Jazz Articles
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Darius Jones: Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation)
by Mark Corroto
Saxophonist Darius Jones' solo recording Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation) is the embodiment of the word unpasteurized. Captured in the fall of 2019, the music is raw and untreated. Maybe 'pure' is a better word here. The musician known for his muscular approach to the alto saxophone lowers the armored facade we all seem to wrap ourselves in these days. He delivers covers of five compostions, four from what he describes as “unapologetically Black" composers, Sun Ra}, Ornette Coleman, ...
read moreThe Necks: Three
by Mike Jurkovic
With their stubbornly spiky, hold-onto-your-hat mindset firmly rooted, a high fever runs wild on Three, The Necks' twenty-first release in its thirty-three year, unhindered-by-genre career. It starts like most of the trio's existential, kaleidoscopic excursions do: some minimalist point of blurred melodic frenzy is acted upon and the rest becomes an amalgam of theory and system... jazz, rock, industrial, whatever suits the moment. It can be irresponsibly reckless, remotely ambient, soulfully rewarding, cantankerous, glaringly indulgent or plain brilliant at any ...
read moreThe Necks: Three
by Mark Sullivan
Live performances by Australian free-improvising trio The Necks typically take the form of a single, slowly growing and morphing mass of sound. On recordings the musicians give themselves permission to sculpt the sound, so it is not a real-time document. Nevertheless their two previous albums Vertigo (Northern Spy Records, 2015) and Body (Northern Spy Records, 2018) both presented a single long track apiece, paralleling their live practice. This time the program is broken into three parts, each with its own ...
read moreJeremy Cunningham: The Weather Up There
by Jakob Baekgaard
The complex landscape of human emotions is still vastly uncharted, but every true work of art adds a little piece to the puzzle. This can be done in many ways, but it is rare that an album connects emotion with complex layers of memory, interpersonal relations, politics and societal structures. Nevertheless, this is what drummer and composer Jeremy Cunningham's album does. In a statement, Cunningham explains the background: “I wrote The Weather Up There to confront the ...
read moreSUSS: Ghost Box - Expanded
by Mark Sullivan
The band SUSS first presented their “psychedelic ambient country instrumentals" on Ghost Box (Self Produced, 2018), a delightful and unexpected window into an eclectic ambient soundscape. That 35-minute session is expanded into nearly an hour here. The first seven tracks reproduce the original album in the original order. The group is a quintet whose members have worked in various capacities with Lydia Lunch, the B-52s, k.d. Lang, David Bowie, John Cale, Ed Sheeran, Wilco, Norah Jones, The War ...
read moreTom Abbs & Frequency Response: Hawthorne
by Karl Ackermann
Bassist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Abbs began his Frequency Response series in 2003 with Conscription (CIMP Records). The group--then a quartet--included tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and drummer Chad Taylor. Alto saxophonist Jason Candler, violinists Jean Cook and Jenna Barvitski are later additions to Frequency Response. On their long-awaited fourth album Hawthorne, Abbs again stands in as a one-man orchestra, playing bass, cello, piano, and tuba. Abbs, primarily known as a free improvisational bassist is also an accomplished filmmaker, having ...
read moreJason Stein's Locksmith Isidore: After Caroline
by Mark Corroto
By 2018 he doesn't have to do it. Do what? Prove himself, and maybe also demonstrate the bass clarinet worthy of leading an ensemble. Jason Stein has the bona fides these days, proof being his much admired quartet and trio Locksmith Isidore. His trio was the opening act for his sister, comedian Amy Schumer's 10,000-seat arena tour the past few years and some of that rock star juju clings to After Caroline, the fourth release by Locksmith Isidore.
read moreTom Abbs & Frequency Response: Hawthorne
by Don Phipps
On his album Hawthorne, Brooklyn-based Tom Abbs showcases his mastery of several instruments and writing styles. Combining free, hard bop, world, and blues styles, Abbs's compositions juxtapose explosive exposés of new music with idioms that hearken back to ancient times. Abbs is joined by Jean Cook and Jenna Barvitski on violin, Brian Settles on tenor, Chad Taylor on drums, and Jason Candler on bass clarinet and alto sax. Abbs handles the chores on bass, tuba, piano, and cello. ...
read moreThe Necks: Body
by Mark Sullivan
Their official biography calls The Necks “one of the great cult bands of Australia," which says more about their fan base than the music they play. But it's still not a bad place to start; certainly, the mesmerizing improvised, slow-moving sound they create together is not likely to attract a mass audience. Like most of their recordings and live concerts, Body is a single, nearly hour-long improvisation--but one with four distinct sections. The performance begins with Chris Abrahams' ...
read moreThe Necks: Body
by Mike Jurkovic
Australia's greatest cult band, The Necks, has twenty albums to its creative and collective credit, amongst them Aether (Fish of Milk, 2001), Open (Fish of Milk, 2013) and Hanging Garden (Fish of Milk, 1999). Pianist/keyboardist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton and drummer, percussionist and guitarist Tony Buck create an ever-expanding rhythmic organism that constantly feeds off of itself with Body. The episodic, hypnotic, trance-like, 56 minute-plus title track never lags, its vortex of many-layered dynamisms bursting or blooming ...
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