Wolfert Brederode, Swallow, ECM ****

The best part of the day is the night. When I get home, everything's alright. The lyric above, nothing else, invaded playing 'Swallow' as dusk approaches in terms of some kind of personal listening meaningfulness even when transplanted from a …

Published: 30 Aug 2022. Updated: 19 months.

The best part of the day is the night. When I get home, everything's alright.

The lyric above, nothing else, invaded playing 'Swallow' as dusk approaches in terms of some kind of personal listening meaningfulness even when transplanted from a completely different and irrelevant idiom.

The stately instrumental cloaked in a very unforced plangent grandeur given its deep concert hall-like seriousness is new in our 1 luv track of the day spot and it is here because of its orchestrated poise and sense of authority. Certainly there is some sublime chamber music resonance that contains a faint jazz inflection from Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode and drawn from late-September's suite Ruins and Remains. A string quartet and percussion in tow Brederode is with percussionist Joost Lijbaart and the Matangi Quartet. The Manfred Eicher produced recording was made in Bremen last summer.

It's been far too long since we last heard from Brederode and this makes the reacquaintance a rekindling of the pleasure we first knew on singer Susanne Abbuehl's beautiful album The Gift (2013) on which Brederode played a significant role.

Listening it's natural to weave musical images of Brad Mehldau or Michel Reis in the mind's eye. What's here is certainly of their high standard in terms of poise and aestheticism. Lightly couched in a post Bill Evans sense of impressionism this is a track that sees dazzling pianism framed inside a transcendental dream consciousness given birth to by the tragedy of first world war conflict that inspired the overall composition in the first place. Wolfert Brederode, photo: press

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JD Allen, Americana Vol 2, Savant *****

For spirituals, the blues and the art of the saxophone in a small group rolling at times like Sonny Rollins what more could you want? Long time JD Allen followers will know after a few listens or pretty much immediately that Americana Vol 2 is far …

Published: 30 Aug 2022. Updated: 19 months.

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For spirituals, the blues and the art of the saxophone in a small group rolling at times like Sonny Rollins what more could you want?

Long time JD Allen followers will know after a few listens or pretty much immediately that Americana Vol 2 is far better than Queen City not that that record was at all shabby because among other reasons of the stop the traffic instrumental treatment on the new 'un of the Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker song of disappointed love 'You Don't Know Me' the title track synonymous with Ray Charles and which works so well.

As noted on marlbank a few weeks ago the JD Allen approach is to converse with the double bass of Gregg August most here and in lapidary lines with guitar boffin Charlie Hunter. And the approach is compelling.

Critics might cavil at the relatively limited palette of the format and that is a reasonable point. But the rebuttal is found in the sequencing and the way the album becomes bluesier the more you journey with it. Bookended by 'Up South' and 'Down South', overall the message music is however quietly stated devastatingly-political aimed through a humane lens the end result a transcendence above the impossibility of this often unjust world.

The best bits are often outrageously slow and laidback while 'Irene' (Mother)' coming before the end is different and so conversational. JD, August, Hunter and the great drummer Rudy Royston (often quite Rod Youngs-like especially on 'Up South') know how to carve out firm roles for themselves and send a message to you that you can immediately absorb.

'The Battle of Blair Mountain' which references a huge labour uprising in Logan County, West Virginia during the early 20th century ''coal wars'' is a scintillating highlight where the fabric of the structures is newly dug out by Hunter. Royston's deft drum rolls provide a serious moment at the beginning of 'A Mouthful of Forevers' underpinned by August's arco line and JD's most serious statement of the whole album.

Royston is the bridge to Bill Frisell's Americana explorations in the same idiom whether overt or not which this album is in solidarity with but stands apart from authorial Friselliana given Allen's own unique vision as a leader. Often moving and deep there is lots of joyful, virtuosic playing too and in this you would be hard pressed to find a better tenor saxophonist anywhere these days - old news but worth repeating - than Allen who refuses to spray the record with superfluous notes, only what are needed.

There isn't time to go into all the tracks. JD is Rollins-like frequently but without any direct Caribbean motific quoting or gracenotes in his sound more in terms of statesman-like composure. But also like Rollins when he keeps it simple there is a lot of resource even when everything seems stripped down. Certainly all in all JD's best album since his classic Bloom (2014).

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