Past Programs
Jazz - 2008
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Spam Allstars
27/11/2008
Spam Allstars, one of Miami’s hardest-working bands, mix up improvisational electronic elements and turntables with latin, funk, hip hop and dub to create a groove-based dance music that’s all its own.
They were formed in 1993 by Andrew Yeomans (DJ Le Spam), born in Canada of a British father and a Venezuelan mother who grew up in London, Tampa, Bogotá and Miami. He’s assembled a band of horns, percussionists, sax, flute, guitar and even violin to play a sort of electronic descarga with obvious appeal to festival audiences and dancers. Introducing Spam Allstars, a compilation of tracks from their three CDs, is their first international release.
Dale Barlow, George Coleman, Mark Fitzgibbon and Sam Anning
26/11/2008
Treat Me Gently, the new CD by 3 Australians - saxophonist Dale Barlow, pianist Mark Fitzgibbon and bassist Sam Anning - and American drummer George Coleman Jr., is a straightforward, exhilarating and muscular CD of tunes in the hard swinging jazz tradition, whatever the groove.
It starts with Amsterdam after Dark, a 60’s style latin boogaloo groove written by the session drummer’s father, George Coleman Sr., whom Dale studied with, and includes a beautiful ballad rendering of You Go to My Head before ending with an uptempo romp on End of a Love Affair. Coleman, Barlow and Fitzgibbon have been playing together on occasion since the late 1980s. Sam Anning joined them for this session, playing with drummer Coleman for the first time.
CD of the Week - Katie Noonan
24/11/2008
To record Blackbird, her new CD of 15 Lennon/McCartney classics, singer Katie Noonan and pianist Sam Keevers travelled to New York to record with the cream of US Jazz players - Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Ron Carter and Lewis Nash.
Recorded in a day and a half, the group quickly gelled, with Joe Lovano’s sax work slinking in and out of Katie’s vocals which are informed by classical, pop and jazz musics for a unique take on these great songs. Katie deliberately left out George’s songs because she plans to devote an entire CD to him someday. She plans to devote 6 to 8 months to exclusively performing the Blackbird repertoire, starting with shows in Eastern Australian capital cities in December.
Two-Faced Friday
21/11/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Amos Lee
19/11/2008
CD of the Week - Taj Mahal
17/11/2008
40 years as a significant figure in the diverse worlds of blues, soul, reggae and world music is no mean feat, and rather than just compiling a greatest hits retrospective, Taj Mahal has celebrated this milestone by putting out a brand new album Maestro.
In keeping with recent trends, he has decided to include many tracks which are collaborations, and so has joined up with a very fine list of well-known acts for this record, including Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Toumani Diabate, Angelique Kidjo, Los Lobos and Ziggy Marley. As you’d expect, the result is a CD which covers everything from hard-edged blues through reggae and soul to West African sounds.
Two-Faced Friday
14/11/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
CD of the Week - David Sanborn
10/11/2008
If you've listened to popular music over the past 30 years chances are you've heard the alto saxophone of David Sanborn. His list of session credits is impressive and diverse. And he's also managed to record more than 20 albums under his own name in that time. Here and Now is the latest.
This new disc is a fine collection of jazz tinged with blues and soul, with David leading a band including Christian McBride on bass, Steve Gadd on drums, Russell Malone on guitar and producer Gil Goldstein on various keyboards. There are some lovely duets including with Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks and Sam Moore. Not bad for someone who took up the sax after a doctor told him it would help with his rehabilitation from polio.
Two-Faced Friday
07/11/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Osvaldo Montes and Anibal Arias (repeat of 22/10/07)
23/10/2008
With a combined age over 150 years, bandoneon player Osvaldo Montes and guitarist Anibal Arias bring a depth and elegance to 24 tango classics on their CD Tango for the World.
The Buenos Aires based musicians, musical partners since the 1980s, show a deep understanding of and love for traditional tango in this CD that includes compositions by tango greats Gardel, Cobian, Troilo and Villoldo.
Hans Kennel (repeat of 13/8/07)
21/10/2008
Hans Kennel Mytha is an Alphorn quartet who take the ancient, pre-musically tempered sounds of their alpine instruments into new directions, incorporating jazz, free jazz and reggae.
Hans studied trumpet and played jazz, but as if in a dream he always remembered the sounds of alphorns he heard as a boy in Switzerland. By pure coincidence he had a chance to play an alphorn after he was well-established as a trumpeter. The experience left a deep impression on him and he started to learn the instrument, soon giving up on his attempts to fix the ‘wrong’, untempered notes it naturally creates. Putting together alphorns of different pitches, he first recorded with the group Mytha in 1991, drawing on the still thriving alphorn repertoire, while moving it into very new directions. How it All Started is a compilation of two previous CDs by Hans and his Quartet.
Baden Powell (repeat of 12/11/07)
14/10/2008
Recorded shortly before his death in 2000, Baden Plays Vinicius is a collection of the landmark Afro-Brazilian songs that guitarist Baden Powell wrote with lyricist Vinicius de Moraes.
Produced by Armando Pittigliani, who produced Baden’s first album in 1959, this album consists of 8 of Baden’s and Vinicius’ co-written songs, played in Powell’s unusually ethereal solo style.
Harold Lopez Nussa (First Broadcast on 26/3/2008)
29/09/2008
The excellent solo piano CD, Sobre et Atelier, is the CD Cuban musician Harold Lopez Nussa recorded as part of the prize for winning the Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition in 2005.
The 24-year-old musician comes from a musical family - his mother is a piano teacher, his father and brother are renowned jazz percussionists, and his uncle, Hernán, is one of Cuba’s finest pianists. Harold took up the piano at the age of 8 and studied classical music for 13 years. Although Beethoven and Chopin marked him, Cuban pianists like Chucho Valdes and Emiliano Salvador became essential since Harold took up jazz. Harold demonstrates his technical skill and invention throughout the CD, which includes compositions by Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Chucho Valdes, Ernesto Lecuona and Harold himself.
Richard Galliano and the Tangaria Quartet (First Broadcast on 20/03/2008)
24/09/2008
The virtuosic French accordionist explores the Tango side of his music on his latest CD, Live in Marciac 2006, joined by the mostly South American Tangaria Quartet for what Richard called ‘One of the most beautiful concerts of my life.’
Marciac is a quaint, sleepy town in South-Western France that comes to life during the summer months when it hosts a massive jazz festival. Galliano and the band had recorded their first album in Sao Paolo only a month before the show, which includes Galliano standards and some new ones. Brazilian mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda guests and delivers an astonishing mandolin solo.
Andy Bey (First Broadcast on 12/03/2008)
23/09/2008
We’ve heard Andy Bey’s incredible four octave voice go from pianissimo to fortissimo before, but on Ain’t Necessarily So he also plays piano with the same unpredictability in a live piano trio.
This session, recorded at Birdland a decade ago, was effectively his first significant New York City residency as a leader. The non-brothers Peter and Kenny Washington are the rhythm section on most of this CD that signalled Bey’s return as a pianist. As New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff said of Andy, ‘When he enters a song, he makes it deluxe, decking it out with cushions and tapestries; arranging all the hangings; he isn’t just making a quick visit.’ And on the title piece, he uses his magnificent voice so that you might not ever be able to imagine anyone else singing the song.
Quadro Nuevo (First Broadcast on 14/02/2008)
17/09/2008
Multi-instrumentalist quartet Quadro Nuevo’s CD Tango Bitter Sweet is a collection of all-European songs, centred on tango, but ranging out into jazz and swing.
The musicians met for the first time in 1996 on a grey January day in a carpark near Salzburg, commissioned to produce film music for television. The music was never aired, but the group stayed together. With Mulo Francel playing six different woodwinds, mandolin and vibraphone, the group applies a wide palette of songs to this collection of eclectic European songs ranging from Tango’s greatest hit, the Danish Tango Jalousie to Michel Legrande’s The Windmills of Your Mind. Humour and invention are ever-present as they ply the roads between light lounge music and deep tango passion.
Bratsch (First Broadcast 13/5/08)
12/09/2008
On Plein du Monde, Premier French Gypsy music band Bratsch are joined in a spirited set of songs by a host of guests including Algeria’s Khaled, Israel’s Nourith and France’s own Olivia Ruiz and Charles Aznavour.
The CD is a 30th anniversary celebration of the band that started out concentrating on Arabic and South African music, but soon shifted their focus to Gypsy Jazz, with frequent forays into Klezmer and the East European Gypsy music that gives the group their name (a Bratsch is a three-string fiddle with a flat bridge, used for chording in Hungary and Romania). Bratsch was further inspired by Jewish-American singer Theodore Bikel, who sings in many different European languages and styles. Iconoclasts to the end, they have only one formally trained musician and call their music pre-traditional. Fun and freedom are foremost as they enjoy the unlikely collaborations on their new CD.
Fred Katz (First Broadcast on 25/2/08)
11/09/2008
Today we celebrate Fred Katz’ 89th birthday by featuring the re-release of his amazing 1958 album Folk Songs for Far Out Folk, a recording that gives African, Jewish and American Folk tunes arrangements that presage ‘world music’ by decades.
Raised in a free-thinking family in Brooklyn that held informal salons attended by Tony Bennett among others, Fred studied cello with Pablo Casals and went on to play jazz piano, conduct and arrange an album for Carmen McRae, and play jazz cello in Chico Hamilton’s groundbreaking quartet. The project that became Folk Songs for Far Out Folk was originally intended to be a collaboration with Brigitte Bardot, but the end project is even stranger - Katz’s innovative arrangements for 3 different small ensembles featuring the cream of LA Jazz players (including Paul Horn, Buddy Collette and Johnny T. Williams before he became film composer John Williams) are complex, unusual and hip beyond their time.
Kenny López (First Broadcast on 29/1/08)
10/09/2008
Australian singer/songwriter and très player Kenny López’ latest recording is Levantate! - a lively and fun five-song CD recorded in Havana with a fine crew of musicians.
William Borrego Rodriguez’ vocal improvisations unfailingly lift the songs to new levels, the percussion is tight, and violin and trumpet add nice colours on this traditional Son album with Kenny’s wry Australian flavour coming through on his songs.
Panjir (First Broadcast on 6/2/08)
08/09/2008
Panjir are a Beijing-based instrumental quintet who combine jazz sensibilities with Uyghur music, the Persian and Arabic influenced genre from the North-West of China.
British guitarist David Mitchell founded the group with his good friend, acoustic guitarist Akbar Abliz, himself an Uyghur from China’s Xinjiang region. Their self-titled debut CD is composed of traditional Uyghur pieces to which they re-introduce an improvisational element. David is a Berklee School of Music-educated player, now Professor of Guitar at the Beijing Institute of Contemporary Music. Akbar is a self-taught prodigy who is one of China’s most sought-after session musicians. The third key member of the group is Mahmoud Mehmet, who plays lutes native to Central Asia.
Two-Faced Friday
05/09/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Hamilton de Holanda Quintet
04/09/2008
The young virtuosos of Brazilian mandolin wizard Hamilton de Holanda’s quintet create a unique sound as they blend Jazz, African and European elements in their complex, often speedy instrumentals.
Guitarist Daniel Santiago, chromatic harmonica player Gabriel Grossi and electric bassist André Vasconcelos are all in their 20s. Drummer Márcio Bahia created his unique drumming style while playing with Hermeto Pascoal, the Brazilian musical maverick who has been the greatest source of inspiration to this generation of musicians.
Amos Hoffman
02/09/2008
Tel Aviv-based oud player Amos Hoffman’s CD Na’ama features 12 of his original compositions inspired by the great Arab composers of the 20th century.
Amos started playing guitar at the age of 6 and oud a few years later. His search for new musical experiences led him first to Amsterdam and then to New York City, where he played his oud in jazz settings and studied Middle Eastern music with Lebanese oud player Bassam Saba. He began writing the music for Na’ama (a woman’s name meaning ‘beautiful’) upon his return to Israel in 1999. It features solo oud as well as accompaniment on ney, violin, bass, percussion and, unusually, marimba.
Alfredo Rodriguez
29/08/2008
Oye Afra is the posthumous release of a set of live recordings by Cuban-born, Paris-based pianist Alfredo Rodriguez and his band, including excellent violinist Ruben Chaviano and flutist Bobby Rangell.
Born near Havana, Alfredo studied classical piano before leaving Cuba for New York City, where he studied jazz with Bill Evans and played with Celia Cruz, Tito Puente and Patato Valdez. He lived in Paris for 22 years before his death there in October of 2005.
Hamilton de Holanda
26/08/2008
Intimo realises Brazilian mandolin virtuoso Hamilton de Holanda’s long-time dream to record an album that would capture the intimacy of his mandolin, generally heard only in hotel rooms and at home.
Recorded on the road with a portable setup, it aims to communicate the quietness and restfulness experienced when he plays on his own, simply for the enjoyment of playing. There are no arrangements, just impromptu versions of songs that live in his consciousness - 3 of his own pieces and songs by Tom Jobim, Guinga, Chico Buarque and Noel Rosa.
CD of the Week - Rosa Passos
25/08/2008
Rosa Passos’ new CD Romance showcases her sublimely subtle and expressive voice with a small Brazilian jazz band on a selection of 12 beautifully arranged Bossa Nova ballads.
When the cellist Yo-Yo Ma first heard a recording by Rosa, he ‘felt she was speaking to me’ and wrote her a letter saying, ‘I've fallen in love with your voice.’ Whether you understand Portuguese or not, you know that there’s a wealth of meaning, play and nuance in every song she sings. Putting down her guitar for this album, the bell-like clarity of her voice is heightened by the varying arrangements, mostly by her band members. Paulo Paulelli is especially wonderful on the double bass.
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra
21/08/2008
On Song For Chico, Arturo O’Farrill celebrates his father’s spirit through the title track, a modern piece that shows that Afro-Latin Jazz is a tree with deep roots that keeps spreading its branches in new directions.
Like his father, Arturo is a pianist and the leader of a forward looking Latin Jazz band. Band members and fellow musicians have contributed a nice selection of instrumentals that showcase the diversity and the warmth of this fine group, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.
Roomful of Blues
12/08/2008
The loss of three members (including the on-tour death of long-time trumpeter Bob Enos) hasn’t adversely affected 41-year old jump blues band Roomful of Blues. Instead, their latest CD, Raisin’ a Ruckus, is full of energy and new direction.
60-year-old Enos had been with the band for 28 years when he died of a heart attack in his hotel room while the band was touring in Florida, a week before the album’s release. The band has yet to replace him and they still set up his microphone and trumpet stand when they play. For over 40 years Roomful has been a revolving door for musicians who love horn-driven blues and swing, and they have landed on their feet again with the recruitment of a new bassist and drummer and tough-voiced singer Dave Howard who brings a Louisiana flavour to this album. The band that Count Basie called ‘the hottest blues band I’ve ever heard’ is now vying with the Count in the longevity and rejuvenation stakes.
Balla et ses Balladins
07/08/2008
Of the many bands formed under Guinea President Sékou Touré’s Authenticité initiative, Balla and the Balladins are among the tightest and most creative.
A new double CD, Balla et ses Balladins, The Syliphone Years, a reissue produced by Australian Graeme Counsel, picks choice cuts from the band’s glory days. Today we feature CD 2, 1972-1980. Next week we’ll make CD 1, 1968-1972, our feature CD of the week.
Matt McMahon and Guy Strazz
06/08/2008
Pianist Matt McMahon and guitarist Guy Strazz’s new CD, 2@1, is full of fine, interactive and sometimes virtuosic playing.
Planeteers loved Guy’s CD Calcutta Express and Matt is also a Planet favourite, having most recently appeared on Tina Harrod’s CD Worksongs.
Orquestra Popular de Cãmara
04/08/2008
On their second CD, Danças, Jogos e Canções (Dances, Games and Songs), Sao Paolo super-group Orquestra Popular de Cãmara expand their vision of a Brazilian national music that encompasses jazz and folk forms.
With fine vocalist Monica Salmaso, her husband Teco Cardoso on flutes and saxophones, Benjamim Taubkin on piano, 3 percussionists and 6 other members, they play into being a new Brazilian sound with this CD designed to highlight the compositions of their founding members.
Two-Faced Friday
01/08/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Tina Harrod
28/07/2008
Like a Nina Simone recording, Tina Harrod’s album Worksongs reinvents songs by Dylan, Nick Drake, Stevie Wonder and Portishead for Tina’s distinctive voice and a fine trio.
Tina’s second album is stripped down to basics - Jonathan Zwartz’s double bass, Hamish Stuart’s drums, Matt McMahon’s piano and Tina, whom John Shand described as having ‘A dark-hued, womanly voice; assured in pitch and as powerful as a train when called upon, it also has little chinks of vulnerability, so one feels wooed by it.’ Tina also refigures two songs from her first album which she co-wrote with the late Jackie Orszaczky who first suggested she record this album.
CD of the Week - Les Amazones de Guinée
28/07/2008
Unlike scores of ‘girl groups’ put together to make a quick buck, Les Amazones de Guinée are the real thing - an all-female band who are all members of Guinea’s Military Police Force and who have been making great music since their formation in 1961.
Guinea’s first president after independence in 1958, Ahmed Sekou Touré, saw culture as an essential weapon to cut across tribalism, heal colonial wounds and forge a national identity. Along with scores of other musical groups that were instrumental in forging a new West African music, he formed L’Orchestre Féminin de la Gendarmerie de Guinée.
Originally an acoustic band, they added electric guitars, drum kit, sax and horns in 1965 and later abandoned their military khaki for colourful traditional Guinean clothes and began touring internationally. They recorded their first album in Paris in 1982. Sekou Touré’s death in 1984 all but killed Guinea’s music industry. The Amazones did better than most, continuing to play around West Africa as a working band in the army, but tours outside the continent were no longer an option.
A new studio in Bamako, Mali, and the interest of Paris-based producer Ibrahima Sylla sparked their return to recording after a 25-year lapse. Led by bassist Commandant Salématou Diallo (who is actually the head of a 650-soldier camp), the group hopped in a minibus and made the difficult journey along muddy roads from Conakry to Bamako to record their spirited and inspiring CD Wamato. Although death and retirement have left them with only five original members, the group is strong and tight, with some great guest vocals from Aminata Kamissoko and a set of songs that celebrate Africa and womanhood.
Two-Faced Friday
25/07/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
América Contemporânea
24/07/2008
With 10 band members from 7 South American countries, the musicians of América Contemporânea enjoy contributing to and learning each other’s musical styles.
On their CD Um Outro Centro, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela are represented. Not only are the different countries merging their musical styles, but folk, jazz and rock are meeting.
Cassandra Wilson
23/07/2008
On her new self-produced CD of jazz standards, Loverly, Cassandra Wilson, the singer who has been merging folk and rock sensibilities with jazz, is obviously having a great time with a fine crew of musicians.
Recorded in a rented house in her Jackson, Mississippi birthplace, the crew includes genre-defying pianist Jason Moran, drummer Herlin Riley, Yoruba percussionist Lekan Babalola and Cassandra’s longtime band members, guitarist Marvin Sewell and bassist Lonnie Plaxico. The atmosphere is relaxed and the musicians are given a lot of space. Sometimes the arrangements take fairly standard approaches and other times they’re quite creative, as in Cassandra’s duet with Marvin on Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, with bassist Reginald Veal on The Very Thought of You or the unusual treatment of ’Til There Was You. In a nod to Cassandra’s past eclecticism, there’s a blues - Dust My Broom and the folk-associated St. James Infirmary. Her voice is smoky and commanding throughout.
CD of the Week - Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis
21/07/2008
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis may come from two different corners of the record store, but when they came together for two days of concerts in New York, that became their CD Two Men and the Blues, they brought out the best in each other.
Willie’s relaxed vocal and guitar phrasing and his instantly recognisable sound contrasts and merges with Wynton and his band’s sharp, cheeky, big city take on this selection of blues, jazz, country and gospel tunes. As Ben Ratliff said in his review of the CD for The New York Times, the hidden inspiration of the album is Louis Armstrong, who did a similar thing in his duets with early country performer Jimmie Rodgers in 1930 and whose deceptively simple trumpet improvisations are the cornerstone of Marsalis’ style. On this CD, Willie, Wynton and their band members follow Louis' lead in eluding ‘American stereotypes of country, city, blues, jazz, race, class humour and sadness.’
Two-Faced Friday
18/07/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Modernatradiçao
17/07/2008
Modernatradiçao includes 5 great Brazilian musicians’ versions of some choro classics by Garoto, Jacob do Bandolim, Ernesto Nazareth and Pixinguinha, lots of Pixinguinha.
With a parlour music sound due to Bemjamin Taubkin’s piano, the group also includes Isaias de Almeida on mandolin, Israel de Almeida on 7-string guitar, Naylor Proveta on soprano sax and clarinet and Guello on percussion.
CD of the Week - Bennetts Lane Big Band
14/07/2008
Bennetts Lane Big Band’s CD The Snip contains a diversity of composition and playing, from straight ahead jazz to more adventurous and personal expression, from a gathering of some of Melbourne’s finest jazz musicians.
Compositions are all by band members - Trombonists Jordan Murray and Adrian Sheriff, Trumpeter Eugene Ball, Saxophonists Jamie Oehlers, Ian Whitehirst and Adam Simmons, Pianist Andrea Keller and Bassist Nick Haywood.
Two-Faced Friday
11/07/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Nicolas Krassik
10/07/2008
Caçuá, a word with Tupi (Indigenous Brazilian Language) origins, is a wicker or vine basket used to carry provisions. It’s also the title of Parisian-born, Rio de Janeiro-based violinist Nicolas Krassik’s fine CD with a choro trio and special guests.
Like a caçuá basket, the album is full of a variety of things - mostly finely performed choro with his band: Nando Duarte on 7-string guitar, João Hermeto on pandeiro (the Brazilian tambourine that plays a much bigger role than our pop and gospel music version), and Fábio Luna on drum kit - but also venturing into samba, baião and xote. 38-year-old Nicolas has only been in Rio since September of 2001, but his affinity with Brazil’s music has made him a mainstay of the city’s musical scene, recording with many leading artists. Caçuá is his second solo CD.
CD of the Week - Ale Möller Band
07/07/2008
On the CD Djef Djel, multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller blends Swedish, Greek and West African styles into a selection of music that bears his distinctive, adventurous stamp.
Ale has long been a central figure of the Scandinavian music scene, spurred by his experience playing Greek folk music to discover his own Swedish musical language. To do this, he applied the mandola to Swedish tunes, an innovation that influenced many others. He’s also an excellent player of flute, shawm, accordion, harmonica and trumpet. Bringing together his various musical influences, his band includes Greek singer Maria Stellas, West African singer and fiddler Mamadou Sene, fellow Swedish multi-instrumentalist Magnus Stinnerbom, French Canadian double bassist Sébastian Dubé, and Mexican-born percussionist Rafael Sida Huizar.
Two-Faced Friday
04/07/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Saxophone Summit
03/07/2008
Seraphic Light, Saxophone Summit’s new CD, is dedicated to their former member, the late Michael Brecker, replaced by Ravi Coltrane, and focusses on the beautiful spiritual ballads of Ravi’s father, John Coltrane’s later period.
The CD is also marked by the recent death of one of the group’s spiritual leaders and inspirations, Alice Coltrane. Original members Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman are joined by a rhythm section and trumpeter Randy Brecker for this heartfelt exploration of the latter legacy of jazz’s most spiritual searcher. Coltrane’s compositions Cosmos, Seraphic Light, and Expression are augmented by pieces by the band members in the same spirit.
Julien Wilson Trio
30/06/2008
Julien Wilson’s trio’s live CD trio - live is full of the warmth and grace that we’ve come to expect of this unusual trio of tenor sax, nylon string guitar and piano accordion.
Recorded at Bennett’s Lane as part of ABC Classic FM’s Jazztrack’s 30th Anniversary Concert, all compositions are by Julien except for Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges’ Clube Da Esquina #2 and one by Bjorn Meyer, Julien and the group’s guitarist, Stephen Magnusson’s bandmate in their other group, SNAG. Stephen Grant’s accordion completes the group’s tasteful instrumentation.
CD of the Week - Pat Metheny with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez
30/06/2008
Tokyo Day Trip Live EP is the latest release from Pat Metheny with Christian McBride and Antonio Sanchez - a virtuosic and cohesive trio exploring the current landscape of jazz today.
The five tracks on the CD explore acoustic ballads, post-bop exuberance, ECM-like sounds and a piece that might make some happy that Pat chose Jazz over Rock.
Two-Faced Friday
27/06/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Elvis Costello and the Imposters
26/06/2008
Elvis Costello and the Imposters’ new CD Momofuku ranges lyrically from sentimental to angry and musically from gentle to thrashy, always with the element of surprise and delight in its creation.
Costello’s liner notes remember Momofuko Ando (1910-2007) by saying of the inverntor of the Cup Noodle that ‘he fed those that study’. ‘Like so many things in this world of wonder’, added Costello, ‘all we had to do to make this record was to add water.’ After having told people that he was finished with recording, a session for Jenny Lewis convinced Elvis that it wasn’t the studio that was making Elvis miserable, but the ‘music business’ that predictably follows it. So he assembled the Imposters and some special guests - Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo, Imposters’ drummer Pete Thomas’ daughter, drummer Tennessee Thomas - and made a quick record full of Costello-isms and sounds ranging from music hall to soul to punk, all new songs, including co-writes with Roseanne Cash and Loretta Lynn.
Two-Faced Friday
20/06/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Barney McAll (Repeat of 22/11/2007 )
16/06/2008
Melbourne-born, New York City-based pianist/composer Barney McAll’s latest CD Flashbacks employs a NYC-based crew to create a musical picture of ‘those strange flashes that we get when we least expect them’.
Often taking Cuban religious rhythms and slowing them down into hypnotic cycles, Barney creates a rich post-jazz sonic tapestry on this CD of all his compositions.
Two-Faced Friday
13/06/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Two-Faced Friday
06/06/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
The Vampires
05/06/2008
Blending Reggae and other grooves with a front line of intertwining alto saxophone, trumpet and trombone, the Vampires mix air and drive with an always fresh sound on their debut CD, South Coasting.
Formed in 2004 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, alto saxophonist Jeremy Rose and trumpeter Nick Garbett are now based on New South Wales South Coast, hence the name of their CD. Recorded in Melbourne with Shannon Barnett as special guest on trombone on five of the eleven all-original tracks on the album, it’s an always surprising, good-natured ride into one of the futures of jazz.
Catherine Russell
04/06/2008
On Sentimental Streak, singer Catherine Russell, the daughter of Luis Russell, Louis Armstrong’s pianist, arranger and musical director from 1935, revisits a stack of songs from the heyday of the Blues Mamas, firing them up with a great crew of NYC’s finest, led by ace producer Larry Campbell.
Matt Munisteri’s guitar, Mark Shane’s piano and Steven Bernstein’s horn arrangements are particularly alive and true to period in this album that covers songs recorded by Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Nellie Lutcher, Pearl Bailey and Frank Sinatra. Wait a minute, did I say ‘Frank Sinatra’?
CD of the Week - Oregon
02/06/2008
On 1000 Kilometers, Oregon continue to explore the fusion between jazz, chamber music and music from around the world, still fresh after 37 years of being together as a group.
Sprinkled with freely improvised cuts, the pieces are mainly composed by Ralph Towner and are mostly new. Oregon are a group whose early recordings have stood the test of time and have shown them to be way ahead of the pack in blending composition and improvisation and genres. They are also adept at integrating the strong musical personalities of their members, guitarist/pianist Towner, multi-reed man Paul McCandless, bassist Glen Moore and their only member who hasn’t been with them since their inception - Drummer Mark Walker, who’s at least 15 years younger than any other member of the group. The album is named after and dedicated to their late, beloved European promoter, Thomas Stöwsand, whose tours sometimes necessitated a drive of over 1000 kilometers between venues, a distance that came to be called, with a bit of light-hearted grumbling, a ‘Stöwsand’ in the band’s parlance.
Two-Faced Friday
30/05/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Two-Faced Friday
23/05/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Uri Caine
19/05/2008
Uri Caine’s CD, The Classical Variations, is a collection of 20 of the Philadelphia-born pianist’s edgy jazz interpretations of Mahler, Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart and Wagner, including 10 previously unreleased takes on Bach.
In Uri’s world, he improvises on an early piano on Beethoven pieces, plays Bach as Fats Waller or John Coltrane would, and gets a gospel belter to sing Mahler. The result is exciting music that defies identification in time or place.
CD of the Week - Raphael Imbert
19/05/2008
On Bach/Coltrane, French saxophonist, composer and student of sacred music Raphael Imbert explores the connections between the spiritual music of Johann Sebastian Bach and John Coltrane, playing with a church organist and a string quartet.
Working on his premise that Coltrane is the only true mystic in the history of jazz, Raphael improvises on some of his lesser known compositions - Crescent, Song of Praise, The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost and Reverend King, and also on Bach’s The Art of the Fugue. Recorded in a church with a bassist, percussionist, counter tenor Gérard Lesne, the Quatuor Manfred String Quartet and organist André Rossi, it ranges from the quietly devotional to the ecstatically exuberant.
Two-Faced Friday
16/05/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Simphiwe Dana
15/05/2008
On her latest CD, The One Love Movement on Bantu Biko Street, modernistic fashion icon and vocal-harmony loving Simphiwe Dana sings her songs inspired by Steve Biko’s philosophy.
To Simphiwe (her first name means ‘gift’), Biko was saying that you must first love and respect yourself in order to love others - that by having faith in your capabilities through an intense love for life, for the Divine in yourself, you cannot help seeing the Divine in others. Simphiwe grew up in a poor family in the rural Eastern Cape of South Africa, carrying water while chanting ceremonial circumcision and wedding songs, resolving to have music as part of her life. She’s now based in Johannesburg to pursue her singing career. Her sound is jazzy and smooth - South African pop music with an emphasis on rich vocal harmonies.
Bratsch
13/05/2008
On Plein du Monde, Premier French Gypsy music band Bratsch are joined in a spirited set of songs by a host of guests including Algeria’s Khaled, Israel’s Nourith and France’s own Olivia Ruiz and Charles Aznavour.
The CD is a 30th anniversary celebration of the band that started out concentrating on Arabic and South African music, but soon shifted their focus to Gypsy Jazz, with frequent forays into Klezmer and the East European Gypsy music that gives the group their name (a Bratsch is a three-string fiddle with a flat bridge, used for chording in Hungary and Romania). Bratsch was further inspired by Jewish-American singer Theodore Bikel, who sings in many different European languages and styles. Iconoclasts to the end, they have only one formally trained musician and call their music pre-traditional. Fun and freedom are foremost as they enjoy the unlikely collaborations on their new CD.
Two-Faced Friday
09/05/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
The Rosenberg Trio
08/05/2008
On Roots, the Rosenberg Trio join up with fellow Dutchman, clarinettist Bernard Berkhout, for a seriously swinging set of jazz standards, Django Reinhardt compositions, Stochelo Rosenberg originals and even Grieg’s Danse Norvégienne.
Even though Stochelo, the lead guitarist, came to his instrument late by Gypsy standards (aged 10), he soon became one of this era’s great Manouche guitarists. The two brothers and a cousin of the group have been playing together since then, sounding like one big instrument, first only in churches and at Gypsy camps, then to the greater world. With the addition of Berkhout’s clarinet, this makes this, their 13th album, stand out amongst the plethora of Gypsy Jazz releases.
Two-Faced Friday
02/05/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Saravah Soul
23/04/2008
Founded and fronted by dynamic Brazilian break dancer, guitarist and singer Otto Nascarella, Saravah Soul play Brazilian soul-funk and samba with the inspiration from the showmanship of James Brown.
The London-based group are half-Brazilian and half-British and sing in both English and Portuguese as they deliver a supercharged mix of very danceable Brazilian Funk on their self-titled debut CD. In addition to quoting the greats of the genre, they create a new chapter by drawing a wider range of funk into their music. ‘Saravah’ is a salutation used in Afro-Brazilian religions which carries a deep sense of Brazilian-ness.
Two-Faced Friday
18/04/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Maceo Parker
17/04/2008
On his new double CD with his rhythm section and the WDR Big Band Cologne, Roots and Grooves, long-time James Brown saxophonist Maceo Parker realises two lifelong dreams - to record a tribute to Ray Charles and to record with a big band.
Although Maceo’s alto sax was a mainstay of James Brown’s sound for years, Maceo always adored the music of Brother Ray. He both sings and plays key songs from Ray’s repertoire, with members of the WDR band contributing in a jazzier way. The second disc, entitled Back to Funk, consists mostly of Maceo’s instrumental compositions, with drummer Dennis Chambers and bassist Rodney ‘Skeet’ Curtis and the excellent arrangements and playing of the German big band.
CD of the Week - Jean-Marie Machado
14/04/2008
On his new double CD, Soeurs de Sang (Sisters of Blood), Moroccan-born, Portuguese-Italian jazz pianist Jean-Marie Machado beautifully and inventively interprets songs sung by Billie Holiday and fado queen Amalia Rodrigues in solo and trio formats.
Jean Marie quotes from Japanese poet Okakura Kakuzo’s poem that says ‘Flowers, teardrops from the stars’ to set the tone of this album in which the stars are Billie and Amalia whose teardrop-drenched songs have become everlasting flowers. When Jean Marie plays songs they made their own, he makes them his own, with little resemblance to the originals in style but much similarity in feeling. He finds the mutuality between Fado and Jazz in these songs that ‘teach us to wait patiently until joy returns on the path of our lives.’
Two-Faced Friday
11/04/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Wayne Gorbea
09/04/2008
Pianist Wayne Gorbea was the first bandleader to play the retro, synthesiser-less Salsa Dura (Hard Salsa) style and Introducing Wayne Gorbea’s Salsa Picante is a lovingly selected collection of his most grooving recordings from 1978 to 2006.
Wayne was born to Puerto Rican parents in Manhattan in 1950, studied violin, orchestration and trumpet in high school, jammed in street percussion rumba sessions and learned piano while serving in the army. He returned to New York City where he started leading bands, debuting on record in 1973. Pablo E. Yglesias, aka DJ Bongohead, is the man responsible for putting together this long-overdue overview of the little known bandleader, beloved by aficionados and dancers.
CD of the Week - Joe Chindamo's Romantic Project
07/04/2008
Duende is Melbourne pianist Joe Chindamo’s recording of the excellent, unusual quartet he put together for his Romantic Project.
Asked by the chairman of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival to make something along the lines of his Paradiso project - a CD of film music - Joe put together a group with Sam Anning on double bass, Nigel MacLean on violin and Doug DeVries on guitar to play the Tangos, Tarantella and Italian Operas of Joe’s youth, imbued with the nostalgia and melancholy of one revisiting the old family home after many years. It’s called Duende after the Spanish word for something having passion and inspiration, and according to Joe, ‘Duende is there to challenge us to keep our ears open to the ‘dark sounds’, to keep our touch with the earth and with the ghosts of those who have come before, to never refuse the struggle which is needed to keep the spirits working on the side of truth.’
Two-Faced Friday
04/04/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Spanish Harlem Orchestra
03/04/2008
On their new CD, United We Swing, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra continues their infectious new versions of New York old school ‘Salsa Dura’ with a guest appearance by Paul Simon singing Late In the Evening.
The Simon connection isn’t far-fetched as the New York singer/songwriter used Spanish Harlem Orchestra leader and pianist Oscar Hernandez to arrange and produce the music for Simon’s Broadway musical The Capeman. Oscar is the youngest of 11 children whose parents moved from Puerto Rico to the ghetto of the South Bronx in the 1940s. The loss of a brother to a drug overdose convinced Oscar to leave the ghetto and he did this through music, working for Ray Barretto in 1972 and playing with Ruben Blades and many, many others through the years before founding SHO in 2000. United We Swing, the 3rd album, follows the Grammy award-winning Across 110th Street and is mostly the band’s originals - songs that celebrate the rich culture of New York City’s Latino community, especially the interplay between musicians and dancers.
CD of the Week - Jackson Browne
31/03/2008
On Jackson Browne’s new CD, Solo Acoustic Vol. 2, Jackson’s acoustic guitar and piano accompaniments beautifully frame and illuminate his fine songs.
With four songs from his most recent studio CD and others dating back to the early 1970s, you get a chance to appreciate the depth and breadth of Jackson’s songs in unadorned fashion, with their unique take on politics, matters of the heart and the questions raised by everyday life.
Two-Faced Friday
28/03/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Harold Lopez Nussa
26/03/2008
The excellent solo piano CD, Sobre et Atelier, is the CD Cuban musician Harold Lopez Nussa recorded as part of the prize for winning the Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition in 2005.
The 24-year-old musician comes from a musical family - his mother is a piano teacher, his father and brother are renowned jazz percussionists, and his uncle, Hernán, is one of Cuba’s finest pianists. Harold took up the piano at the age of 8 and studied classical music for 13 years. Although Beethoven and Chopin marked him, Cuban pianists like Chucho Valdes and Emiliano Salvador became essential since Harold took up jazz. Harold demonstrates his technical skill and invention throughout the CD, which includes compositions by Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Chucho Valdes, Ernesto Lecuona and Harold himself.
Markus Burger and Jan von Klewitz
24/03/2008
On Tertia, pianist Markus Burger and saxophonist Jan Von Klewitz build on the ideas of their previous CD, Spiritual Standards, of improvising on German chorales, hymns and Christmas carols; but this time they present mostly their own compositions alongside two chorales and two pieces by Handel.
Whether they are being contemplative or energetic, the two always play emotionally and with empathic communication, staying true to the idea of the spiritual song.
CD of the Week - Shannon-Goodrich Ensemble
24/03/2008
On Worlds Within Worlds, pianist Clare Shannon and vibraphonist Elissa Goodrich and their ensemble apply their jazz composing and improvising backgrounds to music inspired by the ancient Sufi saint, Rumi.
Ali Alizadeh supplied free verse translations of Rumi which Ria Soemardjo sings. Phil Bywater guests on sax, Phil McLeod on accordion, with Anita Hustas and Tamara Murphy sharing the double bass playing, and Alejandro Vega on percussion for this very interesting project.
Two-Faced Friday
21/03/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Richard Galliano and the Tangaria Quartet
20/03/2008
The virtuosic French accordionist explores the Tango side of his music on his latest CD, Live in Marciac 2006, joined by the mostly South American Tangaria Quartet for what Richard called ‘One of the most beautiful concerts of my life.’
Marciac is a quaint, sleepy town in South-Western France that comes to life during the summer months when it hosts a massive jazz festival. Galliano and the band had recorded their first album in Sao Paolo only a month before the show, which includes Galliano standards and some new ones. Brazilian mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda guests and delivers an astonishing mandolin solo.
Two-Faced Friday
14/03/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Andy Bey
12/03/2008
We’ve heard Andy Bey’s incredible four octave voice go from pianissimo to fortissimo before, but on Ain’t Necessarily So he also plays piano with the same unpredictability in a live piano trio.
This session, recorded at Birdland a decade ago, was effectively his first significant New York City residency as a leader. The non-brothers Peter and Kenny Washington are the rhythm section on most of this CD that signalled Bey’s return as a pianist. As New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff said of Andy, ‘When he enters a song, he makes it deluxe, decking it out with cushions and tapestries; arranging all the hangings; he isn’t just making a quick visit.’ And on the title piece, he uses his magnificent voice so that you might not ever be able to imagine anyone else singing the song.
Pablo Ziegler - Quique Sinesi with Walter Castro
11/03/2008
As a key member of Astor Piazzolla’s quintet, pianist Pablo Ziegler helped reshape tango, adding jazz rhythms and improvisation. On Pablo’s new album, Buenos Aires Report, he’s joined by fine musicians, guitarist Quique Sinesi and bandoneonist Walter Castro, in a live performance of seven of Pablo’s compositions, one of Quique’s and the master’s Libertango.
Pablo has taken Astor’s Nuevo Tango a step further with a touch more jazz and improvisation, and there’s an obvious rapport between him and his playing partner in various line-ups since 1990, the ever-exploratory guitarist Quique Sinesi.
Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani
10/03/2008
Trumpeter Enrico Rava and Pianist Stefano Bollani’s live CD, The Third Man, reveals the tremendous sense of space and musical empathy the two Italians have for each other.
Whether they’re playing free improvisation, Jobim, Italian song or their own compositions, the two play lyrically but are always open to surprising new directions. The two have played together since the early 1990s, Bollani hailing trumpeter Rava as his mentor, and Rava regarding Bollani as ‘perhaps the most gifted pianist since Art Tatum’. Rava, at 68, looks like a silver-haired quietly wise hippy, while Bollani, at 35 (and with a sideline as a comedic film actor) is full of fidgety energy. Their ‘odd-couple-ness’ works to their advantage to create a ‘Third Man’.
Two-Faced Friday
07/03/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Two-Faced Friday
29/02/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Fred Katz
25/02/2008
Today we celebrate Fred Katz’ 89th birthday by featuring the re-release of his amazing 1958 album Folk Songs for Far Out Folk, a recording that gives African, Jewish and American Folk tunes arrangements that presage ‘world music’ by decades.
Raised in a free-thinking family in Brooklyn that held informal salons attended by Tony Bennett among others, Fred studied cello with Pablo Casals and went on to play jazz piano, conduct and arrange an album for Carmen McRae, and play jazz cello in Chico Hamilton’s groundbreaking quartet. The project that became Folk Songs for Far Out Folk was originally intended to be a collaboration with Brigitte Bardot, but the end project is even stranger - Katz’s innovative arrangements for 3 different small ensembles featuring the cream of LA Jazz players (including Paul Horn, Buddy Collette and Johnny T. Williams before he became film composer John Williams) are complex, unusual and hip beyond their time.
Two-Faced Friday
22/02/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Erik Friedlander
18/02/2008
Block Ice and Propane is cellist Erik Friedlander’s set of 13 solo pieces evoking the summer journeys he took as a child in a camper on a ute, planned around the work of his dad, famed photographer Lee Friedlander.
Erik, his mother, sister and dad would travel all over in the USA in this 1966 pickup truck for months at a time in between Lee’s teaching jobs and photo shoots. Lee’s pieces on plucked and bowed cello (and tuning forks) are amazingly descriptive of his feelings of being on the road - you can imagine the big trucks, the white lines and even his envy of other travellers in sleek Airstreams with (incomprehensibly luxurious) showers and refrigerators. The Friedland family got by on a propane gas stove while blocks of ice, sometimes swiped from motel ice machines, kept their food from going off.
Two-Faced Friday
15/02/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Quadro Nuevo
14/02/2008
Multi-instrumentalist quartet Quadro Nuevo’s CD Tango Bitter Sweet is a collection of all-European songs, centred on tango, but ranging out into jazz and swing.
The musicians met for the first time in 1996 on a grey January day in a carpark near Salzburg, commissioned to produce film music for television. The music was never aired, but the group stayed together. With Mulo Francel playing six different woodwinds, mandolin and vibraphone, the group applies a wide palette of songs to this collection of eclectic European songs ranging from Tango’s greatest hit, the Danish Tango Jalousie to Michel Legrande’s The Windmills of Your Mind. Humour and invention are ever-present as they ply the roads between light lounge music and deep tango passion.
Nicolas Krassik
12/02/2008
French violinist Nicolas Krassik not only found musical inspiration in Rio, but he became one of the city’s most sought after musicians.
Nicolas started classical studies at the age of 5, studied for 14 years, graduated from the conservatory in classical music, and studied jazz for another year, going on to play with French jazz greats Michel Petrucciani and Didier Lockwood. His passion for Brazilian music inspired him to move to the Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Lapa in 2001 where he went to Samba and Choro shows and jam sessions in his music-rich locality. He quickly integrated into the Rio scene - his CD Na Lapa is a collection of choros with guest appearances by esteemed Brazilian musician Hamilton de Holanda, João Bosco, Yamandu Costa and Carlos Malta.
Yamandu Costa
11/02/2008
Brazilian guitar virtuoso Yamandu Costa’s CD Ida e Volta (Return Journey) is a tour de force of mostly his own compositions, played in solo, duo and trio line-ups.
Born in Passo Fundo southern Brazil to a singer mother and a trumpeter/guitarist/bandleader father, he grew up in the music-rich place where Brazil borders Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Recognising his son’s musical ability, Yamandu’s dad took the 10-year-old on a musical odyssey around the country in a mobile home to introduce him to an even wider range of music, coupled with introducing him to a carefully selected collection of recordings of South American musical giants. Yamandu was still a teenager when his father was stricken with an incurable disease. The responsibility then fell to him to provide for the needs of the family, which he did by playing guitar. True to his father’s hopes, Yamandu Costa has become a guitarist beyond classification, one who takes the raw materials of choro, forro, tango and swing and uses them to create a dazzling style based on his powerful and imaginative improvisations.
Two-Faced Friday
08/02/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Orquestra Popular de Câmara
07/02/2008
Orquestra Popular de Câmara are an all-star congregation of virtuosos from São Paulo who are breaking new ground in Brazilian music with their innovative compositions and arrangements that combine popular Brazilian music with modern classical sensibilities.
Mônica Salmaso’s wordless vocals, Teco Cardoso’s woodwinds, Benjamin Taubkin’s piano and Naná Vasconcelos’ percussion, together with nine other musicians, mix elements from all over Brazil into a new, mysterious whole.
Panjir
06/02/2008
Panjir are a Beijing-based instrumental quintet who combine jazz sensibilities with Uyghur music, the Persian and Arabic influenced genre from the North-West of China.
British guitarist David Mitchell founded the group with his good friend, acoustic guitarist Akbar Abliz, himself an Uyghur from China’s Xinjiang region. Their self-titled debut CD is composed of traditional Uyghur pieces to which they re-introduce an improvisational element. David is a Berklee School of Music-educated player, now Professor of Guitar at the Beijing Institute of Contemporary Music. Akbar is a self-taught prodigy who is one of China’s most sought-after session musicians. The third key member of the group is Mahmoud Mehmet, who plays lutes native to Central Asia.
Bebo Valdés and Javier Colina
04/02/2008
At the age of 86, Bebo Valdés debuted at New York City’s premier jazz club, the Village Vanguard, with Spanish bassist Javier Colina, playing inspired versions including Bebo’s own compositions and Cuban and Jazz standards.
Valdés was one of Cuba’s premier pianists and arrangers in the 1950s before he moved to Sweden, where he played mostly in obscurity until he was re-discovered via the film Calle 54. Since then he has won four Latin Grammies in three years. Bebo and Javier play beautifully together on this CD that collects the best of five 90-minute sets from the club. Bebo’s recordings are windows into a century of Cuban music and on this one, he’s in a broader, more improvisatory mood.
Two-Faced Friday
01/02/2008
Listening back over the last week, and forward to what’s on The Daily Planet next week.
Kenny López
29/01/2008
Australian singer/songwriter and très player Kenny López’ latest recording is Levantate! - a lively and fun five-song CD recorded in Havana with a fine crew of musicians.
William Borrego Rodriguez’ vocal improvisations unfailingly lift the songs to new levels, the percussion is tight, and violin and trumpet add nice colours on this traditional Son album with Kenny’s wry Australian flavour coming through on his songs.
Osvaldo Montes and Anibal Arias (repeat of 22/10/07)
24/01/2008
With a combined age over 150 years, bandoneon player Osvaldo Montes and guitarist Anibal Arias bring a depth and elegance to 24 tango classics on their CD Tango for the World.
The Buenos Aires based musicians, musical partners since the 1980s, show a deep understanding of and love for traditional tango in this CD that includes compositions by tango greats Gardel, Cobian, Troilo and Villoldo.
Baden Powell (repeat of 12/11/07)
22/01/2008
Recorded shortly before his death in 2000, Baden Plays Vinicius is a collection of the landmark Afro-Brazilian songs that guitarist Baden Powell wrote with lyricist Vinicius de Moraes.
Produced by Armando Pittigliani, who produced Baden’s first album in 1959, this album consists of 8 of Baden’s and Vinicius’ co-written songs, played in Powell’s unusually ethereal solo style.
Henri Texier Strada Sextet (repeat of 1/10/07)
15/01/2008
Veteran French Jazz Bassist Henri Texier’s CD Alert à L’eau uses a full range of jazz swing - from traditional to African to free - to communicate notions of ‘the politics of water’ - his celebration of ‘the miracle that is water’ as well as his outrage at its degradation at human hands.
Texier is a self-taught musician who learned the ropes playing in Parisian jazz clubs with visiting American musicians including Bud Powell and Phil Woods while playing free jazz and developing his unique musical approach which values swing in many different forms. From 2003 he has led the Henri Texier Strada Sextet, which goes from free jazz to African-esque grooves from track to track, always retaining a muscular intelligence. The group and its unusual, multinational lineup - double bass, drums, baritone sax, clarinet and electric guitar - might challenge your idea of what one group can do. Watch them as they ‘Try to make a sculpture out of passing time’ as Henri describes the process of making jazz.
Badi Assad (repeat of 2/8/07)
02/01/2008
Chameleon-like Brazilian singer/guitarist Badi Assad’s new CD Wonderland uses a range of Brazilian songs and international pop standards to impart the feeling of the Queen’s dominion in Alice in Wonderland - a world where values are inverted.
Despite the seeming darkness of the theme, it’s quite a sunny sounding record, with Badi and her virtuosic guitar joined by a crew of fine musicians - woodwind player Carlos Malta, Double bassist Zeca Assumpção, percussionist Marcos Suzano and producer/cellist Jacque Morelenbaum. The warm-voiced star of City of God, Seu Jorge, joins in on vocals on one song and we get a glimpse of Badi’s former forte - virtuosic mouth percussion combined with innovative guitar techniques.
Hans Kennel (repeat of 13/8/07)
01/01/2008
Hans Kennel Mytha is an Alphorn quartet who take the ancient, pre-musically tempered sounds of their alpine instruments into new directions, incorporating jazz, free jazz and reggae.
Hans studied trumpet and played jazz, but as if in a dream he always remembered the sounds of alphorns he heard as a boy in Switzerland. By pure coincidence he had a chance to play an alphorn after he was well-established as a trumpeter. The experience left a deep impression on him and he started to learn the instrument, soon giving up on his attempts to fix the ‘wrong’, untempered notes it naturally creates. Putting together alphorns of different pitches, he first recorded with the group Mytha in 1991, drawing on the still thriving alphorn repertoire, while moving it into very new directions. How it All Started is a compilation of two previous CDs by Hans and his Quartet.
