Tag: Free Jazz Blog
Free Fall is a trio of Ken Vandermark, Havard Wiik, and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on clarinets, piano and bass respectively. The trio, apparently modeled after the early 1960s Jimmy Giuffre’s Trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow, has delivered a challenging and sophisticated effort that reveals itself more with each listen.
The albums cover, a sta…
‘Swimmer’ is a new release from a group of the same name hailing from Chicago. I’m not entirely sure how I came across this group, but I downloaded a copy of their debut frombandcamp.comand have been enjoying the fruits of their labor over the past few days. Swimmer, the band, is comprised of the guitar and drum duo of Dave Miller and Cory …
I must admit I was afraid to listen to this album at first. I thought that I might not know how to hear, compare, or enjoy a solo saxophone recording. I like space and I like the edges of improvisation and music, but I was concerned that this would be to far off my own charts. However,I was intrigued as to what the phrase ‘Time to do my lions’ me…
Though I don’t have the numbers on this, I’m fairly certain that there are more bass clarinets in the hands of jazz musicians then before. Lots of variables here to account for, so don’t judge my research, just enjoy the hypothesis. Jason Stein, Louis Sclavis and Lucien Dubuis come to mind with little thought, and now do does Duplant/Chagas/Noyes…
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…
