Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i JazzTimes

Devise an infectious, mostly instrumental sound incorporating jazz and other styles, played by an oversized but agile ensemble often numbering nearly a dozen accomplished players. Collaborate on critically acclaimed recordings with guest singers, lately including a revered folk-rocker who played Woodstock. Tour relentlessly all over the world, generating wild enthusiasm at clubs, concert halls and festivals. Amass a loyal cult following that threatens to explode into something even larger. Pick up several Grammy Awards, including a freshly minted one for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (for Culcha Vulcha). What else is on Snarky Puppy’s to-do list? How about launching an ambitious fest of its own, where the group headlines three consecutive nights and provides a showcase for acts featuring the band’s revolving cast of musicians and other high-caliber artists, representing a…

The booklet for Born in an Urban Ruin, the more recently recorded of John Lindberg’s two concurrent, self-produced releases on Clean Feed, includes a photo of the bassist-composer taken in November 2015. He stands in front of a graffitied wall, on a crumbling walkway that overlooks an asphalt space, once a parking lot, now littered with debris. It used to be the entrance of the Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, where he was born in 1959. In the album’s liner notes, Lindberg testifies: “Creative resurrection arises from the ruins, and this album is birthed from a distinctly post-industrial rust belt aesthetic, which is within every note and sound on this record. It’s survival, it’s endurance, it’s the spirit emerging forever triumphant.” These days Lindberg lives in Battle Creek, Mich., a metropolis of…

Zildjian K Custom Special Dry Cymbals Jazz drumming in 2017 means a far wider tonal range than it did a half-century ago. With so much funk, electronica, rock and more finding its way into jazz’s rhythmic language, drummers should have access to a dry, trashy sound from a lightweight cymbal with a quick attack: Enter Zildjian’s new, 16-model K Custom Special Dry Collection, which also boasts the junkyard look that is all the rage. Models include crashes, rides, trash-crashes, hi-hats, a splash and an FX hi-hat top. zildjian.com The Conga and Bongo Drum in Jazz If often seems like there are more instructional books on jazz guitar than there are jazz guitarists—and the same goes for sax, trumpet, drums and piano. But the rich tradition of Afro-Cuban hand percussion? Not…

“AND NOW WE’RE GOING TO PLAY SOMETHING BY A GREAT JAZZ ARTIST—FRANKIE AVALON.” The audience in the upstairs room of the James Street Gastropub, on Pittsburgh’s North Side, laughs easily at Richie Cole’s introduction. His Pittsburgh Alto Madness Orchestra—an octet with alto and tenor saxophones, trumpet, trombone and a four-piece rhythm section—launches into an intro that sounds undeniably like “Poinciana.” But just beyond the opening section, sure enough, they dig into a bossa-nova revision of “Venus,” the song Avalon immortalized in 1959. Cole wasn’t kidding. Furthermore, this isn’t just a novelty number or a crossover attempt. It swings with utmost sincerity, making cynics in the audience appreciate the melodic potential of the wistful song. Cole has a knack for putting a shine on music that might be overlooked otherwise. From…

When bassists become bandleaders, they must choose: How much should they hang back in their familiar role as part of the rhythm section and how much should they step forward in a more assertive role? As Linda May Han Oh began work on her fourth album as a bandleader, Walk Against Wind (Biophilia), the decision was especially tough because she’s so good at both tasks. Playing behind saxophonist Joe Lovano, trumpeter Dave Douglas or clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen, for example, she bolsters the bottom end with muscular parts that resemble compositional lines while always staying in the pocket. But when those leaders nod to her for a solo, she doesn’t make the mistake of so many bassists who merely play their supporting patterns faster and louder. Instead, Oh shifts…

Larry Coryell, the pioneering jazz-rock guitarist whose Eleventh House group helped define the fusion era, died of heart failure in New York City on Feb. 19, very shortly before this issue went to press. The previous month, JT contributing photographer Ken Franckling had shot a performance by Coryell and fellow guitarists Nate Najar and Russell Malone, in Venice, Fla., and those images quickly took on a sad and special meaning as we put the finishing touches on the magazine and made room for Coryell’s obituary. A wondrously versatile musician and an unflagging performer and recording artist, Coryell’s passing was unexpected; the 73-year-old had just wrapped a weekend of trio gigs when he passed, and was anticipating the release of a new Eleventh House album and tour. “Coryell was in fine…

Musicians don’t often throw around terms like “business model” when explaining their approach to recording, but the folks who comprise the Los Angeles collective the West Coast Get Down don’t do much of anything in the usual way. The music on Uprising (World Galaxy/Alpha Pup), the new release from upright bassist, vocalist and composer Miles Mosley, was all cut during the same monthlong series of sessions in 2011 that produced saxophonist Kamasi Washington’s three-disc breakthrough, The Epic. (Since that project’s release, Mosley has raised his profile on the road with Washington, where his combustible arco solos, doused in electronic effects, can stop the show.) With roughly 170 tracks laid down by the Get Down musicians in total, there’s still plenty in the can: Mosley himself has two more albums’ worth…

For 17 years and counting, bassist and composer Tarus Mateen has anchored Jason Moran’s acclaimed trio, the Bandwagon. And while Mateen has also played with such jazz luminaries as Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Marc Cary and Terence Blanchard, as well as hip-hop heavyweights like De La Soul, the Roots and Common, his name doesn’t resonate as loudly in mainstream circles as his versatility and rugged approach suggest it should. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that he left New York 12 years ago and is now based in Washington, D.C., where he’s active on the city’s slightly below-the-radar jazz scene. Or it could be that he’s released only one album under his own name, Arising Saints: The Art of the Solo, an amalgam of…

In a time when the hottest thing in audio is digitally tuned, Internet-connected voice-command speakers, it might seem impossible for anyone without an engineering degree to build an audio product. But not only is it possible, it’s even easier than it was in the Kind of Blue era, when building your own gear was more commonplace. Today, there are innumerable DIY audio kit providers that sell through the Internet, as well as plenty of online sources for how-to advice. Why build a kit instead of buying a finished product? There are many reasons. First and foremost, audio kits tend to be much less expensive. Many kits are cool, boutique-y items that aren’t available as finished products. Kits often allow for some degree of customization, either in the circuitry or in…

VARIOUS ARTISTS CELEBRATE ORNETTE (Song X) I attended “Celebrate Ornette,” the June 2014 all-star tribute concert that makes this outstanding new box set an essential piece for Coleman devotees. I recall that it threatened to and eventually did rain in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park that night; I remember thinking it was under-attended for an event so obviously historic; I remember that I got up from my seat at one point to watch from the back of the crowd, where every musician who’s attempted to play jazz in New York in the last 30 years was hanging, chatting and listening. What I don’t recall is the kind of technology that could have yielded the very fine DVD included here—a clean, tight program with smartly filmed concert footage, meaningful talking-head segues and onscreen…