bochum. Since 2015 he has been a researcher at the Weierstrass Institute Berlin. His main research interests are Gibbs measures and phase transitions, for example in connection with Bose-Einstein condensation, interacting particle systems with applications in the analysis of virus spreading in random graphs, as well as mobile and ad hoc networks. His book "Probabilistic Methods in Telecommunications" which he wrote together with Wolfgang König, was published in 2020.
Perhaps he performs brain surgery on his days off.
**
Jahnel starts off with a bunch of gorgeous block chords of varying intensity, is invisibly joined by a telepathic Miguel, and finally Howard -- who kicks off a rhythm in SEVEN.
Things move along with jerky smoothness ... ECM music at the highest level. Musical communication on a fundamental, germinal plateau.
Rarely will you hear the SEVEN meter played with such ease and grace. These dudes breathe in unison.
Miguel solos ... the transcendent head returns and out.
clxxxiv. VIRELLES, David (1983- )
from Gnosis.
Three tracks on this release are even shorter -- but this is how the Cuban-born Virelles makes his music. He grew up in a musical family (father: singer-songwriter; mother: flautist with the Santiago de Cuba Symphony) and studied with Henry Threadgill.
"several familes function within one unit: this dynamic symbolizes multicultural interaction."
Whatever Diaz is saying is definitely integral with the rest of the sound.
clxxxiii. SHINYA FUKUMORI TRIO
No Goodbye (2018)
SF, drums
Matthieu Bordenave, tenor saxophone
Walter Lang, piano
(4:58)
from For 2 Akis.
Aki Kaurismäki? A great filmmaker. Wonder who #2 is.
**
Fukumori (b. 1984) studied at Berklee before returning to Europe to record this debut album.
The bassless trio has a magnificent resonance. This tune -- by pianist Lang -- is at first just Lang, then Bordernave's breathy sax, and finally Fukumori joins in.
The changes sound like an old standard, but there's nothing old or trite in this trio's imagination.
About a minute before the tune ends, everyone drops out but Lang.
Beautiful music. And more intriguing cover art.
clxxxii. ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO
from The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles.
"Marking both the end of their relationship with ECM and the beginning of a more streamlined stretch of music making. The band would cut back on their once predominant, free-form explorations to make room for more bebop and crossover material." [Stephen Cook/AllMusic]
"Nothing so much as the atrophy of a once-radical band." [The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD]
**
Yeah, well screw you, too!
God forbid, a band should change its direction.
**
This 21-CD set contains all of the Ensemble's work with ECM plus the individual musician's later recordings with various groups of ever-changing talent. A stunning, gorgeous release.
**
Bowie improvises over a steady, repeating beat. Eventually a written riff pops up, and -- hell yes! -- it's funky!
clxxxi. GRENADIER, Larry (1966- )
from The Gleaners.
N-Z A-HA / Take On Me / ccclxx ABERCROMBIE, John / Timeless / xxiii ABERCROMBIE, John / JOHNSON, Marc / ERSKINE, Peter / Light Beam / cxlix ...
