Frank Locrasto - When You’re There
February 5th, 2007 :: alan
If he wasn’t before, Frank LoCrasto certainly is the master of intellectual jazz now. When You’re There is the perfect album if you’re a fan of Maria Schneider (try “Until Dusk”) or any kind of music that’s, well, good. The standout piece is dauntingly the longest at 11:09. But “Overture/The Rathskeller/Interlude” is worth every second. It begins with a slow, diligent alto flute, leads into a soaring violin, and comes to rest atop sustained woodwinds. Soon, a jazz waltz creeps in with a wonderful amount of conspicuousness; the transition isn’t seamless, and it shouldn’t be. LoCrasto knows what he’s doing.
RIYL: Maria Schneider, good music
Rating: 4 stars, A+
-Devin Ouye Yamanaka
OK, so I get it. In fact, I really like the idea. Japanese composer Tori Kudo (sometimes known as the “Master of Mistake”) has brought together 27 tracks full of free-jazz and complex layering, explicitly to be played by amateur musicians. In an age where every album is digitally produced, pitch & tempo can be adjusted to fix the musicians’ mistakes, and performers are expected to reproduce their music exactly like studio version, Maher Shalal Hash Baz stands out as a shining beacon of music in its imperfect glory. We’re not talking about making mistakes for mistakes sake, but rather letting the music go where the musicians and their ability takes it. Great idea! Unfortunately, the end result is an album where you will find yourself cringing at some point every track. Picture going to a middle school band recital and watching some poor kid butcher a note on his solo… that’s the kind of uncomfortable feeling some of these tracks will give you. That said, it is a very genuine, real sounding album (good thing) which has its moment of freak-folk-avant-jazz bliss (even better thing). And it does some wonderful stuff like replacing the bass guitar with a bassoon. Sadly, however, I can’t make myself want to listen to it more than a couple times.
Joanna Newsom - Ys
The members of New York based Akron/Family have been working relentlessly since signing to Young God Records in 2003. The four gents have released two full length albums and a split LP with label mates Angels of Light while touring the country. The most recent of which is the exciting and challenging “Meek Warrior.” Akron/Family make it clear from the opening song that they are not attempting to simply rehash the successful formula used in their lauded debut. The frenetic guitar riff and ominous, insistent drums are a far cry from the melodic, understated finger-picking one finds on their previous record. The intensity slowly evolves into an amalgamation of hand claps, dissonant murmurs, and finally an impassioned chant. One could easily see a song like “Blessing Force” being separated into four songs due to Akron/Family’s tendency towards progressive and constant variation. At times, Akron/Family sounds like a relative of Animal Collective due to their unbridled, exuberant sing-a-long style and eccentric campfire folksy sensibilities. “Meek Warrior” is organic, cosmic, and unrestrained all at once; it’s the kind of album that can grow on you.
Give me an ensemble as dedicated to exploring and pushing the boundaries of percussion as So Percussion (”So” derived from the Japanese verb “to play”) and I get excited. Tell me that they use anything they can get their hands on (duct tape, broken ethernet port, etc) to supplement their collection of global percussion instruments and I start to sweat. Then if I find out that they reinterpreted a Steve Reich composition using only percussion, and are currently on tour with electro-avant big shots Matmos, and I might just be unable to hold it in anymore. Amid the Noise was such an exciting concept: let several percussionists who love experimental compositions loose and see what happens. I was so geared up to love it, and then I heard the album. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very nice collection of songs, generally ranging from meditative to Eno-esque ambientism. The music seems to just waft into the background, serving as the soundtrack to your thoughts. And that, is exactly the problem. The use of electronics on the album overshadows the intricate drumming that is taking place. In addition to the domination, in terms of volume and presence in the sound, the use of electronics cheapens or casts doubt upon the percussive elements. In other words, it made them feel less exciting because you started to think that they were actually digitally generated as well. To be perfectly honest, I would not have said that So Percussion was a percussion troupe had I not read a quick bio on their website. In short, the talent is there, and so is the dedication. However, what could have been a wildly exciting romp into experimental percussion was cut short by the emphasis on electronics. Sadly, this seemed to push the boundaries of percussion less than it seemed to co-opt the sound into the generally digital realm of ambient composition.
If the ambiguously pronounced band name (OOIOO) was not clue enough, knowing that the all-Japanese, all-female quartet is headed by Yoshimi P-we of Boredoms fame should give you a hint that this record is not going to be predictable or like many other sounds around. “Taiga” is the fifth album by the experimental group, and is clearly OOIOO at its best. Sounds are complex, running the gamut from ambient, to distortion-filled noise, to thrashing Afro-percussive dance beats, to hauntingly childlike chanting, to what I can best describe as eerie gospel thrash. Within a given track, especially the longer ones, OOIOO may take you down a dozen different avenues, giving little warning and definitely not being deterred by creating something atonal and unexpected alike. On this album, as most of OOIOO’s work, the compositions center around the masterful drumming of Yoshimi P-we, who is able to changes tempos and moods on a dime, and alter the atmosphere of a piece in a split second. A note of warning: if you are not one who likes to try new things, steer clear of this album, since the sonic structures are constantly changing, throwing the listener through hoop after wonderful hoop. But if you are feeling a little adventurous, OOIOO will not dissapoint. The result is an album that is an amalgamation of anything and everything that they could find to make the noises they wanted, to explore the ideas they wanted to delve into.Though I’d listen to this almost anytime, I can’t think of any better soundtrack to a all-night, raucous bonfire, where everyone is covered in fluorescent body paint and yelling at the top of their lungs!
Zion I and the Grouch, a trio consisting of emcees Zion and Grouch, along with producer Amp Live, style themselves in their new release as heroes roaming the urban soundscape of their hometown of Oakland, Calif., or the titular City of Dope. Following the mix-and-match style of Zion I, which has always featured a blend of samples that range from dub beats to techno glitches, the new release defies strict categorization. Melodious and so tightly produced you’ll almost long for something a little more experimental and raw, “Heroes” on the whole sounds surprisingly generic. The beats are repetitive and formulaic and the lyrics often remain uninspiring. Some songs are simply mediocre. On the disappointing “Lift Me Up,” produced by Living Legend Eligh, a vocoder is employed to ridiculously poor effect during the chorus of “It’s so unusual/ Cause I feel so fly today/ It’s something beautiful/ Lifts me up I fly away.” The MTV crowd claims it’s “wound tighter than Bay Watch bathing suits…the whole thing is hot. Hot to death.” If that means anything to you, give it a listen.
Subtitle’s (aka Giovanni Marks’) unorthodox and neurotic delivery style, reminiscent of Busdriver or Dose One, will either strike you as tired or avant-garde, and his second solo release often alternates between the two extremes. Originally heralding from Compton, Subtitle grew up listening to the greats of West Coast hip-hop lore, but he’s modeled himself in a decidedly different style. His dense and complicated rhymes examine the strange psycho-geography of his soul. This soul-splitting, mind-slipping style means negotiating the clamor and chaos of Marks’ inner monologue, and as a consequence his flows sometimes come off either as ridiculously original, or inaccessible and esoteric at best. With a production list that involves such well-known names as Madlib, Daedelus, Daddy Kev, Nobody, and Thavius Beck, you’d expect more of a variety and texture to the beats prevalent on “Terrain to Roam.” But the emphasis here is on the words, not the beats, and Marks roams his terrain the way a rat paces a cage. “Restructure/Reroute,” a standout track that features Beck, shows the two emcees performing linguistic gymnastics to highlight the specs of their tech equipment. But like all good psychological landscapes, Marks’ album begins to unravel at its end, leaving its listeners more and more in the dark.
Despite the fact that jazz and classical genres seem divergent, one would be surprised how well they converge on bassist John Patitucci’s latest, “Line By Line”. Melding some of the expressionistic tendencies of 20th-Century classical music with contemporary jazz, Patitucci’s “Agitato” is a stand-out track. The rhythm has a jazz lilt to it, but the small, yet angular, leaps the melody takes lets the listener know that this isn’t your average swing. “Theme and Variations for 6-String Bass and Strings” finds Patitucci accompanied by string quintet (two violins, viola, cello, string bass). The result is a direct classical-meets-jazz hybrid: Patitucci’s phrasing is strictly jazz while the chugging quintet beneath his bass keeps a straight-up-and-down rhythm. One track that is strictly jazz is Patitucci’s take on the Thelonious Monk favorite, “Evidence”. Joining Patitucci are Adam Rogers on electric guitar and Brian Blade on drums. While other tracks on the album are more contemplative, “Evidence” is straight-up fun with plenty of syncopated beats provided by Blade and a head-nodding-worthy guitar solo from Rogers.
Pianist and vocalist Diana Krall has performed in small and large settings and proven she is comfortable in both. Though mostly a big-band album, “From This Moment On” juxtaposes small-scale Krall with large-scale Krall and, in the end, the big-band tracks are not enough overthrow the combo Krall we know and love. Teaming up with the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Krall kicks off the album with “It Could Happen to You”, arranged as a mid-tempo, big band number. This seems fine until the track proceeding, “Isn’t It a Lovely Day”; it sounds so similar that this listener needed to flip back to the previous track to contrast. But, if you’re a Krall purist who believes her best work is found on her Nat King Cole tribute album “All for You,” jump to “Exactly Like You”, where she scales back to her trademark combo featuring guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton. There we can finally discern some of Krall’s easy piano soloing and comprehend the close musical rapport she has with her frequent combo-mates. Likewise, other tracks (e.g. “Little Girl Blue”) do better when Krall’s voice is not minimized by belting brass.