Author: No Business Records

Daniel Blacksberg Trio | Perilous Architecture | No Business Records

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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. 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 maintaining a melodic rootsiness. Backed up by the powerful rhythm of Matt Engle (Shot X Shot) on bass, and Mike Szekely (Anthony Braxton Quartet) on drums, the Trio creates a driving mixture of noise, chromatic lyricism, and everything in between… Continue reading →

Nate Wooley | Hugo Antunes | Chris Corsano | MALUS | No Business Records

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An often inspired study in post-noise atmospherics, Malus brings together three pioneering improvisers in their late thirties. Nate Wooley deploys vocalisation and extreme extended technique to turn his trumpet into a hissing steam engine and a bubbling cauldron, channelling electricity to create groggy lo-fi textures. Chris Corsano is in a reflective, exploratory mood, dragging objects across amplified skins to create queasy high-pitched drones and dull metallic rings. Double bassist Hugo Antunes steadies the ship while Wooley and Corsano scramble up the rigging, yet he’s far from conventional: hear him loom into orbit on ‘Seven Miles From The Moon’, carving monolithic obsidian slabs out of deep space silence. The trio’s sense of timing, texture and space is impeccable. In ‘4 Cornered’, a manic Wooley declaims over Corsano’s accelerating scuttle before Antunes walks the muttering trumpeter home. Wooley’s compositional nous, meanwhile, radiates in the Andalucian blues ‘Gentleman of Four Outs’. — Stewart Smith Continue reading →

Jason Ajemian | Tony Malaby | Rob Mazurek | Chad Taylor | A Way A Land Of Life | No Business Records

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Jason Ajemian, bassist, has developed a high profile in the improvised music scene over the years, performing with Rob Mazurek’s Mandarin Movie, Exploding Star Orchestra, and Chicago Underground Trio; Ken Vandermark’s Crisis Ensemble; and currently with Marc Ribot’s new group Sun Ship. Ajemian’s curiosity has ranged far and wide – he’s just as comfortable in the hushed, folksy setting of Born Heller, his duo with Josephine Foster, as he is in the breath-processed arrangements of his large ensemble Who Cares How Long You Sink. Given such a variety of musical interests, a detour like “From Beyond,” Ajemian’s backward version of Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void” for chamber ensemble, begins to seem like an obvious stop on his journey from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Chicago and his current home in New York City. Continue reading →

Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio & Peter Evans | Live in Lisbon | No Business Records

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Live in Lisbon consists of two tracks – “Conflict is Intimacy” and “Music is the Music Language” – and especially the first title functions as a guiding idea the musicians seemed to have for this album. Obviously, Rodrigo Amado (saxes), Peter Evans (tp), Miguel Mira (c) and Gabriel Ferrandini (dr) carry out conflicts, since they are free individuals bringing in different ideas. They are on stage to make a statement, but they respect each other, there is an open-mindedness which is necessary to create something new. In order to achieve this, the musicians have to be intimate, they have to trust each other. — Martin Schray Continue reading →

Max Johnson Quartet | The Prisoner | No Business Records

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Bassist Max Johnson has been building up quite an impressive resume as both a leader and a sideman for a variety of labels. His second release of this year is a collaborative effort with Ingrid Laubrock on tenor saxophone, Mat Maneri on viola and Tomas Fujiwara on drums. You might think that this unit could blow up quite a storm, and indeed they do on a few sections of the recording, but most of the music is given over to slow and atmospheric improvisations. The group shows quite a bit of cohesion and self control in the building of their music, and Maneri’s subtle and patient bowing meshes very well with Ingrid Laubrock who is quite comfortable at low volume and long narrow bands of sound. This is an interesting album, definitely worth picking up if you are interested in patient and slowly developing music that envelops you in a sense of unease. It is all the more powerful when the band really lets loose on more feverish improvisational sections, coming as a shock and keeping the listener on their toes throughout the album, developing the sound of surprise and not knowing what might be around the next corner. — Tim Niland Continue reading →

Jean Luc Cappozzo | Christine Wodrascka | Gerry Hemingway | 2° étage | Grey Matter | No Business Records

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Les titres des pieces sont evocafeurs: sur un fond de matiere grise, un sherif possede arrive d’un train fantome, va pres d’un ruisseau, commence un mouvement: en haut en bas, c’est le moment de danser, belle echappee! Le trio 2° etage, compose de Jean- Luc Cappozzo, Gerry Hemingway et Christine Wodrascka improvise sa musique comme des conteurs, des peintres, des poetes. Ces trois musiciens sont des magiciens de la spontaneite, inventant dans I’instant un decor, une histoire, un monde imaginaire avec leurs sons nes de tuyaux, coquillages, peaux, ca-houtchou, bois, cloches, billes, scotch, pinces a linge… Us jouent ensemble comme des enfants, avec generosite et authenticite, pour vivre une aventure musicale et humaine, en osmose dans I’instant present.

The titles of the pieces are evocative: on the bottom of grey matter, a possessed sheriff arrives from a ghost train, goes near a rivulet, begins a movement, up down, its time to dance, beautiful escape! The trio 2° etage, comprised of Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Gerry Hemingway and Christine Wodrascka, improvise their music as storytellers, painters, poets. These three musi-cans are magicians of the spontaneous, instantly creating a setting, a story and an imaginary world with their sounds born from pipes, shells, skins, rubber, wood, bells, balls, adhesive tape, clothespins…. They piay together as children play together, with generosity and authenticity, living a human and musical adventure, through osmosis in present time. Continue reading →

Daunik Lazro | Joëlle Léandre | Hasparren | No Business Records

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ERRATIC MILESTONES. Although we (MADAME Leandre & me) have carefully listened to each other and regularly played together since 30 years or so, we have rarely documented on records our musical meetings. After all, regarding improvisation, to disappear in the air is the rule, almost the law. The sand castle everytime erased, we must build a brand NEW one at every concert. Four notable EXCEPTIONS : « Enfances », excerpts from a unique concert at the legendary club 28 rue Dunois (Paris) in January 1984, a trio with wonderful George Lewis (issued as side D in the 2LP album « sweet zee »for Hat Art). « Paris Quartet»: Joe’He Leandre, pianist Irene Schweizer, trombonist Yves Robert and myself, from two brilliant concerts (issued in 1989 on swiss label Intakt). « Madly you », recorded at festival Banlieues Bleues in 2001 : a sublime quartet-with violonist Carlos « Zingaro » and drummer Paul Lovens (issued on label Potlatch, 2002). Then Christine Baudillon realized a film on Joelle : « Basse continue » (issued on DVD, hors-ceil editions, 2008), including among lots of other sequences (with Barre Phillips or Mr Braxton) an excerpt of our duo snooted at club « 7 Lezards » (Paris) in november 2006. Fortunately, on December 2011, Catherine Luro invited the duo to play in HAS-PARREN (Pays Basque) and our dear Jean-Marc Foussat was there, with good mikes and his exceptional ears. Of course, the music was beautiful. This is our milestone #5… — Daunik Lazro Continue reading →