JAZZ
WORD
Love and Freeform Bass: Joëlle Léandre
June 30, 2008 - International standard-bearer for free-form double bass playing. Paris-based Joëlle Léandre is a citizen of the world, as comfortable playing notated music by American John Cage or Italian Giacinto Scelci – both of whom composed pieces for her – as improvising with British guitarist Derek Bailey or Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer. In Israel, trading ideas with locals such as bassist Jean Claude Jones and saxophonists Assif Tsahar, Ariel Shibolet and Albert Berger, she enlightens All About Jazz’s Eyal Hareuveni about her musical origins, her important collaborations and what she sees as the roles of women in Free Music. READ
An Unclassifiable Musical Cosmopolitan: Elliott Sharp
June 23, 2008 - Someone who has never been satisfied to limit himself to one idiom, New York-based saxophonist and guitarist Elliott Sharp is a so-called experimental composer whose work reflects jazz, blues, improvised and notated music. Still, as he tells GP Information’s Nuno Loureiro, the first two are “as much a part of my daily life as speaking English or drinking coffee”. Still Sharp, whose recent projects includes recording an acoustic guitar tribute to Thelonious Monk, performing his string quartet with the Sirius Quartet, playing separate improvised duets with cellist Frances-Marie Uitti and guitarist Scott Fields, composing a new work for Frankfurt's Ensemble Modern and a dance company, plus playing with his blues-rock band, remains unclassifiable. One irritant he admits to however is that with New York “controlled by real estate forces”, many creative artists are moving elsewhere. READ
Mathematical, Indian-tinged Improv: Rudresh Mahanthappa
June 16, 2008 - One of the most visible of new jazz players whose ancestral roots are in the Indian subcontinent – pianist and his frequent collaborator Vijay Iyer is another – Rudresh Mahanthappa is more closely wedded to the mainstream jazz tradition than any sort of South-Asian music. Yet as the Brooklyn-based alto saxophonist tells the Boston Globe’s Siddhartha Mitter, now that his music-making is able to encompass his interest in mathematics and improvisation, his next step is adapting a variant of Carnatic – that is South Indian, traditional classical – music to jazz. READ
Graphic Notation as Art, Code and Prod
June 9, 2008 - Although some variations of graphic scores have existed since the beginning of the 20th century, it is only since the 1950s that such methods to restrict and reinvent the information given to performers have become widely accepted throughout the music world. As New Music Box’s Alyssa Timin explains in this article, the advent of electronic and tape composition, the dialogue between composers and non-musicians in other disciplines for performances, and crucially, the influence of jazz and improvised music encouraged the creation of non-traditional notation. Today notable graphic scores include those created by established composer-performers such as Anthony Braxton, Earle Brown and Wadada Leo Smith as well as those by younger experimental music makers like Andre Vida and Marina Rosenfeld. READ
A Self-Made Clarinet Man: Jason Stein
June 2, 2008 - Someone who has always followed his own path –musical or otherwise – Chicago-based bass clarinetist Jason Stein admits to The Chicago Tribune’s Andy Downing that he didn’t even considering playing his chosen instrument until he heard Eric Dolphy on a John Coltrane record. Now after teaching himself to play the clarinet, and after a earning a music degree from the University of Michigan, he plays with many improvising ensembles groups in the Windy City. Encouraged by local multi-reedist Ken Vandermark, and featured in one of that saxophonist/clarinetist’s many bands, the New York-native is now recording on his own and leading his own group. READ

KEN WAXMAN'S
REVIEW OF THE MOMENT
Read reviews of over 1,800 musicians

BILLY BANG

Big Bang Theory
Justin Time JUST 135-2

Was it pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams who said he didn't want his music to be described as "avant garde" anymore because labeling it that way was "a kiss of death"?

Whoever it was, inventive violinist Billy Bang, who heads this exemplary album, could testify to the truth of that statement as well. One of the two prominent fiddlers -- Leroy Jenkins is the other -- who stripped the instrument of enough of its innate "prettiness" to let it hold its own with the iron men drummers and horn players of the early 1970s, Bang was never exclusively an avant gardist.

His 1982 Outline No. 12, for horns and strings, for instance, explored some of new music/improv parameters that concerned folks like Anthony Braxton and Butch Morris later on. His stint with Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio revolved around a funky groove and his stints in the jazz chamber group The String Trio of New York, and Bill Laswell's rock-oriented Material pinpointed his virtuosity

So while uninformed neo-con jazzers still whine about his pinched tone and pillory him for "avant garde" leanings, CDs like this one and his earlier sessions for Justin Time show that among his many other attributes, versatile Bang can output pure swing when he sets his bow to it.

In fact, the careful listener would note that this quartet's heartfelt rhythm and relaxed tunefulness, call up the image of no one more than trickster Stuff Smith -- mainstream jazz's violin clown prince of the 1930s to 1960s. And no one ever attacked Stuff for being "far out".

Bang et. al score in any number of ways throughout the more than 66 minutes of this disc. They're reverently spiritual on the traditional "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," low-down enough on El'Zabar's "Contrary Motion", and in-the-pocket when liming Freddie Hubbard's 1970s anthem "Little Sunflower." Unspectacular but steady bassist Lundy and pianist Pope each contribute a jaunty blowing piece, while Moffett -- today's drummer-of-choice -- supplies whatever accents are needed.

Furthermore, while Bang's five originals may be a little more astringent and spiky than what aging young lions play in trendy jazz & cigar boîtes, there's probably nothing so "oddball" enough there send his critics scurrying back to their National Reviews or following e-trades on NASDAQ.

Probably the most noteworthy is the violinist's brief, but heart-felt spoken word salute then string solo requiem for Denis* Charles, another non-idiomatic improviser who died a couple of years ago.

Charles who was best known -- or perhaps most criticized -- as Cecil Taylor's first drummer, never let the jazz fashion police get to him. He was playing powerfully until the very end. With BIG BANG THEORY we can probably be confident that Bang will go out the same way.

-Ken Waxman

Track listing: 1. Contrary Motion 2. At Play In The Fields Of The Lord 3. Big Bang Theory 4. Theme For Taraby 5. Silent Observation 6. One For Jazz (For Dennis* Charles) 7. Sweet Irene 8. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 9. Saved By The Bell 10. Little Sunflower

Personnel: Billy Bang (violin); Alexis T. Pope (piano); Curtis Lundy (bass); Codaryl Moffett (drums)

April 22, 2000