Natsuki Tamura & Jim Black - NatJim (Libra Records, 2024)

By Stef Gijssels

The fun thing about Natsuki Tamura and Satoko Fujii is their incredible versatility. Gentle mainstream jazz, folk jazz, orchestral jazz, intimate duets or jazz fusion, are just a few examples of their stylistic scope. Trumpet-player Natsuki Tamura dares to go a step further in his personal endeavours, as testified by this album with drummer Jim Black. On his previous album, "Summer Tree" (2022), all tracks were titled with the word 'summer' in them. Now the word is 'city': Morning City, Afternoon City, City of Dusk, City of Night, Quiet City, Noisy City, Calm City, Bright City. 

The pieces are short, compact and all 'composed' around a core concept : a few lines, a theme, a mode of interaction. Some pieces are completely improvised. Black shows himself the perfect companion for Tamura's enthusiasm, his pleasure of creating, with a lot of space for heavy tribal drumming. It's an ode to music, to life, to vitality. It's intense, relentless, infectious and very special. I share one track, "Bright City", below which demonstrates their art: it's wonderfully direct, with Tamura singing some incomprehensible incantations, without any constraints, raw, simple in its concept yet surely hard to perform, full of boyish passion and fun. And listen to Black's drumming. Despite or precisely because of his mastery of the instrument, his drumming sounds so simple, so straightforward, so full of life energy and so exciting. In a way it's brutal, unsophisticated, without flourishes: a musical language stripped to its core. 

Tamura and Black released their first album together already in 1999, "White & Blue", and as members of the Satoko Fujii Four, with "Live In Japan 2004" (2005), and "When We Were There" (2006). Black has also been a regular member of the Satoko Fujii Trio. 

It's only after writing this review, that I actually took notice of the liner notes, written by Satoko Fuji. Here is an excerpt that is fully in line with my own response: 

"This time, I figured nothing Tamura did would surprise me. After he completed the recording in Bern and I finished a gig in Nantes, we met up at a hotel in Paris, where I finally got to hear what he had recorded. Once again my jaw dropped. For one thing, he and Jim are in incredible form. They sound like whirling dervishes, playing with a vigor that utterly belies their ages (Tamura is 72 and Jim is 56). The tracks overflow with the sheer joy of music-making, and they let that energy take them where it will. As a musician I'm awed by their ability to unleash a performance like this, at their age, especially in the midst of jet lag after flying for hours in economy class. "

The great thing is that both men have maintained their youthful enthusiasm and energetic joy for free music. 

Whatever your age, this is guaranteed to keep you young, this is guaranteed to make you happy. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Read More

Marco Von Orelli & Sheldon Suter - Draw From The Source (ezz-thetics, 2023)

By Stef Gijssels

Fans of creative sound exploration will love this album. The artists are Marco von Orelli on trumpet, cornet, prepared slide trumpet, little bells, and Sheldon Suter on drums, cymbals, prepared zithers, gong and singing bowls. The range of instruments already gives an indication of all the possible variations the music may offer. We know von Orelli and Sheldon Suter from their work with "Big Bold Back Bone" ("In Search Of The Emerging Species" and "Emerge"), and they play in various ensembles, notably on the Ezz-Thetics/HatHut label. 

The album reflects a journey from Basel in the north of Switzerland to Ticino in the south. It's a journey of wonder, of quiet and subdued impressions, a journey of external perspectives and inner transformation. The first six tracks are categorised under "Basel" and the last six under "Ticino". 

Sometimes the instruments are used with clear tones, as they are originally intended, but more often extended techniques are used that conjure up stranger and more perplexing sonic experiences. It is a journey into the unknown, and it is this prospect, this adventure that makes it fascinating. Their approach is not cheap - in the sense that noise is being created for the sake of noise being created - but well-balanced, disciplined and meaningful. I'm sure that the use of the terms "extended techniques" or "sonic exploration" are triggers for some readers to stay away from the material, yet I think they should think twice with this album. Despite its explorative nature, it is still relatively welcoming and gentle. 

The major mystery of the album is its art work, which does not look like Switzerland at all. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Watch the great promo video for this album. 

Read More

Artur Majewski - Day 1 - Artur Majewski & Jan Słowiński - Sloma + Artur Majewski & Vasco Trilla - The End of Something (Sound Trap Records, 2022)

 By Stef Gijssels

Today we review two trumpet-percussion duos with Artur Majewski on the horn, the first with Jan Słowiński on drums, and the second with Vasco Trilla. For good measure, we also add a third CD, a quartet in which Majewski equally performs. 

We've followed Majewski over the years, from his earlier work with the Mikrokolektyw, with the Foton Quartet, in collaborations with other Polish artists such as Gerard Lebik, Anna Kaluza, Kuba Suchar, Rafal Mazur or international free improv luminaries like Agusti Fernandez and Barry Guy. 

Artur Majewski & Jan Słowiński - Słoma (Sound Trap Records, 2022)

On the first album, the interaction between cornet and drums is as you would expect a cornet and drums duo to sound: clear sounds on the horn, rumbling drums, and strong interaction. The playing is excellent, consisting of welcoming and open-ended improvisations. The music is stripped to its core essence of two artists enjoying their and each other skills, moving together, listening, reacting. This is not genre-breaking or discovering new sonic horizons, but that is also not their aspiration. 

It's entertaining from beginning to end and highly enjoyable. The kind of music that puts me in a good mood. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Artur Majewski & Vasco Trilla - The End of Something (Sound Trap Records, 2022)

The duo with Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla is of a completely different nature. Majewski's cornet is played with a delay pedal, allowing for many layers of sound to arise, expand and disappear again. Vasco Trilla is on equal footing with Majewski, being a kind of sound architect himself, with the skills to make his percussion do many things, including ringing and singing. 

With this approach, the intimacy and directness of "Słoma" is contrasted with the spaciousness of electronic sound altering and sonic resonance. The delay pedal also allows for repetitions, creating a rhythmic effect that acts as the foundation for improvisations on both the horn and percussion. Majewski again demonstrates his incredible technical skills including the more extended use of his horn at various moments during the three lengthy pieces: and he gives it all: high pitched screams, muffled whispers to deep growling sounds and many hard to describe sounds. 

On the last track, Trilla takes the lead with a solid drums intro, welcoming the trumpeter who makes this both jubilant and fierce. Interestingly, the ferocious drumming slows down allowing the cornet and its mirror images to develop into a world of serene calm, and even silence. 

This album is definitely more daring and more exploratory, showing another side of Majewski's many artistic languages. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Read More

Ben Lamar Gay - Certain Reveries (International Anthem, 2022)

 By Stef Gijssels

Chicago trumpeter and composer Ben Lamar Gay is touring around Europe at the moment with his quartet consisting of Tommaso Moretti on drums, Matt Davis on tuba and Edhino Gerber on guitar, and it was one of the best concerts I've seen in years, a true musical listening experience, a journey from ancient tribal trance-like incantations to modern electronics with a very strong dose of AACM influence, especially the Art Ensemble of Chicago, possibly mixed with the eclectic approach of a Don Cherry. There is only music, with sorrow, joy, magic, creative surprises and personal authenticity. Lamar Gay does not care about genre or style. He cares about authenticity and creativity. Every sound is possible, as long as it resonates with his musical vision. Check out his other albums that we reviewed over the years. 

On "Certain Reveries", we find him in a duo setting with Tommaso Moretti on drums, and as can be expected, he turns this format into his own kind of approach. The straightforward acoustic cornet-drums improvisations are embedded in a longer narrative with electronic drones, rhythms and themes providing the background for Lamar Gay's idiosyncratic singing and shouting. His music gives the paradoxical impression of on the one hand not caring much about musical roots and influences, because he does his own thing, totally out of the ordinary, while on the other hand performing full of reverence for all types of music. 

The opener, "You Ain't Never Lied", starts with electronically distorted singing, a kind of plaintive incantation, with repeats and echo, setting the scene for the magic to come, in the form of even more electronics, a deep rhythmic pulse that pushes the singing to the background, and opens the space to Morretti's exceptional drumming and even more vocals merging into a mesh of sound. It is uncanny, weird and incredibly compellling. To dispell any thoughts that jazz is dead, the second piece, "Paradise Debris", starts with cornet and drumming, wild and free, rhythmic and intense, with drone-like electronics weaving a dark background for the fresh acoustic interaction between the two instruments, that by itself is full of - rhythmic - surprises, seamlessly moving to "To Be Behaved Upon", another genre-breaking mix of incantantion and electronics. 

Lamar Gay and Morretti do not alternate between cornet-percussion duets or more electronic-driven pieces. Anything can happen at anytime. On "The Bioluminiscence of Nakedness", Lamar Gay uses his mini-keyboard for some wild soloing with just a few notes, while Morretti goes berserk on his kit, paving the way for a real jazzy cornet intervention. Anything can happen in Lamar Gay's musical universe, and it does. 

His musical inventiveness and creativity know no boundaries, yet he manages to control this into a very coherent narrative, that can be overwhelming, deeply spiritual, compelling, or plain funny. 

Because the music takes such a wide sweep at different musical genres, die-hard free jazz fans may raise some eyebrows when hearing this, yet on the other hand you will need very open ears to enjoy it to the full. 

So, I can only recommend to open those ears to new concepts, and to welcome Ben Lamar Gay in your catalogue of great music. 

The entire performance was presented live at the EFG London Jazz Fest in 2020 and is accompanied by a video that you can watch below, a tribute to the late inventor/composer Eddie Harris. 

Read More

Wadada Leo Smith - update galore

By Stef Gijssels

Last year, trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith turned 80, an opportunity for the Finish label TUM - with whom he's been releasing most of his albums in the last decade - to honour him with an incredible amount of new music, or 18 discs in total presented in several boxes. 

Have I been listening to all of them lately? Yes, all of them several times, and then even more. There are times when you could think that this is overkill, that all this is too much, but Smith is creative and artistic enough to bring new sounds, and he is smart enough to surround himself with top level musicians who are not afraid to challenge him while at the same time understanding very well what his music is aiming for. 

Writing about this music is a challenge. There is no way that it can give sufficient credit to the quantity and quality of it. 

Wadada Leo Smith – The Emerald Duets (TUM, 2022) *****

"The Emerald Duets" offer us some of the most compelling trumpet and percussion duets you will find on record. The five discs in the box bring us music driven by four of the best drummers around: Pheeroan akLaff, Andrew Cyrille, Han Bennink and Jack DeJohnette, with the latter playing on two discs. 

Like on all his album, Smith's music is humanist and spiritual at the same time. It is about politics as much as it is about the thing that connects us all with each other and the universe. This generosity of thought and feeling pervades his sound, regardless of the configuration of his band members. It is not a surprise that the title of the first track is called "The Prayer: First Meditation From The Heart: The Beauty, The Beloved". Smith offers variation by switching to piano once in a while, as does Jack DeJohnette, who - as we all know - started as a pianist before focusing on the drums. 

Smith and Bennink have performed together before, but with little music released together. They seemed to have evaded each other in Marion Brown's "Porto Novo" and in the iconic "Company 6" and "Company 7" albums, each performing on different tracks. But here and now they meet, and how!

Pheeroan akLaff and Smith go back many years, as early on as "Song Of Humanity" in 1977 and he has been in Smith's bands until now, including basically all of his recent albums on TUM. 

Jack DeJohnette has been with Smith for all Golden Quartet and Great Lakes Quartet albums, and the brilliant duo album "America". 

The great fun of listening to all of this consecutively - if you have the time - is the stylistic difference between the drummers. Cyrille, Bennink, akLaff and DeJohnette have very different approaches to their instruments and even to sound. Bennink for instance loves his floor tom, creating mad rhythms and sounds on this single skin, while DeJohnette has a refined approach with lots of cymbal work. 

Vijay Iyer writes in the liner notes: "Music-makers of this level display a crystalline quality: hard-won and authentic luminosity, poise, composure, conviction, and in Smith’s phrase, ‘maximum sincerity.’ Each of these five beings has entered that phase of creative life known to some as ‘late style,’ in which everything they do is magical. These five discs are wondrous monuments to the art of living.”

We could not agree more. 

Wadada Leo Smith's Great Lakes Quartet - The Chicago Symphonies (TUM, 2021)

With "The Chicago Symphonies", we get one of Smith's best ensembles, consisting of Smith on trumpet and flugelhorn, Henry Threadgill on alto, flute and bass flute - and replaced by Jonathon Haffner on alto and soprano on the fourth disc, John Lindberg on double bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The quartet is the same as on the "Great Lakes Suite" album from 2014. 

“The idea of a symphony composed for a sextet was first presented by composer/performer Don Cherry in his classic recording Symphony For Improvisers in 1966,” says Wadada Leo Smith. “I have broadened this idea to include the social, political and psychological dynamic into the creative space. My Chicago Symphonies are intended to illustrate and preserve the powerfully unique cultural contribution that the Midwesterners made in helping to shape the American society.” The album is dedicated to the major artists from the Chicago area, from Louis Armstrong to AACM and politically from presidents Lincoln to Obama. 

The compositions are great, the music swings, the horns soar. John Lindberg again demonstrates what a fantastic and under-recorded bassist he is, and DeJohnette is nothing less but stellar. Both Lindberg and Dejohnette together are an absolute treat to the ear, especially in the more uptempo pieces (for instance on "Movement 2" and "Movement 4" of disc one), but also in the slower more meditative environments (as on "Movement 3" on disc two). Lindberg often sets the tone of the piece, whether plucked or bowed (as on "Movement 5" on disc four). 

Smith has his own personal sound and improvisational signature, and to Threadgill's credit, his alto forms the perfect counterpart for Smith's soloing. He keeps the spirit, the sound, yet works with it to present his own warm and expressive tones. 

Wadada Leo Smith, Jack DeJohnette & Vijay Iyer - A Love Sonnet For Billie Holiday (TUM, 2021)

One more album to cherish, now with Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet, Vijay Iyer on piano, Fender Rhodes, Hammond B-3 and electronics, and with Jack DeJohnette on drums and percussion. As decisive as John Lindberg is in the sound of the Great Lakes Quartet, as ear-catching is the absence of a bass on this album.  Smith explains the reason in the liner notes : "The keyboards, drum-set/percussion and trumpet would create their own sonic ranges, and with no bass at the “bottom” of the music, Vijay, Jack and Wadada’s instruments could realize wider horizontal sonic fields and emotional ranges. Therefore, the performers could reveal a complete and complex melodic and harmonic spectrum in a clear musical exposition." And it does: the music is more ethereal, more light-textured, with less need for explicit rhythms. The music develops quietly, at its own pace, unhurriedly, valuing the precious quality of the sounds and the interaction, delivering the intimate feelings of love for Billie Holiday to whom this album and the first track are dedicated. 

All three musicians contributed compositions, with the last one a collective improvisation. The spacious sound is continued with Iyer's "Deep Time No. 1", a slow but intense composition in which the electric piano and percussion provide a mysterious and restrained sonic background, including the distant resonating voice of Malcolm X making his speech “By Any Means Necessary", over which Smith's trumpet harmoniously follows the chord changes, until DeJohnette's invigorating drumming fuels the piece with energy and Iyer's piano takes the lead, without changing the mystery of the overall sound. 

The centerpiece of the album is Smith's "The A.D. Opera: A Long Vision with Imagination, Creativity and Fire, a dance opera (For Anthony Davis)", dedicated to the pianist who performed in several of Smith's ensembles of the years. The composition evolves without a discernable pattern, which leads to moments of silence, moments of sudden shifts in tone, and possibly the only track on which the energy becomes nervous and agitated and more powerful, possibly in line with the elements described in the song's title. 

The next track is Jack DeJohnette's "Song For World Forgiveness", which we now from "Invisible Nature" (2002), his duo recording with John Surman, and also figuring on "Hudson" (2017) with Grenadier, Medeski and Scofield. The composition gets a much more spiritual touch on this rendition, more meditative, sadder too, but with an ending resonating with hope. 

The last track, "Rocket", is more funky, with Iyer's Hammond B-3 organ leading the piece with the instrument's known full sound. 

Despite Smith's incredible productivity, the quality of what he delivers is anyting but quickly produced. Quite to the contrary: the compositions are strong and the musicianship is as stellar as you can expect, among the best you can get and with a stunning coherent vision on the sound they create. 

Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Kaiser, Alex Varty - Pacifica Koral Reef (577 Records, 2022)

I have a love/hate relationship with guitarist Henry Kaiser. Sometimes I think he does excellent things, as on the "Yo, Miles!" albums and sometimes terrible things as on "A Love Supreme Electric", according to my subjective appreciation. There is no question that he's a technically excellent guitarist, yet great technique is not a guarantee for a great sense of music. On this album I can only applaud his approach, in the company of Alex Varty on guitar and Smith on trumpet. Varty is not a professional musician, but a music writer and like Kaiser, an amateur diver, which led to the theme of this album: the slow destruction of coral reef and an emotional musical plea to keep it intact. 

The combination of the acoustic and electric guitar works perfectly well. The album offers us one lengthy improvisation of 55 minutes, even if it was possibly recorded from several pieces. It flows nicely and does not really develop, even if some parts are a little more intense. There are no fireworks, but there are plenty of interesting moments when surprising effects and innovative sonic experiences are created. 

Even if Smith came up with the idea for the album, Varty surprisingly leads the dance, with an open-tuned acoustic guitar offering an 11 minute intro with raga-like sensitivities, when Smith and Kaiser join. 

The music is slow, precise, cautious, expressing the fragility and vulnerability of the coral reef. The fusion guitar sound that I so dislike, is quite tempered here, coloring the music from the background, with high piercing notes, while the acoustic instruments take front stage, and it works. Smith relishes the context. His trumpet appreciates the light-textured guitars, which allows for freedom to expand his improvisation, often with long sustained notes, moanful and deeply emotional. 

In the middle part, Varty takes the trio into a more rhythmic bluesy atmosphere. The album ends with Varty and Kaiser creating chime-like high-pitched arpeggios on their guitars, Varty with Asian sensitivities, Kaiser with deeply resonating effects, emphasising the precarious situation of the coral reef, but also a meditative moment of positive energy.

Wadada Leo Smith String Quartets No. 1-12  (TUM, 2022)

The "String Quartets" are a different kind of animal altogether. A massive work again, comprising no less than 7 CDs, the box presents Smith's compositions with a more classical aspiration. The core string quartet, the RedKoral Quartet, consists of Ashley Walters on cello, Andrew McIntosh on viola, and Mona Tian and Shalini Vijayan on violin. The quartet also features on Smith's composition "Rosa Parks: Pure Love" from 2019. 

This quartet is expanded with some additional musicians: Alison Bjorkedal on harp on CD2, when on String Quartet No. 6 (“Taif: Prayer In The Garden Of The Hijaz”) we also have Smith on trumpet, Lynn Vartan on percussion, Anthony Davis on piano, and Lorenz Gamma on violin, on String Quartet No. 7 (“Ten Thousand Ceveus Peruvianus Amemevical” (In Remembrance Of Dorothy Ann Stone)) we get Stuart Fox on guitar, and finaly on String Quartet No. 8 (“Opuntia Humifusa”), we have Smith on trumpet and Thomas Buckner on voice. 

The music is also different than on Smith's more jazz-influenced compositions, and I must admit that the abstract, often dissonant and dramatic pieces are not really my cup of tea. I am not a fan of avant-garde classical music in general, so I'll refrain from reviewing more deeply.

Over the years, Wadada Leo Smith's music has been been of consistently high quality. Even if his trumpet playing is easy to recognise, and even if it does not alter much in the different environments he's performing in, his musical creativity remains strong, even at 80. He keeps looking, searching for new ways to improve, to say more, to say it better. Obviously he manages to surround himself with stellar musicians who do not need much guidance to deliver great results, but that's a talent too. 

As said at the beginning, 18 discs is a lot to digest, and they've been omnipresent in my ears for the last few months. The albums in this review are ranked according to my preference, but I can only repeat that there are only subjective reasons to rank them thus. 

Enjoy!

Watch a recording of his 80th Birthday Celebration: 

Read More

Luis Vicente, Seppe Gebruers & Onno Govaert - Room With No Name (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2022)

By Stef Gijssels

We already reviewed two excellent albums by Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente earlier this year: the brilliant "Dog Star" and the mysterious "Mata Mata" by Scolari.

Two more of his albums deserve attention: the recent "Room with No Name" and "Made of Mist" from last year.

Luis Vicente, Seppe Gebruers & Onno Govaert - Room With No Name (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2022)

In 2018, we already indicated our appreciation of the the trio consisting of Luis Vicente on trumpet, Seppe Gebruers on piano and Onno Govaert on drums for their "Live At Ljublijana". 

This album was recorded on July 10th 2019, live at the Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro in Coimbra, Portugal. The trio brings us two fully improvised pieces, their music a wonderful mix of abstract sound, emotional delivery, inventive interaction and truly collective creation. The music is rich and treats us to meandering and ever changing soundscapes of quiet intensity and disciplined power, without losing the coherence of the total sound, which is almost as much indebted to avant-garde classical music as it is to jazz, easily blending forms and harmonics into something uniquely their own, possibly also the consequence of the specific differences between the three musicians.

At times Gebruers sets the tone, with abstract chord changes, defying patterns, sometimes in long interplay with Govaert, whose percussive cleverness adds character but can also change the course of the improvisation. Vicente is his usual self in this context: virtuoso, listening, working on the total colour of the music, expressive and impressive. 

The overall sound is fresh and deep at the same time. 

Again an easy to recommend album. 

Available from Bandcamp. 

Watch a video by the trio, performed on April 15, 2022.

Luis Vicente & Vasco Trilla - Made Of Mist (577 Records, 2021)

A review of this album was also long due. On "Made of Mist" both artists - Vicente on trumpet and Trilla on percussion - create an ephemeral sonic universe that explains the title. Percussion does not sound like percussion, but rather by extended single tones extracted from cymbals, scraping on skin, shuffling noises and other timbral explorations. 

On the opening track, the texture is light, fragile, vulnerable even. Vicente's muted and moaning trumpet adds to the sense of serenity and beauty. But it does not stay that way "Esglai" - a Catalan word for fear, fright, a sudden danger - leads to a very agitated and intense interaction that somehow resolves into a certain calm near the end. 

I will not describe every track, which is also quite illusory considering the abstract nature of the pieces. The album is excellent: both artists feel each other blindly, managing to explore new sounds, elevating music to a higher level of abstraction without losing the human aspect of it, and both Vicente and Trilla are true masters of integrating emotion in the creation of new forms. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

And as an extra we give you another video with both musicians, recorded in the Netherlands in 2019. 

Read More

Alistair Payne & Sun-Mi Hong - Slow Walk - IN-人 (Self, 2021)

By Stef Gijssels

It's always nice to welcome new talent to the free improvisation scene. Last year we reviewed the young Portuguese band "Garfo" for their debut album, and we admired the musicianship of Polish pianist Marta Warelis in various ensembles. 

Today we can add South Korean drummer Sun-Mi Hong to the list, together with British trumpeter Alistair Payne. Both have been playing together in various ensembles and various genres (Mexican folk-jazz with "Fuensanta Méndez", the modern jazz of the Sun-Mi Hong Quintet, ...). 

On "Slow Walk", both musicians ended up on the same shore during the pandemic, and because of a lack of concerts, they performed and recorded this impromptu duet between trumpet and drums. The music is gentle, welcoming, warm while at the same time as free and playful as birds in spring. Every note they play is fresh, rich and unexpected. Their main purpose is not timbral exploration as much as the exploring the musical interaction between two like-minded spirits. This results in music that shifts from the lyrical - and romantic even - to full free form. 

The technical skills of both musicians is strong, and their control remarkable. "Slow Walk" shows a lot of promise, and even it's possibly not the most memorable of all trumpet-drum duos, I hope they can push this concept of authentic and inventive simplicity a step further. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Read More

Simon Barker & Scott Tinkler - Interweave (Kimnara, 2019) ****½

By Stef

Eleven years ago, Australian artists Simon Barker on drums and Scott Tinkler on trumpet released "Lost Thoughts", an album that I really enjoyed. In the years in between, both musicians kept performing together and releasing albums in various ensembles, frequently also in the company of pianist Mark Hannaford.

It is good to have a duo album again. Both musicians are eclectic players, using elements from jazz, classical, avant-garde, carnatic and other Asian music. They know each other very well, and you can hear that. The interplay is strong, intense and with moments in which each of them takes a step back to let the other musician play a solo piece. And it must be said, the instrumental mastership of both musicians is not only stellar, the way they interact is even stronger.

Barker is a professor at the Sydney Conservartorium of Music, and has written about rhythmic and polyrhythmic traditions of various cultures, which can be heard in his playing, which is unusual and highly inventive. Tinkler's tone has at times a purity of sound as in the best classical trumpet tradition, but with the intensive freedom that is expected from this more adventurous genre. There are moments of such technical complexity, ferocious power and breathing control that the emphatic listener is guaranteed to be out of breath too.

Their combined music is expansive, jubilant, exuberant even at times, despite the limits of the small ensemble. There is an inherent joy in their interplay, a need to sing and dance that is uncanny, with the energy to keep things moving forward. Even in the calmer moments, the power of their attack does not diminish. In contrast to many bands, they have no obvious interest in extended techniques or  timbral explorations, yet they dig deep into the original - intended - sound of their instruments and take this a level higher.

Frequent readers will know that I am a fan of the trumpet-percussion duo, and this one is very high on my list. You don't need to be a trumpeter or a drummer to fully appreciate what's happening here. Despite the technical brilliance and subtle interplay, the format is one of pure simplicity, of the ancient coupling of percussion and singing, of fresh authenticity and direct expressiveness.

Enjoy!


Listen and download from Bandcamp.

 

Read More

Trumpet & Drums

By Stef

Despite the simplicity of the line-up, the variations are endless, as is testified by the albums reviewed here. Four trumpet-drums duos, four completely different styles and totally different listening experiences.


Whit Dickey & Kirk Knuffke - Drone Dream (NoBusiness, 2019) ****

Drummer Whit Dickey and cornetist Kirk Knuffke bring their sophomore album, after "Fierce Silence" from some years ago. Knuffke seems to like small settings, with pianists (Harold Danko, Jesse Stacken, Karl Berger), reedists (Ben Goldberg), bassists (Michael Bisio) or drummers (Mike Pride, Whit Dickey), but with each of those other musicians, the music is different, from modern jazz with traditional influences to free outings such as this one. Despite my joy of listenting to Knuffke's playing, his music is not always the right fit for this blog, but this one surely is. Dickey is the initiator of much of the music here, offering the intro, with his typical lyrical open-ended playing, creating implicit rhythmic foundations for the horn to add the melodic element. Both instruments use the full sounds they are intended for: straightforward and authentic, direct and warm. Yet the music isn't. It's meditative at times, soaring at others, playful or with a deep moaning sound. Never violent, always intimate and fresh. Always free.

A great sequel to a great predecessor.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.


Luis Vicente & Vasco Trilla - Bright Dark (Clean Feed, 2019) ****½

Even though this album has been reviewed before, I can only recommend it again. Despite the fun artwork, the music is dark. It emerges from nondescript and weird sounds emanating from both trumpet and drums. Vicente and Trilla treat us to a wonderful exploration of deep darkness and its emotional equivalent. At the same time, there is no element of doom in the darkness, but it's rather an element of surprise or quiet exploration that drives both artists forward. On the first track, Trilla manages to give a clock-like tempo, with dark industrial rumblings and piercing cymbal strikes, all at the same time, while Vicente delves deep into the rawest and darkest tones of his instrument. They create a fascinating sonic universe that evolves slowly and unhurriedly. It is at the same time intense and intensely beautiful. The aesthetic listening experience is unique, and possibly explains the album's title: despite the darkness of the sound, it shines brightly.

The liner notes describe the music well: "They found the Absolute, the invisible Other, in the music itself, the same way Aldous Huxley did and made this novelist write that «after silence, that which comes nearest to express the inexpressible is music»".

What more can I say? 

Listen and download from Bandcamp.


Verneri Pohjola & Mika Kallio – Animal Image (Edition Records, 2018) ****

From dark outer space, we move to the white landscapes of Finland, with its snow and its animals. The music, created by Verneri Pohjola on trumpet and Mika Kallio on percussion was originally made as the soundtrack for a documentary on the "intimate relationship between man and animal". You can watch a moment of this documentary on the video below. It is not your usual David Attenborough kind of nature movie, but a more poetic version, one that needs this kind of free and unbound music to reach its full effect.

I can imagine that the north of Finland is a daunting but beautiful place, where cold austerity, barrenness and life find a harmonious existence nevertheless. Pohjola and Kallio create a soundtrack that can stand on its own. You almost don't need the documentary to experience the vastness of the space, the mystery of life, and the hard to understand relationship between everything.  Even if most tracks are meditative, there is joy and playfulness to be found too, as in the short "Foxplay", or in the musical representation on the preying flight on "Goshawk's Dream". On the other end of the spectrum, you have the track called "Man" which starts more menacing and dark and ends with some of the most bone-chilling moaning trumpet sounds you will hear this year.

The album ends with the title track, which evolves from a dark and ominous gong sound to almost jubilant and optimistic multilayered sounds.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Peter Evans & Weasel Walter - Poisonous (Ugexplode, 2018) ****

What happens when you put two iconoclasts together? And what happens when these two are equally known for their ground-breaking explorations? And when they are equally interested by electronics and studio creativity? And with musical skills?

You can forget about the beaten track. Don't think about meditative moments or organised structures. You get sonic madness, but sonic madness with skills and artistic vision. There is not much you can do as a listener: either you are willing to succumb to an avalanche of sometimes painful sonic bites, or you run away as fast as you can. It is poisonous. Extremely poisonous. They push the limits of what is auditively tolerable. There are moments when drum sounds are recognisable, as are trumpet sounds. Some tracks consist primarily of noise generated by both instruments, with some vague - but very vague - traces of the original instruments left, because the only thing you can hear are dense waves of rolling and revolving sounds. What is happening here? ... is a thought that often comes to mind. I never managed to listen to the entire album with headset and closed eyes. Maybe I should have, but the question is whether such exposure to this level of toxicity would be advisable, or strongly recommended against because guaranteed deadly.

For sure, this is not "The Boring Duo Live At Who Fuckin' Cares". Fasten your seatbelts. Prepare yourself for a crazy ride into a very dense high energy musical hallucination.


Listen and download from Bandcamp.

And watcht the video: it's also something else ...

Read More

Wadada Leo Smith & Sabu Toyozumi - Burning Meditation (No Business, 2018) ****

By Stef

In 1992, Wadada Leo Smith and Sabu Toyozumi released "Cosmos Has Spirit" on the unknown and small Japanese Scissors label. Fans will absolutely love this album too, a concert recorded live on March 22, 1994 in Japan.

Toyozumi's Japanese output has been brought back under the attention in the last year by NoBusiness Records and by Chap Chap Records, releasing other performances dating from the 90s. We can only applaud both labels for doing so.

The American trumpeter has recorded with frequent intervals in a duo format with a drummer. Like on "Kulture Jazz" or "Compassion" with Adam Rudolph, or "The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer" with Ed Blackwell , "Wisdom In Time" with Günter Baby Sommer, "America" with Jack DeJohnette, or "Ancestors" with Louis Moholo-Moholo, Smith's playing holds the middle between deep blues and spiritual meditation. Even if all these albums are really different in nature, they come highly recommended. In the last years Smith has sharpened his compositional skills and released albums with more serious weight and ambition, some of which are truly excellent, on other ones overplaying his hand a little, but that's how it should be. You don't get anywhere without taking risks and moving boundaries.

This performance of twenty-five years ago brings the direct artistic authenticity of his other duo albums, with long clear-toned trumpet improvisations, alternated with bluesy singing and playing of the bamboo flute or koto, the Japanese string instrument, or also kalimba and harmonica. Toyozumi is a perfect companion for Smith on this journey, hitting hard when needed, uninhibited, but equally modest enough to leave the stage to Smith on the quieter pieces.

The quality of the recording is excellent, with both instruments receiving the right balance and power: it's almost as if they're performing right next to you.

Even if some pieces get attribution of composition to either Smith or Toyozumi, it is clear that most are completely improvised. Fans of Smith will recognise the the jubilant tones of "Uprising", known from the last track on "Kulture Jazz" or the first track on "The Blue Mountain's Sun Drummer".

Through their music, both musicians explore the joy and sorrow of life, of what it means to be human, trying to transcend our fate by connecting to something grander and more simple. As mentioned in earlier reviews: music with deep roots and branches that reach to the sky.

It's another great addition to Smith's already rich and diverse catalogue. We can also thank the label for its effort to release it on both CD and vinyl, with the fromer being obviously longer with additional tracks, and in a different order. 

Fans of Wadada Leo Smith or Sabu Toyozumi should not miss this! 

Read More

Joe McPhee & Hamid Drake - Keep Going (Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2018) ****

By Martin Schray

Keep going.

If you’re tired, keep going.

If you’re scared, keep going.

If you’re hungry, keep going.

If you wanna taste freedom, keep going.

Quoting these words by legendary political activist Harriet Tubman, Joe McPhee introduces this album and announces the direction of the music. This is a political statement. He quotes these words in a quiet but firm voice and then his saxophone sings a lament, a heart-felt blues, that emanates black history. In his typical way McPhee raises the level of anger and frustration with torn lines, then he literally shouts “Keep going“ three times, as if he wanted to encourage his brothers and sisters not to lose hope. But Tubman’s words are not just a political statement, they also describe McPhee’s music. Whenever he seemed to be stuck, he tried something new, he has believed in the idea that there are musical areas that still have to be explored, that the boundaries have to be expanded. This has to do with a memorable incident in the past: John Coltrane’s funeral. McPhee was there, it was a horribly sad moment, but the service was also a glorious affirmation of everything Coltrane was - for McPhee the funeral was a celebration of life, in which Ornette Coleman’s classic trio of the Golden Circle period and Albert Ayler's band played. This experience - that even if something wonderful has ended, something new will arise - has influenced his music to this day.

In November Joe McPhee is going to celebrate his 80th birthday. If you see him, you think he’s just 65. The man is full of energy, mentally and physically. I will never forget a scene from a gig in Weikersheim two years ago, when he took a short run and jumped onto the stage. These days he's making more music than ever before, he seems to be on a never ending tour and he releases new albums constantly. One of his preferred contexts is the sax/drum duo, for example with Paal Nilsson-Love, Chris Corsano and Eli Keszler. That’s why it's strange that he has only worked once with Hamid Drake, obviously an ideal comrade-in-arms - on Emancipation Proclamation: A Real Statement Of Freedom (Okka Disk, 2000) -, although the two have played in Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet. In February 2018 they finally found some time to record something new, and the new collaboration shows what we have missed. Keep Going combines the drummer's warm approach and unique sense of free swing with the saxophonist’s/ trumpeter's musicality and quest for social justice again. Five of the eight tracks directly refer to prominent figures of African-American history, social rights activists and politicians: the pieces are dedicated to Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Lucy Stone, John Robert Lewis and Barack Obama.

Keep Going displays everything which makes Joe McPhee’s music so great. “Keep Going“, the title track, is the only one that highlights McPhee’s roots in blues and gospel so prominently. Pieces like “For Don't Let 'Em Drop Them Goddam Nukes On Us Lord“ and “Morning Star (for Lucy Stone)“ reach back to a 1960s- and 70s-tradition of free jazz, to musicians like Albert Ayler, Frank Lowe and Noah Howard. In these pieces McPhee hurls out angry, convulsive riffs, blurred, overblown messages, which are propelled by Drake’s nervous drum rolls. On three tracks, “Medgar / Malcolm / Martin“, “Makes Me Wanna Holler (For Representative John Lewis)“ and “Time Was (for Barack Hussein Obama)“ McPhee is on pocket trumpet. At one point in the latter piece he plays into an open gong, which adds otherworldly overtones to his music. This is the other side of his music, the introspective and meditative one, which is rather interested in sound excursion. All this is accompanied by Hamid Drake’s subtle and emphatic percussion, as usual deeply rooted in a black jazz tradition. On the one hand it perfectly supports McPhee’s traditional side, on the other hand it contrasts the experimental approach telling a very old story from a different angle.

Keep Going presents an attitude, it shows that free jazz can still be a political comment. It evokes the days of Sonny Rollins’s “Freedom Suite“, Charles Mingus “Fables of Faubus“ and John Coltrane’s “Alabama“. In these days, in which the situation of African Americans in the US seems to have become worse, it’s necessary.

Keep Going is available as a CD.

You can buy the album here.

Read More

Günter Baby Sommer and Till Brönner – Baby’s Party (Intakt, 2018) **

Today we present two views on Günter Baby Sommer and Till Brönner's 'Baby’s Party.'  Be sure to read Nick Ostrum's positive take on the the recording here.

By Martin Schray

Although Till Brönner is regarded as one of the best jazz trumpeters (at least if it comes to sheer musicianship), his reputation among improv fans is not the best (to put it mildly). Many people resent him his participation as a juror in “X-Factor“, a German casting show similar to “American Idol“. His cheesy The Movie Album, the snoring boringThe Christmas Album or the simply horrible muzak on At The End Of The Day (on which he ill-treats pop classics like David Bowie’s “Space Oddity“ and Lennon/McCartney’s “And I love her“ not only with his trumpet, but also with his vocals) did the rest.

As if to prove to all his haters that he can also do differently, Brönner has been cultivating his friendship with East German free jazz drummer legend Günter Baby Sommer for years, both being appointed professors at the Dresden conservatoire. Now the two have decided to release an album on the excellent Swiss Intakt label. Nevertheless, scepticism was the order of the day. But when you listen to the album for the first time, you might be positively surprised. “Apero Con Brio“, the opening track, sometimes sounds as if a mellowed-with-age Bill Dixon meets a swinging Hamid Drake on wooden slit drum.

However, you realise very soon that it’s completely predictable what the two of them are doing. Brönner is obviously able to imitate any style and Sommer offers him eleven simple templates to prove it. Yet, you notice quite soon that something is missing. There’s no authenticity or musical vision, the music doesn’t feel genuine, it seems that especially Brönner is just showing off. It’s as if he was saying: “Hey, look, if I only want I can play free jazz as well.“ That he actually can’t can be heard on the two cover versions on the album. Just listen to the first two minutes of Fred E. Weatherly’s “Danny Boy“, where Brönner is no better than the poor candidates in the casting shows, who try and express emotional peaks, of which there are many, with an over-extended, whining melisma, before the track wanders off to some pointless improvised territories. The other example is Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood“, actually a piece where you can hardly do wrong. But even here Brönner fails to find the soul of the piece, he’s abandoned the implicit brokenness and sadness in favour of polished vanity. Even Günter Sommer can't save anything here anymore.

There are lots of excellent trumpet/drums duos (Nate Wooley & Paul Lytton or Darren Johnston & Tim Daisy, to name just two). Sommer & Brönner does not belong to them.

Read More

Günter Baby Sommer and Till Brönner – Baby’s Party (Intakt, 2018) ****

Today we present two contrasting views of the Günter Baby Sommer and Till Brönner's 'Baby’s Party.'  Be sure to read Martin Schray's less flattering view here.

By Nick Ostrum

Günter Baby Sommer was the percussive force of the East German free jazz scene and is today an avant-garde institution in his own right.  Trumpeter Till Brönner is of a younger generation and one the luminaries Germany’s post-bop scene.  At first, I found this collaboration somewhat curious.  However, as Thomas Brückner’s illuminative liner notes point out, the collaboration is already 8 years deep and has been greeted with skepticism since its earliest days.  Indeed, Brückner is right that the jazz world has had enough bracketing for a little while.  It is time “to overcome what divides, to build bridges, to develop a conjoint language that respects the Otherness of one’s coun­terpart and moulds into a new whole what both sides have to offer.”  In this case, both sides indeed have much to offer. 

From the very beginning, Baby’s Party captivated me.  The first track, “Apero con Brio” begins with the clump of a bass drum and cymbal, followed by a crisp, brief trumpet phrase.  The two continue in disjointed dialog until Sommer settles into a slit drum groove over which Brönner waxes his brass poetry.  This act sets the tone for the rest of the album.  The result is playful, yet intimate.  Its sensibilities range from pop (or, at least, standards) to Sommer’s ever-inquisitive, ever-resourceful explorations of timbre, resonance, and rhythm.  “First Shot” follows with an arrhythmic rattle of glassware generated in part through the scrape and ding of actual utensils over which Brönner layers a lonesome, echoing trumpet.  Next comes a mournful, then briefly exuberant “Special Guest No. 1: Danny Boy” wherein the musicians seize the space and initiative to deconstruct and reinterpret sections of the Irish elegy.  “Flinke Besen” is a race paced by Sommer’s rapid brush roles that seem to delight more in the sound produced by distinct combinations of strokes than the percussive onslaught that drumkits often tempt.  “Second Shot” features Sommer on the mouth harp over which Brönner tenderly improvises.  (I think I hear the trumpet reverberating off a dormant snare in the background, which lends an ethereal feel to the track.)  “A Soft Drink in Between” begins with an ominous layering of gong, bells, and split drum.  Brönner enters with a muted, wistful horn augmented by an echo effect.  This poses a stark contrast to “Inside-Outside-Trip,” which opens with Sommer’s enigmatic vocal incantations and develops into a funky bop number.  The influence of Miles Davis on Brönner is unmistakable.  Sommer and Brönner share melodic duties on the infectious “Third Shot.”  “A Little Nap in Between” begins with a whispered brass and percussive drone that develops into a slow and dreamy duet and fades again into a fading murmur.  “Special Guest No. 2: Der Alte Spanier” incorporates Spanish-tinged brass, welling drum-lines, and a return to Sommer’s ludic vocalizations.  As a celebration of old age and life (presumably), it serves as a fitting complement to the solemnity of youthful loss inherent in Danny Boy.   The final track, “Party Over – In a Sentimental Mood,” begins with a crackling that evokes the pitter-patter of rain.  When Brönner enters with the first notes of the melody, it is already clear that what follows will be a sparse, tempered, and contemplative affair.  Or, rather, an end to the affair.

This album is excellent.  The two musicians play well with the space and individualization that that such a format allows.  They approach each piece (all except “Danny Boy” and “In a Sentimental Mood” written by Sommer) not just as a distinct composition, but also as a movement within a greater opus, or a scene in a story.  Each track has its merits and makes a unique contribution.  Nevertheless, the power of this release resides in the narrative coherence that underlies the stylistic diversity.  It also resides in the openness, responsiveness, and eagerness with which these two distinct and distinguished musical minds - thoroughly accomplished in their own corners of the jazz world – came to this exercise in bridge-building.  Such projects rarely work out this well. 

Read More

Darren Johnston & Tim Daisy - Crossing Belmont (Relay Digital, 2017) ****

By Stef Gijssels

Sometimes it's hard to write about music, even if the music is great, and that's the case on this album. Trumpeter Darren Johnston and drummer Tim Daisy give us two long pieces to enjoy. The first clocks at twenty-five minutes, the second at almost ten. It does not seem as if anything has been agreed upon in advance, and it's this kind of jump and go attitude that creates a very fresh and authentic sound. The first five minutes give us a high energy interaction, with repeated phrases on the trumpet and power percussion, and suddenly the mood becomes calmer, with Daisy demonstrating his inventiveness by playing a slow solo, a kind of sphere-setting thing. Johnston's moaning sounds, electronically altered and muted, creates a deep heartfelt emotion before taking up renewed energy and intensity.

Both Johnston and Daisy are wonderful improvisers, who shift inside and outside the traditional use of their instruments, listening well to each other, and often taking the listener by surprise, while at the same time creating a story that unfolds before your ears, crisp, crackling and sparkling, and fun.

The performance was recorded live on April 23, 2017 at the Hungry Brain in Chicago, and is among the absolutely enjoyable ones in our long list of trumpet-piano duos.

Read More

Peter Evans and Alfred Vogel – Il Piccolo Incindete (Boomslang, 2016) ****

By Rick Joines

Peter Evans plays trumpet with an uncommon inventiveness, intensity, and athleticism. Strange and previously unimaginable sounds emit from his bell at an incredible speed and in limitless combinations. His breath and formal virtuosity are impressive all on their own, yet the sheer physicality of his playing and his endurance make an equal impression. Evans produces an unexpected onslaught of musical ideas, as if he aspires to play all the parts of an orchestra by himself—and all at once. While Evans’ playing on Il Piccolo Incidente is more playful than usual, it lacks none of his usual rigor or intelligence. The panoply of Evans’ vigorous and inimitable “extended” technique is on full display, but he deploys his profound facility with a lighter touch, and a little humor—beginning with the title. An “il piccolo incidente” is a “small accident,” like a faux pas. The idea of “small accidents” chimes well with the unpredictability of spontaneous composition and improvisation. There is also the literal reading: Evans plays a piccolo trumpet, so Il Piccolo Incidente is a record of the things that occurred, by chance, when he and Alfred Vogel invented seven songs lasting 33 minutes.

No forms, modes, or shapes can denote Evans truly. He moves, measure by measure, from the baroque through bebop to minimalism and back again, picking up what he missed the first time. The quantity of notes astounds the ear, and while this could come across as showing off, his playing is entirely devoid of arrogance. Instead, there is an obsessive insistence on aggregation, an almost manic anxiety that a timbral possibility might be missed. As in a cartoon thought bubble floating over a composer’s head, Evans’ mind seems to be madly flipping pages of scores, a blizzard of notes falling everywhere. Occasionally, he perseverates with dizzying speed on a phrase, and, as with a minimalist composer, the repetition begins to blur how we hear the notes—and the nature of the notes themselves. At other times, he’ll linger on a note or phrase, emphasizing the background of silence. He can sound like a tweaked-out Miles Davis with a Harmon mute, but he reminds me most often of Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp, solo and in King Crimson. Evans coaxes the animal kingdom out of his horn with the exuberance of Belew twang-bar-kinging the cries of a lone rhinoceros, an elephant, or a big electric cat. Then again, like Fripp, Evans can braid emotional and tonal registers with utter grace, frightening us then breaking our hearts with beauty.

Alfred Vogel does not attempt to compete with the blitzkrieg of Evans’ playing. Instead, like a magpie, he’s collected a nest of things, and all those things percuss. He does not “accompany” Evans, nor keep time; instead he plays around Evans. With sticks, drum kit and cymbals, bells and cans, and bits and pieces of this or that, Vogel is a vigilant partner, yet in a way that seems wonderfully indifferent to Evans. It’s easy pay little attention to Vogel because of the glam and glitter of Evans, but when one does one marvels at the genius of Vogel’s restraint, which contributes elegantly to the joy and playfulness of this album.

Album and samples are available here: http://www.traps.at/boomslang-en/il-piccolo-incidente

Read More

Kirk Knuffke & Whit Dickey – Fierce Silence (Clean Feed, 2016) ****

By Eric McDowell

It wasn’t until I saw him live at the Lilypad in Cambridge, MA earlier this fall that I began to fully appreciate what Kirk Knuffke and his cornet bring to the scene. In that space, free of distractions, Knuffke’s playing revealed itself in all its earnest lyricism, eschewing shows of bravura for a reserved deliberateness that—like the work of Morton Feldman, or the friendship of a shy person—asks you to lean in a little closer before showing you why you won’t want to pull away.

True, there may be other aspects to Knuffke’s playing, but it’s this understated sensibility that the cornetist brings to Fierce Silence. Beyond drummer Whit Dickey, the invisible third member of this duo is—you guessed it—the negative space they invite into their improvisations. Yet the silences never feel staged, or used merely to heighten the playing when it resumes, because they’re integrated into Knuffke and Dickey’s overarching sensibility. Across ten pieces totaling just 45 minutes, for his part Knuffke favors sustained husky notes and miniature squeaks, rasping muted tones that shimmer in their metallic vibrations. His on-again, off-again melodies are like sweet hard candy rolled around the mouth, always dissolving. A perfect complement in this situation, Dickey can drum on the one hand with the freestanding melodicism of Max Roach or on the other with a net-like looseness, stirring up subtly swinging grooves that support without subordinating.

If you liked Row for William O., Knuffke’s duo album with Michael Bisio, you’ll want to hear Fierce Silence. All we can hope for next is a Knuffke/Bisio/Dickey trio…

Read More

Scott Tinkler & Greg Sheehan - Federal (Bandcamp, 2015) ****

By Stef

The two Australian musicians are Scott Tinkler on trumpet and Greg Sheehan on percussion. You know, dear reader, that I like this format, ever since the great duets of Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell. Check the 'Topics', then 'Tags' on the right to find out more reviews for the trumpet-drums format, or use the search engine to find more reviews about Scott Tinkler.

A short review for a really nice album, nothing too exceptional, and maybe not as good or special as his previous albums with amongst others Simon Barker (also trumpet-drums duos), Marc Hannaford or the great album with Korean singer Bae Il Dong, yet it is fun. It is great fun. You get eleven pieces, clocking between three and six minutes, all tunes with distinct approaches, with different moods, fresh and open-ended improvisations, performed by two musicians who enjoy what they are creating.

Even if it's adventurous, the music remains quite accessible, with not too many extended techniques, yet with obvious instrumental mastery by both musicians. It all sounds so honest, outright, authentic, with a disarming naturalness, without pretence or self-centeredness, it is all about the music. I love it.


Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Read More