D – E – F

All artists filed by last name under D, E and F :

Elton Dean | Paul Dunmall | Paul Rogers | Tony Bianco | Remembrance | No Business Records

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Throughout his life saxophonist Elton Dean had a varied number of associations and styles in which he worked with a sureness and mastery very rare. Whether straight-ahead with Harry Beckett, jazz-rock and beyond with the Soft Machine lineups, or just plain out, he did it all with grace, poise and fire. As far as the out side is concerned you are well served by a new two-CD set of an unreleased session from 2004, appropriately titled Remembrance (No Business NBCD 59/60). Dean and a very able quartet give us extended outings. Elton plays the alto, the incandescent Paul Dunmall takes up the tenor, Paul Rogers smokes the acoustic bass, and the ever-stoking Tony Bianco gets at the drums. — Gregory Edwards Continue reading →

Fabric Trio | Murmurs | No Business Records

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I guess we all know this. You buy a new record/CD and as soon as you are at home you put it on your stereo. You listen to it for the first time and you think: Okay, strong, a good album. Then you listen to it again and again and the more often you listen to it the better it gets. You discover hidden qualities, surprising and interesting details, you recognize what a treat it is. Fabric Trio’s “Murmurs” is exactly such an album. — Martin Schray Continue reading →

Satoko Fujii | Gen Himmel | Libra Records

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What that comes down to is that you must approach Satoko and her music with a refreshed mind and the expectation that she will fill your ears with music that comes directly and pristinely out of her own creative being. And that is indeed the case on Gen Himmel. This is music that has freedom and compositional structuring in more or less equal measure. It is avant without trying to “take it out” so much as explore ideas. With Satoko Fujii’s fertile musical imagination that turns out to be a delightful proposition. More I need not say, except by way of the invitation to listen. This one will repay your attention with a wealth of good sounds. —Grego Applegate Edwards Continue reading →

Kaze | Tornado | Libra Records

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This music is evidence of the existence of entire jazz worlds that most listeners and even collectors might easily be unaware of. Satoko Fujii is obviously a master and a visit to her website reveals a rich catalog of recordings. That such music can be recorded is evidence that such worlds can be easily visited by wanders who fly about in their internet tardis. Tornado was released by Circum-Libra Records. You can also get solo recordings by Fujii (Gen Himmel) and Tamura (Dragon Mat) on Libra Records. I will review these in short order. I urge you to seek out and purchase these recordings. This is music worth investing money, time, and heart in. —Ken Blanchard Continue reading →

Swedish azz presents: Eric Carlsson & All Stars | Volume One & Two | Not Two Records

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Swedish azz is not a joke or a sideshow, as it might appear in a career as drivingly exploratory as Gustafsson’s. Nor is it merely a verbal game, playing with the derivations of jazz/jass/yazz. It is both homage and homecoming, a warm acceptance of the view from a small window on the world. It doesn’t take up slingshots or seek to knock down the neighbouring structures. It is accepting music, as rich and as heady as cognac. — Brian Morton Continue reading →

Sabir Mateen | The Sabir Mateen Jubilee Ensemble | Not Two Records

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greetings my sisters and brothers…
i (we) really hope that you enjoy this debut recording of the jubilee ensemble. this is not a big band but an extension of the sabir mateen quartet (the name at that time, now it is called the sabir mateen ensemble). these compositions were originally composed for a small band but like most of the music i write, it can be played for any size band. this is one dream that has been fulfilled to release a large band recording. I want to thank the creator for allowing me to be alive to do this and my fellow musicians / artists for their never ending hard work and dedication to their art and i want to thank robert o’haire, plus marek winiarski and the staff of nottwo records for giving me the opportunity to record this. peace! — sabir mateen – february 22nd 2011 Continue reading →

Conjure | Bad Mouth | American Clavé

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It was after the ninth or tenth concert in Japan in August 2003 when Leo pointed out what was clear: that through playing and living the new materiel Paris, March of that year through that concert in Tokyo, the new materiel had assumed the form of the band, and the band of the new materiel. Pulling my shoulder, Leo nodded and said what was clear: “It’s TIME.” And although the money took a minute to snap to (hey, it’s this buisiness…), when it did, so did the band, immediately assuming the right form. So, during a week in a New Jersey studio in January 2005, Conjure recorded itself pretty much like a live set. There were a couple of punches on missed cues, but not many. The band breathed with the same music, ease and shared cadences and emotions as when on tour. Yeah, Conjure live in the studio. Just a better lit stage. Ish is fond of pointing out that Conjure may be the longest running music / poetry project around, but I’m not really when it really started. There was a period before the first Conjure recording (1983) when he and I worked together on a few film projects – was that when Conjure really started? Anyway, I’m not sure it matters. The band, the music, the poetry, breathe right now, just like Ish’s magic-realist world outlook contained in his words (fiction, poetry, essays, activism, attitude…) – you can hear it in every turn of this music. Right? — Kip Hanrahan Continue reading →

Kip Hanrahan | A thousand night and a night – (1- red nights | American Clavé

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This disc (these nights?) are long and dense. It’s pretty much impossible to listen to the entire disc, intensely, in one’ pass, so a producer’s suggestion is to take a break (a nap?) at about the fifty something minute mark (after “Princess Dunya and Taj al-Muluk”) and resume listening with “Princess Dunya’s Nocturnal understanding.” The pieces and music on this disc needed to be here, in this night cycle, so as far as cutting is concerned, in this case, it doesn’t make sense to offer “less.” Anyway, nobody’s putting a knife to your neck and making you listen to everything. Listen to what you want of the offering. The stories on this disc were learned from the translations of the Arabian Nights by (the forty volume, unreadable) Burton (including Supplemental Nights). Dawood, Mardrus/Mathers, Pasolini, Borges, Zipes, and, (in ways the clearest) Haddawy and are told (sung) pretty much verbatim, as I understood them. There is no mercy, no justice, except in God, the Almighty, who created the Earth and all the Heavens, and all contained therein, including Evil, Pain and Suffering, with such exquisite Perfection.To the Pure, all Things are Pure. Continue reading →