2015 was another exciting year for the Free Jazz Collective. We welcomed several new reviewers: Peter Gough, Eric McDowell, Joel Barela, Lee Rice Epstein and Derek Stone and had over 1600 albums on the review list to do … oh, if we could only reviewed each and every one! Anyway, typical laments aside, here is our collective album of the year and …
Nick Mazzarella Trio – Ultraviolet (International Anthem, 2015) ****
From the opening moments of Ultraviolet you know you are listening to something special happening. With an approach not unlike mid-period Coltrane in tone, Nick Mazzarella plays with a fearsome intensity. “Neutron Star” kicks off the album with a four note melody that…
ByPaul Acquaro
Saxophonist Jon Irabagon is front and center on three new releases – two under his own Irabbagast imprint and one with drummer Barry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor out on TUM records – and each one is an outpouring of music so completely different that it raises the possibility that there actually three different Irabagons running amok!
Jo…
The SLD Trio is from Beunos Aires, Argentina. Their group is comprised of Paula Shocron: piano; Germán Lamonega: bass; Pablo Diaz: drums and their debut album Anfitrion (which means ‘host’ in Spanish) is a pretty stunning debut.
The album builds slowly. For the first two tracks the trio works with the quieter side of their instruments -Shoc…
I am going to have to ask for forgiveness on this … aswe wrap up 2015, it seems a bit … umm … untimely to mention this 2014 release, but it’s one that was brought to my attention only recently, and one that is worth the brief breach of the time-space continuum.
The Alliteration’s eponymousdebutis a meta concept – I’m not sure if they …
Luís Lopes / Jean-Luc Guionnet – Live At Culturgest (Cleanfeed, 2015) ****
Live at Culturgest brings together lablemates guitarist Luis Lopes (Humanization 4tet, Lisbon Berlin Trio) and saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet (Ames Room, Moon Fish) for a set of vibrant and often noisy duets.
The duo brought their divergent styles together for an e…
John Abercrombie – The First Quartet (ECM, 2015) ****½
I’ve been a fan of John Abercrombie’s work for a long time now – it was a bassist with whom I was playing that suggested we try ‘Timeless’, the title track to the guitarists first ECM release who first introduced me to his work. He was a great bass player, with a real elastic sense of tim…
Comes the end of the year … a time of best of polls, the guilt and regret of not being able to cover all of the wonderful music that has come out during the year, and a guitar week!
Aram Bajakian – Music Inspired by the Color of Pomegranates(s/r, 2015) ****½
This is the soundscape for the day after. It doesn’t really matter the day after w…
With the three unusual musical thinkers involved in the group of ‘Premature Burial’ you can be quite well assured that their music is nothing typical.
The folks at work here are Peter Evans on piccolo trumpet, Matt Nelson on saxophone and effects, and Dan Peck on tuba and effects. Evans’ work is well known to readers of this blog (we most re…
I’ve been mesmerized by the fearsome math rockers Ahleuchatistas. The North Carolina based guitar/drum duo of Shane Parish (guitar) and Ryan Oslance (drums) deliver some carefully constructed progressive music, leaning toward the heavier rock side, but still balanced tunefully with space and melody. I had been listening and following along, bu…
Karl Berger & Kirk Knuffke – Moon (NoBusiness, 2015) ***
By Stefan Wood
Karl Berger and Kirk Knuffke’s collaborative double CD effort, Moon,is a contemplative album of moody and thoughtful duets, trumpet and vibes (or on occasion, piano), mostly low key, using silence as their third partner in making the music. It is a result of a newly ma…
Not so long ago, we reviewed percussionist Andrew Drury’s solo album TheDrum – which showcased every single possible way to play a floor tom. We also covered Saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer’s 2Bass Quartet album Book II recently as well, which is a spectacular bottom heavy two disc set. On this duo outing,Oranges, these two highly original artists i…
