POPMATTERS: The Best Jazz of 2010 -- So Far.
POPMATTERS: The Best Jazz of 2010 -- So Far.
BY MICHAEL KABRAN
I actually go back and forth with this album. Sometimes it’s in my best column, while other times it’s at the top of my worst list. And that’s what makes it so awesome. In recent years, with David Lang winning the Pulitzer Prize for The Little Match Girl Passion, essentially a composition for half-a-dozen vocalists and no instrumentalists (save for a lonely percussionist), more and more avant-garde composers have been revisiting the a cappella format. In 2010, so far, I’ve heard John Zorn’s Mycale: The Book of Angels, Vol. 13 (Tzadik), which is very monotonous, and saxophonist Sam Sadigursky’s Words Project iii: Miniatures, the third volume in his Words Project series, which I like—most of the time. With a collection of short pieces based on famous poems and story excerpts scored mostly for voice (and a few jazzy instruments), Sadigursky has created a thought-provoking work that marries the intellectual side of music (avant-garde jazz) with the intellectual side of literature (poetry and poetic prose). Divorce is most likely in the cards for this union, but enjoy the sparks while it lasts!