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Peter Brötzmann & Paal Nilssen-Love: Chicken Shit Bingo
by John Sharpe
The late German reedman Peter Brötzmann thrived on hook ups with drummers. A roll call of his fellows over his career would read like a percussion who's who, but one of his most favored partners over the last period of his life was Paal Nilssen-Love. After the Norwegian had joined Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet in 2004, he partnered him on countless occasions, not only in the larger outfit, but also in quartet, trio and duo formats. But although they made several ...
Continue ReadingBrötzmann / Nilssen-Love: Chicken Shit Bingo
by Mark Corroto
We lost Peter Brotzmann in the summer of 2023. The saxophonist and champion of free jazz passed at the age of 82. There may be no more live appearances from the great man, but there will be posthumous releases. Hopefully, all will be as spirited and compelling as Chicken Shit Bingo, a duo with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. The pair had worked together in groups as large as Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, in trio and quartet settings. However, it is the ...
Continue ReadingMats Gustafsson: Hidros 9 Mirrors
by Mark Corroto
For saxophonist, composer, conductor Mats Gustafsson, the motto “go big, or go home" has always applied to his music. Whether it is blowing his baritone saxophone in the avant garage band The Thing or battling the Japanese noise artist Merzbow, Gustafsson is constantly expanding concepts of composed and improvised music. Through various ensembles such as Gush, Fire! Orchestra, Swedish azz, Fake The Facts, AALY Trio, Sonore, and his duos with everyone from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, to Steve Swell, Christian ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado The Bridge: Beyond The Margins
by John Sharpe
The Bridge may be one of the most potent all round units assembled by Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado. That is saying something considering his previous alliances with collaborators as varied as multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, trumpeter Peter Evans, trombonist Jeb Bishop and drummer Chris Corsano. This time out his partners read like an extract from an international free jazz who's who: German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, American drummer Gerry Hemingway and Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Beyond ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado: Beyond The Margins
by Troy Dostert
The aptly titled Beyond the Margins is just the latest entry in tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's burgeoning catalog, and it is certainly further proof that Amado is among the most exciting and accomplished practitioners of free music in the jazz world. Each new release seems to allow him to hone his craft with ever-greater precision, and with an even wider range of emotional resonances. And with a line-up of free jazz veterans that includes pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Ingebrigt ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Beyond The Margins
by Mark Corroto
You might think saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's quartet The Bridge is an allusion to Sonny Rollins' performing and recording hiatus between 1959 and 1961. One spent practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge which links Manhattan and Brooklyn. Besides the name, Amado's previous release, Refraction Solo Live At Church Of The Holy Ghost (Trost, 2022), his first unaccompanied recording, draws inspiration from Rollins' sound and references some of the great man's music. More likely, Amado's bridge is the span linking the ...
Continue ReadingThe End: Why Do You Mourn
by Mark Corroto
Why Do You Mourn is the third release by the Swedish/Norwegian group The End. Ethiopian-born Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg is backed by the double reedists Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Fire! and Fire! Orchestra) and Kjetil Møster (Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra, Møster!, and Zanussi Five), plus guitarist Anders Hana (Circulasione Totale Orchestra) and drummer Børge Fjordheim. It follows two releases on the RareNoise Records label, Allt Är Intet (2020) and Svårmod Och Vemod Är Värdesinnen (2018). The sounds resemble ...
Continue ReadingBrötzmann / Leigh / Lonberg-Holm: Naked Nudes
by Mark Corroto
This new trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, pedal steel guitarist Heather Leigh, and Fred Lonberg-Holm operating both his cello and electronics, explore the musical equivalent of microgravity. Captured as part of the saxophonist's 80th birthday celebration concerts in August 2021 in his hometown of Wuppertal, Germany, the sounds achieve a perception of levitation. Credit the suspension of gravitational force to Leigh and Lonberg-Holm, both collaborators with Brötzmann; Leigh and the saxophonist have been working in duo together since 2015 and ...
Continue ReadingDry Thrust: The Less You Sleep
by Mark Corroto
Legend has it that if Blue Note founder Alfred Lion was seen dancing in the engineer's booth during a recording session, the forthcoming release would be a hit. Listening to The Less You Sleep by the trio Dry Thrust makes one wonder what kind of dance label boss Konstantin Drobil was performing while the tracks for this disc were being laid down. The Less You Sleep is the first document by this thoroughly unconventional trio of Georg Graewe ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado: Refraction Solo
by Mark Corroto
Are you familiar with Pablo Picasso's found art sculpture “Bull's Head"? It was created in 1942 from bicycle handlebars and a bike's saddle. Picasso was walking down the street and spotted the discarded items, and in a flash joined the two, creating an obvious depiction of a bull's head. That same spontaneous moment of creation informs the music from Rodrigo Amado's Refraction Solo. Like Picasso, the musician is a trained and highly skilled artist. Amado leads or is ...
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