W – X – Y – Z

All artists filed by last name under W, X, Y and Z :

William Hooker | LIGHT | The Early Years 1975-1989 | No Business Records

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Light Box: Conception of William Hooker Don’t tell him he plays loud. He learned about music and his instrument playing within a tradition that straddles R&B and jazz. That tradition congeals in the smoothly accessible, yet sonically forceful music of the organ trios of the mid-sixties and it demanded amplitude. “An organ is powerful— a Hammond B3 with a Leslie tone cabinet. That’s a six foot cabinet. It’s got that swirly thing inside and you have to play with a certain amount of power,” — Thomas Stanley Continue reading →

Steve Swell | Kanreki | Reflection & Renewal | Not Two Records

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In Japanese culture KANREKI is the celebration of one’s 60th birthday. It is a time of reflection of one’s past experiences and renewal of one’s energies while moving forward into a new chapter of one’s life with clarity and determination. This CD would not have been possible without all the musicians here, Marek Winiarski and the love of Barbara Manes. — Steve Swell Continue reading →

The Resonance Ensemble | Double Arc | Not Two Records

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The work of composing rehearsing, and performing Double Arc took place in November, 2013. Now, more than a year and a half later, I am writing the liner notes to complete the last aspect of the project. The extended distance in time between the recording and mixing/mastering of the musi gave me a different perspective toward the material than I have for most albums. Working on now — 19 months after the performance was documented at the Manggha Culture Center in Krakow — what strikes me most is that this piece seems to be my Pierrot le Fou. No insult intende toward Jean-Luc Godard by comparing his work to mine but, as that film can be seen as a such motion of ideas and filmic strategies that he had developed up until that point, Double Arc can be heard as taking similar place within my own creative development. — Ken Vandermark Continue reading →

Dan Clucas | Mark Weaver | Dave Wayne | Hotend | Do Tell play the music of Julius Hemphill | Amirani Records

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Julius Hemphill’s music is about digging under the facts, pulling out the stops, revealing the insides, telling the truth. His groove-oriented pieces (Steppin’, The Hard Blues, Otis Groove) seem to be a function of his having internalized the essence of the blues, so that the feeling, the ache of that music, is imbedded in the soul of these songs. Contrarily, his more compositional side is less about rhythm and more about sound, timbre, and tone. But always, his compositions value improvisation; even his most thoroughly notated works call for the musicians to collectively improvise within the parameters of that piece and there again lies the spirit of the blues in Julius Hemphill’s music, which is perhaps the most revealing truth of all. Continue reading →

Hubert Bergmann | GALZAR II | Mudoks Record

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GA(L)ZA(R) II (eine hommage an Vertriebene)

„Pffffff…
in D
im Jahre 4
nach G“

Dem in Pfullendorf wirkenden international bekannten Performancekünstler Rolls Rolf Langhans alias RRL, wurde durch die Standortverwaltung des Kommando Spezialkräfte ein „virtueller GAZA Streifen“ um sein Gesamtkunstwerk deponiert. Er soll nämlich aus seinem 350 qm WerkAtelier und Lebens Raum vertrieben werden. Continue reading →

Daniel Carter | Shanir Ezra Blumenkrantz | Kevin Zubek | Chinatown | Not Two Records

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This recording by Chinatown an unusual trio made up of downtown’s wildly diverse music scene, finds the venerable free player Daniel Carter still doing his thing, this time with a young, unique rhythm section. Bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz’s playing is muscular and gutteral, and his bowing is turgidly pleasing. On this outing he also shows off his prowess on the oud. Drummer Kevin Zubek, mostly self-taught, has an unconventional drumming style—spacious and asymmetrical, largely eschewing standard jazz or even free jazz rhythms. He sits oddly high at the kit and attacks with what seems an impossibly awkward comportment to some, but produces percussive music that transcends technique. This trio toured Poland last year, where they developed a strong rapport from the sound of it, and landed a recording deal with the Polish label Not Two. — All About Jazz Continue reading →

Hubert Bergmann | Yellerwood | Udo Schindler | Rome Hills | Mudoks Record

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ROME HILLS, in case of tonal emergency The story behind this music is for the most part unknown. Rome 2012. During a brief stay in February – wandering from place to place in the city, pleasantly warm, every day life in the North now vanishing, somehow a newcomer in this interim spawning ground of being, here where Passolini hinted his portent in the ether. The cafes in which the ether coagulates, barely concealing their peace and tranquility, and each place where memories are celebrated are so old that forgetting now is hardly noticeable. History disappears just around the corner. One who fights “against” this forgetfulness , is an atypical Roman, Massimo, whom I met in front of the now entirely contrived Fiaschetteria, once the hangout and meeting place of Roman artists, who gave me an update of the happenings in the Italian scene. Later in the train while the sounds of AH23 fluttered gently through my mind (I imagined his burning finger and M.’s portrait sunk into the Tiber), a video popped up, totally unexpected, on my google site. John Cage and Cathy Berberian, who performed this mysterious aria in Rome, sang a piece whose link I was able to pull up on my computer – something about “yellow” and “wood” that I later discovered was “Yellerwood.” A voice from the Roman Hills sounded so like Berberian. Then the request on this unknown woman, via Mr. Ricci, if she might be interested in contributing her wonderful voice to recordings done in October 2011 with Udo, a bustling multi-reed man. Something however was missing. Her voice shuttled back and forth, a poem added for garnishment, out of which a new and peculiar world blossomed into a fine mood. Something from Berberian, the utter essence of nature and beauty. Everything that knows itself is sound… No reason to crash… Hubert Bergmann Continue reading →