Jazz /
Abstract
"'Audiences now seem to be understanding what we're doing. We've stepped up the amount of free-form to about fifty percent, and all over the country we're getting better receptions for this kind of music than we get for conventional modern jazz.' Free-form tries, says Harriott, to add color to jazz: 'Of jazz's various components -- constant time signatures, a steady 4/4 tempo, themes, chord sequences, and so on -- we aim to retain at least one in each piece. But we may dispense with all t…
The Founder Effect III
Excellent as the two quartet discs are, the trilogy saves its ace to the end, thus bringing it to a fitting climax. (Despite that, it is worth stressing that this trilogy should best be heard altogether, rather than one of its discs being cherry-picked.) The pairing of Pat Thomas's piano and Steve Noble's percussion—credited as "The Both"—is an ideal match. The two had recorded together before, on And (Rectangle, 1997) with Derek Bailey, but with Noble on turntables not drums—an encounter that g…
The Founder Effect II
With a generosity of spirit that is touching, the three tracks on this disc are titled after deceased (and much missed) improv heroes—drummer Tony Marsh, saxophonists Lol Coxhill and John Tchicai. (Coxhill never recorded for Treader but Marsh and Tchicai both did.) That gesture serves as a reminder of the close-knit nature of the improv community—a factor which is vital to its music. Although this CD features the same four musicians as the first one, Coxon here plays synthesiser instead of guita…
The Founder Effect I
You cannot judge a book by its cover. Maybe, but music fans somehow know that expression doesn't lend itself to album covers (in this case, CD covers). Look at the Blue Note Records covers from the 1960 sixties, Miles Davis' On The Corner (Columbia, 1972), or The Clash's London Calling (Columbia, 1979), and tell me you don't have a very good idea what you'll hear on those records. Covers matter, and more importantly they reveal essential information about the music found inside. Since 2004, the …
Sign of the Myth
"In 1972, Sun Ra inked a high-profile deal with ABC / Impulse, bringing his recorded work to the widest audience he’d had to date. A slew of Saturn back catalog titles and two newly-recorded albums (Astro Black, Pathways To Unknown Worlds) were issued before ABC cancelled the contract, dumped the records into the cut-out bins, and left the unreleased albums to languish. Now, over four decades later, Roaratorio is proud to offer one of the lost Impulse recordings for the first time. Sign…
La Maison Fille Du Soleil
Cross-pollinating the wants lists of art/jazz/print and architecture enthusiasts this seldom sighted 45 single is regarded as the rarest “lost” recording by American jazz trumpeter and global communal music missionary Don Cherry as he collaborates with French piano improv genius François Tusques. A missing link in the pre-formative years of improvised jazz this mythical private pressing unites two of the key exponents of both American and French free jazz – two entirely independent musical art f…
Solo Acoustic Volume Seven
12-string alchemy from the wilderness of Western MA, Pasquarosa's compositions trans¬x with hypnotic ¬finger picked melodies of a true occult nature. Known for his work under the Crystalline Roses moniker, his acoustic playing resounds with mysticism and unknown pleasures.
Jacana
LP version. The best improvisers are the ones that seem to invent and uninvent their instruments right in front of your eyes and ears. Swedish pianist Sten Sandell and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love are two musical champions with a long experience of doing exactly that. Jacana, the latest in Rune Grammofon's occasional series of unusual duo combinations, features the pair's sparkly improvised set captured at the 2013 Kongsberg Jazz Festival in southern Norway. Sten and Paal have been …
Exit!
Gatefold double LP version. It can't be easy gathering 28 of Northern Europe's finest jazz and improvising musicians in one place at the same time, which is why Sweden's Fire! Orchestra has been one of the continent's best-kept secrets so far. After playing rare shows a handful of times a year, this incredible mass ensemble is getting ready to unleash its full power with Enter, its first studio recording. This isn't jazz: this is Nordic dynamite. Fire! originated as the trio of Swedish …
Without Noticing
LP version. Rune Grammofon presents (without noticing), the fifth album from Swedish trio Fire!, comprised of Mats Gustafsson (The Thing), Johan Berthling (Tape) and drummer Andreas Werliin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums). This album follows collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi and the gargantuan 30 piece Fire! Orchestra band. Fire!'s latest burnt offering features the trio alone with themselves, lighting up a sonic blaze which smolders, then catches alight under their careful attention. …
You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago
LP version. This is the debut full-length release from excellent Swedish jazz trio, Fire! -- something of a supergroup with members from already well-known quarters. Sax player, improviser and composer Mats Gustafsson is probably best-known from power-jazz trio The Thing, but he has also played more than 1,500 concerts and participated on around 150 records with musicians such as Peter Brötzmann, Sonic Youth, Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, Barry Guy, Otomo Yoshihide, Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, Derek B…
Live at Vilnius Jazz Festival
A demanding live duo performance from New York drummer William Hooker and Lithunian saxophonist Liudas Mockunas, performing at the 2013 Vilnius Jazz Festival. The playing is hard-edged, rugged and free playing, keeping a strong momentum from Hooker's unabating drive, maintaining a solid pulse without seeming to repeat himself. Mockunas has a thick confident approach to his playing, varying melodic riffs with trance-like playing. An album of edge-of the-seat and persuasive playing."Liudas Mockuna…
Perilous Architecture
In the Dan Blacksberg Trio, the innovative and genre-defying trombonist brings an expansive and creative new vision to the cutting-edge jazz traditions of pioneers like Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Albert Ayler. The trio is celebrating the release of Perilous Architecture, their second album for Lithuanian-based NoBusiness Records. Blacksberg has penned a set of music that pushes at the technical and timbral limits of his instrument, opening up into far-reaching sounds worlds while maintaini…
Plaything
This open-minded trio recorded Plaything in October of 2012 at Studio Juillaguet, a recording and dance space located in a rural part of southwest France that is run by Kent Carter and his wife, a professional choreographer. Bassist Kent Carter produced the album, along with the NoBusiness label. Gianni Lenoci and Bill Elgart first met in Evil Rabbit's 2010 Amsterdam music festival. Subsequently Lenoci invited Carter to Monopoli, Italy to do a workshop with his orchestra, which Carter …
Ascent Of The Nether Creatures
Previously unreleased material from the quartet of trumpeter Earl Cross, saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, bassist Rashied Al Akbar, and drummer Muhammad Ali, performing live in The Netherlands in 1980, for five smoking examples of free jazz. The recordings are on the rough side, but the playing is spectacular, with impressive soloing from all 4 players. Clearly the room was transfixed by their playing, all all 4 respond with concentrative solos and great exuberance. The tune's heads sometim…
The Periphery Of The Periphery
About a week after September 11, 2001 I flew into New York City to be a grant panelist for the Rockefeller Foundation's arts program. Flying into New York the aftermath of the destruction of the Twin Towers could still be seen as an eerie cloud and haze that embraced the site of the attacks. Walking through the streets there were flyers posted everywhere that detailed the names and descriptions of the missing and dead. I sat in a room for the arts panel that gave me a birds eye view of the…
Crystal Spears
Recorder at Variety Studios, NYC, 1973 - ltd/numbered 1/75 with paste-on cover (notes on back) and regular white inner sleeve "it was originally to be released on Impulse but that never happened, so this is the 1st time on vinyl. crystal wax and paste-on cover with Ra holding a kind of crystal spearse!"
Northwood box vol.II
Sensational!!! 4LP box set with printed inner sleeves, black vinyls/black labels, ltd ed 75 copies only numbered. "second and last volume; including their earliest available recordings from 1985 (not available anywhere else)!" (ep) Fog and Fire #51: rec. January 8, 1994 at Northwoods Studios, Michigan, originally released by Arc on CD; Branches #52: rec. 2000, originally released by Entropy on CD; Spinning #53: rec. June 7th & 8th, 1996 at Northwoods Studios, Michigan, originally released …
On leaves of grass
Following up on the success of 2013’s “Dreamachines”, the third release by the brilliant quartet Nova Express is inspired by and dedicated to American poetic genius and father of free verse Walt Whitman. Combining the hypnotic swirls of minimalism, the free intensity of improvisation and a soaring lyricism, “On Leaves of Grass” is an exhilarating addition to Zorn’s growing collection of mystical transcendental works. An emotional and virtuosic outing from this Downtown supergroup performing musi…
Cycles (1976-80)
Solo saxophone performances of three of Lacy's rarest cycles. The eight-part SHOTS (Moms / Pops / The Kiss / Tots / The Ladder / Fruits / Coots / The Wire) comes mostly from a 1977 Roman concert, with a couple of missing pieces taken from other contemporaneous performances. The only other complete (duo) release of this material was on a long deleted (Musica) LP. The rest of this 2-CD set comes from a 1980 solo recording session and concert in the lively acoustics of an old church in Porrentruy i…