Tag: Free Jazz Blog
It’s probably safe to say that everyone went at least a little stir-crazy during the first two years of COVID. Between shut-downs, bountiful misinformation, and most importantly, no live music, we were all knocked off-kilter. There was either too much time or not enough of it in the right places, but for some folks, the time was put to quite creati…
John Butcher at Ausland, November 2019. (c)Cristina Marx
By
Paul Acquaro
British saxophonist John Butcher is no stranger to Berlin. Linked to the
Echtzeit scene that emerged during the heady days of post re-unification Germany in
the abundant derelict spaces that …
Concert review, Myra Melford’s Fire and Water Quintet, organized by Jazzwerkstatt.Myra Melford (p), Mary Halvorson (g), Ingrid Laubrock (s), Tomeka Reid (c), Susie Ibarra (d)Pianist Myra Melford and the members of her Fire and Water Quintet took to the stage area of the Institut Français Berlin under adverse conditions: it was too dark to see thei…
As I began writing this review, I was about half-way through Phil Freeman’s Ugly Beauty: Jazz in the 21st Century. I had been picking it up and putting it down for a week or so, which is no fault of the author, rather I blame my computer-mediated attention deficit disorder. The thing is, Ugly Beauty is perfect for this approach to reading. The stor…
Myra Melford. Photo: Brian McMillen and Stef Gijssels with Myra Melford
Paul (FJB): Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, it’s nice to have a
chance to talk with you and catch up with the work that you’re doing.
So, to start, you just played at the Big Ears Festival in Tennessee,
how was it?
…
It’s pretty much a dream team on
For the Love of Fire and Water: pianist Myra Melford along with with
guitarist Mary Halvorson, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, cellist Tomeka Reid,
and percussionist Susie Ibarra. All have played with Melford at one time or
another, but never all together, until one fateful night a few years back at
…
I took a long walk on a bright late winter’s day to listen to Weft in full. It’s one long 45-minute track and for walking, a fine piece. The music flutters ceaselessly like the wind blowing through trees or water cascading through a stream, a trickle of constant, gentle sound. I looked at the barren trees and the nascent buds on some of the bushe…
Florian Arbenz – Conversations #1 (2021) ****
About a year ago Swiss drummer and composer Florian Arbenz released the
first of his planned dozen “Conversations” recordings.
Conversations #1 with Brazilian guitarist Nelson Veras and American
trumpeter Hermon Mehari. Arbenz’s CV features tours with Greg Osby ;
Dav…
It was a windy, warm mid-summer day when I sat down with saxophonist
José Lencastre in the concrete
amphitheater of the Gulbenkian gardens in Lisbon. We talked about his music,
the flowering Lisbon scene, and his new baby, who was – at the time – about the same size of
his alto sax. Another topic we spent spent some time discussing was…
The creative process is really fascinating. Where it begins, how it evolves, when it achieves something, are evergreen questions. Trace the bouncing lines of a simple thought, it may begin with “what shall I eat for breakfast” and within a few moments ends up at thinking about a stretch of the Utah desert with rock formations that look like goblins…
Let’s begin with the players on Untitled (London Leipzig Luzern). I had the chance to see saxophonist Urs Leimgruber play in a duo with keyboardist Jacques Demierre (who was playing an enhanced spinnet) and it was, even by the wide berth given experimental music, an unusual show. Leimgruber had extended passages in which he would either simply mov…
Percussionist and composer Devin Gray released several recordings during the COVID time warp. Today we take at look at a few of these releases which range from adventurous modern jazz to daring avant-garde explorations.Devin Gray, Ralph Alessi, Angelica Sanchez – Melt all the Guns (Rataplan, 2021) ****½This album struck a chord from the first time…
