Bill Frisell’s bona fides as a guitarist are widely and rightly celebrated in diverse musical circles, but the sheer scope and quality of his output, as both leader and sideman, is harder to quantify, but no less astounding. Three new releases speak to Frisell’s seemingly limitless adaptability and artistry. Sign of Life finds him in the company of his 858 Quartet, a group of longtime collaborators. The ensemble - violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, along with cellist Hank Roberts - was initially formed by Frisell to perform music commissioned to accompany an exhibit of Gerhard Richter’s 858 Series of paintings at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Here, the deeply sympathetic and adventurous quartet performs a diverse, but beguilingly approachable set of Frisell originals. The album opens with a solo statement from the leader, introducing the earthy melody of “It’s A Long Story (Part One)” in a string of unadorned lines before the ensemble enters, echoing Frisell and outlining the piece’s breezy, diatonic harmony. The tune is less than three minutes long - as are nearly all of the album’s 17 vignette-like tracks - but in that time the quartet establishes a relaxed but vigorously engaged mood that permeates the disc. On “Mother Daughter”, the ensemble is almost telepathically engaged, repeating the hypnotic, evocative melody in brazen sweeps of the bow and dramatic plucked figures over Frisell’s dreamy chords and fills. Scheinman, Kang and Roberts each briefly enter the foreground with an improvised statement, but never in a way that distracts from the ensemble’s singular voice. The group succeeds beautifully at blending improvisation and spontaneous arranging into a seamless and deeply satisfying listen. German pianist Hans Koller has made a name for himself, mostly in Europe, as an artist steeped in tradition, but with a distinct voice of his own. On Cry, Want the young composer has assembled an accomplished ensemble to perform his remarkably mature pieces and sophisticated arrangements. Koller ’s skill as an arranger is immediately apparent on “Nocturne”, a densely voiced and harmonically complex piece that opens the album and features the leader on electric piano, along with French hornist Jim Rattigan and trumpeter Rob Robson. Frisell’s contributions - as they are on a number of selections - remain in the background, but add an unmistakable character and richness to the music. In addition to his own compositions, Koller includes two covers - “Quasimodo” by Charlie Parker and Jimmy Giuffre’s title track - that are arguably the album’s high points. The former begins with Frisell reading the melody over a bass and drum accompaniment that quickly becomes more abstract with the addition of each instrument from the ensemble. As the piece progresses, the melody is tossed between instruments while the backgrounds and counterlines become increasingly fractured. The effect of a familiar melody slowing becoming untethered from its harmonic moorings and taking on an entirely new aspect in the process is simply stunning. Equally arresting is Koller ’s treatment of the album’s title piece. Again,

Frisell opens with a statement of the eerie, unadorned melody, but this time, the guitarist has even more time to develop the theme with permutations and electronic loops over carefully orchestrated chord clusters and counter melodies from the ensemble. The 13-minute piece also features an inspired solo by Evan Parker on soprano saxophone, but it is Frisell who dominates and transfixes with an unforgettable performance. Frisell’s long association with Brazilian-born guitarist Vinicius Cantuária is apparent from the opening notes of Lágrimas Mexicanas. The pair eases into the quiet groove of “Mi Declaracion” like old friends starting up a conversation where they left off. Cantuária’s silky baritone vocals and strummed acoustic guitar parts work perfectly against Frisell’s electronic blips and atmospheric background figures and, with the help of producer Lee Townsend, the duo manages to sound like a full band throughout the album. Living for more than a decade in NYC, Cantuária has absorbed the sounds of various Spanish-speaking cultures and Lágrimas Mexicanas reflects this immersion. From the pop-ish refrains of “Calle 7” to the harmonized Spanish vocals of the title track and the wistful Portuguese of “Aquela Mulher”, it’s clear that the singer has deep love and respect for the material he covers. Frisell’s contributions are less pronounced - electronic loops, angular lines and pulsing beats fill the spaces left by Cantuária - but add tremendous depth to an album that is easy on the ears, but rewards careful and repeated listening.

For more information, visit savoyjazz.com, emanemdisc.com/psi.html and songtone.com. Frisell is at Blue Note Jun. 1st-5th and Highline Ballroom Jun. 6th with Vinicius Cantuária and Jun. 7th with McCoy Tyner, both as part of Blue Note Jazz Festival. See Calendar.

It’s been 70 years since Charles Bukowski left Los Angeles City College and moved to New York City to become a writer. Surely the seer never envisioned his poetic creativity would serve as lobster compost to inspire Los Angeles native Nicholas Urie’s My Garden. Urie and Bukowski bookend and intersect interesting musical jazz timelines within the last century or so: Urie - now a flourishing 20-something merry orchestrator - and analogously Bukowski, born in 1920, publishing his first story when he was 24 and thereafter writing poetry at the age of 35. At turns a call to prayer, a shrieking sigh, a didactic plea, a violet shrunken, My Garden is lush with the formidable and unsquelchable sonnets of Bukowski hyperlinked and interlaced with sax riffs and trumpet solos. The album grows a champagne-flavoured admixture of haunting refrains sung dominantly and unapologetically by Christine Correa. The potpourri rises: enter the wailing of Jeremy Udden’s soprano saxophone; gliding along the limbering alto and capsizing clarinet of Douglas Yates; ‘round the bend the relenting tenor Kenny Pexton, leap-frog to the well-glazed bass clarinet of Brian Landrus; with soaring arcs of tempestuous trumpeteers: Albert Leusink, Ben Holmes and John Carlson into the cross-way. Dared then by trombonists’ thrill - Alan Ferber and Max Siegel who mount a mighty crescendo; piano poesy of Frank Carlberg; the quintessential contrabass

of John Hébert and the enticing drums of Michael Sarin jointly conjure a riotous carousel ride. While My Garden is Urie’s unmistakable homage to the legend, language and lore of Charles Bukowski, the music itself scales Bukowski’s intensity to crescendo of soaring musical dimensionality. It’s Urie’s musical translation of Bukowski’s sardonic spirit that creates the hard-edged, deeply-rooted, far-flying sounds. Schedule some premium playtime with Nicholas Urie’s big band of remarkably lyrical magicians on a majestic journey within your own garden.

For more information, visit redpianorecords.com

16 June 2011 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

CD REVIEWS

• Stacy Dillard - Good and Bad Memories (Criss Cross)• Lee Konitz/Brad Mehldau/Charlie Haden/ Paul Motian - Live at Birdland (ECM)• Orchestre National de Jazz/Daniel Yvinec - Shut Up and Dance (BEE Jazz)• Matana Roberts - Live in London (Central Control)• Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures with Organic Orchestra Strings - Both/And (Meta)• Bobby Selvaggio - Grass Roots Movement (Arabesque) David Adler New York@Night Columnist

• Samuel Blaser - Consort in Motion (Kind of Blue)• Boom Box (Willi Kellers/Thomas Borgmann/ Akira Ando) - Jazz (Jazzwerkstatt)• Bo Jacobsen - Spirit (Embla Music)• Delfeayo Marsalis - Sweet Thunder (Troubador Jass)• Neil Welch - Boxwork (Table & Chairs Music)• David White Jazz Orchestra - Flashpoint (Mister Shepherd) Laurence Donohue-Greene Managing Editor, The New York City Jazz Record

• BB&C - The Veil (Cryptogramophone)• Delirium - Green Side Up (ILK Music))• Dave Douglas United Front - Brass Ecstasy at Newport (Greenleaf)• Evans/Fernández/Gustafsson - Kopros Lithos (Multikulti Project)• Ohad Talmor - Newsreel (Auand)• John Zorn - The Satyr’s Play (Tzadik) Andrey Henkin Editorial Director, The New York City Jazz Record

R E C O M M E N D E DN E W R E L E A S E S

My Garden

Nicholas Urie (Red Piano)by Francie Scanlon

Sign of Life Bill Frisell (Savoy Jazz)Cry, Want (with Bill Frisell) Hans Koller (psi)

Lágrimas Mexicanas Vinicius Cantuária/Bill Frisell (Songline-Tonefield)

by Matt Miller