The 2nd live performance from the Evil Clown headquarters post-pandemic, in a trio edition of Leap of Faith comprised of David Peck on reeds & winds, Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice and Steve Niemitz on drums, plus an extended encore with 3 strings, reeds, trumpet and drums adding Nate McBride, Eric Rosenthal, Vance Provey and Albey onBass.

Commissioned by the Vancouver artist-run center Western Front, NY saxophonist & composer Darius Jones developed this project during a succession of Western Front residencies between 2019 - 2022, culminating in this concert with fellow New Yorker, Gerald Cleaver (drums), and some of Canada's finest improvisers: Jesse Zubot (violin), Joshua Zubot (violin), Peggy Lee (cello) and James Meger (bass).

Saxophonist Martin Kuchen's Angles sextet with trumpeter Magnus Broo, trombonist Mats Aleklint and vibraphonist Mattias Stahl in jazz with a polyrhythmic and refined world music accent.

The first recording of an ongoing collaboration between violinist Maya Bennardo, bass clarinetist Erik Blennow Calälv, and kacapi (similar to a Japanese koto) musician Kristofer Svensson, presenting two restrained and lovely compositions bringing together contemporary classical, free improvisation and Sundanese music in a unique chamber format.

Jean Derome's extended Dangereux Zhomes opened the 25th Victo Festival in 2008, adding Joane Hetu, Lori Freedman, Bernard Falaise, &c. for an incredible and expressive orchestra.

A 3 CD set from bassist Benjamin Duboc: a solo disc of low register improv; plus 2 discs in duo and trio settings with Didier Lasserre, Sylvain Guerineau, Jean-Luc Petit, Pascal Battus, Sophie Agnel & Christian Pruvost.

The duo project of Berlin-based clarinetists Kai Fagaschinski and Michal Thieke, (Magic I.D., Christof Kurzmann, Splitter Ochester) in their 5th album of timbre-rich, harmonically fascinating and slowly evolving reed interactions, returning to their core duo after their previous quartet album, here presenting a large rich and beautifully weaving work.

Clarinetist Theo Jorgensmann's quartet with double bassist Christian Ramond, drummer Klaus Kugel, and vibraphonist Christopher Dell recording in the studio in German, 1999.

Petr Vrba and Veronika Mayer use non-idiomatic improvisation to research the combination of textural materials, crossing them with vibrations of objects on the speakers, pure sound waves, feedbacks, tones coming from trumpet, accordion, electronics, and laptop, culminating in the creation of a muscular frenetic soup of tense energy fields.

L.U.M.E., aka the Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble directed by pianist Marco Barroso, is a big band with a chamber ensemble feeling, Barroso's upbeat and melodically sophisticated compositions driving the band by borrowing from a variety of jazz, funk and even cartoon-like styles to create a richly complex and compelling set of tunes that twist, turn and surprise.

The third release from the Barcelona-based experimental improvising duo L'Ocell of Chilean acoustic guitarist Fernando Carraso and Spanish double bassist Àlex Reviriego-double bass, here joined by guitarist Ferran Fages (a member of Phicus and Radium with Reviriego), for a set of mysteriously dark improvisations recorded live at Sant Roma de Mianigues church.

With his new trio with bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid, saxophonist Lehman combines his own original compositions with a full program of works by jazz legends like John Coltrane and Jackie McLean.

Extending their previous collaborations during the time of pandemic, NY electronic improviser Ikue Mori and Japanese improvisers Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and Satoko Fujii on piano developed this extraordinary ea-improv album via file exchange, starting with Fujii's piano improvisations to which Mori & Tamura added their layers, with Mori mixing the final, startling results.

UK multi-reed master Evan Parker brings an all-star electroacoustic septet to the 2014 Victoriaville Festival for the massive and wonderfully detailed two part composition "Seven", performed with Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, and Ned Rothenberg.

"Vancouver pianist Paul Plimley and his comrades, bassist Lisle Ellis and drummer Scott Amendola, have issued a tough little gem of a recording in Safe-Crackers. Plimley's pianism ranges in voice from fierce avant-garde improvisation to...

Keyboardist Annie Lewandowski (London Improvisers Orchestra, Fred Frith, Samech) composed this song cycle about ancient Greek figures in collaboration with David Yearsley, Theresa Wong and Russell Greenberg, poetic pieces contrasting traditional use of instruments with subtle experimental approaches in a unique and fascinating set of compositional strategies.

The first album from 1982 by drummer Geoff Serle's band Research, combining free improvisation with rock forms, electric and acoustic, or as he described it: "an electro-funk industrial jazz unit", configured as the quartet of trumpeter Jim Dvorak, a member of Mujician & Brotherhood of Breath, bassist Dan Brown from The Fixx, and legendary pianist Veryan Weston.

"As Frogworth says in one review: 'Two giants of Australian avant-garde music getting together here, dedicating their record to Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, whose house in Paddington, Sydney is used for residencies/sabbatic...

A live recording of free improvisation recorded at Theater im Viertel, in Saarbrucken, Germany in 2021 from the SteDaJoDa quartet of Daniel Studer on double bass, Stefan Scheib on double bass, Daniel Weber on drums and Johannes Schmitz on guitar, the dark double bass foundation and floating ("Schwebend") percussion work balanced by Schmitz' blues oriented electric.

Assertively probing like a squid raging out of the sea, Street Tentacle is the trio of Chicago tenor saxophonist Jeff Chan, guitarist Da Wei Wang also on electronics, and drummer Jerome Bryerton on drums, cymbals, gongs, bowed metal & assorted percussion, in five assertive improvisations of an everything including the kitchen sink style; daunting and domineering!

Tsahar's 9-piece Brass Reeds Ensemble Herb Robertson, Chris Jonas, Rob Brown, Susie Ibarra, &c. is an ambitious and incredible undertaking of group improvisation.

1. Liquid Metal Dreaming In Ely 6:44

2. Seghill Ballad 3:24

3. Pythagoras Clocks Off And Heads For The Ruperra Arms 6:49

4. Pythagorean Ground 5:31

5. The Alchemists Of East Moors 3:47

6. Texting Robbie Burns 4:03

7. Pressure 15:44

8. Release 3:50

9. Bhopal Thoughts 18:48

A wild improvising band from Vancouver in their 3rd release of episodic compositions based around instrumental rock forms, six "sick" and wide-ranging pieces that blend rock, jazz, chamber music and inventive forms in magnificent way, from JP Carter on trumpet, Joshua Zubot on violin, Peggy Lee on cello, Cole Schmidt on guitar, James Meger on bass, synths and Dan Gaucher on drums.

Working with German jazz and "third stream" musician, vibraphonist & composer Gunter Hampel, New York alto saxophonist Marion Brown is heard in two live recordings from 1968 & 1969 in Munchen, Germany and Wurzburg, in quintet and sextet configurations with superb supporting musicians including Steve McCall (drums), Ambrose Jackson (trumpet), Daniel Laloux (bass) and Jeanne Lee (voice).

A stunningly beautiful suite from Richmond, VA drummer and composer Scott Clark, poetic songs rendered by Laura Ann Singh in a sextet with Bob Miller on trumpet, flugelhorn, J.C. Kuhl on bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, Michael McNeill on piano and Adam Hopkins on bass, in four sublimely passionately compositions presented in studio recording and live versions.

A stunningly beautiful suite from Richmond, VA drummer and composer Scott Clark, poetic songs rendered by Laura Ann Singh in a sextet with Bob Miller on trumpet, flugelhorn, J.C. Kuhl on bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, Michael McNeill on piano and Adam Hopkins on bass, in four sublimely passionately compositions presented in studio recording and live versions.

Recalling his Sun Quartet album, UK saxophonist Paul Dunmall's new sextet pivots off the jubilant rhythm section of drummer Hamid Drake, double bassist Dave Kane and vibraphonist Corey Mwamba, with three saxophonists--Dunmall on tenor & c-soprano saxophones, Xhosa Cole on tenor and Soweto Kinch on alto & tenor saxophones--in a truly joyful bright celebration of free flowing jazz.

Merging jazz and rock forms, NY bassist Hannah Marks composes and provides the lyrics for 10 inspired songs of incisive, quirky and expressive topics, performed with a sextet of solid players from the genre-mashing NY scene: Sarah Rossy (lead vocals), Lee Meadvin (guitar), Lex Korten (piano), Nathan Reising (alto saxophone), and Connor Parks (drums).

Reflecting on the loft-oriented NYC free improvisation scene, this 2006 concert at Zebulon, in Brooklyn has keyboardist Alon Nechushtan bringing together a spectacular sextet with Roy Campbell on flute & trumpet, Daniel Carter and Sabir Mateen on reeds, William Parker on bass and Federico Ughi on drums, taking flight on two seemingly boundless Nechushtan compositions.

Bassist & composer Nick Dunston's Berlin band Skultura creates a uniquely experimental and fascinatingly sculpted approach to free jazz through layers of sound and serious playing punctuated by voice and concrete elements, each piece keeping the listener in anticipation of what might happen next, eased into serious jazz grooves, then whisked away in new directions; not to be missed!

The Swiss-based Ever Present Orchestra, dedicated to the presentation of later works by composer Alvin Lucier written for this orchestra and centered on pieces for the electric guitar, in two works of differing characteristics: "Arrigoni Bridge" for 3 lap steel electric guitars + violin, sax & cello; and "Flips" for two guitars, bass and glockenspiel.

A rare setting for tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman in a larger ensemble: an exemplary sextet with trumpeter Nate Wooley and vibraphonist Matt Moran over a string section of Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello, Joe Morris on bass and Mat Maneri on viola, recording a ten-part work sans drums or piano, allowing fascinating new orchestral possibilities performed with utmost creative mastery.

A unique 1995 studio album from bassist Joe Fonda, remastered reissued to bring to life this septet with Anthony Braxton on reeds & winds, Herb Robertson on trumpet, Grisha Alexiev on drums, Vickie Dodds on vocals, and integrating tap dancer Brenda Bufalino as a full percussive voice into the ensemble's unique merging of jazz and dance, and of the healing arts and the performing arts.

The DUOT pairing of Argentinian, Barcelona-based sax player Albert Cirera and Spanish drummer Ramón Prats is joined on their 6th album by the Portuguese string quartet ZARM Ensemble of Carlos Zingaro on violin, David Alves on violin, Ulrich Mitzlaf on cello and Alvaro Rosso on double bass for a dynamic concert at Igreja do Espírito Santo in Caldas Da Rainha, Portugal.

Taking the viola da gamba and the daxophone into uncharted (dark) territories, composer Daniel Fishkin (who studied with daxophone inventor Hans Racheil) presents four works leveraging interference & frequency patterns, performed with an exceptional set of specialists on each instrument, and Fishkin's own 20-foot long instrument, The Lady's Harp, creating long, sustained tones.

5th anniversary LP reissue of bassist Adam Hopkins' 2018 album, a great example of the Downtown / Brooklyn scene, using jazz as a jumping-off point to merge free playing, fusion, and rock into an enthusiastic and technically brilliant album of original compositions performed with the sextet of Anna Webber, Ed Rosenberg, & Josh Sinton on sax, Jonathan Goldberger on guitar, and Devin Gray on drums.

A wild improvising band from Vancouver in their 3rd release of episodic compositions based around instrumental rock forms, six "sick" and wide-ranging pieces that blend rock, jazz, chamber music and inventive forms in magnificent way, from JP Carter on trumpet, Joshua Zubot on violin, Peggy Lee on cello, Cole Schmidt on guitar, James Meger on bass, synths and Dan Gaucher on drums.

An exemplary set of explorative hard bop compositions from composer/trumpeter Alan Shorter, first Mephistopheles from Wayne Shorter's The All Seeing Eye in an octet with legends Wayne Shorter, James Spaulding, Freddie Hubbard, Grachan Moncur III, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter & Joe Chambers; and then Alan Shorter's own Orgasm with Gato Barbieri, Charlie Haden, Reggie Johnson, Muhammad Ali & Rashied Ali.

Compressing his Exploding Star Orchestra to a sextet, Chicago trumpeter Rob Mazurek presents two expansive works of ecstatic, exploratory electric and groove-oriented jazz, performed with Damon Locks (voice, electronics), Tomeka Reid (cello), Angelica Sanchez (Wurlitzer electric piano), Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten (double bass) and Chad Taylor (drums).

Highlighting the parallel to changes in birdsong in urban areas because of anthropogenic ambient noise, this diverse ensemble demonstrates the evolution of improv approaches through unique origins and backgrounds; with Chad Fowler (stritch, flute), Shanyse Strickland (French Horn), Sana Nagano (violin), Melanie Dyer (viola), Ken Filiano (bass) and Anders Griffen (drums).

A collection of works from Netherlands composer Michel Banabila, including a piece developed with saxophonist Dave Liebman and previously released only digitally; a work with Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek); a work with Pierre Bastien; and excerpts from scores for Yin Yue's choreography in two works: "Somewhere" for New York Live Arts and "Timeless Tide" for BalletMet.

Joining the Boston duo Leap of Faith, the core duet of David Peck on reeds, percussion, the kitchen sink and everything in between, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice, is bassist Scott Samenfeld from Turbulence Orchestra, drummer Jared Seabrook, and brass player John Fugarino, with Joel Simches capturing the recording and manipulating the stream in real time.

Merging jazz and rock forms, NY bassist Hannah Marks composes and provides the lyrics for 10 inspired songs of incisive, quirky and expressive topics, performed with a sextet of solid players from the genre-mashing NY scene: Sarah Rossy (lead vocals), Lee Meadvin (guitar), Lex Korten (piano), Nathan Reising (alto saxophone), and Connor Parks (drums).

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