I came to Ben Neill's Night Science disc with half the knowledge I probably needed to fully understand and appreciate it. I know plenty about jazz and the melding of that sound with electronica (mainly thanks to the groundbreaking work of others through Thirsty Ear's Blue Series), but knew nothing about dubstep. Night Science, however, blends these elements to create something the label describes as "a dubstep masterpiece, a jazz classic, and something altogether unfamiliar."

I still don't know anything about dubstep -- though I can now at least identify the beat when I hear it, a stuttering, click clack that feels like a glitchy dancefloor call to arms -- but I know that Neill blends electronic instrumentation, a jazz feel and that insistent beat to create songs that convey darkness and menace despite their sprightly tempos.

Neill accomplishes this with an instrument called the mutantrumpet, which melds a regular trumpet with electronics. "The new mutantrumpet uses technologies from (a previous version) as well as a new ergonomic design which now includes 8 continuous MIDI controllers and 8 momentary MIDI controllers in addition to the acoustic note and volume control from the instrument’s natural sound. The instrument connects directly to the computer via USB." While I'm a huge fan of acoustic jazz, performers who experiment with electronic instruments and textures within the framework of jazz have long caught my ear.

With Night Science, Neill does just that, perhaps even more organically than most. The ability to alter his electronics with the touch of a finger while playing an admittedly greatly altered instrument allows him to subtly shift the sound in the moment. If there is a knock against electronic-driven jazz, it is its pre-programmed, static nature. Neill avoids that trap here.

That said, I can't point to any one song as say, "This is the one that will hook you." The hooks are few and far between here. This is a mood piece, and while each of the 10 tracks is separate and distinct, it also would succeed as one long, uninterrupted track (in fact, it does when I put it on while at work, allowing it to seep into the subconscious).

So, is this the great "dubstep masterpiece" as advertised? Far be it from me to say. I can say it is a very worthy entry in Thirsty Ear's fantastic Blue Series, a disc that will appeal to open-minded jazz fans and perhaps help pull at the boundaries of what they consider the genre to be.

Labels: jazz, music, review

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the great Blue Note Records. The label was started by Alfred Lion, a German immigrant who recorded his first session just two weeks after the Dec. 23, 1938, Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall featuring pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis. The two cut 18 tracks, issued as The First Day.

According to the history of the label find on its web site, the first brochure for the label included a statement of purpose:"Blue Note Records are designed simply to serve the uncompromising expressions of hot jazz or swing, in general. Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression. By virtue of its significance in place, time and circumstance, it possesses its own tradition, artistic standards and audience that keeps it alive. Hot jazz, therefore, is expression and communication, a musical and social manifestation, and Blue Note records are concerned with identifying its impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments.”

The best the label has had to offer in the 70 years since has lived up to that creed. Plenty of questionable sides have been issued with the Blue Note logo on back, but the label's hits far outnumber any missteps, and its classic period in the '50s and '60s is peerless in recorded music.

The label is perhaps best known among non- or casual jazz fans for its distinctive album covers. But to those who love jazz, the name in synonymous with great hard bop. Pick up a Blue Note disc from Lee Morgan or Art Blakey or Hank Mobley or Horace Silver or Lou Donaldson or... well, you get the idea. Do so, and you'll find a great batch of deep grooves and soulful playing.

The label will celebrate with a tour by the Blue Note 7, a group of younger stars who will perform classic Blue Note sides. The group includes pianist and musical director Bill Charlap, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. The tour runs now through April 19. A disc from the group, Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records, is due Jan. 13.

In addition, author Ashley Kahn, who has penned interesting books about Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and Impulse Records, is writing a book about Blue Note: Somethin’ Else: The Story of Blue Note Records and the Birth of Modern Jazz. The book is due in the fall. Blue note will issue a two-CD companion compilation at that time.

All in all, it's a good excuse to listen to some great jazz. Happy anniversary.

Labels: jazz, music

I caught a fantastic show last night in Iowa City, finally getting the chance to see the Brad Mehldau Trio in person. I've been a fan for years, and so it was nice to experience them live.

This was a make-up gig from 2005 when Mehldau was snowed in and couldn't reach Iowa City for a show. This time, he almost was forced to postpone again, but the problem was on our end: the University of Iowa's Hancher Auditorium was severely damaged during massive flooding we experienced here in June. The facility won't open until 2010, but in the meantime many of this season's shows were rescheduled for area venues (new season tagline: "Can't Contain Us.") This show was at the City High School auditorium, and it's a safe guess that no matter how talented the school's many alums may have been, this was the best thing to ever grace that stage.

I wrote a review for CorridorBuzz.com where those interested can find out all of the details. Suffice to say it was the best jazz I've seen this year, and that's saying something given the caliber of talent at this year's Iowa City Jazz Festival.

Labels: concert, jazz, music

I took in a lot of great jazz over the weekend thanks to the Iowa City Jazz Festival. I was working, reviewing some of the sets for CorridorBuzz.com (including Friday, Saturday and Sunday). The festival headliners were all excellent: Medeski, Martin & Wood on Friday, John Scofield on Saturday and Joshua Redman on Sunday. I got what I expected from MMW and Scofield -- funky, groove-based jazz -- but was pleasantly surprised by Redman. You can't rest on the phenom thing for too long, so I knew he had the goods, but I've never been moved by his music on record. Live, he was electric, playing with passion and enthusiasm. He played accompanied by just bass and drums, so there was no chance to lay out, no break, no rest. He brought it for about 80 minutes with little more than the time between songs and the occasional drum or bass solo to even get a breath.

The event is something to look forward to all year, as we don't get a lot of big name live jazz here in Iowa City very often. There is a very talented group of players in the area, thanks in part to the great jazz programs at the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa just up the road in Cedar Falls, so we do have the opportunity to hear live jazz (though not as often as we should). As for big draws, however, we now must wait until November when Brad Mehldau comes to the UI's Hancher Auditorium, assuming that damage from the devastating flooding over the past several weeks can be repaired in time.

Photos by Loren Keller.

Labels: jazz, music

It isn't often that jazz from outside the mainstream gets any press, so it was a pleasant surprise to read about '70s and '80s jazz in today's New York Times. The piece deals with the many blogs that have sprung up that deal with that time period, particularly with a round of discussion among several of them that it was high time to create a canon of such works that might serve as evidence that, contrary to popular belief, the genre didn't wither and die when the '60s came to a close.

Included in the piece is a frequent stop of mine, Destination: Out, as well as many other sites that will join it among my music bookmarks. Of particular note are Do the Math, kept by Ethan Iverson, pianist for the Bad Plus, and Darcy James Argue's Secret Society (you'll find his initial contribution to the discussion at the link). Their discussion revolved around listing worthy jazz albums from those two decades, an exercise that resulted in a greatly pared-down list of about 500 titles.

That led to the creation of a wiki, Ear of the Behearer (named for a 1973 Dewey Redman disc that is, of course, on the list), which lists the discs and allows users to add favorites of their own. It's skeletal now, but with some effort from passionate participants, it could become a valuable resource.

Labels: jazz