Brian Blade's drumming and the vibe that he brings to the many collaborations in jazz in which he has featured has that special quality that marks him out as one of the finest musicians on the scene today
Here is a listing of our reviews that feature Brian Blade:
Tord Gustavsen "Restored, Returned" (ECM)
Christian Wallumrød "Fabula Suite Lugano" (ECM)
Tuesday February 16th 2010
David Binney "Aliso" (Criss Cross)
Lage Lund "Unlikely Stories" (Criss Cross)
Wycliffe Gordon "Cone and T-Staff" (Criss Cross)
Jim Rotondi "The Move" (Criss Cross)
Kenny Barron "Live In Tokyo" (Why Not)
Jamie Cullum "Devil May Care" (Candid)
Scenes "Rinnova" (Origin)
EEA "The Dark" (Origin)
Bob Sneider and Paul Hofmann "Serve And Volley" (Origin)
Tuesday February 23rd 2010
John Pizzarelli "Rockin' In Rhythm: A Tribute to Duke Ellington" (Telarc)
Kenny Burrell "Weaver Of Dreams" (Wounded Bird)
March 2010
Tuesday March 9th 2010
Anthony Braxton "News From The 70s" (Felmay)
Tuesday March 16th 2010
Ralph Towner "Chiaroscuro" (ECM)
Brad Mehldau "Highway Rider" (Nonesuch)
Tuesday March 23rd 2010
Dave Holland Octet "Pathways" (Dare2)
Tuesday March 30th 2010
Tomasz Stanko "Dark Eyes" (ECM)
Christian Scott "Yesterday You Said Tomorrow" (Concord Jazz) (February 1st in Europe to coincide with tour)
Album review. A major new talent that can take trio based jazz forward in the next twenty years
Sunnyside
Recorded: September/October 2009 at Concept II Studios, Los Angeles
Release date: January 12th 2010
Availability: CD, MP3 Download
Notable influences on Greg Reitan's piano laying are Danny Zeitlin and Keith Jarrett but here it is certainly necessary to add another – Bill Evans. In a sense that's a little unfair since just about all jazz piano players these days owe a large debt to Bill Evans' voicings that opened up the space for bass and the wonderfully expressive touch of the master. But, moving on from his late (age 35) debut 'Some Other Time' in 2009 where the Zeitlin and Jarrett influences were apparent and acknowledged, Greg Reitan really does sound like Bill Evans this time. Listen, for example to his take in piano trio format on Wayne Shorter's 'Fall'; this is just the way that Bill Evans would have played it.
That's no bad thing. Dave Douglas, acknowledging his debt to Miles Davis says: '…when someone says I'm influenced by Miles Davis I'm flattered. But aren't we all influenced? Anyone involved in American music has to at some point deal with the language of jazz and who could be more central to the modern vision of the music?' Very much the same can, and should, be said about Greg Reitan and Bill Evans.
Photo credit: Kelly Barrie
Greg Reitan plays the Bill Evans composition "Re: A Person I Knew," the title of which, as we know, is an anagram of the name of his long time producer, Orrin Keepnews. As Greg Reitan states: 'The liner notes for Antibes were written by my good friend Orrin Keepnews.' Bill Evans is everywhere on this album. 'Waltz For Meredith' could be Greg Reitan's 'Waltz For Debby' shaped via Bill Evans' take on 'My Foolish Heart'.
Jack Daro's fine acoustic bass playing is well and truly in the mould of Scott LaFaro and Marc Johnson. And Dean Koba's drumming is wholly appropriate to the Bill Evans mindset.
In this context, the Danny Zeitlin acknowledgment continues with a version of "Time Remembers One Time Once", as does the acknowledgment of Keith Jarrett with a version of 'Sympathy'.
Add to this the fact that Greg Reitan states that he was listening to Glenn Gould playing J S Bach as he composed the originals 'Antibes', 'September, 'Late Summer Variation' and 'Salinas', and you have an album that is as long on influences as it is on achievement.
Because this is a superb album, one where the playing transcends these many influences. You really do get the sense that a major new talent that can take trio based jazz forward in the next twenty years is finally making its way up towards the light, emerging with a life force all of its own.
To preview and purchase Greg Reitan "Antibes" on CD at amazon:
Album review. Pat Metheny's unique experiment in performing with the backing of a programmable but very analogue backing band
Nonesuch
Release date: January 26th, 2010
Recorded at Legacy/MSR Studio NYC October 2009
Pat Metheny's unique experiment in performing with the backing of a programmable but very analogue backing band must be unique in jazz since the days that Scott Joplin produced rolls for the player piano.
In his liner notes and in the EPK for the album, Pat Metheny goes into detail about his motivation in getting the Orchestrion built and composing, recording and touring with it.
Four years earlier, Boston guitar technician Mark Herbert had solved a problem set him by Pat Metheny: how could a second guitar be controlled by foot pedal? The solution - to use a solenoid activated device to pluck the strings - set off the idea of doing more and configuring a whole accompanying band in this way.
Pat Metheny was reminded of the player piano in his grandfather's basement that he used to be fascinated by as a youngster.
The device would be analogue, not digital. The sounds would not be digital samples approximating real instruments. The drum sound would be produced by a real stick hitting a real drum, a xylophone sound by a real hammers striking a real xylophone. Solenoid control would be the basis of achieving this.
The EPK for the album features Pat Metheny giving a personal tour of the orchestrion and showing how it works:
An impressive list of inventors was commissioned to build the instruments and realise the project (Eric Singer and LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots), Ken Caulkins and personnel at Ragtime, Mark Herbert, Cyril Vance, and The Peterson Company). As a finished machine, it is truly impressive.
Significantly, the orchestrion is fully addressable from Pat Metheny's guitar for programing for composition and performance. The technology appears to be essentially the same as MIDI programming via computer except that the musical notes are produced as real analogue sounds produced by piano strings, cymbals, xylophones and drums being hit rather than sampled digital sounds. In a hint of something more Heath Robinson in concept, wind sounds are produced by blowing air across a series of bottles filled to different levels with water. Unusual, but it works just fine.
There is something eccentric and wonderful about the whole project - a sure sign that the delight in music that has driven Pat Metheny's jazz since his emergence has not been dimmed by the success that he has achieved.
What he notes when playing with the orchestrion is the sense that, though he has programmed all the parts, when he performs on top of the accompaniment there is a feeling of response, that he is able to 'lean into' the music and interact with it. How far this differs from performing against prerecorded multitracks in a recording studio is difficult to tell, however.
The album features five new Pat Metheny compositions.
The opening title track is uptempo vintage Pat Metheny riding on a tumultuous backing that at times hits superspeed. 'Expansion' and 'Spirit Of The Air' are in similar vein. Somewhere in there is a distant reminder of 'Tubular Bells'.
'Entry Point' is a slower, more atmospheric piece with greater clarity of the lead guitar part that builds towards a gentle climax.'Soul Search' is a ballad, similarly slow paced, with characteristic Pat Metheny guitar and Joe Locke like xylophone accompaniment. The slower pieces with less overlaid backings seem to be the most successful.
A tour is underway. Seeing the orchestrion and Pat Metheny performing live promises to be one of the jazz events of the year.
Photo credit: Kelly Barrie
