BBC: Bill Dixon’s Tapestries For Small Orchestra (Firehouse 12)

Bill Tilland reviews trumpeter/composer Bill Dixon’s Tapestries For Small Orchestra (Firehouse 12 Records) in a new post on the BBC’s Web site.

“Both his compositions and his own playing tend to be very painterly,” he writes, “with extensive use of space and silence, tonal colours, instrumental juxtapositions and aural gestures: smears, burrs, squeaks, rasps and vocalisations. Each piece has a distinct texture, shape and sense of movement. The music defies classification and is sometimes ‘difficult’, but Dixon’s academic sensibilities are clearly energised by a soulful, passionate aesthetic.”

He adds, “Tapestries is not for the timid or intellectually complacent listener, but anyone prepared to meet Dixon’s music halfway will reap some significant rewards.”

Mary Halvorson Quintet At Firehouse 12 Tonight

Image by Jon Vachon

Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson and her newest ensemble, the Mary Halvorson Quintet, will perform tonight at New Haven’s Firehouse 12 as part of the venue’s ongoing 2009 Fall Jazz Series.

The group, which adds two horns to the longstanding trio that recorded Ms. Halvorson’s highly regarded 2008 debut, Dragon’s Head (Firehouse 12 Records), features Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon (alto saxophone), John Hébert (bass) and Ches Smith (drums).

This will be the band’s final performance before going into the studio later in the month to record all new material for its forthcoming 2010 release on Firehouse 12 Records.

Check out this preview in the New Haven Advocate and WNYC’s review (with lots and lots of pictures) of the group’s performance earlier in the week at Barbès in Brooklyn.

Destination: Out Offers Exclusive Bill Dixon Track

Late in the day yesterday, Destination: Out posted its review of Tapestries for Small Orchestra, Bill Dixon’s new three-disc set on Firehouse 12 Records, and with it an exclusive download of an alternate take of the track “Motorcycle ‘66″.

The review calls the set “thoroughly stunning” and goes on to add, “Dixon presents gorgeous, slow-moving tableaus, highlighting the range of sounds and textures that the trumpets and cornets can produce. Charged yet sedate, unhurried in the extreme yet never ponderous, it’s mature music that is all too aware of the passing of time; the passing of time is in part what this music is about.”

Playscape To Release The Peter Madsen Trio’s The Litchfield Suite In March

Photo by Gerhard Klocker

Playscape Recordings will launch its 2010 release schedule on March 16th with the Peter Madsen Trio’s The Litchfield Suite (PSR#080308). This is pianist/composer Peter Madsen’s third recording for the label, but his first leading, and composing for, his own band, following the acclaimed solo piano showcases Sphere Essence: Another Side of Monk and Prevue of Tomorrow. The Litchfield Suite, also featuring bassist Andy McKee and drummer Gerald Cleaver, documents the premiere of Madsen’s six-part titular work at the 2008 Litchfield Jazz Festival.

“Two years ago,” writes Madsen in the liner notes, “festival founder Vita Muir invited me to perform with one of my own bands. Given my love of composing, and close association with the festival over the years, it soon became clear that I should write something special for this event. I needed a drummer who was diverse enough to handle the wide variety of styles in my writing and Gerald fit perfectly. Andy, who I’ve known for more than 25 years, is a dream to work with…I knew he could also deal with all the different styles, freedom and written parts I wanted on the bass.”

“Madsen has the chops and harmonic skills of two pianists,” declared David R. Adler in a Playscape Recordings label feature for the American Music Center’s NewMusicBox. Critics have called his previous recordings for the label “stunning” (Ken Dryden, AllMusic.com), “must-hear” (Marc Medwin, Cadence), “consistently intriguing” (Nick Pitt, Coda) and “confrontational and interesting” (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, Eighth Edition). In his review of Madsen’s latest, Prevue of Tomorrow, the Village Voice’s Francis Davis wrote, “He’s the maverick’s maverick, and this could well prove the year’s most unlikely tour de force.”

A well-kept secret among critics, musicians and jazz aficionados alike, Madsen is a highly valued 30-year veteran of the creative music scene who earned his first big break touring with Stan Getz in 1987. He has since worked with poets, choirs, dancers and dozens of the world’s premier improvisers ranging from Benny Golson and Stanley Turrentine to Joe Lovano and Kenny Garrett to Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker. Overall, his discography features nearly 100 recordings, including numerous Playscape titles as the pianist of choice for longtime collaborators Michael Musillami and Mario Pavone. Originally from Wisconsin, he currently splits his time between New York and Vorarlberg, Austria. Learn more at http://www.petermadsen.us

AAJ-NY: Garrison Fewell + John Hébert

The December issue of AllAboutJazz-New York arrived this weekend and with it new reviews of guitarist/composer Garrison Fewell’s latest, Variable Density Sound Orchestra (Creative Nation Music), and bassist/composer John Hébert’s debut, Byzantine Monkey (Firehouse 12 Records).

“For the descriptively-titled Variable Density Sound Orchestra,” writes Lyn Horton, “guitarist Garrison Fewell has assembled a group whose members expertly develop the thematic content central to the pieces on the album. Even when the musical lines tend to go in multiple contrapuntal directions, the group behaves as one coherent unit, highlighting certain instruments.”

Stuart Broomer calls Hébert “a musician whose bass is confident in the foreground and whose compositions consistently merge strong musical ideas with forceful emotions. While he has already distinguished himself as a bassist, this is a striking debut as a bandleader for Hébert, the group’s sound, empathy and collective identity all testifying to his focused originality.”

Jazzwise: Joe Morris Quartet’s Today On Earth (AUM Fidelity)

The new December 2009/January 2010 issue of the UK’s Jazzwise features a review of the Joe Morris Quartet’s Today On Earth (AUM Fidelity) by Kevin Le Gendre.

“As with the previous release Wildlife, ” he writes, “there is a distinct ensemble voice, a lithe, supple sound comes through, and looks as if it will continue to grow over time. Morris’ rising stature as a composer-leader and soloist is indisputable.”

Howard Mandel: Best Jazz CDs Of 2009

Author, jazz critic and President of the Jazz Journalists Association Howard Mandel posted a list of his favorite CDs from 2009 on his blog, Jazz Beyond Jazz, this past Friday.

Darcy James Argue’s Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam) and The Thirteenth Assembly’s (un)sentimental (Important Records) both earned spots of the 11-title list.

Of the former, Mandel writes, “Recasting the ‘jazz’ orchestra with an ear hip to a spectrum of contemporary composition but most of all sound itself, Argue diplays a nervy ethos by conducting 18 not-very-well-known but gutsy instrumentalists through arresting themes, solid rhythms and energized solos. This is Brooklyn offline, ironic but earnest, and has drawn a following among listeners in their late 20s-early 30s.”

And, he called the debut of Taylor Ho Bynum, Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone’s collective quartet, The Thirteenth Assembly, “Chamber music for moderns—a cornetist, drummer, guitarist and violaist walk the lines between structure and improv, sensitivity and humor, questions and suggestions, inherent references to the past and unpretentious confidence they’re in the right place for music now.”

The list was compiled from nearly 1000 CDs Mandel received for review since last November, so naturally there were lots of honorable mentions. John Hébert’s highly regarded debut, Byzantine Monkey (Firehouse 12), was part of the “Also Much Enjoyed” list.

Spearmint Music: Jessica Pavone Interview

Photo by Jessica Pavone

This past Wednesday, New York-based musician, writer and WKCR DJ Kurt Gottschalk posted an interview with violist/composer Jessica Pavone on his blog, Spearmint Music, as part of the ongoing series, High Bias, which asks prominent musicians to answer a dozen standard questions.

Her latest record, Songs of Synastry and Solitude (Tzadik), was released October 27th.

Mary Halvorson In December

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson’s busy December begins tomorrow night with an early gig with Curtis Hasselbring’s Decoupage and a late gig with Ches Smith & These Arches.

The next two weeks will feature two dates and a recording session with her new quintet and a European tour with her acclaimed trio.

Mary Halvorson Trio
12/07 :: Cafe Wilhelmina (Eindhoven, NL)
12/08 :: Stadtgarden (Cologne, Germany)
12/09 :: Schl8hof (Wels, Austria)
12/11 :: Jazz Dock (Prague, Czech Republic)
12/12 :: Venue TBA (Ueberlingen, Germany)
12/14 :: Vortex (London, UK)
12/16 :: Rote Fabrik (Zurich, Switzerland)

Mary Halvorson Quintet
12/02 :: Barbès (Brooklyn, NY)
12/04 :: Firehouse 12 (New Haven, CT)

Curtis Hasselbring’s Decoupage
12/01 :: The Stone (New York, NY)

Ches Smith & These Arches
12/01 :: Korzo (Brooklyn, NY)

Exclaim!’s Year in Review: Darcy James Argue

Exclaim!’s December issue features its annual Year In Review in which each contributor writes about one release “that excited them most this year.”

David Ryshpan, contributor to the magazine’s Destination Out section, chose Darcy James Argue’s Infernal Machines (New Amsterdam Records).

“Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based Argue has expanded the big band vocabulary,” he writes. “A protégé of masters Bob Brookmeyer and Maria Schneider, he bridges the gaps between new classical, indie rock and jazz. Argue’s masterful use of mutes and woodwind doubles, his harmonic sophistication, attention to form, and a secret weapon in guitarist Sebastian Noelle, place Infernal Machines at the forefront of 21st century jazz.”