All artists filed by last name under M, N, O and P :
All compositions by Amado / Evans / Mira / Ferrandini. Recorded by Joaquim Monte at Namouche Studios, Lisbon, March 18th, 2013. Mixed and mastered by Joaquim Monte and Rodrigo Amado. Design by Oskaras Anosovas. Produced by Rodrigo Amado. Executive Producer – Danas Mikailionis. Co-producer – Valerij Anosov Continue reading
Bassist Max Johnson has been building up quite an impressive resume as both a leader and a sideman for a variety of labels. His second release of this year is a collaborative effort with Ingrid Laubrock on tenor saxophone, Mat Maneri on viola and Tomas Fujiwara on drums. You might think that this unit could blow up quite a storm, and indeed they do on a few sections of the recording, but most of the music is given over to slow and atmospheric improvisations. The group shows quite a bit of cohesion and self control in the building of their music, and Maneri’s subtle and patient bowing meshes very well with Ingrid Laubrock who is quite comfortable at low volume and long narrow bands of sound. This is an interesting album, definitely worth picking up if you are interested in patient and slowly developing music that envelops you in a sense of unease. It is all the more powerful when the band really lets loose on more feverish improvisational sections, coming as a shock and keeping the listener on their toes throughout the album, developing the sound of surprise and not knowing what might be around the next corner. — Tim Niland Continue reading
Neither one nor the other has a role to play: Joelle and Nicole are there to invent. One would be nothing but softness, the other nothing but force? But here it is that the first flies off in full force and the other accompanies all in softness. Perfectly pitched. Total improvisation. Musical dance on the jazzistic fields flying carpet. If needs be, they invent each other forming that double woman who has fear of nothing, who does not retreat in the face of any joke any savagery any melancholy any beauty any liberty. Now and again the strings have breath and the flute vibrates. What is there of intentional, of prepared, of established by tacit convention? Nothing or next to nothing, who cares: these two virtuosos have nothing to do with their virtuosity if not to put it to the service of quivering developments. — François-René Simon, excerpt from liner notes Continue reading
Nicole Mitchell “the Velvet Lounge was a stellar environment for the development of creative music in Chicago and Fred Anderson provided support, encouragement, and inspiration to countless musicians for generations, while garnering an international audience for the music… He was a quiet man who rarely shared his ongoing struggles with the city and with local gangsters to keep things running. ‘The Secret Escapades of Velvet Anderson’ likens Fred Anderson to a superhero, whose humble exterior masked his real-life heroic trials and tribulations beyond the public’s awareness……The album is an animated illustration to further deepen the public’s impression of a real-life hero of Chicago, who walked with us and fought for us. I wanted to make Fred smile, to think that in this animation he can be a secret agent working against forces of musical demise.” Continue reading
Incorporating flavors that range from barn-dancing to free jazz could easily be a formula for catastrophe but Johnson, Martin and Davis have all but given a name to their anomalous development in innovation. Whatever Johnson may have envisioned for his original dream trio, it’s hard to imagine that he could have produced a better-quality end product. Big Eyed Rabbit is an brilliant achievement on many levels with its outstanding use of history, raw musical talent and a uniquely creative approach. This is highly recommended. — Karl Ackermann Continue reading
After two decades of trios with various international musicians, this is Frode Gjerstads first all-Norwegian trio. And it is a significant move towards a Nordic improvised sound. In the past, he has played in trios with Hamid Drake, William Parker, John Stevens, Johnny Dyani, Kent Carter, Wilber Morris and Rashid Bakr, John Edwards and Mark Sanders. This trio has made 8 recordings so far: “Last First” on the US label, Falcata-Galica. A studio-recording from November -99 when the group was quite fresh. Then came a live recording from September 2000 in Oslo, “The Blessing Light” on Cadence Jazz Records. This CD is dedicated to the late British drummer, John Stevens. “Sharp knives cut deeper” with Peter Brøtzmann on the Italian label Splash came in-03, “St.Louis” is a live recording from our 2002 US tour that came out on FMR in -04 and in 2005 we recorded “mothers & fathers”. In 2007 we recorded “Nothing is forever” at a concert in Oslo. Then there is “MIR” recorded in 2010 at cafe MIR, Oslo. This was the first try out for the new trio. And the “East of West” was recorded in April 2011. The trio has so far toured and/or played festivals in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Germany, Slovenia, Kroatia, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, England, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, USA and Canada. Continue reading
Talk with just about any improviser and he or she will tell you that their music happens in the moment, it’s best when they are fully in the present. Garrison Fewell always recruits members of the Variable Density Sound Orchestra (VDSO) that he knows can perform fully in the moment. It gives the music it’s vividness and urgency and it’s spiritual core as well. “In Buddhism there are three existences of life—past, present, and future—and they are all one,” explains Garrison, a practicing Buddhist for nearly 40 years. “Everything is determined in the present moment—a series of present moments.” Which is as good a description of the music on this disc as any. — Ed Hazell Continue reading
Composer-pianist Satoko Fujii always writes large ensemble music that’s celebratory, eventful, and sweeping in scale. But for this album, she wanted to make “something beyond. I don’t know how I can explain. I wanted to paint a picture that extends beyond its canvas. I composed for life, which has many stages and changes and dramas.” “Shiki,” the nearly forty-minute magnum opus that comprises two-thirds of this CD, does indeed reach for “something beyond.” In the hands of the Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York, the big band she’s maintained for recording projects since 1997, the music rises off the pages of the score and confronts us, consoles us, challenges us to feel and to contemplate ultimate questions. Rooted in life, Satoko’s insights into the human condition are passed through her unique artistic vision and back into our lives to enrich us with its wisdom. “Shiki” is a Japanese word that translates as “four seasons” in English and the music is as changeable as the wind and weather. “I wanted a title that suggested change,” she says. “I think we human being also have seasons in our life.” The composition is one of her grandest pieces of musical architecture. Soaring arches of melody are supported by great anchoring columns of orchestra chords and a subtly textured floor of ensemble drones underpins much of it. — Ed Hazell Continue reading
The last album in this series is not really about seasons but also about the passing of time, or even the opposite concept, in which the most fragile and volatile and transitory, gets a timeless nature. Gianni Mimmo on soprano sax and Alison Blunt on violin treat us to some ephemeral beauty on this LP with three fully improvised pieces, recorded live at the St Leonard’s Shoreditch Church in London, in June 2013.It is hard to describe the music as jazz, and although Mimmo’s legacy is clearly with Steve Lacy, his sound and musical approach is truly his own, more abstract, classical at times in the clarity of his tone, yet audacious and explorative too. The spontaneous interaction with Blunt is nothing short of fabulous, almost organic, like birds, delivering soaring love songs, or fluttering agitatedly, or even stronger, like more intimate whispers, cautious touching of notes, moving forward gently and elegantly together. Blunt herself has the same spontaneous attitude for superb control of timbre and sound, while remaining utterly free in her inventiveness. Even in the rawest parts they find each other well, echoing improvised phrases, and creating sharp multiphonics if needed, before falling back on more gentle embraces.A marvelous duo. — Steff GijsselsFreejazzblog. Continue reading
“Atmospheric landscape poetry. Music rating: infinity.” — Mark Weber Continue reading