Getting on the Jason Moran Bandwagon, Part III

So just about the time that I was really diggin' Modernistic, all of the best of the year and decade lists were coming out. Included in NPR's All Songs Considered 50 most influential albums of the decade list was Moran's 2001 effort, Black Stars. As one of the few jazz albums to make that list--and given that I was ready for more--it went on the pick-up list immediately. But not long after that list came out, Walter Ray Watson, producer at NPR, suggested that Moran's 2006 Artist in Residence is a "stronger portrait of the artist as a leading voice of the 'oughts.'"

Result--two albums got ordered.

Now the reviews linked to above are more articulate about these albums than I ever will be, but here are a few thoughts, and more importantly, a taste of each.

I am going to start with Artist in Residence because that is the one I listened to first--randomly. However, it is also because this is by far my favorite of his albums and since I was so engaged by it, I took a long time getting to Black Stars. What is so engaging?

First and mainly, it is the absolute wonderful mixed media aspect of the album. Moran samples Adrian Piper's voice (and ideas) on more than one track in different ways, incorporates the sounds of pen(cil?) writing on paper almost as percussion in a contemplative piece, incorporates operatic vocals, uses eclectic percussion sounds and drives all of this with a wonderful jazz sound underneath and at times out front. The trio is as tight and funky as ever on the upbeat pieces with Waits and Mateen driving the rhythm section, joined here and there by Marvin Sewell on guitar, but also sparse and beautiful on the slower pieces. The album runs the gamut of the genre from stride, to ballad, to funk-infused bop, to western swing, to pure open-form jazz--but as seems to be the case with Moran--all wonderfully arranged. There is no doubt that if I had to put one of his albums up for a "decade list" I would agree with Watson that it would be this one.

So many options to offer up to give you a sense, but here is the opening track with Adrian Piper samples, which grabs you from the first and never let's you go, followed by one of those wonderful left-hand driving open-bop pieces and then the contemplative "Cradle Song" employing writing as an instrument.

Break Down (Buy Album)

Refraction 2

Cradle Song

So I finally extracted myself from that album and started listening to Black Stars. Perhaps it was that I had high expectations given both it being the album selected as his best in someway and/or my own exuberance, but I confess my first reactions to this one was a bit of disappointment. However, I think most of it had to do with the fact that this seemed to be the least experimental and most straight-forward jazz album of those I had listened to--within the framework of Moran's music.

Now I have listened quite a bit more and have really come to appreciate the album--particularly the way it moves through different moods and forms, but I suspect it will not receive anywhere the air time of the others I have. For starters, most tracks include either sax or flute, played by legendary Sam Rivers who I don't mean to criticize here--his playing is amazing. It is just that I love the sound the trio generates (or Moran generates on his own) and the quartet piece here don't quite have that feel--they aren't as gutsy. In fact, probably my favorite piece on the album is a trio piece. I am also, I confess, not a huge flute in jazz fan--although "Summit" on this album, with its far east sound, is a lovely piece in the middle of the album.

That said, Moran here again demonstrates he has his feet firmly spread across the whole spectrum of jazz. So here are a couple samples--whose titles I think tell you just about as much as you need to know.

Kinda Dukish (Buy Album)

Skitter In

And so ends this series of posts--until the next album!

Getting on the Jason Moran Bandwagon, Part II

So just about the time I was really getting into Jason Moran's Bandwagon, another friend noted in a post I wrote on jazz resources that she had run into Moran's Modernistic via the New Yorker and it was beautiful. Coincidence? I think not. So that was the next album to try out and it was a great next step as we moved from the more aggressive live sound to a more intimate solo album which contains a number of the pieces off Bandwagon, although in a very different form.

Now to take a slight detour, David Alder (who is someone to follow if you don't) recently started a bit of a debate with his post on Covers vs. Standards when he argued that we shouldn't dismiss jazz players who focus on "covers" which are an important component of both keeping the form alive and of mastering the form. Alder suggests that currently the pendulum of tradition vs. innovation might be swinging too far toward the modern, experimental music--at least in terms of who is getting recognized. It was funny as I read the post because I was thinking how well Moran keeps a foot in each camp and that Modernistic was a perfect example of this.

I am not disagreeing with Alder (although the discussion about artists like Moran not playing standards seemed a miss, at least in Moran's case) but rather to say that his post highlighted something I love about Moran--and noted in the first part: his breadth. But not just that he ranges across genre and style, but that he is so clearly grounded in jazz and plays with both beautiful technique and skill.

Modernistic opens with a wonderful arrangement of Jame P. Johnson's "You've Got to be Modernistic" which shows of Moran's wonderful stride piano work, followed by a beautiful rendering of "Body and Soul"--hello! We then shift into the more funky part of the album, starting with a brilliant version of the 80's Afrika Bambaata's rap tune "Planet Rock." and then back into an introspective section, and so it continues. Originals mixed with "covers," stride to funk, standards to classical, but all tied together in an absolutely beautiful album all laid out on just piano and mini piano.

To give you a sense of the album, which you can pick up straight from Blue Note, here are three tracks. First the opening title track if you will--just because I love when he does the stride thing and this is such a fabulous opening track. Then we skip to later in the album for a pair of tunes that show the other two main styles on the disc. First in "Gangsterism on a Lunchtable" you get an spacey, funky exploration--with the help of some interesting instrumentation that someone will have to explain to me--that is Copeland-esque in both tune and phrasing, but all jazz. This is followed by a beautiful take on Robert Schumann's "Auf Einer Burg/In A Fortress" that makes you realize Moran could be a wholly different type of piano player if he chose to be. In short, it is all good.

You've Got To Be Modernistic

Gangsterism On A Lunchtable

Einer Burg/In A Fortress

This is an album that should be in everyone's collection and made me wonder if Jason Moran might not be the best young pianist and composer out there right now. A question I leave to those with more knowledge and awareness of all that is out there, but it is hard to not see him up there near the top of the list.

Getting on the Jason Moran Bandwagon, Part I

Somewhere about a year ago, a friend from college days noted that he had been listening to Jason Moran and, in fact, had seen him in concert. He said "not to be corny, but it was more like a journey than a concert." Now, this is a person who is a musician, was a composition major in college and, most importantly, was the guy who once gave me a similar description of Keith Jarrett before he dropped The Köln Concert on me. Yeah, so given that track record, who isn't going to go buy a Jason Moran album? But what album I asked. "Well," says musical friend, it "was a piece called Intermezzo off his album Bandwagon" that got him interested.

And so, that is where I began--although I have subsequently picked up several others, so I am going to write about these in the order I experienced them rather than in the order in which they were released.

When I first got the disc and put it in and the intro played followed by the first track "Another One" which is a pretty raucous affair, I had my doubts. Then comes "Intermezzo" which is actually a piece by Brahms--which is beautiful--followed by a whole host of tunes nothing like it. Now granted, I wasn't really attending to the disc as I should have been the first time thourgh, but I was left with the impression that the Brahms piece was the exception and reminded of the fact that my musical friend also loves the modern, dissonant stuff and I feared this was just not going to be my cup o' jazz.

But, I let it sit a couple weeks and then started playing it in places and at times when I could listen more carefully and a very different impression emerged. Here was someone who could range from Brahms to hip-hop oriented tunes, to beautiful delicate jazz ballads, to straight up bop, to swinging jazz standards. And the range and variation somehow manages to work in a way that produces an album that manages to not only hang together but also create, yes, a journey.

This is someone who uses voice and recordings in a way that makes the music rich and textured not gimicky. Moran is someone who not only has wonderful articulation on the right hand as skips across the keys, but who has wonderful left hand work that almost always has a stride feel to it or on more lyrical pieces big deep chords that resonate throughout the whole piece. That left hand rhythm work is aided by two talented musicians, Tarus Mateen on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums, both who drive the upbeat tunes primarily on the low ends of their respective instruments and delicately float through the softer pieces.

Bandwagon is a live affair so it has more pieces that are boppin' than chilled, but the balance is still wonderful. Just to give you a sense of that, here are two samples. I have to give you the Intermezzo, right, which speaks for itself. That is followed (here and on the record) by "Ringing My Telephone (Straight Outta Istanbul)" which exemplifies Moran's great use of voice.

Intermezzo, Op. 18, No. 2

Ringing My Telephone (Straight Outta Istanbul)

There is a whole lot more to say, but since, as I noted above, my experience with this album led to several other Moran albums, I will save some commentary for my discussion of those. If you like this one, you can buy the album here, or an autographed copy here.