Fire! w/ Stephen O'Malley / David Sandstrom:
Requies [VINYL 1-SIDED EP w/ SCREEN PRINT on B-SIDE] (Rune Grammofon)
A one-side EP with a screen print on the B-Side, with a raucous, dark and incredibly epic journey in heavy electric jazz from Fire! configured as the quintet of Mats Gustafsson on bass saxophone, organ & live electronics, Johan Berthling on electric bass, Andreas Werliin on drums, Stephen O'Malley on guitar and David Sandstrom on drums; awe inspiring! ... Click to View
Flying Luttenbachers, The:
Imminent Death [VINYL 2 LPs] (God Records)
The ever-shifting lineup of jazz/no-wave/avant/aberrant improvisers The Flying Luttenbachers, anchored by drummer Weasel Walters, brings multi-reedist Matt Nelson, two guitarists (Brandon Seabrook & Henry Kaiser), bassist Tim Dahl and Brad Laner on synth for an aggressively informed and excitingly unpredictable album of superb playing and possibly bad intention; recommended! ... Click to View
Zorn / Chadbourrne / Bradfield / Baker / Hutton:
John Zorn's OIympiad - Vol. 2 Fencing 1978 (Tzadik)
Two exceptional live performances of John Zorn's interactive "Fencing" concept leading free improv into unusual directions, from the early Downtown NY scene in 1978, first at Zorn's own loft in the trio of guitarists Eugene Chadbourne, Duck Baker and Randy Hutton; then at Bard College, in Kingston, NY with Zorn on multiple reeds, Chadbourne on guitar and Polly Bradfield on violin. ... Click to View
Heroes Are Gang Leaders:
LeAutoRoiOgraphy [BLACK VINYL] (577 Records)
Led by tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and poet Thomas Sayers Ellis, this 12-piece ensemble of pointed and ecstatic free jazz and spoken word are heard at the 2019 Sons D'Hiver Festival in Paris, 2019, their sound influenced by chamber elements and sharpened through insightful and demanding observations and the influence of Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones). ... Click to View
Eunhye Jeong (Jeong / Burik / Ridley / Mela / Kim):
End of Time / KM-53 Project Vol. 1 (577 Records)
An energetic and sophisticated album of free improvisation based around three compositions by and under the direction of Boston-based South Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong, in a quintet with Allison Burik on alto saxophone & bass clarinet, Max Ridley on double bass, Francisco Mela on drums and Mina Kim on cello, who performs Jeong's solo work for cello on the center track. ... Click to View
John Zorn (Marsella / Roeder / Smith):
Suite for Piano (Tzadik)
Blurring the lines between composed and improvised music, John Zorn's ten-part composition in his "Suite for Piano" was inspired in part by the Goldberg Variations and Schoenberg's solo piano music, set in the classic piano trio format and performed by extraordinary New York musicians and improvisers, Brian Marsella on piano, Jorge Roeder on bass, and Ches Smith on drums. ... Click to View
Kirk Knuffke Trio (w/ Bisio / Shipp):
Gravity Without Airs [VINYL 2 LPs + DOWNLOAD] (Tao Forms)
A mix of original compositions and collective improvisations from the NY trio of cornetist Kirk Knuffke, bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp, in a double album of exemplary creative jazz from three players steeped in both tradition and forward-thinking approaches to improvisation, filled with spectacular playing from enthusiastic to introspective; a superb release. ... Click to View
AAVD Trio (Alexander Adams / Danny Andrade / Daniel Van Duerm):
Anti Glow (Amalgam)
Experimental improvisation driven by the foundations of electric piano, organ & electronics of Chicago keyboardist Daniel Van Duerm, fueled by the flexible and unusual drumming of Alexander Adams and passionately expanded by the cathartic tenor sax wrangling of Danny Andrade, dark and light come together to form an "anti-glow" from this engrossing young trio. ... Click to View
Stefan Thut:
Among (Inexhaustible Editions)
Creating complex intervals that the players must "notice among each other" as a model for coexistence, cellist Stefan Thut's score for three string players and sine waves, here configured for double bass (Félicie Bazelaire), acoustic guitar (Fredrik Rasten) and cello (Thut) with Léo Dupleix on sine waves tuned to multiples of prime numbers and attached to the wooden boxes that serve as transducers. ... Click to View
Amirtha Kidambi / Luke Stewart:
Zenith/Nadir [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Tripticks Tapes)
Referencing the highs and lows the NY duo of free improvising vocalist Amirtha Kidambi and bassist Luke Stewart take their listeners, both bringing along electronics as they divert between clear acoustics and extreme processing, pouring out the turbulence of the time with a unique sense of duress and oddly hopeful musing; frighteningly unique and fascinating. ... Click to View
Hippie Diktat:
Gran Sasso [VINYL] (nunc.)
The 3rd album from the French Hippie Diktat trio of Antoine Viard on baritone sax, Julien Chamla on drums and Richard Comte on guitar, drawing parallels to Sunn O))) and the raw power of Peter Brötzmann, here in a four-part work of primal rhythms and powerful textures, applying the use of space and timing around repetition to create a bedrock of brawny sound. ... Click to View
Richard Comte / Julien Pontvianne:
Sunken Music (nunc.)
The long-standing duet of guitarist Richard Comte and tenor saxophonist Julen Pontvianne (Onze Hours Onze) is a conversation of introspective resonance repetition around silence, tonal decay, slow call and response and submerged themes, here symbolically immersed as they explore four sunken islands from around the world: Vordonis; Lohachara; Semionovski and Elugelab. ... Click to View
Albert Ayler Quintet:
At Slugs' Saloon 1966, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
Combining the two Italian ESP/BASE LPs from 1982 and the 1995 ESP reissues, this spectacular concert with perhaps Ayler's most essential band--Ayler on tenor sax, Donald Ayler on trumpet, Michel Samson on violin, Lewis Worrell on double bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums--is fully remastered to bring out more details from the complete, ecstatic 1966 concert. ... Click to View
Markus Eichenberger / Christoph Gallio:
Unison Polyphony (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)
A seeming contradiction in terms, the unison voices and divergent polyphony that emerges best describes the subtle interactions between these two Swiss reed players--Markus Eichenberger on clarinet and Christoph Gallio (Day & Taxi) on soprano and C-Melody saxophones--their "harmony of coherence" strategies guiding their melodic interlacing and fragmentation. ... Click to View
Yaroslav Likhachev Quartet:
Occasional Sketches (Clean Feed)
Performing the embracingly angular compositions of Russian-born, German-based saxophonist Yaroslav Likhachev that pivot on hard bop transformed through inventive approaches, since 2016 Likhachev's Quartet with Yannis Anft on piano, Conrad Noll on bass and Moritz Baranczyk on drums have pursued new forms of expression while maintaining jazz, traditions here in nine well-defined "sketches". ... Click to View
Ziv Taubenfeld's Full Sun:
Out Of The Beast Came Honey (Clean Feed)
Amsterdam-based bass clarinetist Ziv Taubenfeld's sextet perform the leader's innovative compositions that include a tribute to alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, and a graphic composition for Sunny Murray, in a band with Michael Moore (sax & clarinet), Joost Buis (trombone), Nico Chientaroli (piano), Omer Govreen (double bass) and Onno Govaert (drums & percussion). ... Click to View
Daniel Carter / Watson Jennison / William Parker / Federico Ughi:
Live! Volume 1: Erie (577 Records)
Working together in tours and recording since 2005, the NY trio of multi-reedist and wind player Daniel Carter, bassis William Parker and drummer/percussionist Federico Ughi are joined by saxophonist Watson Jennison also on flute, recorder and keyboards for this enlightened album of modern and transcendent jazz in a limited, remastered LP edition with bonus material. ... Click to View
Chad Fowler / WC Anderson:
Lacrimosa (Mahakala Music)
Free jazz recorded one person at a time from the duo of saxophonist Chad Fowler and WC "Chad" Anderson who, constrained by pandemic, chose to create "simulated concerts" by exchanging solo recording, each starting the process for different pieces and surprised at how "live" the results felt, as they built up the twelve excellent, rule-breaking tracks of this album. ... Click to View
Daniel Carter / Jim Clouse:
Playing Retention (Mahakala Music)
Known first as one of New York's finest audio engineers running Park West Studios, Jim Clouse is also a drummer and saxophonist, this his first recorded foray into free jazz partnering with legendary multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter on sax, trumpet, piano & drums, for seven diverse and extremely well informed improvisations as each follows their natural inclinations. ... Click to View
Kyle Motl / Patrick Shiroishi:
Apparitions [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Notice Recordings)
The second album on Notice Recordings for West Coast free improvising saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi is a duo with San Diego-based double bassist Kyle Motl, in an exceptionally well-balanced example of powerful expression from both players, free blowing and turbulent exchanges offset by experimental introspective passages in four extended and excellent improvisations. ... Click to View
Cordoba (Brianna Tong / Eric Novak / Cam Cunningham / Zach Bain-Selbo / Khalyle Hagood / Zach Upton-Davis):
Specter (Amalgam)
Combining elements of neo-soul, jazz fusion and hip hop, the Cordoba genre-bending sextet from Chicago use their warm, slightly off-center grooves to present vocalist Brianna Tong's articulate lyrics that observe and reflect on the state of world, the band's arrangements extended on five songs with the Latin America-influenced Kaia String Quartet. ... Click to View
Michael Pisaro-Liu :
Two Scrolls From Western Australia (Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Composer Michael Pisaro-Liu asked guitarist Jameson Feakes and saxophonist Josten Myburgh to each select a location in Western Australia and make a set of field recordings at different times of day, providing the basis for a musical scroll akin to Chinese scroll paintings, each musician then a poetic character placed into the virtual landscape of their recordings. ... Click to View
Richard Comte:
Derive de la base et du sommet (nunc.)
Translating to "Base and vertex drift", French guitarist Richard Comte (Hippie Diktat, Vegan Dallas) present four darkly ominous solo works on electric guitar through slowly shifting chords and deep reverberation, punctuated with ringing tones and light moments that peer through sonic clouds, his ambience a backdrop to alternations of lucidity and submersion. ... Click to View
Eddie Prevost:
Collider-Scope: Or, Whose Drum is it, Anyway? (Matchless)
A series of impressive improvised solo drum performances by AMM/Matchless leader Eddie Prévost performed at Network Theatre in London, 2012, three pieces with each demonstrating a different characteristic of his remarkably creative and technically virtuosic playing, first with drum sticks, then with "Hands, brush, hands", and finally "Sticking it too". ... Click to View
Jessica Ackerley / Patrick Shiroishi / Chris Williams / Luke Stewart / Jason Nazary:
SSWAN: Invisibility is an Unnatural Disaster (577 Records)
Rugged, experimental and avant jazz in the debut album from the SSWAN group of Patrick Shiroishi on saxophones, Chris Williams on trumpet, Jessica Ackerley on electric guitar, Luke Stewart on bass and Jason Nazary on drums, the group focused first on sound and velocity rather than pitch and harmonic information as they carve out a unique space between free jazz and free improv. ... Click to View
Kelley Hurt / Chad Fowler / Christopher Parker / Bernard Santacruz / Anders Griffen:
Nothing But Love, the Music of Frank Lowe (Mahakala Music)
A tribute to avant jazz saxophonist and composer Frank Lowe by assembling players who had never previously played together, but who had all individually performed and been influenced by Lowe: Chad Fowler on saxophones, Christopher Parker on piano, Bernard Santacruz on bass, Anders Griffen on drums & trumpet, Kelley Hurt on vocals and Bobby Lavell on saxophone. ... Click to View
Christopher Parker / Kelley Hurt:
No Tears Suite (Mahakala Music)
Celebrating the temerity and successes of the students known as the Arkansas "Little Rock Nine", who in 1957 set a precedent as they fought to enter a segregated high school, in six pieces written by pianist Christopher Parker and vocalist Kelley Hurt, who narrates the student's successes over the powerfully uplifting and reflective music of a six piece jazz band. ... Click to View
Eva-Maria Houben :
4 For Four (Edition Wandelweiser Records)
A work for percussion in thirty-four succinct movements from German composer Eva-Maria Houben and performed by the Frantic Percussion Ensemble of Markus Behn, David Gutfleisch, Simon Gutfleisch, Gunnar Kötke and Jonathan Szegedi, each section using broad and patient spacing to highlight a fascinating mix of traditional and unusual percussive devices. ... Click to View
Charmaine Lee / Fred Lonberg-Holm / Gabby Fluke-Mogul / Joanna Mattrey / Weston Olencki:
Live in Accord [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Notice Recordings)
Four configurations of far-reaching free improv at Notice Recordings's 2021 event in Accord, NY: a solo performance by Charmain Lee on voice & electronics; a duo between Lee and Weston Olnecki on synths & trombone; a trio from Gabby Fluke-Mogul on violin, Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Joanna Mattrey on viola; a duo between Lonberg-Holm and Olencki. ... Click to View
Adrianne Munden-Dixon / Leo Chang:
Some Time [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Notice Recordings)
Unusual interactions between electronically manipulated violin and an AMPIRI--an electronically enhanced Korean double reed instrument--from the Brooklyn duo of Leo Chang and Adrianne Munden Dixon, seven improvisations numbered "Sixteen" to "Twenty-Two", each a uniquely idiosyncratic exchange from quick slippery dialog to raspy dissonance of unexpected directions. ... Click to View
