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Jazz Articles about Ches Smith
Sun of Goldfinger: Congratulations to You
by Mike Jurkovic
As if Tim Berne were a pied piper bearing the eleventh hour of democracy solely on his back, on the fourteen-minute opener “Bat Tears" (recorded in 2010) his rebel alto and now-retired baritone saxophones presciently pierce the abhorrent now under which we all labor, with a viscerally ecstatic, David Torn-Dopplered, sweeping, urgency which seizes the senses with all the abstract subtlety of a meat hook. Now that is a boatload to take in, but so is the concept ...
Continue ReadingTim Berne's Snakeoil: The Fantastic Mrs. 10
by Vincenzo Roggero
Ci sono due novità nella sesta uscita discografica a nome Snakeoil. La prima è il debutto su Intakt, etichetta svizzera indipendente dedicata all'improvvisazione spesso radicale e all'avanguardia, apparentemente assai distante dall'estetica ECM, label presso la quale gli Snakeoil di Tim Berne debuttarono nell'ormai lontano 2012. La seconda riguarda la formazione che partita come quartetto, con la registrazione di You've Been Watching Me vede aggiungersi la chitarra di Ryan Ferreira confermata anche nel successivo Incidentals, ma qui sostituita da quella di ...
Continue ReadingTim Berne's Snakeoil: The Fantastic Mrs. 10
by Mike Jurkovic
Alto saxophonist Tim Berne has never met anything or anyone he doesn't instantly want to re-invent, invert, dismantle and polish into his own image. And no, it's not any kind of savior thing, messianic impulse or Dr. Stranglove fixation. He simply hears and sees things more offbeat, peculiar, and colorful, thank you very much. So too does any configuration of Snakeoil, Berne's wiry, spidery and like-minded core of engineers. As a league onto themselves, bass clarinetist Oscar Noriega, ...
Continue ReadingTim Berne's Snakeoil: The Fantastic Mrs. 10
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist Tim Berne figured out what he wanted to do early on, with albums like Ancestors (Soul Note, 1983), Nice Winter ( Winter & Winter, 1993), Science Friction (Screwgun, 2002) and Snake Oil (ECM Records, 2012)—to pick one representative recording per decade from a jam-packed discography. “I'm doing the same thing I've been doing from the start," he says. That thing is making madcap tapestries with various ensemble configurations, forming a collective voice full of piss and vinegar.
Continue ReadingTim Berne's Snakeoil: The Fantastic Mrs. 10
by Mark Corroto
Imagine Tim Berne as the lead in the 1980's' American television series The A-Team, declaring: “I love it when a plan comes together!" He must return to that catchphrase every time his ensemble Snakeoil finishes a recording. After four outings on Manfred Eicher's ECM Records, the previous being Incidentals (2017), he moves his A-Team to Intakt Records. The Fantastic Mrs. 10 confirms this ensemble is on par with the saxophonist's other great band, Bloodcount, with Chris Speed, Jim Black, Michael ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist / composer Satoko Fujii has staked out her ground as one of the most original voices in jazz—or in any artform, for that matter. She has released more than eighty albums, beginning with her 1995 debut, Something About Water (Libra Records), a piano duet set with Paul Bley. She tours relentlessly. She records in every ensemble format imaginable: solos, duos, trios, quartets and big bands. Lots of big bands, based in Berlin, Tokyo, Kobe, Nagoya, New York.
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity
by Karl Ackermann
As she did in 2019, pianist/composer Satoko Fujii—an artist at home in many formations—opens the new decade with an orchestra recording. Entity, from Fujii's Orchestra New York, is the eleventh release from the ensemble that has remained largely intact for almost twenty-three years. It is an all-star collective that includes saxophonists Oscar Noriega, Ellery Eskelin and Tony Malaby, trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Herb Robertson, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Ches Smith. Entity has its moments of tranquility but ...
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