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One of jazz’s living legends, Ornette Coleman, also has a birthday today. Happy 80th birthday, Mr. Coleman!

Matthew Shipp

4D

Thirsty Ear

For a while around the turn of the millennium, avant-jazz pianist Matthew Shipp threatened to stop recording. One could understand why: he’s prolific beyond belief, and one could understand that an artist in the ‘out jazz’ realm might be fearful that an overly compendious catalog might be harmful to sales and recouping recording costs. Happily for those of us who wanted MORE from Matthew, he decided not to stay away from the studio, and has continued to record prolifically.

Shipp has also served as the curator of Thirsty Ear’s Blue Series, an imprint that has served to blur the boundaries of free and neo-trad jazz, and of jazz with other stylistic categories: electronica, hip hop, and even contemporary concert music. On his latest release, 4D, he’s continued in this vein. A solo outing, it presents both Shipp originals and standards. He even tackles venerable chestnuts such as “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Autumn Leaves,” as well as the gospel hymn “What a Friend we have in Jesus.”

We don’t have audio from the album that’s cleared for posting yet, but here’s a recent video of Shipp performing solo to whet your appetite for 4D.

Borah Bergman – Stefano Pastor

Live at Tortona

Mutable Music

Pianist Borah Bergman’s signature style employs both hands with dizzying ambidexterity. Bergman’s rigorous practice routine creates what he calls ambi-ideation: “each hand can go in its own way when it wants to.” His ambitious improvisations are equally freed from technical and ideological constraints. Although steeped in bebop and post-bop traditional styles, Bergman can also let rip cacophonous free jazz with the best shredders out there.

Bergman is joined by violinist Stefano Pastor for a 2007 live date in Tortona, Italy. Three compositions by Bergman, and two duo improvisations, underline the pianist’s dualistic division of labor between honeyed bebop and frenetic free playing. Some passages of his composition “Spirit Song” adopt a balladic lyricism imparted with yearning, sostenuto beauty; elsewhere, he prefers dissonant runs and bellicose clusters. “Wellspring” incorporates the blindingly fast uptempo harmonic changes of bop with a hyperambidexterity that makes the listener apt to do a double take, checking the liner notes to see if this is for piano four-hands.

Pastor proves a worthy foil for Bergman. Apt to bend a pitch rather than leave it statically squared in the middle, he revels in microtones and attacks bravura passages with an acid-toned eschewal of neo-romanticism. Like the pianist, he is steeped in traditional jazz styles, but is able both to adopt and, in turn, parody their conventions with equal believability. A baldly triadic passage in “Spirit Song” finds Pastor lampooning simple major-chord arpeggios before setting off on a skittering chromatic solo – one envisions an impish grin on the violinist’s face. On “Wellspring,” he matches Bergman sixteenth note for sixteenth note down the breakneck home stretch of the piece’s climax. His violin keens cantorially on the effervescent set-closer the “Mighty Oak,” providing a sinuous pedal against Bergman’s cadenza-like riffs. One hopes that this is merely the beginning of a series of collaborations for this formidable pair.

Andreas Willers on Leo Records

Andreas Willers

Drowning Migrant

Leo CD LR 532

Andreas Willers has been recording for many imprints since 1981 as a leader and with such artists as Paul Bley, Gebhard Ullmann, and Louis Sclavis. But even an avant-garde guitarist with as extensive a pedigree as Willers must be excited to have two labels releasing solo albums in the same year. In 2009, Drowning Migrant appears on Leo, while Jazzwerkstatt presents Orange Years. According to the artist, each has a very different approach to music-making. I can only comment on the Leo release, as I’ve yet to nab a copy of Orange Years (stay tuned).

Drowning Migrant exhibits an engaging, multifaceted approach to experimental solo playing. The sonic palette Willers employs is diverse and robust. On pieces like the title track and “Eight Nocturnes,” it sometimes seems like the soundscaping atmospheres of Frippertronics on steroids. But “Cranberry Pineapple” show jazz chops aplenty, while “Extrakt 4” is a shredding fusion vignette. Elsewhere, there’s a bit of whimsy. Breatharan” uses vocal sounds (primarily, intakes of air and exhalations) and melodica, while “Industrial Banjo” distresses and mutates banjo sounds in an extended alt-electronica tone poem. Drowning Migrant may not concern itself with coalescence into an overarching approach, but it’s a rewarding mélange of a host of styles and sounds.

MVP plays Lowell Skinner Davidson

Morris-Voigt-Plsek

MVP LSD: The Graphic Scores of Lowell Skinner Davidson

Riti CD 10

Joe Morris, guitar

John Voigt, bass

Tom Plsek, trombone

In the 1960s, Lowell Skinner Davidson (1941-1990) was active in two very different milieus: studying biochemistry at Harvard and playing with Ornette Coleman in the New York free jazz scene. Davidson made only one LP, Lowell Davidson Trio (ESP, 1965), but left behind a great deal of unrecorded material. Much of this was notated as graphic scores on 3×5 index cards. These serve as the jumping off point for a full length recording by Joe Morris, John Voigt, and Tom Plsek.

All three worked with Davidson, making this a recording that is closer to authoritative than many potential interpretations of his diminutive, but densely packed, scores. The music is imparted both the rhythmic fluidity of swing, but the trio also acknowledges the influence of the avant-garde New York School (John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff), and their penchant for graphic score realizations. Thus, Voigt alternates swinging walking bass-lines with angular melodies, multiphonics, and harmonics. Plsek undertakes free jazz solos, but also explores the noise spectrum of blats and wails. Morris’ post-tonal comping style fits right in here, supplying a bridge between jazz and concert music genres. He also frequently adopts a vigorous, snapping attack, adding percussive affects to the proceedings.

While it is unfortunate that Lowell Skinner Davidson didn’t have the opportunity to more prolifically record, all three of this CD’s performers are dedicated custodians of his musical legacy. Based on the evidence here, one hopes his scores will become more widely available for study and performance.

I was saddened to hear of the loss of great jazz drummer Rashied Ali, who died yesterday at Bellevue hospital. Cause of death was a blocked artery.

Ali is probably most famous for his work with saxophonist John Coltrane on late recordings such as Expression and Meditations. After Coltrane’s death, he went on to over a dozen records as a leader on Knitting Factory and Blue Music.

Here’s a recent performance by Ali, courtesy of YouTube.

Rashied Ali Band live on YouTube