Empty Cage Quartet - Hello the Damage! (pfMentum, 2006) ***

The MTKJ Quartet (acronym for the musicians' initials), turned into the Empty Cage Quartet some years ago. They are a free jazz/free improv band consisting of Jason Mears on alto saxophone, Bb clarinet and wood flutes; Kris Tiner on trumpet and flugelhorn; Paul Kikuchi on drums and Ivan Johnson on contrabass. Their live music, as on this album is very slow, lengthy and spacy, and the sound quality not too good. And that's really a shame, because the band really has something to tell. And the overall quality of the musicians can be more appreciated on the more composed shorter tracks on their excellent studio recordings "Day Of The Race" (2005) and "Making Room For Space" (2004), which are much more joyful, jubilant and inspired. True, a little less free, but the quality is super on these two albums. "Hello The Damage" is a little disappointment after that, sounding a little bit too flat, but still recommended.

Their albums can be listened to and downloaded from PayPlay.com

Listen to and/or download a recent live performance live at 1510 8th St Performance Space in Oakland, CA, August 6, 2007

You can also watch this totally weird video with a soundtrack by the Empty Cage Quartet. Enjoy!

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John Coxon/Wadada Leo Smith - Brooklyn Duos (Treader, 2007) ***

Looks like Wadada Leo Smith is definitely committed to releasing duo recordings, the third already in a year, this time with British multi-instrumentalist John Coxon, known from Spring Heel Jack, on whose The Sweetness Of Water, Smith also participated. But Coxon isn't into electronics or sampling here, he plays harmonica and guitar, both electric and acoustic. Technically Smith is another league than Coxon, but musically they are very much on the same wavelength here. This isn't a spiritual outing as on some other of Wadada Leo Smith's records, this one is more about sound, open structure and interaction, yet very soulful, without needing rhythm or fixed melody. The good thing is Coxon knows his limits in the presence of Smith, and he just adds color, contrast and support, without venturing too far, although it must be said that his use of the instruments is very functional and creative, although on the longest tracks "Urban Air Voices" and "November Flowers", the limitations of his guitar playing started to work a little on my nerves (but maybe that says more about my nerves). But still, a nice effort, and Smith fans will definitely want to hear this one. For those who haven't heard him play yet, there are other albums that are more recommended.

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Joe McPhee's Survival Unit III - Don't Postpone Joy (Rai Trade, 2007) ****

In 1971, Joe McPhee released Trinity, the first album with his Survival Unit II, with a bass-less trio, later to be followed by "N.Y.N.Y. 1971", released by HatHut in 2006. Now, a year later, McPhee brings us his Survival Unit III, with Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Michael Zerang on percussion. The set-list is not unfamiliar : "Variations on Harriett", "Variations on Nation Time", come from his first records "Underground Railroad" and "Nation Time", and already figured on the HatHut 2006 release. "Variations on Remembrance" was originally on the 2005 Cadence CD. "Feather Exchange" is a composition by Lonberg-Holm.

But all that is fairly meaningless, considering the fact that "Don't Postpone Joy" was recorded live in Firenze, Italy in 2005, and is a recording in its own right, with totally different musicians. I listened to the 1971 recording earlier today, and was amazed first of all at how great it all sounded, but secondly, how close to Coltrane and Ayler it still was too. This performance of three decades later just shows what the relevance of McPhee himself has been on musical expression. The basis is still there : deeply emotional and expressive music, raw and creative. McPhee has always been a sentimentalist at heart, and his sweet melodies always shine through the chaos and the intense anxiety that's also part of his music. But those basic feelings have been stripped of the grammar of that period, purified, intensified, stripped of all the conventions, yet without falling into the nihilism of much of free improv. This is not deconstructing anymore, but constructing, creating new sounds and sound combinations and a musical experience that is at moments truly stunning.

Out of the first 7 or 8 screeching minutes of Nation Time arises a gentle, velvety softness in the slow bluesy playing of drums, cello and pocket trumpet, which would have been beautiful as a stand-alone piece, but integrated and in contrast with what went before, the listening experience is only more intense and satisfying, especially because it breaks down again in loose pointillistic sounds. And sounds they can produce, with McPhee shouting through his sax, Lonberg-Holm producing effects close to the human voice on his cello, but not just for the sake of doing weird stuff, it fits within the overall context. On "Remembrance", an hypnotic rhythm is taken up by drums and cello, for McPhee to blow again slowly and with deep feeling, propulsed forward by Zerang's great drumming and leaving room for the cello to interact with the sax, first gently, then powerfully, moving the whole piece into an incredible frenzy, and back again to a more subdued atmosphere, moods come and go, contrasts abound, experiences flow. The real musical highlight of the album is Lonberg-Holm's "Feather Exchange", which starts with a great drums intro by Zerang, some pizzi cello, then whailing arco, and when McPhee joins on sax, the whole thing has become a form of contained tension ready to explode, but then it evolves into a very sad, moving piece. A great album by three magnificent musicians.

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Die Enttäuschung (Intakt, 2007) ****

No name could be more misplaced than "Die Enttäuschung" (The Disappointment"), a Berlin free jazz band. A few years ago, this quartet with Alexander Von Schlippenbach on piano, made the excellent Monk's Casino for the same label. Here they bring their own compositions, and very much in the same vein. The pieces are short, anchored in bop, but open enough to be catalogued as free jazz. With Rudi Mahall on bass clarinet, Axel Dörner on trumpet, Jan Roder on bass and Uli Jennessen on drums, the four musicians each contribute pieces. Some are outright free, especially those by Dörner, and the most accessible tracks are written by Jennessen. The two horns dance around each other troughout the album, reacting, playing with the themes, chasing each other, playing counterpoint, with Mahall's bass clarinet not even shy of using swing band phrasing, and Dörner again the free-est in his improvizations. Sure, there are references to Monk, but at times they sound more like a modern day version of Old & New Dreams. A more correct name for the band could be "Die Lebensfreude" (The Joy Of Life), because that's how they sound.

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Fred Hess Band - In The Grotto (FHMusic, 2007) ****

Fred Hess is one of those artists who managed to carve out their own style and characteristic voice within jazz. His albums are carefully composed but keep the lightness and freedom of free jazz. The compositions themselves are always creative, with lots of twists and turns, tempo changes, rhythm changes, new themes coming in, moods shifting, and it's hard not be kept captivated by what's going on : you get surprises and new vistas after every new bend in the road. Hess is also totally underrated as a musician : his sax playing is very rich and varied. He is accompanied by a great band consisting of Ron Miles on trumpet, John Gunther on alto saxophone, Ken Filiano on bass and Matt Wilson on drums. The great thing about Hess's music is that he incorporates the whole of jazz history in his writing, from bop to more abstract modern work, but also funk and third stream. And the band is technically so good, that they move his compositions to an even higher level. Probably his greatest feat is that he infuses his intellectually challenging compositions with fun, and that's obvious from the very first funky tones of the opening track "Simple Steps" and it doesn't stop till the final notes of the more boppish stop-and-go fun of "Ninth House".


Listen and download from PayPlay.com

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William Parker Double Quartet - Alphaville Suite (RogueArt, 2007) ****

The great thing about William Parker is that he doesn't stop looking for new approaches to music, as long as they're acoustic and based on genuine interplay between real musicians. On this CD he brings a double quartet, his usual band consisting of himself on bass, Rob Brown on alto sax, Lewis Barnes on trumpet and Hamid Drake on drums, augmented with Mazz Sqift on violin, Jessica Pavone on viola, Julia Kent on cello and Shiau-Shu Yu on cello. Leena Conquest guests on vocals on "Natasha's Theme" and "Natasha's Theme 2". Or, if you want, a male quartet and a female quartet.

Like Matthew Shipp's tribute to Jean Genet on the French RogueArt label, this one is a tribute to and inspired by another great French piece of art, Jean-Luc Godard's movie "Alphaville". In this movie, the futuristic city Alphaville is dominated by the logic of computers and ruled by an evil scientist named Von Braun, who has outlawed love and self-expression. And "love and self-expression" are of course themes close to Parker's heart and they have permeated his career and art.

Adding the string quartet helps to evocate the music of the film itself, with the eery tension and typical movie suspense full of romantic drama and sentimental outbursts. But the strings here are luckily more modern, more avant-garde, offering a great contrast with the free jazz musicians, sometimes limiting themselves to pizzicato chattering in the background, sometimes driving heavy unisono lines accentuating the jazz solos, with an especially gloomy and menacing counterpoint in the long "Dr. Badguy". The overall effect is utterly bizarre, creating a kind of busyness which is too much to grasp at once, because there is too much going on, but still in a coherent way, following its own logic. The jazz dominates, and it's great as you can expect from these artists and there are times, especially in the longer pieces that the strings let them do their thing, leaving some breathing space, but never for long : there they are again, to chase the jazz quartet forward, jabb it in the sides, kick it back, emphasize it, play along in moments of frenzy, move it to weird territory, or offer shades and an overall darkness that is highly unusual, to say the least. Without specifically saying that the string quartet would represent the cold futuristic logic of the evil scientist and the jazz band the proponents of love and free expression (or female vs male :-), at least the tension between good and bad and the overall mood of the film is well-captured by the concept of the double band. And the music is excellent to. Like Parker's "Requiem", this is one you should listen to often before you can appreciate it to the full.

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Alipio C. Neto Quartet - The Perfume Comes Before The Flower (Clean Feed, 2007) ****

Here's another stunning free jazz album. Trumpeter Herb Robertson and bass player Ken Filiano are obviously well-known names, saxophonist Alipio C Neto is probably less known, although he's one of the driving forces behind the IMI Kollektief and Wishful Thinking. Neto is a Brazilian who moved to Portugal to have a doctorate in literature, yet who stayed in the country and started seriously engaging himself in music. The quartet is completed by Michael TA Thompson on drums, and Ben Stap joins on tuba on three of the five tracks.

Apparently Neto's credo is that "music must always be transcendental", and that's clear from the very first sounds of the record. High tempo drumming introduces very slow sax tones and arco bass, with absolutely frantic trumpet soloing by Robertson, creating a feeling of wide expanses and deep emotional contrasts, and then suddenly all sounds converge into a totally unexpected unisono melody that shifts a few seconds later into Filiano's well-known incredibly precise and adventurous bowing, with an hesitant, yet strong sax solo by Neto, and he is absolutely excellent in his playing: raw yet soft and warm-toned at the same time. Then the sax becomes the frantic voice, while Robertson takes over the slow background on trumpet. It's clever, it's fun, it's ingenious. "The Will - Nasarana" starts with a long bass solo, and when you think it's high time to turn up the volume, the three other musicians start playing a joyful abstract melody, which shifts into free bop of the best kind, with both horn players demonstrating their best skills. And I must say that on many records Robertson goes beyond what I find bearable, but not here : his playing is more accessible than we've heard in many years, and it is truly great. The most beautiful track however is "The Flower - Aboio", which is a slow, minor key, bluesy composition, starting with layers of similar sounds by all musicians, evolving into a tear-drenched, funeral-march-like mood, with all instruments wailing and weeping, incredibly intense, incredibly sad, incredibly beautiful. Bengt Berger's "Bitter Funeral Beer" comes to mind when listening to this song, and that's a great compliment. Stap's inclusion on this track is a stroke of genius, because the dark tones, even when playing in the upper register add an intensity and coloring which moves the song to even greater heights. The fourth track is a structured free jazz work-out where all musicians let loose the tension and go for it, and the last one continues in the same vein, but adding a lightly dancing joy to the music. Again, a great record, because of the great musicianship, but also because of the great balance between compositions and improvization. Get it!

Listen and download via eMusic.com.

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Mark O'Leary - On The Shore (Clean Feed, 2007) *****

I have already praised Mark O'Leary before for his great sense of music, and he proves it again on this record, and how! With Alex Cline on drums and a double trumpet front line consisting of Jeff Kaiser and John Fumo, the line-up is definitely unusual (apart from Jacek Kochan's "Another Blowfish", with Eric Vloeimans and Piotr Wojtasik on trumpet, I'm not aware of any other quartet with a double trumpet front line). The music on this record is light, spacious, elegant, ... I would almost say the musical equivalent of high quality champagne, very tasty, with bubbles, something to savour with every sip. The guitar plays a very prominent role on the whole CD, often with a very low tone, reminiscent of some of John Abercrombie's albums, but more avant-garde, more creative, with the two trumpets and the drums adding shades of sound that bring depth and sculptural relief to the music, even if they're pushed a little to the back in the sound editing, a nice touch which adds to the overall atmosphere. The whole quartet is absolutely brilliant. Alex Cline's playing is precise, accurate, accentuating loosely, performing the difficult feat of drumming on music that is essentially without explicit rhythm. The two trumpets use every shade and sound their instruments can produce, in various intensities, volume changes and lengths, because there is mostly no melody to hear - texture, tonal changes and contrast is all there is, especially exemplified by the long title track. O'Leary himself gets every possible sound out of his guitar as well, and whether it's plain acoustic, or one of the many effects on his electric guitar, his playing is not focused on the playing itself but on the musical moods he creates, and it's also coherent throughout the album, regardless of how he uses his instrument. O'Leary doesn't hesitate to push his foot switches once in a while, bringing sorching fusion-like solos, pushing the trumpets and the drums to high levels of intensity as in "Point Sketch", but most of the music is subdued, tentative, fragile, creating open-ended soundscapes, composed with skill and feeling, building layers of music to create a very distinct mood, which is nostalgic, sad, but also reverent, jubilant or mysterious at times.You can hear seagulls and whales, or even sirens, the surf in the distance, or lapping waves close-by, ... that's how evocative the music is without needing to try to imitate those sounds. Another mystery of the record is whether it has been dubbed or not (that's the problem or disadvantage of downloading, there are no liner notes to guide you in your appreciation). Most of it sounds too beautiful to be the result of spontaneous improvization, too carefully crafted to have been left to chance, but then again, it sounds too open to be composed, and these are great musicians, so you can't tell. One could also argue whether this is jazz or not, but asking the question is irrelevant. Answering it even more. This is absolutely excellent music. That's the most important thing.


Listen and download from eMusic.com

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Erik Friedlander - Block Ice & Propane (Skipstone Records, 2007) ***½

Erik Friedlander is one of the best cellists around in modern jazz or modern music "tout court". This is his second solo record in a few years time, and one which is remarkably accessible for his doing. The cellist is known for his complex compositions, often with a strong influence of classical avant-garde, but here he brings an almost sentimental journey into his own past, as brought up by his memories, full of childhood nostalgia. In line with this, the music is warm, straight-forward, simple (without being simplistic). The music is the kind of jazz that is brought by Bill Frisell, with lots of references to American country music and blues. Most of his playing is done by plucking the strings, or even playing full chords, giving a guitar-like approach and a very intimistic feel. He is however at his best, when he plays arco, as in "Airstream Envy" (see video below), because it releases the full emotional power of the instrument. On two tracks, "Cold Chicken" and "Pressure Cooking", he becomes a little more avant-garde, and those are more to my taste. Nice album, well-balanced and well-played.

(the album can be downloaded from his website)

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Joe Rosenberg Quartet - Quicksand (Black Saint, 2007) ****

This live recording starts with a very nice clean-sounding solo improvization by Joe Rosenberg on sax, then Masako Hamamura joins on piano, adding a few soft chords, then Mark Helias' bass takes over, gently plucking the strings, moving the track a step further as an intro for a fragile unisono line between sax and piano, elegantly accentuated by Tom Rainey on drums. The rhythm section proves to have the absolutely necessary sensitivity to accompany Rosenberg in his adventurous take on music, which is calm, accurate, slowly building on the structures he creates. This does not mean that the music is not intense, it certainly is, but it's restrained at the same time. Violent emotional outbursts or expressions of extreme feelings are alien to this music: it flows like a river, finding its own melodic course through the creative interplay of the moment. It is the free variant of post-bop. Helias and Rainey of course need no introduction, and whatever these two musicians do lately apparently turns into a success. Hamamura is a discovery for me : her piano-playing is excellent. The real star is Rosenberg himself, for the quality and the sensitivity of his playing, and for his compositions. Exciting music, and fun too. And the Knitting Factory audience seemed to agree!

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