Results for "Free"

Chris Kelsey

Born: June 5, 1961

In the 1990s, soprano saxophonist Chris Kelsey was a fixture on the Downtown New York scene, his fiery yet lissome horn lighting up the neighborhood’s bars and galleries—most notably the Knitting Factory, then the world’s epicenter of experimental music. He also chronicled the scene as a journalist, writing and reviewing for Cadence, Jazziz, JazzTimes, and more. His pen was as fearless as his music.

Then, in the early aughts, Kelsey stepped away.

The cultural aftershocks of 9/11 were a devastating blow to the Downtown scene. Venues like the Knitting Factory wilted and died. Kelsey’s live appearances became rare. By the late 2010s, he had stopped writing about jazz entirely. Many assumed he’d left the music behind.

Luego un Rio

Active since: 2020

Luego un río ("Then a River"), a collective jazz trio based in Rosario, Argentina. The group, formed in 2020 consists of Mariano Súarez (cornet), Fermín Suárez (double bass) and Alex Javier Reiner (drums).
Through the compositions and the improvisations the group tries to create an interactive and dynamic environment, a soundscape where the influences —ranging from the jazz tradition and modern masters, passing through singer-songwriters, to European Jazz and noise; mix themselves without losing the introspective quality.

Paul Rodgers: Midnight Rose

by Doug Collette
February 24, 2024

It is a travesty that Paul Rodgers is not a household name. Despite considerable commercial success with English bluesrockers Free ("All Right Now") and Bad Company, plus his high-profile associations with Queen and guitarist Jimmy Page (in the band dubbed 'the Firm'), the British-Canadian vocalist, musician & songwriter remains a somewhat unsung figure in the annals ...

Albert King: Born Under A Bad Sign (SACD)

by Doug Collette
May 13, 2023

Originally released in the psychedelicized year of 1967, the altogether earthy blues recording that is Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign may have gone over the heads of those succumbing to flower power during the Summer of Love. Nevertheless, it made an impression on those who were learning to dote on the genre, many of ...

Gentiane MG

Born: February 26, 1992

Pianist and composer Gentiane MG has established herself as an important voice as a Canadian jazz composer. She made a powerful impression on Montreal’s jazz scene with her two albums for piano trio, Eternal Cycle (2017) and Wonderland (2019). MG is releasing her third album with this ensemble, Walls Made of Glass, on September 23, 2022. MG’s trio has received several awards, including the OPUS Award for Discovery of the Year (2020), the CBC/Radio-Canada Jazz Award (2018) and the François-Marcaurelle de la GMMQ Award (2017). Eternal Cycle was highlighted by CBC Music as one of 10 outstanding Canadian jazz albums of 2017. MG has played in Canada, Mexico, China, Ivory Coast, and Germany  alongside musicians such as Christine Jensen, Andre White, Yannick Rieu, Jim Doxas, , Jean-Michel Pilc and Ira Coleman, and released a duo album entitled Convergence with saxophonist Frank Lozano.

Joost Lijbaart: Free

by Mark Sullivan
February 4, 2021

When a drummer/percussionist records a solo album—especially one with the title Free—a potential listener's first expectation would likely involve long, abstract drum solos. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dutch musician Joost Lijbaart took the opportunity offered by Covid-19 downtime to craft a suite of short pieces characterized by a rich variety of timbres (including ...

Free

By Joost Lijbaart

Label: Challenge Records
Released: 2020
Track listing: Strangers From The Sky; Velocity; Corona Spiritual; Half Moon; Twinkling Night; Dreamtime; Manhood; Talking Trees; Niaga; Saman; Interstellar; Solitude; Free.

Joost Lijbaart: Free

by Ian Patterson
December 10, 2020

As a student in the 1980s, Dutch drummer-percussionist Joost Lijbaart first dreamt of making a solo album, inspired by the examples of Tony Oxley, Pierre Favre, Art Blakey, Max Roach and Jack DeJohnette. A successful recording and touring career with Yuri Honing—and with his own groups—left little time for such a focused project. In 2014, Lijbaart ...

Nebula

Nebula is a young band from Groningen, The Netherlands, playing entirely improvised music. The quartet likes to dive into the alchemy of sounds and discover new possibilities within the realm of instant composing. The band got together whilst studying Jazz at the Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen, with the desire to improvise without any rules or restrictions. Letting go of the concepts and ideals they were taught enabled them to cultivate their own sound. Naturally, the focus of Nebula has always been live shows. The purpose of the band is to go into a new auditory universe, bringing their audiences with them. Describing their sound can be quite difficult because of the eclectic and ever-changing character of the music

Fred Tompkins

Born: May 26, 1943

Fred Tompkins was born in St. Louis in 1943. After high school he played tenor saxophone in and around his home town for several years before beginning the formal study of music at the St. Louis Insitute of Music, in 1964. By this time his strongest influences were jazz artists such as John Coltrane, Art Blakey, and the Jazz Messengers and the M.J.Q., and classical composers such as Paul Hindemith and Béla Bartók.

His earliest compositions, as originally recorded on the album, Compositions of Fred Tompkins, showed a natural tendency to combine those genres into his own style. Some of the pieces tended to exploit a dramatic contrast between genres, but soon the transitions became smoother and the styles more synthesized. The best of those early pieces and the best pieces from his subsequent and more fully developed album of 1975, Somesville, can now be heard on the compilation CD, FANFARE 8, The Early Works. [NOTE: The videos uploaded on AAJ represent Tompkins' free improv style of performance; to hear samples of his compositions, please visit the CD page on his website: http://www.tompkinsjazz.com/albums/]