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Bill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited

by Giuseppe Segala
È benvenuta questa pubblicazione nel catalogo ezz-thetics Revisited, collana che prosegue con risolutezza nella riproposta di lavori importanti, spesso fondamentali del jazz contemporaneo, concentrando in particolare la propria attenzione sugli anni Sessanta e abbinando in unico CD registrazioni storiche, opportunamente restaurate e corredate di inedite, meticolose note di copertina. Protagonista di questa uscita è Bill Dixon, figura singolare, di notevolissimo valore, la cui presenza discografica è stata purtroppo rara e saltuaria, spesso affidata alla diligente attenzione di ...
Continue ReadingBill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited

by Chris May
If Bill Dixon is today, in 2023, less widely remembered than other New Thing warriors such as Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, it is partly because he had little desire for celebrity, devoting much of his energy to organizing on behalf of his fellow musicians and composers, and teaching. In 1964, midway through making the 1962-1967 recordings collected on this album, Dixon organized the historic October Revolution in Jazz at the Cellar Café in Manhattan, which ...
Continue ReadingStratusphunk: From the Airliner Lounge to Outer Space

by David Brown
This week, birthday tributes to Abby Lincoln and Byard Lancaster, solo piano works from Lucian Ban, Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou and Dr. Billy Taylor, Ellington arranges Monk, early works from George Russell and a swingin' Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Quartet live at the Airliner Lounge, and more! Playlist Thelonious Monk Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Abbey Lincoln Afro-Blue" from Abbey is Blue (Craft Recordings ) 02:00 Greg Ward The Contender" from Stomping off from Greenwood (Greenleaf ...
Continue ReadingA Few Of My Favorite 2022 Jazz Things (So Far) - Part 2

by Ludovico Granvassu
Here are some of the tunes that we have loved the most during these first six months of the year. Surely there are tens more of equal value, but this is not a scientific exercise... rather, since jazz is all about living in the moment, we made our selections based on the strong, and lasting, impression these tunes elicited when we first heard them. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & ...
Continue ReadingByard Lancaster: From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine

by Clifford Allen
[ Editor's Note: This 2005 article was reprinted in memory of Byard Lancaster who died on August 23, 2012. ] From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine" is reedman Byard Lancaster's personal aesthetic mantra, something that recalls the theme of the Charles Moffett tune Avant-garde Got Soul Too." Free jazz and creative improvisation historically have not often been viewed as the music of the people, but the idea behind the term 'avant-garde' is ...
Continue ReadingByard Lancaster: Sounds of Liberation: New Horizons

by Clifford Allen
In the years following saxophonist John Coltrane's death and the related dearth of opportunities to perform and record the New Music stateside, a significant body of musicians relocated to Europe, to ply their art in a more receptive atmosphere. Reedman Byard Lancaster was one of the second wave of American free jazz musicians to relocate to Paris in the late 1960s, recording and gigging as part of drummer Sunny Murray's Acoustical Swing Unit and leading his own ensembles with musicians ...
Continue ReadingByard Lancaster: Live at Macalester College

by Hrayr Attarian
Sometimes the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and sometimes it is less. The latter is true for this reissue of Live at Macalester College by the Byard Lancaster unit. The music, deftly played and improvised by all the musicians, is avant-garde and free jazz in character during the leader's various horn solos, more traditional soul-jazz when the rhythm section is in the forefront, and has tinges of Afro-Cuban rhythms when the percussion is the dominant voice. ...
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