Ted Daniel’s Energy Module | Innerconnection | No Business Records

Trumpeter Ted Daniel’s Energy Module was a short-lived band. They played exactly two gigs in the course of one week in the fall of 1975—and never played again. They gelled quickly as a quintet, however, in large part because everyone knew each other from working in Daniel’s big band, Energy. However, the Energy Module was a less formal affair than the large ensemble, in which they played Daniel’s original compositions and arrangements. “We had a couple of rehearsals and played through the tunes, but our main focus was on collective and individual improvisation,” Daniel says. “We were getting ready to take care of business.” — Ed Hazell Continue reading

Dave Burrell | Steve Swell | Turning Point | No Business Records

Dave Burrell’s Turning Point, the third in a series of five suites commemorating the people and events of the Ainerican Civil War, is one of the crowning achievements in his career. A mature and passionate work, it weaves together 150 years of American history and music into a piece that grapples with some of the most horrifying moments in American history and yet remains profoundly hopeful. Born after a nine-month gestation period of historical research and rehearsals, the music evokes the harrowing events of mid-nineteenth century America through a vivid mix of sound imagery, stylistic references, and improvisation in an attempt to come to terms with the Civil War and its legacy. — Ed Hazell Continue reading

Billy Bang | William Parker | Medicine Buddha | No Business Records

Billy Bang was a brilliant human being, always much more than himself, especially when he surrendered to his true calling—that of musician, one who transforms music into magic, dancing instead of walking, jumping instead standing still. Billy Bang was an American original, an original musician, an organic person who had tapped into the river of sound and was riding on a boat drenched in blues-soul-funk and space. — William Parker Continue reading

Daniel Blacksberg Trio | Perilous Architecture | No Business Records

In the Dan Blacksberg Trio, the innovative and genre-defying trombonist brings an expansive and creative new vision to the cutting-edge jazz traditions of pioneers like Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Albert Ayler. Blacksberg has penned a set of music that pushes at the technical and timbral limits of his instrument, opening up into far-reaching sounds worlds while maintaining a melodic rootsiness. Backed up by the powerful rhythm of Matt Engle (Shot X Shot) on bass, and Mike Szekely (Anthony Braxton Quartet) on drums, the Trio creates a driving mixture of noise, chromatic lyricism, and everything in between… Continue reading

Nate Wooley | Hugo Antunes | Chris Corsano | MALUS | No Business Records

An often inspired study in post-noise atmospherics, Malus brings together three pioneering improvisers in their late thirties. Nate Wooley deploys vocalisation and extreme extended technique to turn his trumpet into a hissing steam engine and a bubbling cauldron, channelling electricity to create groggy lo-fi textures. Chris Corsano is in a reflective, exploratory mood, dragging objects across amplified skins to create queasy high-pitched drones and dull metallic rings. Double bassist Hugo Antunes steadies the ship while Wooley and Corsano scramble up the rigging, yet he’s far from conventional: hear him loom into orbit on ‘Seven Miles From The Moon’, carving monolithic obsidian slabs out of deep space silence. The trio’s sense of timing, texture and space is impeccable. In ‘4 Cornered’, a manic Wooley declaims over Corsano’s accelerating scuttle before Antunes walks the muttering trumpeter home. Wooley’s compositional nous, meanwhile, radiates in the Andalucian blues ‘Gentleman of Four Outs’. — Stewart Smith Continue reading

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