Michael Vlatkovich: With You Jazz Cat

  It always brightens my day when a new CD from trombonist/composer Michael Vlatkovich arrives. His latest communiqué is With You Jazz Cat, nine new tunes arranged for an octet plus a short trombone and piano duet. The bittersweet opener is Mister 60, with a fine Vlatkovich solo, buoyed by the rhythm section of keyboardist (and recording engineer) Wayne Peet, bassist Dominic Genova, and percussionist Ken Park. Vlatkovich’s music draws on jazz of all eras, movie and cartoon music, and a whole lot more, all filtered though his idiosyncratic temperament and unique sense of humor. The mission seems to create an always fresh and always changing setting that frames and enhances the solo work by Vlatkovich and his confrères. Especially bright moments are provided by Peet’s soulful organ introduction to Friends 9113, a wild soprano sax solo by Andrew Park on Bob, the fish that discovered water, bassist Genova’s well-mannered solo on the Ellington-ish 011 ...... 923, the ensemble’s lush sonorities on Association of the Well Meaning, and of course, Vlatkovich himself. I was particularly knocked out by his endearingly melancholy solo on the ironically titled Nursing Home fashion show and his lyrical spot on Friends 9113, not to mention his gut-bucket style outing on Bob, the fish that discovered water. Check out With You Jazz Cat and you’ll be sure to find your own favorites. Happily recommended. 

pfMENTUM PFMCD142; Greg Zilboorg, Louis Lopez (tpt) Michael Vlatkovich (tbn) Bill Plake (ts) Andrew Pask (ss, bari s) Wayne Peet (kybds) Dominic Genova (b) Ken Park (perc); Los Angeles, CA, 2018-2020; Mister 60/ Don’t know what you’ve lost until it’s gone/ Friends 9113/ Bob, the fish that discovered water/ Nursing Home fashion show/ 011 ...... 923/ I’ll show him who he thinks we are/ Association of the Well Meaning/ How is anyone going to recognize you without your disguise?/ Jazz Cat; 61:24. www.pfmentum.com

Enzo Carniel and Filippo Vignato as Silent Room: Aria.

  Just a few minutes of the eponymous opening track on Aria., by the trombone/piano duo of Enzo Carniel and Filippo Vignato as Silent Room, is enough to lower my blood pressure and magically make me almost totally relaxed. The spell continues with Waterdreams, and it’s fascinating to me how such quiet and slowly moving music should be this soothing. Back when “new age” music was all the rage, I found that the supposedly calming effect often affected me in quite another way, making me unusually nervous. Happily, there are no pretensions in Silent Room, just two closely aligned performers, content to float along and bounce ideas off of one another as they meander through eight original pieces. Trombonist Vignato’s broad tones and slightly phrasing make an ideal match for pianist Carniel’s thick voicings and more assertive playing. Occasionally, as on Stretched Mirrors and the multi-part In All Nilautpala, there are mild electronic effects which serve to enhance the already subdued atmosphere. Things get a trifle stranger on the closing Aria ‘Electro” where the electronic treatments are more pronounced. The mellow feeling engendered by the rest of the disc remains largely intact, and makes me long for a follow-up that more deeply involves the subtle clouds of electronic wizardry. For now, Aria., the first effort from Silent Room, is a genuine pleasure to listen to, and easily recommended. 

Menace MNC009 (CD, LP, download); Filippo Vignato (tbn) Enzo Carniel (p, prep p, Rhodes el p, synth); Arezzo, Italy, no dates specified; Aria/ Waterdreams/ Babele/ Stretched Mirrors/ Earth Echo/ Arbre d’Airain/ In All Nilautpala/ Aria ‘Electro”; 46:02. menaceparis.bandcamp.com/album/aria

Michaël Attias & Simon Nabatov: Brooklyn Mischiefs

 

Michaël Attias & Simon Nabatov met to play together for the first time in July 2014 when the alto saxophonist and pianist were booked together at a Brooklyn club. Brooklyn Mischiefs was unearthed from Nabatov’s archives during a pandemic that precludes events like this one. The program offers five spontaneous inventions plus a brief look at Herbie Nichols’ The Spinning Song. Their intense concentration and cohesion are evident from the very start of Glimpses & Tangles, the aptly named first track. Attias likens the “miracle of a happy first encounter” to the “sudden ease of dreams ...” The key difference, of course, between dreaming and actually living the dream is the intention and action required to bring their music into being. In this respect, the adaptable Nabatov and the volatile Attias make an exemplary pair with instant compositions seemingly plucked from the air. The moods range from careful tone poems to full-on rampages and almost everything between those poles, sometimes in the space of one improvisation, like Languid. That’s the first half of a medley with the Nichols tune, alluded to then elaborated by Nabatov. Attias re-enters the scene and they proceed to spar and commune for a spell. While I’m partial to the jauntier sections of their journey, like the second half of Gowanus at Night or the happy-go-lucky feeling that emerges in the midst of Glances, improvised music fans will find much here to hold their interest. Recommended. 

Leo CD LR 901; Michaël Attias (as) Simon Nabatov (p); Brooklyn, NY, July 6, 2014; Glimpses & Tangles/ Gowanus By Night/ Medley: Languid, The Spinning Song/ Glances/ Poetic Bug Bite; 53:38. www.leorecords.com

Jeremiah Cymerman: Citadels & Sanctuaries

  Primarily a clarinetist, Jeremiah Cymerman also has a way with electronics. Witness his new solo effort, Citadels & Sanctuaries, with ten tracks dedicated to composers and performers who have been important to his development. It’s an interesting selection, largely devoted to modern classical composers including Toru Takemitsu, Alvin Lucier, and Morton Feldman, plus a few names that will be familiar to a listener coming to this album from the jazz side of things. Bill Smith played clarinet with Dave Brubeck in the Fifties, and went on to compose under the name William O. Smith. The composition dedicated to him, From the Metaphysical to the Transcendental, leads off the set with a smooth melodic line and orchestral sounding electronics. The piece’s hushed demeanor relaxes the listener, which makes the piercing electronics and wildly overblown clarinet of Spheres of Humanity (for Alvin Lucier) even more startling than it might be in another context. The strangeness continues with The Absolute and Its Tearing (for Horaţiu Rădulescu). Here it’s the clarinet jumping up into higher tones, complete with circular breathing techniques, while the electronic effects make me think of a pack of race cars in competition. Another dedicatee, clarinetist Tony Scott, started out with Benny Carter and Claude Thornhill in the Forties, then played with Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday and led his own bands in the Fifties. In 1964, he recorded Music For Zen Meditation for Verve, generally considered the first “new age” album, which is likely to be what he is most remembered for. Cymerman’s tribute to him, For As Long As Grass Grows, puts the clarinet at the calm center of swirling electronics. With the Old Breed, a joking title dedicated to the fierce modernist Nate Wooley, is the noisiest of the batch, with fearsome electronic textures that could be out of a monster movie soundtrack, coupled to a soothing organ tone that’s way down in the mix. Manifesto, written for the Romanian composer Iancu Dumitrescu, is curiously absorbing, with what sounds largely like tightly controlled and contoured feedback. I suppose that there’s some clarinet in there, but it’s hard to pick out from the mass of sound. For a minute of two, I swear I could have been listening to the Grateful Dead, circa 1969 (!). The finale, Conscious Faith, is for innovative saxophonist and instant composer Evan Parker. A slow-moving mass of bell-like tones, a quivering bass line, and washes of synthesized sound surround Cymerman’s processed clarinet. It concludes with everything fading out except for the ghostly notes at the very top of the clarinet’s range as the listener exits Cymerman’s very personal soundworld and goes back to the noises of everyday life. Citadels & Sanctuaries is a powerful collection, well worth investigation. 

5049 Records; Jeremiah Cymerman (cl, elec); Brooklyn, NY, November 2020; From the Metaphysical to the Transcendental (for Bill Smith)/ Spheres of Humanity (for Alvin Lucier)/ The Absolute and Its Tearing (for Horaţiu Rădulescu)/ Broken Language (For Morton Feldman)/ Between Always and Forever (for Toru Takemitsu)/ Knot of Breath (for Mario Diaz de Léon)/ For As Long As Grass Grows (for Tony Scott)/ With the Old Breed (for Nate Wooley)/ Manifesto (for Iancu Dumitrescu)/ Conscious Faith (for Evan Parker); 47:24. www.5049records.com