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Sara Schoenbeck: Sara Schoenbeck

by Karl Ackermann
Sara Schoenbeck is cast against type in the world of bassoonists. The versatile double reed, broad-ranged instrument dates to the Renaissance and is commonly found in wind ensembles and chamber orchestras. But Schoenbeck has brought her classical-leaning instrument to creative music in an electrifying body of work. Her self-titled leader debut is the first such project of her career. A series of nine duets allows Schoenbeck to fully explore the scope of the bassoon in close settings. Not ...
Continue ReadingArtifacts: Tomeka Reid, Nicole Mitchell, Mike Reed: …and then there’s this

by Mark Corroto
Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians or AACM, formed in 1965, adopted the maxim ancient to the future." The future of which they spoke, in the hands of the next generation heard here, is indeed secure. The trio Artifacts comprises the gifted successors to the AACM, cellist Tomeka Reid, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and drummer Mike Reed. ...and then there's this is the trio's second release and it follows the self-titled debut from 482 Music in 2015. Where that ...
Continue ReadingRob Mazurek / Exploding Star Orchestra: Dimensional Stardust

by Karl Ackermann
Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist Rob Mazurek has made his Exploding Star Orchestra the centerpiece of his larger groups. In this formation, he finds ample room to channel his disparate influences such as Sun Ra and Bill Dixon, and the distinctions he's absorbed as a global citizen. On Dimensional Stardust Mazurek and a dozen collaborators present an energetic, always changeable, genre-less mélange of styles held together by imagination and daring. The imposing Exploding Star Orchestra includes flautist Nicole ...
Continue ReadingSomething Borrowed

by Patrick Burnette
In this third podcast on some of the best-reviewed jazz of the 2010's that we missed the first time 'round, the boys look at four albums that 'borrow' something, whether inspiration from a sci-fi author, jazz protests of the sixties, or jazz greats of the past such as Charlie Parker or Duke Ellington. It's a light pop matters segment this time but little known indie band The Bolshoi and Italian horror soundtrack maestros Goblin do get a mention.
Continue ReadingThe Renewal of AACM: Nicole Mitchell, Mike Reed, Tomeka Reid, Matana Roberts

by Russell Perry
In 100 one-hour programs, the series Jazz at 100 told the story of recorded jazz. It established the foundations upon which the broadly diverse music of today is built. This is the first hour of the successor series which aims to give voice to the current jazz scene and appreciates its countless creators. In 1965, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians was founded with the motto, Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future." In 2015, AACM ...
Continue ReadingJazz em Agosto 2019

by Stefano Merighi
Jazz em agosto Lisbona 1-4.8.2019 Resistenza e narrazioni. Questo in sintesi il filo conduttore dell'edizione 2019 di Jazz em Agosto, in corso di svolgimento come sempre presso la fondazione Gulbenkian a Lisbona. Un'edizione militante," dunque, sebbene non così originale come in altre occasioni, vista la ripresa di spettacoli già presentati in altri festival lo scorso anno. Una riflessione ad alta voce e a suoni spiegati su ciò che ...
Continue ReadingNicole Mitchell: Maroon Cloud

by Alberto Bazzurro
Un quartetto alquanto anomalo, di stampo sostanzialmente cameristico, ripreso dal vivo al National Sawdust di Brooklyn a fine marzo 2017, cuce insieme quest'ambizioso lavoro commissionato a Nicole Mitchell da John Zorn e dedicato ai maroon (in italiano cimarroni), cioè quei gruppi di africani deportati (o loro discendenti) che a partire dal sedicesimo secolo, in particolare nei Caraibi, sfuggirono alla schiavitù dando vita a comunità in aperto contrasto col potere dei bianchi, che spesso razziavano e comunque combattevano a vari livelli, ...
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