Jazz Articles

Joe McPhee: Angels, Devils & Haints

by Kurt Gottschalk
May 13, 2009

Angels, Devils & Haints is a beautifully unusual tribute record. The project was conceived by saxophonist Joe McPhee as a tribute to the great Albert Ayler, but doesn't include any of Ayler's tunes. The lineup--McPhee (tenor and alto saxophones and pocket trumpet) with a quartet of bassists--isn't an instrumentation Ayler ever used. And yet, from the outset, the dedication is wonderfully apparent. McPhee bifurcates the two principal elements of Ayler's sound, the soulful sax cry and the ...

Joe McPhee: Angels, Devils & Haints

by Lyn Horton
April 29, 2009

In 1965, Joe McPhee met Donald Ayler by chance in a New York record store. Ayler asked McPhee to join him at a rehearsal where Albert Ayler would be, but unfortunately McPhee was unable to make the rehearsal. That missed opportunity triggered a powerful response in May 2000, when McPhee invited a group of musicians to join him for two concerts in France, entitling them The Albert Ayler Project 2000. Angels, Devils & Haints, a two-volume recording, is the result ...

The C.T. String Quartet: Reqiphoenix Nexus

by Lyn Horton
January 23, 2007

The key difference between the resonance of stringed instruments and the saxophone, to pick one example, is due to the material of the respective instruments. Wood boxes vibrate as a result of the strings being attacked and muted; metal vibrates as a result of embouchure, breath and the opening and shutting of valves. That difference illuminates much of this recording. The continuously bowed strokes of the first part of Reqiphoenix Nexus immediately wrap you into a powerful resonance radiating from ...

Michael Bisio / Raymond Boni / Dominic Duval / Joe McPhee: Port of Saints

by Lyn Horton
December 24, 2006

The unvarnished truth about improvised music is that it takes us where we never expect to go. Port of Saints describes an epic journey whose main character is the saxophone. A guitar acts as the saxophone's alter ego. Two basses supply avuncular guide posts for traveling to an unknowable but certain destination. The journey is rife both with fantasy and human spirit.

Raymond Boni evokes an extra-terrestrial ambiance through his uniquely overt and detailed approach to the electric guitar. Repeatedly, ...

The Slam Trio: In the Stillhouse (Live)

by Kurt Gottschalk
May 11, 2006

For all his efforts organizing the Sunday night COMA concert series in Manhattan's Lower East Side, saxophonist Blaise Siwula is underdocumented on record. But he did get away long enough in 2004 to do a three-day New England tour with a strong trio alongside bassist Adam Lane and drummer Toshi Makihara. The last night, in Portland Maine, was captured on tape and put out by Cadence, which has released four other Siwula sessions. And from the sounds ...

Quintet Moderne: WellSprings Suite

by AAJ Staff
November 24, 2005

By Ken Waxman

Made up of two generations of accomplished improvisers, Quintet Moderne is an all-star European Union aggregation that adapts the conventions of so-called jazz and so-called serious music to its own ends. This way, as it shows on this almost seventy-minute recording, it produces a suite of breathtaking force, encompassing musical complexity--yet still accessible to any but the most hidebound. Quintet Moderne consists of trombonist Paul Rutherford, Finnish bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, drummer Paul Lovens, soprano saxophonist ...

Steve Swell: Slammin' the Infinite

by AAJ Staff
November 18, 2005

By Ken Waxman

A note from New York's Lower East Side underground, this fine session shows that the spirit of experimentation still shines brightly whether the sounds are called avant-garde, the new thing, or ecstatic jazz.

Two Little Huey Creative Orchestra members, trombonist Steve Swell and reedist Sabir Mateen, are featured on Slammin' the Infinite. Matt Heyner, the bassist on the date, is in the TEST collective with Mateen. Only German-born drummer Klaus Kugel isn't a ...

Steve Swell: Slammin' the Infinite

by Brian P. Lonergan
June 13, 2005

Trombonist Steve Swell's latest album is an appealing free jazz set, by turns reflective and raucous. Swell's original compositions are brought to life by the animated playing of his quartet, which includes Sabir Mateen on reeds and flute, Matthew Heyner on bass, and Klaus Kugel on drums.

The opening track of Slammin' the Infinite, “With the Morning, Hope, typifies the approach of the quartet throughout the album. An unaccompanied trombone solo begins the piece, gradually joined by the other instruments. ...

Greene/Silva/Friedman/Winter/Walker: Free Form Improvisation Ensemble

by Derek Taylor
February 1, 2000

Calendar dates and the inceptions of musical styles don’t always mix. When was the actual birth of bebop? When was the definitive beginning of fusion? Specific dates are not readily applicable to these historic milestones mainly because musical revolutions rarely transpire in strictly linear progressions. In the absence of absolute dates recordings are often assigned the distinction of denoting when styles surfaced. The work of the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble (FFIE) gathered on this disc is widely regarded among those ...

Frode Gjerstad Quartet: Ikosa Mura

by Derek Taylor
December 1, 1999

Saxophonist Frode Gjerstad has become increasingly prolific over the past few years thanks in part to the number of accolades he's managed to accumulate in both his native Norway and internationally. Principle among these awards was his winning the illustrious title of Norwegian Jazz Musician of the Year in 1998. The distinction brought not only prestige, but also resources, which have allowed Gjerstad to continue realizing his goals including performing and recording with a diverse array of European and American ...