In great memory of ....

2012 has been a sad year for jazz fans around the world with the passing away of seven sax-players whose records we all know, whose music we've enjoyed, whose shows we admired. In memory of those men, some quick overviews.


David S. Ware 

David S. Ware, one of my favorite artists passed away, after long suffering from kidney disease despite a transplant two years ago. Ware's music will always remain among the absolute top in free jazz, with albums such as "Live In Vilnius", "Threads", "Corridors & Parallels", "Surrender", "Shakti", "Live In The World" as a few of my favorites. His band members were always among the best you can find in innovative jazz circles, with Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Whit Dickey, Guillermo E Brown, Susie Ibarra, Joe Morris. His music has this post-Coltrane soaring spirituality, full of lyricism and great themes, while at the same time offering lots of freedom to improvise and express feeling. His energetic expansive way of playing will remain unique.

A jazz monument and musical innovator left us with a fantastic catalogue of music.


Byard Lancaster  


Alto-saxophonist and flautist Byard Lancaster also passed away in August at the age of 70. Less known than David S Ware, he is one of those musicians who were into the soul and the roots of music, willing to play funk as well as collaborate with Bill Dixon and Sunny Murray. A music educator, he wanted his free jazz to appeal to larger audiences, adding solid rhythms and more tribal African sounds. Also a Coltrane adept (who isn't?) his music adds this communal element of joint celebration, dancing and mourning. "Funny Funky Rib Crib" (1974), "Live At Macalester College" are among his best, but also his more recent work such as "Pam Africa" and "Ancestral Link Hotel", both on CIMP are easy to recommend.


Lol Coxhill 

In July, British soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill passed away. He was one of the absolute central figures in the British free improv scene, with hundreds of records on which he performed. Like Lancaster, he was open to any style of music, and collaborated with bands of all genres : blues, soul, R&B, punk, jazz and very very avant-garde electro-acoustic work, and very very much himself at all times. His tone could be detected from miles away. The British newspaper The Guardian described him as "generous, gifted and amiably eccentric".





John Tchicai 

Last October, Danish tenor saxophonist John Tchicai left us. Like Lancaster, Tchicai was also one of the early free jazz voices in the sixties, playing with John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, yet he continued to perform and innovate, by playing with young musicians and by keeping an open mind to new evolutions, as with John Coxon and Ashley Wales, or with fellow countrymen Jonas Westergaard and Kresten Osgood. My preferred recent album by him is "Good Night Songs" with Charlie Kohlhase and Garrison Fewell.





Faruq Z. Bey

In June, Faruq Z Bey passed away. Despite an erratic career due to an accident and health issues, he will be remembered as the driving force behind Griot Galaxy and for his collaborations with Northwood Improvisers. His own music was also very much inspired by Africa, with great polyrhythmics and trance-like soloing. Recent reviews can be found on this blog : his collaboration with Dennis González on "Hymn For Tomasz Stanko", and his own "Emerging Field". I am not too familiar with his other work, but also "Auzar" is easy to recommend for fans of Africa-centric music. Somehow, his music remained strongly rooted in the seventies.




I want to thank them for their great music. Our thoughts are with their families.

Borah Bergman 

Borah Bergman also died, ironically and sadly enough on the same day David S. Ware passed away. Bergman was a great pianist who worked with many great musicians like Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Evan Parker, Peter Brötzmann or John Zorn. Brötzmann even called him his favorite pianist. My Bergman favorite recordings are The Human Factor (with Cyrille), Exhilaration (with Cyrille and Brötzmann), Ride into the Blue (with Thomas Borgmann and Brötzmann, I also had the pleasure to see them live), Eight by Three (with Braxton and Brötzmann) and Luminiscence (with Greg Cohen, Kenny Wollesen - and John Zorn, on one track only). Allegedly he was suffering from dementia and died in a nursing home in New York. He will surely be missed (By Martin Schray)


Tony Marsh

"The percussionist Tony Marsh, who has died of cancer aged 72, was an inspired collaborator, combining intensity with restraint and stroking the drums more than he struck them. He worked with some of the most creative artists in European jazz of the past four decades, from the composer Mike Westbrook to the saxophonists John Tchicai and Evan Parker.

“‘Listen closely, take a chance, keep going even if money's tight, and you'll find the real reward – that's why Tony was hip in the most meaningful sense,’ [Evan] Parker says. ‘And he didn't need to play loud, or be loud, to get that intensity. It's like splitting diamonds or something. If you know exactly the right place to make the impact, you don't need to hit anything hard.’” (from The Guardian, with thanks to guitarist Han-Earl Park for adding his name).

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DKV Trio - Past Present (Not Two, 2012) ****½

By Stef  

One of Ken Vandermark's most straightforward projects is with the DKV Trio, with Kent Kessler on bass and Hamid Drake on drums.

What you get here are the incredible rhythms by the master Hamid Drake himself, funky and free and crisp and sparkling like only he can do it, including in the drum solos, usually a boring thing, but here an absolute delight.

Kessler is best known as the regular bassist in The Vandermark 5 and Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, and his interaction with Vandermark's powerful rhythmic playing is brilliant, whether with thick boppish plucks or more avant-garde bowing, he always keeps the pulse going.

And Vandermark, he can bop, swing, shout, sing and weep, but most of all he is the champion of building structure and then have it implicitly move on through his soloing, always nicely returning to the base, while having explored the various possibilities inherent in it, and keeping this incredible pulse throughout.

Put all three together and you get the best fireworks to come from a sax trio. The real treat is that you get 7 albums in this limited edition box with live performances between mid-2008 till 2011.

The seventh album gives a tribute to Don Cherry, with covers of "Remembrance", "The Thing", "Elephantasy" and "Brown Rice". Don Cherry has always been high on the trio's playlist, as it was on "Trigonometry" (2002) and "Live At Wells & Chicago" (1997).

You can wonder whether seven albums are really worth it, and what it offers more than their existing catalogue. The answer is simple, it's as good as the "Live At Wells & Chicago" album, their best album in my opinon, with similar drive and raw lyricism, and with a great sound quality, much better than "Baraka", "Live" and "Trigonometry".

So, get your copy while they are available!


You can buy the album from instantjazz.com. 

© stef

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Samuel Blaser Quartet - As The Sea (hatOLOGY, 2012) ****½

By Paul Acquaro

Samuel Blaser is a trombonist and composer who has been garnering well deserved attention in the avant garde jazz scene over the past couple of years and the NYC/Berlin based musician has recently released a great new album on hatOLOGY records.

As The Sea, like the sea, is a both a tranquil and violent entity, four musicians contributing to a wave of music that starts quietly and builds slowly and progressively more powerful.
It starts out almost inaudibly, a free improv based on textural rather than melodic developments. Slowly though, guitarist Marc Ducret's angular motifs generate the first real wave of energy - a mild lapping of distorted fragments that swells expertly. This is soon followed by Blaser's solo, which picking up from Ducret, introduces his own fragmentary lines until reaching, mere minutes before the end of the 19 minute song, a tight climax.

The second song, simply entitled 'As the Sea II', begins with a much different vibe. A strong rock beat laid out by percussionist Gerld Cleaver and a rather nice pulse on bass provided by Bänz Oester underpins the trombonist's urgent melodic lines. At times, Ducret's counter melody sounds Iike a second horn, as he shadows and interjects, then breaks into another imaginative and melodic solo, exploiting sometimes jarring chord fragments. While the guitar solo is burning and brilliant, Blaser not to be outdone, matches Ducret's energy. Locking in tight with the rhythm section, he delivers. We also get Cleaver's first solo stretch here as well.

Following the naming convention, III starts with Oester's percussive bowing on the bass and Ducret's deeply distorted guitar figures emerging and receding in the sonic murkiness. IV kicks off with the trombone, and a strong rhythm by Cleaver showcases some deft syncopations between the percussionist and the rest of the group. Moments of the tune swing, but never for too long, as the shifting feel and beat patterns compete for the listener's attention.

As the Sea sat in my review queue for a little too long. It's a fantastic album and a great introduction to both Samuel Blaser, who, judging by the strength of this album is a player with a lot more still to say. Also, the inside/outside guitar playing of Marc Ducret is an additional treat.

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Weekend Roundup: Dynamic Duos

By Dan Sorrells

This week we look at a variety of pairings: some barely more than a whisper, others with buzzing, whirling electronics, even some inspired by construction workers. (Plus! A soprano sax gets in a scuffle with a cello).

Taus - Pinna (Another Timbre, 2012) ***


Taus, the duo of Tim Blechmann and Klaus Filip, get a gold star for patience. Pinna -a live recording from a small Viennese church-is 50 minutes of quietly, carefully added and subtracted layers of sine waves. The restraint on display as each musician gently goads various sonorities out of their laptops is impressive, even in an era where musicians no longer fear silence or tiny, cumulative gestures. The recording captures the feel of the concert well, during which speakers were strategically placed in the church and sounds were allowed to refract and diffuse throughout the space. Pinna was probably far more impressive for those in attendance, but it offers some pleasures if you can set aside a quiet hour with a good sound system.

Another Timbre YouTube preview


Bruno Duplant & Barry Chabala - La Nuit (Roeba, 2012) ***


La Nuit is a heap of droning low-end crafted long distance, an MO that Chabala has experimented with on a least one other release this year. Three long tracks of rich tones, everything bleeding together like submerged watercolors. Who's doing what is neither discernable nor essential for enjoyment. For the most part, La Nuit is warm and easy to adjust to, which makes the sudden long breaks of silence in "After 916" a tad disappointing-they violently halt the comfortable modes of listening roused by the preceding sounds. But maybe that's the whole point. "Far a Go" and the title track are a bit more animated, with Chabala dropping delicate notes through the fields of feedback.


Pascal Battus, Bertrand Gauguet, Eric La Casa - Chantier 1 (Another Timbre, 2012) ***


Though the binding theme this week is duos, Chantier 1 actually credits three musicians. Only two are playing, per se, but anyone familiar with Eric La Casa's unique recording credits is well aware that his technical choices leave a profound thumbprint on the resulting music. Battus' "rotating surfaces" and Gauguet's saxophone collude in two situations: the middle of a bustling construction site, and in a "neutral, quiet space," where the musicians attempt to remember and recreate the experience of improvising along with the sweaty din of the worksite. Naturally, it's the "field" recordings that provide the most interest. It becomes difficult to separate improviser from ambient sound. The standout moment-which somehow feels both surreal and grounding-is the sudden appearance of Kurdish flute, a contribution from a worker's smartphone, thrust into the proceedings in an attempt to reconcile two disparate musical worlds.

Another Timbre YouTube preview


Dale Gorfinkel & Heddy Boubaker - Out Ear/In Head (self-released, 2012) ***


Out-Ear/In-Head is kind of what I imagine you'd hear if you pressed your ear up against someone else's---the hum and buzz of a billion crossed wires, the fitful shifting of countless neural transactions. What I initially thought was Boubaker's sax may actually be Gorfinkel's prepared trumpet-I later discovered that the protean Boubaker hangs up his saxophone in favor of analog synth, which he threads through Gorfinkel's thoroughly-obscured horn and "sound sculptures." Though there's something reminiscent of the quiet, internal processes of a complex machine, Out Ear/In Head is actually quite easy to relate to. What it really seems to capture is the nature of our restless thoughts from a new angle: that of pure electrical impulse, synaptic squabbling made audible. The sound of neurons improvising.

Listen to the album on Heddy Boubaker's Bandcamp page.


Gianni Mimmo & Daniel Levin - Turbulent Flow (Amirani, 2012) ****


Daniel Levin is intense. He plays as though he's never satisfied. His virtuosity on the cello seems to be a direct manifestation of his passion; there's simply no way some limit can be allowed to prevent his ideas from being realized. Turbulent Flow's lengthy title track neatly sums things up, with Mimmo's splashes of soprano trying everywhere to put out Levin's flames. Skilled as they are in free jazz battle, they're also able to conjure up creepy ambience in "Orbit Unknown," or even some bluesy turns halfway through "Mini-festo." Exciting music from some profoundly talented guys.

Mimmo has posted the entire album on his SoundCloud page.

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Reeds and basses

By Stef  

A couple of months ago, I planned to make a review of the various reeds-bass duets that were produced this year, with Pedro Sousa & Harnano Faustino's "Falaise" (already reviewed) and with Sean Conly & Michael Attias "Think Shadow" (still to come). So I waited for more, and possibly this is it, just a handful of albums with a line-up that I really like. If you like the format, as I do, the following albums are not to be missed.

 Frode Gjerstad & Nick Stephens - Different Times (Loose Torque, 2012) ***½

The great thing about duos is the intimacy of the interaction, two musicians focused on each other's movements, thoughts and concepts, catching and anticipating, just to integrate, develop and then amplify. One of the critical elements is the sound quality : it is chamber music in a way and as a listener you should get the feeling that the musicians are playing in your living room.

Which is certainly the case here. What they don't do, is playing wall-paper music, or offering you the warm comfort of a burning hearth fire. They do the opposite. They are in your living room, and they offer you some burning fire, yet it's not of the comfort-offering kind.

Gjerstad's clarinet phrases are mostly short, almost like dots on a canvas, or like bird calls, full of abstract frenzy and wild commotion, yet combining this with the natural lyricism we know him from.

Nick Stephens' bass sound as it should sound, deep, warm, with every string plucked releasing notes that are  enveloped in a woolen warmth. The calm delivery, the love of timbre and single notes, the cautious touching of sounds, it is all here, as you hope to expect from a duo performance. Stephens picks up his bow at various moments, but the magic comes with the last track, when suddenly notes are lengthened, both on bass and on clarinet.


Remi Àlvarez & Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - First Duet Live (JaZt Tapes, 2012) ***

The approach of the Mexican tenor saxophonist and the Norwegian bass-player is different. First, the sound quality is not optimal, with both instruments being recorded from a distance. In contrast to Gjerstad's pointillism, Àlvarez is a lyrical player, stretching and lengthening his phrases, while at the same time not afraid to go into violent outbursts of strong expressivity. The pieces are lengthy, offering both players the time to develop and expand. Álvarez is a real emotional and soulful player, offering his heart on a plate for everybody to see and hear, despite the abstract level of the improvisations. Håker Flaten is his usual good self, used as he is to play in this kind of limited setting, as he did before with artists such as Joe McPhee, Evan Parker, Håkon Kornstadt. Håker Flaten also played with Frode Gjerstad on numerous occasions and is part of his Circulacione Totale Orchestra.

The interaction is good, so is the performance and the live aspect of the recording too, but the sound quality could have been better.

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Christian Lillinger’s Grund: Second Reason (Clean Feed, 2012) *** ½

By Martin Schray

In my real life I am a high school teacher. I like my job and I like teaching kids. However, especially some of the boys cannot sit still, they rock with their chairs, they drum on their desks with their fingers, they fumble through their hair. I guess Christian Lillinger was just like them, he even called his first group Hyperactive Kid. With his rock’n’roll quiff Lillinger, who is only 28 years old, looks like a mixture of Minutemen’s George Hurley and Paul Lovens on speed, and he also plays like that when he is mauling his drums, jumping up and down behind his kit, using all kinds of materials like steel springs, megaphones, or plastic bottles. He is constantly in motion, his drumming is a highly explosive mixture of sound explorations and power play.

Grund is the German word for “reason” but also for “ground”, “cause” or “base”. In an interview with a German newspaper Lillinger said that for him Grund means the ground where he came from, the two basses (Robert Landfermann and Jonas Westergaard) were his platform. They build the base on which Christopher Dell (vibes), Achim Kaufmann (piano), Tobias Delius and Pierre Borel (saxes) can soar. Grund (the band) is like a meta-instrument, an organism from which each instrument can crystallize slowly and individually before it is absorbed in a tight rhythmic network again. Lillinger calls this “interconnection”.

You can see what he means in a shorter piece like “acht!” which starts with a piano/bass/vibes unison part before Lillinger joins in. Far in the distance you can hear a saxophone squealing before the track tilts and drums and sax entwine in an interesting dialogue until the sax vanishes in the group context again. “Schnecke” (which is the German word for “snail” or “slug”) is a similar track, rumbling and rocking, you can find weird circus elements, breakbeats and strange saxophone shrieks. Kaufmann and Lillinger drive the band in front of them. Very often this music transgresses the borders of “jazz”. It is close to new music, the band creates sonic arches which seem to come from a soundtrack for an expressionist film of the 1930s (as in “Grund VII”). On the other hand there are free jazz elements, although not in a traditional way because a lot of the music is composed.

Lillinger says he has ideas he wants to file out. He likes rehearsing, he likes working with his band on these ideas, he wants to be completely free. This is what improvisation means to him in the end – it has to flow.

You can buy the album from instantjazz.com. 

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Andrea Centazzo & Roberto Ottaviano - In A Rainy Day (Ictus, 2012) ***½

By Stef  

Andrea Centazzo is what you can call a "pure" percussionist, a musician who creates percussive sounds, with whatever object or in whatever setting. What counts for him is the impact of the sound, and it sounds like drama, with lots of silences and sudden outbursts full of effect and reverb, as if all his music is created in large empty spaces like churches or caves or just a studio with the reverb switch on the maximum level.

His companion for "In A Rainy Day" is his fellow countryman Roberto Ottaviano on soprano, a fabulous lyricist and improviser. Both musicians started collaborating thirty-five years ago, with the saxophonist becoming a member of Centazzo's Mitteleuropa Orchestra, but their careers bifurcated in the late eighties.

All pieces are improvised during a one-day session, with themes sometimes borrowed from elsewhere, as with Satie"s beautiful "Gnossienne # 1" or from Ellington, yet never as a premeditated tune. The whole album wallows in the same sad and lonely mood, somewhat sentimental at moments, sometimes reminiscent of John Surman, a mixture of ECM spaciness and free improvisation, but always beautiful.

The only track that breaks the cohesion of the album is "A Kind Of Duke's Blue", a nice boppish piece, which suddenly sounds as if both musicians are playing in your living room. Although pleasant by itself, the overall cohesiveness of the album could have benefited from its absence.

In all, a nice album with great interplay between two excellent musicians, yet not essential.


© stef

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Double Tandem - Ox (dEN Records, 2012)

Double Tandem - Ox (dEN Records, 2012) ****

By Martin Schray

Writing about music can be puzzling.

When I enlisted for a review on Double Tandem’s Ox I did that because I was going to see the band live (which I did and they were great), I was so eager to do it that I even asked Paolo, who had enlisted for the album earlier, if I could join him on a double review. Then I bought the album at the concert and started listening to it. I listened to it in my car, I listened to it at home on my stereo, I listened to it over the headphones, I listened to it carelessly, I listened closely, I listened to it in my bathtub, I listened to it in the afternoon and at night. Hardly ever have I listened to an album so often. But I had no idea how I should start writing. I postponed the review, pulling out other albums from behind (Martin Küchen and the Chicago Tentet). I apologized to Paolo using fake excuses. I felt like Hemingway. The only thing I did not do was starting to drink or shooting big game.

Was there anything wrong with the album? Maybe they could not get the live magic on CD, although we are talking about first class musicians here. Double Tandem is a combination of Ken Vandermark’s duos with Norwegian drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love on the one hand and his duo with Dutch multi-reedist Ab Baars on the other.

Even for free jazz standards this music is totally unpredictable which is mostly Ab Baars’ merit. Especially when he plays the clarinet he dances elegantly around Vandermark’s baritone riffs, using klezmer melancholia or even swing elements, it is this typical clownesque and humorist Dutch approach to free jazz. Although if there are typical free jazz break outs, it is Baars again being the more prominent one while Vandermark only adds spicks and specks for their barrage fire. And just when you think you know what is going on here, the music rocks to and fro from loose cut- off hectic solos sliding into a James-Bond-theme and an alternative rock riff (does anyone remember The Psychedelic Furs?) to really laid back, almost touching, laconic observations.

So what’s wrong with the album? Nothing, of course. I was wrong. There is music which is hard to describe. Double Tandem has build up music whose real expression lies below the surface. It injects an unsettling sleaziness into a funny, occasionally wild and boastful collection of tracks that walk the line between postmodernism and sincerity. The tracks are all living, breathing entities, not blank slates to project my plain ideas and desires of how to review music on. This is music about honesty and truthfulness. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.



Double Tandem - Ox (dEN Records, 2012) ****

By Paolo Casertano

When I was asked by Martin to join our reflections on Double Tandem’s Ox in a double review (what else could you possibly do with such a name? - I mean the group not Martin), an album for which I had enlisted first (let’s not forget it!), I thought: “the Kartoffel is definitely challenging me!” Then he told me, sibyllic as he may be, that he was soon going to attend one of their concerts. And I subsequently said to myself: “Hell! He’s going to have a lot more to say!”

That’s why I felt relieved when I noticed that he was shilly-shallying the actual writing of the review. I had to do something in the meantime to fill the gap.

Having not succeeded in organizing an off-the-cut gig of Double Tandem at my place, I had focus instead on deep and careful listening of the release. But this did not help. The album was good, maybe really good and compelling, and in some way different from other productions by the featured musicians . But still I had not enough stuff to give a well-advised critical judgement. What was the untrustworthy German preparing? Did he maybe know in advance about the unwritability of this review? Was it just a trap? Were other members of the editorial staff involved? I had to be cautious and ready to fight.

Then suddenly he sent me the draft of what you can read here above. And obviously I felt as the dumb conspiracy lover I often tend to be. Or maybe not, because in some way I was truly right. Martin had written a supreme review about the album.

Sure, I could say something about the always-astonishing pliability of Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, for example in the way he soberly enters during the second track as a high tide of muted dings after almost five minutes of exquisite, romantic saxes duetting. Or I could even try to explain why I like the way he uses the kick drum, or again tell about how he’s able to create real chords from drumming around minute thirteen on the same track. Or something more about the perfect match reached by Ab Baars and Ken Vandermark in their interplay. About how, soloing in synchronicity or in juxtaposition, following harmolodic principles or very romantic paths, they constantly achieve an enchanting result.

But basically what I really would like to say, it’s just what Martin has written before me. And that’s why I certainly recommend the album, but I recommend moreover Martin’s review.

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Martin Küchen: Hellstorm – Man erkennt langsam das Elend, das über uns gekommen ist (Mathka, 2012) *****

Exactly two years ago, on December 18, 2010, Swedish altoist Martin Küchen recorded "Hellstorm", in an audienceless church in Sweden. The result is so excellent that two reviewers were competing to give their opinion.

By Stef  

"Hellstorm - Man erkennt langsam das Elend, dass über uns gekommen ist"  is a quote from saxophonist Martin Küchen's father's diary, written at the end of the Second World War. It means "the misery that has fallen upon us, is slowly being recognised".

Küchen's passion and compassion and rage with the ways of humanity are known and mentioned in the reviews with Trespass Trio and Angles. Now he does it alone, using multiple instruments : baritone saxophone, radio, alto saxophone, electronic tampoura and even electric toothbrush, assisted by Jakob Riis who mixed and mastered. Simple tools to rage against war, but his cry is a powerful one.

The music was recorded live in Allhelgonakyrkan, the All Saints Church in Lund, Sweden, on the 18th of December, 2010. Not that this is a live setting or so. They just went into the church on a snowy day two years ago and recorded the music in one take. Then they left.

The end result is one of those rare records that make you weep with sadness. It is beautiful in its simplicity, in the cry of the single voice, sometimes quenched, often howling, yet melodiously, lyrically, using every possible timbral possibility to make the feelings richer and truer, as a real human voice would.

The incredible sadness that permeates the whole album is relatively unique, including the abandon with which Küchen is willing to expose his own feelings in what some might call brutally sentimental. I have tried to find comparable voices, but I get no further than Frank London's "Invocations" or Lou Reed's "Berlin", but the former is more spiritual and the second more personal, yet the common denominator is the infinite sadness and powerlessness of the individual. The kind of sadness that makes you uncomfortable, but because of the music's aesthetic beauty, you want to hear again, yet I can also guarantee that when you feel sad, it will give you comfort. This is no longer experimental music. This is the voice of an artist who knows how to go beyond the surface of technique to dig deep, and finds a language that everybody will understand.

To Küchen's credit, he always stays on the right side of good taste, which is the biggest challenge when going  this far into emotional expressivity, and even more, he creates sounds you've never heard before, yet the underlying feeling is all the more familiar.

A stellar achievement.

By Martin Schray

There have always been albums that discuss free music and Nazi atrocities - like John Zorn’s Kristallnacht or even recently Günter “Baby” Sommer’s Songs for Kommeno and Martin Küchen’s other new album Brother Beda. But while Sommer’s well-intentioned lament fails because it is too pompous, Küchen’s approach is much more private and subtle. This is already shown in the fact that it is a solo album with him on baritone saxophone, radio, alto saxophone, electronic tampoura, and electric toothbrush.

Hellstrom tries to transcend the results of Nazi terror starting with “Allemagne Anneé Zero”, a reminiscence of the Roberto Rosselini film of the same title which was shot in a bombed Berlin in 1948. Supported by electric tempura and radio static Küchen’s high-pitched baritone literally cries out the whole grief people must have felt, you can see hollow-eyed people walking like ghosts through the ruins. All that was left was complete nothingness … devastation … disaster … hell. It is simple music, recorded in one take in a Swedish church on a cold winter’s day. Hardly ever has there been so much sorrow and immediacy in music.

But Küchen wants to show terror in context, he gives suffering a sound. The next track, "The Russia We Lost", refers to a documentary which shows “the horrendous, hyper- destructive long period of Bolschevism” as Küchen says in the liner notes. Again, now with Küchen on solo baritone, the music is of tangible sadness, but although it is full of emotion you can feel the chill of the Russian winter creeping through your bones. Küchen hardly cannot stand the fact that children are slaughtered, that people are losing their homes, starving, being killed by missiles all over the world. “Sarajevo” just reminds us of the latest tragedy right in front of our door when more than 10,000 people were killed and large parts of the city were destroyed. It is music that shows history from a people’s view (here especially the Bosnian people when he uses Arabian elements as key motives in the track). “10,000 Years” and “Ritual Defamation (to Laird Wilcox)” are like one song. Now the atmosphere is changing, the tracks are more percussive and Küchen uses circular breathing. It is hard to bear these last two pieces because it seems that you can hear the piercing shrieks of dying people.

Even if this review sounds completely depressing I highly want to recommend this album. I cannot recall when I heard music so moving. However, there is comfort in the way Küchen tries to fight his personal ghosts. He looks on the ruins as if he was contemplating his own broken history (he has Jewish ancestors who died in Auschwitz). And although we slowly recognize this huge misery that has come upon us (this is what the German part of the title means) we try to fight and keep going. Even if this seems to be a truism, it gives this album a deep humaneness.

Hellstorm is available as a limited vinyl edition (but also as a digital download). If you have a record player, I can only recommend the LP, it sounds beautiful.

You can listen to parts of the album and buy it here: http://mathka.bandcamp.com/album/hellstorm

You can buy the album from instantjazz.com. 

© stef

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Keith Tippett Octet - From Granite To Wind (Ogun, 2012) ****

Back in the 70's when I was studying at art college I was very lucky to witness Elton Dean's Ninesense, my very first 'real' jazz concert. I'd only just started discovering jazz via a project that I was involved in at my college and the music completely blew my head off. One of the things that I really loved was the piano player ...... and that of course was Keith Tippett. After hearing that group live I listened to many albums with Keith on them, Harry Miller's seminal Family Affair, the incredible Pipedream with Mark Charig, Centipede, The Keith Tippett Group - Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening and later on the great Mujician records. Such great music, and such an original way of approaching the piano. If you're looking for stimulating piano music search out Keith's Dartington concert solo recording.

This record returns or at least reminds me of the great Ogun period of the 70s. Intense tight ensemble work that really packs a punch, with plenty of free-form blowing and excellent themes that give direction to the music. The music, as just mentioned, brings back memories of the 70s period which in the UK was full of South African influences. Musicians such as Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani, Louis Moholo, Chris McGregor, Harry Miller and others, brought to the UK jazz scene an intense mixture of South African melodies and rhythms, combined with very fiery melodic and free improvisation.

Keith Tippett's latest record brings back these ideas but on his own terms. Along with piano, bass and drums, the octet's front line is made up of 4 saxes and a voice (Julie Tippetts), giving it a wonderful colour. Keith Tippett uses his ensemble to punctuate and develop the central theme which comes back from time to time in different versions. These sections provide a platform for the next soloist to jump into the hot brew of rhythms and either sink or swim. Melodically the main theme is an attractive combination of bouncy South African rhythms and contemporary post-bop lines, very listen-able.

Strong solos from all the horn players are aided by a heavy rhythm section that pushes each player to their limits. Each sax player gets a chance to react with the ensemble and believe me they all blow up a real storm. However, it's great to hear Paul Dunmall soloing with some 'straight ahead' post-Coltrane blowing, something I've not heard since his Spirit Level days. Although most of the record is intense ensemble work, further into the piece (+/- 35') Julie Tippetts sings a very beautiful languorous ballad section. This gradually develops, moving us towards the close of the piece. It's a wonderful way to finish as one is unaware of being ushered gently towards the close of this fine musical journey.

The record only has one (1) track lasting 47 minutes in total. But I can assure you that this is very satisfying listen and it's length is almost like sitting through a live set from the group. 

Finally, I should mention that all the musicians play at high intensity throughout this piece. Add to that the voice of Julie Tippets which darts around the various musical groupings and you have a solid group that really keeps you glued to your seat for the whole performance.

Highly recommended .... maybe for Santa's Christmas stocking (hint)!   

Personnel: Paul Dunmall: tenor and soprano saxophones; James Gardiner-Bateman: alto saxophone; Kevin Figes: alto and baritone saxophones; Ben Waghorn: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Julie Tippetts: vocals, seed pods, Balinese xylophone, toy xylophone, struck thumb piano; Keith Tippett: piano, pebbles, maraca, woodblocks, music box; Thad Kelly: double-bass; Peter Fairclough: drums  


You can buy the album from instantjazz.com. 

© stef

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