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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Albums Of The Year 2011

In the past four years, I made my own selection of the best albums, yet there is of course nothing as subjective as determining what is good music or not, hence you get the lists from the contributors to this blog. Again, for reasons of clarity - this is about the best albums (as in "most gripping, most memorable, most adventurous, most coherent, most authentic, most complete, etc".), not about the most innovative listening experiences, which can be found in the Happy New Ears Award lists. Still waiting for Paul's list, which will be added once...

Friday, December 30, 2011

POLYLEMMA WINS HAPPY NEW YEARS AWARD 2011

In the most fierce voting mobilisation campaign ever, Joe Hertenstein's band with Thomas Heberer, Pascal Niggenkemper and Joachim Badenhorst achieved with "Polylemma" the first place in the HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD 2011, in a daily changing neck-against-neck race against Scoolptures with "White Sickness" in a more than honorable second place. More than 1629 votes were cast. The top-5 is as follows : Joe Hertenstein - Polylemma  : 675 (41%)  Scoolptures...

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Chicago Trio - Velvet Songs (RogueArt, 2011) ****

By Stef Gijssels
The Chicago Trio is Ernest Dawkins on sax, Harrison Bankhead on bass and cello, and Hamid Drake on drums and frame drum. The double CD presents a live gig performed a year before Fred Anderson passed away, yet even then, the performance was already a tribute to him. Both Bankhead and Drake played a lot with the legendary Chicagoan and owner of the Velvet Lounge, and although Dawkins and Anderson also performed together, to my knowledge...

Happy New Ears - two days to go

With two more days to go for the Happy New Ears Award 2011, it becomes apparent that we have two contenders left for the title : Scoolptures - White Sickness (35% of votes) Joe Hertenstein, Thomas Heberer, Pascal Niggenkemper and Joachim Badenhorst - Polylemma (30% of votes) Together, they collect two thirds of all votes. Needless to say both bands have and are mobilising fans and family and friends, but I guess that's part of the game. Two...

Monday, December 26, 2011

Ikue Mori, Mark Nauseef, Evan Parker, Bill Laswell - Near Nadir (Tzadik, 2011) * * * *

By Stanley Zappa It seems like it was just yesterday that I was listening to and picking up on the earth/wood element aspects of Zlatko Kaučič drum sound. Borrowing further from Wu Xing theory, today's examination of Evan Parker with Ikue Mori, Mark Nauseef, and Bill Laswell leans heavily toward the metal/water side of the cycle. Mori's electronica and Nauseef's employ of the Gamelan's sound palette are synergistic, creating a hospitable...

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Matana Roberts – Coin Coin, Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libres (Constellation, 2011) *****

By Guy Peters Three seconds into opener ‘Rise’, and you know this is going to be special. The fierceness that runs throughout the album is not merely a characteristic, but a method, an indictment, exorcism and history lesson. That Roberts manages to unite a universal message and the intensely personal is one of the album’s most striking merits, while combining free jazz, swing, folk music (spirituals, lullabies, the blues), the Bible and...

Saturday, December 24, 2011

John Zorn – A Dreamer’s Christmas (Tzadik, 2011)

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Friday, December 23, 2011

The Vinny Golia Octet - Low And Inside - Music For Baritone Saxophone (Nine Winds, 2011) ****

By Stanley Zappa In this 12th month game of catch-up-on-reviews, my initial strategy was to look at William Parker's "Conversations", Ken Vandermark's "Mark In the Water" and Vinnie Golia's "Music for Baritone Saxophone", thinking that it too was a solo recording. It isn't. It's an Octet. Or is it? Despite the name of the group (The Vinnie Golia Octet) there are only seven musicians listed—and no mention of who plays the clarinet (so...

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Peter Evans - Beyond Civilized and Primitive (Dancing Wayang 2011) ****½

By Joe Higham
Higham

The LP (the product) - Normally I wouldn't discuss album covers in a review but here it seems an important part of the 'whole', a beautifully produced LP from Dancing Wayang records. The LP is beautifully packaged, if only simply, with (see above) a wonderful screen printed cover which folds out. There's a lovely inlay card which has the details of the music on it, printed on high quality card (like a wedding invitation) with close...

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Evan Parker & Zlatko Kaučič - Round About One O'clock (Not Two, 2011) ****

By Stanley Zappa What if, in 2012, Evan Parker released 500 totally excellent recordings--each and every one of them a stirring exposition of the furthest reaches of improvisation and saxophone playing? Could a super abundance of Parker's music result in a devaluation of it? Could someone of Parker's musicality become normalized and taken for granted the same way as John Phillip Sousa? What if in 2012 Parker released 0 albums, but instead began...

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Ingrid Laubrock's Sleepthief - The Madness of Crowds (Intakt, 2011) ****

By Paul Acquaro
It took me a couple spins to warm up to Ingrid Laubrock's Sleeptheif's latest offering "The Madness of Crowds". At first the minimalist grooves on the opening "Extraordinary Popular Delusions" didn't quite click. However, I think it was because I was trying too hard. I was listening and trying to make up words about the music, I was not letting the music just speak for itself. So, I'm glad I finally relaxed and listened. The...

Monday, December 19, 2011

The Ames Room - Bird Dies (Clean Feed, 2011) ****

By Stef Gijssels
"The Ames Room is French altoist Jean-Luc Guionnet with Austrialians Clayton Thomas on bass and Will Guthrie on drums. This album is without a doubt one of the most intense you will hear, with Guionnet setting up the pace and sound from the start and then not letting go at all, despite the numerous variations within the very strict boundaries in which their cry of freedom erupts. This album is indeed one long shout, all in...

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet - Apparent Distance (Firehouse 12 Records, 2011) ****

By Stanley Zappa Not to pit one with the other, but I couldn't help but notice that like Vandermark's "Strade d'Aqua", Apparent Distance by the Taylor Bynum Sextet is, well, also a sextet. Unlike, Strade d'Aqua, Apparent Distance is not music for a movie, but music for music. The difference is staggering. Where Strade d'Aqua is cautious, Apparent Distance flows furiously and freely. Strade d'Aqua's improvisations sound written, while...

Saturday, December 17, 2011

HAPPY NEW EARS FINAL POLL

The vote is on. A reminder - we are not talking necessarily about the best album, but about the most innovative listening experience. Due to an abundance of choice, we offered twenty possibilities. Foton Quartet - Zomo Hall Afterfall Agustí Fernández, Barry Guy & Ramón López - Morning Glory Darren Johnston, Aram Shelton, Lisa Mezzacappa, Kjell Nordeson - Cylinder Nate Wooley & Taylor Ho Bynum - The Throes Sei Miguel & Pedro...

Five Clarinets and Five Saxes ....

By Stef Gijssels
In the incredible piles of music that are still waiting for review (and for first listens), I still felt miserable not to have had the time to review quite a number of them, including the ones reviewed today. What today's review have in common, is that two existing reed quartets, one clarinet quartet from Poland, and one sax quartet from the US, both quite close in their adventurous approach to music, now invited a fifth musician, a like-minded...

Friday, December 16, 2011

The Thing w/Jim O'Rourke: Shinjuku Growl (Smalltown Superjazz, 2011) ****½

By Paul Acquaro
"If not ecstatic, we replay." An interesting statement and quite a kick-off to the Shinjuku Growl, a recent offering by The Thing with guest guitarist Jim O'Rourke. There is no need for a replay, from humble rattling percussive sounds punctuated by choice blasts from the sax, to the noisy improv that wells up between O'Rourke and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, it all leads up to Mats Gustafsson's snarling, bleeding improv a...

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Lol Coxhill, Barre Phillips, JT Bates - The Rock On The Hill (Nato, 2011) ****

By Stef Gijssels
In 1981, British soprano saxophonist released an album with a solo performance at Théâtre Dunois in Paris, France. Now, thirty years later, his peculiar tone is animating the same venue in a trio with Barre Phillips on bass and JT Bates on drums, Coxhill's tone holds the middle between moaning, singing and speaking, warm and uncannily human, yet this is really a trio album, with all three musicians taking the stage and alternating ideas....

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Vandermark ...

By Stanley Zappa Ken Vandermark - Mark in the Water (Not Two, 2011) **½  Speaking of the parent culture, you gotta love Wikipedia. There, I found this: After several years of Vandermark 5 performances of his arrangements of works by Sonny Rollins, Joe McPhee, Cecil Taylor and others, Vandermark in 2005 announced, "Though I have learned a great deal by rearranging some of my favorite composers' work for the Vandermark 5, it's time...

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Dave Douglas & Sō Percussion - Bad Mango (Greenleaf, 2011) ****

By Stef Gijssels
Of all of today's musicians, Dave Douglas is one of the best promoters of his music, with up-to-date website, special offers, client databases, subscriber services and regular mailings. One of his brainchilds was the "digital only" releases of his Greenleaf Portable Series, destined of iTunes and other mobile devices. Quickly recorded albums in the traditional spirit of jazz, easy to consume maybe ... but the concept got traction and is...

Monday, December 12, 2011

William Parker - Conversations (RogueArt, 2011) **** 1/2

By Stanley Zappa The concept is straight forward—recorded conversations (soliloquies, really) interspersed with William Parker on bass. Both the conversations and the bass interludes are short. Unfortunately, here at Freejazz-stef, we writers don't get the actual CD. In that instance, I don't know who all the conversations are with. I do know for certain, however, that one is with Onisegun Milford Graves. Graves: “The musicians job:...

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Great Waitress - Lucid (Split Records, 2011) ****

By Stef Gijssels
I coined the term "silenscapes" recently to describe the minimalist music when referring to the music of Norwegian guitarist Kim Myhr, and this also describes German pianist Magda Mayas music quite well. I loved her "Heartland", which is louder and darker. "Great Waitress" is a trio, with Mayas on piano, Monika Brooks on accordion and Laura Altman on clarinet, and their music is featherlike, with soft sounds cautiously weaving a calm...