Articles by Stuart Broomer
Kadima Collective
by Stuart Broomer
When you first come across the recordings on Kadima Collective, a couple of things stand out. The first is that the label, devoted to free improvisation, is based in Israel; secondly, there's a good chance that the CD will feature a bassist, often one of substantial international stature, like Barre Phillips, Mark Dresser or Joëlle Léandre. Those distinguishing marks can be traced to the founder of both the Kadima Collective and the eponymous label, Jean-Claude Jones, a ...
read moreErnesto Rodrigues / Guilherme Rodrigues / Carlos Santos / Andrew Drury: Eterno Retorno
by Stuart Broomer
Creative Sources is a Portuguese label largely devoted to free improvisation. Over the past decade it has released over 150 CDs, making it one of the most active labels devoted to a demanding genre. Founded by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, the label frequently documents his work, along with his regular musical partners. Eterno Retorno, recorded in Lisbon in 2007, presents a quartet with Rodrigues and two frequent collaborators--his son, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues, and electronic musician Carlos Santos, along with Brooklyn-based percussionist ...
read moreNate Wooley
by Stuart Broomer
Nate Wooley Trumpet/Amplifier Smeraldina-Rima 2010 Nate Wooley & Paul Lytton Creak above 33 psi 2010
Nate Wooley somehow maintains a relatively low profile among younger trumpeters, a group traditionally given an excess of attention, but it may just be that he's hard to pin down. His quality as a free improviser ...
read moreChris Lightcap: Deluxe
by Stuart Broomer
Bassist Chris Lightcap released a CD called Bigmouth on Fresh Sound-New Talent in 2003, featuring a quartet with drummer Gerald Cleaver and the unusual frontline of two tenor saxophonists, Tony Malaby and Bill McHenry. Seven years later, Lightcap returns to the concept, with “Bigmouth" now the name of the band rather than the CD. In the intervening period, the band and the concept have evolved considerably. Cleaver and Malaby are still present, but the second tenor saxophonist is now Chris ...
read moreJohn Hebert: Spiritual Lover
by Stuart Broomer
John Hébert's skills as a bassist have been amply apparent for several years, in projects that have called on rock-solid tone, time and pitch to imaginative free improvisation. But Byzantine Monkey (Clean Feed, 2009) demonstrated his substantial talents as a composer and bandleader, fronting a quintet/sextet dense in reeds and percussion. On Spiritual Lover he's taken a different tack, leading a trio with French pianist Benoît Delbecq (adding clavinet and analogue synth) and drummer Gerald Cleaver. Hébert ...
read morePeter Van Huffel: Like the Rusted Key
by Stuart Broomer
Peter Van Huffel is a Canadian-born alto saxophonist who recently settled in Berlin after a six-year period in New York. His new quartet reflects all of those geographic connections, bringing together New York pianist Jesse Stacken, a mainstay of Van Huffel's New York quintet, Canadian bassist Miles Perkin, and the Swiss-born, Berlin-resident drummer Samuel Rohrer. To call Van Huffel a composer, in the casual parlance of jazz, is almost a misnomer. He really composes; almost every piece ...
read moreAmir ElSaffar / Hafez Modirzadeh: Radif Suite
by Stuart Broomer
This is an illuminating meeting between musicians who share similar cultural background and creative directions. Trumpeter Amir ElSaffar is an Iraqi-American whose work has fused elements of jazz and the maqam music of Iraq. His CD-length suite from 2007, Two Rivers, was a triumph of synthesis and vision. Tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh is an older Iranian-American who has worked with jazz forms and Persian dastgah to develop his own tonal system that he dubs “chromodal," suggesting perhaps the “harmolodics" of ...
read moreKurt Rosenwinkel: Reflections
by Stuart Broomer
Kurt Rosenwinkel has a well-earned reputation for aggressive guitar playing that's both rhythmically astute and harmonically exploratory, a talent that he's applied with Mark Turner and Brad Mehldau as well as with hiphop producer Q-Tip. With Reflections, he has reined in his sometimes-divergent impulses for an unusual collection of standards and tunes by Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter that's almost all at ballad tempo, with the sturdy support and interaction of bassist Eric Revis and drummer Eric Harland.
read moreKomeda Project: Requiem
by Stuart Broomer
Krzysztof Komeda is a figure of immense significance in Polish jazz, in effect the musician who both gave it its original authentic voice and marked its place in the world. In the 15 years before his death in 1969, Komeda was active as bandleader and film composer, scoring films by Roman Polanski like Two Men and a Wardrobe and Rosemary's Baby. Clearly influenced by Miles Davis, Bill Evans and John Coltrane, he found a profound affinity between modal jazz and ...
read moreAlberto Pinton / Jonas Kulhammar / Torbjorn Zetterberg / Kjell Nordeson: Chant
by Stuart Broomer
This beefy quartet was drawn from existing Stockholm bands by baritone saxophonist/clarinetist Alberto Pinton at the suggestion of Clean Feed producer Pedro Costa. As bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg describes it in his liner note, it's half of his octet, half of tenor and baritone saxophonist Jonas Kullhammar's quartet, half of Kullhammar and drummer Kjell Nordeson's quartet Nacka Forum and more than half of Pinton's quintet. The group that emerges from three days of live recording in Coimbra, Portugal is a free-bop ...
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