JAZZ, ROCK, CLASSICAL, ALT REVIEWED BY MARK KERESMAN
Areon Flutes HHHH1/2 No Era Innova Areon Flutes is a San Francisco allfemale classical chamber ensemble (small group to you non-classical types) of Jill Heinke Moen, Kassey Plaha, and Meerenai Shim, who play the family of flutes. No Era is all-flutes, all the time, and it never gets tedious, monochromatic, staid, or precious. Just the opposite, in fact—this set presents works of three Golden Gate composers, Sahba Aminikia, Ryan Brown, and Danny Clay, and the way this album is programmed it hangs together as a cohesive work, almost as if it were the work of one mind. Here flutes evoke and exude bird songs as well as persuasive rhythms, jazz-y phrasing and percussive pops, and folk motifs ‘n’ tunefulness that’ll remind you classic rock types of your favorite Jethro Tull song(s). While certainly not flute-y “easy listening” (i.e., background/ambient sound), Era is vibrant, richly harmonious, and for the most part very inviting. The ladies have stupendous ability/agility but it always serves/enhances the music. Fans of the flute in assorted incarnations and even you prog-rock boosters (you know who you are): Don’t blow an opportunity to hear this. (12 tracks, 48 min.) innova.mu Van Morrison & Joey DeFrancesco
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You’re Driving Me Crazy Legacy One of the most protean exponents of the 1960s British Invasion remains Van Morrison—while he’s Irish, it was with the British Isles band Them that the world first noticed him with hits like “Here Comes the Night” and the oft-covered “Gloria.” He wrought quite the career out of melding American blues, R&B, jazz, and rock & roll with the muses of the traditional music and poetry of Ireland. For Morrison’s 39th studio outing, he’s hooked up with a son of Philadelphia, jazz organist (and also occasional trumpeter) Joey DeFrancesco and a small band to have at a set of jazz standards and some 32
chestnuts from his back catalog. The results are great fun—while Morrison’s voice isn’t quite the instrument it was in the ’70s (we’d be foolish to expect it to be), he retains that vocal flexibility and, more importantly, joie de vivre that attracted us to him in the first place. DeFrancesco is expert at that old-school, blues-drenched, soulful, hicaloric Hammond B-3 organ sounds, and that thick organ sound makes for a nifty contrast to Van’s malleable-asGumby singing. Driving finds him exploring and accenting the jazz influence that’s always been part of his ap-
Van Morrison.
proach, sounding closer to the Jimmy Rushing/Joe Williams/Mose Allison sphere than the Bobby “Blue” Bland/Ray Charles side of things. What makes this platter special is the utter ease in which Morrison and DeFrancesco do their thing (together)— this has a live-in-the-studio ambiance and Van, Joey De & company sound as if they’re groovin’ in a small club just off the Jersey turnpike. No fireworks, just some pros having a swell time and inviting you along for the ride. (15 tracks, 71 min.) legacyrecordings.com Yelena Eckemoff HHHH Desert L&H Matthew Shipp Symbol Systems HHHHH Hatology Here are a couple of jazz key-crackers that seem disparate but aren’t really. Born in Russia but emigrated in 1991 to the USA, Yelena Eckemoff ’s grounding is in classical music, but when she saw Dave Brubeck play, jazz became the thing. She didn’t abandon classical completely—she integrated it
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quite fully into her approach. Which is why Desert, inspired by Middle Eastern music, will invoke Debussy in spots and Brubeck and Bill Evans in others. Like Rimsky-Korsakov, Eckemoff absorbed aspects of Mid-East music in her compositions, much as Brubeck did with his Turkish-inflected classic “Blue Rondo a la Turk”—it’s most definitely jazz but Eastern/North African cultural “echoes” are vivid. Eckemoff ’s style has the thickness of notes and compositional straightforwardness of Brubeck and the spare lyricism of Evans. Her band here is aces—Paul McCandless (from the band Oregon), reeds; Arild Andersen (many ECM recordings), bass, and Peter Erskine (Weather Report, Steps Ahead), drums. This music is stately, yet has a folk-like directness, and McCandless’ plaintive soprano sax and oboe is downright haunting. (11 tracks, 76 min.) yelenamusic.com Matthew Shipp is an American pianist, one associated with the jazz avant-garde scene, yet is not “neatly” categorized, as he’s played with Roscoe Mitchell and DJ Spooky, and
Matthew Shipp.
opened concerts for Sonic Youth. One of his influences is Russian—classical composer Alexander Scriabin (18721915), who designed a keyboard that “played” colors. Originally issued in 1995, Symbol Systems is Shipp’s first album unaccompanied. He presents a clutch of wiry, thorny, concise pieces that combine the thoughtful, early 20th century angst of Scriabin and Shostakovich with the percussive attack of Cecil Taylor and McCoy Tyner, the humor of T. Monk, and the rock-
charged wallop of Keith Emerson (of Emerson Lake & Palmer). He whomps the hell out of the 88s yet wryly incorporates J.B. Bach-isms and Bartok-iality within “Flow of Meaning.” If you’re looking for an entry point to slightly noisy music with plenty of heart, seek Symbol Systems. (14 tracks, 61 min.) hathut.com Denny Zeitlin HHHH1/2 Wishing On the Moon Sunnyside Pianist Denny Zeitlin has a lot goin’ on—literally. He’s a full-time practicing psychiatrist along with being an ace jazz pianist. Zeitlin’s been at it (jazz) since the early 1960s—he was unique then, too, as his approach synthesized the Impressionist beauty of Bill Evans and the then-radical openness of Ornette Coleman (in a way anticipating stylistically Keith Jarrett). Wishing On the Moon is but another in a series of mostly excellent albums, recorded live at NYC’s Dizzy’s Club Club Coca Cola in 2009. For lovely ballad playing, you can scarcely do better than the title tune—the melody ever-so-slightly recalls Chick Corea’s “500 Miles High,” Zeitlin’s gently rhapsodic, going through several shades of introspection, using just enough notes to make his point, and knows when to inject a “break” in the reverie with a subtle crescendo. Bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson provide sturdy, unobtrusive support, going with the improvisational flow with almost uncanny empathy. If it’s pricklier fare you crave, there’s the “Slickrock” suite, wherein Zeitlin’s urgent drive evokes McCoy Tyner in his early ’70s peak (with really “sounding like” MT of course—just a similar compelling level of energy). Williams creates giant ripples, Wilson is like unto a force of nature, and Zeitlin storms and swirls without leaving the listener behind, maintaining a (restless) lyricism throughout. Take this leap of faith, pilgrims—while not widely well known outside jazz circles, Zeitlin is up there in the pantheon with Corea, Tyner, and Herbie Hancock. (11 tracks, 65 min.) sunnysiderecords.com n