Tag: free jazz

Categories
Music Reviews

Ambrose Akinmusire’s “on the tender spot of every calloused moment” Review

 

Though he had recorded with them before (albeit always with other people), 2017’s A Rift In Decorum: Live At The Village Vanguard marked the true debut of Ambrose Akinmusire’s impressive jazz quartet, the most interesting new jazz combo since Matthew Shipp teamed up with Matt Walerian two years prior for Live At Okuden. Now the foursome have made their first studio album together, on the tender spot of every calloused moment (CD, digital, vinyl). And while most of it is equally as impressive as A Rift In Decorum, it does have some ill-fitting moments when three of the members go M.I.A. and their leader puts down his signature instrument.

Continue reading “Ambrose Akinmusire’s “on the tender spot of every calloused moment” Review”
Categories
Music Reviews

Whit Dickey Morph Review

 

For some people, this may not be the best time for noisy, loosely structured free jazz. Or, really, anything that isn’t soothing. For the rest of us, though, there’s Whit Dickey’s Morph (CD, digital), an epic two-disc set on which the free jazz / free jazz adjacent drummer plays with pianist Matthew Shipp on the first disc, Reckoning, and with Shipp and trumpeter Nate Wooley on the second, Pacific Noir.

Continue reading “Whit Dickey Morph Review”
Categories
Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Bobby Kapp’s “Ineffable Joy” Review

 

Sometimes jazz can be really incestuous. Just consider the careers of tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, and drummer Bobby Kapp. Over the years, Perelman and Shipp have made around three dozen albums together; Shipp and Parker have recorded another two dozen; Perelman and Parker have five collaborations to their credit; while Perelman’s recorded two albums with Kapp, one of which features Shipp, and two others with Shipp and Parker, one of which features…wait for it…Kapp. It’s this latter configuration that presents Ineffable Joy (CD, vinyl, digital), a sometimes frantic and sometimes intricate collection that is this foursome’s second session after 2017’s Heptagon.

Continue reading “Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Bobby Kapp’s “Ineffable Joy” Review”
Categories
Music Switch

Matt Lavelle & Reggie Sylvester: Retrograde Review

Matt Lavelle Reggie Sylvester Retrograde

In my never-ending quest to find interesting and moody jazz that isn’t made by a piano / bass / drum trio, or some other equally common combination, I present Retrograde (CD, digital) a free jazz duo collection by trumpeter, flugelhorn player, and alto clarinetist Matt Lavelle and drummer Reggie Sylvester, best known as two-fourths of the Bern Nix Quartet.

Continue reading “Matt Lavelle & Reggie Sylvester: Retrograde Review”
Categories
Music Reviews

Matthew Shipp, Mat Walerian, William Parker: “This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People” Review

Matthew Shipp Mat Walerian William Parker This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People

 

Having recorded one live album on their own (2015’s excellent Live At Okuden) and a second live album as a trio with drummer Hamid Drake (2016’s also excellent Live At Okuden), the jazz duo of pianist, organist Matthew Shipp and alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, soprano clarinetist, and flutist Matt Walerian are mixing things up again for This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People (CD, digital), their first studio album and first recording with bassist, shakuhachi player William Parker. That it took such a long sentence to explain was not intentional, but it was fitting given the music they’ve made this time out.

Continue reading “Matthew Shipp, Mat Walerian, William Parker: “This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People” Review”
Categories
Music Reviews

Satoko Fujii, Joe Fonda: Duet Review

If there’s one truism about jazz duos, it’s that their sparse instrumentation often makes for some moody music. And while that is true for some of Duet, a live album by pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda, there are also moments on this concert collection where this free-form jazz is anything but moody.

Continue reading “Satoko Fujii, Joe Fonda: Duet Review”
Categories
Music Reviews

John Coltrane “Offering: Live At Temple University” Review

 

There’s no denying the greatness of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. But there’s also no denying that his later work, when his playing often went free-form and his band followed suit, is not for everyone.

Which is what you’ll find on the newly released live album Offering: Live At Temple University, an oft-bootlegged live recording that UME and Resonance Records have released on CD and vinyl.

Continue reading “John Coltrane “Offering: Live At Temple University” Review”