Based in Silver Spring, MD, Cuneiform Records commenced activity way back in 1984 with the release of R. Stevie Moore’s What’s the Point? In the long interval since the label’s discography has grown to over 400 items delving into experimentalism of assorted stripes including the post-Canterbury scene, Rock in Opposition, and jazz ranging from fusion to the avant-garde. Their Winter 2016 slate consists of full-lengths by Naima, The Ed Palermo Big Band, Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei featuring Sarah Stiles, Ergo, and Empirical; considerations of the five are below. Only the Naima offers a vinyl pressing, but with music this reliably interesting it’s difficult to quibble over format.
The Spanish three-piece Naima is Enrique Ruiz on piano and synths, Luis Torregrosa on drums and Rafael Ramos Sania on bass, and while the name is likely to instill the impression of a decidedly Coltrane-esque venture, that’s incorrect. Newcomers may suppose the ‘Trane similarities were stronger when tenor saxophonist Manolo Valls was in Naima’s lineup, but the inspection of prior catalog doesn’t bear this out; Bye is their fourth album and second as a piano trio with Sania completing the triangle as their third bassist.
A spirit of creative equality permeates the music here, so piano trio really isn’t the best descriptor. They have been likened to The Bad Plus, partly due to their gravitation toward non-jazz source material; the two choices here are from the pens of Jaga Jazzist’s Lars Horntveth and Elliott Smith, “Animal Chin” and “Can’t Make a Sound” respectively, though Naima is in fact largely focused on pieces written and arranged collectively.
Ruiz has a penchant for melodic lines accurately assessed as petty, but he never teeters into insubstantiality and can escalate into some intense, occasionally thundering scenarios; his synth additives, at times distorted at others retro-futurist and in a few instances prog-like, avoid the heavy-handed and should assist Naima in appealing to the lingering post-rock brigade. Non-showboat Torregrosa adds necessary weight and velocity as the fibrous warmth of Sania in standard and arco mode adequately fills out the sound.
Comparisons have been made to E.S.T. and the trio of Brad Mehldau, and both are apt I presume. Maybe it’s the title of opener “A Father’s Anthem,” but I’m more inclined to suggest that folks placing approximately equal value upon Horace Silver’s early ’60s Blue Note dates and Tortoise’s TNT will find much to enjoy throughout Bye.
For some jazz is a group of dedicated players navigating syncopated abstraction in a smoky room. Others locate it on shelves of sessions fleshing out the long narrative of an art form. But for a sizable percentage of individuals it’s simply the music they practiced for a few years in high school and/or college; The Ed Palermo Big Band’s One Child Left Behind initially brings to mind those extracurricular activities of yore as the arranging skills of its leader and the skill its members blows the doors off what gets heard in the average gymnasium assembly.
Palermo’s focus on the work of Frank Zappa, an expedition now spanning five releases (four for Cuneiform) also stands apart, though an appetite for the subject isn’t required to be swayed by One Child Left Behind’s amicable eclecticism; as a listener whose Zappa jones relates almost entirely to the Mothers’ ‘60s run, I was pleasantly surprised by this record’s wares.
Unlike on certain previous efforts, the program isn’t wholly Frank-centric; amongst a handful of originals by Palermo (including the terrific “Vengeance”) sits a Nelson Riddled version of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” that’ll undoubtedly get an approving nod from Fagen and Becker plus reworkings of a Los Lobos tune and Giorgio Moroder’s theme to Brian De Palma’s Scarface.
And in a positive turn the sense of humor, which is always a worry in regards to Zappa and related or influenced affairs, doesn’t run rampant; the main exception (alongside a very funny CD booklet/cover/title) is a truly hilarious revamping of “Is That All There Is?” that just might stand as the finest use of Leiber and Stoller’s existential oldie since Scorsese’s After Hours.
Helping matters considerably is a rock inclination derived from Hot Rats (easily Zappa’s best post-’60s Mothers slab) rather than the putrid vamping of Blood Sweat & Tears, and Frank nuts will be surely gassed by the vocals of his younger sis Candy as well as Zappa alumnus Napoleon Murphy Brock. But underneath the edgy diversity is a solidly inside foundation; Palermo played with Tito Puente, Lena Horne, and Mel Tormé and wrote charts for The Tonight Show. This background ultimately makes One Child Left Behind a cozy experience; a touch of the anarchic would’ve put it totally over the top.
Guitarist Gary Lucas’ status as a multitasking veteran is impossible to dispute; I first heard him as part of the Magic Band on Captain Beefheart’s Ice Cream for Crow and shortly thereafter via his National Steel interpretation of Albert Ayler’s “Ghosts” on Live at the Knitting Factory Volume Two. He’s additionally noted for collaborating with the late Jeff Buckley and more recently UK vocalist Peter Hammill.
Credited to Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei featuring Sarah Stiles, Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons illuminates the leader’s deep interest in the moving image and is a top to bottom delight. It also confirms Lucas’ taste in projects, for the shorts produced by Fleischer studios, particularly those hailing from the pre-Code era starring Koko the Clown, Bimbo, Popeye, and the two subjects of this inspired tribute, Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, remain near animation’s apex as we inch toward their centennial.
They do so mainly through a combination of inventiveness and unconventionality, and Lucas and his crack band, namely Joe Fiedler on trombone and ensemble arrangements, Jeff Lederer on woodwinds and vocals, Michael Bates on upright bass, and Rob Garcia on drums, with Lucas rounding it out on acoustic, vocals, and arrangements for his axe, splendidly increase the musicality of the sources, many of them penned by Sammy Timberg and radiating a blend of hot jazz, Yiddish music hall, Tin Pan Alley/Broadway pop, and klezmer.
Across a dozen selections nary a note is laid wrong as the blossoming wildness spans from Lucas’ “Sweet Betty” introduction and “Don’t Take My Boop-Oop-a-Doop Away” to a closing recreation of the full soundtrack to the ’35 Popeye classic “Beware of Barnacle Bill.” That means vocals, and as illustrated by her name on the marquee, Sarah Stiles deserves special citation.
In the cartoons both the bubbly-sultry Betty Boop and the persistently gangly Olive Oyl were voiced by actress Mae Questel. Stiles’ Broadway experience allows her to fully embody these extremes as her sheer singing talent is a tremendous fit. Lucas fans will adore Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons, and so will lovers of Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling, and John Zorn (notably, the seed of this record is found on Lucas’ Busy Being Born for Zorn’s Tzadik label). The excellent liners by Lucas and film-critic Glenn Kenny also warrant mention.
Like Naima, Brooklyn’s Ergo can be categorized as an electro-acoustic trio, but they take the description to significantly different ends on As subtle as tomorrow, their fourth album and third for Cuneiform. Akin to Naima, the membership of Ergo has evolved over time; Brett Sroka effectively leads the proceedings on trumpet and computer, and he’s joined by Shawn Baltazor on drums and Sam Harris on piano, prepared-piano, and Rhodes electric piano.
Ergo’s latest is a seven-piece suite inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem, her opening line titling the disc as fragments of the text name the individual tracks. It’s striking how one poem from a writer as famously succinct as Dickinson has provided the fuel for a full-length’s worth of creativity, but it’s quickly observable that Ergo thrives on discipline and intensity, two traits shared with the celebrated poet.
In contrast to Bye’s technological accenting, the contents here are shaped far more by Sroka’s electronics, and the way this integral aspect mingles with the organic instrumentation establish warm and intriguing atmospheres validating the stated influences of Stockhausen and Xenakis on one side and Sigur Ros and Aphex Twin on the other without sounding especially like any of them.
Likewise, Sroka’s doubling on computer and trombone recalls the great Chicago improviser George Lewis (his Homage to Charles Parker is a masterpiece of creative sonic invention) as the landscape lacks clutter, spaciousness a valuable element in As subtle as tomorrow’s success. In relation to Dickinson Ergo’s latest combines quite nicely with Josephine Foster’s Graphic as a Star, and it’s recommended for folks into Lewis, Anthony Braxton’s work with Richard Teitelbaum, the Necks, and electric Miles.
Compared to the Ergo and even Naima entries, Connection by UK quartet Empirical has been more forthrightly carved out of jazz tradition, but as they utilize the progressions of advanced bop and the New Thing from (roughly) ’60-’65 as a springboard for 11 original compositions, the group’s recognizable lineage is by no means a drawback. Empirical is Nathaniel Facey on alto sax, Lewis Wright on vibraphone, Tom Farmer on bass, and Shaney Forbes on drums, and it’s important to emphasize the advanced bop side of their overall attack. The lean, restlessly propulsive yet melodically rich tunes contributed by 3/4ths of the band, while certainly hovering on the outside are far from any kind of skronk fest.
Wright’s instrument will indubitably conjure thoughts of the sublime vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, an appraisal heightened by Empirical’s second disc Out ‘n’ In taking inspiration from Eric Dolphy and specifically his all-time classic Out to Lunch! That LP featured Hutcherson, and Wright’s playing is informed by the precedent as he handily circumvents any copyist gestures. The same applies to the sharp fluidity of Facey’s alto.
Connection finds Empirical examining their four-piece constitution at length after inviting guest spots and a collab with string ensemble Benyounes Quartet on preceding discs; the results radiate on the adventurous end of the ‘60s Blue Note spectrum but with an organic contemporary veneer; the set rounds out Cuneiform’s Winter 2016 catalog additions with aplomb.
Naima:
A-
The Ed Palermo Big Band:
B+
Gary Lucas’ Fleischerei featuring Sarah Stiles:
A
Ergo:
A-
Empirical:
A-
