Jazz Articles

Yair Yona: Remember

by Eyal Hareuveni
March 30, 2011

Yair Yona is a resourceful Israeli guitarist and producer, whose solo debut salutes legendary and innovative finger-picking guitarists from both sides of the Atlantic such as John Fahey, Leo Kottke and Bert Jansch. But Yona does not shy away from updating these guitarists' influential legacies and sounds, with references to modern indie post-rock groups and guitarists such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Jack Rose and Robbie Basho. Throughout the album, Yona experiments with different strategies that reflect ...

Nels Cline / Wally Shoup / Chris Corsano: Immolation / Immersion

by Paul C. Dowd
October 20, 2006

A caveat to anyone who listens to this record on headphones: be sure to have the volume levels properly calibrated, or you will incur a jolt from the initial skronk of “Lake of Fire Memories. At this point of the opening strains of Immolation/Immersion, most traditionalists will probably opt out of this musical journey, which includes the 28-minute title track. This disc is not for everyone--and like an Ornette Coleman or John Zorn record, it has no intentions of being ...

Nels Cline / Wally Shoup / Chris Corsano: Immolation / Immersion

by Rex Butters
May 24, 2006

Nels Cline, Wally Shoup, and Chris Corsano combine to bring a few generations of ferocious improvisational sonic sorcery to this appropriately titled release. With lightning reflexes and diamond intuition, the trio veers from scorched earth intensity to restrained journeys across eerie irradiated landscapes on a collective whim. While the towering technique inherent in the ensemble implies a vein-bursting blow fest, these three players explore regions of haunting understatement with the same strength of inspiration.

The ride begins with Lake of ...

Nels Cline/Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano: Immolation/Immersion

by Eyal Hareuveni
December 30, 2005

This meeting of three free-minded musicians promises a lot and delivers much more. Los Angeles-based guitarist Nels Cline is one of the most versatile players around--as the new lead guitarist for the alt-country-rock band Wilco; as a collaborator with such diverse improvisers as reedman Vinny Golia, electric bassist Devin Sarno, and Sonic Youth guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo; as a sideman for vocalists such as Rickie Lee Jones and his partner Carla Bozulich; and as a leader of his ...

Nels Cline/Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano: Immolation/Immersion

by John Kelman
November 21, 2005

Guitarist Nels Cline seems to lead at least a double life. On one hand he's been a significant force on the edgy Left Coast music scene for the past thirty years, collaborating on fearless explorations into the unknowns of free improvisation and left-of-center composition with artists like Vinny Golia, Gregg Bendian, and Steuart Liebig--not to mention his own Nels Cline Singers. Conversely, he also plays guitar with alt-rockers Wilco. But the line between these seemingly diametrically opposed interests is far ...

Steffen Basho Junghans: Waters in Azure

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 2002

I have to admit it: the first time I heard Steffen Basho Junghans, I honestly didn't get it. Junghans is an iconoclast of the highest order. His solo guitar performances sound like intergalactic symphonies, weird extraterrestrial voyages through timbre and texture. One cannot fully appreciate this music by inspecting its meticulous detail--instead, you must zoom out to see the forest instead of the trees.

On Waters in Azure, Junghans takes a decidedly aquatic approach to guitar deconstruction. This music has ...

Steffen Basho-Junghans: Inside

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 2001

Apparent simplicity can often disguise depth of thought. Guitarist Steffen Basho-Junghans demonstrates this point convincingly on his new disc, double-entendred Inside.. Recorded live to tape, this performance relies on resonance, stark repetition, juxtaposed rhythmic units, and ornamentation to achieve its effects. Basho-Junghans abandons any conventional sense of melody or harmony, instead structuring his music upon gradual tonal development.

The double meaning of the title refers at once to the music's authentic trance-like character and the ironically “outside" nature of the ...