If end of year CD lists are your thing, here‘s a good round-up. For thejazzbreakfast’s Festive 50 go here.
Lists, lists, glorious lists
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Monthly Archives: December 2009
Russ’s pic of the week: 28-12-09
Each week photographer Russ Escritt sends me his favourite picture of the week, or perhaps one from his extensive archive. Here is Nasheet Waits, playing with Jason Moran at the CBSO Centre in 2008.
Russ has been shooting (in the nicest possible way) local and visiting jazz musicians for a good few years now. In fact, he has recently compiled a book of the ones he likes best. Here is the cover:
You can order a copy here, or if you want to check out more of Russ Escrit’s superb pictures, go here.
Disc of the day: 28-12-09
Ralph Towner/Paolo Fresu: Chiaroscuro (ECM 179 7510)
The most obvious tune to cover for a trumpeter so influenced by Miles and a guitarist so influenced by the kind of blue-tinged music Miles made with Bill Evans is Blue In Green. And it is just lovely to hear it here. Of course, all the other material is original, most composed by Ralph Towner but with some spontaneous improvisations by the pair.
The combination of Towner’s richly-chorded classical guitar and the vibrato-free, often muted trumpet of Fresu makes for richness both of texture and timbre, so even if the pair were not wonderful melodists and fascinating story-tellers in sound, this would still be a beautiful recording.
But they really do gel in a fresh and satisfying way. The title track shows Towner’s absolute mastery of his particular kind of composing/improvising, with influences from the classical guitar tradition, and its inevitable Spanish feel, as well as from jazz. Fresu plays this strong Mediterranean-sounding tune with conviction. He rises passionately to the melodies high points before retiring gracefully at the end.
And Towner’s rich strummed chords on the solo guitar Sacred Place evoke that title exactly.
An album full of grace, wisdom and reflection, and wonderfully calming at the year’s end.
My Christmas top ten CDs
In some sort of order of ascendancy, here are the CDs that most often find themselves in the player at this time of the year:
10 Phil Spector: Christmas Gift For You (Sony) – It is said it is Brian Wilson’s favourite and it is a wonderfully cheesy classic. Best heard with bubbly in hand.
9 Carla Bley: Carla’s Christmas Carols (Watt) - A new entry to the chart and a characteristically left-field approach, being quite doleful at times. The pianist, her best friend Steve Swallow on electric bass, and the Partyka Brass Quintet do loads of favourites – Away In A Manger, O Tannenbaum, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear – with the chief attraction lying in the subtly subverted harmonies.
8 Shawn Colvin: Holiday Songs And Lullabies (Columbia) – the folkyish, countryish singer sings a wide range of seasonal songs including Love Came Down At Christmas and In The Bleak Mid-Winter with the less-fashionable tune (which I think I now prefer) and some tasty, jazzy acoustic chords in it.
7 Bob Dylan: Christmas In The Heart (Columbia) - How can we resist the old grizzle’s storming Here Comes Santa? Apparently one critic commented that Bob made Santa Claus Is Coming To Town sound like a threat. Brings a certain smile to the face.
6 Ray Charles: The Spirit of Christmas (Concord) – If Bob makes Christmas songs sound threatening, Ray gives the impression The Spirit of Christmas has somehow broken his heart. The Raeletts, on the other hand, sound like they are trying to seduce The Little Drummer Boy. Ray duets with Betty Carter on Baby It’s Cold Outside, and Freddie Hubbard makes a guest appearance.
5 Tommy Smith Quartet: The Christmas Concert (Spartacus) – The Scottish saxophonist in concert in Glasgow with Gareth Williams on piano, Orlando Le Fleming on bass and Sebastiaan De Krom on drums play inventive versions of Winter Wonderland (done as smoochy ballad), God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman (blistering pace and Williams in heavy McTyner mode), and The Holly And The Ivy (tricksy timings), plus loads of others.
4 Sufjan Stevens: Songs For Christmas (Rough Trade box set) - All of the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist’s quirky festive gifts for friends compiled for general consumption and offering a huge range of styles and sounds. Does various wonders with O Come O Come Emmanuel. Banjo has never sounded more appropriate to this time of the year. Five discs plus stickers and a poster!
3 Ex Cathedra: Christmas Music by Candlelight (Ex Cathedra) – a wonderful collection from 2002 of the kind of stuff this Birmingham-based choir sings at its yuletide run of concerts in St Paul’s church in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. None of the usual carols, some pretty well known stuff – like In The Bleak Mid-winter, to the currently fashionable Gustav Holst tune, and Bethlehem Down, but also bespoke pieces by John Tavener and Fyfe Hutchins. My all-time favourite is Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium which I like to play very loud while clearing up the kitchen and finishing off the wine late on Christmas Day.
2 Jon Graboff: For Christ’s Sake! (Confidential Recordings) - One of my two very favourites. The most delightful reworkings of Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland and Run Rudolph Run, featuring pedal steel guitar (and makes that sound, too, just perfect for Christmas). Do yourselves a favour and download this immediately from i-Tunes. It is indispensable.
1 Yellowjackets: Peace Round – A Christmas Celebration (Heads Up) – My other must, though some might find it a mite too kitsch. Again the Coltrane band haunts some tracks which fire up like a yule log, Marcus Baylor’s wife Jean sings a gorgeously soulful The First Noel, and, in a blend of brilliance, the music of Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber is combined with that of Joe Zawinul to produce In A Silent Night. No band makes The Little Drummer Boy sound funkier, and no one has a more generous tenor tone than Bob Mintzer.
Festive 50: The top ten
2009 has been such an exciting year for recorded jazz, and also, I realised when I was looking back in order to compile my Festive 50, a spectacularly good one for the acoustic piano trio. At one point I considered making my top ten solely piano trio discs. But then I thought that was unfair to the discs that I also rated so highly but that didn’t fit into this format. But, as you will see, there are still quite a few piano trios there. See the full Festive 50 here. Your own lists gratefully received – the one submitted already has had me making notes for my next shopping spree…
