The Listening Guide
🎶 The listening guide: five albums, released during the past twelve months, chosen around a weekly theme 🎶
This week’s theme is quintets. New York-based saxophonist and composer Alexa Tarantino is joined by vibes player Behn Gillece, pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Rudy Royston on her new record Firefly. The LP features a combination of original compositions and covers, recorded at Brooklyn’s Acoustic Recording for Posi-Tone Records. Trombone player and composer Bogdan Khomenko leads an international group featuring Miloš Kostár on saxophones and flutes, Tamás Papp on piano, Hrvoje Kralj on bass, and Sebastian Baumgartner on drums, for his album, ‘Ancient Craft’. It’s seven pieces, six of which are Khomenko’s compositions, were recorded live at Tube’s live music café in Austria. On ‘Shrove’, saxophonist Sam Decker takes an interesting approach to free music, writing simple and mellifluous ideas that hook the listener in, but aren’t too rigid as to inhibit the quintet from playing freely as the pieces progress. Decker is joined by Michael Sachs on clarinet and bass clarinet, Dov Manski on acoustic and electric pianos, Aryeh Kobrinsky on bass, and Nathan Ellman-Bell. Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis’ Red Lily Quintet features Kirk Knuffke on cornet, William Parker on bass and gimbri, Chris Hoffman on cello, and Chad Taylor on drums and mbira. Their record, Jesup Wagon, appreciates ‘the life and legacy of turn-of-the-19th century African-American musician-painter-writer-scientist George Washington Carver’ with the wagon, which was part of his plans around sustainable agriculture, depicted on the cover. Pedal steel player Susan Alcorn is joined by Mark Feldman on violin, Michael Formanek on double bass, Mary Halvorson on guitar, and Ryan Sawyer on drums for the album, Pedernal. It’s a truly fascinating blend of stringed instruments and percussion. You can support all of these projects via Bandcamp.
Bogdan Khomenko – Ancient Craft
Album of the Week
Our NQ Jazz album of the week is trumpeter Sean Gibbs’ new album for Ubuntu Music, entitled When can I see you again?. Recorded over two dates in 2020 with Gibbs joined by Riley Stone-Lonergan on tenor sax, Rob Brockway on piano, Calum Gourlay on bass, and Jay Davis on drums, it features original compositions reflecting upon the human connections compromised during the lockdown. You can support the record on Bandcamp!
Classic Album
Our NQ Jazz classic album this week comes from the multi-talented Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Recorded in June, 1968, and released the following year, Left & Right features the 20-minute epic Expansions, as well as pieces by Charles Mingus, Billy Strayhorn, and Quincy Jones. The fascinating sound world of Roland Kirk finds space for strings, electric organ, various woodwinds, and occasionally spoken word, all giving the music a unique sonic fingerprint. You can find the album on streaming services and platforms like Discogs.