MICHAL URBANIAK — Urbaniak (1977-2008) Two Version | FLAC (image+.tracks+.cue), lossless

Polish violinist Michal Urbaniak was already well known in Europe, and somewhat famous in America, with five previous overtly commercial efforts for the Columbia and Arista labels. This album for Inner City Records showcases a much more substantive, energetic, and contemporary type of jazz music perfectly suited for the fusion-oriented '70s. With wife Urszula Dudziak singing and Zbigniew Namyslowski playing alto sax in a David Sanborn-type dialect, these three form a hummable, tuneful front line whose symmetry and sonic footprint are hard to resist. Aside from the lead performers, fans of Kenny Kirkland should take note of his presence on this album, one of his earliest works. Kirkland plays brilliantly here on Fender Rhodes electric piano, Polymoog, and miniMoog synthesizers, buoying and supporting the others in bright dimensions and shimmering tones. Though adept at the straight-ahead mainstream style, R&B-oriented jazz-rock fusion is at the equally delightful and danceable core of Urbaniak's music. The band sets the tone with the opener, "Tie Breaker," a track with active, quickly ground strokes featuring Urbaniak on the lyricon opposite Namyslowski's alto and Kirkland's busy keyboards in a tribute to the first and greatest Polish men's tennis professional, Wojtek Fibak. Dudziak, a unique-unto-herself scat singer only rivaled by Flora Purim, raises the bar even higher on "Strife," as Urbaniak's violin solo reaches for heights beyond the stratosphere. The inevitable comparisons to peer Jean-Luc Ponty rate Urbaniak favorably, as creeping bass and marching drums set up his soaring strings during "Mountaineers." Namyslowski composed most of the tracks here, with his impressive piece "Stray Sheep" strong in rhythmic content within the funky beat, but multifaceted, always changing from within, and adding a bit of Polish folk flavoring. On the other side, "Jasmine Lady" is a tiptoed walk through imagery of delicacy. The resonant Fender Rhodes work of Kirkland is ripe for the times, perfectly complementing the bandmembers by matching their dynamics beautifully with every step, never looking back, and always forging ahead. Approaching age 35 at the time of this recording, Urbaniak was no spring chicken, and had firmly established his vision and voicings. So it should come to no one's surprise how focused and concentrated this music is, not to mention that after several decades, it does not sound dated. Kudos to the Inner City label for issuing this fine effort -- highly recommended without reservation -- on CD so that listeners may relish in its exuberant qualities. Michael G. Nastos 
Tracklist:
1. Tie Breaker 7:03
2. Strife 6:13
3. Mountaineers 4:00
4. Weird Creatures 7:03
5. Jasmine Lady 8:22
6. Always Ready 7:08
7. Stray Sheep 5:08
Credits:
Alto Saxophone, Flute – Zbigniew Namysłowski
Bass – Tony Bunn
Drums – Lurenda Featherstone
Piano, Synthesizer – Kenny Kirkland
Violin, Lyricon, Producer – Michal Urbaniak
Voice, Percussion – Urszula Dudziak

BUN-CHING LAM — ... Like Water (1997) Tzadik Composer Series | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Like Water is a fitting title for a composition that is, overall, very soft and quiet without being inorganically sparse. Bun-Ching Lam kept three Chinese sayings in mind while composing: "Years flow by like water," "Relations between gentlemen are plain like water," and "Love tender like water." Through the exquisite musicianship of the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, Lam slowly unwraps her water emotive vignettes. An overall balance is realized as percussive melodic bursts and dramatic runs provide intermittent release after sections of patience and musical tension, and refocus attention after the more delicate stretches. With this release, Tzadik presents a strong, understated modern composition of mature beauty. Joslyn Layne
Tracklist :
1-7.    I    
8-14.    II    
15.    Vibraphone Solo    2:49
16.    Epilogue    1:06
Credits : 
Composed By, Producer – Bun-Ching Lam
Ensemble – Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio
Percussion, Producer [Line Producer] – William Winant
Piano –Piano – Julie Steinberg
Viola, Violin – David Abel
Design – Kimsu Theiler

DAVE HOLLAND · ZAKIR HUSSEIN · CHRIS POTTER — Good Hope (2009) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Under the collective group name of Crosscurrents Trio, Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain and Chris Potter release Good Hope, a monumental and exceptional album that will inspire and excite a global audience for its formidable display of virtuosity, brilliance and sophisticated musical language. 

Good Hope is an album masterfully crafted by three giants of American and Indian music: an international supergroup of musicians who individually have played vital roles in pioneering advances in Jazz, developing and nurturing the cultural and musical connections between East and West. Three of the best in the world on their respective instruments. Three of the most sophisticated and masterful arrangers and composers.

Emanating from an original impulse by Zakir Hussain to form a large group project known as “Crosscurrents”, the trio is built on a shared love and mutual respect for each others’ playing and the subtle integration of different worlds and different approaches to music making into a coherent and beautiful whole.

Zakir Hussain is a true master of the Indian Classical tradition – his hypnotic, percussive tabla playing instantly recognisable. Refusing to be confined to the music of his homeland, throughout the years he has embarked on a multitude of creative collaborations that transcend boundaries including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar, Planet Drum with Mickey Hart (of the Grateful Dead), Tabla Beat Science, and Sangam with Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland. Playing with Dave and Chris is an effortless and engaging experience, as he explains…

Dave Holland, one of the greatest and best known international jazz players since he was chosen by Miles Davis, has never stood still – his career defined by a lifetime’s urgent quest for new beauty, for new tests of his extraordinary technique and musical ability, for new partnerships with the brightest and the best. His questing nature has led to many fascinating fusions, all of them organic outcrops of his own musical nature. With Crosscurrents he has found another grouping in which his improvisatory instincts and beautiful tone can flourish. 

Chris Potter, who released his recent acclaimed album Circuits on Edition Records earlier in 2019, is a generation behind Zakir and Dave but his musical language, his inspired creative intensity and command of his instrument is on a par with his fellow bandmates. Adept in almost any style, tempo, harmonic or rhythmic position, Potter’s voice is unmistakable, powerful and awe-inspiring. His breadth of ideas and creativity is endless and spontaneous, and is executed with generosity, respect, and maturity. Despite being almost two decades younger than Holland and Hussain, Potter is fast progressing towards legendary status as one of the greatest saxophonists of his or any generation. For Potter, working with this band was enlightening: “For many years Zakir Hussain had been on my short list of people I really wanted to work with, so when I got the call a couple years ago to be a part of a project he was putting together at SFJazz in San Francisco, which also included my great mentor and friend Dave Holland, I was absolutely thrilled. We did a few tours with this larger ensemble, which included some other amazing Indian musicians: Shankar Mahadevan on vocals, Louiz Banks on piano, his son Gino Banks on drums, and Sanjay Divecha on guitar. The trio came about as a result of this larger formation, we toured as a trio in the summer of 2018 and decided to record in September. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the trio setting since Zakir and Dave are two of the most amazing maestros on the planet, also it is a very exposed role for the saxophone, and playing with only tablas and bass is rather unfamiliar sonic territory. However the chemistry immediately felt great, and the problems of reconciling the musical differences between the jazz language and the Indian classical language immediately melted away playing with musicians who listen so well. It’s been a huge joy for me to be part of this project, and reaffirms my belief in the power of music as a beautiful way of bringing together people from different backgrounds and traditions”.

Good Hope is an album built on mutual respect, a shared love of the music and dedicated to musical and cultural integration: unity in diversity. Good Hope is a vital contribution to the art of musicianship and collaboration. It’s brilliance, musical vision and execution is world-class. Good Hope is an album that inspires embracing diversity for future generations. editionrecords.com
Tracklist :
1.        Ziandi 7:23
Composed By – Chris Potter
2.        J Bhai 8:18
Composed By – Zakir Hussain
3.        Lucky Seven 10:46
Composed By – Dave Holland
4.        Suvarna 8:01
Composed By – Zakir Hussain
5.        Island Feeling 7:02
Composed By – Chris Potter 
6.        Bedouin Trail 7:42
Composed By – Dave Holland
7.        Good Hope 8:20
Composed By – Chris Potter 
8.        Mazad 8:29
Composed By – Dave Holland
Credits : 
Double Bass – Dave Holland
Ensemble – Crosscurrents Trio
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Chris Potter 
Tabla, Kanjira, Percussion [Chanda], Madal – Zakir Hussain 

MEDIÆVAL BÆBES — Illumination (2009) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The Mediæval Bæbes, with their original melodies, harmony singing, and set of often electronic instruments, clearly use medieval music as a point of departure for new, creative activity rather than as a thing to be reconstructed and understood on its own terms. Illumination, the seventh studio album from England's Mediæval Bæbes, is perhaps the richest one the group has done sonically, with the strongest influence of pop production. Various Bæbes take lead vocals here, but the production makes them sound similar. This said and understood, they continue to get quite deeply into their source material and make varied new products from it, which is why they've transcended their initial novelty status and are well into their second decade of music-making, with a solid fan base especially in the British Isles. On Illumination, consider The Blacksmiths (track 3), an alliterative dialect poem of the early 15th century that is either celebrating or complaining about the noises of a blacksmith's shop. Probably it's little known outside scholarly circles, or has been little known until now. The Bæbes' setting runs through three separate sections, the first lightly accompanied with handclaps, the second turning the word "blacksmiths" into an anthemic line backed by full pop instrumentation, and a third building up to the conclusion from a single solo voice. This is original stuff, owing little to cinematic conventions of medieval representation or to the jolly medieval tunes with which cell phones come preprogrammed. The title Illumination might suggest a religious theme, but in fact the mix of texts is similar to those on other Bæbes albums, running from medieval Latin sacred poetry through various periods (notable here is the concluding setting of John Keats' La Belle Dame sans Merci) and up to original compositions like the opening Desert Rose, with mostly secular themes. This is one of several tracks on the album that have Middle Eastern flavorings that borrow from the world music moves of recent pop dance music; these are perhaps less convincing than those that use the standard Bæbes technique of taking medieval material and applying wild pop imagination to it. This album may be a bit of a stretch even for confirmed Mediæval Bæbes fans, but it is, as usual, worth hearing. James Manheim
Tracklist :
1.    Desert Rose    3:48
2.    Suscipe Flos Florem    3:38
3.    The Blacksmiths 3:23
Guest – Faun
4.    To The One    3:08
5.    Miracle    4:19
6.    I Sing Of A Maiden    2:34
7.    The Undivided    2:34
8.    Ecce Chorus Virginum
9.    Mad Song    4:08
10.    My Lady Sleeps    2:59
11.    Yonder Lea 3:07
Guest – Faun
12.    Till 'A The Seas Gang Dry    3:51
13.    Sunrise 3:22
Guest – Faun
14.    La Belle Dame Sans Merci    3:50

STEVE REICH : Different Trains · Electric Counterpoint (Kronos Quartet · Pat Metheny) (1989) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This late-'80s work finds the minimalist composer mixing acoustic and taped material to great effect. The disc's centerpiece is "Different Trains," a work that frames Reich's impressions of his boyhood train trips between his mother in Los Angeles and his father in New York; Reich also intersperses references to the much more harrowing train rides Jews were forced to take to Nazi concentration camps. Using the fine playing of the Kronos Quartet as a base, Reich layers the work with the taped train musings of his governess, a retired Pullman porter, and various Holocaust survivors -- vintage train sounds from the '30s and '40s add to the riveting arrangement. And for some nice contrast, Reich recruits guitarist Pat Metheny to create a similarly momentous piece in "Electric Counterpoint" (Metheny plays live over a multi-tracked tape of ten guitars and two electric basses). Two fine works by Reich in his prime. Stephen Cook
STEVE REICH (1900-1959)
Different Trains    
1.    Kronos Quartet–    America – Before The War    8:59
2.    Kronos Quartet–    Europe – During The War    7:31
3.    Kronos Quartet–    After The War    10:20
Electric Counterpoint    
4.    Pat Metheny–    Fast    6:51
5.    Pat Metheny–    Slow    3:21
6.    Pat Metheny–    Fast    4:29
Credits : 
Cello [Kronos Quartet] – Joan Jeanrenaud (tracks: 1 to 3)
Viola [Kronos Quartet] – Hank Dutt (tracks: 1 to 3)
Violin [Kronos Quartet] – David Harrington (tracks: 1 to 3), John Sherba (tracks: 1 to 3)
Guitar – Pat Metheny (tracks: 4 to 6)
Cover [Cover Photography], Photography By [Cover Photography] – Karl Steinbrenner
Notas
"Different trains" recorded August 31 - September 9, 1988 at Russian Hill Recording, San Francisco.
"Electric counterpoint" recorded September 26 - October 1, 1987 at Power Station, New York City.