Jazz Articles

Sandy Ewen / Damon Smith / Weasel Walter: Sandy Ewen / Damon Smith / Weasel Walter

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 17, 2012

This uncompromising set of free improvisation challenges the very basic concepts of what music is. As seminal improvising guitarist Henry Kaiser writes in his illuminating liner notes: “forget about melody, harmony and rhythm for the moment and listen to everything else that you can hear going on." And there is much going on in terms of structural, timbral, spatial and conceptual complexity in these eight non-idiomatic, on-the-spot improvisations. Houston-based Sandy Ewen experiments with the electric guitar with ...

Marc Edwards / Weasel Walter Group: Blood Of The Earth

by Mark Corroto
July 6, 2010

Double drummer-led free jazz sessions come with a price, and both aural and contemplative muscles need to be flexed. With Blood Of The Earth, from drummers Marc Edwards and Weasel Walter, the challenges for immersion in a sonic concentration of spontaneity and stamina.

But this is not your father's retread of John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965). The two drummers have taken the 1960's concept of freedom as starting point and fired their rockets way past the stellar regions.

Edwards--a former ...

Weasel Walter / Henry Kaiser / Damon Smith: Plane Crash

by Martin Longley
March 10, 2010

Power trio or acoustic sensitives? This album shuffles both manifestations and mostly decides to alternate the settings, allowing torn ears some peace following each eruptive onslaught. Surely this must be guitarist Henry Kaiser's most extreme recording, in terms of decibel achievement? His rabid emissions build a wall of Black Metal doom-chundering, a pinnacle of sludge detrimetalism. Damon Smith's grime-bass traverses the tonal range past cello and even as high as the violin, bowing, dexterously plucking, as if eternally questing for ...

Marc Edwards / Weasel Walter Group: Mysteries Beneath The Planet

by Glenn Astarita
June 11, 2009

Led by avant, free-jazz drummers Marc Edwards and Weasel Walter, this ensemble pushes the envelope via a nuclear-like aerial assault that in some instances might signify a caricature of vintage, high-octane Albert Ayler fare. Nonetheless, the dual drumming attack serves as the foundation for the hornists' soaring lines, teeming with angst and a spiritual cleansing type approach. It's a sonic blitzkrieg that is not for the faint of heart.

“Luminous Predator," recorded at New York's The Lit Lounge, ...

The Toy Killers: The Unlistenable Years

by Mark Corroto
January 12, 2009

Thomas Jefferson once said, “Every generation needs a new revolution." Indeed it does. As it may be up to you to put an end to the proliferation of American Idol/High School Musical idiots, lessons of history might just serve you well. As such, The Unlistenable Years, containing found music by the duo Charles K. Noyes and Mark E. Miller--known as Toy Killers--is a great rough draft of the New York No Wave revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s

The Flying Luttenbachers: Trauma

by Clifford Allen
August 21, 2008

Trauma originally came out in 2001 as a double LP set on drummer Weasel Walter's ugExplode label. Named as an obscure homage to a founding member, multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell, the Flying Luttenbachers recorded sixteen albums in as many years of existence (ceasing in 2007). Though initiated by Walter and Russell, the group was always Walter's 'baby/chief mode of expression' through various aggregations, from improvisation to free-metal to Contortions-esque jounce. Trauma comes from a short-lived trio with reedman Michael Colligan and ...

Weasel Walter Quartet: Revolt Music

by Glenn Astarita
November 2, 2007

The title of this album could also sound something like the soundtrack for a toppled government. It's musical anarchy and upheaval, thanks to free-jazz drummer Weasel Walter's relentless pursuit of artistic expressionism. With alternating line-ups, recorded at a studio and venues on the West Coast, this album is about pounding bass lines, punishing rhythmic exercises, wailing saxophones and more. There are no hard-and-fast rules set forth, as the musicians' manifesto is built upon sheer energy and frenetic dialogs. ...