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Sun Ra: Secrets of the Sun
by Troy Collins
Another recently unearthed rarity in a seemingly endless discography, Secrets of the Sun documents a fruitful yet somewhat under-represented period in the storied career of iconic keyboardist and bandleader Sun Ra. Recorded in New York in 1962 at jazz workshop sessions, only Blast First's 1996 compilation Out There a Minute contains comparable material.
Originally based in Chicago, Sun Ra's Arkestra underwent a gradual conceptual evolution upon moving to New York City in 1961. Marking a transition in its ...
read moreFire Room: Broken Music
by Troy Collins
Broken Music is the appropriately titled debut of Fire Room, a collaborative international effort featuring wildly prolific Chicago-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Ken Vandermark. This unconventional trio features Norwegians Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Lasse Marhaug (electronics), inceptive members of Vandermark's Powerhouse Sound. Exploring similar territory, Fire Room ventures further into the extremes of brutal cacophony and disquieting stillness.
Where Powerhouse Sound's debut, Oslo / Chicago: Breaks (Atavistic, 2007) focused on primal rhythms swathed in a scrim of invasive electronic ...
read morePeter Brotzmann / Peeter Uuskyla: Born Broke
by Troy Collins
German multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann, the grandfather of European free jazz, and Swedish drummer Peeter Uuskyla have been playing together in various line-ups for the past ten years. Although Brötzmann's dynamic range has expanded considerably since his early days as the fire-breathing author of the seminal Machine Gun (Atavistic, 1969), he hasn't lost any of his vivaciousness. Guided by the stalwart rhythmic focus of Uuskyla, the duo finds ample territory to explore throughout this double disc set.
Brötzmann's blast ...
read moreVandermark 5: Beat Reader
by Troy Collins
Beat Reader is the tenth studio album of all-original material from Chicago's esteemed Vandermark 5. Leading his most resilient and diverse ensemble into its second decade, composer/multi-instrumentalist Ken Vandermark has accomplished a remarkable achievement in a time when regular touring line-ups have vanished.Vandermark's advanced writing reveals a facility for composing interlocking, cellular structures that balance unique arrangements with ample room for individual expression. Stylistically diverse but instantly recognizable, Vandermark's eclectic tunes always bear the unmistakable mark of his ...
read moreSun Ra: Some Blues But Not The Kind Thats Blue
by Troy Collins
Pioneering bandleader Sun Ra recorded very few small group recordings in his lifetime. Those existing albums rarely focus on standard material, which makes Some Blues But Not The Kind Thats Blue unique in his vast discography. Taking up where the Evidence label left off in the late 1990s, Atavistic's Unheard Music Series has begun reissuing some of Ra's rarest and most intriguing sessions.
Following the 2007 reissue of the iconic albums Strange Strings (Atavistic, 1966) and The Night ...
read moreFred Lonberg-Holm Trio: Terminal Valentine
by Lyn Horton
Fred Lonberg-Holm Terminal Valentine Atavistic 2007
Recalibrating the idea of a piano-less jazz trio by excluding a wind instrument and including a cello takes a certain amount of chutzpah. But in 2000, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm convened such a trio to record music honoring the cellist Fred Katz, who introduced the cello to a jazz context when drummer Chico Hamilton featured him in his quintet during the 1950s.
Riding out personnel ...
read morePeter Br
by Clifford Allen
Peter Brötzmann The Complete Machine Gun Sessions Atavistic 2007
Almost forty years have passed since the 1968 recording of German reedman Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun at the Lila Eule in Bremen. The session, now regarded as one of the cornerstone records of European free improvisation, was a combination of several ensembles active on the western European landscape in the late 1960s, as communication and collaboration between small creative-music scenes was starting to ...
read moreSun Ra: The Night Of The Purple Moon
by Troy Collins
One of a rare handful of small group sessions, The Night Of The Purple Moon is one of bandleader Sun Ra's most accessible and enjoyable albums. Similar in scope to side one of Atlantis (Evidence, 1967), Cymbals (Evidence, 1973), New Steps (Horo, 1978) and Other Voices, Other Blues (Horo, 1978); this stripped-down studio session is a unique example of Ra's wide-ranging artistry. Dominated by the sound of the Rocksichord (or, in Saturnian parlance, Roksichord) Ra plays the newly ...
read morePeter Brotzmann: The Complete Machine Gun Sessions
by Troy Collins
An essential recording, Machine Gun's rightful place in the pantheon of seminal free jazz recordings is uncontested. The first major document of European free improvisation, Atavistic's Unheard Music Series reissue supplements the legendary session by bolstering the original album with two alternate takes and the only documented live performance of the furious title track.
Envisioned and organized by infamous German tenor saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (nicknamed Machine Gun by trumpeter Don Cherry), Machine Gun provided a blueprint for such ...
read moreSun Ra: Strange Strings
by Troy Collins
Emblematic of its title, this is one of the most unusual albums in the vast discography of visionary bandleader Sun Ra. In league with such classics as Heliocentric Worlds (ESP, 1965), The Magic City (Evidence, 1965) and Atlantis (Evidence, 1967), this obscure session focuses on similarly intense long-form improvisations. Originally recorded in 1966, Strange Strings is the culmination of Ra's most otherworldly experiments.
Pre-dating the comprovisations of Butch Morris and the game pieces of John Zorn, this is ...
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