New Music of Note 10/27/2020
Keith Jarrett, Bruce Springsteen, Azymuth, John Frusciante, Dave Douglas, Broken Beat, Deva Premal
Keith Jarrett/ Budapest Concert
Bruce Springsteen/Letter To You
All artists, if they live long enough, must come to terms with the process of aging. As they reach various career milestones--45 year release anniversaries, fifty years in the business, logging hit songs every one of six decades--they reach a point when they must inevitably confront either the end of their ability to produce their art or consider their own mortality. Either way, they often begin to consider their legacy. After all, no one can ever make a better case for your art than you can while you're still here.
This week it was revealed in a Nate Chinen piece for The New York Times that Keith Jarrett--pianist, composer, and one of the most important jazz musicians of the last sixty years--suffered two strokes in 2017, from which he still struggles to recover, and that he will not play the piano again. All of that comes as his longstanding record label, ECM, releases the first concert from his 2016 tour, recorded in Budapest. It is the second concert from 2016 to be released, the other being Munich 2016, recorded at the tour's final performance two weeks later.
There has always been a lag between the recording of live Jarrett performances and their release, and one can only assume that there will be a few further releases. But that lag is disconcerting in light of recent news as we unexpectedly arrive at the tail end of an extremely long and prolific recording and performing career, even more so when Jarrett regards Budapest Concert as being a 'gold standard' by which his live recordings will be measured.
Since his return from a bout with chronic fatigue syndrome his solo concerts became segmented into smaller movements that created an overarching suite. Sometimes that suite would be fragmented, even though each movement would make sense and be well played and constructed. But at other times the larger structure of the piece would take shape with repeated listens, resulting in a truly great recording. The Koln Concert is perhaps the most often cited example of such a work, but at the time it was recorded, Jarrett would combine all styles and genres of playing into a single lengthy improvised composition. The result was often stunning, but sometimes the quick changes and transitions from one portion to another would be awkward. It was a style well suited to the early 1970s, mimicking the energy of composers like Mike Oldfield and Jean-Michel Jarre, but over time the new, modular structure of Jarrett's improvised solo performances came to seem more natural, even superior.
Jarrett talks about his improvised work as being passed to him from a higher power, and he is clear about the fact that his audience helps create the performance. The place, the piano, the situation--these are all factors, but the biggest factors for Jarrett are the inspiration he draws from the energy and mood of the audience. On Budapest Concert, he clearly draws inspiration from the titular city and the fact that the performance is held at Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. Jarrett claims ancestral roots from Hungary, and so this was a deep connection for him, and it shows, particularly in the first segment (Parts I-IV), which are rhythmically inventive, and seem to embody the spirit of Bartok and Hungary The second disc is like a clinic, encapsulating the stride piano of Part VI, the balladry, with gospel overtones, of Part VII, the classicism of Part VIII, the blues workout of Part XII, and the versions of "It's A Lonesome Old Town" and "Answer Me" that serve as encores. The compositions Jarrett plays as encores underscore that his approach to everything is improvisational/compositional as he works these standards much the same way he works through his own thoughts at the piano.
Rocker Bruce Springsteen wrestles on his latest release, Letter to You, not with illness or disability, but with the passage of time and the loss of friends and comrades. Many critics will read this as a nostalgic look back, imparting a sense of destiny and a rosy glow to the end of Boomer times, and it is true that the album reminded me in many ways of a stronger, single album version of The River without the roadhouse rockers that Springsteen and the E Street Band could play like no other band but which didn't add to his overall reputation as a songwriter.
Springsteen's record is made all the more poignant because it was recorded late last year, and now it echoes like an empty barroom stage down the long hallway of the year of COVID-19. So many are dealing with loss directly or indirectly that an album that brings forth the shadows of the departed E-Streeters Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici as well as the death of George Theiss, a bandmate of Springsteen's from The Castiles, a group with whom he played guitar from 1965-1968, can't help but be cathartic.
In light of Springsteen's successful Broadway mixture of autobiography, storytelling, and singer/songwriter performance, it should come as no surprise that he would turn towards writing about his career, his band, his relationship with rock music and with the musicians he's spent most of his life working with as well as aging and the specter of death. There are those who point out that some of the songs--especially the rockers-in-heaven "House of a Thousand Guitars"-- are corny, but that's from people who have lost their ability to see the wonder, the inspiration, and the uplifting energy of rock music, people who would fault Springsteen for repeating "hiding on the backstreets" all those times.
Bruce travels through time, taking his best inspiration wherever he might find it. Coming after a period of writer's block, the newer songs on Letter To You are joined by some older material, including three songs that Springsteen wrote before his first recording Greetings From Asbury Park. "If I Was The Priest" goes all the way back to his audition for Columbia's John Hammond in 1972. It's a great song that finds Springsteen drunk with words and giddy with his rock outlaw imagery. If Springsteen was, for a time, the new Dylan, this song is a prime exhibit of his youthful strength.
I read a Twitter take on Letter to You that said Springsteen has been on E Street mode since Ghost of Tom Joad, which was also his last really good album, implying that the material since has been a retrenching, legacy-building exercise. But it is worth recalling the words of Springsteen when he inducted his bandmates into the Rock Hall of Fame :
"So, real bands -- real bands -- are made primarily from the neighborhood. From a real time and real place that exists for a little while, then changes, and is gone forever."
The neighborhood is long gone, maybe the E Street band is gone since there are no live performances in their future for probably a year or more. Maybe Jarrett’s days on the concert stage are gone. But Budapest Concert and Letter to You travel both ways--as markers of the past and meditations on what comes next.
Azymuth/JID004
The instrumental trio Azymuth modernized the sound and style of Brazilian jazz with their electronic instruments, angular arrangements, an ingenious synthesis of jazz, funk, rock, and samba. After the passing of founding keyboard player José Roberto Bertrami in 2012, Alex Malheiros (bass) and Ivan “Mamão” Conti (drums) recruited synthesizer samurai Kiko Continentinho to the trio as it continued to build on their sound, now in their fifth decade of pushing the boundaries of their beloved samba. Now the iconic trio partners with LA-based collective Jazz Is Dead for Azymuth JID004. “This album is one of the most interesting rides I’ve ever been a part of,” says Adrian Younge, who leads JID with partner Ali Shaheed Muhammed. “In the ‘70s, Azymuth took psychedelic rock, soul, and jazz and made it authentically Brazilian. Together, we’ve pushed this concept even further for a new generation of record collectors.” Indeed, the groups take a lively spin around the concepts of Brazilian music, jazz, and the funk/soul collaborations of the Mizell Brothers and Gary Bartz. This is an enjoyable listen for late-night sessions or that Sunday afternoon of puttering around the house.
John Frusciante
Maya
John Frusciante is perhaps the most musically interesting of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, creating a variety of music on his own. His previous electronic work has been released under the moniker Trickfinger, but this project was personal enough that he chose to release it under his own name. The titular Maya was Frusciante's beloved cat, who passed away at the age of fifteen. "Maya was with me as I made music for fifteen years" he says. Musically, the record is inspired by Frusciante's love of 1991-'96 UK breakbeat hardcore and jungle.
Dave Douglas
Marching Music
Dizzy Atmosphere
Dave Douglas has done more than any other jazz musician I can think of to establish a brand and to market himself and his music very well in the digital world. His Greenleaf Music label releases music digitally and in physical formats, and offers additional releases and downloads to subscribers. It helps that he's also a prolific and highly talented composer, arranger, bandleader, educator, and trumpet player. These two releases have come from Douglas so far in 2020. Dizzy Atmosphere is inspired by the music and spirit of Dizzy Gillespie, featuring a series of Douglas tunes that provide clever updates to the Gillespie sound. Douglas is joined by trumpeter Dave Adewumi, who previously worked with Douglas on Engage. In addition to his original compositions, Douglas revisits two Gillespie compositions, "Manteca" and "Pickin' the Cabbage."
Marching Music has a more serious vibe, being a soundtrack Douglas deems appropriate for those attending environmental, or other, protests and as a motivator to get out the vote. Originally released as part of Greenleaf's subscriber series it is now available as a stand-alone CD or download for non-subscribers. See, I told you that Douglas was an excellent example of a musician making the most of digital marketing and audience building.
Dave Lee & Will Fox (Compilers)
Breaking the Beats: A Personal Selection of West London Sounds
Broken beat or Bruck is an electronic dance music genre characterized by staggered snare drum beats or hand claps punctuating a syncopated 4/4 dance rhythm. It originated and flourished in the late '90s and into the 2000s, centering around the Goya Records label. This compilation by Dave Lee and Will Fox captures the West London sounds that deeply influenced the UK electronic music and dance music scenes. "As a music lover I was always a fan of the broken beat records that came out of west London in the late '90s/early 2000s, says Lee. "There's songs on here from Germany (Jazzanova and Lars Bartkuln) Japan (Jazztronik and Hajime Yoshizawa) to represent that. When putting this album together it is hard not to notice the presence of Kaidi Tatham on many of the songs, he was such an instrumental force in the evolution of the sound. Breaking The Beats isn't a best of broken beat album and due to some licensing issues we were unable to include every song I would have liked but I think it does give the listener a good taste of the sound."
Deva Premal
The Essential Collection: 1998-2020
Deva Premal, in collaboration with her partner Miten, has had a long and distinguished career that has seen music of the kind she creates move from being defined as 'new age' or 'world music' to the more accurate mantra singer or kirtan singer. Premal sings devotional mantras: slow, rhythmic, repetitive chants that are mixed in a modern recording studio with musical backgrounds created by Miten. Now we have a collection of Premal's best work, which provides a suitable entry point for those interested in checking out this musical genre that crosses over with modern electronic music and dance tracks but which can also be enjoyed for its relaxing effects, or as an accompaniment to meditation or a yoga routine. Many of Deva’s best-known tracks are featured here, notably the original version of 'Gayatri Mantra', which introduced the world to the power of mantra chanting at a time when “mantra singers” were unheard of; it now boasts in excess of 20 million plays on Spotify. Other signature hits include 'Om Namo Bhagavate' (from the Embrace album, released in 2002); 'Aad Guray' (from the Dakshina album, which reached the mainstream Top 20 Amazon chart in 2005); and 'Seven Chakra Gayatri Mantra', the glorious, life-affirming chant from the DEVA album.
Leaving you this week with David Johansen performing “Funky But Chic” on Conan O’Brien in 1993.
Until next week, stay safe, sane, and healthy. And keep listening.