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Jazz Articles about Ava Mendoza
Mendoza / Hoff / Revels: Echolocation
by Troy Dostert
Among today's leading guitarists fusing the power of rock and avant-garde jazz--a list that has to include Nels Cline, Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook--Ava Mendoza may be the one with the strongest link to the punk tradition. All the evidence one needs is on Echolocation, a project by Revels, her close collaboration with bassist Devin Hoff, on which the pair are joined by saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and drummer Ches Smith. With eight deviously crafted songs expertly navigating ...
Continue ReadingAva Mendoza, Vijay Anderson, Stephen Gauci: Studio Sessions Vol. 4
by Alberto Bazzurro
Free jazz della più chiara (e abbastanza indiscriminata, acritica) acqua è quello che ci accoglie da subito in questo album, inciso nel febbraio 2019 e pubblicato alla fine di quello stesso anno. Vi figura uno degli elementi più interessanti delle nuove leve del jazz (in realtà classe 1983, ma si sa che oggi, musicalmente parlando, si diventa maggiorenni attorno ai quaranta) come la chitarrista Ava Mendoza, ma il deus ex machina dell'operazione, nonché editore dell'album (ricorda un po' quei ragazzini ...
Continue ReadingWilliam Parker: Mayan Space Station
by Mark Corroto
The immediate impact of the recording Mayan Space Station is that of a sheer out-and-out physicality presented by this music. While it is obvious the musicians—guitarist Ava Mendoza, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver—are engaged in the nonautomatic operation of their respective musical instruments, their Herculean efforts are conspicuous. While rarely recognized, credit must be given to engineer Jim Clouse who recorded, mixed and mastered this session to center the listening experience on the band's energy. ...
Continue ReadingNate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain VI
by Jerome Wilson
Since 2007 trumpeter Nate Wooley has been producing compositions in a song cycle collectively called “Seven Storey Mountain." The first one was performed by a trio and each succeeding version has included a greater number of musicians. The newest one, the sixth of an eventual seven iterations, is performed here by fourteen players including three vocalists. It is a compelling and heart-wrenching musical epic. one uninterrupted 45-minute piece which combines pre-recorded tapes and live performance. Part of the ...
Continue ReadingNate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain VI
by Karl Ackermann
From 2010 onwards, composer-trumpeter Nate Wooley has explored creative music as a solo artist and through a spectrum of collaborators such as Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Mary Halvorson, Ken Vandermark, and Matthew Shipp. These projects have been offset by Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain succession of releases; Seven Storey Mountain VI is a masterwork of expressionist passion and discord, taking the series to a new level. The sound that Wooley debuted in 2009 was compact in scale, with drummer Paul ...
Continue ReadingNate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain VI
by Troy Dostert
Long considered one of the most innovative and idiosyncratic trumpeters in the improvised music community, Nate Wooley has for many years astonished listeners with his formidable technique and broad-minded vision. Nowhere is this more evident than in his Seven Storey Mountain series, a sequence of recordings going back to 2007 that is now in its sixth iteration. With an ever-expanding cast of associates who share Wooley's iconoclasm, this is improvised music of a distinctive and ambitious character, determined to bridge ...
Continue ReadingMendoza / Anderson / Gauci: Studio Sessions Vol. 4
by John Sharpe
If you want to avoid compromise, then starting your own label appears a sound strategy. That's the road traveled by NYC-native saxophonist Stephen Gauci with his eponymous imprint. Since its inception in 2019, releases have been split between live recordings from the Bushwick Improvisers Series which Gauci runs and studio sessions, all of which so far have featured the reedman in a variety of settings, from his quartet with Sandy Ewen, Adam Lane and Kevin Shea, to his duo with ...
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