Joe McPhee and Fred Lonberg-HolmBond Chapel, University of Chicago Chicago, IL November 9, 2009 Saxophone player {{Joe McPhee = 9298}} and cellist {{Fred Lonberg-Holm = 16624}} have long been bandmates in Peter Brotzmann's Tentet, as well as in McPhee's Survival Unit III and in other groups formed during their mutual acquaintance. But never have the two had the opportunity to play with one another...
It's important to point out that this is Peter Brotzmann entirely solo on various reeds because, with this particular advocate of the free, the solo context has always amounted to something entirely different to his group work. As an unaccompanied soloist, he has always been an antithesis of {{Evan Parker = 10117}}'s seamless flow on soprano sax in particular, as if Brotzmann's accommodation within...
For every artist that has achieved international attention via the exposure of ECM Records, there are countless others who seem to have been lost beneath the cracks. German trumpeter Manfred Schoof, who recorded three superb albums for the ECM-affiliated JAPO label in the 1970s, was a member of the freewheeling Globe Unity Orchestra alongside {{Peter Brotzmann = 5331}}, {{Evan Parker = 10117}}, {{Kenny...
I am known at work for (among other things) having a esoteric taste in music. Sharing an office with four other people in close proximity, I carve out my own little niche in the maelstrom by playing music as much as possible. So when a colleague whose musical interests extend as far as Coldplay came in, handed me a list and asked "Do you have any of these CD's?" I was taken aback, to say...
Mats Gustafsson and the word "accessible" are rarely found in the same sentence. For over two decades, this Swedish reed player has been mining the extreme end of free improvisation and cued composition with like-minded players including {{Peter Brotzmann = 5331}}, {{Ken Vandermark = 11015}}, and The Thing, his ongoing collective with bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and drummer {{Paal Nilssen-Love...
MONOCEROS 2 MONOCEROS 4 Evan Parker Monoceros Incus : 1978 EP, soprano sax. In the pantheon of saxophone colossi, there is a special place reserved for Evan Parker. Taking late Coltrane as his jumping off point, Parker has expanded the language of the saxophone as much as anyone over the past three decades. A central figure in the European Free Improv scene alonside [...]
Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader Ken Vandermark is widely known for paying homage to artists of various disciplines, regularly including dedications in his song titles to those who have inspired him. On 35mm, the studio debut of his newest ensemble, The Frame Quartet, Vandermark reveals his longstanding debt to cinema, not only in name, but in approach...
Most of the guys involved here (Peter Brötzmann specifically) as date leaders don't really do it for me. It's mostly nonsense - as is the clip below. For whatever reason on Last Exit's first release, the live set Köln, the ensemble is able to hit a groove every once in a while...The tracks are still noisome and all, but there're some well placed breaks in the action. BLOGLOAD: Köln
Han Bennink Trio Parken Ilk Music 2009 One of the most iconic players from the European free-music scene, Han Bennink's 50 plus year career has seen the Dutch master drummer traverse through a multitude of musical settings. Bennink's journey has embraced revolutionary, avant-jazz recordings such as saxophonist {{Peter Brotzmann = 5331}}'s ferocious Machine Gun (FMP, 1968) and accompanying reed player...
Chicago drummer and composer {{Frank Rosaly = 1238}} is coming to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, October 1 at the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.Rosaly, who is touring to promote his forthcoming LP Milkwork, is a a frequent participant in Chicago's diverse improvised music scene, performing with g...
Darren Johnston The Edge of the Forest Clean Feed 2009 Luis Lopes/Adam Lane/Igal Foni What Is When Clean Feed 2009 Daniel Levin Quartet Live at Roulette Clean Feed 2009 Avram Fefer Ritual Clean Feed 2009 Since its 2001 beginning in Lisbon, Portugal, Clean Feed Records has amassed a mind-numbingly large catalogue, with nearly 150 releases to their credit. Though initially the label skewed towards Portuguese...
Ancestors' second full-length Of Sound Mind isn't out until October, but the Los Angeles quintet's packed these eight new songs with enough layers of progressive doom expansiveness that you should start listening now. The group name checks Neurosis, King Crimson, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, and Peter Brotzmann, which is all fairly lofty, but Of Sound , a triumphant prog-metal ride, breaks the one-hour...
Jazz drummer Rashied Ali , who replaced Elvin Jones in Coltrane’s band, died on Wednesday. He was 74. The New York Times obituary is here . After his legendary free-jazz recordings with Trane, Rashied Ali collaborated with other outstanding avant-gardists such as Frank Lowe, Arthur Blythe, Joe McPhee, Peter Brötzmann, William Parker and James “Blood” Ulmer. Click here to hear...
Best known for his decade-plus with the {{Branford Marsalis = 9095}} Quartet, bassist Eric Revis has also thrived in trio settings with Avram Fefer, {{Peter Brotzmann = 5331}} and most recently {{Kurt Rosenwinkel = 3921}}, playing everything from pure straight-ahead to absolutely free. He debuted as a leader in 2004 with Tales of the Stuttering Mime (11:11), and he imbues his sophomore release with...
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