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Cosa Brava (Frith / Parkins / Kihlstedt / Bossi / Ismaily):
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Guitarist & vocalist Fred Frith leads the highly creative quintet of Zeena Parkins on keys & voice, Carla Kihlstedt on violin & voice, Mathias Bossi on drums and Shahzad Ismaily on bass, merging free improv, rock and experimental forms; drawn from live performances recorded by The Normal Conquest, this set of compositions captures the group's dynamic interplay and remarkable inventiveness. ... Click to View


AALY Trio (Gustafsson / Nordeson / Janson):
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Rob Mazurek Quartet (w/ Reid / Taylor/ Sanchez):
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Kenny Warren (Warren / Hoffman / Ellman):
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Ran Blake / Dave Knife Fabris:
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Tadd Dameron:
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Composer, pianist, and bandleader Tadd Dameron's first album, Fontainebleau (1956), and his final work, The Magic Touch (1962), are remastered to highlight his sophisticated hard bop compositions for large ensembles, featuring influential players like Bill Evans, Philly Joe Jones, and Ron Carter, and showcasing Dameron's lasting impact on jazz before his untimely passing. ... Click to View


Claudio Sanna:
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The second volume in pianist and composer Claudio Sanna exploration of composers, improviser and experimenters from Sardinia, in a wonderfully diverse set of works and performances from Sanna himself, Anna Zeriotto (double bass), Federico Nicoletta (piano), Leoardo Zunica (piano), Sandro Mungianu (live electronics), and Paolo Pastorino (live electronics). ... Click to View


Alfredo Colon (Colon / Korten / Williams / Parks):
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Brooklyn-based saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Alfredo Colon's debut album presents an engaging set of enthusiastic works rooted in the blues tradition, featuring a cover of Delta blues singer Son House and performed with his Brooklyn quartet: Lex Korten (piano, Klavins Una Corda), Steve Williams (upright bass), and Connor Parks (drums), blending lyrical expression and balanced dynamics. ... Click to View


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Chemical Expansion League, The (Bohman / Lynch / Northover / Mengersen):
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Vasseur / Serries:
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Michael McNeill (w/ Susan Alcorn / Dave Ballou / Shelly Purdy):
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After their 2022 tour, the quartet of Michael McNeill on piano, Susan Alcorn on pedal steel guitar, Dave Ballou on trumpet, and Shelly Purdy on vibraphone and percussion recorded seven studio improvisations composed by McNeill, using a compositional framework inspired by the black and white keys of the piano (the 'barcode') to fuel their poetic and expressive impulses. ... Click to View


Wooden Cities:
WORK (Infrasonic Press)

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Eddie Prevost:
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AMM (Prevost / Tilbury):
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Kanngiesser / Prevost / Wright:
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The third volume in the High Laver Levitations series that started with the duo of John Butcher and Eddie Prévost, continued with Silvan Schmid, Tom Wheatley & Prévost, now presents Ute Kanngiesser on cello, Seymour Wright on alto sax, and Eddie Prévost on drum kit, recording two extended improvisations that explore the resonant acoustics of All Saints Church in High Laver, Essex. ... Click to View


Axel Dorner / Oliver Schwerdt / Julian Sartorius:
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The title refers to the dynamic addition of drummer and percussionist Julian Sartorius, whose energy injects 'jet fuel' into this bassless, windless trio's live 2021 performance at naTo in Leipzig, Germany, with Euphorium label leader Oliver Schwerdt igniting the grand piano and Axel Dörner's thrillingly unconventional slide trumpet playing adding to the burn & mdash; exceptional! ... Click to View


Peter Evans / Petter Eldh / Jim Black:
Extra (We Jazz)

An exhilarating trio with bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Jim Black, recorded in Lisbon in 2023, capturing inventive synergy across eight original compositions by Peter Evans, ranging from the fiery intensity of "Freaks" and "Boom" to the surprising twists of "The Lighthouse", as their close-knit rapport fuels rhythmic depth and jaw-dropping improvisation. ... Click to View


Dougie Bowne:
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Phill Niblock / Anna Clementi / Thomas Stern:
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John Zorn:
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The second volume of John Zorn's vocal compositions, performed by virtuoso Barbara Hannigan alongside returning pianist Stephen Gosling, expands with orchestration for string quartet, a dynamic work for voice, cello, vibes, electronics, and drums, a lively piece for voice, piano, and rhythm, and Zorn's unique interpretation of the classic 'Pandora's Box. ... Click to View


Musicworks Magazine:
#149 Fall 2024 [MAGAZINE + CD] (Musicworks)

The Fall 2024 issue of Canada's premiere music magazine: On The Cover Brendan Grey and the Evolving Ethos of Super Duty Tough Work; avant-garde sound murals of Filipino composer José Maceda; Montreal-based composer and improviser Allison Burik; Kurt Gottschalk interviews Rita Ueda; Windsor-based post-classical guitarist Bilal Nasser; plus reviews and a CD of artists covered in this issue. ... Click to View


John Zorn (Roeder / Wollesen / Zorn / Lage):
New Masada Quartet, Volume Three (Tzadik)

The third volume in John Zorn's New Masada Quartet — Zorn on alto sax, Jorge Roeder on bass, Kenny Wollesen on drums, and Julian Lage on guitar — captures a packed 2024 concert at Roulette in Brooklyn, where fervent interplay and exceptional soloing bring six Zorn compositions to life in a single, seamlessly indexed track before an enthusiastic audience. ... Click to View


Parker / Costa / Ernstring:
Pulsar (NoBusiness)

Rotterdam-based collaborators, alto saxophonist Hugo Costa and drummer Philipp Ernsting, invite legendary bassist William Parker to join them in a Netherlands studio for threeimprovisations that emphasize emotional spontaneity and raw intensity, creating music that finds beauty in exploration and a transformative journey through expressive conversation. ... Click to View


Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal:
Catching Fire (Rune Grammofon)

Recorded live in Oslo, the Norwegian jazz-rock trio Elephant9 of Torstein Lofthus (drums), Nikolai Haengsle (bass) and Stale Storlokken (keys) join with legendary guitarist Terje Rypdal, channeling the intensity of bands like King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra as they blend and evolve layered psychedelia with angular improvisation for a raw, electric fusion experience. ... Click to View


Elephant9 with Terje Rypdal:
Catching Fire [VINYL 2 LPs] (Rune Grammofon)

Recorded live in Oslo, the Norwegian jazz-rock trio Elephant9 of Torstein Lofthus (drums), Nikolai Haengsle (bass) and Stale Storlokken (keys) join with legendary guitarist Terje Rypdal, channeling the intensity of bands like King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra as they blend and evolve layered psychedelia with angular improvisation for a raw, electric fusion experience. ... Click to View


Rodrigues / Sa / Rocha / Rodrigues / Silva / Varela / Goncalves / Flak / Trindade:
Mimesis (Creative Sources)

Primarily an acoustic ensemble of nine improvisers led by Ernesto Rodrigues on viola — including saxophonist Joana Sá, percussionist Monsieur Trindade, guitarist Flak, and pianist Luisa Gonçalves — performs a live, extended improvisation of tightly controlled, deeply detailed conversation as part of the 2024 Creative Sources Cycle in Lisbon. ... Click to View


Hunter Underwater (Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Kohn / Lin):
Archipelago (Creative Sources)

In their second release, the Hunter Underwater quartet of four cellists — Guilherme Rodrigues (Portugal), Gábor Hartyáni (Budapest), Guido Kohn (Buenos Aires), and Hui-Chun Lin (Taiwan) — record at Berlin's Zentrifuge, creating sound sculptures and landscapes with layered harmonics and dynamic interplay through composition and improvisation. ... Click to View



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  Sam Rivers Quintet 
  Zenith  
  (NoBusiness Records) 


  
   review by Paul Serralheiro
  2021-01-19
Sam Rivers Quintet: Zenith (NoBusiness Records)

The tremendous creative explosion of music that was detonated by a legendary group of artists in New York City in the 1970s is only now being fully appreciated. And as more documentation of that period becomes available, one begins to get a clearer idea of the importance of that period in the ongoing evolution of jazz and improvised music.

While jazz in the 1980s reached a fork in the road with one group of musicians like the neo-traditionalist young lions spearheaded by Wynton Marsalis going the reactionary road, some musicians chose the other direction and worked out a gargantuan amount of music in the Avant-garde vein. Sam Rivers' music, however, embraced both the traditional and experimental strains and seems to have done what Yogi Berra, the fabled baseball manager once reportedly said, "When you reach a fork in the road, take it!" Rivers had a foot in blues and bebop and in the aesthetics of "New Thing" and his music was evidence of a kind of creative spontaneous combustion of the highest order in which the two approaches were fused, as is evident in this release of a 1977 concert in Berlin. When Rivers was on tour in Europe that year, he performed a number of trio and quartet dates but also this one quintet date, which has been released on the NoBusiness label, as volume 2 of the "Sam Rivers Archive Project."

The quintet has Rivers on tenor and soprano saxes, flute and briefly on piano, drummers Barry Altschul and Charlie Persip, and the low register duo of Dave Holland on bass and cello and Joe Daley on tuba and euphonium. The blend of sound is blissful in the one long piece (53:19) titled "Universal Message." Like a lot of the free jazz happening at the time, the music here is animated by an optimistic, transcendental vibe, and the play of imaginative interactions among the quintet members is uplifting and unequivocal. The group dynamic is marked by a propulsive energy that sweeps along with inventive sax, flute, low brass and low string lines, with the euphoric swirl of drums stoking the fire.

One is thankful for a chance to hear this music and for being reminded, as Berra's quote (apocryphal or not) implies, that it is possible to be both traditional and iconoclastic at the same time and that the dividing line between the two in musical forces like Sam Rivers is very thin, indeed.



Sam Rivers Quintet: Zenith
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Recent Selections @ Squidco:


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