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KUZU: All Your Ghosts In One Corner
by Mark Corroto
The edge in which the trio Kuzu lays down the five live tracks on All Your Ghosts In One Corner is sharpened by an impending sense of foreboding that accompanied (and still accompanies) the COVID-19 pandemic. Recorded at the end of a tour in March 2020, on the eve of our social isolation with clubs and concert venues soon shuttered, the trio delivers a truly Herculean set of music. Formed in 2017, Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis invited the ...
Continue ReadingThe Rempis Percussion Quartet: Sud Des Alpes
by Mark Corroto
Sometimes a band hits a stretch, much like an athlete with a hot hand, and produces a string of special recordings. Sud Des Alpes is The Rempis Percussion Quartet's tenth release and it follows Cochonnerie (Aerophonic, 2017). Like all the quartet's releases except Montreal Parade (482 Music, 2011), it captures a live performance. This at AMR in Geneva, Switzerland in 2019 as part of a European tour and the unit's fifteenth anniversary. Little has changed, except for the replacement of ...
Continue ReadingDave Rempis: Stringers & Struts
by John Sharpe
Chicago-based reedman Dave Rempis has hit such a peak of consistency that the number of stars awarded to any particular outing is more down to personal preference than any variation in quality. He's in control of his own destiny as most of his output flows from his own Aerophonic imprint. And he's achieved another high point with Stringers And Struts, the result of a one-off gathering of Windy City improvisers in town for the 2019 Chicago Jazz Fest, which makes ...
Continue ReadingRempis/Parker/Flaten/Cunningham: Stringers & Struts
by Mark Corroto
Imagine if the listener could choose bands or combinations of musicians like a fantasy football game. They would compile discographies and note when certain players crossed paths, or imagine new combinations of dissimilar styles. This is obviously not an original idea because Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis has been drafting varying combinations of talented players for more than a decade. The majority of his fantasy leagues can be heard at Elastic Arts where he curates a weekly series, at the Hyde ...
Continue ReadingBallister: Znachki Stilyag
by John Sharpe
Although the title, composed of two unrelated Russian words chosen because they sounded good, doesn't have a meaning, the contents not only sound good but carry rather more weight. The high intensity free jazz trio Ballister comprises reedman Dave Rempis, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, three of the finest proponents on their instruments in this particular ballpark. For its ninth release the band selects three dynamite cuts, coming in at just under an hour, from a live date ...
Continue ReadingRempis/Rosaly Duo: Codes/Myths
by Mark Corroto
The reprise of the Rempis/Rosaly Duo comes after many changes in the musicians' lives. Their first session Cyrillic (482 Music, 2009) was recorded when both musicians made Chicago their home. Dave Rempis, probably best known for his work in Vandermark 5 back in 2009, was putting together his own groups such as The Engines and The Rempis Percussion Quartet, the latter of which had Frank Rosaly as a member, and starting a label, Aerophonic Records. With Rosaly moving to Amsterdam ...
Continue ReadingKuzu: Purple Dark Opal
by John Sharpe
Hard as it is to believe, the wonderful Hiljaisuus (Aerophonic, 2019) documented the first encounter between Chicago reedman Dave Rempis, North Carolina-based Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Tyler Damon, under the banner Kuzu. On the basis of that triumph, the musicians put together a twenty-date US tour. For their follow up release, Purple Dark Opal, they selected a blistering set-long piece from the fifteenth stop on that road trip in Milwaukee. As it's just shy of an hour,so best ...
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