Charles Lloyd, Nicole Mitchell, Steve Coleman among top jazz releases

By Bret Saunders, Special to The Denver Post

There's so much accomplished new recorded music stacking up that I thought this relative breather between concerts would be a good time to get some of it out of my system and perhaps into yours.

Mostly Other People Do The Killinghas, over the decade since their formation, gelled into one of the premier jazz ensembles. Their CD cover art has perhaps received as much attention as the music itself, with the quartet's members re-creating classic LP shots from the likes of Roy Haynes and Ornette Coleman.

On the new "Slippery Rock" (Hot Cup) they present themselves as members of a slick '80s-era pop jazz ensemble a la Spyro Gyra (who will be in Parker

Lee Konitz will play at Dazzle on Sunday. (Associated Press)

this week, see below.) The irreverent cover art aside, this is a band committed to dizzying, avant-leaning intensity, usually provided with a hurried pulse. If MOPDTK remind me of anyone at this point, it's the infrequently documented ensembles of saxophonist and composer Henry Threadgill, which makes it as adventurous (and enthralling) as "jazz" gets. Meanwhile, trumpeter Peter Evans and woodwind expert Jon Irabagon are currently vying for the mightiest front line going.

Charles Lloydcontinues his seemingly endless winning streak with"Hagar's Song" (ECM) a more reflective set of duetswith pianist Jason Moran. Lloyd utilizes his arsenal of flutes and saxes to engage in soothing dialogue with pianist Moran, who has proven himself to be an empathic presence. It's a lovely hour, with the elder statesman reflecting on history (of jazz and himself.) Particularly effective are the meditative "Hagar Suite," the blues-inflected cover of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo," and the CD's delicate coda, a cover of (former Lloyd associates) The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows."

The notion of "jazz flute" has probably been relegated to Ron "Anchorman" Burgundy in recent years, and that's too bad, because, like Lloyd, there are some fine practitioners on the instrument,includingNicole Mitchell. Her quartet Ice Crystal has a spirited new CD, "Aquarius," (Delmark) that extends back into Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk territory. The idea behind this project is to contrast her flute with vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, hence the aural "ice crystals." The sonic combination is intriguing, and even if you're not disposed to love the flute as a lead instrument, there are plenty of exciting ideas being explored here. Of the handful of Mitchell's releases I've heard, this one is the most appealing.

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Nicole Mitchell: Arc Of O

By JOHN SHARPE, 
Published: November 16, 2012

Subtitled "for improvisers, chamber orchestra and electronics," flutist Nicole Mitchell's genre-busting Arc Of O resonates a little with the almost forgotten Third Stream. Coined by composer/educator Gunther Schuller as a term for a synthesis of classical music and jazz at the end of the 1950s, the label has been subsumed within the jazz world's ever increasing eclecticism which sees all cultures as fair game. Some of the first improvisers to admit their influences hailed as much from contemporary classicism as the jazz tradition were among the early members of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), including saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, and pianist and founding member of the movement Muhal Richard Abrams.

So it's no surprise that Mitchell, one-time president of the AACM, draws freely from a dizzying range of sources in one of her most ambitious undertakings to date. Extended compositions, such as Xenogenesis Suite, works for the AACM large ensemble and the American Composer's Orchestra, figure increasingly significant in Mitchell's oeuvre. Kaleidoscopic shifts characterize the piece: in textures and instruments; dynamics between solo and group; and not least styles. Mitchell sequences her events, which vary from the explosive to the reflective, in seemingly unrelated juxtapositions. But as the piece progresses through its six parts and 45 minute duration, the events are progressively overlapped, in a manner reminiscent of saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton's Twelvetet + 1, in which Mitchell participates on occasion.

Confounding the stereotype that classically trained musicians can't improvise, the accomplished Polish Chamber Ensemble carry off Mitchell's polyglot fancies with aplomb, including both the jazzier stretches and those which sound completely spontaneous. Alongside the Poles, Mitchell herself and three other denizens of the Windy City: reedmenDavid Boykin and Mwata Bowden, and violinist Renee Baker, provide additional firepower. The electronics contribute incidental ambient color. Though recurring thematic and melodic matter appears, mutates and reappears throughout, at the larger scale the material and structure is largely non-repeating.

The four Americans integrate fully into the orchestration. Strings jostle with the horns at the outset of "Arc Of O-II," before the leader's fluttering flute expels a bruised lyricism. Later Boykin's breathy yelping tenor saxophone features heavily, initially alone in rubato meditation, then through various composed sections, and ultimately in ecstatic duet with roiling drums. "Arc Of O-III" shines the spotlight on Bowden's clarinet, in a folky dance over percolating rhythms and martial drums, before morphing into a klezmer-tinged hoedown. Similarly unexpected transformations become a constant refrain. In "Arc Of O-IV" Mitchell's choppy flute surfs first a string ostinato, then a rumbustious riff belayed by piano, horns and drums. As the other instruments fall away, the piano riff somehow transmutes into a sparse improvisation on prepared piano strings.

Read more on: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=43270#.UKZIUqUlYhQ

Nicole Mitchell....

Chicago, great redoubt vanguard of musicians and fans to experimentalism libertarians, goes to show their new talent. Since the mid-90s new voices like Rob Mazurek and Ken Vandermark - plus veteran musicians who are reactivated, as Fred Anderson - of Chicago to urge the world of "underground", recovering the free jazz, mixing different styles and creating projects and personalíssimas compositions comprising from tradition, elements african-american, world music, has manjar free improvisation, to projects where the new technology and post-modernity are included as inseparable elements of the new formats jazzística composition: just observe the work combos of personalíssimos Vandermark 5 (of Ken Vandermark) and Chicago Underground (from Mazurek), two of the most innovative training and raised in Chicago, of course, influenced by the teachings of the entity AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), since the decade conducts studies of 70 major branches in the integration of improvisation and writing music.

Recently, more specifically at the beginning of the XXI century, the greatest stronghold of the "progressive jazz" in the U.S. had a another great artist to be proud: this is the flutist, singer and bandleader and composer Nicole Mitchell, which, through its original projects, is launching discs intense, exciting and creative, according to a USA line of work that both the teachings of the aforementioned composition and updates the AACM School of improvisation styles of sets as Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpeter Lester Bowie of all that in the'70s, free jazz mixed with elements of world music.

Starting his career as a leader between the years 2001 and 2002, Nicole Mitchell surprised the media of the North American jazz compositions to show very brilliant understanding of tradition, contemporary, and arrangements that show a sophisticated interaction between the sounds emitted by their sidemans sets: the Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings and the Harambee Project, multicultural with three sets which the flutist performs his experiences and makes mixtures of jazz with other styles of world music, each in a way.Besides the peculiar sound of his flute, which requires leadership face the new generation of talent in Chicago, the compositions of Nicole Mitchell are very praised by critics: not to be missed are the suites Africa Rising Trilogy (piece in three movements, in this disk Africa Rising 2002) and Xenogenesis Suite (suite consists of a set of nine tracks, this one disc dedicated to the namesake of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia Butler, premiered at the Vision Festival in 2007 and launched by seal Firehouse12 in 2009).

Not for nothing, therefore, that critics of Downbeat magazine awarded flute as a highlight in the category "Rising Star Flutist" 2005 to 2008, the Jazz Journalist Association awarded in the category "Jazz Flutist of the Year 2008" and the Chicago newspaper Tribune medal in the category "Chicagoan of the Year" in 2006, among other awards and honorable mentions in the spotlight of major American and European jazz.
In parallel to their projects that soil mixed with elements of jazz and african music in the style of singing rhythm'blues, Nicole Mitchell works with the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra playing flute and piccolo soloist convidade as participating in several "emsembles" between the major scenarios of Chicago and Vancouver, Canada.

As a collaborator in groups and bands, improvisation, already participated in other major projects alongside the most creative and distinguished musicians of the avant-garde: among them are George Lewis, Miya Masaoka, Anthony Braxton, Orbert Davis, Lori Freedman, Muhal Richard Abrams, Hamid Drake, David Boykin, Ed WILKERSON, Dee Alexander, Rob Mazurek, Harrison Bankhead, Arveeayl Ra, among other veterans and younger musicians pantheon of art. Another fact that deserves attention is that, apart from Nicole to be successful and cool in the scenario of the current avant-garde, it is not just a fruit of the AACM school to be one of the new educators and leaders of projects facing the institution mediatic of creative music in the U.S., as well as being a member teaching in Vancouver Creative Music Institute, leading workshops and projects in schools and universities as University of Guelph (Canada), University of Louieville, Dartmouth College, Howard University, Amherst College, South Suburban College, University of Illinois and Michigan, serving also as director of the jazz band from Wheaton College.

Participating in many projects and being highlighted in a number of specialist jazz spotlight, Nicole Mitchell presents itself, finally, as another woman - among the many women - to be part of the list of innovative tools that are contributing not only to the jazz is more equal between men and women, but contributing in particular to the diversification of heaven and new paradigms in the current scenario of contemporary jazz.
www.farofamoderna.com.br

Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble plays....

Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble plays very personal, very international jazz at the Velvet Lounge. Trailer for the DVD "Black Unstoppable".

Nicole Mitchell's Sonic Projections at the Stone, NYC, Jan 2, 3 2009

Creative flutist Nicole Mitchell will celebrate the New Year with new musical projects at the Stone, on Jan 2 and 3, including saxophonist David Boykin, pianist Vijay Ayer, guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Chad Taylor

With Sonic Projections, Mitchell is interested in reinterpreting the power and meaning of sound, musical language and vibration. Inspired by functional ritual music of traditional earth-centered cultures, creative music, free improvisation, and her imagination, Sonic Projections I and II will represent a vehicle for blasting away negativity and projecting positive energy for humanity into the New Year. What are the things we wish to remove from our lives? What are the things we wish to attain? The audience will be invited to contribute their own written projections into the music. Sonic Projections will feature new works by Nicole Mitchell and further explorations into Mitchell’s compositions from Ritual and Rebellion suite, which debuted at George Lewis’ AACM Celebration at the Kitchen in October 2008.

On January 2, 2009, at 10pm, Nicole Mitchell will present her Sonic Projections I, with tenor saxophonist David Boykin, pianist Vijay Ayer and drummer Chad Taylor.

On January 3rd, at 8pm, Mitchell’s Sonic Projections II will include guitarist Mary Halvorson, tenor saxophonist David Boykin and drummer Chad Taylor.

“The most important jazz flutist of her generation” (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz), Nicole Mitchell intends to provoke audiences with visionary work that forms a synthesis between the real and the imagined, the familiar and the unknown. A creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator, Mitchell is the founder of critically acclaimed Black Earth Ensemble and Black Earth Strings, and her work has been a highlight at art venues and festivals throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Currently Co-President of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Mitchell was awarded “Jazz Flutist of the Year” (2008) by the Jazz Journalists Association and Downbeat magazine’s #1 Rising Star Flutist from 2005-2008.

Critics have called saxophonist David Boykin one of Chicago's “best kept secrets." A master of improvisation, his free jazz knows no musical boundaries. Rooted in the hard swinging tradition of musicians like Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker, composer and saxophonist David Boykin is one of the most innovative and exciting musicians on Chicago's remarkably diverse music scene. Like Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman, his music challenges and expands the common aesthetics used to define beauty in music. He has performed with many world reknown creative musicians, including Malachi Favors, Kahil El' Zabar, Leroy Jenkins, Ari Brown, Nicole Mitchell, Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake.

Vijay Ayer Voted the #1 Rising Star Jazz Artist and #1 Rising Star Composer in the Downbeat Magazine International Critics' Poll for both 2006 and 2007, Vijay Ayer was described in The Village Voice as “the most commanding pianist and composer to emerge in recent years.” The son of Indian immigrants, he is a largely self-taught creative musician grounded in the American jazz lexicon and drawing from a range of Western and non- Western traditions. His widely acclaimed recordings include Panoptic Modes (2001), Blood Sutra (2003), Reimagining (2005), and Tragicomic (2008) with his trio/quartet (”a formidable force... startlingly effective and unflinchingly forward-looking... one of the great rhythm units of the day” - Chicago Tribune); Your Life Flashes (2002), Simulated Progress (2005), and Door (2008) with the experimental three-piece unit Fieldwork (”a jazz power trio for the new century” - NPR's Fresh Air); Raw Materials (2006) in his longstanding duo with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa (”a total triumph from beginning to end” - All About Jazz); and In What Language? (2004) and Still Life with Commentator (2007), his large-scale works in collaboration with poet-performer Mike Ladd (”unfailingly imaginative and significant” - JazzTimes).

Mary Halvorson is a guitarist, composer and improviser living in Brooklyn. She grew up in Boston and studied jazz at Wesleyan University and the New School. Since 2000 she has been performing regularly in New York with numerous groups and has toured Europe and the U.S. with Anthony Braxton and Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant. She has also performed alongside Joe Morris, Nels Cline, John Tchicai, Elliott Sharp, Andrea Parkins, Marc Ribot, Oscar Noriega and Jason Moran. Current projects which Mary composes for and performs with include The Mary Halvorson Trio with John Hebert and Ches Smith (Dragon’s Head, Firehouse 12 Records, 2008); a chamber-music duo with violist Jessica Pavone (On and Off, Skirl Records, 2007); and the avant-rock band People (Misbegotten Man, I & Ear Records, 2007). She also performs in ensembles led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Ted Reichman, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jason Cady, Matthew Welch, Tony Malaby, Brian Chase and Curtis Hasselbring.

Chad Taylor (drums, vibraphone) was born in Tempe, Arizona in 1973, moved to Chicago with his family when he was 1O years old, and has been playing professionally since he was 14. In 1991, he moved to New York to play with Lou Donaldson, Julian “Junior" Mance, Leon Parker, and Mark Turner, helped form the free-improvisation group the Life Ensemble in 1993, and returned home in 1996 to help develop the Chicago Underground Orchestra. Since then he has also worked with Fred Anderson, Derek Bailey, David Boykin, Bobby Bradford, Peter Brotzmann, Roy Campbell, Eugene Chadbourne, Ernest Dawkins, Malachi Favors, Henry Grimes, Leroy Jenkins, Rob Mazurek, Joe McPhee, Roscoe Mitchell, Jemeel Moondoc, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, and many other extraordinary improvisers. He is also part of Chicago's post-rock scene, where he has recorded and/or collaborated with Brokeback, Isotope 217, Mouse on Mars, SteroLab, Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, and Sam Prekop. He is currently a member of the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, Quartet and Orchestra. Chad leads his own group, called Active Ingredients, whose CD “Titration" was released on Delmark Records in 'O3.
http://www.nicolemitchell.com/