Playlist in times of isolation №2
Katherine Zyabluk
author, musician
There are so many unpredictable challenges in times of isolation — mainly when we try to deal with ourself. All the things are done, there is nothing special to do, an instinctive-emotional randomizer is extremely prepared, so it would be easy to look for good healing music due to it.
Grover Washington Jr. — Mister Magic
When someone talks about the anthology of jazz-funk, it often comes to Grover Washington Jr and his album Mister Magic. His manner, pretty sweet and erotic, perfectly fits this genre. By the way, such kind of sound is typical for David Sanborn, George Benson, Bill Withers and the outstanding fusion band Spyro Gyra.
Some pieces of the album have been written by Bob James, appearing a lot in really important records in music history (instead of Sanborn, he collaborated with Paul Desmond, Chet Baker or Gary Burton) and periodically contributing jazz-funk standards to the well-known Real Book.
So, including all this facts, it can be assumed that the melodies from Mister Magic would stick inside the listener’s mind immediately — everything due to great experience of musicians in producing true hits.
Charles Lloyd — Canto
When you listen to the album Canto by Charles Lloyd, it transforms into a wide and fragile canvas with sounds, which is better to listen entirely. Actually, it works with all his albums from ECM period after the 90ths.
To hear in this record a pianist Bobo Stenson and a drummer Billy Hart, who can be called the brightest carriers of a “cool” sound, is a true pleasure.
Canto balances between the quiet sermon of an ascetic monk and of Coltrane’s melodies of his last years, especially as in his interpretations of Billy Eckstine’s tunes. However, these two dissimilar associations have a lot in common — a lucid nostalgia, inner calmness and integrity, which are the noble traits everybody strives for. Assuming this, the music of Charles Lloyd can be a great prophylaxis for our mind and soul.
Bennie Maupin — The Jewel In The Lotus
It’s a rare occasion to hear such kind of jazz beau monde in one recording. Especially on the record of comparatively less-known saxophonist Bennie Maupin. Here are Herbie Hancock, Buster Williams, Billie Hart, Freddie Waits (who played with Kenny Barron, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, in addition — at the Pharoah’s Karma).
It’s a funny thing that there are two drummers on the record — one for the right channel and another for the left. The album seems quite experimental and eclectic in general, so it’s hard to define only one approach of playing. It is an avant gard, a bit Mingus-ish, modal jazz as a basis, a pinch of folk and free. Ultimately, that trick with a couple of drums can be evaluated depending on your perception. The whole album lines up in a beautiful fable, and the first three compositions you can even listen on the repeat. Quite possibly you would return to the album very soon.
DVA — Fonók
A cozy and beloved band for everybody, who has ever played such computer games as Botanicula and Cuchel. Fonók is a first album of a Czech alternative group called DVA. Listening to them is like bringing your musical taste out of the comfort zone. An incredible amount of different styles, sounds, textures, howlings and rustlings, which possibly have been recorded on the pocket microphone. Wild mixture of everything, stylish and able to make you happy in every kind of situation.
Gustavo Santaolalla — Ronroco
This name and the title slightly prompts what could be inside. It’s a traditional Argentinian music, and ronroco is a small string instrument, which Santaolalla plays.
Gustavo Santaolalla is a composer, who is known and important for South-American cinematography. Through years he has been collaborating with Alejandro Inarritu (Birdman, Biutiful, The Revenant) and supporting young directors from Argentina. It is no accident, as Santaolalla reveals the true Argentinian melodics, can play folk instruments, knows how to combine them with other styles and not to deprive his characteristic sound.
Anna Tchaykovska — Синєє Озеро
I reminisce the festival Koktebel Jazz (before 2013) every time I hear Anna Tchaykovska. She used to appear there occasionally with the Kharkiv-based band Acoustic Quartet.
She has recorded her recent album with a double bassist Vladimir Volkov and a trumpeter Vyacheslav Hayvoronski. Anna’s vision of Ukrainian folk inspires, because there are so much love and respect for her cultural roots in everything she sings. Every note and melody reminds a monologue from a drama, on the other hand the authenticity and the mood of the culture were properly kept. And the most important thing is how she hones into a nation core just with a couple of instruments.
Kurt Elling — Song of the Rio Grando (for Oscar and Valeria Martínez Ramírez)
As a little surprise — a video by Kurt Elling performing the song by Danilo Perez. Elling experiences a contemplative and nostalgic mood, while Perez creates a picture of an old piano, making the sounds of the melodies “as once upon a time”.