Rodrigo Amado | Joe McPhee | Kent Kessler | Chris Corsano | This Is Our Language | Not Two Records

Ornette Coleman released This Is Our Music in 1960, that title an assertion of achievement in making what was in many ways a much maligned music, the almost private practice of an excluded sub-group – free jazz musicians – within the already marginalized world of jazz. Perhaps above all, it was an assertion of rights to an original voice and musical speech. Declaring “This Is Our Language,” Rodrigo Amado marks both his kinship to Coleman and the rich tradition that has developed in free jazz since then, the intense sense of a still close-knit discourse community that has somehow expanded around the world. — Stuart Broomer Continue reading

Joe McPhee | Fred Lonberg-Holm | Michael Zerang | Survival Unit III | Game Theory | Not Two Records

Joe McPhee – alto sax, pocket trumpet |Fred Lonberg-Holm – cello, electronics | Michael Zerang – percussion. Recorded in concert on October 26, 2010, at Instants Chavires, Paris, France by Jean-Marc Fossat. Mixed by Michael Zerang and Lou Mallozzi at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Mastered by Rafal Drewniany (dts studio). Inside photo: Steve Robinson. Cover photo: Filip Przewozny. Cover design: Malgorzata Lipinska. Continue reading

Joe Giardullo Open Ensemble | Red Morocco | RogueArt Jazz

Someday someone will write a history of modern music that will free us of the false dichotomies such as high vs. low, improviser vs. composer, classical vs. everything else… …The written materials Joe passed out to the musicians for Red Morocco was minimal, sometimes more visual than musical, but always modest. Everyone was seated in the same room, in a circle. The music heard on this recording occurred late in the day, when Joe felt a certain clarity was occurring… …The results are an elegant, shimmering, ringing music, like colors spiking across the plane of a Monet canvas, or spinning like a piece of Calder’s kinetic art; a constantly evolving, deeply sonic performance, collectively improvised, and decentered; a self-organizing musical system, with minimal input or constraints from outside. Giardullo is willing into existence a music that occurs beyond his control. This means he has to surround himself with musicians who are accomplished, but also open, free to take chances, and willing to be themselves, no matter what. — John Szwed, excerpt from the liner notes. Continue reading

Joe McPhee | Steve Dalachinsky | Evan Parker | Jean-Jacques Avenel | Joëlle Léandre | Sylvain Kassap | Ramon Lopez | Jean-Luc Cappozzo | Simon Goubert | Raphaël Imbert | Urs Leimgruber | Didier Levallet | Barre Phillips | Michel Portal | Lucia Recio | Christian Rollet | John Tchicai | 13 Miniatures for Albert Ayler | RogueArt Jazz

As for the penultimate phases of this polyphonic hirsutism, fortified by explosions, whirlwinds, chants, howls, bubblings and very high pitched sounds, everything happens as if the last cry recalled, as in a trance, a certain aylerien spirit – did not Robert Schumann write “Music is what permits us to speak with the heavens”. — Philippe Carles, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading

Joe McPhee | Jeb Bishop | Ingebrigt Haker Flaten | Michael Zerang | Ibsen’s Ghosts | Not Two Records

Joe McPhee – tenor saxophone |Jeb Bishop – trombone | Ingebrigt Haker Flaten – bass | Michael Zerang – drums Recorded at Victoria Theater, Oslo, February 21, 2009. Recorded by Thomas Hukkelberg. Mastered by Rafal Drewniany (dts studio). Produced by Ibsen’s Ghosts. Co-produced by Marek Winiarski. Cover art, photos and design by Marek Wajda Continue reading

Joe McPhee | Ingebrigt Haker Flaten | Blue Chicago Blues | Not Two Records

In Blue Chicago Blues, recorded in 2007 the duo of tenor player Joe McPhee and bassist Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten balances out very well, in ethnicity, instrumentation, musical personality, and tonal character. McPhee is relaxed with the openness of his horn and Håker-Flaten, attentively diligent at emphasizing the tautness of his bass strings. “Requiem for An Empty Heart” sounds the blues-iest of all of the six tracks. But McPhee’s poetry on the back cover of the record jacket settles any question of how blues are anyway: “For this here ain’t nothin’ but the blues, nasty, low down, trifflin’ and sweet…” Dedicated to the late Chicago tenorman, Fred Anderson, the recording refers to blues-makers Oliver Nelson and Ornette Coleman and simple imaginations of the downtrodden or the mercurial female kind. — Lyn Horton, Jazz Times Continue reading

Joe McPhee | Dominic Duval | Jay Rosen | Mikolaj Trzaska | Magic | Not Two Records

As the 1990s drew to a close McPhee discovered two like-minded improvisers in bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen. The trio premiered at the Vision Jazz Festival, but the concert went unnoticed by the press; McPhee, Duval and Rosen therefore decided that an apt title for the group would be Trio X. A number of Trio X recordings, have since been released on the CIMP and CADENCE JAZZ RECORDS labels, and the band has received favorable critical notice for these, as well as for its live concert and festival appearances. This is the first Trio X album on NotTwo, and it features a special guest – one of the leading European improv music masters — Mikolaj Trzaska. Continue reading

Joe McPhee | Peter Brötzmann | Kent Kessler | Michael Zerang | The Damage Is Done | Not Two Records

This live date features legendary free jazz pioneers Peter Brötzmann and Joe McPhee, and Chicago’s leading rhythm section, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Michael Zerang. The four also make up 4/10 of Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, maybe the most successful large new music jazz ensemble ever assembled. As they have in the past while touring with the Tentet, they step away and perform in this more intimate lineup. This quartet has released two previous recordings, Tales Out Of Time (hatOLOGY, 2004) and Guts (Okka, 2007), with The Damage Is Done’s two discs recorded live at Alchemia in Krakow, Poland in March of 2008. While the players can (and do) perform volatile energy jazz here, their preference is for music that’s dissectible enough for the players to be distinguished in parts and direction. — Mark Corroto – All About Jazz Continue reading

Joe McPhee | Mikolaj Trzaska | Jay Rosen | Intimate Conversations | Not Two Records

Intimacy permeates many kinds of relationships. It is rare that in one context, several can be examined simultaneously. But the language of music coupled with the poetry of viewpoint can cover descriptive territory without too much hardship to demonstrate that intimacy requires depth of connection and can stretch the parameters for gaining insight and paying attention…– Lyn Horton, All About Jazz Continue reading