Category: Recordings
APUH! is a woodwind, bass and drum trio from Sweden, an ever fertile region for inventive jazz, and their debut recording Ett, whichcovers the free jazz lexicon, doesn’t disappoint.
While some of the songs and passages lean to the sparser side, tracks like the opener ‘Hållbara ballonger’ fires on all free cylinders to the end. Next, ‘A German…
Dear Paul,
Some time ago I told you that my girlfriend didn’t like free jazz but she had accepted and tolerated my love and affection for this kind of music. Whenever she enters my apartment and she hears this music she usually ignores it and waits until I turn down the volume or put on something else. But when she arrived at my place after a …
Woodwind player Ben Goldberg has done something like this before. Back in 2007 he pulled together a trio with Devin Hoff and Scott Amendola and dug into the Thelonious Monk song book. That album, Plays Monk, isa brilliant bass, drum, and clarinet take on the master. Here, with drummer Smith Dobson and guitarist Adam Levy, he’s at it again, and …
Argentinian drummer Damian Allegretti, has put together an excellent album with free jazz stalwarts Erik Friedlander (cello) and Tony Malaby (sax). Recorded in New York, Stoddard Place pairs the delicate drumming of Allegretti with empathic and inventive playing from the cello and sax.
The group begins with the upbeat ‘VI’. Malaby andFriedlan…
People were packed in to the West Villages’ Bottom Line on a wet wintry night during this year’sNYC Winter Jazzfestasthe John Irabagon Trio took a commanding stand on stage. Between the saxophonist’s confident and resourceful melodies, Barry Altshul’s inventive and precise drumming, and Mark Helias’ sturdy support, the group had the audience ca…
Bay Area guitarist Ross Hammond’s Humanity Suite was written to perform at the Croker Museum in his hometown of Sacramento, California. Emancipating the Past, a show by visual artist Kara Walker, served as the backdrop, and inspiration, for the set of music. Calm on the surface, but rife with undercurrents of tension and disharmony, the musical…
The musical legacy of woodwind player and composer Jimmy Giuffre is one that is deeply intertwined with many of the recordings that are reviewed here on the Free Jazz Blog. Giuffre’s album Free Fall from 1962 with bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Paul Bley is often regarded as a seminal moment in the development of free jazz, introducing a s…
Is this the start of something new for the Bushman? The Norwegian power trio who has brought us such brutal gems as Jitterbug, A Little Bit of Big Bonanzaand Never Mind the Botoxseem to be merging some of their raw power with the textures of the Hammond organ, experimenting with new space and sounds on Thou Shalt Boogie.
This is not to say tha…
Bassist and composer Lisa Mezzacappa has been delighting the writers here at the Freejazz blog with herBait & SwitchandNightshadereleases over the past few years. Here, the Bay Area bassist teams up with Brooklyn based drummer Mike Pride and guitarist Chris Welcome for an excellent album with composition credits shared amongst the trio.
I …
It’s not often you connect free jazz albums through amphibians… (and there are more salamanders in recent jazz – the first track onAlexander von Schlippenbach’s”Vesuvius” (2005), the third track on Vinny Golia’s “9 Pieces for solo Bb clarinet”, the tenth track on Aych’s “As The Crow Flies” (2012) … so much for irrelevant information)
Dørge,…
Guitar and drums … even more elemental that the classic guitar, bass, and drum line up. Every note counts, every percussive splash, every strike of the pick …
Ava Mendoza – Quit Your Unnatural Ways (Weird Forest, 2012) ****½
Sometimes you get lucky. I came across Ava Mendoza’sQuit Your Unnatural Waysat a recent show and put in on in the…
For the second installment of guitar week, I am excited to be sharing some thoughts on recent releases from two great guitarists (oh hell, they’re all great). From these two artists, the blog has most recently reviewed Raoul Bjorkenheim’s Scorch Trioand Mary Halvorson’s Ghost Loops…
ByPaul Acquaro
Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Tomas Fujiwar…
