My Rating – is – 5 stars AND Year – is – 2003

3 responses to “My Rating – is – 5 stars AND Year – is – 2003”

1. 

   vanderwal

   January 19, 2004 at 2:38 am

   Thanks for sharing.

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2. 

   andrew

   January 19, 2004 at 1:29 pm

   😦
   I think I’ve heard of around 4 of the artists.

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3. 

   Darren DeMonsi

   January 22, 2004 at 5:30 am

   Best of last year.
   Gianluigi Trovesi – Fugace
   The most exciting improviser in jazz today? But its his compositional (particularly melodic) gifts that constantly surprise and elevate his work. Fugace continues his incredible re-imagining of the jazz idiom. Like his countryman Italo Calvino, with whom he shares a playful and metaphysical and uniquely Italian approach to art, Calvino is constantly drawing on his own country’s folk music while deeply steeped in the history and roots of African-American jazz, particularly Satchmo and New Orleans. Trovesi, who has composed and played with the Italian Instabile Orchestra, is never far from the avant-garde. However, with the album, he has proven that he is one of the most memorable melodic composers on either side of the Atlantic. On Fugace, he comes dangerously close to dilletantism, though, with tracks like Clumsy Dancing . . . which pits Trovesi against a drum and bass rhythm: catchy but superficial. The African Tryptych is musically fascinating with bits of North African and Township musics thrown in, but not as profound as fellow countryman Minafra’s Au fond, Je suis un africain du nord. Then you’ve got the hip-hop and pop sensibilities of Canto di Lavoro . Not Trovesi’s best by a long shot, but still head and shoulders better than anybody else in jazz today.
   Franz Koglmann – Fear Death By Water
   . .. . except Koglmann. Who occupies the other end of the European jazz spectrum. Pigeonholing unfairly, Trovesi is the Southern European / Mediterranean culturally mixed spicy ragu di agnello (mmmm. lamb stew.) of musicians, Koglmann is the cold and analytical Austrian drawing as much from the Second Viennese School as from Duke. Dubbed the “Avant-Cool”, Koglmann takes up the mantle laid down by Gunther Schuller and other Third-Stream advocates (particularly Jimmy Giuffre) and actually makes the formula work. It is significant that both Trovesi and Koglmann choose to work with medium sized groups (Trovesi with an ottetto, Koglmann with his piptet) that give their work a vaguely orchestral feel, especially in Koglmann’s case. While Trovesi tries to re-imagine and re-invigorate jazz with folk and non-Western sources, Koglmann is content to gaze at its decadent and slighty rotting (classical) underbelly. On FDBW, which is a opera of sorts based on The Waste Land , Koglmann continues to examine themes of memory (like his earlier album The Use of Memory) and forgetfulness. Like the Austrian novelist Thomas Berhardt, Koglmann has been accused of making the same album over and over. And like Elliot, he has been accused of a nostalgia for classicism which he contrasts with the moral decay of modern society. As the libretto in the booklet says, “What was tomorrow / Will be yesterday.”
   Willem Breuker – Misery
   The final volume in Breuker’s Hunger, Thirst, Misery triology is the strongest of the three. No its not particularly groundbreaking in terms of European jazz or even Breuker’s own body of work, but the arrangements, and particularly the soloists are as tight and deliciously delirious as ever. His mixing of “high” and “low” musics and playful sense of music history justify the tag of the Dutch Frank Zappa. And a great reworking of “I Remember April”. The Kollektief has been around for 35 years and Breuker is one of the grand old men of jazz, at this point, it would be easy for him to settle into a predictable and popular pattern. While he does have a identifiable modus operandi, his recent recordings sound as fresh and as relevant as ever, unlike Wynton Marsalis’ jazz conservatism (Conservatory-ism?) This is one of his most enjoyable Breuker recordings of recent years, beautifully packaged, and now the triology is available as a three CD set. Check out the unabashedly joyously solo on Thrist IV, would go well paired with some of Fellini’s more grotesquely comic and fantastic moments, like La Strada or the reverie bits from 8 1/2 .
   Chris Watson – Weather Report
   Most of the avant-garde has in recent times been assimilated by and large by more popular forms of music, see Radiohead. The one exception I can think of is environmental field recordings, or if you perfer, musique concrete. Formerly of the Hafler Trio and Cabaret Voltaire, Watson recently has done scientific field recordings of birds for an English ornithological group. This is a collection of untouched field recordings arranged into three tracks. Reminds me of Luc Ferrari’s Presque Rien which was an untouched arrangement of sunrise recordings from a Dalmatian seaside village. For those interested in the sound of a glacier creaking or a fly breathing.
   Arne Nordheim – Dodeka
   The important Norwegian composer has seen a flood (OK, small stream) of issues in re-issues in the last two years. Before 2000, you’d be hard pressed to find a single album by the person called Norway’s greatest living composer. Now you’ve got your choice of Listen, a 6-CD set, two Rune Gramophone releases, and several others. This particular release lacks the compositional / structural genius of other electronic composers, say Dockstader. Nevertheless, this deserves to be in the top shelf of early electronic compositional work. This is a nice introduction to some of his early electronic works, but not quite as good as Electric, released last year.
   Asmus Tietchens – FT+
   This is a remix of Crouton’s innovative Folktales series which was released in beautifully packaged limited edition 3 x 3minidisc tryptichs, each minidisc focusing on a Crouton artist. Electro-acoustic, improv, just plain innovative music (like Bhob Rainey, who takes apart his sax and then plays it). Not as good as the original series but worth hearing especially if you have one or any of the original 3″ers because what Tietchens does to some of the tracks is an amazing deconstruction of largely acoustic material.
   Rokia Troare – Bowmboi
   Troare continues to break down every barrier in sight for a female artist in West Africa. From a non-musical caste family, she herself produces, mixes, writes, and arranges her own albums, that take traditional instruments: kora, balafon, dundun, calabash, etc. and arranges them in small group settings that sound more like chamber string quartets more than traditional West African grooves. Her lyrics, to anyone who has spent anytime in West Africa are shockingly progressive: right to pick who you want to marry, female genital mutilation, the oppression of women in a male dominated society, all still very touchy subjects in her native Mali. Not quite as large a step forward as Wanita , but still hugely important and enjoyable and unique. In short, this may not be the album of the year (its close), but Traore is surely, in terms of social, political, and musical innovation, the artist of the year, if not the new millenium.
   Sekou Bambino – Sinikan
   Another West African (Guinean) artist. Not groundbreaking, but fun and terribly catchy. The rhythms are infectious. Wonderful soul, R & B, and yes, hip-hop influences. Traditional instruments abound. Check out Diabate’s un-ironic take on James Brown’s “Its a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” played on kora and other traditional instruments. Relevant and beautiful interpretation with more than a bit of resignation. And the lyrics abound with themes of community, culture change, forgiveness, and hope.
   Concerto Koln and Saraband – Dream of the Orient
   Not the type of one-off dilletantism Kronos has become famous for doing. Rather, an exploration of the Turkish influence on Viennese classical music that manifest itself in works like Mozart’s Abduction of a Seraglio, and Haydn’s Symphony #100. In also re-examines whether these were European visions of what they imagined “Turkish” music to be, or genuine cross-cultural exchanges. In this case, Saraband (a Turkish ensemble) meets CK (playing period instruments!!!) on entirely equal terms and the battery of turkish percussion launches many of these non-repertory pieces into the stratosphere.
   Valery Gergiev conducts the Rotterdam and Kirov Philharmonics – Shostakovich Symphony #7 (Leningrad)
   Originally recorded just days after Sept. 11, 2001 in Rotterdam. Two orchestras playing simulanteously. Recorded in a city that suffered some of the worst bombing during WWII. A symphony about the siege of Leningrad. You get the picture. The first movement’s sinister and foreboding mood explodes into an all out attack during the middle section with its famous mock-Bolero snare pattern. You cant help but think of the World Trade Centers and the devastation, the heroism. Too much compositional and musical history about Shostakovich to get into here. Great liner notes. Concert of the year in 2001, CD of the year in 2003.
   Best Reissues: Fuschia Swing Song – Sam Rivers; Pakistani Pomade – Alex Von Schlippenbach; Lonesome On’ry and Mean – Waylon Jennings; Yesterday’s Wine – Willie Nelson.

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