Ivo Perelman and Damon Smith - Duologue 6: Core of Existence (Squid Note, 2026)

By Sammy Stein

Ivo Perelman continues his duologue series with a conversation with bassist Damon Smith, and this is a duologue well worth listening in on. Bass and saxophone seem naturally attuned to interact: two instruments built on vibration, the sax of a reed and the bass of a string. In both instruments, the air moved by vibration is passed through a resonant body to create texture, warmth, and depth. Their kinship is physical, but their voices are utterly distinct, and that tension is where the chemistry happens.

Across the album, the musicians explore the full expressive range of their instruments. They trade thunks, whispers, vibrato, sudden bursts of intensity, and passages of exquisite stillness. What emerges is a sense of deeply engaged conversation.

The tracks on Duologue: Core of Existence are numbered 1-12, and across the album, the range and versatility of both musicians is demonstrated. From the sax-led inspiration on track 1, the extemporised playing of Perelman on track 2, supported by the depths of resounding notes from the bass, to the dance-like trilling of the sax on track 3, supported by the bass, this time using higher notes and vibrato to add a different texture to the music.

On track 4, there is a shift in emphasis, and the bass supports Perelman playing in a range of styles, at one time creating a fuzzy background texture and another a plucked, plinky, rhythmic style. On track 5, the bass is fast, furious, and then suddenly delicate under Perelman's intensity, the beauty of the track developing as each musician listens not only to each other but also uses silences to add punctuation.

Across the album, tenor sax and bass are used as instruments of engagement, negotiation, and to exchange ideas, sometimes one suggesting, sometimes the other. While this is free playing, without supposed form, there are different patterns, rhythms, and styles, from the intense to the gentle and sublime. Even when Perelman is following a delirious line or sliding in a snippet from a traditional jazz tune, the bass is ever changing, reacting, and engaging with the ideas. On track 8, the final phrases see the bass loose stringed and plucked, creating a shimmering effect under the tenor line.

Track 9 sees a shift in emphasis, as this is bass-led and glorious, with Perelman affording the Smith ample room and scope while supplying notions, ideas, and quicksilver rivulets of sound for the bass to react to. Even when Perelman is at his most unrestrained, Smith’s bass is in motion, reacting with invention and agility, introducing ideas of his own making. The fabulous contrast in the middle section between the high-pitched screams of the tenor and the deepest, darkest throat of the bass is extraordinary.

As in all the Duologue series, Perelman seems to relish conversing with other musicians and instruments in a musical encounter where he can pitch the tenor sax against different bodies, materials, and modes of vibration, yet the underlying principle remains. Sound is a shared exploration. Perelman and each of the musicians he has played with in the series tap into creating vibrations: notes, music, in different ways, but as ever, there is a commonality in conversations. Perelman, in this series, is the alchemist who makes it happen, drawing out the unique resonances of each collaborator. With Smith, the chemistry is profound, two musicians creating vibrations in different ways but providing meaning and conversation in equal measure. It is here where magic happens. 

Read More

Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, Bobby Kapp, and William Parker - Synesthesia (Defkaz, 2026)

By Sammy Stein

Ivo Perelman is a musician, artist, and jeweller who works with many musicians of different styles. He sees the world slightly differently from some of us, in that he sees sound in colour. So the title of the recording, Synesthesia, is apt. In his contribution to my book Music Is Your Superpower, Perelman describes music not as a choice, but as an essential for existence. He says of music, and jazz in particular, “What truly connected me to jazz was the emotional intensity within its structure, especially in the music of Shorter. It felt almost impossible to perform music that was so intricately constructed while simultaneously conveying such depth of feeling.”

He also talks about his synesthesia – the phenomenon of seeing sound as colours. When Perelman plays music, it feels as if he is creating a work of art, and when he is painting, he can relate it to creating a saxophone solo. Art, colour, and music are interlinked. His intense need to create may explain his productivity in music. His way of playing and interpreting musical dialogue draws to him musicians who understand his musical visions.

On Synesthesia, Perelman has teamed again with close associates Matthew Shipp (piano), William Parker (bass), and Bobby Kapp (drums) in a new recording that captures their deep connection and still evolving voices in contemporary free jazz. With the pathways forged with ‘Ineffable Joy’ and ‘Heptagon’, the group continues to establish new routes in spontaneous composition, open form, and strong collective interplay.

The difference on ‘Synesthesia’ is that the music is more crystallised, and has a deeper sense of flow and connection. That connection is revealed in the rapid reactions of the musicians as they listen and respond to each other, offering individual takes that go to create a whole. Perelman explores his tenor sax, moving across its range with soft, melodic interludes, intense, electric solos, and contrasting altissimo. Shipp demonstrates his innate art of support as his circling, looping chordal progressions offer up subtle melodic ideas that pilot the ensemble in places. The bass of Parker is constant, with deep, sonorous melodies, with space left for musical dialogue. Kapp adds colour and motion, while filling in the detail of the sonic landscape with percussive touches and occasional solos.

Across the album, there is that contrast of intense energy, such as on ‘First Color Heard,’ and quiet, reflective passages, such as those on ‘Afterglow.’ The contrasts coexist, interlinked and cohesive to create the harmonic dialogue that only comes with experience and understanding other musicians.

On ‘Phosphene,’ Perelman travels familiar pathways, yet introduces new elements into each, creating a sense of the unexpected. Shipp’s piano excels on this track with its quiet support and triumphantly emergent solo work. The beautiful moment when Perelman enters across the piano solo with astonishingly accurate pitch contrast is just beautiful. There is even a snippet from a song from Perelman before he reverts to free playing. Into the quiet moments, Parker’s bass sighs and works its magic – an excellent track.

On ‘Blue Taste,’ the influence of jazz masters past and present can be felt as the ensemble delivers free-style jazz commentary across a blues-infused rhythm pattern. Perelman's pipping, and squealing contrast with the steadfast whirr of the accompaniment, while ‘Afterglow’ is a much gentler affair altogether. ‘One Sense’ has an atmosphere of a ‘50s jazz venue for some inexplicable reason, possibly because of the interaction between traditional rhythms and free playing – glorious.

Like in a lot of Perelman’s work, the blues and bop elements make themselves known, interwoven amidst abstract sonic textures that create a flowing, organic development. Synesthesia is a recording that has the quality you might expect from an experienced ensemble, who know each other’s ways so well, yet it still has elements of surprise and supreme intuitive styling that give it its energy and expression.

On Synesthesia, there is no discernible fixed structure, yet the harmonics and classically linked progressions tell of a musical ensemble deeply knowledgeable in musical scaffolding and pinning on that scaffold experimental lines that always work back to the root. The title says it all, a kaleidoscope of jewelled, colourful music, with deep, dark textures and light, contrasting hues. There are shapes woven here, along with colorful landscapes, through which the ensemble meanders, careens, and gently rests on occasion. This is an album that will have broad appeal.

Read More

Ivo Perelman with Marc Ribot, Elliot Sharp and Joe Morris - Trifecta (Mahakala, 2026)

By Sammy Stein

Ivo Perelman has teamed up not with one, or two, but three guitarists on Trifecta. Guitarists Marc Ribot (Disc One), Elliott Sharp (Disc Two), and Joe Morris (Disc Three) pair with Perelman in a release that showcases the guitar as an instrument and the individual playing styles of each musician.

Ivo says of the recordings, “I was a guitar player ever since I was a young boy. I studied for many years, but the reason I quit was that I couldn't find a personal, differentiated, unique voice. The guitar is a difficult instrument for that purpose. It doesn't lend itself, like the saxophone, for instance, to a different way of responding to each player. With woodwind instruments, factors like embouchure, mouthpiece, lung size, and height immediately affect the sound; they are flexible and responsive to sound imagination. Whatever you think comes out, you make the sound.

The guitar, with its geometric fingerboard, can lead musicians to merely recreate patterns. Therefore, I deeply admire the musicians featured in Trifecta because I know how individual their voices are on an instrument that is otherwise often oblivious to individuality.

Because they are all so different from each other, our interaction was very different. Although it is the same instrument, each project sounds unique. It made sense to me to group them in a CD box format to offer the listener a panoramic view of contemporary guitar as played by three of its major voices.”

While one might argue with Ivo (and who does?) about the guitar being oblivious to individuality (think Sonny Sharrock, as an example), it is definitely true that each of the three guitarists featured plays in a distinctive style.

Disc One – Marc Ribot and Ivo Perelman. Track one is a gentle preamble with both players offering subtle, contrasting phrases, passing discussive musical musings back and forth. There is a sense of familiarity in the pre-emptive chord inserts of Ribot and the declarations of intent in the sax lines. Perelman is restrained and, at times, takes the tenor sax on a journey of screeches and wails, but Ribot grounds the track, maintaining the gentle pace and delicate chord placements. The track is over twelve minutes in length, during which Ribot introduces rhythm changes and punchy percussive elements, to which Perelman intuitively responds. In turn, Perelman takes the music into realms of contrapuntal changes, and Ribot reacts. Track two sees Perelman taking wild walks with airs and melodies, which Ribot echoes at times and develops at others. The final part of the track is a beautiful exchange of delicacies between the two musicians, which they, in turn, try out, and either discard or savour and develop. Track three is intense, lively, with fiery salvos passing between the musicians like hot cakes. Perelman introduces some gorgeous lower register lines in the second half, over which Ribot’s strings writhe like a cobra, creating dense, colourful phrases. Somehow, by the time the track ends, it is softer, the lines malleable, and flowing. Track four opens with a Celtic-sounding harmony which both players introduce before each diverges on a line of their own, Perelman’s tenor taking a more melodic tone, while Ribot inserts delicate chords and lines. Perelman rises into the top register, soaring and dipping back to pipping lower notes. Track five is bonkers – wholesale improvisation, with Ribot and Perelman vying for who can outwit whom. Yet there are still the intuitive reactions and challenges that make the track a standout example of communicative playing. Ribot’s mastery of styles is apparent, as he weaves seamlessly between free improvisation and snippets of different playing styles. Between them, Perelman and Ribot even go briefly into swing mode, though not for more than a few bars. Perelman’s delectation for taking a style and introducing free playing into it comes to the fore, and Ribot seems to delight in taking him up on his offer and following.

Disc Two – Elliott Sharp and Ivo Perelman. Track one is explorative, tentative almost, with Perlman initially taking the long melodic line and Sharp inserting quick, sharp chords, alongside some gentler extended ones, until the track unravels itself with both musicians diverging and coming together in a series of intricate phrases. Track two finds Perlman meandering along melodic inventions, into which eventually Sharp inserts delicate, then increasingly noisesome lines. There is a beautiful section where the melody is reversed with Sharp playing deep, resonant lines, over which Perelman flies, finding nuanced tones in the gaps of the music as only he can. Track three is delicate, each musician introducing lines of sound like threads, which weave themselves around each other to create a sonic tapestry of colourful sound waves. Track four is busy, buzzy, electronically enhanced, and atmospheric, while track five is just as atmospheric but with more guitar ‘twangs’ and warps, with Perelman retreating a little to allow the guitar to come to the fore in all its weirdness in the hands of Sharp. Sharp finds tones and nuances in the guitar with detuned strings and tightened chords that showcase the range of his instrument. Track six starts as if it is going to go into a blues number, but the two musicians quickly put a stop to that notion with a glorious development of rhythm changes and improvised lines. Sharp makes impressive use of the percussive elements of the guitar and its dexterity as an instrument. On track seven, this is demonstrated, alongside chords and singular lines that mesh and meld with the sax of Perelman intuitively.

Disc Three - Joe Morris and Ivo Perelman. On track one, the difference in the style of Morris compared to Sharp and Ribot is apparent; his guitar’s melodic voice is heard from the start. Track two is a conversation between guitar and saxophone with both musicians playing without pause, yet they intuitively diminish and crescendo in their dialogue, as each listen and responds. On track three, Morris’s guitar is busy, the notes intricately placed, and he finds ways to fill any gaps, however small, that Perelman leaves. Perelman, meanwhile, rises and falls, riffs, and meanders along musical pathways his brain creates, and his fingers bring into reality. On this track, the intuition of both musicians is palpable. Track four is a delightful back and forth between the instruments, and Morris’s responses to Perelman’s pips and riffles create the texture of this track.

Across the CDs, Perelman remains intuitive and perceptive as ever, but also adaptive, as his instincts and reactions to the guitarists vary. He is the constant in these recordings, yet there remains the steadfast dedication to musical improvisation and response to fellow musicians that Perelman has developed so well. Each guitarist brings their style and interpretation of Perelman’s unique musicality and playing characteristics.

Three individualist guitar players, paired with one of the most individual saxophone players, is, in theory, something to cherish and enjoy. In reality, it does not disappoint.

Read More

Paul Rogers - Abbaye de l'Épau (Self-Released, 2025)

By Stef Gijssels

We're always in high expectation for a new solo release by British bassist Paul Rogers, and when we get two new albums in one year, we can only rejoyce. Not surprisingly, all his solo albums since the creation of this blog were reviewed: "Heron Moon" (1995), "Listen" (2002), "Being" (2007), "An Invitation" (2010), "This Is Where I Find Myself" (2021). Rogers has of course released many more albums with his follow countrymen Paul Dunmall, Phil Gibbs, Mark Sanders, Tony Levin, or with free jazz icons such as Ivo Perelman, Frode Gjerstad or Joe McPhee. 

Yet each solo album is a treat. The sound he produces on his custom-made seven-string bass is unique. My favourite this year is this wonderful concert in the Abbaye de l'Épeau on the outskirts of the city of Le Mans, where Rogers resides. "Founded in 1230 by Berengaria of Navarre, widow of Richard the Lionheart, it is one of the most beautiful Cistercian gems in France. It was acquired by the Department of Sarthe in 1959."

This performance ranks among his finest—grand, majestic, and magnificent. Perhaps it’s the venue, the acoustics of the room, or the presence of the audience, but everything about the sound feels perfectly aligned. His deep tones resonate and linger in the open space of the chapel. You can hear the audience itself—the occasional cough, a shifting chair—adding to a powerful sense of unity and responsiveness, of shared concentration between the artist and every listener.

I greatly admired his 2007 album Being, released on the sadly defunct Amor Fati label, and this performance reaches the same remarkable level. At times, the music recalls Bach, with repeated phrases subtly altered to avoid exact repetition; elsewhere, raw improvisation emerges, followed by passages of delicate, sensitive bowing or jazzy plucking. Despite these shifts and eclectic influences, the whole remains coherent and fluid.

The performance unfolds as a single, uninterrupted piece lasting more than fifty minutes—after all, why divide it into separate works when everything is improvised? The audience’s enthusiasm is well deserved, and they reward him with a standing ovation and a five-minute encore.

It's one of those albums that you listen to again and again. And that's a real feat for a solo bass album. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Paul Rogers – Peace And Happiness (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2025)

Recorded by in the summer of 2023 in his garage at Le Mans, "Peace and Happiness", is a more composed, structured and controlled album, yet as virtuosic. 

Most tracks have a pre-conceived voice and structure, with recurring themes interlaced with improvisations. Despite the power of his playing, this album is more intimate, more restrained, with British folksy melodies. Some pieces sound as if they were dubbed, but that is the result of his incredible skills on the seven-string bass, including plucking the strings beyond the bridge. 

It's excellent, but my preference still goes to the live performance reviewed above. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Read More

Ivo Perelman and Wadado Leo Smith - Duologues 5 (Ibeji, 2026)

By Sammy Stein 

Ivo Perelman continues his ‘Duologue’ series, this time teaming up with trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith, who needs little introduction to readers of this column. These are players with contrasting voices, and instruments with which either player could dominate, but that never happens in this recording, because, as ever, Perelman chooses those with whom he communicates carefully.

This recording is a statement of intent from the opening with Perelman ringing out repeated, then varied phrases, over which Smith enters with trumpet, adding a subtle, then less subtle voice into the mix. Perelman may have set the tone, but Smith changes it, as only he can, and Perelman willingly changes his take to suit. Gone is the melodic tone, and Perelman replaces it with breathy tones reflecting the intonations of the trumpet. The track is spacey in that each musician has room to develop lines, and the texture remains light and conversational.

The second track sees each musician entering the flow of the music, as full-throttle improvisational sequences segue into occasional melody, largely from the sax but also from the trumpet. Smith creates the path toward intentional musical mayhem, and Perelman slots his sax melodics and harmonies in. At times, there is a competitive air, but at others, there evolves that wonderful sense of two musicians entranced by and listening to each other. The dynamism is intense, with both instrumentalists finding space to free solo, and support – the intensity can be almost tangibly felt.

Track 3 sets off at a pace, with Perelman introducing melodic phrases, under which Smith trips off reflective phrases in response to Perelman’s voice. Later, the roles swap, and Perelman is reacting to Smith. Toward the final phrases, Smith excels and raises his trumpet sounds in melodic triumph – well, almost melodic.

Track 4 is a different kind of beast, with lashings of sonic texture provided by both musicians, with an energy that increases as the track progresses. The art of listening is aptly demonstrated here, as Perelman's musical motifs are picked up, changed, and thrown back at him by Smith, who seems to relish the changes Perelman introduces and adds some of his own. Perelman's gentleness in the midsection is tempered by the delicacy of Smith’s delivery, and when Perelman develops a thematic section, Smith simply drops out and lets him have the space.

Track 5 is a wonderful conversation between sax and trumpet, each instrument's tone and range explored and developed, with the topsy-turvy nature of the sonic landscape further tilted as Smith leads Perelman along musical pathways not explored before, which Perelman gleefully follows. Track 6 is lively and energetic with a dancing mode created first by Smith, then Perelman, who picks up the theme, not in phrases but insertions of notes perfectly placed to intercept the rise and fall of Smith’s phrasing with uncanny accuracy. Like a magician producing yet more magical delights from his pockets, Perelman just keeps delivering, and Smith responds. Noisy, full- on improvisation at its best.

The final track celebrates both instruments from the trumpet’s opening blast to the final harmonics. One recording, two instruments, two masters. You really can’t ask for more than that.

Read More

Free Jazz Collective's Top Albums of 2025

 

Jazz (c) David Monaghan

Compiling top 10 lists is a nerve wracking experience. It forces one to reconcile the year of releases and then process it in comparison to one and another. There is a great deal of chance in it: first, the album has to have actually been listened to (that's always a good place to start), and then it must have had the chance to grow on the listener (acquired tastes are often stronger than instant attractions). Then, there is a psychological bit: of anxiety - what about all of the albums that do not fit? What about a recording that wasn't reviewed here in time? And that's just the start. So, what can you do? It's important not to read these lists as definitive, but as a snap-shot in time and a best-effort to fit our format... and hopefully dear readers and writers, you all will expand on the lists in the comments, we look forward to it!

 

So, now that that's been gotten out, what follows are the lists from the writers of the Free Jazz Collective, kicked off with our collective top entries. First, a quick note on how this is compiled: our rules for the individual lists are that any recording that appears on a list must have been reviewed on the Free Jazz Blog or by the listing reviewer, personally, somewhere. Archival recordings do not have to be reviewed and they are not considered for the top album. Next, the most listed recordings are culled to produce the list of top recordings of the year, which you will see listed below. Then, as you are checking out the lists, the collective will be busy voting from the selections in the top album list below to come up with our number one album of the year, which will be presented on the site on January 1st.  

In the meantime, you can search our site for any of the recordings listed below to read a review of the recording. 

 

Enjoy!

Top 16 Albums of the Collective listed A - Z 
All albums that appeared on the lists three or more times each and are included in our album of the year vote.

• Anna Högberg Attack - Ensammseglaren (Fonstret)
• Ava Mendoza, gabby fluke mogul, Carolina Perez - Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance)
• Camila Nebbia, Kit Downes, Andrew Lisle - Exhaust (Relative Pitch)
• Ebaugh Crane Presley - Detergent (scatterArchive)
• Han-earl Park, Lara Jones, Pat Thomas - Juno 3: Proxemics (Buster and Friends) 
• Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker - The Ancients (Eremite)
• Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio - Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
• Joëlle Léandre & Evan Parker - Long Bright Summer (RogueArt)
• Paal Nilssen-Love Circus with The Ex Guitars - Turn Thy Loose (PNL)
• Rodrigo Amado The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost)
• Sophie Agnel – Learning (OTORUKO)
• Sophie Agnel / John Butcher - Rare (Les Disques VICTO)
• Sven-Åke Johansson, Pierre Borel, Seymour Wright, Joel Grip - Two Days at Café OTO (OTOROKU)
• The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters - self-titled (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• Tim Berne - Yikes Too (Screwgun / Out Of Your Head)
• Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier - Angel Falls (Intakt Records) 

Who will take the coveted Album of the Year? Check back on January 1st! 

 

And now in no particular order, the individual lists from the collective. When the lists are ranked, they will be presented with the ranking, otherwise the listing is unranked. 

 

Martin Schray 

1. Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons - Live in Philadelphia (Otherly Love Records/Ars Nova Workshop)
2. Isaiah Collier, William Parker, William Hooker – The Ancients (Eremite) 
3. Joe McPhee- I’m Just Say’n (Smalltown Supersound) 
4. The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters - self-titled (Corbett vs. Dempsey)  
5. PainKiller - The Great God Pan (Tzadik) 
6. Earscrather - Otoliths (Aerophonic Records) 
7. Sophie Agnel/ John Butcher - RARE (Les Disques VICTO) 
8. Wheelhouse (Dave Rempis, Nathan McBride, Jason Adasiewicz) - House and Home (Aerophonic) 
9. Ebaugh Crane Presley - Detergent (scatterArchive) 
10. Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Tomeka Reid, Chad Taylor - Pivot (Silkheart)  

Historic/Archival Releases:  

• Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley - Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance) 
• Rodrigo Amado/ Chris Corsano - The Healing (European Echoes) 
• Hüsker Dü: 1985 - The Miracle Year (Numero Group) 

Gary Chapin

1. Tim Berne - Yikes Too (Screwgun / Out of Your Head)
2. Tomas Fujiwara - Dream Up (Out of Your Head)
3. Myra Melford - Splash (Intakt)
4. The Hemphill Stringtet  - Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head)
5. Ray Anderson/Ivo Perelman - 12 Stages of Spiritual Alchemy (Fundacj Słuchaj)
6. Marilyn Crispell & Harvey Sorgen - Forest (Fundacja Sluchaj)
7. Paul Dunmall - Red Hot Ice (Discus)
8. George Cartwright and Bruce Golden - South From a Narrow Arc  (self-released)
9. Ivo Perelman, Nate Wooley, Matt Moran, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey - A Modicum of Blues (Fundacja Słuchaj)
10. Gregg Belisle-Chi - Slow Crawl: Performing the Music of Tim Berne (Screwgun)

 Historic/Archival Releases:

• Anthony Braxton (England) 1985 - Anthony Braxton
• In Lieu - Snakeoil (Screwgun)
• Snakeoil OK - Snakeoil (Screwgun)

Hyran Attarian

• Marshall Allen - New Dawn (Weekend Records)
  
• Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier – Angel Falls (Intakt Records)
  
• Stian Larsen/Colin Webster/Ruth Goller/Andrew Lisle - Temple of Muses (Relative Pitch)
  
• William Parker/Hugo Costa/Philipp Ernsting - Pulsar (NoBusiness)
  
• Ivo Perelman and Nate Wooley - Polarity 4 (Burning Ambulance)
  
• Bloomers - Cyclism (Relative Pitch)
  
• Amir ElSafffar - New Quartet Live at Pierre Boulez Saal 2 (Maqām Records)
  
• Isaiah Collier, William Parker, William Hooker – The Ancients (Eremite)
  
• Alexandra Grimal & Giovanni Di Domenico - Shakkei (Relative Pitch Records)
  
• SoSaLa - 1983 - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival and Rathausplatz Bern (DooBeeDoo Records)

 

Richard Blute

1. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp - Armageddon Flower (Tao Forms)
   Not just album of the year, but one for the all-time list. Captures the depraved times we live in and still manages to offer us all hope.  
   
   
2. Rodrigo Amado The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost)
   An all-star band if ever there was one. The interaction between Amado and von Schlippenbach is especially brilliant.  
   
   
3. Yes Deer - Everything That Shines, Everything That Hurts (Superpang)
   Signe Emmeluth’s slashing saxophone over a no-wave rock rhythm section is irresistible.  
   
   
4. Frances-Marie Uitti, Milana Zarić, Elisabeth Harnik - Unified Field (Strange Strings)
   Beautiful chamber jazz.  “the intersection between plucked, bowed and hammered strings“ makes for remarkable music.  
   
   
5. Sophie Agnel - Learning (OTORUKO)
   Between this and her other 2025 solo album Song, Sophie Agnel seems intent on redefining what a solo piano album can be. She’s succeeded.
     
6.  Stian Larsen, Colin Webster, Ruth Goller, Andrew Lisle - Temple of Muses (Relative Pitch)
   A band with no respect for the boundaries of what is and isn’t jazz. Larsen and Webster are especially great.  
   
   
7.  Tim Berne - Yikes Too (Screwgun / OOYH)
   Berne works so well with top-notch guitarists. Here it’s Gregg Belisle-Chi, who’s up to the task.  
   
   
8.  James McKain, Damon Smith, Weasel Walter - ….seeing the way the mole tunnels… (Balance Point Acoustics / International School of Evidence)
   Ferocious free jazz/noise/whatever by great musicians.  
   
   
9. Torche! - 8 Notions De Détente (Tour de Bras)
   Éric Normand and clarinetist/saxophonist Philippe Lauzier are always great together. Xavier Charles brings his beautiful textural work from Dans Les Arbres. The whole band clicks. 
    
10. Camila Nebbia, Kit Downes, Andrew Lisle - Exhaust (Relative Pitch)
    Camila Nebbia was an unstoppable force this year, with (at least) 6 albums. She always surrounds herself with great musicians and her playing is always brilliant. 

Nick Ostrum

• Staraya Derevnya - Garden Window Escape (Ramble Records)
• Isaiah Collier, William Parker, William Hooker – The Ancients (Eremite)
• Emad Amoush’s Rayhan – Distilled Distractions (Afterday Audio)
• The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters – S/T (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• Ava Mendoza, gabby fluke-mogul, Carolina Pérez – Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance)
• Kaze & Koichi Makigami – Shishiodoshi (Circum-Disc & Libra Records)
• Paal Nilssen-Love Circus with The Ex Guitars - Turn Thy Loose (PNL)
• Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier – Angel Falls (Intakt)
• Extraordinary Popular Delusions – The Last Quintet (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• Lingyuan Yang – Cursed Month (Chaospace Records)

 Historic/Archival Releases:

• Ansamblul Hyperion -  Conducerea Muzicală: Iancu Dumitrescu (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• AMM with Sachiko M – Testing (Matchless)
• Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley – Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance)
• Roy Brooks – The Free Slave (Time Traveler Recordings)

Stuart Broomer

1. Sophie Agnel / John Butcher - Rare (Les Disques VICTO)
2. Rodrigo Amado The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost) 
3. Nicholas Bussmann, Sven-Åke Johansson, Yan Jun - Tea-Time (Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu)
4.  Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, William Parker - The Ancients (Eremite).
5.  Angharad Davies, Burkhard Beins - Meshes of the Evening (Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu)
6.  Paul Flaherty - A Willing Passenger (Relative Pitch)
7.  Sven-Åke Johansson, Pierre Borel, Seymour Wright, Joel Grip - Two Days at Café OTO (OTOROKU)
8.  KnCurrent - KnCurrent (deep dish records)
9.  Joëlle Léandre & Evan Parker - Long Bright Summer (RogueArt)
10.  Wade Matthews, Abdul Moimême, Luz Prado - Trust from Intimacy (scatterArchive)

 Historic/Archival Release:

• Rodrigo Amado/ Chris Corsano - The Healing (European Echoes)
• AMM and Sachiko M - Testing (Matchless Recordings) 
• Evan Parker - The Heraclitean Two Step (False Walls) 

Special Events:

• [Ahmed] makes U.S. debut at Roulette as broadcast on Youtube. 

• Christian Pouget’s MAËLSTROM for Improvisers, a singular two-hour film integrating 22 free improvisers in shifting dramatic settings, more major audio-visual composition than documentary. (review forthcoming in January 2026)
  
  

Guido Montegrandi

1. Cosmic Ear -Traces (We Jazz)
2. Ebaugh Crane Presley -  Detergent (scatterArchive)
3. Bittolo Bon Grillini - Spell/Hunger (Hora Records)
4. Painkiller -  Samsara (Tzadik)
5. William Parker Hugo Costa Philipp Ernsting - Pulsar (No Business)
6. Mark Dresser Paul Nicolas Roth - Signal Blur (Earwash Records)
7. Sylvie Courvoisier Wadada Leo Smith - Angel Falls (Intakt)
8. Ava Mendoza - The Circular Train (Palilalia)
9. Allen Lowe & the Constant Sorrow Orchestra - Louis Armstrong’s America (ESP disk’)
10.  Vijay Lyer &Wadada Leo Smith - Defiant Life (ECM)
    
    

Charlie Watkins

• Joëlle Léandre & Evan Parker – Long Bright Summer (RogueArt)
• Sophie Agnel – Learning (OTORUKO)
• STEMESEDER LILLINGER + Craig Taborn – Umbra III (Intakt)
• Ebaugh Crane Presley – Detergent (scatterArchive)
• Kai Fagaschinski – Aerodynamics (NI VU NI CONNU)
• Anna Webber – simpletrio2000 (Intakt)
• Steve Beresford, John Butcher, Max Eastley – Some Uncharted Evening (scatterArchive)
• Ben Goldberg, Todd Sickafoose, Scott Amendola – Here to There (Secret Hatch)
• Peter Brötzmann, John Edwards, Steve Noble, Jason Adasiewicz – The Quartet (OTOROKU)
• Tim Berne, Tom Rainey, Gregg Belisle-Chi – Yikes Too ( Screwgun / Out Of Your Head Records)

Nick Metzger

• Alexandra Grimal & Giovanni Di Domenico - Shakkei (Relative Pitch)
• Anna Högberg Attack - Ensammseglaren (Fonstret)
• Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (Exit) Knarr - Drops (Sonic Transmissions)
• Isaiah Collier, William Parker, William Hooker – The Ancients (Eremite)
• Sven-Åke Johansson, Pierre Borel, Seymour Wright, Joel Grip - Two Days at Café OTO (OTOROKU)
• James McKain/Damon Smith/Weasel Walter - …seeing the way the mole tunnels… (Balance Point Acoustics)
• Traces - Cosmic Ear (We Jazz)
• Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters - self-titled (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• Paul Flaherty - A Willing Passenger (Relative Pitch)
• Poor Isa + Evan Parker & Ingar Zach (Aspen Edities)

 Historic/Archival Release:

• Pan African People’s Ensemble Led by Horace Tapscott - Live at Widney High (The Village)
• Pat Patrick and the Baritone Saxophone Retinue - Sound Advice (Art Yard)
  
  

Sammy Stein

• Ivo Perelman and John Butcher - Duologue 4 (IBEJI)
• Silvia Bolognesi and Eric Mingus -  Is That Jazz (Fonterossa Records)
• Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp String Trio - Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
• Zoe PIna and Mats Gustafsson - Rite ( Parco Della Musica)
• Maggie Nicols and Geoff Eales - Beautiful Love (33 Jazz Records)
• Ed Jones/Kamil Karlsen - Liminal Spaces (Confronting Records)
• Ivo Perelman, Nate Wolley, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey - A Modicum Of The Blues (Fundacja Sluchaj)
• Ava Trio - Lunae (Tora Records)
• Han-earl Park, Lara Jones, Pat Thomas - Juno 3: Proxemics (Buster and Friends)
• Piotr Damasiewicz and the Into The Roots - Switanie (L.A.S)

Ferruccio Martinotti

• Anna Högberg Attack - Ensamseglaren (Fönstret)
• Ava Mendoza, gabby fluke mogul, Carolina Perez - Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance)
• Ayumi Ishito (featuring Kevin Shea and George Draguns) - Roboquarians vol, 2 (577 Records)
• Camila Nebbia ft. Marilyn Crispell & Lesley Mok - A reflection distorts over water (Relative Pitch Records)
• Extraordinary Popular Delusions - The Last Quintet (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• Paal Nilssen-Love Circus with The Ex Guitars - Turn Thy Loose (PNL)
• The Sleep of reason produces monsters - self-titled (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
• Turbulence - Objections to Realism (Evil Clown)
• Sylvie Courvoisier, Wadada Leo Smith - Angel Falls ( Intakt Records)
• Zoh Amba - Sun (Smalltown Supersound)

 Historic/Archival Release:

• Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley - Flashing spirits (Burning Ambulance)

Book:

• Daniel Spicer - Peter Brotzmann, free jazz, revolution and the politics of improvisation (Repeater) 
   

Stef Gijssels

1. John Edwards, Luis Vicente, Vasco Trilla - Choreography Of Fractures (Fundacja Słuchaj)
2. Sophie Agnel & John Butcher - Rare (Les Disques VICTO)
3. Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier - Angel Falls (Intakt Records)
4. Angles 11 - Tell Them It’s The Sound Of Freedom (Fundacja Słuchaj)
5. Joëlle Léandre & Evan Parker - Long Bright Summer (RogueArt)
6. Das B - Love (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
7. Alexander Hawkins & Taylor Ho Bynum - A Near Permanent State Of Wonder (RogueArt)
8. Will Mason Quartet - Hemlocks, Peacocks (New Focus Recordings)
9. Joe Morris, Tyshawn Sorey & Peter Evans - Comprehensive (Fundacja Słuchaj)
10. 10. Amir ElSafffar - New Quartet Live at Pierre Boulez Saal 2 (Maqām Records)
    
    

Irena Stevanovska

• Błoto – Grzybnia (Astigmatic Records)
• Rodrigo Amado’s The Bridge – Further Beyond (Trost)
• Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas – Totality (Drag City Records)
• Cosmic Ear – TRACES (We Jazz)
• Amir ElSaffar & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch – Inner Spaces (Ornithology)
• Taxi Consilium – Workin’ For The Other Side (Aksioma)
• Staraya Derevnaya – Garden Window Escape (Ramble Records)
• Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier – Angel Falls (Intakt)
• Moses Yoofee Trio – MYT (LEITER)
• Anouar Brahem – After The Last Sky (ECM)

 

Fotis Nikolakopoulos 

1. It came out very late in 2024, for me the most exciting release for the whole year:
   Almufaraka: Peter Orins/Maryline Pruvost/Patrick Guionnet/Gaëlle Debra – Master Of Disorder (Circum-Disc, Tour De Bras)
   
   
2. with the following very close:
   -أحمد [Ahmed]* - Sama'a (Audition) (Otoroku)
   
   then, in no particular order:

• Jean-Luc Guionnet – L’ EPAISSEUR DE L’ AIR LIVE (Potlatch)
• Ben Bennett - Answers (Lobby Art Records)
• Ivo Perelman and Tyshawn Sorey - Parallel Aesthetics (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2025)
• Emmeluth- Håker Flaten- Filip - Hyperboreal Trio (Relative Pitch Records)
• John Butcher / John Edwards - This Is Not Speculation (Fundacja Słuchaj!)
• Kai Fagaschinski - Aerodynamics (NI VU NI CONNU)
• The Ancients - s/t (Aguirre Records)
• Sven-Åke Johansson, Pierre Borel, Seymour Wright, Joel Grip - Two Days at Café OTO (OTOROKU)
  
  and one reissue/archival recording:
  
  
• Ansamblul Hyperion -  Conducerea Muzicală: Iancu Dumitrescu (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  
  

William Rossi

• Sophie Agnel - Learning (Otoroku)
• Isaiah Collier & Tim Regis - Live in the Listening Room (Vinyl Factory)
• Rodrigo Amado's The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost Records)
• Makoto Kawashima - Arteria (Relative Pitch)
• Anna Högberg Attack - Ensamseglaren (Fönstret)
• The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters - Self-titled (Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2025)
• Angles 11 - Tell Them It's the Sound of Freedom (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2025)
• Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier – Angel Falls (Intakt, 2025)
• Alexander Hawkins & Taylor Ho Bynum - A Near Permanent State Of Wonder (RogueArt, 2025) 
• Mikołaj Trzaska & Daktyle - Transient Riot (Antenna Non Grata, 2025)

Gregg Miller

• John Butcher & John Edwards - This Is Not Speculation (Fundacja Słuchaj)
• Wadada Leo Smith & Sylvie Courvoisier - Angel Falls (Intakt Records)
• Rodrigo Amado The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost)
• Sophie Agnel & John Butcher - Rare (Les Disques Victo)
• Matthew Shipp - Cosmic Piano (Cantaloupe)
• Joe Morris, Tyshwn Sorey & Peter Evans - Comprehensive (Fundacja Słuchaj)
• Ava Mendoza, Gabby Fluke-Mogul & Carolina Pérez - Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance Music)
• Han-earl Park, Lara Jones, Pat Thomas - Juno 3: Proxemics (Buster and Friends)
• Camila Nebbia, Kit Downes, Andrew Lisle -  Exhaust (Relative Pitch)
• Stefan Schultze, Peter Ehwald & Tom Rainey -  Public Radio (Jazzwerkstatt)  

Eyal Hareuveni

• Sophie Agnel - Song (Relative Pitch)
• Paal Nilssen-Love Circus with The Ex Guitars - Turn Thy Loose (PNL)
• Tim Berne - Yikes Too (Screwgun / Out Of Your Head)
• The Ex - If Your Mirror Breaks (Ex)
• Izumi Kimura & Gerry Hemingway - How The Dust Falls (Auricle)
• Rodrigo Amado’s The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost)
• Lava Quartet - Ethereal Chants (Fundacja Słuchaj)
• El Infierno Musical - II (Klanggalerie)
• Anna Högberg Attack - Ensamseglaren (Fönstret)
• أحمد [AHMED] - سماع [Sama'a] (Audition) (OTORoku)

Historic/Archival Release:

• Fred Frith and the Gravity Band (Klanggalerie)
• Peter Brötzmann / John Edwards / Steve Noble / Jason Adasiewicz - The Quartet (OTORoku)
• Mujician - In Concerts (Jazz in Britain)

 

Lee Rice Epstein

1. Sven-Åke Johansson, Pierre Borel, Seymour Wright, Joel Grip - Two Days at Café OTO (OTORoku)
2. Taylor Ho Bynum and Alexander Hawkins - A Near Permanent State of Wonder (Rogue Art)
3. Will Mason Quartet - Hemlocks, Peacocks (New Focus Recordings)
4. Olie Brice Quartet - All It Was (West Hill Records)
5. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters - s/t (Corbet vs Dempsey)
6. Steve Lehman Trio+Mark Turner- The Music of Anthony Braxton (PI Recordings)
7. Han-earl Park, Lara Jones, Pat Thomas - Juno 3: Proxemics (Buster and Friends)
8. Dan Rosenboom - Coordinates (Orenda Records)
9. Larry Ochs, Charles Downs, Joe Morris - Everyday —> All the Way (ESP Disc')
10. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio - Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)

 Historic/Archival Release:

• Anthony Braxton - Quartet (England) 1985 (Burning Ambulance)
• Marco Eneidi Quintet - Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Boticelli Records)
• Michael Gregory Jackson - Frequency Equilibrium Koan (Expanded) (Moved By Sound)
• Tim Berne - snakeoil ok (Screwgun)
• ICP Orchestra - Live in Salzburg 1988 (ICP)
  
  

Paul Acquaro

1. Marcelo dos Reis - Our Time (JACC)
2. Marina Džukljev, Weber & Griener - Industriesalon (Trouble In The East)
3. Rodrigo Amado The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost) 
4. Vinny Golia, Ken Filiano, Michael TA Thompson - Catastasis (Nine Winds) 
5. Camila Nebbia, Kit Downes, Andrew Lisle - Exhaust (Relative Pitch)
6. Edition Redux - Broadcast Transformer (Audiographic)
7. Emmeluth- Håker Flaten- Filip - Hyperboreal Trio (Relative Pitch Records)
8. Lao Dan - To Hit a Pressure Point (Relative Pitch)
9. Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio - Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)
10. Wadada Leo Smith and Vijay Iyer - Defiant Life (ECM)

  Historic/Archival Releases:

• Peter Brötzmann Trio, Hurricane (Old Heaven Books) 
• Noah Howard Quartet - Schizophrenic Blues: Live in Berlin (Cien Fuegos) 
• Jean-Jacques Avenel & Daunik Lazro - Duo, Bibliothèque De Massy 13 Novembre 1980 (Fou) 
• Jimmy Lyons - Live From Studio Rivbea: 1974 & 1976 (NoBusiness)
• Bobby Naughton Trio - Housatonic Rumble: Live at Charlie's Tap (NoBusiness) 

Read More

Ivo Perelman and John Butcher - Duologues 4 (IBEJI, 2025)

By Sammy Stein

In 2024, I interviewed saxophonist Ivo Perelman for Free Jazz Collective. He told me he was coming to the UK in October 2025 to record with John Butcher. Perelman described Butcher as ‘a multi-faceted musician with an original, elegant, yet powerful sax voice.’ Butcher has played with John Edwards, the late, great John Russell, Phil Minton, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders, and a host of other musicians. He has great versatility and in-the-moment skills that can turn the atmosphere of a performance. When Perelman commented on collaborating with Butcher, I mused at the time that this would make for an interesting recording, and it has materialised in ‘Duologues 4’. Perelman is on tenor sax, and Butcher on soprano and tenor.

Duologues 4 proves yet again that Perelman makes some inspired choices in collaborators. Teamed with butcher, Perelman is more conversational on this recording – and no wonder. Butcher is one of the most creative saxophone players the UK scene has produced in a long time, and perhaps one who deserves more acclaim. The album is infused with Butcher’s intuitive responses and quiet, solid playing. The opening track is akin to a respectful argument, with both players alternating phrase development and interpreting the other’s take with harmonic dialogue. Perelman and Butcher are one of those combinations that you might hope would happen, and when it did, there was no disappointment. Perelman’s register-flitting and rapidity are exemplary on this track, but Butcher has that ability to slot just the right tone and note into any gaps left by Perelman’s multiple register coverage.

Track two is busy, the speed frenetic, and both players create breathy, singular melodies and develop intricate harmonies as the track evolves, weaving melodies in and out, across and over each other, while making full use of stops and gaps. Butcher shows he is gifted in spontaneity and placement of phrases.

The entire album is a continuum of this conversation that carries on between Butcher and Perelman. It is an album of equality where Perelman often suggests the theme, or introduces an idea, but Butcher responds with creative development or apposite music thoughts that Perelman instinctively follows. At times, Butcher is like a stalking wolf, picking up the trails Perelman sets and ng them before diverging off onto tracks of his own invention. The changes are interesting throughout because they happen with subtlety, almost before you realise it and the thinking of the two masters is also intriguing, such as on track 3 where there is individual melodic phrasing, but by the time four minutes and around twenty second have elapsed, the pair are in delightful, elevated harmony with an intense energy that flows from the music.

There is a calmness to some of the music also, such as the gentler start of track 4, where the musicians are clearly listening to each other, the intensity palpable in the responses, and both, led by Perelman, visit the upper reaches of altissimo.

There is diversity too, such as on track 5, where Perelman introduces a subtle long take on a swung beat, and the slap tongue sections on track 6, coupled with exploration of as many forms as it is possible to fit in a track less than four minutes long. The longest track is track 7, and here both players get the chance – and take it- to be melodic, harmonious and, naturally, introduce some spontaneity (a lot). Butcher is at his best here in the lower register of the tenor and in this track lurks a bit of swing, a touch of classical and a good dose of free playing – wrapped in a colourful coat of intensity. The final track is a glorious, popping escapade, enjoyable for the listener and probably for the players too.

Perelman is familiar to many people as one of the great, inspirational players of our time and he describes Butcher as ‘amazing and responsive’. This is true.

Perelman and Butcher, Butcher and Perelman. Either way, it is a terrific combination.

https://music.amazon.com/artists/B000QJT49I/ivo-perelman 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read More

Ivo Perelman, Nate Wooley, Matt Moran, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey - A Modicum of the Blues (Fundacja Słuchaj 2025)

By Gary Chapin

I don’t want to seem like I’m setting up a strawman, but recordings with titles like this, positing a tangible connection between Our Kind of Music and the blues often leave me asking questions. In this case, those questions would be

“Hey, what do you mean by Modicum?”

and

“Also, what do you mean Blues?”

There is, of course, no I-IV-V-ing going on—that would be an abundance of blues—and it’s more than a mere spiritual nodding—which would be a smidgeon . The modicum given to us by this collective of free improvisers comes in the form of phrases, allusions, and techniques. It’s quite splendid, actually.

For example, when Perelman and Wooley trade phrases call-and-response-ishly, an uncanny resonance sends me back through the 20th century. They play phrases or fragments of phrases, trumpet and reeds, that hearken as far back as the sections of Basie and Ellington. I hear a string of notes on this recording, and then I can hear it in the voices of Harry Edison and Paul Gonsalves. I wouldn’t put money on it, but even the timbre of these sections sometimes comes across with a pre-Coltrane fullness. These are flashes, of course, sunny forest glens in the rocky terrain of their free blowing, but it has an impact, and, while the two landscapes are different, they are connected and always have been.

Tom Rainey and Mark Helias have become, for me, the best drum/bass team since Dave Holland and Barry Altschul. I’ve had cause to praise each separately in these pages in the past, now I can celebrate them together. The reference to Holland/Altschul, of course, isn’t a shallow one. Those two giants were central to Anthony Braxton’s mid-seventies quartet masterpieces ( Five Pieces 1975 and New York Fall 1974) another uncanny set of music that showed us early on blues and Our Kind of Music in conversation.

Matt Moran, finally, is the MVP of this All-Star Team. The vibes do seem to be having a moment, but even in the current context, Moran’s playing had an especially magical effect on me, beautiful and gnarled simultaneously, and recorded wonderfully. It brought to mind—and I am not making this up—Milt Jackson’s playing on that great Miles Davis and the Jazz Giants set with “Bag’s Groove” and “The Man I Love.” Jackson is, not incidentally, the greatest of the blues vibraphonists, but also stunning and subtle and an absolutely necessary part of that early masterpiece’s success. The same can be said here of Moran.

The wonder of A Modicum of Blues isn’t in its references to the past or conversations with blues and jazz history, but the title does invite you to make those connections. Even without those, however, the five part suite is a five-star achievement—which feels almost obvious given the players involved. This is a run-don’t-walk situation. As I said, 5-stars.

Read More

Ivo Perelman and Ray Anderson - 12 Stages of Spiritual Alchemy (Fundacja Słuchaj Records, 2025)

By Sammy Stein

An unusual pairing – that of sax and trombone makes for a worthy listen on this impressive recording. Saxophone player Ivo Perelman and trombone player Ray Anderson create some wonderful sounds, exploring the mystical depths of musical interaction.

The recording was made in 2022 by longtime Perelman engineer Jim Clouse at Park West Studios (Brooklyn). Fundacja Słuchaj's edition frames twelve concise movements named for stages of alchemy (Separation, Calcination, Coagulation, etc.), resulting in 56 minutes of magical chemistry. Perelman has a long relationship with Park West/Clouse. Perelman and Anderson recorded together on the 2-CD quartet set ‘Molten Gold’ with Joe Morris and Reggie Nicholson, released by Fundacja Słuchaj in 2023, although this is the first duo recording by the pair.

From the opening announcement of the trombone, this album is a musical delight, and the connection between the musicians is palpable. Across the twelve tracks here, the explorative nature of Perelman is tempered somewhat at times and matched by the astounding agility of Anderson on trombone. ‘Separation’, the opening track, sees the heavy, brassy nature of the trombone outshout the grainy, lower register of Perelman’s tenor at times, then pull back, leaving the sax to sing. The track develops as an intimate conversation, from opposing phrases to the final minute where the duo extends their phrasing and forms a beautiful, harmonic close.

‘Calcination’ is edgy, sharp, and prosaic in its essence, as the trombone skilfully weaves around the sax’s melodic phrasing. The character of both players emerges in the playful nature of the final section, where Perelman casually drops a line from a nursery rhyme into the continuing improvisation of the trombone.

‘Putrefaction’ is short, harmonious in parts, and very intense, while ‘Dissolution’ is laid back, swingy in places, and a dextrous exhibition of register-switching combines with acrobatic rises and falls from both players.

‘Coagulation’ sees both instruments creating short phrases which are swapped, extended, and moulded, the passages woven around each other and rhythmic changes that happen simultaneously yet spontaneously with that slight pause from one player, then the other, as they first lead, then follow – pure improvisational cooperation.

‘Conjunction’ begins with a funereal opening, reminiscent perhaps of a New Orleans death march, before the mood lightens and evolves into a triumphal procession of sound with a flourish to finish.

‘Sublimation’ is warpy, guttural, and both players work to create something sounding like a nest of hornets, so intense is the sound, while ‘Exaltation’ sees the growling, guttural sounds of the trombone pitted against Perelman’s cheekiness with his sax, swinging between lyrical melodies. As the track develops, a playfulness enters the music and staccato notes are exchanged, and a sharp, crackling melody develops between the instruments.

‘Projection’ is just over nine minutes of profound exploration with both musicians finding the extremes of their instruments’ range as well as introducing a variety of different musical phrasing and technique, while ‘Multiplication’ is a short romp across octaves and registers.

‘Fermentation’ is buzzy, fever-pitched in places and features blasts from the trombone, rivulets of sound from the sax, and some beautifully tempered harmonics before ‘Cibation’, the closing track, which sees both musicians finding melodies of their own, weaving towards and away from each other in glorious disharmony, yet using notation closely related so it makes sense.

This is a wonderful recording and sees Anderson’s exuberance infecting the music throughout. Paired with Perelman’s ability to switch mood, tempo, and his unerring musicality, the music is at times intense and always accessible for listeners preferring improvisation or harmony. The pairing of trombone and tenor sax creates a wealth of sound possibilities, none of which pass either musician by. The result is free improvisation that fuses the timbre of both instruments and creates character and a simple, but profound beauty.

For an experimental album, with all processes explored and gone through, the result is a discovery of new sounds and a well-tempered album.

Read More

Ivo Perelman and Nate Wooley - Polarity 4 (Burning Ambulance, 2025)

By Sammy Stein

Tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpet player Nate Wooley continue their long-running musical partnership with the release of Polarity 4. It is released digitally and as a limited edition of 500 CDs on Burning Ambulance Music.

Polarity 4 sees different directions explored as the duo find yet more ways to investigate musical possibilities between their individuality and shared musical imaginations.

Perelman has already amassed a varied and wide-ranging discography, with releases on numerous labels including Enja, Clean Feed, Leo, Homestead, and Cadence, to name a few. It might seem there are few ways still open to explore for Perelman yet, here with Wooley, Polarity 4 proves this is not the case. Its nine tracks include the first overdubbing in Perelman’s catalogue, with the opening track, Polarity 1, featuring ‘two’ of Perelman and Wooley improvising with each other and themselves. Perelman and Wooley prove themselves improvisers willing to seek and explore different thoroughfares among the much-travelled experimental landscape they inhabit. Perelman is always finding new ways to play with others, even those he has worked with many times before.

The Polarity 4 CDs are heavy-duty gatefold mini-LP sleeves printed on textured paper, with artwork by Burning Ambulance Music co-founder I.A. Freeman.

As ever, where Perelman is involved, the tracks on Polarity 4 serve as part of the continuing conversation Perelman is involved in with music and fellow musicians. Track 1 is busy, with the aforementioned overdubbing serving to create a textured sound with the musicians responding to each other and their own phrasing. The contrast in Track 2 is apparent because now we have ‘just’ two musicians, yet somehow they work a sound that is almost as busy as the opening track. Fast runs are echoed and tossed back and forth between the instruments, each return featuring a variation, however minuscule. Perelman regularly picks up the note that Wooley finishes on to create a continuum of sound. The lack of harmonics and the clarity of the streams of sound mean each note is crystal clear.

Track 3 sees more overlapping of individual phrasing, creating interesting conjectures of harmonies – sometimes jarring, but at other times gloriously developed as the staccato section sees each musician responding harmonically to the notation that goes before. Track 4 has a playful, yet competitive air as the musicians trade short, punchy lines and phrases. The middle section involves a back and forth of slurry, schmaltzy phrases, ranging from the depths of the sax to the highest trills of the trumpet.

Track 5 is wonderfully layered as trumpet and sax weave around each other, overlap, and work their individual lines, coming together for an almost classical duet format towards the end, while Track 6 has a gentle start, with hushed phrasing from both players before it slowly builds towards a tuneful end. Track 7 is an exploration of harmonics, while Track 8 is perhaps the stand-out track in terms of musical interaction, involving some brilliant register switching and changes between melodies and counterpoint. Track 9 sees the musicians finding yet more ways for sax and trumpet to interact, with full measure taken of the brassy tones of the trumpet, cutting across the timbre of the sax.

Polarity 4 features creative and explorative musicianship, as you might expect from players of this calibre. There is harmony, contrast, and above all, a sense of competitive, yet enjoyable and controlled mastery of sound.

Read More

Alberto Popolla - Really the Blues (AUT Records, 2025)

By Ferruccio Martinotti 

The blues. The fingers are getting stiff simply by writing down the word. No way to describe it or to waste time and space talking about it: the blues just IS. A sentence carved in our soul, that smell of blues like nothing comparable, comes from the legendary Mezz Mezzrow, with his final will:”Just take my body and shove it in one of them blast furnaces and when I’m melted down good, scrape out the dust and mix it up with some shellac and press it into a record with a King Jazz label on and then take it up to Harlem and give it to some raggedy kid on The Corner who hasn’t got the price of admission to see the stage show at the Apollo or a deuce of blips to buy himself a glass of foam, until he gets tired of it, and then let him throw it away and that’s that. Just do that and you know I’ll be happy.” Mezzrow, besides a chill down the spine, provides the programmatic title of the record and subject matter of this review. Italian musician Alberto Popolla, a clarinetist, arranger and composer, has explored the different sounds and the infinite resources of timbre of his clarinets, crossing experimentation and improvisation, writing and conductions, Balkan music and klezmer. He has promoted several Italian and European ensembles and collaborated with musicians from all around the globe such as, among others, John Tchichai, Don Byron, Steve Beresford, Lol Coxhill, Simon Allen, Chris Cutler, London Improvisers Orchestra, Mamadou Diabate, Elliot Sharp, Mike Cooper, Lisa Mezzacappa. 

In recent years, with the group Roots Magic, Popolla has dedicated himself passionately to the arrangement and composition, taking inspiration from the great blues heritage and the fascinating sounds of the Canterbury prog music scene. His mission statement is to juxtapose tradition and innovation, blurring the boundaries through an ongoing tension between composed form and free approach: “The development isn't always linear and progressive but circular and spiral. The closed template is a step forward, it could be a comfort spot to some extent but this doesn’t mean that things are easier”, he clarifies. In this free-solo attempt on the blues wall, Alberto’s purpose is to draw a direct line, in the full respect of the Afrocentric elements of that rural sound, taking into account that, up to the ‘50s and ‘60s, jazz dealt with an unreal, never seen, postcard-like Africa, even when the artistic outcome was outstanding, like the legendary “jungle sound" of Duke Ellington, whose Africanism was merely aesthetic actually. Only from the late ‘60s, the most committed Black jazz musicians tried a daring “back to Africa”, discovering that a three centuries cultural divide was almost impossible to be bridged. Along with the clarinet, the foot tapping and the beating on an array of objects, here we find a heartfelt, spiritual, intimate, aware, homage to a music that for Popolla is definitely not only a genre but a true language. The choice of the covers deployed a Masterclass of Heroes: Mezz Mezzrow (Really the Blues); John Carter (Karen on Monday); Randy Weston (Anu Anu); Jelly Roll Morton (Winin’ Boy Blues); Blind Willie Johnson (Dark was the night, cold was the ground); Eric Dolphy (Serene); Jimmy Giuffre (Cry want, Pickin’em up and layin’em down); Louis Armstrong (Lonesome Blues); Milt Jackson (Bag’s Groove). A self-penned song (Golden Tooth Blues), plus the contribution of his partners in crime Gianfranco Tedeschi (Pop’s Blues) and Errico De Fabritiis (Blues for Amin B.) crown it all. 

As per the sandpaper nuances that often come out of his clarinet, it’s really interesting to listen to what Popolla has to say about: “The clarinet in jazz is still affected by the imprint of the great band leaders like Goodman, Shaw and Herman. Its sonorities and aesthetic are often associated with swing, virtuoso, smooth and gentle sounds, casting a shadow over the crucial role the clarinet had at the beginning of jazz and blues history when it was played in an edgy, dark and scratchy way. An epitome of this is The Sunday Afternoon Jazz Blues Society by John Carter, one of the very few to play clarinet outside the box”. Really the blues is a sparkle pebble amidst the roaring waters we are used to move into and such a “modicum of blues” (to quote Ivo Perelman) could really be the perfect spot to find some solace and remember where everything comes from.

Read More

Zoh Amba - Sun (Smalltown Supersound, 2025)

By Ferruccio Martinotti

There’s no point in denying that the 2024 forum’s final playlist was suffering for the lack of one of the year’s aces, There is a garden, by Beings, the group that saw Zoh Amba (saxophone, vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonium, piano) along with Steve Gunn (electric guitar), Shahzad Ismaily (bass, synth) and Jim White (drums). The blog’s rules of the game are crystal clear: no database/no review, no review/no playlist: fair and simple, “dura lex sed lex.”* 

Beside such small, negligible personal regrets, the reason to remember and to quote the above mentioned record is because the affinities with Sun, the one reviewed here, are pretty consistent, even though the musicians involved are totally different and Zoh’s pastoral Sandy Denny-esque voice is set beside. This time, the sublime Tennessee-born New York-based musician is teaming up with Caroline Morton on bass, Lex Korton on piano and Miguel Russel on percussion and decided to release the album on Smalltown Supersound, as a connection to the late titan Peter Brotzmann, who was both a spiritual mentor to Amba and issued several records on the label. For Amba the human cotè of the music is the architrave of her artistic outcome, so building up personal bonds among the band members before the recording process was a cornerstone of the whole project: “We spent days just playing together and I was trying to mentally take notes of what naturally wanted to exist in this band, before giving instructions or handing out sheet music, I wanted to see where we were all standing in life, right at that moment. From there, I started carving out the process with them”, she says. The final result shows a collection of nine compositions, three of them solo, and is absolutely quintessential of her music and of her peculiarity on the jazz scene: free, taking-no-prisoners outbursts (“Interbeing”, “Forevermore”, “Like the Sun”), interspersed with suffused, nightly atmosphere (“Ma”, “At noon”) and poignant textures (“Seaside”, “Champa Flower”). 

Here is another adventurous chapter in the astonishing biography of an artist who, at the age of 25, already crossed the blades with the likes of Sorey, Corsano, Orcutt, Zorn, Parker, Mela, Haino, Iyer, Drummond, Edwards, Shipp, Perelman and got covers and profiles, not only by every jazz magazines all over the globe but by The New York Times or The Guardian as well. It would be a huge mistake considering Amba flirting with the mainstream: we, keen on “lateral” (euphemism…) kind of music, often are fundamentalist in our judgments and pretty suspicious to see shadows of sell out or betrayal beyond every corner, but here there is really no reason at all. While listening to her music, it’s really difficult to wipe out the imagine of this young musician playing in the middle of nowhere woods of Kingsport, Tenn. before heading northeast, ending her path in New York with David Murray. As the British writer Geoff Dyer wrote: “One can envisage seeing Amba half a century from now, playing a selection of ballads at Carnegie Hall or the Village Vanguard. But who knows where she will end up, what twist and turns her career might take? Tradition in jazz has to be a springboard into the future though one can rarely tell what this future will sound like”. We let to Amba the final words that touched us from the very deep: “Heart takes its course. That feeling merges to silent sweetness. That is this journey. Reflecting and feeling my heart overpour. 

Knowing this is only the beginning of the journey and what was captured on this recording will never exist again and the next song will be closer and closer to the center of the heart. My heart sits in the deep light dear Peter Brotzmann shared to this universe. I hear his spirit each morning. This music is only a reflection of a soul that is ever changing and trying to reach beyond the sun”.

Foot note: Zoh, Mette, Ava, gabby, Kris, Anna, Tomeka, Moor, Savannah, Angelica, Sylvie, Mary, Sofia, Valentina, Matana…it seems that nowadays the most challenging projects belong to a pack of fearless she-daredevils that through an unashamed, brave, loose, untamed approach shattered the crystal ceiling and have begun to demolish the floor. Keep on going, ladies: Jamie left but, with you, the building is in super safe and reliable hands.

*editors note: these are almost the rules, the album does need to be reviewed on the Freejazzblog or by the lister somewhere in order to be eligible for listing in the end of year lists

Read More