Tag: Free Jazz Blog
Paul Flaherty and Randall Colbourne – Ironic Havoc (Relative Pitch, 2014) ****
Paul Flaherty and Randall Colbourne’sIronic Havocrepresents quite well the forward thinking recordings being released by the Relative Pitch label. Like the Jack and Ben Wright album released earlier this year, this saxophone duo works the limits of their instrume…
Percussionist and composer Vijay Anderson’s Touch and Go Sextet’sLive at the Novara Jazz Festivalhas been languishing in my iPod for months now. This is a shame because it’s an excellent piece of work that could also already be sitting in your iPods (or whatever device you prefer).
Recorded at the Novara Jazz Festival in Italy in 2012, the rec…
Trumpeter Brian Groder’s triowith bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Jay Rosen is a real treat. Their albumReflexology is an expertly crafted mix of composition and improvisation that delivers something more than a sum of its parts.
Lacking a chordal instrument, the trio has a lot of space to fill, which they do – to some extent – while stickin…
Back in November, during the dates that Live at the Village Vanguard was recorded, we were packed in tight in the legendary jazz club’s small triangular subterranean space. Much to our chagrin, the people sitting mere inches to our left were whistling and hooting at every loud sound that emanated from the stage. We agitated, tried shushing, and…
APUH! is a woodwind, bass and drum trio from Sweden, an ever fertile region for inventive jazz, and their debut recording Ett, whichcovers the free jazz lexicon, doesn’t disappoint.
While some of the songs and passages lean to the sparser side, tracks like the opener ‘Hållbara ballonger’ fires on all free cylinders to the end. Next, ‘A German…
Dear Paul,
Some time ago I told you that my girlfriend didn’t like free jazz but she had accepted and tolerated my love and affection for this kind of music. Whenever she enters my apartment and she hears this music she usually ignores it and waits until I turn down the volume or put on something else. But when she arrived at my place after a …
Woodwind player Ben Goldberg has done something like this before. Back in 2007 he pulled together a trio with Devin Hoff and Scott Amendola and dug into the Thelonious Monk song book. That album, Plays Monk, isa brilliant bass, drum, and clarinet take on the master. Here, with drummer Smith Dobson and guitarist Adam Levy, he’s at it again, and …
Argentinian drummer Damian Allegretti, has put together an excellent album with free jazz stalwarts Erik Friedlander (cello) and Tony Malaby (sax). Recorded in New York, Stoddard Place pairs the delicate drumming of Allegretti with empathic and inventive playing from the cello and sax.
The group begins with the upbeat ‘VI’. Malaby andFriedlan…
People were packed in to the West Villages’ Bottom Line on a wet wintry night during this year’sNYC Winter Jazzfestasthe John Irabagon Trio took a commanding stand on stage. Between the saxophonist’s confident and resourceful melodies, Barry Altshul’s inventive and precise drumming, and Mark Helias’ sturdy support, the group had the audience ca…
Bay Area guitarist Ross Hammond’s Humanity Suite was written to perform at the Croker Museum in his hometown of Sacramento, California. Emancipating the Past, a show by visual artist Kara Walker, served as the backdrop, and inspiration, for the set of music. Calm on the surface, but rife with undercurrents of tension and disharmony, the musical…
The musical legacy of woodwind player and composer Jimmy Giuffre is one that is deeply intertwined with many of the recordings that are reviewed here on the Free Jazz Blog. Giuffre’s album Free Fall from 1962 with bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Paul Bley is often regarded as a seminal moment in the development of free jazz, introducing a s…
Is this the start of something new for the Bushman? The Norwegian power trio who has brought us such brutal gems as Jitterbug, A Little Bit of Big Bonanzaand Never Mind the Botoxseem to be merging some of their raw power with the textures of the Hammond organ, experimenting with new space and sounds on Thou Shalt Boogie.
This is not to say tha…
