CD REVIEW: Carla Bley/ Steve Swallow/ Andy Sheppard - Andando el Tiempo

Carla Bley/ Steve Swallow/ Andy Sheppard - Andando el Tiempo (ECM 4779711. CD review by Mike Collins) 

Mike Collins is a pianist and writer based in Bath, who runs the jazzyblogman site. Twitter @jazzyblogman

Carla Bley turned 80 in May. It’s clear from this set of new compositions, recorded with the long-standing trio of Bley, Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard, her formidable powers are undiminished. 

This is just the second release by the trio with ECM’s Manfred Eicher in the producer’s chair and it’s of course beautifully recorded, allowing the spacious music to breath and the delicate interplay within the trio to infuse Bley’s distinctive pieces with a lustrous beauty. 

The first two thirds of the set is filled by a suite whose name gives the album its title. Andando el Tiempo: Sin Fin and Andando el Tiempo: Potacion De Guya have the same haunting melody at their core, built around the simplest of gradually mutating two note phrases and played over a stately tango-like pulse.

The trio, in turn patiently explore the material allowing embellishments and melodic fragments to resonate and develop, the first section with darker overtones and moods. Andando el Tiempo: Camino Al Volver develops more energy, its jigsaw like construction providing a snappy launchpad for solos. Saints Alive!’s gently loping feel gives both Swallow and Sheppard an opportunity to play sweetly and melodically and Naked Bridges/ Diving Bridges an extended, tone poem like piece dissolves into an extended looping invention of a coda.

read more: http://news360.com/digestarticle/OAl04U1mYk61EeUcmaqY1w

Carla Bley And Steve Swallow On Piano Jazz

Klaus Muempfer/Courtesy of the artist

July 15, 2016 

Bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Carla Bley are both acclaimed jazz composers and performers with international reputations. On this 1996 episode of Piano Jazz, they team up to talk with host Marian McPartland about their combined repertoire of innovative music. Bley and Swallow kick off the program with a duet version of Bley's composition "Major." Then, McPartland joins Bley for a unique duet on "Chopsticks," and they close the show as a trio with Bley's "Ad Infinitum."

Originally broadcast in the winter of 1996.

SET LIST
"Major" (C. Bley)
"King Korn" (C. Bley)
"Carnation" (S. Swallow)
"Sing Me Softly of the Blues" (C. Bley)
"Romantic Notion #3" (C. Bley)
"Instant Romance" (M. McPartland)
"Chopsticks" (E. Allen)
"Ida Lupino" (C. Bley)

"Ad Infinitum" (C. Bley)

read more: http://news360.com/digestarticle/LeqquULWCEKLzLlNUo6gAw

Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow and Bobby Previte - The New Standard

Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow and Bobby Previte - The New Standard
(RareNoiseRecords RNR 041. CD review by Andy Boeckstaens)

Keyboard player Jamie Saft is best known as a member of New York’s exploratory and experimental music scene; he appeared in London last year to mark the 60th birthday of John Zorn.

The New Standard demonstrates Saft’s ability to thrive in a conventional jazz setting. His long-term collaborator Bobby Previte is a versatile drummer who has worked with the likes of Tim Berne and Lew Soloff; and the legendary electric bassist Steve Swallow will need no introduction to most readers. What a great band it is! 

The flavour of the session is revealed after the first few seconds. The opener, Clarissa, is a flowing swinger on which Saft’s thoughtful chording and imaginative right-hand flurries on piano bring to mind Horace Silver and Hampton Hawes. The other thing that strikes you is the gorgeous sound, which has a rare immediacy. Swallow always has a distinctive tone, but rarely has the gentle buzz of his bass sounded this warm. And Previte’s drums come across with astonishing presence.

The disc consists of ten original compositions: seven come from Saft’s pen; the others are credited to the trio. Most are straightforward blowing vehicles, ideal for the participants to stretch out and enjoy themselves. The leader says that the high level of improvisation “gives the album a special kind of magic”. Previte expands: “We did the entire record in three hours. Some tunes were completely improvised, some....brought in by Jamie...were sketches, really....we never ever talked about how to start or how to end”.

read more: http://news360.com/digestarticle/N3prRubNeEi0xOsHb5qlbQ