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John Dikeman: No Kings
by John Sharpe
Recorded live in 2022, No Kings documents a volatile meeting between a formidable European horn partnership and American free jazz royalty. In 2015, expat American saxophonist John Dikeman initiated a trio with bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake. Five years later, he invited Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente to join them, resulting in the quartet heard here on its second album, following Goes Without Saying, But It's Got To Be Said (JACC Records, 2020). The reedman and brass player share ...
Continue ReadingSpinifex: Maxximus
by Alberto Bazzurro
Undicesimo album in quindici anni per il nonetto olandese Spinifex (di base un sestetto, attivo fin dal 2005), questo Maxximus (dove il quinto s'intitolava Maximus, con una “x" in meno) ci fa fare la conoscenza (con colpevole ritardo, dobbiamo ammetterlo) di uno degli ensembles più interessanti, stimolanti e originali, dell'attuale scena europea di emanazione jazzistica (bella solida, nel caso specifico). La presenza di archi e vibrafono fa sì che il suono d'insieme mantenga sempre un che di cameristico, ...
Continue ReadingSpinifex: Maxximus
by Glenn Astarita
Spinifex, the Amsterdam sextet formed in 2005 by saxophonist Tobias Klein, has spent two decades rattling jazz conventions with math-metal precision and global rhythmic flair. With trumpeter Bart Maris, tenor saxophonist John Dikeman, guitarist Jasper Stadhouders, bassist Gonçalo Almeida, and drummer Philipp Moser, their live shows ignite like sonic wildfires. Maxximus marks their twentieth anniversary and first acoustic venture. They welcome violist Jessica Pavone, cellist Elisabeth Coudoux, and vibraphonist Evi Filippou. This unplugged pivot swaps electric chaos for chamber- like ...
Continue ReadingJohn Dikeman: Old Adam On Turtle Island
by John Sharpe
Committed improviser John Dikeman assembles a crack Amsterdam domiciled quartet to navigate Old Adam On Turtle Island, a song cycle that probes the intersections of colonization, religion, and their potential to inspire transcendence or tyranny. The framework is deliberately loose: a schematic more than a score, allowing the musicians to chart the course collectively. Themes emerge as insistent phrases rather than fixed melodies, serving as touchstones in a performance defined by ebb and flow. The first half moves ...
Continue ReadingSpinifex: Undrilling the Hole
by Vincenzo Roggero
Spinifex è un gruppo eterogeneo per esperienza e per provenienza geografica, con base ad Amsterdam, che con Undrilling the Hole giunge alla nona pubblicazione, la quinta con questa formazione, un sestetto con tre fiati, sezione ritmica e chitarra. A differenza dei precedenti album nei quali le composizioni provenivano dalla penna di diversi componenti del gruppo, in quest'ultimo la scrittura è tutta appannaggio di Tobias Klein, il fondatore nel lontano 2010 dell'ensemble, allora in forma di nonetto. Questa novità ...
Continue ReadingDikeman / Hong / Lumley / Warelis: Old Adam On Turtle Island
by Mark Corroto
The creative community centered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, can be seen as the modern-day equivalent of a city once known as New Amsterdam--a 17th-century Dutch settlement that would eventually become New York City. Just as modern jazz flourished in mid-20th-century New York, some might argue that today's hotbed of creative music resides in old Amsterdam. Evidence for this can be found in Old Adam on Turtle Island, a stunning musical creation by a multicultural quartet. Led by American saxophonist ...
Continue ReadingSpinifex: Undrilling the Hole
by Lawrence Peryer
The Amsterdam-based sextet Spinifex borrowed their name from a hardy Australian grass known for thriving in harsh conditions. For nearly two decades, they have forged original music from seemingly incompatible elements--mathematical structures, punk aggression, free jazz fire. Their ninth album, Undrilling the Hole, presents seven new compositions from alto saxophonist Tobias Klein that showcase the band's singular musical vocabulary. Mathematics shapes Klein's compositions, but not in obvious ways. “Nothing fancy," Klein explains. “The basic proportions=-twos and threes, sometimes ...
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