Read numbers 40 through 31, 30 through 21, and 20 through 11.
Pandelis Karayorgis, Circuitous (Driff)Great Boston pianist Pandelis Karayorgis made this quintet record in Chicago with a killer local band, though bassist Nate McBride has since moved back the leader’s hometown. The group also includes Frank Rosaly on drums and an excellent yin-yang pair of saxophonists, Dave Rempis and Keefe Jackson. Karayorgis has discussed the fact that he used the classic Tony Williams album Spring as a model for the instrumentation here, but the sound is all his own, with punchy, angular tunes, a wide dynamic range (from soft rustling to juddering blasts), and ingenious arrangements that color in the oblique melodies and provide plenty of suspense. As strong as the solos are throughout the record, I almost enjoy the composed sections most.
Robbie Fulks, Gone Away Backward (Bloodshot)There are many good living songwriters. But then you hear a new Robbie Fulks record, and you can’t remember who they are. Most of the songs on Gone Away Backwards meditate on small-town life, but without the hokum that usually infects Nashville’s treatments of the subject. In a just world, Alan Jackson or George Strait would hit number one with “That’s Where I’m From,” a story that counts You Can’t Go Home Again among its ancestors—the narrator splits town and does his darnedest to build a life of his own, only to realize after it’s too late that the community he left defines who he is. While it may not show off Fulks’s full range, this album is the most focused, meaningful, and beautiful recording he’s ever made, with his best singing yet.
My jazz column will return next week.
