Adam Lane Trio | Absolute Horizon | No Business Records

I’m a sucker for the thick, bluesy tone of Adam Lane’s bass — somehow, he always manages to convey its grittiest, most grounded side. Absolute Horizon kicks off with a track of the same name, a slow tattoo rising from drummer Vijay Anderson and Lane stumbling into a bass line that can’t help but give off a little swagger. Slowly, a groove coalesces, just the sort of low-end ride to best deliver Darius Jones’s sickly-sweet saxophone. Within minutes, you realize: this is what I want in a saxophone trio. There’s an edge for sure, but also the piece that fits perfectly into the well-worn rhythmic folds of your brain. Things heat up, but the trio never breaks a sweat. They ease out of the track just a coolly and calmly as they brought it into being. — Dan Sorrells Continue reading

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

Jim Ryan’s Forward Energy | Configurations 2002 | Edgetone Records

In what appears to be taking shape as the dark ages of the early 21st century simply endorsing the music that comprises Configurations 2002 – buying it, listening to it, and above all making it — can be seen as an act of rebellion. With political and cultural hegemony increasingly becoming the new world order of the day, radical free-thinking creativity runs directly counter to the seemingly inexorable tendencies of globalization and AOLTime Warner assembly line entertainment. It takes refuge in such virtually undisclosed locations as 21 Grand, The Luggage Store Gallery, 1502 Performance Space, and Kimo’s, venues unknown to the general public while faithfully sustained by the San Francisco Bay Area’s creative music community. On one day in May, 2001, and three days in January, 2002, Jim Ryan gathered the various configurations of his aptly named Forward Energy ensemble in those subterranean haunts and recorded five hours of spontaneous music-making, which have been distilled into this potent double CD. — Derk Richardson Continue reading

Richard Tabnik Trio | Symphony for Jazz Trio | NA1053

Thanks to Roberta Romeo, the genius who keeps my saxophone singing; thank you jushi (June Siegel) for believing in me when so few people did; thank you Sonny Dallas for all the wisdom that you imparted to me; thank you Lee Konitz for being the reason that I play the alto saxophone; thanks to John Zorn for The Stone; thank you Connie Crothers, for inviting me to do that trio gig at The Stone: you will always be my inspiration, teacher, and favorite musician; and above all, Thank You, Prem Rawat, for showing me Beauty beyond everything else. Thank you etc……Richard Tabnik Continue reading

William Hooker | Earth’s Orbit | No Business Records

William Hooker is an artistic whole, a vast circle of vision and execution. A body of uninterrupted work beginning in the mid-seventies defines him as one of the most important composers and players in jazz. As bandleader, Hooker has fielded ensembles in an incredibly diverse array of configurations. Each collaboration has brought a serious investigation of his compositional agenda and the science of the modern drum kit. In this limited edition double vinyl he is joined by two groups of great contemporary jazz musicians in two sessions, which are entitled Bliss(east) and Bliss(west), marking their performances on East and West Coasts in 2007 and 2009. Continue reading