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Organ Freeman: Busywork
by Ian Patterson
Not to be confused with the Los Angles-based organ trio of the same name--though it is hard to see how confusion will not reign--this Organ Freeman hails from Dublin, Ireland, where guitarist/vocalist Charlie Moon, organist Darragh Hennessy and drummer Dominic Mullan have held a Sunday residency at The Big Romance since 2018. For its debut album, the trio welcomes tenor saxophonist Michael Buckley on a set split equally between original tunes and covers. Drawing inspiration from the jazz organ trios' ...
Continue ReadingCarole Nelson Trio: Night Vision
by Ian Patterson
For good or for bad, the pandemic lockdowns spurred no end of introspective, soul-searching albums. Ireland-based English pianist Carole Nelson could have been heading that way when a 2020 residency in Mayo, with the Na Cailleach women's art collective, prompted her contemplation of the ancient peat-bog landscape, the wild sea and humans' story in place and in time. However, it was not in this artistic cradle that Nelson found her muse, but in the wildlife of her own garden, particularly ...
Continue ReadingAdam Nolan: Prim and Primal
by Mike Jurkovic
Whether stalking the perimeters or cutting to the bone, Irish alto saxophonist Adam Nolan's full throated assault on alternative facts takes you by storm on his fourth (and hopefully breakthrough) disc, Prim and Primal. Like Ornette Coleman, like Anthony Braxton, Nolan and his fellow non-shy improvisors—bassist Derek Whyte and drummer Dominic Mullan—keep the music stark. Impassioned. Jabbing darkly, waxing in and out of time and shadow. Animated. Keening. Upon their maiden voyage, Nolan, Whyte, and Mullan ...
Continue ReadingAdam Nolan: Prim and Primal
by Richard J Salvucci
Tell you what. A lot of listeners have never been particularly big fans of free jazz. “It is difficult to understand." Really? “Formalism," said Sergei Prokofiev, “is the name given to music not understood on first hearing." This, recall, was a statement made in defense of Dmitri Shostakovich and his Fourth Symphony. This is not to compare Adam Nolan with Shostakovich. Yet one could imagine Stalin objecting mightily to the Kilkenny saxophonist's 2021 recording as “muddle instead of music." Because, ...
Continue ReadingAdam Nolan Trio: Prim and Primal
by Jim Worsley
Prim and Primal is a cool name for a record. It does, however, take some balls to put out a record with such a title. It leaves listeners with deep expectations. To paraphrase the old saying, though, “It's okay to talk the talk if you can walk the walk." Alto saxophonist Adam Nolan has a pair of rhythm section mates, double bassist Derek Whyte and drummer Dominic Mullan, that step and groove to the same beats. Collectively they improvise from ...
Continue ReadingCarole Nelson Trio: Arboreal
by Ian Patterson
Nature has perhaps inspired more art than anything else, including love. For London-born, Ireland-based pianist, singer and composer Carole Nelson, the countryside of her adopted County Carlow has proven to be a musically fertile stomping ground. The introspective One Day in Winter (Black Stairs Records, 2017), which featured top Irish musicians Cormac O'Brien and Dominic Mullan, took as its inspiration the landscape and shifting light between the River Barrow and the Blackstairs Mountains. The trio's second album is similarly introspective, ...
Continue ReadingLinley Hamilton: In Transition
by Ian Patterson
The title of trumpeter Linley Hamilton's second release for Northern Irish label Lyte Records tells a tale; in the three years since Taylor Made (Lyte Records, 2011) Hamilton has dug deep into the essence of his playing, refining his compositional approach and instilling a greater economy of notes in his playing. His is a discipline that owes more to the modern European tradition exemplified by Till Bronner and Mathias Eick than the beboppers that first inspired Hamilton on his journey. ...
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