Christoph Erb, Magda Mayas & Gerry Hemingway - Hour Music (Veto, 2024) *****

By Stef Gijssels

Two years ago, this brilliant trio already gave me great joy with their sophomore album "Bathing Music". Now, two years later, they have released an even better record in my opinion. I never heard their first album "Dinner Music", released in 2020 so I can't really compare the progress over time, but they have clearly designed their own signature sound. The musicians are Christoph Erb on tenor and soprano saxophones, Magda Mayas on piano, and Gerry Hemingway on drums and percussion. 

The music consists of one very long improvisation, around 45 minutes long, a live performance from September 26th, 2023 at Neubad Luzern, Switzerland, and followed by a 4 minute encore. 

The core piece is absolutely stunning in its fragile and intense co-construction, development and coherence of its voice. The length of the piece really does credit to their art, because it allows for multiple expansions within the same concept. The pace is slow, measured, controlled, allowing the silence and the space to be actively incorporated in the overall sound. All three musicians use their instruments in a minimalistic way, with limited voice or volume, yet with a maximalist use of timbral explorations. The small, precise and unexpected sonic bits create a sound environment that is organic and welcoming. The trio generates a universe that is shifting constantly, like a kaleidoscope of sound, but slowly and with an intensity and creativity that is maintained from beginning to end. Some moments, and definitely in the middle part when  Hemingway increases the volume of his drumming, and when Erb switches to tenor, are a little louder and more extraverted. Yet the whole time, the music is fresh, deep, captivating. The quality of the overall sound, which is guaranteed to grab the attention from the listener from beginning to end, is the result of the incredible interaction between the three musicians, who are at the top of their skills. They really act and interact as one, with at times hard to discern the instruments or attribute the sources of the unexpected sounds. 

It may require some experienced ears to fully enjoy it, but once you're in their universe, it's extremely addictive. I've listened to it dozens of times over the last few weeks, even pushing back some other music, because of the joy of listening to this. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Read More

Marco Colonna, Agustí Fernández & Zlatko Kaučič - Agrakal (Not Two, 2018) ****½

By Eyal Hareuveni

The three Mediterranean musicians - Italian clarinet and baritone sax player Marco Colonna, Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández, and Slovenian drummer-percussionist Zlatko Kaučič, have played with each other before, but their performance at the Italian Novara Jazz Festival on December 2017 was their first ever as a trio. Colonna has recorded two albums with Fernández - Desmadre (Fonterossa Records, 2014) and the self-released, live Birth of Shapes (2016). Fernández also recorded duets with Kaučič, Sonic Poetry (Not Two, 2014), and played with him in a trio with Evan Parker. Colonna recorded with Kaučič and Italian bass player Giovanni Maier the self-released Impressioni Astratte (2016).

The titles of their albums together offer an insight for their shared mode of operation. All three musicians are masters of the art of free-improvisation and all have developed a highly personal and resourceful language. AGRAKAL invites all to experience this unique art of free-improvisation “where even voices have roots and take on color.” Colonna, Fernández and Kaučič don’t spend time on unnecessary introductions and the opening piece, the 22-minutes of “Waves of Perceptions” already demonstrate how this trio keep constructing and deconstructing, shifting and shaping immediate and urgent textures, without losing the focus or tension. The trio manages to form a new language where the extended breathing techniques of Colonna resonates organically with the inventive work of Fernández on the piano strings and the delicate cymbal work of Kaučič. The trio covers an impressive spectrum of moods, colors, rhythmic patterns and sounds, from the refined chamber interplay through the quiet and abstract to the tough and stormy.

The following pieces are shorter, but each one suggests a distinct improvisation strategy and all together the rich and nuanced new language of this trio. “Drops” deepens the dense, uncompromising and conflictual interplay explored on “Waves of Perceptions”. “Cellular” changes the dark and intense atmosphere with a playful game of inventive rhythmic patterns, where all the three musicians offer their own unconventional rhythmic angle. “From The Ground To The Sky” refuses stubbornly to settle on any course, pulse or clear structure and leads directly to “Textures of Nowhere”, that actually adopts a coherent texture, physical but also a lyrical and emotional one. This performance is concluded with another playful piece, the short “Coming Back” that shifts quickly from a sparse improvisation to a folk theme.

Hope that AGRAKAL is only the first document of this great trio.

Read More

Side A - In the Abstract (NotTwo, 2014) ****½

By Paul Acquaro

Side A's In the Abstract is the follow up to 2012’s wonderful In The Margins. The interaction between Ken Vandermark's reed work, Håvard Wilk's sympathetic piano playing, and Chad Taylor's impeccable drumming pushes the somewhat traditional, but wholly original, trio into exciting and new musical territories.

The opening track, 'Cadeau (for ManRay)', sets the stage. The trio delivers rapid lines, pulling melodically in different directions, while the drums steady pulse offers some grounding and mitigation of the tension. The follow up 'BMC' is a lovely track, featuring a lithe melody as playful as it is serious, playing deftly, dancing over, under and through the chord progression. The next one 'Semiology' is a lovely reminder of how connected Side A is as a group. Wilk's touch at the piano is just right for Vandermark's clarinet work - spare but precise, placing notes at exactly the right time and Taylor's percussion strikes the perfect time to texture ratio, never dominating and always right there. The mood changes on 'Dhill', which digs into the deeper registers and proceeds at a slower tempo, Vandermark and Wilk's melodies intertwine, eventually building to a crescendo at the end of the track. Playfulness ensues again with '29', puckish rhythms, bright tones and a brisk tempo lifts the mood (at least for a while). The closing track - '4 From 5 To 6 (for Fred Hopkins, Steve McCall, Henry Threadgill) ' is brilliant, with a Cecil Taylor like spirit inhabiting the piano.

Side A's In the Abstract is a pleasure to get to know. The diversity of approaches keeps each song feeling fresh and the ideas flowing from song to song. Put this one on repeat and spend a couple hours together, it's quite worth it!

Read More

Anna Webber - Simple (Skirl, 2014) ****½

By Paul Acquaro

New York based Anna Webber's saxophone work is kind of like Tim Berne's in its angularity and wit. Spare and precise, the patterns and logical progressions she uses creates a self-contained world of sound. 

From the album’s strong start with ‘Carnophobia’, you get the sense that the songs are sketches, templates made of musical cues and suggestions that lead the musicians in different directions. Weber's woodwinds are joined by John Hollenbeck on drums and Matt Mitchell on piano, making up a versatile trio that is quick on its toes and can really bring the songs to life.

There is a delightful intensity created by the interlocking parts and forward momentum on the aforementioned track - in fact, you may find yourself bopping around a bit to its askew grooves. However, the use of silence and untempered sounds are just as important as the more intense moments. Also, there is a sense of fun here that can sometimes goes missing in music - and it can be a vital component. For example, the lighter mood of 'Emoticon' gives the serious moments like 'For Erik' more heft. 

The synchronous playing on 'I Don't Want to be Happy' is interesting as well. Obviously composed parts seem to flow seamlessly into free improv, where the trio displays its musical telepathy. Another pleasure to be found is in the more delicate 'Washington' where Weber's flute work deftly interacts with Mitchell's light touch on the piano.

Throughout the album, pulse and purpose drive the songs and Weber's melodic lines interleave smartly with the piano and drums. The songs often build off small repetitive patterns that layer, with all three instruments leading the way with a whole range of timbers and tones. Go listen!

Read More

Paradoxical Frog - Union (Clean Feed, 2012)

It's been a bit since we've done this, but Paolo and Paul both could not help bursting into spontaneous prose on this new release from Paradoxical Frog...

Paradoxical Frog - Union (Clean Feed, 2012) ****½

By Paolo Casertano

What a fascinating album! If you have the chance, as I did, to listen to it in a rainy day and with a pair of comfortable headphones you will be immediately catapulted and wrapped in a warm hug of long notes and dilated atmospheres, highly lyrical and dramatic, but never melancholic.

Every musician takes his time to distil few powerful notes. It’s just as if the three of them are there thinking a lot, waiting, feeling the right moment, searching the right approach to say something really important to their companions. And they succeed in doing this for the whole work. Kris Davis on piano chooses short, meaningful phrases. Ingrid Laubrock has a magnetic tone, whispered and mesmerizing. I’d say feminine, even not knowing she’s a woman.

Tyshawn Sorey impresses me. You perceive his monolithic presence. He can be silent for minutes and when his drumming arrives it is rhythm made flesh. Feel it in 'Second Strike'.

There are of course some more speedy episodes, as 'Fear the Fairy Dust', but the result is never frantic.
This is, among the trio releases I’ve been lately listening to, maybe the closest to a spoken conversation. I have no other words to describe it. They would.

If I am allowed to do that, I will steal two ways of saying from our Stef. 'Higly recommended' and 'this is jazz'!


Paradoxical Frog - Union (Clean Feed, 2012) ****½

By Paul Acquaro

Not so long ago at the MOMA in NYC there was a featured exhibition called "Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano." It was in a large open space of the museum, with stark white walls and high ceilings. In the middle of this space, there was a piano with a hole cut out of it just right for a human. At certain intervals a person would indeed emerge from inside the piano, reach forward and begin playing the keyboard while moving through the gallery.

When I first put on Paradoxical Frog's Union, this is pretty much what I imagined was happening. From a panoply of tones that you have to listen hard to attribute to their source, the playing begins from within the instruments, slowly reaching out and interacting with the space it's in.

Paradoxical Frog, in musical terms, is Kris Davis on piano, Ingrid Laubrock on tenor sax and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. Each brings a wonderful sense of tone, technical skills and compositions to the ensemble and this, their second release, is just fantastic. From the early formative sounds to the song snippets that emerge and dispel in their own time and space, the trio excels at creating music that is fresh and exciting while being warm and inviting -- if not also a bit challenging. Slower songs like 'Second Strike', a dark hued free-form melody stretching over washes of percussion and abstract comping contrasts beautifully with more upbeat and determined tunes like 'Union'. The combination of tempos and touch on 'Masterisk' makes for an exciting listen too.

Never unduly harsh, never overtly obviously, the songs unfold in their own lovely ways. The tones of Laubrock's sax, the splash of Sorey's cymbals and Davis' original and melodic playing come together so nicely here.


Take a look and listen:




You can buy the album from instantjazz.com.  

© stef

Read More

Sax, piano, drums ... free expressions from around the world

By Stef    

Sax, piano and drums. Why no bass player? You could wonder about this. Based on these examples below, there are clear similarities in the overall sound. A bass would have added a more solid foundation, a deeper sound, maybe a warmer sound, some rhythmic aspects and surely an anchor point. Without a base, the sound is harsher, more fluid, somehow more free to roam, maybe also more abstract, without roots.

The first trio -  the Canadians François Carrier (alto) and Michel Lambert (drums), accompanied by Russia's Alexey Lapin (piano) - we already now. "Inner Spire", reviewed last year, was recorded in Moscow on December 19th 2010. But they kept recording the concerts of the following days, and they are now also released, one on FMR, the other one again on Leo.


François Carrier, Michel Lambert, Alexey Lapin - All Out (FMR, 2011) ***

"All Out", recorded in St-Petersburg on December 20th, 2010, adds no substantial difference to the previous evening. The playing is as good, open and exploratory. The sound quality is a little bit less, as if recorded from a distance. Despite the fact that it's a live performance, the audience is totally absent, which gives a strange feeling.

François Carrier, Michel Lambert, Alexey Lapin - In Motion (Leo, 2012) ****

"In Motion" was recorded on December 21st 2010, also in St. Petersburg and is clearly my favorite of the three performances. Possibly because it's the third night in a row that the trio has played. In any case, the trio starts with full power on the opening track "This Grand?", with a fierce breaking rhythm propulsing the musicians forward, yet halfway the piece the tempo slows down for some incredibly incantational playing by Carrier, repeating the same phrase, turning it, changing it, screaming it, whispering it, coming back to it, like a musical prayer to the universe only to be followed by Lapin's strange language on the piano, a wonderful mixture of classical and jazz, percussive and fluent at the same time, a great background for Carrier to then use his Coltrane legacy for some expansive jubilating phrases. Just beautiful.

"Is He?", the second track has a title fitting the hesitating and less dense mood of the piece, which is quite nebulous and eery, with light touches and higher tones and lower volume. "About To Go" is more playful, joyous even, and the last track "Love In Space", adds more drama, with Lambert being instrumental in the mixed percussive approach of hard hits and subtle cymbal work.

In short, a real treat : balanced, powerful, with three exceptional musicians at work.


Alexey Kruglov, Alexey Lapin, Oleg Yudanov - Impulse (Leo, 2012) ****½

We find Alexey Lapin back with two of his compatriots, Alexey Kruglov on saxes and Oleg Yudanov in percussion, for this incredible performance.

The trio's approach offers raw, direct, percussive, abrasive, in-the-moment outbursts of sound, often relentless but then with an incredible sense of authenticity and beauty. They really compose together, creating unexpected and fascinating changes of aspect and mood, from panic to gentle resignation, from absolute anger to sweet surprise or silent admiration. You just can't tell, you can't predict, you're drawn into it like in a great and captivating story, with plots and subplots and a whole lot of suspense and real sentiments. Despite the variation on each track, it still has its specific character and unity, a real feat.

The trio's approach is equally gentle, soft-spoken and cautious, with carefully developed evolutions of previously rehearsed sounds and effects, full of empathy and compassion, with the three musicians lifting their instrumental skills well over and above the banal or the usual, with sounds created to be special, with sequences carefully balanced and paced so as to be captivating.

It really is something different, and I hesitated a while to give it a five-star rating. The reason I didn't is because the consistency and the inherent drama of the album are a little broken by two duets, one between Kruglov and Yudanov, one between Kruglov and Lapin, and however good they may be by themselves, for the listener the duets break the momentum of the album, only to end with the rich sound of the trio on the last track, with the saxophonist playing both his alto and tenor at the same time, in the style of Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

What makes this different from a lot of other music is that, despite the adventurousness, it has this kind of natural flow, mainly driven by Lapin's great piano-playing, with repetitive phrases leading to hypnotic effects or his muted strings sounding percussive and fresh, with Kruglov's sax among the most emotionally expressive I have heard in a while, without needing to shout the whole time, and Yudanov offering the kind of drama that moves up the entire sound a few levels higher. 

Incredibly intense. 

If you're interested in creative new voices, this one is a must.


Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver - The Foreign Legion (Leo, 2012)****½

Another album full of ferocious lyricism is this great trio with Ivo Perelman on tenor, Matthew Shipp on piano and Gerald Cleaver on drums. Perelman has this great sense of expressionist expansive passion, full of emotional delivery and broad brushes, very Latin American in a sense.

Shipp's piano playing is as we know it, rhythmic, percussive and full of unexpected changes into romantic lyricism, juxtaposed with harsher abstract explorations, while being extremely attentive to his band-mates. Cleaver is as you may know one of my favorite drummers, subtle, adding depth and emphasis on the right moments, a real presence in the music without taking center stage.

The result is fantastic. The music flows forward full of intensity and sonic freedom. As Perelman describes Shipp's playing in the liner notes : "Since the piano is the harmonic instrument, you would think that would limit the choices, but with Matthew it does not. Even when he plays chords, the way he follows the harmonic sequence, it doesn't sound like the usual piano thing. And when I do venture out of tonal Western music, into noises and microtones, this doesn't scare him, he takes it as an opportunity to expand the music. In these moments, he's not a 'piano player': he goes with me wherever I want, and is always showing me new windows to open. And when I go there, he shows me new colors".

It is exactly this which makes the music exceptional, great musicians together on a journey, shaping things, open-ended, interacting on a deeply emotional level at the same time as creating the music. Shipp and Cleaver push Perelman forward into states of mind that result in some of his best playing on CD, deep, spiritual, expansive, stubborn, sensitive, heartrending and beautiful. On some of the calmer moments, he weeps quietly, or he offers us beautiful meditative sounds, and then before you know, he's screaming his heart out, blowing shrill and bone-chilling sounds, and back within in the silent weeping mode within seconds, as on "Sketch Of A Wardrobe", and it all fits, the trio moves the listening experience together, full of focus, full of drama.

Again, a highly recommended album.


© stef

Read More

Mockuno NuClear - Drop it (No Business, 2012) ***

Reviewed by Joe

Anyone who reads my reviews on here will know that I really like improvised music and in particular when it embraces written elements - ex : Atomic, Motif, The Engines, Ken Vandemark etc. That's maybe a contradiction in words - written and improvised - but the idea that the two can possibly cohabit the same space (musically) does lead to new ideas and colourful music (*). Mockuno NuClear fall into this category sitting somewhere in-between the two ideas, trying to please both camps at the same time.

This is a record which at the beginning shines like a bright star. The music is wonderfully played and (as mentioned) slides between the composed and the improvised with great ease. Saxophonist Liudas Mockunas plays some fantastic lines on the opening tracks which glide gracefully into semi romantic classical themes with the piano. It's not really clear if Prelude (Tk1) and Prelude Variation (Tk2), or Tk3, The Cursed (Prelude Variation) are actually linked musically, although one doesn't have to worry too much as these three tracks clearly hold together as one idea. In fact after hearing these three pieces I was very excited to hear what the rest of the record would reveal.

(What follows) .... after the opening pieces the record almost splits into two areas, something that I hadn't counted on, and certainly not hinted at the beginning. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 are loose yet intimate pieces working round a more acoustic ethic, whilst tracks 4, 6 and 7 seem to be another group (although not necessarily different musicians) leaning towards groove based improvisations. Elephant Tango (Tk6) is a lovely theme, an almost semi pastiche of a tango style which bursts with energy yet seems totally out of place on the record. Track 4 - The Dark Side/The Bright Side (The Bright Side is dedicated to Andrew Hill) is another hard blowing tune, something one could imagine Matts Gustafsson playing with complete abandon. Here the group rocks away with Rhodes piano, grooving drum and bass riffing away and baritone sax in full attack mode! Great stuff I can assure you, but again a little unexpected.

Finally, it's this conflictual aspect which is slightly off putting as there are several records here, all probably very good. What is audibly an excellent group with some very positive and good musical ideas seems to not really know which side to express first, in fact putting all this into one record leaves the listener confused as to when best to listen to this record. Having said that I think anyone who is curious will probably find much of interest and will also be rewarded on repeated listens. I suspect that the group seen live would be very compelling, let's hope that the next record will clarify some of their very exciting ideas. 

  

Personnel: Liudas Mockunas: soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones; Dmitrij Golovanov: piano and keyboards; Marijus Aleksa: drums; Vytis Nivinskas: bass (5, 6); Darius Rudis: drums (7).

(*) = The other possibility being totally improvised, or of course the more traditional 'theme' with identifiable chord progressions used as an improvisational vehicle.

Buy from Instantjazz. 

© stef

Read More

Side A - A New Margin (Clean Feed, 2011) ****

 By Stef

In one of Ken Vandermark's many projects, he plays in "Free Fall", a trio format with Norwegian pianist Havard Wiik and Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten, as a tribute band to the music of Jimmy Giuffre.

Now we find him again in the company of Wiik, but accompanied by Chicagoan Chad Taylor on drums. Like with Free Fall, this trio is also strongly rooted in jazz tradition, with fixed (?) rhythms, elaborated compositions and harmonic development. The musical skills demonstrated by all three musicians are staggering, both on their instruments as in the phenomenal interplay, yet as so often with great albums, the quality of the music itself is what really counts and it also receives their full attention.

Wiik is a stylist, someone with a gentle touch, and strong sense of lyricism, and his combination with Vandermark's incredible skills of shifting from patterns to breaking them and back again in one seamless motion work well with Taylor's rhythmic complexities. Actually, all three excell in the key ingredients : lyricism, powerplay and tradition-pushing.

The tunes range from sweet, as in "Trued Right", or abstract bluesy, as on "Arborization", to clever rhythm-shifting in the phantastic and genre-crossing "The Kreuzberg Variations" to powerplay on "Comeling". There is madness to be heard, yet controlled or contained, and joined with some more universal feelings as melancholy and tenderness. The variation is great, as are the compositions, almost equally divided among the members of the trio.

The line-up is unusual too (check on the "Sax Piano Drums Trio" in the right column to get to know more of them), yet one that works extremely well because it offers harmonic, rhythmic and a wealth of solo opportunities, while keeping the improvisational freedom of a small ensemble.

In any case, great stuff, and not to be missed.


Listen and download from eMusic.

Buy from Instantjazz.


© stef

Read More

Harris Eisenstadt - September Trio (Clean Feed, 2011) ****

By Stef

To review music in July by a band called September Trio may sound a bit premature, yet nature already seems to be in that season now, with cold winds, dark clouds, heavy rains and mushrooms sprouting everywhere, birds hesitating to migrate and thick spiders looking for safer places indoors.

So allow me not to wait till September to review it, if only because it's a strong album that does not accept a late review.

The trio is Harris Eisenstadt on drums, Ellery Eskelin on sax and Angelica Sanchez on piano. As I mentioned several times before, Eisenstadt is a great artist, re-inventing himself with each album, not shying away from complexity, but actually looking it up, rhythmically, harmonically, and to his credit, always with the objective to create a great listening experience. The music on this album is not comparable to his modern "Canada Day" band, neither with his superb genre-bending "Woodblock Prints" or with his African rhythm fest "Guewel".

No, September Trio brings you into an incredibly sad, almost moaning atmosphere, slow to mid-tempo, with Eskelin's tremendous tenor offering the lead voice, with tremor in his voice, deep sorrow welling up from deep inside him. His warm sound is recognizable from far and possibly one of the most beautiful around.

Eisenstadt's compositions are rooted in blues and traditional jazz, but of a sophisticated structural refinement and complexity that is highly modern, with interweaving melodies and rhythms, subtly handled by the piano, which offers the music's backbone, depth and contrast to the tenor's phrases. Eisenstadt himself is an excellent drummer, adding polyrhythmic effects and subtle accents, driving the music forward in its elegant dynamics.

Although the album could be the right atmospheric musical backdrop for a lazy and rainy September evening, it will equally please the attentive listener, with its beautiful playing and creative angle and interesting themes and subtle sensitivity.

Listen and download from eMusic.

Buy from Instantjazz.


© stef

Read More

François Carrier, Alexander Lapin, Michel Lambert - Inner Spire (Leo, 2011) ****

By Stef

What a great idea for the Canadians François Carrier on alto and Michel Lambert on drums to perform with one of Russia's leading pianists when visiting Russia in December of last year. I've described François Carrier's playing before on several album reviews as a very lyrical player, who can make his alto sing and resonate in a way that is reminiscent of Coltrane, in more than one way, including the expansive and spiritual nature of his improvisations. Lapin is an unusual piano player, someone with a very distinct voice himself and quite creative in his musical approach. Lambert is a very musical and subtle drummer, rather than a rhythmic drummer, and in that sense the perfect match.

The first track "Inner Spire" immediately delivers on the expectations : soaring sax-playing, with a piano that hesitates between postboppish sensitivity and avant-garde dissonance, creating an improvisation with great tension and beauty. On the second piece, the approach becomes harsher, with iconoclastic sound patterns, hesitating at moments, pounding with self-assurance at others."Tribe" is an incredible improvisation, and one that is astonishing because of its interplay. The rhythmic foundation is odd, if it can be discerned at all, yet the coherence with which the uncommon sound is created and developed, with Lapin and Carrier echoing each other's phrases with great precision, is extremely strong. It unravels in a way into thin threads, keeping its unusual character, picking up power again for the second part.

"Round Trip" starts with a tentative trialogue of bouncing phrases, again slowly merging into one single movement, with Lapin acting as an incredible creator of a musical context, a stylistic framework that he keeps developing, pushing Carrier into possibly to him less comfortable zones, yet he manages extremely well.

The album ends with the more lyrical "Sacred Flow", led by Carrier in duet with the piano to start with, and when the drum comes in halfway, the tempo picks up a notch, though not for long.

Really excellent album. Carrier has so far just released a few albums with pianists, often restricting himself to duo or trio settings, but this collaboration with Lapin points clearly in the direction of further exploration.

Recommended!


Buy from Instantjazz.







© stef

Read More