I have been listening to the new Branford Marsalis album "The secret between the shadow and the soul." When I first acquired the record, I was in the throes of doing a lot of work from home and the aggressive nature of much of the music made it a distraction and I have only just had a chance today to listen a bit more attentively. There was a lot of favourable press regarding this album when it was released and it did make it to many critics "top ten" for 2019. I think I read somewhere in Jazzwise that Alyn had suggested it ws the album of the year - might be mistaken with that.
I have to say that the opening "Dance of the evil toys" really pitches much of the music on the disc towards the freer end of composer Eric Revis' own records and the notion that Marsalis is somehow channelling the kind of 1960's Post-bop often levelled at his generation of players is smashed within the opening choruses. This quartet has been in existence in some form or other since 1986 and the music it is now performing strikes me as a kind of barometer against which other bands can be judged. (and seen to fail.) I have to say that no other band in jazz at this point in time can play with this range of dynamics and switch from a musical maelstrom to a kind of lyricism which almost hints at Baroque music. For me, the most interesting element is that the ghost of Coltrane has been thoroughly exercised and that this band is offering a far more technically assured vision of the kind of impassioned jazz which followed in his wake. As I said, sometimes the nearest equivalent to the kind of no-holds-barred jazz I have heard in recent years is the stuff Eric Revis had produced with Ken Vandermark. Joey Calderazzo is someone who if often maligned yet on this record there is an awful lot of the pugnacious approach of Cecil Taylor in his playing. Even the cover of Keith Jarrett's "The windup" gets the kind of treatment which can only be described as a good kicking. I feel that the opening track takes some beating although the cover of Andrew Hill's "Snake hips waltz" is a standout for me. The whole band deserves credit with Justin Faulkner's drumming offering the kind of bombast really heard since Art Blakey was in his prime. It is interesting that the only negative review I have read so far suggested that Branford was now playing too outside.
I think that one of the most interesting qualities of recorded jazz in 2019 has been a robustness in the music which has totally rejected the kind of overwhelming respect for the studio which has seen a lot of very tame records produced which do not necessarily reflect the live experience. So far the albums of Branford Marsalis, JD Allen and James Carter strike me as being listening experiences akin to the live experience (the Carter disc was recorded at a gig at Newport) and perhaps the kinds of performances against which a lot of other material needs to be judged. Marsalis and Allen seem to me to be issuing albums which are not "projects" but an attempt to build an impressive body of work with a regular band. The latest Marsalis album is something I would thoroughly recommend as both genuine, hard swinging jazz and as statements that the music still has some balls.
I have to say that the opening "Dance of the evil toys" really pitches much of the music on the disc towards the freer end of composer Eric Revis' own records and the notion that Marsalis is somehow channelling the kind of 1960's Post-bop often levelled at his generation of players is smashed within the opening choruses. This quartet has been in existence in some form or other since 1986 and the music it is now performing strikes me as a kind of barometer against which other bands can be judged. (and seen to fail.) I have to say that no other band in jazz at this point in time can play with this range of dynamics and switch from a musical maelstrom to a kind of lyricism which almost hints at Baroque music. For me, the most interesting element is that the ghost of Coltrane has been thoroughly exercised and that this band is offering a far more technically assured vision of the kind of impassioned jazz which followed in his wake. As I said, sometimes the nearest equivalent to the kind of no-holds-barred jazz I have heard in recent years is the stuff Eric Revis had produced with Ken Vandermark. Joey Calderazzo is someone who if often maligned yet on this record there is an awful lot of the pugnacious approach of Cecil Taylor in his playing. Even the cover of Keith Jarrett's "The windup" gets the kind of treatment which can only be described as a good kicking. I feel that the opening track takes some beating although the cover of Andrew Hill's "Snake hips waltz" is a standout for me. The whole band deserves credit with Justin Faulkner's drumming offering the kind of bombast really heard since Art Blakey was in his prime. It is interesting that the only negative review I have read so far suggested that Branford was now playing too outside.
I think that one of the most interesting qualities of recorded jazz in 2019 has been a robustness in the music which has totally rejected the kind of overwhelming respect for the studio which has seen a lot of very tame records produced which do not necessarily reflect the live experience. So far the albums of Branford Marsalis, JD Allen and James Carter strike me as being listening experiences akin to the live experience (the Carter disc was recorded at a gig at Newport) and perhaps the kinds of performances against which a lot of other material needs to be judged. Marsalis and Allen seem to me to be issuing albums which are not "projects" but an attempt to build an impressive body of work with a regular band. The latest Marsalis album is something I would thoroughly recommend as both genuine, hard swinging jazz and as statements that the music still has some balls.
I remember seeing Joey as Mike Brcker's pianist in '86 at Bracknell and being impressed, even though HE was often passed off as yet another Herbie Hancock imitator of no originality. I'm going to seriously break my own strictures now by saying there can be as many Herbie Hancock imitators as possible, given that the original can only be at one place at any given time - and there are of course many because, as has been repeatedly pointed out, Mr Hancock has changed and brought so much to how jazz pianists can operate in group playing as well, of course, in making more of what jazz funk might otherwise have only been, aas seen in a lot of late 70s commercial outfits, with his albums from Headhunter onwards. Joey is drummer Gene Calderazzo's bruv - Gene is a wonderful enlivening presence on the British jazz scene, which can't be all that bad after all, and he's not short on giving his opinions!
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