Great Live Albums: Dave Douglas

Dave Douglas (trumpet; coronet; b. 1963)

Live At The Jazz Standard (Greenleaf Music, 2006)

Uri Caine (fender rhodes)

Donny McCaslin (sax)

James Genus (bass)

Clarence Penn (drums)

New York mainstay, Dave Douglas is one my favourite trumpeters of the current generation. He is arguably in the handful of musicians who are consistently making challenging and diverse music year after year. Many of my friends feel for this reason he really isn't that creative or originally. Some have said he's like Bowie or Madonna--a chameleon--who becomes whatever their attached to at the moment. Well that might be a good analogy, I think with all three they end up producing some amazing material with whatever might interest them at the moment. And you can't say that about most musicians from any genre currently.

Dave Douglas has worked in various settings; ensembles, quintets, quartets and big bands. He is also a member of another of another New York native, John Zorn's Masada, who are consistently performing and releasing stellar material that confounds critics and listeners alike.

One of the best things I've always enjoyed about Dave Douglas is his live performances. And nowhere else is the originality and technique more apparent than when his quintet performed a six night residency at another one of my favourite jazz clubs in 2006, The Jazz Standard in NYC. I was only in attendance at one date but over the span of six night Douglas debuted new material as well performed critical tracks from a series of albums during that time (The Infinite, Strange Liberation and Meaning and Mystery).

The entire residency was recorded and released as downloads only his own label website, Greeleaf Music, but they later released a 2 disc set that is perfect for the casual fan. Live At The Jazz Standard (Greanleaf Music) is in essence a new album since it features mostly the new material that Douglas had been working on and performing during the residency.

This a group that Douglas has been working with for years so their interaction is impeccable. One of the other amazing things about this set is that Douglas chose to perform on cornet which for the non jazz listens may not make a difference but it what it essential does in this setting is allow the rest of the band to come to forefront.The work by longtime collaborator, Uri Caine (organ) is fantastic and some of the solo work from both Douglas and Donny McCaslin (sax) is truly delirious. These recordings will have going back forth from your Miles electric era to Dave Douglas albums all weekend long.

While most of the tracks will hark back to that golden era of Bitches Brew, Silent Way and Jack Johnson there is no denying that Douglas carves his own stone with songs like "Navigations," "Indian Point," "Seth Thomas," and the lovely blues-inflected "Leaving Autumn". Live At The Jazz Standard also features what is becoming a standard for Douglas "A Single Sky"-- an expansive piece that he has done is various incarnation, more recently on his big band album entitled A Single Sky (Greenleaf Music).
 
Live At The Jazz Standard is funky, blissful, cerebral and smoothly effective. Dave Douglas is one of the few musicians who can absorb themes and truly create something new and original every single time out. While I would advise die hard jazz fans to download all the dates (definitely expensive--I hope you have a job), everyone else should for sure check out the two disc version of Live At The Jazz Standard for a musician who continues to push jazz forward.

Roy Campbell: Pushing Jazz Forward

Roy Campbell (trumpet, b. 1952)

The Nu Band (group; formed 2001)

Mark Whitcage (alto sax)

Joe Fonda (bass)

Lou Grassi (drums)

Roy Campbell is considered one of the leading lights in avant garde today. His trumpet playing can be compared to Miles Davis electric era but Roy's concepts are a bit more in the realm of Sun Ra, John Zorn and Don Cherry the legendary "Dark One" himself. Hailing from Los Angeles, Roy Campbell originally studied under another great trumpeter, Kenny Dorham. He spent a number of years as a sessions man and with a few makeshift groups before finally settling into his own first solo album, New Kingdom (Delmark, 1999).

He has since recorded seven albums under his own name. The most popular and critically acclaimed, Ethnic Stew and Brew (Delmark, 2001) felt like an anvil hitting the music scene. Everyone knew his talent but Ethnic Stew and Brew just solidifies the importance of this new talent. The session blends African, Middle-Eastern and avant garde themes into a subtle but highly enjoyable affair. Images of Miles' Bitches Brew, In A Silent Way and even Ahgharta come to into the framework but that's okay because this is a session that you really have to experience almost by mistake to feel the intensity. I stumbled across it a few years ago in a record store and was completely blown away by Campbell's playing. I bought the album on the spot. Roy Campbell has worked with a wide variety of musicians including, Matthew Shipp, Hamid Drake and saxophonist troubadour, Peter Brotzmann in his Die Like A Dog quartet. One of Roy Campbell's own projects which is receiving critically raves of late is The Nu Band.

The Nu Band features Campbell on trumpet along with Joe Fonda (bass), Lou Grassi (drums) and Mark Whitecage (sax). This is a quartet which at first listen might be just a wall of sound but once you settle into the rhythm you are fully connected to the melody and the method to the madness. The Nu Band are a group that have been together for technically just a short time but have managed to somehow sound like its been twenty years. The interplay is fascinating to experience. Each member takes the lead on the appropriate piece and the rest of the members merge around the one theme. All of their four albums are live recordings which is probably the best way to hear this type of a group--in an improvised setting.

I haven't really decided on my favourite album by the band but Live At The Bop Shop (Clean Feed) and Lower Eastside Blues (Porter Records) are both worth checking out. They are available online if you're interested. But either way, Roy Campbell is thinking about the future and bring concepts that are making everyone thinking differently. Get on board...

CLASSIC ALBUMS: SONNY'S CRIB

Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (piano; b. 1931 - d. 1963)

Sonny's Crib (Blue Note; 1957)

Donald Byrd (trumpet)

John Coltrane (sax)

Curtis Fuller (trombone)

Paul Chambers (bass)

Art Taylor (drums)

If the names above don't impress you enough to buy this---What's wrong with you!?! Well, once you've picked up those essential albums everyone must have when starting a jazz collection, what do you do next? I hope that everyone decides to dig deep and look for some really amazing records from artists they may not have heard of or may notice a couple of musicians playing on the album that are familiar.

Jazz, unlike some other forms of music, is where you can take an educated chance and 90% of time end up pleasantly surprised. One such venture should be Sonny Clark's Sonny's Crib (Blue Note; 1957). Sonny's Crib was the second session Clark would do for Blue Note (the first being Dial "S" for Sonny). Sonny was a huge admirer of John Coltrane and was very excited to be working with him on this, his second date as leader (Coltrane had just finished recording Blue Train (Blue Note; 1957) a month earlier). This date, while slightly subdued because of the material (3 covers and 2 originals), is still a fantastic piece of work from all the musicians involved.

Sonny's Crib features a group that is equal in command while also giveing the ability to solo their direction without dominating the proceedings. Each of the musicians for this session were on their way to becoming legends, but you don't get that sense from this date. From the opening upbeat "Without A Song" that features some killer interchanges between Coltrane and Byrd, to astounding precision of Coltrane, Byrd and Fuller on the Clark penned title track you get the feeling this was not only an amazing session to sit in on but a wonderfully powerful group of artists with whom to record.

The two original compositions "Sonny Crib" and "News For Lulu" would eventually become semi-standards by today's current generation of artists (John Zorn recently covered News For Lulu on two ultra-rare discs with George Lewis (trombone) and Bill Frisell (guitar)).

Sonny's Crib is definitely indicative of the Blue Note sound but it also demonstrates the beauty of each of the performers at an early stage in their careers. Sonny Clark would go on to record two more outstanding Blue Note albums, Sonny Clark Trio and Cool Struttin' in the following months.

John Coltrane would record Soultrane (OJC) a few months into 1958 with Art Taylor and Paul Chambers. Sonny Clark had an unfortunately short career (heart attack in '63) but he left behind a body of work that is solid through and through. If you find any of his albums I would definitely pick them up. Sonny's Crib is an album anyone can enjoy. There are a couple of "Best Of" compilations which actually do the job quite well if you don't want to hunt down the individual albums, but I hope you do.

If you're interested, take a listen on Amazon to Sonny's Crib. It's available both as download and a physical CD.

Below is the titled track from Cool Struttin'.

John Zorn — O'o (2009)

Full disclosure: I've fallen behind on the work of John Zorn — way behind. Let's face it, the guy is prolific, and often quite challenging. Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy my fair share of "difficult listening" (thank you, Laurie Anderson), but when you're talking about an artist as uncompromising as Zorn you approach with caution. (I mean really, stuff like Cobra is easier to respect than listen to.)

So, I've fallen out of touch with Zorn. Maybe I'm still miffed that he didn't grant me an interview for my soundtrack book (he even cold-called me to learn more about the project — talk about getting my hopes up). Most of my Zorn collection dates from the '80s (Naked City, News for Lulu, The Big Gundown, etc.) Then, last week, I stumble onto O'o, reading that it's an exotica record (and I'm a big fan of Baxter, Denny, et al). Naturally, I needed to check it out.

O'o — it turns out — is sort of a sequel to another Zorn album, The Dreamers (2008), which was sort of a sequel to The Gift (2001) — both of which I hadn't yet heard when I listened to O'o. All three of these albums have been characterized as Zorn's most accessible work, and what they all have in common is Zorn's appreciation for exotica, surf, Latin jazz and film music. They also share several of the same musicians: guitarist Marc Ribot, keyboardist Jamie Saft, drummer Joey Baron, bassist Trevor Dunn, and percussionist Cyro Baptista, and vibe man Kenny Wollesen. Zorn acts as arranger, conductor and producer (but leaves his alto sax out of the mix). The ensemble works every groove without showboating or grandstanding, while still demonstrating exemplary chops. The restraint is admirable. They're simply there to serve the music, which breaks no new ground, but avoids cliches.

The moods on O'o range from lively to dreamy, with no jarring digressions along the way. Given Zorn's penchant for frantic fragmentary style-jumping it is pleasantly surprising to hear him work in a straight-forward manner, letting the music work its magic without virtuoso technique and avant-garde concepts. You can imagine cruising down a coastal highway, wind in your hair, without a care in the world — for someone who has always associated Zorn with big concept projects it's refreshing to hear him embrace melody and rhythm in such an organic way.

Buy it.