Miroslav Vitouš
Music of Weather Report (ECM, 2016)
The attractions of fusion have long eluded me. It was only recently, while watching Jaco, the biographical documentary film about Jaco Pastorius, one of the Weather Report’s many bassists, that I recovered the repressed memory of seeing the band perform live. I was 18. I was in the Navy. Buying a ticket to see a large ensemble of jazz virtuosi who didn’t get along, pretending at rock, was easily preferable to the tribal chaos of the barracks.
This terrific new recording by the group’s founding bassist makes me wish that I had seen the group during Vitouš’ tenure. These compositions by Vitouš, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, and Alphonso Johnson—who replaced Vitouš when he quit, over Zawinul’s insistence that the group record and perform funk—are arranged for typical small-ensemble close-quarters ECM instrumental whisper-shout arrangements. They are much more successful as creative conversations than they ever were as stage spectacles. And it must be said that this is really joyous music. Vitouš plays an upright bass, mostly by bow. Its sound is miked and manipulated by pedals and keyboard effects. Listen to him doing all of that while trying to imagine how he can even stand still making this music.
Pat Metheny
The Unity Sessions (Nonesuch, 2016)
With his early, exploratory recordings and appearances on sundry rock and pop records, guitarist extraordinaire Pat Metheny is probably the strongest living argument in favor of fusion. But that’s only because he tends to be the strongest living argument in favor of whatever he is playing on any given day. Metheny recorded with Jaco Pastorius before the bassist’s genius was acknowledged. In 1985, he recorded Song X with Ornette Coleman, Jack DeJohnette, and Charlie Haden and reminded the world of the genius lying latent among that group. Metheny has played on countless records that would likely not be remembered otherwise. Once the proverbial columns crumble and the dust settles, Metheny may prove to be this epoch’s Johann Sebastian Bach or Antonio Vivaldi or Sergei Rachmaninoff—our great performing composer. We could do worse.
This is the third recording by Metheny’s terrifically tight Unity Band—his first ensemble in more than 40 years to employ a tenor saxophone (played by Chris Potter, who also plays a bunch of other reeds and strings). The Unity Sessions was recorded live, without an audience, at New York’s Black Box. The set list contains cuts from the ensemble’s self-titled debut and the follow-up, Kin, along with choice picks from Metheny’s deep catalog. Particularly precious and welcome—whether or not you’re a guitar dweeb—are the handful of acoustic solo tracks.
Matt Wilson’s Big Happy Family
Beginning of a Memory (Palmetto, 2016)
Felicia Wilson, the late wife of drummer and bandleader Matt Wilson, was a violinist. She died in 2014 following a protracted battle with leukemia. There is no question that the dozen players Wilson brought together for this record held his wife in high esteem. The collective energy is wonderfully positive, and the individual performances—both improvised and charted for big band—are inspired. Particularly fine is a hushed treatment of the Carter Family’s “Wildwood Flower,” folded into the medley “Flowers for Felicia.” And flush with brass and reeds, the Big Happy Family gives Wilson’s raucous “Schoolboy Thug” (perhaps his greatest hit) a swinging Henry Mancini vibe to cue up a most excellent and fuzzy electric bass solo by Chris Lightcap. Let each of us strive to be worthy of such demonstrably fond regard.
Joseph Bertolozzi
Tower Music (innova, 2016)
It’s kind of a gimmick, but it works. Percussionist, keyboardist, and composer Joseph Bertolozzi was granted permission to explore and bang on the Eiffel Tower with a crew of sound recordists. He struck tower components ranging from the massive corner columns to wrought-iron railings to tinny, lightweight ventilation louvers. He used drumsticks, metal hammers, soft mallets and, most impressive, a self-fashioned battering ram consisting of a short log suspended by straps. The range of sounds is impressive, and the bellish tones are quite lovely. The way Bertolozzi has looped and organized the captured sounds to turn them into music is a hoot—somewhere between Steve Reich and the Chemical Brothers. The result is surprisingly satisfying.
Shelf Life explores new and timely entries from the Knox County Public Library’s collection of movies and music.
Chris Barrett's Shelf Life alerts readers to new arrivals at the Lawson McGhee Library's stellar Sights and Sounds collection, along with recommendations and reminders of staples worthy of revisiting. He is a former Metro Pulse staff writer who’s now a senior assistant at the Knox County Public Library.
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