Janoušek-Wróblewski Quartet

It was the final morning at the Jazzwerkstatt Peitz Festival in far eastern Germany and following the 12 hours of back-to-back sets the day before, it was going take something strong to get the blood flowing, and it just so happens that the Janoušek-Wróblewski Quartet was that thing. Their mix of styles, free playing and dramatic solo spots struck the perfect balance of musical structure free flowing energy. 

 

As the saying sort of goes, way back when I knew a whole lot more, I would go to a music festival preloaded with expectations about the sets. I'd plan which sets to go to and which ones I would miss and it was usually based on name recognition. Maybe I am still a little guilty of that but also, as I grow older and less sure of anything, I have let myself not try so hard. So, perhaps almost like another saying, you find things when you aren't really seeking them. I hadn't been looking for the JWQ, but I'm quite happy to have found them! 

 

Here is a video of a relatively recent concert of theirs from Brno, Czech Republic:

 

 Ponava, Brno, Feb 2024 

The group is: Štěpán Janoušek on trombone; Michal Wróblewski on alto sax; Miloš Klápště on double bass and Jan Chalupa on drums. The group is from Prague and they've been playing Europe for the past ten years. In addition, Wróblewski runs the Ma Records label which has one recording from JWQ along with a selection of contemporary music from eastern Europe.

- Paul Acquaro 

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Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr - Austin Vibes

The first single from the just released 3rd studio album by bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten's (Exit) Knarr. The album is Drops, this tune is Austin Vibes. The powerhouse ensemble behind the music is pianist Marta Warelis, saxophonists Amalie Dahl and Karl Hjalmar Nyberg, guitarist Jonathan F. Horne, drummer Olaf Olsen and, of course, Håker Flaten on bass. Video by Erik Johannessen.

 

More info here.

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Caroline Davis and Dustin Carlson - Banana Ruffles

Here's a nice calm way to start your Sunday ... which is of course exactly what you look to the Free Jazz Blog for, right?

 

 ‘Banana Ruffles’ is the ghostly lead single from Sprites, the debut album by Caroline Davis and Dustin Carlson, set for release in August 2025 on Out Of Your Head Records' Beacons series. Learn more here.

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Ignaz Schick - City Sounds

Seven Calcutta-based musicians joined Berlin's Ignaz Schick to explore the city's rich soundscape in a unique project called "City Sounds." Blending field recordings, electro-acoustics, and improvisation, their two-week collaboration culminated in a four-hour audio-visual concert at "Goethe-Institut Kolkata" — offering a uniquely expressive portrait of the city through sound and image. The collaboration has been released in a series of recordings, linked below. 

 

Discover more, hear and download the recordings here.

• City Sound Kolkata Vol.1 
• City Sound Kolkata Vol.2 
• City Sound Kolkata Vol.3 
• City Sound Kolkata Vol.4 
• City Sound Kolkata Vol.5

 

 

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Alexander Hawkins at Bimhuis

And the Sunday Video is a solo concert from pianist Alexander Hawkins from the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. You can't go wrong with this combination!

 

More about Alexander Hawkins here 

More from Bimhuis here  

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Gerry Hemingway's How the Dust Falls Quartet

"How the Dust Falls Quartet" is an expanded version of pianist Izumi Kimura's and percussionist Gerry Hemingway's ongoing work, based on their second duo album by the same name. The duo was augmented two long-time collaborators of Hemingway's, video artist Beth Warshafsky and (surprise guest) synth and sax player Earl Howard. 

 

June 7, 2025 @ Vision Festival 2025, Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn NY. 

 

  

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Lisa Mezzacappa

Bassist Lisa Mezzcappa has been a strong presence on the west coast experimental music scene. Recently her label, Queen Bee Records, has begun series she calls 12/12, which is 12 recordings from creative music composers in the Bay Area being released over the next 12 months. So far, the series is quite strong and we have reasonable expectations that it will remain so in the coming months. You can see more here. Mezzacappa will also be in residency at the Stone in NYC this week with a number of her close musical colleagues.. 

For today's video, we present you with the Lisa Mezzacappa 5(ish): 

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Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba - Never Again, Again and Again

Not quite sure when or how today's video came over our transom, but it seems like a pretty good metaphor for how it's feeling these days. A meditative view of a burning world.

Video by Wojciech Rusin 

Music by: Marek Pospieszalski - soprano & tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute & tape; Zoh Amba - tenor saxophone; Piotr Chęcki - tenor & baritone saxophone; Tomasz Dąbrowski - trumpet; Tomasz Sroczyński - viola; Szymon Mika - electric guitar & acoustic guitar; Grzegorz Tarwid - piano; Max Mucha - double bass; Qba Janicki - drums & soundboard 

 More here.

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Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few - A Love Supreme at 60

A few weeks ago at Los Angeles’ long-running Grand Performances concert series, saxophonist Isaiah Collier led a performance of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, joined by Brandon Coleman on piano, William Parker on bass, and Tim Regis on drums. The event included a sound healing ceremony by Jimmy Chan, an introduction by Michelle Coltrane, and sets by Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation, Surya Botofasina, Dwight Trible, and Jeremy Sole (KCRW) and was presented by Worlds Alive x The John & Alice Coltrane Home.

Here, we're start with Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few's ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ followed by ‘A Love Supreme.’ To see the rest, simply 'rewind.'

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Willi Keller's The Circle

The roaring free-jazz of Willi Keller's The Circle is a joy to behold. Here is the quartet's concert from Jazzwerkstatt Peitz 2024.

Hans-Peter Hiby - saxophone 
Rieko Okuda - piano 
Meinrad Kneer - bass 
Willi Kellers - drums

  

WILLI KELLER'S THE CIRCLE @ Jazzwerkstatt Peitz | 2024 LIVE FROM BERLIN is a series by @berta.berlin. 

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Dan Rosenboom Quartet

It's always nice to catch up with the folks keeping music alive over on the West Coast. Los Angeles, in particular, has been in the news a lot lately - from disasters both natural and unnatural - so let's take a moment to (re)focus on something undeniably much more positive. Here is trumpeter Dan Rosenboom leading a quartet with keyboardist Joshua White, bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Anthony Fung.

 

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Blurt - The Mecanno Giraffe

Blurt, under the auspicious leadership of Ted Milton, has released a single, 'The Mecanno Giraffe', ahead of a new album. 

A combination of steady beats, Milton's spoken poetic lyrics, sublime free sax playing, and deliberately off-kilter guitar that adds nuance to this music that lifts the soul.  

As ever, Blurt remain outside genre classification, but blend rock and free jazz in ways that reach into the depths of all that is good about music that refuses classification and remains resolutely unique. The only guarantee about this music is that Blurt will make you smile. - Sammy Stein

 

Ted Milton on saxophone and vocals 
Steve Eagles on guitar 
David Aylward on drums 
Video provided by Sam Britton (Coda to Coda) 

All things BLURT 

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Ava Mendoza, gabby fluke-mogul & Carolina Pérez

The trio of guitarist Ava Mendoza, violinist gabby fluke-mogul, and drummer Carolina Pérez are releasing what seems to be a promising gut punching, ass-kicking, hard-riffing album this summer called Mama Killa. This (sort of) video of the first track appeared in the Free Jazz Blog in-box a couple of days ago and shook us out of a mid-week stupor. Not sure if it fits so neatly in the category "free jazz" but if it were a slice of pizza, it would burn the roof of your mouth -- and you'd like that it did.

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Ada Rave

Ada Rave is an Argentinian saxophonist currently living in Europe. While Rave's music is grounded in jazz and free improvisation, she is constantly expanding it with inventive techniques. Her saxophone playing is striking, weaving classic jazz phrasing with unconventional textures and approaches. Rave has a recent solo album in search of a real world (Relative Pitch, 2024) and Un Segundo, Universo Infinito with pianist Paula Shocron (Doek, 2024). Here she is playing solo in April:

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Matthew Shipp

This is a nice find ... music journalist Marc Masters sits down with pianist Matthew Shipp to discuss his new book, Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings, which came out last month from Autonomedia press. In the book, the prolific pianist offers a collection of essays, poems, tributes, and obituaries among other things. 

Listen here

Since this new interview is a Podcast, and this is technically the Sunday Video post, here's a video of Shipp talking about his music, with cultural journalist Carlo McCormick. This one has been around for a bit, but good ideas never get old, right?

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Fire! 03.16.2025, Milan

As last gig of the European tour, the Fire! played at Teatro Spazio 89, Milano on March 16th. The venue, which hosted the Necks a couple of years ago, with its medium size capacity and the low wooden stage, grants the attendees the most desirable warmth and intimacy. The gig simply was what you could dream of and expect from such a combo: powerful, pedal to metal hardcore attitude with a monster rhythm section paving the way for the ever astonishing larger than life genius of Mats, himself engaged on reeds and flute. Main focus on the songs from the last record Testament, delivered in such a way that even enriched a true masterpiece. A couple of blasting encores, then soon after the end, all the band members joined the fans taking pictures, shaking hands and selling their stuff. Owning all Fire!'s records, the only cherry we could pick was Aaly Trio's Sustain, we did it, needless to say, and the drive back home had its perfect soundtrack. Foot note: we didn't know neither the Trio nor the record, both are beautifully off the scale, another fantastic chapter from Gustafsson's never ending sonic adventures.  -Ferruccio Martinotti

 

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Live at Roulette // أحمد [Ahmed]

A fan favorite for sure -  أحمد [Ahmed], the collective of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip, and Seymour Wright delve into the works of bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, crafting vibrant, swinging, and endlessly dynamic music that seamlessly merges depth and energy, channeling a intense sense of ecstatic emotion. This performance was captured at Roulette in Brooklyn at the end of March this year. Go to Roulette's website to learn more about the concert.

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Chuck Roth @ DMG

Chuck Roth is a guitarist living and working in New York City. Here, he is playing a solo set at the venerable Downtown Music Gallery, exploring the sounds of the electric guitar, following his muse where it seems to take the textured, atonal melody. Roth has a debut recording, Document 1, out on Relative Pitch Records.  

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Pascal Niggenkemper's Tuvalu Ensemble

The German-French bassist Pascal Niggenkemper, together with his international Tuvalu Ensemble - Elisabeth Coudoux (cello), Ben La Mar Gay (trumpet), Louis Laurain (trumpet), Mona Matbou Riahi (clarinet), Joachim Badenhorst (clarinet), Tizia Zimmermann (accordion), Artemis Vavatsika (accordion), Jaumes Privat (spoken word) - developed and rehearsed the composition “d'une rive à l'autre” (from one shore to the other) at the SWR Studios in Baden-Baden.

Inspired by texts and poems in German, French, Flemish, Greek, English, Farsi and Occitan, Niggenkemper and his ensemble took listeners on a musical, lyrical and scenic journey to Tuvalu. The South Sea archipelago is symbolized in his composition by various sound curtains distributed throughout the room. The poems are each dedicated to an island and one of the ensemble members. The instrumental octet is made up of two identical quartets. The result is a tapestry of sound from which colors, patterns, melodies and improvisations spring.

 

- Martin Schray

 

 

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Sarter Kit - Time Got Relative

German saxophonist Tara Sarter's video for her song 'Time Got Relative' features a cat driving around endlessly in a parking garage. It somehow does a nice job of capturing the mood of the circuitous and jaunty tune. When the cat makes it out, there is a palpable sense of relief.

The track is the latest cut from Sarter's upcoming debut album What I am and What I’m Not, with
Elias Stemeseder on piano and synths and Lukas Akintaya on drums.

 

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