One Track Mind: Bugge Wesseltoft "Change" (2001)

by Pico

Earlier in the week we introduced in this space the topic of "Nu jazz" that's all the rage in Europe, and has represented one of the frontiers of fusion jazz these days. One of the pioneers of this collision of acoustic jazz and electronic music is the Norwegian keyboard player, composer and record company mogul by the name of Bugge (pronounced "boogie") Wesseltoft.

Wesseltoft certainly didn't come up with the idea of blending in contemporary electronic instruments with post-bop; Miles Davis, among many others, were doing that in the late sixties as a stepping stone to full-on electric fusion. What he and his colleagues did, though, was revisit this style as a fully formed idea rather than a transition toward one, using more up-to-date electronics sometimes accompanying vintage ones, along with some occasional sampling thrown in for good measure.

Wessletoft first laid out this vision in the ambitiously titled New Conception Of Jazz in 1996. That record also marked the launch of Wesseltoft's Jazzland record label, which has since become home of other Nu jazz artists like Wibutree and the previously mentioned Eivind Aarset.

In actuality, the idea isn't all that groundbreaking as the title of that album suggests; it's a close cousin to the acid jazz and hip-hop jazz that emerged out of Britain and the US around 1990. Hell, Wally Badarou was doing instrumental electro-acoustic music throughout most of the eighties.

Anyway, sometimes Bugge's blending of the styles don't always work smoothly; a lot of it ends up sounding pretty close to straight-up electronica to me. But there is some pretty captivating music that comes out of him on those times when it does click.

The first track from his 2001 offering Moving is one of those such times where all the cylinders are firing. "Change" is deceptively simple on the surface; it's built mainly on about four chords in a catchy progression played over on top of a dance groove. But Wesseltoft deftly adds layers to build up from a warm ambient passage before introducing programmed drums and a double-bass which states the theme. Over time, the percussion (I'm guessing that's programmed, too) gets more insistent until it sounds as if it's sweating as it reaches the front of mix.

About halfway through, the groove abruptly halts, but it's a false ending and quickly restarts to signal the improvisional passage. Bugge's electric piano solo is clearly inspired by Herbie Hancock's Head Hunter days with it's delicate balance of classic jazz voicings, funk vamps, and well-placed echoes and reverbs.

It's not just Wesseltoft's jammin' like he's Herbie that makes this tune an attractive piece of danceable jazz. That ultra-cool groove of "Change" is constructed by four decades of sounds coming together in perfect tandem: the acoustic bass of sixties jazz, the warm Fender Rhodes of seventies fusion, the icy synth of eighties dance music and the relentlessly percolating beat of nineties electronica. It's almost like scrapbook for the ears covering forty years of funk-jazz history.

The song winds down with layers disappearing one by one until the whole song vanishes just short of a ten and a half minute sprint. Or rather, it sure seems like a sprint. "Change" may not represent an entirely new conception of jazz. But it was well-conceived, nonetheless.

Listen: Bugge Wessletoft "Change"

Purchase: Bugge Wesseltoft - Moving


"One Track Mind" is a more-or-less weekly drool over a single song selected on a whim and a short thesis on why you should be drooling over it, too.

Maceo Parker, "Roots and Grooves" (2008)

NICK DERISO: The almost mythical groove of saxophonist Maceo Parker, best known for stints with James Brown and P-Funk, has always been a canny blending of styles from a long-past era.

There’s the muscular bebop of Charlie Parker, the angular soul of Ray Charles, the playful R&B of Julian “Cannonball” Adderly. Sometimes all in one cut.

So, it’s no surprise that on “Roots and Grooves,” a live recording due on Feb. 12 and made during a European tour over early part of 2007, Parker attempts another fun experiment with history and sound.

The catch here is that he does it, and maybe for the very first time, with mixed results.

Parker has long traveled with a fairly large band, merrily referred to as “the greatest little funk orchestra on earth,” but here is featured with the expansive WDR Big Band Cologne.

That works well early, then less so later.

The group provides a terrific backdrop for a Disc 1 tribute to Charles
-- tearing through the opener, “Hallelujah I Love Her So,” then settling into an elegant rhythm under the direction of conductor and arranger Michael Abene.

In fact, it’s the most fully realized compliment paid to the late soul stirrer that I’ve heard so far -- sensitive, yet still swinging.

Most of the other titles are familiar, to be sure. But Abene and company dust them with a polish that matched Charles’ later, often regal recordings. There’s an appropriate reverence that perfectly offsets Parker’s funky growl, both on the sax and on a sprinkling of rough-hewn vocals.

In this way, you come to realize that tunes like “Busted,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Hit the Road, Jack,” “Georgia on My Mind” (recast here as moody retro-’60s avant-garde jazz) and “What I’d Say” worked like signposts for Parker’s nascent sound.

Unlike Charles’, however, Parker’s stuff doesn’t always clean up so well.

That brings us to Disc 2, which is subtitled “Back to Funk.”

While the soloists -- in particular the greasy and great bassist Rodney “Skeet” Curtis -- certainly acquit themselves well, the larger band behind them simply isn’t limber enough to do justice to such glorious hip-shakers.

“To Be or Not to Be,” though you can’t argue with the clustered brilliance inside that soloing group of horns, can't get down-home enough to connect.

The backing group similarly mars standby party-starters like “Shake Everything You’ve Got” and that timeless James Brown-era closer “Pass the Peas” -- both of which shuffle along, too often sounding polite when they ought to be nasty and fun. (See Parker’s 1992 perfectly titled concert offering “Life on Planet Groove.”)

That doesn’t take away from what came before. Still, as transcendent as Disc 1 of “Roots and Grooves” so often was, best to leave it at that.

Purchase: Maceo Parker - Roots and Grooves

Obscuro: Swamp Zombies, "A Frenzy of Music and Action!" (1992)

NICK DERISO: Four Dobie Gillis types, including brothers from Irvine, Calif., the Swamp Zombies were notable for having some amount of ability on all manner of instruments, but also at the clanging of pots and pans.

They remain a great pop-music (or punk folk, I guess) example of what can go right when a band is willing to move out of the middle of the road. "Frenzy of Music and Action!," a fun ride, floors it right into the ditch -- blending surf boogie-woogie, grunge rock, mariachi, punk, pop, calypso and folk.

One of only five long-players issued by the Swamp Zombies between 1987-94, "A Frenzy of Music and Action!" might have at first appeared to fit into a long line of then-hip post-Violent Femmes-Dead Milkmen offerings. But the Zombies were one of the few with an outsized sense of humor. (Their third album, called "Scratch and Sniff Car Wash," was actually scratch and sniff -- you know, a little burning rubber mixed with some motor oil.) That's kept the music relevant into the next decade.

The most traditional-sounding folk song to be found here is actually called "I Bawled." A couple, I don't think, make any sense at all. That's part of the group's charm. It's like your favorite all-you-can-eat pig-out lunch place was in charge of the playlist. So you get titles like "Go Go Boots," "Johnny Quest" and "Oddball."

They also added some new instruments to the sound collage on "Frenzy," refusing even then to get too caught up in the whole electric guitar thing. More like cheesy farfisa (courtesy of the multi-talented Steve Jacobs) and accordian, with the usual shaggy-dog results.

The Swamp Zombies -- which, after a 1997 break up, spun off groups like The Tiki Tones, The Calypso Cats, Tombstone Bullets and Trucker Up -- don't run the gamut. They streak through it.

Nick's note: Josh "Shag" Agle was not only the banjoist, he also did retro-cool cover art for the band.


Purchase: Swamp Zombies - A Frenzy of Music and Action!

Marcia Ball, "Live! Down the Road" (2005)

NICK DERISO: As good as her studio recordings are, they have a certain airless perfection that doesn't quite fit the rollicking piano genius of Marcia Ball.

Hers is a bubbling soulfulness, loose limbed and informal - and it's dripping over the sides of "Live! Down the Road," Ball's first-ever full-length live album. Ball quickly settles into a familiar Gulf Coast groove, offering crowd favorites like "Crawfishin'" and the always deeply moving "Louisiana 1927." Then she stirs in Louisiana R&B and Texas blues, adding dashes of cutting wit and pounding piano.

But this disc, recorded at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in 2004, isn't simply roadhouse redux. Newer favorites like "Louella" find their own steady-rocking voice on stage.

"Count the Days," from 2001, is perhaps the best example of that wit: "Well, if you don't believe I'm leaving," Ball sings, "you can count the days I'm gone. (With background vocals of '1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... .')"

It's a full-throated retrospective, precisely the kind of toe-tapping collection of greatest hits (or mostly) that a lively artist like Ball so richly deserves.

Born in Orange, Texas, in 1949, Ball grew up around piano-playing family members in Vinton, right across the state line. Her first experience with blues was a performance she saw as a teen by Irma Thomas - an artist that Ball would eventually record with on the great late 1997 album "Sing It!," along with Tracy Nelson; and then on the tremendous Katrina-benefit album "Sing Me Home."

By 1966, Ball was playing in college bands while attending LSU. After a stint in Austin, where she was a member of the influential Firedogs, Ball launched her solo career - signing with Capitol, which released the countryish "Circuit Queen" in 1978.

Her next six recordings were made for Rounder, along with a collaboration with Angela Strehli on the legendary Austin imprint Antone's.

"Live!," however, solidifies her late-career resurgence on Alligator Records, the label she joined in 2001. Her first two releases for Alligator, "Presumed Innocent" (original home to "Count the Days") and "So Many Rivers," both won Handy Awards for blues album of the year.

Still, to my ear, her studio recordings never have the piano far enough forward in the mix, something remedied throughout this release. Her formidable chops are finally brought level with the honky horns and stinging guitars - and to great effect.

"Live!" synthesizes not just the border-town musical joys of Ball's youth, but also the singing and playing and writing brilliance once only truly experienced from local bandstands.

And you don't have to go down the road any more to hear it.



Purchase: Marcia Ball - Live! Down the Road

Quickies: Pat Metheny, Eivind Aarset, Neil Larsen, Maceo Parker

by Pico

The first Quickies of 2008 is all that jazz. More precisely, it's all jazz. Or variants of jazz. That is, if you don't count the last entry, which is soul-funk. Got it? Good, let's get started...

Pat Metheny Trio Day Trip
Today is supposed to be the day of Metheny's first release under the guitar/acoustic bass/drums format since Trio Live from 2000. But this time, the Trio's rhythm section is overhauled: Larry Granadier and Bill Stewart have been replaced by Christian McBride and Pat Metheny Group drummer Antonio Sanchéz.

The music hasn't changed at all, though. It's still the same kind of trio record you already know from Question And Answer and 99>00 with Pat revealing his Jim Hall and Kenny Burrell influences more than at other times and leaving the sound plenty wide open enough to allow him and his cohorts to stretch out. If you remember "The Red One" from the Metheny/Scofield collaboration I Can See Your House From Here and hear the same song as played by the Trio, you'll get a good idea of how this format can turn songs inside out.

Day Trip isn't blow-you-away good, but I don't think Metheny is aiming to make any grand statements here, either. It's just good, clean fun for three top-drawer players. And who wouldn't want to see this crew play live?

Eivind Aarset Sonic Codex
Heavy metal is not one of those kinds of music I can typically dig on its own but throw in some sort of jazz element into the mix and I'm there. That's why headbangers and I can come together at Caspar Brötzmann. The same goes for electronica. And when it comes to blending electronics and jazz, the Scandinavians seem to be the dominant players in this sub-genre. There's even a term for this hybrid: nu jazz.

So, you know beforehand what you're going to get from this blue-eyed, blonde guitarist from Oslo. Ambient sounds, programmed African rhythms, hints of melodic pop lines alternating with white noise. But most vitally, somewhere in the mix, actual instruments are being played. It sounds like a cross between Nils Petter Molvaer (with whom Aarset has worked with) and instrumental Porcupine Tree with some atmospherics thrown in here and there. Aarset is a fine guitarist but he doesn't hot dog it on his axe; he's more into creating textures, moods and grooves. Some might be tempted to call Sonic Codex an On The Corner updated for the 21st century. Nah, it's too listenable to describe it that way, but the debt is clearly owed.

Neil Larsen Orbit
Neil Larsen isn't a household name, but he's been around greatness a lot for someone who isn't widely known outside of musician circles. That's because when greatness has needed a session kayboard player, they often reach out to him: George Harrison, Dan Fogelberg, Rickie Lee Jones and Kenny Loggins are just a handful of big names who've hired him out at one time or another. Maybe staying gainfully employed as a keyboard-for-hire so consistently is why Larsen hadn't felt a need to put out his own records that often.

My first exposure to his solo material was the High Gear LP I picked up in the cutout bin around 1983, which was already some four years old at the time. It was some competent stuff and occasionally rose up to more than just competent, but the record didn't make me want to rush out and get the two or three other Larsen records I was missing, either. Well, until now. Orbit is really a "Best Of" type of record with the songs remade live in the studio. All of which makes it his first record that makes a perfect introduction into his music and probably the only Larsen you'll ever need.

And what kind of music is that, you ask? It's organ-driven soul-jazz with a bit of rock and sometimes funk and swing thrown in. What elevates this record among the large pack of anonymous fusion of this ilk are the Larsen originals that are a little better than average (especially "Demonette," which I remember as the standout track from my cutout LP) and a much better than average band that includes Robben Ford, his old Blue Line drummer Tom Brechtlein and Yellowjackets bass extraordinaire Jimmy Haslip. Produced by classic Crusaders producer Stewart Levine, this set sounds a lot like what crossover jazz was before it lost much of it's soul and morphed itself into smooth jazz.

Maceo Parker Roots & Grooves
James Brown's saxophone sensation Maceo Parker has been as much an evangelist for traditional soul and funk as Wynton Marsalis is for traditional jazz. On the live 2 CD Roots & Grooves, he makes that mission crystal clear, devoting one disc to covers of Ray Charles classics and another disc renditions of his more popular funk tunes (including the crowd favorite "Pass The Peas"). Maceo is backed by a pretty large band that's playing air tight grooves, which tells you how serious Parker is about this project.

My blog buddy Nick Deriso will be providing the whole lowdown on this upcoming release, so I won't delve any further here. But don't wait until he gives his spiel before pre-ordering; just do it now. You can read about what a great purchase you made later.

Purchase: Pat Metheny Trio - Day Trip

Purchase: Eivind Aarset - Sonic Codex

Purchase: Neil Larsen - Orbit

Purchase: Maceo Parker - Roots & Grooves


"Quickies" are mini-record reviews of new or upcoming releases. Some albums are just that much more fun to listen to than to write about.