Sparks Between Us: Step Into The Comfort Inn
[Intimate when a performer is so absorbed in their own experience that they forget about their surroundings, the audience becomes observers.]
[I adore you.]
[I love everyone by default.]
How Far Ahead Am I Thinking While Freestyling?
Harry Mack slows down his freestyle process so that us mere mortals can understand how far in advance he plans.
How to solo on a II V I... LIKE A PRO!
Rich Brown (bassist extraordinaire) explains music theory of improvising on a fundamental chord progression and goes quickly from banal to outer space while describing both using the same framework. I have known the names of the Greek modes and their notes for a while, but only intellectually—I have hardly thought of them consciously while improvising. Here they are presented as composable parts and it seems approachable (using a ‘cheesy bossa nova’ backing track)—feels like I went from having one thing to do on each chord to 12 x 7 (= eighty-four…) possibilities.
Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad feat Gary Bartz: Distant Mode
Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have been recording a series since 2020 called Jazz is Dead with some renowned musicians. I have queued up all seven albums and am pretty sure at least one will end up here. One track called Distant Mode with saxophonist Gary Bartz caught my attention for its intricate drumming punctuated with sections of hyperspace warp speed that reminds me of Flying Lotus. They also collaborated with Method Man on Bulletproof Love from the LUKE CAGE soundtrack—the drum beat and rap lyrics feel like part of the same expression.
Jacob Collier: Time Alone With You
I was waiting to set aside a year of my life to listen to Jacob Collier’s Djesse suite, but happened upon this track, with a harmonic complexity that results from someone starting with Moon River as their baseline. It sounds like being possessed by the opposite of the devil. I found it impossible to sit still while listening. Notice as well the fluid physicalizing of music in the video.
Junior Braguinha Quinteto: Goonies
From a set of live quintet recordings that could probably go together as an album, but seems impossible to assemble together without creating a YouTube account or relying on autoplay, so here’s just two tracks: Goonies (2017) mixes a high-octane bass solo with ambient noise (emphasis on noise) from the keyboardist—reminds me of Robert Glasper’s Black Radio. Brisa (2018) is hard-driving and odd-metered with harmonies that shift like mechanical gears.
Mákina Kandela: CUMBIAKISTÁN (2014)
Sometimes cumbia digital, sometimes afrobeat, sometimes reggae/dub. They use quite a few sudden metric changes throughout the album, which I find unusual for genres that are often more ‘steady’. There is also a peculiar sensation at around forty minutes where the groove always seems slower than you expect.
Joyce Moreno: Hard Bossa (1999)
I try to avoid saying here whether I think something is ‘good’ as it’s not a useful comment, but I can’t help stating that Hard Bossa (1999) by Joyce Moreno (featured in #005) is excellent. I was fooled by ‘the b word’, thinking that it would be easy-going music made by Brazilians catering to an international audience, and I was very wrong: traditional elements are unapologetically slathered throughout.
I’ll share my impressions of some songs, but the whole album is worth a listen:
- Zoeira starts the album with complex interlocking rhythms between instruments, yet it flows like air.
- Nome De Guerra’s rapid pandeiro beat and [that universal folk rhythm clapping pattern whose name escapes me] underpins a moment sung by Paulo Cesar Pinheiro, and it flows like air.
- London Samba sounds to me more like bossa nova than samba, but it feels like you’re dancing and someone is twirling you around. There is a trombone solo and it flows like air.
- Todos Os Santos features duet harmonies in a seven meter, and it flows like air.
- Hard Bossa’s scurrying onomatopoeic melody doubled rhythmically by flute flies right by, and it flows like air.
This falls under the #Under45Minutes classification that I disclosed last week.
I also thought it was neat that a legendary artist from the 1970s has a Bandcamp.