Newvelle Records • Season Three
 ere is another season
from Newvelle Records, the French jazz label that issues its purist recordings only on LP
and only by subscription. It seems inadequate to refer to these recordings as mere albums.
They are objets d'art, to use the French, or multiple-media artworks that combine
music with photography and text, all housed in a handsome, segmented box.
But it's Newvelle's expansive jazz that's the highlight. The label's director, Elan Mehler, is an accomplished jazz pianist who obviously knows what he likes and what is worthy of his effort to record. These six LPs present music from a host of known musicians who have recorded for various labels. The music is "really about my personal preferences," Mehler admitted, "but as I meet more musicians and hear more music, my tastes evolve too." He went on, "I look for music that is melodically driven, soulful and usually simple, . . . with compositional elements perhaps more stressed than improvisational elements." If only all music labels had such a discerning navigator. If you are familiar with contemporary jazz on the ECM label -- the work of Keith Jarrett, Tomasz Stanko, Tord Gustavsen, Bobo Stenson, Marcin Wasilewski, among others -- you will find that Newvelle's catalogue sits well with your musical sensibilities. It's serious jazz that prudently explores the boundaries of contemporary musical thought. Atmosphere plays a great role; some of the music is as much about the silence between the notes as the notes themselves. Jazz has always been a spontaneous act of aesthetic discovery, and these recordings demonstrate how different the responses to that discovery can be. I listened to the entirety of Season Three, then listened again -- and again. Considered together, the music is at once serene, then boisterous and probing, with fragmented instrumental lines and rhythms, ample lyricism and a restless ambition. These six recordings were deliberately chosen to be released together. Mehler: "Once we have a couple of artists committed for the season, it can really go in any direction as I'm finding artists that would fit or complement the overall 'feel' of the season."
Tenor saxophonist Andy Zimmerman's Half Light features dreamy music, although with a distinct early-morning feel. Charlie & Paul is guitarist Steve Cardenas's tribute to Charlie Haden and Paul Motion and covers tunes written by both. They are lovely, dark and deep -- dreamy again, although the perfect late-night listens. Guitarist Lionel Louke's Close Your Eyes provides ample counterpoint through its more famous and straight-ahead covers -- from an atmospheric "Blue Monk" to a version of "Body and Soul" that's long on both. Guitarists Bill Frissell and Skúli Sverrisson play together for the first time on Strata, a collection of Sverrisson tunes, each written for Frissell, that reveals a spare musical landscape of incredible beauty and quiet daring. Cuban drummer and composer Francisco Mela leads Ancestros, a session on which the leader plays almost a backing role on numbers that have more contemporary than classic Latin influences. Trumpeter Jason Palmer fronts the quartet on Fair Weather, which features some beautifully languid and inventive solos. Dave Douglas, Leo Genovese, Eric Harland and Kendrick Scott are among the many backing musicians who appear on Season Three, each lending his voice to music that, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson, will take the top of your head off. As with previous Newvelle releases, multi-Grammy-winning Marc Urselli recorded the sessions at East Side Sound in NYC, and Alex DeTurk of Masterdisk handled mastering duties from 24-bit/88.2kHz digital files. All of the LPs -- 500 of each title -- were pressed at MPO in France, whose works include similar multi-LP sets from the Rolling Stones and Queen. Each quiet slab of vinyl is as finely wrought as the music on it. The phrase audiophile jazz conjures memories of
great-sounding recordings of meh music. In his quest for excellence, Elan Mehler
demands purist recording techniques along with careful mastering and pressing; but, above
all, his LPs feature important, vital music that audiophiles will want to own. There is
one interesting development for those who don't want to commit to the entire season:
Newvelle Records has embraced the upcoming Record Store Day promotion. On April 13th and
14th, for the first time, you can purchase individual titles direct from the label -- at a
discount and with shipping included. Some titles are nearly sold out, so shop early. |
