Han Bennink & Frode Gjerstad - Han & Frode (CJR, 2009) ****½

 Dutch drummer Han Bennink is somewhat of a percussion genius, and a wild entertainer at the same time. Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad is a true icon of European free improv and free jazz. Together, they create absolute fireworks. Their range and level of inventiveness on their instruments is absolutely unlimited and together they even seem to encourage to take it a notch further. Whether powerful all-hell-breaks-loose interactions to the more subtle sounds of tiny-bird-meets-falling-chestnuts, it is absolute fun to hear. Bennink adds the occasional shout to release some concentrated intensity or just out of plain joy. There is no artistic pretense, just music, raw, authentic, immediate. And if anyone dare say that free improv or free jazz is high-brow stuff that cannot possibly be fun, this album is the absolute perfect counter-example. An absolute treat of creativity, musical passion and joy!

Buy from Instantjazz.

Watch a clip from another performance



© stef

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Jason Stein

Jason Stein is a bass clarinetist. He plays no other instrument. This gives him the opportunity to focus his skills, and with great success.

Jason Stein is a musician. He records to make music, not to demonstrate his technical skills.

Jason Stein's Locksmith Isidore - Three Less Than Between (Clean Feed, 2009)****

After "The Calcululs Of Loss", this is the second release by the trio, now with Jason Roebke on bass, and still with Mike Pride on drums. The album consists of eleven compositions by Stein, covering lots of ground, using the entire jazz catalogue to bring his music, that is free and exploratory in nature, yet swings, bops and sings at the same time.The switch of cello to bass gives the compositions a totally different color, with the bass a better complement to the bass clarinet because of their low sound companionship, and a better complement for the drums because of their comparative power and drive. Despite the lower sound registers, Stein is a master in seeking contrast too. He can play high sensitive notes, whether in overtones or straight, as he does on "Stevenesque", the second track, which is very airy and open-textured, as is the sensitive "Most Likely Illiterate". Other pieces, in contrast, such as "Izn't Your Paper Clip" bring quite dense, nervous agitation, propulsed forward by the excellent rhythm section. "Saved By A Straw", and the title track, are pure avant-garde sound exploration by the trio. But then you get some real boppish pieces like "Protection And Provocation", or "Amy Music" (see clip below), on which the legacy of Dolphy shines through. You get the picture, a rich, varied, warm and exploratory album.

Listen and download from eMusic.

Jason Stein - In Exchange For A Process (Leo, 2009) ****

Playing solo is the absolute art of creativity and inventiveness or the perfect recipe for absolute boredom. It is like the ultimate exercise any musician should try to accomplish, not only with his instrument or his own restraints and possibilities in mind, but also taking the listener into consideration. Pushing the envelope. Going beyond the borders of your own creative limitations. Jason Stein manages to be captivating while exploring his instrument and doing something meaninful musically. It is also a physical exercise. You can hear him breathe, squeeze out the last note of a phrase, get multiphonics out of his reed, play around with timbral explorations. All that's fine, but it also makes for a great listen: the sensitivity, the lyricism, the internal dialogues, the joy of playing, the sad quality of sounds, the distress, it is all here, .... just for you to enjoy.

Listen to an extract.

Here are some other solo bass clarinet albums

Rudi Mahall - Solo (Psi, 2006)
Louis Sclavis - Clarinettes (IDA, 1985)

And some with not exclusively bass clarinet

Evan Ziporyn - This Is Not A Clarinet (Cantaloupe, 2001)
Ned Rothenberg - The Lumina Recordings (Tzadik, 2006)

Other suggestions are welcome!

Which album would I recommend? Truth be told, I love the naked power and vulnerability of the solo album. The trio album is surely more accessible. Both are really good.

Watch Locksmith Isidore on Youtube




Both albums are available from Instantjazz.

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Die Enttäuschung - 5 (Intakt, 2009) ****

The Berliner band "Die Enttäuschung" started by re-packaging Monk in a more modern outfit, adding the learnings of Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and later free jazz icons to the music. Today, the band composes its own music, yet in the same style, playing with rhythms and melodies, building themes and deconstructing them in pieces which are in essence too short to allow for long developments and elaboration. And this adds to the challenge and the fun. It swings, it bops, and it colors outside of the lines. Now, for their fifth release, the quartet is still as enthusiastic and cohesive as they were fifteen years ago. And the band is still the same : Axel Dörner on trumpet, Rudi Mahall on bass clarinet, Jan Roder on bass, and Uli Jennessen on drums. Four stellar musicians who make this project more than just an exercise in style, even if it is far more "traditional" than their other, more artistic endeavours.

Because all their albums are released without titles and because the art work has kept its collage style over the years, it is hard to assess what their real discography is or what the actual number of the album is.

Here is what I puzzled together, but I might be wrong (please correct if needed!):

Die Enttäuschung (Two Nineteen, double LP, 1995 - only Monk covers)
Die Enttäuschung (Crouton, 2004, recorded 1995, vinyl LP 500 copies)
Die Enttäuschung (Grob, 2002, recorded 1997)
Die Enttäuschung (Intakt, 2007)
Die Enttäuschung (Intakt, 2009)

Listen and download from iTunes.

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Eric McDowell

Originally from Boston, Eric McDowell currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he teaches undergraduate writing courses and catches some of his favorite musicians on their way from Chicago to New York. When not agonizing over unfinished short stories or ungraded student essays, he is watching movies with his girlfriend or trying to keep the cat off of the turntable. By chance he attended the Vision Festival before he knew who or what anything was, and he's been making up for it ever since.

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Martin Sekelsky

Martin first brushed jazz with The Bad Plus, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane in his late teens. Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane (again) and Cecil Taylor introduced him to free jazz, free improvisation and avant-garde music during his early twenties. The free music scenes in New York, Chicago, Scandinavia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Japan and Portugal further opened his ears. He has been hunting fire music and adventurous sounds ever since, old and new alike.

Martin was born in 1989, currently lives on mainland Europe and slows down time to do all the things he wants to do.

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Stephen Griffith

Steve first got the free jazz bug when he stumbled into an art major's dorm room in the late 60s where Coltrane on Impulse was playing; he wasn't aesthetically ready for that, at all, and it took decades to reach the point of non confusion but the hook was set. When he moved to Cleveland he went to a club where musicians would play multiple nights which helped feed the need but that closed down. An epiphany in figuring out the appeal of Anthony Braxton happened one inebriated night when a friend and he noticed that the cheerleaders on a muted televised basketball game were moving in perfect sync to his previously incomprehensible solo alto sax; everything made sense from that point. An online site, Jazz Corner Speakeasy, was where Steve learned more about the avant garde than any other source and met a number of musicians, writers, label owners and fellow nutty fans. Steve is retired with plenty of time to indulge his listening obsessions, most of which he squanders. He has sworn eternal revenge on Ken Burns for acting like the genre died with Coltrane and ignoring the European Free Jazz movement. Some things are just unforgivable.

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William Rossi

Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and composer William Rossi was born and raised in Italy. He developed a passion for music thanks to his father who has always been an avid listener.

A punk and extreme metal lover at heart throughout his teens, the discovery of industrial music kickstarted a deeper appreciation for experimental and improvised music which he holds to this day.

He's a member of a few collaborative projects with various members of the European noise and free improv scene and makes singer-songwriter-meets-noise music under the moniker Misdirection.

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Matty Bannond

Matty Bannond is a 40-year-old fiction writer and music journalist. He was born and raised near Manchester, UK. He now lives in Germany. His debut novel, Cutting Contest, hit the shelves in 2025. Instagram: bannond_m

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Hinrich Julius

Hinrich Julius. Born in Northern Germany (Hannover), now again living there (Hamburg). For many years a follower and fan of improvised (jazz) music in its many forms. Spending most of my time working at the university and with wife and daughter, who often have to tolerate the music.

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Olle Lawson

Olle Lawson’s introduction to The Music came in the form of Verve’s Best of Bird album, age 13 - an Xmas gift from his grandmother.

He played bass in Scotland-based psych-rock band Jacob Flynch for ten years; has traveled all over Africa and makes annual pilgrimages to NYC’s Vision Festival.
He spends as much time as possible in the Tone World.

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