Stephen Gauci - Absolute, Absolutely (CIMP, 2008) ****½

This is the second CD by the Stephen Gauci Quartet, with the leader on sax, Nate Wooley on trumpet, Ken Filiano on bass and Lou Grassi on drums, and it is actually the second release of the same recording session which led to the earlier "Wisps Of An Unknown Face" (CIMP, 2005). Apparently Gauci had more material than fit onto a single CD, and it's amazing how prolific he is, especially because he only started recording after he turned 35. I was...

Read More

Eivind Opsvik - Overseas III (Loyal Label, 2008) ****

When I heard Norwegian bass-player Eivind Opsvik's first "Overseas" CD in 2003, I immediately fell for it, because of its highly unusual style, which he managed to expand on "Overseas II" and now even further on "Overseas III". This is definitely not free jazz, but modern free-spirited jazz, with influences from rock music and country. Opsvik's compositions bring gentle, unhurried low-tempo, low-density, high intensity jazz, without complexity or...

Read More

Elton Dean & The Wrong Object - The Unbelievable Truth (Moonjune Records, 2007) ****

The Soft Machine was a British 60s prog rock band, releasing two albums with Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen, Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt, mainly bringing surrealistic psychedelic poppy tunes. After Ayers and Allen left the band, and in order to reward contractual obligations, Ratledge and Wyatt asked Elton Dean and some others to join for their Third album, released in 1970, an album which for me has been an all-time favorite, creating an unbelievable...

Read More

Sylvain Guérineau - Dies Irae (Amor Fati, 2007) ****

There is more to come about Sylvain Guérineau, later. Here, he plays alto and baritone sax, solo, with a lot of chamber effect, as if he's playing in a church or something, and that is correct, now that I check it, recorded on the 25th of October in the church of Saint Côme and Saint Damien in Luzarches in France. Don't ask me where it is or who those saints are or why it takes two saints to name a church. He plays sax as if his life depends on it...

Read More

Dans Les Arbres - Dans Les Arbres (ECM, 2008) *****

This album is highly unusual, extremely beautiful, utterly bizarre while still being accessible. The band consists of Norwegians Ivar Grydeland on acoustic guitar, banjo and sruti box, Christian Wallumrød on prepared piano and harmonium, Ingar Zach on bass drum and percussion, and Frenchman Xavier Charles on clarinet and harmonica. The music is minimalistic, almost chamber music, quiet, without any explicit melodies, yet rhythmic, with the instruments...

Read More

Nils Petter Molvaer - Re-Vision (Pid, 2008) ***

Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer has been one of the most successful artists to blend techno rhythms with electronics and jazz, bringing mostly atmospheric music with a wide public appeal, or at least wider than the material that usually gets reviewed here. Some of his work is really worth listening to, such as Khmer, Solid Ether and ER, because he manages not to cross the line into kitsch territory (unlike his Swiss epigone Erik Truffaz)....

Read More

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - The Year Of The Boar (Jazzland, 2008) ***½

Norwegian musicians are productive these days. More reviews will come in the following days, but let's start with this Norwegian Chicagoan band, consisting of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass, Jeff Parker on guitar, Dave Rempis on sax, Frank Rosaly on drums and Ola Kvernberg on violin. In the style of the Vandermark 5, the music is rhythmic, structured with arrangements and with solos which are really free, wild and funky at times. The double string...

Read More

Paul Dunmall/Trevor Taylor/Paul Rogers - Zoochosis (FMR, 2006) ****

Free jazz is all about freedom. Musical freedom, psychological freedom, personal freedom, social freedom, with often also direct links to political thoughts about freedom of speech and human rights in general. Rare is the music that comes up for the defense of animal rights. Charlie Haden played "Song For The Whales" for Old & New Dreams, and that's about all that comes to mind at the moment (but it's late and I'm tired), but here we get an entire...

Read More

Vijay Iyer galore ...

Vijay Iyer is an unusual pianist. Mainly self-taught (although that's hard to believe), his approach to music is bizarre, interesting and captivating at the same time : often halting, thundering, with odd rhythmic explorations. Probably his education as a scientist partly explains his approach (BS in physics and mathematics from Yale, a master in physics from Berkeley), and he also publicized scientific papers on the cognitive aspects of music and...

Read More

Los Dorados - Incendio (Intolerancia, 2008) ***½

This is the third release of the Mexican jazz band Los Dorados. I will not tell you what score I gave to their previous CDs, but it wasn't high. This one is remarkably better, if only because of the presence of trumpeter Cuong Vu. The band consists of Daniel Zlotnik on sax, Rodrigo Barbosa on drums, Carlos Maldonado on bass and Demian Galvez on guitar. Their musical influences are relatively recent, with traces of the electric Miles Davis over regular...

Read More

Francesco Bearzatti Tinissima Quartet - Suite For Tina Modotti (Parco Della Musica, 2008) ****½

Tina Modotti was an Italian model, actress, avant-garde photographer and revolutionary political activist who died in 1942. She moved from Italy to the US, then to Mexico, then to communist Russia, then to Spain during the Civil War and back to Mexico. There's plenty to be found about her on the internet, so I won't go into her life and works here. Italian saxophonist/clarinetist Francesco Bearzatti brings homage to her with this great CD, accompanied...

Read More

Steve Moore - Stebmo (Self Published, 2008) ****

Steve Moore is a young multi-instrumentalist from Seattle, Washington, playing amongst others trombone and keyboards. He is accompanied on this album by Doug Wieselman on reeds, Todd Sickafoose on bass, Matt Chamberlain on drums, Eyvind Kang on violin, and the album was produced by Tucker Martine. An all-star line-up of modern jazz, with Martine as a top producer of modern rock. In contrast to much jazz, the main focus of the album is the music on...

Read More

Frode Gjerstad/Kevin Norton/Paul Rogers - Antioch (Ayler, 2008) *****

Here's again a classic free jazz CD with three masters of the genre, Norwegian Frode Gjerstad on sax, American Kevin Norton on vibes and drums, and Englishman Paul Rogers on bass. This is probably Gjerstad's umpteenth sax trio CD and after all these years and all these performances and all these releases you may start to wonder if getting another one of his CDs is really worth it. And the simple answer is "yes". Not only Gjerstad, but the three men...

Read More

Fond Of Tigers - Release The Saviours (Drip Audio, 2007) ****½

"Fond Of Tigers" is a Vancouver band which defies categorization : it's instrumental rock, it's jazz, it's prog rock, it's repetitive minimal, it's violent, it's high energy, it's extremely well-organized and timed, it's structured, it's avant-garde, it's emotional, it's free. The band consists of Shanto Bhattacharya on bass, Skye Brooks and Dan Gaucher on drums, JP Carter on trumpet, Stephen Lyons on guitar, Morgan McDonald on piano and label owner...

Read More

Just some sounds

Just for a change, another list, this time a list of sounds. Describing music is not always an easy task, you just lack the words for what you hear. And that's good. You wouldn't want sounds to repeat what you already know. The list can also offer ideas to those that are in need of them. I'm sure there are thousands more to list and to find. Another trick could be to list the sounds below with the list of human emotions already published earlier. Sounds and emotions : music in its most basic form.bangingbarkingbashingbawlingbeepingbelchingbellowingblabbingblaringbleatingblowingblurtingbonking...

Read More

Poolplayers - Way Below The Surface (Songlines, 2008) ****

Here is another record of interest, which combines some interesting musicians of today's European avant-garde scene, and that is meant in the broadest sense, artists who do not belong to a specific genre, but who somehow are interested and master many, from jazz to ethnic music and electronics. Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, French pianist Benoit Delbecq, Danish drummer Lars Juul and British drummer Steve Argüelles, all have electronics as part...

Read More

Lisle Ellis - Sucker Punch Requiem (Henceforth, 2008) ****

As you may have noticed, I am not a fan of vocal jazz (with some exceptions), and frankly speaking I am not too often impressed by flute-playing in a jazz environment (I just don't like the sound of it), nor am I too much in favor of post-editing, mixing and electronics. But then you get this album : with Pamela Z on vocals and electronics and Holly Hofmann on flutes. You put it on out of curiosity, and what you get is a different musical world than...

Read More

Keefe Jackson's Project Project - Just Like This (Delmark, 2008) ***

I have mixed feelings about this CD. On the one hand it's great : the musicians are great and include some of the best of the Chicago scene (Josh Berman - cornet, Jaimie Branch - trumpet and flügelhorn, Jeb Bishop, Nick Broste - trombone, Marc Unternährer - tuba, James Falzone - clarinet, Guillermo Gregorio - alto saxophone and clarinet, Jason Stein - bass clarinet, Dave Rempis - baritone and alto saxophone, Keefe Jackson...

Read More

Trevor Watts & Jamie Harris - Ancestry (Entropy, 2007) ****½

Brilliant! British alto saxophonist Trevor Watts and percusionnist Jamie Harris play 13 songs of free improvisation, but how : rhythmic, free, melodic, intense, jubilant, sad, with musical influences from around the globe : Africa, Asia, the Middle-East, Europe, and then jazz of course. Time-Out Magazine announced their life performance last year as an "intoxicating tribal jazz-dance", and that's a pretty good description. Watts has of course decades...

Read More

Music from Israel ...

Despite the horror and human stupidity taking place in Israel and Palestine, there is still good music coming out of the region, and often artists are taking a leading position in fighting for mututal understanding. It is also clear that the events taking place there also affect the music and the emotions with which they're made.Third World Love - New Blues (Anzic Records, 2007) ***Third World Love is a band from Israel with Avishai Cohen on trumpet,...

Read More

Ad Peijnenburg & William Parker - Brooklyn Calling (Dino CD, 2004) ****½

At times I wonder how it happens that I come across so many "four star CDs" a week, often doubting my own sense of judgment. The fact is that I mostly write about what I like, helping you, reader and listener, to new albums you might like (I hope!). To do that I scan the internet on a daily basis, from allaboutjazz to label sites, etc. Sometimes musicians or labels send me their material, as is the case here with Ad Peijnenburg, and it is truly mind-boggling...

Read More

Jim O'Rourke, Akira Sakata, Yoshimio - Hagyou (BounDEE, 2008) ****

It's always of interest to hear what the interaction will give between musicians from different backgrounds. As often as not the result is bad, but once in a while the result can be excellent. And this is the case for this album. Former Sonic Youth member and producer Jim O'Rourke (guitar), Japanese saxophonist/marine biologist Akira Sakata and Japanese rock multi-instrumentalist YOSHIMIO from The Boredoms join forces on this wonderful new album....

Read More

The September Quartet - What Goes Around (Loose Torque, 2008) ****

One day in September of last year Jon Corbett (trumpet) and Nick Stephens (bass), met for a duo recording. They asked Tony Marsh (drums) for the second day and recorded "The Play's The Thing", and Paul Dunmall (sax) joined on the fourth to record this CD. Three days, three releases on Nick Stephens' Loose Torque label. These four musicians know what music is, and they feel each other beautifully, they even sense each other blindly. The first track...

Read More

Mark O'Leary - Zemlya (Leo Records, 2008) ****

Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary has been quite productive lately, with an excellent CD last year on Clean Feed, with a double trumpet front line, some guitar trio outings, but always looking further for new combinations, and alternatives to what he has already created. Standing still or repeating the same is not part of his attitude apparently. Therefore each new album is a surprise, which you may like or not, but you have to grant it to him, there...

Read More

John Zorn - The Dreamers (Tzadik, 2008) ****

"The Dreamers" is a kind of successor to "The Gift", John Zorn's pleasantly dark mixture of surf music with jazz and modern electronics. This menacing gloomy atmosphere is kept here, despite the fun late 50s/early 60s melodies, especially on the long "Anulikwutsayl", on which Marc Ribot again demonstrates his skill at finding the right tone between bluesy guitar shredding while going outside the blues scale to add effect, supported by dark whispers...

Read More

Tim Berne's Bloodcount - Seconds (Screwgun, 2007) ****

Tim Berne's Bloodcount consists of some of the most creative musicians of the New York jazz scene, with Chris Speed on clarinet and tenor, Michael Formanek on bass, Jim Black on drums and Marc Ducret on guitar. The idiosyncratic Frenchman is absent on this double CD, which was recorded in 1997, yet he is present on the accompanying DVD. The absence of Ducret has a great influence on the overall "color" of the music, which is a little warmer and more...

Read More

Spring Heel Jack - Songs & Themes (Thirsty Ear, 2008) ****½

The British duo of sampler Ashley Wales and multi-instrumentalist John Coxon, better known as Spring Heel Jack, continue their search for new sounds and musical sculptures, combining electronics with the expressive openness of free jazz. And true to their former releases on the Matthew Shipp's Thirsty Ear label, the musicians performing here are of the highest calibre : Roy Campbell on trumpet, John Tchicai on sax and bass clarinet, John Edwards...

Read More

Ketil Björnstad & Terje Rypdal - Live In Leipzig (ECM, 2008) ****

Two Norwegians with long-standing reference on the ECM label play a live album, recorded in Leipzig, Germany. Björnstad on piano, Rypdal on guitar. Two musicians that are not alike at all in style, yet very close in mood. Björnstad is classically trained, and plays in a rich romantic, impressionistic style. Rypdal comes from a rock background, and has hence a much more direct approach, not hindred by a broad guitar technique. But technique is one...

Read More

Jörgensmann/Oles/Oles - Alchemia and Poznan

Theo Jörgensmann, Marcin Oles, Bartlomiej Oles - Alchemia (Hatology, 2007) ****Listen toDirectionPerrataTheo Jörgensmann, Marcin Oles, Bartlomiej Oles - Live In Poznan (Fenommedia, 2008) ****½Listen toMenaceBuy from Fennomedia.German clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann issued two CDs before with the Polish Oles brothers, "Minitatures" and "Direction", both of which are excellent. To up the ante, the trio now released two live CDs, with some of the material...

Read More