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Elliott Sharp - Sally Gates - Tashi Dorji: Ere Guitar
by Mark Corroto
There is an art to arranging the guests at a dinner party or wedding reception. One wants to foster interesting conversations, sometimes between strangers, and create new friendships. The same can be said of Ere Guitar, a party organized by Downtown legend Elliott Sharp. The guitarist had previously released Err Guitar (Intakt, 2017) with his colleagues American guitarists Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot. With this 2023 recording, Sharp invited New Zealand guitarist Sally Gates, who is a member of the ...
Continue ReadingDave Rempis / Tashi Dorji: Gnash
by Mark Corroto
The correct response to Jeopardy gameshow answer Gnash is, “what is KUZU minus one"? The established trio (KUZU) of saxophonist Dave Rempis, guitarist Tashi Dorji, and drummer Tyler Damon have toured extensively and released five discs since their formation in 2018. Here, Damon stepped aside to allow Rempis and Dorji to tour as a duo in 2023 and early 2024. This session was captured at The Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in January 2024. We would be remiss ...
Continue ReadingKUZU: All Your Ghosts In One Corner
by Mark Corroto
The edge in which the trio Kuzu lays down the five live tracks on All Your Ghosts In One Corner is sharpened by an impending sense of foreboding that accompanied (and still accompanies) the COVID-19 pandemic. Recorded at the end of a tour in March 2020, on the eve of our social isolation with clubs and concert venues soon shuttered, the trio delivers a truly Herculean set of music. Formed in 2017, Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis invited the ...
Continue ReadingTashi Dorji: Stateless
by Gareth Thompson
It was an ambitious move from Bhutan to Asheville, North Carolina, that helped shape Tashi Dorji's musical direction. The guitarist had previously been steeped in classic rock and hair metal, but as a foreign exchange student he soon absorbed punk and free jazz. Two saxophonists in particular, John Zorn and Albert Ayler, inspired Dorji to his self-proclaimed “cathartic achievement of beautiful noise, rhythm and melody." His subsequent guitar albums wore this inspiration openly, earning Dorji's playing a reputation for scratchy ...
Continue ReadingKuzu: Purple Dark Opal
by John Sharpe
Hard as it is to believe, the wonderful Hiljaisuus (Aerophonic, 2019) documented the first encounter between Chicago reedman Dave Rempis, North Carolina-based Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Tyler Damon, under the banner Kuzu. On the basis of that triumph, the musicians put together a twenty-date US tour. For their follow up release, Purple Dark Opal, they selected a blistering set-long piece from the fifteenth stop on that road trip in Milwaukee. As it's just shy of an hour,so best ...
Continue ReadingKuzu: Purple Dark Opal
by Mark Corroto
Thank your lucky stars that Kuzu's previous disc Hiljaisuus (Aerophonic/Astral Spirits, 2019) was not a one-off meeting. That recording, their first concert together in 2017, inspired the trio to tour and explore their brand of free jazz. Purple Dark Opal, recorded live in Milwaukee in October 2018, found the trio in the midst of an extended concert tour. Documented here is proof they were indeed firing on all cylinders. “To The Quick" is a single, nearly hour-long track, ...
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