Jason Ajemian | Tony Malaby | Rob Mazurek | Chad Taylor | A Way A Land Of Life | No Business Records

Jason Ajemian, bassist, has developed a high profile in the improvised music scene over the years, performing with Rob Mazurek’s Mandarin Movie, Exploding Star Orchestra, and Chicago Underground Trio; Ken Vandermark’s Crisis Ensemble; and currently with Marc Ribot’s new group Sun Ship. Ajemian’s curiosity has ranged far and wide – he’s just as comfortable in the hushed, folksy setting of Born Heller, his duo with Josephine Foster, as he is in the breath-processed arrangements of his large ensemble Who Cares How Long You Sink. Given such a variety of musical interests, a detour like “From Beyond,” Ajemian’s backward version of Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void” for chamber ensemble, begins to seem like an obvious stop on his journey from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Chicago and his current home in New York City. Continue reading

Nicole Mitchell’s Sonic Projections | The Secret Escapades of Velvet Anderson | RougeArt Jazz

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

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra | Matter Anti-Matter | RogueArt Jazz

Out of the 63 or 67 satellites around Jupiter, fifty or more of them were discovered since the year 2000 (since the “elections” of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, since the busting of the Internet bubble and the market launch of the first USB key: it’s all a question of scale, right?). We are told their orbits are far apart, eccentric, inclined and retrograde. That they do as they please, heads in the clouds, that they dance. It’s your turn to dance. You understand you are a moon in all its phases simultaneously. Let me say that again. Anybody can be the root, says Roscoe Mitchell. Everything is seed, says Novalis. Ascension Dream Phoenix, says Rob Mazurek. A feast. — Alexandre Pierrepont (translation Romain Tesler) Continue reading

Nicole Mitchell’s Sonic Projections | Emerald Hills | RogueArt Jazz

…The writing, or rather the musical cards drawn up by Nicole Mitchell for Sonic Projections carefully and continuously handle many openings and many transitions. …It is fascinating to hear each musician circulating freely in the space of each piece, following the internal logic of the proposed forms and spacing them out, bringing in other forms inside and round about – stretching and projecting the meaning, as if to respect the opulence of things with their doubles. Each musician is himself a space and a passing place. Such is David Boykin on Wishes, leaning against the other three and giving out one of his enigmatic rewound solos; such is the transformational duo between Craig Taborn and Chad Taylor on the second half of Emerald Hills, passing completely as the interventions or non-interventions of the saxophonist and the flutist go by. …And if a volcano can project, on demand, lava, sulfur, cinders or scoria, this music projects vision and nourishment. « That’s what I love about music – the unlimited possibilities – and always restless to try something else. » — Alexandre Pierrepont, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading

Avram Fefer | Eric Revis | Chad Taylor | Eliyahu | Not Two Records

Avram Fefer – Alto, Tenor Saxes | Eric Revis – Bass | Chad Taylor – Drums. All compositions by Avram Fefer (SACEM) except track 1 and track 5. Recorded January 9, 2010 by Ivan Julian in NYC at HED Recording Studios. Mixed September 3, 2010 by Jason Candler at The Maid’s Room. Cover photo by Avram Fefer. Photos of Revis and Taylor by Michael Jackson. Photo of Fefer by Marie-France. Continue reading