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Steve Swell’s Slammin’ The Infinite | 5000 Poems | Not Two Records

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Slammin’ IV – 5.000 Poems The title for this fourth installment of Slammin’ The Infinite takes its name from an essay by Walt Whitman. His theme in this essay, briefly summarized, is that in all art, and life too for that matter, being prolific, hardworking and productive in all you do, including trying those things whose outcome may not be exactly perfect in one’s mind, will eventually lead to that one good idea or work of art. Farmers after all plant many seeds, not just one, in the hope that some of those seeds will yield a nourishing crop. So it is with how I view my own work as an improvising musician and composer. Only by constantly creating can there be any hope that some of that creating will yield something worthwhile. Something that will mean something to someone, making that connection to even that one listener that might be moved and nourished by this most human of endeavors. I am fortunate to have a band that is still working together planting those seeds as a band and as individuals throughout the world always in the hope of creating that one crop of abundance that might fill the listener with strenght and hope and life. Also, there would be no ground to plant these musical seeds if it weren’t for the likes of Marek Winiarski, the wonderful people of Alchemia in Krakow and that most gentle and wisest of gardeners, Barbara Backer Manes. Thanking them all here does not even scratch the surface of their commitment to this music and to me personally. To all of them and the amazing musicians on this recording that I have been fortunate to work with, I am humbly grateful. —Steve Swell Continue reading →

Misha Feigin | The Dew Drop Blues

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With “Dew Drop Blues” Misha Feigin has created a beautiful set of anomalies, poetics that turn on an angle that only a bent mathematician such as he could invent and filled with a sardonic wit that is simultaneously dark and euphoric. And when words fail or need to transcend, Misha’s virtuosic guitar continues to propose impossibilities and hallucinations that tie everything together. — Elliot Sharp Continue reading →

Ken Silverman

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I’m Ken Silverman a NYC-based Guitarist/Composer, who also plays Oud, Charango, Bass Guitar and hand percussion. My interest as an Improvisor is in taking everything I’ve been exposed to and using it to try to create something distinctive and creative. For me that means using what I’ve learned from blues, jazz, rock, ethnic and to some extent classical and concert music in an improvised or “free” setting, or within the realm of “Composition.” My goal is to create my own brew of sound and to keep forever expanding, both through playing with others and through working on my sound and playing as an individual. I have been active concertizing in NYC with a variety of musicians, including Daniel Carter and Roy Campbell. June, 2010 saw the release of the Quartet CD “Macroscopia” on the Metier label. Continue reading →

Vijay Anderson | Hardboiled Wonderland | Not Two Records

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Vijay Anderson is a freelance drummer, bandleader, and teacher who lives and works in Oakland, California. He has been performing professionally in the Bay Area since 1997. He holds a MFA in music performance from Mills College, where he studied with Roscoe Mitchell, William Winant, David Bernstein, and Fred Frith. He earned his BA in music performance from S.F. State, studying under Eddie Marshall, Francis Wong, Hafez Modirzadeh, and Wayne Wallace. Anderson has performed and recorded with such diverse, outstanding musicians as Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalists Lynn Johnston and Vinny Golia, Bay Area composers/performers Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, John Schott, Graham Connah, Darren Johnston, Smith Dobson V, Lisa Mezzacappa, Aaron Bennett and Ava Mendoza, and Austria-based saxophonist/composer Marco Eneidi. He also has worked extensively with Brooklyn based bass player/composer Adam Lane as part of Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra, the Adam Lane Trio featuring Vinny Golia, and Adam Lane’s Blue Spirit Band featuring Avram Fefer and Roy Campbell.
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Rosa Luxembourg New Quintet | Night Asylum | Not Two Records

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Rosa Luxembourg New Quintet consists of five talented musicians who respect no boundaries when it comes to creating music. The five musicians in this group all exhibit good talent for free jazz improvisation. Heddy Brubaker’s sound hovers between the academics of Anthony Braxton and the more primordial sounds of a Marion Brown or Julius Hemphill. Piero Pepin’s trumpet growls and moans Lester Bowie style as it plays off the rest of the ensemble. Marc Perrenoud provides bass and electric guitar in a manner that adds rhythm and color rather than tonal assistance. Fabien Duscombs expertly uses a wide range of percussion instruments. Lastly, Françoise Guerlin’s voice is an improvisational instrument in its own right. — freethemusic – olatunji.blogspot Continue reading →

Sei Miguel | Pedro Gomes | Turbina Anthem | No Business Records

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Turbina Anthem delves into the throes of assertive, sometimes chaotic experimentalism. A pungent trumpet opener pierced with mutated guitar plucks is standard fare across much of the track list, to most astringent effect on “Spoon” and “Jura”. Gomes aurally transforms his guitar into a metal sheet-washboard hybrid on the former, providing a percussive foundation for Miguel’s flaring trumpet. Beneath the grating overlap of the two strong-willed sounds, however, there does lay an appealing sense of discord and darkness – an ‘antiharmony’ of sorts. This quality reaches its height in “Jura”; Miguel plays with more apparent momentum, immediately searing the air when met with Gomes’ guitar gunshots. Turbina Anthem’s recurring piece – “The Pale Star”, recorded in five parts – offers some much-needed palate-cleansing. These tracks open with bare plucks of guitar or extended trumpet notes, proceeding serenely with few adornments. Gomes and Miguel still stretch the bounds of their instruments but on a more controlled scale, showcasing their versatility past caustic composition. —Sharon Mizrahi Continue reading →

Thomas Heberer | Joachim Badenhorst | Pascal Niggenkemper | Klippe | Thomas Heberer | One | No Business Records

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Thomas Heberer is called “a European master” and “new trumpet genius”. The music in his new double LP brings a fresh approach to blending improvisation and composition, which allows for the highest amount of freedom on the musicians’ side while incorporating significant structural tools on the composer’s side as well. His solo recording applies a vast variety of conventional and extended techniques, among which the most distinctive component is the exclusive use of circular breathing. Continue reading →

William Hooker and Thomas Chapin | Crossing Points | No Business Records

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It is May 30, 1992. New York. William Hooker plays drums. Thomas Chapin plays sax. They meet. All hell breaks loose. For seventy-one minutes. No holds barred. No limits. Just exploring. Just interacting. Just enjoying. Volume. Pulse. Speed. Power. Power. Energy. Anger. Depth. Scope. Lyricism. Sensitivity. Rawness. Rebels. Innovators. Ayler. Coltrane. Rashied Ali. Elvin Jones. Billy Higgins. Spirituality. Authenticity. Honesty. Integrity. Reality. Humanity. Energy. Freedom. Optimism. The creative force. Life. —Stef Continue reading →

Sirone | Sirone’s Concord | Not Two Records

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Unless I’m mistaken the last time bassist Sirone released an album under his own name before Concord was 1980, and one wonders why on earth we didn’t hear more of him in the intervening years. Concord is a quartet featuring Ben Abarbanel-Wolff on tenor saxophone, Ulli Bartel on violin and Maurice de Martin on drums, and their playing on these five Sirone originals is solid and convincing without being flashy. Bartel’s rich double stops support the arching melody of the opening “Aisha’s Serenade”, tapping into a rich vein of European folk fiddle. On “You are not alone but we are few” Sirone reaches for the bow and engages Bartel and Abarbanel-Wolff in sensitive dialogue, while de Martin adds deft touches of percussion colour. On “For all we don’t know” violin and saxophone stretch out on a simple modal melody in two-part harmony, while Sirone and Martin roll along underneath in fast triple time. It all flows effortlessly, and manages to be constantly engaging, even passionate, without ever going overboard. A boisterous drum solo leads without a break into the superb freebop “Swingin’ on a string of things / For Albert”, the Albert in question presumably being Ayler, as acknowledged by the gospel inflections of Abarbanel-Wolff’s splendidly gutsy solo, and Bartel plays Michel Sampson to perfection. The reprise of “You are not alone but we are few” is a fine touch, rounding off the album with another superb bass solo from the leader. European concert promoters who fall over themselves to book acts from New York (I’m thinking particularly of French festivals such as Banlieues Bleues and Sons d’Hiver) should turn their gaze to the east and sign these boys up fast. —Paristransatlantic Continue reading →