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Don Cherry: Complete Communion & Symphony For Improvisers Revisited
by Mark Corroto
Before his departure, Don Cherry was a kind of Johnny Appleseed for what would eventually be called the “New Thing" in jazz. He can be heard in the midst of the innovative work of Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler, Steve Lacy, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. Cherry's fertilizations changed the sound of creative music then and now. His explorations into (what we now call) world music opened doors for countless non- American musicians to participate in creative improvised music. ...
read moreAlbert Ayler: New York Eye and Ear Control Revisited
by Mark Corroto
The backstory of New York Ear and Eye Control is a significant factor in the music and the direction free jazz took in the 1960s. Filmmaker Michael Snow commissioned Albert Ayler's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray to record a thirty-minute soundtrack for a movie, “Walking Woman," he had yet to film. As explained in the liner notes, he “wanted to buy a half hour of music." Also invited to the session were trumpeter & cornetist Don ...
read moreAlbert Ayler: New York Eye And Ear Control Revisited
by Chris May
The development of so-called free jazz in New York during the first half of the 1960s was topped and tailed by three landmark recordings: Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz (Atlantic, 1961), John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse, 1966) and Albert Ayler's New York Eye And Ear Control (ESP, 1966). Of the three discs, only New York Eye And Ear Control broke away completely from jazz's normative structure of theme/solos/theme. Commissioned as an art-film soundtrack, Ayler's recording was also the product of an altogether ...
read moreAlbert Ayler Quartet with Don Cherry: European Recordings Autumn 1964 Revisited
by Chris May
Many attempts have been made to locate the source of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's muse in American history and culture. Among the less outlandish suggestions are the field hollers of slaves toiling on Southern plantations and the Pentecostal church's tradition of talking in tongues. Given the importance Ayler's parents placed on him attending church as a child, and his own abiding interest in spiritual matters, talking in tongues could well figure. The most likely source, however, yet the one most ...
read moreDon Cherry, Big Monitors, John Coltrane, Emanuele Passerini
by Ludovico Granvassu
With today's show we focus directly or indirectly on current and past masters of the creative scene, from Don Cherry to John Coltrane and from William Parker to Tony Allen. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Big Monitors “Hunk Pappa Blues / Junk Meal" Knots and Notes (Auand) 0:16 Host talks 3:16 Tony Allen “Cosmosis (feat. Ben Okri & Skepta)" There Is No End (Blue Note) 4:31 ...
read moreBasilio Sulis: Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz
by Paolo Peviani
Basilio Sulis, storico direttore artistico del festival Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz, è deceduto questa mattina, 11 Novembre 2020. Visionario e anticonformista, ironico e penetrante, appassionato e al tempo stesso lucidamente disincantato, era un acuto osservatore dei fenomeni musicali, culturali, sociali. Lo ricordiamo ripubblicando questa intervista, raccolta nel corso dell'edizione 2017 del festival. In tempi come quelli odierni, fatti di festival con cartelloni omologati e di proposte musicali più attente agli aspetti commerciali ...
read moreNew York Contemporary Five: Consequences Revisited
by Mark Corroto
This 2020 reissue of the New York Contemporary Five recordings from 1963-64 can't help but draw one's attention to the social unrest occurring in America in 2020. In 1964 the riots in Harlem and Philadelphia over police brutality were followed by similar riots a few years later in Watts, Newark, Detroit, etc. In the growing civil unrest these recordings were born. The New Thing was the equivalent to what Chuck D of Public Enemy claimed when he said rap music ...
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