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Michael Jefry Stevens: Brass Tactics
by Budd Kopman
Anyone remotely interested “creative improvised music" (aka jazz) that intersects with the Classical aesthetic should take the time to listen closely to pianist Michael Jefry Stevens' latest release Brass Tactics. Stevens is a thinking man's player mostly known for his work in the Fonda/Stevens group (see Folk Five) and Conference Call, (with Gebhard Ullmann) as well leading his own group, for example For The Children. The instrumentation on Brass Tactics stems from Stevens' fascination with brass ...
read moreMarie Kruttli Trio: Kartapousse
by Bruce Lindsay
Kartapousse is the debut album from the Marie Kruttli Trio. Leader and composer Marie Kruttli, born in French Switzerland in 1991, is joined by two more young Swiss musicians, bassist Lukas Traxel and drummer Martin Perret, on a collection of her original compositions. It's a promising start to the trio's career. Apparently, Kartapousse is a subtle homage to the role-playing game Pokemon. Non-Pokemon fans may well find the homage to be somewhat too subtle, but it doesn't matter ...
read moreTheo Jorgensmann: Bucksch
by Glenn Astarita
Revered German clarinetist Theo Jorgensmann has played an integral role in the European free jazz scene and is one of several artists who helped revitalize the instrument within avant-garde flanked jazz and improvisational vistas. Here, the artist predominately performs solo works on his G-low clarinet, yet unites with his trio culled from a live performance in Luneburg, Germany on the aptly titled “Interweave Thoughts." This musical portraiture duly mirrors the suggestion of a dynamic interweaving of thoughts, featuring ...
read moreAnders Nilsson / Joe Fonda / Peter Nilsson: Powers
by Eyal Hareuveni
This collective trio teams American bass master Joe Fonda, known for his collaborations with innovative musicians and composers such as saxophonist Anthony Braxton, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Carla Bley, with Swedish brothers a generation younger than Fonda-- guitarist Anders Nilsson, based in New York since 2000, and drummer Peter Nilsson, based in Malmö, Sweden. The Nilsson brothers have been playing together since they were kids and recently collaborated in Anders Nilsson's Aorta (Kopasetic, 2009). Both lead their own ...
read moreRemi Alvarez/Joe Fonda/Harvey Sorgen: Trio 3D
by Jerry D'Souza
When drummer Harvey Sorgen met saxophonist Remi Álvarez at the International Musicians Meeting in Monterey, Mexico, he was “taken by his sound, feel and humanity." This is not surprising. Álvarez has cut a wide swath both on record and in live performances as an adventurer who is not afraid to take risks without losing focus. Sorgen, who has blazed his own trail adding to the dynamics with his sense of rhythm and pulse and abetting the music of vibraphonist/pianist Karl ...
read moreMonome: Monome
by Ian Patterson
Monome began life in 2006, but on this Italian trio's debut recording it's effectively a quartet, with German saxophonist Peter Ehwald playing on five of the seven tracks. Ehwald first played with Monome in 2010, and since when their collaborations have become increasingly frequent, to the point that his presence here is an essential ingredient in the mix. The chemistry, whether as a trio or a quartet, is pronounced and borrows from classical, post-bop and more contemporary influences; the circular ...
read moreMonome: Monome
by Hrayr Attarian
The Italian innovative jazz group Monome (not the be confused with Spanish rock band The Monomes) makes a reserved yet vigorous statement with its eponymous debut. The session comprises of seven, modal and atmospheric tracks that have strong, western classical influences. The collaborative trio opens the disc with “Scales"; an almost theatrical piece that sets the theme for the rest of the disc. After Piergiorgio Pirro's brief sonata fragment, Gianpaolo Camplese's fervent drums and Matteo Anelli's angular ...
read moreMonome: Monome
by Bruce Lindsay
Monome, a piano-led trio from Pisa, shares its name with the Monome, a computer interface device popular with makers of electronic music. Whether this is deliberate or coincidental is unclear, but Monome the band makes acoustic music without the need for its electronic namesake. Its eponymous debut album, recorded in late 2011 and early 2012, features German saxophonist Peter Ehwald alongside the core trio of pianist and main composer Piergiorgio Pirro, drummer Gianpaolo Camplese and bassist Matteo Anelli.Monome ...
read moreEastern Boundry Quartet: Icicles
by Karl Ackermann
Bassist/composer Joe Fonda continues to enjoy a most eclectic career. Whether in collaboration with saxophonist Anthony Braxton, or leading an international group comprised of musicians from Europe and China, Fonda is never far from the bleeding edge of creative improvisation. In its second outing, the Eastern Boundary Quartet continues to connect musical worlds and styles. Frequent colleague Michael Jefry Stevens (piano), and two exceedingly skilled Hungarians, Balazs Bagyi (drums) and Mihaly Borbely (saxophones), are onboard with Fonda, with Borbely's tarogato ...
read moreDom Minasi String Quartet: Dissonance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Although the titles of this set of miniature concerti are admittedly quirky it is this very character that gives the music of the Dom Minasi String Quartet's Dissonance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder startling precision as well as emotion. Often one or the other characteristic is largely absent from music of this nature: that which has been composed and improvised upon as well. Did the Brandenburg Concertos not have bubbling emotion? And yet were they not so mathematically precise. Or ...
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