Expand your taste in music. Based in Beijing, China.
Soghomon Soghomonian, the priest, ethnomusicologist and arranger who would be later known to millions of Armenian music aficionados as Komitas (Vardapet), is a figure who looms large in the history of the country’s music scene. Avant-garde pianist Lucy Khanyan does great justice to some of the works of Komitas, interpreting them in more of a jazz setting which sounds completely natural.
The Netherlands is a country so incredibly rich with music, yet they do an awful jon promoting it. Welcome, then, to the wild world of Dutch jazz, courtesy of Belgian label Sdban Records.
From the release’s Bandcamp site:
“Delve into the Dutch jazz scene of the 1950s and 1960s with a selection of classic and rare hard bop and cool jazz tracks from artists like Herman Schoonderwalt, the Diamond Five, Wessel Ilcken and Tony Vos. Holland never sounded this hip before!
“Jazz is garbage and a caricature of the modern orchestra; it is garbage arranged by half-grown musicians for the benefit of common entertainment.” In spite of the Dutch cultural establishment’s attempts to preclude jazz – as illustrated by this citation from the October 1926 issue of music magazine De Muziek – The Netherlands was one of the earliest adopters of the new music style as it came over to the Old Continent at the end of World War I and this compilation proves it like no other.”
Dive in, jazz cats!
Out of sheer good luck, I came across a Chinese artist recently called tamiX. She has a large body of work, not only with music but in multimedia, and now, print. She has a Patreon site, so if this work suits you, consider supporting her work.
From her bio on the release’s Bandcamp site:
“tamiX, a professional artist of improvisational electronic live music and visual arts, refusing to perform with computer programs or software, specializes in unprepared visual creativity, and music performance with standalone gear to demonstrate physically natural effects as atmosphere changes likewise. As Buchla endorsed artist, with Buchla 200e modular synthesizer system, her live improvisation has created an impressively unique mode filled audiences with experimentally rhyming tune.
As a very unusual artist in China who creates visual arts with eurorack video modular synthesizer, vector arts with eurorack audio modular synthesizer, psychedelic light show with the work of nature, glitch arts with DIY gears, tamiX is an avant-guard showing distinct arts.”
What I found most enjoyable was that she was able to resurrect the Hardbeat/Electronic Body Music sound without sounding like a cover band. The music is raw, modular, modern, but remains true to its roots.
Friend of the blog Gianpiero De Filippo, who records as The End Of Eternity, goes into a different direction with this recording. It’s less Berlin school and more techno, and very well done.
Though this disc was released in 2014, this long-forgotten soundtrack has the sound of something from the 1980s. Michał Urbaniak is, of course, in fine form here, and it’s good to see he’s releasing a lot of material, both new and archival, on Bandcamp.
Nordic jazz tends to be very warm in my experience. This collection of original tunes by Danish singer Cathrine Legardh and her sparring partner on this album, alto saxophonist Sigurður Flosason, make an album with songs of love, live and even dogs. It’s a mellow listen, something hotter than cool jazz, but measured in its playing. A gorgeously relaxing disc.
One additional note: I’ve picked up a few titles from the label that released this disc, Storyville Records. They handle new music and reissues with great care and are a label absolutely worth supporting.
Taiwanese band Leisure Time 閒暇 produce a music that sits in that hazy area between real and fake jazz. I think the quote the band used by the legendary Donald Fagen of Steely Dan sums up their sound best:
“There was sort of cheap music, tv music, movie music. By cheap I mean, not really in a disparaging way but it’s written to support something else. […] And so, I both like real jazz and fake jazz, and also, fake fake jazz.”
Real of fake, it’s pleasant listening.
Is there a better song for today than James Brown’s classic?
It’s incredibly nice to see Peter Gabriel release the bulk of his solo material on Bandcamp. He even offers a subscription for rare tracks and remixes, most of which are perfectly okay. This release was a pleasant surprise, as it was, I believe, once released as part of the So box set, but it sounds fine as a standalone disc. The recording is during the peak of his creative powers, and the musicians working behind him in this tour (David Rhodes on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, David Sancious on keyboards and Manu Katché on drums) are as tight as can be. As good as one can expect from a live recording.
At least as I understand it, there is a magnificent label out of Greece, Defkaz, releasing some really fine free jazz and world music. This particular album features one name whose work I’m very familiar with – the Hungarian drummer Balázs Pándi, who is magnificent. After hearing him work with the trio of Giovanni di Domenico (fender rhodes), Gonçalo Almeida (bass) and Giotis Damianidis (guitar), you have the makings of a young European supergroup. Free, cinematic, and a joy to hear.
Check out their website, and if you’re interested in hearing these gems, contact
koufaelas [at] defkaz.com. He’ll get those discs out to you ASAP.