Mary Lattimore: Silver Ladders (2020)

Some music haunts you. Some soothe you. It’s a rare album that can do both, and as I continue my search for serenity in the aftermath of, well…just life, I remembered this album from Mary Lattimore was sitting in my collection. A recommendation from my friend Erik (another one of those touchstones for new music I’ve never explored), Lattimore uses her harp on Silver Ladders to evoke ethereal waves of introspection that never creep into sentimentality or schmaltz. Spare and delicate, it lives in the empty spaces it creates.

ChrisNovember 11, 2024Leave a comment

Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 23: Cold Comfort

Find the light where you can. Lead with compassion, with empathy.

That’s what I’ve been having to tell people all week; not just because of the US election, but it was also the week of massive and hurtful layoffs where I work. I’m still here, a lot of people aren’t. And for some of them, I had to be the one in the room, on the phone, or on the video conference. Never did that before. Didn’t have much choice. I console myself by saying not matter how much I’m hurting, others are hurting much, much worse. So I try, I try to remember that, and to push back hate and anger because at the moment righteous fury feels like a lie.

The music helps, a little.

ChrisNovember 9, 2024November 9, 2024Leave a comment

Sadao Watanabe: Recital (1976)

Right as we hit the last of my initial batch of Japanese jazz, LaserCD went and got another shipment in. I already made my order, but you want to support a cool shop (Ken also runs the Sensory label, dedicated to cool progressive music from the likes of Ice Age and the most recent Øresund Space Collective), you can can check out the selection here. In the meantime we’re wrapping up Season 1 of my exploration with Recital, which captures the 1976 Grand Prix Award concert by Sadao Watananbe. This is funky smooth jazz writ large, swinging and cutting loose with shaggy solos and a firm sense of where they are what they want to bring. This isn’t far-reaching exploratory jazz that’s going to shake your world, but it is going to make your feet tap and perhaps bring a small, much-needed smile.

Also DAMN look at that cover. That is a dude living his best life right there.

ChrisNovember 8, 2024Leave a comment

Kohsuke Mine: Sunshower (1976)

What’s in a name, anyway? My CD lists him as Kohsuke Mine, but Apple Music lists him as Kousuke Mine. Oh, and Wikipedia lists him as Kosuke Mine, dropping the first “u” and complicating things even further. Maybe it doesn’t matter (maybe absolutely nothing matters, as I sit here typing this at 5am the morning after the presidential election, numb and devastated – you do you, though), because in the end it’s the music that matters, and I was surprised over the last few days that Sunshower, the saxophonist’s 1976 funk-driven fusion went from a light diversion to a quick favorite.

ChrisNovember 6, 2024November 6, 2024Leave a comment

Terumasa Hino: Live in Concert (1975)

For all the room and breath to be found in the studio, sometimes there’s nothing like a live set to bring the sense of wonder jazz provides directly to your brain pan. Terumasa Hino might be one of the more well-known Japanese exports, his trumpet playing blazing in his own lineups along that of other luminaries since the mid-60s. In Concert is a blazing live set, three tracks that blend the fusion rock Miles Davis brought to the world along with a firmer sense of rock and melody thanks to an expanded lineup including trombone, tenor and alto sax, electric guitar, Fender Rhodes, and plenty of additional percussion. It’s one foot in the current scene and one foot firmly entrenched in a more traditional approach, and they blend seamlessly over the course of the live show.

ChrisNovember 5, 2024November 5, 20241 Comment

Masabumi Kikuchi: East Wind (1974)

Moving on in our Japanese jazz excursion from Three Blind Mice to East Wind, established in 1974 that may not have lasted as long, but did its part to promote not only the scene coming out of Japan, but to expose and provide access in country for other musicians like Art Farmer, Sam Jones, and even Oliver Nelson. But it started with Masabumi Kikuchi, a pianist and composer who dabbled over the course of his in many different styles, and worked as both a leader and sideman to other jazz greats like Gil Evans, Paul Motian, and Pee Wee Ellis. His debut for the label, also named East Wind, is a juggernaut – 2 epic 20+ minute tracks that run the gamut of straight ahead hard jazz, a strong percussive sense with excellent solos thanks to a solid quartet of performances backing him up and pushing the compositions forward.

ChrisNovember 4, 2024November 3, 20241 Comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Month: November 2024