Party Knüllers X Jaimie Branch – Live at the Casa (Self-released, 2019) ****

By Troy Dostert

In light of the accolades that were heaped upon her debut disc from 2017, Fly or Die, it’s perhaps understandable that a lot of listeners would first be drawn to Jaimie Branch’s name when encountering this rather oddly-titled release. But those who’ve been following the Party Knüllers for the past few years know that the duo, comprised of cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg, are not about to be overshadowed by anyone. Defining themselves as an “experimental garage jazz duo,” they make a hellacious racket, as documented on some fairly obscure releases like their self-titled debut (Pieces of Coal Music, 2014) and Gold (Hispid, 2015). They’ve also teamed up previously with keyboardist Jim Baker, on the memorably titled Four Images of Wank (Hispid, 2014). Irreverent to the core, they certainly share Branch’s defiant modus operandi, making this meet-up, a live recording from the Casa Del Popolo in Montreal in 2018, an eminently reasonable one.

Those expecting Branch to revisit the groove-centric spirit found in abundance on Fly or Die will be disappointed; the Party Knüllers are determined to pursue the limits of sound and texture rather than lock onto a fixed pulse or melodic thread, and Branch is more than willing to fall right in line. Her crystalline upper-register flurries are occasionally in evidence, reminding one of her fearsome chops; but she’s just as likely to attack her instrument with a ferocity that is more noise-driven than tuneful. Even in those moments where she’s digging into repeated riffs, as on the opening track, “Hello, We Are the Party Knüllers and This is Jaimie Branch,” Lonberg-Holm’s tectonic assault on his instrument—dredging up massive, lumbering sounds that defy description—soon nudges, or rather pushes, her into much more abstract territory. And Solberg too is much less interested in sticking with a fixed rhythmic scheme, as he is much more amenable to using all manner of percussive techniques to attack, prod and provoke his counterparts.

Moments of tranquility do emerge, episodically—witness the remarkably restrained exchange between Lonberg-Holm and Branch toward the end of “Hello,” where something approaching a reverie threatens to take hold—as Branch does have a lyrical touch that can’t be suppressed completely. There’s even a hint of jazz that appears fleetingly toward the end of “Nailed Ace,” the second track, where Branch explores a motif that Lonberg-Holm gracefully supports with one of his rare pizzicato moments on the album. But for the most part, this is music on a mission to unsettle and disturb, and so one should approach it in that frame of mind, with a willingness to let the trio find its comfort zone in the realm of the uncomfortable.

If there is one thing the album has in common with Fly or Die, it’s the exceedingly short run-time of just over 30 minutes. With two lengthy improvisations of almost 15 minutes each and a much shorter one added to the end, it’s tempting to call this an EP rather than a full-length release; some listeners might take that into account before buying it. But in any case, it’s another worthy entry in the Party Knüllers’ catalogue, and something that should tide over Branch’s fans until her next big project.

Live at the Casa is available digitally on Bandcamp.

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Jaimie Branch - Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs Of Paradise (International Anthem, 2019) *****

 

By Martin Schray
 

Two years ago almost the entire modern jazz community agreed on the fact that trumpter Jaimie Branch's debut album was one of the best albums of the year . Released by the hip International Anthem label (which is also responsible for highly acclaimed albums by Makaya McCraven , Irreversible Entanglements , Damon Locks’ Black Monument Ensemble , Angel Bat Dawid , and Ben LaMar Gay), Fly or Die seemed to come out of nowhere, hardly anybody had it on their screen.

Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs Of Paradise pulls all stops from the very beginning. After the opening title track the album’s central piece, “Prayer for Amerikkka Parts 1 & 2,“ begins as a sleepy, sloppy, classic 12-bar blues. Branch mumbles the title line several times (the vocals are the new element on the album). At the same time the theme of the album is set: it is explicitly political, and Branch is obviously mad about what’s happening in the USA. “We got a bunch of wide-eyed racists!“, she cries out, accompanied by the voices of Marvin Tate and Ben LaMar Gay. Her trumpet wails, moans and laments before a twelve-string guitar crawls out of nowhere, the groove begins to soar and the narrative takes us to the Mexican-American border. Branch tells the story of a teenage Central American girl who wants to immigrate to the United States. In the liner notes Branch tells the real story: the girl was separated from her family at the border and deported to El Salvador, where she was attacked and raped. Three years later, she seeked asylum in the U.S. once again, only to be incarcerated in Texas. “She was only 19, they crossed over at dawn,” Branch sings. “Now her mother and brothers are safe in Chicago and she’s all alone. (…) This is a warning, honey, they’re coming for you”, she yells. Simultaneously, the band plays a Latin groove, while Branch puts a Mariachi trumpet on top.

In the new line-up Lester St. Louis has replaced Tomeka Reid on cello, but Chad Taylor (drums, xylophone, mbira) and Jason Ajemian (bass percussion, vocals) are still part of the band. In addition to the first album Branch not only plays the trumpet but also sings and whistles, and she plays electronics and bells. Although her music can be clearly pigeonholed as jazz, she integrates a lot of other genres in her music as well: country, folk, blues, African grooves etc. Maybe her polystylistic approach was one of the reasons why some mainly conservative critics were looking for a fly in the ointment and criticized her technique. What they missed is the fact that we hear a trumpeter who has mastered her instrument and who is able to disregard sheer musical ability. Branch wants us to forget technique, it's only about the sound - and she says it at the height of her skill. Here she presents a real approach, which makes her music attractive for an alternative rock audience as well.

The album concludes with “Love Song“, again an ironic and angry statement about the situation of the US. “This one goes out to all the assholes and clowns / you know who you are” Branch repeats constantly aiming at selfish and ruthless politicians. She never mentions the name of the current President of the USA, but it’s obvious that he and his collaborators are meant.

Fly or Die II is completely influenced by the political climate and it displays everything that one might associate with it - desperation, anger, sarcasm, consternation, the call to resistance. It’s an outcry that rubs salt into the wounds of society, but also focuses on the grooving moments: Free your mind and your ass will follow (as Funkadelic put it).

“A Prayer for Amerikkka Parts 1 & 2“ is possibly the best jazz track in 2019 and Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs Of Paradise would easily qualify as the best album - if there wasn’t Matana Roberts’s Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis (at least in my humble opinion). Nevertheless, you have to give kudos to Branch's musical achievement, because her new album is in no way inferior to its outstanding predecessor.

Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs Of Paradise is available on vinyl, CD and as a download.




 

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Jaimie Branch - Fly Or Die Live (International Anthem, 2021) *****

By Martin Schray

When someone does something unusual, critics immediately try to pigeonhole it and hardly anywhere are unfamiliar sounds so quickly and crudely labeled as in jazz, a genre which is actually based on improvisation and freedom. Jaimie Branch’s band Fly Or Die has been one of the most talked-about projects in recent years and very quickly the media called their music punk-jazz. That’s okay for Branch, in an interview with the German weekly “ZEIT“ she said that she used to be a punk rocker and that she appreciated the love in this kind of music. However, some people envied her immediate success. After her first appearance in Germany, at Jazzfest Berlin, she entered the stage in a tracksuit in November 2018, only to thoroughly rouse the more contemplative part of the audience with her trumpet. Thereupon, some critics - all male, by the way - nagged about her scruffy, sloppy tone. It didn’t occur to them that this might be intentional.

Her latest album Fly Or Die Live breathes this exact Berlin gig spirit. It’s a concert recording, one-and-a-half hours, from the Moods jazz club in Zurich, recorded on January 23, 2020, shortly before the music world shut down due to Covid. When she hit the stage like a rapper, she nervously rearranged her base cap, announced that the band was going to play just one 90-minute set instead of two shorter ones, and encouraged the audience to yell, shout, applaud or get drinks because they were "not one of those quiet bands." The Fly Or Die band of the Zurich evening are Branch (trumpet, vocals, vibraslap), Lester St. Louis (cello, vocals, tiny cymbal), Jason Ajemian (bass, vocals, egg-shakers) and Chad Taylor (drums, vocals, mbira).

Fly or Die Live is like a summary of the band’s two studio albums, dipped into the intensity of a live show. At the beginning, the musicians takes their time. Chad Taylor plays a long intro on the mbira, the sub-Saharan thumb piano that originally was used to help connect with ancestors during ceremonies. It’s like the evocation of a paradisiacal state from which one has been expelled. The sound is bouncy and soft, multi-layered; it opens the ears. It takes three minutes for the trumpet to appear. Branch’s sounds is warm and full. She plays brightly and fast, the restrained reverberation almost reminds me of Miles and Chet Baker. Yes, she can play like this as well, but she also has her signature sound. And this becomes clear in the next piece, when the whole thing tips over. “Prayer for Amerikkka Parts 1&2“ certainly is Branch's most important piece, an angry blues in which she screams out all her anger, as on the studio version, sometimes her voice even flipped that night. The trumpet riffs here range from heart-felt blues melodies to improvisations over Phrygian chords, bridging the gap to Mexican mariachis. And, of course, this is a musical commentary on the situation in the U.S.A. under Donald Trump. How could you play that with a clinically pure, nice and beautiful trumpet sound? This has to be dirty, and that’s the Jaimie Branch style. Then again, to bring her playing to the one point is difficult. Sometimes it’s wide-meshed, sometimes snappy, her compositions sound always up-to-date. “To have a good sound, you always have to sound good,“ she says in the ZEIT interview. "I spent a lot of time playing long tones, and I still do. I love resonance and fullness. But there can't be 2500 John Coltranes. To me, that sounds hollow. If someone plays like Albert Ayler, it doesn't mean they sound like Albert Ayler." That's why it has been important to her to find her own voice, to formulate her vocabulary - and she’s definitely done that. Moreover, she benefits from her band, which colors her sketches. They provide an elastic-drifting rhythm carpet on which Branch’s melodies can fly, whether it’s on more contemplative pieces like “Waltzer“ or tightly knit numbers like “Leaves of Glass“.

The set closes with three longer pieces around the seven-minute-mark. Here they simply rock the house and once again keep the promise from the beginning that they are not a quiet band. The audience even sings along at the end in "Love Song" - all that feels very natural, it’s not embarrassing at all. And for a last time Branch’s trumpet is delightfully unclean, she enjoys being very slightly off-key.

Coming back to labels: Her approach might be a bit punk-like, but it also draws a lot of hiphop’s energy. But why categorizing her? She’s just a great musician. One of jazz’s rising stars, that’s for sure.

Fly Or Die Live is available on vinyl (it’ll be released soon), as a CD and a download. You can listen to the album and buy it here: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/fly-or-die-live

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Anteloper - Pink Dolphins (International Anthem, 2022)

By Lee Rice Epstein

Readers will likely have seen the news that jaimie branch died earlier this week. Probably, like many of you, I dove back into albums and videos of Branch performing, and during a Constellation livestream, after explaining that FLY or DIE II was about more than simply the Trump administration, that the group was addressing issues far bigger than one person’s misdeeds, she said something that got right to the heart of things: “We gotta fix this shit and take care of each other. How? I think we make music like this.” The rest is on us, to keep the lamp lit, keep making music, and keep lifting each other up.

* * *

If, as they described them, the first Anteloper albums are a “proof of concept,” then jaimie branch and Jason Nazary’s newest is more like signed, sealed, delivered. On Pink Dolphins, branch, Nazary, and the newly added Jeff Parker go hard in a swinging, swirling darkmagusaqueminibioaquadoloop fashion. The album is a trip, and also a journey, with branch and Nazary extending a line that runs from Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, to Lester Bowie and Philip Wilson, all the way through to Wadada Leo Smith’s many drummer duos. As we’ve noted here before, branch is one of the most diverse and innovative trumpet players on the scene, and Nazary is an equal in every way.

From the opening, there’s a brand new, heavy sound, informed as much by Parker’s role as producer as by Nazary and branch’s ever-expanding palettes. On “Earthlings,” branch lays down a smooth vocal line over a trip-hop inflected beat and highly addictive trumpet melody. It’s the kind of track that would have landed on a hundred mixtapes 25 years ago; today, it’s likely to play on a thousand streaming playlists. The retro vibe is a shimmery top layer, the depths reveal dozens of cracked loops and punchy synths. There’s an undeniable, self-acknowledged punk vibe, an aesthetic that extends to the delightfully neon artwork..

With Parker at the helm, Anteloper shows again how they’re something of a next-gen Chicago Underground, subtly reflected by Taylor’s mbira on the superb “Delfin Rosado.” The sonic depth of “One Living Genus,” which effortlessly unfolds over 15 glorious minutes, is reminiscent of Age of Energy, Mazurek and Taylor’s 2012 album. Nazary unhurriedly folds in kick drums and toms, as synth waves rise up. The back half of the song evokes Art Ensemble of Chicago’s unique uses of drone and space to explore a number of different textures, with branch’s trumpet flowing through like an independent current in the river. “One Living Genus” is, in some ways, the truest display of Anteloper’s unique take on electro-acoustic improvised jazz; there are few players aside from branch, Nazary, and Parker who are breaking through the boundaries of improvisation with such exciting results.

Available on black and limited-edition “aquadelic pink” vinyl, CD and digital direct from International Anthem.

“Earthlings” video

“One Living Genus” video

Anteloper live in Torino, 29 March 2022

Anteloper with the jaimie branch trio live at Roulette, 18 June 2021

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HYdZJcaWrIs

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jaimie branch - Fly Or Die Fly or Die Fly Or Die (World War) (International Anthem, 2023)

By Martin Schray

In July 2022, jaimie branch was at International Anthem Studios in Chicago to edit the raw material for her new album. The tracks were previously recorded with her band Fly Or Die during a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska. In Chicago, they added additional tracks to the originals and began with the fine-tuning. The album was actually almost finished, with only the mixing, final tracks and artwork missing. But a month later, jaimie branch was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment. In the months that followed, her family (especially her sister Kate), her band (Jason Ajemian on bass, voice and marimba, Lester St. Louis on cello, voice, flute and keyboards, and Chad Taylor on drums, marimba, bells, timpani and mbira) and her collaborators at International Anthem got together to continue the work in her spirit. The result is more than a message from the musical legacy. The band flies on these recordings further than ever before and tries to follow new paths, especially when they play around traditions more clearly than they have done so far. For branch obviously not only wanted to expand her musical vocabulary but also to open up to new forms of playing.

When you put on Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War), you think it's a false pressing or that you’ve chosen the wrong record. What you hear is an organ that is typical of a Robert Wyatt album, and this is not the only oddity. Much more dominant than on previous albums, for example, are the vocals, which branch shares with other musicians. Fly Or Die (the band) is augmented by guest musicians. Daniel Villareal (congas, percussion), Rob Frye (flute, bass clarinet), Nick Broste (trombone) and Akenya Seymour and Kuma Dog (vocals) steer the music in new directions several times. The result is that the music has nothing to do with jazz in the purist sense, but is a conglomerate of alternative music, calypso, South African rhythms, folk and zydeco.

Even though Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War) consists of eight tracks, the album is actually one long suite. Only “World War (Reprise)“ seems like an addendum, an echo, an encore. The organ of the beginning is back on that track, as are the vocals, and again, the music is reminiscent of Robert Wyatt. However, apart from the novelties, there are of course familiar aspects we’ve learned to love from previous albums like the monotonous, driving rhythms, often dominated by bass and cello, or branch’s unique, slightly smeared trumpet sound. This is best exemplified by the two core tracks, “Burning Grey“ and “Baba Louie“. The former is perhaps the most typical Fly-Or-Die track on the albums to music, since especially here the vocals come to the fore. branch takes over herself, her style is a mix of singing and rapping, as she has hinted at on tracks like “Prayer For Amerikka Part 1 & 2“ from the Fly Or Die Live album. In keeping with the good old soul dictum “Move Your Ass And Your Mind Will Follow,“ branch wants to move mind and body. When the words in “Burning Grey“ say that the future lives within us and we should never forget to fight, she reminds us that fighting includes change. Moreover, the content is also reflected in the form of the song, as it only pretends to have a clear structure, just to turn into a kind of collective howl with eerie overdubs, echos and dubs. Then again, the groove is never completely lost in the process; anger and joie de vivre are not mutually exclusive. “Baba Louie“, the second central piece, brings the other novelty of the album into focus - the guest musicians. Together with the band, they lay out a musical carpet reminiscent of Paul Simon’s Graceland, on which branch’s trumpet and the string instruments can spread out solos before the piece then tilts completely and reveals a dark, atonal side.

On Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War) you can hear that branch and Fly Or Die were still having fun in Chicago, mixing the possibilities of the professional studio with the recordings already done in Omaha - which makes her death even more tragic than it already has been. What else could she have made happen? Wasn’t she one of the few musicians who had a vision for the future of this music beyond the elitist opinions that Jazz means complex harmonies for trained ears and rhythmically demanding themes? branch, however, usually played only a few chords if it came to harmony, either as a blues or folk framework, from the USA or the Afro-Caribbean regions. For her, Jazz meant not only canon, but high sensitivity and intensity in the interplay. In this realization she was unique. This album shows that once again in an exemplary way.

Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (World War) is available on vinyl, as a CD and as a download. You can listen to the album and order it on the label’s Bandcamp site.

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Dave Gisler Trio with jaimie branch and David Murray - See You Out There (Intakt Records, 2022)

By Kenneth Blanchard

Dave Gisler: Guitar
Raffaele Bossard: Bass
Lionel Friedli: Drums
jaimie branch: Trumpet
David Murray: Tenor Saxophone

This is one of my favorite kinds of albums. It is a prism splitting the jazz spectrum from the middle to one end. From younger X-persons and a seasoned superhero, we get music that would fit comfortably on an acid rock playlist, sandwiched between spooky art house soundtracks and genuine blues ballads. Sometimes we get more than one of those in the same cut. Gisler can be subtle and romantic. He can also play with so much electromagnetic energy it’s a wonder he doesn’t black out whole city blocks.

The trio, consisting of Gisler, Bossard and Friedli, has at least two previous albums: Rabbits On the Run (2018), and Zurich Concert (2020). Both are available from Bandcamp. Trumpet virtuoso jaimie branch (I gather from documentation that branch prefers her name in small letters) joined the trio here and on the 2020 album. I recommend both of the Gisler Trio’s previous recordings. So much for the X-gang.

Then there is the aforementioned superhero. I cannot exaggerate Murray’s influence on me as a jazz fan. More than anyone else, he drew me out of more traditional hard bop toward a whole new world of composition.

Meanwhile, if you don’t know Murray, do yourself a favor, listen to Ming, The Hill, and I Want to Talk About You.

#1 “Bastards On the Run” is very high energy romp with everyone playing amped sound and fury all at once all the way through. #2 “Can you hear me” start with a slower, more romantic duet between Gisler and branch, over a rapid, almost solid ribbon of drum and bass. A subtle friction is provided (I think) by Murray’s horn. Very interesting blend of instruments.

The title cut, #3, is pure haunted house, the kind of thing that might remind you of Albert Ayler, but dialed five notches toward the graveyard. #4 “The Vision” has playing the kind of trumpet that always reminds me of walking alone, down a wet Chicago street, round midnight. Gisler brings up the lights a bit. #6 “Medical Emergency” is, and it does seem to be possible, electrified New Orleans. Murray’s playing is brilliant on this one.

We change gears and altitude with #7 “What Goes Up.” Think of Frankenstein in a hot rod on an alpine highway.

#8 “High as a Kite” is the most dreamy, almost ethereal, cut. I may be exaggerating the spookiness in some of these cuts but here, there is literally something going bump in the night or at least in the right channel.

We get a nice taste of drum and bass in #9 “Get a Döner,” until the trumpet and guitar inevitably overwhelm them. I would have liked a little more of that percussive dialogue.

#10 “Better Don’t Fuck with a Drunken Sailor” gets us back on Bourbon Street. It is such a beautiful piece of romance, allowing Murray to fully extend his command of reed and heart. Gisler and branch in turn reply to Murray’s solo. Oh my. If someone asked me to recommend one cut that represents the album, I would be at a loss. This is whole or nothing. The last cut, however, is the one that followed me home.

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Jaimie Branch (1983 - 2022)

Jaimie Branch. Photo by Peter Gannushkin

By Martin Schray

It’s horrible news that trumpeter and composer Jaimie Branch has died in her home in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She was only 39 years old.

Branch, who was born in Huntington, Long Island, began playing the trumpet at the age of nine and later studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. In her teens, she moved with her family to Chicago and later returned to work there as a musician, promoter and sound engineer in the scene with Jason Ajemian, Tim Daisy and Ken Vandermark, among others. During those years, she formed the trio Princess, Princess (with bassist Toby Summerfield and drummer Frank Rosaly). With Jason Stein, Jeb Bishop and Jason Roebke, she played in Block and Tackle. In 2012, she moved to Baltimore, where she earned a master’s degree in jazz performance from Towson University. During this time, she also founded the record label Pionic Records, releasing her music in vinyl pressings, and performed with her formation Bomb Shelter. Back in New York City, she went on to work with Brandon Lopez, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Mike Pride, among others. She also participated in recording sessions with independent rock groups but it took her until her thirties before she had her breakthrough with the globally acclaimed Fly Or Die Quartet, which included Chad Taylor (drums), Jason Ajemian (bass), and Lester St. Louis and Tomeka Reid (cello), respectively. “I attempted to put out a couple of records myself and they didn’t really come out, so I had that earlier failure,” Branch said in an interview with the Village Voice. She felt she needed to “live life,” soak up more experience. “So I waited, and I played music, and I got caught up in drugs, and dealt with that but just kept playing.” Her drug issues — precisely her heroin addiction — had been behind her, she said. With Fly Or Die Branch put together rawness and delicacy in such an artful and idiosyncratic way that one could not really find a comparison. The way this extraordinarily intense improviser was capable of spectacular flights of fancy when grounded to the max and handled her instrument was sensational and indeed never heard before. Her energy alternated between minimalist structures, HipHop and punk, song form and collective improvisation.

Anyone who has seen Branch live will never forget her electric presence. How she wandered across the stage and through the audience in her often flowing clothes, a mic in one hand, her trumpet in the other, joking with people. With Fly Or Die, she could rock every house. The band knew how to build up tension, loud passages were always followed by tender moments, sometimes Branch let the compositions implode, only to enter the next free sound field again. She managed to get the audience to sing along without being awkward - few can do that. During the set break at the Mars Williams Ayler Christmas Project concert in Weikersheim in December 2018, she chatted animatedly with a few of us about her dog, smoking like a chimney, possessed with a pure joy for life. Nothing is known about the circumstances of her death at the time of this writing. The news that she has passed away has hit me like a bolt of lightning in the middle of the night. Our thoughts are with her family. The jazz world is poorer today.

Watch her in concert here:

 

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Happy New Ears - 2017 Award Winners

Welcome to 2018. Can you believe we made it? 2017 certainly was not an easy one, and to further shake things up, this year the blog held two consecutive votes: a poll for the Collective and a poll for the Peoples Choice. Both presented the same choices, which were culled from the reviewers top 10 lists.
 
And so, without further ado, the results are...

Album of the Year per the Collective:

jaimie branch - Fly or Die

1. jaimie branch - Fly Or Die (International Anthem Recording Company) [review]

Tom Burris says it well here of recent NYC arrival, Branch:

make no mistake, this record is still the sound of Chicago. It's a sharply focused work that moves from one great idea to another quickly and – while retaining its originality - is also very representative of the last 20 years of a certain Chicago sound, with its musical precision and post-production work in the electro-acoustic realm of Tortoise or Rob Mazurek's many projects.

2. Chamber 4 - City Of Light (Clean Feed) [review]
3. Nicole Mitchell - Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds (FPE) [review]
4. Nate Wooley - The Complete Syllables Music (Pleasure Of The Text) [review]
5. Vijay Iyer - Far From Over (ECM) [review]

Album of the Year per the People:

Chamber 4- City of Light

1. Chamber 4 - City Of Light (Clean Feed) [review]

For the winner of the people's choice poll, we turn to Rick Joines' words:

Clean Feed Records proclaims there were “no scores, no structures of any kind, no previous discussions about what to do or not to do or any type of conceptual reasoning,” yet the three movements impress as if they were a single impassioned composer’s carefully-constructed thoughts concentrated and immortalized in a written score. Each musician effortlessly nourishes an intimate exchange of tonal and rhythmic ideas and subtle alterations.

2. jaimie branch - Fly Or Die (International Anthem Recording Company) [review]

3. Anemone - A Wing Dissolved In Light (No Business) [review]
4. Wadada Leo Smith - Solo: Reflections And Meditations On Monk (TUM Records) [review]
5. Ken Vandermark - Momentum 1 (Audiographic Records) [review]


Congratulations to jamie branch and Chamber 4, both the winners and second place holders in our respective polls. Branch had a long journey to making her stellar debut this year, while Chamber 4's guitarist Marcelo dos Reis took the award in 2015 with his fragile explorations on Concentric Rinds. From all here at the Free Jazz Blog, a heartfelt congratulations.

As the initial top 10 lists were being assembled, I was struck by just how long this year has felt. For example, when Lee listed the wonderful Crop Circles from Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, I had to check that it was a 2017 release! Anyway, it doesn't seem like will be any less dramatic in 2018, so all we can hope for is a year with as an incredible offering of music as this past one, a more inclusive and supportive environment for all musicians, and for folks like you to keep listening.

Happy New Ears and good luck!

- FJB

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Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die (International Anthem, 2017) *****

by Tom Burris

Much has been made of Jaimie Branch's move to NYC from Chicago a couple of years ago – especially about the fact that her new city quickly became the birthplace of her long-overdue debut album as a leader. Whatever NYC had to do with inspiring this thing, THANK YOU BIG APPLE. But make no mistake, this record is still the sound of Chicago. It's a sharply focused work that moves from one great idea to another quickly and – while retaining its originality - is also very representative of the last 20 years of a certain Chicago sound, with its musical precision and post-production work in the electro-acoustic realm of Tortoise or Rob Mazurek's many projects.

What you're getting here is 35 minutes of compacted and refined hyperactivity that is also highly sensitive, a bit stormy, and completely brilliant. Textures are extremely important, as Branch casually uses reverb to widen and deepen the landscape, or as in perfectly placed overdubs – like the dubs of Tomeka Reid's cello on “theme 001,” which build tension and add richness to the mix. Of course, before you can play with texture you have to have the goods – and with the lock-in-groove between Reid, bassist Jason Ajemian, and drummer Chad Taylor, the goods are definitely in supply. Then there's Branch herself. She plays the trumpet with skill and purpose, and her approach is both passionate and cerebral. No note is wasted. She knows what to do with every bit of space. I think her days of being a ridiculously underrated musician will be officially over once this record takes off. And there is every reason to expect that it will.

A real standout track is “leaves of glass,” on which Branch is joined by guests Josh Berman and Ben Lamar Gay on cornets. The opening chords are almost unbearably mournful and gorgeous, then the mix goes crazy as the horns start melting all over themselves in multiple washes of echoey effects. This track is followed by “the storm,” where things really get surreal as Reid and Ajemian make rain and Taylor thunders. Branch provides the lightning. Then echoed brass ghosts dance on the plains as the storm passes overhead.

The record is definitely a suite. Branch seems to turn over ideas until every workable outcome has been been revealed, and a suite is the perfect outlet for her writing and arranging methods. And for as much of a Chicago-comes-to-NYC vibe the group presents, I'm reminded as often of big open Midwestern spaces like Kansas or Nebraska – and even the Southwest. Seriously, it sits nicely as a companion piece to Jimmy Giuffre's Western Suite or Neil Young's Zuma.

I have to talk about the magnificent “theme nothing.” Taylor wallops out a horse clomping rhythm that indicates we may be headed toward the Southwest. Ajemian's bass rumble propels the music forward. The way Branch and Reid wind around each other is spellbinding. The melody will stay in your head forever – and not in an annoying way. I think it's my favorite track of 2017 so far.

And then there's the oddity at the end, which is called “...back at the ranch,” Guest musician Matt Schneider plays a freestyle campfire acoustic guitar for a minute and a half. It doesn't sound like a tag to me, although the liner notes call it an epilogue. It sounds simply like we have arrived at a new and different place where anything is possible. So is it jazz? The only answer to that question is “Who gives a shit?”

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Vision Festival #23 2018 - Day 6

By Martin Schray and Paul Acquaro

The final evening of the Vision Festival arrived. It was a bittersweet moment - memories of the past week of shows still lingered sweetly in the mind, but expectations were high for the stellar line up which included the highly anticipated New World Pygmies with Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker, and Hamid Drake and the Oliver Lake Big Band.

Lester St. Louis (c), Jaimie Branch (tp), Chad Taylor (dr), Anton Hatwitch (b)

First up was trumpeter Jaimie Branch with her group Fly or Die. Branch’s debut album with this group rose to the top of many critic’s end of year best of lists, and it’s no wonder why. Branch mixes avant-garde tendencies with strong grooves and catchy bass lines. Her melodies are straight forward and she cuts through all clutter with a strong and assertive tone. However, she also knows when to hold 'em and allows the exploratory passages to make the the head-bopping parts even more tense and exciting. The group here was different than the album, so along with Branch and drummer Chad Taylor was bassist Anton Hatwitch and cellist Lester St. Louis. Taylor adds something truly special to the group, his kit was power and precise on the ‘themes’ and his small percussion items made unusual textures during the explorations. What stroke us about Branch was that we felt like we heard a channeling of Miles Davis’ 70 era music in the sense of recognizable themes appearing with sudden clarity amidst abstractions and swampy meanderings. This was a superb start to the final evenings music.
                                               

Cooper-Moore (p)

Next up was Cooper-Moore’s solo program A Mourning Dove’s Call, an improvisation dedicated to Martha and Guthrie Ashton, which was accompanied by paintings of women by Kim Winkler. Cooper-Moore’s music was like the festival in a nutshell. He used ragtime and stride piano motives, combined them with folk songs and minor and seventh chords á la Keith Jarrett just to put them through the grinder playing Cecil Taylor clusters - a set that was very emotional and varied.
     

Nasheet Waits (dr), Julie Ezelle Patton (poetry, Ken Filiano (b), Paul Van Curen (g)

Also, the festival’s focus on women’s rights and spoken words was continued on the last day by a performance of Julie Ezelle Patton (poetry, visual art), Nasheet Waits (drums), Ken Filiano (bass) and Paul Van Curen (guitar). Everything in this set - the music and the poetry - was improvised with "the music chasing the words and the words chasing the music in overlapping spirals of sound", as Patton puts it. Especially the music was very subtle with Van Curen’s guitar being reminiscent of Universal Congress Of’s Joe Baiza.
                                               

Hamid Drake (dr), Jemeel Moondoc (as), William Parker (b)

Then, New World Pygmies, the trio consisting of Jemeel Moondoc (alto sax), William Parker (bass), Hamid Drake (dr) were scheduled. According to Moondoc the project is an overture of an old world culture, surviving and blossoming as a new world influence. Once again, one of the main aspect of the festival was picked up on. For Moondoc the question is, if "old" is "new", is "ancient" "modern"? The trio's mission is to "bop old and new dreams to the thrust of an avant-garde allegro moving past Saturn and a moon glow forever existing" and to remember Cecil Taylor, whose music has been a huge influence for all of them. Moondoc is still a very powerful saxophonist, he interspersed blues riffs, bebop lines and African melodies. Most of the set was freely improvised, but the trio also used composed material by him. However, the set remained deeply rooted in a classic free jazz context, so it leaned toward the "old" rather than "new", but regardless, it sounded wonderful and was warmly welcomed by the audience.

                                                  

Oliver Lake Big Band

The last band of the festival was the Oliver Lake Big Band consisting of Lake himself, Bruce Williams, James Stewart, Alex Harding, Darius Jones, and Mike Lee on saxes, Adam O’Farrell, Freddie Hendrix, Nabate Isles and Greg Glassman on trumpets, Aaron Johnson, Al Patterson, Terry Greene II and Robert Stringer on trombones, Yoici Uzeki on piano, Robert Sabin on bass and Chris Beck on drums. Lake’s compositions are influenced by Oliver Nelson and Duke Ellington, he takes a hint from both arrangers and creates vast colorings with the horns, which in turn he utilizes in compositions that draw on his avant-garde style. The result is music that also echoes the large ensembles by Charles Mingus, Gil Evans and Kenny Wheeler. Lake presented three new compositions and particularly “Say What“ stood out, with its very well organized chaos in which the solos collided and entwined. Lake wanted to play more songs but the strict timeline of the festival prohibited it. Nevertheless, it was a grand finale worthwhile of a very good festival.

---

All Vision Festival 23 Reviews:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• Day 6

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Anteloper- Tour Beats Vol. 1 (International Anthem, 2020) ****

By Martin Schray

Anteloper is the electro-acoustic duo of trumpeter Jaimie Branch and drummer Jason Nazary. Tour Beats Vol. 1 is their second album after their 2018 debut Kudu, a cassette only release, which explored gritty soundscapes with the urban sonic edge intertwined with plenty of melodic-textural hooks. Branch had the idea for that project in 2018 when she had a residency at Pioneer Works, a former shipping container which is now a studio in Brooklyn, NY. She already knew Jason Nazary from earlier, and he joined her bringing not only his drums, but also lots of electronic stuff like a modular FX unit, synths, sequencers and processors. Branch, who regularly uses electronic devices like synths and delay/looper pedals for her music as well, engineered the session. In 2019 the duo went on tour and they self-produced a super limited-edition tape, Tour Beats Vol. 1, which features recordings from those Pioneer Works sessions, and Branch’s current label International Anthem, possibly the hippest address in avant-garde music at the moment, has decided to release a vinyl and download version.

The idea to combine acoustic drum’n’bass beats with old school electronics and a net of synth sounds might still be a strange concept for some improv fundamentalists, but then again that’s what makes Branch and Nazary’s approach such an inspiring improvisational framework. The percussive drizzle of “Bubble Under“ brings out the obvious linear qualities in Branch’s playing excellently; she sends jagged, gurgling, yet melodic lines and gnarled knots of notes sailing over the programmed clatter, sounding almost like a modern Miles Davis extemporizing over a riff. On “Isotope 420°“ she intricately laces the stuttering snare-beats and repetitive heavy water drop sounds with simple melodies. If there’s a weakness on this album it’s the monotonous electronic bass sounds (on “RADAR radio“, e.g.) or the rather simple synth carpets, but Branch’s trumpet is always able to save the tracks. Throughout the album, Branch successfully adapts her distinctive instrumental language of blurred notes, dreamy hook lines and eccentric trills to an environment, which can only partly be identified as her natural playground. However, her playing is always very lively and she seems to enjoy it a lot. That sense of delight isn't a by-product but a desired outcome, an audible manifestation of the play in playing. Nazary challenges Branch in ways that her Fly Or Die band doesn’t - and therein lies the benefit for the free-improv community.

Anteloper’s Tour Beats Vol. 1 is now available on 45RPM 12’ vinyl in a package featuring artwork by Branch, photos by Richard Ross, and liner notes by Rob Mazurek. It’s also available as a download.

You can listen to it and buy it on Bandcamp. 

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Free Jazz Blog's 2019 Top 10s

Anthony Braxton, No. 289

This past year has been a dynamic one for the blog: we welcomed a bunch of new ears to the collective, received over 2000 recordings and requests for reviews, and counted over 1.63 million pageviews. We reported on festivals in the USA (Big Ears, No Idea, Vision Fest and Winter Jazz Fest) and Europe (Wels Unlimited, Jazz em Agosto, Jazzfest Berlin, A L'arme, Jazz Festival Saarbrücken) and even attended a few others, but in disguise. As always, the incredible amount of excellent new recordings, from the established masters to the newcomers, along with a plethora of historical recordings and issues continues to humble and astound.

We've tried to cover as much as we can on the Free Jazz Blog, and today, we look back over the year with our annual gathering of the collective's top ten recordings of the year. Twenty one contributors, 219 recordings (this is one list of nine, can you spot it?), and 144 unique entries.  We have entered the recordings into a spreadsheet, calculated the top recordings, and now the collective will now be voting on the album of the year from this list of the top 15. We'll present the winner of our poll on January 1. Here is the list:

Anna Webber - Clockwise (Pi Recordings) Bill Dixon & Cecil Taylor - Duets 1992 (Triple Point Records) Christian Lillinger: Open Form for Society (Plaist) David Torn, Tim Berne & Ches Smith - Sun Of Goldfinger (ECM) Derek Bailey/Han Bennink/Evan Parker - Topographie Parisienne, Dunois, April 3d, 1981 (Fou Records) Eliane Radigue- Occam Ocean 2 (Shiiin)*(review forthcoming) Fire! Orchestra - Arrival (Rune Grammofon) Jaimie Branch - Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise (International Anthem) James Brandon Lewis - An UnRuly Manifesto (Relative Pitch) Jessica Pavone String Ensemble - Brick and Mortar (Birdwatcher Records) Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis (Constellation Records) Microtub - Chronic Shift (Bohemian Drips) Nate Wooley - Columbia Icefield (Northern Spy) Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee & Ken Vandermark - Invitation To a Dream (Astral Spirits) Whit Dickey / The Tao Quartets - Box of Light & Peace Planet (AUM Fidelity)

Obviously, these kinds of things aren't without biases, intended or (most often) not. So it's at this time of year that we also like to make our new ears resolution to listen to as much as possible, across and irrespective of boundaries. As you enjoy the year end holidays and take a little break from the whirlwind around you, check out what the collective has been listening to and please let us know about your own essential albums of the year.
- Paul

***

Paul Acquaro

This list doesn't account for archival releases like all of those great Company albums, Bill Dixon & Cecil Taylor's Duets 1992, or the lovely Peter Kowald Duo's re-release, but for better or worse, here goes:

• Rodrigo Amado & Chris Corsano- No Place to Fall (Astral Spirits, 2019)
• Ken Vandermark - Momentum 4 - Consequent Duos 2015-2019 (Audiographic, 2019)
• Tomeka Reid - Old New (Cuneiform, 2019)
• James Brandon Lewis - An UnRuly Manifesto (Relative Pitch, 2019)
• Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan - Epistrophy (ECM, 2019)
• Angelika Niescer, Christopher Tordini, Gerald Gleaver. Jonathan Finlayson - New York Trio (Intakt, 2019)
• Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die II - Bird Dogs of Paradise (International Anthem, 2019)
• João Lencastre’s Communion 3 - Song(s) of Hope (Clean Feed, 2019)
• Basement Research — Impromptus and Other Short Stories (WhyPlayJazz, 2019)
• SLD Trio - El Contorno Del Espacio (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2019)

Kian Banihashemi

• Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis (Constellation, 2019)
• Oren Ambarchi - Simian Angel (Mego, 2019)
• Fennesz - Agora (Touch, 2019)
• Ralph Alessi - Imaginary Friends (ECM, 2019)
• Fire! Orchestra - Arrival (Rune Grammofon, 2019)
• Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan - New Rain Duets (Three Lobed Recordings, 2019)
• Félicia Atkinson - The Flower and the Vessel (Shelter Press, 2019)
• Tyshawn Sorey & Marilyn Crispell - The Adornment of Time (Pi, 2019)
• Joe McPhee / John Butcher - At the Hill of James Magee (Trost, 2019)
• DKV Trio & Joe McPhee - The Fire Each Time (Not Two, 2019)

 Stuart Broomer

These are definitely not ranked (How do people even do that?), each instead being individually cherished.

• Microtub Chronic Shift (Ace Tunes/Bohemian Drips) -Three microtonal tubists (Robin Hayward, Peder Simonsen and Martin Taxt) are special enough; heard in a Berlin water tank, with synthesizer tones added, they combine severe and gentle notions of beauty.
• Anthony Braxton New Haven (Quartet) 2014 (Firehouse 12) - These four, hour-long, quartet improvisations with Taylor Ho Bynum, Nels Cline and Greg Saunier find their own edges, musical languages simultaneously clashing, complementing and extending the possibilities.
• Evan Parker/ Matt Wright Trance + Crepuscule in Nickelsdorf (Intakt) - Amid a bevy of brilliant Parker sessions released in 2019, this one develops its own lyricism, compounded of memory, electricity and echo.
• Phil Minton/ John Butcher/ Gino Robair Blasphemious Fragments (Rastascan) - Three musicians with histories invent a music without one. Its processes suggest gene splitting, a continuous stream of splices of different sonic bits—collective genius and a new idea of the musical organism.
• Bertrand Denzler Arc (Potlatch) - A dream of strings (“bow…with both hair and wood”) continues decades of reveries on the independent life of sound.
• Patrick Brennan/ Abdul Moimeme Terraphonia (Creative Sources) - Two musicians from different planes of there arrive in their own utopian hear.
• Petter Eldh Koma Saxo (We Jazz) - If you think free jazz is further freed when run backwards, you’ll appreciate bassist/producer Eldh, drummer Christian Lillinger and saxophonists Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar and Mikko Innanen cutting and pasting, honking and wailing, mixing and maxing spell and collage.
• Zlatko Kaucic Quintet Morning Patches (fundacja słuchaj) - Collectively improvised music that sounds composed (in the best possible way, achieving a perfect collective form). Among the group’s distinguished members, Michael Moore and Albert Cirera bring ideally unrelated saxophone sounds to the project.
• Nate Wooley Columbia Icefield (Northern Spy) - Wondrously Apollonian music from a quartet with guitarist Mary Halvorson, slide guitarist Susan Alcorn and drummer Ryan Sawyer.
• From Wolves to Whales Strandwal (Aerophonic)  - On this two-CD set of a Netherlands performance, Nate Wooley, Dave Rempis, Pascal Niggenkemper and Chris Corsano play multi-dimensional free jazz with as much form and passion as anyone might hope for.

 Tom Burris

I feel like there are so many albums that I still haven't heard... I left out all new releases of old material, so no Coltrane, Cecil, Derek Bailey, Dolphy, etc. These were the ones I heard the most in 2019.

• Tim Daisy’s Vox 4 - Roman Poems (Relay, 2019) - Please welcome Macie Stewart to the Vox project, who helps turn the venture into a whole new animal. Absolutely stunning performances from everyone & stands as my favorite Daisy recording to date.
• Jaimie Branch - Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise (International Anthem, 2019) - God bless Jaimie Branch (and Moor Mother too) for calling out the evil bastards of the world consistently and relentlessly. Psychedelia with its middle finger way up high. How ironic that it still feels like a sonic hug that makes my sad ol’ heart swell with admiration.
• Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark - Invitation To A Dream (Astral Spirits, 2019) - Happy New Ears, everyone! Magical and consistently surprising on every level. A goddamn marvel.
• Nick Mozzarella Trio - Counterbalance (Astral Spirits, 2019) - A classically free jazz trio record that is deep, mature, and aged to perfection.
• Bill Orcutt - Odds Against Tomorrow (Palilalia, 2019) - Orcutt digs deeper into the old weird America and her blues on his latest solo album of idiosyncratic four-string stunners. Best one yet.
• Kuzu - Lift To Drag (Medium Sound, 2019) - Aren’t cassettes supposed to be inferior? This huge oversight on the part of Kuzu and Medium Sound sets them up for spectacular failure. We win!
• Whit Dickey / The Tao Quartets - Box of Light & Peace Planet (AUM Fidelity, 2019) - Two quartets, two discs, yin/yang. A thing of sprawling beauty.
• Rodrigo Amado & Chris Corsano - No Place To Fall (Astral Spirits, 2019) - A thoughtful joyride through a monster truck rally. Great driving music, particularly if you’re prone to road rage.
• Art Ensemble of Chicago - We Are On The Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (Pi Recordings, 2019) - Exceeds all expectations. This set also reminds you - in case you forgot for five seconds - that this year belongs to Moor Mother.
• Fire! Orchestra - Arrival (Rune Grammofon, 2019) - Arrival is the most beautiful work I’ve heard from Fire! Orchestra. I find that it pairs well with that new FKA Twigs album, for those of you who like to dip into the pop music pool.

 Troy Dostert

• Anna Webber, Clockwise (Pi)
• Mark Dresser Seven, Ain’t Nothing But a Cyber Coup & You (Clean Feed)
• Kris Davis, Diatom Ribbons (Pyroclastic)
• Iro Haarla, Ulf Krokfors and Barry Altschul, Around Again: The Music of Carla Bley (TUM)
• DKV and Joe McPhee, The Fire Each Time (Not Two)
• Gabriel Zucker, Weighting (ESP-Disk)
• Steve Baczkowski, Brandon Lopez and Chris Corsano, Old Smoke (Relative Pitch)
• Craig Taborn and Vijay Iyer, The Transitory Poems (ECM)
• Steph Richards, Take the Neon Lights (Birdwatcher)
• Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman, Time Gone Out (Intakt)

Lee Rice Epstein

• Nate Wooley - Columbia Icefield (Northern Spy, 2019)
• Anna Webber - Clockwise (Pi Recordings, 2019)
• David Torn, Tim Berne, Ches Smith - Sun of Goldfinger (ECM, 2019)
• Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis (Constellation, 2019)
• Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee & Ken Vandermark - Invitation To a Dream (Astral Spirits, 2019)
• Evan Parker & Paul G. Smyth - Calenture and Light Leaks (Weekertoft, 2019)
• Whit Dickey Tao Quartets - Peace Planet/Box of Light (AUM Fidelity, 2019)
• Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society - Mandatory Reality (Eremite, 2019)
• Moppa Elliott - Jazz Band/Rock Band/Dance Band (Hot Cup, 2019)
• Angelika Niescier - New York Trio (Intakt, 2019)

 Spencer Friedman

• J Pavone String Ensemble - Brick and Mortar (Birdwatcher Records, 2019) - A remarkable compositional work from a vital string voice - gorgeous, delicate musicianship
• Thurston Moore - Spirit Counsel (The Daydream Library Series, 2019) - Quite possibly the most significant music of his career. Bewildering in scope and execution, just incredible
• Eliane Radigue- Occam Ocean 2 (Shiiin, 2019) - A stunning work from the master. Serene yet unnerving, perfect soundtrack for long subway rides
• Lea Bertucci- Resonant Field (Resonant Field, 2019) - Another brilliant release from Bertucci, who expands her inimitable sound, resonant in many ways
• Bill Orcutt - Odds Against Tomorrow (Palilalia Records, 2019) - Another stellar session from Orcutt -- tender and fierce
• 75 Dollar Bill - I Was Real (Thin Wrist, 2019) - The duo's most impressive record to date -- confident, exuberant and downright fun 
• Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise (International Anthem, 2019) - Branch's Fly or Die follow up does indeed not disappoint. A scorching record, with some of the best playing from 2019
• Mary Halvorson and John Dieterich- a tangle of stars (New Amsterdam Records, 2019) - A vast, nearly "prog" album from these two guitar giants. Spirited, inventive songwriting
• John McCowen - Mundanas I-V (Edition Wandelweiser, 2019) - Bold reed duo music -- quiet but powerful
• Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society - Mandatory Reality (Eremite, 2019) - Another terrific release from this essential group, perhaps more focused than ever

 Stef Gijssels

• Bill Dixon & Cecil Taylor - Duets 1992 (Triple Point Records, 2019)
• David Torn, Tim Berne & Ches Smith - Sun Of Goldfinger (ECM, 2019)
• Pak Yan Lau & Lionel Malric - Duo Pour 454 Chordes (El Negocito, 2018)
• Angles 9 - Beyond Us (Clean Feed, 2019)
• Sei Miguel - O Carro de Fogo de Sei Miguel (Clean Feed, 2019)
• Simon Rose & Steve Noble - North Sea Night (Not Two, 2019)
• DKV Trio & Joe McPhee ‎– The Fire Each Time (Not Two, 2019)
• Eve Risser - Après un Rêve (Clean Feed, 2019)
• Ken Vandermark's Marker - New Industries (Audiographic, 2019)
• Marcelo dos Reis, Valentin Ceccaldi, Marco Franco and Luís Vicente - Points (Multikulti, 2019)

 Colin Green

• Whit Dickey, Tao Quartets — Peace Planet & Box of Light (AUM, 2019) - Two outstanding quartets earthed by Dickey’s drumming.
• Fire! Orchestra — Arrival (Rune Grammofon, 2019) - Great songwriting continues to flourish in settings that linger in the memory.
• Fictive Five — Anything is Possible (Clean Feed, 2019) - A restive quintet that provides us with clues rather than explanations.
• Matt Mitchell — Phalanx Ambassadors (Pi Recordings 2019) - Controlled exuberance, ripplingly intricate, walking a line between impulse and calculation.
• The Attic (Rodrigo Amado, Goncalo Almeida, Onno Govaert) — Summer Bummer (NoBusiness, 2019) - A churning, roiling trio with an unerring sense of dramatic thrust.
• Basement Research — Impromptus and Other Short Stories (WhyPlayJazz, 2019) - Thoughtful arrangements, full of colour and bristling with energy.
• William Parker, Rob Brown, Cooper-Moore, Hamid Drake - In Order to Survive ‎– Live / Shapeshifter (AUM, 2019) - Music that unfolds seamlessly under its own momentum.
• Dave Rempis, Joshua Abrams, Avreeayl Ra + Jim Baker — Apsis (Aerophonic, 2019) - Another well-oiled ensemble from the persistently inventive Rempis and friends.
• Andrew Barker & John Dikeman — All Things are Possible (Phantom Ear Music, 2018) - Dikeman continues to impress in duets for tenor and drums that flicker and spark.
• The Way Ahead — Bells, Ghosts and Other Saints (Clean Feed, 2019) - Alluring textures and imaginative soloing from this septet, and even some free jazz hocketing.

 Steven Griffith

• Derek Bailey, Han Bennink & Evan Parker - Topographie Parisienne (Fou Records, 2019) - This stimulated me to really listen to the topography of the lungs for the first time (there's uncredited Bennink trumpet playing on the first cut). This is like an archeological dig revealing unexpected treasures.
• Marker - New Industries (Audiographic Records, 2019) - I like how Vandermark recorded the studio disc a couple days after a short tour. That's the way Bob Wills used to record the Tiffany transcripts he'd use to promote the Texas Playboys on his radio stations, albeit after much longer tours.
• Tim Daisy's Vox 4 - Roman Poems (Relay Recordings, 2019) - I thought it was impossible to improve on Vox Arcana's Caro's Song. Then they added Macie Stewart.
• Brötzmann, Schlippenbach, Bennink - Fifty Years After... (Trost Records, 2019) - When I first saw this my reaction was "I hope it really cranks". Like that was in doubt.
• Michael Formanek Very Practical Trio - Even Better (Intakt Records, 2019) - I'd wanted to hear Berne and Halvorson in a small group setting for quite a while.
• Blue Shroud Band - Intensegrity: The Small Formations / Odes and Meditations for Cecil Taylor (Not Two, 2019) - Admittedly I've been a fanboy of Guy's small formations for most of the decade.
• Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity - To Whom Who Keeps a Record (Odin, 2019) - I get extreme enjoyment out of every release from this band.
• Paal Nilssen-Love & Ken Vandermark - Screen Off (PNL Records, 2019) - Lasse Marhaug deserves co billing for mashing tracks of varying quality together to create something greater than the sum.
• Joe McPhee & John Butcher - At the Hill of James Magee (Trost Records, 2019) - Conceptually intriguing and well executed.
• Okkyung Lee - Cheol-Kkot-Sae (Steel.Flower.Bird) (Tzadik, 2018) - One of those impossible to categorize releases that piques Zorn's interest that we're all better for having.

 Eyal Hareuveni

• Nate Wooley - Columbia Icefield (Northern Spy) - Moving, emotional piece that corresponds with personal memories and world politics and keeps resonating long after. With pedal steel master Susan Alcorn and guitarist Mary Halvorson.
• Susan Alcorn / Joe McPhee / Ken Vandermark - Invitation To A Dream (Astral Spirits) - Another one with Alcorn. Joe McPhee belief that sometimes ”Music provides its own rational” is fully justified in the beautiful, free-improvisations of this trio.
• Fire! Orchestra - Arrival (Rune Grammofon) - The chamber version of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra. Lyrical and touching. You can’t resist the cover of Chic (via Robert Wyatt) “At Last I Am Free”.
• Per 'Texas' Johansson/Torbjörn Zetterberg/Konrad Agnas - Orakel (Moserobie) - Reeds player Per “Texas” Johansson is one of the best kept secrets of the Nordic scene. This album may convince you to find out what you have been missing all this time.
• Emmeluth’s Amoeba - Chimaera (Øra Fonogram) - Danish sax player proves to be one of the promising voices in the Nordic scene, leading her powerful quartet on its sophomore album (and being recruited by Paal Nilssen-Love to his Large Unit.
• Brötzmann, Schlippenbach & Bennink - Fifty Years After... (Live at the Lila Eule, Bremen, 26/05/2018) (Trost) - These three lions have seen all, been all over and played with all the usual suspects, for more than fifty years, and still have the passion, power, fire and, obviously, wisdom.
• Toh-Kichi - Baikamo (Libra) - The most unlikely duo in Japanese free music - pianist Satoko Fujii and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida (of Ruins) return more than a decade after their Vulcan quartet and their Toh-Kichi duo disbanded, fully charged with fresh ultra-volcanic energy. 
• Frances-Marie Uitti & Elliott Sharp - Peregrinations (zOaR) - More than twenty years after their first free-improvised duet, cellist Frances-Marie Uitti and prolific guitarist-sax player-composer return to another round of beautifully imaginative and nuanced duets. 
• Sunn O))) - Life Metal (Southern Lord) - Stephen O’Malley says that distortion is important “because it’s showing decay in real time somehow”. You can easily get addicted to Sunn O))) meditative-distorted-metal drones.
• Vilhelm Bromander & Fredrik Rasten - ...For Some Reason That Escapes Us (Differ) - More drones, but of the lyrical-melancholic kind by this fine duo of Swedish double bass player and fantastic Norwegian guitarist.
• Reissue:
  The Quintet - Events 1998-1999 (PNL) - Historical 5-discs box that chronicles a turning point in the Norwegian jazz, the rise of new lions generation headed by Paal Nilssen-Love that still learns and collaborate with the elders sax player Carl Magnus Neumann and double bass player Bjørnar Andresen.

 William Kautz

• Tyshawn Sorey - The Adornment of Time (Pi Recordings)
• Steph Richards - Take the Neon Lights (Birdwatcher)
• William Parker/In Order to Survive - Live Shapeshifter (AUM Fidelity)
• Elder Ones - From Untruth (Northern Spy)
• Nick Fraser, Kris Davis and Tony Malaby - Zoning (Astral Spirits)
• David S. Ware New Quartet-Live at Theatre Garonne 2008 (AUM Fidelity)
• Matt Mitchell-Phalanx Ambassadors (Pi Recordings)
• Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society-Mandatory Reality (Eremite)
• Matana Roberts-  Coin Coin Chapter 4: Memphis (Constellation)
• Sarah Belle Reid - Underneath and Sonder (pfMENTUM)

 Taylor McDowell

• Chris Corsano, Bill Nace, Steve Baczkowski - Mystic Beings (Open Mouth, 2018) - I'll start my list with a late 2018 guitar/sax/drums album that melted my face off the first time I heard it, and still does to this day. An explosive yet coherent exploration of timbre, energy, and noise.
• Arashi - Jikan (PNL Records, 2019) - This is an inspired, take no prisoners live set from one of the fieriest working trios. Can't get enough of them.
• DKV & Joe McPhee - The Fire Each Time (Not Two, 2019) - McPhee is a perfect companion to this well-oiled machine. Six CDs of music here, yet every minute is a thrill.
• Evan Parker & Paul G. Smyth - Calenture and Light Leaks (Weekertoft, 2019) - Easily one of the finest duo statements I've heard and my favorite Parker release from the last few years. Mesmerizing.
• Peter Brotzmann & Heather Leigh - South Moon Under (s/r, 2019) - This is the soundtrack to my early morning walks, or for watching birds fly. Sounds weird? Seriously, go try it.
• David Torn, Tim Berne, Ches Smith - Sun of Goldfinger (ECM, 2019) - I still remember the first time listening to this. It felt like the passing of a hurricane overhead, at the moment the eye passes by and the storm surges again.
• Vijay Iyer & Craig Taborn - The Transitory Poems (ECM, 2019) - Iyer and Taborn connect on such an intimate level here. Twenty fingers and 176 keys, but they perform as a single organism.
• Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark - Invitation to a Dream (Astral Spirits, 2019) - McPhee and Vandermark must have impressed me this year, as did pedal steel guitarists. I really hope to hear more from this trio.
• Stephan Crump, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe - Channels (Intakt, 2019) - I get the feeling that these three were meant to play together. Egoless, fluid, conversational, confident - like listening to three longtime friends banter.
• Kuzu - Lift to Drag (Medium Sound, 2019) - I'll bookend my list with an end-of-the-year guitar/sax/drums record that really bites. This one thrashes hard and grooves harder, and yet I seem to hear new things with each listen.

 Dave Menestres

• Fay Victor - Barn Songs (Northern Spy)
• Andrea Parkins & Matthew Ostrowski - Elective Affinities (Infrequent Seams)
• Nick Dunston - Atlantic Extraction (Out of Your Head)
• Jessica Ackerley - A New Kind of Water (self released, see also ESSi’s Vital Creatures on Ramp Local)
• The Art Ensemble of Chicago - We Are On The Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (Pi Recordings)
• Somersaults - Numerology of Birdsongs (West Hill)
• J. Pavone String Ensemble - Brick and Mortar (Birdwatcher Records)
• Bill Orcutt - Odds Against Tomorrow (Palilalia)
• Catherine Sikora - Warrior (self released)
• Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle (International Anthem)

 Nick Metzger

My Top 10 are listed below in no particular order. I didn’t include any reissues or archive recordings, although this has been a year of many terrific instances of such. I’ve also found my subscription to Kevin Drumm’s Bandcamp page to be worth more than the price of admission (which is almost nothing, all things considered) much to the detriment of my reviewing responsibilities.

• Christian Lillinger’s Open Form For Society (Plaist)
• Ben Stapp & Joe Morris featuring Stephen Haynes – Mind Creature Sound Dasein (Fundacja Słuchaj)
• Rose/Noble – North Sea Night (Not Two)
• O Carro De Fogo De Sei Miguel (Clean Feed)
• Mark Morgan – Department of Heraldry (Open Mouth)
• Denzler/Grip/Johansson – Zyklus 1 (SAJ Records)
• Parker/Guy/Lytton - Concert in Vilnius (No Business)
• William Parker's In Order to Survive - Live/Shapeshifter (AUM Fidelity)
• Microtub - Chronic Shift (Bohemian Drips)
• Flin van Hemmen – Casting Spells & The Coves (Neither/Nor)

 Gregg Miller

• JaJaWeDa - Pioneer Works vol. 1 (Balance Point Acoustics, 2019) - Jeb Bishop, Jaap Blank, Weasel Walter, Damon Smith. Trombone/percussion/bass/electronics and some demented yelling. Messy and joyful in a DIY way. There is some serious love here. These people are making music because they have to. The rambunctiousness here brings to mind the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Message to our Folks: “[police whistle] Get in line!”
• Gordon Grdina / Matthew Shipp / Mark Helias - Skin and Bones (Not Two Records, 2019) - Guitar/Oud, Piano, Bass/Clarinet - From delicate and gentle to frenetic. Fully improvised; mostly pointillistic. They played an amazing set at the Royal Room in Seattle in 2018, and this studio recording captures the work they were doing.
• The Selva (Clean Feed, 2019) - Ricardo Jacinto (cello), Gonçalo Almeida (double bass) and Nuno Marão (percussion) create a very compelling, bristling vibe. A minimalist template foregrounds dynamics, densities and hypnotic repetition.
• IPT Trio - Diffractions (For Tune, 2019) - Szymon Wójciński (piano, keyboards), Jakub Bańdur (violin), Jakub Gucik (cello) together provide an engrossing, creative-classical listen. Think Yiddish-lilting movie music of an urbane family gathering turned spooky.
• Sonar w/David Torn - Transceportation Vol. 1 (RareNoiseRecords, 2019) - On the metal/prog. rock side of improvisation, with its portentous moodiness and head-bobbing odd time signatures. I almost hate it. But some of you head-bangers are going to love it.
• Rafael Toral / Mars Williams / Tim Daisy - Elevation (Relay Recordings, 2019) - Deliberate sounds and silence, clicks and whistles, random yet melodic, the occasional harsh mush. Incidental music for the free noise fan.
• Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis (Constellation Records, 2019) - Theatrical free form jazz/poetry at its finest. Dig it; it’s a great project. Who doesn’t love a series?
• Evan Parker / Barry Guy / Paul Lytton - Concert in Vilnius (NoBusiness Records, 2019) - Sax, bass, drums. Masters of the craft doing their thing, recorded live. Nothing precious here, everything vital.
• Geometry, Geometry of Distance (Glacial Erratic, 2019) - Joe Morris (guitar), Tomeka Reid (cello), Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet) and Kyoko Kitamura (voice). Sincere, collective improvisation. Musicality, virtuosity, and fearlessness.
• Apologist, Reception (Marginal Frequency, 2019) - Live processing: Ambient found sound noise clusters over synth.

 Fotis Nikolakopoulos

• Derek Bailey/Han Bennink/Evan Parker - Topographie Parisienne, Dunois, April 3d, 1981 (Fou Records) - Masayuki Takayanagi's April Is The Cruellest Month might be the reissue of the year, but this is the archival recording of 2019. First, in chronological order, meeting of those three, after Topography Of The Lungs. What more to say?
• Valentina Magaletti & Julian Sartorius - Sulla Pelle (Marionette) - A percussion duo very rich in colours and timbres. A whole world of different-not necessarily percussion-sounds
• Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders - Shifa - Live At Cafe Oto (577 records) - The best release from the 577 record's wonderful catalog so far. The interaction of the trio is mesmerizing
• Christine Abdelnour & Chris Corsano - Quand Fond La Neige, Où Va Le Blanc? (Relative Pitch Records) - The best free jazz duo of 2019. Chris Corsano of course but here Christine Abdelnour is an equal the very least
• XT - Palina'tufa (Empty Editions) - This is new music for sure.And Seymour Wright is proving to be a visionary saxophonist. One of my two favorites for 2019
• The Clandestine Quartet - One For The Fossa, Two For The Wolverine (ThirtyThree ThirtyThree Records) - The second of my favorites fro 2019.From free rock to free jazz blowouts, i will not try to categorize it
• Sakata, Yermenoglou, Di Domenico, Damianidis - Hōryū-Ji (Mr. Nakayasi, El Negocito Records‎, S7 records) - Akira Sakata, the east Asia every day man who turns into a demon with the sax, along three great musicians.Masterpiece...
• Bloor - Drolleries (Astral Spirits, Monofonus Press) - Sam Weinberg is my favorite sax player at the moment.We should hear more from and for him.This trio took me by surprise and blew me away
• Minton/Butcher/Robair - Blasphemious Fragments (Rastascan records) - Really now, do you need my comments for those three?
• Marco Serrato, Francesco Covarino - Bestemmia (Raw Tonk records) - Raw Tonk's catalog keeps pushing sounds beyond our well known limits. This release is a subtle explosion.

 Anthony Poscic

• Matana Roberts - COIN COIN Chapter Four: Memphis (Constellation Records, 2019)
• Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle (International Anthem, 2019)
• Jessica Pavone String Ensemble - Brick and Mortar (Birdwatch Records, 2019)
• Anna Webber - Clockwise (Pi Recordings, 2019)
• Sloth Racket - Dismantle Yourself (Luminous Records, 2019)
• David Torn, Tim Berne, Ches Smith - Sun of Goldfinger (ECM, 2019)
• Stephan Crump, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe - Channels (Intakt, 2019)
• Nate Wooley - Columbia Icefield (Northern Spy, 2019)
• Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society - Mandatory Reality (Eremite Records, 2019)
• Matt Mitchell - Phalanx Ambassadors (Pi Recordings, 2019)

Keith Prosk

2019 was my first full year contributing to the blog, and I certainly feel that I’ve grown from that experience: my writing comes more quickly and (I hope) is more cohesive - or even coherent; my ears hear more and my analysis is (again, I hope) becoming more thorough; and I feel more aware of what is happening now in this music. The year almost seemed like it had a recurring motif of loss. It began with the deaths of AACM founders Joseph Jarman and Alvin Fielder within the first 10 days. Echoes of 2018’s losses rippled through it, with Michael Bisio, Kirk Knuffke, and Fred Lonberg-Holm releasing a tribute to Relative Pitch founder Mike Panico in Requiem for A New York Slice (Iluso) and Triple Point releasing Duets 1992 from Cecil Taylor and Bill Dixon, two recordings full of passion that could have easily made this list. Damon Smith released his first solo recording, Winter Solos (Balance Point Acoustics), in dedication to Robert Ryman, who died this year and was a student of Lennie Tristano before developing into a painter. And Nate Wooley’s Sound American publication series began issuing high-quality physical copies, with its 22nd issue focusing on Lee Hyla and the concept of loss, which unfortunately, perhaps ironically, my new labrador puppy shred to pieces. But as 2019 fades to 2020, there’s a lot to look forward to. Specifically, Anthony Braxton will be celebrating his 75th birthday, hopefully with recordings of his yet unreleased ZIM and Thunder Music systems. I’m hotly anticipating the followup to Macie Stewart and Lia Kohl’s Pocket Full of Bees (Astral Spirits), another recording that could be on this list. I’m looking forward to having more time to better familiarize myself with the crazy amount of quality material that Ken Vandermark released this year. To wince for the recordings that I missed here, but hopefully discover later. To find musicians new to me and new musicians and the words to do them justice. And finally, to revisit these ten awe-inspiring recordings again and again.

• John McCowen - Mundanas I-V (Edition Wandelweiser)
• Microtub - Chronic Shift (Bohemian Drips)
• Éliane Radigue - Occam Ocean 2 (Shiiin)
• Anthony Braxton - GTM (Syntax) 2017 (New Braxton House)
• Klaus Lang & Golden Fur - Beissel (Another Timbre)
• Robin Hayward - Words of Paradise (Edition Telemark)
• Jessica Pavone String Ensemble - Brick and Mortar (Birdwatcher)
• Carl Testa - Sway Prototypes Volumes 1 & 2 (self-released)
• Werner Dafeldecker - Small Worlds (Edition Telemark)
• Bertrand Denzler/CoÔ - Arc (Potlatch)

Martin Schray

• Matana Roberts: Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis (CTS, 2019) - I’ve always been fascinated by this project, which is so unique in the jazz world. The fact that Roberts is always able to add new musical aspects to this concept is just fascinating. And I’m always looking forward to what’s coming next.
• Jaimie Branch: Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs Of Paradise (International Anthem, 2019) - The expectations were immensely high since the predecessor to this album is one of the best releases of the decade. That Branch’s new album is in no way inferior to Fly or Die I says it all.
• Christian Lillinger: Open Form for Society (Plaist, 2019) - A band that consists of three pianos, two basses, two vibraphones, a cello and a drummer has certainly been unheard. To me, Christian Lillinger is the most interesting musician on the scene for the second year in a row.
• Bill Dixon/Cecil Taylor: Duets 1992 (Triple Point Records, 2019) - It took a long time for this album to come and it fulfils all the expectations. You hear a somehow atypical Taylor, the way he reacts to Dixon’s open sound opens up new perspectives on the music of the maestro.
• James Brandon Lewis: An Unruly Manifesto (Relative Pitch, 2019) - James Brandon Lewis is like a young Archie Shepp, his tenor sound is reminiscent of the fire music of the 1960s. His quintet with Jaimie Branch on trumpet is a match made in heaven.
• Fire! Orchestra: Arrival (Rune Grammofon, 2019) - Fire! have almost completely rebuilt their orchestra, strings have replaced some of the horns. Their version of Chic’s “At Least I Am Free“ is my track of the year (next to Jaimie Branch's "A Prayer for Amerikkka Part 1 & 2").
• DKV Trio & Joe McPhee: The Fire Each Time (Not Two, 2019) - A programmatic title. I wonder how these guys (Joe McPhee celebrated his 80th birthday this year) keep being so surprising and exciting after all these years.
• Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble: Where Future Unfolds (International Anthem, 2019) - Free Jazz has turned to become more political again. This album, which uses samples from the Civil Rights era, is characteristic of this trend.
• David S. Ware Trio: The Balance (AUM Fidelity, 2019) - David S. Ware was constantly looking for the divine in his music and he was also looking for a balance in this life, which was the basis to create the jubilant music he played. This album is another perfect example of this.
• Kuzu: Lift To Drag (Medium Sound, 2019) - At first it was just a cassette release, but it's now available as a download as well. Regardless, what matters is the music: 70 minutes of wonderful high energy free jazz. No end-of-the-year-top-ten is complete without Dave Rempis.

 Sammy Stein

• Fire! Orchestra -Arrival (Rune Grammofon) - Mats is just packed with energy and Fire! deliver free music like no other ensemble.
• Silvia Bolognesia - alive shouts (Fonterossa) - a great mix of style, tempo, energy and unfettered joy
• Ivo Perelman - Ineffable Joy (ESP) - a special and beautiful recording
• Peter Brotzmann/Heather Leigh - South Moon Under (s/r) - power, challenges and daring defy convention.
• Ivo Perelmann Strings 3 (Leo) - A great combination of musicians with Perelmann leading but also sharing space and the creations are breathtaking.
• Michael Janisch - Worlds Collide (Whirlwind) - wonderful, well developed tracks
• William Parker's In Order To Survive (AUM Fidelity) - just great with references to so many style but with Parker's individuality sewn seamlessly in.
• Polyorchard - Black Mountain (Out and Gone) - free flowing, free sharing jazz ranging from serendipity to annihilation - just as it should be.
• Olie Brice - Numerology of Birdsong (Westhill) - different yet strangely engaging - each listen reveals more
• Peter Brotzmann - ' I Surrender Dear' (Trost) - a beautiful link between Peter of then and the Peter of now. It explains a lot if you listen.

Eric Stern

• Whit Dickey/Tao Quartets - Box Of Light/Peace Planet (Aum Fidelity, 2019)
• William Parker/In Order To Survive - Live Shapeshifter (Aum Fidelity, 2019)
• James Brandon Lewis - An Unruly Manifesto (Relative Pitch Records, 2019)
• Mary Halvorson and John Dieterich- a tangle of stars (New Amsterdam Records, 2019)
• Dave Rempis, Brandon Lopez, Ryan Packard - The Early Bird Gets (Aerophone, 2019)
• Radical Empathy Trio - Reality and other imaginary places (Astral Spirits, 2019)
• Nick Dunston - Atlantic Extraction (Out of Your Head, 2019)
• Jessica Pavone String Ensemble - Brick and Mortar (Birdwatcher Records, 2019)
• Brotzmann, Schlippenbach, Bennink - Fifty Years After... (Trost Records, 2019)
• Simon Nabatov Quintet - Last Minute Theory (Clean Feed, 2019)

 Phil Stringer

• Susan Alcorn / Joe McPhee / Ken Vandermark - Invitation To A Dream (Astral Spirits)
  Having
• Susan Alcorn/Chris Corsano/Bill Nace – Live at Rotunda (Open Mouth 59/Live at #6)
  Thought about
• The Art Ensemble of Chicago - We Are On The Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (Pi Recordings)
  It, what's important
• Fire! Orchestra - Arrival (Rune Grammofon)
  To me about these
• Rachel Musson/Pat Thomas/Mark Sanders - Shifa - Live at Cafe Oto (577 Records)Choices is that they all
• William Parker/In Order to Survive - Live/Shapeshifter (AUM Fidelity)Speak to me in different voices
• Joe Mcphee/John Butcher - At the Hill of James Magee (Trost)But there is a unity of purpose
• N.O.Moore/John Edwards/Eddie Prevost - Darkened Yet Shone (Matchless Recordings)And spirit that is always uplifting and that
• The Quintet - Events 1998-1999 (PNL)Susan Alcorn is a phenomenal pedal steel guitarist.

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