All artists filed by last name under M, N, O and P :
André Goudbeek – tenor sax | Peter Jacquemyn – bass, voice | Lê Quan Ninh – percussion. Recorded live at the Alchemia, Kraków on October 23, 2008. Recorded by Rafal Drewniany. Mixed and mastered by Rafal Drewniany (dts studio). Cover art work by Peter Jacquemyn. Photograph by Pierre Michel Zaleski. Design by Marek Wajda. All compositions by André Goudbeek / Peter Jacquemyn / Lê Quan Ninh Continue reading
This dynamic duo features Matt Shipp on piano and Joe Morris on contrabass. Recorded at the Roulette studio in February of 2010. This is the third disc that this particular duo has been involved with, although the other ones featured Joe Morris on guitar. Since Mr. Morris has been switching off between bass and guitar, he has played bass with Matt in both trio and quartet dates. Joe’s acoustic bass playing continues to grow stronger all the time so he sounds superb and spirited spinning those notes underneath Matt’s layers of cascading waves. In the first piece, Joe is quite a bit busier than Matt, yet the balance is consistently strong. There is a strong dialogue going on, like a familiar conversation between two old friends. Joe switches to bowed bass and kicks off the second part by himself. This piece moves more slowly and the currents are darker and more murky. Joe takes a fine long bass solo during the first half of part three which Matt follows with an equally thoughtful solo piano interlude. Both are solos somber and carefully constructed. Matt often seems to be developing a few different themes, building different layers or currents as the tide rolls in and then out. It sounds as though a story is being told as different connected scenes unfold and evolve into other scenes. There are quite a few moments here that are stunning, lovely or transcendent. I got a promo of this disc in June and have been playing it often ever since. It still blows me away. This is an incredible duo whose time has come. The poetic liner notes by Steve Dalachinsky and stark cover art by Steve’s wife Yuko Otomo also fit this disc perfectly. — Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Continue reading
Bogdan Benigar is the musical director of the Ljubljana Jazz Festival. He gave me the opportunity to perform with the great musician Evan Parker on the occasion of the 50th Jubilee Festival. I met Evan the day before the concert and there was an instant connection between us. I told him a story about being in Spain and playing with the amazing Mike Osborne in Valencia and Madrid. It was in 1978 in a small club called TRES TRISTES TIGRES in Valencia. It was an absolutely thrilling experience, despite the fact Ozzie was very ill at this time (acute schizophrenia). I remember a concert in Madrid with a sold-out theatre (over 1000 people) where we didn’t have any PA system, and the sound of Mike’s alto was so strong, so powerful, hit so directly into the heart of people that the public was just stunned. After that, I didn’t have any news of him. I was told that he went into a mental hospital to cure himself. He stopped playing after 1982 and went back to Hereford, his home. He passed away on September 19, 2007. So Evan and I decided to dedicate this record Round About One O’clock to the memory of Mike Osborne – Ozzie. — Zlatko Kaucic Continue reading
Scott Fields (born September 30, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois), is a guitarist, composer and band leader. He is best known for his attempts to blend music that is composed and music that is written and for his modular pieces (48 Motives and 96 Gestures). He works primarily in avant-garde jazz, experimental music, and New Music. Fields was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He started as a self-taught rock musician but soon was influenced by the musicians of the Association for the Advancement for Creative Musicians, which was active in the Hyde Park neighborhood in which he grew up. Later he studied classical guitar, jazz guitar, music composition and music theory. In 1970 Fields co-founded the power avant-jazz trio Life Rhythms. When the group disbanded two years later he played sporadically, but soon all but quit music until 1989. Since then he has performed and composed actively. His ensembles and partnerships have included such musicians as Marilyn Crispell, Hamid Drake, John Hollenbeck, Joseph Jarman, Myra Melford, Jeff Parker, and Elliott Sharp.
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During the mid-to-late 1960’s future Guru Guru drummer (Mani Neumeier) and tenor saxist (Kim Wanders) played together in the Peter Brotzmann Quintet and in an early version of the Globe Unity Orchestra. Since that time, Mr. Wanders moved to Australia where he still lives and Mr. Neumeier went on to form Guru Guru and collaborate with members of Acid Mothers Temple and Kazuhisa Uchihashi. Now, more than forty years later Mr. Wanders and Mr. Neumeier have gotten back together and put together an extraordinary quintet of mostly lesser known Australian musicians. — Bruce Lee Gallanter Continue reading
All of these title have either direct historical reference to New Orleans or to our visit and stay at The Creole Gardens. Special thanks to Rob Cambre and Kirah Haubrich. The concert and album are dedicated in honor of legendary master drummer Alvin Fielder. Continue reading
Upcoming Hurricane is a new group in a traditional form, a particular concatenation of musicians that gelled with remarkable speed and which brings its own strong personality to the idea of the piano trio. It has a layered rhythmic dynamism that comes directly from the tradition and the exploding, unfettered energy of free improvisation. It was the young bassist Pascal Niggenkemper’s idea to put together this band with the brilliant veterans Simon Nabatov and Gerald Cleaver, and it’s a sign of both Niggenkemper’s skills and his prescience that the group possesses the depth, vitality and vision that it does. — Stuart Broomer Continue reading
The electrified acoustic trio combines several worlds. Stories are told here in the jazz idiom: starting from a basic groove is stressed about this and also improvises with nesting and rhythmic themes. The compositions are mainly played on scales from division of the octave harmonic structures and parallelisms, scales, supposedly inspired by such contrasting worlds as well as the oriental Maqamwelt of natural horns in the Alps region. The trio moves also because of the natural inclusion of electronica outside “world music” sound is ethnocentric and exoticism of the young new century – in which bits and bytes a supporting role-play required. The clash of purely electronic and acoustic sounds of the trio receives a new topicality and urgency. Continue reading
RED trio made a stunning debut in 2010. In this second album they play with British music veteran John Butcher pushing musical boundaries to the new realms of gripping and exciting kingdom of free improvisation. Continue reading
The late, great violinist’s first two albums — the first so obscure I missed it when I assembled a discography for my 2005 Voice piece on Bang. A quartet for the first record, with Bilal Abdur Rahman on tenor and soprano sax, William Parker on bass, and Rashid Bakr on drums. Rahman, an old friend of Bang’s, picked up Islam in prison and recorded reluctantly but more often than not his cutting and slashing is terrific here. Both albums are hit and miss, with bits of spoken word spouting political critique — “when the poor steal, it’s called looting; when the rich steal, it’s called profit” is one turn of phrase. Second album adds Henry Warner on alto sax and Khuwana Fuller on congas — Warner’s another player who shows up on rare occasions but always makes a big impression. Way back when I would probably have hedged my grade, seeing each album as promising but half-baked, but now they’re indisputable pieces of history — and not just because Bang and Parker went on to have brilliant careers. Also note that the label in Lithuania that rescued them cared enough to provide a 36-page booklet on the era and this remarkable music. — Tom Hull Continue reading