Tuesday, May 03, 2016

NEW MUSIC: MILES DAVIS / JOHN COLTRANE – COPENHAGEN, MARCH 24, 1960; CUONG VU TRIO MEETS PAT METHENY; JOE BAER MAGNANT GROUP – LIMINAL SPACES

MILES DAVIS / JOHN COLTRANE – COPENHAGEN, MARCH 24, 1960

Great live material from one of the most important pairings in modern jazz – recorded during the last months that John Coltrane was working with the Miles Davis Quintet! Davis and Coltrane are working here on a live date from Copenhagen in March of 1960 – playing on 3 long tunes that really let both players open up and unfold in their own unique solo explorations. Titles are all familiar ones from the Davis book – "So What", "All Blues", and "On Green Dolphin Street" – but the extended renditions offer more than a few surprises that make them well worth having. (Limited numbered edition and 180 gramn clear vinyl  pressing)  ~ Dusty Groove

CUONG VUTRIO / PAT METHENY - CUONG VU TRIO MEETS PAT METHENY

Cuong Vu joins guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pat Metheny with a trio led by longtime Pat Metheny Group trumpeter Cuong Vu. The album comprises five tunes written by Vu plus one by Metheny and one by Andrew D'Angelo. The Cuong Vu Trio includes Stomu Takeishi on bass and Ted Poor on drums. Metheny says of his record with the Trio, "This project is something that Cuong and I have talked about doing for years. For as much as I loved what Cuong has brought to my bands along the way, I always wondered what it would be like to join his group for a project, to see what I might be able to offer those guys. Cuong came up with a great set of tunes for the project, and we all met in NYC for a few days and recorded this music quite quickly and spontaneously." Vu, who first heard a cassette of Metheny's Travels as a teenager and credits it for leading him into a career in music, adds: "Pat came to the session and killed it, taking us to different territories. We (the Trio) assimilated his sound into ours and made music that still felt uniquely ours." The trumpeter has played with a wide range of artists, including Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Cibo Matto, and Mitchell Froom. 

JOE BAER MAGNANT GROUP – LIMINAL SPACES

There's nothing liminal about the sound of the Joe Baer Magnant Group – as these guys have found a very special space of their own – which they occupy beautifully in a haunting blend of guitar and Fender Rhodes! The two instruments are used spatially, and chromatically – in ways that are different than any sort of funky combination of the two – instead with this really strong sense of tone that takes us back to the important Gary Burton albums on RCA – even though there's no vibes at all on these sides. Instead, Magnant's guitar opens with these wonderful harmonic lines, which are echoed by the Fender Rhodes of Tony Capriccio – and given subtle rhythmic support by Chris Lujan on bass and Michael Reed on drums – as they allow the songs to unfold with both soul and grace. The record features a great reworking of Stanley Cowell's "Equipoise", which seems especially well-suited to the approach – as does their take on Satie's "Trois Gnoissiennes" – and other titles include a version of Mulatu's "Tezeta", plus "Coagulate", "Liminal Spaces", and "Poinciana".  ~ Dusty Groove



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