It begins all sustain and fury, a forceful melody and thick harmony raining down. The strident melody of ‘The New Fact’ is unleashed on the first beat and driven even harder when the drums and bass join in. Then the floor drops out and pianist Matthew Shipp lays into a spirited improvisation that is buoyed by the restrained propulsion of the rhyt…
Over the past few months i’ve become acquainted with guitarist and bassist Joe Morris’ work. I recently reviewed his release ‘Creatures’ with percussionist Luther Gray and thought very highly of it. On ‘Camera’, to which I’m admittedly coming to a bit late (it was released this past fall) the same duo is joined by violinist Katt Hernandez and cel…
As far as I can tell, Joe Sachse’s ‘One Take’ is not about technical chops, nor is it really about the compositions, however in the course of its 78 minutes, neither are lacking. Due to a paucity of liner notes (I’m working from mp3), I am making some assumptions about this loose and enjoyable recording, namely that its title is indicative of th…
Any album with a cover of the last communist leader of Poland sporting a topiary hat is a promise. It’s a deal between the musicians and the listeners that they are in for something unexpected. And just from the first few seconds of “The Mastella Variations”, the promise is delivered.
Jaruzelki’s Dream by Jazz Gawronski is a thoroughly modern sa…
There is a great deal of space for electric guitarist Scott Fields and tenor saxophonist Matthias Schubert to fill on this recent duo outing.
Clean Feed offers this description on their site:
“In the Minaret Minuets system there are two separate but equal branches: the electric guitar and the tenor saxophone. Composer slash instrumentalists —…
Japan’s Emergency! is a powerful jazz quartet whose dual guitar attack of Otomo Yoshihide and Ryoichi Saito is irreverent and irresistible. Rounding out the group is double bassist Hiroaki Mizutani and drummer Yasuhiro Yoshigaki. Apparently the group does not play outside of Japan all that often, which makes “Live in Copenhagen” on JVTlanDT even …
I stumbled upon this album by sheer chance late this past fall. I think it was a case of judging a record by it’s cover — the mish mash of 80’s video game archetypes, pigs and a meat cleaver was intriguing. It turned out that this Scandanavian quartet of electric guitar, sax, acoustic bass, drums and various electronics made some pretty interes…
What makes this excursion into improvised mayhem so compelling? There is no reason that I can rationally put forth to explain how and why “Mangosteen 3000 A.D.” should be listened to at all. It’s not neatly defined as jazz, rock, post-rock, pre-jazz or rife with beautiful melodies and dazzling harmonies. Rather, Evan’s trumpet bifurcates into sp…
Is it once a decade that we listeners are entitled to an entirely acoustic Medeski, Martin and Wood album? At the start of the 90’s their debut “Notes from the Underground” set a high bar. 2000’s “Tonic”, a live album titled after the now defunct New York City performance space, came out after several organ and keyboard oriented recordings. And …
We are waking up slowly, somewhere unexpected. Small sounds are creeping into our consciousness, clicks, moans — slightly spooky — suggesting a less than desirable near future. We begin to focus and clicks become tones, sounds begin to connect, we realize that we are being spoken to, but in a strange dialect. Soon we realize that this language,…
I must admit that is has taken me a little while for me to get into this album. I liked the Edmonton, Canada based trio’s first recording, “Uninvited” with keyboardist Jamie Saft and had been looking forward to hearing their work with Wayne Horvitz. The core of this somewhat unusual combo is made up of Craig Brenan on trombone, Jeff Johnson on ac…
Dom Minasi Quintet – The Bird, the Girl and the Donkey – (Re:Konstrukt, 2010)
Joe Morris & Luther Gray – Creatures – (Not Two, 2010)
A black and white cartoon panel series with their conversation bubbles empty graces The Girl, the Bird and the Donkey, while Creatures presents a black and white pattern of birds in flight. Both of these cove…
