Articles by Mark Corroto
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante: The Sound of Raspberry
by Mark Corroto
This LP may be the revelation of 2025--or a sonic ordeal, depending on your tolerance for noise and your grasp of history. Japanese drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Mexican saxophonist Martín Escalante met at the perfect moment in December 2023 to record 14 tracks at Tokyo's Bar Aja. The result, The Sound of Raspberry, is the love child of punk rock and free jazz, fed through a grinder and pulverizer until nothing but raw nerve remains. The sound is head-spinning, in ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenón Quartet: Vanguardia Subterránea: Live at The Village Vanguard
by Mark Corroto
The perfect sports analogy for saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón might just be baseball legend Roberto Clemente. Both were born in Puerto Rico, and both are revered as masters of their respective crafts. Clemente was a perennial All-Star, a World Series MVP, a Gold Glove winner and a National League batting champion. Zenón, for his part, has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur “genius" grant and a Doris Duke Artist Award. He is frequently recognized as alto saxophonist ...
Continue ReadingNeil Charles Quartet: Dark Days
by Mark Corroto
In 2025, amid global unrest and political fracture, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom can feel like a distant dream, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream" speech like a myth from a gentler past. Has social media, with all its noise and manipulations, induced a kind of societal amnesia? Has King's “arc of the moral universe" begun to bend backward under the weight of cynicism and fatigue? If your glass is half empty, ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado / Chris Corsano: The Healing
by Mark Corroto
Imagine the blank canvas that tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado and drummer Chris Corsano set out to fill in this live recording from Lisbon, Portugal's ZDB in September 2016. Between them, they have nearly three hundred recordings and three times as many performances--an arsenal of sounds, textures, and ideas ready for deployment. Their orbits often intersect: Amado leading his Motion Trio, The Attic, The Bridge and collaborating with Luís Lopes, Alexander von Schlippenbach, among others; Corsano sharing stages and studios with ...
Continue ReadingShifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders: Ecliptic
by Mark Corroto
Some books are divided into chapters--numbered, titled, and carefully structured. The musical equivalent is the tracklist: segmented, labeled pieces presented in order. But Ecliptic by the trio Shifa (شفاء, Arabic for “healing") rejects that format entirely. This 46-minute set of improvised music by saxophonist Rachel Musson, pianist Pat Thomas and drummer Mark Sanders unfolds without titles, track divisions, or breaks. It is a single, uninterrupted performance recorded live at London's Café OTO in February 2023. Like their previous ...
Continue ReadingOlie Brice Quartet: All It Was
by Mark Corroto
Bassist Olie Brice wears the title of Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside with remarkable ease. Equally adept in free improvisation and structured composition, Brice moves fluidly between extremes. His work with improvisers such as Tobias Delius and Mark Sanders on Somersaults (Two Rivers, 2015), or with Paul Dunmall on The Laughing Stone (Confront, 2023), exemplifie his outside approach. Meanwhile, his release Fire Hills (West Hill, 2022), where he composed material for both trio and octet, showcases his talents on the more structured ...
Continue ReadingMuriel Grossmann: MGQ Live Im King Georg, Köln
by Mark Corroto
Muriel Grossmann has firmly established herself in the realm of spiritual groove jazz. With her 19th release as a leader, the Paris-born, Vienna-raised saxophonist--now based in Spain--presents her first live recording. Joined by her long-standing ensemble MGQ, which features Serbian-born guitarist Radomir Milojkovic and drummer Uros Stamenkovic, along with Spanish Hammond B3 organist Abel Boquera, the quartet delivers a fiery set: twelve extended tracks on the CD version and seven on the LP. The music was captured on ...
Continue ReadingGabriele Mitelli Three Tsuru Origami: Colapesce
by Mark Corroto
The second release from Gabriele Mitelli's Three Tsuru Origami ensemble shifts from the literal to the symbolic, expanding both in concept and personnel. Their debut, Three Tsuru Origami (We Insist!, 2022), was a meditation on birds and migration. This follow-up, Colapesce, draws inspiration from the 12th-century Sicilian legend of a half-man, half-fish who sacrifices himself to save his island. The tale, a fixture of Mediterranean folklore, resurfaced in pop culture through the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet, in which ...
Continue ReadingKeefe Jackson / Jakob Heinemann / Adam Shead: Stinger
by Mark Corroto
Stinger marks the debut release from the trio of saxophonist Keefe Jackson, bassist Jakob Heinemann and drummer Adam Shead. Yet, from the cohesion and interplay captured on this recording, it is clear these three musicians have collaborated extensively. The group exemplifies the Chicago ethos of collective creation--both in compositional approach and improvisational execution. Jackson and Heinemann each contribute three compositions, while Shead handles the sound mixing, graphic design, and overall production, underscoring the project's collaborative spirit. Jackson has ...
Continue ReadingSean Ali: Quartets For Plucked Strings
by Mark Corroto
Listening to Quartets for Plucked Strings without knowing its backstory poses no obstacle. The music invites you to follow your imagination. Sean Ali, best known as a bassist, composer, and improviser, shifts focus on this release, trading his acoustic bass for three mandolins and a steel-string acoustic guitar. While his previous solo effort, A Blink in the Sun (Neither/Nor Records, 2021), highlighted the bass in exploratory detail, this new project adopts a multitracked ensemble approach--Ali becoming his own quartet. Composition ...
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