Peter Margasak,Reader staff writer
Various artists, Five Days Married & Other Laments: Song and Dance From Northern Greece, 1928-1958 (Angry Mom) This compilation by collector and historian Christopher King focuses on rural music from Greece’s mountainous Epirus region, near Albania on its northwestern border. These songs are far removed from the profane grit and drive of rembetika, and unsurprisingly they’re influenced by Albanian traditions, including its polyphonic vocal music. They reflect upon doomed romance and the hardships of a shepherd’s life, but because the violin and clarinet are ebullient in their sorrow, they’re anything but depressing. Bonus points for the R. Crumb cover art.
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Sons of Kemet, Burn (Naim Jazz) This quartet, led by impressive young British reedist Shabaka Hutchings and anchored by the fat, rubbery grooves of tubaist Oren Marshall, fuses jazz, reggae, and funk within a maelstrom of kinetic percussion powered by drummers Seb Rochford and Tom Skinner. It’s unlike anything I’ve heard all year, and each listen has pulled me further in.
Nick Mazzarella, saxophonist, leader of the Nick Mazzarella Trio
Cameron Pfiffner’s Debut in Blues Veteran Chicago saxophonist and composer Cameron Pfiffner recently formed a sextet named after and dedicated to reexamining the somewhat obscure Gene Shaw record Debut in Blues, made for the Argo label in 1963. Pfiffner’s renditions of the source material are outstanding, and his band is full of excellent musicians. Keep an ear open for this group, and though it’s a bit hard to find, check out the original recording.
