ContemporaryJazz.com » John Luciano

Review: Thunder from Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten

John Luciano — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:42:10 +0000

Thunder. Rhythmic, melodic, rock you out, funk you up. Thunder! Back in the spring when I interviewed Marcus Miller, I asked him what was in the pipeline. He mentioned that there was a bass trio recording that he Stanley and Victor were working on – and oh what a recording it’s turned out to be. I can’t imagine a better name for this all-star collaboration between these three Bass Masters of the Universe. The thunderous power that is conjured up by SMV is awe-inspiring, not just in the low and middle registers, but in the compositions and arrangements as well. This isn’t some ego driven free-for-all that’s all chops and no meat. In my opinion, it’s the compositions that drive this recording, with each bassist unselfishly contributing for the benefit of the whole. I have to admit that of the three players, I’m least familiar with Victor Wooten; but I was easily able to identify each distinctive voice, in fact, this is probably the best setting I’ve heard Stanley play in in quite sometime. To have three of today’s leading bassists, each of which bring much more to the table than just being a recording artist, creating such a cohesive project, speaks volumes of their talents and obvious kinship. One could only hope that this doesn’t end up being a one-off project. Also, kudos to Heads Up for having the guts to release this project, in a year that has been extremely lean for anything remotely approaching quality jazz, yet alone fusion. One last opinion if I may: I’ve purchased maybe five actual physical CDs this year, but I’ve purchased at least 60 downloadable, complete jazz recordings thus far. How come they don’t come with downloadable digital booklets?

Buy the CD from Amazon.com!

Download it from iTunes

Review: Yellowjackets featuring Mike Stern – Lifecycle

John Luciano — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:41:55 +0000

The Yellowjackets – where do I start? How about at the beginning, when they were the back-up band for Robben Ford? Much has been written and chronicled about this early chapter of their history, especially in light of their 2006 anniversary release, Twenty-Five. I bring all this up because of the inevitable comparison that will be made between the current Yellowjackets line-up on Lifecycle and the original group with guitarist Ford – all because of the prescience of the telecaster-wielding Mike Stern. Let me start by saying that I think this current band of Haslip, Ferrante, Mintzer and Baylor along with guest Stern are by far the strongest iteration of this storied group. Ford, Russo, Lawson, Kennedy, and Erskine all contributed mightily when they were in the band but, somewhere in the late eighties, Ferrante and Haslip started to take the band, both sonically and compositionally, in a different direction. This culminated with Mintzer joining the Jackets for both Greenhouse and his own One Music in 1991 and 1992 respectively. Which leads us to Lifecycle, and the inclusion of Stern, who first joined the Yellowjackets on stage in Montreal last year. Whereas Ford has always had that blues sound, Stern’s playing is decidedly more horn-like in both his phrasing and attack which makes him the perfect foil for Mintzer. In fact, I feel that Stern could have felt right at home on any of the last four or five Jackets’ releases – his sound and compositional style are so incredibly suited to this band. I remember a night in 1990 when I was listening to the local late night jazz radio broadcast and I heard what I thought was the Yellowjackets. It turned out to be a tune from the Mike Stern-Bob Berg band, something from one or the other’s recordings, which at the time were virtually the same personnel. My point: this collaboration has been a long time coming and this version of the Yellowjackets has never sounded better or stronger. As a fan, the courage that the Yellowjackets display on Lifecycle to keep evolving the band is certainly a comfort for future endeavors.

Buy the CD, MP3 downloads, and watch a behind-the-scenes interview at Amazon.com.
Download Lifecycle from iTunes.

Review: Miles from India

John Luciano — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:00:03 +0000

Amazing! There have been a number of Miles Davis tribute recordings released over the years, covering various periods of his storied career; both with and without alumni of his numerous bands and configurations. I’m pretty sure that I own most of them but this one, organized and led by producer Bob Belden, covering songs from Miles’ controversial first forays into fusion via electricity, is just amazing. If you can get your head around the opening track, “Spanish Key” from Bitches Brew with tabla, soaring flute and konnakol (Indian vocalization), then you’ll be in for a sub-continental treat. Belden and the musicians he’s assembled – American, Indian and alumni of Davis’ bands – take 12 songs, all but one of which are associated with Davis, and interpret them as if Miles donned a Nehru Jacket. Traditional Western instrumentation meets Indian ideals; complementing sitar, electric mandolin, flute, tabla, konnakol and a whole host of Indian drums and percussion are; Dave Liebman and Gary Bartz on sax, Mike Stern, John McLaughlin and Pete Cosey on guitar, Marcus Miller, Ron Carter, Michael Henderson and Benny Rietveld on bass, Chick Corea, Adam Holzman and Robert Irving III on keys, Ndugu, Lenny White, Vince Wilburn and Badal Roy on drums – all alumni, complemented by the great Wallace Roney on trumpet. To hear “All Blues” open with sitar or “So What” open with konnakol is both amazing and liberating at the same time. If you’re a fan of Miles, especially his early electric and later periods, you’re going to be blown away by this recording. I haven’t been able to stop listening to this recording since I downloaded it. Call me star-struck, but this just might be the best release I’ve heard thus far in 2008. I haven’t been this taken aback since Alan Pasqua’s The Antisocial Club.

Review: Tequila Moon from Jessy J

John Luciano — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:03:51 +0000

Wow! What a discovery! I was at the Berks Jazz Festival last week. Unfortunately, I was only able to spend two of the festival’s ten days taking in music. Simultaneously I realized that Peak has released the debut of 26-year-old saxophonist Jessy J, who also was to appear at Berks as part of the Guitars & Saxes show. What a debut, from the opening throaty chords of “Tequila Moon,” I knew I was going to like this woman. I’m not sure the last time I’ve gotten this excited over a debut by a young sax player. Jessy J, under the ever-watchful eye of Paul Brown, exhibits maturity on her instrument beyond her age. I can’t help but make the comparison to Grover Washington, Jr. – and that’s a good thing! The album Tequila Moon has a definite Latin lean to it, but in a very sophisticated, intense, contemporary jazz way. This album just feels different – unlike anything that’s been released the last few years – smoky, intense, throaty, complex, and sexy. On top of the blowing, this girl can sing as well! This just might be the best all around contemporary jazz release of the year so far.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com!
Buy the download from iTunes!

Interview: Marcus Miller

John Luciano — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:29:43 +0000

JL: Marcus, first of all, thank you for taking the time to speak with me this afternoon about your latest recording, Marcus. How do you decide when it’s time to enter the studio to record a new project?

MM: Well, for me, because I’ve got so many things going on, the way I decide to start a new one is when I’m finished with the last one. It takes me so long to finish a project because I’m doing movies, I’m all over the world, on the road, so I really have to start early, and it takes me about a year to put it all together.

JL: Since you’re involved in all these other projects, when do you find the time to compose for your solo album?

MM: I just do it whenever an idea comes to me. I’ll take a break from what I’m doing to get into it (composing), and then the album starts to take shape. I’ll have two or three ideas that will give me a direction, then I’ll start to put a concentrated effort into it, blocking out time to really start it.

JL: How did you decide which artists to invite to work with on the new release?

MM: The way I do it is that I start a song, then I go to my cell phone and say “who can I imagine” on that song. (laughs) I try to let the song suggest to me who I should make a phone call to.

JL: The new album has been out in Europe, under a different name, for about six months now; the release here has additional tracks not found on the import. How does that come about? Are you involved in those decisions?

MM: I have some folks helping me out, but the main issue, is that for whatever reason, we have some pretty good name recognition in Europe and Japan and other places around the world. Here in the States, we just wanted to make sure everybody knew who I was in terms of the album; everyone in the States thinks of me as a different guy – some people in the U.S. think of me as the guy from Miles, some people know me as a movie composer only, some people know me as the guy who produced Luther Vandross, and a lot of those people don’t know that it’s the same guy. So, we really thought that in the U.S. we really needed to explain to the fans that I’m all of these guys in one. I tried to do an album that encompasses all of the things that I do and name it Marcus so that there’s no question that it’s all me.

JL: Marcus, does radio overseas have to do with greater recognition?

MM: They don’t depend upon radio that much to be exposed to an artist or the art; they have other ways in which the fans are exposed to music through state-sponsored concerts and festivals. There are also magazines that are really dedicated to artists who really push the envelope. Here in the States, it’s really radio driven, so a lot of what’s popular here is smooth jazz, and I really don’t fit into that format, so my reputation here is based upon how people have gotten their information.

JL: When I take a look at a number of your recent releases, label-wise, you’ve been a bit of a nomad. Is that a sign of the current state of the industry?

MM: I’ve been making albums with three deals: one in Europe for distribution, one in Asia, and then one for distribution in North and South America, which has worked pretty well for us. We usually just make a one album deal. Because the music business is changing so much, it really didn’t feel right committing to one company not knowing what the world’s going to be like in a year or year in a half. Things are starting to settle in, I feel real comfortable with Concord, we were with Telarc in the past and had some real success with them, now they’re part of the Concord umbrella, which makes it a lot easier because at least there’s some familiarity with some of the people.

JL: Marcus, so many great artists who are masters of their instruments really aren’t that prolific as composers. You seem to be able to make both look easy; plus your sound is very identifiable and uniquely your own, and seems to have been very early on in your career. Could you comment on that?

b>MM: When I was really young, 15 to 17, I wanted my own sound more than anything; I grew up in an environment in NYC that that was the only thing people respected, that you had your own identifiable sound. There were a lot of kids that could play and sound like someone else, like George Benson or John Coltrane, but they never got the respect the same respect as the guy who sounded just like himself – if you were walking down the street at night and you heard music coming from a club and you could hear Tom Browne two blocks away, you knew it was Tom Browne on the trumpet, because no one else sounded like him, and that’s what I strove for. I was having difficulties when I was young, because I figured that if I played the right notes or if I used the right amp or something like that, it would give me my sound and eventually I had to give up searching for it because it doesn’t really work that way, I talked to Lenny White, who’s a real mentor of mine, and said “how do I get my own sound” and he said for me to stop worrying about it and just play, and play in every situation that you can find, and one day you’ll hear it, it will just be there; and that’s how I developed my sound. I ended up in the studios in NYC a lot, working with all kinds of people, and one day I heard a playback of a take that we just did and I said “ooh, I recognize that it’s me.” Once I saw a little glimmer of that, I held onto it tight, man, and did everything I could to develop it.

JL: Being as prolific a composer as you are, is that a natural ability or have you really had to work at it?

MM: I started composing early, probably 14 or 15 years old. I liked composing and always felt that it was something you had to do to be a complete musician. The musicians that I really respected, like Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, and Stevie Wonder, composing was a major part of their talent, so I really tried to work on it and I got a lot of practice because in the 80s I got a lot of calls to work and compose on all kinds of things, such as R&B for Aretha Franklin and writing for fusion violinist Michael Urbaniak, and saxophonist David Sanborn. So I got all kinds of practice.

JL: Marcus, being involved in so many facets of the music and recording industry, could you comment on where jazz is today with respect to the consolidation we’ve seen in the music industry?

MM: Man, it’s a real difficult time, I remember in the late 70s right around ’79-’80, there was a similar situation where all of a sudden CBS Records, who had a bunch of the top jazz artists, just dumped them and decided jazz just wasn’t profitable. I remember the big jazz radio station in NYC, WRBR, turned into a country station overnight! A lot of the musicians were sitting there wondering what they were going to do. I think that this situation is the same, only worse, because a lot of the music is made by machines and there’s not that many live opportunities. So we really have a challenge, but I think it’s going to get better because I hear people say they really want to hear the real thing, live musicians, and real music.

JL: Is the Internet helping out the jazz musician, in the way that the jam bands use the Web to promote and distribute their recordings directly to the fans?

MM: Yes, and I think that jazz musicians are going to have to follow that model. The thing that the jam bands have that the jazz artist doesn’t is these huge fan bases they’ve developed. We have to use the Internet but we also have to find a way to develop some kind of community performances so that we can grow the audience in some sort of grassroots kind of way.

JL: Marcus, of all the artists and sessions you’ve worked with and taken part in, do you have any which stand out for you?

MM: Roberta Flack, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin. I really liked working on Donald Fagen’s album The Nightfly. That was a cool album. I liked working on Brian Ferry’s Boys and Girls, all the stuff I did with David Sanborn, working with Miles, and I really enjoyed working with the Crusaders. Recently working with Herbie Hancock has been really beautiful.

JL: What do we have to look forward from you over the coming year?

MM: I’m working with Stanley Clarke and Victor Wooten on a three bass album. We’ve been in the studio trying to get it done so that maybe we could do something together this summer. January ’09 will be the Playboy Jazz Cruise, which is a new sponsor for this year. We’re advertising now so by the time we take off, it will be a nice full boat.

JL: Marcus, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

John Luciano — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:18:32 +0000

I was in NYC for the Big East Basketball Tournament last week, feasting on incredible ball, walking 7th Avenue back and forth from the DoubleTree in Times Square to the Garden, twice a day for the double headers. As I’m walking back from the Garden and approaching 42nd Street on Thursday afternoon, I hear the distinctive sound of a brass band, a few blocks away, thinking that it’s probably a bunch of kids from one of the schools that got knocked out of the tournament that day from one of the two early games. But, as I get closer, I start hearing Latin, Reggae, odd syncopated rhythms, this was no college marching band! In front of the Subway sandwich shop on 7th near 42nd, was a group of guys playing the most hypnotic and trance like jazz-jam-reggae that I have ever heard; trying to sell their CDs to the sizeable crowd which had gathered to listen to them. I had never heard of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, but I made sure to catch their name. Incredibly, they were still there playing, two hours later, when I walked past on my way back to the Garden for the late games! That night when I got back to my hotel, I immediately started searching for this incredible group. I found theirMySpace page and blog, and also downloaded their first two recordings from iTunes. If you like music that you can’t stop bobbing your head to, that makes you want to get up and dance, or just puts a huge smile on your face – give these guys from Chicago a shot!

Review: Rhythm and Romance from Kenny G

John Luciano — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:31:33 +0000

It’s hard to believe that Kenny G is 51 years old but, after releasing 26 albums for Arista, he is starting a new relationship with Concord Records. Concord, by the way, is about the only record company supporting jazz in a big way these days (thank God for an independent label!). I haven’t really listened to Kenny G since his Kenny G Live album from 1989, and if it wasn’t for my emusic subscription, I probably wouldn’t have picked this release up. But Concord has been on a pretty good roll with their releases, so I decided to give the smooth one a shot. This is actually a good album, and this is coming from someone who felt Kenny’s best years were when he was still using his last name and playing along side a guy named Lorber. The album starts off with a “Sax-o-loco” that sounds a lot like “Tequila,” a real upbeat Latin number, but it’s on the next tune, “Ritmo y Romance” that I really sat back and listened hard. Kenny’s as good as anyone in contemporary jazz on this one – maybe even better; no repetitive, simple smooth (boring) jazz here. There’s a little Samba, some Salsa, Spanish and Latin flavorings all tossed together to create a very seductive sounding album, where the energy is bubbling just beneath the surface ready to breakout. There was a time, 40 or so years ago, when the jazz labels, routinely put their stars in a Latin or Bossa setting, even Concord did it 20 and 30 years ago. Listen to Kenny tackle the standard “Besame Mucho” and you’ll understand why it was such a popular idea. If you haven’t listened to Kenny G in awhile, or got tired of all the holiday songs and standards he was putting out, or just gave upon him as I did, give Rhythm & Romance a listen. You just might be as pleasantly surprised as I am.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com!
Buy the download from iTunes!

Review: It Remains To Be Seen from Afro Elements

John Luciano — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:19:14 +0000

I hadn’t heard Afro Elements, but while digging around the web, I came across a link to their site from Down To The Bone’s website. Later, after I mentioned in a post on my blog that the album art on It Remains To Be Seen was a replica of Jeff Lorber’s Wizard Island, Simon from the group dropped me a note. In all honesty, even though I never listened to a track from these guys,I was looking forward to reviewing this release – just based on the balls needed to co-op the album art from one of the all-time great contemporary jazz releases.

Essentially, Afro Elements is Simon Bramley on bass, Phil Nelson on drums and Neil Burditt on keyboards. According to their bio, this core group of three, when not in the studio, expands to eight members for live appearances, as well as playing with and contributing to the likes of Mr Gone and Down To The Bone. If you’re a fan of Incognito and Down To The Bone, you’ll definitely get into these guys; very nu-jazz, great retro keyboards (permission granted for the cover art!), tight horns and an abundance of percussion. The music is very contemporary, leaning more towards jazz-soul-funk, than the electronica camp where a lot of the nu-jazz groups hangout. I would highly recommend picking this release up – this is very good stuff! Standout tracks include “Four Letter Word” and “Stop You’re Killing Me.”

Buy the CD from Amazon.com!
Buy the download from iTunes!

Review: Tom Scott – Cannon Re-Loaded

John Luciano — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:08:46 +0000

Always a fan of Tom Scott’s, I’ve been waiting for this release for a while. Although when his name is mentioned, most contemporary jazz fans think of Tom Scott’s releases such as LA Express, New York Connection, Apple Juice, or any number of the outstanding recordings he did while on GRP. But there were two, now with this release, three recordings where that unmistakable saxophone voice can be heard in a more traditional (notice I didn’t say straight-ahead) setting; 1992′s Born Again, BeBop United from 1996 and now, Cannon Re-Loaded. Joining Scott on this collection of tunes associated with the late great Cannonball Adderley are Terence Blanchard, George Duke, Marcus Miller, Steve Gadd, and Nancy Wilson. This is a pretty straightforward tribute. The players all sound very relaxed and the arrangements are excellent. It’s encouraging to see Tom Scott on the new release list and I give kudos to Concord for ‘carrying the torch’ while the ‘majors’ have burned their houses down to the ground. One last note, it’s nice to hear Terence Blanchard in a more contemporary setting. Here’s hoping he steps into the genre a bit more.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com!
Buy the download from iTunes!

Review: Neil Larsen – Orbit

John Luciano — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:22:03 +0000

Neil Larsen is definitely not a household name when it comes to contemporary jazz unless you’re hardcore, know your history, and have been listening to the music long before the “Wave” signified something other than what you surfed on. An extraordinary keyboardist, who’s spent a great deal of his career making other musicians sound better, this is only Larsen’s fifth release under his own name. In 1978 and 1979 he released Jungle Fever and High Gear for the A&M-Horizon label. He was not to be heard from, as a solo artist again until 1987 and 1989 when, for MCA, he released Through Any Window and Smooth Talk. For those of you old enough to remember, at one time, CBS Sports used Larsen’s “Windsong” from Jungle Fever as a theme song. One constant, over all these years, has been Larsen’s stellar organ playing, which is his predominant voice on all five of his solo recordings and, once again, featured on Orbit. Orbit is a mix of some new and some old. Neil revisits some earlier compositions, such as “Jungle Fever,” “Sudden Samba,” and “Red Desert,” albeit with new, sparser arrangements and instrumentation. Helping out on this recording are a number of old friends, Robben Ford, Jimmy Haslip, Gary Meek, Tom Brechtlein, and Lee Thornburg. This is one of the first releases from a new label started by recording and mastering legend, Bernie Grundman, the sound is excellent; I hope Grundman finds enough success to be able to get Larsen back in the studio for a follow up recording.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com!