Denis Fournier | Nicole Mitchell | Hanah Jon Taylor | Tomeka Reid | Bernard Santacruz | Watershed | RogueArt Jazz

If the three compositions proposed by Denis Fournier have already been recorded, they merit to be here as resurgences, like scenarios encouraging the freedom of transformation without which free interpretation is nothing. “I often say that I don’t make improvised music, but that I improvise music. In other words, I put together there and then elements of my life, of my history, of my culture…” In other words, no structure commands the action. Every structure opens to the action (to sharing) which redefines it. On their side, Nicole Mitchell and Tomeka Reid propose, one a musical treasure trail (Pathways), in phases and superposed phrases, the other a lament which is also a homage (Prayer for Wadud), beginning solemnly, elevatory, but dispersing like the cellist Abdul Wadud who still lives isolated from the world. Because if the album starts briskly, it finishes through several series of halos – once reaching Prayer for Wadud and La Voce de la Luna which takes its name and its indolence from Federico Fellini’s last film, itself inspired by a book by Ermanno Cavazzoni entitled Il Poema dei lunatic – The Lunatics Poem…Or how to show that things and beings are never what they appear to be, never only, never complete without the imagination which completes them and glorifies them. — Alexandre Pierrepont, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading

Roscoe Mitchell | Nicole Mitchell | Black Earth Ensemble| Three Compositions | Live at Sant’Anna Arresi | RogueArt Jazz

Despite the compositions’ respective demands Nicole Mitchell and Black Earth Ensemble fully and vividly represented Roscoe Mitchell’s varied means of creating chemistry between written and improvised materials. At every turn in the program, they played with a palpable sense of familiarity and ease with the composer’s vernacular and methods. They sounded like they’ve been playing this music every night for a long time. — Bill Shoemaker, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading

Didier Petit | Alexandre Pierrepont | Passages – A Road Record – Woodstock – New York – Chicago – Los Angeles | RougeArt Jazz

Lawrence Butch Morris developed the concept of “conduction” to account for a mode of Instant Composition based on the creative freedom of the players stimulated by the gestures of a central conductor. AP/DP, with this cd, invent the practice of musical transduction. Just like the French language is not “translated” but transducted into Kamau Daáood’s unique prosody, DP’s cello does not “translate” the playing of a thumb piano, an oud or a kora: all of these instruments, all of their phrasings electrify his playing from the inside, they are transducted into the cello. Similarly, DP’s vocal cords do not “translate” what his fingers perform on the strings: both are electrified by a common current, alternating and direct. The astonishing fluidity of this complex meshwork of influences qualifies AP/DP as “Super-transductors”: through this cd, one hears not only a whole family of giant cello players (Abdul Wadud, Robert Een, Tom Cora, Ernst Reijseger, Peggy Lee, Hank Roberts), but also a long history of lyrical surrealism (from Lautréamont to Henri Michaux), and the widest range of traditions in ethnomusicology (from Africa to the Middle East, through classical Europe and Amerindian singing)… …Be prepared to be transducted, transformed and elated. — Yves Citton, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading

Greg Lyons

Greg Lyons is a British saxophonist, composer and arranger. Currently based out of Singapore, he is becoming known to an ever-increasing network of listeners for a commitment to making original music of an eclectic nature combining elements of his whole musical evolution – which includes representations of jazz, classical, funk, rock, pop, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, avant-garde, folk and lots more.

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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

Rent Romus | The Lords of Outland | You can sleep when you’re dead | Edgetone Records

The Lords of Outland present their latest black metal deth jazz sequel to Culture of Pain. In this day, this dawn, when privacy rapidly begins to dwindle…where the difference between inside and outside of one’s head or one’s house or one’s inbox are growing more blurred….we find ourselves in new territory, a no man’s land where everyone has fifteen hours of fame, whether they know it or not. There is no choice anymore in what is open to the electronic voyeur. The eyes of the world are upon us and we are all stripped naked on the internet, over the phone, in our email and in our very thoughts. Nothing is hidden from the watchful eyes of the ‘gods’. We are on display for their amusement. However, as the watcher watches so too do we watch him. So too do we indulge in voyeuristic fashion, in the analysis of his behavior. He is the wolf to our sheep, but we are the hunter to his wolf, and as the spiral turns so to the watcher and the watched become one in a dance, the pull eternal, between fascism and freedom. Continue reading

Thollem McDonas | Rick Rivera | Everything’s Going Everywhere | Edgetone Records

Everything’s Going Everywhere featuring pianist Thollem Mcdonas and drummer Rick Rivera bring to the jazz world a sonic journey bursting with excitement well needed in jazz and improvisation in the 21st century. Drawing from such diverse forms of inspiration as nuclear bombs, modern classical and Arabic music, to free jazz, punk, and traffic sounds, these two musical Iconoclasts transcend the past, and the limits of their influences, re-organizing traditional ideas into a sonic commentary about the space between rebellion, politics, and hummingbirds. Continue reading

Jess Rowland | The Shape of Poison | Edgetone Records

Shape of Poison for solo piano performance and electronics, mixes unique live electro-acoustic experimentation with cut-up gamelan, crunched-out Casio tones, and other uncharted sonic landscapes. The pieces documented on this CD were recorded live at a February 2007 artist-in-residence performance at ODC Theater in San Francisco, commissioned by choreographer Manuelito Biag. Intended originally for dance, the music creates an enveloping environment in which drama and movement play out. Continue reading

E. Doctor Smith | The Drummstick 2 | Edgetone Records

E. Doctor Smith’s original invention, the Drummstick has a vertical design that enhances his ability to digitally tap, slap, flam, and roll. This CD showcases the versatility of his instrument and presents truly inspired left-the-box-way-behind music that smacks you up one side of your head while caressing you down the other. For the Drummstick’s 10th anniversary, Doc reassembled many of the musicians from the Drummstick’s debut release in 2000, as well as some great new ones. Rejoining Doc for Drummstick 2 are bassist and co-producer Celia DuBose; Jack Wright with his array of electric guitars and loops; Neil Mezebish on acoustic and MIDI saxes; trumpeter and Feat of Clay co-founder the “Mad Swede,” aka Eric Dahlman; and his long-time collaborator and K2 co-founder Seth “Elgie” Elgart on assorted iBooks, vintage synthesizers, keyboards and samples. Also joining Doc is bassist Mike Shea, who recorded with Doc’s latest ensemble, Robert Anbian and UFQ: The Unidentified Flying Quartet, featuring poet Robert Anbian, saxophonist Charles Unger, and pianist Sam Peoples. Continue reading