Articles by Pat Youngspiel
Mark Turner and Jason Palmer: Not Even The Sky Is The Limit
by Pat Youngspiel
The independent non-profit label Giant Step Arts continues to cultivate its narrow but highly selective roster of top-tier players with new live recordings by label-regulars Mark Turner and Jason Palmer. Each has been a part of the other's quartet for several years at this point, endowing their respective projects with the unifying contours of their idiosyncratically written-out horn parts and signature designs in improvisation. Here, Mark Turner is heard as the sole horn player in a newly formed quartet on ...
Continue ReadingJason Robinson: Ancestral Numbers II
by Pat Youngspiel
Jason Robinson's Ancestral Numbers is “a sound meditation on genealogy and family history" and will comprise an “ongoing series of compositions for varying instrumentation." “I" and “II" are merely the starting point for an intimate investigation into the depths of the saxophonist's family tree, set in motion shortly after the passing of Robinson's grandmother. Accompanying the saxophonist/composer on this personal endeavour is a cast of top-drawer players, including Drew Gress on bass, Michael Dessen on trombone, pianist Joshua White and ...
Continue ReadingOctober 2024: Vinyl Special
by Pat Youngspiel
Each of the following six recordings has been issued in a state-of-the-art vinyl pressing that does justice to the quality of the music it contains. In an age where the physical medium is in radical decline, these editions can be considered reminders of the additional value a work of art is given, when one can hold it in their hands, also admiring the editorial work that goes into its creation. There are no re-issues among these albums, but exclusively freshly ...
Continue ReadingLafayette Gilchrist: Undaunted
by Pat Youngspiel
On Undaunted Washington D.C.-raised and Baltimore-educated pianist Lafayette Gilchrist continues his idiosyncratically swinging trajectory with deep grooves, memorable lines and the gritty, unapologetic type of interplay that first brought him international acclaim on the 2004 recording The Music According To Lafayette Gilchrist. Few will have forgotten the catchy track “Assume The Position" off that album, used prominently in the popular David Simon-produced series “The Wire." Some of the funkier, more electric bits in his writing have been replaced with a ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet: For Mahalia, With Love
by Pat Youngspiel
Moving on chronologically from George Washington Carver--the African-American musician and influential agricultural scientist to whom James Brandon Lewis' previous recording with the Red Lily Quintet, Jesup Wagon (Tao Forms 2021), was dedicated--For Mahalia, With Love continues the pattern of paying homage to influential Afro-Americans who, in their own way, changed the course of history. This album's dedicatee is the early gospel queen Mahalia Jackson, whose seminal performances lit a spark in the saxophonist's grandmother; she in turn carried the spark ...
Continue ReadingSpecial Clean Feed Records Edition
by Pat Youngspiel
For this Six Picks special, we're taking a closer look at selection of the fine recordings released by the Lisbon, Portugal-based Clean Feed label in 2023. There are many idioms in improvised music and the avant-garde today still leaves plenty of room for new discoveries, which is clearly in evidence here, Vine Leaf Tales Of Senses Clean Feed 2023 Try listening to the first couple of bars of “Tale One," the almost half ...
Continue ReadingOctober 2023: An Improvised Paradise
by Pat Youngspiel
The Angelica Sanchez Nonet Nighttime Creatures Pyroclastic Records 2023 One rarely gets to hear the contra-alto clarinet--an instrument mainly developed in the 20th century with a range extending downwards to the lower E-flat (concert G-flat), sometimes even a D or a C. On the introductory title cut of Nighttime Creatures, however, it is in plain sight, roaring through the stumbling avant-garde piece with its thunderous register like a bull in a china shop. Only here, ...
Continue ReadingBlankFor.ms - Jason Moran - Marcus Gilmore: Refract
by Pat Youngspiel
Electroacoustic music gains a new modern perspective with the sonic marvel that is Refract, a collaborative effort between degraded tapes artist Tyler Gilmore, aka BlankFor.ms, pianist Jason Moran and Marcus Gilmore on drums. An experimental series of sketched shapes featuring hovering loops turned sound- blankets, drum-set turned beat-machine and piano turned keyboard-impressionism, Refract's largely improvised fabric makes for one of the year's most adventurous and intriguing listens. Recorded with producer Sun Chung, the sonic properties are a focal ...
Continue ReadingMark Turner Quartet: Live At The Village Vanguard
by Pat Youngspiel
Mark Turner's Live At The Village Vanguard follows a year after the saxophonist's critically acclaimed second quartet offering for the ECM label Return From The Stars (2022) and features the same group, containing live cuts of the entirety of that record. The title track “Return From The Stars," “Terminus," “Bridgetown," “Nigeria 2," “Lincoln Heights," “It's Not Alright With Me," “Wasteland" and “Unnacceptable" are taken from the album and given new guises in these vibrant live renditions. Also included are “Brother ...
Continue ReadingAugust 2023
by Pat Youngspiel
PJEV-Kit Downes-Hayden Chisholm Medna Roso Red Hook 2023 With the third release on his Red Hook label it is becoming increasingly clear that producer Sun Chung isn't trying to box his label's musical output into any specific jazz styling or avant-garde field of experimentation, but rather that music can and should be regarded as exempt of any semiotic stigmatization. After the powerful piano solo statement of Masabumi Kikuchi on Hanamichi (2021) and the award-winning electro-acoustic ...
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