Trancing and Dancing with Club d’Elf

Club d’Elf (some core members): Mister Rourke, Dean Johnston, Mike Rivard,
Paul Schultheis, Brahim Fribgane. Photo by Mark Wilson.

The bio of bassist/composer Mike Rivard, the head elf of the band Club d’Elf, claims that he is “perhaps the only musician to have performed with big band legend Cab Calloway, Frank Zappa discovery Wild Man Fisher, Gnawa master Hassan Hakmoun and two members of the Velvet Underground (though sadly, not all at the same time)” [my emphasis]. With Club d’Elf, though, Rivard performs with musicians from a similarly wide range of backgrounds—from traditional Moroccan music to ’60s rock, jazz to country to Hindustani music—all at the same time, playing originals, Gnawa and Sufi classics, and covers of folks such as Zappa and Zawinul/Davis. The result is transformational music that can lighten your load.

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In Common III Delivers Uncommonly Good Jazz

In Common III crew: Kris Davis, Terri Lyne Carrington, Matthew Stevens, Walter Smith III, Dave Holland

With a rhythm section of Kris Davis (piano), Dave Holland (bass), and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums), chances are good that the music will be satisfying. Top that off with the playing and composition skills of the two leaders of the In Common quintet, saxophonist Walter Smith III and guitarist Matthew Stevens, and you’ve got something a lot more than good.

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R.I.P., Ron Miles

Ron Miles. Photo by Thomas J. Krebs.

My heart broke today when I learned of the passing of trumpeter and composer Ron Miles, one of the great souls of American jazz and one of the sweetest personalities you might ever encounter.

I cannot remember when I first heard him, but I know it was ear opening.

What I do remember is the purity of his sound, and the deep well from which it came. Tender and firm, sweet and strong, and always looking for the light. Like his frequent collaborator guitarist Bill Frisell, he made everything sound better.

I highly recommend his album I Am a Man (reviewed here), and just about everything else he ever recorded.

The following track comes from the album Bardo Tank, which I stumbled on today for the first time and which seems eminently suitable today.

Thank you, Ron. Requiescet in pace.

© 2022 Mel Minter

Marta Sanchez Offers a Musical Portrait of Her Inner Landscape

Marta Sanchez. Photo by Kimberly M Wang.

Pianist/composer Marta Sanchez turned pandemic lockdowns into deep self-encounters whose complex, emotional, and bittersweet reckonings she offers up in her latest release, SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum).

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Soul-Sustaining Music from Javon Jackson

Javon Jackson and Nikki Giovanni. Photo by Shaban R. Athuman.

In his capacity as a faculty member of The Hartt School and director of its Jackie McClean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford, saxophonist Javon Jackson invited activist, educator, and poet Nikki Giovanni to speak to students in February 2020. When she’d finished her talk, she heard Steal Away, the Hank Jones/Charlie Haden album of hymns and spirituals, one of this household’s favorites, playing in the auditorium. She wanted to hear more of it, which gave Jackson the idea to do an album of hymns and spirituals. He asked Giovanni to select 10 tunes, and she sent him the selections a few days later. The result is The Gospel according to Nikki Giovanni, whose healing powers testify to the songs’ enduring capacity to refresh the soul.

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