These are heady days for Chicago jazz artists, at least as far as recordings are concerned.
The expansion of respected Chicago labels such as Delmark and Southport, the emergence of fledgling local firms such as Lake Shore Jazz and River North Jazz, and the resurgence of interest in Chicago artists by out-of-town labels have given this city’s jazz improvisers a national (and, in some instances, international) profile.
In addition, the recently announced signing of the gifted Chicago jazz singer Kurt Elling by Blue Note, a major label that produced vocalist Cassandra Wilson’s brilliant “Blue Light ‘Til Dawn” CD last year, underscores the rising stature of Chicago jazz musicians.
Even more important than this groundswell of activity, however, are the artistic caliber and stylistic variety of the recordings it has produced. The latest wave of releases reaffirms that the Chicago jazz scene remains one of the most vibrant in the country. If some of the new recordings don’t live up to expectations, these are the exceptions among an impressive class of ’94.
Consider two new releases by veteran Chicago pianist Jodie Christian, who has been an important contributor to mainstream, bebop and post-bop Chicago bands for decades. Because Christian is heard in two different musical settings on his new CDs, and because he flourishes in both, the breadth of his talents finally may become more apparent to listeners.
In “Blues Holiday” (on Denmark-based SteepleChase), Christian’s solo work propels his trio and drives every track. Sensitively backed by longtime Chicago collaborators Eddie De Haas on bass and Wilbur Campbell on drums, Christian summons a keyboard vocabulary of ample imagination and erudition. The sheer fluidity of his pianism on the title track, the nostalgic keyboard devices he invokes on an old standard such as “Falling in Love With Love,” and the harmonic intricacies he traces in “Chromatically Speaking,” an original tune, place him among the top American pianists working today.
In “Rain or Shine” (Delmark Records), Christian pulls back a bit as keyboardist, concentrating, instead, on the group effort. As a result, he draws exceptional performances from multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell, who spins long and searing lines on oboe on “Song for Atala”; trombonist Paul McKee, who plays hauntingly in ballads and virtuosically in uptempo pieces; and alto saxophonist Art Porter, who drops the smooth-jazz cliches to which he has devoted himself in recent years and, instead, improvises with intelligence and grit.
Only a bandleader of Christian’s experience and sophistication could bring together such musically disparate players, creating an album that surges with rhythmic energy and melodic invention.
The spirit of experimentation defines several of the new Chicago recordings, none more eloquently than “Renaissance of the Resistance” (Delmark), the latest release from percussionist Kahil El’Zabar and the Ritual Trio. As its name implies, this trio builds on the rituals and musical practices of African antiquity, even while merging these ideas with elements of traditional blues and adventurous, non-chordal harmony.
Because of its generous use of repeated melodic phrases, medium tempos and plateau dynamics, the album consistently conveys a feeling of incantation. With El’Zabar and bassist Malachi Favors setting the pulse and saxophonist Ari Brown riding it, the trio creates austere and often mesmerizing music. Brown is especially effective, his phrases unfolding expansively, his sound by turns gritty, silken and blue.
Pianist-harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy long has been one of the most creative and technically accomplished experimenters on the Chicago scene, his versatility documented on two new recordings.
As one-third of Trio Globo, Levy teams with cellist Eugene Friesen and percussionist Glen Velez to explore an exotic and obviously personal jazz language. The trio’s self-titled debut album, on Colorado-based Silver Wave Records, documents the band’s explorations into Middle Eastern, Eastern European and other distant musical influences. By using asymmetrical phrases and scales unfamiliar to Western ears as the basis for jazz improvisation, Trio Globo has begun to form a sound and an idiom of its own making.
At first glance, this borrowing of rhythms and pitch-sequences from foreign cultures may suggest “world music” at its most glib and superficial. Listen closely, though, and you’ll perceive the depth and intellectual vigor of this recording.
Levy also plays harmonica on singer April Aloisio’s “Brazilian Heart” (Southport), stealing the show in the process. His melodically beguiling contributions to “The Man I Love” and “Meditation” provide some of the most striking passages on this recording. Add to that such formidable sidemen as tenor saxophone giant Von Freeman, percussionist Alejo Poveda and superb guitarists David Onderdonk and Paulinho Garcia, and you have accompanists who dwarf the lead vocalist.
Though lifelong musical revolutionary Hal Russell died two years ago, his vision and aesthetic still flourish in the work of his band, the NRG Ensemble, as heard on “Calling All Mothers” (Quinnah). Even without Russell’s trumpet and reed work, NRG expresses its founder’s wicked sense of humor and unquenchable thirst for new sounds. If the band sometimes falls prey to the excesses and formulas of alternative rock, that flaw, alas, also was inherent in Russell’s work with NRG.
More often, though, the curVandermark, multi-instrumenrent NRG-with saxophonist talist Brian Sandstrom, bassist Mars Williams, reed player Ken Ken Kessler and percussionist Steve Hunt-pushes jazz into bracing new directions.
Chicago pianist Art Hodes died early last year in his late 80s (Hodes, who was born in Russia, never knew his exact age), but his legacy endures in the aptly named “Art Hodes: The Final Sessions” (Music & Arts). Recorded just months before his death, the CD captures Hodes in remarkably strong form, despite the various illnesses that he suffered toward the end of his life.
Most of Hodes’ musical trademarks are intact here, including the radiance of his tone, the lyric intensity of his blues playing, the pre-swing and early-swing approach to rhythm.
Of course, not all of the new Chicago releases are as strong as the previously noted ones.
Saxophonist Mark Colby and musical idiom as heavily keyboardist Frank Caruso, synthesized as this is a mystery. though both top-notch players, This badly overproduced rehave released a greatly disaplease, with its generic arpointing recording on the new rangements and light-pop sensiRiver North Jazz label. Why bility, does a disservice to one they would choose to work in a of the finest duos working in Chicago.
And Joel Spencer, a versatile and engaging drummer in concert, has released a pervasively bland and unappealing quartet recording in “Jazz Hit” (Lake Shore Jazz). Its trite, easy-listening charts and musically schizophrenic collection of tunes cannot be saved even by Mike Kocour’s ingenious organ work.
The folks at Lake Shore Jazz ought to pay closer attention to recordings by the likes of Delmark and SteepleChase. They’re giving Chicago jazz the first-class treatment it deserves.
