Jazz

Django Bates’ Belovèd: The Study Of Touch (ECM 2534)

| Tyran Grillo

The Study of Touch

Django Bates’ Belovèd
The Study Of Touch

Django Bates piano
Petter Eldh double bass
Peter Bruun drums
Recorded June 2016 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo
Engineer: Jan Erik Kongshaug
Produced by Manfred Eicher
U.S. release date: November 3, 2017

British pianist Django Bates makes his ECM leader debut with The Study Of Touch, and by its release gives hope to fatalists who see the piano trio as a dying genre. Bates himself was only convinced of throwing his own hat into that congested ring upon hearing his future bandmates—bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun—in the halls of Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory, where he’d just begun teaching in 2005. First conceived as an improvisation outfit, his Belovèd trio grew to encompass the formative influence of Charlie Parker as a springboard for Bates’ own writing. Parker’s spirited “Passport” is, in fact, one of only two non-originals on the program. The other, “This World” by Iain Ballamy, harks to the saxophonist’s All Men Amen (B&W, 1995), on which Bates appeared. Significantly enough, on Ballamy’s album this tune’s title was followed by four ellipses, whereas here those ellipses are gone, implying expressive surety. This symbolic change speaks to something vital about Bates’ artistry, by which each gesture feels as inevitable as the mind-melded contributions of his rhythm section. It’s there in the topsy-turvy feel of “We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way” and underlying blues of “Senza Bitterness.” Such balance of slip and grip can only come from many hours of playing together without a roadmap.

Despite the many personal associations on which the tunes are founded, if not also because of them, listeners can’t help but merge at any given moment onto the band’s ever-changing fast lane of thought. Between the reflective “Little Petherick” and meatier “Slippage Street,” tessellated “Giorgiantics” and lushly colored “Peonies As Promised,” one encounters the clarity of anatomical drawing. The title track, along with the opener and closer, underscore this impression, sowing a sound defined by that which it refuses to define. Hence the prescience of touch as a theme for music rendered in that most asymptotic of contact zones between time and space, leaving us with one of the finest trio records of this millennium so far.

(This review originally appeared in the June 2018 issue of The New York City Jazz Record, a full PDF of which is available here.)

Uusitalo/Sloniker/Louhivuori: Northbound (feat. Seamus Blake)

| Tyran Grillo

Northbound-cover

Despite what its title would have you believe, Northbound hits every cardinal direction. At its core are Tuomo Uusitalo (piano), Myles Sloniker (bass) and Olavi Louhivuori (drums), who together form an indivisible unit of expression. Unlike some other simpatico ensembles, their rapport isn’t so much one of interlocking as hybridization, as evidenced by the free improvisations peppering the set. In these, the voice of each musician breathes through the same body. From the microscopic cartography of “Focus” to groove-seeking insights of “Awakening,” the music gels organically and with clarity of purpose.

Similar intuitions fortify the meat surrounding these bones, into which guest Seamus Blake blends the protein of his tenor saxophone throughout six originals. Each lends insight into its originator’s talents. Sloniker’s “Counterparts” and “Gomez Palacio,” like the bassist’s playing, balance arcs and angles, unraveling two knots for every one tied. Louhivuori offers a diptych of his own with “Forgotten” and “Song For Mr. Moorhead,” building in each a patient reach for consummation. The drummer bridges these with the free solo “Rumble,” evoking a distant storm, before Uusitalo rounds everything out with the album’s strongest compositions. “Pablo’s Insomnia” is a highlight for its composer’s right-handed solo and command of space while “The Aisle” builds to anthemic parting.

Regardless of the complexities of the mazes put before him, Blake navigates with his eyes closed and heart on autopilot. He emotes with boldness yet manages to be sensitive to his environment. Neither overpowering nor overpowered, he knows exactly when to unhinge himself with a screech of color and when to sing in monotone, thus embodying the rarest aspect of Northbound: namely, its gracious handling of every melody. There’s something sacred to be found here and respecting it demands full attention.

(This article originally appeared in the June 2018 issue of The New York City Jazz Record, a full PDF of which is available to download here.)

ECM by the Decades: The 2010s

| Tyran Grillo

On May 21, 2018, WKCR DJ Andrew Castillo and I presented the last in our five-part series, “ECM by the Decades,” focusing this time on the 2010s. The episode is now available to listen by clicking the PLAY button below. You may also download the full episode by clicking here. Scroll down for a full playlist, including links to my reviews (where available) of each album:


LEAD-IN
Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin
Awase (ECM 2603)
“Modul 36”

[INTRO @ 00:13:32]

00:17:20
Eivind Aarset
Dream Logic (ECM 2301)
“Homage To Greene”

00:22:47
Dominic Miller
Silent Light (ECM 2518)
“Water”

00:28:09
Björn Meyer
Provenance (ECM 2566)
“Provenance”

[BREAK @ 00:34:13]

00:36:47
Stefano Battaglia Trio
Songways (ECM 2286)
“Songways”

00:45:22
Colin Vallon Trio
Danse (ECM 2517)
“Kid”

00:51:28
Django Bates’ Belovèd
The Study Of Touch (ECM 2534)
“Little Petherick”

[BREAK @ 00:57:48]

01:01:03
Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet
Eight Winds (ECM 2407)
“In Circles”
(April 2014)

01:06:18
Michel Benita Ethics
River Silver (ECM 2483)
“Back From The Moon”

01:12:01
Anouar Brahem
Blue Maqams (ECM 2580)
“Bahia”

[BREAK @ 01:20:42]

01:22:46
Jacob Young
Forever Young (ECM 2366)
“Bounce”

01:30:29
Ferenc Snétberger
Titok (ECM 2468)
“Rambling”

01:37:50
Jakob Bro
Streams (ECM 2499)
“Heroines”

[BREAK @ 01:43:21]

01:45:53
Andrew Cyrille Quartet
The Declaration of Musical Independence (ECM 2430)
“Say”

01:50:48
Thomas Strønen
Time Is A Blind Guide (ECM 2467)
“The Stone Carriers”

01:57:27
Mathias Eick
Ravensburg (ECM 2584)
“Children”

[BREAK @ 02:03:10]

02:07:30
Aaron Parks
Find The Way (ECM 2489)
“Adrift”

02:13:07
Bobo Stenson Trio
Contra la indecision (ECM 2582)
“Élégie”

02:19:14
Shinya Fukumori Trio
For 2 Akis (ECM 2574)
“Mangetsu no Yube”

[BREAK @ 02:22:37]

02:26:56
Kristjan Randalu
Absence (ECM 2586)
“Sisu”

02:31:39
Maciej Obara Quartet
Unloved (ECM 2573)
“Unloved”

02:38:49
Ralph Towner / Wolfgang Muthspiel / Slava Grigoryan
Travel Guide (ECM 2310)
“Duende”

[CONCLUDING REMARKS @ 02:43:18]

LEAD-OUT
Elina Duni
Partir (ECM 2587)
“Amara Terra Mia”

ECM by the Decades: Final Installment Tonight

| Tyran Grillo

Join me and host Andrew Castillo tonight (May 21) on WKCR’s Jazz Alternatives program, from 6-9pm EST. We’re continuing where we left off, closing out our series with a selection of personal ECM catalog favorites from 2010 to the present. Click the logo below to be directed to the WKCR website, where you may stream us live by clicking the “LISTEN” icon on the top-right corner of the screen. As always, if you’re unable to tune in, we’ll be archiving the program here for future streaming and downloads.

WKCR

ECM by the Decades: Fourth Installment Tonight

| Tyran Grillo

Join me and host Andrew Castillo yet again tonight (May 7) on WKCR’s Jazz Alternatives program, from 6-9pm EST. We’re continuing where we left off, moving on to a selection of personal ECM catalog favorites from the 2000s. Click the logo below to be directed to the WKCR website, where you may stream us live by clicking the “LISTEN” icon on the top-right corner of the screen. As always, if you’re unable to tune in, we’ll be archiving the program here for future streaming and downloads.

WKCR

Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin: Awase (ECM 2603)

| Tyran Grillo

Awase

Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin
Awase

Nik Bärtsch piano
Sha bass clarinet, alto saxophone
Thomy Jordi bass
Kaspar Rast drums
Recorded October 2017, Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-les-Fontaines
Engineers: Gérard de Haro and Nicolas Baillard
Produced by Manfred Eicher
U.S. release date: May 4, 2018

The booklet for Awase, Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch’s latest release with his band of Ronin, quotes French theorist Roland Barthes: “The sign is a fracture which only ever opens onto the face of another sign.” Perhaps no other statement better expresses the fractal nature of this music, for the more one zooms in on its precisions, the more one senses its freedoms expand. Joined by Sha (bass clarinet and alto saxophone), Kaspar Rast (drums) and newest recruit Thomy Jordi (bass), Bärtsch finds himself rooted in a familiar ethos while sprouting new verdure.

The album continues his “modular” approach, by which larger bodies coalesce from elemental forces. The newest of these, “Modul 60” and “Modul 59,” open and close the album with hints of a concentrated future. Where the latter emotes in liminal territory, the former is a direct link to Continuum, Bärtsch’s previous record for ECM with his Mobile project. Any nods to the past, however, are refracted through a brighter coming of age: a sound that once ran now leaps. The ritual groove of “Modul 58,” for instance, is at once what we might expect and a fresher take on group integration, a taste of perpetual motion shown in the band’s willingness to let details express themselves to the level of ecstasy. “Modul 36” reveals the deepest change; known to any longtime listener of Bärtsch, here it takes on the uniformly colored properties that would seem to extend the band’s evolutionary path. It’s a classic yet forward-thinking groove, one that feels like a childhood home renovated from the inside out. “Modul 34” is another early tune, only now making its studio debut. There’s an almost digital quality to it, nuanced by human touch.

Awase is also a departure for including a non-Bärtsch original by Sha: the enigmatically titled “A.” Gradually building an ocean out of a water droplet, its waves flow to the magnetic suggestions of an itinerant philosophical compass. Like the album as a whole, it toes the line between light and shadow with every intention of shedding its ego to both along (and by) the way.

(This article originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of The New York City Jazz Record, a full PDF of which is available here.)

Noa Fort Reviews for All About Jazz

| Tyran Grillo

I recently attended a performance in celebration of No World Between Us, the debut album by pianist and vocalist Noa Fort, sister of ECM recording artist Anat Fort. Noa’s songwriting is insightful and touching, and in a live setting reached new heights of expression. Click the cover to read my thoughts on the album, and the live photo below that to read my review of the CD release concert.

No World Between Us

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