Jazz Articles

Fred Marty: Ondes Primitives: Improvised Solo Pieces for Double Bass

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 21, 2014

The debut album of French double bassist Fred Marty summarizes his musical experience and exploration through an entire spectrum, from classical interpretation to collaborative free improvisation. Marty employs the bass as an organic extension of his body, searching for an array of extended techniques that expand the instrument's timbral range. Each of nine pieces focuses on a distinct sonic property and acoustic palette, developing ideas in an intimate and usually patient manner, like a researcher who ...

Louis-Michel Marion: 5 Strophes

by Eyal Hareuveni
September 13, 2014

French double bassist Louis-Michel Marion's sophomore solo double bass album (after his debut solo double bass album Grounds, Emil, 2012) blends influences from European schools of free improvisation and experimental, modern composers. Marion--who collaborates regularly with forward-thinking French improvisers like sax player Daunik Lazro, clarinetist Xavier Charles or pianist Sophie Agnel--describes himself as influenced by seminal, innovative double bass players such as Joëlle Léandre, Barry Guy and Peter Kowald and composers such as Giacinto Scelsi, Iancu Dumitrescu and Iannis Xenakis. ...

Tetsu Saitoh: Strings & The Moon

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 14, 2013

Japanese double bass master Testsu Saitoh is relatively unknown outside Japan. Most of his discography was released by small Japanese labels, including his own, Travessia, and naturally most of his collaborations are with East Asian musicians. Though he played and recorded with Western musicians, including fellow double bass players, as on the double bass quartet tribute to the late Peter Kowald, After You Gone (Victo, 2004), with Barre Phillips, Joëlle Léandre and William Parker. Saitoh approach to ...

Joelle Leandre / Serge Teyssot-Gay: Trans

by Eyal Hareuveni
August 19, 2012

The first collaboration between prolific French double bass and free-improvisation master Joëlle Léandre and fellow countryman, guitarist Serge Teyssot-Gay--founder of French progressive bands Noir Désir and Interzone, and affiliated with the experimental and more arty side rock--may not seem a natural fit. But this live recording from a benefit concert for the Point Ephémère magazine demonstrates that the two share a lot in common. Léandre and Teyssot-Gay weave patiently, carefully built and multilayered textures. Often these textures ...

Nori Jacoby / Yoni Kretzmer / Haggai Fershtman: One Afternoon

by Nic Jones
May 13, 2011

One of the points of interest of free improvisation is its autonomy. Given the lack of prearrangement, the potential for both triumph and disaster is there in equal measure, especially if the music is being recorded for posterity. One Afternoon is one of those occasions when the recording happened at just the right moment. Any trio consisting of viola, tenor sax and drums hardly runs the risk of sounding stale, but it's the extent to which these ...

Ariel Shibolet / Nori Jacoby: Scenes From An Ideal Marriage

by Nic Jones
May 11, 2011

Having existed for decades, free improvisation can be argued to have settled into a kind of routine regardless of the music's underlying abstraction. The soprano sax has become readily associated with the music thanks to the efforts of such pioneers as Steve Lacy, Evan Parker and Trevor Watts. Ariel Shibolet seems only too aware of this, but such is the depth of his musical expression that he plays largely free of the influences of such precedents. As a violist, Nori ...

Gunter Baby Sommer: Live In Jerusalem

by Glenn Astarita
April 12, 2011

Legendary German jazz and improvising drummer Gunter Baby Sommer's boundless creative sparks and superior technical ability are well-documented. He's a quintessential innovator, largely within the European progressive jazz and avant-garde strata. On Live in Jerusalem, he aligns with an alternating ensemble that ignites a veritable firestorm amid some temperately organized passages. On “Yo Yo Yo," Sommer's adventurism is prolifically accentuated. Bass clarinetist Yoni Silver's deep intonation and edgy intro is followed by the quartet's' tension-building motifs, firmly nestled ...

Bert Turetzky / George Lewis / Vinny Golia: Triangulation II

by Robert Bush
February 11, 2011

Bert Turetzky / George Lewis / Vinny GoliaTriangulation 11Kadima Collective2010 The trio at work here consists of three giants of improvised music. On trombone, George Lewis has few peers; multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia has been a rock of the Los Angeles free-jazz scene for over 30 years; and contrabassist Bert Turetzky has a lifetime of cutting edge experience to contribute. The music on Triangulation II is more than just a record of three ...

Ned Rothenberg / Catherine Jauniaux / Barre Phillips: While You Were Out

by Nic Jones
February 17, 2010

One of the most consistently intriguing things about freely improvised music is the degree to which it can transcend the moment. While on the surface of it that moment might be something the free improviser has only to reach an accommodation with, on a deeper level such practitioners are arguably more subject to its vagaries than musicians who work in more deliberate and preconceived areas.

This is an indirect way of getting around to the fact that While You Were ...

Ned Rothenberg / Catherine Jauniaux / Barre Phillips: While You Were Out

by Kurt Gottschalk
January 11, 2010

Belgian vocalist Catherine Jauniaux is one the most underappreciated of a generation of free improv vocalists. Less a storyteller than Shelley Hirsch, more overtly musical than Phil Minton or Jaap Blonk, she falls somewhere between their spontaneous explorations and the avant art songs of Joan La Barbara. She has released only a handful of records with bands still loved by the few who recall (The Hat Shoes, Aksak Maboul and Vibraslaps, her duo with Ikue Mori) and is, perhaps, best ...