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Jason Stein / Damon Smith / Adam Shead: Volumes & Surfaces
by Mark Corroto
Damon Smith might be the hardest working man in show business. Free-jazz show business, that is. If there is a performance or recording somewhere in the States or Europe, there is a very good chance his double bass is in attendance. You name an improvising artist and he's recorded with them, from Roscoe Mitchell to Joe Morris, Jaap Blonk, Joëlle Léandre, Peter Kowald, Sandy Ewen, Burton Greene, Joe McPhee, Fred Van Hove and Henry Kaiser. The list is practically endless. ...
Continue ReadingQuin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light
by Mark Corroto
Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war film, Apocalypse Now, was released in 1979. After sitting for 2 and ½ hours, a viewer might have hoped for theater management to stand at the exits to hand out pamphlets explaining what had just gone down. The conflict had ended 4 years prior, and most war movies, pre- Vietnam, were straight-forward, America-saves-the-world affairs. Goodnight. In between a surf crazed Robert Duval, Playboy Bunnies, and the insane Colonel Kurtz played by Marlon Brando, the movie ...
Continue ReadingQuin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light
by Kevin Press
Add Chicago's Quin Kirchner to the growing list of young jazz artists who've dropped impressive multi-disc releases in recent years. It has become a kind of rite of passage for a new breed of heavy hitters, these double-and triple-album sets. They are not vanity projects. Not the good ones, anyway. They come from deep pools of creativity. The kind a very few young artists have accessible to them in the early prime of their careers. Kirchner's follow-up to ...
Continue ReadingThreadbare: Silver Dollar
by Mike Jurkovic
Wobbling like a drunk private eye in a thirties who dunnit, “And When the Situation Arises," the opening salutation of the unflinching Threadbare, rapidly transforms into a free jazz car chase where sodden hero and combatant bounce off light pole and guard rail, skidding towards cliffs with no regard for life, limb or the listener's expectations. It's a brazen launch to an album bristling with an increasingly anxious assurance. Alloying heavy metal with Ornette Coleman's inspired predetermination to ...
Continue ReadingJason Stein: Silver Dollar
by Patrick Burnette
The record label's name--NoBusiness Records--should be warning enough. Silver Dollar is not an album trying to make friends. Contents are under pressure and probably dangerous. The group releasing said record, Threadbare, is a sonic-terrorist cell comprised of Jason Stein on bass clarinet, Ben Cruz on electric guitar and Emerson Hunton on drums. Once past the trappings (check out the impressively minimalist cover art work--who knew hard currency could be so scary?), you'll find an accomplished and reasonably rewarding set of ...
Continue ReadingRing in the New
by Patrick Burnette
This is our first podcast of 2019 and, to celebrate, we're discussing albums by up-and-coming artists released in the last few months. From angular art-jazz with post production flourishes to hard-core live free-form blowing and experimental bass clarinet thrusting, we've got it all--even post bop with a Christian bent! Stay tuned for Mike dissecting Bab's holiday album and Pat apologizing for his vinyl addiction. Playlist Discussion of Telepatia Liquida's self-titled album (577 Records) 4:30 Discussion of Gabriel ...
Continue ReadingHearts & Minds: Electroradiance
by Mark Corroto
It took millions and millions of years of evolution to produce dinosaurs that weighed 40 tons. Who'd have thunk it possible that those creatures are the ancestors of modern birds? Same consideration might be applied to the trio Heart & Minds. That is, if you're not into the whole creationist jazz scene. Some of those dinosaurs appeared to be a bizarre patchwork of feathers, armor, and teeth. Really big teeth. But there was an internal logic to these evolutionary adaptations, ...
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