Review: Radiolarians III

Medeski Martin & Wood
Radiolarians III

I've already explain the background information on the Radiolarians series in my reviews of the first two installments, so I'll get straight to the music.

Each entry in the series has had a different identity than the others. The first contained a hodgepodge of styles separated into individual tracks, while I called the second more of a jamband album. Radiolarians III veers into jamband territory as well, but it feels more like classic Medeski Martin & Wood material. Longtime fans of the group would probably like the third installment the best, as tunes like Walk Back and Chantes Des Femmes sound like quintessential MMW.

Like the first two albums in the series, John Medeski plays a lot more acoustic piano than we are used to hearing him play, and again I am impressed with his style. He plays the piano like a drum, playing rhythmic foil to drummer Billy Martin and Chris Wood. Conceptually, this band is reminiscent of an African drum ensemble, playing intense polyrhythms against each other to create dense clusters of beats. The results are often riveting, as on the Latin tinged Jean's Scene.

Radiolarians III is probably my least favorite of the series, but regardless it has entered the heavy rotation list on my iPod. Even when they are not at the very top of their game, Medeski Martin & Wood fail to disappoint. In the process, they so often fulfill the promise of jazz as outlined by Ralph Ellison, that the music can put themselves directly in the present moment, where they can reflect on the past while also looking forward.


Track Listing: Chantes Des Femmes; Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down; Kota; Undone; Wonton; Walk Back; Jean's Scene; Broken Mirror; Gwyra Mi
Personnel: John Medeski, piano, keyboards; Chris Wood, bass; Billy Martin, drums, percussion

List: Under-the-Radar Live Albums

If you want to really experience jazz, you must see it live. With that in mind, record labels have been churning out live albums at a steady pace for as long as the technology existed to make high-quality recordings of live performances. Below are some of my favorite live albums that you might not have listened to yet.

One quick qualification: I'm going for underrated and lesser-known live albums on this list. Everyone knows about the Coltrane Village Vanguard recordings and Miles at the Plugged Nickel, so why repeat what's already been written? Here is the list, in chronological order...

1. Art Blakey: A Night at Birdland, Volumes 1 and 2 (1954). Come for the early incarnation of the Jazz Messengers, stay for the Clifford Brown. Brownie tore it up on this night in 1954, and his solos on Confirmation, Once in a While, and A Night In Tunisia are among the best he ever put on record. Not the most obscure choice to lead off the list, but it was also one of the first albums I ever bought, so I threw it in.
2. Count Basis: Count Basie at Newport (1957). To quote Ethan Iverson, "My advice is merely: listen to it. You want to know what jazz is? This is fucking jazz." Lester Young and Jo Jones sit in for an extended guest appearance; Illinois Jacquet, Roy Eldridge, and Jimmy Rushing also make guest appearances.
   
3. Miles Davis: At Newport 1958. Miles has many great live albums in his catalog, so it's no surprise this one isn't mentioned more often. However, there aren't many live offerings of Miles with Cannonball and Coltrane, so this one is essential, methinks. Throw in Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb, and you've got a great set. Mr. P.C.'s bass solo on Straight, No Chaser is sublime. Plus, the album cover features Miles in his sartorial splendor.
4. Cannonball Adderley: Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco (1959). Quintessential hard bop from some of the masters. Cannon & Co.'s take on Spontaneous Combustion is some of the best 12 minutes on record.
   
5. Eric Dolphy: Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot, Vol. 1 (1961). Dolphy with Booker Little, Mal Waldron, Richard Davis, and Ed Blackwell, need I say more? More than any other album on this list, I revisit this recording again and again, and each time I am amazed at the unfulfilled potential of Dolphy and Little. Who knows what heights they may have scaled had they not died too young? Volume 2 is also available.
6. Elvin Jones: Live at the Lighthouse, Volumes 1 and 2 (1972). Perhaps if someone had given a copy of these albums to Ken Burns, he would not have alleged that jazz "went away for awhile" during the 1970s.
7. Old and New Dreams: Playing (1980). I was made aware of this one by Destination Out, and I am better off now that I know it exists. Brilliant free jazz from Dewey Redman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell.
8. Keith Jarrett Standards Trio: Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note (1994). Jarrett's trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette have a ton of live recordings out there, but this one is my favorite, taken from a three-night stand at New York's Blue Note in 1994. Bonus quote from Amazon reviewer Stephen A. Smith: "Keith Jarrett's trio is the McDonald's of jazz. Its greatest sales asset is consistency."
9. Pat Metheny: Tokyo Day Trip - Live EP (2008). I've gushed about this one enough already.
   

These are just some of my favorites, feel free to tell me what I missed in the comments.

Extra Credit: See also the recommended recordings on last year's list of top working ensembles.


All images via jazz.com except Live at the Lighthouse via inconstantsol.blogspot.com.

Happy Birthday Wayne

Hiatus

Esperanza Spaulding performs at Newport with Joe Lovano's UsFive (Wiqan Ang via A Blog Supreme)

I'm off on vacation through next Friday. I'll be back with you shortly thereafter. In the meantime, below are this month's links.

• Jazz.com remembers Don Ellis (part 1/part 2).
• Miles Davis skateboards!!1!1
• destination: OUT is rerunning some old favorites this month, be sure to check that out.
• The new Dave Holland site has some free bonus tracks from Pass it On.
• The Newport Jazz Festival was last weekend. NPR's A Blog Supreme has photos (1, 2, 3), as does Nate Chinen. NPR Music has full coverage, plus archived performances, here.
• The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson on his vinyl collection.
• Longtime jazz writer Chris Albertson has a new blog, Stomp Off in C... (h/t jazz.com).
  

I'll see you when I get back.

Rashied Ali

Rashied Ali has died at the age of 74. Ali was a major player in the avant garde scene of the late 1960s, replacing Elvin Jones in the drum chair of John Coltrane's group and also playing with Paul Bley and James "Blood" Ulmer, among others. He had not slowed down in the winter of his years, his trio with alto saxophonist Charles Gayle and bassist William Parker, dubbed By Any Means, played at Newport last weekend.

Hot House readers are recommended, nay required to listen to his work on Coltrane's Interstellar Space. Below is Venus, which Joe Lovano reviewed for Jazz.com recently:

In a way, Rashied Ali was playing more like a soloist along with the soloist, but they were finding all kinds of beautiful unisons within the counterpoint that they were creating with each other.

Image via JazzTimes