★ezz-thetics
To Walk On Eggshells
"Christian Weber said in an interview for “Jazz’N’More": No matter how I move along the timeline, my attention is focused on what is to come. At the same time, I always keep in mind what happened before, without analyzing. This way, I avoid the improvisation becoming arbitrary. Both arbitrary openness and narrow restriction, neither suits me." And therein lies the whole secret of this record and ultimately the definition of great art: it is the ability of a musician to have control over space an…
About (or On), First Visit
"A standard takes on a new shape when it is realized through Trio New York’s methods. Their improvised preludes promote refreshed readings studded with bright accents and pungent embellishments, reinforcing the qualities that have enabled these tunes to endure, be it the sweet sentimentality of “Memories of You” or the devil-may-care of “Just One of Those Things.” By embracing the tenets of free improvisation – experimentation, discovery, and, on a good night, elucidation – Trio New York has tra…
Our Thing To In ’N Out
Joe Henderson Our Thing To In ’N Out Revisited notes: The Blue Note label in the early and mid 1960s was a haven for musicians engaged in the process of expanding the jazz vocabulary with unconventional harmonic strategies and new compositional infrastructures that elicited equally exploratory improvisational responses. And it was an ongoing process, benefiting from the sporadic, albeit calculated, interaction of different perspectives and methods of creative inspiration. Established or working g…
Die Unwucht
Big Tip! As poets from Shakespeare to Heine have recognised, “the forest” is not just about grandeur and most expansive of gestures; it is also about intimacy and there is a remarkable intimacy to Christopher Kunz’s and Florian Fischer’s music. The forest is both inhuman, wild, and, because it houses us and to a degree depends on us, profoundly humane. You’ll find these qualities here as well. Focus, breathe and listen. (Brian Morton)
In The Shadow
Joe Maneri’s last Microtonal recordings from the year 2002. These are not typically arranged songs, but asymmetrical, asynchronous constructs that develop from simultaneous, complimentary but peripheral gestures of the mind and heart. The harmonic contrasts that result from Joe Maneri’s breathy microtones; the fixed pitches, inclining towards atonality, of Tyson Rogers’ piano; and Jacob Braverman’s ambiguously scored percussion color their contrapuntal angles and parallel lines. Layers of energy…
Introducing A Very Heavy Person, First Visit
First visit to the audio equivalent of a graphic novel.
Luigi Nono w/ Ludwig van Beethoven, First Visit
The relationship between Ludwig van Beethoven’s "op. 132 string quartet" and Luigi Nono’s "Fragmente – Stille, an Diotima" spans 155 years while sharing several conceptual dimensions – among them, their respective composers’ intense idealism in the pursuit of art as a transformational, unifying experience; their utopian visions of political and social justice; and the struggle to translate a profound personal expression into a consequential public reality. - Art Lange
Prophecy Live, First visit
First visit live offers new mastering of the trio’s first performance at the cellar cafe, New York City 1964.
Floater & Syndrome - The Upright Piano Sessions, Revisited
"It was once said of Paul Bley that he was the only pianist who could make a concert grand sound like an
upright. While that is not literally true, or only partly so, it makes a point that strikes home on these often
strange, offbeat, otherworldly tracks. It is a quality preserved by Michael Brändli’s typically sensitive sonic
Paul Bley-upright piano
Steve Swallow-double bass
Pete LaRoca-drums
restoration, which increases the probability of rapture. Enjoy." – Chris May
Live Lugano 1984, First Visit
"The special qualities of this music emerge from the focus on Lacy’s soprano saxophone in this unique instrumentation; the transparency and intimacy of the bass and guitar create a nuanced background set against the variety of improvisational strategies." - Art Lange"The removal of two recorded compositions and the editing here is based on notes originally written by Steve Lacy on the cassette he sent me to listen to and evaluate the music for release. I acquired the original recording in 1985 f…
Atlantic Puffin
"This, it seems to me, is the great strength of Sophie Lüssi’s music here on Atlantic Puffin. It is clearly skilled and doesn't deal in casual approximations. It is built on solid technique, a brilliant appropriation of classical violin methods in the interests of improvisation. But her music, which draws on folk as well as canonical forms, is one that emanates from and addresses the whole person. It's generous music, kindly and open, and in its gentle humour it engages a part of the spirit that…
Cecil Taylor Unit, Live At Fat Tuesday's February 10, 1980 First Visit
"This, the third release from the sequence of remarkable performances by Cecil Taylor’s Unit recorded at Fat. Tuesday’s in New York from 8-10 February 1980 (the previous two are It Is In the Brewing Luminous [Hat Hut], and Live At Fat Tuesday’s, February 9, 1980 [ezz-thetics 101]), is a further illumination of the transformational premise which conceptualized and catalyzed Taylor’s music, from creative impulse to spiritual and self-defining fulfillment." – Art Lange
Net
"Would the following advice alone be sufficient? Look at the cover of this album, then close your eyes and listen to the wonderful performances of these two musicians. Because in the end, all art speaks for itself." – Rudolf Amstutz
At Sotto Il Mare, First Visit
"No music making can be entirely non-idiomatic. Removing the metaphor, the claim is that it is characterless, without personality. But despite his best intentions, perhaps, one can hear a range of influences in Bailey’s own work – even if jazz isn't one of them. And the present album shows that "non-idiomatic" is the wrong description for much free improvisation. The common description "abstract" is also misleading. All music is abstract in form, humane in utterance." – Andy Hamilton
Fontainebleau & Magic Touch "Revisited"
"Tadd Dameron remains better known and more widely admired among fellow musicians than with the record-buying public, and yet most will know at least some of his sophisticated compositions: “Lady Bird”, “On A Misty Night”, “If You Could See Me Now”. A thoughtful manner and an early death conspired to keep his reputation somewhat subdued. Here is an opportunity to hear two of Dameron's best recordings in modern sound. An intelligent rather than dramatic player himself, he nonetheless deserves…
Compositori Sardi Contemporanei II
"Today’s wine tasting is once again hosted by sommelier Claudio Sanna. He presents more local Sardinian varieties with a round of flights, much like the 2022 release Compositori Sardi Contemporanei. Instead of grape cultivars and vintner, Sanna presents multiple composers and performers for you to sample, not with your tongue but your ears. Just like a wine tasting experience, these tracks are a sample of the rich and fertile Sardinian landscape of creative musicians." – Mark Corroto
Live Amsterdam 2006, First Visit
To experience this music, over the relocations of time and place, is an opportunity to confront complex truths and seductive mysteries, discover the poetry in sound, and share a rare “ecstatic instant.” – Art Lange
Ran Blake pianoDave Knife Fabris electric guitar (tracks 11-18)
How Time Passes To Essence "Revisited"
"...How Time Passes... and Essence were issued at a time when jazz history was being made practically on a monthly basis. There are a few reasons why they became submerged in the tsunami of groundbreaking albums released in the first years of the 1960s. For starters, Candid and Pacific Jazz simply did not have the market clout of Atlantic, Impulse, and other labels. Furthermore, Don Ellis’ music differed significantly from that of the avatars of free jazz, occupying a space between contemporar…
Kon.Takte
"Kontakte makes contacts between acoustic instrumental sounds and electronic music, its multidimensionality and its invitation to time travel, all promised a future in which humanity might transcend the limitations of material reality. In Spiegelung and Geschichte der Gewalt the electronic sounds emerge as transformations of this reality." – Christopher Fox
1964 Recordings
"A long life can contain a certain amount of waste. Live long enough and posterity doesn’t notice the occasional unproductive gap. A short life adds value to every moment and every creative act. This new issue of Albert Ayler’s brief association with Don Cherry includes further material from their time in Copenhagen, a period when the saxophonist daily reinvented the themes that were coursing through his mind, breath and fingers. These are not a collector’s fetishes. These are fresh document…