Three leaders in the Chicago free improv scene--Keefe Jackson on tenor & sopranino saxophones, Jim Baker on piano & synthesizer and Julian Kirshner on drums--in a collective album of concentrative conversation, a group of equals that function together through close listening and interactive support in expressive playing that leaves ego out of the equation.
Recorded while double bassist Brandon Lopez was in Chicago, frequent collaborators from two generations--keyboardist Jim Baker on piano and Arp Synth and drummer/percussionist Bill Harris--joined together to record this live-in-the-studio album of highly interactive, explorative, propulsive and often cathartic free improvisation.
Joining the Chicago ensemble of Dave Rempis on alto, tenor & baritone saxophones, bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer/percussionist Avreeayl Ra is pianist & synth player Jim Baker, performing at Elastic Arts in July 2021 as the venue reopened after pandemic shutdowns, the significance clear in the spiritual power and inspired performances of all 4 players.
The fifth in the An Ayler Xmas series from saxophonist Mars Williams, mashing holiday classics with works by saxophonist Albert Ayler, with the amazing sextet of Josh Berman on cornet, Jim Baker on piano, viola & Arp Synth, Brian Sandstrom on bass, guitar & trumpet, Steve Hunt on drums, Peter Maunu on violin and Kent Kessler or Krzysztof Pabian on bass.
Merging disparate styles into music that is clearly jazz-based, warm and beautifully structured, Chicago drummer and composer Charles Rumback's 7th album as a leader assembles a large group of luminaries including Jim Baker, Ron Miles, Jason Stein, and Greg Ward for a set of instrumentals and songs that are effusive but never sentimental, a beautiful balance.
The fourth in the An Ayler Xmas series from saxophonist Mars Williams, expands to a double CD with recordings from two bands: Josh Berman, Jim Baker, Kent Kessler, Brian Sandstrom & Steve Hunt (Chicago); and Steve Swell, Hilliard Greene, Chris Corsano, Nels Cline & Fred Lonberg-Holm (NYC); in incredible free jazz mashups and bash-ups of Holiday favorites.
A soulful and lyrically passionate album of modern jazz from Chicago drummer Charles Rumback in a trio with pianist Jim Baker and bassist John Tate, their third album together, with all three bringing compositions to the session, yielding a sensitive, understated yet impeccable balance of melodic music that reveals great strength at its center.
Guillermo Gregorio produces a series of compositions that reinterprets the structural concepts of Constructivism, Concretism, and Madi, focusing on the physicality of sound.