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Brda Contemporary Music Festival 2023
by Neri Pollastri
Medana, Slovenia Brda Contemporary Music Festival Sala Cinematografica Medana 14-16.9.2023 Giunto alla sua tredicesima edizione, il Brda Contemporary Music Festival ha, se pur di poco, cambiato sede --dal pittoresco borgo di Smartno al vicinissimo paesino di Medana, sempre su una delle meravigliose alture del Collio sloveno --ma ha conservato lo spirito e il clima, che ne fanno una rassegna a dir poco unica nell'attuale panorama musicale. Anche quest'anno, infatti, il festival voluto e diretto ...
Continue ReadingSüdtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige 2023
by Libero Farnè
Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige 2023 Bolzano e provincia Varie sedi 30.06--09.07.2023 Superati i quarant'anni di vita, il festival bolzanino è giunto ad un nuovo giro di boa. Dopo una casuale anteprima nel 1982 su un'idea di Nicola Ciardi, con un memorabile concerto del trio Codona all'interno di Bolzano Estate, fu l'anno successivo che partì “Jazz Summer," il festival vero e proprio sempre sotto la direzione artistica di Ciardi. Gli anni 2000 portarono alla denominazione “Jazz ...
Continue ReadingThe End: Why Do You Mourn
by Mark Corroto
Why Do You Mourn is the third release by the Swedish/Norwegian group The End. Ethiopian-born Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg is backed by the double reedists Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Fire! and Fire! Orchestra) and Kjetil Møster (Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra, Møster!, and Zanussi Five), plus guitarist Anders Hana (Circulasione Totale Orchestra) and drummer Børge Fjordheim. It follows two releases on the RareNoise Records label, Allt Är Intet (2020) and Svårmod Och Vemod Är Värdesinnen (2018). The sounds resemble ...
Continue ReadingFire! Orchestra: Echoes
by Chris May
The story of supersized jazz orchestras is not pretty. The scene was set by the bleaching deracination of Paul Whiteman and the elephantine bombast of Stan Kenton, bandleaders whose craving for approval by the music establishment fatally compromised their art. Good taste came later with leaders such as Carla Bley and London's Keith Tippett, who proved that, in the right hands, swing and nuance could co-exist with size and power. Since around 2010, there have been some ...
Continue ReadingGustafsson / McPhee / Håker Flaten / Nilssen-Love: The Thing She Knows...
by Chris May
The Hat Hut and ezz-thetics family of labels is in 2021 just three years shy of its fiftieth anniversary. This is a remarkable, perhaps unique, achievement for an independent company which has concerned itself exclusively with the avant-garde end of jazz and conservatoire music from the get go, and has done so with the highest (for which read costly) production standards. Perhaps mindful of the coming anniversary, the labels' founder, Werner X. Uehlinger, has since 2019 been reissuing ...
Continue ReadingSabu Toyozumi / Mats Gustafsson: Hokusai
by John Sharpe
In a departure from the archival recordings customarily offered by the NoBusiness label's Japanese Chap Chap series, Hokusai presents a meeting of minds between Swedish reedman Mats Gustafsson and veteran drummer Sabu Toyozumi, recorded live in June 2018. The 65-minute program includes a solo piece from each man but still affords over 40-minutes of the pair in tandem. As one of the pioneers of Japanese free music Toyozumi has played with virtually everyone of note among his countrymen ...
Continue ReadingSabu Toyozumi / Mats Gustafsson: Hokusai
by Mark Corroto
This tantalizing duo between Mats Gustafsson and Sabu Toyozumi was recorded at two live concerts in Chiba, Japan in 2018. Probably most listeners are familiar with the Swedish saxophonist from his avant--garage trio The Thing with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love and dozens of other ensembles including Fire! Orchestra, The End, and Cuts with Masami Akita aka Merzbow, and Balazs Pandí, to name but a few. This recording may be an introduction to Japanese drummer/percussionist Toyozumi. He ...
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