Mark Dresser & Paul Nicholas Roth – signal_Blur (Earwash Records, 2024)

By Guido Montegrandi

- **signal_Blur** >> arhythmic compositions for saxophone and double bass, messed with and put back together again. written by roth, co-arranged by dresser & roth -

This is what the bandcamp page says about this record made by Mark Dresser (double bass) and Paul Nicholas Roth (alto sax), not much but it gets directly to the point - it is a collection of terse compositions in which the two of them test many different possibilities offered by the duo environment deconstructing melodies and harmonies, offering fascinating small abstract pictures.

Melody (even if fragmented) is a key feature - in a long interview in which Paul N. Roth speaks among other things about this record, he stresses the importance of melody as an element of connection with the listener even in an experimental and free context like this one.

The first track 'ready play' is a game of unisons, imitations and clashes on the edge of the sounds both instruments can produce. This game, played on the various registers and with different dynamics, will be a marking feature of the whole album. The following piece 'Dance' is more relaxed, Dresser stays on the low register and the initial unison dissolves in a free counterpoint-like development. Broken pieces of melodies are scattered around then a moment of silence introduces to the conclusive unison.

Silence is another distinctive element,

It is as if music is trying to make its way around silence. Often the pieces offer moments of complete silence thus creating a sort of catalyst for the music to develop. While almost all of the pieces have a theme–improvisation–theme structure, this classical form is striped to its bare bones to expose such stuff music is made of.

Echoing the words of Paul N. Roth in the fore mentioned interview, his music develops following the inspiration of Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, trying to return melody its primacy but also to develop a complex and rich environment.

It is a subtle record and repeated listening offers new nuances and a clearer vision of the weaving of the voices. Dresser has a whole career of experimenting and trying new solutions (if you insert his name in our blog search engine you will find plenty of examples) and this record represent a new interesting chapter written with an equally interesting fellow musician.

You can buy the vinyl or download the album on Bandcamp

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Duo Falak – Tira-Tira (TOPOT Records, 2024)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

Duo Falak is Denis Sorokin on electro acoustic guitar and Shohin Qurbon on doyra (a kind of frame drum) and voice. What they mostly tackle and struggle within their music is something that really concerns me too: how to incorporate my (theirs in this case, having to do with Tajik traditional falak songs) tradition with what goes on today, both in musical and aesthetic terms. One of their answers is improvisation.

Improvisation, of course, is not, and never was, a privilege of western music. It is a practice rooted deep in numerous traditions around this beautiful planet and, in this case, is the main vehicle the two musicians use so to develop their ideas about this music. Even though the orientalist (if we see it from the western eyes) divide between East and West never ceased to exist, the war in Ukraine made it totally clear that this situation is not a walk in the park.

Listening and understanding recordings like Tira-Tira (with its beautiful handmade covers) can serve as a way to fulfill the Utopia of a unification of the people and not the fascists in power. Tira-Tira is beautiful, melodic, aggressive and full of energy music. In all six tracks of the CD there’s a religious aspect that channels images and feelings from the highlands of Pamir. The aforementioned instrumentation might be unusual (as you can read on the Bandcamp page) for this music, but it serves it right, I believe.

The two-stringed dutar is replaced by the guitar. I surely cannot make the comparison between the two, but I have to guess that even though they are both stringed instruments, Sorokin’s approach offers a new glaze to the music. This makes an equally playful and serious antithesis with Qurbon’s voice, one that feels like it is coming from centuries back, transporting the listener to the vast plains of former Soviet Republics.

Reading some of my remarks on this CD, it feels like some clichés are present…But this live recording, from September, 2023 in Tashkent, brings the listener back to the basics. Modern music that is informed by an old tradition by two musicians that want to react against the burden of this tradition but love it at the same time. There’s a western aggressive, rock element in the music, but as it is deeply rooted in the geography of these areas, you can certainly feel a trance elevation, a feeling of transcendence.

Listen here:

@koultouranafigo

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Mathias Eick - Lullaby (ECM, 2025)

By Don Phipps

Poignant, embracing, a panorama of restless solitude, the music of Mathias Eick’s Lullaby is, in a word, arresting. Eick surrounds himself with empathetic band mates – pianist Kristjan Randalu, bassist Ole Morten Vågan, and drummer Hans Hulbækmo. Known primarily for his skillful trumpet playing, Eick adds his voice and keyboard playing to this mix. He also composed all the numbers that grace the outing.

Eick opens the album with “September,” a sedate, melancholy opus – not unlike a cool afternoon, the breezy air fresh with the scent of trees and grass. Randalu’s piano shines – the running, tripping lines float easily above Vågan’s transitionsand Hulbækmo’s quiet drumming. The bluesy title cut, “Lullaby” demonstrates Hulbækmo’s sympathetic brush work and Randalu’s ability to take the theme of the song and harmonically rework it. Eick creates a spacious atmosphere on “Partisan,” first trumpet, then morphing into haunting vocals, then returning to trumpet.

“My Love” strikes a happier tone. The tune is buoyed by Eick’s upbeat straight-ahead trumpet and the gentle, prancing touch of Randalu’s piano. The remarkable ballad “May” might be the zenith of the material presented. Its gentle lilting theme gives Eick a chance to display his full-throated, introspective technique. “Hope” follows and is simultaneously sad and stately. More importantly, it reveals the delicate interactions of Eick’s trumpet and Randalu’s piano.

Eick uses his voice in an almost spiritual manner on “Free,” and it is here that you can hear Vågan’s bowing. The song has an airy mood of isolation – like one alone looking up at the blue sky above a towering canyon. As the piece progresses, one senses a momentum – an energy – at once peaceful and on edge. The final number, “Vejle (for Geir),” pushes forward more strongly than others on the album. It seems like Eick wanted to leave listeners with the will to continue – to persevere no matter what – his trumpet soaring effortlessly atop the rhythm section’s propelling efforts.

The beautiful ballads on “Lullaby” are striking. Eick’s compositions are about feeling alive, even when one is beaten down by the daily drudge or unexpected circumstance. He seems to be saying that despite the down moments we all experience, beauty is abundant and plentiful. One need only move forward to experience it.

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Emad Armoush’s Rayhan – Distilled Extractions (Afterday Audio 2025)

By Nick Ostrum

It begins with a whirl of sound, out of which Francois Houle’s clarinet rises to lead the piece into a lively Arabic dance. The rhythm, played or implied, remains, but the horns and strings swing back into a stew of improvisation that recalls, with Middle Eastern inflections, the free jazz fumblings especially of late 1950s/early 1960s Ornette and Don Cherry. They lean toward melody but are also pulled to the cacophony that would soon be realized as free improv in Europe. Here, Armoush balances that impulse with his folk and classical Arabic training to produce something that is absolutely stunning, especially when punctuated by his hauntingly emotive voice.

Distilled Extractions is Armoush’s group Rayhan’s second recording, at least as far as I can find. Accompanying the core of Kenton Loewen on drums, Houle on clarinet, JP Carter on trumpet, Jesse Zubot on violin and, of course, Armoush himself on oud, ney and vocals is cellist Marina Hasselberg, who has played everything from early music to contemporary classical to collaborations with Okkyung Lee, Ingrid Laubrock and John Dieterich. (Notably, this is the same Rayhan line-up that performed on 2023’s Electritradition, though there in duos rather than collectively.) The stylistic reach is wide, though much of that reach, especially into free jazz, is integrated along different scalar and rhythmic lines. At its core, however, lies dance music – by definition a communal undertaking - driven by a steady rhythm and eastern scales and syntax. This alone might be enough to make this album compelling, especially when performed by band this tight. The improvisations, however, the protracted pronouncements/recitations, the genuinely weird atmospherics, the unstructured improv sections truly distinguish Distilled Extractions from the crowd.

In an odd way, this reminds me of the Grateful Dead at their digressive best. The group eventually get back to the melody and the “song,” but the listener is often left wondering how it happened, and excited that things happened in the way they did. To these ears, at least, this is one of the best so far of 2025.

Distilled Extractionsis available as a CD and download on Bandcamp:

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Rob Mazurek - Nestor’s Nest (Keroxen Records, 2025)

By Don Phipps

Rob Mazurek’s solo album Nestor’s Nest is a creative sonic adventure that runs from Native American drum chants to imagined extraterrestrial settings. Known for his trumpet playing and composing skills, Mazurek jettisons bandmates on this go round, choosing instead to create his own soundscapes using Modular Synths, a Moog Sub 37, a PolyEvolver (another type of synthesizer), bells, flutes, and his own vocals.

The first cut, “Star Fruit,” serves as a kind of short celestial introduction to the explosive, propelling rhythm of “Banana Fruit,” a piece which features syncopated beats beneath an ethereal vibraphone-like voicing. The vibraphonish sounds float above rhythm and what might be described as a bit of DJ scratching. Burbles and baubles bubble up from the deep like an ocean geyser. Late in the number, Mazurek uses striking trumpet injections – his lines slicing through the rhythmic polyphonic intensity like a samurai sword through bamboo. As the music concludes, he brings what sounds like Native American chants to the maelstrom.

The short “Under the Papaya Tree” offers up a bird call flute before breaking into the funky safari of “Mango Fruit.” The music here is an elephant ride along a jungle coast, the white sand stretching outward interspersed with palm trees. The electronic legato mix hangs atop syncopated beats before progressing to a cubic light show generated by a whirling, sound-spinning decahedron.

“Papaya Fruit” is perhaps the most surprising of all the cuts. It begins like a 1950s space movie soundtrack – is this Mazurek replicating the hum of the universe? The piece migrates into an African-inspired funk. Mazurek enters on trumpet, fluttering, trilling, and roller-coasting up and down – his fantastic technique never wavers as it twists and turns. Voice and bells enter – the number radiating a galloping heat, the thunder of hooves on dry clay. As it winds down, one hears percussion instruments Art Ensemble of Chicago-style.

The music of Nestor’s Nest is clever, flamboyant, challenging. It retains a sense of immediacy – the action non-stop, the atmospheres created diverse. Mazurek pushes his listeners to confront a variety of musical environments. The strange and surreal mind travels generated here will keep most on edge. Fun stuff. Enjoy!

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Virginia Genta @ Moers 2024

The Moers Festival, or "mœrs festival," is an annual international music festival held in Moers, Germany. Founded in 1972 by Burkhard Hennen, it initially focused on free jazz but over the years has expanded its scope to include world and pop music while still inviting many avant-garde jazz musicians. One such musician was Italian saxophonist Virgina Genta - certainly known for her part in the Jooklo Duo with drummer David Vanzan - and the artist in residence at Moers last year.

Here is a video of Genta performing with guitarist Bill Nace at the festival in 2024. You can tell from the immediate furnace blast of sound that these two were in a take-no-prisoners mood. 

The Moers Festival 2025 is scheduled to take place from June 6th to June 9th. This year's artist in residence is Belgian trumpeter Bart Maris, whose own style combines melodic tendencies with avant-garde approaches. Check out a bit more here.

To learn more about the festival, the line up, and its new "Pay What You Want" pricing plan, head here. 

Check out Eyal Hareuveni's coverage of the festival last year here. (We'll be back this year as well).

Read Free Jazz Blog reviews of Virginia Genta's work here: 

• Eyes Turned Inward: An Interview with Virginia Genta
• Jooklo Roundup
• Jooklo Trio – It is what it is (Relative Pitch, 2020) ****
• Solos from Relative Pitch (Day 1/2)
• Jooklo Trio - It Is What It Is / Virginia Genta - Amplified Sopranino Sax 7
• Bill Nace Round Up (Day 2/2)
• Unlimited 30 Festival, Wels, Austria, Nov. 11-13, 2016
• Virginia Genta - Rough Enough (Holidays, 2016) ****1/2
• Virginia Genta, David Vanzan, Dag Stiberg, John Wesseltoft – Det Kristike Punkt (2015, Feeding Tube Records) ****
• Jooklo Danish Group - Mixture of Energies (Holiday Records, 2012) ****
• Jooklo Duo & Bill Nace – Scratch (Holidays Records) ****1/2

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The Vinny Golia Quintet 2024: Almasty (Nine Winds, 2024) *****

By Paul Acquaro 

 

Yes, it is a 2024 release, and had I given it proper spins at the proper time, it would have likely ended up on a best-of list of mine. That's my trope though, isn't it ... where was I when this was happening? Luckily, in this case, it still is happening and it happens to be great. LA based Vinny Golia, master of all things woodwind and renowned music educator, has created a top-notch album rife with  compositional elements and scintillating improvisation. 

 

The group is a choice selection of musicians - many of them also educators - from the West Coast. Along with Golia is trumpeter Kris Tiner, pianist Cathlene Pineda, bassist Miller Wrenn, and drummer Clint Dodson. A quick look through their bios reveals some common constellations and connections, but it seems like Almasty is a first for the group - which is certainly not ascertainable from the music - and which was followed up by a second recording, Can You Outrun Them?, released at the very end of last year.

 

Almasty begins with 'A Little Game', kicking off with a knotty harmonic clash between Tiner and Golia, their interaction exuding a hint of Coleman and Cherry, which then quickly unfolds revealing a  cornucopia of textures, tones and melodies. The song is a game of chase with ideas darting about, drums and bass providing a strong foundation, and piano smartly filling the space with supportive rhythmic comping and vibrant chords. The next track 'Requiem; a visit to the fairy room, for WS' demonstrates the diversity of the music. The ballad-like tune begins with a slightly wavering doubling of sax and trumpet, under which Pineda sly interjects chords, along with the rustle of percussion. The tune then opens up with the bass adding additional motion, and Golia begins playing a yearning melody.

 

Pineda is in the fore on 'Crocodylomphs & Theropods', at first. Her syncopated comping and melodic snippets make for an accessibly abstract approach that seems at once classically jazzy and sneakily subversive. Tiner follows up with a solo of similar appeal. The last track that I'll mention is 'That Was For Albert! #43 (it's not who you think...)' Assuming that everyone thinks just like me, the Albert would be Ayler, but who really knows. What can be definitively stated is that it is one of the more exuberantly free flowing tracks of the recording. Wrenn's bowed bass adds tense reverberations and Dodson's drumming provides a turbulent underlayer for the musical effervescence on top.

 

What an album! Rich and colorful, gorgeously played inside and outside. We haven't touched on the term 'Almasty' yet. Apparently it is a cryptid, a creature that may or may not exist like a Bigfoot - this one being a wild man in the mountains of central Asia. I cannot say that it actually means anything in relation to the music, but it could be a good piece of trivia for you to use the next time you're searching for small talk before a show.

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Albert Ayler with Don Cherry - 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed (First Visit-ezz-thetics, 2024)

By Ferruccio Martinotti

Albert Ayler definitely represents one of the ontological arguments for being, you and us, in front of a screen in this very right moment. But no worries, we’re not so dumb or arrogant to pretend to add some miserable lines of ours to explain the Man to such a gotha of colleagues and to the super skilled readers of the Only Blog That Matters. 

So, trying to keep our battered spaceship at a reasonable distance from the Sun, let’s start the trip by opening the History Book. After a first stint in 1962 along with Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler comes back to Copenhagen invited by the Cafè Montmartre, one of the most legendary jazz venues all over the globe. His trio, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sonny Murray, is on board with him, together they will join Don Cherry, already on the European soil. The trip is the usual kind of adventures for fearless mavericks like them: no food, no bucks, a light luggage made of a white shirt and a shoeshine brush, a heavy load of hopes to play as much as they can and possibly to be paid for that. In terms of discography, the outcome of that tour has been gathered in various forms along the years. Without bothering you too much, following are the releases as listed in the official Ayler Records site: The Hilversum Session; The Copenhagen Tapes; Albert Ayler Live in Europe 1964-1966; European Radio Studio Recordings 1964; Copenhagen Live 1964; European Recordings Autumn 1964 Revisited. Now, this wonderful, shining 2 CD set, allows us to enjoy one of the crucial ensembles in the history of music, delivering high-octane, pedal to metal performances, recorded from 3rd to 14th September on in Copenhagen and on November 9th in Hilversum. 

Along with Ayler’s timeless gems ('Holy Spirit,' 'Ghosts,' 'Vibrations,' 'Spirits,' among others), the beautiful Don Cherry’s 'Infant Happiness' is the icing on an already tasteful cake. Nobody better than poet Ted Joans described the emotions felt in attending the Montmartre residency, his sentence now part of the myth of our beloved music: “Their sound was so different, so unique and raw, like to scream FUCK in Saint Patric’s Cathedral during a sold out Easter service”. And more: “Some Danish answered with bad whistling, others screamed to the musicians to shut up. I sat chocked, intoxicated and surprised to what I experienced. Their music didn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before”. Asked by Danish journalists, the musicians said little about their music. If for Ayler: “My music is spiritual music”, Gary Peacock provided the ultimate, unsurpassed claim: “This isn’t music for a specific purpose, for instance to listen or dance to, it just IS”. No reason to waste ink to add that here we’re talking of a buy-or-die record. 

A final note to pay the credits due to the people who made this recordings available to us: the supreme Hat Hut Records Ltd. Founded and owned by Werner X. Uehlinger in 1975, Hat Hut started independently the series “ezz-thetics” in 2019, the name chosen to honor the exceptional recording of George Russel and the great soli of Eric Dolphy on it, then launched the new series “First Visit”, mainly for archive discoveries. The job done by such labels is more than invaluable, it should be considered Heritage of Humanity. Time to scream FUCK whenever and wherever we can is NOW. 

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Yes Deer - Everything That Shines, Everything That Hurts (Superpang, 2025)

By Eyal Hareuveni

Danish, Oslo-baed sax player Signe Emmeluth is one of the busiest musicians in the Nordic free music scene, leading her bands Emmeluth's Amoeba and Banshee, playing solo and in duos with Belgian sax player Hanne de Backer and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood, and member of Paal Nilssen-Love’s Circus, Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra, Bonanza of Doom, Andreas Røysum Ensemble, Liv Andrea Hauge Ensemble, and Jonas Cambien's Maca Conu.

Emmeluth joined the hyper-expressive free jazz trio Yes Deer - with Norwegian guitarist-partner Karl Bjorå (who plays in Emmeluth's Amoeba and with her in Bonanza of Doomin and the duo Owl), and Danish drummer Anders Vestergaard - after fellow Danish sax player Signe Dahlgreen left the trio in 2021. Everything That Shines, Everything That Hurts is the fourth album of the trio and the first one with Emmeluth.

Fortunately, nothing has changed in this supposedly fresh beginning of the trio. It still offers its raw and thunderous dynamics and explodes right from the first second with an intense, merciless ride. Displaced, distorted guitar riffs, manic saxophone blows, and libidinous drumming blend into an intoxicating, cacophonous stew that keeps boiling until it completely drains all energy out of Yes Deer.

Emmeluth, on tenor and alto saxes, has become an organic part of Yes Deer’s fiery, dense interplay with her stream of stratospheric, commanding blows. The album features only two pieces, the 14-minute “Everything That Shines” and the 18-minute “Everything That Hurts”, but you are guaranteed that its liberating power will trigger immediate, repeated listening. There is nothing that can compete with an addictive stew of such three musicians playing in one room, their super-fast instincts, clever thinking, and deep camaraderie, as well as their willingness to act stupidly, search for the sound of sabotage, and push away their sticky jazz education.

A perfect album for our current despairing times.

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James Brandon Lewis - Apple Cores (ANTI-, 2025)

By Don Phipps

“My work involves the idea of building my own molecule and then allowing myself to give meaning to it,” said tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis in a November 2023 interview with Stewart Smith of the Quietus. In the interview, Lewis expresses his interest in science – describing the DNA Helix as a model for his Molecular Systematic Music system. He expounds, saying “…the transformative experiences that can shape your artistic DNA…. My encounter with the whole idea of molecular biology continues to shape my music’s personality.”

The DNA helix is well understood in science as the fundamental building block of who each of us is – from our physical characteristics to our behavior and personality. Perhaps this is what drives James Brandon Lewis – his goal – a musical form that emanates who he is deep down – his core . Maybe that is what lies behind the album name – Apple Cores.

Lewis and his bandmates, the wonderful Chad Taylor (drums, mbira) and Josh Werner (bass, guitar) composed all the pieces which grace this effort. The trio is joined on some of the tracks by two guest artists, Guilherme Monteiro (guitar) and Stephane San Juan (percussion). Together they deliver a stunning combination of toe tapping, head nodding, angular musical geometry chockful of rolling rhythm and bass lines, lines that permit Lewis to mold the music with his soulful and seductive sax passages.

Like ocean spray on a warm summer day, the music feels almost joyful - in an abstract sort of way. The geometry of the music suggests paintings of Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, or the fascinating landscapes of Yves Tanguy. There is tight coherence to each cut, but also a broadening that stretches outward. The three Apple Core numbers (“Apple Core #1,” “Apple Core #2,” and “Apple Core #3”) demonstrate this tight and loose feel – the rolling Werner bass arpeggios and the Taylor funky, bumpy drumwork behind Lewis’s wild and undulating sax exhortations and stutters. The music leaps from ledge to ledge like a mountain goat on a desolate Wyoming Beartooth mountain.

Then there is the expansive ballad “Of Mind and Feeling,” where the group is joined by Monteiro and San Juan. Coming in at less than three minutes, the music here is airy and hazy, a kind of peaceful morning call – and what a beautiful and introspective morning it is! Listen to Monteiro’s floating guitar lines above Lewis’s deep and resonant presentation. Werner keeps it minimal – touching only on the basics while letting the music open up. And likewise, Taylor adds a minimal approach, his subtle toms apparent at first before disappearing altogether.

Other numbers are equally impressive – the musical safari of “Prince Eugene,” the intense climb of “Five Spots to Caravan,” the New York street feel of “Remember Brooklyn & Moki,” where the music creates a collage of concrete sidewalks, wall graffiti, urban metal security shutters, dusty street signs, and brownstones.

“Broken Shadows” generates heat, lit up by Taylor’s fascinating African-infused beat. There is the hopping dance line of “D.C. Got Pocket.” Listen for Monteiro’s guitar funk and later his intense blowback intermixed with the solid but novel Taylor drumming. And on “Exactly, Our Music,” the tight syncopation is backstopped by Monteiro’s vibrant guitar. After a brief Monteiro solo, Lewis emerges with his soulful motif and San Juan jumps in late with irregular patterns that merge seamlessly.

Although all the music presented is excellent, “Don’t Forget About Jane,” may well be this album’s masterpiece. Here is where - above Taylor’s all over drumming - Lewis shows off his angular dramatic style in all its glory. As the piece progresses, Lewis becomes even more extemporaneous, deploying immense freewheeling arcs and a repetitive motif that reaches for the sky.

There is never a dull moment on Apple Cores – it is exciting to its core. This is a record that delivers Punch and Judy – a ripe bowl of apples - sweet, crisp, with plenty of juice, and ready for your pleasure.

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