Month: April 2023

April was a great month for new record releases. However, at the end of the month, we found ourselves at a loss for words to describe and categorize our finds. Words have their purpose, too – they help provide context and, when used thoughtfully, help us understand the music. It’s a struggle, though – writing about music is not easy, and words are a clumsy way to describe and analyze ineffable and elusive music. Unfortunately, a lot of writing about music falls into cliches (and I’m surely guilty of those), with the same tired phrases used over and over. So I’ll try to be brief and let the music do most of the talking.

TNB Pick!
Ben Wendel – All One
(released April 21, 2023)

Ben Wendel – Tenor and Soprano Saxophone, Bassoon, EFX, Hand Percussion
Cécile McLorin Salvant – Vocals
Terence Blanchard – Trumpet
Bill Frisell – Electric and Acoustic Guitar, EFX
Elena Pinderhughes – Flute and Alto Flute
José James – Vocals
Tigran Hamasyan – Piano
Steve and Beth Wood – Hand percussion

In two standout tracks from All One, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Ben Wendel makes old songs (“Tenderly” and “I Loves You Porgy”) sound new. The rest of the performances, where Wendel uses multiple layers of overdubs, are thrilling too. Recorded during the pandemic, Wendell created a concept and framework in isolation and then reached out to collaborators to create a “message of togetherness, friendship and unity.” A message to celebrate! The living room “pandemic album” becomes fascinating and eloquent with All One.

Ken Vandermark and Hamid Drake – Eternal River
(released April 7, 2023)

Ken Vandermark – tenor saxophone
Hamid Drake – drums

Vandermark and Drake are the perfect musicians to channel the untamed wildness of Don Cherry’s music. Vandermark’s sax is all texture and grit; Drake’s drums are dynamic and commanding. The live sound is excellent, too – you feel like you’re in the room during this October 2021 performance.

Gerald Cleaver, Brandon Lopez, Hprizm – In The Wilderness
(released March 17, 2023)

Hprizm – Electronics
Brandon Lopez – Bass
Gerald Cleaver – Drums

For those who missed the sound of drums on Signs and Griots, Cleaver makes In The Wilderness a drum clinic – his technique centers and propels these compositions. In The Wilderness is also a hip-hop soundtrack sans rappers, maybe a gateway drug from hip-hop to jazz or vice versa.

Matt Mitchell – Oblong Aplomb
(released April 14, 2023)

Oblong (tracks 1-12):
Matt Mitchell – piano, compositions
Kate Gentile – drums, percussion
Aplomb (tracks 13-24):
Matt Mitchell – piano, compositions
Ches Smith – drums, gongs, percussion, vibraphone, glockenspiel, tam-tam, timpani

We discussed this album with this month’s profile of drummer Kate Gentile. The piano/drum interplay is fascinating, and the intricate compositions and playing are addictive. Also, don’t sleep on disc two with Ches Smith on percussion – he brings the energy of his ride cymbal and quiet introspection with his glockenspiel.

Alexander Hawkins Trio with Neil Charles and Stephen Davis – Carnival Celestial
(released April 21, 2023)

Alexander Hawkins – Piano, Synthesiser, Sampler, Percussion
Neil Charles – Double bass, Percussion
Stephen Davis – Drums, Percussion

The Bandcamp page for this album says that Hawkins “celebrates the connection of freedom and structure.” It finds a great balance – the tunes have just enough melody but still leave space for the energy and spontaneity of improvisation. Interestingly, the album is totally of the moment and yet seems drawn from classics of the avant-garde. Two examples – “Fuga, the fast one” sounds like the best tribute to Andrew Hill I’ve heard in a long time, and the deep bass at the center of “Rupture” could be right from Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch. Good influences!

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru – Jerusalem
(released April 14, 2023)

The first new issue of music from Emahoy since the fabled Éthiopiques Volume 21 of 17 years ago. The Bandcamp page says another release is planned, which is welcome with Emahoy’s recent death at 99 years old. The world cannot have enough of her transporting music. See our recent post from December, celebrating her life and music.

Wadada Leo Smith and Orange Wave Electric – Fire Illuminations
(released March 31, 2023)

Wadada Leo Smith – Trumpet
Nels Cline – guitar
Brandon Ross – guitar
Lamar Smith – guitar
Bill Laswell – bass
Melvin Gibbs – bass
Hardedge – electronics
Mauro Refosco – percussion
Pheeroan akLaff – drums

Miles Davis’ electric music is more influential than ever (see this month’s Strange Brew below for one example). However, Wadada Leo Smith is the OG of channeling electric Miles, and it’s great to have this new album – he shows everybody how this electric/acoustic hybrid is supposed to sound. The album notes say, “the album [was recorded] in a series of sessions and configurations, compiling the final product through extensive post-production.” That sounds like you’d have a disorganized final product, but the album is far from it. Instead, it is well organized, charismatic, and has great features for the all-star band. Smith writes and plays like a painter, an analogy that is not lost on him. He says in the album notes, “orange is such a vitalizing color, it relates to the vitality of electricity that I’m working with in this ensemble.” Listen and hear the colors – also, orange is the best color!

Ingrid Laubrock – The Last Quiet Place
(released March 31, 2023)

Ingrid Laubrock – tenor and soprano saxophones
Mazz Swift – violin
Tomeka Reid – cello
Brandon Seabrook – guitar
Michael Formanek – double bass
Tom Rainey – drums

The opening notes from the strings immediately signal the album’s emphasis on unpretentious beauty, and the mysterious cover art matches the slippery and spare music. The writing and arrangements are the star here, at an intersection between structure and open expression, where both the tunes and the playing shine.

Dave King Trucking Company – old TV
(released April 7, 2023)

Erik Fratzke – electric guitar
Dave King – drums and piano
Chris Morrissey – acoustic bass
Chris Speed – tenor saxophone
Brandon Wozniak – tenor saxophone

It’s always exciting to have a new release from Dave King Trucking Company, whose music is super fun (and maybe underrated). King is always hiding a trick up his sleeve, and I guarantee there will be a point when you are surprised or delighted. Also, the duel tenor sax front line of Chris Speed and Brandon Wozniak always impresses. Make sure you go back and listen to Adopted Highway and Surrounded By The Night.

London Brew – London Brew
(released March 31, 2023)

We’ll be writing about this disc and the London Jazz scene in May, so we’ll save the analysis until then – suffice to say that the spirit of Miles’ Bitches Brew (and In A Silent Way) loom large, but London Brew is not just an exercise in crate digging, but music for here and now.

Steve Swell’s Fire Into Music – For Jemeel – Fire From The Road
(released April 7, 2023)

Steve Swell – trombone
Jemeel Moondoc – alto saxophone
William Parker – double bass
Hamid Drake – drums

A massive release – 3 CDs of live performances from 2004 and 2005. The musicians get to stretch out, and most of the tunes are 20 to 55 minutes long. Swell’s trombone is extroverted, and Moondoc’s alto has so much presence. For me, deep listening to the legendary Parker/Drake rhythm section will keep me coming back to this release – Parker’s tone, both playing pizzicato and arco, is impressive, and when Drake gets into high gear, it’s spellbinding. This release earns the use of “fire” in the title.

Ivo Perelman, Dave Burrell, Bobby Kapp – Trichotomy
(released March 31, 2023)

Ivo Perelman – tenor sax
Dave Burrell – piano
Bobby Kapp – drums

An ideal entry point into Perelman’s lavishly imposing discography, Burrell lights up this session with his staccato rhythms, bell-like overtones, and kernels of melody spread out under the din. The great pianist makes any session he’s on special, and Perelman responds with energy and, eventually, his own lyricism. This album has intrigued me to listen to more Perelman, and April’s two other Perelman releases, Artificial Intelligence and Live in Carrboro, also sound great.

Archival/Reissues:

Abdul Wadud – By Myself
(Reissue released April 30, 2023, by Gotta Groove Records)

Abdul Wadud – Cello

At long last, here is the reissue of one of music’s most elusive holy grails! There really is nothing we can say that we didn’t say here and here. This release is an event, and we thank The New York Times for publishing Hank Shteamer’s essay, where he calls the album a “landmark of self-determination.” Make sure you get your copy, which is available either on LP or streaming at Bandcamp.

Sun Ra & Arkestra – Hendersonia: Sun Ra Performs Fletcher Henderson
(released April 11, 2023)

All keyboards by Sun Ra
Arkestra personnel varies

A collection of live performances between 1976 and 1991 are a glorious throwback to the big band music of Sun Ra’s former boss, Fletcher Henderson. Ra’s performances of traditional jazz were always legendary and would captivate audiences when played on the heels of a long set of unrepentant free jazz. (I’m told) the joy was palpable live, and the infectious results came through on this uplifting disc. Join the party!

(Kate Gentile behind the drums at The Jazz Gallery, April 14, 2023; Image by James Koblin)

Rhythm is the essence of music. Music’s other parts are also essential – beautiful melodies, rich harmonies, fascinating texture, and the power of sound itself. But those elements are organized around rhythm, without which there is no song at all. Rhythm frames the other musical elements, providing the propulsion to make the composition move. It is the beating heart of music – time itself. Rhythm is also endlessly fascinating. For decades, art and popular music have explored the nuance and majesty of 4/4 meter – even this most common time signature has seemingly endless permutations of counterpoint, syncopation, and swing. Equally exciting has been the development of music in other time signatures, first in 3/4, which Max Roach and Dave Brubeck pioneered in the 1950s, but since then, the creation of music with increasingly complex and fascinating rhythms. On the current music scene, 4/4 is crowded out by 7/8, 11/8, you name it. While these new rhythms are now widely accepted, they are also a form of expression just in its infancy. After hundreds of years of 4/4, we have only had a few decades of exposure to the possibilities the world of new rhythms can give us. The musicians on the vanguard of this new approach are the rhythmic warriors of a new age.

These thoughts bring us to the main instrument for expressing rhythm, the drums, and a particular drummer who captures this new approach to music – Kate Gentile. We could discuss many musicians, and many drummers, who trade in this new rhythmic language, but Gentile plays it with ease and writes compositions that are built around these new structures.

The place to start with Gentile’s music is her auspicious debut, the 2017 album Mannequins. Pop Matters featured this album in 2017 as one of the year’s best, and you can find Will Layman’s interview with Gentile here. Mannequins is an incredible album from top to bottom, and Gentile spends time breaking down her composition style and playing in the Layman interview, as well as another 2017 interview with Jazz Speaks. I recommend playing all of Mannequins from beginning to end (the music is really well programmed), but the track from Mannequins that best captures Gentile’s music is “alchemy melt [with tilt].” This track begins with low, rumbling bass (Adam Hopkins) and piano (Matt Mitchell), with accents from Mitchell’s right hand and splashes from Gentile’s cymbals. The opening section is menacing, largely from the stuttering rhythm which drives the music forward with no rest. “alchemy melt [with tilt]” has an episodic structure and proceeds to an open section with soloing on tenor from Jeremy Viner, and then a return of the piano/bass/drums. Ten minutes in, the performance arrives at a theme so intricate you’ll wonder how any musicians could play it accurately. Gentile, Mitchell, Viner, and Hopkins do that with verve. Remarkably, this section of the music (10:08 to the end of the tune) morphs from one time signature to the next every few bars. In a 2019 interview on Dave Douglas’ Noise From the Deep podcast, Gentile describes the components of the structure, saying, “It actually goes, like 5,6,7,6,7,8,9,8” (each number indicating the time signature). Then, Gentile doubles down on this scheme, ending the recording with a pre-programmed electronic version of the same rhythmic structure, but played much, much faster than any human could. The explosion of intricate, impossible music is thrilling.

However, I don’t want to mischaracterize Gentile’s music by overemphasizing rhythmic complexity to the detriment of everything else going on. Yes, to these ears, the crazy rhythms are a major draw, but the music is also rich with other ideas. Gentile states in the interview with Pop Matters that her compositions explore the intersection of “language” (the grammar from which the music is constructed) and “sound” (the sonic qualities of the forces used). Rhythm is simply a means to explore these other artistic avenues. Aside from rhythm, the richness of harmonies and the exploration of sonic possibilities immediately jump out. You can hear these possibilities realized in, to cite two of many examples, the beautiful and moody counterpoint played by electronics throughout “Micronesia parakeet,” or the guitar-like edge of Mitchell’s Prophet-5 (an analog synthesizer) on “stars covered in clouds of metal.” Another strand is the influence of modern European classical music. On Mannequins, when the heated improvisation cools down, “third stream” musical episodes explore texture, dynamics, and melody, such as during Viner’s clarinet playing on “trapezoidal nirvana.”

The other element I’ve neglected to discuss is fun. Talking about 11/8 meter, unusual harmonies, and European art music might give the impression that this music is very intellectual (sure, a lot of it is), but it’s also visceral, dynamic and has a puckish sense of humor not limited to the quirky song titles. The spirit of curiosity, excitement of discovery, and experimentation are all over Mannequins, and even more so on the six-disc magnum opus Gentile released with Matt Mitchell four years later, Snark Horse.

Snark Horse consists of five and a half hours of original music composed by co-leaders Gentile and Mitchell. Where to start with a release that captures 70 compositions written over eight years? Gentile states in the podcast interview with Douglas that Snark Horse began with a dare between Gentile and Mitchell to write a bar of music – just one bar – every day. This regimen gradually developed into a massive book of micro compositions, which Gentile and Mitchell recorded in 3 days in 2019 and released in 2021. The performances on Snark Horse use different strategies to turn all those bars into fleshed-out performances, such as repeating the bar to make a tune or combining several separate one-bar compositions. The Bandcamp page says the bars “can be looped, connected, made into vamps, transposed, inverted, alternated, played together to create otherworldly counterpoint.” To improvise over those small nuggets of composition, Gentile and Mitchell employ the “Snarkestra” – top-shelf players including, (in addition to Gentile’s drums and Mitchell’s piano/electronics) the saxophones of Jon Irabagon, the viola of Mat Maneri, and guitar and banjo, respectively, of Ava Mendoza and Brandon Seabrook.

The resulting music keeps drawing you back for its open-minded sense of adventure, and highlights abound from both the Mitchell and Gentile tunes. Since our emphasis is on the music of Gentile, I’ll mention a few of her tunes that stand out: “f tessellations” (paired with “chimeric number”) is built around a loping phase over which the entire Snarkestra layers cacophonous harmony while Gentile pounds out rolls on her snare. “for teens” has Mendoza’s buzzing guitar and Irabagon’s tenor dancing around a taunt circular pattern. “trapezoids” (matched with Mitchell’s “matching tickles”), opens with a rock beat from Gentile against electronics with Mitchell’s piano playing the theme, and segues into an intricate solo from Irabagon’s saxophone. Those are just three gems from hours of music that does not disappoint. With so much to explore, you’ll want to spend time inhabiting this unusual and, yes, fun sound world. You can order the digital version on Bandcamp, and as of the time of this writing can also get the boxed set—highly recommended.

Gentile also is a very in-demand drummer who has played and recorded with Dave Douglas, Tim Berne, and especially Matt Mitchell – Mitchell and Gentile regularly play on each other’s projects. In addition to Snark Horse, Gentile has been the drummer on Mitchell’s incredible albums A Pouting Grimace, Phalanx Ambassadors, and Mitchell’s new double album Oblong Aplomb (Gentile plays on the first disc, drummer Ches Smith on the other). I recently caught Mitchell’s April 14 set at The Jazz Gallery celebrating the release of Oblong Aplomb, where he and Gentile performed all the compositions they play together in the album.

Hearing these musicians in a duo provided an excellent chance to get acquainted with their sound and appreciate music written for the needs of the piano and drums alone. Without other musicians, Mitchell’s piano has to hold down the harmony that the bass would play, and the music takes on a very structured shape. For me, the reference point for this approach is the music of Herbie Nichols, who shares with Mitchell a self-enclosed sound word, funny song names, and music that thirsts for the drums. This music was a perfect vehicle to show off what Gentile can do, and it made for a riveting set of music.

Mitchell and Gentile played the 12 tunes of disc one (called Oblong) as they appear on the new album. The music’s dense language was immediately apparent in the opener, “all immoderation,” which contrasted Mitchell’s dense two-hand voicing with drumming by Gentile that shadowed the piano lines. The tune ended with stunned silence from the audience, who evidently were trying to process the dense polyrhythms. As the audience settled into the music, the shared language of the two musicians became more apparent. “slarm biffle” may have been the highlight of the set. This labyrinthine 13 1/2 minute performance progressed from a raucous opening vamp into several sections of music built around Mitchell’s left hand under cascades of runs in the upper register. Throughout the performance, Gentile summoned an astonishing variety of accents, rhythms, and counterpoint to the piano playing. Part of what captivated me was the distinctive drumming style – Gentile does not rely on the ride cymbal to play time like most drummers have since Max Roach and others in the 1940s developed the technique. Instead, Gentile creates syncopated polyrhythms by splitting the beat between the bass, snare, tom toms, and cymbals. At the Jazz Gallery show, I was fascinated by the complex drumming as Gentile used the whole kit. The variety was heightened with extra texture from wood blocks and a cowbell unceremoniously tucked inside the snare. This was the first time I’d heard either Gentile or Mitchell live, and it was riveting. For those fortunate enough to live in the New York area, the two of them can regularly be seen not only at the Jazz Gallery but also at Roulette, Nublu, Barbès, The Stone, or IBeam. Make sure you get out to support live music!

It’s been a blast getting acquainted with the music of Kate Gentile and sharing it with you. Happily, there’s more to appreciate right around the corner. On May 19, Gentile will release her 2nd album as a leader, b i o m e i​.​i. The music is a 12-part suite of through-composed music with improvisation. There are two tracks available to listen to on Bandcamp right now, and the music sounds just otherworldly. You can order the album from Bandcamp here. Also, you can check out a live performance of this music from last year on the Roulette website. Gentile says b i o m e i​.​i is the first of three albums to expect from her this year! You know we’ll keep you posted about this amazing music here, and don’t forget to check out Gentile’s website, which is regularly updated.

More Gentile

If you want to explore the artistry of Kate Gentile further, there’s a lot else out there. Here are some rabbit holes I recommend:

Secret People – The name of another cool project, Secret People is a cooperative trio of Gentile with Nathaniel Morgan on alto saxophone and Dustin Carlson on electric guitars. Their self-titled album was released last year, and the music is unsurprisingly exciting guitar-driven skronk with an infusion of advanced harmony. You can get their album on Bandcamp here.

Cool album art – Gentile makes fantastic visual art that appears on her records – the cover art for Manequins (and the album title) suggests artificial elements taking the place of a human form. It’s evocative, and maybe provocative too. Gentile also created the art for her new album Biomei.i. You can see a time-lapse video of the cover coming together (and also hear excerpts of the music that are not posted anywhere else yet!)

Heavy Metal – Take a listen to the (long) interview with Hank Shteamer’s Heavy Metal Bebop, where Gentile discusses her love of, yes, extreme metal music. I think you can find parallels to the textures of metal in Gentile’s music, and the discussion about trying to create a new musical language that draws from metal and jazz is tantalizing.

The AEC – Gentile contributed a segment to the New York Times music feature “Five Minutes That Will Make You Love Percussion.” So cool that Gentile picked a performance on the “little instruments” by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. I encourage you to check out this piece and listen to the album Reece and the Smooth Ones.

The Percussion Barista – A podcast interview called Discussions in Percussion gets into some interesting background about the difficulty of balancing a day job with the life of a creative musician. Gentile talks about how after arriving in NYC, she had a job on boats around the city and supported her life as a drummer by working as a barista during the day.