Swiss Jazz Minimalism: First There Was Nik, Now There's Mik

A few years back, I posted about a wonderful band I'd come across called Nik Bärtsch's Ronin. Bärtsch is a Swiss pianist and composer who refers to his creations as "ritual groove music"--a type of modern jazz that's heavily infused with minimalism. His past three releases have been on ECM Records, and anyone familiar with that label's output would likely agree that Bärtsch has found a good home there.

While looking through the new releases on eMusic the other night, I ran across something interesting: a group called Mik Keusen's Blau. The name was certainly similar to Bärtsch's group; the artists' first names differ by a single letter, one off in the alphabet; and while the album was released on an indie label, the cover looked very ECM-ish.

A little exploring revealed that the two groups have even more in common than was originally evident: Both Nik and Mik are Swiss pianists and composers; Keusen's music is also best described as minimalist jazz; both composers name their pieces with numbers (though Keusen doesn't call them "moduls" like Bärtsch does); the two groups share a member in the reedman who goes by the, well, minimalist name of Sha; and Ronin's percussionist Andi Pupato collaborated on the mixing and mastering of Blau's first album.

Here's a tune from Blau's second recording, Nalu, released earlier this year:



And here's something from Ronin's newest recording, Llyria:



I've also listened to clips from Sha's first recording as a leader (which includes Keusen on piano and keyboards), and, while there are certainly some similarities there as well, each of the three bands is slightly different. But all three are really good in my book, so it was nice to discover that there was a third member of this loosely-knit "society" who was unfamiliar to me until now.

IN THE COMMENTS: A reader points out that both Nik and Mik have been influenced by another Swiss jazz minimalist, Don Li, whose music is also quite enjoyable (and guess what--he names his tunes with numbers as well!).

ANOTHER UPDATE: Mik linked to this post on his Facebook page. Welcome to any and all who might be visiting from there!

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

Once again, the weekly rundown of (mostly new) stuff that's graced my automotive airwaves this week:

• MONDAY: Marco Benevento, "Between the Needles & Nightfall." Latest release from pianist known for stylistic versatility and his use of "circuit-bent toys."


• TUESDAY: Meadow, "Blissful Ignorance." 2009 release from acclaimed Norwegian/British trio of piano, sax and drums.


• WEDNESDAY: Jacob Karlzon, "Big 5." Quintet effort (of course) from the Swedish pianist whom I only discovered a few days ago.


• THURSDAY: John Escreet, "The Age We Live In." New release from up-and-coming pianist/composer mixes electric/acoustic.


• FRIDAY: Dave Holland Quintet, "Critical Mass." Newest album from the bassist/composer's wonderful fivesome (though he's had sextet and octet releases since then).


• SATURDAY: Freddie Hubbard, "On the Real Side." Final studio album from trumpet giant, accompanied by the New Jazz Composers Octet.


• SUNDAY: The Flashbulb, "Soundtrack to a Vacant Life." Another fine release from multi-instrumentalist Benn Jordan.

As always, come back next Sunday for more!

The Next Esbjörn?

It had been a few months since I'd surfed the new releases section of eMusic; since they'd added a whole bunch of big labels, I figured that the sheer volume of new stuff would be overwhelming and it would take hours upon hours to get through even a single week. But it's summer, and I decided to jump in and see what was new.

As always, a lot of the stuff I discover on eMusic is music from foreign artists who don't get a lot of press over here--bands like Brandt Brauer Frick, Böhm-Halle-Sell and solo artists such as Rainer Tempel come to mind. I'll admit that, sometimes, I'll preview an artist with a Euro-sounding name more readily than, say, a Joe Smith, and a lot of times that pays off.

It was this curiosity that led me to preview a recording by someone named Jacob Karlzon. The album wss called Big 5, and it's a very engaging quintet effort full of compositions that jump right out of the speakers at you, so I snagged it almost immediately. A bit more exploring led me to the pianist's trio work; the title track from the Jacob Karlzon 3's newest recording, The Big Picture can be found here.

Remind you of anybody? Maybe it's the highly melodic, Metheny-ish vibe of the whole thing, or the doubling of the bass with the piano's left hand at certain times, but it sounded to me as if Esbjörn Svensson had more than a little influence on his younger fellow Swede. And look--Karlzon even has a shaved head!



I'm always amazed by the wonderful jazz that's being produced outside of the United States, and I'll do my little bit here (as well as on Twitter and Facebook) to publicize it as best I can. Thanks, eMusic, for making this stuff readily accessible over here.

He Hasn't Recorded in a While, But New Songs are Coming in Droves Groves

My onetime saxophone student Shaun Groves (whose second album was reviewed in the earliest days of this blog) has made a name for himself as a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His forthcoming release, "Third World Symphony," drops in late August and is available for preview on Soundcloud. Check out the whole thing; I really like it.

Kids Play the Darnedest Things

From a lesson earlier today...

ME: OK, I want to start out with some scales. Let's hear your G.
KID: (plays a G and holds it for about 10 beats)
ME: Umm, I did say we were playing scales, not just the G itself.

"One Time, Back at Band Camp..."

As I noted on Facebook, if a trombonist in any big band in which I play were to decide to use one of these things, I would demand that the sax section be moved...preferably to an entirely different big band.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

Once again, a rundown of the weekly car-tunes:

• MONDAY: Stoner Forss Borg, "The Lektor Tapes." Jazz quartet The Stoner and electronic duo Forss, all from Sweden, join forces (Forss-es?) for an enjoyable mix of styles.


• TUESDAY: RTB Crew, "Meet the Beat." Debut release from the group featured in last week's "crazy tuba video."


• WEDNESDAY: David Charrier/Sylvain Paslier, "Keona: the hang cousins' duet." Beautiful music from a most unusual instrument--the hang.


• THURSDAY: The debut CD from James Farm. Great collective comprised of Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland.


• FRIDAY: Forss, "Soulhack." Engaging set of jazz-tinged electronic music from Sweden's Eric Wahlforss. (This is also the "Forss" portion of Stoner Forss Borg from Monday's entry, and the whole CD can be streamed at the link.)


• SATURDAY: Greg Osby, "Nine Levels." 2008 release from innovative altoist, accompanied by a sextet of young up-and-comers.


• SUNDAY: Mats-Up, "5." Swiss trumpeter Matthias Spillmann leads quintet in his original compositions. (Website is in German but will translate pretty well in the Babelfish and similar engines.)

Despite my less-frequent summer driving, I'm still managing to keep up with the different-album-a-day standard. Come back next week for more!

I Can Defiintely Hang with This Sound

Courtesy of my buddy Cameron, here's a video of two guys playing on a type of instrument I'd never heard of before:



The instrument is called a Hang, and you can learn all about it here. Two key facts that really amuse me:

• The one company that manufactures the instrument pretty much only makes them "when they feel like it" at the moment.


• The plural of Hang is Hanghang.

It's a pretty relaxing sound--maybe not long roadtrip music, but definitely something to chill to when you get home at the end of the day.

Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Music History

Moat kids will answer the question below with "Bach and Beethoven," or maybe "Bach and Mozart"--but this kid was a bit off:

ME: OK, name me the first two classical composers you can think of.
KID: Mozart and Shakespeare.

(After much laughter ensued, I had him try again, and his second guess--Mozart and Wolfgang Amadeus--was only a little better. And at least he pronounced "Mozart" correctly; I've even heard some college students say MOE-zart.)

A Celebration of True Teamwork

To say that I'm happy about the Dallas Mavericks' victory in the NBA Finals last night would be an understatement. But I'm happy on so many levels...

It's not just that the team that I've been cheering for since Day 1 won the championship...though that's cool. And it's not just that Dirk will finally get his ring...though that's cool too. What it really comes down to is that this championship was won by a true team that developed over a period of time, rather than the best collection of superstars that (they thought) money could buy.

So congrats to Dirk and company. You've made our city proud!

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

As always, my weekly collection of tunes--many from people you might not have heard of before, and are thus encouraged to check out...

• MONDAY: Imogen Heap, "Ellipse." Most recent full album from English singer/instrumentalist.


• TUESDAY: Justin Vasquez, "Triptych." Debut effort from altoist/UT-Austin grad/Kenny Garrett devotee. (I actually saw Justin trade choruses with Kenny while the former was in college and the latter was the guest artist at the Longhorn Jazz Festival--review here).


• WEDNESDAY: Lars Danielsson, "Mélange Bleu." Norwegian bassist is joined by fellow countrymen Nils Petter Molvaer, Bugge Wesseltoft and others.


• THURSDAY: Loren Stillman Quartet, "How Sweet It Is." Excellent 2003 release from emerging altoist.


• FRIDAY: Joshua Redman, "Elastic." Yeah, it's a rerun, but it's one of my all-time favorites.


• SATURDAY: Josh Moshier & Mike Lebrun, "Joy Not Jaded." Pianist and saxophonist showcase their own compositions.


• SUNDAY: Nikolaj Hess, "Global Motion." Danish pianist/composer leads multi-national group including Americans Jeff Ballard and Ben Monder.

As I said a while back, I don't drive as much during the summer, but it's my goal to have at least five CDs posted every week...but so far, I've hit my goal of every day! Check in again next Sunday for more (and any other day you want for other stuff).

Is Mah Birfday...

...where are caek?. (I love this lolcat picture, and it was even more amusing to me when it was first posted at ICanHasCheezburger.com the day before "mah birfday" in '07.

One thing about being on Facebook is the sheer amount of greetings you tend to receive. It's not quite noon, and I've already gotten wishes from nearly 100 people. Thanks to all who have sent things my way!

This Is Almost Tuba Good to Be True

Amazing video here, courtesy of a tuba-playing fraternity brother:



The group is called RTB Crew, and it consists of Roland Szentpali on the otherworldly tuba playing, along with Aron Romhanyi on the (very Chick Corea-ish) keyboard and DJ Revolution doing the beatboxing.

I was very happy to just discover that this group's album, Meet the Beat, is available on eMusic; I'll be getting it the second my credits refresh this month.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

Once again, here's my weekly roundup o'tunes (I can say it that way because I'm part Irish):

• MONDAY: John Hollenbeck and Jazz Bigband Graz, "Joys & Desires." Austrian big band joins New York-based composer/percussionist in a set of his originals. Noted vocalist Theo Bleckmann is also on board.


• TUESDAY: Boards of Canada, "The Campfire Headphase." 2005 release from Scottish electronic duo (who also happen to be brothers) known for cool videos.


• WEDNESDAY: The Carla Bley Band, "Carla Bley Live." 1981 live set from renowned keyboardist/composer and her band, who received a lot of airplay on my radio show in college.


• THURSDAY: The Eric Daino Ensemble, "Live at Lab East." Brand-new EP from energetic, genre-bending Denton dodectet that includes a number of my Sinfonia brothers.


• FRIDAY: Jon Hassell, "Maarifa Street." Trumpeter presents tunes based on Persian poetry, named after at Iraqi street that he discovered while reading the news.


• SATURDAY: Christoph Merki Music.01, "Circles." Swiss saxophonist/composer mixes jazz with ambient music, featuring some of the best use of marimba that I've seen in a long time.


• SUNDAY: Imogen Heap, "Ellipse." Most recent full album from English singer/instrumentalist whose work I've been exploring extensively for the past several days.

As I said earlier, my driving will lessen a bit during the summer, but I still have errands to run and trips to the college to make, so I'll hopefully be able to post at least five new CDs a week during the next few months.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

With the three-day weekend (and because I had something else to post about yesterday), I've delayed the end-of-week music roundup until today:

• MONDAY: A continuation of last Sunday's CD, Roy Hargrove & Crisol's Habana (it's a long CD that didn't finish on Sunday, and I didn't do much driving either day).


• TUESDAY:Astral Project, Voodoobop. My favorite release from longtime New Orleans collective of Tony Dagradi, Steve Masakowski, David Torkanowsky, James Singleton and Johnny Vidacovich.


• WEDNESDAY: Avishai Cohen, As Is...live at the Blue Note. Great set of mostly originals from Israeli=born bassist and band. (Interestingly enough, there's also an Israeli-born jazz trumpeter of the same name; they're not related to each other, and, to my knowledge, they've never collaborated.)


• THURSDAY: Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel, Riding the Nuclear Tiger. Great set of originals by the bassist/composer. (And here's a first: As some of you know, these notices get tweeted by me every day, and after this one went out, Allison started following me on Twitter that very same day.)


• FRIDAY: Beats Antique, Blind Threshold. Latest full-length release from a band that's perhaps best described as "electronic Gypsy music." (The live performances evidently involve a belly dancer as well, though I obviously couldn't see her on my iPod.)


• SATURDAY: Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Viaticum; Pat Metheny Group, We Live Here; They Might Be Giants, Factory Showroom; Joshua Redman, Elastic; Level 42, Running in the Family and Snarky Puppy, Tell Your Friends. (That day was a round-trip to Austin and back, which explains all the music.)


• SUNDAY: Nils Petter Molvaer, Solid Ether. The second of two ECM releases by the Norwegian techno trumpet titan.

As I said last week, the school year comes to a close for me after a few more days of teaching this week, and my driving is considerably less during the summer. So while I might not have a new CD to report every day, what I do listen to will still be found here each week.

Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Finance

It's not my usual policy, but sometimes I have kids who pay me once a week, in cash. Today's transaction provided much more levity than usual...

KID (handing me a payment): Here ya go.
ME: Woo hoo--lunch money!
KID (ponders that for a second): Lunch money. Man! Sixteen whole dollars. You must make a fortune. Sixteen dollars a day!

I'm pretty sure he seriously thought that was a lot of money. But I did successfully manage to explain to him that I made more than $16 a day (because I teach more people than just him), I told him the total number of people I'd be teaching today. He then proceeded to do the math (on his hand, with a pen), and, after computing the total, came out with this gem: "Oh, man--I'm gonna have a sweet side job when I get older!"

(He also noted that he would do this as far away from here as possible, so he wouldn't have to compete with me. Heh.)

Kids Say the Darnedest Things About Their Relatives

On the last regular Wednesday at the middle school, it was only fitting that a kid would say the darnedest thing. Today, a sixth grader was talking about last night's storms:

KID: I hate driving in weather like that.
ME: No offense, but I don't want to hear about you driving anywhere for about four more years.
KID: Hey--I drive better than my grandma; she runs into poles.

(I'm pretty sure that Grandma only ran into a pole once, but at that age, a kid won't let someone live something like that down.

Playing This Week in the Kevmobile

As always, our weekly musical rundown:

• MONDAY: Fried Dähn, Cuento. Cellist uses electronics to explore different styles and textures, becoming a virtual one-man band in the process.


• TUESDAY: Esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society. Newest release finds the recent Grammy sensation in good voice, playing great bass, and accompanied--as you might guess--by a string ensemble.


• WEDNESDAY: Eric Vloeimans' Gatecrash, Heavensabove! 2010 release from fine Dutch trumpeter and his electric group.


• THURSDAY: Pat Martino and Joyous Lake, Stone Blue. Not only a fine effort from the veteran guitarist and his electric group, but this album also introduced me to the awesomeness that is the tenor sax of Eric Alexander.


• FRIDAY: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Codebook. Altoist (who just happens to be a former schoolmate of mine) leads quartet (featuring his longtime cohort Vijay Iyer) through a set of spirited originals.


• SATURDAY: Rubblebucket Orchestra, Rose's Dream. Now known simply as Rubblebucket, this Boston band mixes Afro-beat with funk, Latin and a heavy jazz vibe.


• SUNDAY: Roy Hargrove's Crisol, Habana. Dallas-bred trumpeter teams up with Cuba's finest (including the great Chucho Valdez) along with David Sanchez, Russell Malone, Gary Bartz and Frank Lacy.

As I start to move into summer mode, I'll be doing less driving, but hopefully, I'll still have at least five entries in this series every week. Stay tuned, and be sure and click the links if you haven't heard of these artists!

You Say "Tomato," I Say "Welcome Back!"

Ever since The Tomato closed the doors of its original Denton location in 2007, there had been much speculation--first on its MySpace page (which seems so ancient now) and then on Facebook--about when and where the reopening would finally take place. And for those of us die-hard fans, there seemed little doubt, no matter how much time had passed, that The Tomato would be reborn again--somehow, somewhere.

It was a bit entertaining for a while to see all the possible future locations--Loop 288, a few blocks off the Square, the proposed second incarnation of New Fry Street--but in the end, all those leads came up dry. And then a few months ago, the announcement was made on their Facebook page: "You say: TOMATO! We say: Sanger, TX....June-ish. Details and pics to follow..." Need I say that I "Liked" that status?

And of course, June-ish turned out to be May-ish; in fact, the grand re-opening took place last Friday--not, I would think, because it was Friday the 13th, but because it would be exactly four years to the day since the original Denton location had shut down to make way for a business development that never got off the ground (grumble, grumble). I couldn't make opening weekend, but I got there as fast as I could, when a friend driving from Oklahoma to DFW Airport today suggested the meet-up. (And had I been able to make it on Friday, it would have been nuts; a friend went on Saturday and said that they told him that they went through 11 batches of dough on the first day, while a typical Friday in Denton would have only required four!)

So it should go without saying that the Sanger Tomato experience will not be exactly the same as the Denton Tomato experience; Bolivar and 3rd will not become Hickory and Fry anytime soon. The location, apparently a former nightclub (which is one thing in common with the original Tomato if true), is a lot smaller, and the building isn't configured for the famous balcony from where so many of us watched the world go by in Denton. The only signage at the moment is a big banner in the front window (though there is a hanging sign from a previous tenant that is, happily, almost tomato-shaped.) There's plenty of nearby street parking that doesn't require feeding a meter. As one college friend pointed out, it would be rough to try and stumble home to your apartment from there (though it appears that lofts have gone in, or are about to do so, across the street). And while my first impression shows Sanger to be a nice, sleepy small town, it's a sleepy small town just the same.

But you know what? None of that really matters in the long run, because the heart of the Tomato experience was always some Really Freakin' Good Pan Pizza and Breadsticks. And I'm happy to say that, after spending my lunch hour(s) there today, that experience has been revived to perfection, as if the hiatus of the past four years was all an illusion.

I've always been a fan of the Tomato Special (nee Gutbuster, from the days when it was a corporate Flying Tomato store), which is pretty much "the works"--pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions, green peppers. I had to confirm with the cashier to be 100% sure, but I even remembered what came in a Slice Special (one slice, breadsticks and drink), and that was my fare of choice today. Sure enough, from the first bite of a breadstick (which was a little bigger than before--no complaints here, mind you!), everything was exactly as I had remembered it.

A few things have been kept from the old location; I smiled when, at meal's end, we deposited our plates and forks in one of the exact same receptacles as before. And I'm pretty sure the wood used to make the counter where silverware and napkins is kept was also salvaged from Denton as well, and some of the wall hangings looked very familiar.

So while Sanger is not Denton, it's not all that far, and it wasn't even a bad drive for me from Garland (I made it in an hour). There's a chance that there will be a Denton location again in the future, but the owners and financial backers were ready to go, so they jumped on a good opportunity when they saw one. It's hard to believe that it's been four years, which means that a whole generation of UNT students has gone by (OK, not the music majors; they'll be there for a fifth year just like I was) without experiencing some Tomato-y goodness, and this has to change. Local alumni: Make the drive north; it's worth it. And current students, come see what all the fuss is about; I think you'll agree that it's some really good eatin'.

Me, I have a birthday in three weeks. I'll be back then, if not sooner.

Kids Say The Darnedest Things at High School Auditions

Week in and week out, kids say the darnedest things. This one was surprised to find out he had to play his Db scale for auditions, and we were discussing how to deal with it:

ME: You'll probably want to think of this as your C# scale, rather than Db--all seven sharps instead of five flats.
KID: But will they know I'm playing C# instead of Db?

Some of my Facebook friends noted that there is a slight difference in pitch between C# and Db (the former is a bit higher), but my response was that they're not going quite so deeply into physics in high school auditions.