CRISS 1421 CD
Misha Tsiganov - Painter Of
Dreams |
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“Every
record is a bit different,” Misha Tsiganov
noted at the end of the liner notes for Misha’s
Wishes, his fourth Criss Cross album (Criss 1409),
on which, for the first time on Criss Cross, he played primarily his
original compositions and plugged in on the Fender Rhodes.
Like its predecessor,
Painter Of Dreams features two highly reworked
standards along with six recent melody-forward compositions, to which
Tsiganov applies his signature blend of radical reharmonization, mixed
meters, shifting tempos, and changing keys. Otherwise, this ambitious
recital documents several “firsts.” For one thing, Tsiganov expands
beyond the saxophone-trumpet- piano-bass-drums format, scoring five of the
eight selections for either three or four horns. For another, he broadens
his tonal palette beyond the almost entirely acoustic soundscape of his
prior Criss Cross oeuvre, liberally weaving the Rhodes and Minimoog into
the flow, as well as the preternaturally flexible voice of Hiske
Oosterwijk, who also contributes two lyrics. Also, for the first
time as a leader, Tsiganov augments the luminous trumpeter-flugelhornist
(and 13-time Criss Cross leader) Alex Sipiagin on
the front line with alto sax titan Miguel Zenón,
who plays for the entirety of the proceedings, and – on three pieces
– the transcendent Chris Potter on tenor and soprano
saxophones.
“The earlier records had different songs and moods, but the same
sound – trumpet-saxophone-piano-bass-drums,” Tsiganov says. “I
wanted a totally different color.” While working on the repertoire,
he drew on information accrued in arranging courses with Michael Mossman
at Queens College, where he earned a Masters in 2019. “That opened the
gate of big band music for me,” Tsiganov says. The album was recorded January 6, 2024
at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in Astoria by recording engineer
Mike Marciano. He also did the editing, mixing and mastering at Systems
Two. |
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CRISS 1420 CD
Antonio Faraò -
Tributes |
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“I’m proud to be part of Criss
Cross,” Antonio Faraò says of his maiden
voyage for the label. For the occasion, which transpired in Meudon
Studios in Paris in July 2023, the Milan-based pianist, then 58,
convened an equivalently virtuosic trio comprising bassist John
Patitucci and drummer Jeff Ballard, presented
them with eight originals and two standards, and let them loose. Each
member operates at a creative peak on this lyric, kinetic, beautifully
proportioned 65-minute recital.
Titled Tributes,
Faraò’s Criss Cross debut is closer in feel
and attitude to the albums Black Inside,
Thorn and Next Stories,
recorded for Enja between 1998 and 2001, where Faraò joined forces,
respectively, with top-of-the-pyramid, New York-seasoned masters Ira
Coleman and Jeff Watts, Drew Gress and Jack deJohnette, and Ed Howard
and Gene Jackson. Functioning completely as a peer, he addresses the
dialects of his pianistic heroes – universal “postbop” influences
as Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans
and Kenny Kirkland, as well as Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Lennie
Tristano, and Martial Solal – on their own terms of engagement,
with the fluency of a native speaker. He assimilates their styles,
refracts them into a personal argot, alchemizing challenging rhythms and
highbrow harmony into graceful melodies. He eschews ironic deflection
and gratuitous structural complication, sustaining an attitude of
in-the-moment creation and a fierce will to swing.
“I like to play
in the straight-ahead way, but at the same time be open, out of the
box” Faraò says. “Playing this way allows me freedom, and this
rhythm section knows how to manage that dimension. I don’t think
about anything when I play. I try to follow the line. When you start
thinking is when you make a mistake. You should play natural. Live
yourself. Form the way. When I compose, my inspiration is usually from
the past, when I was a teenager. It’s rare that I’m inspired by the
future.”
The
album was recorded July 26, 2023 at Studio de Meudon in Paris by Julien
Basseres, and edited, mixed and mastered by Mike Marciano at Systems
Two.
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CRISS 1419 CD
Gregory Groover Jr. -
Lovabye |
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Gregory Groover’s Criss
Cross debut, recorded on the Boston born-and-bred tenor
saxophonist’s thirtieth birthday, is a tour de force. Joined by a
bespoke sextet of his favorite players: Joel Ross,
Matthew Stevens, Aaron Parks,
Vicente Archer and Marcus Gilmore, all
New York-based, Groover presents a recital of 11 original tone-parallels
to family and friends, his intentions anticipated, illuminated and
fulfilled by his gifted bandmates. Lovabye
follows Groover’s formidable first full-length album.
During the lockdown,
Groover had generated a group of “love songs and songs of people
I love.” In spring 2023, he brought this music to Walter
Smith III, who Groover had idolized as a teenager, and is
now his friend and colleague at Berklee School of Music, their mutual
alma mater, where Groover serves as Assistant Chair of the Ensemble
Department. “I told Walter I’d like to play with some of my other
heroes and peers,” Groover recalls. “He said, ‘What’s stopping
you? The music is there.’ Luckily for me, everyone who I wanted
to record with was available and happy to do it.”
“Greg’s composing
supports how he plays,” Smith says. “He’s a thematic musician,
whose playing very much relates to the song. He plays with a lot
of energy, and he leads with that. The heart is the most important
thing – the direction and motion of what he plays is where he
really feels.
The album was recorded August 16, 2023 at GSI Studios in
New York City, and edited, mixed and mastered by Mike Marciano at Systems
Two.
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CRISS 1418 CD
Michael Thomas - The Illusion Of
Choice |
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“This was a dream band to write for and
play with,” alto saxophonist Michael Thomas says
of Manuel Valera, Matt Brewer
and Obed Calvaire, his A-list rhythm section
on Illusion of Choice, his Criss
Cross debut, and fourth leader album. “These musicians
can play any style and sound like it’s the only thing they play. I
wanted to explore these different areas and cohere them into an
album, not sound like tunes stuck together for a CD. Everything was
on the table. I wasn’t afraid to develop whatever ideas I came
up with, and see where they went."
Although Illusion of
Choice features an assembled-for-the-occasion ensemble
rather than the working bands documented on his earlier albums,
Michael Thomas, 36, considers it "the strongest
thing I’ve done so far.” During the four months preceding the
September 2023 recording session, Thomas generated eight originals
tailored to the tonal personalities of his protean collaborators. They
live up to the leader’s ballyhoo, nailing the shifting meters
and intervallic challenges of his high-degree-of-difficulty pieces
with panache and creative spirit.
“I try to give people enough
to understand and absorb, but not so much as to make them wonder
what’s going on,” Thomas says. “Particularly with respect to
melodies, I’m trying to write tunes that don’t just sound nice,
but facilitate playing and improvising as I want.” He adds that,
although he plays multiple reeds and woodwinds, the alto saxophone
is his creative home. “Alto is where I feel most comfortable,
have the most control of my sound, and can express myself most
easily.” |
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| CRISS 1412 CD
Lage Lund - Most
Peculiar |
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The back story for Lage Lund’s sixth
Criss Cross recording dates to the onset of the Covid-19
pandemic, in the spring of 2020. Lund – a native of Skien, Norway
who’d lived in the U.S. since 1995 – had just returned to his homeland
with his wife and two daughters, then 5 and 7 years old. With school on
hiatus, the family had to improvise an at-home curriculum.
“My wife and I –
mainly my wife – made it up on the fly,” Lund recalls three years
later via Zoom. “One day the theme was learning about elephants, another
day it was ‘Ancient Egypt’ or the ‘Stone Age’ or ‘Trees’ or
‘Horses’ – completely random.” In conjunction with these lessons,
Lund established a daily ritual whereby he spent an hour or so writing
a tune based on the theme du jour, another hour to 90 minutes recording
it, and another two hours creating and editing a one-minute video –
the better to fit within Instagram guidelines – from public domain
GIFs. Over the course of five or six weeks, Lund created a playlist of
36 videos, which he uploaded to YouTube.
“It was a mental health project,”
Lund says. “With touring gone and no one to play with, I wanted to
give myself a task and feel at the end of the day I’d done something
tangible – I didn’t have this song this morning, and now here it
is. To pull it off, I dealt with short forms, mostly AABA structure,
between 8 and 16 bars. Also, for the first time since my early twenties,
I had an abundance of time to practice, which allowed me to delve into
things – voice leading experiments, for example – that weren’t
necessarily oriented towards getting ready for the next gig, the next
tour, the next recording, but which interest me for the long term. It was
a bit like going to an artist retreat or residency.”
Fast forward to the
fall of 2021: Lund was back in the saddle, primarily working with
saxophonist Melissa Aldana, whose 2022 Blue Note release '12 Stars'
he co-wrote and produced. Soon thereafter, Criss Cross
owner Jerry Teekens called to ascertain his interest in making another
album. For Lund, 45 when the Most Peculiar session
transpired in June 2022, the offer was an opportunity to reunite with
a band he launched in 2014. Pianist Sullivan Fortner
(35) and drummer Tyshawn Sorey (41), both among
the most gifted practitioners ever to improvise on their respective
instruments, contributed their unique mojo to Lund’s 2019 Criss
Cross release, Terrible Animals (Criss
1402). Virtuoso bassist Matt Brewer (39),
played on Lund’s first leader date (Romantic Latino for Ladies,
on a Japanese label) in 2006, had Lund play guitar on his own
Criss Cross debut Mythology (Criss
1373), and recently played on a Lund trio covers
recital (with Sorey) for another label, including four songs by Andrew
Hill. |
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CRISS 1417 CD
Jim Rotondi - Over
Here |
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By titling his eighth Criss Cross album Over
Here, trumpeter Jim Rotondi picks up
on the sentiments he signified with The Move (Criss 1323),
his seventh for the label. “It doesn’t necessarily mean moving
somewhere else, but rather returning home, playing tunes with a lot
of straight-ahead swing and interesting chord sequences with guys
I’m comfortable with,” Rotondi stated in the liner notes I wrote
for that kinetic 2009 recital.
That’s an effective description of
what transpires on Rotondi’s latest swinging affair. But although he
wasn’t misdirecting, he wasn’t telling the whole story. As it turned
out, The Move indeed foreshadowed Rotondi’s
decision in 2010 to leave New York for Austria for a position as
Professor of Trumpet at the University of Graz. As indicated by the
current title (which references George M. Cohan’s 1917 flagwaver
“Over There” and Rotondi’s father’s service in Europe during
World War 2), Rotondi is ensconced on the Continent thirteen years later,
augmenting pedagogical responsibilities with several trips a year to
New York and other U.S. waystations, and also touring the jazz clubs
of central Europe, Italy, France, Spain and the U.K.
In fact, Over
Here stems from a ten-day sojourn by a band of four New
York-trained masters that opened with a jazz cellar gig in the Viennese
suburb Bruck an der Leitha, proceeded to Neuberg, Germany, doubled
back to Vienna’s prestigious Porgy and Bess club, continued with a
drive to tenor saxophone maestro Piero Odorici’s club in Bologna, and
then transitioned to Udine for the recording session.
The tour gestated from
Rotondi’s desire to create a European group with tenor saxophonist
Rick Margitza, based in Paris since 2003, as his
front line counterpart, and pianist Danny Grissett, a
five-time Criss Cross leader who’s resided in Vienna
since January 2013. “I’ve known Rick virtually since I moved to New
York in 1987,” the 60-year-old master recalls. “We’ve played many
sessions together, but never a gig, and I thought it was time for us to do
something." |
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| CRISS 1416 CD
Manuel Valera -
Vessel |
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Manuel Valera advises
his students at New York University to write music every day. “I tell
them that composition is essentially another instrument – the more
you practice, the better you get at it,” says the 42-year-old piano
master, who, by his count, has generated some 200 recorded pieces since
he entered the fray in the early aughts.
Vessel,
Valera’s second album for Criss Cross, showcases eight
recent works, each “honoring a different person who’s influenced my
music.” Valera made it in January 2023, nine years after presenting
another eight originals on In Motion (Criss 1372)
which featured a slamming iteration of his New Cuban Express ensemble,
whose eponymous first CD had earned a 2013 Grammy nomination for “Best
Latin Jazz Album.” The pieces on that straight-eighth oriented session
mixed elements from various Afro-Cuban dialects with postbop, fusion jazz,
funk and R&B, incorporating intricate beat modulation, odd meters,
and intriguing ensemble color.
On In Motion, as on most
of his 16 albums since 2004, Valera established the compositions as
“the complete framework for the improvisations – although the solos,
of course, are also important.” But here, as indicated by the
title, Valera diverges, constructing pieces that are “vessels
for improvising, like they wrote them on the old Blue Note
records. You play the tune, you blow over the tune, then you
play the tune again – the improvisation is as important as the
composition. A lot is going on, but there’s still that connection to
the older tunes – and a couple sound like they could have been from way
back.” |
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CRISS 1410 LP
Mike Moreno -
Standards From
Film |
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Like a
well – wrought character in a Hollywood movie, Standards
From Film, guitarist Mike Moreno’s fourth
Criss Cross album, exists atop a solid, cogent back
story. Recorded in December 2021, when the world and New York City
– Houston-born Moreno’s home for more than two decades – were
no longer on COVID lockdown, it documents the leader’s exhaustive
investigations into the provenance of ten iconic standards that,
as he puts it, “are the summer jazz workshop tunes” – they say
you have to learn these songs if you want to be a jazz musician. You
learn them very young or in the beginning days of your journey into this
music. The
Standards From Film album was released on CD (Criss 1410)
in October 2022.
Since August 18, 2023 the album is also available
as a 2-LP set on 180 grams black vinyl with gatefold cover, as
part of the Criss Cross Jazz vinyl (re-)release
plan.
Joined by a rhythm section of generational contemporaries, each at
the top of the jazz pyramid, (Sullivan Fortner, piano;
Matt Brewer, bass; Obed Calvaire, drums)
Moreno deploys a variety of attacks and tonalities
to create dynamic tension in lyric declamations that he delivers with
his signature plush, resonant tone, sublime articulation, and harmonic
intelligence. |
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| CRISS 1402 LP
Lage Lund -
Terrible
Animals |
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Terrible Animals is perhaps
the most compositionally ambitious and daringly performed of Lage
Lund's five albums on Criss Cross Jazz. The
Terrible Animals album was released on CD (Criss 1402)
in February 2019.
Since July 14, 2023 the album is also available
as a 2-LP set on 180 grams black vinyl with gatefold cover, as
part of the Criss Cross Jazz vinyl (re-)release
plan.
Joined by a never-before-convened, top-of-the-pyramid rhythm
section (Sullivan Fortner, piano; Larry
Grenadier, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums)
the 39-year-old presents ten far-flung originals that elicit the full
measure of their creativity over the 68-minute program, spurring Lund --
who makes ingenious use of effects within his flow -- to some of his most
dynamic and varied playing on record.
The album was recorded on
April 27, 2018 at the Systems Two Studio in New York. Recording engineer
Mike Marciano also did the editing, mixing and mastering
at Systems Two. He also did the vinyl mastering for this 2LP issue. The
cover drawing on this gatefold 2LP set was made by Robbin
Veldman. |
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