Just checked this HQ video of Fieldwork live on stage at Padova. Fieldwork consists of the hottest three names in today’s free / improv jazz Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey and Steve Lehman. Very good wish the camera wasn’t static from this awkward angle but anyways.

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. I was waiting for something intelligent and inspirational to say about both albums but frankly after all these years I think I’m only valuable as a spotter and not a reviewer, and I can only write on jazz by taking cues from allaboutjazz etc. So it’s about time to end the anxiety of seeing this on my todolist everyday by giving you a few pointers.

Vijay is one of the new superstars of the piano, If you’re into progressive jazz you already know that from his body of work with Steve Lehman, Tyshawn Sorey and Rudresh Mahanthappa. 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. I’d rather play cheap and call it math jazz or something. One of the densest albums that passed through our speakers this year. The new shape of jazz to come?

All the best jazz groups, and certainly the best piano trios, have managed this trick. They honor the past directly, but they also honor the past by imposing a highly individual personality on classic songs. With Historicity, the Vijay Iyer Trio emerges as another modern jazz trio that has found a fresh vision in an old form. Like Robert Glasper and Jason Moran, to name just two on the current scene, Vijay Iyer is refracting jazz piano in a new way, no longer merely pushing the boundaries of harmonic freedom, but altering the core with genuine changes to the groove. Popmatters

Another duo from USA this time leaning more on good spirited rock music, is Luke and Mitch Meseke’s Woozy Viper. The brothers apparently think that in an information-abundant society, there’s never enough ego-boosting and self-identification, so they opted out of it completely. All we’ve got is a 12 song debut album for free download and a cover photo, which might increasingly be the trend for the artists of the next decade. What we’ve got here is a nod to their Kansas roots, and good ol’ rock & roll and pop with witty songwriting. I’m sure the music will speak for itself, so I’ll opt out of writing more as well, consider me impressed!.

Brooklyn guitar & drum duo Noxious Foxes has just self released their debut LP Lovestorm. It seems guitar & drums duos are one of the more resilient setups with mathrock bands these days. Guitarist Justin Talbott and drummer Richard Levengood apparently used to play in a band called Jack Bauer from 2002-2006 and they regrouped in early 2009 as a duo. A year’s work is now released as an LP, but being part of the new generation, they’ve made the digital donationware. Their music is a balanced combination of loud shapeshifting riffs and drumming, what you’d come to expect from a math rock band, with a little touch of Karate style sophistication. Gripping compositions, this band needs to be heard more.

Brooklyn Free jazz / noise rock / improv duo Talibam! will be performing at Peyote Istanbul tomorrow night as part of their 9th European Tour. Drummer Kevin Shea and keyboardist Matthew Mottel of Akron Family among others, have usually performed / recorded with guests on a measure of albums ranging from minimal funk to reggae and to noise and improv, always in their own spazzy language.

The mp3s below are from Boogie in the Breeze on ESPDisk and it’s an ensemble effort. The videos are in a completely different league, and I think the show will be more like the videos, chaotic and noisy! Going to be an amazing week in Istanbul for the jazz/noise headz : first Talibam! then Terje Rypdal & Ketil Bjornstad as part of the Akbank Jazz Fest.

I sat down to write a post about the new LP from French hip-hop trio Jazz Liberatorz, yet I after half an hour of friendfeed banter, I realized that I’ve been rocking to NYC klezmer-math-jazz power trio Rashanim for the time being and thinking obsessively about questions like if I will ever live to see them live somewhere, why on earth they aren’t better known or how to obtain the new Rashanim album NOW. After checking my RYM account for the umpteenth time to see if I have given them 5 stars, I realized my only option was to buy it from a site called thinkindie. Regardless of my financial failure, I valiantly pressed buy only to see that they don’t sell to TR. Well, what can I say apart from cursing the moment that someone first thought of using areacodes/national boundaries for digital media. Now I have to listen to Shalosh until I order a CD from Tzadik or stream the new album from Squidco (which apparently is acoustic :/) or Myspace. The second song is from Exil’s 1975 album Fusionen.

I know I’ve been circling around the same field for the last few posts, but one of the better albums that’s assisting me on this vacation is Steve Kuhn’s latest ECM offering Mostly Coltrane. The connection tying this to the previous NYC jazz posts is his regular sidekick Joey Baron who is a pillar of the Masada clique and Joe Lovano on tenor who tries to fill Coltrane’s obviously unfillable shoes with quite a success.

Brooklyn born Kuhn is now effectively in his 70’s and unbeknowst to many (including me), he was Coltrane’s first pianist before the legendary McCoy Tyner who’s also 71 years old now. He has released a string of albums on ECM in the late seventies but for two decades his only ECM offering was 95’s Remembering Tomorrow. His return album “Mostly Coltrane” is a tribute to John Coltrane and might be seen as a “what if/alternative history” take where Kuhn returns to pieces he used to play with Coltrane as well as newer – even posthumously released – material. I don’t want to rate this one against Coltrane versions since they are remarkably different so I leave it to jazz critics, but it’s safe to say a tribute like this is much appreciated.

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 including Rashanim’s Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (who was formerly on the BotS quartet as well alongside Brian Marsella and Tim Keiper), cellist Erik Friedlander, Ikue Mori and members from his previous Beat/Love the Donkey ensemble Sergio Brandão and Anat Cohen among others. We’re always excited with whatever Cyro touches his hands, he’s been the master of mood & ambience on so many John Zorn albums, it’s safe to say that you can sense his lack on every album that he’s not on.

Here are two songs from his previous albums on Tzadik, Tutuboli is off the previous Banquet of the Spirits, and is a song by Baptista and Naná Vasconcelos. Dansa is off his tribute album to Heitor-Villa Lobos called Vira Luocos.

You can buy everything straight from Tzadik as always.

image by Bruce Dene

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.

First there’s a new Masada CD, no. 12 on the second Masada book Stolas, which sees the invincible Masada resurrected after 11 years with two new faces pianist Uri Caine and tenor player Joe Lovano, which unfortunately means that Zorn’s not performing once again, apart from a brief part on Rahtiel. However both Lovano and Caine are in top form (as is the rest of the gang unsurprisingly), so you’ll quickly get used to the jazzier and less squeaky playing of Lovano.

“A highly respected traditionalist, Lovano’s inclusion in this Downtown super-group is something of a coup. Interpreting some of Zorn’s most accessible and sublime compositions, Lovano is joined by a quartet of Masada veterans, including trumpeter Dave Douglas, pianist Uri Caine, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Baron.” All about Jazz

The second CD is “Alhambra Love Songs“, performed by Rob Burger on piano, Greg Cohen on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums. It’s more in tune with the Filmorks series because of its cinematic nature. Beware, it treads like a b&w movie so it might be more suitable for autumn and heartbreaks. If you feel intimidated by Zorn’s complex and often noisy avantjazz, this is your call.

“Largely operating within the same icy realms of urbane coolness as Scandinavian groups such as the Tord Gustavsen Trio or e.s.t., Zorn injects these pieces with doses of Hassidic melody and his unique chutzpah to prevent their dissolution into mere ether muzak. Burger’s ivories pirouette endlessly, leaving vaporous trails of emotion and suave sophistication in their wake, as Perowsky’s ride cymbal flourishes and snare drum shuffles combine with Cohen’s measured bass runs to provide these tracks with their dexterous spine. Record Collector“

The twitterverse is getting crowded, here are some of our latest finds:

@Western Vinyl label home to Balmorhea, IDM wiz @Richard Devine, Noise maker @Carlos Giffoni, @Okkyung Lee the downtown cello player, Pianist @Vijay Iyer another downtown jazz figure, @Family Vineyard label, Composer @Rhys Chatham, @Drone Magazine, @Ken Vandermark, @Sawako, @Lawrence English, @Important Records, @Goon Magazine, @total vibration (Thor’s Hammer boss), @Hypnotic Brass Band, @Pauline Oliveros, @Pi Recordings, the wonderful jazz/everything blog @destination out, and up and coming jazz drummer @Tyshawn Sorey.

(both via @Richard Devine)

David Toop – Making Sounds from Expression Design on Vimeo.

(via @Lawrence English)

Fisheye Village from sawako on Vimeo.