Blaise Siwula | Dom Minasi | Nobu Stowe | Ray Sage | New York Moments

Following the recording session on September 4th 2005 which produced the Konnex Records release “BLAISE SIWULA, NOBU STOWE & RAY SAGE – Brooklyn Moments” (KCD 5177), Blaise, Ray and I decided to keep the trio as a regular-working unit. Mostly due to the distance between NYC (Blaise & Ray) and Baltimore (myself), we had to wait awhile to perform together again. The chance came when we had a gig at Kavehaz in the Chelsea district of Manhattan almost four months after. For this gig, we were joined by two guest musicians: the Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time guitarist, Bern Nix, and the up-and-coming viola player, Robyn Siwula. — Nobu Stowe Continue reading

Joe Giardullo Open Ensemble | Red Morocco | RogueArt Jazz

Someday someone will write a history of modern music that will free us of the false dichotomies such as high vs. low, improviser vs. composer, classical vs. everything else… …The written materials Joe passed out to the musicians for Red Morocco was minimal, sometimes more visual than musical, but always modest. Everyone was seated in the same room, in a circle. The music heard on this recording occurred late in the day, when Joe felt a certain clarity was occurring… …The results are an elegant, shimmering, ringing music, like colors spiking across the plane of a Monet canvas, or spinning like a piece of Calder’s kinetic art; a constantly evolving, deeply sonic performance, collectively improvised, and decentered; a self-organizing musical system, with minimal input or constraints from outside. Giardullo is willing into existence a music that occurs beyond his control. This means he has to surround himself with musicians who are accomplished, but also open, free to take chances, and willing to be themselves, no matter what. — John Szwed, excerpt from the liner notes. Continue reading