“With clarinetist Ben Goldberg, trumpeter Cuong Vu, and guitarist Brandon Ross,” writes the All Music Guide‘s Michael G. Nastos in his review of Myra Melford’s latest release, The Whole Tree Gone on Firehouse 12 Records, ”[she] has set yet another new standard of excellence in the modern progressive world of jazz. It’s also admirable that drummer Matt Wilson is on yet another world-class project as a sideman alongside the still underappreciated acoustic bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi.”

He adds, “At times you hear funky or Eastern Indian inferences, while overall, the music is not so complicated as it is elegant and parabolic. Happily, it is another triumph for Melford in that her hot streak of extraordinarily original projects keeps rolling on and upping the ante.”

Photo by Jean-Francois Laberine

Sunday night at New York’s (Le) Poisson Rouge, esteemed pianist/composer Myra Melford and her longstanding working ensemble Be Bread will celebrate their latest recording, The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records).

Released earlier this year, the record documents the latest evolution of eight original compositions she has been performing with this group, and others, for the past five years. The current incarnation of Be Bread features Cuong Vu (trumpet), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Brandon Ross (guitar), Stomu Takeishi (acoustic bass guitar) and Matt Wilson (drums).

Critics called The Whole Tree Gone “compelling from start to finish” (Jez Nelson, BBC 3′s Jazz on 3), “a knockout by any standard” (Nate Chinen, New York Times), “a high water mark in Melford’s extraordinary oeuvre” (Troy Collins, Point of Departure), and “yet another outstanding release from Firehouse 12, and a triumph for Melford” (John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com).

PopMatters’com’s Will Layman adds, “The Whole Tree Gone is daring but joyous music—something as substantive as any hardcore avant-garde record, yet pleasing in nearly every way.  Myra Melford, slowly but certainly in the last five years, has staked a claim to being one of the best of a new breed.  She makes jazz feel fresh again, but she never makes the listener feel cheap in the process. This is her best disc, and it is one heck of a way to kick off jazz’s new year.”

Photo by Daniel Sheehan

On Sunday, June 20th, esteemed pianist/composer Myra Melford and her longstanding working ensemble Be Bread will celebrate their latest recording, The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records), with a performance at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York. Released earlier this year, the record is Ms. Melford’s first leading her own band since 2006. It documents the latest evolution of eight original compositions she has been performing with this group, and others, for the past five years. The current incarnation of Be Bread features Cuong Vu (trumpet), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Brandon Ross (guitar), Stomu Takeishi (acoustic bass guitar) and Matt Wilson (drums).

Critics called The Whole Tree Gone “compelling from start to finish” (Jez Nelson, BBC 3′s Jazz on 3), “a knockout by any standard” (Nate Chinen, New York Times), “a high water mark in Melford’s extraordinary oeuvre” (Troy Collins, Point of Departure), and “yet another outstanding release from Firehouse 12, and a triumph for Melford” (John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com). PopMatters’com’s Will Layman adds, “The Whole Tree Gone is daring but joyous music—something as substantive as any hardcore avant-garde record, yet pleasing in nearly every way. Myra Melford, slowly but certainly in the last five years, has staked a claim to being one of the best of a new breed. She makes jazz feel fresh again, but she never makes the listener feel cheap in the process. This is her best disc, and it is one heck of a way to kick off jazz’s new year.”

Over the course of two decades and more than 30 recordings, Ms. Melford has carved out a distinctive niche among the creative music’s most respected pianist-composers. Her signature sound skillfully combines early influences such as classical music and the traditional blues piano styles of her native Chicago with her later immersion in the music of Eastern Europe and India and extensive musical studies with such legendary figures as Ran Blake, Jaki Byard, Don Pullen and Henry Threadgill. In addition to Be Bread, she currently leads/co-leads a variety of ensembles, including Happy Whistlings, Trio M and duos with multi-instrumentalist Marty Ehrlich, pianist Satoko Fujii and dancer/choreographers Oguri and Dawn Akemi Saito. Since 2004, she has also served on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, where she develops and teaches courses about contemporary improvised music. Learn more at http://myramelford.com

Kevin Le Gendre writes about pianist/composer Myra Melford’s latest release, The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records), in a new review posted today in the Music section of the BBC’s Web site.

“There is a charmingly understated folk sensibility that pervades this set,” Le Gendre explains, “as if the purring wistfulness of tango or gypsy swing had been absorbed into the pianist’s distinctive compositional voice without creating a ‘fusion’ per se. Delicacy is a word that is perhaps not associated enough with jazz, such is the lionisation of all that is hard, fast or loud, but Melford’s music shows that subtle, slow and muted need not necessarily be equated with music that is devoid of either interest of energy. There is an episodic but very coherent quality to the leader’s compositions that makes them soar and swoop into life as a bird in flight with the measured, at times discrete use of key changes or counterpoint increasing a very rich emotional backdrop.”

Troy Collins reviews pianist/composer Myra Melford‘s latest release, The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records), in the newly posted February issue of the online publication, Point of Departure.  The record, Ms. Melford’s second with her longstanding group, Be Bread, features Cuong Vu (trumpet), Ben Goldberg (clarinets), Brandon Ross (acoustic guitars), Stomu Takeishi (acoustic bass guitar) and Matt Wilson (drums).

“Like her mentor, Henry Threadgill,” Collins writes, “Melford has a talent for effortlessly interweaving seemingly incongruous elements into cohesive multi-layered compositions, yielding a singular aesthetic that blurs the line between the written and improvised. As lyrical, adventurous and conceptually expansive as the work of contemporaries like Tim Berne, Dave Douglas and Marty Ehrlich, Melford’s compositions are among the most compelling of her generation. Featuring finely tuned arrangements and buoyed by her sympathetic peers, The Whole Tree Gone is a high water mark in Melford’s extraordinary oeuvre.”

Myra Melford’s The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records) is featured in The HOT Box section of DownBeat‘s March issue.

In the main four-star review, John Corbett writes, “On The Whole Tree Gone, which follows 2006’s The Image Of Your Body (Cryptogramphone) as the sophomore release by her working ensemble Be Bread, Melford’s music is clearly and expansively unfolded. The group couldn’t be more ideally suited to the task. [Clarinetist Ben] Goldberg likes the natural un-stressed sound of his instrument, which makes him a nice foil for trumpeter Cuong Vu, who sometimes evokes harsh and abrasive textures, and guitarist Brandon Ross, who doesn’t shy away from the dry and the spiky. Followers of Ross and bassist Stomu Takeishi might be surprised to hear them both playing in an all-acoustic chamber jazz setting, but they sound perfectly at home, ever-sensitive drummer Matt Wilson adapting to the low-amp environs. Melford’s strength at the keyboard is clear throughout.”

Paul de Barros adds, “There’s lots of air in this music‚ between the instruments, between the phrases, and in the sound of the clarinet and the plinkty acoustic guitar. And you can’t beat Cuong Vu’s trumpet smears, Ben Goldberg’s crystalline clarinet or Melford’s rambunctious free rumbles.”

Pianist/composer Myra Melford and her longstanding ensemble Be Bread will celebrate their new CD, The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records), with a four-night tour of California starting tomorrow.

The group features Cuong Vu (trumpet), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Brandon Ross (guitars), Stomu Takeishi (acoustic bass guitar) and Matt Wilson (drums).

01/27 :: Freight & Salvage (Berkeley, CA)
01/28 :: Kuumbwa Jazz Center (Santa Cruz, CA)
01/29 :: Redwood Jazz Alliance (Arcata, CA)
01/30 :: Redwood Jazz Alliance (Arcata, CA)

For more, check out these local previews by Andrew Gilbert (InsideBayArea.com), Rachel Swan (East Bay Express) and KZSU programmer/blogger, Wedge.

“There’s always room in the precincts of improvised music for a new album by the pianist Myra Melford,” declares Nate Chinen in his review of her new disc in the Sunday New York Times.

“‘The Whole Tree Gone‘ (Firehouse 12), her first as a leader in more than three years, is a knockout by any standard, including the bar set by her previous work. Ambitious but approachable, suffused with airy warmth and restless calm, it unpacks a suite of lyrical compositions Ms. Melford has been refining since 2004… [she] leads from within the stir, meting out her pianism in surges or shimmers, according to the music’s needs.”

Stef Gijssels has posted a new 4 1/2 star review of pianist/composer Myra Melford’s The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records) on his popular blog, Free Jazz.

“The arrangements vary between tight interplay and loose textures,” he writes, “with varying line-ups and no obligation for each musician to play on each track. The use of acoustic guitar and acoustic soprano guitar add some chamber music texture to the overall sound, although some of the pieces have an expansive urgency and percussive power that take it well beyond chamber music. It is also a delight to hear Cuong Vu’s trumpet in an unadultered way: with a naked and clean sound. Maybe that characterizes the music best: it is of a vulnerable beauty and sensitivity, integrating styles and traditions from blues over bop to avant-garde. Rich music!”

Exclaim! has posted new reviews of Eri Yamamoto Trio’s In Each Day, Something Good (AUM Fidelity) and Myra Melford’s The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records) by writer Glen Hall on its Web site, exclaim.ca.

“With its unexpected mix of Paul Bley and Mose Allison,” Hall writes, “pianist Eri Yamamoto’s aesthetic encompasses the exotic, like ‘Blue in Tunisia,’ the abstractly lyrical, like ‘Attraction of the Moon,’ and the funky, like ‘We’ll Figure Out Blues.’ You can hear just how cohesive this long-standing trio are on ‘I Was Born,’ where the joyous groove is the result of everyone feeding from the same propulsive rhythmic fire…she deliberately keeps things simple, clear and to the point, thereby achieving an earthy eloquence.”

“This is really strong music,” declares Hall in his Melford review. “Played by a tight, mutually supportive sextet, pianist/composer Melford’s evocative compositions and exquisite arrangements create a prismatic narrative of emotional depth. From the folkloric shades of ‘Through the Same Gate,’ with delicate acoustic guitar work by Brandon Ross, to the entrancing, suspended jazziness of ‘Moon Bird,’ with its jaw-dropping piano intro and excoriating trumpet solo by Cuong Vu, the eight pieces are played with a uniformly lofty level of musicianship. The Whole Tree Gone embodies high-level jazz artistry and musical eloquence.”