Articles by Jeff Stockton
Reeds&Drums: Brö-D & Animal Grace
by Jeff Stockton
Peter Brotzmann & Hamid Drake Brö-D Bro 2010 Kali. Z. Fasteau Animal Grace Flying Fish 2010
Does Peter Brötzmann ever give a performance that isn't recorded? He shows up with his saxophones and tarogato, they roll tape and presto, there's another album. And since Brötzmann's approach hasn't really changed, ...
read moreAnthony Braxton: Creative Orchestra (Koln) 1978
by Jeff Stockton
Jazz is often viewed as a progressive art form, one that by its very nature is constantly changing and reinventing itself. The paradox is that change isn't always what the audience wants to hear, so it frequently takes awhile simply to catch up. Such seems to be the case with the music of Anthony Braxton, one of music's most demanding theorists as well as a prolific talent whose well of creativity seems bottomless. In 2009 Mosaic compiled and issued a ...
read moreArt Pepper: Unreleased Art Volume 4: The Art History Project
by Jeff Stockton
In her liner notes to Volume IV of the Art History Project, Art Pepper's widow describes him as a self-hating, alcoholic sex addict who turned to heroin in order to suppress these tendencies. Second only to Charlie Parker in the DownBeat polls of the day, nobody played alto saxophone as smooth and cool as Art Pepper. Unreleased Art, a three-disc set comprised of two-thirds never-before released material, traces Pepper's life in music from his golden era in the '50s through ...
read moreFred Anderson: Birthday Live 2000 and 21st Century Chase
by Jeff Stockton
Fred Anderson Trio Birthday Live 2000 Asian Improv 2009 Fred Anderson 21st Century Chase Delmark 2009
Of all the players who have come through Fred Anderson's training ground in Chicago, none has been more closely identified with him than drummer Hamid Drake. But as demand for Drake's services has ...
read moreFree Jazz Saxophone: Daniel Carter/ Paul Flaherty and Sabir Mateen
by Jeff Stockton
Daniel Carter / Paul Flaherty / Randall Colbourne A Flash in the Sky Glass Museum 2010 Sabir Mateen Urdla XXX Rogueart 2010
Daniel Carter and Paul Flaherty are two of the most ruggedly individualistic players in the free jazz genre. They live modestly and they aren't very well known. ...
read moreLive In Montreux 1996
by Jeff Stockton
Wayne ShorterLive at Montreux 1996 Eagle Eye Media2009
Wayne Shorter may look 20 years younger than 76, but he is quite simply one of the last giants, every bit as influential and artistically significant as Sonny Rollins, perhaps second only to John Coltrane when one considers his compositions and just how many of them have become jazz standards. Much of Shorter's legendary artistic output dates from the ...
read moreTony Malaby: Voladores, Houria
by Jeff Stockton
Tony Malaby's Apparitions Voladores Clean Feed 2009 Stephane Kerecki Trio with Tony Malaby Houria Zig Zag Territoires 2009
Since arriving in NYC about 15 years ago,Tony Malaby, through a series of fortuitous (and well-chosen) associations (including Marty Ehrlich and Mario Pavone, among others) as well as spots in Charlie Haden's Liberation ...
read moreNicole Mitchell: Renegades, Anaya, Collective Creativity
by Jeff Stockton
Nicple Mitchell's Black Earth Strings Renegades Delmark 2009 Indigo Trio Anaya Rogue Art 2009 Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Collective Creativity 3 Sixteen Records 2009
To call Nicole Mitchell the preeminent jazz flutist working in jazz today would be too limiting. Amid the ...
read moreMike Reed's People, Places & Things: About Us
by Jeff Stockton
Mike Reed's People, Places & Things was conceived as a band dedicated to reviving and expanding on aspects of the Chicago jazz scene of the late 1950s, bringing a fresh approach and contemporary ideas to the music of that era. About Us continues in that vein, but as the title states, its focus is more on the band itself. Although led by a drummer, this piano-less quartet puts the dynamics in the hands of saxophonists Tim Haldeman (tenor) and Greg ...
read moreRob Brown Trio: Live at Firehouse 12
by Jeff Stockton
Alto saxophonist Rob Brown has the lean physique and worried forehead of a typical free jazz improviser, but through his associations with the leading forces of the downtown scene (including Matthew Shipp and, most fruitfully, William Parker) he has positioned himself as an in-demand sideman as well as a creative and ear-catching leader. He has been a mainstay in the groups put together by Parker and has arguably done his most intensely impressive work with the Quartet, as well as ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 7
