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Nail Trio - Roger Turner (dr), Alexander Frangenheim (b), Michel Doneda (ss)

September 2025, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe

Michael Greiner (d) & Jason Stein (bc)

September 25, Soweiso, Berlin, Germany

Exit (Knaar) - Amalie Dahl (as), Karl Hjalmar Nyberg (ts), Marta Warelis (p), Jonathan F. Horne (g), Olaf Moses Olsen (dr), Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten (b)

September 25, Schorndorf, Germany

The Outskirts - Dave Rempis (ts, as), Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten (b), Frank Rosaly (dr)

Schorndorf, Manufaktur, March 2025

Monday, October 27, 2025

Jack DeJohnette (1942-2025) - a personal impression

Photo by Jeff Forman

By Stef Gijssels

Sad news about Jack DeJohnette, one of the most acclaimed and influential drummers ever. I will not go into his biography or enumerate his achievements: they are many and others have already done it better than I ever could. Suffice to say that he appears on 1154 album credits according to Discogs, and he performed with almost any jazz musician that mattered, from Bill Evans, over Charles Lloyd, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Sonny Rollins, John Surman to Wadada Leo Smith. He was part in many of the historical junctures in jazz music, and contributed to shaping it. 

Here is the story of my life with Jack DeJohnette as a musical guide. 

Jack DeJohnette New Directions (ECM, 1978)

I was not yet twenty when I bought this album by mistake. I knew Abercrombie from his previous fusion album, and I loved fusion (please forgive me, I was in my teens then). When I heard this album, I was devastated to have spent my limited resources on music I did not like. So to teach myself a lesson, I punished myself to listen to it twenty times. Yet lo and behold: what I found unlistenable at the beginning, started opening up like a beautiful flower the more I listened to it. Its sense of freedom, the musicianship, its unpredictability and overall tone became even more appealing and enjoyable with each listen. I knew that this was it! This was absolutely brilliant. Today, this old vinyl is still within arm's reach. It has lost nothing of its power. Lester Bowie, John Abercrombie, Eddie Gomez ... and a bluesy and lyrical Jack DeJohnette.

John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette – Gateway (ECM, 1975)

DeJohnette also teamed up with Dave Holland and John Abercrombie on what has become "Gateway", the trio named after their first album together. In this small guitar trio format, DeJohnette's drumming plays an absolutely essential part of the music. It's a strange, mysterious and wonderfully appealing album. Abercrombie is a very unusual guitarist, yet his style matches very well with DeJohnette's unique and subtle drumming. He's a lyricist as much as the other two.




Kenny Wheeler – Gnu High (ECM, 1976)

Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler's 'Gnu High' is one of ECM's iconic albums, with Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette as members of the ensemble. ECM has always had the incredible value of bringing musicians together to create music that would otherwise not have seen the light of day. This is one of those examples. “What you hear,” says Jack DeJohnette, “is the spontaneity of the moment.” The band is stellar and lifts Wheeler to a truly high level of music. 






Terje Rypdal / Miroslav Vitous / Jack DeJohnette (ECM, 1979)

This album was also one of my favourites for many years. Rypdal's icey guitar pierces through the wonderful foundations laid by the other two virtuosi. Listen to the exquisite and subtle drums intro to "Sunrise"! Its atmosphere is chilling yet deeply emotional. All three musicians are excellent, yet DeJohnette's drumming is exceptional and already his signature sound: playing around the rhythm in a loose and flexible style with lots of little touches on his cymbals. He creates a percussive atmosphere, a percussive environment, co-creating the overall sound instead of keeping the pace. 


Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette - Inside Out (ECM, 2011)

And then there are of course the numerous albums with Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock. This is very much Jarrett's musical concept, yet the absolutely flawless interaction and fluidity of the three artists is exceptional and not a surprise that Jarrett kept asking them again and again to perform. Not all of it is good, and I'm less a fan of their take on jazz standards, but some are truly outstanding improvised piano trios, regardless of the genre. 




Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, Dewey Redman, Mike Brecker – 80/81 (ECM, 1980)

I am not a Pat Metheny fan - a little too mellow to my taste - although I can appreciate this excellent album with a stellar cast of some of the luminaries in jazz. It has a great rendition of Ornette Coleman's "Turnaround", my favourite track on the double vinyl, ending with one of the musicians (I guess Dewey Redman) shouting enthusiastically: “Yooohoooo, boy!, Jack DeJohnette, man!” in praise of the drummer's exceptional contribution. 

A reviewer on CD Universe writes: "And perhaps the highlight of the recording is the intricate yet effortless drumming of Jack DeJohnette. It stands out throughout the recordings."

John Surman & Jack DeJohnette - Invisible Nature (ECM, 2002)

When I just started with this blog so many years ago, I reviewed this album succinctly. It is an exceptional co-created live duo recording between the British saxophonist and the American drummer. The result is an astonishing musical feast, an ode to life. It is in the most subtle moments, such as on "Mysterium" that it is fascinating to hear how DeJohnette captures the essence of the saxophonist's sonic vision and co-creates the perfect and nuanced sound to complete it. 



Wadada Leo Smith & Jack DeJohnette - America (Tzadik, 2009)

The same joy of interaction can be found on this stellar duo album with Wadada Leo Smith. Both men are at the absolute top of their skills and the interplay is stellar as can be expected. From beginning to end this music. I reviewed it then in 2009 and the full text can be read here. I wrote it is "An absolute "must have" for anyone interested in music." I have not changed my opinion.



Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970)

And then of course there is "Bitches Brew", on which DeJohnette is one of the drummers next to Lenny White and Charles Alias. A genuine jazz masterpiece, it breaks stylistic boundaries while highlighting DeJohnette’s extraordinary versatility and his talent for adapting his unique sound to any jazz style.

Other albums with Davis include "At Filmore" (1970), "Jack Johnson" (1971), "Live-Evil" (1971). "On The Corner" (1972) "Black Beauty" (1973), and "Big Fun" (1974).




Michael Mantler - The Hapless Child (Watt, 1976)

One more memorable album is this utterly bizarre production with "inscrutable stories" by Edward Gorey, sung by Robert Wyatt, and with the brilliant music of Michael Mantler performed by Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Jack DeJohnette and Terje Rypdal. The album defies classification. It's a kind of gothic prog rock album, with utterly dark horror stories, and hair-raising dramatic compositions and performance. No doubt one of the weirdest production ever, requiring some getting into, yet I can only suggest to keep listening, and preferably repeatedly. It's different, yet again, with DeJohnette adding a lot to the overall sound. 


Amidst all this fantastic and creative work, Jack DeJohnette also participated in the Blues Brothers movie, also not taking himself too seriously as the drummer of the Louisiana Gator Boys, an all-star bluesband with B.B.King, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton, Dr. John,  Steve Winwood and many more, performing "How Blue Can You Get".

We will miss him dearly but his art is here to stay and to be cherished forever. 

Jack DeJohnette (1942 - 2025)

Jack DeJohnette.photo from the ECM website

By Martin Schray

When Jack DeJohnette played the drums, it sounded as if James Brown was singing the music of Miles Davis. Or the one of Albert Ayler. Admittedly, it takes a certain amount of imagination to hear the intricate percussion patterns of the jazz drummer from Chicago, the soulful ballads of the king of funk and R&B, and the specific timbres of the great jazz revolutionaries together.

For DeJohnette, this meant natural expression of vocal and instrumental leadership, an uninterrupted sequence of colors, rhythms, and moods, and perfect technique whose flawlessness was not flaunted. Musical natural phenomena, in other words.

Jack DeJohnette’s vocal sensibility apparently enabled him to transform robust rhythms into smooth melodies and textures, making not only the cymbals sing, but the entire drum set. When he played the drums, a big, powerfully intensifying sound always came out, a unique, free groove.

Jack DeJohnette had the best teachers one could have: Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchel, and Joseph Jarman, the musical social workers from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in his hometown, and later the hardcore avant-garde around John Coltrane, Rashied Ali, Elvin Jones, Ornette Coleman, and Miles Davis in New York. He first took piano lessons from the age of four to fourteen and switched to drums in high school; his musical role model at the time was Max Roach. He then studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. In his early years in Chicago, he played a wide range of music, from rhythm and blues to free jazz. In 1966, he moved to New York and accompanied organist John Patton on drums, worked with Jackie McLean, and accompanied singers Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln. From 1966 to 1969, he was a member of the Charles Lloyd Quartet alongside the young Keith Jarrett, the first “psychedelic jazz group”, which made him internationally famous, as Lloyd’s group was the first jazz band to also play in front of a rock audience, e.g. together with Grateful Dead. After playing with Miles Davis in several sessions in November 1968, he joined the Miles Davis band in the summer of 1969, replacing Tony Williams and participating in the recordings for Bitches Brew. DeJohnette remained in the Davis band, with interruptions, until June 1972 (during the recording of On the Corner), when he was replaced by Al Foster. By this time at the latest, he was one of the most influential jazz drummers.

His aesthetic openness, alertly picking up on his fellow musicians’ ideas, supporting and developing them, has probably made Jack DeJohnette the jazz drummer with the most and most diverse recordings in the recent history of jazz. Like Keith Jarrett, he benefited from his early collaboration with the Munich-based ECM label.

It is almost impossible to count the number of Jack DeJohnette’s recordings that have become milestones in jazz music. These include the live recording with the wonderful pianist Bill Evans from the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival and basically all eight recordings with Miles Davis’ band.

Additionally, there is the serene musical artistry with his own groups Direction with saxophonist Alex Foster, John Abercrombie on guitar, and Peter Warren on bass; New Direction again with John Abercrombie, Lester Bowie on trumpet, and Eddie Gomez on bass; Special Edition with saxophonists Arthur Blythe and David Murray and again with Peter Warren (the eponymous album is perhaps the one record you need from DeJohnette when it comes to recordings under his name). These are just the most notable ones. And finally, there are all the fantastic recordings with Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock, who subjected the standard repertoire of the piano trio to a test of modern jazz counterpoint. They began touring in the early 1980s and released over 20 albums as a trio under Jarrett’s name over the next three decades. They deliberately took a step back, playing standards, that canon of jazz that is so successful because even the masses know the pieces, but so difficult because everything has already been said in this repertoire. But that’s where the three of them shone with their knack for discovering new depths even in well-worn tracks. The CD box set Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note - The Complete Recordings is a recording for the ages.

The list of projects Jack DeJohnette has worked on in the studio and on stage over the past few decades is long. His own trio with John Coltrane’s son Ravi and Matthew Garrison, son of Coltrane bassist Jimmy, once again explored the entire spectrum of African-American culture, from Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Serpentine Fire“ to Coltrane’s “Alabama“ (on In Movement, ECM, 2016). It was a statement of support for the revolution in the era of the Black Lives Matter movement, which showed that civil rights in the US have been against stake again. DeJohnette returned to his roots in Chicago, when jazz was not music for its own sake, but a manifesto for liberation and progress. It was his last battle. On Sunday, Jack DeJohnette died at home in Woodstock, surrounded by his family and friends.

Watch the recording sessions for In Movement, recorded at New York’s Avatar Studios in October 2015, produced by Manfred Eicher.

Jazz & Experimental in Berlin 2025

By Paul Acquaro

The small, intimate Panda Platform, a performance space nestled located in the inner courtyard of the inner courtyard of Berlin's Kulturebrauerei, an expansive cultural center retrofitted into 19th century brewery buildings in the cities chic Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, is the perfect spot for a small, intimate experimental music festival. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the artist run label "Trouble in the East" label, the appropriately named "Jazz & Experimental" festival showcased a dozen label based and associated bands and musicians over the span of October weekends.
 
Hosted by label runners and Berlin based musicians, trombonist Gerhard Gschlößl and guitarist Alberto Cavenati, the festival brought together groups with current releases on the label and some label affiliates' active projects. Spread over two weekends in October, the compact but lively schedule offered a rich variety of imaginative music. I am only able to offer a first hand report of the second weekend, but this second weekend of concerts has provided plenty to discuss (and I trust my eye-and-ear witnesses attestations to the superb quality of the first one.)
 
The label, "Trouble in the East," is named after a track from Ornette Coleman's 1972 release Crisis. The album itself had a cover featuring the US Bill of Rights going up in flames. A blasphemous and prophetic statement. Fortunately, the festival itself was a peaceful and smooth running event featuring a capacity audience full of dedicated listeners and musicians. During the first evening I attended, it seemed as if the festival had even cracked the most vexing nut of all - getting young listeners interested, as a entire row of 20-somethings from Denmark somewhat brought the average age of attendance of the typical free-jazz crowd down.
 
Friday, Oct 17th
 
 
Peepholes
The festival's second weekend began with the quartet Peepholes, which provided an vivacious lift-off. Vocalist and electronicist Mat Pogo and trumpeter Liz Allbee interlocked in a spritely and energetic conversation from the opening moments, while drummer Steve Heather and bassist Antonio Borghini provided a solid, flowing pulse. Pogo seemed animated and in a excited conversation with cartoonish word-like sounds and gestures, while Allbee was just as visually engaging with her extended techniques that included the technique of extending her trumpet with a woodwind mouthpiece or pitch-pipe tuner, sometimes sounding like a burping bassoon in the process. The combination of instruments and voice was surprising, the rhythmic mayhem arresting, and overall a mesmerizing set. The group has a recent release on the label called Temporal Relief Keepers.
 
Antii Virtaranta
 Following the programming pattern, the second set was a solo, this time from bassist Antii Virtaranta. Seated in the middle of the stage with the electronic devices arrayed by his feet and  double bass in hand, Virtaranta employed a percussive approach, bouncing his bow off the strings of the highly amplified bass. Slight electronic sounds percolated through the syncopated drone, live sampling the bass and remixing them in real-time. Tapping out the notes and harmonics, overtones emerged from the acoustic instrument and merged with the electronic ones. 
Brad Henkel Quartet
The final set of the night was the adventurous and flowing music of the Brad Henkel Quartet. Comprised of trumpeter Henkel, pianist Rieko Okuda, bassist Isabel Roessler and drummer Samuel Hall, the quartet engaged in quickly passing hour of complex, syncopated and melodic compositions. Starting with Okuda's quite 'jazzy' introduction, the group joined in an accessible, uptempo manner before splitting up into a searching passage. Then, sliding into an easy, but by no means simple, groove, the group seemed to fold time upon itself as the groove grew uneasy and the playing clenched and intense. It was a truly rich set, the moments of exploratory sound segueing effortlessly into meticulously crafted melodies, laced with inspired improvisation. The group was celebrating the release of their record Overstory, which on first listen is as excellent as the live set.

Saturday, Oct 18th
 
Dead Leaf Butterfly
The following night found the age average climbing a bit - no Danes this time - but nevertheless, there were still faces in the crowd providing an encouraging hint of future audiences. The evening began with the wonderful flutterings of Dead Leaf Butterfly, a group featuring the expertise of trumpeter Lina Allemano, vibraphonist Els Vandeweyer, bassist Maike Hilbig and drummer Lucia Martinez. Playing a set of recent compositions, Vandeweyer's vibes seemed to ring loudest - she kicked off the set with a long vibrating drone with Hilbig's bass right beside her offering a long staccato note. A tinkle of percussion and a slow build of tension from Allemano then set the group going. Attention pivoted back to the vibraphone as an uptempo and vibrant solo passage ensued. Lithe and accessible, the tune set the stage for the rest of the zesty set. The second tune began with a deceptively melodic head that suddenly scattered into a polyrhythmic playing field. At times explorative, and quite often thrilling, the vibes often lent an air of mystery to their sound and a sense of enjoyment was carried in their music.
 
Dan Peter Sundland
The second set of the evening was another solo bass, though this time with the electric bass work of Dan Peter Sundland. Playing a well worn Gretsch, Sundland has extended the instrument with a contact mic that picks up percussive sounds from his hands and overtones from the strings. Using a bow, he played a repetitive figure for the duration, slowly moving up and down the instruments neck. The result was a minimalist techno, meditative but demanding.
 
Gordoa, Dörner and Pöschl
The final set was a mind-blower. The trio with drummer Sunk Pöschl, trumpeter Axel Dörner and vibraphonist Emlio Gordoa started with what was possibly a soundtrack to an alien abduction. Dörner's trumpet had an electronic controller attached and a laptop open before him, from which he seemed to be wirelessly communicating directly with the musical minds of his bandmates. Together they created a a tense, agitated atmosphere, pulling tighter and tighter until the sky cracked open. Dörner then dropped the electronics and broke out the slide-trumpet. Gordoa launched into an animated assault and Poeschl gave it a thriving pulse, but it was the trumpeter who seemed to be be pushing the energy the most. The success of the rest was a given - even through a long, exploratory section, they never lost the seething edginess of the opening moments. The trio has an album called Native Acts that seems to be coming out on soon.
 
Although this was only half the story of the Jazz & Experimental festival, it is one worth telling - and exploring more. Be sure to check out their 10 year's of activity here: https://www.troubleintheeast-records.com/.




Sunday, October 26, 2025

FIRE! LIVE IN TORINO@MAGAZZINO SUL PO 22 OCT 2025

From Ferruccio Martinotti:

Last year in Milano, this time in our hometown: Fire! galore. Magazzino sul Po, the ancient boatmen’s warehouse, right on the river bank, with its brick arcades is the perfect host for our favorite trio and the packed venue goes wild. The ingredients of the blast are as usual: Ayler and Brotzmann played by Black Flag in a jam with Toni Iommi. Berthling and Werliin are the terrific power unit that boosts the Primal Scream of Gustafsson saxes (and flute) for a flood wave that will run towards the delta of the river Po. Foot note: Mats t-shirt is from the US hardcore legend NoMeansNo and t-shirts don't lie…

Saturday, October 25, 2025

Skopje Jazz Festival 2025 (16.10 – 19.10)

By Irena Stevanovska and Filip Bukrshliev

Introduction (by Filip)

Lets face it, right off the gate – Skopje Jazz Festival is one of those miraculous misfires of civilisation. In a country bent on slow and methodical self-destruction, a place where the State's grand machinery of subsidized mediocrity hums day-in-day-out, fueling the Orgy of Bad Taste that keeps the whole place from simply disintegrating – every October, like some shaggy cosmic loophole, something beautiful happens. A Rupture. A few nights of celebration and unhindered insight into the Realm of Sound. It's as if the universe itself briefly comes to its senses and says: "Alright... there you go, you can have this one good thing."

As a jazz musician – or, to make things even worse, as a jazz musician with a predominant affinity for improvised music – I've never paid a single denar to enter this festival. None of my fellow colleagues have. All. These. Years. And not only that: while the local emissaries of criminal power, the countless shady ambassadors, opportunistic benefactors of the fine arts, overly enthusiastic owners of used-car lots and the few misplaced ornaments of the jet-set stay put in their regular, paid-for seats, the festival always ushers us, the penniless free-jazz weirdoes, into the VIP lounge. You know, they've got us Covered. There we get to witness the festival from a superior, elevated perspective – meet Wadada Leo-Smith, Hamid Drake or Mary Halvorson – while some cultural attaché stands outside in the drizzle, chain-smoking in quiet diplomatic despair. It's a total inversion of the natural order. A small rebellion.

Exactly this is the biggest virtue of Skopje Jazz Festival: the educational value that it has for everyone who wants to produce sound with an instrument. Every year you get to hear and meet someone like Anthony Braxton or Ken Vandermark, and when you come home after that, something fundamental in you refuses to obey. You will not play as they instructed you in school, as you were taught that there is only one, the right way to do this. It is so liberating, so vital to have that on a regular basis, and it is no wonder why Skopje now has such a strong core of musicians who dabble in jazz and improvisational music.

This year it was the 44th edition of the festival, with a wildly eclectic but masterfully curated line up that ebbed and flowed across its four nights. The first night was opened with the piano trio of Andrzej Jagodziński; the second night paired the ecstatic genious of Marc Ribot in a solo format with the Kahir El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. The third night we got to witness the scandinavian pairing of After the Wildfire Quarter with Arve Henriksen and Jan Bang, followed by Goran Kajfeš Tropiques. The closing night, the explosive ending was reserved for the duet of Sylvie Courvoisier and Wadada Leo-Smith, followed by the fiery James Brandon Lewis Molecular Quartet.

Together with Irena we'll try to bring the impressions, sounds and ghosts of this year's festival.

Day One (16.10.25) (Irena)

The first day of the Jazz Festival in Skopje is always a great delight to be part of, the familiar excitement of knowing that you will enjoy four days of great music. For many of us jazz lovers, it means listening to some of our favorite artists live, and even discovering new ones. The atmosphere before the concerts is always special. We are a nation that loves to drink and talk outside before concerts. But also, for some reason, one that loves openings of events, everyone treats it as some sort of ceremony. The program on the first day often tries to please a broader audience, which is understandable. The opening night usually feels more mainstream, more accessible, before things start to unfold toward the avant-garde side of the Skopje Jazz Festival as we know it. 

Andrzej Jagodzinski Trio. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski 
 The performance of Andrzej Jagodzinski Trio was exactly that, a calm, respectful opening carried by the brilliance of all three musicians. They played jazz interpretations of Bach, Chopin, and other classical composers, and it was clear that Andrzej’s piano was part of him. The way he played was so fluid, so natural, that it looked almost effortless, the kind of ease that only comes from years of becoming one with your instrument. The younger crowd seemed less impressed, maybe because it didn’t feel fully new or experimental. We’re always craving sounds that twist things, that surprise us, that bring energy. But a big part of the audience loved it, and I can understand why. It was beautiful in its own way — elegant and calm. As an opening act, it worked perfectly. It slowly eased us into the rhythm of the festival. No madness yet, just a soft, confident sound. 

National Jazz Orchestra. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski
The second concert of the first night was the National Jazz Orchestra, joined by the great trombone player Luis Bonilla and conducted by Sigi Fiegl. The National Orchestra is still pretty new on the scene, but they’ve already played a number of concerts with musicians from different countries. Every year, the Jazz Festival gives an award for the best young jazz musician in Macedonia, and this year it went to the orchestra’s pianist, Gordan Spasovski. 

When all nineteen musicians came out on stage, the atmosphere completely shifted from the previous concert. They started with an orchestral piece (of course), gradually building up the energy. Having so many people on stage completely changed the setup from what we’re used to seeing at the festival. I’m not so much into big bands, for me personally, it often just feels like too much. But the audience seemed to enjoy it, because, as I mentioned, the first night usually carries the more “normal” kind of music.
There was one track led by Luis Bonilla that stood out. Slow and atmospheric, with that Scandinavian jazz vibe in the brass section. At moments, the trombone even sounded like something out of Japanese jazz. The slowness of the piece felt right, connecting back a bit to the calmness of the previous concert, giving a sense of peace and a very autumn-like mood. After that, they continued with orchestral jazz. It seemed like Sigi Fiegl truly enjoyed working with the orchestra, and it’s not his first time collaborating with them, after all.

Day Two (17.10.25) (Filip) 

Marc Ribot. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski

The second evening started with Mr. Marc Ribot, planted dead center of the stage, looking like a man who, against his will, was dragged through the back door, mumbling an apology to the audience for being new to the sensitive-white-male-with-guitar shtick. I'll be honest, I’m not a big fan of his latest record – the reason he is hopping around the continent and playing in front of us. Let’s just say that I was a bit skeptical about the possibility for a particularly high level of aural enjoyment on my behalf. But this kind of entrance flipped the script right away and ensured me that I was in good hands, that I was going to be expertly handled by a seasoned albeit reluctant troubadour. He started the concert with a slightly overgrown ukulele that in the hands of Mr. Ribot convulsed, yelped and shimmered – from cowboy chords to fractured Derek Bailey spasms. And this was the modus operandi of the whole concert. No matter if he picked up the acoustic guitar, the perversely oversaturated electric one or the strange uke – the gospel of the evening was in this unusual dichotomy: the Folk Singer meets the Free Jazz Exorcist. Borrowing few Ginsberg poems here and there, some dry-humored story for the audience, the usual laughs about the current administration – I’ve never enjoyed being serenaded by a "sensitive white male" this much. Marc Ribot has a future as a troubadour. 

Kahil El’Zabar and his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski
Then – BOOM! – part two. Kahil El’Zabar and his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble appear on the stage like some elemental force conjured by the collective unconscious. You could feel the tectonic shift, and how the empty platitudes from their promo material, those usually barren marketing buzzwords like Hypnotic and Spiritual - suddenly begin to bite you. El'Zabar plays the Mbira and occasionally the drums, Corey Wilkes on trumpet, Alex Harding on baritone sax and Ishmael Ali on cello. They didn't perform compositions, they summoned weather. The air changed viscosity to something glue-like, sound flew like a tired bird through a heat haze. Every hit on the various percussions, every moan on the baritone sax, every vail of the trumpet – felt ancient and deliberate. I could swear that the mics were turned off, but the fairly large hall belonged just to them. The stage seemed like a diorama of four suave alley cats expertly wagging their tails and busking in their collective banter. At one time Lonely Woman was intonated. Maybe one Wayne Shorter composition. Couple of originals. Who knows? That is unimportant. What is important is that this is how jazz performances that dabble with the tradition should be - after they are done the listener is left to mumble like a deranged tik-tok mystic, alone into the void. Exceptional concert.

Day Three (18.10.25) (Irena) 

After the Wildfire Quartet. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski

The third night opened with After the Wildfire Quartet. The Scandinavian quartet stepped on stage and immediately dissolved into the sound. Even the name hinted at what was to come, music that feels like the quiet after destruction. 

It began with a slow, melancholic piece — the air heavy and hollow. Arve Henriksen’s trumpet carried all the weight of sadness, every tone soaked in silence. The opening felt like the death of nature itself: everything stripped bare, emptied out.  

But as the concert unfolded, something subtle began to shift. Little by little, sounds returned, like nature learning to breathe again after the burn. Fragments of life reemerged, tentative but alive. In the middle of the set, it all opened into a landscape that felt like the steppes, vast, empty, but awakening. The music moved through that space with a strange kind of tenderness, as if the healing of nature was happening inside the listener too. When it ended, many said they had never heard anything like it live. It was one of those rare experiences that touches something deep — the soul’s quiet renewal after a storm. 

Goran KajfeÅ¡ Tropiques. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski
And then, a bigger band — Goran KajfeÅ¡ Tropiques, a nine-piece ensemble stepping onto the stage. The setup looked beautiful: two violins, a viola, a cello, drums, bass, piano, a mysterious synth I couldn’t quite see, and KajfeÅ¡ himself on trumpet and Moog. At first, the music felt a bit scholarly, precise, almost academic. But then the Moog came in, and everything shifted. Its tone was mesmerizing, adding a vivid color that lifted the whole performance to another level. The string section at times echoed Steve Reich, repetitive but alive, while the bass held a steady, rich line underneath. The pianist might have been my favorite, fluid and intuitive, shaping beautiful textures both on piano and synth. It was a genuinely strong performance. The violinists were local Macedonian artists joining the band for the first time, they added a special warmth to the sound. A fitting way to close the third night, letting the energy dissolve naturally into the mood of what was to come the next day.

Day five (19.10.25) (Filip)

The final evening of the festival was... something else entirely. Sunday, the day of the local elections in Macedonia. Out in front of the hall the air crackled with the sound of cheap fireworks and the various meaty thuds of gunshot-adjacent KAPOWs ricocheting out in the distance – the feral soundtrack of miscellaneous criminal gangs celebrating another 4 years of free range demoncracy – a fitting aural prelude to the historic night this festival is about to experience. 

Sylvie Courvoisie and Wadada Leo-Smith. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski
And then – they appear. Sylvie Courvoisie and Wadada Leo-Smith, two familiar figures emerging from the dim lights on the stage, ready to baptize everyone in attendance. Their latest duo album, Angel Falls [Intakt] quickly established as the favourite holy scripture for me this year. There is an interesting sensation with this pairing: even though they play in many similar formats, and Wadada has those exceptional ECM releases with Vijay Iyer – they somehow manage to bring out their definitive form when they play together, as if I've never heard of a better Wadada or better Sylvie than this combination. Live, they are a completely different creature. More kinetic... shifting, stirring, elbows flying, hitting the piano, various devices rumble in his insights, the trumpet soars, glides and floats, a sudden stop, and we are off again – then a brief intermission because the election celebration outside intensifies and pierces the hall sound insulation, a huge BANG! BANG! briefly rattles the object – Sylvie starts an unusually delicate and melodic motif, Wadada slides in, the unbearable poignancy of the moment grows, expands, swells, almost like an out-of-body experience, maybe they will replicate the explosion indoors, then they share a sudden nod – tiny, wordless – and they are done. Exquisite! 

James Brandon Lewis Molecular Quintet. Photo by Zdenko Zdepe Petrovski
The last concert will be the shortest impression. James Brandon Lewis Molecular Quintet. You know them. I know them. Everyone within a radius of 2 km felt them. Not much left to add. The man doesn't just blow the horn, he moves air and re-arranges atoms into an instantly commanding presence. You just... surrender. And then, there is Aruán Ortiz on the piano with his ability to carve intricate geometry out of the craziest combinations of sounds imaginable. There is something in that Brandon Lewis/Ortiz axis thar instantly evokes the legendary chemistry and aura of the Coltrane/Tyner two-headed screaming monster. We are, nonetheless, groomed through the years like pavlovian dogs to drool on such stimulus. Drool I say. And yes, the concert was Fantastic. They played mostly the material from their latest album, Abstraction is Deliverance [Intakt], but the live setting annuled the only-ballads mission statement of the record. No gentle meditation, only absolution through combustion. James screamed and burned through the set, everyone took extended solos, the intensity was beyond MAX... I just really hope that someone recorded the performance, so in 50 years from now some kid would sit in front of the music stand, trying to chase those impossible transcriptions, with the teacher standing next to him, desperately screaming: "No, no... this is the right way to do it!"

Friday, October 24, 2025

Dietrichs - No Badhu (Relative Pitch, 2025)

By Hrayr Attarian

For decades, saxophonist Don Dietrich, with his trio Borbetomagus, has crafted a distinctive sound through unbridled improvisation that embraces dissonance and has little tolerance for silence. His daughter, Camille, is a classically trained cellist with her father’s penchant for fiery spontaneity. Together, they perform and record as the Dietrichs. No Badhu is their third release.

Consisting of four free improvisations, the set showcases the pair’s adventurous creativity and their seamless synergy. Even when they unleash a relentless flood of jarring melodic shards, they exhibit perfect camaraderie. On the title track, Don Dietrich lets loose screeching wails while Camille Dietrich weaves a dense, percussive sonic backdrop. As this riotous repartee continues, the music ebbs and flows with fury. It then transforms into an exploration of the harmonic limits of the instruments. The duo, individually and together, push the boundaries of extemporization to an exhilarating effect and conclude on a relatively quiet note.

Throughout the recording, in addition to the dynamically changing sonic structure, there are also vibrant emotional shifts. On “No Cones” there is a mix of melancholy and angst that Camille Dietrich expresses with her mournful and fervent bowing. Don Dietrich’s distorted saxophone squawks add a sense of foreboding to the piece. The distorted din of the duet laden with a melange of sorrow and unease spills into “No Bones” and becomes significantly more piqued and more passionate. Although the latter is a hard task to achieve, the performances throughout are quite intense and vehement. So much so that one can almost visualize the bell of the saxophone glowing like an ember and the strings of cello smoking.

No Badhu is definitely for open-minded listeners. Like all art, it may cause some discomfort among its audience, yet those who surrender to its storm will find much reward in its gusts of rage and crackling electricity.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Keune Serries Taylor - Closer and Beyond (A New Wave Of Jazz, 2025)

By Martin Schray

John Corbett once said that in the sometimes hermetic world of free improvised music, there are contrasting tendencies between fragmentation and blending. In the 1970s in particular, there was a certain ‘schism’ between jazz musicians and non-jazz musicians, which has continued to exist until today, as can be seen, for example, in Mats Gustafsson’s and Thurston Moore’s duo or Peter Brötzmann’s collaborations with Last Exit or Oxbow. However, some musicians are also drawn to like-minded colleagues who share their musical philosophy, their aesthetic goals, and their taste. And there is nothing negative about that.

Stefan Keune is one of these musicians. For example, he enjoys playing with guitarists who share his view of freely improvised music - a style more closely aligned with European free improvisation than with classical (free) jazz. In the mid 1990s, he approached John Russell because he liked his guitar sound so much. “I always thought his 1930s Epiphone guitar with steel strings and his dental acrylic pick were great,” he says, and indeed, Russell’s sound was unique and suited Keune’s delicate, irritated, disturbed tone. Then there are also recordings with his old friend Erhard Hirt, with whom he plays in Xpact and the King Übü Orchestrü , but whose approach is completely different because it’s based on electronics and the preparation of the instrument. Finally, Keune’s latest project at the Moers Festival with Damon Smith and Sandy Ewen is also different, although the guitarist also prepares her guitar with objects and uses effects devices and two amplifiers.

On Closer and Beyond, he has joined Dirk Serries. Serries (guitar) and Benedict Taylor (viola) have played with each other frequently, and since Stefan Keune has a penchant for string instruments anyway - whether bass, guitar, violin, or viola - this trio was somehow a natural fit. And of course it comes as no surprise that the three harmonize wonderfully. After a brief period of feeling each other out, quick, excited movements set in, and the musical molecules whirl around in a frenzy. Sharp contrasts - especially between Taylor’s longer, sweeping notes on the one hand and Keune’s hard riffs and Serries’ Derek-Bailey-inspired, sometimes brittle playing on the other - meet contemplative phases (right in the first piece after three minutes). But more often than not, the players dart around each other, into each other, and away from each other. The most interesting moments, however, are those of silence, when Keune escapes into barely hearable, extremely high registers or when delicate breaths meet the gentle scratching sounds of the guitar and long notes of the viola only to start again at breakneck speed (both also in the first piece). This varied play of sonic ricochets is hidden across four tracks, with Serries providing the textures, Taylor the verbosity, and Keune the hectic and breathless figures. Since no one pushes themselves into the spotlight, tension and dynamics are always guaranteed. The highlight of the studio recording is the last piece, in which the ideas and playing styles of the first three tracks culminate. Keune’s saxophone wanders wonderfully between Taylor’s bowed lines and Serries’ blurred chords. The timing is perfect, creating pure beauty in dissonance.

If you like European improvised music in the sense of sound exploration, this album is for you. A definite recommendation.

Closer and Beyond is available as a download.

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Simon Rose - Vienna Solo (Small Forms, 2024)

By Stef Gijssels

Recorded in the Château Rouge venue in Vienna in June 2024, British baritone saxophonist Simon Rose gives his best.  

It is an incredibly strong and powerful feat. Even if the fourteen pieces are short - between one and four minutes - the playing is astonishing: energetic, deeply felt, and still offering the capacity to each to have their own unique character and story. Rose's circular breathing on the instrument is one of the main characteristics of his playing, not only because he clearly eschews moments of silence, but mostly as a technical skill to create mesmerising multiphonics. The result is staggering, the fullness of the sound, its density and intensity. 

"Dorseth Heath" is a little slower and calmer, as are "Purple Loosestrife", "Bee Rose", and "Dog Rose" also has a quieter moment. On "Lungwort", he explores timbral techniques through different embouchures and power stops. By the way, all titles refer to plants, and I am not a botanist, but I think they are all growing in the wild. 

On this album, he really goes all out. Young musicians are often taught not to just play the music, but to be the music, to give themselves completely, without inhibitions, without fear of going too far. I recommend they listen to Simon Rose. He is his music: expressive, bold, unrestrained, profound, and with a story that immediately appeals, without frills, without attempts to please the audience, but which succeeds in making that emotional connection that characterises good art. 

Rose is not a screamer; his sound is always controlled despite his exuberant expressiveness: he cries, he weeps, he cheers, he sings, he howls, he wails, he groans, he roars. But above all: he keeps surprising and captivating us with every note. You can only be blown away by his music. 

Brilliant! 

Listen and download from Bandcamp


Anaïs Tuerlinckx & Simon Rose - Parle (scatterarchives, 2025) 


Now that we're reviewing Simon Rose, I would like to add this album, a duo with my fellow compatriot Anaïs Tuerlinckx, who performs on string-box and synthesizer. Tuerlinckx, a pianist by training, moved from Brussels to Berlin in 2008, where she is a member of the avant-garde musical scene. I add a picture of Tuerlinckx performing on her string box, which she manipulates with a few dozen sticks and metal objects. As on the previous album, Rose plays exclusively on baritone.


This albums give three fully improvised pieces, recorded during two performances a little less than a year apart, but that does not diminish the coherence of the album.

Tuerlinckx is a little more 'out there' than Rose, sometimes quite unexpected in the use of her instrument, at times even disrupting her own compositional build-up. Rose is very agile in moving along and together they weave a wonderful sonic narrative with different story-lines and subplots, shifting between moments of quiet contemplation to ominous darkness. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp




Monday, October 20, 2025

Rodrigo Amado’s The Bridge - Further Beyond (Trost, 2025) *****

By Eyal Hareuveni 

Portuguese tenor sax hero Rodrigo Amado quoted recently John Coltrane on his Facebook page: “I believe that we are here to grow ourselves to the best good that we can get to, to the best good that we can be. And as we’re becoming this, this will just come out of the horn. Whatever that’s gonna be that’s what it will be. Good can only bring good”. This quote can also frame the work of Amado’s international super-group, The Bridge, and its sophomore album, Further Beyond, recorded live at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam in April 2023.

Not that any of the great, highly experienced musicians of The Bridge - German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, Norwegian double bass player Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten, and American drummer (and vocalist) Gerry Hemingway, need to prove anything. Each one of the musicians has played in several legendary bands and contributed to the evolution of free music in the last decades. Von Schlippenbach with the Globe Unity Orchestra and his long-running trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens; Hemingway with the iconic Anthony Braxton Quartet, with Marilyn Crispell and Mark Dresser, and in his own groups; HÃ¥ker Flaten with The Thing and his own new group, (Exit) Knarr; and Amado with his own quartet, This Is Our Language, with Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler, and Chris Corsano. Together, they bring to the stage nearly two hundred years of experience in creating and performing free music.

But the quartet itself is a collective platform for creating free music that has a rare, ever-expanding, and uplifting spiritual power, with a rich perspective of the past and the present, bound in tradition while breaking free of it. The debut album of The Bridge, Beyond The Margins (Trost, 2023), which was also recorded live in the quartet's debut performance at the Pardon To Tu club in Warsaw in October 2022, already established its profound, collective affinity, with its brilliant, commanding games of surprise and inevitability. The Bridge keeps expanding its free music universe. Free Jazz Collective comrade Stuart Broomer (in his Ezz-thetics column for Point of Departure), and Point of Departure editor Bill Shoemaker (in his liner notes) call this kind of free music a “spontaneous creation”, after Sam Rivers, and a refined sense of structural play. And just like Rivers, Amado, and The Bridge do not renounce melody and grooves.

Amado knows how to tie spontaneous, soulful melodies with an acute nut elegant sense of structure; He suggests open, four-way conversations that enjoy the free mastery of von Schlippenbach, including his wise references to Monk’s pieces, Hemingway’s rich, fast-shifting rhythmic patterns, and HÃ¥ker Flaten’s Alyer-ian way of anchoring the free improvisations with soul songs motifs. Amado titled the pieces with names that flirt with iconic soul songs that anticipated seismic changes in politics in society, in the same manner that jazz is an insistently social art form. The opening, 17-minute “A Change Is Gonna Come” has nothing to do with the melody of the Sam Cooke song, but reminds us about the motivating, transformative power of music. The closing, short piece, “That's How Strong Our Love Is,” uses the title of a song associated with Otis Redding, and again, focuses on its deeply moving power and the quartet’s collective, playful imagination. These pieces, alongside the 27-minute title piece, reinforce the notion that free music, and especially great, inspired music like that of The Bridge, is first and foremost about empathy and compassion, on stage, with the audience, and further beyond.

The beautiful cover artwork is by Miguel Navas, who also did the cover artwork for Beyond The Margins, titled “#10”, from the series "Uncertain Smile - Paisagens de um tempo incerto" (Landscapes of an uncertain time).

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Lina Allemano Four

It's always a pleasure to check out what trumpeter Lina Allemano has been up to - this one is a track off her most recent Lina Allemano Four recording The Diptychs called 'Positive.' The group is Allemano on trumpet, Brodie West on alto saxophone, Andrew Downing on bass and Nick Fraser on drums. Check out the album on Bandcamp.