Chris Potter - Got The Keys To The Kingdom: Live At The Village Vanguard

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:21
Size: 140,7 MB
Art: Front

(14:01) 1. You Gotta Move
(10:53) 2. Nozani Na
( 9:01) 3. Blood Count
( 7:26) 4. Klactoveedsedstene
( 6:22) 5. Olha Maria
(13:36) 6. Got The Keys To The Kingdom

There is a lot of heavy ordnance going off during this album. Indeed, the incoming only lets up once, and then briefly, during a performance of Billy Strayhorn's "Blood Count" at the halfway point. For the rest of the sixty-one minutes playing time, the watchword is eruptive. But no PPE is required. The barrage is benign.

This is the third album Chris Potter has recorded live at the Vanguard. The attraction is no surprise. Saxophonists, especially those whose primary horn is the tenor, must get a special charge from performing at the venue immortalised by John Coltrane. Potter leads a quartet completed by pianist Craig Taborn, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Marcus Gilmore. Each has form with Potter, especially Colley and Gilmore: Colley was in the band which recorded Lift (Live At The Village Vanguard) (Sunnyside, 2004) and Taborn in the one which made Follow The Red Line (Live At The Village Vanguard) (Sunnyside, 2007). Gilmore, the youngest member of the group, is no stranger to Potter either. Nor is he, genealogically speaking, a stranger to the Vanguard: his grandfather the great Roy Haynes, sat in for Elvin Jones for a run of "Chasin' The Trane" during Coltrane's historic 1961 residency.

Unlike the two earlier discs, which mostly consisted of Potter originals, Got The Keys To The Kingdom is entirely made up of covers. They are an imaginatively diverse collection: Mississippi Fred McDowell's "You Gotta Move;" "Nozani Na," a Brazilian folk tune collected by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Edgar Roquette-Pinto; Charlie Parker's "Klactoveedsedstene;" Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Olha Maria;" and the title track, a traditional African American spiritual; and the aforementioned "Blood Count." The main soloist is Potter, who must be on-mic for around eighty per cent of the time. Next up is Gilmore, with three killer solos and Taborn with two. Colley steps forward only on the intro to "Olha Maria." The album will shave your ass and Potter deserves an honorary set of keys to the Vanguard on the strength of it.By Chris May
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/got-the-keys-to-the-kingdom-live-at-the-village-vanguard-chris-potter-edition-records

Personnel: Chris Potter: saxophone; Craig Taborn: piano; Scott Colley: bass; Marcus Gilmore: drums.

Got The Keys To The Kingdom: Live At The Village Vanguard

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Kris Davis & Craig Taborn - Octopus

Styles: Piano
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:40
Size: 137,0 MB
Art: Front

(10:54) 1. Interruptions One
( 8:02) 2. Ossining
(10:04) 3. Chatterbox
(14:36) 4. Sing Me Softly of the Blues / Interruptions Two
( 7:15) 5. Interruptions Three
( 7:47) 6. Love in Outer Space

Combining discrete notes with splashes and collages of sound, the music of pianists Kris Davis and Craig Taborn on Octopus showcases improvisational prowess at the highest levels. The live recording challenges listeners with electric and sometimes jarring compositions that appear to send shards of musical light in every direction.

Davis provides two compositions for the album and Taborn three. In addition, the pianists cover two tunes, both by keyboard players Carla Bley's "Sing Me Softly of The Blues" and Sun Ra's "Love in Outer Space."

Taborn chose to name his three compositions "Interruptions." The first, "Interruptions One," begins subtly enough with a lyrical abstraction. There's almost a tripping effect, as the notes splatter into ripples and spread out. As the music progresses, a more frenetic abstraction arises think Cecil Taylor here and the chords become more weighty and ponderous. The tune ends with a hopping back and forth between the pianos.

"Interruptions Two" emerges from Bley's "Sing Me Softly Of The Blues." Like a Cubist painting, the Bley tune is deconstructed and put back together in an unsettled disorienting manner. When Taborn's "interruption" enters, one piano explodes across the keys while the other states single notes paired with adroit pedal work. The music takes a spatial turn. The piano chords become more forceful and full throated. Single notes announce a grand orchestral climax. Then a repetitive note materializes above subtle explorations. Are we in a dream? The music becomes more forceful before sliding into the ether.

"Interruptions Three" begins as a blues abstraction. While one pianist contributes chords structured around an unusual time meter, the other races along with Taylor-like explorations of notes. The stutters and starts of one are embellished by the other's roving adventures.

Davis offers two compositions, "Chatterbox" and "Ossining." Both display fascinating interplay between the pianists. "Ossining" incorporates almost a binary approach as the pianists exchange "data." The highest keys on the piano are broached and the composition revolves and spins in a circular motif. "Chatterbox" incorporates more Cecil Taylor-like booms, swirls, plops, twirls and trills. The pianists race around each other, creating great splashes of sound. The listener feels pinned to the back of the seat of this musical roller coaster. The roller coaster slows at the end and its musical passengers may exit the car.

The album concludes with a gentle performance of Sun Ra's "Love in Outer Space." There is an impressionistic and romantic feel to the music and, as it progresses, the music develops a Latin rhythmic impulse underneath the melody.

No doubt the music on Octopus is dense and complex. But Davis and Taborn elicit a vocabulary that is both challenging and "in the moment." Their stream of consciousness improvisations are both ear and mind bending. They have thrown down the musical gauntlet. Are you brave enough to pick it up?
By Don Phipps https://www.allaboutjazz.com/octopus-kris-davis-piano-craig-taborn-piano-pyroclastic-records-review-by-don-phipps

Personnel: Kris Davis: piano; Craig Taborn: piano.

Octopus

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