Jazz

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

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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 →

Positive Knowledge | Oluyemi Thomas | Wilber Morris | Ijeoma Thomas | Michael Wimberly | Live in New York | Edgetone Records

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Oluyemi & Ijeoma Thomas of Positive Knowledge has recorded & performed together for the past two decades, composing and sharing their joyful Creative World Music Systems with lovers of music and poetry around the world. Ijeoma Thomas – Wordsmith, spoken word artist, poet vocalist and teacher believes “all art is a gift of the Holy Spirit.” Composer, teacher & multi-reed musician (bass clarinet, saxophones) Oluyemi Thomas brings elements of life and work to the flow & he believes: “The musician’s art is among those arts worthy of the highest praise…” As a great enhancement to their compositional approaches, Positive Knowledge continues to perform throughout the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, Israel, Canada, and the Caribbean Islands which has resulted in a rich multifaceted vocabulary to date. They have recorded or performed with such artists as Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Alan Silva, Peter Kowald, Henry Kaiser,William Parker, Miya Masaoka & Gino Robair, “Kidd” Edward Jordan. Continue reading →

Jess Rowland | The Shape of Poison | Edgetone Records

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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 →

Thollem McDonas | Poor Stop Killing Poor | Live in Detroit at the Bohemian National Home | Edgetone Records

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This live album delivers more pearls of wisdom by that magnificent lone wolf specimen named Thollem Mcdonas. This man’s ardent playing seems to be modeled after centuries of musical knowledge; helped by the peculiar resonance of Detroit’s Bohemian National Home, Thollem wanders helplessly in search of lost recollections, which he finally finds only to immediately neglect them to turn his attention towards the end of another rainbow. Mcdonas has a gift, the same that ancient bluesmen and griots had: he carries the past within himself, even the events that he didn’t live, and lets us feel them through chordal successions that fuse Stravinsky, silent movie soundtracks and what Zappa called “bionic ragtime” referring to Conlon Nancarrow; we can find Charlie Chaplin, Friedrich Murnau, our grandma’s photo and an ectoplasmic Charlemagne Palestine in the space of a single track. – Massimo Ricci Continue reading →

E. Doctor Smith | The Drummstick 2 | Edgetone Records

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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 →

C.O.M.A. | Ornamental Urban Shrubbery | Edgetone Records

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The California Outside Music Associates (COMA) has been performing throughout California for the past 8 years in various configurations and collaborations. The current group includes Dax, John and cellist/improvisor ZONE. These musicians have played in groups performing music ranging from classical, blues, rock, to the current emphasis on the improvised arts. Ornamental Urban Shrubbery is their second CD release. Hidden between buildings, in vacant lots, in planters by the sidewalk or in the cracks of the street the city is filled with urban shrubbery. Often passed by, looked over and unnoticed until that moment when one doesn’t pass, but looks and notices. Continue reading →

Tony Passarell 4TET | Epicenter | Edgetone Records

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This live recording presented at the Harbor Winery in Sacramento California is dedicated to the memory of Chuck Ehils. The quartet weaves through an exciting set of originals and a modern arrangement of the age old traditional favorite how dry I am. If you like modern jazz then epicenter will satisfy your needs. Musician, founder, producer, visionary, Tony Passarell covers all the bases from punk to experimental. Since 1979 he has slammed the West Coast with such groups as the Bub Orchestra, Mad Phat, Hunting Game, The Borman Six, Dutch Falconi, and Delta Head Trip. As well as performing as a leader he has been featured with John Tchicai, John Ehlis, Scott Amendola, Gino Robair, Myles Boisen, and The Lords of Outland. Continue reading →

Noertker’s Moxie | Sketches of Catalonia Vol. 2: Suite for Miro | Edgetone Records

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Catalonia is the birthplace of many innovative artists, among them Joan Miró Antoni Gaudí, and Salvador Dalí. In 1995, and again in 2005, I was able to make a pilgrimage to Catalonia to see the works of these great artists in person. Out of these experiences came an extended suite of music, Sketches of Catalonia. This CD is the second part of this suite and is inspired by the life and work of Joan Miró. A CD based on Dalí is already available on the Edgetone label. A CD based on Gaudí will follow. In the last decade, Bill Noertker has composed over 150 original pieces of music for jazz ensemble. His compositions point to the continuity between the jazz tradition and the avant-garde. His use of group improvisation and his attention to the individual voices of each of his bandmates call forth the human element so sorely missing from much of today’s jazz. Continue reading →

Jazz on the Line | No Boundaries | Edgetone Records

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This is the first CD recording of the band founded by a then young Rent Romus called Jazz on the Line released in 1991. This genre founding album featured a cross section of jazz with hints of pre-acid jazz that became the fad hitting the west coast during the mid-nineties. It featured Rent Romus during his college years at UC Santa Cruz as well as Jason Olaine who went on to become the driving force behind the success that is Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland California, Ben Leinbach who worked with artists such as Jai Utal and pianist and now doctorate and author Stefano Dezerega. This was also the debut recording for vocalist Anna Gurski. Continue reading →

Rent Romus’ Lords of Outland | You’ll Never Be The Same! | Edgetone Records

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This raw, gut level, on the edge recording places the listener smack dab in the middle of Blondie’s Jazz Bar in San Francisco on a cold night in February 1995. YOU’LL NEVER BE THE SAME is a musical journey combining a prima sense of groove and improvisation with Romus’ “X” generation angst. This seven-cut release pushes the envelope with Romus’ original compositions, which follows a gut level groove, and then builds upon that structure with free form improvisation. The music takes the attitude of the grunge music movement, and incorporates it into an acoustic, improvised setting. Through this concept of strange bedfellows the music appeals to the hard core jazz fan as well as the alternative music fan.

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