Hot Times in Berlin
Staples Jr. Singers, Caleb Wheeler Curtis, Liv Andrea Hauge
The history of Luaka Bop has often revolved around shifting areas of concentration, spending years going down one particular rabbit hole, before discovering another ripe for broad exposure. In the days when David Byrne ran the label the brushstrokes were broad—Brazil, Cuba, Afro-Peru—but over time, as the reissue market grew cramped and since Yale Evelev has taken the helm of the imprint, those digs are more focused. Different strains of gospel music has characterized a lot of Luaka Bop releases going back years, whether the Racional recordings of Brazilian singer Tim Maia, the praise music of Nigerian singer Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, or the raw funked-up African-American gospel collected on the killer 2019 collection The Time for Peace is Now. One of the highlights from that record was the deliciously wobbly single “We Got a Race to Run” by Staples Jr. Singers, a group from Mississippi that shouldn’t be confused with one of their biggest influences, obviously, the Staple Singers. The compilation introduced a slew of rare gospel sides from the 1970s—naturally, there was more where that came from.
In 2022 the label reissued the sole Staples Jr. Singers album When do We Get Paid, from 1975. Like their titular inspiration, this was another family band, the Browns, still teenagers. The scrappy production and passionate performances made up for the occasionally rickety performances, particularly the excellent singing of Annie Brown Caldwell, who shared the crucial rasp of Mavis Staples, if less of her range. I enjoyed the record, but I loved catching a performance by the group at Big Ears last year. The key members of the group are older, and played the entire seated in a row of chairs, but hearing them live forgave the dinky production and technical imperfections of the recording. The substance of the music was pretty much unchanged from the album they cut nearly five decades earlier; while gospel has always changed along with pop trends, the Staples Jr. Singers don’t seem to have bothered with anything new since they cut that old album. Below you can check out one of my favorites, “I’m Looking for a Man,” which is not about just any man.
Last month the group released its follow up album Searching, 49 years after the debut. The production is different, but it remains delightfully raw, delivering a distinct room sound rather than meticulous, airless, overmiked perfection. The album opens with the sorrowful “Living in This World Alone,” another killer sung by an undiminished if darker toned Annie Brown Caldwell, over a groove swiped from Al Green’s “Love and Happiness.” Check it out below. There are some nice, unexpected touches, such as Steve Daly’s sacred steel solo dropping into “Don’t Need Doctor,” The pipes of lead singer Edward Brown aren’t quite what they used to be, but his phrasing remains spot-on, so when he narrates his salvation on the circling groove of “Lost in a World of Sin” it hit extra hard. There’s a simmering funk girding “You Got to Believe,” and some of the session playing lends an unfortunate modern blues tinge. But that’s a minor complaint, and it certainly won’t be a problem when the group rolls into play Quasimodo on Monday, July 15. The touring band is strictly a family affair, with original singers Annie Brown Caldwell, Edward Brown, and R.C. Brown (who also plays guitar), joined by back-up singer Troy Brown, Abel Caldwell on drums, and Willie Caldwell Jr. on bass.
Liv Andrea Hauge Evokes the Old Nordic Tone in Her Own Way
Considering how progressive and experimental so much of the new music emanating from Norway tends to be these days it’s a little shocking to encounter a musician from Oslo working more inside the tradition. Although she made a wonderful album of improv-heavy art songs last year called Hva nå, Ekko? (Odin) with a septet that included folks like saxophonist Signe Emmeluth and trumpeter Torstein Lavik Larsen playing in a more straight-ahead context that usual, pianist Liv Andrea Hauge has garnered increasing attention for Ville Blomster (Hubro), a trio album she released in February of this year. It can be easy to forget that in the past most listeners associated Norwegian jazz with ECM veterans like Jan Garbarek, Jon Christiansen, and Arild Andersen, purveying that so-called Nordic tone, although the onslaught of new voices in recent decades has blunted that memory. Hauge has a sound that definitely taps into that meditative past while simultaneously forging her own sound, with her nimble rhythm section intentionally throwing a spanner in the works here and there.
Working with double bassist Georgia Wartel Collins and drummer August Glännestrand, Hauge honed her jewel-like compositions into deceptively fragile statements. They’re actually much sturdier and durable than they might appear at first blush. The trio’s execution is marked by a light touch and a great use of space. The album opens with mid-tempo meditation titled “Det vokser ville blomster på månen” that slowly melds from ballad-like fragility into something more nimble, elastic, and forceful. The first solo is given to Collins, with the pianist following, egged on by more extroverted percussive accents and restrained chaos from Glännestrand, whose subtle tension only underlines how pretty the theme is. In fact, most of the album’s eight tunes are rooted in sweet, easygoing melodies, sometimes detrimentally so. “Gullregn,” for example, is a bit treacly in its sentimentality, but thankfully the performances, which are rooted in a strong ensemble feel despite frequent solo action. I prefer that delicate side when the material is spiked with pure sound excursions, like the frictive bass gestures and internal piano sounds that interrupt the classical-flavored melody in“Vår.” Check it out below. A tune like “du og jeg, baby” suggests that the trio has no problem kicking into high gear when so inclined, revealing the same heightened interactivity and empathy heard on the more tender material. The trio, with bassist Kertu Are subbing for Collins, performs at Donau115 on Friday, July 15.
Caleb Wheeler Curtis Plays it Cool
Multi-instrumentalist Caleb Wheeler Curtis has been plugging away on the New York scene for quite a few years, forging his voice in an old school way—through hard work. I can’t say how much the tutelage of pianist Orrin Evans has played in his development, but there’s no question that there’s some kind of correlation. Curtis has been an important member of the pianist’s long-running Captain Black Big Band, and he’s released several albums on Evans’ Imani Records label. I first heard Curtis as part of the collective trio Ember—not to be confused with the defunct European quartet with Christian Lillinger and Urs Leimgruber—with drummer Vinnie Sperrazza and bassist Noah Garabedian on the 2021 album No One is Any One (Sunnyside), which featured Evans on four tracks. The following year Curtis made a stronger impression on me with his quartet album Heat Map, where he was supported not only by Evans, but the other two heavies that comprise the excellent piano trio Tarbaby, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits. The saxophonist stepped up with a decidedly more extroverted sound than what he deploys in the more low-key Ember.
Curtis sounds more assured and relaxed on last year’s August in March (Imani), the third Ember album, where his reeds are complemented by some shockingly solid trumpet playing—on the slow grind of Garabedian’s “Snake Tune” he takes the first chorus on the brass instrument, playing sustained, fragmentary phrases before opening up the melody on the second chorus playing soprano saxophone. Oddly, in the album credits he’s listed as playing stritch, trumpet, and reed trumpet (where a trumpet is fitted with a reed mouthpiece), without listing his main axes, soprano and alto saxophone. All three members of the group contributed tunes, all of which are measured and graceful, evoking a touch of west coast cool without traveling back to the 1950s. The rhythm section maintains a tightly-coiled feel that injects a subtle tension to what are, by-and-large, pretty chill performances, but they can kick it up several notches when called for. The trio has clearly found its footing, and the more measured vibe distinguishes the group from a lot what I hear coming out of New York these days. Below you can hear the Curtis composition “Flotation Device and the Shivers,” a stripped down vehicle for his soprano playing over an impossibly lean, almost metronomic groove. Curtis is visiting Berlin this week, performing with a terrific local combo at Donau115 on Wednesday, July 10 alongside tenor saxophonist Julius Gawlik, bassist Felix Henkelhausen (both he and Gawlik are members of Jim Black & the Schrimps), and drummer Marius Wankel.
Recommended Shows in Berlin This Week
July 9: Joshua Redman & Gabrielle Cavassa, 8:30 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, taking place at AHF Summer Arts Lounge, Mühlenstraße 63, 10243 Berlin
July 9: Anohni & the Johnsons, 8 PM, Zitadelle, Am Juliusturm 64, 13599 Berlin
July 9: Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, 8:30 PM, Gretchen, Obentrautstr. 19-21, 10963 Berlin
July 10: Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet (Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitar, Mark Tenor, tenor saxophone, Ben Street, double bass, and Jeff Ballard, drums), 6:30 PM, Zig-Zag Jazz Club, taking place at AHF Summer Arts Lounge, Mühlenstraße 63, 10243 Berlin
July 10: Caleb Wheeler Curtis, alto saxophone, Julius Gawlik, tenor saxophone, Felix Henkelhausen, double bass, and Marius Wankel, drums, 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
July 11: Camina (Peter Ehwald, saxophones, Johannes Lauer, Fender Rhodes, Laura Robles, cajon & effects), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
July 11: Kwashibu Area Band with Pat Thomas, Amoah & KOG, 8 PM, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin
July 11: Heroines of Sound Festival (Katharina Ernst; Jasmine Guffond; Ensemble Kompopolex), 8 PM, Radialsystem V, Holzmarktstrasse 33, 10243 Berlin
July 12: Heroines of Sound Festival (Ira Hadžić; Katalin Ladik; Natalia Pschenitschnikova; Swantje Lichtenstein; Quiet Music Ensemble; Golden Diskó Ship) 8 PM, Radialsystem V, Holzmarktstrasse 33, 10243 Berlin
July 12: Liv Andrea Hauge Trio (Liv Andrea Hauge, piano, Kertu Are, bass, and August Glännestrand, drums), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
July 12: Ensemble Nist-Nah (Charles Dubois, Paula Escobar, Will Guthrie, Irina Leach, Sven Michel, Julien Ouvrard, Ellen Pelé, and Lou Voisin, gamelan, percussion, drums), 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
July 12: Josh Sinton’s Friendly Experiencers (Josh Sinton, baritone saxophone, Birgitta Flick, tenor saxophone, Joel Grip, double bass, and Michael Griener, drums), 8:30 PM, Terzo Mondo, Grolmanstraße 28, 10623 Berlin
July 13: Heroines of Sound Festival (Robyn Schulkowsky; PHØNIX16 & Marisol Jiménez; Tatiana Heuman & Florencia Curci; Zavoloka), 8 PM, Radialsystem V, Holzmarktstrasse 33, 10243 Berlin
July 13: Ensemble Nist-Nah (Charles Dubois, Paula Escobar, Will Guthrie, Irina Leach, Sven Michel, Julien Ouvrard, Ellen Pelé, and Lou Voisin, gamelan, percussion, drums), 8:30 PM, KM28, Karl Marx Straße 28, 12043 Berlin
July 15: Staples Jr. Singers, 9 PM, Quasimodo, Kantstrasse 12a, 10623 Berlin