Bill Frisell - Four (Blue Note, 2022)

By Martin Schray

Bill Frisell is a shy star. At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 80s, he appeared on the scene with his very quiet sounds, which in their apparent hesitation, their pausing and patient gathering unfolded an energy all of their own: Wide-screen soundscapes, whispered. Frisell had a unique voice, completely different from anything familiar. You might say: he is a chamber musician of jazz. And we’ve been lucky enough to hear this voice on hundreds of albums.

But due to the COVID pandemic Frisell couldn’t do what he actually loves best for two years: playing concerts and recording music in the studio. He was thrown back on himself. However, he was able to reflect on his situation in a positive way: “I'm so happy that I’m still in love with my instrument. That’s probably what got me through this time now, too. I said to myself, okay, I have all day now. So I’m going to take my guitar and play. There was no goal, no deadline, nothing like that, it was just the joy of playing whatever came to my mind,“ he said in an interview with Bayrischer Rundfunk on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Now, after two years, he is back with a new album on which he has musically processed his impressions and experiences of this time. Four, his third Blue Note album, is about loss, renewal and friendship. Within a short time, Frisell lost three longtime, very close friends, to whom he now pays his last respects, so to speak: “Dear Old Friend“ is dedicated to his childhood friend Alan Woodward, whom he knew even before he picked up a guitar for the first time. With "Claude Utley" he recalls the Seattle-born painter, and “Waltz For Hal Willner“ is a tribute to one of jazz’s most inventive producers.

Frisell recorded Four with a new quartet: Saxophonist and clarinetist Greg Tardy, pianist Gerald Clayton and drummer Johnathan Blake. He had never played with them in this constellation before, yet they present themselves as a strong harmonic and melodic unit. Frisell had jotted down many melodies and compositional ideas from quarantine and brought them to the sessions, but laying out little more than musical sketches for his fellow musicians, he motivated them to improvise. "Nothing was really planned down to the last detail," he says. "Everyone just had the information I gave them. But it was absolutely open-ended as to who would play what and when.“ Despite this improvisational freedom, however, they always stayed true to the original idea of each song. Only rarely does one step into the spotlight alone. Four consists entirely of original compositions, most of them written during the lockdown (others are reinterpretations of songs that can be found on Good Dog, Happy Man and Lookout for Hope).

The result is a jazzy album that is less in the tradition of Good Dog, Happy Man or Nashville than in that of Circuit Rider, his collaboration with Ron Miles and Brian Blade. Still, the Great American Songbook shines through in the music again and again, e.g. “Dear Old Friend“ is reminiscent of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot“ and “The Pioneers“ of Hank Williams’s “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry“. The latter is perhaps the best way to see how Frisell brings together the two great American musical styles - jazz and country. Whereas the song was a relatively straight folk rocker on Good Dog Happy Man, here it’s a mélange of relaxed swing (largely because of Hardy’s saxophone) and Frisell’s crystal-clear arpeggios that exude typical Southern country music charm. But Four also offers something for fans of more adventurous structures. “Dog On A Roof,” the last song on the album, starts out still quite melodic but slides very quickly into gloomy, weird realms. Frisell’s harmonics meet fragmentary saxophone lines, the drums stop playing time and the piano is limited to a few dark chords. Finally, the piece drags toward its conclusion in a tough and heavy groove.

It's great to see that this unique, wonderful voice is back after a short break. Hopefully nothing will hold him back from live performances and studio recordings in the near future.

Four is available on double vinyl, as a CD and as a download.

Listen to “The Pioneers“ here:

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Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, Tony Orrell - That​’​s My Life (577 Records, 2023)

By Ian Lovdahl

There's something invigorating about returning home after a long time away; reuniting with best friends and visiting old places, while excitedly preparing to make new memories. A native Michigander myself, I spent five years living among saguaros in Phoenix before moving back to the Mitten, and it felt amazing to once again wake up somewhere I called home. As the liner notes of this excellent live performance explain, "That's My Life" is an audio expression of that feeling of homecoming, and the two-song album explores with verve the musical relationship shared by these three players who first shared a stage in 1979 as the group Spirit Level.

Live in concert in their hometown of Bristol, the band kicks off with the eponymous track, an edge-of-your-seat 24-minute free jazz jam. For its intimidating runtime, it's shocking how quickly "That's My Life" flies by. There's a palpable sense of energy as the trio steps on the gas for the first part of the song; mostly dominated by Paul Dunmall's snaking soprano saxophone, his performance weaves amidst groaning double bass and collapsing drums, before striking fast with a flurry of arpeggiated notes. About halfway through, the atmosphere takes on a pseudo-spiritual vibe, until double bassist Paul Rogers unleashes into a mind warping solo of his own. The live bass casts a warm and organic presence that permeates the entire project, and Rogers' fuzzy tone adds a ton of personality to his playing. I think it has to be said that the audio fidelity of this opening track wavers throughout the first half, and I find it difficult at times to clearly hear Tony Orrell's kit; although it's a tad dodgy, the sound quality isn't a huge detriment, and after all, it's a live album, so it's not a big complaint.

The second song "Marriage in India", junior in length, finds itself bookended by a fiesty riff shared by the soprano sax and jaunty bass. A rambling kind of groove, the interplay sets up a nice opportunity to appreciate Orrell's glittering cymbals and hustling bass drum. As Dunmall finishes one more ferocious arpeggio, the sax takes a seat for several minutes to showcase an incredible double bass solo, and it's something beautiful to behold. Rogers' performance is sound poetry, evoking onomatopoeias with every pluck; angular harmonics "ping" and "pong" between the ears, and lower register notes snore like a bear disturbed during hibernation. Squishy and swampy reverberations from the low E mingle well with the unobtrusive percussion, providing a bed for the double bass to gurgle like a hungry stomach one moment, and like a shaken windchime the next. The musical creativity makes for a memorable few minutes of masterful control and no-holds-barred experimentation; and after the audience becomes acquainted with the sound of Rogers' finger callouses swiping against the strings, he picks up the opening riff again and the soprano returns for a skronk and drum tantrum to wrap things up.

Expressive and energetic, "That's My Life" takes the listener on a blistering thrillride of free jazz mayhem while successfully conveying the excitement of homecoming. The album's notes state that it's the product of ten years of anticipation, but it's clear as day in one's headphones that this band was having the time of their lives playing this music. It's that added layer of authenticity that elevates the record in my eyes (and ears) and fully expect to revisit it many times over the new year.

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Thanos Chrysakis, Jason Alder – Milieu Interior (Aural Terrains, 2022)

By Nick Ostrum

Milieu Interior is the latest collaboration between composer and sound artist Thanos Chrysakis and clarinetist Jason Alder. Actually, Chrysakis has been homing in on composing for the clarinet over the last few years, as Eyal covered here . Milieu Interior is right in line with that tradition. Although Alder’s instruments range from standard to bass to contrabass clarinets, he often soars, rather than relishes in the deep, droning doldrums. Tones waft across the aural plain like a soft breeze on a fall evening, calm and at least temporarily comforting, but serving likewise as a harbinger of a much colder winter.

The mood is intimate and bucolic, but always falls back toward an off-balanced center that hints at instability. Trills overlay stretched melodies. Breaths and clicks of keys are audible, as are adjustments in embouchure that become as much of the music as the tones expelled from the clarinet’s bell. So are the resonances (that sometimes sound like echoes), which fill out the potential background void. Some of these embellishments seem to come from Chrysakis’ work in production though some come directly from Alder, as he bends and decays notes to create a sense of faded, enveloping polyphony.

Jason Alder is clearly a clarinetist to be reckoned with. He might not attack like others, but he can breathe a cavernous huff and screech when he needs to. Most often, however, his lines meander slowly and bend gently but deliberately. Thanos Chrysakis, moreover, has some serious compositional chops. All of the music on this recording is meticulously rendered into notation and performed by Alder in close collaboration with Chrysakis. The fact that this is so composed is especially notable given how flexible and freely floating much of this sounds.

Chrysakis has referred to Milieu Interior as exploring the “vistas of sound’s interiority.” In less poetic terms, the album falls somewhere between the romantic end of contemporary classical and a pared-down EAI attention to color and texture. The music is dynamic, but in effect rather than volume or pitch aberrations. It develops subtly but unpredictably, which, again, makes the composed nature of these pieces pleasantly surprising.

Milieu Interior is available through Bandcamp or directly from Aural Terrains.

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Toshinori Kondo, Massimo Pupillo, Tony Buck - Eternal Triangle (i dischi di angelica, 2022)

By Irena Stevanovska

If you’re a long-time free jazz listener, your ear has probably already gotten used to recognizing the sound of Toshonori Kondo’s trumpet, wherever you happen to hear to it.

In this album recorded in May 2019, and released in November 2022, two years after Kondo’s death,  the three incredible musicians, Kondo, Massimo Pupillo and Tony Buck, achieved to deliver a soul-changing experience with their live set in Bologna, Italy.

Most of us have probably dug really deeply for some of these exact sounds and frequencies, yet here we are, being able to feel the genius in its prime. The fact that this is one of the last things that Kondo played live gives the music more subjective chills and a sublime feeling. He is an artist that gave the world so much.

The serenity starts being noted since the beginning of the album. Kondo’s trumpet, as per usual, along with his mind-boggling effects, opens up before a stereophonic percussion (Tony Buck) and the astounding bass and electronics (Massimo Pupillo).

While listening to the album, you're always free to imagine yourself living the course of a leaf and when autumn comes, getting disconnected from your branch by the raw ambient sound. Starting your journey slowly falling, the trumpet softly blows you around in the air to the subtle sound of percussion, like little raindrops dripping in the pools around all of your being. On the long travels to your next state, you encounter all kinds of different possible ways to ride, pointed in and out by the various sounds coming from the album.

On the other hand, the album is completely filled with futuristic sounds that are engineered so well that anyone listening would be less likely to connect with the mighty sounds of earthly nature. Depending on what state of mind you are in while you are listening to it, you can just choose your journey. The genius of the album is the combination of the musicians, of which Kondo’s electric trumpet always takes you out of the world, while Buck’s drums are usually the definition of organic, played out as nature itself would play them. The electronics are used to shift you between the two worlds while the background sound serves as the exact thing that is drifting you towards the destination in which your mind decides to arrive.

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Flower-Corsano Duo – The Halcyon (VHF, 2022)

By Guido Montegrandi

Michael Flower and Chris Corsano share a common story that dates back to the early 2000s; they can be advertised as the only Japan banjo / drums duo in the world and part of the task in every review of the Flower Corsano Duo is to clarify what kind of instrument does Michael Flower play: Japan banjo AKA shahii baaja AKA electric bulbul tarang.

The shahi baaja ("royal instrument") is an electrified and slightly modified version of the Indian bulbul tarang, a type of Indian zither to which have been added typewriter keys which depress two of the strings to change their pitch. The modifications also include the addition of 10 additional unfretted strings which serve as an attached swarmandal (drone harp). The instrument is currently used in everything from semi-classical and popular Indian music to ambient techno, and psychedelic rock. (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahi_baaja)

Despite their longstanding musical relationship, they haven’t recorded anything together since 2009 (The Four Aims, VHF), so when you start listening, the curiosity to hear what has changed is part of the game. Something has changed, the music is (at times) more relaxed, meandering, but the attitude is the same, two talented musicians playing into each other spaces giving birth to a flow that seems to have no beginning and no end.

The two long pieces that make up the album (each about 20 minutes) are assembled from recording made in three days from July 30 to August 1, 2018 in Leeds, Edinburgh and Bristol and are mixed by Flower and Corsano themselves.

The first impression is to enter into something that was already developing before the recording device had been turned on and that will continues when the recording device is turned off. Flower's playing is very personal and not influenced by the possible eastern leeway that the instrument might suggest. Sometimes, particularly in the first piece ('The River That Turned Into A Raging Fire') it is very guitar-like, sometimes more resonant and drone-oriented. Corsano is (as usual) inventive and perceptive and his drumming is exactly what is needed to be in every moment.

The impression of a constant flow, which is the main quality of the music, is also, sometimes, its limit as if the path gets foggy and the direction uncertain. Anyway, it is just a fleeting sensation that is overcome by the overall quality of their musical interactions, free form improvisation with an inner pulse.

One word about the title of this record, The Halcyon, is a bird which according to various mythologies is in control of the sea and the winds and in particular in the Greek myth of Alcyone, the halcyon days were days around the winter solstice when storm shall never occur, more in general the expression “Halcyon days” refers to an idyllic time in the past or to a peaceful time. Now if you put side by side the title of the record and the titles of the two pieces 'The River That Turned Into A Raging Fire' and 'The Ship That Sailed On Dry Land' you can have an idea of the inner tension that you find into their music and that is an essential element of its beauty.

In conclusion this is a music that seeks for an uninterrupted listening and asks to be followed in its wandering and if you accept, the voyage is yours to be taken.

P.S. One of the best thing about listening to music and thinking abut it, is that it opens new doors and new perspectives. As I was searching about the Japan banjo, I ran into an article published on the December issue on Wire about Ustad Noor Bakhsh an 80 years old Pakistan benju (AKA all of the above) player who has recently been enjoying a surprising popularity bringing this elusive instrument into the spotlights. He has just published his first record on bandcamp and you can watch various videos on youtube.

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Julyen Hamilton/George Kokkinaris – The Road to Amarillo (self released, 2022)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

The duo of Julyen Hamilton on piano and poetry and George Kokkinaris on double bass defies categorization, making it hard for anyone who puts labels to music or has preconceived ideas about improvisation. Many times aggressive, so soulful and energetic, quite often leaving room for silence, while, when Hamilton is reciting his voice feels like a knife in water. His texts form another entity that enriches the experience of the listener and that is no small thing.

Kokkinaris takes a multiplicity of roles while playing (or probably better: performing) on The Road to Amarillo. From his fierce plucking the chords up to the gentle use of the bow, in order to accommodate the voice of Hamilton in reciting his poetry, there’s also the middle road of his amazing interaction with the piano. When they play together, I get the sense of togetherness, of one singular voice that defies the logic of the solo, of someone’s ego. Three parallel ways of playing, all of them conjured along the way and in unison with his fellow musician. Hamilton plays, equally, more than one role on the cd. While his piano playing is mostly full of tension, grasping the listener from the very beginning, his poetry is, accordingly, passionate.

Commenting about roles, their music (on this cd at least) engulfs a theatricality, presenting images and sparking the imagination of the listener to create his/her’s own. Music is definitely a non verbal way of communication and both musicians try to take advantage of this by presenting a multi-dimensional audio world. This is the way I feel when I listen to good music, whatever that means: an audio world of multiple dimensions where I can find solace in. The Road to Amarillo is a small adventure of this kind.

 

Check it out here: https://kokkinaris.com/discography/the-road-to-amarillo/

 @koultouranafigo

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Vandermark / Kurzmann / Kern - blue days before they end (epileptic media, 2022)`

By Eyal Hareuveni

The Viennese club Blue Tomato was one of the best places to experience free music. It was an intimate, underground basement that could populate only a few dozen people but where you can feel the music’s vibrations throughout your body. It was managed by Günter Werner and Gerti Man who made sure that the food was tasty, the beer was cold enough and there was enough wine in the spritzer, and, obviously, that the music was great. Like many other fine establishments, the Blue Tomato did not survive the Covid-19 lockdowns (and the neighbors' complaints), and after 39 years of activity closed down.

But on Nov. 21st, 2021, just before the club was closed forever, on its last night and the last free night before another lockdown, three honorary guests - Chicagoan hero Ken Vandermark, and local heroes Christof Kurzmann and DD Kern announced a last-minute performance. It was the first, and so far the last time that they played together as a trio. Vandermark treated the Blue Tomato as “a home away from home whenever I've been on the road in Europe”, and said that it was the “longest-running venue for improvised music that I know of in the world”. He was already scheduled to play there three more nights with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and local guests - clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer, Kurzmann, EMS synth wizard Thomas Lehn, and double bass player Nina Polaschegg, but these gigs were canceled because of the lockdown.

Vandermark and Kurzmann have been playing together extensively for more than a decade, In Kurzmann’s El Infierno Musical (inspired by the poems of Argentinian poetess Alejandra Pizarnik), in the Made to Break quartet, in Vandermark’s Resonance Ensemble and as a duo. Their duo interprets Joe McPhee's poetry and relies on Kurzmann's ppooll software’s real-time processing of Vandermark’s improvised music with a unique rhythmic basis that challenges Vandermark's melodic phrasing and approach to extended techniques. Drummer Kern plays with Vandermark in the DEK trio with fellow Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik, and this trio has released four albums.

blue days before they end documents this performance, before a packed house. Needless to say, it was a very emotional performance, for Vandermark, Kurzmann and Kern, the appreciative audience and Werner and Man. The recording is a DIY non-professional recording, without a mix or mastering, but capturing the whole two sets, about an hour and a half “in all its perfection, skill & heart”. Vandermark sounds better (and louder) than Kern and Kern sounds much better than Kurzmann and his subtle playing of electronics and vocals, but you can still feel the exhilarating sense of joy and fun radiating from the musicians to the audience, and back. It is clear that Vandermark, Kurzmann and Kern were on fire that night, totally possessed by the energy of the music and its powerful rhythmic flow. As usual, Kurzmann’s choice of the one song he covered was brilliant and symbolic, Low’s “Will the night” (“Will the night last forever? / Stay by my side / 'Cause tonight, together / Would be divine… “, from Low’s Secret Name, 1999), and the trio concluded the second set with a soulful, melancholic ballad. This performance celebrated a rare camaraderie of musicians with an attentive audience and the beloved space, true to the legacy of the Blue Tomato.

blue days before they end is released in a limited edition of 100 blue glitter cassettes, with no download options or to listen to it online. And it is also the last release, for now, of the Viennese epileptic media label. Already a collector's item.

https://epilepticmedia.bandcamp.com/album/blue-days-before-they-end

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Ivo Perelman and Joe Morris - Elliptic Time (Mahakala, 2022)

By Sammy Stein

Two outstanding musicians, one a reedsman, the other a guitarist, a studio. What could possibly happen? The answer is a recording of superlative improvised music.

Opening with a fifteen-minute dialogue between reed and strings, on the title track, Perelman finds a way to tease emotive emphasis out of connected motifs, Morris elegantly journeying along scales, ascending, descending, and inputting tricky nuances into Perelman’s phrase formations. On this track, at times, the force of Perelman is countered by the delicate finger-work of Morris, creating a sublime, almost ethereal argument.

The second track, ‘Invisible Mass’ is a continuation of the conversation, this time Perelman taking a more contrapuntal stance while Morris picks his way with intricate changes and rhythm patterns. The instruments create the percussive elements as much as the melody and Perelman imparts a sense of strength, powered by the sheer audacity of his choice of harmonics. Both musicians have an ear for what works and what does not, and what flies so close to the edge of disharmony yet never quite hits that uncomfortable place, it is a credit to their experience. Perelman’s tone adjusts with the flow of Morris’ strings in subtle ways, only clearly apparent on the second or third (or fourth) listen. Perelman’s ear for good connective notes is shown and at times, the choice verges on the edge of insanity, particularly when matched to the vibration of Morris’s strings. There is a lovely interlude when Morris plays so lightly it is as but a whisper, and Perelman duly reacts, sighing the sax across registers, veering from altissimo to lower register.

‘Gravitational Pull’ has a very different vibe from the outset with Perelman playing for all the world like a blues soloist. You can imagine a lone sax player on a Parisian corner. Plying his trade, he covers all the angles, from beautifully worked scale ascensions to difficult, challenging intervals and improvised sections. The guitar joins in gentle support, at times providing just the right placement to ensure the spaces left by the saxophone phrases are full of interest. The guitar then emerges from the background to lead after the four-minute mark and Perelman switches to sostenuto behind the guitar strings before that phrasing is elongated by Perelman allowing the sax to once again rise to lead in a demonstration of two musicians in creative harmony.

‘Palpable Energy’ is aptly named because it gives creative free rein to energy, presented to the listener as a series of interludes, each subtly different, yet connected by the unspoken choice of key, phrasing, and tempo. The energy of Perelman’s playing is palpable, while Morris sustains and maintains his own patterns, against which Perelman improvises, making the listener sense a connection with both musicians. The speed that Perelman instigates changes is impressive and Morris matches this on strings, crafting music and shaping it. Perelman demonstrates how he can take a breath of air, and craft, and shape it so it emerges as something else – a form, a musical landscape, a feeling. A thoughtful interlude around the seven-minute mark sees both musicians musing around a central chordal sequence, both coming to the conclusion it is necessary at a similar time, Perelman this time following the guitar.

‘Cosmic rays Music’ is short, sharp, and sweet. The polyrhythms set up by the instruments make it feel like there is a small ensemble taking to the floor, but no, still just two. Morris matches Perelman in nerve and intuitive tete-a-tete.

This recording is one of two uber-talented musicians developing lines, neither being the constant protagonist but both respecting and understanding each other’s nuanced changes and decisive phrasing. There is gentle combatant playing, yet the music returns often to a cohesion and oneness that gradually evolves and develops its own character.

This is great improvisation and whether free jazz or classical music is your preferred genre, listening to this opens alleyways to go down, investigate and follow until you come to a point where you decide whether to continue or beat a retreat to the safety of what you know. Either way, this is an experience. Pushing musical boundaries is what Morris and Perelman do best and this recording shows the beauty that can be achieved if only you have the nerve to do so.

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Holland Baroque and Bastarda Trio - Minne (Pentatone, 2022)

By Ron Coulter

Wow, this is a unique and fascinating album! Minne, presents a totally original take on baroque and medieval era music through new compositions and arrangements that include improvisation and unique instrumentations.

This nine-track album is a collaboration between the Dutch group, Holland Baroque, a 16-member ensemble (utilizing 11 of those members here), and the Polish group, Bastarda Trio, comprised of Paweł Szamburski (clarinet), Michał Górczyński (contrabass clarinet), and Tomasz Pokrzywiński (cello).

There is a reserved elegance and richness to the music on this album that is at once familiar and completely new; combining elements of modern and traditional, unconventional and conventional. Track 5, Spiritus sanctus (after Hildegard von Bingen, 1098-1179), Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450-1517) embodies this seamless melding of contrasting musical elements. It begins with a noisey, mechanistic introduction of 1’21” (sounding nothing like the instruments involved) that gradually develops into a romping statement of Isaac’s Spiritus sanctus (sounding like something from Game of Thrones, or any medieval soundtrack of your choice), and finally ending with a soaring clarinet solo over an energetic 15/16 vamp.

Other highlights from the album include the seething dissonance and ominous melodicism of track 4, Nigra sum (after Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, 1525-1594); the electronic sounding introduction of track 6, Te laudant; and any and all contributions from contrabass clarinetist, Michał Górczyński. All of the playing on this album is superb, but the grounding weight (low pitch range and timbre) and at times rhythmic vitality from the contrabass clarinet really propel the music to a higher level; one would be challenged to imagine this music without Górczyński’s presence.

Minne , was released on May 13, 2022 as a Hybrid SACD (which plays on Super Audio Compact Disc players and standard CD players) and digital download. It is an intriguing album filled with rich textures, carefully conceived compositions and arrangements, expert improvisations, and many enticing musical qualities that are better listened to than described here. Whether or not a listener has any familiarity with, or interest in, baroque or medieval musics, this album is a must listen for those interested in creative music and especially the creative re-imagining and interpretation of existing musics.

and the label

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Free Jazz Blog's Album of the Year 2022

We are pleased to announce the Free Jazz Blog's top albums of 2022. Last week, we presented the top 10 recordings from 2022, drawn from the contributions of all the Free Jazz Blog reviewers and then held a vote for the top album.

1. The top spot goes for the second year to a group featuring the intense piano playing of Pat Thomas (last year, the top spot went to أحمد [Ahmed])
   
   Pat Thomas & XT (Paul Abbott and Seymour Wright) - “Akisakila” / Attitudes of Preparation (Mountains, Oceans, Trees)  (Edition Gamut)

   

   The album received a double review this year. Lee wrote:
   

   As a recording, “Akisakila” / Attitudes of Preparation (Mountains, Oceans, Trees) is undoubtedly in the running for album of the year. The trio’s music is deliriously engaging, frenetic and charged with a hot energy that burns brilliantly. Sidestepping all of Prévost’s warnings about “subtle, insidious, prescribed approaches,” XT and Thomas instead create something direct and uncommonly provoking, a must-own.

   And Fotis said:

   Apart from the music itself in “Akisakila” /Attitudes of Preparation, which is burning free jazz, what strikes me as more important is that the three of them (with Pat Thomas on the piano in full blow out form) create something like a bridge connecting the past with the present. This double vinyl (yes!, we the fetishists applaud in joy) is not a product of three musicians who rely on the past and it’s not, either, the result of the present manifestations of what jazz is. The three of them have managed to create a timeless album, one that incorporates music, words with radical avant-garde tactics and practices.

   
   
2. The masterful Wadada Leo Smith takes second place for his wonderful box-set of duo recordings. 

   

   Wadada Leo Smith - The Emerald Duets (TUM Records)
   
   Stef wrote in his review:
   

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

   
   
   
   
3. And in the third spot is Myra Melford and her excellent quintet: 

   

   Myra Melford Fire and Water Quintet - For the Love of Fire and Water (Rogue Art)
   
   In his review, Paul declared:
   

   The music invites the listener in. Though there are moments of abrasiveness, the interlocking of rhythmic ideas, unusual melodic forays, keep it enthralling. The layering of the instruments and melodic ideas beg for repeated listening.

---

And so, we begin 2023! We thank you for your continued trust and look forward to continuing to share our thoughts on the music that we all enjoy and . This past year, the Free Jazz Blog had 1.62 million views ... we are delighted and hope to continue to spread the word about the music.

Happy New Ears!

Sincerely,

The Free Jazz Collective

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