THE JaZt TAPES CATALOUGE, (6.3), CAN BE FOUND
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7. JAZT TAPES REVIEWS
CD - 025
JEFFREY HAYDEN SHURDUT
"GLOBAL TIME"
BY
UNO OHLSSON
NORRKÖPINGS TIDNINGAR, SWEDEN:
BY
GREGO EDWARDS
This blog site, for those who don't know, covers a wide spectrum of things, some not typically of concern to a chops-axe-gearhead thing. All kinds of music is covered and some of it doesn't even especially center on guitar or bass, but instead might give you something that a musical mind would find interested and something to grow on in general. So be prepared for music of all sorts, rock, jazz, avant, songmeisters, even new age if it's something I can stand!
With that in mind I present to you today an Artist Promotional CD-R in the JaZt Tapes series, one of a number by musician-bandleader-avant-jazz-artist Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut, a live date from a pretty obscure club in New York, vintage 2007. It's a trio of Daniel Carter on trumpet, flute and tenor sax, Brian Osbourne on drums, and Jeffrey on electric guitar. This is free music, a totally improvised set of music where there is no set pulse, no set melodies, nothing harmonically prescribed, and no set routines that I can detect--and that's not unusual with Jeffrey but rather 99% the case.
Daniel Carter gets lots of space to get a solo stream of notes flowing (especially on tenor, which he is most known for) and he does that well, as one can rely upon him to do. Osbourne gets a counter flow of open-time drumming that forms an effective carpeting to Carter. Shurdut, who is more usually heard (literally so) on piano and sometimes reeds, provides sound color on the guitar in sparing ways. At times you may not hear him much if at all. It's the opposite of what a guitarist who wants to establish him or herself as an important player would do. It is utterly selfless. He is nearly invisible. But then Shurdut is a person who brings good players together and gets them to do great work, as I've noted today on a review of another of his CD-Rs on Gapplegate Music Review (see link to that site in top left-hand column).
And that's what's happening here. As a massive thunderstorm approaches as I write, I know I'd better get this posted now. It's good music but it's not something where the guitar stands out!
For more info on this and other JaZt Tapes go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605
BY
ARTHUR PIENE
JAZZNYTT, NORWAY
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CD - 026
JEFFREY HAYDEN SHURDUT
"IMAGINARY CONTROL SYSTEMS"
BY
ARTHUR PIENE
JAZZNYTT, NORWAY
BY
JAZZ SPECIAL, DENMARK
BY:
GREGO EDWARDS
One of the more unusual and more interesting of Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut's JaZtTapes CD-Rom releases surely is Imaginary Control Systems (JaZtTapes CD-026). It is that by virtue of the chemistry on display between the trio members captured here.
Jeffrey plays the piano throughout, comping in an out way, doing all-over barrages, taking off from motival kernels of musical thought. Lukas Ligeti acts as a free-foil with drumming that can pulsate or go into a-rhythmic zones. And there is the late Luther Thomas on alto--in a Luther-as-post-Bird realm, quoting snatches of Bird-dom, developing melodic motifs that have an out-bop feel to them. The three together enter special places that are pretty rarified.
It was 2007, NYC, and Luther was to live only two more years. This seems to me one of his more important later recordings for all the reasons mentioned. The music is very free and loose and yet there are moments underpinned by structure. There are more musical-structural factors underlining the blowing going on than with the everyday sort of stream-of-consciousness mode. Now of course the stream approach is completely valid and all three players are known for it. It's just that there there are indeed kinds of "Imaginary Control Systems" put into play here.
For all that it makes for a very interesting listen. Get more info on this and other JaZtTapes by going to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards
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CD - 027
NOAH HOWARD
"THE BREMEN CONCERT"
BY
JAN GRANLIE
JAZZNYTT, NORWAY
BY
JÖRGEN ÖSTBERG
OJ, SWEDEN
BY
GREGO EDWARDS
http://gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.se/2012/07/noah-howard-quartet-bremen-concert-1975.html
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Noah Howard Quartet, The Bremen Concert, 1975
There is more than one Noah Howard, as students of his music know. There's the mid-'60s ESP iconoclast, innovator in ensemble form, as found on his several ESP Disks; there's Noah the avant firebrand, especially prominent during his tenure with Albert Ayler; there's Noah Howard the post-New-Thing bandleader-composer and baritone saxophonist into the later seventies and beyond; and there's the work he did in his last decades, which I admit I am not as familiar with as I should be.
Today, though, we have Noah on alto in January 1975, with an excellent quartet of Kakashi Kako on piano, Kent Carter, bass, Oliver Johnson, drums, in The Bremen Concert (JaZt Tapes CD-027). It's an acceptable quality recording from a radio broadcast of a 40 minute set by the band. The balance is not perfect, the mid-range and bass frequencies a trifle muffled and boomy, but the performance is very good. Noah and band are in a Trane inspired vein from the start, with a version of "Ole," followed by a modal-centered blast off on "Pearl Stream".
"New Arrival" has a quieter, cascading, expanded key-centered cosmic thing going on, Kakashi sounding a bit like Alice Coltrane in John's later band and a ravishing, soaringly lyricial Noah in great form. "Ziki" has a "My Favorite Things" three-feel and Noah kicks off with his own handle on what a solo overtop of that can be.
It's fine music from a committed quartet and gives us a good look at the Noah Howard of 1975 in a particular zone. Once one gets used to the limitations of the audio source, one is in for some good sounds indeed.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards at 5:05 AM
Labels: avant jazz 1975, kent carter, new thing at bremen, noah howard quartet's the bremen concert gapplegate music review, oliver johnson
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By
JERRY D'SOUZA,
Published: June 26, 2012
Alto saxophonist Noah Howard was a key player in the free jazz movement of the 1960s. He moved into the realm of that decade—a time when the atmosphere was rife with saxophonists primed to the calling. Born in New Orleans, Howard characterized his approach with a distinctive sensibility for gospel music that unraveled enticingly in his explorations. His improvisations revolved on the turnstiles of a ripe imagination, and it was no surprise, then, that his first record as a leader, Noah Howard Quartet (1965) was for the avant-garde ESP Disk label. After Noah Howard at Judson Hall (ESP Disk) the following year, Howard went on to play with several free jazz heavyweights including saxophonist Archie Shepp, pianist Misha Mengelberg and drummer Sunny Murray.
Howard was a man of many parts: he travelled extensively, working with poets and musicians in India, Africa and Europe; after living in Paris, Brussels and Nairobi, he returned to the USA, recording extensively and playing several concert dates.
A live radio broadcast in Bremen, Germany on January 1, 1975 now sees the light of day, thanks to Jan Ström, who aims to support the participating artists with the proceeds of this CD-R.
Even as he stamped his presence as an exponent of free movement, Howard never forsook melody. "Olé Negro" is right up front, captivating with an irresistible musical loop that sways and beckons. Howard keeps his tone light and agile before turning hard into invention as corkscrew phrases replace sweet intonation. His easy essaying of structure and improvisation is absorbing and heady. He is well met by pianist Kakashi Kako who sustains the momentum with flowing excursions and a hard-driving rhythm section that help elevate this to a high plateau.
"New Arrival" is a lovely ballad that basks in the glow of Howard's alto—that is, until Kako stirs the pulse with a clasp of notes that dovetail and churn. The complexity is made manifest in the center as Howard returns to play with compelling majesty.
This CD is a worthy addition, not only to Howard's discography, but to the catalogue of all excellent jazz as well.
Track Listing: Ole Negro; Pearl Stream; New Arrival; Ziki.
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CD - 028
MIKKEL MARK TRIO
FEATURING LUTHER THOMAS
BY
GREGO EDWARDS
Friday, December 7, 2012
Mikkel Mark Trio Featuring Luther Thomas, 2007
Freebop is not bebop. That's obvious I suppose. Freebop often uses the bebop repertoire and sometimes the changes. Freebop may reference bebop lines in the course of the improvisations. But freebop takes the music past bebop in ways that would probably have gotten many players kicked off the bandstand if they had played some of those lines/harmonies at Mintons back in the day. And of course the players are not trying to play bebop as much as they are commenting on the form and making something new of it.
This is what runs through my head as I listen to the Mikkel Mark Trio Featuring Luther Thomas (JaZt TAPES CD-028). It's a 2007 live date from Copenhagen featuring Mark on piano, Thomas on alto, Guffi Pallesen, bass, and Kresten Osgood at the drums.
The band runs through some bop and beyond classics, "Straight No Chaser" and "Groovin' High" but also "All Blues" and "Equinox." What we get is a nicely loose blowing session with a solid rhythm section. Luther Thomas is in very good form, coming up with some blazing lines and going at it with conviction. Mikkel Mark comps sparingly and with expansive harmonic sensibilities and solos in a sparse, super-monkish way much of the time.
It may not be a recording that will set the jazz world aflame this year, but it is quite enjoyable and shows all in a nice place. Go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 to find out more about this release and the JaZt TAPES series in general.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards
Labels: avant jazz renditions of jazz standards, freebop, the mikkel mark trio featuring luther thomas gapplegate music review.
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BY
JERRY D'SOUZA,
Published: July 7, 2012
Alto-saxophonist Luther Thomas joined pianist Mikkel Mark for this concert at the Christiana Jazz Club in Copenhagen on December 1, 2007. The program of standards on the resultant Mikkel Mark Trio featuring Luther Thomas works well, profiling the free jazz approach of Thomas with the more structured improvisations of Mark.
Thomas and Mark are both protagonist and antagonist as they lay down an appealing sense of balance. The arrangements unfold to let Thomas swerve into unfettered highlands as Mark comps or, more interestingly, swings against the incendiary grain of Thomas.
Thomas pays homage to melody on all tracks. This is not a harbinger of what is to transpire however, as his warm intonation on "Straight No Chaser" breaks away and rides an impressive and adventurous road. He lets the swell in slowly, swing capturing the moment before the pith is changed with phrases that harden and then torque. Mark is a light, flexing accompanist before he gets to minister his own ideas. His pensive ruminations and underlying lissome pulse add well-crafted fluidity and spaciousness.
"Misty" is more temperate, with Thomas basking in the melody and adding eloquent changes. He interlocks the refrain with tight screeches in a logical and seamless flow. Mark shows great poise, giving the composition a fresh perspective through his vision and ability to transform ideas.
Even as the quartet finds its groove there is no denying that they can break out with a sense of fun as they do on the closer, "Tenor Madness."
Exhorted by drummer Kresten Osgood and the tempo set by bassist Guffi Pallesen, they rollick on shifting tides, a happy ending to a fine performance.
Track Listing: Straight No Chaser; Groovin' High; All Blues; Equinox; Misty; Tenor Madness.
Personnel: Luther Thomas: alto saxophone; Mikkel Mark: piano; Guffi Pallesen: bass; Kresten Osgood: drums, vocals.
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By
GUILLAUME BELHOMME:
http://grisli.canalblog.com/archives/disques/index.html
Mikkel Mark Trio Featuring Luther Thomas (JaZt TAPES, 2012)
Soit Mikkel Mark, Guffi Pallesen, Kresten Osgood et Luther Thomas aux prises avec Straight Not Chaser, Groovin' High, All Blues, Equinox, Misty et Tenor Madness.
Soit un happy gig pour reprendre l'expression du producteur Jan Ström (Ayler Records). Soit un concert (1er décembre 2007, Christiana Jazz Club, Copenhague) où le jazz ne veut pas se taire.
Soit Luther Thomas et sa manière si dolphienne de torsader le phrasé. Soit Misty, possible petite sœur du grand Albert et de son immortel Summertime.
Soit un concert et son lot d'aléatoire, de ratés et d'extravagances.
Soit des tempos s'éteignant et d'autres se doublant.
Soit un saxophoniste, parfois cavalier seul mais toujours impeccable dans son placement.
Soit le jazz, tout simplement.
Mikkel Mark Trio : Featuring Luther Thomas (JaZt Tapes)
Enregistrement : 2007. Edition : 2012.
CD-R : 01/ Straight No Chaser 02/ Groovin' High 03/ All Blues 04/ Equinox 05/ Misty 06/ Tenor Madness
Luc Bouquet © Le son du grisli
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CD - 034
REMI ÁLVAREZ / INGEBRIGT HÅKER FLATEN
"FIRST DUET LIVE"
By
JERRY D'SOUZA,
Published: June 27, 2012
Tenor saxophonist Remi Àlvarez has drawn several musicians into his sphere as an improviser. The collaborations have spawned several fine recordings that brim with intense interplay and resolute imagination. His encounter with bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten is no exception.
Born in Oppdal, Norway, Flaten has made an impact on the Scandinavian free jazz movement. Wanting to expand his horizons, he moved to Chicago and then to Austin, where he now makes his home. His journeys have served him well and have seen him carve a niche not only with his own groups but also in the company of exciting innovators like saxophonists Tony Malaby and Ken Vandermark; Àlvarez fits right in.
Àlvarez and Flaten recorded this music at the No Idea Festival, in San Antonio, Texas. It was as much an interweaving of the mind as of the soul. The two make strong, impassioned excursions on three duets that flame the pathways of improvisation.
Àlvarez is a blistering force on "First Duet." Probing at first as Flaten swoops and curls, he soon blows up a storm. His phrases cut deeper, are heavier and torque and twist. Flaten is a visionary who not only sets a steady pulse as Àlvarez goes on a long melodic trail, but brings key changes to the timbre with his rumbling of the strings and the patter of his stick.
The opening tour-de-force leads to a calmer ambience as "Second Duet" gets underway. The squiggle of the tenor sax, the rustling of the bass, the empathy between the two as they navigate the road makes for a compelling build up. Flaten stirs up fascinating formations and when Àlvarez steps up to flesh the theme with lines that grind into the pith, the potency of their partnership is fully realized.
This was the first meeting between Flaten and Àlvarez; First Duet Live cries out for more.
Track Listing: Introduction; First Duet; Second Duet; Third Duet.
Personnel: Remi Alvarez: tenor saxophone; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: bass.
Record Label: Jazt Tapes
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CD - 035
JOACIM NYBERG
SOLO FORCE
By
Grego Applegate Edwards
Monday, February 4, 2013
Joacim Nyberg, Solo Force, Solo Bass Improvisations
Is it true that only bass players get off on solo bass recordings? If it is, it shouldn't be. And it need not be if it is. The bass in jazz/improv is a critical piece of the music puzzle and it's never been more true that good players can do extraordinary things solo, if they are the right sort of player. The solo bass potentially holds as much interest for the listener as a solo reed, a solo piano, a solo whatever recording.
So then, Joacim Nyberg has a disk out, Solo Force, which is available in a limited edition JaZt Tapes (CD-035) CDR. He plays both solo contrabass and solo electric bass here, so that in itself puts a slightly different spin on it. He was mightily influenced by Peter Kowald, plays with cats like Mats Gustafson, Anders Gahnold, Rudi Mahall, and a piano trio with Sebastian Bergstrom.
He is young (born in 1986) and filled with spirit. This disk may not be comparable with something William Parker, Michael Bisio or Peter Kowald has done. But it is soulfully loose and limber; it is a good effort that rings true. Plus there is the solo ELECTRIC bass that gives you something different to hear. Imaginative and budding, Nyberg shows himself off respectably. I am sure time will bring more our way from him. In the meantime get an earful of this.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards
Labels: joacim nyberg's solo force gapplegate guitar review, solo contrabass improvisations, solo electric bass improvisations, solo jazz avant bass
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CD - 036
JEFFREY HAYDEN SHURDUT
YAD
Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut's octet recording Y A D was taped at the Downtown Music Gallery store in July, and (naturally) featured in their weekly newsletter on 9/21, including a recommendation from both
partners there.
Although I'd never heard anyone in this octet before — and Shurdut records albums with a range of performers, so this isn't a consistent group — the description and enthusiasm were enough to prompt
a listen.
I've found the music rather captivating. Before discussing some more specific impressions, I should note that Shurdut (b.1969) is actually a hugely prolific recording artist, even if his recordings appear in obscure places. For instance, Ayler Records is in the process of releasing a 40-CD (download only) set; Yad is his sixth release on the JaZt Tapes label; he released recordings under his own label for a while, and had a trio release earlier this year, Bound and Gagged (featuring drummer Marc Edwards, from the Cecil Taylor Unit and elsewhere, along with bassist Janas from the octet) on the Improvising Beings label. I did listen carefully to Bound and Gagged, and a smattering of other online material, but can't say I've thoroughly
surveyed Shurdut's discography.
Although his style clearly interests me, the volume is daunting. I do come back to Yad, however, perhaps in
part because I heard it first, but also because — bluntly — there's less screaming, and the chamber conception in the way the different instruments take part at different times fits well with my
preoccupations on group interaction.
The music is strongly conditioned by the environment, urban living in general, but also the specific setting. It seems entirely fitting that Shurdut would record somewhere "strange" like a record store, and indeed performing & recording in a wide variety of locations has been an important part of his discography.
This idea on environment penetrates the technical nature of the music in that Shurdut tunes to
his surroundings; he has, as one story goes, put his electric guitar (although on Yad he plays saxophone, and not guitar) on the floor of a subway car to tune itself to those resonances. The music is not only
based on the resonances of space around it, the musicians manage to draw tunes, relationships & structures out of that resonance.
This is what takes the conception beyond pure environmental sounds, and into the direct realm of human mediation & even semantic content.
In addition to these very local technical features, the musicians draw upon the urban soundscape more generally, with various passing sounds of traffic or machinery — human originated noises, including shouts, but recontextualized. Shurdut is constantly shaping this process, and it would seem the act of recording is a part of the performance. (In other settings, he has, for instance, painted while improvising jazz.)
Bill Dixon has various students active in the world of improvised music today, doing some interesting things, and I've been intrigued by some similar efforts, such as Jeff Arnal's (who studied with Milford Graves [*], who was also at Bennington College) with his group Transit. Shurdut would appear to be taking a significant & decisive next step in what had been Dixon's impetus to recontextualize landscape sounds (and it's not entirely urban for Dixon, but often is). This music deserves to be considered in the same breath, although I know of no meeting between the two. There's a similar approach to abstraction, and a
resulting profundity from the mundane.
As I've mentioned in the past, this sort of music often "functions" well for me in dealing with noisy
urban environments, and Yad has potential in that area, one I'll be testing a bit more in the future, but it's also strongly localized via its technique. In that sense, it's rather different from a more general urban soundscape conception, and I'm guessing may seem more awkward some places than others.
That said, I've enjoyed it every time. Shurdut and company's improvisations have such an unplanned sweep to them that it's kind of stunning that they end up projecting such a strong sense of equilibrium in turn.
It's hopefully not drifting too far into poetics to equate this with the equilibrium of contemporary urban life,
even if that life can be more unsettling in reality than it is on Yad.
The other fact to note, I guess, is that the word "yad" refers to the surrogate hand used to turn pages of the Torah. No doubt this is an acknowledgement of reflective distance.
Todd McComb
All Music Guide
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By
Grego Applegate Edwards
Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut gets a froth whipped up for his avant ensemble on the JaZt Tapes CD-rom YAD (036). Jeffrey has something going on alto in tandem with a fairly large eight-piece ensemble that includes contrabass, electric guitar, bass clarinet, drums, violin, trombone and tuba (doubling on flugelhorn and pocket trumpet).
The music is entirely extemporized, so it would seem. This is a creative bunch so it's not according to any formula.
It's a patented Shurdut free blow-out with plenty of room for texture and color. There is a live ambiance that comes out of the Downtown Gallery, NYC, performance (on July, 2012) that this CD documents.
If you like the free zone with the heft of a larger ensemble you will like this.
This, as all JaZt Tapes, is a limited artist's promotional release. Go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 for more information.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards on April 24, 2013
Labels: avant jazz, free jazz, jeffrey hayden shurdut's yad gapplegate mu
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CD - 39
NEW LANGUAGE COLLABORATIVE
With TED DANIEL/GLYNIS LOMON/SYD SMART/ERIC ZINMAN
RETREAT
By
Bruce Lee Gallanter
(JaZt Tapes 39) [LTD Ed CD-R]
With Ted Daniel on trumpet & flugelhorn, Eric Zinman on electric keyboard, Glynis Lomon on cello, voice & aquasonic and Syd Smart on drums.
JaZt Tapes is a new limited edition CD-R label in which the artists retain the rights for the music as well as the manufacturing and distribution. More than fifty artists are already involved for future releases.
New Language Collaborative (NLC)formed in 2004 as a trio with Glynis Lomon, Eric Zinman and Syd Smart. They asked legendary brassman, Ted Daniel, to join them for this session.
You should recognize the names og the trio from prior collaborations: Ms. Lomon (from her work with Anthony Braxton & Bill Dixon), Mr. Zinman (trio disc on Cadence and duo with Mario Rechtern) and Mr. Smart (great quartet with Raphe Malik & Frank Wright).
You no doubt know Ted Daniel since he has been an influential trumpeter since the early seventies (Brute Force with Sonny Sharrock plus more than 2 dozen records with Andrew Cyrille, Billy Bang, Henry Threadgill & Luther Thomas). An impressive resume all around.
There is now leader here although this music is far from formless or totally free sounding.
Mr. Zinman sounds like he is playing acoustic piano throughout the long first piece, "Stories we Tell Each Other/Space and Time". While Mr. Daniel often lays back and plays more restrained flugelhorn,
Ms. Lomon bows up a storm underneath often taking care of the bottom end. Like Abdul Wadud or Daniel Levin, Ms. Lomon plays with a refreshing intensity.
The piano and drums move in crashing waves together in between occasional moments of calm. Mr. Daniel sounds especially tasty on muted trumpet, simmering at times and choosing his notes carefully.
On the second piece, "The Truth Still Marches On", Zinman switches to electric piano (which sounds like vibes, eerie organ or harpsichord at times) with all members slowly burning together, comprising a vibrant web of activity. Each of the different keyboard sounds create a different vibe.
Ms. Lomon does a bit of twisted vocalizing on this piece reminding me that Halloween is almost here.
The third long piece, "Glossolalia" is unfolds organically, building into an inspired section of explosive fireworks.
We just a few of these in so grab'em while they last.
Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
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By
Grego Applegate Edwards
We should never forget that there are players out there very deserving of attention, who for whatever reason don't always get the attention they deserve, just as there are some who may get more attention than they merit. And I don't want to dis anybody, to say who, but if you want a name in the too much attention category, how about Al Hirt, RIP?
The group known as New Language Collaborative has some of those unduly neglected folks, and you can hear them carry themselves forward on their album Retreat (JaZt Tapes 039). The group for this outing includes Ted Daniel on trumpet, Eric Zinman, piano and keys, Glynis Lomon on cello, voice and aquasonic, and Syd Smart on drums and electronic percussion.
This is a free date, a collectively improvised set of definite merit. They let lose in three segments with some excellent interactive dynamics. Ted Daniel may not always be in the limelight these days but he is sounding very fit and eloquent here. Eric Zinman is an all-over pianist that has energy and the ears to match. To hear the two together playing off of each other is very much a something you should hear.
But Syd Smart is right there with them in very creative ways. Glynis Lomon uses her cello in part as a bass would function in such an ensemble, and in part as a soloists making good use of the sound color available to her. The range of color further extends by her vocals, the aquasonic, and the electronic sounds available to Syd and Eric.
Those who don't understand free playing sometimes think that it's just a matter of any and everybody doing anything. Good free playing hangs together in many ways, whether completely intuitive or mapped out to lesser or greater degree, with the ability of the players to make a statement, something in ways communicatively coherent, both in what each member plays and the totality of that effort.
New Language Collaborative make their statement. These are players well-schooled in what they do. And what they do here should be heard.
JaZtapes are limited edition CD-ROM disks put out by the musicians themselves. Go to the url http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 to find out more about the series. And you can order this release via the email address studio234@ericzinman.com.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards
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By
Ken Waxman,
The New York City Jazz Record, June 2014
High-quality free jazz from the great Northeast, this CD’s three extended selections show how adroitly Boston’s New Language Collaborative (NLC) trio meshes with the playing of Ossining, NY-native trumpeter Ted Daniel.
Together for a decade, the NLC consists of veterans content to spread the free music gospel in their hometown: a student of Bill Dixon, electric keyboardist Eric Zinman also works in duos and trios; drummer Syd Smart often gigged with Raphe Malik; and cellist Glynis Lomon has played with Dixon and Anthony Braxton.
Considering the trio’s affinity for brass, it’s no surprise that Daniel connects with the band like a trumpet’s mouthpiece does to its leadpipe.
Although Smart also plays electronic percussion and Lomon an “aquasonic”—an interactive app based on the analogy of sound and water waves—electronics never reorient the program. Lomon’s occasional vocals, consisting of bel canto squeals or gravelly gargles,
offer more commentary on or contrast to the instrumental passages than anyone’s blurry processing.
The foursome creates a variant of self-possessed energy music, all instinctively knowing when to pull back to spotlight brief solos. For instance, the cellist’s specialties are sharpened, abstract string slices or thick double bass-like stops while the pianist’s skillful, but
sometime portentous key sprinkles and the drummer’s kettle-drum-like resonations add a dollop of connective swing to the narratives. Daniel airily darts alongside and above the other’s cumulative expressions with rubato smears and pinpointed blats, frequently sliding
slim notes in between spaces left open by the others. Masterfully expressing understated excitement, the final “Glissolalia” is also the album’s highpoint.
Lomon’s pointillist string drones, Smart’s press rolls, Zinman’s limpid key plinking and Daniel’s flutter- tongue obbligato succinctly and successfully stacked on top of one another, the result uniquely solid while maintaining the stimulating expression of top-flight
improvising.
The only quarrel one could have with this CD is its title. It’s really no retreat but a steady advance in quartet music-making.
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CD - 43
ABDELHAÏ BENNANI DUO #9
NO GOAL
By
Grego Applegate Edwards
Is there such a thing as an artist getting too much exposure, too many recordings? Not when there is a notable progression and/or a series of changing contexts for the music. In the case of free tenor player Abdelhai Bennani both progression and change are noticeable.
You can hear that on a fairly recent recording, Duo #9, No Goal (JaZt Tapes CD 043), a part of the JT series of artist demo releases available as quality CD-ROMs. Perhaps what most distinguishes this one is the presence of the great Alan Silva, who excels in his role here as free player of his "orchestral synthesizer" setup.
The recording was made a year ago January, live in Paris.
There is a cohesive spontaneity to be heard in the four improvised segments. Alan lays down some intriguing orchestral blankets of sound and Abdelhai comes through with his patented swallowed-note phrasing, sounding especially loose and limber.
They cover a good deal of territory with explorations of space music and some energizingly brittle, give-and-take pointillisms. The more you hear it, the better it gets. Thank you Abdelhai and Alan for the sounds!
For more information about this and other JaZt TAPES and to order the CD go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards.
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CD - 045
Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut
Pushing Up Daisies
Av
Joacim Nyberg
Anders Gahnold är en osjungen hjälte i den svenska jazzen. Han är nästan helt okänd och förtjänar definitivt större uppmärksamhet. Hans altsax har ett ruskigt driv och en rivig ton, men samtidigt vågar han vara melodisk och oj vad han kan svänga! Jag har haft äran att spela med Anders ett par gånger och det är bara att hålla i sig och åka med.
Den som tidigt insåg att Gahnold var en gömd skatt är Jan Ström som gett ut en hel del av Gahnolds musik på Ayler Records (trio-skivorna med William Parker och Hamid Drake är något i hästväg!) och nu också på JaZt TAPES.
Den nysläppta plattan Pushing Up Daisies presenterar Gahnold i en trio med ett annat Ström-fynd, New York-musikern Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut (också på altsax) och japanska mångsysslaren Takuma Kanaiwa på trummor och kontrabas.
Skivan är i Shurduts namn och är inspelad ”under Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, NYC” 2008 och det är eldig "Free Jazz" det handlar om. Shurdut är en saxofonist som spelar på energi och intensitet, och parningen med Gahnolds melodiska och svängiga spel är mycket intressant.
På första spåret presenterar musikerna sig och det tar inte många sekunder innan man hör vilken altsaxofonist som är vilken; Shurdut har en hård och vass ton och brötar på ordentligt medan Gahnold har ett mer dansant och lätt uttryck. De kompletterar varandra väl och Kanaiwa eldar på bra med ett yvigt och roligt trumspel.
Jag måste säga att jag är ett fan av Gahnolds saxspel. På ”Daisy 1” lägger han mitt i allt bröt plötsligt in ett par bluesfraser och jag ryser. ”Daisy 2” ger oss en vacker duo mellan Gahnold och Kanaiwa på kontrabas (bra!), och det är jazz, en hyllning till The Big Apple. Att våga spela så melodiskt konventionellt börjar bli ovanligt i improvärlden och det är skönt när Gahnold bara gör det, helt utan att tveka.
Shurdut förtjänar också uppmärksamhet, han spelar jättehäftigt, full fräs – med vilja och passion. Kombinationen Shurdut/Gahnold är härlig och Pushing Up Daisies är ännu en fin skiva från Jan Ström som fortsätter att skämma bort jazzvärlden med sina finurliga releaser.
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CD - 049
LINDA SHARROCK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - NOT FOR SALE
By Grego Applegate Edwards
Linda Sharrock is back! Her double CD No is No has been getting good reviews from those disposed toward the outside music she embodies. I reviewed the album myself last December 8th here.
As a prelude or a postlude we also have her with piano and sax in another live recording from Paris on May 2013. It is a limited edition recording issued on JaZt Tapes (049). Acknowledgements, Not for Sale has some very volatile music, often the equal to her more expansive release, though more informal (she coughs for a second at the beginning, for example). Linda may not reach the screaming heights of No is No but she is very playful in mood and her cohorts play some inspiring free expressions that she brings out of them (and vice-versa).
Mario Rechtern smokes a heady fire on what sounds like a baritone. He is liquid and blazing, blowing his top as the beboppers used to say. The piano chair is occupied alternately by Eric Zinman and Noah Rosen, and they too are in a fine fettle.
It's stormy music of a very high order. It contains some fine fringe outsideness that those who revel in that will most definitely appreciate.
For more info and a link to get a copy go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605
Labels: avant garde jazz, free jazz today, linda sharrock comeback, sharrock zinman rosen rechtern acknowledgements gapplegate music review
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Linda Sharrock / Eric Zinman / Noah Rosen / Mario Rechtern
aknowledgements not for sale
JaZt Tapes, CD-049
Av: Per-Åke Holmlander
Publicerad: tors, 2015-01-08 18:57, www.soundofmusic.nu
TRAMS! - var min första spontana reaktion när jag startade min lyssning på detta - acknowledgements not for sale. Men det är inte alls rätt ord för detta är betydligt allvarligare än så och musiken är definitivt inte den jag hoppades på när jag förväntansfullt såg Linda Sharrocks namn på omslaget – låt mig förklara...
Det här känns väldigt konstigt och verkligen inte bra. Det känns svårt att skriva om mina tankar och farhågor. För om jag förstått saken rätt så fick Linda Sharrock en kraftig stroke 2009 och sitter numera, 67 år gammal, i rullstol. Men om detta stämmer till fullo eller inte, eller om vi som lyssnare vet om det eller inte spelar ju egentligen ingen roll.
Den här musiken är inte bra. Det låter som om ALLA har hakat upp sig och inte befinner sig på samma scen. Ofokuserad – jagvetintevad – impro. Tycker jag.
Linda Sharrock presterar här långt långt bortom det som vi förknippar med henne. Det är långt långt borta från fantastiska skivor som Sonny Sharrocks Black Woman från 1969 t.ex. och även hennes framträdanden på scen under senare år.
Övriga medverkande – no comments.
Hur någon kan tycka, hur behjärtansvärt det än är, att detta är så angelägen musik att den måste ges ut och spridas är för mig en total gåta. Detta är måhända hårda och direkta ord men jag vet inte vem detta gagnar.
JaZt Tapes är skapat av Jan Ström - han startade Ayler Records och tog sedermera också över Silkheart Records - och är ett spännande projekt för musikerstyrd distribution av musik.Se gärna hans och JaZt Tapes hemsida – www.janstrom.se - med mycket spännande läsning.
Inte vet jag men jag får en dålig eftersmak av denna CDr. Här verkar något gått överstyr och finns det någon bov i hela detta så inte är det Linda Sharrock.
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From Mario Rechtern regarding "Acknowledgements, July 21,2015
Skrivet av Gäst den tis, 2015-07-21 15:29.
Subject: Linda Sharrock
so so i do not mind ... things go as they have to... and if people do not grasp what is going on, i mean that there are completely other paradigmata going on than within all this egotistic art work
and urge or greed to produce(!!!) within this ideologically determined spectrum of bouncing through things that concern life... so this spectrum which hits the market and the rennomated
palaces on marketing culture ... to make feel, people that feel fine feel even better etc...i do not mind....
certainly this guy did not get s.th [1]. but that is his right.... hence the recording is called "acknowledgements- not for sale"...not merely "linda sharrock- not for sale" as later in the text...on
another point of view....
things about linda develop however the same way as her "deal" is out on proposal and linda went into recurs against it because it provides to her an inferior supply to the one she had through the elder and valid deals already before in 2010... so what then court and lawyers etc did fight 5 years for but waiting and trying to cut off slices of linda’s rights? to end up with less?
but also - and this is interesting: to interfere and try to put an end also to any other possible - penal or civil- trial against wolfgang concerning his treatment of his wife, while the present trial is / was only about alimony and divorce....
so on which grounds can be forbidden any other trial on other violations he might have committed.... is this now the divorce court to decide???? so this is very clear language and intention:
hence a pure invitation for anyone concerned to go there where is s.th [1] to be found then, obviously
for sure..... this is what the penal court seems to understand.
and the recourse 2nd court will certainly understand: it is one thing to finish a trial in 2015 on grounds of insights from 2010 only, which had been predicted by me already then providing all damage claims due to proceeding without good reasons and then ending up with less for linda , as i did warn then also anybody who might want to continue, but it is another thing to end these past and senseless
five years in a hurry , when before the sachwalter wanted to resign and was not allowed to because this was perceived as violating her duties to linda , and now the termination of all possible trials should be connected with all eventually upcoming investigations and claims against wolfgang, having violated his wife to such an extent.... (as the quoted review from sveden seems to be eager to pronounce: so it is not so bad, to ask "what has happened to this woman????" even if wolfgang
might stand behind this question or Sc.L.) and then the 2nd court also may notice: the lawyers and guardianship court did NOT only not manage to bring to linda what she needs for her care to
survive but now they also insinuate that the missing means shall be braught in by a possible future lifepartner, whoever should that be and sort of insinuates that me, her power of atterney or whoever else (?) should pimp such a guy to linda to deliver to her the means she needs or carry them for her: 2nd court certainly will ask itself , well, who can that be...(cut and altered text) this would be a crime of "forced (pimped) relationship" then, but they also cannot let linda go without someone to carry her
missing means, so it's the mysterious unknown then ,... but 2nd court must understand also that this is not a responsible nomination.
so i hope- and i guess i made it clear to 2nd court, this is no way out of a trial, ... or (XXX) only then, when charging me as her guardian with such ((dirty) duty - but on which grounds ? -for means which actually however the sachwalter has to deliver: if not through alimony and divorce, then by what
else, by what "s.th" [1]. else... but against such procedure we find the interdiction to go on with charges on wolfgang or on s.o else, who ? the state ?
we will see.
behind this is hidden the question nobody asks - also not the guy from sveden , nor noid, nor the people that do not let the africans into europe.... but this question is the question to ask! the music linda does here is throwing this question into the space or discussion, screaming for to have an answer..,.. so things are very clear all together and acknowledgement must come up. sooner or later. because there is no way to silence this question or this void.
we who ask this question cannot give the answer, but these that hear it and run away, know the answer, otherwise they would not run away or try to silence it, joining on with further and further and further questions, what all this is for. hense very good answer by the reviewer on the point.
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CD - 051
ABDELHAÏ BENNANI TRIO
KIND OF VIOLET
By Tom Greenland
NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
Recently deceased tenor saxophonist Abdelhaï Bennani was born in Fez and spent most of his life in Paris.
Kind of Violet, Jazt Tapes 051, recorded live at Lille’s Muzzix Festival in 2011, is now available through the artist-controlled JaZt TAPES.
The highly collaborative trio performance balances Bennani’s mercurial tenor — usually subdued but prone to gruff outbursts — against Alan Silva’s wide canvas of synthetic
keyboard textures and tones, ranging from full-blown tutti sections of digital string, brass and wind sections and warmer Rhodes piano sounds to eerie metallic patches with micro-chromatic pitch-bends.
Drummer Didier Lasserre favors thin sticking and light brushwork, low kettledrum rumbles, shimmering cymbals, Chinese-style gongs and marching rolls.
The improvisations breathe, as if the musicians are waiting to hear each other’s unfinished thoughts.
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CD - 53
ABDELHAÏ BENNANI TRIO
THE CRAWLING SNAKE
By Grego Applegate Edwards
Tenor avantist Abdelhai Bennani has been rather prolific with releases on the JaZt Tapes label. I have covered a number of them and today we have another. It is a trio of Bennani, Alan Silva on digital keys and piano, and Makoto Sato on drums, which is a very potent threesome on this live date from Rennes, France. The album is called The Crawling Snake (JaZt Tapes CD 053).
It is a continuous 50 minute performance of the free jazz sort, as you may have imagined. Makoto Sato gives us his dynamo all-over drumming style, Alan Silva reminds us that he is an imaginative avant conceptualist whether on bass or on keyboards, and Abdelhai gives us a robust over-the-top tenor madness very much in keeping with his approach. Everyone gets in-your-face in very good ways here.
With the recent demise of Bernard Stollman, founder of ESP Disks, we are reminded of how the legacy of the visionary artists who first recorded for that label lives on with a recording like this. It is an updated "new thing" we hear on The Crawling Snake, surely. And it sounds to me as fresh as ever. Alan Silva was one of the breakthrough artists of course in those early New York days. And he continues to thrive as evidenced by this recording, with Bennani and Sato giving us very vibrant fellow-artists for a pleasingly out excursion.
For further info and to find out how to order, go the the JaZt Tapes site: http://www.janstrom.se/7.-jazt-tapes-15468036
This is "free jazz" the way it sounds when everybody is attuned to the spirit feel. Recommended!
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards
Labels: abdelhai bennani trio the crawling snake gapplegate music review, alan silva, free jazz from europe 2001, makoto sato
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CD - 029
JEFFREY HAYDEN SHURDUT
"LIVE AT THE ABC NO RADIO"
BY
GREGO EDWARDS
The JaZt Tapes series seems to me a very good idea. It is a series of limited-edition releases by mostly avant jazz artists, music they want the music community to hear, as a promotion of their music and as a way of introducing the music to the public in hopes of a larger-scale release in the future.
Today we take a look at one such release by Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut, Live at ABC No Rio, NYC (JaZt Tapes CD-029).
It is a 2007 performance with a shifting set of improvisers that includes Shurdut on piano along with Chris Welcome, Robyn Siwula, Ken Silverman, Blaise Siwula, Marcus Cummins, Raymond Todd, Shayna Dulberger and Scott May.
It is nice sort of free-energy anarchy that gets going on this set, put in to orbit with Shurdut's all-over density at the piano, with Silverman's guitar and Blaise Siwula's alto and clarinet some of the other more outstanding voices in the general tumult.
It's music that does not compromise. It is music that should fascinate those into the "new thing" because the mix is very dynamic, ever-changing and sonically diverse. It's worth the effort to track this one down.
Some Shurdut is no doubt essential to any free improv collection and this is a good one.
Go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 to find out more about the series and how to order a copy.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards at 6:39 AM
Labels: avant jazz, free improvisation, free jazz today, jeffrey hayden shurdut's live at abc no rio nyc gapplegate music review
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CD - 30
NOAH HOWARD
"LIVE AT GLENN MILLER CAFÉ"
BY
GREGO EDWARDS
Noah Howard is no more. But his music lives on. An interesting, previously unreleased quartet performance can be had as Live at the Glenn Miller Cafe (JaZt Tapes 030).
It features Noah on alto and tenor in good form from 2000 with the always lively Bobby Few on piano and a game rhythm section of Ulf Akerhjelm on bass and Gilbert Matthews, drums.
It has the late Trane general free feel as far as group dynamic goes much of the time--implied, open pulse at times, all-over chordal piano in Bobby Few's own way, Noah incantatory.
This is not copycatting, though. It extends the music tradition and it's doing so through the creative passion of Noah. And there are musical excursions into other zones in the course of the two sets represented here on disk.
The sound is very decent. It may not be the best thing Noah recorded but it extends what we have of his later period quite nicely and gives you some soulful freedom in the process.
Go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 to find out more about the series and how to order a copy.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards at 6:14 AM
Labels: avant jazz, free improvisation, noah howard quartet's live at glenn miller cafe gapplegate music review
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April 2013
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
By Ken Waxman
More than a typical nightclub set, the untitled tracks that make up this passionate and high-quality
performance from 2000 also serve as an inadvertent retrospective of saxophonist Noah Howard's long
career.
The New Orleans-born Howard (Apr. 6th, 1943 - Sep. 3rd, 2010) was a second wave New Thing player,
who moved to Europe in the early '70s, initially working with fellow expatriates like saxophonist
Frank Wright and pianist Bobby Few and then, following his move to Belgium in the early '80s, after
time in Africa, gigging with jazzers from everywhere.
His collaborators included Europeans such as Dutch drummer Han Bennink and French pianist François Tusques plus South African bassist Johnny Dyani.
Live at Glenn Miller Café picks up on most of the musical currents Howard always brought to a performance.
Especially on the first, third and final tracks, playing tenor saxophone, Howard spins out
series of choruses, in an extended Trane-like mode but leavened with a blues overlay and some heartfelt
Crescent City soul.
Few is even more dazzling here,
providing McCoy Tyner-like modal expression whereneeded, yet elsewhere chording like a funky
combination of Wynton Kelly and Ray Charles.
Furthermore, when Howard switches to a balladic mode, the pianist manages to mate blues tonality and traditional romanticism in response.
Howard's internalization of African sounds is expressed on a couple of later tracks. Here the measured backbeat of Cape Town-born, Swedish-resident drummer Gilbert Matthews predominates, mixed with Few's gospelish runs.
But the performances are hardly conventional. Capable journeyman bassist Ulf Åkerhjelm interrupts the most extended variants with some faux-baroque bowed basslines while the alto saxophone solo evolves from a theme statement ofbugle-like cadences to splayed and pressurizedmultiphonics.
Howard never lost the populism that kept him working steadily until his death from a cerebral
hemorrhage and he amply demonstrates it here.
One track is a close cousin to "Work Song", albeit deconstructed with some reed snarls, Few contributing boogie-woogie licks plus a shuffle beat from Matthews.
The leader even adds some revival singing of "We Come from the Mountain" as he introduces the band.
This CD captures Howard in the prime of his life and is a fitting memorial for a jazz survivor.
For more information, visit janstrom.se
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BY
LEIF WIGH
OJ, SWEDEN
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grisli.canalblog:
Le 25 septembre 2000, soit quelques dix années avant sa disparition, Noah Howard avait l'alto tendre pendant que le public du Glenn Miller Café jacassait.
Retrouvait Albert
le grand le temps de quelques démesures. Faisait couiner l'anche.
Contrariait la beauté. Crochetait le bon goût. Offrait à la convulsion quelques riches minutes.
Gratifiait son ténor d'harmoniques tueuses.
Le 25 septembre 2000, Bobby Few brûlait son gospel. Menait la tendresse à bon port.
Le 25 septembre 2000, Ulf Akerhjelm résistait à la tempête. Suivait à l'archet une comptine imaginaire.
Le 25 septembre 2000, Gilbert Matthews avait le déluge dans la peau.
Rythmait la liberté en y insistant minutieusement.
Le 25 septembre 2000 tout n'était pas parfait mais tout était vif.
Noah Howard Quartet : Live at Glenn Miller Café (JaZt Tapes)
Enregistrement : 25 septembre 2000. Edition : 2012
CD : 01-11/ Tracks forming a creative kaleidoscope of Noah Howard's compositions
Luc Bouquet © Le son du grisli
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CD - 031
JEFFREY HAYDEN SHURDUT
"SOUND JOURNAL"
BY
GREGO EDWARDS
There is one thing you can depend on in life, at least. That is, you can depend on Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut to be out there in the trenches month after month, creating very good to excellent free jazz, free music, or whatever you might want to call it. He gets around, finds the best free musicians, can play cohesively and movingly on piano, reeds or guitar, is a real leader-organizer, finds playing situations and gets the music out.
He may be the Eddie Condon of the avant garde jazz scene in a way--a good player who brings others together and creates an environment for serious blowing.
You can hear it in the JaZt Tapes Artist's Promo CD-R release Sound Journal (JaZt Tapes 031). This one goes back a little to a live date in NYC, 2007. It's one free improvisation lasting 50 minutes, with Jeffrey on the piano, Blaise Siwula on saxes, Marc Edwards on drums, Daniel Carter on saxes, flute, clarinet and trumpet, Nick Gianni on contrabass and also tenor, flute and soprano, and Enrico Oliva on alto. The CD-R came out in 2011.
This one gives you a thick carpet of free maelstroming, Ascension-like multi-horn layers, all-over piano cascading, and Marc Edwards' muscular free-drumming style.
Some excellent blowing happening here. Everybody is keyed into one another, responds with the right thing for a collective mayhem that is exhilarating! If you like a good blow-out this one has it.
Find out more about this disk and how to get it at http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605
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CD - 033
JEFFREY HAYDEN SHURDUT
"MY MOTHER IS MY SPACESHIP"
By Grego Applegate Edwards
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut, My Mother is My Spaceship
Those familiar with the avant jazz of Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut know him as a bandleader who finds the right combination of people to
create music of consistent free advancement, as a pianist and guitarist, but perhaps not as a
saxophonist.
I hadn't until having the pleasure to hear his CD-ROM My Mother is My Spaceship (JaZt Tapes CD-033), a relatively new one in the Artist's Promotion Release series. Jeffrey takes up the alto for the course of a trio set.
He is joined by Gene Janas on contrabass and Matt Luczak on drums.
There are 14 relatively brief segments, all in a free zone. The recording quality is decent. What counts is that the three are motored into energetically avant territory, that the trio sounds just right and that Shurdut is convincing on alto.
He has a post-Aylerian, strident attack and comes through with heat and sound vibrancy.
There is music of this sort that simply works well in what it sets out to do. This is one of them.
As with the other releases in this series, it is available in a limited edition.
To find out more about the release and the series paste the following URL into your browser: http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605 and hit enter.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards at 6:47 AM
Labels: avant jazz, free jazz, jazt tapes series, jeffrey hayden shurdut's my mother is my spaceship gapplegate music review, shurdut on alto sax
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CD - 037
ABDELHAÏ BENANNI
"ENCOUNTERS"
By
Grego Applegate Edwards
Abdelhai Bennani Trio, Encounters, with Alan Silva, William Parker, 2000
Not-yet-well-known tenor saxist Abdelhai Bennani knows how to pick them.
The trio album Encounters (JaZt Tapes CD 037) has Alan Silva on piano and synthesizers and William Parker on double bass.
The program is a live, first set from The Sunside in Paris in 2000.
It features three free improv "Encounters" and it gets into the classic new thing outsideness in ways you might expect from Alan and William (Alan delving into the piano and synths imaginatively these days) and then Abdelhai plays an out tenor that has the immediacy of a raw-er Shepp. He goes for the gut responses and gets a wide palette of sound colors going.
Those who dig Parker and Silva will find lots to hear on this. And Abdelhai is well worth hearing as well. I couldn't help wishing that a Sunny Murray would come into the fold to make it a quartet. But one gets used to this trio format quickly and there's much good for the free-jazz ear.
Find out more about this and other Limited Edition JaZt Tapes by going to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605.
Posted by
Labels: abdelhai bennani trio encounters gapplegate music review, alan silva, avant jazz, free improv, free jazz, william parker
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By
Ken Waxman
www.jazzword.com
Abdelhaï Bennani Trio
Encounters
JaZt Tapes CD 037
When measured against the hegemony of the global music industry, all really creative improvisers labor on different levels of obscurity, no matter the excellence of their presentation. So it is with these encounters, unapologetic Free Jazz of the highest calibre, where the leader is the least known of the participants.
That’s because Fès, Morocco-born tenor saxophonist Abdelhaï Bennani’s hard-nosed improvisations were developed and are almost exclusively heard in France. Isolated from the American mainstream, his sessions with such fellow travellers as trumpeter Itaru Oki guitarist Camel Zekri and bassist Benjamin Duboc remain an unheralded pleasure for many. This disc, recorded in a Paris club at the turn of this century, is as notable as any by other saxophonists of his era and proclivities – Bennani was born in 1950 – with stalwart associates who are better known in the Free Jazz gestalt. American-raised, long-time French resident Alan Silva plays piano and orchestral synthesizer, while William Parker, one of the most ubiquitous figures in Free Music is on bass.
Such is the strength of the presentation that the absence of drums is hardly noted. Between the rhythmic pulses of the bull fiddle and the metronomic patterns created by the synth, more overt percussiveness would be unnecessary. Instead the nearly 49-minute encounter is a defining essay in abstract yet organic music making.
Consisting of slurs, squeaks and split tones, Bennani’s reed textures push chromatically throughout the performance, illuminating as well as deconstructing lines and clusters. By the same token, Bennani’s so sure of the thematic strategies he generates, that he’s unafraid to lay out for protracted periods, letting the sonic interaction advance without him. At first the subsequent sequence is directed by Silva’s piano styling, with its dynamic contrasts and staccato key clipping reminiscent of Cecil Taylor’s work. Drawn back into the fray, the saxophonist matches these keyboard variations with vibrations that sluice from altissimo to basso. Finally Parker’s low-pitched string sweeps glue the pieces together into an effervescent whole.
The next shift involves Silva’s pounding piano chords foreshadowing a dramatic shift to a more abstract, yet funkier variant which bring electronically processed lines into play. Simultaneously agitated and atonal, saxophone honks perfectly complement the string-like glissandi from Silva’s synthesizer, as the bassist’s thumping pedal point maintains the beat. Eventually the spotlight again shifts to Parker. This specific modification finds the bassist directly challenging the synthesizer’s gradually swelling hums and drones with staccato triple-stopping, often involving all four strings at once. This contrapuntal challenge met, Bennani asserts himself and proceeds to deconstruct the exposition by expelling limiting singular breaths.
Reaching a climatic interaction with the tune’s final variations, an organized – if perhaps surreptitious –arrangement reveals itself. Soon many of the previous motifs are revisited, while individual contributions are balanced. Silva new piano strategy involves descending key clipping; Parker moves from sul ponticello slices to string hammering; and Bennani’s blaring sound shards fade. Finally, sweeping synthesizer washes blend with a thumping double bass line to signal the piece’s conclusion.
Bennai may be world-famous all over Paris and nowhere else. But this supposed obscurity shouldn’t keep people from hearing this first-class effort.
Ken Waxman
Track Listing: 1. Encounters #1, #2, #3
Personnel: Abdelhaï Bennani (tenor saxophone); Alan Silva (piano and orchestral synthesizer) and William Parker (bass)
May 28, 2013
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Le son du Grisli
By Luc Bouquet
Abdelhaï Bennani engage son ténor dans la bataille. Ne convulse pas mais cajole ses graves Grogne des colères insoupçonnées.
Expire quelques râles salés. Chasse on ne sait quel gibier. Se perd puis retrouve le sentier. Ne fait jamais cavalier seul.
Alan Silva prend son piano de vitesse. Maintenant l’assombrit. L’égrène plus qu’il ne le comble. Rend l’arpège élégant. Désosse un drôle de synthé. Rivalise avec l’archet de William. Ne fait jamais cavalier seul.
William Parker fait gronder sa contrebasse. Expose les racines. Cajole son archet. Tire sur une corde qui jamais ne casse. Ne fait jamais cavalier seul.
Un soir de jazz et d’improvisation. C’est donc encore possible
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CD - 38
ABDELHAÏ BENNANI
PRESENT
By Joacim Nyberg
Sound Of Music
På trio-skivan Present, får Bennani sällskap av trummisen Didier Lasserre och basisten Benjamin Duboc (som också spelat in och mastrat båda skivorna).
Lasserre och Duboc har spelat mycket tillsammans och de sluter sig till Bennani och hans säregna musik på ett strålande sätt. Bennani känner sig fram, provar olika grejer. Funderar lite, blåser, känner efter, verkar njuta. Han bara spelar saxofon och han älskar det. Till detta finns trummorna och basen alltid nära, extremt lågintensivt. Bennani lockar fram lugnet hos de andra. Musiken är stillsam, tystlåten, men utan att tappa i energi.
Den som inte lyssnar noga kan hävda att musiken aldrig kommer loss, men det handlar inte om det. Visst, det är inte full action, men varför skulle det behöva vara det? Det finns ingen anledning att jäkta, ingen anledning att vräka ur sig en massa toner. Det viktiga är känslan och uttrycket. Varför kan man inte använda musiken till att tonsätta sina tankar, sätta melodier på sina känslor, rytmisera sina hjärtslag? Trion öppnar sina själar och låter musiken strömma, precis i det tempo den behöver.
Även trio-skivan är lättlyssnad, meditativ och avslappnande. Det är inte ofta man hör improviserad musik som är så lugn, men samtidigt ombytlig och rörlig. Man känner att musikerna är helt avslappnade och njuter av varandras närvaro. Det är otroligt skönt att lyssna på.
Av de två skivorna är det nog just trio-skivan som drar längsta stråt. Det händer mycket men ändå ger den en känsla av behärskat lugn.
Duo-skivan har även den en lugnande effekt, och båda är hörvärda.
Bennani är i mina öron unik och enormt intressant att lyssna på.
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By Grego Applegate Edwards
The Moroccan tenor saxophonist Abdelhai Bennani has been rather prolific in the past few years, mostly with self-released excursions on the cooperative label JaZt Tapes. He's back with a trio outing on that label, Present (JaZt Tapes 038).
This one has some clout to it thanks in part to the trio format. Benjamin Duboc on double bass and Didier Lasserre, drums, have a long and effective involvement in the free music-avant jazz-free jazz scene and their presence gives some dimension to Abdelhai's saxophony.
Maestro Bennani is a player with a distinct note-swallowing way of phrasing, a very grainy sound at times and a free approach. He sounds completely at ease here and the trio thrives in putting together a very loose and free set. It's something those into the new thing will appreciate, as I did.
To find out more and how to order, go to http://www.janstrom.se/6.-recordings/6.3.-jazt-tapes-6267605.
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards
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Ken Waxman
Abdelhaï Bennani Trio
Present
JaZt Tapes CD 038
Jazz has long been predicated on the impeccable partnership of drums-and-bass, including Jo Jones and Walter Page; Vernal Fournier and Israel Crosby, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison plus Jean-Jacques Avenel and John Betsch. Right now, the rhythm section duo which best epitomizes this equivalent extrasensory perception-like coordination in France is that of double bassist Benjamin Duboc plus percussionist Didier Lasserre. Although Duboc is a Parisian and Lasserre lives in Bordeaux, they link up often enough to have arguably become the go-to rhythm team for many of the country’s most advanced improvisers.
Abdelhaï Bennani has been playing for almost the same length of time, but has been infrequently recorded. Most of his dates have included bassist Alan Silva or trumpeter Itaru Oki. The more restrained Bennani/Duboc/Lasserre improvisations are from a Parisian house concert.
Ostensibly more tentative in his reed strategy, Bennani’s major statements are actually more apparent on the nearly 8½-minute “Desert Ballad” and six-minute “One Way/No Way” that complete the program than the nearly 28-minute initial exposition. Although there’s plenty of reed variety on “Common Future” with vocalized sax lines, breathy smears and chromatic puffing, there are too many pauses, resulting in disconnects between the saxophonist and the rhythm section. Despite chromatic clanks on Lasserre’s part and sophisticated bow and finger work on Duboc’s, meandering distance shatters the improvisation into isolated ingredients
Most memorable on “Desert Ballad”, the saxman uses his best Sonny Rollins-like sandpaper tone to produce a ballad that is poignant while staying true to the unsentimental credo of Free Jazz. Anchored by bass plucks, Bennani’s slurping cries attain true emotion while avoiding sloppiness. Even better is the aptly named “One Way/No Way”. Broken-octave techniques which segment into string rubs, drum ruffs and tongue flutters end as a protoplasmic-like mass of connected timbres to make up a satisfying finale.
Both CDs validate Duboc and Lasserre skill and creativity; Lazro’s continued inventiveness and Bennani’s tenacity. If one disc appears better than the other, it’s because the standards set are so elevated.
—Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Present: 1. Common Future 2. Desert Ballad 3. One Way/No Way
Personnel: Present: Abdelhaï Bennani (tenor saxophone); Benjamin Duboc (bass) and Didier Lasserre (snare drum and cymbals)
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CD - 41
ABDELHAÏ BENNANI
SUN DANCE/ EARTH
LAUGH
By
Ken Waxman
www.jazzworld.com
Abdelhaï Bennani Duo #5
Sun Dance/Earth Laugh
JaZt Tapes CD 041
Although background as a band musician, playing folkloric and classical march music may not lead to a prominent career in improvised music, it certainly has worked for Luzillé-based trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo.
Cappozzo has the power and stamina of a bandsman, yet, having spent the past 20 years immersed in improv, his playing brims with ideas that he brings to specific occasions.
Take the discs here, Sun Dance/Earth Laugh finds the trumpeter matching wits on a Parisian May Day with Abdelhaï Bennani, the veteran Moroccan-born tenor saxophonist who has been one of France’s most consistent, if under-recognized, improvisers for years.
The trumpeter and Bennani neither venture into excessive jazziness nor bring any suggestions of chanting to their meeting. Instead the three-track CD could be termed absolute improvisation, with both men dedicated to wrenching a multitude of extended and unusual patterns from their respective horns. Ending up in most cases with a mutual climax, sequences are built out of buzzes, breaths, oscillations, mutters and flutters, all of which eventually realign into chromatic narratives.
A half-hour improv, “Rain is the Sea” demonstrates this at the greatest length. Mercurial and inventive, each player expresses his own view, but leaves the fissures unbroken. Occasional harmonic concordance appears – usually in the guise of tongue flutters – but dissonance from both sides puts it to the side after a short while.
Bennani’s strategy revolves around lower-pitches which are oddly accented, irregularly burbled and at points stentorian; while Cappozzo concentrates on capillary breaths, bites and brays that often appear static. Finally the piece is resolved rhythmically and polyphonically as the saxophonist’s tone weighing winds down following a Gabriel-like tattoo from the trumpeter. From then on brass and reed tones slowly encircle one another in various guises before the ending.
Without doubt the CD demonstrate the versatility and adaptability in elevated circumstance not only of Cappozzo, but Bennani as well.
--Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Sun: 1. Rain Is The Sea 2. From Everything, Twice 3. Paradise Bird (Heard From Space
Personnel: Sun: Jean-Luc Cappozzo (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Abdelhaï Bennani (tenor saxophone)
October 2, 2013
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By Joacim Nyberg
Sound Of Music
Abdelhaï Bennani förtjänar mer uppmärksamhet.
Denne i Paris bosatte marockan är en mycket förunderlig saxofonist. Han har ett alldeles eget sound och ett alldeles eget sätt att uttrycka sina musikaliska idéer. Istället för att med hög intensitet och volym skrika genom saxen använder han sin tenor som en extra kroppsdel. Den är en del av honom och lika naturligt som vi andas, lika naturligt spelar Bennani saxofon. Det är massor av luft i hans ton, det väser och pyser men samtidigt är den mustig och ren. Och tonerna bara kommer, inga fraser, inga licks, bara naturliga ljud som om det vore mänskligt tal.
Vilket också kan kopplas till Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Bennanis partner på duo-skivan Sun Dance / Earth Laugh.
Efter att ha hört och sett Cappozzo live var ett bestående minne hur han medan han spelade trumpet använde ena handen till att gestikulera precis som om han pratade.
Cappozzo och Bennani använder båda sina instrument som förlängningar av sina kroppar. De låter musiken tala och de talar med varandra och med oss. Detta gör att musiken blir lätt att lyssna på. Ljuden känns naturliga och deras sätt att spela enkelt ger en känsla av att man blir insläppt i deras klangvärld. Musiken är mänsklig och kommunicerar därför med oss lyssnare. De berättar hemligheter för oss, det är bara att lyssna.
Noga.
CD - 54
ABDELHAI BENNANI QUARTET
DOUBLE DOUBLE
JAZT TAPES 054
By Tomas Millroth
Orkesterjournalen
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CD - 57
By Grego Applegate Edwards
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, Mystic Mountain: Trouble in the Carina Nebula
Here we have an EP of great electricity, improvisational strength, and the uninhibited free mayhem of the spacey, special sort we have come to expect from drummer-bandleader Marc Edwards and his Slipstream Time Travel band. The album is titled Mystic Mountain: Trouble in the Carina Nebula (JaZt TAPES CD-057). It was the band as it sounded live at The Pine Box in Brooklyn, last October 2015.
There is a mountain of sound to be heard here, perhaps the density of which at times is unprecedented. Marc of course occupies the drum chair and gives us his unparalleled, tempestuous virtuoso barrage of percussive significance. David Tamura adds a welcome and contrastively volcanic tenor sax. But then the threesome of Karl Alfonso Evangelista, Colin Sanderson and Alex Lozupone, the three on very high-crank electric guitars, Alex (who also is leader of the band Eighty-Pound Pug that I have happily covered here) on combo electric guitar and bass.
The three guitar onslaught creates extreme metal densities of a special, invigorating sort. What a sound they get. Marc and David are determined to create counterthrusts of sound and they do so nicely, but the guitars make for a highly psychedelic sort of present-day Ascension that floats and drives the music into a beautiful chaos like no other. This may be their most anarchically exhilarating album yet! And if you let yourself open to its insistence, I think you will find it drives you outward into a space that is infinitely over-the-top.
So, kudos! If you seek something polite, this one is not for you. But if a very electric freedom can motor your listening self, this one is tailor-made for such a trip. It's a great noise indeed!
For more info and to find out how to order this go to http://www.janstrom.se/7.-jazt-tapes-15468036
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards
Labels: electric avant jazz, marc edwards and slipstream time travel mystic mountain gapplegate guitar review, music for three electric guitars tenor and drums, very electric free jazz-metal
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By Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, Mystic Mountain: Trouble in the Carina Nebula
(JaZT Tapes 057; Sweden)
Featuring Marc Edwards on drums, David Tamura on tenor sax, Karl Alfonso Evangelista & Colin Sanderson on guitars and Alex Lozupone on electric guitar/bass combo.
Powerhouse drummer, Marc Edwards, was a member of the original David S. Ware Quartet 95 discs), the
Cecil Taylor Unit (1976), plus working with Paul Flaherty and Weasel Walter’s double band.
For the past decade, Mr Edwards has led his own band, Slipstream Time Travel, through a half dozen discs with varying personnel.
Mr. Edwards is obviously influenced by the science fiction & non-fiction of space travel, hence the name of his band, album and song titles. Edwards powerful drumming kicks off this disc on “Pre-Launch Preparations”, with
Dave Tamura’s tenor sax riding the waves on top and both guitars howling underneath. You should recognize Mr. Tamura’s name from his work with Jeff Shurdut, Dave Burrell and Joe Chonto in the last few years.
Both guitars and electric bassist all wail together in a blistering eruption with Mr. Edwards drums fanning the flames as the intensity grows higher and higher. Eventually the bass and drums break into a pounding groove while both
guitars spin layers of twisted lines together, the screaming sax riding the waves on top. For the third and last track, “Aftermath”, the guitarists break into a churning Hawkwind-like riff that which makes perfect sense since Hawkwind also embraced that space-travel mythology.
The only thing missing is one of chowderheads to scream out “Boogie!”, like they used todo at Hot Tuna concerts way back when. Almost too much but just enough to take us on that journey to the stars.
- Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
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CD - 59
Stensson / Ousbäck Duo
Swedish Pastry
Orkester Journalen, #3 2016
Jazt Tapes CD-059
Pianisten Carl Otto Ousbäck var under 1950-talet handledare i Västerås, sedan profil i Linköping. Kjell Stensson (på klarinett och flöjt) spelade under 1950-talet och 1960-talen med olika band hemma i Umeå. Mer vet jag inte.
Den här inspelningen från 1989 i Linköping är allra första mötet mellan de två.
Det hörs att de gillade varandra. Ljudet är inte det allra bästa men musiken flyger av spelglädje.
Ousbäck visar sig vara en utmärkt, bred och svängig pianist, som låter golvet gunga under den skarpa klarinetten. Kammarswing vi hört, visst, men älskansvärt. Sweet.
Överraskningen för mina öron var flöjtspelet, som gungar riktigt runt och fint.
Säkert finns det mer kleinkunst av det här snittet i arkiven.
Thomas Millroth
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CD - 061
EIGHTY-POUND PUG / ALEX LOZUPONE PROJECT
By Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
An EP, an LP and a Single (JaZt Tapes 061; Sweden)
Personnel includes: David Tamura on tenor & soprano sax, Ayumi Ishito on tenor & soprano sax, Stefan Zeniuk on bass sax, Elijah Shiffer on alto sax, Borts Minorts & Rock Savage on drums, et al.
Alex Lozupone’s ongoing collective are/is called Eighty-Pound Pug. The core personnel here are mainly a quartet with Lozupone on guitar/bass, David Tamura & Ayumi Ishito on tenor & soprano saxes and Paul Feitzinger on drums.
There are some 10 guests here some of whom are on one tracks, others who are half of the 12 tracks.
This disc was recorded at four different performance places in NYC. There is a certain ominous quality to this music which I find enticing at times and almost too much at other times. Vocalist Aubrey Smith bellows out her intense, squalling vocals, both impressive and disturbing.
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CD - 062
MARC EDWARDS & SLIPSTREAM TIME TRAVEL
There’s a Problem in the Keyhole Nebula!
(JaZT Tapes 062; Sweden)
By Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
Featuring Marc Edwards on drums, David Tamura on tenor sax, Takuma Kanaiwa & Colin Sanderson on electric guitars, Alex Lozupone & Gene Janas on electric basses and Lawry Zilmrah on bicycle wheel electronics.
This is an expanded version of Marc Edwards’ evolving ensemble: Slipstream Time Travel (SSTT), this time with seven members. The only musicians I recognize are David Tamura, Alex Lozupone and Gene Janas,some of whom have worked with Jeff Shurdut.
Oddly enough, unlike the other disc by SSTT reviewed today (8/18/16), this one starts out quietly with Mr. Tamura’s soulful tenor, restrained guitars, bass and drums drifting below.
This piece is called, “Sakura, Sakura” and it is based on a traditional Japanese folk song. This piece is actually solemn, something I have come to expect from Marc Edwards usually over-the top free/music insanity. It
doesn’t take very long for the crew to expand into more frenetic tidings, yet that melancholy vibes remains at the center of the storm somehow. Even with the turbulence swirling around the center, I found this piece most
moving, almost poignant.
There are times when I think that Mr. Edwards has a tendency to push or play too hard but this is never the case with his own band as his playing is the central force here, keeping everyone focused and inspired.
Marc Edwards has a vision of traveling the spaceways and doing it in a different way than the way Sun Ra did. This disc takes us on a great journey so dig in and go along for the ride!!
- Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
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CD - 032
"JIMMY LYONS A SESSIONOGRAPHY"
BY
STUART KREMSKY
THE REVIEW CORNER, USA
BY
FRANZ KRIEGER
JAZZ RESEARCH NEWS, AUSTRIA
BY
BOB RUSCH
CADENCE
BY
SVEN BOIJA
OJ, SWEDEN
BY
ALLAN SOMMER
JAZZ SPECIAL, DENMARK