Jazz Articles about John Edwards

About John Edwards

Album Review

John Dikeman / Pat Thomas / John Edwards / Steve Noble: Volume2

Read "Volume2" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
June 25, 2023

If ever oh ever there was a more ornery conversation between four highly-charged, time-defiant individuals, Volume2 sets the mark. Arguing, as great men do, about all things seen and unseen, secular and sublime, consummate free jazzers saxophonist John Dikeman, pianist Pat Thomas, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble circle the wagons once again at London's Cafe Otto and chase the demons and angels that co-inhabit each and every one of us. “No," its half-hour plus mad rush mix of biblical ...

Album Review

Gabriele Mitelli: Three Tsuru Origami

Read "Three Tsuru Origami" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
April 28, 2023

Nuovo progetto originale di Gabriele Mitelli, in trio con una epica ritmica inglese —John Edwards e Mark Sanders hanno lavorato assieme con personalità come Evan Parker o Veryan Weston —, ispirato e dedicato idealmente ai volatili e alle loro migrazioni, ricco di riferimenti alle stagioni più libere e aperte della musica jazz. Il disco è incastonato tra due emblematici omaggi: il primo è “New One," del sassofonista sudafricano Sean Bergin, protagonista prima della stagione della diaspora degli artisti ...

Album Review

François Carrier/Alexander von Schlippenbach/John Edwards/Michel Lambert: Unwalled

Read "Unwalled" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 19, 2023

Don't you love it when a plan comes together? Even if the plan is totally improvised, as is that of Unwalled. The album is the first meeting between Canadian alto saxophonist François Carrier and German-born pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. The free jazz pioneer Schlippenbach was the founder of the Globe Unity Orchestra back in 1966, and it featured Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, Han Bennink, Derek Bailey, Paul Lovens and Evan Parker, to name just a few of the future legends ...

Album Review

Gabriele Mitelli / John Edwards / Mark Sanders: Three Tsuru Origami

Read "Three Tsuru Origami" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 26, 2022

Birds of a feather, as they say, flock together. Proof positive is the trio of Italian trumpeter Gabriele Mitelli (who also doubles on soprano saxophone and electronics), and the Englishmen, bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders. Three Tsuru Origami (tsuru is the Japanese word for crane) continues the avian theme with the bulk of the material dedicated to our feathered friends. Sanders and Edwards are familiar names in free jazz and improvisation circles, being the first call ...

Album Review

Joe McPhee / John Edwards / Klaus Kugel: Existential Moments

Read "Existential Moments" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
October 3, 2022

Multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's trio with British bassist John Edwards and German drummer Klaus Kugel has become another of his most potent working bands, following in the footsteps of such esteemed outfits as Trio X and Survival Unit III. On their third album, after Journey To Parazzar (NotTwo, 2018) and A Night In Alchemia (NotTwo, 2019), recorded in front of an audience at the FreeJazzSaar festival in Saarbrucken in 2019, the threesome conduct a masterclass in building and releasing tension, during ...

Album Review

Big Bad Brötzmann Quintet: Bambule!

Read "Bambule!" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 21, 2022

This set finds legendary free jazz innovator Peter Brotzmann leading his Big Bad Quintet, along with fellow German improvisational champions, keyboardist Oliver Schwerdt, drummer Christian Lillinger, bassist John Eckhardt and fabled British bassist John Edwards to round out a sweltering session, teeming with notions of turmoil, and enduring interchanges. Brotzmann is like a turbo-charged bulldozer flattening all the unwieldly routes throughout these two extended tracks. As the German translation of the album moniker infers, a non-violent prison protest. ...

Album Review

John Dikeman, Pat Thomas, John Edwards, Steve Noble: Volume 1

by John Sharpe
April 19, 2022

For those worried about soaring energy bills, the inflammatory foursome of tenor saxophonist John Dikeman, pianist Pat Thomas, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble certainly offers one solution. They must have truly warmed the room at London's Cafe Oto on a cold February evening in 2019, on the evidence of the forty-minute program presented on Volume 1. It is hard to think of a more potent set of practitioners of the free jazz vernacular than this particular agglomeration, all ...