This is bizarre music. Cellist Hank Roberts has always had a penchant for doing his own thing, but what he does here requires courage. He brings his music with a sentimentality that is out of the ordinary, unafraid to sing his wordless songs, the German word "Weltschmerz" is what comes to mind, a world full of pain and longing, a kind of spiritual (dis)satisfaction, and deep emotionalism that exists per se. Next to those dark, brooding, atmospheric or meditative pieces, he adds some rock and pop influenced songs. He is joined by Marc Ducret on guitar and Jim Black on drums, both the exact antithesis of Roberts, always edgy, direct, angry often, offering a good antidote for Roberts's melancholy. The non-meditative pieces are also of interest. There are some musically complex little gems, like "Cola People", or even straight rock songs, like "Trees". There is the funky "In the 60s", with different layers of guitar and cello, on which both Black and Ducret can demonstrate their rock nature. Roberts' attack on his cello is broad too, from classical over jazz to sometimes even slide guitar kind of sounds. As a reviewer, this makes it difficult because he's impossible to pigeon-hole. I prefer his slow, melancholy pieces, on which he mixes world music influences with jazz and yes, whatever creative ideas for new angles he has. Despite the gentleness of the album, I'm not sure Roberts' music will appeal to mainstream fans. Yet on the other hand, the direct sentimentality and sweetness will require some open-mindedness from the avant-garde fans.
I don't like his singing, but that's a question of personal preference. This is an interesting, varied and courageous album. The variations in genre were at first listening a little too wide, but on further listening they seem to fit. The emotional authenticity behind them obviously comes from the same source, making this a coherent album.
Kalaparush McIntyre is a free-minded spirit. The AACM tenor saxophonist has been a part of the jazz scene for over forty years now, and so does drummer Warren Smith. Both have known each other since they were toddlers. They are joined here by Will Connell on alto sax and bass clarinet and by Michael Logan on bass. This is free-minded music. There are typical AACM themes, but these are just there to set the scene for the long tracks are predominantly long improvisations by the various band members. McIntyre's tone has become softer, more fragile, and his music has become less dense, more open. The nice thing is the sense of freedom and range of possibilities, also in terms of emotional expressivity, but don't look for new forms of creativity and adventurousness. Good quality free jazz with a boppish base.
When two masters of free improvisation join forces, you can expect fireworks, and that is what you get here. Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet, soprano sax) and John Heward (drums, kalimba), create some wonderful music in ten improvisations, as the title suggests. The fact that both musicians are skilled in various instruments offers additional depth and variation. For once, McPhee uses his pocket trumpet much more than usual, and with great success. True, the range of the instrument is more limited than the sax, but McPhee manages to cross that divide by adding feeling, going to the extremes from clear-toned plaintive wails to hard-blown voiceless whispers, or on the first tracks even gurgling sounds as if the bath is emptying. Heward is sensitive and creative and is a great sparring partner for McPhee's spiritual excursions and avant-garde try-outs. There are moments of deeply emotional and sensitive playing, as on "Improvisation 2", alternated with moments of great intensity, with hard and forceful dialogues, as on "Improvisation 3". As of "Improvisation 5", McPhee switches to soprano without changing the approach. There are subdued moments, and again full force blowing, but the CD ends with a beautiful and fragile improvisation, the highlight of the album. Sure, McPhee and Heward have albums that are better than this one, but those interested in both musicians will find this a great addition to their catalogue.
If you like creative, genre-bending, fully improvised, expansive and energetic free jazz, then you will surely enjoy this. The British-French quartet, consisting of Dan Warburton on piano and violin, Jean-Luc Guionnet on alto sax, Francois Fuchs on bass and Edward Perraud on drums, has a real take-no-prisoners approach. The three long tracks (approx. 29, 24 and 17 minutes, aptly titled 29:09, 24:41 and 17:20), are a pure powerhouse of full-speed intensity and unrelenting energy. Once in a while the wall of violence slows down for spiky and intense interactions between the four musicians, but not for long, because it swells again and becomes another giant wave that pulls and pushes everything along that crosses its path until it eventually comes crashing down, with splatters of piano notes, crashing cymbals and throbbing strings flying in all directions. The second track starts very quietly, creating bizarre soundscapes, evolving into a double-tempoed quartet, with sax and drums playing up a storm, while piano and arco bass compete for slowness, but it doesn't take long before they too are sucked up by the passing tornado, violent and powerful, which after a while unexpectedly disappears, evaporates or whatever those things do, to leave the empty space to dispersed sound debris, bits and pieces of music scattered all over the place with no clear order, each individually meaningless, and which, surprisingly, reassemble to become, yes, another juggernaut, another behemoth of sound, moving hard, moving fast, occupying all space, propulsed forward, sucking up everything that it encounters on its way, and even more suprisingly, full of velvet sensitivity.
Sonny Simmons is a musician with ups and downs. Sometimes great, sometimes uneventful. And so are the Cosmosamatics. Although the musicianship is good on most albums, I often wonder what their story is about. They have no clear musical positioning. It's nice, it's sometimes adventurous, but then again, I often think I've heard it so many times before. So far, I find "Zetrons" to be among their best albums. This CD shows them from both angles : the first part, recorded in the studio is better than the second, recorded live at Alchemia in Krakow, Poland, in November 2006. On the first part, Simmons's plays the English horn, an unusual instrument with an unusual sound, but the tunes and the improvisations are a little more inspired than on the live performance. The band consists of Sonny Simmons on alto sax and English horn, Michael Marcus on tenor sax and Bb clarinet, Peter Herbert on bass and Art Lewis on drums. The band moves between free bop and free improv, with African influences on "Afro Funk", which leads to captivating passages. After all these years, both sax-players play together with such ease and anticipation of each other's moves, that it is fun to hear. But then something happens to the live set. It becomes kind of uneventful. It sounds nice, but I fear there is no story to tell. A little disappointing after a great start.
I may be writing this review too soon, without having listened sufficiently to this new release by Italian trumpeter Guido Mazzon, but I'm so thrilled by his music, that I can't wait to share my enthusiasm. This CD compiles a number of recordings that Mazzon made over the years with various musicians, and always in small settings, duo or trio. I like this music because it is pure. It is genuine. It is honest. It is deeply felt. He also doesn't care about genres, moving as easily from very classical sounds to avant-garde with everything in between. The first and longest track starts with Andrew Cyrille giving us some great African polyrhythmics, as the intro for Mazzon's trumpet, later joined by Gaetano Liguori on piano. This track alone makes this record worthwhile. And then you have a number of amazing duets : a trumpet duet with the late Lester Bowie, two trumpet-flugelhorn duets with Alberto Mandarini, a sax-piano duet with Mario Schiano, a trumpet-bass duet with Giovanni Maier, two trumpet-sax duets with Roberto Ottaviano. And then a trio with Ellen Christi on vocals and Tiziano Tononi on drums. And the fantastically beautiful solo piece "Fire And Light". This is a true statement of strong musicianship. Mastering the instrument and the possibilities of music in such a way that you're no longer bothered by their limitations, and quite the contrary, that they allow you to bring a direct conduit for the emotions you feel. As Mazzon says it on the liner notes : "Different musicians, different places, different times: one mind about music. Playing like writing on a "tabula rasa" where I draw sounds, emotions, and closed relationships with my partners. Play music to live a common experience, to blow emotions not necessarily to say high concepts, anyway, to tell stories. I've always told the same story in my music, my own story. I only change the colours, the moods, the accents... I think that to be free means make close connections between ideas and feelings: this is a reasonable evolution". A lyrical feast. Highly recommended.
Because of the recent Kirk Knuffke CD on Clean Feed, I checked for other recordings with the trumpet-player and I came across "Ideal Bread", a band created by Josh Sinton, who plays baritone sax, and further consisting of Reuben Radding on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums. Originally the band wanted to bring a tribute to Steve Lacy's trio recording "NY Capers & Quirks", recorded in 1979 and partly re-issued on Hat Hut records. What Ideal Bread does with Lacy's CD is more than just bringing an updated version of his music. I am not that familiar with the original material, but what they do here could stand on its own. The themes are of course the same as on the original Lacy release, but what they do with the music is really their own, moving it far into free territory, while often maintaing the structural anchor points of the pieces. Sinton's baritone sounds excellent, full of passion and depth, and his idea to add Knuffke's trumpet is a great one, not only because it relieves some of the burden to emulate on his own the power of Lacy's playing, which is not the point of this tribute, it's about the music, but it also adds variation and contrast to the overall sound. And that sound is also very coherent in the various tracks, because of its creative approach to the material, and its wonderful fusion of bop with free jazz and real avant-garde, presented in all its logical continuity, switching styles without changing mood or without losing focus. I hope we will hear more of this band in the future. Recommended.
As Ellery Eskelin writes on the liner notes, this is a real quartet album, with contributions coming from all four musicians, and all equally contributing to the overall sound. Ellery Eskelin and David Liebman play tenor sax, Tony Marino bass and Jim Black drums. The music is excellent, composed, yet open and free, not really boppish, rather post-bop, but then a tad more free. So how can I describe this : lots of references to the jazz tradition, lots of interesting new angles and takes. Whatever the subgenre, this is great jazz from beginning to end. What I like most is the space they create, despite the clearly composed tracks. This music is never crowded, never in-your-face, yet it grabs the attention because of its inventiveness, both in the composed parts as in the improvisational interplay. But the best part is the musicianship itself. Listen to the mastery of the instruments, the mastery of timing and pacing, the pitch, the subtle use of power or subduedness where necessary. In short, high quality jazz.
Thirty tracks spread over two CDs bring a great overview of Bill Frisell's signature music, mixing styles such as blues, jazz, country and african in one great blend of soft, gentle, clever, and technically superior playing, not only by him, but by the whole stellar cast of musicians he's lined up as usual, with Jenny Scheinman on violin, Tony Scherr on bass, Kenny Wollesen on drums, Eyvind Kang on viola, Greg Tardy on clarinet and saxophone, Hank Roberts on cello, and Ron Miles on trumpet. The musical universe Frisell creates is one of carefully crafted little musical explorations, full of sympathy and sadness, little pieces of candy for the ear, sweet, melting and then they're gone. On the few tracks that are a little longer, a little more drama seeps into the music, as in "Baba Drame" (which already appeared on The Intercontinentals), "Waltz For Baltimore", or "Struggle, part II", with its dark bluesy guitar solo, but which gets a totally unexpected turn towards the end. Four tracks are even shorter than one minute, and eleven tracks shorter than two. This is not irrelevant, because Frisell really manages to tell a story in such a short time span. The whole album is the result of several recording sessions, including a live performance, which offers a lot of variation, without negatively influencing the coherence of the overall mood.
I know this is not free jazz, it's most of the time not even jazz, but it's certainly well worth listening to.
Some years ago, I might have put this CD away after ten minutes, because of its weird soundscapes with instruments weaving apparently uncoordinated sounds into even more indiscernible textures. Today, I find it has a staggering beauty, an unusual aesthetic and a fragile sadness, which is rare. That Larry Ochs is capable of great music, is no longer a mystery. Here, he takes on a real project, a tribute to the film of avant-garde director-painter Stan Brakhage, who was most known for his handpainted - yes, image after image - soundless films, and for which Ochs has aligned two bands for a dual approach. The first CD is called "Realization 1 : Hand" and the second "Realization 2 : Wall". Musically both records are close, but surely far from identical, and that's not only due to the line-up. On "Hand", the music is played by Orkestrova, consisting of John Schott on electric guitar, Joan Jeanrenaud and Theresa Wong on cello, Lisle Ellis on bass, Ben Goldberg on contra-alto and Bb clarinets, Toyoji Tomita and Jen Baker on trombones and didgeridoos, Darren Johnston and David Bithell on trumpets, Steve Adams on bass flute, Jon Raskin on baritone sax, Tim Perkis & Matt Wright on electronics, William Winant and Gino Robair on percussion, Bruce Ackley on Bb clarinet, Moe! Staiano on percussion, and with Larry Ochs on "traffic control". And despite this big band line-up, the music retains its light quality, a level of openness and transparency, with musicians joining and leaving the overall soundscapes. There is lots of dissonance and unexpected sounds to be heard, yet they are as related to the colors in Brakhage movies, moving dynamically along, not always clear what the end result will be, but contributing to something utterly bizarre and attractive. The first CD starts very calmly with the trumpet playing in slow tones over a melting pot of sounds, that slowly flow even if they do not always blend into one harmonic whole. It moves on through moments of great dissonance but at the very end, the slow sadness comes again, with the trumpets playing bluesy tones, supported by the guitar and with the baritone sax taking care of the rhythm, which is changed on the last track with the didgeridoos giving the basic rhythm (and muted shouts!) and the sax taking over the plaintive and sad singing.
The second CD, "Wall", is brought by the Rova Special Sextet, consisting of Bruce Ackley on soprano and tenor, Steve Adams on alto, Larry Ochs on tenor and sopranino, Jon Raskin on baritone, and with Gino Robair and William Winant on drums and percussion. It starts with a violence that is absent on the first CD, with the full horn section blowing away on the short first track, "Hit", which moves on into the equally short "Hung", with the rhythm section creating a strong forward movement for the saxes to interact, at first forcefully, yet alternating with melodic parts, culminating in absolute frenzy on the third track, with an unrelenting and uncompromising energy, which only stops halfway the CD, with the track "Pulsar", which contains slow drumming and percussion. After that, the musicians play in smaller units, one sax with drums, leaving more space, with more orchestrated and unison sounds, but that doesn't last long. With "Ruin", a steady rhythm moves the band back into the realm of sound bombardments, with the four saxes playing together, then each doing his own thing, then miraculously coming together again. This is not easy listening. It is hard, intense, raw, at times an assault to the ear, much like Brakhage's films are at times an assault to the eyes, but not always, beauty emerges, yet the real listening value lies in the total adventure that Ochs serves us here.
In that sense both CDs are indeed each other's mirror image too, with the first having a lighter texture despite the heavier line-up, and the second one being a wall of sound built by only six musicians. Structurally, they could also well be each other's mirror image, with the intense chaotic part at the center of the first CD, whereas the center piece of the second consists of light percussion in the middle part. Whatever, it's a rough journey, but one well worth taking.
This is bizarre music. Cellist Hank Roberts has always had a penchant for doing his own thing, but what he does here requires courage. He brings his music with a sentimentality that is out of the ordinary, unafraid to sing his wordless songs, the German word "Weltschmerz" is what comes to mind, a world full of pain and longing, a kind of spiritual (dis)satisfaction, and deep emotionalism that exists per se. Next to those dark, brooding, atmospheric or meditative pieces, he adds some rock and pop influenced songs. He is joined by Marc Ducret on guitar and Jim Black on drums, both the exact antithesis of Roberts, always edgy, direct, angry often, offering a good antidote for Roberts's melancholy. The non-meditative pieces are also of interest. There are some musically complex little gems, like "Cola People", or even straight rock songs, like "Trees". There is the funky "In the 60s", with different layers of guitar and cello, on which both Black and Ducret can demonstrate their rock nature. Roberts' attack on his cello is broad too, from classical over jazz to sometimes even slide guitar kind of sounds. As a reviewer, this makes it difficult because he's impossible to pigeon-hole. I prefer his slow, melancholy pieces, on which he mixes world music influences with jazz and yes, whatever creative ideas for new angles he has. Despite the gentleness of the album, I'm not sure Roberts' music will appeal to mainstream fans. Yet on the other hand, the direct sentimentality and sweetness will require some open-mindedness from the avant-garde fans.
