John Scofield Trio live at Leverkusener Jazztage 2010

John Scofield, guitar
Steve Swallow, bass
Bill Stewart, drums
recorded live at Forum Leverkusen, November 2010

1. How Deep
2. Chicken Dog
3. Everything I Love
4. Pretty Out
5. Trio Blues
6. Someone To Watch Over Me

And here´s another one from the tour Scofield´s trio did last fall. And another of Scofield´s albums, and this one is highly recommended, too: the 2007 release "this meets that".

Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Andy Sheppard live in Neuburg 2010

Carla Bley, Piano
Steve Swallow, Bass
Andy Sheppard, Tenor and Soprano Saxophones

recorded live at Jazzclub Birdland in Neuburg an der Donau, November 26, 2010

    1. Rut (Carly Bley)
  2. Valse sinistre (Carla Bley)
    3. Sidewinders in paradise (Carla Bley)
 4. Stroke of luck (Carla Bley)
 5. Awful coffee (Carla Bley)
 6. Interview on Awful coffee
   7. Interview on Sidewinders in paradise

On many of her recordings, Carla Bley could hardly be accused of hogging the spotlight as a soloist; emphasizing her talents as a bandleader, composer and arranger, she tended to let her sidemen take the long solos. But she gave herself a lot more space on 1992's Go Together and Songs with Legs, a live album that was recorded during a May 1994 tour that included dates in Turkey and Western Europe. Forming a drumless trio with longtime ally Steve Swallow (bass) and Britain's flexible Andy Sheppard (tenor and soprano sax), Bley sticks to the acoustic piano and gives herself plenty of room to stretch out. It's a shame that she often chose to take few solos in the past, for Bley's pianism is quite appealing.

 

Charles Lloyd Quartet live at JazzBaltica 2010

Charles Lloyd - Saxophones, Flute
Jason Moran - Piano
Reuben Rogers - Bass
Eric Harland - Drums
recorded live at Konzertscheune Salzau, July 3, 2010

1. Hymn To The Mother (Charles Lloyd)
2. Ramanujan (Charles Lloyd)
3. Dream Weaver (Charles Lloyd)
4. Blow Wind (Charles Lloyd)
5. Booker's Garden (Charles Lloyd)
6. Rabo de Nube (Charles Lloyd)

Similar to the 2007 live CD Rabo de Nube (ECM records) this concert here features tender ballads, including the title track, Cuban songwriter Silvio Rodríguez’s “Rabo de Nube” (“tail of a cloud”), a mountaintop meditation with the tarogato (“Ramanujan”), a tribute to Booker Little, and more. 

Vijay Iyer Trio 'Tirtha' live at Jazzclub Unterfahrt München 2011

Photo © Alan Nahigian 
 
Vijay Iyer - Piano
Prasanna - Guitar
Nitin Mitta - Tabla
recorded live at Jazzclub Unterfahrt München, April 13, 2011

1. Far From Over (Iyer)
2. Tirtha (Iyer)
3. Abundance (Iyer)
4. Tribal Wisdom (Prasanna)
5. Gauntlet (Iyer)
6. Introduction
7. Duality (Iyer)
8. Falsehood (Prasanna)
9. Polytheism (Prasanna)
10. Remembrance (Iyer)
11. Entropy and Time (Prasanna)
12. Jog (Mitta)

The Sanskrit word tīrtha (THEER-tha) literally means a ford, or a shallow place in a river that can be easily crossed over. Within a spiritual context, tirtha denotes a holy place near a body of water - somewhere where everyday struggles fall away, and where one passes easily into a deeper and more profound state of being. Aptly, Tirtha is now also the name of a phenomenal trio featuring three powerhouse musicians who at once honor and traverse the streams of tradition. It is also the name of their exciting new album on ACT.
Individually, Indian-American pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, Chennai (formerly Madras)-born guitarist-composer Prasanna, and Hyderabad native and tabla player Nitin Mitta are already highly accomplished artists who shift easily among multiple musical languages. Together, they have achieved a fully realized, deeply thoughtful, and truly innovative collaboration. Combining the elemental directness of rock, the chamber-like intimacy of raga, and bebop’s hard, angular drive, Tirtha achieves a profound interplay of melody and rhythm that characterizes the best jazz.
In his album notes, the award-winning Iyer describes the group’s genesis: “Tirtha (the band) formed in response to an invitation. In 2007 I was asked to put together a concert celebrating 60 years of Indian independence. Normally I’ve steered clear of fusion experiments that attempt to mix styles - to “create something,” as John Coltrane famously admonished, “more with labels, you see, than true evolution.” For this event I hoped to avoid those pitfalls, and offer something personal.
“I invited along Prasanna and Nitin Mitta, two outstanding musicians from India who have settled in the States. None of us had collaborated previously, but at our first rehearsal we felt a jolt of recognition. There was no question of “fusion,” no compromise, no attempt to sound more or less “Indian”; just a fluid musical conversation among three individuals, an atmosphere of camaraderie, a sense of beginning.”

Pablo Held Trio live in Bonn 2011/ live in Gütersloh 2011

Pablo Held - Piano
Robert Landfermann - Bass
Jonas Burgwinkel - Drums

Beethovenhaus Bonn, February 26, 2011:
1. Forest of Oblivion (Pablo Held)
2. Nostromo/ Korelia/ I Have a Dream/ Music (Held/ Held/ Hancock/ Held)
3. Diana (Wayne Shorter)
4. Directions (Joe Zawinul)

Recorded live at Theater Gütersloh, March 5, 2011:
Nearness/ I Have a Dream/ Corellia/ Directions/ Klartraum/ Phasen/ Forest of Oblivion/ Phase II

"Pablo Held and his fellow musicians present piano trio music that leaves a lasting impression on the audience instead of going for short-dated effects. Despite his young age - when recording his debut album in 2008 he was only 21 years old - Held is already surprisingly confident in his style. His music has a mysterious and introverted quality, but at the same time manages to engage the listener with great tension without being withdrawn. The nearly instinctive sureness in playing with Robert Landfermann and Jonas Burgwinkel only serves to enhance this effect.
Held's first two albums—Forest Of Oblivion (Pirouet, 2008) and Music (Pirouet, 2010)—helped put him on the map, but his latest release Glow (Pirouet, 2011) might go down as his real breakthrough record. Held leaves the trio format behind, though he retains the services of drummer Jonas Burgwinkel and bassist Robert Landfermann, and makes a quantum leap forward with ten far-ranging works for this expansive, ten-person ensemble.
While each piece on Glow resides in its own orbit, certain commonalities exist. First and foremost is the focus on instrumental blending. While Held utilizes the usual mixture of horns and rhythm section that are all-too-common, he also works cello, celesta, harmonium and harp into the mix, expanding the combinatorial possibilities within each piece. He proves to be a brilliant sonic chemist, capable of mixing any instruments in balance, making it difficult on occasion to distinguish one instrument from the other, but easy to revel in the aural concoctions—whether stormy or sublime—of his creation. The second element in play on many of these pieces is the rhythmic-to-arrhythmic duality that arises throughout. Landfermann and Burgwinkel help to constantly reshape and refocus the music, using everything in their arsenal from funk to relative freedom, in a continuous effort to mold Held's music to his liking."