M – N – O – P

All artists filed by last name under M, N, O and P :

E. Doctor Smith | The Drummstick | Edgetone Records

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Having played for 20 years in jazz, fusion, pop, and folk bands as a serious student of drums, E. Doctor Smith developed a love of digital drumming that compelled him to design and build an instrument that would give him maximum flexibility as a writer, drummer, and performer. The Drummstick, a percussion controller with 16 finger-pads mounted on a 2 x 6 piece of wood, is worn like a guitar and used exclusively to achieve Doc’s primary goal in life— to make spirits dance. “From the banjo-meets-Bruford tribal groove of ‘Futureboy’ to the atmospheric sonic landscapes of “Girl of a Thousand Days,” E. Doctor Smith treads a musical road less traveled. His intrepid ensemble’s acid jazz explorations wander into every world musical nook and cranny, making this collection a trip well worth taking.” — Stephen Bray Continue reading →

Thollem McDonas | Arrington de Dionyso | Intuition, Science, And Sex | Edgetone Records

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Intuition, Science, And Sex is a free trio album meditation on one mode with two musicians and drone machines. On September 11th, 2007 Arrington deDionyso (Bass Clarinet) and Thollem McDonas (Rickety Old Beat-Up Piano) met in an industrial area of Portland with a simple question and complicated answers. Simplicity and complexity in their respective perfections, each idea developed over long spans of time. The result is a very different kind of album for both of these two prolific musicians. Continue reading →

Eddie the Rat | Once Around The Butterfly Bush | Edgetone Records

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Eddie the Rat is the pseudonym for composer and multi-instrumentalist, Peter J. Martin aka Pete Rat, and the avant-(something) conglomeration of musicians and artists who help execute his compositions. Eddie the Rat music is “head music for your feet.” It has been called “sexy avant-garde.” Inspired by Indonesian gamelan, American & European folk, and modern 12-tone music, Eddie the Rat tries to bridge the gap between ritual, roots, and concert music. But please feel free to dance. Continue reading →

Thollem McDonas | Box Deserter | Two Revolutions | Edgetone Records

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Recorded live in Detroit at the Bohemian National Home, the performance captured a semi-structured improvisation of seven musical participants and a short interwoven recitation about Portuguese colonization of Africa and the eventual uprising centuries later. The lineup came together spontaneously and results in many combinations of timbre, seamless transitions, abundant ideas, and virtuosic interaction. This is a sonic story of violence, oppression, and rebellion. There’s a plethora of characters that rattle in and out, drawing inspiration from Igor Stravinsky, Charles Mingus and Pauline Oliveros meet. This is one of several albums that will be released from Thollem’s ‘FourKneesOfTheTurtleTour’ this past fall; a 15 week 65 concert solo journey around the continental U.S. Continue reading →

Rent Romus | Steven Baker | Thollem McDonas | Jon Brumit | Bloom | Edgetone Records

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Bloom a spirited and colossal collaboration between pianist Thollem Mcdonas, multi-saxophonist and electronician Rent Romus also featuring guests performers instrument builder Steven Baker, and drummer and found-object player Jon Brumit. The CD features free group improvisations as well as interpretations of numerous textual and graphical scores offered up by Mcdonas and Brumit. The entire album is an organic construction and expression of solos, duos, and trios combining disparate and divergent stylistic histories with a sense of refreshing immediacy, intensity, and spontaneous inventiveness. Continue reading →

John Tchicai with Rent Romus’ Lords of Outland | Adapt… or Die! | Edgetone Records

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Rent Romus extends his ethos “to continually be on the path for something new” with the self-explanatory Adapt… or Die!. This recording revamps the Lords of Outland insto a more deviant configuration joined by drummer Dave Mihaly and sousaphonist Jon Birdsong. This project is also blessed with the immense presence of master tenor saxist John Tchicai. The shift in instrumentation provides a punchier, more expansive format for Romus’ self-proclaimed “Nordic Viking Jazz” or “Bull in China Shop” attitude toward improv. With a post-grunge audacity, Romus kicks solos that he says come “straight from the groin” — all of which bodes well for this sonic explorer. Continue reading →

Angelo Contini | Mirio Cosottini | Gianni Mimmo | Alessio Pisani | A Windy Season | Tidal Amphidromic Cotidal | Amirani Records

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Be sure to find here a cutting edge recording! Marvellous sound textures, perfectly balanced moods and violent delights. Surprising, one-of-a-kind wind quartet featuring sizziling musicians taken here in an excellent album. A Tidal music where elements dance in a fluid structure starting from solid centers and radiating to live nerve endings. Continue reading →

Vinny Golia | Marco Eneidi | Lisa Mezzacappa | Vijay Anderson | Hell-Bent in the Pacific | No Business Records

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Vinny Golia has made some unusual choices. In 1973, he moved from New York to Los Angeles, away from the centre of the jazz universe to the more cooperative Left Coast scene. He established his musician-run New Winds label in the 1980s, the start of tough times for the record biz. He also bucked conventional wisdom to concentrate on just one or two instruments, devising a rotating practice schedule to master the full families of saxophones, flutes and clarinets, as well as shakuhachi, bassoon, and so many other winds that his Penguin Guide to Jazz list ends with “etc.” —Lawrence Joseph Continue reading →

Liudas Mockūnas | Barry Guy | Lava | No Business Records

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Iconoclastic saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Evan Parker furnish the most customary duo outlets for master bassist Barry Guy, so Lithuanian reedman Liudas Mockunas’ situation on Lava is an exposed one. However, he acquits himself well in a voice entirely his own. Co-founder of the No Business imprint, Mockūnas weighs in as one of the country’s premier improvisers, appearing alongside an ever increasing catalogue of Baltic, Scandinavian, and US performers. Previous appearances have placed him in a Peter Brötzmann-like trio on Live at 11:20 (No Business, 2010) and in an impromptu freewheeling duet with Japanese pianist Ryoji Hojito on Vacation Music (No Business, 2011). — John Sharpe Continue reading →