Mette Rasmussen Chris Corsano Duo - All The Ghosts At Once (Relative Pitch Records, 2015) ****½

By Eyal Hareuveni

The Danish, Trondheim, Norway-based alto sax player Mette Rasmussen and American drummer have been performing as a duo continuously for the last two years. The duo's free-improvised music benefits from these gifted musicians accumulated experiences. Corsano's resume stretches from free jazz legends as sax players Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty & Akira Sakata, noise masters as Bill Nace and C Spencer Yeh to avant-pop vocalist Björk. He represents the hyperactive, ecstatic pole in this duo. Rasmussen, now part of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra, has played with improvisers such as Rudi Mahall, Alan Silva, Ståle Liavik Solberg, and with her own Trio Riot, adds a more contemplative tone yet a highly commanding one and a sense of direction and narrative to this duo.

The debut album of the duo was recorded at I-Beam, Brooklyn, in October 2013. The interplay between Rasmussen and corsano sound organic, flowing and inventive, despite their different approaches. Already in the opening track. “Train Track”, Corsano sound as eager to dive deep into a primal, full-blown eruption of intense drumming while Rasmussen builds the tension patiently, exploring other options, before joining Corsano in an energetic ride towards the inevitable catharsis. Rasmussen minimalist sonic searches and her singing sound, especially on the short pieces, force Corsano to distill his ecstatic, powerful playing into nuanced, delicate gestures. But more often both establish a common ground in an intense forms of interplay as on the fiery “How Many of These Things Do We Need Anyway?”, challenging each other through brilliant, charismatic playing, reaching even moving, lyrical segments on the capricious and joyous “Exploding Foods”. Still, the duo expansive language seeks to liberate itself from any conventional forms of playing and searches for newer, free forms of playing, sketching abstract yet rich textures on “O Space Heater! My Space Heater!” and on the closing piece, “Yesterday’s Teenyboppers Are Today’s Republicans”.

Rasmussen's and Corsano's profound understanding of the liberating power of free, creative music is impressive. Strongly recommended.

Mette Rasmussen Chris Corsano Duo - All The Ghosts At Once ****½

By Paul Acquaro

From chirps to caterwauling, brushes to beatings, the debut recording from the duo of saxophonist Mette Rasmussen and drummer Chris Corsano is a dynamic and diverse affair.  In a sense, Corsano’s name on the credits is, to me, a stamp of quality assurance, and if you have not heard of Rasmussen yet, acquaint yourself now, she's a force of nature on the sax.

Though it starts with atmospheric jitters from the sax and the whale-song of the cymbals, the duo's output quickly picks up in intensity. Rasmussen's lines become explosive and powerful wails while Corsano's favors the low end rumble of the floor tom and kick drum. There is space between these lines too, and as the track progresses the two maneuver in concert, never overshadowing, never stepping on each other's toes.

'_____'s Lament' parts 1 and 2 (you get to fill in who is lamenting, I suppose) begins quietly. Corsano's snare suggesting a pulse and Rasmussen's sax a forlorn cry, the two short tracks show off the atmospheric side of the duo. But not for long. 'Contester' snaps back into fulminating form and the following 'How Many of These Things Do We Need' is almost like a series of musical questions. 'Dots (for Paul Flathery)' references one of Corsano's long term duetting partners.

What else is there to say? Put two fierce musicians together in a small room with good acoustics with bassist Max Johnson at the recording console and this is what you get - a mix of the beatific and the bombast, texture and trauma. Excellent.

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Mikolaj Trzaska Ircha Clarinet Quartet - Black Bones (Kilogram, 2014) ****

[b]By Stef[/b]

Another album which should have been reviewed much earlier : Black Bones by the Nikolaj Trzaska's Ircha Quartet, which consists of Trzaska, Michał Górczyński, Paweł Szamburski and Wacław Zimpel on Bb and bass clarinets. Zimpel adds the alt clarinet and the toragato. The quartet's output of the past few years has been highly appreciated by this blog, and especially their latest from 2012 "Zikaron Lefanay", which received a five-star rating.

The music on this album continues in the same vein, re-discovering and re-exploring traditional jewish songs, from mainly sephardic and hasidic origin, interspersed with some own improvisations and compositions.

The four musicians no longer need to be introduced - they know what a clarinet is and their polyphonics are among the most beautiful you will hear, yet at the same time, we know them to be adventurous too and that's what keeps the interest going and brings them more than a level higher than the traditional klezmer bands who only play nice and reverent tunes, or than John Zorn's more hybrid subgenres.

In the best of cases klezmer music reaches a nice and conflicting emotion between melancholy and joy. yet Ircha goes deeper, and through their skills they revive the feelings of despair, anguish, fear as well as feelings of beauty, awe and spiritual elevation. Combining these extremes is quite a feat, and that's the result of their unwillingness to compromise, and their craft of bringing emotion with intelligence, in the way the compositions are structured and in the way the four clarinets co-create a very unique sound, but especially because they do not shy away from the more emotional moments. Some pieces will make the tears pop out of your eyes, if not for the infinite sadness, then for the sheer beauty of the interplay.

The first album contains eight tracks and was recorded in the studio. The second album contains eight  different tracks and was recorded live. The two albums are sold separately, but are considered as a whole.

You can listen and download from eMusic. 

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Baloni – Ripples (Clean Feed, 2015) ****½

[b]By Martin Schray[/b]

When I saw Baloni at Munich’s Offene Ohren (German for “Open Ears”) jazz club in April this year I was surprised by the development the trio has made. I had seen them two years before and thought that they were a good but not an excellent formation. But in the meantime they have become extraordinary, especially due to the facts that they seem to know each other even better, that they listen to each other very closely so that they are obviously able to react, and that they have a desire to risk something with their music. The musicianship has always been excellent, their improvising is a natural flow and the various timbre explorations are really gripping. And like the various timbres the musicians come from various European countries: Belgian reedist Joachim Badenhorst, French-Japanese violist Frantz Loriot and German-French bassist Pascal Niggenkemper met in New York and started their project in order to explore the wide field of the classical contemporary format and the driving force of improvisation.

From the start their albums were fascinating, Fremdenzimmer and Belleke were discussed very friendly on this blog, and Ripples is even raising the bar. In general their style is infused with Baroque and modern classical music as well as the sound of jazz pioneers like Jimmy Giuffre or Joëlle Léandre. Based on these influences they have created something unique. There are enormous contrasts in dynamics, emotions and sound, on the one hand the instruments literally seem to surpass each other in furiousness and on the other hand they present moments of incredible privacy (Badenhorst and Loriot at the end of “De Rimpelingen Des Levens” (The Ripples of Life)). The music swells and ebbs – actually the album rather sounds like “waves” instead of “ripples”.

Like on his extraordinary solo album Look With Thine Ears Niggenkemper adds his very own sound to the trio, using different material he puts between the strings his bass reminds of a didgeridoo or a percussion instrument, for example in “Grüne Welle” (Green Wave). Then again he switches to long bowed notes which go along with Loriot’s viola very nicely, while Badenhorst’s bass clarinet provides dark sounds. In “De Rimpelingen Des Levens” , the final and most exciting track of the album, Badenhorst’s tenor starts with clicking sounds before he turns to almost cool-jazz-like melodies in front of the typical textures Niggenkemper and Loriot display. Then the track squirms in agony and especially the last part reminds of György Ligeti’s “Atmosphères”.

Ripples was recorded live at Exploratorium, Berlin on April 11th, 2013, it is a wonderful chamber jazz recording and another proof for the marvelous output Clean Feed has had this year. As many very good albums it becomes more interesting the more often you listen to it.

Ripples is available on vinyl only.

You can buy it from the label.

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Stefano Scodanibbio, Stockhausen, Bouman, Ottaviucci & Nauseef - Spaces & Spheres (Wergo, 2013) ****

[b]By Stef[/b]

Another release which could have been reviewed earlier. A kind of superband with five virtuosi joining forces for an ethereal journey of atmospheric music that is deeper than the title would suggest. The band are Markus Stockhausen on trumpet and flugelhorn, Tara Bouman on clarinet and bass clarinet, Stefano Scodanibbio on double bass, Fabrizio Ottaviucci on piano, and Mark Nauseef on percussion.

The music itself was recorded in 2008 already, at Elmau Castle in the Bavarian Alps in Germany. The  quintet met for four days and they played together intuitively, without any concepts or prior agreements. Why it took six years to release the music on CD is a mystery, but I guess there's more good music lying around waiting for listeners.

 So how does it sound? It sounds grand, with Stockhausen's trumpet echoing and resonating in the great space of the hall in which it was recorded, with Scodanibbio's arco adding gravity and Nauseef's percussive beats creating dramatic effects, Bouman's clarinet then echoing the trumpet with a sound of majestic purity, lightly supported by Ottaviucci's crystal clear piano keys. There is intimacy here, yet strangely enough equally expansive in sound and mood. There is no rawness, all sounds are polished and clean of voice as in classical music, yet the open textures, the inventive interaction and the deep listening skills of the five performers are exceptional, as is their art of playing unison during improvised moments.

Stockhausen describes his Intuitive Music as "the deepest and most fascinating way to make music: it is free, beyond all stylistic boundaries, rising out of the moment, without discussion, purely from the inner spirit guiding the player or players". It could be the slogan for this blog. 

The album is dedicated to Stefano Scodanibbio who passed away in 2012.

A beautiful and rich album, which could have been an ECM release, just for reference.

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The murmuring of sound ...

[b]By Stef[/b]

Some music does not require melody or even a variety of notes. Its focus is on the sound itself, on its colors and shades and timbres, and how that sound can be slightly altered to offer different perspectives and aural vistas, and in that case, one note may be enough, you just make its sound evolve and change and tell a story. With one note? Yes, it's the murmuring of sound, like the wind or the river or the sea, that keep repeating and repeating or prolonging and prolonging whatever they are doing in that specific context, and you can only admire its beauty and strangeness and magic, because it captivates you, brings you under a strange spell and you try to get meaning out of it, like the ancient Greeks tried to get meaning out of the mountain stream in Delphi to get stories and predictions from the Oracle, just because of the murmur of water, the murmur of sound, always the same and always evolving, telling stories below the surface, between the ripples and the undulations and the waves. In this case, the oracle is the Swedish Sofa label.


The Pitch - Frozen Orchestra (Sofa, 2015) ****½

The first album is performed by "The Pitch", a quartet from Berlin, consisting of Boris Baltschun on electric pump organ, Koen Nutters on bass, Morten J. Olsen on vibraphone, and Michael Thieke on clarinet. The band is expanded to become a tentet with the following guest musicians : Lucio Capece on bass clarinet, Johnny Chang on violin, Robin Hayward on tuba, Chris Heenan on contrabass clarinet, Okkyung Lee on cello, and finally Valerio Tricoli on revox. The album consists of two pieces of about twenty minutes : Side A and Side B. So much for the facts. 

What you hear is one minimalist drone of sound, solidly supported by the pump organ for its unchanging continuity, while other instruments weave in an out of the texture in barely noticeable yet all too present changes and shifts. The overall atmosphere is heavy and dark, ominous and full of dread. Its the kind of music you would expect to hear in the underworld. Nothing happens but there is no joy either, only a sentiment of resignation and submission to the fate of being where you are, with the occasional recognition of individual voices quickly absorbed by the greater whole. Even if it will not cheer you up, the album is absolutely fascinating to listen to, and it is of a phenomenal austere beauty. 

I am not sure how a tentet can be arranged to arrive at this sound, because it really requires all musicians to stay very close to a tonal center, staying very far from what they must be used to get as musical score. That by itself increases the quality of the performance. 





Mural - Tempo (Sofa, 2015) ****½

This is a very long and fascinating journey into the deep nature of sound, with Jim Denley on wind instruments, Kim Myhr on twelve-string guitar and zither, and Ingar Zach on gran cassia and percussion.

The album gives on three CDs a good part of a four hour performance at the Rothko Chapel in 2013. The music is less murmuring that this review's title might suggest. The approach is minimalist in terms of instrumentation and pitch variation, but the trio evolves between fascinating quietness and violence, working with intensity, power and other dynamics at their disposal to create an absolutely unpredictable suite of sound. At times you think that Armageddon is near (play it full volume) followed by zen-like calm and sooting bell sounds. The inherent repetitiveness of their music's nature builds hypnotic tension that can easily be challenged by disturbingly human cries on the sax or ripped to pieces by majestic bangs on the gran cassia, creating maximal dramatic effects contrasted by more quiet moments that never drop the overall tension of the sound.

The three musicians are phenomenal at co-creation, improvising together and moving together in developing the dark and fragile atmospheres they build, an amazing feat that becomes more impressive the more you listen to it.

You could think that after three previous albums, the nature of their approach has been explored but that is definitely not th case. The fact to have now a triple-CD album, bringing us the last three hours of a four-hour concert is amazing. It was all performed in one piece, so it is sad indeed that we have to change the disc from time to time, but that's really a minor thing, and we obviously wish to have had the first hour too.

This music requires attentive listening, because a lot is taking place, making this a must-have for fans. 

Also check : Nectars Of Emergence and Live At Rothko Chapel

Ingar Zach & Miguel Angel Tolosa - Loner (Sofa, 2015) ****

Back to murmurs now, with Ingar Zach on percussion, electronics and field recordings, and Miguel Angel Tolosa on electronics, field recordings and electric guitar. The album was already reviewed by Paolo Casertano, but I wished to add my comments which are not too far away from Paolo's appreciation.

In contrast to the other Sofa albums reviewed in this post, the overall sound is more linear, a kind of continuous and oscillating background like an electronic swell, dark and foreboding, with many different sounds all coming together like an ocean rising it, allegedly the result of ten years of sound collection, and the amazing feat that both guitar and percussion manage to stretch sounds indefinitely, while changing timbre and intensity as they move forward on this longitudinal journey. As memorable as the other two albums reviewed here, and again a different perspective on what can be achieved in this very specific subgenre that the Sofa label brings us.

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Wadada Leo Smith & John Tilbury - Bishopsgate Concert (Treader, 2014) ****½

[b]By Stef[/b]

It's a late review for an excellent album. No need to introduce the two protagonists, two men who come from totally different musical horizons, with John Tilbury on piano, classically trained, adept of Morton Feldman, and one of the founders of electro-acoustic music with AMM and Keith Rowe, and the other musician is Wadada Leo Smith, trained in jazz and gradually moving into free improvisation and even modern classical music. So you could say that both musicians will meet each other halfway between modern classical and free improv, and it is and it is not exactly.

First, John Tilbury plays a solo piece on two pianos, one prepared and the other not, in the typical minimalist style that you can expect from him, with precise and carefully delivered notes creating fascinating music around silence. Beautiful.

Second, we get three solo trumpet pieces by Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, with a sound that is both rawer, louder and more expansive than the piano. His first improvisation oscillates between meditative spiritual moments with moments of wrestling and inner torment, followed by a more bluesy muted piece, offering more silence to work as the backdrop for his beautiful tone, which is shattered by the third improvisation, which starts by the piercing tones of the Middle Eastern zurna, switched into a clear-voiced trumpet again, and it becomes the most moving piece of the solo trumpet moments.

Third, both artists join forces, in the half-hour long title track, and then the real beauty starts, or at least the album that you would have expected based on the title. To the credit of both musicians, they find a new sound, one which is more nervous, more agitated than their solo pieces, with more attack and energetic interaction, with larger intervals, but luckily they let silence creep in again, as a third element, leading to more calm and intimate moments, followed by more adventure and extended techniques, and much more, yet without loosing the coherence of the piece. It remains interesting and captivating if only because of the variation on the core idea, because of the shifts in emotions and intensity, between darkness and playfulness (including Tilbury's bird whistle), between sadness and surprise.

Music can be so great in the hands of top creative musicians.

Available from Instantjazz. 

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Tashi Dorji – Appa (Bathetic Records, 2015) ***½

[b]By Chris Haines[/b]

Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese-American improvising guitarist.  Initially when growing up in Bhutan his early influences were mainly classical and flamenco music, and after moving to the United States he discovered music, which was not easily accessible back in his homeland, such as Albert Ayler and Derek Bailey.  It is with a blend of his formative musical influences and his latter that the music on Appa (which means ‘Father’ in his native tongue) comes to fruition.

Appa is an album of thirteen solo guitar pieces ranging from between one-and-a half minutes to four minutes in length. Within these pieces there is a great deal of variety and scope within the sounds and the approach of the playing.  The up-beat and jaunty “Death Flowers” starts the album with its up-lifting melody, serene chords and off-fret (either bridge to tailpiece or headstock depending on the guitar) string sounds.  A beautiful miniature of a piece with a carefree simplicity that belies some of the more subtle complexities that come later in the album.  “Forbidden” is a piece for prepared guitar where the guitar is transformed into a percussive instrument by the use of objects being placed or attached to the strings, which generates a sound not too dissimilar from some African instruments such as the Mbira or thumb piano.  There is a wonderful complexity in the tone of this piece as the strings vibrate causing the preparations to buzz and rattle which creates something more than the sum of its parts.  “Nine” starts with a finger picked chordal figure that reminds me of the sort of thing that Steve Hackett would play on his classical guitar, whilst “Vast Air” hints at an air of Americana and “Errant Sphere” shows the Derek Bailey influence a bit more directly.

Overall there is a pastoral nature to the music contained within the album where space meets subtle but at times complex textures.  Much of the album has a reflective feel to the pieces and there are many genuinely beautiful moments that arise throughout the course of it.

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Nate Wooley - Battle Pieces (Relative Pitch, 2015) ****

[b]By Paul Acquaro[/b]

Nate Wooley's Battle Pieces is a thoughtfully conceived album by the NYC based trumpeter and composer. The 'battle pieces' have been deliberately designed as 'backdrops' for the group, which is Wooley, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and vibraphonist Matt Moran, to play off. The instrumentation leaves a lot of room in the space typically occupied by bass and drums, and the group uses this space to express themselves in unique ways.

The album tracks are a sequence of four longer pieces that each feature a band member (I think of the Quadrophenia concept from The Who as I write that) separated by 'tape deconstructions'. The latter is related to 'tape' only conceptually, as they are actually small musical parts that each performer uses and plays with between the longer pieces. Everything was recorded during the same live performance in April of 2014.

The album begins with a flutter of notes from the lone trumpet. Then the vibraphone sneaks in, slowly seeping under Wooley's unfolding ideas. There is an unexpected arpeggio played clear and bright on the trumpet, a sprinkle of notes from Courvoisier's right hand, and as Wooley's acerbic tone contrasts against Moran's shimmering vibraphone, Laubrock enters with an abstract figure. All together, it becomes apparent that for this piece it is the construction of the textures that is paramount. Just listen as the saxophonist and trumpeter use spit, air, and musical threads to tie the piece together.
                                                         
The next battle piece begins with Laubrock playing a fiery and unpredictable line. When the others join, the music congeals into a frenetic round. 'Battle Piece III' belongs to Moran. He enters tentatively, single notes ring out, attempting to fill a vast space. His piece is more atmospheric than the previous ones, it's deliberate and subtle, light and lithe even when Courvoisier adds a series of chunky chords. The pianist delivers the last piece, it's moody and ruminative, and she digs deep at the end, her foot on the sustain pedal.

The set up and sequencing of the album, featuring the four distinct voices, makes for a captivating listen. Battle Pieces is a thoughtful and unusually constructed album that offers the patient listener a fine musical experience.

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New Design ... Same Blog

Dear readers (and fans) of the Free Jazz Collective,

You may have noticed that we have a new lay-out for our website, which is fantastic news after so many years with the same visuals and lay-out. The new look is accessible, it looks more professional and of higher quality.

We hope that the new features will be able to facilitate access and comments. We added a new video section on top, and please browse to discover how it's now organised.

There are still some little mistakes that need to be updated, so please bear with us for this.

I want to thank Paul Acquaro whose skills and creative ideas and lots of sweat (and tears?) made this happen. Since we are all volunteers, reviewing albums and working as members of the Free Jazz Collective in our free time, this is doubly appreciated.

Many thanks and enjoy the new and refreshed pages. Suggestions are always welcome.


Stef

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Earth Tongues - Rune (Neither Nor, 2015) ****½

[b]By Stef[/b]

With the magnitude of albums we receive, sometimes you listen to albums not even once completely (sorry!), sometimes five or ten times, sometimes dozens of times, and more. This album for me fits in the latter category. It has been my companion for a while, because it requires solid listening, and because you hear new stuff each time you listen.

The trio are Joe Moffett on trumpet, Dan Peck on tuba and cassette player and Carlo Costa on percussion.

The music's ambition is to incorporate music, silence and noise into one coherent sound, an ambition which is actually delivered. The sounds may be brief, like drops in a pond, or extended, like the howl of a distant animal, or forceful, like a hammer hitting a rock, or deeply emotional like ... well ... humans. It is a great mixture of organic sounds, that seem to be created by themselves, or precise and decided interventions to create effects. There is a total absence of power or violence, quite to the contrary, all sounds arise from the silence, emerge from it, which gives the improvisers the opportunity to increase the accuracy of what they play. No sound seems superfluous, no sound is wasted, every sound has value, every sound has beauty, and when resonating with other sounds and silence, even more so. You could qualify the sound as low-density/high-intensity. It is austere at times, disconcerting at others, yet it always has a magnificent purity. I love it.

You can listen and download or buy from Bandcamp.

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