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MAP: Six Improvisations for Guitar, Bass and Drums
by Michael A. Parker
This a fresh and valuable document of the current underground avant-garde improvisation scene in New York, offered in minimal, attractive packaging and self-released on a small scale by Tatsuya Nakatani, the most well-known and widely-published musician of the trio. The only time I've heard Mary Halvorson previously was in a performance of MP3, drummer Mike Pride's ...
Carol Genetti: The Shattering
by Michael A. Parker
Here we have a CD of live performances from Baltimore’s High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music 2000, centered around one of the most noteworthy participants. The festival is somewhat unique in that the lineup for each performance in the festival is chosen by the organizers. The disc features 4 short pieces that were privately recorded ...
Joe McPhee: Mr. Peabody Goes to Baltimore
by Michael A. Parker
Here we have a CD of live performances from Baltimore’s High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music 2000, centered around one of the most noteworthy participants. I think the word “experimental” really carries some weight here, because although most improvisation is inherently predicated on the pursuit of new musical ideas, even highly celebrated examples of improvisation ...
Marc Bisson and Katt Hernandez (Bop Ants): Seven Gingambobs
by Michael A. Parker
Much as one might expect from the title, this is a disc of strange, alien soundings from amplified violin and prepared electric guitar. Katt Hernandez's violin playing is much more raw and exploratory here than on the magnificent Chamber Music CD by Dan Dechellis, and Marc Bisson's familiar post-Rowe guitar palette here is almost exclusively composed ...
Joe Fonda: When It's Time
by Michael A. Parker
It would be a mistake to try and situate this record in a continuum of solo bass works that have been created in the past 30 years, starting with Barre Philips and Motoharu Yoshizawa's work in the late 60's.Joe Fonda is not on some kind of mission to redefine the bass and its role ...
David S. Ware: Live In The Netherlands
by Michael A. Parker
It really suffices to simply say that this is David S. Ware's first solo recording. It's important. And it's just what you would expect: just take his quartet and leave out the other three players; Ware is essentially always soloing when he plays, no matter who he's with. Actually, because I've always found the interactions between ...
Mauro Avanzini/Claudio Capurro/Claudio Lugo/Cristina Alioto: La Volta Del Suono
by Michael A. Parker
This is a must-hear for anyone interested in otherworldly acoustic phenomena due to architecture. Three saxophonists and a female vocalist performed this continuous improvisation in a “famous historical palace” in Genoa, Italy. The 44 minutes fly right by with the range of surprising acoustic effects that pop out at every turn. Each time I listen to ...
Mika Pohjola and Yusuke Yamamoto (Splasch: Sound of Village
by Michael A. Parker
It’s pretty rare to hear free improvisation by mainstream jazzers, but that’s what we have here. This is not the more familiar sort of avant-garde improvisation where the musicians transcend their technique by immersion in the moment of performance, but rather a light-hearted romp through the pleasant cliches of two skillful musicians. Nevertheless, while Pohjola’s keen ...
Vinny Golia Quintet: Nation of Laws
by Michael A. Parker
We don’t even make it past the first four minutes of this disc without Nels Cline exploding with some of his characteristic unheard sounds on electric guitar, and towards the 9 minute mark of this same first piece, there’s an incredible merging of voices between Nels Cline’s guitar and Vinny Golia’s clarinet. However, this disc is ...
Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble: Live in Greenfield, Massachusets November 20, 1999
by Michael A. Parker
It takes a while to get a grip on a recording like this. After having spent such “a while” absorbing this sprawling 2CD set, I’m willing to claim that this is one of the most important documents of Jazz in the past ten years. It represents a virtuosic synthesis of composition and improvisation, and of conventional ...