NYC

Two albums that I’ve been procrastinating over for a few months, Vijay Iyer’s Historicity and Ben Allison’s Think Free has been topping nearly all the noteworthy jazz lists. Historicity is the effort of a piano trio with Stephan Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums, but it’s not a standard piano jazz album.

Yesterday’s post already mentioned the percussion wiz Cyro Baptista’s upcoming album with his Banquet of the Spirits troupe. It’s no secret Cyro loves huge ensembles that’s why I guess he decided to transfer Banquet of the Spirits from a quartet to a 26-strong ensemble.

Good news! There’s a new Zorn CD out on Tzadik called “O’o” which is named after an extinct Hawaiian bird and is the follow up to The Dreamers. There’s also a new and unplugged Rashanim CD out to quench our thirst after a yearning period of 3 years, and if that’s not enough, there are two new releases by Koby Israelite and Cyro Baptista.

The twitterverse is getting crowded, here are some of our latest finds: @Western Vinyl label home to Balmorhea, Composer @Rhys Chatham, @Sawako, @Hypnotic Brass Band, @Pauline Oliveros

One of the most advanced new generation jazz composer/players is undoubtedly NYC’s Steve Lehman. In fact he can easily be singled out as the most exciting in recent years. His newest album Travail, Transformation and Flow on Pi Records continues to explore the idiosyncratic Lehman sound familiar from 2007’s “On Meaning“, with 8 people this time.

Off percussionist Bobby Previte and world famous composer/saxophonist John Zorn’s one time collaboration Euclid’s Nightmare from 1997

Back to our usual programme, here’s a review I promised you before our holiday break, the new effort by Marc Ribot’s power trio Ceramic Dog, “Party Intellectuals” out on Pi Recordings.

Can’t remember where I read about Steve Lehman’s 2007 effort, might be on Allaboutjazz or Downtown, but I was intrigued to see this 28 year old (same age as me!) saxophonist named on top of best album charts. So I hunted down his “On Meaning” album on Pi Recordings.