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The Nels Cline Singers: Share the Wealth
by Vincenzo Roggero
L'idea era di registrare delle lunghe improvvisazioni per poi selezionare frammenti, operare un copia-incolla di davisiana memoria e dar vita ad una sorta di mosaico/collage psichedelico. L'ascolto del materiale registrato, la percezione della magia sprigionata dalle sessions e della unicità dei brani hanno cambiato le carte in tavola e suggerito di pubblicare integralmente, senza sforbiciate, quello che è diventato Share the Wealth. Ossia--nella versione doppio LP e CD (oltre ottanta minuti) registrato in soli due giorni dalla versione allargata di ...
Continue ReadingMars Williams: An Ayler Xmas Vol. 4: Chicago vs. NYC
by Mark Corroto
For more than a decade, Mars Williams has been making (to borrow a phrase) Christmas music great again. He does so by exchanging the saccharine for the sublime, intersecting holiday classics with the music of Albert Ayler. Born out of his Chicago Ayler repertory band which can be heard on Witches And Devils At The Empty Bottle</em> (Knitting Factory Records, 2000), Williams applied the Gospel and spiritual nature of Ayler's methodology to Xmas music. While the eponymously titled first volume ...
Continue ReadingThe Nels Cline Singers: Share The Wealth
by Mark Sullivan
Guitarist Nels Cline has led the Nels Cline Singers since 2002. While they have sometimes had guest performers on their recordings, the core band has been a trio of Cline, drummer Scott Amendola and bassist Trevor Dunn (originally Devin Hoff). This album expands the group to a sextet with the addition of saxophonist Skerik, keyboardist Brian Marsella and percussionist Cyro Baptista. The experimental ante was further upped by the fact that they had never before played together in this combination, ...
Continue ReadingSomething Blue
by Patrick Burnette
For the last of our four-episode examination of discs we missed from various best of 2010's lists (and that's almost, but not quite, rapping, isn't it?) it's all about something blue." Or, in this case, something Blue Note. One entry on Avant sneaks in on the basis of its title, so at least it's not a Blue-opoly. In pop matters, Mike takes a minute to slag off Laura Marling and Elliot Smith while Pat wonders if a much more talented ...
Continue ReadingThe Nels Cline Singers: Share The Wealth
by Mike Jurkovic
A work of pummeling beauty, exhaustion and exhilaration await at the end of genre rogue guitarist Nels Cline's upheaval Share the Wealth, eighty minutes of magical, maniacal, free jam composition that, in perhaps a few more years down the line--if the line makes it past Election Day--we'll argue stands right up there with such and such album of equal fire and fury. Time, to which we've become too nervously accustomed, is tense, and everyone's cranked to ten or ...
Continue ReadingBobby Previte, Jamie Saft and Nels Cline: Music from the Early 21st Century
by Chris M. Slawecki
Music from the Early 21st Century presents music captured during a brief trio tour by keyboardist Jamie Saft, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Bobby Previte, performing completely improvised music. Fundamentally, it's based around the classic organ trio formation--drums, Hammond organ and guitar," Saft explains. But it just blows up the language to so many different universes." Captured during a brief trio tour" doesn't do justice to this wild, ravenous sound. Trapped and caged like a snarling animal seems ...
Continue ReadingA Jazz Immuno-Booster: Part 1
by Ludovico Granvassu
We may still be months away from developing vaccines to tame the threat that COVID19 poses to our bodies. But given the centrality of the mind-body connection for our physical well being, we should not forget that we continue to have music to support our minds during these challenging times. So I have reached out to the very people that have been providing us with this life-line, musicians, and have asked them to share one song they rely ...
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