The Spike Wilner Trio - Aliens & Wizards

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2021
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:13
Size: 106,5 MB
Art: Front

(3:54) 1. Righty-O!
(6:56) 2. Non Troppo
(6:32) 3. Adagio
(4:36) 4. Mindset
(4:23) 5. Blue Gardenia
(4:35) 6. Stella By Starlight
(3:18) 7. Aliens & Wizards
(6:10) 8. Prayer for Peace
(5:45) 9. Trick Baby

Spike Wilner generally noted in his native New York City as an excellent jazz pianist, is even more widely known as proprietor of two of the city's leading jazz clubs, Smalls and Mezzrow. Though hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Wilner has soldiered on, presenting live music whenever possible and forming the SmallsLIVE Foundation, a non-profit arts group dedicated to creating and propagating jazz in New York through recordings, live streaming, archiving, educational initiatives and live performances. Wilner's foundation teamed up with fellow musician and entrepreneur Cory Weeds' Cellar Music Group to produce Aliens & Wizards, a splendid trio date showcasing Wilner, bassist Tyler Mitchell and drummer Anthony Pinciotti.

Besides leading the trio, Wilner, who shows admirable control of the keyboard, wrote six of the album's nine selections to accompany the standards "Blue Gardenia," "Stella by Starlight" and the high-stepping opener, "Righty-O!" Even though Wilner's compositions are laudable, the other three clearly stand among the album's highlights. Wilner earns high marks for the earnest, hymn-like "Prayer for Peace," which modulates to soulful blues and freewheeling jazz before returning to its reverential taproot, and for the fast-paced finale, "Trick Baby" (aka "Love for Sale"), wherein everyone loosens up and lets the sparks fly as they may, as they do earlier on Wilner's double-quick "Non Troppo."

The mercurial "Righty-O!" ("Lady Be Good"?) would test any trio's mettle; Wilner and his mates not only meet the challenge head-on but do a commendable job of taming the beast. Wilner frames a crisp solo, which is followed by dynamic four-bar exchanges with Pinciotti. That leads to a trio of Wilner's amiable charts: "Non Troppo," "Adagio" and "Mindset," followed by "Gardenia" and "Stella," whose inherent charms are earnestly brought to the fore by the trio. Wilner is notably eloquent on "Gardenia," well-spoken and sturdy on "Stella," wherein Mitchell also solos sharply.

As Aliens & Wizards was recorded in August 2020, "at the height of the pandemic," as the liner notes attest, the assumption is that everyone was suitably masked and distanced. Whatever the case, Wilner's trio has recorded an impressive session, which, as icing on the cake, is devoted to a good cause. Let's hope that normal times return soon to Smalls and Mezzrow and, indeed, to every venue in New York City and around the country rekindling the fire and excitement of live jazz for audiences who have for too long been unable to respond to and appreciate its insuperable spirit.
By Jack Bowers https://www.allaboutjazz.com/aliens-and-wizards-spike-wilner-cellarmusic

Personnel: Spike Wilner: piano; Tyler Mitchell: bass; Anthony Pinciotti: drums.

Aliens & Wizards

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Melissa Aldana - 12 Stars

Styles: Saxophone
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:01
Size: 103,4 MB
Art: Front

(6:22) 1. Falling
(7:30) 2. Intuition
(0:38) 3. Intro to Emilia
(7:35) 4. Emilia
(7:22) 5. The Bluest Eye
(6:50) 6. The Fool
(5:41) 7. Los Ojos de Chile
(2:59) 8. 12 Stars

Before we get into tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana's album which is excellent, so hang on in there a word about press releases and publicity campaigns. Specifically, those from Blue Note.

The label's headquarters in Los Angeles is in danger of becoming known for award-winning b.s. in this regard, as demonstrated during the campaign for Aldana's label debut. Here is an example: 12 Stars, we are told, "grapples with concepts of childrearing, familial forgiveness, acceptance, and self-love." Given that there is not one spoken word on the entire album, or any clues in the track titles, this is a fatuous statement. Heaven knows what Alfred Lion would have thunk.

On to better things. Aldana fronts a quintet which includes three members of the quartet she has led since 2017: guitarist Lage Lund, who also produced and who co-wrote with Aldana all but the thirty-nine second snippet "Intro To Emilia," bassist Pablo Menares (who wrote "Intro To Emilia") and drummer Kush Abadey. The fifth member is pianist Sullivan Fortner.

Aldana studied with George Garzone at Berklee and, after graduating, moved to New York to study with George Coleman. She names both players as "dear friends" in the album credits but, since debuting with Free Fall (Inner Circle, 2010), she has developed a style which outwardly owes little to either of them. It could be described as "active meditation" in that it comes across as inward looking but is infused with a degree of energy and movement not normally part of meditation practice. It is, perhaps, the cerebral version of another apparent oxymoron, "hot yoga."

Anyway, call it what you will, Aldana has got it down. So, too, her sound, which most often inhabits the middle and upper registers of the tenor, entirely avoiding harmonics and broken or vocalized tones. It is a pure, clean, athletic sound, with just a trace of vibrato on extended notes. Aldana is the key soloist throughout and so beautiful is her playing, and so inventive her ideas, that Lund and Fortner's occasional brief solos almost (almost) seem like a distraction. Fortner swaps the acoustic piano for a Rhodes on two tracks, on which he and Lund, who is credited with "gizmos" as well as guitar, conjure an enjoyably trippy ambiance. 12 Stars merits a solid four stars.~Chris May https://www.allaboutjazz.com/12-stars-melissa-aldana-blue-note-records15648

Personnel: Melissa Aldana: saxophone; Lage Lund: guitar; Pablo Menares: bass; Sullivan Fortner: piano; Kush Abadey: drums.

12 Stars

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David Murray Brave New World Trio - Seriana Promethea

Styles: Clarinet And Saxophone Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:39
Size: 132,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:48) 1. Seriana Promethea
(8:17) 2. Necktar
(7:22) 3. Metouka Sheli (Ballad For Adrienne)
(8:31) 4. Rainbows For Julia
(9:34) 5. Switchin' In The Kitchen
(7:24) 6. Anita Et Annita
(6:25) 7. If You Want Me To Stay
(5:15) 8. Am Gone Get Some

It's over 45 years since David Murray blew into the Lower East Side lofts from California. For a while he was near ubiquitous and amassed a discography to match. While releases have become less prolific in the decades since, he remains restlessly active, and Seriana Promethea by his Brave New World Trio ranks alongside his best. With a saxophone style strung between the twin poles of the New Thing of Albert Ayler and the earlier practices of Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, it is the latter which has exerted the greater pull over time.

The eight cuts, seven by Murray and one cover, comprise material honed on tour and subsequently captured in the studio in November 2021. Each is based around accessible song form, handled with aplomb by bassist Brad Jones and drummer Hamid Drake, who furnish a rock solid bottom end and a buoyant swing which allows the leader to go as far out as he wishes, but packs enough sass to grip tight when needed.

While there's nothing revelatory about Murray's playing, he is supremely accomplished, full of nuance, and a consummate exponent of the ballad. Hinting at his seminal experiences in the lofts, he colors his contemporary mainstream discourse with adroitly co-opted extremes and a preternatural command of the upper register. With his extraordinarily deep woody tone Jones proves a fount of melodic variation without missing a beat, both in counterpoint and when stepping forward. He can hold down the riffs with the best, but it's what he interpolates between which grabs the attention. Murray has always shown an affinity for strong drummers, as albums with the likes of Sunny Murray, Rashied Ali, Andrew Cyrille, Steve McCalland Elvin Jones attest, so his ten years and counting association with Drake comes as no surprise.

Murray wields his bass clarinet for the only time on the jaunty grooving title cut, establishing a percolating vamp in consort with Jones before spinning out ever expanding runs punctuated by the occasional excited yelp. Each of the tracks stays true to the parameters of the tunes, but Murray often stretches the boundaries, perhaps posing himself challenges in doing so. One such comes on the standout, "Rainbows For Julia," with its aching yet celebratory feel, where after setting out the theme he elaborates on it by running his notes together using a tremolo effect which he takes further and further into the weeds, while keeping the original refrain just about discernible. The overall impact is remarkable.

Murray similarly infuses the tradition with the avant saxophone lexicon to confound expectations elsewhere as well, whether with a legato which flows like lava over the rocky outcrops on "Necktar" or the spicing of his elongated lines with peppery exclamations on the upbeat "Switchin' In The Kitchen." "Anita Et Annita" convinces as tender double portrait, while Murray imbues Sly And The Family Stone's "If You Want Me To Stay" with an almost religious fervor. Classic jazz, but what sets it apart is that it is done so well with absolute conviction. By John Sharpe https://www.allaboutjazz.com/seriana-promethea-david-murray-intakt-records

Personnel: David Murray: bass clarinet, tenor saxophone; Brad Jones: bass; Hamid Drake: drums.

Seriana Promethea

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