Roscoe Mitchell | Nicole Mitchell | Black Earth Ensemble| Three Compositions | Live at Sant’Anna Arresi | RogueArt Jazz

Despite the compositions’ respective demands Nicole Mitchell and Black Earth Ensemble fully and vividly represented Roscoe Mitchell’s varied means of creating chemistry between written and improvised materials. At every turn in the program, they played with a palpable sense of familiarity and ease with the composer’s vernacular and methods. They sounded like they’ve been playing this music every night for a long time. — Bill Shoemaker, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading

Didier Petit | Alexandre Pierrepont | Passages – A Road Record – Woodstock – New York – Chicago – Los Angeles | RougeArt Jazz

Lawrence Butch Morris developed the concept of “conduction” to account for a mode of Instant Composition based on the creative freedom of the players stimulated by the gestures of a central conductor. AP/DP, with this cd, invent the practice of musical transduction. Just like the French language is not “translated” but transducted into Kamau Daáood’s unique prosody, DP’s cello does not “translate” the playing of a thumb piano, an oud or a kora: all of these instruments, all of their phrasings electrify his playing from the inside, they are transducted into the cello. Similarly, DP’s vocal cords do not “translate” what his fingers perform on the strings: both are electrified by a common current, alternating and direct. The astonishing fluidity of this complex meshwork of influences qualifies AP/DP as “Super-transductors”: through this cd, one hears not only a whole family of giant cello players (Abdul Wadud, Robert Een, Tom Cora, Ernst Reijseger, Peggy Lee, Hank Roberts), but also a long history of lyrical surrealism (from Lautréamont to Henri Michaux), and the widest range of traditions in ethnomusicology (from Africa to the Middle East, through classical Europe and Amerindian singing)… …Be prepared to be transducted, transformed and elated. — Yves Citton, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading

Greg Lyons

Greg Lyons is a British saxophonist, composer and arranger. Currently based out of Singapore, he is becoming known to an ever-increasing network of listeners for a commitment to making original music of an eclectic nature combining elements of his whole musical evolution – which includes representations of jazz, classical, funk, rock, pop, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, avant-garde, folk and lots more.

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William Hooker Quintet | featuring Adam Lane | Channels of Consciousness | No Business Records

William Hooker (born 1946) is an American jazz drummer and composer. Early in his career, he played with the Isley Brothers and Dionne Warwick, among others. In college, Hooker began broadening his musical vision: He wrote a paper on Alban Berg, and befriended some members of Funkadelic. A move to New York City in the mid-1970s led Hooker to the so-called “loft scene” of adventurous free jazz performers. While Hooker was active in music throughout the 1980s, he was little recorded until the 1990s. While most of Hooker’s output is rooted in free jazz, critic Neil Strauss has written, “William Hooker is a man determined to get his music ‘out there’, and he’ll cross any genre to do it.” His work has also crossed over into noise rock and free improvisation. He has worked with Glenn Spearman, Christian Marclay, Tomaas Proitsis, DJ Olive, William Parker, Sabir Mateen, Dave Soldier, and Sonic Youth founders Thurston Moore, and Lee Ranaldo. Continue reading

Hamid Drake | Kent Kessler | Ken Vandermark | DKV Trio | Past Present | Not Two Records

You can wonder whether seven albums are really worth it, and what it offers more than their existing catalogue. The answer is simple, it’s as good as the “Live At Wells & Chicago” album, their best album in my opinon, with similar drive and raw lyricism, and with a great sound quality, much better than “Baraka”, “Live” and “Trigonometry”. So, get your copy while they are available! — Stef Continue reading

Yehudit | YL 101 | Edgetone Records

Violinist Yehudit (pronounced “yeah who DEET”) is making a place for herself in the forefront of the jazz mainstream, demonstrating that the electric violin, in her hands, is a convincing and innovative jazz instrument. A classically trained player with a solid grounding in the jazz idiom, her extensive professional experience encompasses ensembles as diverse as the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and the jazz/blues band John Handy with Class. Performing on electric and acoustic five-string violins, she produces a varied sonic palette, ranging from boppish licks and wails to warm, singing melody. Her music is firmly rooted in straight-ahead jazz, spiced with blues, free improvisation, and a dash of funk. Continue reading

Rent Romus | The Lords of Outland | You can sleep when you’re dead | Edgetone Records

The Lords of Outland present their latest black metal deth jazz sequel to Culture of Pain. In this day, this dawn, when privacy rapidly begins to dwindle…where the difference between inside and outside of one’s head or one’s house or one’s inbox are growing more blurred….we find ourselves in new territory, a no man’s land where everyone has fifteen hours of fame, whether they know it or not. There is no choice anymore in what is open to the electronic voyeur. The eyes of the world are upon us and we are all stripped naked on the internet, over the phone, in our email and in our very thoughts. Nothing is hidden from the watchful eyes of the ‘gods’. We are on display for their amusement. However, as the watcher watches so too do we watch him. So too do we indulge in voyeuristic fashion, in the analysis of his behavior. He is the wolf to our sheep, but we are the hunter to his wolf, and as the spiral turns so to the watcher and the watched become one in a dance, the pull eternal, between fascism and freedom. Continue reading

E. Doctor Smith | The Drummstick 2 | Edgetone Records

E. Doctor Smith’s original invention, the Drummstick has a vertical design that enhances his ability to digitally tap, slap, flam, and roll. This CD showcases the versatility of his instrument and presents truly inspired left-the-box-way-behind music that smacks you up one side of your head while caressing you down the other. For the Drummstick’s 10th anniversary, Doc reassembled many of the musicians from the Drummstick’s debut release in 2000, as well as some great new ones. Rejoining Doc for Drummstick 2 are bassist and co-producer Celia DuBose; Jack Wright with his array of electric guitars and loops; Neil Mezebish on acoustic and MIDI saxes; trumpeter and Feat of Clay co-founder the “Mad Swede,” aka Eric Dahlman; and his long-time collaborator and K2 co-founder Seth “Elgie” Elgart on assorted iBooks, vintage synthesizers, keyboards and samples. Also joining Doc is bassist Mike Shea, who recorded with Doc’s latest ensemble, Robert Anbian and UFQ: The Unidentified Flying Quartet, featuring poet Robert Anbian, saxophonist Charles Unger, and pianist Sam Peoples. Continue reading

Jazz on the Line | No Boundaries | Edgetone Records

This is the first CD recording of the band founded by a then young Rent Romus called Jazz on the Line released in 1991. This genre founding album featured a cross section of jazz with hints of pre-acid jazz that became the fad hitting the west coast during the mid-nineties. It featured Rent Romus during his college years at UC Santa Cruz as well as Jason Olaine who went on to become the driving force behind the success that is Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland California, Ben Leinbach who worked with artists such as Jai Utal and pianist and now doctorate and author Stefano Dezerega. This was also the debut recording for vocalist Anna Gurski. Continue reading