^ Casey Veggies
James Carter, At The Crossroads (Decca/EmArcy)
There’s no doubt that At The Crossroads, the new James Carter organ trio album on Emarcy, is competent, interesting and well-recorded. I want to give it a good review, believe me. And far be it from me to tell anyone how to make their music. But the fact is that an album like At The Crossroads is a step backwards for organ trio music. 1958 was a great year, don’t get me wrong, but it’s 2011, and we’ve already had Larry Young show us what the potential of organ-based music can be. Before 1964, At The Crossroads was the epitome of funky, hard-driving hard-bop. But, as I said, it is definitely no longer before 1964.
Do you want an album that will take you back to the good old days? This is it. But if you want to hear what an organ trio can really do, buy Into Somethin’ or Unity by Larry Young.
Rez Abbasi’s Invocation, Suno Suno (Enja)
It’s good. It’s slightly less fun to listen to than Kurt Rosenwinkel with Mark Turner, and slightly more fun than a Marty Ehrlich record. Rudresh Mahanthappa (who has some shades of Ehrlich) is inventive as ever, Dan Weiss on drums is, well, on drums, and Johannes Weidenmuller holds down the bass chair.
Vijay Iyer stands out right away – he’s not tethered down by the feel of the song, but he never abandons it. He adds some much-needed variation to the color scheme of each tune. Abbasi’s guitar is as interesting as it’s ever been, which is meant as a compliment. Abbasi should be better known, as, indeed, all of these players should be. Some club should put these guys in rotation, five days a week, different leader each night. These sounds are far from ground-breaking, but the way they’re presented here has the potential to add something hugely significant to jazz. Recommended.
Joan Stiles, Three Musicians (Oo-Bla-Dee)
The bassless trio is an underrepresented unit in today's jazz scene, so it was a nice surprise to see pianist Joan Stiles's newest record, Three Musicians, in the mailbox, especially as her bandmates, drummer Matt Wilson and saxophonist Joel Frahm, are so musical and versatile in their own right (Wilson's drumming is a melodic descendant of Max Roach, although his touch is lighter, and Frahm recorded a beautiful duo album with Brad Mehldau that stands on legs of unshakable steel). And though the setlist made me nervous ("Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" in a medley with "Can't Buy Me Love?" Uh-oh...) the music itself more than delivered. Each tune is a marvel, full and powerful, lacking in nothing. Stiles doesn't spend too much time in the lower registers as a compensation for the lack of bass, and Wilson never overplays. Frahm is his usual lyric, inventive self - his rendition of the melody of one of my favorite ballads, "Lucky To Be Me," is a lesson in elaboration with the sacrifice of either substance or the source material. While some of the more "out" sounds on the disc are less than completely successful, they are nevertheless refreshing for their risks, and are as rewarding as the faultless post-bop that sits beside them. Highly recommended.
Sunna Gunnlaugs, Long Pair Bond (Sunny Sky)
I love a good ECM record, but it's hard to find that sound outside of the tight perimeters of the label itself. Pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs, whose newest record, Long Pair Bond, is set for release on November 11th, certainly gets close to the ECM aesthetic. Gunnlaugs, who is from Iceland, has no problem finding the spacily clean-cut place frequented by so many ECM pianists (Marcin Wasilewski, Anat Fort, Colin Vallon), and once she's there she has no problem filling that space. It's not a perfect disc, by any means - taken as a whole, the tracks tend to blend together - but each individual tune has enough quirks and surprises to keep the album moving along. It even has - gasp! - a tune that swings, rare indeed for a contemporary jazz album these days, and even rarer for one imported from Europe. Drummer Scott McLemore (Gunnlaugs's husband) has a crisp, clean sound, and is just tasteful enough to still be fully in the picture, while bassist Þorgrímur Jónsson lends a deep, woody sound that does much to bring the music down to earth. Too much spaciness can wreck a good album, and too much earth can, too. Long Pair Bond gets pretty darn close to the perfect balance.
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Big Sean, Finally Famous
The fact that rapper Big Sean’s last three mixtapes have been called Finally Famous may diminish the power of his first official album’s title, but not much. There is a slickly-produced grandeur to Finally Famous, a cross between the brash thud of a Kanye West song (“Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” for example) and the meodic halfway-rap of a Kid Cudi or a Drake (…”Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” for example).
Is Finally Famous full of deep revelations about the rap world? Excuse me while I cry from laughter. Kanye West, who appears on this album, has mastered the art of telling you a truth hidden under a brag, an insult, or an inanity. Big Sean just tells you the brag, or insult, or inanity, but he does it as well as anyone else in the game. The truths on this album come from Lupe Fiasco (who appears on the marvelous “Wait For Me,” buoyed by a Wilson Pickett sample). Kanye makes an appearance on “Marvin & Chardonnay,” doing that energetically bragadocious thing he does every once in a while (think of Kid Cudi’s “Make Her Say” slowed wayyy down).
It’s inconsistent. It’s superficial. It’s not fully formed, that’s for sure. But it’s fun, and it’s recommended.
Casey Veggies, Sleeping In Class
Casey Veggies is the most mature in Tyler The Creator’s Odd Future, a fact proven by his leaving the group and starting out on his own. No longer an Oddity, Veggies has found a solid, meaty voice and a way with picking guests and production, and has produced a consistently rewarding first album, Sleeping In Class.
Listening to a track from the first of Casey's Customized Greatly next to one from this latest disc is an eye-opener. Veggies has matured, not necessarily in what he raps about but rather in how he presents that subject matter. The obviously high-school voice heard in 2008 has, three years later, filled out and muscled up. His swaggering lyrics flow off his tongue smoothly and naturally, leaving the listener with no sense of unrealized ambitions on the rapper's part. Casey Veggies may not have done everything he says he has on Sleeping In Class, but at least he makes it sound convincing.
The standout track for me is "Can I Live," a driving track near the end of the record. Mac Miller, whose own record comes out November 1st, is featured, but Casey is the star. His voice is strong, shaping the final syllable of each line with a force full of spit and energy. This album sounds the same (minus the spit, I guess), and it's one of the best I've heard in quite a while - especially from so young an artist.
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