Tag: Free Jazz Blog
Site Specific is a neat entry in the Ken Vandermark oeuvre: a minimalistic, beautifully bound book packed with two CDs capturing live solo field performances in ’14 and ’15, showcasing Vandermark’s photographs taken as he has toured the world. It’s not a travelogue or tour documentary, it doesn’t capture people, or landscapes, rather it’s imag…
Paal Nilssen-Love and Ken Vandermark
This past month, Ken Vandermark presented a showcase of his recent projects during a week-long residency at the Stone. I was thrilled to be able to catch a few of the sets, including a trio with Matt Maneri and Joe McPhee, the ongoing duos with Nate Wooley and Paal Nilssen-Love (who recently released The Lio…
Radiation begins with an aggressive bass-line and a forceful thrust of percussion in a slightly odd-meter groove. Then distorted wah of a guitar joins, followed by the growl of the organ, leading us into the type of post-apocolyptic sonic landscape reminiscent of the Tony William’s Lifetime circa Emergency. The group however is Transmit and is …
The Ches Smith Trio album that I’m waiting for is ‘Live from Winter Jazzfest’. The two times that the trio has played at the NYC jazz festival have been revelatory. The first show, two years ago, was as I understand it, entirely improvised. This time, as a part of the ECM showcase, they performed the compositions, in sequence, off of their de…
The passing of pianist Paul Bleyis a tough way start to the New Year, especially coming after the loss of Ornette Colemanthis past summer. Fortunately, Bley leaves behind a massive and masterful discography. As a tribute, we present some of our favorites:
Paul Bley Quintet–Barrage (ESP Disk, 1965)
Recorded in 1964, shortly after the histori…
British Clarinetist and guitarist Alex Ward begins his Trios & Sextet’s Projected / Entities / Removalwith a trio configuration of clarinet, sax and drums. A rumble on the drums, a drawn out note on the clarinet and the sax and they are off to strong start.
The opener ‘Projected’ features bouts of free playing capped on both en…
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…
