Top 10 of 2010

Here are ten albums I really enjoyed this year:

1. Brad Mehldau - Highway Rider (Nonesuch)
In 2002, pianist Brad Mehldau teamed up with pop producer Jon Brion to produce Largo - an incredibly influential jazz/rock crossover album that successfully combined spontaneous improvisation with pop production values. Eight years later the two have reconvened to produce Highway Rider - a fifteen song double album featuring Mehldau's regular trio of bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard augmented by saxophonist Joshua Redman, drummer Matt Chamberlin and a chamber orchestra. The music melds the duo's previous jazz/pop hybrid with a decidedly classical influence featuring Redman's saxophone improvisations floating seamlessly over the top.
www.bradmehldau.com

2. Myron Walden In This World - What We Share (Demi Sound)
For most of his career Myron Walden has primarily been known as an alto player. Recently his focus has shifted to the tenor and this year he documened this transition with a handful of new releases from several different bands. In This World is comprised of Walden on tenor/soprano sax & bass clarinet; Mike Moreno on electric & acoustic guitars; Jon Cowherd on fender rhodes; Yasushi Nakamura or Chris Thomas on acoustic bass; and Kendrick Scott or Brian Blade on drums. The music is lush and melodic. It's gentle and restrained yet contains an undercurrent of urgency that keeps it moving forward.
www.myronwalden.com

3. Christian Scott - Yesterday You Said Tomorrow (Concord)
Trumpeter Christian Scott has molded his own unique brand of improvised music that owes as much to jazz as it does to rock. He's developed his own unique compositional style but the rendition of Thom Yorke's "The Eraser" is what won me over.
www.christianscott.tv

4. Phantogram - Eyelid Movies (Barsuk)
The duo describes their music as "a mix of organic and electronic sounds, with swirling guitar, spaced-out synths, and chopped up samples and rhythms" and that's about an apt a description as I could have come up with. And they're from Saratoga.
www.myspace.com/phantogram

5. Kneebody - You Can Have Your Moment (Winter & Winter)
Forward thinking music by five musicians that play as one. Kneebody once again continues to create intriguing music that defies categorization.
www.kneebody.com

6. The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers (SubPop)
Prior to this release, The Album Leaf was the alter-ego of Jimmy LaValle. On A Chorus of Storytellers the multi-instrumentalist added a full band to help pump out his signature brand of atmospheric pop.
www.thealbumleaf.com

7. Sting - Symphonicities (Deutsche Grammophon)
Sting's music played a big part in my musical upbringing - Branford Marsalis' sax solos on Bring On The Night were some of the first things I ever transcribed - and hearing these songs arranged for orchestra reminded me just how much I enjoy the Englishman's songs.
www.sting.com

8. John Ellis & Double Wide - Puppet Mischief (ObliqSound)
Saxophonist John Ellis continues to seamlessly blend myriad influences with a great sense of humor. Seriously, how many jazz musicians do you know that would pose with two puppets on their album cover? Imagine the highbrow ethos of NYC jazz mixed with the party spirit of New Orleans street bands and you'll start to get an idea of what this music sounds like.
www.johnaxsonellis.com

9. Rob Wilkerson - Nest
Saxophonist Rob Wilkerson presents an album of accessible instrumental music featuring original compositions and covers of Radiohead, Elliot Smith and Beck. More jazz should sound like this.
www.robwilkerson.com

10. Broken Bells - Broken Bells (Columbia)
Danger Mouse + The Shins' James Mercer = very catchy music.
www.brokenbells.com

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Here's a link to a playlist of this music on iTunes Ping.

Put a fork in 'em?

With a month left of the 2010 baseball season, I think it's safe to say that the Boston Red Sox will not be playing very far into October. I can't say that I had high hopes going into the year with the only changes being the off-season acquisitions of Adrian Beltre, Mike Cameron and Marco Scutaro, but the team has managed to stay somewhat in the post-season race even with injuries to nearly the entire starting line-up.

Seriously, here is the opening day line-up with players in bold who have not spent significant time on the DL this season:

Jacoby Ellsbury LF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez C
Kevin Youkilis 1B
David Ortiz DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
J.D. Drew RF
Mike Cameron CF
Marco Scutaro SS

I hate to make excuses, but I wonder how many other teams would have faired as well as the Sox have with two-thirds of their starters not playing ball? To me, Youk and Pedroia are the heart and soul of this team and both have been injured for the majority of the season.

As far as the healthy guys are concerned - Ortiz is having yet another good year after yet another incredibly slow start, Beltre has surprised everyone by putting up some tremendous numbers and Scutaro has been consistent if nothing else. Previously unknown players (to me at least) like Darnell McDonald and Bill Hall and rookies Daniel Nava and Ryan Kalish - not to mention a somewhat-healthy Mike Lowell - have helped keep the team close to the top of the highly competitive AL East.

That said, after this past weekend's abysmal sweep by the visiting Chicago White Sox, the East Coast Sox find themselves ten games behind the Yankees in the East and third overall in the Wild Card race behind the Rays and - the White Sox.

Yes, there is still a month to go and yes, there are still series versus the Yanks, Rays and White Sox left to play, but it is hard to imagine a happy ending at this point. I haven't given up on my favorite team, but I am looking forward to the start of football season ...

Recommended listening: Matthew Carefully (Loiacono) "Community Balloon"

Last week Collar City Records released guitarist George Muscatello's brilliant Angel Dust.

This week the label has released Community Balloon by the multi- talented Matthew Carefully.

In the fall of 2008, Matthew Carefully, aka Matthew Loiacono, started an email list to reach out to friends and fans on a weekly basis. Community Balloon is a collection of songs culled from responses to a request he made from his subscribers to submit ideas for potential songs. According to Collar City Records:

The content that came back after the initial call for entries was nothing short of excellent. Matthew received ideas, lyric snippets, poems, sound samples, challenges, and much more. He began to create songs from this material and delivered them to the list each week. Seven weeks went by and judging by the feedback he received from list members, he realized that the songs were some of the best compositions he'd written to date.

I'd tend to agree. Songs like "Shape," "The Age of Reason II" and "Clever" are easily my favorite compositions from Matthew's ever-growing catalog of original music.

Click here to sample/purchase the music directly from Matthew.

Community Balloon is also available through Collar City Records, iTunes, Amazon MP3, and eMusic.

Recommended listening: George Muscatello "Angel Dust"

This week Collar City Records released guitarist George Muscatello's brand new album entitled Angel Dust - a truly enjoyable listening experience that I can safely say sounds like nothing I've ever heard before.

While the recording features a handful of collaborators - including drummer Danny Whelchel, bassist Mike DelPrete, pianist Adrian Cohen, poets Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte and yours truly on saxophone - Angel Dust is all Muscatello.

Shades of metal, classical, jazz, and funk are performed by guitar after guitar layered one on top of another to create a unique tapestry of sound that could only come from one of the most unique musical visionaries I've ever met.

Have a listen for yourself and stream the first two tracks of the album here.

Then go pick up a copy of the album from George, iTunes, Amazon or eMusic.

Recommended listening: Brad Mehldau "Highway Rider"

In 2002, pianist Brad Mehldau teamed up with pop producer Jon Brion to produce Largo - an incredibly influential jazz/rock crossover album that successfully combined spontaneous improvisation with pop production values.

Eight years later the two have reconvened to produce Highway Rider - a fifteen song double album featuring Mehldau's regular trio of bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard augmented by saxophonistJoshua Redman, drummer Matt Chamberlin and a chamber orchestra.

The music melds the duo's previous jazz/pop hybrid with a decidedly classical influence featuring Redman's saxophone improvisations floating seamlessly over the top. My favorite music is the kind that takes me on a journey when I close my eyes, and this album certainly qualifies.

Take a listen for yourself - Highway Rider by Brad Mehldau

Recommended listening: John Ellis & Double-Wide "Puppet Mischief"

Brooklyn-based saxophonist John Ellis has released a second album featuring the band he calls Double-Wide.

Puppet Mischief features the talents of Brian Coogan on organ, Matt Perrine on sousaphone and Jason Marsalis on drums, plus special guests Gregoire Maret on harmonica and Alan Ferber on trombone.

As has been the case on his past few releases, all of the compositions are by Ellis. He continues to seamlessly blend myriad influences with a great sense of humor. Seriously, how many jazz musicians do you know that would pose with two puppets on their album cover? Imagine the highbrow ethos of NYC jazz mixed with the party spirit of New Orleans street bands and you'll start to get an idea of what this music sounds like.

Check out Puppet Mischief for yourself and let me know what you think - Puppet Mischief by John Ellis & Double- Wide.

By the way, Double-Wide played to a small but enthusiastic crowd at Red Square in Albany last Thursday night. Click here for J Hunter's review, here for photos by Andrzej Pilarczyk or here for photos by Al Brooks - all on albanyjazz.com.

A Tribute to Michael Brecker 3 - Brecker Brothers & Steps Ahead

This morning I joined host Bill McCann for his "Saturday Morning Edition of Jazz" radio program on WCDB 90.9 FM and presented a four hour tribute to the late Michael Brecker.

In January of 2007 I went on the program and played a three-part program made up of Brecker's early work as a sideman, his work as a leader and his sideman work from his later career. The next year I stuck mainly to the saxophonist's work as a leader, playing two or three of my favorite tracks from each of his nine solo releases as well as a collection of various jazz standards he played on.

Today I chose a program made up of music by the two groups's Brecker was most closely associated with throughout his career - the Brecker Brothers and Steps Ahead.

Here's what was played ...

A TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL BRECKER 3:
BRECKER BROTHERS & STEPS AHEAD 2/27/10

“Tee Bag” (13:45)
CD: Steps Ahead Smokin in the Pit (1980)
Composer: Mike Maineri
Mike Mainieri (vibes), Don Grolnick (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Steve Gadd (drums)

“Some Skunk Funk” (5:53)
CD: Brecker Brothers The Brecker Brothers (1975)
Composer: Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), David Sanborn (alto sax), Bob Mann (guitar), Don Grolnick (keys), Will Lee (bass), Harvey Mason (drums), Ralph McDonald (percussion)

“Rocks” (4:41)
CD: Brecker Brothers The Brecker Brothers (1975)
Composer: Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), David Sanborn (alto sax), Bob Mann (guitar), Don Grolnick (keys), Will Lee (bass), Harvey Mason (drums), Ralph McDonald (percussion)

“Fawlty Tenors” (10:48)
CD: Steps Ahead Smokin’ in the Pit (1980)
Composer: Don Grolnick
Mike Mainieri (vibes), Don Grolnick (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Steve Gadd (drums)

“Night Flight” (6:18)
CD: Brecker Brothers Back to Back (1976)
Compser: Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), David Sanborn (alto sax), Steve Khan (guitar), Don Grolnick (keys), Will Lee (bass), Steve Gadd (drums), Sammy Figueroa, Rafael Cruz (percussion)

“Tabula Rasa” (8:20)
CD: Brecker Brothers Don’t Stop the Music (1977)
Composer: Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Steve Khan (guitar), Don Grolnick, Doug Riley (keys), Will Lee (bass), Lenny White (drums), Ralph McDonald, Sammy Figueroa (percussion)

“Sponge” (6:23)
CD: Brecker Brothers Heavy Metal Bebop (1978)
Composer: Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Barry Finnerty (guitar), Neil Jason (bass), Terry Bozzio (drums)

“Funy Sea, Funky Dew” (8:02)
CD: Brecker Brothers Heavy Metal Bebop (1978)
Composer: Michael Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Barry Finnerty (guitar), Neil Jason (bass), Terry Bozzio (drums)

“Uncle Bob” (11:00)
CD: Steps Ahead Step by Step (1980)
Composer: Don Grolnick
Mike Maineri (vibes), Don Grolnick (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Steve Gadd (drums)

“Bullet Train” (5:32)
CD: Steps Ahead Step by Step (1980)
Composer: Mike Maineri
Mike Maineri (vibes), Don Grolnick (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Steve Gadd (drums)

“Not Ethiopia” (5:45)
CD: Brecker Brothers Straphangin’ (1981)
Composer: Michael Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Barry Finnerty (guitar), Mark Gray (keys), Marcus Miller (bass), Richie Morales (drums), Don Alias (percussion)

“Take A Walk” (11:56)
CD: Steps Ahead Paradox (1982)
Composer: Michael Brecker
Mike Maineri (vibes), Don Grolnick (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Peter Erskine (drums)

“Song for Barry” (5:07)
CD: Brecker Brothers Return of the Brecker Brothers (1992)
Composer: Michael Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Mike Stern (guitar), George Whitty (keys), Armand Sabal-Lecco (bass), Max Risenhoover (synth & percussion programming)

“Above & Below” (7:05)
CD: Brecker Brothers Return of the Brecker Brothers (1992)
Composer: Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Mike Stern (guitar), George Whitty (keys), Armand Sabal-Lecco (bass),

“Pools” (11:22)
CD: Steps Ahead Steps Ahead (1983)
Composer: Don Grolnick
Mike Mainieri (vibes), Eliane Elias (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Peter Erskine (drums)

“Both Sides of the Coin” (6:15)
CD: Steps Ahead Steps Ahead (1983)
Composer: Michael Brecker
Mike Mainieri (vibes), Eliane Elias (piano), Eddie Gomez (bass), Peter Erskine (drums)

“Slang” (6:12)
CD: Brecker Brothers Out of the Loop (1994)
Composer: Michael Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Dean Brown (guitar), George Whitty (keys), James Genus (bass), Steve Jordan (drums), Steve Thornton (percussion)

“African Skies” (7:50)
CD: Brecker Brothers Out of the Loop (1994)
Composer: Michael Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Dean Brown (guitar), George Whitty (keys), Armand Sabal-Lecco (bass), Rodney Holmes (drums), Steve Thornton (percussion)

“Harpoon” (7:45)
CD: Brecker Brothers Out of the Loop (1994)
Composer: Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker (trumpet), Dean Brown (guitar), George Whitty (keys), James Genus (bass), Steve Jordan (drums), Steve Thornton (percussion)

“Sumo” (9:08)
CD: Steps Ahead Live In Tokyo 1986
Compser: Michael Brecker
Mike Maineri (vibes), Mike Stern (guitar), Daryl Jones (bass), Steve Smith (drums)

“Trains” (9:27)
CD: Steps Ahead Live in Tokyo 1986
Composer: Mike Maineri
Mike Maineri (vibes), Mike Stern (guitar), Daryl Jones (bass), Steve Smith (drums)

Recommended Listening: Phantogram "Eyelid Movies"

A few years back, local musician-about-town Matthew Loiacono introduced me to the music of a duo based in Saratoga Springs called Charlie Everywhere.

The band - comprised of vocalists and multi- instrumentalists Sarah Barthel and Joshua Carter - were quickly signed to Barsuk Records (former home of Death Cab for Cutie among others), changed their name to Phantogram and began an astounding ascent to national acclaim.

The duo describes their music as "a mix of organic and electronic sounds, with swirling guitar, spaced-out synths, and chopped up samples and rhythms" and that's about an apt a description as I could have come up with.

Phantogram's debut album Eyelid Movies has racked up some serious listening time on my iTunes/iPhone/IPod and garnered critical acclaim from a wide array of sources including ABC and NPR.

Check it out for yourself.

Recommended Listening: Myron Walden & In This World "What We Share"

I spent a decent amount of time listening to music on a recent road trip to Michigan with Alex Torres' band. One recording that I kept playing over and over was Myron Walden's What We Share by a group he calls In This World.

For most of his career Walden has primarily been known as an alto player. Recently his focus has shifted to the tenor and he's documenting this with a handful of new releases from several different bands.

In This World is comprised of Walden on tenor/soprano sax & bass clarinet; Mike Moreno on electric & acoustic guitars; Jon Cowherd on fender rhodes; Yasushi Nakamura or Chris Thomas on acoustic bass; and Kendrick Scott or Brian Blade on drums.

The music is lush and melodic. It's gentle and restrained yet contains an undercurrent of urgency that keeps it moving forward.

Take a listen for yourself.