Piano Solos by Roberto Magris, Pat Thomas, Matthew Shipp

   

    Pianist Roberto Magris combines deep feeling, a command of the keyboard, and exquisite taste in picking material for Lovely Day(s), an enchanting solo recital. There’s just one of his original tunes, the blues that starts things off. The rest of this charming date feature songs from an interesting array of composers, nearly all jazz pianists. There are two by Andrew Hill, a gorgeous Reverend Du Bop and an appropriately tender Laverne, Hill’s dedication to his wife. Thelonious Monk, one of Magris’ key influences, is represented by a playful Bemsha Swing and a musical dissection of Let’s Cool One. The most obscure piece, by far, is pianist Billy Gault’s The Time of This World is at Hand, which first appeared on Gault’s only album, When Destiny Calls, a 1974 release on SteepleChase. No one has picked up on the straight forward groove of this one save for Magris, who previously recorded it in duet with bassist Eric Hochberg in 2019. Magris’ version of Billy Strayhorn’s timeless A Flower is a Lovesome Thing gets a few mildly surprising flourishes along the way, without veering far from the melody. Leonard Bernstein’s Lonely Town, from the 1944 musical On The Town, is the oldest piece of the session. It’s played with a solemn feeling, and leads right into Steve Kuhn’s Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers, which gets a rousingly emphatic treatment to conclude the program. The year 2025 has been full of unlovely days, but nearly an hour spent with Roberto Magris at the keyboard is bound to improve your mood. This is Magris’ first outing as a piano soloist in his four-decade career. I’m already looking forward to the next one. Warmly recommended. JMood JM 025; Roberto Magris (p); Trieste, Italy, January 10* or 11, 2024; Blues Clues/ Reverend Du Bop/ Bemsha Swing/ Laverne*/ The Time of This World is at Hand/ A Flower is a Lovesome Thing/ Let’s Cool One*/ Lonely Town/ Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers; 55:23. www.jmoodrecords.com 

    The pianist Pat Thomas, thoroughly in command of his instrument, delivers a staggeringly intense recital on Hikmah (“wisdom” in Arabic). Matthew Shipp has written about what he defines as the Black Mystery School of Pianists, and Thomas surely fits into the lineage of Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Mal Waldron, Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, and (although he modestly leaves himself out), Matthew Shipp. One of the major attributes of the Mystery School is what Shipp calls “the iconoclastic nature of it.” He goes on to note that “As in the ultimate example of Monk, the artist carves out a niche for themselves within the world of the jazz universe.” And that’s exactly what Thomas has done, with this batch of truly original compositions, most of which are inspired by and dedicated to specific individuals. From the dense and playful For Toumani Diabaté and hypnotically pulsing melodies of For Caroline L. Karcher to Thomas’ inside the piano forays on Luqman the Wise and the kalimba-like For McCoy Tyner, Thomas covers plenty of musical ground in less than an hour. I admit that I’m very late to the world of Pat Thomas, who first made himself felt on the London new music scene in the late Eighties. I’ve got quite a lot of catching up to do, and the immersive Hikmat is a glorious way to start. Absolutely recommended! TAO Forms TAO 19; Pat Thomas (p); London, England, September 22, 2024; Hikmah/ For Joe Gallivan/ The Shehu/ For Toumani Diabaté/ Luqman the Wise/ For Caroline L. Karcher/ For McCoy Tyner/ Sheikh Amadou Bamba; 51:09. aumfidelity.com/collections/tao-forms

    What more can you say about the magnificent playing of pianist Matthew Shipp that hasn’t already been written about his work? The Cosmic Piano is a solo work released by Cantaloupe Music, a label founded by New York’s Bang on a Can organization. This recording came to Cantaloupe at Shipp’s request, as a way of encouraging listeners to approach the work in a different context. As David Lang, one of the artistic directors of Bang on a Can, writes in a brief liner essay entitled Just Listen, “People like categories,” and he also states that “Everything about Matthew Shipp is about welcoming the unexpected.” It’s both impossible and pointless to try and figure out from just listening if any of this music is composed or if the one-day session was totally improvised. Titles like Cosmic Junk Jazz DNA, Radio Signals from Jazz Keys, and Suburban Outerspace hint at Shipp’s wry attitude to genres. In his playing, there are intimations of Monk, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Mal Waldron, and even a touch of Art Tatum now and again. But it’s all Shipp, and he is in top form for this wondrous hour spent in his world. Just listen. Cantaloupe Music CA21208; Matthew Shipp (p); NYC, September 8, 2024; The Cosmic Piano/ Cosmic Junk Jazz DNA/ Orbit Light/ Piano’s DNA Upgrade/ The Other Dimensional Tone/ Blues Orgasm/ Radio Signals from Jazz Keys/ Suburban Outerspace/ Face to Face/ Subconscious Piano/ The Future is in the Past/ A Cosmic Thank You; 55:30. cantaloupemusic.com
 

James Brandon Lewis/ Red Lily Quintet: For Mahalia, With Love

  Sometimes you know it immediately. It took me less than 20 seconds to realize that For Mahalia, With Love by James Brandon Lewis and his Red Lily Quintet was going to be a deeply moving and spiritual set of modern music. And so it is. In what proves to be a perfect pairing of material and musicians, tenor saxophonist Lewis, inspired by childhood memories of his grandmother talking about Mahalia Jackson, wrote arrangements for a batch of songs associated with the great gospel singer. The performances by the Red Lily Quintet fuse the time-honored melodies with the fervor of the modern tenor saxophone tradition, as exemplified by innovators like Albert Ayler and David Murray. Joining Lewis in the front line is the imaginative cornetist Kirk Knuffke. Drummer Chad Taylor and bassist William Parker are a superbly responsive rhythm team. The quintet is rounded out by Chris Hoffman on cello, an instrument that seems to insist on multiple roles in an improvising context, from bass-like pizzicato to horn-styled arco work and more. That calls for great versatility and command, and Hoffman, a regular in various Henry Threadgill ensembles since 2011, has all that and more. His solo, leading into a duet passage with Parker on Deep River is just one of the program’s many high points. The spirit of the quintet is powerful from start to finish, and the quintet’s devoted recastings are thrilling. For Mahalia, With Love is a wonderful CD, totally recommended. And that’s before I mention a companion CD with the first edition of Lewis performing an original suite, These Are Soulful Days (51:53), recorded live in Poland (Wrocław, November 21, 2021) with the Lutosławski String Quartet. The format is not really my cup of tea, but it is a chance to hear another side of the adventuresome Lewis. 

TAO Forms TAO 13 (CD [first edition with bonus disc]; 2-lp set; & digital album; Kirk Knuffke (cnt) James Brandon Lewis (ts) Chris Hoffman (clo) William Parker (b) Chad Taylor (d, tambourine); South Orange, NJ, no dates specified; Sparrow/ Swing Low/ Go Down Moses/ Wade in the Water/ Calvary/ Deep River/ Elijah Rock/ Were You There/ Precious Lord; 71:35. aumfidelity.com/collections/tao-forms

Whit Dickey Quartet: Root Perspectives

  Drummer Whit Dickey has said that he got into music “by accessing a vibration.” His latest effort, on his own TAO Forms imprint, is the constantly surprising and deeply intense Root Perspectives by the Whit Dickey Quartet. He notes that this album was conceived “off of a vibration” that he felt fully fifteen years ago, in a period when he was “obsessively listening” to the title track on John Coltrane’s Crescent album. That obsession has generated this bold and serious music that acts in part like a commentary on the Coltrane song but mainly as an imaginative extension. The opening track, Supernova, starts out in quietly angular fashion, rapidly growing in power over the course of eleven minutes. The piece clearly evokes the later work of the Coltrane quartet. It’s the first of four extended performances that ebb and flow in a sensually organic way. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s gruffly expressive and fluid playing is definitely influenced by ‘Trane, not in his sound so much, but more in his ever-searching and spiritually oriented attitude. Pianist Matthew Shipp has amassed many hours of playing with Dickey over the last thirty years in bands led by David S. Ware, Ivo Perelman, and Shipp’s own efforts, among others. Naturally enough, he sounds thoroughly at home here. His use of dynamics and waves of sound mirrors Dickey’s loose-limbed approach to the drum kit. Although the fourth member of the band, bassist Brandon Lopez, is a relative latecomer to the scene, his fidgety style and the complexity of his time sense make him a natural for this band. The pieces here fit together perfectly, with the individual proclivities of the musicians in uniform dedication to the exigencies of Dickey’s compositions. All told, Root Perspectives is a fascinating listen, strongly recommended. 

TAO Forms TAO 12; Tony Malaby (ts) Matthew Shipp (p) Brandon Lopez (b) Whit Dickey (d); Brooklyn, NY, May 7, 2022; Supernova/ Doomsday Equation/ Swamp Petals/ Starship Lotus; 50:34. aumfidelity.com/collections/tao-forms

Tani Tabbal Trio: Now Then

  The Tani Tabbal Trio features the accomplished drummer/leader with bassist Michael Bisio and alto saxophonist Adam Siegel. Their new CD, Now Then, appears on Whit Dickey’s newly formed TAO Forms imprint. It’s the band’s third release; the first two came out on Tabbalia Sound, the drummer’s own label. But those are not easy to find, and Now Then effectively serves as an introduction of the trio to a wider audience. The trio plunges right into Arrested Confusion, a Bisio composition, sounding anything but confused. What you notice first is how closely attuned these musicians are to one another. Bisio’s résumé includes recordings with luminaries including Joe McPhee, Connie Crothers, and Matthew Shipp, while Tabbal is probably best known for his work with bandleaders Roscoe Mitchell, Geri Allen, and David Murray. The younger Siegel fits in perfectly, with a sound that melds such disparate influences as Lee Konitz, Anthony Braxton, and Henry Threadgill into his own personal conception. Bisio, who is as articulate with words as well as his bass, writes that Siegel’s “lines can be cold as ice, burn blue or burst supernova.” One of the disc’s many highlights comes with Tabbal’s scorchingly fast title track, where Siegel’s alto skitters and leaps, bursting forth with ever-bolder torrents of sound. Now there are echoes of Marshall Allen and Oliver Lake in his outbursts. With Siegel out front all the way through, the team of Bisio and Tabbal is exemplary in developing the dynamic contours and muscular flow of the music. Another high point is Bisio’s Oh See OC Revisited, where Siegel solos in a relatively subdued and bluesy style. He doesn’t sound much like Ornette Coleman here, while Bisio and Tabbal joyously evoke the camaraderie and bounce that rhythm teams like Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins brought to Coleman’s music. The band also gets into uncommon strategies for improvisation like the Tabbal’s atomized and quiet Midway Open and his edgy and occasionally grating Scrunch, which gives Siegel a chance to probe the upper reaches of his horn. Another Bisio composition, r. henry, is dedicated to American painter Robert Henri (1865-1929), The piece features a sweet melody articulated by bowed bass and alto, followed by a crafty solo section that balances guitar-like meanderings by the composer with quiet, mellow tones by Siegel and Tabbal’s alternating cymbals and tom-toms. Inky Bud, another smoking assault composed by Tabbal, concludes Now Then in style. Experiencing the music of the Tabbal trio at home one notes the richly detailed mix, the work of Jim Clouse, who also recorded the session. Listening to the set on headphones makes clear the nuances of the three-way conversations among these imaginative instrumentalists. Definitely recommended. 

Tao Forms TAO 03; Adam Siegel (as) Michael Bisio (b) Tani Tabbal (d); Brooklyn, NY, December 5, 2019; Arrested Confusion/ Just Woke Up/ Khusenaton/ Sun History Ra Mystery/ Now Then/ Midway Open/ Oh See OC Revisited/ Scrunch/ r. henri/ Inky Bud; 67:39. aumfidelity.com/collections/tao-forms