Brad Mehldau: Modern Music (2011)

Modern Music, a collaboration between pianists Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli is out this week on Nonesuch Records. The album features pieces written by each of the three musicians as well as works by Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, and Philip Glass, performed by the two pianists in arrangements by Zimmerli.Mehldau and Hays have been friends for some years and both played early in their career with Joshua Redman, a musical friendship Mehldau has rekindled lately on tour and on last year’s album Highway Rider. Zimmerli is a mutual friend and played in the same high school programme as Mehldau back in their Connecticut days, with Zimmerli going on to make a career within the parameters of the contemporary - classical music world. Brought in to the project initially as producer he offered repertoire ideas including settings of Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 Musicians’ and Glass’ ‘String Quartet No 5’, and contributed title track ‘Modern Music’ plus other tunes. Mehldau’s ‘Unrequited’ which appears on the recently released Live In Marciac album is also on Modern Music but Mehldau in publicity material comments that this album was a challenge in that the improvisation was often not in his or Hays’ comfort zone. “On ‘Modern Music’ there’s a part that calls for us to improvise in the right hand while playing something written in the left hand.

Tracklist:
1. Crazy Quilt
2. Unrequited
3. Generatrix
4. Celtic Folk Melody
5. Excerpt from Music for 18 Musicians
6. Lonely Woman
7. Modern Music
8. Elegia
9. Excerpt from String Quartet #5
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Al Foster: Love, Peace & Jazz (2008)

Al Foster is probably best known as Miles Davis' drummer for much of the '70s and '80s, and as a well-regarded sideman for jazz giants including Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson. He's also, somewhat quietly, been leading a first-rate unit of his own for more than a decade, one that has only released two albums, the first in 1997 and the second just out in 2008 on the Italian Jazz Eyes label.

Love, Peace and Jazz! captures Foster, who turns 65 in January, leading a quartet of highly accomplished and much younger players on a live date at New York's Village Vanguard last year. With Foster directing the action from the drum chair, the group delivers a rousing set of the sort of expansive post-bop that's been Foster's bread and butter for the past 40 years. The repertoire is split between Foster originals and tunes associated with some of his past employers, including two from Davis' book—"Blue in Green" and "E.S.P."—and Blue Mitchell's "Fungii Mama," a catchy calypso number that a young Foster first recorded with the trumpeter in 1964.

All the songs are given expanded treatments ranging from eight to fourteen minutes, leaving plenty of room for saxophonist Eli Degibri, a double threat on soprano and tenor, pianist Kevin Hays and bassist Douglas Weiss to showcase their considerable talents. But it's Foster who leaves the most lasting impression, both for his profound knowledge of the jazz idiom and for his generosity as a leader, pushing his junior cohorts to dig deeper and reach further in support of a shared vision.

Tracklist:

1  The Chief (Foster) 10:30
2  ESP (Shorter) 11:31
3  Blue in Green (Davis) 14:10
4  Peter's Mood (Foster) 10:47
5  Brandyn (Foster) 13:40
6  Fungii Mama (Mitchell) 8:27
Love, Peace And Jazz
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Kevin Hays Trio: What Survives (2005)

'What Survives' is a strong entry point, highlighting Hays' abstract yet appealing writing, and a playing style that—like fellow pianist Marc Copland—is filled with impressionistically out-of-the-box yet eminently lyrical musical thinking. It also demonstrates Hays' ability to innovatively adapt classical material that's as reverential yet improvisationally profound as woodwind player Tim Garland's similar work on Acoustic Triangle's recent Resonance (Audio-B, 2005).
The album opens with three Hays originals, ranging from "Stellar, whose dark and introspective solo piano introduction evolves into lithely swinging vehicle for understated interplay between Hays, Weiss and Stewart. The title track revolves around a repeated 11/8 bass figure doubled by Weiss and Hays' left hand—the piano treated to lend it a "buzzing quality. Hays gradually builds a vivid yet economical solo while Stewart plays liberally with time placement. Hays applies a delicate electronic tremolo on the brooding "Black Elk, reminiscent of the subtle processing of Swedish pianist Esbjorn Svensson; but Hays, while equally contemporary, is less pop-inflected.
Four adaptations of classical pieces follow, with "Anniversary Waltz being the most well-known. Hays retains its familiar theme intact over Weiss and Stewart's vivid swing, but reharmonizations lend a more modernistic edge. "J.B. is the clear highlight of the album, demonstrating just how forward-thinking Hays' musical aesthetic is. Based on Brahms' "Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, it opens with reverse-attack processed piano, but ultimately moves into an organic middle section that progressively narrows the 200-year gap between its composition and Hays' performance.
An ambient reading of the classic "You are My Sunshine" ends the disc on an ambiguous note that proves beauty can be found in the most somber of places. The long break between albums may have cost Hays some momentum, but also works to his advantage in allowing him to reinvent himself. What Survives is hopefully just the beginning of a renewed solo career that will finally see the confidence of the jazz community translate into profile with the larger jazz-buying public. --John Kelman, AAJ

Tracklist:

1 Stellar 7:28
2 What Survives 3:46
3 Black Elk 4:38
4 Anniversary Waltz 7:26
5 J.B. 9:52
6 Anton 7:02
7 Du Pre 5:58
8 You Are My Sunshine 6:04

Personnel:

Kevin Hays p
Doug Weiss b
Bill Stewart dr

What Survives
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Kevin Hays Quintet: 7th Sense (1994)

Pianist Kevin Hays’ style mixes together the influences of Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner and he helps define the modern mainstream on this Blue Note disc. The quintet set also features plenty of solo space from vibraphonist Steve Nelson and the excellent tenorman Seamus Blake. Opening with three Hays originals and also including Hindermith’s “Interlude” (which finds the group sounding a little like the Modern Jazz Quartet) and such standards as “My Man’s Gone Now” and “East of the Sun,” the music pays tribute to the past without becoming predictable or overly derivative. It’s a fine release.
Tracklist:1.Take the D Flat Train
2.Seventh Sense
3.Three Pillars
4.My Man’s Gone Now
5.Interlude
6.Space Acres
7.Little B’s Poem
8.East of the Sun
9.Makyo
10.Black Narcissus

Personnel:Kevin Hays (piano),
Seamus Blake (tenor saxophone),
Steve Nelson (vibraphone),
Doug Wiess (bass),
Brian Blade (drums)
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