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| The cover of Irie Sol's "Dred Scott Fitzgerald" references the original cover of "The Great Gatsby" |
Each year for
the past several years, Star Tribune music writer Chris Riemenschneider has
kindly included me in his annual Twin Cities Critics Tally, in
which a bunch of us music and arts writers pick our top 10 Minnesota albums of
the year. He knows that most of my choices will be lone flags flapping in the
breeze – I listen to jazz, new music and classical – and none will have any influence on the TCCT’s ultimate goal of identifying the 20 Best Minnesota
Albums of the Year. But he asks me anyway and I’m happy to shine
some Strib light on artists who might not get much otherwise. All that being
said, here are my top 10 (in alpha order, not ranked), plus a Just Shoot Me extra.
Peg Carrothers, “Edges of My Mind”
(Vision Fugitive). Vocalist
Peg is the wife of the phenomenal pianist Bill Carrothers, and the glory
usually goes to him, though it’s her voice we hear on his award-winning
“Armistice 1918.” For her debut solo release, recorded in Minneapolis, issued
first in Europe in a beautiful package by the French label Vision Fugitive, Bill plays
piano, with Dean Magraw on guitars and mandolin, and Billy Peterson and Gordy
Johnson on bass (on different tracks). No drums, which seems to free the songs
and Peg’s voice to float and waft and soar. It’s a strange mix of tunes – some
Stephen Foster (“Gentle Annie”), some Johnny Nash (“I Can See Clearly Now”),
some Aerosmith (“Dream On”), some Rolling Stones (a dark and rather terrifying
“Sympathy for the Devil”) – but it holds together, creating its own dreamy,
languid world.
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| An image from "Seven Secrets of Snow" |
Paul Fonfara, “Seven Secrets of Snow”
(self-released). I don’t
follow indie music very closely (actually I don’t follow it at all), so when
this dropped into my email I almost didn’t listen. Except Fonfara gave me some
background on where the music came from. He originally wrote “Secrets” for a
BBC documentary about a Russian clown named Slava (Polunin) and his treks
through Siberia, When that project stalled, he was far enough along that he
commissioned local filmmakers to create original films to accompany his music. Fully
orchestrated, performed by musicians from Painted Saints, Poor Nobodies,
Dreamland Faces and the Brass Messengers on piano, brass, clarinet, woodwinds,
guitar, accordion and singing saw, “Secrets” is cinematic and colorful. I hear a circus, a jazz band, a chamber orchestra, folk songs, and bits of Satie, Nino
Rota and Sting. It was all so unexpected and pleasing that I listened to it
several times, though I never saw the films. I missed the live show at the
Cedar in December and hope it returns.
José James, “Yesterday I Had the Blues:
The Music of Billie Holiday” (Blue Note). Since starting out as a jazz singer in Minneapolis in his
teens (and becoming a finalist in the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz
Vocalist Competition), James has had a 21st-century music career, releasing two
albums on Brownswood (a London label) and a third on Verve, finally landing at Blue
Note, infusing his music with hip-hop, multitracking, R&B, rock-and-roll,
world rhythms, collaborations and whatever else takes his fancy. His first jazz
album, 2010’s “For All We Know” with Belgian pianist Jef Neve, never caught on,
and it took him a while to circle back to jazz on his own terms: with a collection of songs made famous by the woman he calls his “musical mother.” His last three
albums have all been on Blue Note, where Don Was has the biggest ears in the
world for someone who runs a legacy label. So “Yesterday” feels a lot more
jazzy than anything James has done for a while, which is fine, but it’s also informed
by everything else he’s into, which is also fine. Like Robert Glasper and
Kamasi Washington, James is drawing diverse crowds to a genre that has been an
easy target for too long. (Related: “Jose James pays homage to the soul of
Lady Day.”)
Peter Kogan, “Some Monsterful
Wonderthing” (self-released on Koganote) and Dean Sorenson Sextet, “Colors of
the Soul” (self-released). We
lucked out this year with two recordings of brand-new hard bop composed by area
musicians, performed by area musicians and recorded in Minneapolis. Drummer Peter Kogan spent several
years as principal timpanist for the Minnesota Orchestra, playing jazz on the
side (and more seriously during the lockout of the musicians during a lengthy labor dispute, when he suddenly, if unwillingly, had the time); trombonist
Dean Sorenson is director of jazz studies at the University of Minnesota. Both
of their CDs feature all-original tunes and top area musicians. Kogan’s core
band for “Monsterful” is a septet with Pete Whitman on tenor
sax, fellow
Minnesota Orchestra member Charles Lazarus on flugelhorn and trumpet, Scott
Agster on trombone, Cory Wong on guitar, Sean Turner on piano and Brian Courage
on bass, with appearances by New York-based Brazilian percussionist Rogerio
Boccata and pianist Tommy Barbarella. Sorenson’s “Colors” is all sextet, with
Steve Kenny on trumpet, David Milne on tenor sax, Chris Lomheim on piano, Tom
Lewis on bass and Phil Hey on drums. Two great bands playing tight, swinging
original music. I couldn’t choose between them.
Irie Sol, “Dred Scott Fitzgerald: A
Novella” (self-released).
There’s a lot going on in this 20-minute EP – musically, stylistically,
lyrically, historically, multiculturally. Irie Sol is an ensemble of musicians
and vocalists living and working in the Twin Cities and Eau Claire; founder
Junior Williams hails from Jamaica. The five songs blend reggae, blues, funk,
rock, and Americana; add dense, fast-flying lyrics full of references to
Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby” and historic figures (Marcus Garvey, Dred
Scott, Haile Selassie, Countee Cullen); and re-imagine Fitzgerald’s Bernice (of
his short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”) as a girl from Eau Claire who dreds
her hair and jumps into the Harlem Renaissance. The CD comes with a booklet
that includes all the lyrics. It’s smart, assured “lit-hop” that rewards close
listening, or you can just put it on and enjoy the sound.
Graydon Peterson Quartet, “Duets”
(Shifting Paradigm Records).
A tune for bass and trumpet, then a tune for bass and drums, then one for drums
and Fender Rhodes, then one for bass and guitar … For his second release as
leader, jazz bassist Peterson turns a kind of nerdy idea into a varied,
intriguing listen. The concept: to write songs for every permutation of two
instruments in his quartet. (In fact, Peterson had five instruments to work
with; his original quarter included a guitar and his current group has the
Rhodes.) All the tunes are originals, and all the tracks have that
relaxed, conversational feeling that comes from knowing the person you’re
playing with. There’s satisfying mix of rhythms, moods and grooves. I would
have included one more song featuring all five musicians – Peterson, Adam Meckler (trumpet
and flugelhorn), Adrian Suarez (trap set), Joe Strachan (Rhodes), and Vinnie
Rose (guitar) – just because.
John Raymond, “Foreign Territory” (Fresh
Sound Records). On his
second album as leader, trumpeter and composer Raymond turns standards
inside-out and creates something fresh and exciting. Making “What Do You Hear”
from the chords of “I Hear a Rhapsody,” the beautiful “Deeper” from “How Deep
Is the Ocean” (and winning a 2015 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award for
that one), he delivers music that’s new yet somehow familiar, at the same time
freeing himself and the other musicians in his quartet to experiment and
explore. And what a quartet: Dan Tepfer on piano, Joe Martin on bass and the
legendary Billy Hart on drums. The whole album – which also includes a free
improvisation inspired by Horace Silver’s “Peace” (“Rest/Peace”), an homage to
one of Raymond’s main influences, Lee Konitz (“Adventurous-Lee”) and the sole
cover, Kenny Wheeler’s “Mark Time” – is a pleasure, earning well-deserved
coverage and kudos including an editor’s pick position in Downbeat and praise
from Nate Chinen of the New York Times. (Related: “Jazz
trumpeter brings ‘Foreign Territory’ home to Minnesota.”)
Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra: “The
Thompson Fields” (ArtistShare).
If there’s justice in the world, Schneider’s eighth album will win at least one
of the Grammys it’s nominated for: “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” or “Best
Improvised Solo” (for Donny McCaslin’s work in “Arbiters of Evolution”). Lush, gorgeous,
spacious and embracing, it makes me want to move to Windom, Schneider’s
Minnesota hometown, and grow beans. Schneider leads her excellent New York big
band in eight original compositions about beauty, evolution, the changing weather,
miles of land, monarch butterflies, and the meaning of home. As ever,
she leaves ample room for her soloists – McCaslin being just one example – and I
especially love hearing Gary Versace’s accordion in “A Potter’s Song.” This
music tells stories, taps the emotions and paints pictures with a big, wide
brush and all the colors. If you want to hear it, you’ll have to buy it or
borrow it; don’t look for it in Spotify or other streaming services, which
Schneider fiercely opposes. (Related: “Maria
Schneider on her hometown of Windom, leading the band and working with David
Bowie.”)
Mike Olson, “Six Projects” (Innova). As the title suggests, this is a compilation of six discrete works, not an album in the traditional
sense of something you listen to from start to finish, although you can
certainly do that. Olson is an experimental/electronic/new music composer, so
these six pieces, spanning 13 years, are soundscapes, not songs. Most were
created using his own fragment-based compositional process – gathering many
small musical fragments (some performed live, some preexisting), then
manipulating, layering, aligning, altering, combining, and mixing them to create
what he wants to say. Some of the musicians heard here include drummer Dave
King and percussionist Heather Barringer (on “De Novo”); Olson also borrowed
bits from works by Stefan Kac, Paul Dresher, Zeitgeist, Anthony Gatto, Pauline
Oliveros, and Janika Vandervelde, among others. You’ll hear thunder and rain in
“Flute Clouds,” the repetition and exploration of a single Ojibwe word in the
haunting, atmospheric a capella choral piece “Noopiming” (that’s the word, and
it means “in the North, inland, in the woods”), vintage and contemporary synthesizers
in “Implied Movement” and “Shift.” This is spacey, ambient, dynamically diverse
(sometimes loud, sometimes barely discernible), occasionally rhythmic (more
often not) music I turned to out of curiosity, then ended up liking very much.
We should all listen to more Innova recordings.
Just Shoot Me
I thought Jeremy Siskind’s “Housewarming” (Brooklyn Jazz
Underground) came out in 2014. I was wrong; its official release date was
Feb. 24, 2015. I love this album and would have included it in my Top 10; just don’t
ask what it would have replaced. “Housewarming” is the same core trio as Siskind’s
earlier “Finger Songwriter” – Siskind on piano, Clara City native Nancy Harms
on voice, Lucas Pino on reeds – plus guests Kurt Elling, Kendra Shanks and
Peter Eldridge on selected tracks. Nine original Siskind compositions (and four
covers) explore themes of home, belonging, and yearning for home – perfect material
for a group that has made a specialty of house concerts, intimate live performances
in private homes. I heard them at a friend’s home in Plymouth in August and it
was enchanting. So is the recording. Don’t expect drama or pyrotechnics; this
is music of tenderness and taking care. The instrumentation – Siskind’s lyrical
piano, gleaming with arpeggios and pillowed with chords; Pino’s pensive
saxophone and clarinets – is paired with eloquent lyrics borrowed in part from Marilynne
Robinson, W.B. Yeats, Carl Sandburg and Derek Walcott. The singing, most by
Harms, is exquisite and expressive; she can tell a whole story in a
single word or syllable. This is not an album for driving 70 mph down the freeway,
but for an evening at home with friends or loved ones, memories or dreams.
