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Surya Botofasina: Ashram Sun
by Gareth Thompson
In the early 1980s, Alice Coltrane built an ashram on fifty acres in the Santa Monica hills. A space for musical practise and Hindu studies, it closed in 2017 and was burned down by wildfires a year later. As a child, Surya Botofasina grew up there with his mother amid mountains, veggie food, peace lessons and devotional chants. For this album, he returns in spirit to the childhood home that still inspires him. Ashram Sun was produced by ...
Continue ReadingAngel Bat Dawid, Barry Altschul & Kevin Sun
by Maurice Hogue
Lots of new things sampled in this episode with Chicago culture maker Angel Bat Dawid's Hush Harbor Mixtape: Doxology highlighting the bunch. She does everything on this one which is another chapter in her mission to, as she puts it, “sonically eradicate the white supremacy system." A best-of for 2021 I think. Enterprising young saxophonist Kevin Sun explores Charlie Parker on his 3 Bird, while some duos churn up the mix—Gordon Grdina & Jim Black and Larry Ochs & Donald ...
Continue ReadingDamon Locks Black Monument Ensemble: Now
by Chris May
Chicago-based collective Black Monument Ensemble's sophomore album was recorded in September 2020 at the intersection of various existential crises, as seen from a US perspective: the threat of Trump winning the presidential election, by fair means or foul; the rising tide of fascist ideology; extrajudicial murders of, in particular but not exclusively, black Americans; a galloping pandemic; economic chaos; and social isolation. Given the circumstances, it is no surprise that Now sounds apocalyptic. But it is also ...
Continue ReadingAngel Bat Dawid, Fay Victor, Satoko Fujii and Clean Feed Releases
by Maurice Hogue
Risk-taking singer Fay Victor's powerhouse new album for ESP-Disk is called We've Had Enough, but the title could easily be used on Angel Bat Dawid's latest as well. It reflects some rather shabby treatment on a recent our in Europe. Her album Live sees and Tha Brothahood in full bore. Other new releases sampled come from pianist Satoko Fujii, French bassist Hubert Dupont, Nels Cline Singers, pianist Steve Cohn, and a quartet of different albums on the Clean Feed label, ...
Continue ReadingAngel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood: Live
by Chris May
When the Chicago-based clarinetist, vocalist, composer, poet and spiritual-jazz shaman Angel Bat Dawid performed with Tha Brothahood at the London Jazz Festival in November 2019, she was riding high on the critical acclaim surrounding her recently released debut album, The Oracle (International Anthem). A cosmic lightning bolt of free jazz, mutant funk, electronica and spoken word with an impact on a par with Samuel L. Jackson's reading of Ezekiel 25:17 in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, The Oracle confronts the ugliness ...
Continue ReadingJake Wark Quartet: Scrawl
by Troy Dostert
A strong meeting of four of Chicago's leading improvisers, Scrawl is tenor saxophonist Jake Wark's second disc as a leader, after 2016's Tremor (Amalgam Music), which featured the talents of drummer Phil Haynes and bassist Drew Gress. The Chicago scene has long had a collectivist spirit, and it's on display here, as clarinetist Angel Bat Dawid, bassist Jakob Heinemann, and drummer Adam Shead bring their undeniable camaraderie to bear on five engaging Wark compositions. Wark's biting sound has ...
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