stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 27, 2009, 4:27 pm
One great album in a decade is an achievement, two great albums in one year is exceptional, yet this trio with saxophonist Lotte Anker, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver does it. After "...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 26, 2009, 3:19 pm
Usually I try to be cautious to keep close to this blog's profile in terms of the music that I review : adventurous, innovative, expressive, boundary-shifting music, with deep artistic vision. But...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 25, 2009, 4:52 pm
 In the liner notes to the album, Art Lande writes "Mind Games is the latest adventure in an odyssey of intuition and expression, freedom and control", and that's a quite apt description for ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 23, 2009, 3:54 pm
Frode Gjerstad is a very prolific musician, according to himself preferring to play with his larger ensemble "Circulasione Totale", because the sound is denser and more varied, yet the costs higher. T...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 22, 2009, 12:01 pm
 After Alexandra Grimal and Maguelone Vidal, Véronique Magdelenat is the third female French saxophonist that makes an album of value this year. Accompanied by Bernard Santacruz on bass and Chri...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 21, 2009, 3:07 pm
The band's name reveals that this is a quintet, with Lithuanian Petras Vysniauskas on soprano, Ukranians Yury Yaremchuk soprano, alto and clarinets, and Mark Tokar on bass, German Klaus Kugel on d...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 19, 2009, 2:56 pm
Trumpeter Bill Dixon's music has always been hard to classify: rooted in jazz, with the adventurousness of the avant-garde, open for the use of electronics, and with the composed and structured ap...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 17, 2009, 4:20 pm
From the very first notes of the solo sax intro, you recognize Fred Anderson's tone, phrasing, rhythm but also his passion and soul, right there in front of you. Nothing new, but as always a delig...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 16, 2009, 4:36 pm
 Truth be told, I like horns. The way they can twist, bend, split and torture sounds, or make them whisper in sad sensitivity, or sing in voluptuous joy, or scream in tormented agony, or wail in ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 14, 2009, 4:31 pm
British saxophonist John Butcher and bassist John Edwards are two of the most prominent voices in European free improvisation. They are joined by two Italian improvisers, Alberto Braida on piano and F...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 13, 2009, 4:39 pm
Some decades ago, the only jazz I listened to was ECM jazz, Jarrett, Garbarek, Gismonti, Towner, John Abercrombie, John Surman ... slowly moving towards Arts Ensemble Of Chicago, Old & New Dreams, ope...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 12, 2009, 4:08 pm
Piano and violin duets are quite rare in jazz, but this album shows that the format has something to offer. This duo is even more unusual because of the two musicians' idiosyncratic styles. Althou...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 11, 2009, 3:27 pm
Albert Ayler was one of the truly great musicians of the early free jazz period, mixing ferocious heart-wrenching wailing with sensitivity and spirituality, all built over a backbone of traditional mu...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 9, 2009, 4:01 pm
There is no limit of what you can do with instruments. Here are some examples of guitar trios that bend the conceptions of the genre, from classical stuff to intergallactic destruction, deconstruction...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 9, 2009, 3:20 pm
Rolph Kühn is without a doubt one of the best jazz clarinetists, and he has actively participated in the history of jazz in the last sixty years (he is now 80), playing amongst others in radio big ba...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 7, 2009, 4:54 pm
The French bassist Joëlle Léandre does not really belong to any musical genre: she plays bass and does so with everyone who wants to interact musically, with open minds, creating open-ended music, a...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 6, 2009, 4:19 pm
This is without a doubt one of the best surprises of the year, almost fourty years after it was performed, this wonderful first performance of "Splinters" sees the light of day, and it is a great reco...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 5, 2009, 4:34 pm
After the excellent "The Abstract Truth", Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado presents his new trio, with Miguel Miro on cello and Gabriel Ferrandini on drums. The album is a wonderful example of fre...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 4, 2009, 10:13 am
The album's cover gives a good idea about the music: it is sparse, organic/human and repetitive. Drummer/percussionist John Hollenbeck is obsessed with rhythm, rhythmic patterns, musical forms, an...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Nov 2, 2009, 4:41 pm
I'm always reluctant to put people into boxes, and especially the big boxes like gender, race or religion. But apparently not John Zorn, who creates this all female band, to release an album calle...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 31, 2009, 5:04 pm
 A welcome addition to the rare concept of double bass duets, with classically trained jazz bassist Giorgio Dini from Italy and William Parker interacting for five freely improvised pieces, with ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 29, 2009, 6:15 pm
Recorded live in Coimbra, Portugal, this Swedish quartet and the enthusiastic audience do exactly what you would expect: play music and have fun. The four musicians have played together before in one ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 28, 2009, 5:20 pm
 I'm sure I miscalculated, but the sum so far is 3 albums this year with Joe Morris as a leader, and 6 as a sideman/bandmember, and the distinction between the former and the latter is also n...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 26, 2009, 5:23 pm
 No doubt Larry Ochs is one of the best modern saxophonists and creative musicians, possibly best know from the ROVA Quartet, but some his recent work is also stellar, such as "Up From Under", wi...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 25, 2009, 4:38 pm
There are albums that are gripping from the first moment that you listen to them, others have to ripen through repeated listens. "Bendowa", a title that refers to the book by the Japanese zen master D...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 24, 2009, 4:54 pm
Blues legend Muddy Waters' major hit Mannish Boy comes to mind when you hear the title, with its basic heavy blues beat and the great simple ironic text, full of the boasting self-confidence betra...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 23, 2009, 5:58 pm
 I forgot to mention two other upcoming/just released Ken Vandermark albums. I don't have them, and I haven't listened to them yet (sounds logical). Actually, Vandermark updated his webs...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 22, 2009, 3:52 pm
Two years ago this trio released the rather groundbreaking record "Digital Primitives", all fun and great music, and their sophomore album continues in the same vein: all fun and great music. The crea...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 18, 2009, 11:58 am
 The nice thing about being a fantastic musician, is the chance you get to play a lot, in various line-ups, clubs and regions, possibly leading to lots of gigs and the possibility for new release...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 17, 2009, 3:51 pm
 Clean Feed really is the label that spots most of the upcoming talent: here again, Chicagoan drummer Charles Rumback gets a chance for his debut release with a band consisting of the double sax ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 16, 2009, 3:10 pm
 I must admit that it took a while before I wanted to listen to this album, because I feared an endless parade of undefinable sounds, clicks and quacks and squeals, the kind of avant-garde meanin...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 15, 2009, 3:56 pm
 Marty Ehrlich is without a doubt a fantastic saxophonist, former member of Julius Hemphill's sextet, but also a creative artist who's been struggling to find his voice over the past deca...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 14, 2009, 5:30 pm
Calling Signals is a band started by British bassist Nick Stephens and Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad (here on alto and clarinet) in 1994 (with Paul Rutherford and Terje Isungset), with now in i...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 12, 2009, 3:27 pm
I was quite enthusiastic recently about EASilence, a collaboration between Mirio Cosottini on trumpet and Alessio Pisani on bassoon and contrabassoon. And now, some months later, their new project is ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 11, 2009, 3:28 am
How to find the right middle ground between simplicity and complexity? Too much elaborated pieces tend to be stifling for direct emotional delivery and spontaneous interventions, but you have the expe...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 10, 2009, 5:23 am
After his magnificent African-inspired album "Guewel", Canadian drummer Harris Eisenstadt returns to his native soil, celebrating his home country. The band further consists of Nate Wooley on trumpet,...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 7, 2009, 4:52 pm
Wadada Leo Smith is like the Roman god Janus : he has many faces, but he's always the same. Whether he plays contemplative solos or duets, or complex modern jazz like on "Tabligh", or his endless ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 6, 2009, 4:51 pm
Whit Dickey, who is best known for his collaborations with David S. Ware, is not only a great drummer, the four CDs that I have of him as a leader all rank with four stars (in my obsessive personal bo...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 5, 2009, 4:02 pm
 Regular readers of this blog know about the joy I find in trumpet music in small ensembles, and here is another album to enjoy from beginning to end. You will hear Herb Robertson like you've...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 5, 2009, 5:21 am
Because I listened earlier today to L. Subramanian's solo violin album, I thought I would add a short memo  on the topic of this rare kind of performance. Gunda Gottschalk's Wassermonde,...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 4, 2009, 3:22 am
The clarinet is possibly a lead instrument that spans the broadest range of musical genres, from classical, over folk, klezmer, Turkish, balkan, to jazz, and soundtracks, from street musicians over da...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 3, 2009, 5:09 pm
More than two years ago trumpet-player Brian Groder released "Torque", a stellar CD with Sam Rivers on sax. Ever since, I've been scanning the usual information sources, eager to find new material...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 3, 2009, 3:52 pm
"Listening to a recording of free jazz is a bit like watching travelers in a busy train terminal. People of all sizes and colors are moving in every direction; some of them are headed out of town, whi...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 3, 2009, 10:38 am
I am not a real fan of modern piano albums. It's hard to explain why. I prefer the more expressive power of horns. I often find piano music too cerebral and scholarly, with too much focus on the ...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 2, 2009, 3:11 pm
Han Bennink is without a doubt one of the best and also most entertaining drummers in the free improv scene. I should have gone to a concert* by him tonight with this same trio, with Simon Toldam on p...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Oct 1, 2009, 3:01 pm
Unknown to me, this young British free jazz band brings a remarkably mature and highly enjoyable record. Led by Philip Somervell on piano, the band consists of Chris Williams on alto saxophone, Joe Eg...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Sep 29, 2009, 5:22 pm
Wadada Leo Smith's second record for the Treader label is better than the previous "Brooklyn Duos", on which he plays duets with John Coxon on guitar and harmonica. The latter still plays guitar o...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Sep 28, 2009, 4:55 pm
I do not usually review CDs that I don't like, but once in a while I will do it to make a more general point. The Swiss KiKu Trio consists of three excellent musicians : Yannick Barman on trumpet,...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Sep 27, 2009, 4:58 pm
When I said some days ago that there aren't many women trumpet-players, I missed one who is basically living and playing in my backyard. Sanne van Hek is a Dutch trumpet-player, who started on cla...
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stef g. posted an article on Free Jazz - Sep 27, 2009, 3:18 am
Your humble servant is a great fan of the "Bitches Brew" period of Miles Davis, so when young bands bring materials that is influenced by the master, it is always with interest that I listen to them. ...
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