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AUM Fidelity Label Spotlight
AUM Fidelity is one of the essential NYC labels, and one of the most vibrant and consistently enjoyable jazz labels of the modern era operating anywhere. With a broad roster of artists that springs forth from the local downtown scene, but is not confined by it either geographically or stylistically, AUM has become home to many of the most interesting players around, including William Parker, Davis S. Ware, Kidd Jordan, Joe Morris and Roy Campbell. It is the highest compliment to say that there is no "AUM Fidelity sound," but instead a continuum of wonderful sounds, from soulful swing to fierce skronk, improv and composition, solo explorations and large ensembles. Add to this a few oddball titles, like the exhaustive and fascinating Shrimp Boat box set the label released a few years back (and featured further below), collecting hours of unheard music from this percolating pre-Sea and Cake Chicago pop outfit, and you begin to understand the depth and passion that define this wonderful label. Other Music is pleased to offer this 12-track sampler, for the rock-bottom price of $3.99, as well as an AUM Fidelity Download Catalog Sale -- for the next two weeks, all single albums are $5.99, doubles are $9.99, and the Shrimp Boat box is an amazing $12.99. This week's free download is from Little Women's debut full-length, Throat, out now on AUM Fidelity. Featuring saxophonists Travis Laplante and Darius Jones, guitarist Andrew Smiley and drummer Jason Nazary, their new album is a seven-song suite meant to be taken in as a whole, so consider this a preview of sorts from one of the most exciting and adventurous releases to come out of Brooklyn this year. (Full album reviewed below.) Teeth rattling barrage of blistering punk-jazz, featuring saxophonist Darius Jones, on an album that practically makes his debut release from last year sound like children's lullabies. Hearkening back to early Naked City, Blowhole, or Flying Luttenbachers, with banging, spasmodic honkings conjoined to some wickedly tight math-rock contours, these dudes are really pushing, making music that is as fast and hard as you can imagine, but what impresses most is how meticulously constructed it feels while operating at the furthest margins of free jazz. The entire album is arranged as a suite of sorts, and to be fair they provide a couple of moments of grace and levity to act as a breather between the more frenetic sections, but it's the full-throttled power of every member in action that makes this album undeniable. -Michael Klausman
Soul-searing holy jazz from Darius Jones, a young alto-saxophonist from Virginia who is presently living in New York City where he's been making waves in the jazz community for the last few years, here landing an incredible debut as a leader. The majority of the album finds him working in the company of out-jazz legends Rakalam Bob Moses (drums) and Cooper-Moore (diddley-bo and piano), and the music they create together has more than a bit of the hellfire and holiness you hear in early Albert Ayler, but with a compositional knottiness that keeps it from being too dirge-like. The pieces where Cooper-Moore steps in with his diddley-bo, a one-stringed instrument with deep African roots, are particularly interesting, as it almost takes the place of an acoustic bass, while creating these weirdly phased patterns of sound. There's a great level of balance and tension throughout the length of the album between the soulful and the ecstatic, and Jones' wide, wide vibrato reaches some spectacular heights. -Michael Klausman
At the heart of the Triptych Myth trio is Cooper-Moore -- a pianist, composer, educator, storyteller, and inventor of several intriguing homemade instruments. One of my personal favorites amongst the elders on the New York jazz scene, his roots-inspired compositions are some of the most engaging, diverse, and magnetic I've experienced, and his playing is consistently thrilling. For this recording from 2005, Cooper-Moore enlisted Tom Abbs on bass, and another wonderfully diverse musician, drummer Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground Duo/Sam Prekop), and the trio does a great job of breathing life into Cooper-Moore's arrangements. A blend of Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams and McCoy Tyner, the music is rich, complex, and multi-layered -- a bit of avant-garde improvisation and modal music's circular stride, with an underlined spiritual/uplifting aesthetic. Throughout the ten pieces that comprise their second album, The Beautiful, these three musicians work their way across a spectrum of styles, from the groove-based walk-and-lock piano of "Poppa's Gin in the Chicken Feed," to the dissonant splashing cymbals, bowed bass, and stark piano chords of "A Time To." Never dark, loud, abrasive or unnecessarily noisy, Cooper-Moore's writing is based more on the joyful and bright introspection of life even when the trio becomes chaotic, as on "Spiraling Out." In the best possible way, he continues in the tradition of the AACM and the New York Loft Jazz era, and as he's more known for his instrument creations and solo work, that makes this rare chance to hear him in a more traditional grouping even more rewarding. Recommended listening for those interested in the contemporary -- somehow still underground -- NYC jazz scene, this is one of the best places to start. -Daniel Givens
Pianist Eri Yamamoto's third release for AUM Fidelity, and a follow up to her widely acclaimed and much loved Redwoods album of last year. In Each Day, Something Good continues the piano trio format, but this time in service to a somewhat different project, in which Yamamoto and her cohorts David Ambrosio and Ikuo Takeuchi, on bass and drums respectively, create a soundtrack to Yasujiro Ozu's classic silent film of 1932, I Was Born, But... Next to Kurosawa, Ozu is arguably the greatest filmmaker to have come from Japan, and his incredibly moving films manage to be both playful and rigorously constructed, full of odd angles and interesting vantage points. Almost needless to say, this brief description of Ozu's films could serve as a fitting description of Yamamoto's art making as well. She eschews flashiness in favor of an almost modest, ruminative approach that remains extraordinarily beguiling, with a knack for writing instantly memorable themes. -Michael Klausman
One would think that the piano trio format would have played out its creative potential long ago, but I've got to tell you, there's not a cliche to be found within a hundred miles of this lovely recording. Yamamato is a classically trained pianist from Japan who converted to jazz after hearing a Tommy Flanagan concert, she moved to New York in 1995 and studied under Reggie Workman at the New School, and for the last several years has played two sets nightly, Thursday through Saturday, at the venerable Arthur's Tavern on Grove St. in the West Village with David Ambrosio on bass and Ikuo Takeuchi on drums. She's been heavily touted by Matthew Shipp and William Parker, two men who surely know an original thing when they hear it, though to my ears her playing is in a slightly different idiom than the one they've come to represent. She plays with an extraordinary economy that is deceptively simple, and while her melodies are completely engaging and memorable, you can see a very complicated and knotty thought process working itself out. Such a sensitive, open and airy touch on the ballads, but more than able to summon the fleet and ferocious delivery that the confounding logic of her tunes "Bumpy Trail" and "Water Bottle Princess" demands. So much new jazz I hear these days, both avant and traditional, just seems so freighted and encumbered by the weight of its history, but Yamamato, perhaps by the grace of having come to jazz so relatively recently, doesn't seem to have paid any heed to the past's stultifying effects. And despite the risk of placing that burden around her neck, I can't help but think that she's revived a form and the sense of discovery I hear when I listen to the likes of Herbie Nichols, Paul Bley, Monk, Money Jungle, and Dollar Brand. Needless to say, highly recommended. -Michael Klausman
Just one short month after hurricane Katrina forced him to flee his native New Orleans, tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan found himself in a completely improvised recording session with percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker. It was a true testament to living in the moment, even if that moment was preceded by total disaster, in this case the loss of his home. Jordan had been a New Orleans fixture for the better part of 50 years and he had recorded with a diverse group of musicians, from Ray Charles to Martha and the Vandellas and Earl King. He is synonymous with New Orleans jazz and has been for quite some time. But over the last few years, he had also discovered a voice under the leadership of fellow tenor player, Chicagoan Fred Anderson. So when Jordan fled up north and found himself in the company of like-minded musical explorers, the results were a natural extension of their work together with Anderson. Only now it was just the three of them. Jordan's lyrical ability is ever-present, nuanced and upfront. Swirls of color fill the air on tunes like "Living Peace," only to disseminate of wide plans of space. And when backed by Parker, who for the most part leaves the bass aside in favor of the guimbri (a North African six-stringed instrument), and Drake, who joins on drums, tablas, frame drums and voice, this serves to give the music a decidedly Eastern tone within the American free jazz language. For those interested in the intersection of traditions and cultures that musicians like Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders explored, take note. Palm of Soul will satisfy. -Geoff Albores Throughout the history of jazz there has been an unfortunate rivalry between musicians from Chicago and New York. Though this has sent ripples throughout the scene, some have, however, managed to put differences aside and used their skills to create wonderful and engaging music. Such is the case with New Yorker William Parker and Chicago resident Hamid Drake, Summer Snow being their second release as a duo. Much like their previous outing, each brings a special tone and mode to the collaboration, moving from free improv to loose and casual structures. Drake is a skilled multi-percussionist who's able to induce a trance with nothing more than a bass drum and/or handheld frame drum, and here he uses both as well as gongs and tablas. Parker's deep, dark and heavy tone can be heard on his mainstay bass not to mention water bowls, dumbek, talking drum, shakuachi, and doson'nguni. Minimal earthy rhythms with intricate and ancient overtones are the foundations for the listening experience here. With this collaboration both show that they can move beyond egos and get down to business. Their generation isn't getting any younger, maybe this will spark more to follow suit. -Daniel Givens
William Parker's Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra is always a full-on tour de force of complex composition and large ensemble improvisation. Recorded at live appearances throughout 1999, this is a monster album. That's in both performance and composition, not to mention sheer volume: it clocks in at over 140 minutes. Pieces like "James Baldwin to the Rescue" capture a spirit and sound matched only by Sun Ra's Arkestra, with Aleta Hayes' soaring voice approximating the soulful croon of June Tyson. "3 Steps for Noh Mountain" is divided perfectly into three sections, the first a slow, prodding, beautiful marching theme, the third adding an eastern melody strain to a different melodic marching theme, creating a mood not far from the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra's finest moments. The title track might be Little Huey's most epic work to date: over thirty minutes of varying themes, stunning free playing and dazzling interplay. Nothing short of monumental. -Phil Waldorf
This 2008 effort from William Parker was recorded live but due to some technical difficulties it had to be revisited again the next day in a studio, and the resulting Double Sunrise Over Neptune is a melding of these two performances. In the end this turned out to be quite a good thing because what we get are two very different versions of the same track under different names ("Morning Mantra" and "Neptune's Mirror") book-ending the expansive, 27-minute "Lights of Lake George." Though both versions explore rhythmic and melodic elements of Asia and Africa, "Morning Mantra" seems to be the more compressed of the two while "Neptune's Mirror" allows for more solo space. Joined by sixteen musicians including his working quartet, a string section, an oud player and vocalist Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, the full weight of such a large ensemble gives rise to some interesting interplay between styles and disciplines. "Lights Over Lake George" seems to join seemingly disparate musical corners of the globe into a coherent and articulate collage of jazz, (Middle) Eastern and African signatures. The steady rhythm of Hamid Drake's frame drum and Parker's double bass anchor the entire song in a hypnotic state that allows various elements to swell and recede into the background. Build ups of strings, trumpet and Sangeeta's long, drawn-out Hindi vocals trade space and work to counterbalance the varied levels of tension occurring throughout. Under lesser direction this could easily get out of control, but nothing is ever allowed to meander too far out. Overall a most satisfying effort. -Geoff Albores
In the forty-plus years of Bill Dixon's musical careers he performed (relatively infrequently), composed (prolifically), taught at universities (extensively), and recorded (sparsely relative to the amount of compositions he has written). So it was with welcome arms that we got not one but two recordings back in 2008 by this great trumpeter (the other album being a collaboration with Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra -- out on Thrill Jockey). This record at hand is a scattering of small sketches and drawn-out pieces in which Dixon composes rich, detailed and spatial smatterings of color and tone. Wide-open expanses are book-ended by tension and rage filled build-ups, paralleling the inspiration for this album. Utilizing this large ensemble allows the music to move gracefully from spacious, thematic explorations of pain and suffering to urgent and violent percussion and brass eruptions. There is a great deal of sound information to be absorbed here so multiple listens will be necessary to fully see what Dixon was trying to express. -Geoff Albores
An epic release from a group that you may not realize merits such treatment (but they do!), this career-spanning 4-disc box from Chicago's Shrimp Boat, comprised almost entirely of unreleased material, is a deep and powerful set, full of surprises for both old fans and newcomers. Perhaps best known as Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge's pre- Sea and Cake project, the band also featured Chicago star producer Brad Wood, as well as Ian Schneller and several other talented and eclectic players during its eight-year run from 1985 to '93. A classic art-school band (several of the groups members have since developed successful careers in the visual arts), the band's skewed artistic vision touched on nearly all of the varied musical stylings that in later years have become lynchpins of Chicago's vaunted underground scene. And in many ways they seem to have kick-started the musical renaissance of the Windy City, gleefully mixing their indie-pop (perhaps the New Zealand variety) with classic country and roots music (both the Carter Family and the Meat Puppets come to mind), free jazz, soulful grooves and exhilarating experimentalism (think TFUL282, or maybe Royal Trux with less heroin and more beer and psychedelics). Touching on alt-country, post-rock and improvisation before we knew it was cool for rock bands to do that, at a time when Naked Raygun was the biggest game in town, and hard, tight guitar bands ruled. And amazingly, the group seemed to have an unerring sense of just how far they could push the limits of their own abilities, tackling varied styles without relinquishing the Shrimp Boat sound, and never sounding like pretenders. The set is arranged roughly chronologically, with the first disc comprised of 4-track recordings made in '87 and '88, when David Kroll was still in the group, and they feature his plucky banjo playing throughout. Far from "country", these tracks nonetheless betray a passion for American roots music as well as crash and drone. Disc two spans '89 to '91, after Wood joined the group, and about half of it was recorded to 16-track at his Idful Music Studios, as well as a number of live tracks from Chicago's Cabaret Metro and elsewhere. Besides taking over the drum kit, Wood's soprano sax clashes with Kroll's tenor as the group more formally explores its jazzier side. We can also hear the band tighten its pop side, with cleaner song structures and a more focused approach. The third disc covers '92 and '93, and although it is still chock full of variety, the most startling change is the addition of tenor saxophonist Joe Vajarsky, whose fluid playing and rich tone can easily fool you into forgetting that this is an indie rock band, not "legitimate" jazz improvisers. Add to this a career-spanning "bonus" disc and you have an immensely satisfying package. Within its many hours of surprises, you can hear Prekop's distinctive vocal and guitar styles emerge, and fans of his work with the Sea and Cake will be thrilled by these early tracks, both for their similarities to his later work, and their differences, as he takes more chances and drops the cool demeanor that he has since perfected. As well, we hear Claridge's beautiful melodic bass playing (and on the early tapes, drumming), Wood's first stabs at the drums and early production work, as well as a bevy of delights from the rest of this talented and influential crew. The final product more than justifies the love and attention that went into creating this music, and compiling the set, and I for one am glad that these tracks are not forever confined to the scrap heap of history. -Josh Madell |
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