Jason Stein - Sunday Interview

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?
   
   
   My greatest joy as a player is the experience of connection and communication with the people I’m playing with and having the opportunity to contribute to that communication. Being a musician has always been a social enterprise for me. When I was young I wanted to be able to play well partly just because I wanted to hang around the musicians in my environment who were great players.
   
   
2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?
   
   I admire openness and the willingness to experience new things and new moments and unfamiliar territory and let that newness envelop you and to be able and willing to work from that place.
   
   
3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?
   
   Lester Young, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk. Too difficult to narrow it down further.
   
   
4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?
   
   John Coltrane. When I was around Charles Gayle a lot at Bennington he had what seemed like an ongoing internal conversation with himself about whether or not he could reasonably share the stage with Trane. He talked about it. He’d say “yeah man you know I really think that these days if I had to perform with Trane I could hold my own I really think I could.” Charles was such a powerhouse and of course Trane would have been absolutely enamored with his playing but it was striking that Charles used the imagining of what he’d have to bring to the stage in order to reasonably perform with Trane as a tool to cultivate a playing standard for himself. It was a creative exercise in imagination and appeared to fuel a life long orientation towards development. I admire that a ton. This question reminds me of Charles. But all that said, my answer is Trane. If you asked who I'd most want to hear (and not perform with) I think I’d say Bird. I’m so curious what he actually sounded like in a room and how his playing vibrated the walls and everyone’s bodies.
   
   
5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?
   
   I have a lot of music in me. I want to keep practicing and to continue to develop on my horn. And I want to keep working and performing and touring. I love playing. I want to keep at it for a long time.
   
   
6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?
   
   
   Sometimes songs will catch me and I’ll listen to the same song over and over. It’s kind of random. With popular music I tend to attach to a song rather than to a particular artist.
   
   
7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
   
   I’ve been trying to prioritize sleep.
   
   
8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?
   
   I’m definitely most proud of my most recent album, Anchors. This record is more personal and nuanced than anything I’ve ever done and required more imagination and more of a comprehensive sense of what I’m able to do on my horn in order to access certain ideas and feelings.
   
   
9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?
   
   Very rarely. I tend to look ahead and focus on the future.
   
   
10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?
    
    There are a few. Hard to say which one.
    John Coltrane Stellar Regions
    John Coltrane Interstellar Space
    Evan Parker Chicago Solo
    Lee Konitz Motion
    Jimi Hendrix Axis Bold As Love
    Sonny Rollins Live at the Village Vanguard
    Miles Davis Nefertiti
    
    
11. What are you listening to at the moment?
    
    Elvin Jones Live at the Lighthouse. I've been working on learning some of Steve Grossman’s solos on that record.
    
    
12. What artist outside music inspires you?
    
    Herman Hesse

Jason Stein on the Free Jazz Blog:

• Jason Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead - spi​-​raling horn (Balance Point Acoustics/ Irritable Mystic Records, 2024)
• Jazzfest Berlin 2023 (1/2)
• Natural Information Society - Since Time Is Gravity (Eremite, 2023)
• Basher - Doubles (Sinking City Records, 2022)
• Vision Festival 2022: Lasting Impressions
• Keefe Jackson’s Likely So—April 16, 2022 at Constellation, Chicago
• Damon Smith/Balance Point Acoustics Roundup, Part 2
• Damon Smith/Balance Point Acoustics Roundup, Part 2c
• Natural Information Society with Evan Parker - descension (Out of Our Constrictions) (Eremite Records, 2021) *****
• Tributes and Homages (III of III)
• Reeds & Skins
• 85bears - s/t (Eyes and Ears Records, 2020) ****
• Quin Kirchner – The Shadows & The Light (Astral Spirits, 2020) ****½
• Threadbare - Silver Dollar (No Business, 2020) ****
• Ivo Perelman is Prolific in His Creativity: An Interview with Ivo Perelman
• Nature Work - s/t (Sunnyside, 2019) ****
• Free Jazz Blog's 2018 Top 10 Lists
• A Short Introduction to Swiss Reedist Christoph Erb
• J@K@L (Keefe Jackson, Julian Kirshner, Fred Lonberg-Holm) - After A Few Days (Jaki Records, 2018) ****
• Jason Stein Quartet – Lucille! (Delmark, 2017) ****
• Quin Kirchner - The Other Side of Time (Astral Spirits, 2018) ****
• The October Revolution Part 2: Saturday and Sunday
• Mike Reed – Flesh & Bone (482 Music, 2017) ****
• The 2016 Free Jazz Blog Reviewer's Top 10s
• Jason Roebke Octet – Cinema Spiral (NoBusiness, 2016) ****
• Hearts & Minds – self-titled (Astral Spirits, 2016) ****½
• Sounds from Chicago
• Hanami - The Only Way to Float Free (Eyes and Ears, 2016) ****
• Boris Hauf - Next Delusion (shameless, 2015) ****
• James Falzone: The Renga Ensemble - The Room Is (Allos Documents, 2015) ****½
• Tim Daisy and Jason Stein - Alive at the Woodland Book Center (Relay, 2014) ****
• Kyle Bruckmann's WRACK - ... Awaits Silent Tristero's Empire (Singlespeed Music, 2014) ****
• Russ Johnson - Meeting Point (Relay, 2014) ****
• Round-Up: Chicago
• Tim Daisy and Jason Stein - Bascule (Peira, 2013) ****
• Solo clarinets
• Weekend Roundup: Peira records ... a tiny and excellent label for improvised music
• Josh Berman & His Gang -There Now (Delmark, 2012) ***½
• Boris Hauf times two
• Jason Stein Quartet - The Story This Time (Delmark, 2011) *****
• My Silence - It Only Happens At Night (482 music, 2011) ****
• Bruno Duplant, Paulo Chagas & Lee Noyes - As Birds (re:konstrukt, 2011) ****
• Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore – Three Kinds Of Happiness (Not Two, 2010) ****1/2
• Mike Pride’s From Bacteria To Boys – Betweenwhile (AUM Fidelity, 2010) ****
• Exploding Star Orchestra - Stars Have Shapes (Delmark, 2010) ****½
• Keefe Jackson's Project Project - Just Like This (Delmark, 2008) ***
• Jason Stein's Locksmith Isidore - A Calculus Of Loss (Clean Feed, 2008) ****
• Bridge 61 - Journal

 

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Jason Stein - Anchors (TAO Forms, 2024)

By Don Phipps

Was there ever a musician more perfectly suited to the bass clarinet than Jason Stein? Yes, Eric Dolphy, Ken McIntyre, Ned Rothenberg, and David Murray – all noted and amazing musicians - have played the bass clarinet, but Stein has drawn the line by making it his primary instrument. In so doing, Stein has been able to take the bass clarinet to the next level. One need look no further than his effort on Anchors to hear and understand his greatness.

On the album, his first effort as a leader of an ensemble in over six years, he plays with Joshua Abrams (on bass) and Gerald Cleaver (on drums). The two sidemen provide sympathetic accompaniment, as does guest guitarist Boon, who adds a sweet splash of guitar on the opening and ending numbers (“Anchor I” and “Anchor 2”).

But it is Stein who dominates nearly every bar of music. His approach runs from restless rambles to subtle poetry. Take his racing, repeating motif on “Crystalline,” or, later on, where he covers the bass clarinet registers in a controlled, unpressed, unhurried manner. Then there is the hard bite on the reed in “Cold Water,” where he pinches off forceful abstract lines as he works his embouchure like a heavyweight boxer might work a heavy bag. Listen to the long low foghorn notes that open “An Origin,” and how this evolves into a soulfully sweet revelation as the piece winds down like a boat slowly approaching a distant horizon.

Stein also displays his tonguing technique – check out the opening of “Holding Breath.” And on this same composition, he employs the difficult circular breathing technique, where somehow, he projects a tone through the instrument while breathing just enough to sustain the tone. The piece ends with his masterful exploration of both the upper and lower registers of his elongated woodwind atop a head-nodding bouncy rhythm.

Cleaver and Abrams do their part to make this album special. Cleaver’s subtle efforts are noteworthy. On “Boon,” he covers the trap set while maintaining a soft gentle sound. And his cymbal work on “Crystalline” is, in a word, exceptional. Later in the same piece, one can hear him exhibit a remarkably light touch on the toms and snare. Meanwhile, Abrams makes wonderful use of the bow on “Crystalline” and “An Origin,” and towards the end of the latter composition, he contributes lively and colorful plucks of the bass strings.

There is much to enjoy on Jason Stein’s Anchors. The trio is tight and the music full of life. Each number has its own raison d'etre and all the pieces together contribute to an exceptionally strong mix of movement, clarity, and interest. Enjoy!

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Jordina Millá & Barry Guy - Live in Munich (ECM, 2024)

 

By Sarah Grosser

Pianist Jordina Millá may still only be regarded as a newcomer to the improvisational scene alongside such a prolific artist as double bass player Barry Guy, but the two are a fabulous match sonically, and one is unable to immediately determine from this performance who was the more experienced player.

Recorded in 2022 at the Schwere Reiter in Munich, a venue which has become a haven for avant-garde and experimental music of the jazz persuasion in southern Germany, the photo booklet depicts sharp, black and white stills of two very focused musicians who are not here to mess around. Spatially, Guy is slightly panned to the left with Millá slightly on the right, which sounds a rather simple production technique on paper, but it really does give the effect that they are right there in the room with you. This nuanced attention to detail on the production is mirrored by the beauty of the performance itself. Like just about anything on the ECM label, the quality of the mixing and mastering is exceptional.



The pieces are mostly ominous and foreboding. The prepared piano is used percussively or melodically in turns, as Guy and Millá explore a myriad of textural sound-making methods: deep sawing, rubbing, twangs, snaps, rough and vigorous harmonic flicks through to bone-rattling creaks and turns. This is interspersed with more tonal runs and harmonies.

It’s often difficult to distinguish from which instrument each sound is coming, as both string instruments resonate with a similarly chilling frequency. This dark, graphic sound collage is represented appropriately in the black and grey cover photograph by Thomas Wunsch.

The pieces are intense and sombre - the deepest notes are the most satisfying, especially towards the tail end of "Part I." It’s serious and introspective, but the tension is not anxiety inducing per se. It’s fascinating and compelling, stirring, brooding, and always interesting. However, there is a general calmness to the tension which is intriguing. The pizzicato piano harmonics and cello string accompaniment sound fabulous together, almost as if they were designed to be played this way. 

Every so often we will be blessed with a small, tangible melody on either instrument. Millá’s playing is deeply sensitive, wonderfully dynamic, glistening, and emotional. Transitions between her more melodic moments to atonal sections are gradual and seamless. So too are the more rapid instances, and those of reverberant beauty. Guy is completely in tune with Millá, and the idyllic nature of this balance is further underlined by the enthusiastic cheers that follow each of the six parts of this live recording. What they are doing sounds as if it was meant to be, and it’s obviously resonating with the audience.

Perhaps this is due to the chemistry of Millá and Guy, which has been established over several years – their previous album as a duo, String Fables, was recorded in July 2021, so they have polished this craft over time. 

This is a delicate, mature, and heartfelt release. Hopefully, thanks to the exposure of ECM and the support of Barry Guy, we will be seeing much more of Jordina Millá in the years to come.

More here: https://ecmrecords.com/product/live-in-munich-jordina-milla-barry-guy/

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Catherine Sikora & Susan Alcorn – Filament (Relative Pitch Records, 2024)

By Don Phipps

On Filament, the pairing of tenor saxophonist Catherine Sikora and pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn seemed curious. Their respective sounds are notably distinct. And pedal steel guitar is typically associated with country & western music. Even so, as great improvisers of talent will do, the duo align with one another for a compelling and challenging album.

“Filament ii” and “Filament iii” are the more compelling of the three pieces. There is a synchronous interweaving on these numbers – the moods shift together instead of apart. On “ii,” the music opens with long legato phrases. Then there are extended waves of bluesy melancholy. Alcorn picks while Sikora flows. The piece migrates through slow movements to capriciously topsy turvy jags and mad chatter. “ii” flows directly into “iii;” it begins slowly with an eerie abstraction. Alcorn’s picking blends perfectly here with Sikora’s syncopated reflexes. There is a back and forth on “iii,” as the mood shifts from exuberance to hazy atmospherics and back again. Sikora’s expressionistic playing comes to the fore in the wind down, with her lines that suggest a cloudy moodiness - lonely evenings, solitary thinking, sadness, loss.

However, “Filament i” is slightly uneven. This is not to say that the overall piece is somehow deficient. But in “i,” the two musicians appear to struggle to create combined phrases; instead, they rely more on call and response techniques to inform their streams of musical consciousness. This subtle lack of cohesion is not off-putting, but it does suffer in comparison with “ii” and “iii,” where the duo feels on firmer ground. There is a bit of Tombstone in the opening – like watching tumbleweeds skirt across the desert. Sikora’s compelling and powerful tone is in evidence in the early searching phrases. Alcorn slides about, like a slippery eel on the deck of a wet ship. The piece finds its soul in strong passages; the steel guitar reverberates around Sikora’s sax intensity. Listen to Alcorn’s guitar generate suspense behind Sikora’s lilting outbursts or subtle reflections.

The music of Filament reminds us to be open to new things. The steel pedal guitar in Alcorn’s hands has earned a place in the free jazz orchestra. One can imagine the fun both musicians had in combining the extended sounds that emanate from the guitar pedals with the tenor sax exhortations. And this album proves no matter how unusual the instrumental pairing is, true creative music simply cannot be denied.

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Marcello Magliocchi: Mirage and Encounters

By Nick Ostrum

Marcello Magliocchi is a percussionist from Bari, Italy. Although his name might not be familiar, he has played with an impressive array of musicians covered in this blog: Mal Waldron, William Parker, Peter Kowald, Joelle Leandre, Evan Parker, Mia Dyberg, and others. Given that, it is surprising he is not more widely known. Here, we feature two recent releases – Mirage and Encounters – on which Magliocchi plays a leading role from the last few months on the Greek label Plus Timbre.

Stefania Ladisa, Ninni Morgia, Marcello Magliocchi – Mirage (Plus Timbre, 2024) 

Lately, Magliocchi has engaged in unconventional configurations. A drummer, he has been drawn to strings and electronics. On Mirage, Magliocchi is joined by Stania Ladisa on electric violin and electronics and Ninni Morgia on electric guitar. From the beginning one hears noises: rattle, muffled shards of guitar, twinges of processed violin that quickly aggregate into a churning ball of sonic shrapnel that withers away as quickly as it appears. As the album proceeds, the musicians play with space, layering scrapes, ambient friction and electrical buzz and blips over quiet backdrops. Apart from the guitar when played more conventionally (especially in the final selection, the 13-minute Mirage) and some moments with Magliocchi clearly on his set, it is nigh on impossible to figure out which instruments are making which sounds. The acoustic percussion bleeds into the electronic whirl, and vice versa. It gets loud at points (Where the line ends, Entanglements I and II), but even at those moments, it rarely feels crowded for long. For their part, neither Ladisa nor Morgia play idiomatic lines or follow the usual routes. This is disassembled, even disembodied music, meticulously constructed, experimental ambient to the core and, in that, it is thoroughly attractive.

Matthias Boss, Stefania Ladisa, Marcello Magliocchi – Encounters (Plus Timbre, 2024) 

On Encounters, Mathias Boss and Ladis both accompany Magliocchi on violin. The acoustic arrangement invites the chamber comparison and creates a somewhat different soundscape than Ladisa and Morgia did electrified on Mirage. Of course, when one speaks of electricity, one thinks of energy, which, despite the lack of the former, is not missing here.

Although Boss and Ladisa deserve some adulation for this, the specifics of that energy emanate at least as much from Magliocchi. He never settles on a groove. In fact, it seems he has an aversion to playing the traditional role. Instead, he wanders, wide-eyed and curious as to what racket he can extract from his trove of percussive implements. When he finds a clank or rattle he likes, he leans into it, but does not settle for long. Instead, he quickly shifts to the next sound, deliberately lacing these various segments into an a gnarly stream of arhythmic clatter.

Boss and Ladisa are fitting counterparts. Already in Mirage, Ladisa makes clear she can hold her own. Boss clearly can, too. The two joust. They strike at and parry each other and Magliocchi, who responds in kind. They leap from quick bouts of tremolo to broader powerful swipes to delicate quiet passages. Through it all, they abandon the classic focus on scale, melody and tone, relying instead on textures and techniques to construct these seven “Encounters.” In that, they complement Magliocchi harshly and beautifully.

Both Mirage and Encounters are available as downloads from Bandcamp. Remarkably, they are pay-what-you-will. I would recommend you give what you can, but, at the very least, listen!

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Oliwood feat. Evans, Mahall, Landfermann - Anatomy of Anarchy (Jazzwerkstatt, 2024)

By Eyal Hareuveni

Oliwood is an ongoing project of German, Berlin-based drummer Oliver Steidle (who leads Oli Steidle and the Killing Popes quartet, Soko Steidle quintet and plays in the Ilog duo with turntables wizard Ignaz Schick) that has a changing line-up and distinct sonic aesthetics for each production, stressing Steidle’s claim that he is no purist and feels at home playing jazz, bebop, free jazz, classical music, Neue Musik, hip-hop or punk.

The first album of this project, Euphoria (Yellowbird, 2017), featured German sax hero Frank Gratkowski, and Finnish (and fellow Berliner) guitarist Kalle Kalima, and offered Steidle’s compositions that flirted with art rock and Neue Musik. The new, second line-up of Oliwood is acoustic and suggests a modern approach to the so-called Jazz from the sixties, and features American trumpeter Peter Evans (on a pocket trumpet only), and German bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall (who plays in Soko Steidle) and double bass player Robert Landferman. The album was recorded live at the Loft club in Cologne in September 2022.

The album's title captures the irreverent, free spirit of the album, but it is also a reflection of how these gifted musicians play and improvise, construct and deconstruct compositions and build tension, and weave together colors, illusions and layered rhythmic patterns. The four musicians contributed compositions, often ones that they already tested in their own independent projects. The album opens with Landfermann’s “Right as Rain” (from his Brief, Pirouet, 2018), which already establishes the brilliant, super-fast manner that the quartet playfully alternates between ‘in’ and ‘out’ while employing inventing breathing, bowing and percussive extended techniques. Mahall’s “Ich stand im Stau” (I was stuck in a traffic jam in German, from Die Enttäuschung, Music Minus One, Two Nineteen, 2023) and “Ich hab den Kopf nicht frei” (I don’t have a clear mind) solidify the ironic-anarchistic spirit of the album as well as the great love these musicians share for bebop music.

The quartet’s free-improvised piece “Meditation on a slaughterhouse” (in its two parts) has a macabre title, but many of the old slaughterhouses - schlachthofs - have been transformed into art spaces, so this surreal and restless piece may reflect on the poor lives taken in such halls. Evans leads the quartet on his composition “Freaks” (which will appear on his upcoming solo album, Extra, We Jazz, 2024), pushing all into a powerful, free jazz groove. Steidle’s “Bling bling Frogs” and “How to prioritize differently” intensify this rhythmic vein but with a more disciplined and complex approach that affirms the benefits of tension-filled dynamics. Hopefully, this great quartet will keep on to dissect the Anatomy of Anarchy.

Peter Evans (pocket trumpet); Rudi Mahall (bass clarinet); Robert Landfermann (double bass); Oli Steidle (drums, percussion).

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Ivo Perelman, Aruan Ortiz, Ramon Lopez - Ephemeral Shapes (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2024)

By Don Phipps

Creative is the norm for tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman – and Ephemeral Shapes, with its amoeba-like and amorphous flexing and thematic approach continues this creativity with varying levels of intensity and mood. Joined by pianist Aruan Ortiz and drummer Ramon Lopez, Perelman, as evidenced on other recent albums, is cementing his place at the creative center of the free music universe.

Perelman eschews formalism; instead, as is his way, he prefers a more spontaneous approach that relies on his bandmates to listen carefully and follow or lead as necessary to complete the composition. This is quite evident in “Shape 1,” where from the start one senses Ortiz and Lopez waiting on Perelman to set the musical direction before offering support for where the various musical lines are headed. While there are outbursts and passion to the opening number, there is a definitive arc that rotates from short, syncopated notes to roller coaster sprints and full chordal clusters before resolving in what one might characterize as a somber, reflective abstraction.

There is an early morning eeriness to many of the openings and sometimes these resolve in more intense passages towards the end of the compositions. Take “Shape 2,” which slowly rumbles about as one might awkwardly move in a dark room where footing is uncertain. “Shape 4” also has this early a.m. haze – fragments of tossing and turning – a restless late-night séance of sound. Listen for Ortiz’s beautiful runs and bluesy chords behind Perelman’s slow metamorphosis. The extended starts to “Shape 6” and “Shape 7” likewise open with a dark late late evening meditation. Perelman’s plaintive wail and use of the lower register of the tenor sax add to the beautiful drifting themes that permeate these numbers.

The album also offers lively expositions. “Shape 3” rolls about like a lifesaver on the tongue, shifting from side to side to gain more flavor. Perelman challenges the trio with intense technique that is echoed by Ortiz and supported by Lopez. And the humor in “Shape 5” is hard to miss – sounding like a drunk stagger through an alley after some hard drinking.

Perelman pulls out all the stops on this album – from aggressive tonguing to mad dashes, from soulful wails and piercing high notes to gentle whispers – it is all here. Ortiz responds with various techniques – splashes, darts, rumbles, and full chordal clusters. Lopez also adds to the mix, with excellent cymbal work and snare effects. However, he tends to overuse the bass drum to build intensity, and this can be annoying at times.

The music of Ephemeral Shapes has moments of great force sprinkled with contemplative passages that reflect a shapeless consciousness – a consciousness that responds to mood and information and reacts accordingly. These moments happen in everyone’s daily life. And perhaps the best we can do is shape them, as this sax trio has done, in a manner that makes them as meaningful as they are irrational. Great beauty has never sounded so reflexive.

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Michael Griener - Sunday Interview

Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix

 

1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

It's only when I improvise on my drums that I completely feel like myself. Playing and improvising is a necessity for me to stay sane. It is my most natural form of expression. What's more, improvising together, you get to know your fellow musicians in a way that would otherwise require a very intense and intimate exchange. The core of your being is revealed without the need for words.

2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

When the musicians have their own unique voice and that these voices are distinctive and not interchangeable. I am interested in virtuosity, but even more in integrity. And I enjoy playing with musicians who enjoy playing (with me). I don't play primarily for the result, but for the joy of playing. There may be other ways to produce good music, like writing scores or putting sounds together on a computer, but that's not what interests me most. Of course, I'm happy if the result of the playing is good music, but playing as such is best when it has no other purpose than playing. As Shelly Manne said: We never play the same thing once.

3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

That would probably be Duke Ellington. Or maybe Sun Ra? Lester Young? Bach? Ravel? But really anyone who has spent their life making beautiful music. It's not the easiest thing to do.

4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

As Jo Jones, one of my favorite drummers, said: "We played who we were at the time. You can't re-create that. You can't copy that. It could only happen once."

I'm quite happy with the musicians I get to play with. And I'm also sure that there are enough living musicians out there that I can have a lot of fun playing with.

So let the dead musicians rest in peace. Besides, meeting your heroes in person isn't always the smartest idea.

5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

To be honest, with my family background, it was highly unlikely that I would ever become a musician, let alone make a living at it. So I'm happy that I got this far. And my biggest wish is that I can continue to play until the end and enjoy it as much as I do now. And maybe one day I will dare to record a solo album to find out what kind of music is left when no one is playing with me.

6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like

If by popular music you mean what the majority listens to, I'm not particularly familiar with the current state of it. Occasionally, I'll hear something that piques my curiosity, but that's regardless of genre. However, a lot of the music I listen to has been popular at one time or another. One of the things I need in music to enjoy it is a certain rhythmic elasticity. You can call it swing or whatever you want. For me, this rhythmic feeling is not limited to jazz, but is something deeply human. If the rhythm is too rigid, I usually lose interest very quickly.

7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I'm at ease where I am right now. It hasn't been easy to get there, but I feel I’m in a good place now. I have a certain social awkwardness that I sometimes would like to overcome, especially when I see other people fitting in so easily. On the other hand, it means I get to go to bed earlier. That counts for something.

8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?

The first CD I was really responsible for, was a sextet called Proust (with Rudi Mahall and others), which we recorded in 1993 before we moved to Berlin. When Michael Thieke heard it a few years later, he told me that for him it was like the missing link to understand where this Berlin jazz sound was suddenly coming from in the nineties. Another recording from 1992, Pastete Souzeraine was a trio with saxophone and piano, Griener Schweitzer Sudmann. It was the first time I felt like I was making a truly original statement and not just processing material from Max Roach or Paul Lovens. Both recordings still put a smile on my face.

Of my current projects, the four releases of Oùat with Simon Sieger and Joel Grip are very close to my heart. Over the past five years we've built a level of trust that has allowed us to grow beyond what we thought was possible.

9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

I try not to put out music that I wouldn't want to listen to myself. But since I've usually listened to my music a lot by the time it's released, it can take a while before I want to listen to it again. There is so much beautiful music out there and there are only 24 hours in a day. But sometimes it's nice to put on one of the old recordings to see if you're still in tune with your younger self.

10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

The first time I was seriously drawn to music was when I heard Gene Krupa playing "Sing Sing Sing" on the radio at the age of 12. The very next day I went out and bought a Benny Goodman cassette with my allowance. Soon, with the help of the public library, I was listening to Monk, Mingus and Ornette Coleman. So I'd have to say Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, Monk's Music, Blues & Roots and The Shape of Jazz to Come. At that time there was also an Italian vinyl series I Grandi Del Jazz, which you could get for very little money. These were (probably illegal) reissues of great jazz albums from King Oliver to Anthony Braxton. I had dozens of them and they were very helpful. I also listened A LOT to the Boulez edition of Webern's complete works (although I now like other recordings of them much better).

11. What are you listening to at the moment?

At this very moment, Sidney Bechet’s recordings from 1940.

12. What artist outside music inspires you?

Someone like Kurt Schwitters was an early inspiration. On the one hand, in his refusal to limit himself to a single form of expression. On the other, in his (perhaps involuntary) independence from artist groups and cliques. And in his unwavering determination to keep going, regardless of the circumstances. Marcel Duchamp also gave me a lot to think about, even though Beuys thought that Duchamp's silence was overrated. But in general, I am still easily inspired, and not just by artists. 

 

Michael Griener on the Free Jazz Blog:

• Lina Allemano's Ohrenschmaus & Andrea Parkins - Flip Side (Lumo Records, 2024)
• Die Enttäuschung - The Komplette / Music Minus One / Monk's Casino 
• The Straight Horn of Rudi Mahall (Two Nineteen Records, 2024) 
• (Ne)poslušno / Sound (Dis)Obedience 2024, Ljubljana
• Céline Voccia: Energetic Dissonance and Contemplative Restraint
• Oùat - Trial of Future Animals (self-released, 2023) 
• Oùat - Elastic Bricks (Umlaut, 2022) ****½
• Out on Intakt (Day 2 of 2)
• Out on Intakt (Day 1 of 2)
• Jazzfest Berlin 2020: Day 2 (Berlin <--> New York City)
• Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus - Rats and Mice (Lumo, 2020) ****½
• Satoko Fujii’s Orchestra Berlin - Ninety-Nine Years (Libra, 2018) ****½
• Uwe Oberg, Rudi Mahall and Michael Griener – Lacy Pool 2 (Leo, 2017) ****
• Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden
• New Old Luten Quintet - Tumult! (Euphorium, 2015) ****
• Ulrich Gumpert Quartett - A New One (Intakt, 2015) *****
• Phil Grenadier & Bruno Råberg - Plunge (Orbis, 2012) ****
• Hyperactive Kid - Mit Dir Sind Wir 4 (Jazzwerkstatt, 2010)
• Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky & Michael Griener - The Salmon (Intakt, 2008) ****
• Carl Ludwig Hübsch - Primordial Soup (Red Toucan Records, 2007) ****

 

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Soft Machine - HØVIKODDEN 1971 (Cuneiform Records, 2024)

By Guido Montegrandi

HØVIKODDEN 1971 is a 4CD or 4 vinyl set with Soft Machine in their quartet lineup (Elton Dean: alto sax, saxello, Hohner pianet, Hugh Hopper: bass, Mike Ratledge: Hohner pianet, Lowrey Holiday Deluxe organ, Fender Rhodes, Robert Wyatt: drums, vocals) recorded in Norway in two consecutive nights on February 27 and 28 1971 for a total of about 3 hours of music.

The recording of the first night has never been published before, while the recording of the second night was published in 2010 with the title Live at Heine Onstand Art Centre 1971 (Reel Recordings) but, as the liner notes inform us, the sound quality has been improved: 

This is a excellent, stereo recording of the band performing in a relatively small hall; the balance between the instruments is not perfect, but there is no other recording by Soft Machine that sounds as much like the band are performing *right* in front of you! Additionally, we were able to improve in a modest but definitely noticeable way the not-perfect balance between the instruments on this complete presentation of both night’s performances!

At that point in time Soft Machine live shows were split into two sets and these two nights follow the scheme displaying each night the same song list (with the exception of the reprise of 'Slightly All The Time' in the second set of the second night) – for fans it is an occasion to appreciate differences and variations that a 24 hours span produces in the execution; for everyone else an occasion to consider the role and weight of improvisation in the music of the band

So music - it is just in between the Soft Machine albums Three and Four with Robert Wyatt restraining himself from singing (apart for some brief interludes) and sometimes also from playing (he would have left the band a few months later) but anyway, the music is absolutely magnificent. Maybe this is just a release for those who already like Soft Machine but given the fact that this was (and still is) a band that gives its best in live shows, it can also represent a good starting point to explore their music. Here the band is on the divide between the psychedelic music of the two first records and the jazz-rock (fusion?) that will characterize their future developments. It marks out a (European) way to jazz rock much more inclined to free jazz, experimental music and prog than its American counterpart, a mixture that gives this quartet its absolute originality and produces a music well worth listening even 50 years later… even if you’re not a fan.

On bandcamp you can listen buy and download it :

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Lina Allemano's Ohrenschmaus & Andrea Parkins - Flip Side (Lumo Records, 2024)

By Stef Gijssels

"Ohrenschmaus" is a German word that means "something that sounds very nice and pleasant, and that makes you happy", or liberally translated as "ear candy" or "a feast for the ears". 

"Flip Side" is the second album of one of Canadian trumpeter Lina Allemano's several ensembles, next to the Lina Allemano Four, Titanium Riot, and Bloop. The artist is moving regularly between Toronto and Berlin, and this is her "Berlin ensemble", with - next to herself - Norwegian Dan Peter Sundland on electric bass, and German Michael Griener on drums. The wonderul Andrea Parkins joins on three tracks on accordion, objects & electronics. 

The result is a real treat for the ears. The trio and quartet move in the dreamlike zone between compositions and improvisation, between thematic lines and total freedom. All pieces have a clear thematic focus and core, and the musicians make their sounds weave organic tapestries around them. 

The tracks are called "Sidetrack", "Signal", "Heartstrings", "Sideswipe", "Stricken", "The Line", and "Sidespin". They are of medium length, clocking between four and six minutes each, little miniatures each with its own character and sound. Some are a little 'messy' on purpose, especially with Parkins' electronics thrown into the mix, yet it works really well. The titles suggest this being a little bit "off mark", not really on the target but close enough, while at the same time expressing the emotional and stylistic power of the music. The lead voice is of course the trumpet, and Allemano's mastership on the instrument is remarkable, from pure classical tones to emotional jazzy phrases and explorative try-outs. Yet the whole band is excellent. It's remarkable how close Sundland and Griener are to Allemano's musical concepts. And if only on three tracks - well balanced on the first, the middle track and the last - Andrea Parkins adds the right amount of additional unconventional sounds to the whole. Some pieces are weird, such as "Sidespin", and others, such as "Stricken" present us with a beautiful bluesy ballad. It's all a pleasure for the mind, for the heart and for the ears: risky, recalcitrant, smart and coherent. It's a treat from beginning to end. 

Ohrenschmaus? Yes, definitely Ohrenschmaus! 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

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