This Is Book’s Music

Bob Shimizu & Signal Strength are in support of “free range organic music”, which is basically a way to tell people if they want to hear music played in a realistic way without additives, you have to show your support by hearing and seeing it live, nothing beats the live experience. These musicians from the Phoenix-era know, live, eat, and breathe music, so when you hear Cuchillero (self-released), it comes from a group of musicians who know what it takes to create good music, and what is required to make good music sound unreal.

Shimizu is someone of the George Benson/Pat Martino variety, fully capable of playing with a breeze electrically, while maintaining style and class in an acoustic setting, all while moving with the motion of the music as he does in :”Contusion Jazz”, where he and the guys in Signal Strength (Larry Kantor on drums, Michael King on acoustic and electric basses, and David Mills on piano, organ, and synthesizers) play deep, knowing how they fit in with each other’s style and how to bob and weave in order for everyone to become cohesive at the right moments. In other words, you can hear the individuality of each musician, and the balance is just fine. “Loop 101″ is a song that would work perfectly on smooth jazz radio but there’s something about its groove, with the funky bass from King, that could make it crossover to other audiences if that’s what they’re willing to do. It sounds like a soul track from the mid to late 70′s, a bit of Boz Scaggs or Toto groove (think “Georgy Porgy”) that is funky enough to make you want to dance, without having to dust off your George Clinton platform boots.

The songs make me want to hear how they are explored live, and how they may be enhanced organically. Shimizu, King, Mills, Kantor, and percussionist Todd Chuba do it because they love it, and they’ll keep on doing it until it bleeds. Now that’s dedication.

It’s not Christmas yet, but here we are with a new Christmas album ready for the season of endless versions of the same songs. The cover for Jazzy Brass For The Holidays (DBCD) doesn’t reveal who or what this CD is, so you have to flip it over to the back to see Eddie Allen‘s name as the leader, along with Carl Allen (drums/glockenspiel), Kenny Davis (acoustic bass), Clark Gayton (trombone), W. Marshall Sealy (French horn), and Cecil Bridgewater (trumpter).

Even if you’ve heard these… no, I know you’ve heard these songs over and over and it takes a trooper to want to hear them again, so why bother with the same ol’ rusty nuggets? Because the songs are good, their musicianship is spot on, and the performances is good enough for listening outside of the holidays.

The only bad part is that unless you know who it is, the cover leaves a lot to be desired so if you see this CD, know that it is jazz and know that it is fine jazz Christmas music. Maybe next time, Mr. Allen will not be afraid to put his name or show his face on the cover, for he is too good to be hidden or go incognito.

Charito is a vocalist from Japan who is taking on the jazz world by storm. Some of you might be thinking “oh no, a jazz vocalist from Japan, that means half of the words will sound like a mess”, I know how you are. But those who know would never say that, for Charito is a jazz singer who sounds like she has lived in the U.S. all of her life, knowing the nuances of the genre and how to sing from the gut, where it sometimes hurts. Watch What Happens (CT Music) sounds like you’re listening to a Nancy Wilson album, complete with that slurry mouth you know and love, and maybe a cigarette and drink on the side to keep you satisfied. She joins the legendary Michel LeGrand for an album that would be winning people over just for the simple fact that this album has style, grace, and finesse, you know you’re listening to jazz because hearing it makes you feel there’s no other music that’s equally as worthy. Charito sings with so much devotion that you may catch yourself crying, or holding yourself back from going over the edge, it’s that good.

It may sound too good to be true, but here’s absolutely no need to lie, especially after hearing this album. Still don’t believe me? Buy the CD and then I’ll start chanting the album title to you. It’s perfect music for a rainy morning, or an evening after being dropped by your significant other, or a “by-myself meeting”. Now let’s hope an American label will be smart enough to release this domestically, but it’s the kind of album that would make me impatient too.

Saxophonist Dan Moretti is a musician who is not about to rest at any given time, and if you see him resting, it’s either a rare moment or you’re way too close. With bassist Marty Ballou and drummer Marty Richards they celebrate the elegance of a jazz trio and call it Tres Muse (Foundations Jazz). Moretti is a powerhouse with his style of playing, at times he’s playing two notes at once, which is either done with the kind of machinery Eddie Harris was known for or be brought Raashan Roland Kirk in spirit for these sessions. What I also hear on this album is a group walking through different regional and wordly territories, sometimes sounding as if they’ve entered New Orleans for a bit of Marti Gras and making flying over to Brazil to check out carnival (“Off The One”), or going to Mexico and finding the best kitchen that could fill your stomach and perhaps your empty soul. The CD cover itself says that the musicians “interact equally”, and that’s a nice way of saying that they have their shit locked down. Moretti will play a bit maniacal in some songs, while entering meditation mode and you just want to chant “om” with him too, so there might be a few John Coltrane-isms but he carries himself a bit more like Joe Lovano. It’s brilliant.

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Foundations (Foundations Jazz) came out a few months ago, but it brings together the same Tres Mute line-up as they join with trumpeter Curt Ramm and key-man (piano/B-3/Fender Rhodes) Bill Cunliffe for a stunning album that will keep you on the edge of your seat, metaphorical or literal.

This quintet work themselves off as troopers, a jazz militia with an agenda to let the world know that jazz is God, whether it’s hard bop or funking it up. Cunliffe’s B-3 swirls in “MM&D” sounds exciting, and there’s even a nice break courtesy of Richards for you sample junkies. What I like is that they aren’t afraid to mix up the jazz sounds of the 50′s and 60′s and alternate it with mid-70′s jazz funk, which in other hands would sound sloppy and half-assed but these guys are not amateurs. These guys could expand to a 15-piece or 25-piece and I think they would manage to make everyone gel in a way that only jazz musicians can do. It’s inspiring, and I think every young musicians who wants to take jazz or music seriously should hear this album to show what it takes if you put your mind to it and put your mind amongst other like-minded individuals.

Mellow is as mellow does, but I hope people don’t think that mellow means weak. Paul Renz is a jazz guitarist who is indeed mellow, playing like as if he grew up listening to some of the best guitarists around and making sure he doesn’t get stagnant. Of course, most guitarists always go for the throat when it comes to impressing people, or at least letting people know “I love music, I love the guitar, now listen to me play”, and Renz is one of those cats. His last album, ReBop, was something I liked and he returns in fine form with In My Own Hands (Gabwalk).

He is once again backed by Andres Bostrom on flutes, Nathan Fryett on drums, Brian Ziemniak on Hammond B-3 and piano, and Eric Graham on bass, and together they make the kind of music that stands up to any critically acclaimed jazz quintet throughout the genre’s history, for they take on Renz’s songs and go exploring on their own, sometimes collectively, sometimes getting into mini-huddles, and just vibe off of each other in a way that makes you want to return to this album over and over throughout the years. In the title track alone, clocking in at 11:17, these guys get a chance to present themselves with their own instruments, where you know who rules each section. Ziemniak and Graham get into some eerie prog rock groove, Bostrom brings in his own paints, and Fryett insures everything is put together in a nice package, all of which support Renz in a fashion that just sounds… if “right” isn’t the right word, there has to be something close to it. The music will please fans of early-70′s era CTI, it may make you want to pass your children off to mom, bust out the special flavored oils, and get significant with your other, it has that power. If you’re a rock or soul music fan but not much of a jazz fan, this sounds like some of the jazzier elements of your favorite music, but enhanced to create something quite nice. Hearing a B-3 while a flute solo is going on could be like a cross between watching a stoner surfing movie and watching grass grow at high speed. It’s just great, exciting sounds from a great guitarist and a group of friends who should be conquering the world if jazz was the “it” music of the world. Hell, jazz is and will always be the “it” music of the world, spread its awareness.

Jazz music should not be a strain to listen to, even though the life of a jazz artist can be stressful. It’s all or nothing, and many don’t settle for nothing, as is the case with guitarist David Widelock, who has played everything from chamber music to blues but seems to enjoy the comforts of jazz. On Skating On The Sidewalk (Beegum), he and his trio (Widelock on electric and acoustic guitars, plus Fred Randolph on acoustic and electric bass and Jim Kassis on drums) play the kind of jazz that is laid back and smooth but far from being smooth jazz. Widelock’s guitar playing is along the lines of Wes Montgomery, and drummer Kassis does his drumming as if he’s scatting with Widelock and Randolph. If the Modern Jazz Quartet or Dave Brubeck were guitar driven, it would sound like what these three gentlemen are capable of doing. It swings, it grooves, it soothes, it surprises. Their cover of Ledbetter‘s “Black Betty” (covered in hard rock form by Ram Jam) will make a lot of people smile as they hear this blues chestnut get newly polished in jazz tones. I love Widelock’s flamenco ways in “A Colorful Dream Underwater”, which sounds as beautiful as the title suggests.

Audiophile junkies will love this name: Myles Boisen. He engineered, mastered, and co-produced the album with Widelock, so if you know a bit of Boisen’s mastering history, you’ll know about the great work he has done. That care he put in those projects are heard here, from the airiness of the studio to getting the sounds of the bass, drums, and guitar just right, nothing is ignored and it’s just a nice balance. When they play Tom Waits‘ “Sixteen Shells From A 30-60″, you tend to want to imagine Waits’ grittiness in their performance, and maybe it is indeed there.

If more jazz albums sounded like this, if they were played like this, if they were engineered in this way each time, it would be a beautiful thing. The title Skating On The Sidewalk suggests that they know about the risk of being a skateboarder and traveling on property that people don’t want you to travel on, you are a nuisance to society. While Widelock, Randolph, and Kassis are not hoodlums by any means, they do play with a swagger that is transferred beautifully by Boisen. Without a need to hide their bravado, they can collectively say, with apologies to L.L. Cool J, “how ya like me now, punk?”

The one thing you cannot rely on all the time when reviewing an album is intuition. Just because a song begins with an acoustic guitar doesn’t mean it’s an acoustic album. I’m not getting anywhere, let me try this again with a second paragraph.

I don’t remember if this album came with a press release or not, but AT starts out in an acoustic manner, sounds like a bunch of people in a room with a cassette player, and someone went to press record to archive the festivities. Of course you can do the same thing with a laptop or a computer and get the same results with a decent microphone. AT is indeed one man with one unknown plan who holds a guitar and sings exciting acoustic songs that could be folk anthems if it wasn’t for the fact that there’s an edginess to these songs that “Puff The Magic Dragon” lacks. The first groups I thought of while listening to this were The Flaming Lips and Love, the latter comparison very notable if you’ve ever heard Arthur Lee sing “Listen To My Song”. AT can sing mystical about going up a mountain and finding something great there, or just being what you are even though you’re not sure what was said. The best way to describe what AT does is that when you hear an acoustic section of some of the best prog rock songs out there, this would be a mix tape of all of those acoustic parts. When you hear lyrics such as “and I know you ain’t waiting for anything from me/you come thorugh like the wind at night to keep me company/and I’ll keep on makin’ room for what you got/I forgot all the answers butI no longer need ‘em/I’m gettin’ all I asked for as I listen to your breathe/Sounds like the rollin’ of the the sea/Like blowing through the trees” (from “For A Long Way Through”), you expect for some mean ass Ian Anderson-esque flute solo to rip through this, and when the melody and harmonies end up sounding like someone listened to a Chicago discography for a weekend, it could go to these new and foreign places but doesn’t. It doesn’t mean it holds itself back, it’s just that it lurks on the lip towards falling and quietly steps back, inhales, and goes towards a new song.

Maybe this is more classic rock influenced than something alterna- friendly, but there’s a lot going on in songs where everything is trimmed but the essentials. The trimming process enables people to hear the songs for what they are, and what they are will be appreciated by those who simply love craft in their acoustic indie rock.