Articles by Free Improv / Avant-Garde

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L'avventuroso mondo di Patricia Brennan

by Angelo Leonardi
November 9, 2026

La presenza di Patricia Brennan ai vertici del jazz più innovativo è il risultato di un percorso artistico in costante evoluzione. Vibrafonista e compositrice di origine messicana, Brennan si è affermata negli ultimi anni come una delle personalità più originali della scena contemporanea. La sua musica mette in relazione una ricerca strumentale audace, una scrittura articolata e una sensibilità ritmica profondamente radicata nelle tradizioni musicali latinoamericane. Il suo percorso riflette inoltre tre fenomeni significativi del jazz del nuovo millennio: la ...

Multiple Reviews

Patricia Brennan e Sylvie Courvoisier: una partnership ai vertici dell'innovazione

by Angelo Leonardi
November 9, 2026

A distanza di alcuni mesi uno dall'altro vedono la luce due significative collaborazioni tra la vibrafonista Patricia Brennan e la pianista Sylvie Courvoisier: il primo, Talamanti, è un disco in duo mentre il secondo, Amalthea, documenta la musica di un quartetto completato da Thomas Morgan al contrabbasso e Dan Weiss alla batteria. Il sodalizio tra le due artiste risale a qualche anno fa ed ha avuto un'uscita pubblica alla Jazz Gallery di New York nel marzo 2023, ...

Live Review

Arcanum at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, Oslo

by Artur Moral
October 20, 2026

Arcanum Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene Oslo, Norway October 9, 2026 Forget the hermetic allusions suggested by their name; forget the content of their first and only album, even though part of their live set is based on it; and forget, above all, preconceived notions about national characteristics and artistic approaches. An Arcanum performance shatters every stereotype and established mold we might associate with its members, its music, or the stylistic identity of the label that houses ...

Take Five With...

Take Five with Multi-instrumentalist MTNLLY

by AAJ Staff
October 20, 2026

MTNLLY is a Nottingham, UK-based independent jazz artist whose music inhabits the space between atmosphere, introspection, and narrative. Rather than treating jazz simply as a musical language, MTNLLY approaches it as a vehicle for storytelling, using mood, texture, and composition to explore memory, emotion, solitude, and the complexities of human experience. All About Jazz: What instruments do you play? MTNLLY: I mainly play saxophone and piano, but I also play guitar and drums. In primary school, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Camila Nebbia/Exhaust, Michael Moss & Trio Imagination

by Maurice Hogue
October 19, 2026

Trio 3 received much praise in its 35 years of creating great music, but when saxophonist Oliver Lake decided to retire from performing due to health reasons, bassist Reggie Workman & drummer Andrew Cyrille needed to find a third member. They had asked pianist David Virelles to join them at one point, magic happened, and so the two masters decided to make it permanent. The debut of the new Trio Imagination on their new Creative Inspiration is filled with brilliant ...

Radio & Podcasts

Joe Hertenstein, Alexander Von Schlippenbach & John Coltrane

by Maurice Hogue
October 12, 2026

New releases from Germany this week should attract interest--drummer Joe Hertenstein (often seen in New York) debuts the second release of his Future Drone trio, this time with Anthony Coleman on Hammond B3!!; pianist and father of the European avant-garde Alexander Von Schlippenbach rips it up with a much younger quartet; and the Blumer-Morgenthaler Quartet debuts. Satoko Fujii's Korekara displays the talents of her rowdy Orchestra Nagoya, while for a completely contrasting mood, listen to the music on saxophonist David ...

Live Review

XVI Brda Contemporary Music Festival

by Neri Pollastri
October 6, 2026

Brda Contemporary Music Festival Sala Cinematografica Medana, Memoriale Gradnik e Zorzut Medana, Slovenia 10-12 settembre 20246 Sedicesima edizione per il Brda Contemporary Music Festival, la rassegna voluta e diretta da Zlatko Kaučič sui colli sloveni adiacenti al nostro Collio e interamente dedicata alla musica improvvisata nelle sue forme più radicali. Apertasi nel tardo pomeriggio di giovedì 10 settembre, come ogni anno la manifestazione era articolata su tre giorni e includeva due workshop aperti a ogni ...

Jazz Raconteurs

Julius Hemphill: Marty Ehrlich and Tim Berne Remember a Musical Visionary

by Dave Kaufman
September 20, 2026

Julius Hemphill, a brilliant alto saxophonist and extraordinary composer, was a towering figure in avant-garde jazz and creative music. Yet his body of work remains surprisingly little known, even among aficionados of this sort of adventurous music. Hemphill's music demonstrated a deep feeling for the blues and other African American traditions. His creative vision extended well beyond jazz performance, incorporating chamber music, theater, dance, and other forms of artistic expression. Hemphill came of age during a period when Black experimental ...

Live Review

Summer Bummer 2026

by John Sharpe
September 10, 2026

Summer Bummer 2026 Trix, Antwerp Belgium August 28-29, 2026 Intro The 11th edition of the Summer Bummer festival more than lived up to the promise of the mouth-watering bill, presenting a wide variety of experimental music without fealty to any particular genre. While Summer Bummer inevitably tips its hat to the local Belgian improvised music scene, it is notable for bringing in projects not routinely heard elsewhere, including one world premiere. Trix--more often a rock ...

Live Review

Terre Sonore 2026

by Libero Farnè
September 3, 2026

Terre Sonore 2026 Vari luoghi Provincia d Pesaro e Urbino 1--31 agosto 2026 “Un'esperienza collettiva, un festival in movimento che attraversa la provincia di Pesaro e Urbino come un filo invisibile capace di cucire insieme paesaggi, suoni e storie, ...in cui il territorio diventa il vero protagonista: un palcoscenico diffuso, vivo, che accoglie artisti, spettatori e abitanti in un abbraccio autentico e generoso." Con parole di questo tenore la presentazione in ...