Tonight we´ll listen to large ensembles with an accent. It’s a narrow sampler but of excellent writing that mixes instruments and strategies of jazz with elements from the tango, flamenco, and African traditions, with touches of pop, rock, avant-garde, and European classical music.
The opening track tonight is “Buenos Aires Report” by Argentine pianist Pablo Ziegler from his album Amsterdam meets New Tango. Ziegler was, for 10 years, the pianist of Astor Piazzolla’s New Tango Quintet. He’s a classically trained musician with a love of jazz.
The first time I heard him in concert in Buenos Aires, he had a trio a la Jacques Loussier and his repertoire included classical pieces interpreted in the jazz idiom.
(Photo of Pablo Ziegler by Masae Shiwa . Courtesy of the artist.)
Piazzolla had once tried his hand at jazz tango fusion, most notably on his album Take Me Dancing, recorded in New York in 1959. At the time, Piazzolla thought it was a musical and (a potential) commercial success, but the results well, let’s call them a noble failure. He later dismissed the album as “an abomination.” So when Piazzolla called, Ziegler was surprised. “I couldn’t figure out why he wanted me,” he told me. “But what was clear was that he didn’t want a tango pianist.”
In time, Ziegler’s contribution became essential to the performance of Piazzolla’s music. But after Piazzolla dissolved the group in 1988 and Piazzolla’s passing in 1992, Ziegler didn’t settle on a keeper-of-the-flame role and instead embarked on creating his own blend of jazz and tango. Amsterdam Meets New Tango was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2013. Ziegler won his first Grammy for Jazz Tango in 2018.
In Aire, Herrera features a program that includes new compositions (commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works) and jewels from the Great Latin American Songbook, such as “Alfonsina y el Mar” and “Gracias a la Vida.” The album, released in 2023, was her response to the isolation brought about by COVID-19. It was, she told me at the time, “a celebration of our humanity and the healing power of music.” Aire “became a way to reach out,” said Herrera. “We’re here, we’re alive, and we can heal each other by coming together and celebrating our humanity with compassion and gratitude.” (Photo Magos Herrera by Shervin Lainez. Courtesy of the artist)
Also in a more traditional jazz approach, we’ll hear “Cry Me a River” by British singer Alison Moyet, whose approach often blurs the line between jazz and pop singing. “Cry Me a River” is a track from Voice, her album of standards arranged by British film composer Anne Dudley.
We will hear it, especially, in the work of artists such as Norwegian trumpeter and composer Nils Petter Molvaer, or Swiss-French trumpeter Erik Truffaz. But we will also hear a variety of outcomes from these explorations and mixes. The result may hint at minimalism, ambient, or dance music but also daring blends and clashes of electronica, North African, and Western music. Some tracks might take from jazz a certain feel and attitude, perhaps the instrumentation, but no other typical elements. (Photo of Molvaer at the music festival Canal Street, Arendal Norway, July 2022 by Birgit Fostervold via Wikimedia Commons)
Tunisian singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef has been creating extraordinary work mixing elements such as Sufi chanting and electronica over the spacious landscapes of Scandinavian jazz. His album Digital Prophecy, from which we’ll hear “Seventh Heaven Suit,” was recorded in Norway and includes trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, pianist Bugge Wesseltoft, and Dieter Ilg, acoustic bass. In Digital Prophecy, Youssef sounds fearless as he follows up his probing in the previous Electric Sufi (2001) with a greater role for electronica and more extreme clashes. He is a fascinating, seemingly fearless artist.
Pianist and keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft moved stylistically from jazz (I believe I first heard of him working with saxophonist Jan Garbarek) to techno and dance music. For Bugge Wesseltoft & Friends, his multinational septet, he called on a varied group of friends and collaborators, including trumpeter Erik Truffaz, Turkish saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin, American DJ Joaquin “Joe” Claussell on rhythms and percussion, and three-piece rhythm section. Tonight, we’ll hear “Breed It” from the simply titled Bugge & Friends, a stylistically varied collection that, to my ears, alludes to Wesseltoft’s evolving musical preferences.
Jazz With an Accent 