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Peripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Irrational Revelation & Mutual Humiliation sees Peripheral Vision celebrating their outfit's ten-year anniversary of collaboration. During that time, the group has released four studio albums and one live recording (Spectable: Live!, 2011), each time presenting fresh and stirring new music written by the leaders Don Scott and Michael Herring. More than anything though, the Canadian quartet always makes an effort to demonstrate truly synergetic interplay and democratically fashioned tapestries of sound, as much rooted in jazz tradition as in modern ...
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by Hrayr Attarian
The fifth release of the Canadian quartet Peripheral Vision, the stimulating double album Irrational Revelation & Mutual Humiliation crystalizes the band's creative vision of over a decade into 14 captivating originals. Composers Michael Herring on bass and Don Scott on guitar contributed all the tracks that range from the personal to the socially conscious with a definite abstract and spiritual trait running throughout the intriguing music. A language-barrier problem inspired Scott's whimsical Schleudern." Opening with drummer Nick Fraser's ...
read moreRob Clutton Trio: Counsel of Primaries
by Troy Dostert
Bassist Rob Clutton has been a regular presence in the Toronto jazz scene for some time, having begun his recording career in the mid 1990s, subsequently working within a cluster of fellow Canadian improvisers, including efforts with Lina Allemano, Nick Storring, Nick Fraser, and Karen Ng. The latter two are integral components of Counsel of Primaries, a compelling venture into well-crafted music that straddles the line between an abstract chamber aesthetic and jazz-based improvisation. Clutton is credited with ...
read morePeripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation
by Dan McClenaghan
The Toronto-based quartet Peripheral Vision offers up Irrational Revelation and Mutual Humiliation, the group's fifth release in a discography that began in 2014 with Sheer Tyranny Of Will (Step3). The leaders, guitarist Don Scott and bassist Michael Herring, anchor a tight rhythm section with drummer Nick Fraser, rounded out with alto saxophonist Trevor Hogg. Distinctively modern in sound, toe tapping grooves abound, powering ahead with a momentum as in synch as that of Chick Corea's' Elektric Band. Irrational ...
read moreMark Godfrey: Square Peg
by Dan McClenaghan
Mark Godfrey has done his fair share of commuting in furtherance of his jazz career. Toronto--his home base--to New York has been a regular journey. The near five hundred mile trip would certainly be shorter (timewise) via airplane. But the decision was made to roll in a 2006 Dodge Caravan, due to the fact (we can guess) that an acoustic bass is a bulky yet fragile beast, susceptible to in transit damages. In your own vehicle, you can treat the ...
read moreNick Fraser / Kris Davis / Tony Malaby: Zoning
by Jack Bowers
What can be said in a positive vein about Zoning, an essentially inward-leaning and dissonant exercise in avant-garde or free" jazz by drummer Nick Fraser, pianist Kris Davis and saxophonist Tony Malaby (supported on three numbers by tenor Ingrid Laubrock and trumpeter Lina Allemano). Well, it is music, of a sortand it is (largely) improvised, or appears to be, which places it somewhere in the inclusive jazz sphere. And despite its often chaotic and generally unmelodious contours, the music's interpreters ...
read moreNick Fraser - Kris Davis - Tony Malaby (with Ingrid Laubrock & Lina Allemano): Zoning
by Troy Dostert
Nate Cross' Astral Spirits imprint has steadily become one of the go-to options for fans of adventurous music. With over a hundred releases in its five-year existence, including well over thirty in 2019 alone, the label has maintained an impressive commitment to both quality and quantity. However, an output this extensive can result in a few worthy releases falling through the cracks. Hopefully, that won't happen to Zoning, a particularly strong record which features the collective talents of drummer Nick ...
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