Canadian born and New York based vocalist Melissa Stylianou has a new recording (her 5th album) on Anzic Records “No Regrets.” Produced by Oded Lev-Ari, Stylianou is backed by a trio of Bruce Barth on piano, Linda Oh on bass and Matt Wilson on drums with appearances by Billy Drewes on alto saxophone on two songs and Anat Cohen on clarinet on two songs. The album was recorded live to two-track on an album that mostly sticks to jazz standards.
There is plenty to delight in Melissa Stylianou’s singing and here she is backed by a superb trio augmented by sax or clarinet at times. Her rendition of the Gershwins’ “Nice Work If You Can Get It” features an introduction that this writer was not familiar with. After her delivery of the lyric, each member of the trio takes a brief break and there is a couple of brief exchanges between her and Wilson. Not all of theses selections are as well known such as “Remind Me” by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields with her perky delivery of the amusing word play here (“Remind me not to mention that I love you, Remind me I am sorry that we are met) with Barth supplying the arrangement.
Drewes’ alto opens a marvelous rendition of the Ellington-Webster lament “"I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" ,” and Melissa is playful on “Humming to Myself.” Linda Oh’s bass opens “I Wish I Knew” and duets with Melissa until mid-way through the first verse. A Billie Holiday song, “Somebody’s On My Mind” is one of the selections with Cohen with just Oh’s bass providing apt support for Stylianou’s languid vocal. Known for her adaptations of songs by Bjork, Johnny Cash and Tom Waits among others, her one unusual selection is a folky adaptation of William Butler Yeats’ poem “Down by the Salley Gardens” accompanied just by Wilson.
Her lovely voice, phrasing and dynamics are factors that enchant the listener. Gutbucket alto sax against the firm backing of the rhythm section spices up "A Nightingale Can Sing the Blues.” Cohen returns with more lovely playing on “"I'll Never Be the Same.” There is a lilting quality to the rendition “Polka Dots And Moonbeams” (with a choice Barth solo), before the album concludes with a bright, delightful rendition, backed just by piano, of Jon Hendricks’ lyrics to Monk’s “I Mean You,” with her scatting and trading fours with Barth.
Melissa Stylianou touches the heart and brightens our spirits throughout “No Regrets.” It is a recording with plenty to charm listeners.
I received my review copy from a publicist. This review originally appeared in the May-June 2015 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 360) although a few revisions and corrections have been made.Here she sings "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good."
Known equally for his use of electronics, Pascal Le Boeuf has an intriguing acoustic release, Pascal’s Triangle (Nineteen Eight Records). Le Boeuf leads a trio with bassist Linda Oh and drummer Justin Brown on a collection of originals that reflect influences as diverse as Radiohead, Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau. About the recording, he said, “This album is a collection of original music meant to highlight the conversational voices of the individuals in the band. We trust each other's choices and share an orientation towards self-expression through group improvisation.”
Le Boeuf originally conceived the recording session for Pascal's Triangle as a jazz/electronic cross-over project. The compositions the trio recorded were connected to a larger vision involving layered recording techniques and replacing electronic instruments in beats that were sequenced in Le Boeuf's computer prior to the session. While he believed this conception was successfully realized (and will be issued in the future), he found he “enjoyed the spontaneity of the more acoustic songs, and when I took the electronics away, the compositions all had an intimate conversational feeling.” The result is the present release.
The leader’s piano opens wistfully on the first selection, Home in Strange Places, before Oh and Brown enter with with a fervent passage followed another plaintive solo passage. Variations on a Mood is aptly titled with the performance moving from relatively quiet passages to more energetic ones (suggesting The Bad Plus at times). The leader exhibits a precise, fluid attack with bassist Oh anchoring the trio as Brown drives the performance forward with a mix of precision and energy. Song For Ben Van Gelder is a lovely lyrical performance with embellishments added from Roberts with his restrained use of brushes. The energetic gist of What Your Teacher … is built on a spicy latin underpinning while the short solo performance, Jesse Loves Louise, exhibits a pastoral mood with LaBoeuf precise, uncluttered playing here. Oh is especially outstanding on Revisiting a Past Self where she sets up the performance and takes a strong solo.
In the CD era, this is a relatively short recording of 33 minutes for its 8 tracks, but that might be the only quibble about the playing of Pascal LaBoeuf and his trio. LaBoeuf’s imaginative compositions and playing, with their shifting moods and tempos, are complemented throughout by the marvelous playing of Oh and Roberts resulting in this fine piano trio recording. When he adds the electronics of his original conception, it will be interesting to hear the result but Pascal’s Triangle is marvelous as is.
I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is Pascal LeBouef leading a quintet performing Variations on a Mood.
Trombonist and composer Jeff Fairbanks was inspired by the convergence of cultures in New York City, especially around Mulberry Street where Little Italy intersects with Chinatown.He notes that in the south end of this street, some “Chinese-run funeral parlors, while conducting Buddhist ceremonies, maintain the Western brass band tradition established by their previous Italian operators. As a player in the brass band, my interest was caught by this unique and unlikely blend of cultures.” It is this blending of Asian (Chinese and Korean) and Western musical traditions that is the heart of the Fairbanks’ Project Hansori, a big band that explores his efforts at a musical fusion. “Hansori” is Korean for “one sound,” and Fairbanks’ ensemble attempts to bring distinct parts together in an original way on an new BJU Records release Mulberry Street. With his band is a special guest, Fred Ho on baritone sax, but the players are unfamiliar to these ears.
The opening selection is one of two he hasn’t composed, San Ma Da, by Jae-Hoon Park, is a Korean church hymn about the fall harvest, and Fairbanks makes an impressive solo statement followed by Remy Le Bouef’s slippery soprano and Linda Oh’s impressive bass. Fairbanks’ sophisticated arrangements adds atmosphere and texture for the lively performance. Woodside Story opens with Chinese flavor in the reeds (flute and clarinet) along with Chinese percussion before becoming a spirited performance incorporating the Chinese musical figures within the swinging big band performance with John Yao buzzing on trombone and Michael Webster on tenor sax constructing a marvelous solo.
Hoping For Hope is based on a certain rhythmic pattern in Korean Samulnori (“four objects sound”) music with Fairbanks stating the theme first against Francesca Han’s piano effectively making use of repetition, with the scoring of mostly clarinets against the brass very appealing here and guitarist Sebastian Noelle effectively working off the percussive center of this number with the horns playing building into a rhythmic frenzy. Han Oh Baek Nyeon/ 500 Years is a quartet rendition of an old Korean folk song with Fairbanks trombone along with Rami Selo on gayageum, Heun Choi Fairbanks on cello and Yosun Yoo on percussion with the cello expressing a somber tone reinforced by Jeff Fairbanks trombone. Bi Bim Bop is built on the spoken rhythm of the title and a 12-tone row that is constantly twisted and recycled to considerable effect.
The core of this disc is the marvelous Mulberry Street Suite, which, as noted, was inspired by the brass bands at Chinese-run funeral parlors. At certain funerals, both Western and traditional Chinese bands perform “often playing songs against each other in a tradition of using music to scare away evil spirits.” The suite is Fairbanks attempt to create “an abstract impressionism of these experiences.” Part 1: Entrance and Funeral March. is solemnly played as Han’s piano rings the tempo of a brass band entering the home and playing a dirge with a brief soprano sax interlude with Jason Wiseman trumpet solo exploiting the middle range. Part 11: Scaring Away Evil Spirits with Joyful Sounds, has a contrasting mood after the initial incorporation of Chinese folkloric sounds and percussion as well as scoring soprano saxophones to suggest the oboe-like suona. Fred Ho takes a short baritone sax solo at the beginning while Erica Van Kleist takes a lengthier solo interlude on alto sax that is rooted in the lower register of the instrument followed by mesmerizing interplay between the various band sections. Part III: Releasing Grief is a portrayal of moments in a Chinese funeral of releasing all their grief. Fred Ho enters unaccompanied before the full band comes in playing both Buddhist and Christian hymns with Ho taking a lengthy solo reaching deep down as well as adding squeaks and squalls set against Fairbanks somewhat dramatic scoring. “Part IV: The Send-off, with a trombone solo by Mark Miller at the beginning, evokes the part of a funeral where the casket is brought outside several bands play simultaneously. To achieve this effect the band is split into five separate ensembles near the end playing separate melodies. It serves as a dazzling coda, not simply to the suite, but the album.
The composition, Mulberry Street was commissioned by the BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize with other grant support for the project. With Mulberry Street, the Jeff Fairbanks Hansori Project has produced a fresh and stellar big band recording that has brought together various musical traditions for a fresh and dazzling musical experience that is likely to be among this listener’s best of 2011. Highly recommended.
My review copy was provided by a publicist for the recording.
Posts
