Dave Douglas Music

Although not a document of a working band, this is clearly a record Dave Douglas wanted to make. Following in the tradition of his sextet in honouring the compositions of particular composers, he has drawn together the sympathetic talents of James Genus, Bill Carrothers and Billy Hart to pay tribute to Joni Mitchell. Hers is music he obviously loves, the reconstructions sounding like jazz standard song repertoire. The other music uses Joni Mitchell's ear for a great tune as a springboard for Dave's thoughtful, instantly appealing compositions. Beautifully recorded, this is a one-off; don't miss it.

I haven't heard them all, but this disc--one of his first--seems to really have great energy and exploration...it is like a manifesto, declaring possibilities. "Remains" is beautiful. The talented rhythm section is good at free stuff, but NOT at Ellington--should have left "Loco Madi" off.

The brillaint Dave Douglas! The opening Webern treatment says it all. A gem.

With Point In Time Fred Hersch has made an album that will delight fans of both piano jazz and small group ensembles. Having been encouraged by previous purchases of Hersch recordings I'm happy to pass on the news that this album is one of his best...and one of my best recent buys. His treatment of jazz standards such as "The Peacocks" and "You Don't Know What Love Is" are masterclasses in the art of taking popular, oft played tunes, and creating something entirely fresh and modern. Never lacking for a deft turn of phrase or a well placed, surprise chord or two, Hersch can play fast and with fire - or with genuine feeling for the subtle nuances required of a more slower pace such as on "Too Soon", a fine, self-penned ballad on which he is joined by trumpeter Dave Douglas.

Elswhere saxophonist Rich Perry makes some telling contributions while drummer Tom Rainey and bassist Drew Gress offer perfect support throughout.

It is undoubtably Fred Hersch that is the driving force however, and new nuggets of gold are mined with every listen to this tremendously gifted talent - Point In Time makes a remarkably strong point for searching out more recordings by this particular Mr Piano Man.Point in Time

What We Live is a cooperative Bay Area trio that was formed sometime in the early 90s. They wanted not only to explore their music as a free improv trio but to experiment with various guest artists as a quartet. In this they serve as an update on local mainstream piano trios that function as a rhthym section for various out of town guests.
The basic trio is formed of Larry Ochs (the O in ROVA), Lisle Ellis on the bass and Donald Robinson on the drums. The guest are Wadada Leo Smith (right channel) and Dave Douglas (left channel).
One of the great things about this group is that so many of them have worked on or within compositional structures for group improvs. Smith is one of the innovators within jazz on coming up with structures for free improvs so as to avoid the dreaded group skronks where everyone is blasting away. With these players, the idea of compositional structures has become so engrained that they do it on the fly. They are able to do this by deep listening to the others and by having an egoless approach to the creation. The point is never individual but group brilliance.
The result is music that is uncluttered and quite beautiful. Ochs has a wonderful tone (I would love to someday hear him play a ballad). Smith and Douglas fit in with each other and the others seamlessly as if they had been playing with them for years. (By the way, the most recent CD by this group is called Trumpets and features What We Live with Smith and Douglas seperately). Ellis sounds good whether bowing or strumming his bass. Robinson (who plays a similar role in the Bay Area as Hamid Drake does in New York) is the perfect drummer for this music- he can play very quietly and outline rhythmic ideas very succinctly.
By all means, listen to the sound bites. But with group improvs like this, the proof is in the overall piece and within the overall program. It is only by listening to an entire piece that you can judge whether the group was successful is creating a structure on which to base their improv. Was there a sense of something being developed and explored? Hard to tell in 20-30 secs. Was not just one piece successful but all of them and did they exhibit variety? Again hard to tell from sound bites. So listen to the sound bites if you want and hear what you think. But if you find intriguing the concept of the spontaneous creation and exploration of a piece by a group of musicians then simply take a chance on these guys. You may not like it (see the reviewer below) but taking a chance is frequently the only way to find new forms of musical beauty.

Listen to the sound bite before you buy. I didn't, but I should have. This is way to modern for me, I like cool west coast jazz, but this is sort of Ornette Coleman meets Karlheinz Stockhausen--very modern in tone. If that is your bag, the album is for you, otherwise pass this one by.

Though there are some very interesting parts of this recording, there are too many dead spots where nothing substantial seems to be happening. Douglas, always looking for new configuation for his expressions, can't be faulted for trying to recapture the spirit of Coltrane's Ascension in a 90's mode.

This strikes me as Dave Douglas's most ambitious work - a 2 CD small-ensemble work that is meant to be played as a continuous track. Easy for him to say - this is c. 2 hours of extremely dense, involved music. While this is not something you can simply put on in the background, as it is rather attention grabbing, it is something of a challenge devoting enough time to properly listening to this album.

However, it's well-worth it - Douglas cites an interesting list of inspirations for this album, Coltrane to Boulez to Boccaccio, and somehow manages to pay homage to them with this album. It's a masterful blend of written and improvised...a feat that is rather daunting when you consider that this album is set up as two ensembles (each made up of trumpet, drums, sampler) working together and being anchored by a saxophone and a bass (the speakers pan out accordingly).

This provides for a rewarding, if difficult listen. Sometimes the music might initially fly over one's head, but things slowly fall into place.

A very dense work owing something to Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz" double quartet. Listening through headphones lets you differentiate between the two groupings - otherwise they tend to blur together. The music is very freeform; sometimes it sounds like everyone is off doing their own thing before a theme develops. What's particularly interesting is the mixing of samplers with the traditional jazz instruments. The cacophony of eight players wailing away is familiar to anyone that listens to experimental jazz, but throwing some sampled drum patterns into the maelstrom and then having the other instruments fall into a groove with said patterns is something new - plus there aren't that many jazz recordings that use prepared pianos (to my knowledge). Listen to the soundbytes of "Three Beasts" or "Mad Dog" for examples of this combination of styles and sounds. Dougie Bowne plays very well; he gets more of a chance to stretch out in this kind of setting than he would in the Lounge Lizards or other groups. Those who only know Yuka Honda through her work with Cibo Matto will be very surprised by how she sounds in this ensemble. All of the musicians are in top form in a very unconventional recording.

Yuka Honda and Anthony Coleman: samplers; Hilliard Greene and Mark Dresser: basses; Dave Douglas and Cuong Vu: trumpets; Chris Speed: clarinet and tenor sax; Dougie Bowne: drums.

Musical empathy of the highest degree makes this recording a must. Han Bennink and Dave Douglas have great fun here turning some standards inside out and developing their rapport through their own material. To some the thought of a drum/trumpet duet recording would seem unthinkable but they manage to sound like an orchestra, such is their use of space and their obvious enjoyment in each others company. Han Bennink's work with brushes is wonderful throughout, Too Close for Comfort will get you on your feet! My partner insists that, coincidentally or not, Dave's tune Serpentine is based on Stravinky's "Petrushka chord"... It is a shame that more did not come of Dave's involvement with Han and the Trio Clusone featuring Michael Moore and Ernst Reisjeger, that would have been quite something. Those of you in New York can catch Dave and Han with Misha Mengelberg and Brad Jones in the Autumn (Fall!) Buy this CD and bask in the sound of two jazz giants at the top of their form.

As I now listen to this album for about the 400th time, I am still filled with some of the deepest emotions and feelings I've ever felt. Each song on this album is so uniquely different from the rest it's unbelievable how different you can make a trio of such instrumentation (trumpet, guitar, drums) sound. Each track fills you with a different and unique emotion, and are each equally fulfilling and captivating. The level of playing by each of these musicians is so impeccable it is easily comparable to the greatest works by such people as Trane, Miles, Bird, and the rest. I would easily put Dave Douglas up there on my list of most innovative and talented musicians of all time. Do not pass this one up. In fact, do not pass up any album that has the name "Dave Douglas" anywhere on it.

As with his string group, first time listeners to the Tiny Bell Trio may find the instrumental line up a little odd. Getting used to Trumpet, Guitar and Drums may take a few listenings. The trio tackle Kirk's Breath-A-Thon and Schumann's Nicht so schnell, mit viel along with 8 Douglas originals including the appropriately titled "Wandering Souls" and the burning "Ferrous."

As a listener who prefers his jazz adventurous but not totally devoid of melodic content, this is one of my favorite recent releases. Trumpeter Dave Douglas, guitarist Brad Shepik, and drummer Jim Black offer a variety of memorable tunes in an amazing mixture of styles (jazz, balkan folk, 20th century classical) that is typical of Douglas. Who else could segue so seamlessly from a Rahsaan Roland Kirk composition to a Robert Schumann piece? Who else would even try? This is intriguing music for adventurous listeners who still like to tap their feet from time to time.

This is another great Dave Douglas album. Three of the songs Four Sleepers, Diana, and Pug Nose were written buy Wayne Shorter and the rest by Dave Douglas. This album is a tribute to Wayne Shorter, and his compositional spirit. I'm sure he is pleased to have such a fine set of tunes composed for him and dedicated to him. The playing is top notch. I love Joey Baron provides the steady beat and everyone has plenty of solo time. Standouts for me on this album included Dave Douglas (of course) and also Joshua Roseman, trombone who talks an awesome solo on Gold Fish. This album is very recommended to all Dave Douglas fans and other general jazz fans!

Douglas' sextet pays tribute to wayne shoter with three shorter tunes and Douglas originals. NOt quite on the level of In Our Lifetime, but if you like Douglas you will want this one (and all of his others)!

This is THE dave douglas recording. On this great disc Dave shows his enormous skills on trumpet and as a composer. For me personaly as a big Douglas fan it's one of his most exciting recordings. THE recording of dave you must have from his sextet because his other groups are even good but it's quite different. What makes this recording so special? the exciting and perfectionated sound of the group, dave's personal trumpet sound and skills, the great original compositions, etc.... i could go on for long but what really makes it so special is that feeling you get when hearing the disk play and that feeling will increase the more you play the disc. how more you'll play it how more you'll love it and become a Douglas fan.

The obvious next choice when Soul on Soul does not disappoint. Liking a lot of the records of Wayne Shorter, to whose music Stargazer is an approach, I found Dave Douglas' interpretations not as stringent as on his Soul on Soul, because very little actually reminded of Wayne Shorter's music. On the other side Soul on Soul is all Mary Lou Williams. It is dawning on me why Dave Douglas is such a special musician. Without being able to explain this sentence: he adds an additional dimension to music, just like John Coltrane with A Love Supreme. You can't hear enough of Douglas' music.

The follow-up recording to "In Our Lifetime" (a tribute to Booker Little), "Stargazer" is a tribute to saxophonist Wayne Shorter. I'm not familar enough with Wayne Shorter's solo work (previously he was with the great Miles Davis Quintet) to gauge how the Douglas-penned compositions touch on Shorter's compositional and performance styles. I do know that Douglas' compositions here are as strong as any of his other works and he has assembled a great band to perform them. Highly recommended.

Dave Douglas - trumpet, Chris Speed - tenor sax & clarinet, Josh Roseman - trombone, Uri Caine - piano, James Genus - bass, Joey Baron - drums.

This is Dave Douglas's first Tiny Bell Trio CD. Setup with trumpet, guitar, and drums, it's a lineup with a flexible but at times full sound. This isn't the best Tiny Bell CD - that would be either Songs For Wandering Souls (my choice) or Constellations (many critics' choice). In typical Douglas fashion, it starts with a catchy song, "Red Emma," which has a memorable theme and good group interaction. "Punchy" is another good one. The typical Tiny Bell Trio song has a stately, Eastern European feel to it. "Road/Home" is more upright than most. "Head-on Kouvlodsko" is more Balkan than the others. "The Drowned Girl" is a quiet, free-sounding song, before resolving into a classical-sounding section. "Song For My Father-in-Law" is very free, and has great interaction between Dave Douglas, Brad Shepik, and drummer Jim Black. "Arabesque" has more classical feel. "Czardas" is another stately, Balkan song that mixes a little skronk into it.

Dave Douglas has become my favorite contemporary trumpeter, and this CD adds to my appreciation of his mastery. The three musicians complement one another on a host of eclectic tracks, ranging from sounds that are rooted in classical music to leading-edge jazz. Brad Schoeppach more than holds his own on guitar and Jim Black does a great job of drumming. All in all, an exciting, yet beautiful disc well worth owning.

There's not really much to tell - Dave is a fantastic trumpeter and a fairly creative guy to boot, and this (along with the Charms of the Night Sky group) may be his best band. Good writing and fantastic interplay - special mention goes to Jim "Han-Bennink-Jr." Black on the drums - make this album instantly enjoyable, and it holds up to repeated listens.