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Paul G. Smyth & John Wiese: The Outlier
by Mark Corroto
The Outlier! by Paul G. Smyth and John Wiese is an ambient recording. No, it's a free improvisation set, or could it be industrial sound or noise? Yes, and yes again. Recorded before an audience in The National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland, this duo brings together pianist and Weekertoft Records label chief Smyth with the American electronics artist Wiese for a 53 minute continuous improvisation. Smyth's piano and prepared piano have been heard in the company of improvising luminaries ...
read morePeter Brötzmann / Paul G. Smyth: Tongue In A Bell
by Mark Corroto
There are only a handful of pianists the great reedist Peter Brötzmann has worked with. Back in the Machine Gun (FMP, 1968) days it was Fred Van Hove at the keyboards. Then there was Misha Mengelberg and Alexander von Schlippenbach, plus those Berlin sessions with Cecil Taylor, and the new millennium recordings with Japanese pianist Masahiko Satoh: Yatagarasu (Not Two, 2012) and Long Story Short (Trost, 2013). Add to that list Irishman Paul G. Smyth. This 2015 live ...
read moreRuby Rushton: Ironside
by Don Phipps
Ruby Rushton's Ironside is like a trip back to the jazz of Dave Grusin's late 1980s film soundtrack The Fabulous Baker Boys. Hard driving bop, the music bubbles along with syncopated riffs and upbeat, energetic shuffles interlaced with soulful intervals. Woodwind player Edward Cawthorne penned six of the tunes, keyboardist Aidan Shepherd penned two more, and the two collaborated on Triceratops / The Caller." The group also covers Krzysztof Komeda's ballad Pingwin (Requiem For Komeda)." Most of these ...
read moreEvan Parker / Paul G. Smyth: Calenture and Light Leaks
by Don Phipps
The live collaboration of the remarkable English tenor saxophonist Evan Parker and Irish pianist Paul G. Smyth on their album Calenture and Light Leaks is like listening to the piano impressions of Debussy while exploring a gallery of Picassos--pure bliss in action. There is an airy quality to the abstractions here, like playful sunbeams streaming through a window's light. Parker's playing flows--whether blowing cool legatos or stuttering rapidly on snappy runs across the saxophone's registers. His playing feels ...
read moreEvan Parker/John Russell/John Edwards, Pat Thomas, Alison Blunt/Benedict Taylor/David Leahy, Kay Grant/Alex Ward: Making Rooms
by John Eyles
Originated by guitarist John Russell and pianist/trumpeter Chris Burn, Mopomoso is an improvised-music organisation that has run a series of monthly concerts in London ever since 1991, making it the longest-running such series in the UK. Between April 23rd and 30th 2013, Mopomoso embarked on a tour of England which visited seven cities outside London. At each stop, local improvising musicians supported the core group of musicians--Russell, saxophonist Evan Parker, bassists John Edwards and David Leahy, pianist Pat Thomas, violinist ...
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