Not Two Records celebrates their 20th Anniversary with a festival in Wlen, Poland, inviting 13 of the finest European & US improvisers--Guy, Leandre, Mazur, Nilssen-Love, Kaucic, Fernandez, Gustafsson, Vandermark, Trzaska, Brotzmann, Swell, Holmlander, & Homburg--performing in configurations from duo to quintet, released in a limited 5-CD wooden box set.
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Barry Guy-bass
Joelle Leandre-bass
Rafal Mazur-bass
Paal Nilssen-Love-drums, percussion
Zlatko Kaucic-drums, percussion
Agusti Fernandez-piano
Mats Gustafsson-saxophone
Ken Vandermark-saxophone, reeds
Mikolaj Trzaska-saxophone, reeds
Peter Brotzmann-saxophone, reeds
Steve Swell-trombone
Per Ake Holmlander-tuba
Maya Homburger-violin
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UPC: 5906395187607
Label: Not Two
Catalog ID: MW 998-2
Squidco Product Code: 29341
Format: 5 CDs
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: Poland
Packaging: Wooden box w/ 5 CDS
Recorded Live At The Not Two 20Th Anniversary Festival In Wlen, Poland In The Fall Of 2018, by Rafal Drewniany.
"Intro
There are some things worth celebrating in style, one of them being marked persistence in the face of adversity. That pretty much describes the continued existence of any jazz record label in these straitened times. To mark its 20th anniversary, Not Two Records convened an unprecedented line up of thirteen musicians from nine countries for a three day festival in the small village of Wlen in south-west Poland.
The talent on display was mouth-watering: Peter Brötzmann, Agusti Fernandez, Barry Guy, Mats Gustafsson, Per-Åke Holmlander, Maya Homburger, Zlatko Kaucic, Joelle Leandre, Rafal Mazur, Paal Nilssen-Love, Steve Swell, Mikolaj Trzaska and Ken Vandermark. Each evening the assembled company performed in different configurations over four sets, which took in everything from hushed quiescence to rampaging drive. What was notable was how consistently they hit the heights.
That so many top names should gather in the bucolic Polish countryside provided eloquent testimony to not only the importance of the Not Two imprint, but also the regard in which label boss and promoter Marek Winiarski is held. Over the last two decades, the label has emerged as one of the world's most adventurous sources of avant-garde jazz, ranking alongside the likes of NoBusiness, Intakt and Clean Feed, and has released over 270 albums since its inception.
Winiarski founded Not Two in 1998 after his first label GOWI folded when his partner, drummer Zdzislaw Gogulski, declined to get involved in CD production. The moniker for the new venture came from the title of one of GOWI's most successful releases which featured reedman Mikołaj Trzaska and a guest appearance by Art Ensemble of Chicago trumpeter Lester Bowie, but also denoted that henceforth Winiarski was in sole command.
On the face of it, a palace in rolling wooded environs of Wlen was not the location you would expect for a festival of avant-garde music. But there are precedents, with other left field events such as the Nickelsdorf Jazz Konfrontationen and the Ulrichsberg Kaleidophon likewise sited far from centers of population. They work on the principle that if the cast is sufficiently appealing, then the people will come. And so it was here too: the concerts took place in front of an enthusiastic select audience of friends, family, supporters and well-wishers from Poland and further afield all of whom had made a special effort to attend.
[...] descriptions of each set in full review on All About Jazz [...]
Outro
But it wasn't quite the last act. Unbeknownst to Winiarski, the organizing team had one last stunt. They had prepared a series of cards containing instructions, pictures and oblique symbols which were laid out on a table. So now the label supremo had the opportunity to become an orchestral supremo too and lead the assembled musicians in one final conduction. After much persuasion he showed the band a card and they were off. Fortunately they were all much more practiced at this sort of endeavor than him and weren't phased by anything he threw at them, such that a coherent piece of music arose from the random instructions. All the concerts were recorded for potential future release, though whether this set makes the cut remains open to question. But such was the overwhelming success of the event that, future birthday celebrations notwithstanding, there must be every chance that musical happenings at Wlen come along more often than once every twenty years."-John Sharpe, All About Jazz
Get additional information at All About Jazz
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Barry Guy "Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He also taught at Guildhall School of Music. Born in London, Guy came to the fore as an improvising bassist as a member of a trio with pianist Howard Riley and drummer Tony Oxley (Witherden, 1969). He also became an occasional member of John Stevens' ensembles in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. In the early 1970s, he was a member of the influential free improvisation group Iskra 1903 with Derek Bailey and trombonist Paul Rutherford (a project revived in the late 1970s, with violinist Philipp Wachsmann replacing Bailey). He also formed a long-standing partnership with saxophonist Evan Parker, which led to a trio with drummer Paul Lytton which became one of the best-known and most widely travelled free-improvising groups of the 1980s and 1990s. He was briefly a member of the Michael Nyman Band in the 1980s, performing on the soundtrack of The Draughtsman's Contract. Guy's interests in improvisation and formal composition received their grandest form in the London Jazz Composers Orchestra. Originally formed to perform Guy's composition Ode in 1972 (released as a 2-LP set on Incus and later, in expanded form, as a 2-CD set on Intakt), it became one of the great large-scale European improvising ensembles. Early documentation is spotty - the only other recording from its early years is Stringer (FMP, now available on Intakt paired with the later "Study II") - but beginning in the late 1980s the Swiss label Intakt set out to document the band more thoroughly. The result was a series of ambitious, album-length compositions designed to give all the players in the band maximum opportunity for expression while still preserving a rigorous sense of form: Zurich Concerts, Harmos, Double Trouble (originally written for an encounter with Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra, though the eventual CD was just for the LJCO), Theoria (a concerto for guest pianist Irène Schweizer), Three Pieces, and Double Trouble Two. The group's activities subsided in the mid-1990s, but it was never formally disbanded, and reconvened in 2008 for a one-off concert in Switzerland. In the mid-1990s Guy also created a second, smaller ensemble, the Barry Guy New Orchestra. Guy has also written for other large improvising ensembles, such as the NOW Orchestra and ROVA (the piece Witch Gong Game inspired by images by the visual artist Alan Davie). His current improvising activities include piano trios with Marilyn Crispell and Agusti Fernandez. He has also recorded several albums for ECM, which often focus on the interface between improvisers and electronics, including his work in Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and his own Ceremony. Guy's session work in the pop field includes playing double bass on the song "Nightporter", from the Japan album Gentlemen Take Polaroids. He is married to the early music violinist Maya Homburger. After spending some years in Ireland, they now live in Switzerland. They run the small label Maya, which releases a variety of records in the genres of free improvisation, baroque music and contemporary composition. Guy's jazz work is characterised by free improvisation, using a range of unusual playing methods: bowed and pizzicato sounds beneath the bass's bridge; plucking the strings above the left hand; beating the strings with percussion instrument mallets; and "preparing" the instrument with sticks and other implements inserted between the strings and fingerboard. His improvisations are often percussive and unpredictable, inhabiting no discernible harmonic territory and pushing into unknown regions. However, they can also be melodious and tender with due regard for harmonic integration with other players, and at times he will even play with a straight jazz swing feel. Similarly, in his concert works, Guy manages to alternate harmonic and rhythmic complexity worthy of 1960s experimentalists such as Penderecki and Stockhausen with joyous, often ecstatic, melody. Works such as "Flagwalk" for string orchestra and "Fallingwater - Concerto for Orchestra" display Guy's compositional skill in handling extended forms and writing for large instrumental groups. Some of his compositions, such as "Witch Gong Game" for ensemble, use graphic notation in conjunction with cue cards to lead performers into playing and improvising material from numbered sections of the score. He is also an architect." ^ Hide Bio for Barry Guy • Show Bio for Joelle Leandre "Joëlle Léandre is a famous French Bassist and is known for her collaborations with other musicians in the field of improvised music. Born in France on September 12th, 1951, she made her music debut in 1984 with Les Douze Sons. Her childhood was filled with music, and she was particularly interested in the piano during her early years. In her later years, she developed an interest in double bass, which won her many honors and scholarships during her education. Her double bass teacher Pierre Delescluse encouraged her to apply to the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris, where she was formally trained and noticed for her talent in the bass. Her outstanding musicianship took her to the United States and to the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo through a scholarship. In the United States, she expanded her network and met some of the best composers, such as John Cage, Giacinto Scelsi, and Morton Feldman. Among them, John Cage greatly influenced her music and compositions. Her time in the United States also enabled her to experience downtown New York music, which was another significant influence that led to her continued involvement in the field of improvised music. Some of her notable collaborations in the field of contemporary music are with Pierre Boulez, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and Giacinto Scelsi. Among them, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi were the biggest influences in her life and music. In an interview, Joëlle Léandre said that John Cage was her spiritual father and changed her perception of sound and music. In another interview, she tells how Giacinto Scelsi allowed her to discover her own music and how his music transported her into a new world of improved consciousness. In the field of jazz music, she collaborated with Derek Bailey, William Parker, and Sebi Tramontana. Her music was owned and distributed by different music labels, including FMP, Leo, RougueArt, and Red Toucan. Some memorable songs and albums she released throughout the years include Instant Replay, Les Douze sons, Trios, Sweet Zee, Frerebet, Joelle et Tetsu, Philippe Fenelon, Voyages, etc. Some of the recent releases include Can You Hear Me and Unleashed. She has also performed live at the Tampere Jazz Festival twice, where popular international artists compete with each other. Joëlle Léandre is also the member of European Women's Improvising Group (EWIG). The group evolved from the Feminist Improvising Group, and Joëlle Léandre joined the group in 1983. In the early 1900s, she co-founded Les Diaboliques with Irene Schweizer and Maggie Nicols, who were her long-time musician friends. Besides that, she also teaches several classes in prestigious universities about contemporary and improvised music. She has lived in France, Germany, and U.S during her lifetime, teaching at academic institutions in the religions and playing concerts. In 2002, she was invited to Canada as a visiting professor for music and composition." ^ Hide Bio for Joelle Leandre • Show Bio for Rafal Mazur "Rafal Mazur's involvement with music began in his youth with violoncello studies in Krakow. He switched to bass guitar in the late 1980's. Since 2000 he has played an acoustic bass guitar built to his own specifications by luthier Jerzy Wysocki. He has developed an advanced and individual approach to his instrument, and to improvisation in general, in which sonority, extended technique and gesture combine effortlessly in performance. He has taken an important role in Kraków to support young artists and improvised music. A founder of the ImproArt studio of improvisation, he has performed jazz and improvised music in clubs and festivals across Poland and Europe, and in China, South Korea and Israel. In recent years he has collaborated with Lisa Ullen, Frederic Blondy, Charlotta Hug, Raymond Strid, Keir Neuringer, Zsolt Sores and others. His current focus is the band "Ensemble 56" and "Mazur/Neuringer Duo". He is an organizer of the Laboratory of Intuition, a series of spontaneous art presentations in Kraków. Mazur's main field of interest and activity is collective and solo free/spontaneous improvisation. In his practice as an improvising musician and on his way to mastery/artistry he studys Chinese philosophy (Jagiellonian University). He regards Taoism as a strong base for the enrichment of the improviser's attitude, and to this end he practices the Taoist's martial art TaiJi Quan Chen. For Mazur, following the masters of Chinese philosophy and martial arts is crucial in the development of a state of mind prepared for the unexpected situations an improviser encounters in the act of collective free improvisation. During the Polish Sound Art in China tour in 2006, Mazur presented lectures in NiHiLo Gallery in Foshan and Zendai Art Museum in Shanghai, taking the opportunity to meet Chinese improvisers and discuss and compare his approaches to improvisation, Taoism and TaiJi. Mazur's most recent work is the first album of solo acoustic bass guitar free improvisation: 'Sonor Forms'. Released by independent label DTS Records in Krakow on its Transidiomatic series, the disc is the result of investigation into the practice of solo free improvisation." ^ Hide Bio for Rafal Mazur • Show Bio for Paal Nilssen-Love "Paal Nilssen-Love was born in Molde, Norway, Dec 24. 1974, and raised at a jazz club in Stavanger, run by his parents. It was natural to choose his fathers drums as his instrument and jazz as his work. From 1990 on he took actively part in the jazz milieu in Stavanger and joined bands with established musicians such as trumpeter Didrik Ingvaldsen and saxophonist Frode Gjerstad. In many ways, these collaborations were essential as they pointed out the directions for Paal's later musical development and career. During his studies at the Jazz dept at the University in Trondheim, where the first self initiated bands were established, things developed really fast - and Paal was nationally acknowledged at the age of 20. The forming of the quartet Element in 1993 in many ways represented the start of a new phase in Paal's musical life. Element musically became a platform for several other groups with bassist Flaten and pianist Wiik, and lead to collaborations with Iain Ballamy and Chris Potter, amongst others. Paal moved to Oslo in 1996, where he joined and/or took part in the forming of bands like Vindaloo, SAN, Håkon Kornstad Tio, The Quintet and Frode Gjerstad Trio. He later on got more into self initiated projects and collaborations with Swedish musicians, such as pianist Sten Sandell and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Paal played his first solo concert in 1999, and since then the solo concept has been an important part of his work: "Everyone should try doing some solo work, just to feel who you really are and what gets you going". His solo album "Sticks and stones" was put out in 2001 on SOFA Rec. Being active in several bands at the same time has always been Paal's deliberate working method. He is constantly conscious about the projects he is in, as his participation in each and one of them is fully dedicated. Playing is not about getting from start to goal, but rather being in an everlasting process, a continuous movement where each new piece of music performed is a prolongation of the latest. Hence, keeping focused and concentrating all energy around what's happening there and then is of greatest importance - as is the freedom in the music, the ability of being free within the expression. All bands, although various styles and musical versatility in general, represent important pieces that make up a total, and all bands are formed or joined with a clear vision. Today Paal's portfolio includes Atomic, School Days, The Thing, Frode Gjerstad Trio, Sten Sandell Trio, Scorch Trio, Territory Band, FME, and various duo projects such as with reedmen Ken Vandermark, John Butcher, Mats Gustafsson, organist Nils Henrik Asheim and noise wizard Lasse Marhaug. And not to forget the recently joined Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet." ^ Hide Bio for Paal Nilssen-Love • Show Bio for Zlatko Kaucic "Zlatko Kaucic: Born February 1953 in Postojna, Slovenia. In the Early 70's he moved to Italy where he toured and recorded with the group Hero. In 1975 he was involved with the music co-operative Swiss, playing with Irene Schweitzer, Radu Malfatti, Duško Goykovich and Allen Blairman, among the others. In 1976 he moved to Barcelona and began playing in clubs and festivals all over the country with people such as Peter Delphinich, Eric Peter, Tete Montoliu, Claude Guillot, Paul Stocker, Mike Osborne, Burton Greene, John Lewis, Steve Lacy and Kenny Wheeler, as well as giving solo concerts. In 1979 he toured Portugal with Paul Stocker and then joined The trio with Portuguese bassist Ze Eduardo and pianist Antonio Pinho, which played extensively in Portugal as well as in Macau (China), and subsequently backed Don Rendall, Michael Garrik and Portugese tenorist Rao Kyao.From 1981-83 Zlatko taught drums in the Barcelona "Taller de musicos" jazz school and participated in jazz seminars with Chuck Israels, Ron Mclure and David Schnitter. Since 1984 he has lived in Amsterdam (Holland). Zlatko has played the "North sea jazz festival" twice and plays with his own trio which tours Spain regularly. He also plays with an octet and composes music for theatre and dance groups. Zlatko's specialty is an unique solo percussions performance that expresses his own personal style. He has been twice in U.S.A.: 1987 - Itacaca (New York): workshop for theater + music and 1989 - world festival Atlanta (G.A.) with European jazz quintet. Zlatko has played in Holland with such a diverse musicans like Misha Mandelberg, Toon Rose, Paul Stocker, Sean Bergin, Arnold Dojewerd, Wiebe Wilbers (Skidoo), Frank Graso Big band, Peter Guidi, Paul Bley, Esiet "Okun" Esiet, Michael More, John Patituci, Paolo Fresu, Phone Booth (Theater company), wiht Lisa Pooh (Dance Theater), etc. 1992 he return to Slovenia where he began playing different musical projects like with Paul Bley (Lent festival; Maribor), Steve Lacy, Thelonius Monk Project (Kontrada fest; Kanal ob Soči) with Enrico Rava, Gianluigi Trovesi, Chico Freeman, George Cables, Albert Mangelsdorff, Keeny Wheeler, Alexander Balanescu, Dave Biney, Paul McCandless, Irene Aebi, Trevor Wats, Javier Girotto, Frank Gratkowski, Szilárd Mezei, Marc Ribot, Greg Cohen, Saadet Türköz, Peter Brötzmann, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Luis Sclavis, Evan Parker, Herb Robertson, Javier Girotto, Agusti Fernandez, Oliver Lake, Phil Minton, AB Baars, Johanes Bauer, Joëlle Léandre, Barry Guy, Maya Homburger, Lotte Anker etc and making music for two documentaries (Kino atelje Gorica) and solo Performances, poetry and dance. Year 2008 he got award of municipality Brda as creative multi-percussionist, who is recognized and respected on world level.In the interviews Peter Amalietti "Masters the fire" in addition to musicians Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, John Cage, Paquito D'Rivero, Pat Metheny, Odeon Pope, Reggie Workman, Dennis Gonzalez and Woddy Shaw has also published aninterview with Zlatko Kaučič. Year 2011 he got PREŠERN FUND AWARD (The highest recognition for cultural achievements in Slovenia). video... Year 2017 he got BEVKOV AWARD for contribution in music and education." ^ Hide Bio for Zlatko Kaucic • Show Bio for Agusti Fernandez "Agustí Fernández (Palma de Mallorca, 1954), with a perfectly based career and a well-deserved international reputation, is one of the Spanish musicians of major international projection and a world reference in the field of improvised music. Fernández has worked with famous musicians of the free improvisation scene like Peter Kowald, Derek Bailey, Butch Morris, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Mats Gustafsson, Joel Ryan and Peter Evans a.m.o. He is a member of the Blue Shroud Band, Mats Gustafsson NU Ensemble and Barry Guy New Orquestra. Up to the current date he has published more than 80 CD's He has also worked with the recognised composer of contemporary music Héctor Parra, who composed in collaboration with the pianist FREC, a solo for expanded piano. FREC has been premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2013 with the collaboration of the video artist Lucas Caraba. He has conducted various improvised music ensembles like Ad Libitum Ensemble (Varsaw), Free Art Ensemble (Barcelona), Ansambl Studio 6 (Lujbljana) Orquesta FOCO (Madrid), Entenguerengue (Jérez de la Frontera), Impromtu Ensemble (Valencia), etc. Along his professional life Agustí Fernández has received much recognition. His solo for piano "Mutza" presented in New York in 2007 was distinguished by the New York magazine AllAboutJazz as one of 10 best concerts from that year. The CD "Un llamp que no s'acaba mai" on PSI (Agustí Fernández, John Edwards and Mark Sanders) has been distinguished by Allaboutjazz as one of the best 10 cd's in 2009; the CD "Aurora" on Maya Recordings (Agustí Fernandez, Barry Guy and Ramón López) was selected by Cuadernos de Jazz magazine as the best CD in 2007, by the Jaç magazine as the best fourth disc of the history of the Catalan jazz and it was Disc d'émoi (February, 2007) for the French Jazz Magazine. The "Agustí Fernández Aurora Trio" received the second prize at the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2012 celebrated in Münich, Germany. In 2000 he received the Festival Altaveu Award, Sant Boi de Llobregat (Catalonia). In 2001 he received the FAD - Sebastià Guasch Award, Barcelona (Cataluña) with Andrés Corchero por el or the performance "A modo de esperanza". In 2011 Agustí Fernández was the main character of the documentary film "Los dedos huéspedes" by Lucas Caraba, which has been screened in several international festivals of documentary. In 2014 the Ad Libitum Festival (Warsaw) dedicated a monographic edition to celebrate Fernández's 60th Birthday. He's professor of improvised music at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He's developing an important teaching activity in the field of improvised music and, among other, he has been teaching in IRCAM in Paris, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre de Tallin, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Holland), the Conservatory in Arhem (Holland), the Taller de Músicos in Gijón (Spain), the Taller de Músics in Barcelona (Spain) and the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Salamanca (Spain)." ^ Hide Bio for Agusti Fernandez • Show Bio for Mats Gustafsson ^ Hide Bio for Mats Gustafsson • Show Bio for Ken Vandermark "Born in Warwick, Rhode Island on September 22nd, 1964, Ken Vandermark began studying the tenor saxophone at the age of 16. Since graduating with a degree in Film and Communications from McGill University during the spring of 1986, his primary creative emphasis has been the exploration of contemporary music that deals directly with advanced methods of improvisation. In 1989, he moved to Chicago from Boston, and has worked continuously from the early 1990's onward, both as a performer and organizer in North America and Europe, recording in a large array of contexts, with many internationally renowned musicians (such as Fred Anderson, Ab Baars, Peter Brötzmann, Tim Daisy, Hamid Drake, Terrie Ex, Mats Gustafsson, Devin Hoff, Christof Kurzmann, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Joe McPhee, Paal Nilssen-Love, Paul Lytton, Andy Moor, Joe Morris, and Nate Wooley). His current activity includes work with Made To Break, The Resonance Ensemble, Side A, Lean Left, Fire Room, the DKV Trio, and duos with Paal Nilssen-Love and Tim Daisy; in addition, he is the music director of the experimental Pop band, The Margots. More than half of each year is spent touring in Europe, North America, and Japan, and his concerts and numerous recordings have been critically acclaimed both at home and abroad. In addition to the tenor sax, he also plays the bass and Bb clarinet, and baritone saxophone. In 1999 he was awarded the MacArthur prize for music." ^ Hide Bio for Ken Vandermark • Show Bio for Mikolaj Trzaska ^ Hide Bio for Mikolaj Trzaska • Show Bio for Peter Brotzmann "Born Remscheid, Germany on 6 March 1941; soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones, a-clarinet, e-flat clarinet; bass clarinet, tarogato. Peter Brötzmann's early interest was in painting and he attended the art academy in Wuppertal. Being very dissatisfied with the gallery/exhibition situation in art he found greater satisfaction playing with semi-professional musicians, though continued to paint (as well as retaining a level of control over his own records, particularly in record sleeve/CD booklet design). In late 2005 he had a major retrospective exhibition jointly with Han Bennink - two separate buildings separated by an inter-connecting glass corridor - in Brötzmann's home town of Remscheid. Self-taught on clarinets, he soon moved to saxophones and began playing swing/bebop, before meeting Peter Kowald. During 1962/63 Brötzmann, Kowald and various drummers played regularly - Mingus, Ornette Coleman, etc. - while experiencing freedoms from a different perspective via Stockhausen, Nam June Paik, David Tudor and John Cage. In the mid 1960s, he played with American musicians such as Don Cherry and Steve Lacy and, following a sojourn in Paris with Don Cherry, returned to Germany for his unorthodox approach to be accepted by local musicians like Alex von Schlippenbach and Manfred Schoof. The trio of Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald and Sven-Ake Johansson began playing in 1965/66 and it was a combination of this and the Schoof/Schlippenbach Quintet that gave rise to the first Globe Unity Orchestra. Following the self-production of his first two LPs, For Adolphe Sax and Machine gun for his private label, BRÖ, a recording for Manfred Eicher's 'Jazz by Post' (JAPO) [Nipples], and a number of concert recordings with different sized groups, Brötzmann worked with Jost Gebers and started the FMP label. He also began to work more regularly with Dutch musicians, forming a trio briefly with Willem Breuker and Han Bennink before the long-lasting group with Han Bennink and Fred Van Hove. As a trio, and augmented with other musicians who could stand the pace (e.g. Albert Mangelsdorff on, for example, The Berlin concert), this lasted until the mid-1970s though Brötzmann and Bennink continued to play and record as a duo, and in other combinations, after this time. A group with Harry Miller and Louis Moholo continued the trio format though was cut short by Miller's early death. The thirty-plus years of playing and recording free jazz and improvised music have produced, even on just recorded evidence, a list of associates and one-off combinations that include just about all the major figures in this genre: Derek Bailey (including performances with Company (e.g. Incus 51), Cecil Taylor, Fred Hopkins, Rashied Ali, Evan Parker, Keiji Haino, Misha Mengelberg, Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Phil Minton, Alfred 23 Harth, Tony Oxley. Always characterised as an energy player - and the power-rock setting of Last Exit with Ronald Shannon Jackson, Sonny Sharock and Bill Laswell, or his duo performances with his son, Casper, did little to disperse this conviction - his sound is one of the most distinctive, life-affirming and joyous in all music. But the variety of Brötzmann's playing and projects is less recognised: his range of solo performances; his medium-to-large groups and, in spite of much ad hoc work, a stability brought about from a corpus of like- minded musicians: the group Ruf der Heimat; pianist Borah Bergman; percussionist Hamid Drake; and Die like a dog, his continuing tribute to Albert Ayler, with Drake, William Parker and Toshinori Kondo. Peter Brötzmann continues a heavy touring schedule which, since 1996 has seen annual visits to Japan and semi-annual visits to the thriving Chicago scene where he has played in various combinations from solo through duo (including one, in 1997, with Mats Gustafsson) to large groups such as the Chicago Octet/Tentet, described below. He has also released a number of CDs on the Chicago-based Okka Disk label, including the excellent trio with Hamid Drake and the Moroccan Mahmoud Gania, at times sounding like some distant muezzin calling the faithful to become lost in the rhythm and power of the music. The "Chicago Tentet" was first organized by Brötzmann with the assistance of writer/presenter John Corbett in January 1997 as an idea for a one-time octet performance that included Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang (drums), Kent Kessler (bass) and Fred Lomberg-Holm (cello), Ken Vandermark and Mars Williams (reeds), and Jeb Bishop (trombone). The first meeting was extremely strong and warranted making the group an ongoing concern and in September of that same year the band was expanded to include Mats Gustafsson (reeds) and Joe McPhee (brass) as permanent members (with guest appearances by William Parker (bass), Toshinori Kondo (trumpet/electronics), and Roy Campbell (trumpet) during its tenure) - all in all a veritable who's who of the contemporary improvising scene's cutting edge. Though the Tentet is clearly led by Brötzmann and guided by his aesthetics, he has been committed to utilizing the compositions of other members in the ensemble since the beginning. This has allowed the band to explore an large range of structural and improvising tactics: from the conductions of Mats Gustafsson and Fred Lonberg-Holm, to the vamp pieces of Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake, to compositions using conventional notation by Ken Vandermark and Mars Williams, to Brötzmann's graphic scores - the group employs almost every contemporary approach to composing for an improvising unit. This diversity in compositional style, plus the variety in individualistic approaches to improvisation, allows the Tentet to play extremely multifaceted music. As the band moves from piece to piece, it explores intensities that range from spare introspection to all out walls of sound, and rhythms that are open or free from a steady pulse to those of a heavy hitting groove. It is clear that the difficult economics of running a large band hasn't prevented the group from continuing to work together since its first meeting. Through their effort they've been able to develop an ensemble sound and depth of communication hard to find in a band of any size or style currently playing on the contemporary music scene." ^ Hide Bio for Peter Brotzmann • Show Bio for Steve Swell "Born in Newark, NJ, Steve Swell has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975. He has toured and recorded with many artists from mainstreamers such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to so called outsiders as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and William Parker. He has over 40 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artists on more than 100 other releases. He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system focusing on special needs children. Swell has worked on music transcriptions of the Bosavi tribe of New Guinea for MacArthur fellow, Steve Feld in 2000. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers" (CIMP) ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He has also received grants from USArtists International in 2006, MCAF (LMCC) awards in 2008 and 2013 and has been commissioned twice on the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006 and at Roulette in 2012. Steve was nominated for Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2011 by the Jazz Journalists Association, was selected Trombonist of the Year 2008-2010 , 2012 and 2014-2015 by the magazine El Intruso of Argentina and received the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation. Steve has also been selected by the Downbeat Critics Poll in the Trombone category each year from 2010-2016. Steve is presently a teaching artist through the American Composers Orchestra, Healing Arts Initiative , Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center (Bronx), the Jazz Foundation of America and Leman Manhattan Preparatory School. Steve was also awarded the 2014 Creative Curricula grant (LMCC) for the project: "Metamorphoses: Modern Mythology in Sound and Words" which was taught in a month long residency at Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan." ^ Hide Bio for Steve Swell • Show Bio for Per Ake Holmlander "Per-Åke Holmlander... ...born in 1957 in Skellefteå in the very north of Sweden. Holmlander received his diploma in classical tuba in 1983 at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm with Michael Lind as a teacher. Holmlander has always worked simultaneously with improvisation, jazz and rock music as well as classical and contemporary music. As an improviser Holmlander has worked with - Eje Thelin, Marilyn Crispell, Paul Lovens, Folke Rabe, Phil Minton, Sten Sandell, Sven-Åke Johansson, Mats Persson, Gunter Christmann, Kjell Westling, Keith Rowe, Jan Allan, Georg Riedel, Position Alpha, DJustable, Jon Vanderlander Trio, The Swedish Radio Jazz Group, Ken Vandermark - Territory Band & Resonance Ensemble, The Frontroom Ensemble, London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Torden Kvartetten & Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet...among many others. Holmlander works a lot with theatre music, sometimes he plays solo and he regularly works with Fire! Orchestra, Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Barry Guy New Orchestra, Fredrik Ljungkvist and his Yun Kan 5 & 10 and recently with Parti&Minut, Swedish azz, Inner Ear & Mats Gustafsson NU-Ensemble. Per-Åke has participated in more than 100 records and 1800 theatrical performances. He has given concerts in 38 countries and he is since December 2008 a member of the government run - Musikalliansen." ^ Hide Bio for Per Ake Holmlander • Show Bio for Maya Homburger "Born and educated in Zurich, Switzerland, Maya Homburger moved to England in 1986 to join John Eliot Gardiner's English Baroque Soloists, Trevor Pinnock's The English Concert and other period instrument groups. Concerts and Recordings as leader of the Chandos Baroque Players and founding her own Trio Virtuoso led her to specialise more and more in chamber music and solo performance. In 1993 she recorded the twelve fantasies for solo violin by G.Ph.Telemann and in 1995 the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach together with Malcolm Proud. Ever since meeting the composer and solo bassist Barry Guy - on the occasion of an extended concert tour with Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music in 1988 - she has devoted her time developing her own personal style on the baroque violin as well as managing the Barry Guy New Orchestra, the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and running her own CD label MAYA recordings. The idea to perform baroque solo works in the context of free improvised music and newly commissioned pieces sparked off the Homburger/Guy Duo and together Maya Homburger and Barry Guy have given concerts in many major Jazz, New Music and Baroque Music Festivals all over Europe. New works in her repertoire include Barry Guy's compositions Celebration, Inachis, Aglais and Lysandra for solo violin, Ceremony for violin and tape, Bubblets for violin and harpsichord and compositions for baroque violin and double bass, especially commissioned for the Homburger/Guy Duo from Buxton Orr, Roger Marsh and Giles Swayne. After living in Ireland for nine years where they contributed both to the early as well as the contemporary music scene, they have moved to Switzerland in 2006. In 1999 Maya Homburger organised her own music Series in Dublin called "Now and Then". In 2000 she was one of the leaders and soloists for J.E. Gardiner's Bach pilgrimage which took her to many of Europe's most beautiful cathedrals and churches where she performed in 52 Bach Cantatas. Recordings include the Duo CDs "Ceremony" (ECM) and "Dakryon" (Maya Recordings), Bach/Guy solo works (Maya Recs.) and "Folio" (ECM) where she appears as violin soloist together with the Munich Chamber Orchestra." ^ Hide Bio for Maya Homburger
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Born on 07.04.1966, Gdańsk (Poland)
Composer, saxophonist, bass clarinetist.
In 1989 he starts studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Painting Institute in Gdańsk in Włodzimierz Łajming's atelier. At the same time fascinated by jazz from the 60-ties, especially by music of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman he starts to learn by himself how to play alto saxophone.
Soon afterwards he joins the group of the bassist Tymon Tymański "Sni Sredstwom Za Uklanianie". This group was a germ of the biggest ferment in Polish jazz of the 80-ties and the 90-ties - Miłość.
In 1991 he leaves the Academy and devotes himself to music.
1992-2001 cofounder and saxophonist of Miłość, one of the main pillars of so called yass scene. The group cooperated with among others Lester Bowie and Tomasz Stańko. They recorded five albums together.
In 1993 he tries his hand at composing and as a leader, he founds Łoskot which made its debut on the first Gdynia Summer Jazz Days Festival.
In April 1994 together with Ryszard Tymański they found duet Masło, known of pure nonsense sense of humour. They performed their favourite rock and jazz standards in various, often strange versions.
In October 1994 the first common tour of Miłość and Lester Bowie crowned with recording of the album "Not Two".
In 1995 he records his first solo album ?Cześć, Cześć, Cześć? for Gowi Records publishing house. In the album he?s accompanied by Jowita Cieślikiewicz, Tomasz Hesse and Jacek Olter.
In 1996 Mikołaj starts a yearlong cooperation with Świetliki ? a group from Cracow, recording an album "Cacy, cacy Flaeishmaschine" with them. Later he decides to cooperate with Marcin Świetlicki in a project which combines poetry with improvisation on saxophone and bass clarinet. In 2000 they record the album "Cierpienie i Wypoczynek".
In July 1997 there was a second tour of Miłość with Lester Bowie resulting in recording of the album "Talkin' about life and death" in the studio of Radio Gdańsk.
In 1998 quartet NRD that is Jerzy Mazzol, Ryszard Tymański and Jacek Olter start their few months? activity. The lineup played a few concerts and recorded the album "Sport i Religia".
In 1999 project The Users together with Robert Brylewski, Marcin Świetlicki, Ryszard Tymański, Milo Kurtis. and Jacek Olter. Album "Nie Idź Do Pracy" is recorded.
In 2000 together with his wife Ola Trzaska he founded a publishing house Kilogram Records, which publishes Mikołaj?s albums and impro-free jazz music.
In 2001 he starts cooperation with Andrzej Stasiuk, writer and publicist, six years later they publish an album entitled "Kantry".
2001- 2004 he cooperated with an instrumental ? composing duet - Marcin and Bartłomiej Oleś. Their first album "Mikro Muzik" is thought to be a very important event in contemporary Polish jazz. Next albums are "La sketch up" and Trzaska's album with participation of Oleś brothers ? "Danziger Strassenmusik" ? recorded on the streets of Gdańsk. They also recorded an album "Suite For Trio + 4", together with a French trumpeter Jean Luc Cappozzo.
In 2003 when he was in Ukraine he created a music ? literary project with an outstanding Ukrainian writer and poet Yuri Andrukhowych. The result of their cooperation is the album "Andruchoid".
In Autumn 2003 he meets a French guitarist Noël Akchoté with whom he plays concerts and spends one day in the Warsaw Music Academy studio.
In May 2003 on the Festival ?Blooms Days? in Dublin he plays with Austrian cellist and composer Clementine Gasser, it is the beginning of a long cooperation in duet and other lineups.
In September 2003 during his stay in Scandinavia Trzaska starts a permanent cooperation with musicians who form Peter Brötzmann's rytmical section - bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and drummer Peeter Uuskyla. They record albums (2004) "Unforgiven north" and (2006) "Orangeada".
In Spring 2004 on the occasion of Polish Year in Germany Trzaska starts cooperation with musicians from Germany: drummer and electronic engineer Paul Wirkus and double bassist Johannes Firsch. They go on two concert tours in Germany.
In April 2005 Peter Brotzmann joins the trio Trzaska/Friis/Uuskyla. In this way North Quartet is founded and the album "Malamuth" is recorded.
Also in 2005 in trio with Danish musicians Peter Friis Nielsen and Peter Ole Jorgensen. In April 2007 in Copenhagen, the premiere of their common album "Volumen" published by a Danish publishing house Ninth World Music took place. The same year he cooperates with Paul Wirkus recording an album inspired by Andrzej Stasiuk's prose "Nacht".
In May 2006 project Shofar with participation of guitarist and composer Raphael Rogiński and drummer Macio Moretti is started. The idea of the project is to find a common denominator for traditional Jewish music and contemporary creative jazz. In 2007 their album "Shofar" is published.
In Autumn 2006 he starts cooperation with Joe McPhee and Jay Rosen - he records the album "Intimate conversations" with them. In 2007 he plays a common concert tour with Trio X, and shortly after that they record material for a common album under a working title "Magic".
In October 2007 on the occasion of Gunter Grass' 80th birthday he forms an orchestra consisting of twelve people: Johannes Bauer, Wacław Zimpel, Przemek Dyakowski, Tomasz Ziętek, Kristofer Winckel, Marcin Dymiter, Adam Witkowski, Olo Walicki, Kuba Staruszkiewicz, Michał Goss, Paweł Nowicki - Mikołaj Trzaska Mottlau River Band, the orchestra performs a suite devoted to the writer in St John?s church in Gdansk.
In November 2007 he is invited to join an international project of Ken Vandermark "Resonanse", where he cooperates with Tim Daisy, Steve Swelle, Magnus Broo, Yuriy Yaremchuk, Marek Tokar, Dave Rempis, Michael Zerang and Per-Ake Holmlander.
In December 2007 he founds a quartet with American pianist Noah Rosen, Danish drummer Peter Ole Jorgensen and Belgian double bassist Peter Jacquemyn ? they record an album as Trzaska/Rosen Quartet and go on a concert tour in Poland and Ukraine.
In January 2008 he records an album in trio with Peter Brotzmann and Johannes Bauer.
In Spring 2008 drummer from Chicago Tentet - Michael Zerang joins the duet with Clementine Gasser. They go on a concert tour in Poland and record material for a common album with a magic title Nadir & Mahora.
In Spring 2008 he implements two musical projects in Vienna together with Clementine Gasser and Bernhard Loibner for Essl Museum and with Joachim Roedelius and Clementine Gasser ? Secret Love. On that occasion he is invited to take part in Vienna Improvise Orchestra conducted by saxophonist and violinist Michael Fisher.
In June 2008 Mikołaj forms a quartet consisting of bass clarinets called IRCHA and invites Wacław Zimpel, Paweł Szamburski and Michał Górczyński to the group. The group has its debut on the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow.
In October 2008 trio Trzaska/Gasser/Zerang goes on an international tour with concerts in Austria, Germany and Poland. At the same time Trzaska meets an Australian double bassist Clayton Thomas with whom he plays concerts in Germany and Poland and records material for an album in club Dragon in Poznań.
At the end of October 2008 the artist goes on a concert tour in the USA: he plays a few concerts in New York with Joe McPhee, Dominik Duval and Jay Rosen among others in The Living Theater within the program RUCMA series. Then he plays in New Haven, CT in Firehouse, concert and recording the material for an album. In Philadelphia in International House Philadelphia within a series prized by the critics Ars Nova Workshop. It was a tour promoting the album "Intimate Conversation" published by Not Two record company.
The second part of the tour are Mikołaj Trzaska's performances in Chicago during Umbrella Music Festival "European Jazz Meets Chicago" called by the critics the most important jazz meeting in Chicago. On 5th November in Chicago Cultural Center Trzaska performed together with Chicago jazz-impro stars ? bassist Kent Kessler and Michael Zerang. The tour was concluded by a concert in The Hideout club in Chicago on 8th November together with guitarist Evan O'Reilly, bassist Christian Weber and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Moreover he played with Tim Daisy, Elizabeth Harnik and Taylor Ho Bynum.
When he comes back from the USA Trzaska implements a project planned a long time ago called Warsong with Raphael Rogiński on the guitar and Tomek Sowiński on the drum.
In the middle of November 2008 there was a tour of Reed Trio founded by Ken Vandermark accompanied by clarinetist Wacław Zimpel ended with the recording of the material for a CD and LP album. A few days later a British drummer Mark Sanders invites Trzaska to his trio where Peter Friis Nielsen also performs."-Mikolaj Trzaska Website (http://www.trzaska.art.pl/page16.html)
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Track Listing:
CD1
1. Hymne (8.Jhd.) Veni Creator Spiritus 1:50
2. "Annunciation" From Mystery Sonata No 1 2:22
3. Hommage a J.S. B 1:30
4. Tales Of Enchantment For Violin And Bass 12:07
5. Peter Brotzmann / Barry Guy / Zlatko Kaucic 23:30
6. Joelle Leandre / Steve Swell / Agusti Fernandez 27:06
CD2
1. Mats Gustafsson / Mikoiaj Trzaska / Per-Ake Holmlander / Rafai Mazur 20:01
2. Peter Brotzmann / Mikoiaj Trzaska / Per-Ake Holmlander / Agusti Fernandez 23:37
3. Mats Gustafsson / Rafal Mazur / Paal Nilssen-Love 24:18
4. Mats Gustafsson / Rafal Mazur / Paal Nilssen-Love 4:17
CD3
1. Joelle Leandre / Barry Guy 15:57
2. JoelleLeandre / Barry Guy / Zlatko Kaucic 10:54
3. Joelle Leandre / Barry Guy / Zlatko Kaucic / Steve Swell 12:38
4. Joelle Leandre / Barry Guy / Zlatko Kaucic / Steve Swell / Ken Vandermark 6:04
5. Joelle Leandre / Barry Guy / Zlatko Kaucic / Steve Swell / Ken Vandermark 5:25
6. Joelle Leandre 12:18
7. Joelle Leandre / Mikoiaj Trzaska 14:00
CD4
1. Hymne (8.Jhd.) Veni Creator Spiritus 0:32
2. Grave From The A Minor Sonata 3:16
3. Aglais 11:07
4. G Moll Adagio - Con Sordino 3:39
5. Peter Brotzmann / Paal Nilssen-Love 6:18
6. Peter Brotzmann / Paal Nilssen-Love 11:09
7. Peter Brotzmann / Paal Nilssen-Love 11:07
CD5
1. MatsGustafsson / Ken Vandermark 9:36 2. Mats Gustafsson / Ken Vandermark / Steve Swell / Per-Ake Holmlander 11:38 3. Agusti Fernandez / Zlatko Kaucic / Barry Guy / Rafai Mazur 22:31 4. Not Two But Twenty Orchestra
Box Sets
Improvised Music
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Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Chicago Jazz & Improvisation
Solo Artist Recordings
Duo Recordings
Trio Recordings
Quartet Recordings
Quintet Recordings
Mats Gustafsson
Peter Brotzmann
Ken Vandermark
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Not Two.
 | PNY Quintet (Swell / Brown / Edelin / Giron / Betsch) Over The Wall (RogueArt) |
| While NY trombonist Steve Swell and alto saxophonist Rob Brown were in Paris, flutist Michel Edelin, who has recorded and performed with Swell over more than a decade, organized this session with Paris-based American ex-pats, drummer John Betsch and bassist Peter Giron, recording three Swell compositions, two by Brown, one from Edelin and four collective improvisations; magnifique! | |
 | Schwerdt, Oliver / Barry Guy / Baby Sommer Fucking Ballads (Euphorium) |
| An enthusiastic and energetically powerful trio meeting between three masters--Oliver Schwerdt on grand piano & percussion, Barry Guy on double bass and Baby Sommer on drums & percussion--performing live in 2021 at naTo, in Leipzig for two extended improvisations of remarkable communication, incredible virtuosity, but most importantly, incredible and compelling creative drive! | |
 | Leandre, Joelle / Pascal Contet Miniatures (Trost Records) |
| A collaboration that goes back 30 years, French improvising bassist Joëlle Léandre and avant accordionist Pascal Contet in their fifth album together, turning from their more typically extended conversations to a series of 10 "Miniatures", shorter and diverse dialogs recorded live in 2022 at the beautiful Arsenal Concert Hall in Metz, France. | |
 | NRG Ensemble (directed by Mars Williams) Hold That Thought (Corbett vs. Dempsey) |
| The 1st of three archival albums from saxophonist Mars Williams' vaults, this 1996 concert in Utrecht with the NRG Ensemble--the band that Williams' carried forward after Hal Russell's passing in 1992--in an unrestrained concert of original material from Williams and fellow saxophonist Ken Vandermark, with Kent Kessler on bass, Steve Hunt on drums, and Brian Sandstrom on bass, guitar & trumpet. | |
| PNY Quintet (Swell / Brown / Edelin / Giron / Betsch) Over The Wall (RogueArt) |
| While NY trombonist Steve Swell and alto saxophonist Rob Brown were in Paris, flutist Michel Edelin, who has recorded and performed with Swell over more than a decade, organized this session with Paris-based American ex-pats, drummer John Betsch and bassist Peter Giron, recording three Swell compositions, two by Brown, one from Edelin and four collective improvisations; magnifique! | |
 | Shipp, Matthew / Steve Swell Space Cube Jazz (RogueArt) |
| The first duo recordings from fellow New York jazz musicians, trombonist Steve Swell and pianist Matthew Shipp, having brushed shoulders together with Whit Dickey, Dom Minasai, Jemeel Moondoc, Allen Lowe &c., they bring a wealth of familiar knowledge and language to their binary concentration, through twelve concise dialogs themed around the dark expanse of space; masterful and intimate. | |
 | Brotzmann, Peter / Paal Nilssen-Love Chicken Shit Bingo [VINYL] (Trost Records) |
| Often performing together as a duo after their initial 2004 Chicago Tentet encounter, drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen and multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann typically released albums of live performances, this 2015 studio date in Antwerp unique in their catalog, an exemplary set of recordings, particularly with Brötzmann on a new contra-alto clarinet and Paal adding gongs to their improvisations. | |
 | Brotzmann, Peter / Paal Nilssen-Love Chicken Shit Bingo (Trost Records) |
| Often performing together as a duo after their initial 2004 Chicago Tentet encounter, drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen and multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann typically released albums of live performances, this 2015 studio date in Antwerp unique in their catalog, an exemplary set of recordings, particularly with Brötzmann on a new contra-alto clarinet and Paal adding gongs to their improvisations. | |
 | Harnik, Elisabeth / Steve Swell Welcome to the Troposphere (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!)) |
| An explorative album of collective free improvisation from the transatlantic duo of German pianist Elisabeth Harnik and New York trombonist Steve Swell, following up on their 2020 album Tonotopic Organisation, this 2022 live concert at Offene Ohren, in Munich brings listeners current to both improvisers immense creative drive, masterful skill, and their mutual, exuberant rapport. | |
 | Ballister (Rempis / Lonberg-Holm / Nilssen-Love) Smash And Grab [VINYL] (Aerophonic) |
| "Smash", "Even More Smashing" and "Grab" sums up the intense energy that the Ballister trio brought to their 2022 performance at Elastic Arts in Chicago as part of the Catalytic Sound Festival, impelled by Paul Nilssen-Love's powerful drumming and Fred Lonberg-Holm's demanding cello work, with Dave Rempis roaring on alto, tenor and baritone saxophones; wow! | |
 | Ballister (Rempis / Lonberg-Holm / Nilssen-Love) Smash And Grab (Aerophonic) |
| "Smash", "Even More Smashing" and "Grab" sums up the intense energy that the Ballister trio brought to their 2022 performance at Elastic Arts in Chicago as part of the Catalytic Sound Festival, impelled by Paul Nilssen-Love's powerful drumming and Fred Lonberg-Holm's demanding cello work, with Dave Rempis roaring on alto, tenor and baritone saxophones; wow! | |
 | Gush (Gustafsson / Sandell / Strid) Afro Blue (Trost Records) |
| Recorded in 1998 but sounding absolutely modern, exuberant and often explosively inspired, this live recording at Jazzclub Fasching in Stockholm brings the then 10-year collaboration of drummer Raymond Strid, pianist Sten Sandel and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson to ecstatic heights, bridging free jazz forms and rendering Coltranes "Afro Blues" with intense passion. | |
 | Gustafsson, Mats Hidros 9 Mirrors (Trost Records) |
| Forming his NU Ensemble in 1997 to merge free-jazz, improv, noise and contemporary forms, Mats Gustafsson presented Hidros One for 9 improvisers, tape & conductor that same year, progressing over 25 years to this 9th conduction of the Hidros concept in his largest ensemble yet: 25 musicians in two 9-piece ensembles plus soloists, captured live at the 2022 Avant Art Festival in Warsaw, Poland. | |
 | Gustafsson, Mats / Ensemble E EE Opus One (Trost Records) |
| Merging contemporary and traditional instruments, including the spilapipa (a fipple flute), hardanger fiddle, the Bilgoraj suka (a vertical fiddle), alongside prepared piano, organ, trumpet, tuba, baritone sax & voice, Mats Gustafsson's ensemble merges folk, experimental forms, improv & free jazz in a conduction shaped by the participants; absolutely unique & fascinating. | |
 | Leandre, Joelle / Vinicius Cajado Storm Dance (Not Two) |
| Six "Dances" of a deeply turbulent nature as legendary French bassist Joëlle Léandre meets Brazilian bassist Vinicius Cajado for a 2022 live concert in Vienna at Alte Schmiede, both employing massively powerful techniques, Léandre vocalizing at times to push their dialog into tempestuous territory; at times darkly explosive but illuminated by incredible creative intent. | |
 | Swell, Steve Dances with Questions [3-CD SET] (Not Two) |
| Recorded during the 2019 Kraków Jazz Autumn Festival, NY trombonist Steve Swell leads a series of small groups and a large ensemble, recording at Radio Kraków and at Alchemia with some of Europe's most active improvisers: Gebhard Ullmannm, Elisabeth Harnik, Niklas Barno, Paal Nilssen-Love, Jon Rune Strom, Carlos Zingaro, Mikolaj Trzaska, Signe Emmeluth, Hanne de Backer, Elisabeth Coudoux, & Per Ake Holmlander. | |
 | Harnik, Elisabeth / Zlatko Kaucic One Foot in the Air (Not Two) |
| An exciting and often unorthodox concert of free improvisation between Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik and Slovenian drummer/percussionist Zlatko Kaucic, captured live in 2022 at the Kulturhalle in Eggersdorf, Austria for a diverse 5-movement freely improvised and very open-minded work, with both performing inside and outside of their instruments, and literally, underneath the piano. | |
 | Brotzmann / Toyozumi TRIANGLE, Live at OHM, 1987 (NoBusiness) |
| Never before issued, this stunning concert between long-time collaborators, Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi and German multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann performing on tenor saxophone and tarogato, was captured live at OHM, in Koiwa, Tokyo in 1987, in an energetic and enthusiastic free concert of impressive skill and expression, a vital addition to the discography of both. | |
 | Brotzmann / Van Hove / Bennink Outspan No 2 [VINYL] (Cien Fuegos) |
| Recorded a month after Outspan No 1, this album was captured live at 1974 Ost-West-Festival in Nurnberg, Germany from the legendary, masterfully amusing and absolutely serious trio of Peter Brötzmann on alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet, Fred Van Hove on piano, Han Bennink on drums, clarinet, homemade junk, everything, anything. | |
 | Brotzmann / Van Hove / Bennink / Albert Mangelsdorff Outspan No 1 [VINYL] (Cien Fuegos) |
| Recorded a month after Outspan No 1, this album was captured live at 1974 Ost-West-Festival in Nurnberg, Germany from the legendary, masterfully amusing and absolutely serious trio of Peter Brötzmann on alto saxophone, tenor saxophone & clarinet, Fred Van Hove on piano, and Han Bennink on drums, clarinet, homemade junk, everything & anything. | |
 | Brown, Rob Quartet (Brown / Swell / Lightcap / Taylor) Oblongata (RogueArt) |
| Having met in William Parker's Little Huey Orchestra, long-time collaborators Rob Brown (saxophone & flute) and Steve Swell (trombone), along with Brown's longest improvising partner, double bassist Chris Lightcap, join with drummer Chad Taylor for an exemplary album of modern creative jazz through five Brown compositions and 4 collective improvisations. | |
 | Brotzmann, Peter / Majid Bekkas / Hamid Drake Catching Ghosts (ACT Music + Vision) |
| A powerful, spiritual and warmly dynamic album of international and cross-cultural free improvisation meticulously recorded live at Jazzfest Berlin in 2022 from the trio of German reedist Peter Brötzmann on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Chicago drummer/percussionist Hamid Drake, and Moroccan guembri player and vocalist Majid Bekkas. | |
 | Swell, Steve For Rhina P. Espaillat (Relative Pitch) |
| Referencing poet Rhina P. Espaillat and her poem about the perseverance and future influence of individual art, New York trombonist Steve Swell, also performing on pocket trumpet, presents eight solo recordings of advanced techniques and unique creative power, in seven succinct expressions including a work for Walter Weirbos, and the extended improv "Hope". | |
 | Guy, Barry Blue Shroud Band All This This Here (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!)) |
| The title and text drawn from Samuel Beckett's last poem and meditation on language, "what is the word" and also his "Brief Dream", plus a poem from Barra O Seaghdha and two 18th century Edo Haikus, Barry Guy's exquisite work about life in transit through eight movements is performed with a stellar ensemble including Agusti Fernandez, Maya Homburg, Lucas Niggli, Percuy Pursgolve, &c. | |
 | Swell / Tokar / Kugel For The People Of The Open Heart (Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!)) |
| A meeting in Dortmund, Germany between the working trio of three masterful improvisers--New York trombonist Steve Swell, also on flute; Ukrainian double bassist Mark Tokar; and German drummer Klaus Kugel--recording 6 collective, spontaneous improvisations and Swell's "Child's Play", extending the concepts of the bass, drum and trombone trio. | |
 | End, The (Jernberg / Moster / Gustafsson / Hana / Fjordheim) Why Do You Mourn [VINYL] (Trost Records) |
| The third album from the genre-merging quintet The End of of Sofia Jernberg (vocals), Kjetil Moster (clarinet and tenor saxophone), Mats Gustafsson (flutes, baritone saxophone and electronics), Anders Hana (baritone and bass guitar) and Borge Fjordheim (drums), an experimental song-based project influenced by avant rock, jazz and soundscape in seven nuanced pieces. | |
