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The debut album of NY composer & pianist Matt Mitchell's long-running trio with bassist Chris Tordiniand and drummer Dan Weiss, an adventurous and accomplished group that brings an optimistic buoyancy to Mitchell's complex compositions, exploring multiple asynchronous cycles using polyrhythm and polymeter through multiple lines that the players have freedom to choose and improvise around. ... Click to View


Kim Cass (w/ Mitchell / Sorey / Cocks / Dotson):
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Arashi With Takeo Moriyama:
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The trio of Japanese saxophone legend Akira Sakata with the Scandinavian rhythm section of Johan Berthling on double bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, plus a second drummer with Takeo Moriyama (Yosuke Yamashita Trio), perform six wildly exciting improvisations, Sakata's vocalizations at times pushing the band as they are heard live in this 2019 recording at Tokuzo in Nagoya, Japan. ... Click to View


Kris Davis Trio (w/ Hurst / Blake):
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Fictional Souvenirs (Thomas / Butcher / Solberg):
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Following their 2019 Astral Spirits album Fictional Souvenirs , the trio of Pat Thomas on piano & electronics, John Butcher on saxophones and Stale Liavik Solberg on drums take that album's title as their trio's moniker, releasing this exceptional second album of four insightful collective conversations captured live at Cafe Oto, in London in 2023. ... Click to View


Joel Futterman:
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Elliott Sharp:
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Jamison Williams :
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Appropriately recorded at Le Sauvage Cathedral in France, the region name dating to the legend of a wild woman who only ate raw meat, had a double row of teeth, lived under a rocky promontory and was buried by a landslide, as baritone saxophonist Jamison Williams darkly burns in an extended improvisation of outside technique while referencing the Lemegeton, a 17th century book of magic. ... Click to View


Stephen Flinn / Bryan Eubanks :
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Steve Swell's Imbued With Light:
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ONCEIM (Orchestre de Nouvelles Creations, Experimentations et Improvisations Musicales:
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ONCEIM is the French ensemble of over 30 distinguished musicians directed by Frédéric Blondy, drawing on jazz, free improv, experimental and contemporary music as they evolve impressively detailed works from subtle restraint to controlled swells, heard in live performances from 2018 at Eglise Saint-Merry in Paris and at La Muse en Circuit in 2020, plus a 3rd studio session from 2020. ... Click to View


Sentient Beings (O'Gallagher / Brackenbury / Pope / Bianco):
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Tim Berne / Michael Formanek:
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With an extensive discography of collaboration together in a wealth of groupings, New York bassist Formanek and alto saxophonist Tim Berne are heard in this 1991 live duo performance at The Parlour in Providence, Rhode Island, a powerfully confident concert of informed dialogs captured seven years before their only other duo album from 1998, Ornery People. ... Click to View


Leo Genovese:
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Argentinian pianist based in NY Leo Genovese, a frequent collaborator on 577 releases and a Grammy Award winner for solo improvisation, is heard in his solo debut on 577 in two extended free improvisations, building from quiet introspection into unbridled exuberance, technically fascinating structures of great momentum, captured live at the 2024 Forward Festival in Brooklyn, NY. ... Click to View


Jessica Pavone:
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Her 5th solo viola album finds NY improviser & composer Jessica Pavone extending her exploration of music based on the pitches of the open strings, accentuating the natural sympathetic resonances of the instrument and expanded through the use of electronic effects to create a virtual duo, on one track performing on a Ken Butler hand-crafted hybrid instrument, the Sword Viola. ... Click to View


Steve Baczkowski :
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Recording on a vintage reel-to-reel tape deck in his own warehouse living room during a lunar eclipse, saxophonist Steve Baczkowski (Brandon Lopez Trio, Buffalo Suicide Prevention Unit, Ensemble MIA) captures thirteen explorations on tenor and baritone saxophones, plus a homemade wind instrument, for an intimately challenging album of outrageous technique and overtones. ... Click to View


Katsura Yamauchi / Jason Kahn:
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Two itinerant and unique performers in solo and small group configurations--Japanese saxophonist Katsura Yamauchi, who has recorded & performed with Voice Crack, Tatsuya Nakatani, Otomo Yoshihide, &c. &c., and Swiss electroacoustic improviser Jason Kahn--meet during Kahn's 2023 visit to Japan, recording these perceptively subtle duos live at HALL, in Oita and at IAF SHOP, in Hakata. ... Click to View


Don Ellis (Byard / Carter / Persip; Bley / Peacock / Stone /Martinis):
How Time Passes To Essence, Revisited (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Before his experimental, culturally absorbing large band work in the late 60s and 70s, trumpeter Don Ellis released these two excellent quartet albums featuring his own compositions, particularly the side-long work "Improvisational Suite 1", in bands with Jaki Byard, Ron Carter & Charlie Persip (How Time Passes) and with Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and either Gene Stone or Nick Martinis (Essence). ... Click to View


Judith Wegmann / Jens Ruland / Robert Torche:
Kon.Takte (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Surrounding the realization of Karlheinz Stockhausen's ground-breaking work of electronic music and acoustic improvisation, Kontakte, performed by Judith Wegmann (piano) Jens Ruland (percussion) & Robert Torche (electronics), are Antoine Chessex's exploratory score Geschichte der Gewalt, applying improvisation to frequency and form, and the improvised prelude from all three: Spiegelungen. ... Click to View


Hubbub (Blondy / Denzler / Guionnet / Mariage / Perraud):
abb abb abb (Relative Pitch)

With prior albums on For4Ears and Matchless, the French electroacoustic (with an emphasis on "acoustic") free improvising quartet Hubbub of Frédéric Blondy (piano), Bertrand Denzler (tenor sax), Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto sax), Jean-Sébastien Mariage (guitar), and Edward Peraud (percussion) present two extended, perfectly paced improvisations of stunning interplay and incredible technique. ... Click to View


Das Rad:
Funfair (Discus)

The UK improvising rock/prog band Das Rad in their seventh album, expanded from the original trio of guitarist & mellotron player Nick Robinson, woodwind & keys player Martin Archer and drummer & synth player Steve Dinsdale, to this quintet with bassist Jon Short and guitarist & vocalist Peter Rophone, evolving their expansive approach merging electronic, jazz and rock music. ... Click to View


Russ Lossing:
Inventions (Blaser Music)

New York pianist Russ Lossing, known for his inventive work with his trio Three-Part Invention alongside bassist Mark Helias and trumpeter Ralph Alessi, steps into the spotlight alone on Inventions, a solo piano album that showcases his unique ability to weave quick-witted, spontaneous improvisations with beautifully introspective moments in this captivating set of live studio performances. ... Click to View


Jason Hwang Kao:
Soliloquies (True Sound Recordings)

Honoring the courage of the survivors of atrocities experienced in China during World War II, including that of his own father, New York improvising violinist Jason Kao Hwang presents twelve solo pieces performed on the pizzicato violin, works that embrace the struggle of his antecedents with a narrative sense of presentation and extraordinary technique. ... Click to View


Seijiro Murayama / Jean-Luc Guionnet:
Balcony Inside (Ftarri)

Paris-based musician Seijiro Murayama (percussion, voice) and French alto sax and organ player Jean-Luc Guionnet continue their collaboration with this 2023 recording of a 50-minute performance at the Taborkirche church in Berlin, using the resonance of the space to expand Murayama's snare drum, cymbal and voice in tandem with Guionnet's improvisation on the pipe organ. ... Click to View


Christian Wolfarth :
39 / Part IV - VI (Hiddenbell Records)

An engaging album of solo percussion that start like a vortex of clocks ticking, and then draws the listener into an amazing journey of unique percussive expression, timbre, rhythm and subtle transitions, the second album in Swiss percussionist Christian Wolfarth's 39 series, presenting Parts IV - VI of his works exploring the relationships between 3, 9 & 39. ... Click to View


Satoko Fujii Quartet (w/ Tamura / Takeharu / Yoshida):
Dog Days of Summer (Libra)

One of Satoko Fujii's wildest groups, the quartet of Fujii on piano, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Hayakawa Takeharu (HAYAKAWA, Dr. Umezu Band) on bass and Magaibutsu label leader & Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida present their first album since 2007, expanding their assertive approach to improv in an adventurous set that merges rock and jazz forms with lyricism and power. ... Click to View


Jason Stein (Stein / Abrams / Cleaver / Boon):
Anchors (Tao Forms)

Chicago-based bass clarinetist-composer Jason Stein returns from a six-year hiatus as bandleader with a beautifully personal, nuanced, and expansive album, created with bassist Joshua Abrams (Natural Information Society), drummer Gerald Cleaver, and guitarist and co-producer Boon, in a suite of seven Stein compositions ranging from meditative calm to gripping intensity. ... Click to View



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  Hayward / Park / Smith / Coxhill 
  Mathilde 253  
  (Slam Productions) 


  
   review by Jeph Jerman
  2011-07-05
Hayward / Park / Smith / Coxhill: Mathilde 253 (Slam Productions)

Anyone wishing to keep tabs on Charles Hayward's various activities these days is going to have a hard time of it, as the ex-This Heat drummer plays with countless aggregates and his catalogue quickly swells. This offering is a live recording from London's Cafe Oto during April 2010. I wasn't sure what to expect, not knowing anything about Park or Smith, so the only course of action seemed to dive right in.

After an opening note that sounds like a sax, but is probably Smith's trumpet or flugelhorn, a small flurry of sound rises up with Park stabbing, slapping and wiping his guitar strings while the horn lays out slow melodic lines and Hayward switches between melodica and bells. Perhaps they are just finding a way in, and after 4 minutes or so the trio warm up and wake up, drums and guitar bouncing off each other and Smith's trumpet squiggling about in between. A few minutes later drums and trumpet stop, and Park continues with volume swells of disconnected note-clusters.

Hayward seems impatient though and so the trio interplay starts back up into territory that's not quite free-jazz, not quite stereotypical British free improv, but somewhere in-between, with a slight rock-ist tinge. The stop/start modus continues, little cells erupting, sprawling and then halting, leaving guitar exposed again. Park is the one to pay close attention to here, the development of his ideas is fascinating and very logical, and the other two players are embellishing and commenting on his story. Toward the end of this first piece things congeal and harden, with the guitar returning to its original approach and Hayward thumping into a frenzy. "Similkameen" seems almost ballad-like at first, Smith's horn the leader. Hayward's fractured beats work well here, after some initial stumbling around. "Ishikari" starts out hard but then pulls back a bit. The general approach of the trio might be likened to a bellows, expanding and contracting again and again.

A section in which Smith engages in high frequency squeaks makes my ears prick up, and what follows; ratcheting metallics, ringing scraped cymbals and odd muttering, is quite arresting. Later, on the last two pieces Lol Coxhill's familiar sweet and sour tone joins in, initially in a duet with Park's note-salad, as a carefully considered dialogue begins. Trumpet and drums join quietly and gradually pick up the energy level while continuing in the stop/start mode. Coxhill seems to be having a lot of fun here, rubbing against the other's ideas, or at times suggesting completely different areas for exploration.



Hayward / Park / Smith / Coxhill: Mathilde 253
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