Tag: Free Jazz Blog
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…
and Tom Burris
(DISCS 1 – 3) – Paul
The candy box set from Joe McPhee and Paal Nilssen-Love is shiny. Really shiny. Maybe that’s why I bought it. At the store, I just couldn’t keep my gaze away from its brilliance, just as much as I couldn’t resist the promise of 7 CDs of collaboration between these two giants of improvisational music. I as…
No Pair, an Italian jazz-rock improv group came to me as a recommendation, and brilliant one it was. I’ve had the album in high rotation now for the past six weeks or so that it has been in my grimy paws, never tiring of its loose and fragmented ferocity. It’s one of those rare albums that catches on the first spin and doesn’t let go.
A b…
Over the years, I’ve covered some of the work of guitarist Julian Lage, writing about the duo records with pianist Fred Hersch (Free Flying) and guitarist Nels Cline (Room), as well as the more recent solo album World’s Fair. Although a bit out of character for the blog, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to speak with Lage, 27, about his wor…
Cortex was hanging out outside of the small Brooklyn performance/practice space I-Beam when I arrived, the sidewalk kind of serves as the green room for the venue. We talked a little about their last set of concerts in the States about a year and a half ago and about drummerGard Nilssen’s recently releasedtriorecording. They posed for a couple …
Bassist Michael Bisio’s Accortet begins with a breezy tune.Unusual in its texture, which is defined by Art Bailey’s accordion playing, the track ‘AM’ kind of actually sounds like waking up to a new day rife with possibilities.
Accessible and heartfelt, the opener features some excellent group playing. The following track, ‘Henry’s Th…
What a nice concept – this book, edited by publisher Renate Da Rin and co-edited by bassist William Parker, explores how gender and experiences have shaped the creative work of women who have made their careers in music.I was only three interviews in when I was struck by both the simplicity of the books construct and how, because of its appr…
