Joe Lovano For Keeps

I had the pleasure of listening to Joe Lovano live in Sioux Falls several years ago and that makes for a bond.  You can read my review here.  Don't bother with the links.  They are long gone. 

Heading back from Huron SD tonight I listened to Ken Laster's In the Groove podcast and he played a couple of cuts from Lovano's new album: Cross Culture.  Both were excellent, so I spent some of my eMusic dollars to land the album. 

Lovano is the real thing.  His "Us Five" group is superb.  Lovano plays on the edge of hard bop and avant garde, with all due deference to both sides of that edge.  He is a master at squeezing out every last bit of juice from a melody. 

I am playing 'Blessings In May' and 'Star Crossed Lovers'.  Here is the lineup:

• Bass – Esperanza Spalding (tracks: 1, 5, 8, 10), Peter Slavov* (tracks: 2 to 4, 8, 9, 11)
• Drums – Otis Brown III
• Drums, Whistle, Balafon – Francisco Mela
• Electric Guitar [Special Guest] – Lionel Loueke (tracks: 2 to 4, 6, 7, 11)
• Piano – James Weidman
• Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone [G Mezzo Soprano Saxophone], Soprano Saxophone [Aulochrome], Tárogató [Tarogato], Percussion [Oborom Drum], Gong [Gongs], Shaker [Shakers], Percussion [Puddle Drums] – Joe Lovano

Discovering Henri Texier

One of the services yours truly provides is this: I spend some time digging through the fifteen hundred pages of the Penguin Guide to Jazz, and lately the equally weighty All Music Guide, and when I find something borrowed, something blue in those vast libraries, I bring it to your attention.

This weekend, just after posting on John Patitucci, I was thumbing through the former when what to my wondering eye should appear but the entry for Henri Texier. What snagged my line was the name Joe Lovano on Texier's album Izlaz. If Joe is on it... And it got four stars in the PG. After some sampling and hesitation, I invested. eMusic has Izlaz bundled with Colonel Skopje. I dropped the package.

Henri Texier is French for "Henry of Texas." I just made that up, of course, but wouldn't it be a great story if it were true? Texier is indeed French, and plays the double bass. He is obscure enough that he isn't yet in the Encyclopedia of Jazz. Barnes and Noble has just one of his albums, Colonel Skopje, for sale. So I expect, dear readers, that today's offerings will be a surprise.

Izlaz is a stellar set, one of those recordings you listen to and feel like you found bag of gold coins. What if you had looked the other way? Texier lays down a solid and rich foundation with his double bass. Lovano occupies most of the space just as he does on the Patitucci album. He also plays a range of horns. Steve Swallow plays bass, and Aldo Romano beats the drums. On Colonel Skopje is the same group two months latter (1988) but with John Abercrombie on guitar. I think the former set is better, but not by much. Here is a sample from the first. It's a Carla Bley composition.

Henri Texier/Ups and Downs/Izlaz

Okay, so I couldn't resist a second eMusic offering by Texier: Respect. Bob Brookmeyer plays valve trombone, an instrument that I can't get enough of. I am a big fan of Brookmeyer's big band album, New Works, and I am not a fan of big bands. Brookmeyer spars with another hero of mine, Lee Konitz. I love Konitz's work across the board, but I am not sure I have ever heard him play more accessible and at the same time deeply engaging music than on this recording. Steve Swallow is also here, and he plays his bass like he thinks it's a guitar. If all that weren't enough, Paul Motian is the drummer. What a marvelous album! Everything on it is exciting. It's like a great collection of short stories: each one gets you going all over again.

Here is the masterpiece inside the masterpiece.

Henri Texier/The Year of the Dragon/Respect

I have listened to this one three times tonight. God bless you Henri! You deserve a place in the pantheon for these three recordings.

More Motian, More Lovano

The Penguin Guide to Jazz, my jazz Bible, lists Paul Motian's Sound of Love as one of its "core collection" recordings. Most of my collecting over the last several years has been based on the Guide. Sound of Love is no disappointment. Joe Lovano plays tenor, and Bill Frissel strums his guitar. My apologies to cherished interlocutor Bass is Life.

It is interesting to note that the solo, duo, and trio, all occupy very distinct spaces in the jazz continuum. A soloist is engaged in a conversation with himself. He may conjure up a larger community of muscians, but it is all up to him. Only the piano makes it easy to fill up the space. Horn solos are almost inescapably lonely. Duos are conversations, but tend to be conversatons between soloists. Trios may or may not cross the line to ensembles, with a soloist supported by a field of feeling. Quartets and more are almost always group productions.

A trio of horn, guitar, and drums, unlike a piano trio, leaves a lot of space behind and around it. Like a duo, it is more three people than a band. Lovano dominates this disc, as one would expect. In a card game between a sax and a guitar, the guitar has no chance. But Frissel knows how to play his cards. When playing behind Lovano, he sounds like a bell choir. When he rises to the top, he still seems careful and very deliberate. The horn has to get out of the way, ofcourse, and with Motian playing it's like Frissel is dancing on coals.

This is fusionesque page four, but just over the line. If you like very thoughtful lines with a big hollow around them, this is your cup of tea. A couple of the cuts are Monk compositions. Here is a sample of one of them, to be usefully compared with a previous sample:

Paul Motian/Misterioso/Sound of Love

If you like it, buy the darn thing. Oh, and post a comment. I get lonely.