We’re working our way through the combinations – recently we had solo, duo and trio weeks, and this week we check out some larger than average bands, starting with one that has beenwaitingfar too long for a review on the Free Jazz Blog…
Baltimore-based bassist and composer Michael Formanek has a concise but impressive list of recordings as…
Jed Gottliebs’ article “Curtains fall on arts critics at newspapers” in the Columbia Journalism Review from earlier this month really got to me. Having grown up in New Jersey reading the arts and leisure section in the Star Ledger,I learneda lot about the arts, music reviews, concert listings – basically all of the things that are still important…
OnJanuary1st we will post the winner of the blog’s New Ears award, but for now,enjoy the mouth watering list of top 10s from your friends in the Free Jazz Collective!
Reviewers Top Albums of 2016
We begin with the reviewers top 10 albums of 2016. A heartfelt congrats to Anna Högberg Attack and the Mary Halvorson Octet who came in tied for the …
Ivo Perelman, Joe Morris & Gerald Cleaver – The Art of the Improv Trio, Volume 5 & 6 (Leo, 2016) ****
As we draw to a close on this series of reviews of saxophonist Ivo Perelman’s latest set of recordings, The Art of the Improv Trio, we have a rare chance to hear the same trio but with the key difference of guitarist Joe Morris o…
Steeped is blistering, no holds barred, instrumental avant-rock. Striking a balance between the ‘jazzier’ strain of band leader Alex Ward’s lithe clarinet playing and guitarist Roberto Sassi’s distorted guitar work, Forebrace manages to be forceful and direct without losing a melodic touch.
Ward is a clarinetist and guitarist from the…
The final installment of duo’s week…
Trevor Watts & Stephen Grew – Con Fluent (FMR, 2016) ****
Saxophonist Trevor Watts has had a wonderfully creative and imaginative musical career, from his early exploratory work with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, to his groups Amalgam, Moire Music, and beyond. On Con Fluent, he continues his restl…
We were looking through some recent releases and noticed that members of the band Cortexhave been pretty busy lately. Following Wednesday’sLive in New YorkandThursday’sFriends and Neighbors, we thought we’d end this rather trying week with three albums loosely and lightly connected through the vortex of Cortex ….
Damana (Dag Magnus Narvesen O…
Earlier this fall, in what seems like another lifetime now, I had the opportunity to see Norway’s Friends and Neighbors in concert. It was a beautiful Saturday night in New York City, on the night before a big storm was supposed to hit, and myself and a small appreciative audience were essentially treated to a private show.
Friends and Neig…
Towards the end of his life, saxophonist David S. Ware reunited with pianist Cooper-Moore for a set of brilliant recordings with a quartet called Planetary Unknown, (two recordings released on AUM Fidelity in 2011 and 2012). Yesterday, Martin reviewed AUM’s re-release of Ware’s first recording, Apogee(1977), that also featured Cooper-Moore. I…
I was hooked by Yoni Kretzmer’s new quintet from the start. First hearing the group in concert an Arts for Arts event last April, then at a show in the tight subterranean headquarters of the DowntownMusicGallery, and finally on their debut recording, Five, to my ears, is the clearest example of saxophonist and OutNow label head Kretzmer’s mus…
Vijar Iyer, Stephan Crump, and Tyshawn Sorey at Miller Theater, Columbia University
It’s probably best to be forthright about this: while I have read all of the reviews of pianist Vijay Iyer’s releases on the Free Jazz Blog, and enjoyed the profile on him in the New Yorker before his appearances at the opening of the Met Breuer, aside from th…
Wrapping up solo week (and yes, you can expect a Duo week coming soon) we have two folks known to the blog: Catherine Sikora andPaulo Chagas.
Catherine Sikora – Jersey (Relative Pitch, 2016) ****
Saxophonist Catherine Sikora spent some time living in the Garden Stateand knows about the unbridled joy of waking up to a New Jersey sunrise and…
