I have been a fan of John Schofield ever since Uberjam – that album was some major funk train. He had such a party playing that album – so bent and high energy I can understand why he felt compelled to declare that he had been drug free for a few years to date in the liner notes. Many of his albums have not clicked with me much bar this one due to the straightness of them. I don’t like his clean sound much, I can respect it, like I respect Jim Hall, but I like my music fluid and dynamic and filled with life.

With this in mind, you might appreciate that I am hesitant about trying a modern big band album out. Big bands are usually quite straight – they kind of have to be so that coherence can be maintained. Its hard to imagine a big band both maintaining coherence and being dynamic with individuality coming through. Previously, I have only trusted Dave Holland in putting together a modern Jazz big band ensemble. Now, Vince Mendoza and John Schofield have created something very special. This album is modern big band at its best. Coherent, strong, filled with life and dynamic – this music carries so many emotions straight through me, its fantastic musical sustenance for this year and more to come I’m sure.

54, as its called, is exactly what I’m looking for in John, the energy of Uberjam with a more diverse palette to work with, some of the music almost borders on too much syrup, but no, the credibility given to this work through worthy intricate rhythms, natural emotional playing, shining mutual respect in passing solos, great arrangements and wonderful sound have made the syrup sweet but delicate and subtle rather than corn.

I’m very impressed, John now has my respect alongside Pat Metheny and John McLaughlin as men that created and never stopped creating new ways to weave their increasingly complex lives into their expression.

Listen to Uberjam and 54, it will surely grow on you.

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Here is a video that my friend Alexei made of his wife Tanya and I performing at GuoMao SanQi, the tallest building in Beijing. Alexei is also playing guitar but cannot be seen because there were only enough stage mics for Tanya and me.

The video will start as soon as it is downloaded.

If you would like to book me to play sax, please contact me at this email: corley.kinnane (at) gmail.com

Length: 3:07 Size: 7.9 Mb.

Click here for a direct download of this video.

Note: The video is an AVC High Profile MP4, you will need a recent version of Flash to play it. If it it doesn’t play, upgrade your Adobe Flash Player here.

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A fun 2 days in Shandong province. There’s me, Natalia, Tony and Sergey.

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It has been a while since I wrote something on my blog. I have been working on its appeareance and now and then I have the urge to write something, but have not devoted the time to it. I feel comfortable with the way it works now, so I can feel free to post.

For me, Pat Metheny is a very special kind of musician, there were times when I couldn’t get past his sound to the music underneath and I joked about it being hardcore elelvator music. I guess at times, I still feel that way although these days having broken through his sound into the substance, I can celebrate its softness as he does.

One of the first Jazz CDs I picked up was when I was 18 was Jack DeJohnette’s Parallel Realities, I didn’t know much about it all back then, I just had Kind Of Blue and knew I needed to experience more.

I love that album – At the time I wasn’t aware that the fantastic synth I heard was actually Metheny and his guitar. It was a long time before I came around to Metheny’s music – I spent a lot of time exploring Jack DeJohnette and Herbie Hancock after that album, Jack DeJohnette is one the most musical and intelligent composing drummers and I followed his work through Miles and many other greats he worked with.

I would joke about how working with others was the best thing Metheny ever did – A little mean without really giving him a decent listen.

I think around 2006-2007 I saw Speaking Of Now live on DVD. I was surprised by its challenging harmony and detail. I bought the CD and fell in love with it. This is in my opinion the benchmark for Metheny, the highlight in his broad recording career.

In this album, he seemed to able to define the space very clearly and within it create mountains and valleys of musical intensity. All I have to do is pick this up any time and I can explore this space again with joy – if it were a bit more open and less composed like say, Jan Garbarek it may be able to achieve greater, more realistic highs and lows, however being so clearly defined a space, it can be picked up any time, unlike Jan Garbarek whom I love with a passion as well.

It took me a while to find an album from him that matched Speaking Of Now, I knew there must be a few because people referred to Pat Metheny Group like they defined a new genre and many did not think much of Speaking Of Now.

Its true Pat Metheny’s work in the 90′s was not that great, It wasn’t until recently that I find that my find of Parallel Realities was actually a very lucky one to start out with.

Then I found Letter From Home – It did it for me all over again – similar well defined space, maybe a little more open than Speaking Of Now and filled with passion and grace. If only I knew of this music at the time, The late eighties was a bad time for pop music, The nineties saw us divide and search outside the norm, but no one at the time seemed to point to this music.

Letter From Home is one of my favourites up there with Speaking Of Now and its just great for portable listening – filled with emotion and story telling it can lift you up on difficult day. I have listened to it living in Sydney and then in my transition to living in China, this emotionally fulfilling music made it a lot easier to deal with the changes around me.

After this I found Still Life – many seem to value this more highly than Letter from home, but I find that although its fantastic especially Minuano, its not really close to the consistent highs of Letter From Home.

Now I have just discovered the original Pat Metheny Group album from 1978. This is where it all started and its earnestness gives it a special quality in retrospect. I love this one too and I have only just started on the journey with it.

I hope Pat Metheny returns again to try and extend the spaces he defined in these great albums – a space that no one else has managed to achieve, both light and floating, yet deep and crystal clear. I don’t know if anyone has told Pat, but crystal clear music is his forte. Pat may want to try different sounds but I think there is so much more he could do with the type of sounds and spaces he gets on the above albums that I would love to hear another 10 in a similar vein.

His latest solo work, Orchestrion is a masterpiece and its a very special recording. I feel maybe Pat Metheny wants to extend the spaces I am refferring to above, but maybe he feels he can make it even clearer waters by using the advanced technology of his Orchestrion. The title track is amazingly uplifting and its precision certainly increases the spatial definition, but maybe I just miss the earnestness, the innocense and adventure of the early Pat Metheny Group masterpieces where the musicians lifted each other up to heights no one musician could do on their own. Maybe Pat Metheny feels the same way. I hope he can muster the passion and focus to do it again.

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I just love this album. There is something very special about it, in the right mood, it is able to transform me well – it is very delicate. I would recommend it to be taken with no distractions and then relax into it – preferably nice headphones. There is a moment in the 3rd. track "Bodas De Prata" where the music hits an amazing chord progression by Egberto Gismonti and Jan Garbarek takes off melodically with Charlie Haden underpinning the ride brilliantly. Following it closely will lift you off the ground. I find this is definitely a mood album, if you catch yourself in the wrong mood, it may bore you. Jan has a distinctive playing style that some find abbrasive. I find him magical and teamed with these musicians, it is a kind of melancholy that puts me back in touch with the natural world. When I’m down, this music can make me appreciate being alive.

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Hejira is one of my favourite albums. It is quite a delicate creation, but delivered with such confidence by Joni. Of course working with Jaco gave it an extra confident edge. I find it to be the album I turn to for emotional stability. Its an album created through travel, so it came with me to China.

I listened to it and Weather Report’s "Black Market" for much of 2nd. and 3rd. trips to China. This time for me was very special, experiencing living in Beijing and travelling to The Great Wall, Tianjin, The Summer Palace, then Qingdao by train and Laoshan on the 3rd trip. This music definitely provided an appropriate backdrop for such an amazing experience. I deliberately over-listened to it so that now when I listen to it, it sends me back to that time. Both occasions were in Autumn, which is a great time to be in China.

Its definitely my favourite Joni Mitchell album – but I must admit I know only a few. Of course, along with Weather Report’s "Black Market" – the first recording they made with Jaco Pastorious, they travel together well in my portable player.

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I just watched a rather corny but humbling film called The Family Man – with Nicholas Cage made around 2000. At the end was some Elvis Costello music. I’ve always respected Elvis and some of his music is quite special for me. I missed a lot of his early stuff, just simply being too young to get into it at the time.

I bought Spike when I was about 15, loved it a lot. It seemed to have a broad range of Elvis’s style from snappy pop to hard edge rock to delicate ballads. I think for me, at 15, this was a breath of fresh air for me away from the pop charts. Since then, I’ve always kept my ears open whenever I hear his distinct and mature voice.

Now, I am listening to The Juliet Letters again, which I haven’t heard for maybe 15 years. I remember seeing something on TV about it, the songs are letters, diverse and expressive, they have been made into song with accompaniment by The Brodsky Quartet

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John McLaughlin’s latest fusion is a true gem. I loved his previous album "Industrial Zen", but I have a slight issue with the sound. These days John likes to use a lot of midi gear and though I’m sure that makes his music development process a lot easier, I feel it loses a little in the freshness of the sound. His guitar technique loses something in the midi transforms, luckily for McLaughlin, his genius lies in his choice of notes – just like Coltrane. These days, he can still maintain the subtle bends and blue tails he carefully places in the music, but that freshness of an acoustic resonance is lost.

With his latest, I feel he has made another step in fusion, successfully merging his comfortable midi development environment with some great acoustic musicians – its clear in this work how working with the sliding instrument, Bansuri and some kind of Veena – possibly a Mohan Veena, has elevated the music with a fresh feel – and the percussion! its lovely to hear such fresh trebbles and Indian knocks throughout.

I think maybe Industrial Zen had more interesting compositions, but lacked the presence this album has – sounds like John has a new target for his passion for fusion.

What a brilliant musician, still managing to find new paths in this era of his life shows how his determination has prevented any staleness from creeping in.

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This evening I saw a slice of Lou Reed live on TV. I wasn’t really getting into it in a big way – he is an example of a guy I have the utmost respect for – I know that we have very little in common as people other than the basics though.

I really appreciate people like him, great producers of art that even a glimpse of his life can alter your own. For me, the album “Magic and Loss” was just an amazing take on cancer and death. As a musician, I know my life is enriched from facing more truth and musically and emotionally this album is just mindblowing.

Listening to it makes me know I’m alive.

Rock is not a fundamental drive for me, which it is for Lou, so I feel its a mood thing. I’m up late on this night listening to him and I know I’ll come back to it again and again throughout my life.

I also like the judicious use of the eventide audio DSP.

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