Bush Medicine

Pick Hits FIELDWORK
Simulated Progress
(Pi)

On first approximation, this is a piano trio with Steve Lehman playing the bass parts on alto and sopranino sax, where they take on a life of their own. Lehman has such a strained, narrow tone that his work tends to duck behind the piano, anchoring the rhythm and painting the background. But then, the pianist is Vijay Iyer, who can lead by sheer percussive force and has a knack for putting the finishing touches on whatever Lehman and drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee throw at him. A MINUS

The good doctor's prescription for a country "sick with Bush" is "Bush Medicine"—a calypso fragment recalling "St. Thomas" with an Ornette twist, but fractured into discrete bits. Small pleasures—take them when you can. Oliver Lake's playfulness enhances Gonz spiritfulness, while the rhythm section keeps things loose. Of course, Bush Medicine is only a palliative. A cure starts with surgery, and rehabilitation is likely to be slow and wrenching, with so much damage to be undone, and so much that cannot be undone. A MINUS

ERIC ALEXANDER
Dead Center
HighNote

An appropriate title, especially since he's already used Solid. A feisty original lets him show off his huge tone and plentiful chops. Then he works through the covers, a range of post-bop swing including one by redoubtable pianist Harold Mabern and a pair by Lerner and Loewe that he takes to the races. The center of the mainstream, but far from dead. A MINUS

SCOTT AMENDOLA BAND
Believe
Cryptogramophone

This turns the Nels Cline Singers on their head, adding Jeff Parker's sweet guitar to Cline's sour, reinforcing the string sound with Jenny Scheinman's violin. Amendola supplements his drums with electronics, for groove and textures you'd have to be hard of hearing to reduce to ambient. A MINUS

PIERRE DØRGE & NEW JUNGLE ORCHESTRA
Dancing Cheek to Cheek
Stunt

Two nods to Tin Pan Alley: "Cheek to Cheek" done Louis-Ella style, except that this Louis is Ray Anderson, and "Body and Soul" slowed to a savory crawl by Josephine Cronholm. The rest of the album is Afro-Danish big band, griots and pennywhistles, references to Mingus and Sun Ra, and a Dukish impression of Jakarta. Dørge, like his Jungle Music idol, plays orchestra, but when the occasion calls for it he also fills in smartly on guitar. A MINUS

JERRY GRANELLI
Sandhills Reunion
Songlines

Granelli's music, constructed from clarinets and baritone sax, guitars and cello, has a spare, windswept quality well suited to Rinde Eckert's plainspoken words about Billy the Kid and the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The words make you think, as with the story of a sheriff who quit after shooting a man, troubled not by regret but how certain he was that he was in the right: "It's a dangerous thing that kind of certainty. I believe doubt is what keeps us sane. Without it a man becomes a monster." A MINUS

JIM HALL
Magic Meeting
ArtistShare

The byword on Hall is subtle, but this live trio anchored by bassist Scott Colley provokes the veteran guitarist to reveal, if not himself, at least his bag of tricks: bright lines that take off from Colley's contrasting bass, tight chords that compress the rhythm, effects that synthesize a nimble sax on Sonny Rollins's "St. Thomas." A MINUS

HAPPY APPLE
The Peace Between Our Companies
Sunnyside

This starts with the trio's signature sound, drums so sharp and loud they shoot right through you. The drummer is Dave King, better known for his other band, the Bad Plus. While the latter prides itself as an acousticpiano trio, this one rides happily on Erik Fratzke's electric bass, with multi-reedist Michael Lewis adding a voice. The pieces alternate between hard and soft. In soft mode they go for avant-scratch; in hard mode Lewis rocks Ayler/Coltrane while King knocks your socks off. A MINUS

ARI HOENIG
The Painter
Smalls

Led by the drummer, but Guadeloupean Jacques Schwarz-Bart could write a book on state-of-the-art tenor sax, and French pianist Jean-Michel Pilc can dazzle even when dutifully helping out. Recorded live at Fat Cat, it sneaks up on you, like the realization that you've just had a real good time. A MINUS

IBRAHIM ELECTRIC
Meets Ray Anderson
Stunt

When they turn up the heat the Danish guitar-organ-drums trio are more rockish than their soul jazz avatars. And when they dial it down they're knee-deep in the blues. Neither trait is all that remarkable, but their meeting with the trombone master was inspired. After all, Anderson's first language is gutbucket, so when he growls and groans he delivers the dirt this band needs. But he can improvise on their grind, punching out lightning solos then diving back into the grime. A MINUS

RUSS LOSSING
Phrase 6
Fresh Sound New Talent

This piano trio moves slowly but efficiently, like a team of rock climbers negotiating difficult terrain. Teamwork matters because Lossing's compositions leave many variables to be resolved on the fly. A MINUS

RAVISH MOMIN'S TRIO TARANA
Climbing the Banyan Tree
Clean Feed

Indian percussion, Chinese violin, Middle Eastern oud—released in Lisbon, but recorded in that old melting pot Brooklyn. Note that Jason Kao Hwang and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz are U.S. natives, and the leader is a Hyderabadi student of the North Indian classical tradition who went to Carnegie Mellon. That none of the three are too deeply rooted in their ethnicity lets them join together as a distinctive jazz group rather than limiting them to exotic fusion. A MINUS