Jazz in Elsewhere

MARVIN “SMITTY” SMITH REMEMBERED (2015): Give the drummers some

13 Feb 2015 | 4 min read

Because I always worked as a journalist, even if it was in the world of music, I never considered myself part of the music world. I was always only ever the “outsider”. The observer and reporter from their worlds. And so, as such, I never wanted nor made the mistake of being a “friend” of the many – indeed many hundreds – of creative musicians I... > Read more

The Creeper

Bernie McGann: 1966 (Sarang Bang)

31 Dec 2014 | 2 min read

Because there is a surprising paucity of readily available music by the great Australian jazz saxophonist Bernie McGann -- who died in September 2013 aged 76 -- this is an especially gratifying release. In glorious mono on vinyl (housed in a good solid stock sleeve) this album is created from two, previously unissued, live sessions in Sydney. And these five pieces capture a rare moment in... > Read more

Chuggin'

SHORT PASSAGES: A quick overview of recent jazz releases

16 Dec 2014 | 2 min read

Facing down a slew of jazz releases, Elsewhere will every now and again be obliged to do a quick sweep like this. Comments will be brief. But we are keen to acknowledge as many jazz releases as we can . . . Chick Corea Trio; Trilogy (Concord): Still at the top of his game -- as those who have seen him in New Zealand in the past few years will attest -- pianist Corea, now 73, here... > Read more

Annalisa

Various Artists: Machaut Man and a Superman Hat; The Music of Dave Lisik (Rattle Jazz)

15 Dec 2014 | 1 min read

Canadian-born, Wellington-based composer/producer/arranger/etc Dave Lisik has appeared at Elsewhere a number of times previously but never quite like this. Whereas previous outings under his name like Ancient Astronaut Theory (with Richard Nunns on taonga puoro) and Fate and the Processor (with saxophonist/clarinet and bassoon player Colin Hemmingsen) explored the intersection of overlaying... > Read more

Au Chien Qui Fume

Jarrett, Haden, Motian: Hamburg '72 (ECM/Ode)

11 Dec 2014 | 1 min read

The death this year of the great bassist/composer Charlie Haden robbed the world -- and not just the jazz world -- of one of the great artists of our time. It would take far too long here to go into the musical diversity he embraced (from Ornette Coleman to American country music), the plethora of artists he performed with (great jazz musicians to Yoko Ono and Ringo Starr), his political... > Read more

Life, Dance

LEE MORGAN, THE SIDEWINDER REISSUED (2014): Smack, a soul-jazz hit and a shooting

24 Nov 2014 | 2 min read

The luck of Lee Morgan -- such as it was -- ran out in the early hours of February 19, 1972 at Slugs Saloon in New York CIty. That's when his partner Helen More -- a hustler and former prostitute according to drummer Billy Hart -- shot him dead after an argument. Morgan was just 33. But in a way he was lucky to have survived so long. On the night he was down on his luck again and... > Read more

Hocus-Pocus

Paul Bley: Play Blue (ECM/Ode)

17 Nov 2014 | <1 min read

It seems absurd to say it -- but others have -- that this solo concert in Oslo by pianist Paul Bley is a career highlight. Absurd, because at the time of this recording in 2008 he was 75. But this astonishing tour-de-force finds him freely improvising in a way that is filled with daring runs, endlessly melodic extrapolations from the smallest of ideas and a muscularity leavened by an... > Read more

Flame

Louis Sclavis Quartet: Silk and Salt Melodies (ECM/Ode)

16 Nov 2014 | <1 min read

By any measure this is an unusual album from French clarinettist Sclavis with guitarist Gilles Coronado and keyboard player Benjamin Moussay (who worked together previously as the Atlas Trio). Part jazz-improv, some pieces which seem more like fragments from soundtracks, and melodies which are firmly from the "world music" camp, this makes for a slightly scattershot experience.... > Read more

L'homme sud

Stefano Bollani: Joy in Spite of Everything (ECM/Ode)

27 Oct 2014 | <1 min read

Although this album gets credited above to the witty, inventive and very lively Italian pianist Stefano Bollani (familiar from albums with trumpeter Enrico Rava), the Danish rhythm section of bassist Jesper Bodilsen and drummer Morten Lund will also be known to followers of the ECM label (again through the Rava connection) . . . although perhaps not as familiar as the other two players, the... > Read more

No Pope No Party

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Arabic Jazz (Rough Guide/Southbound)

22 Oct 2014 | 1 min read

Here's a double disc -- a customary, intelligently compiled Rough Guide collection plus a bonus disc -- which might just as easily have been filed under our extensive World Music pages. But yes, this is bona fide jazz with an Arabic twist where the exotically beautiful oud and earthy wind instruments share space with rounded Western trumpet tones, grounded acoustic bass and drummers... > Read more

Dark Eyes

Neil Cowley Trio: Touch and Flee (Naim/Southbound)

22 Oct 2014 | 1 min read

Among the many reasons to pay attention to, and respect, British pianist Cowley is this: a few years back for a tribute record to the Beatles' "White Album" he did a version of . . . . Revolution 9. Now those who know that tape slice-up piece might be laughing about now and throwing the word "impossible" into the ether. But if you care to listen to it, here it is.... > Read more

The Art

Hip Flask: Hip Flask2 (Rattle Jazz)

17 Oct 2014 | 2 min read

I suppose it was always thus: Every generation of jazz players would complain about the music of their successors, whether it be big band swing, bebop, Third Stream, free jazz, fusion . . . I've certainly heard my share of gripes from jazz musicians who felt they weren't get enough attention when their juniors were being acclaimed. That acclaim probably happened to them too and their... > Read more

Bennett's Radio Blues

yeahyeahabsolutuelynoway! : Um . . (Rattle Jazz)

18 Sep 2014 | 1 min read

I'm sure I'll be forgiven if I don't repeatedly type out the name of this Australian trio who appear on New Zealand's Rattle Jazz imprint. For convenience and our sanity I'm going to refer to these guys -- guitarists James Brown and Sam Cagney, drummer Stephen Neville -- as YY. Brown has appeared at Elsewhere previously (here) but this is a very different context again as this... > Read more

Void

John Coltrane: Standard Coltrane (Prestige/Universal)

4 Aug 2014 | 1 min read

When this album was released by Prestige in 1962, the great saxophonist John Coltrane was signed to the Impulse! label but wasn't keeping his end of the two-albums-a-year for that label. He was exceeding it . . . and producer Bob Thiele of Impulse! said the label took him (Thiele) aside and explained he and Trane were recording albums faster than they could release them, and that meant a... > Read more

Spring is Here

Dog: Dog (Rattle Jazz)

29 Jul 2014 | 1 min read

And just when you thought local jazz releases could not get any better . . . The previously considered Rattle Jazz album Dark Light (by Jonathan Crayford, Ben Street and Dan Weiss) really set a high bar, but this one -- a prior release on the label, by just a few days at a guess -- sets its compass in another direction entirely. As a post-bop album with pianist Kevin Field and Roger... > Read more

Dicey Moments

Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden: Last Dance (ECM/Ode)

23 Jul 2014 | 1 min read

What a sad set of coincidences, this duet album with pianist Keith Jarrett was released internationally two days after the great bassist Charlie Haden died. Now look at its title. And the final piece of the nine is their soft and considered treatment of a Gordon Jenkins tune . . . Goodbye. Haden was the arguably the most important and innovative (and musically daring) bassist of his... > Read more

Goodbye

Jonathan Crayford/Ben Street/Dan Weiss: Dark Light (Rattle Jazz)

6 Jul 2014 | 1 min read | 1

Since Auckland's Rattle label signed a deal with Wellington's Victoria University Press (VUP) it has become alarmingly productive. Albums -- especially those on the Rattle Jazz imprint -- are starting to appear at what seems like one or more a month. But that's not a complaint because the label's standards are impeccably high, and this piano trio album lead by the multi-faceted Jonathan... > Read more

Galois' Candle

ATLANTIC JAZZ LEGENDS IN A BOX (2014): Cheap steps into giant jazz

23 Jun 2014 | 4 min read

In a recent informal conversation with an American singer, the topic turned to the old debate: vinyl, CDs or mp3s? She said, of course she preferred vinyl . . . but I sensed a hesitation in her voice and said as much. She laughed and then admitted . . . actually, she preferred CDs but you weren't supposed to say that because everyone talks about the superiority of vinyl. But, she... > Read more

Backlash

MARK DE CLIVE-LOWE INTERVIEWED (2014): Following his own beat'n'path

2 Jun 2014 | 14 min read

The day we speak to Mark De Clive-Lowe – expat keyboard layer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and remixer – it's in a Grey Lynn cafe and he is on a flying visit home. It's a Friday morning and he arrived just 24 hours previous from Japan where he'd played two shows, within eight hours he's going to back on a plane heading home to Los Angeles where he has lived for the past... > Read more

Brukstep

JOSHUA REDMAN INTERVIEWED (2014): Beatles, Bach and beyond

2 Jun 2014 | 3 min read

Joshua Redman – born in 1969 and the pre-eminent jazz saxophonist of his generation – sounds slightly embarrassed when it's suggested, given his age, he maybe had Kiss posters on his bedroom wall when he was at school? “Actually, I never got into Kiss,” he laughs. “It was Prince or Michael Jackson. The Police was a big band for me, and early hip-hop like... > Read more