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Whit Dickey, Sara Serpa & Stanley J. Zappa
by Maurice Hogue
This first July show features the debut of a new record label with a focus on improvisation: Tau Forms. The artistic director is drummer Whit Dickey, and it happens that his new Expanded Light is one of first two releases by the label; the other comes from pianist Matthew Shipp. Good luck to Tao Forms! I thought I'd throw in a little Zappa for you this episode, but it's not Frank, it's his saxophone-playing nephew, Stanley J. Zappa who teamed ...
Continue ReadingMusic from new label Tao Forms
by Bob Osborne
Tao Forms is a new recording label launched in Spring 2020. Drummer—improviser—composer Whit Dickey is both the creative director and executive producer of this fresh endeavour. Matthew Shipp's The Piano Equation was the label's inaugural release. It was followed by Expanding Light, which is the new work by Whit Dickey himself. The music is distributed by the Aum Fidelity label. On this show I feature tracks from both of those albums as well as other music from the ...
Continue ReadingWhit Dickey: Morph
by Karl Ackermann
Two players on Morph, Matthew Shipp and Nate Wooley, hardly need an introduction to those who venture into free jazz or experimental waters. But the leader, free jazz drummer Whit Dickey, is more of an enigma. Though prolific, his credits are more often in a supporting role. Dickey has been working with Shipp for nearly four decades in David S. Ware's quartet, Shipp's trio and his own projects. The New York native has recorded with Rob Brown, Eri Yamamoto, Daniel ...
Continue ReadingWhit Dickey, Asher Gamedze, Quin Kirchner, Icepick and More
by Maurice Hogue
Three albums by drummers highlight this episode. South Africa's Asher Gamedze's Dialectic Soul brings to light the freer, more avant side of contemporary South African jazz (perhaps in a way that the revered Louis Moholo Moholo did over fifty years ago), while drummer Quin Kirchner's latest delves into various rhythms and tributes to favorite musicians. Tying it together with his usual free jazz style is Whit Dickey who drops two distinctly different albums, both with Matthew Shipp, one with Nate ...
Continue ReadingWhit Dickey: Tao Quartets: Peace Planet & Box of Light
by Giuseppe Segala
Possiamo dire che l'assioma secondo il quale tutti i jazzisti sono sottovalutati, non sia poi così paradossale. Parliamo naturalmente dei musicisti che mettono al primo posto del loro operato il fare artistico e non la realizzazione di un prodotto solo ben accetto sul mercato. Spesso ci troviamo di fronte a musicisti che subiscono tale disattenzione in modo ancora più evidente, se confrontata alla mole e alla qualità del loro lavoro. Quest'ultimo concetto è sottolineato da Clifford Allen nelle ampie note ...
Continue ReadingWhit Dickey/Kirk Knuffke: Drone Dream
by Alberto Bazzurro
Di duetti tromba/batteria, dai tempi dei due volumi-capostipiti (peraltro largamente polistrumentali) intitolati Mu e firmati congiuntamente da Don Cherry e Ed Blackwell (era il 1969, giusto mezzo secolo fa), ce ne sono stati svariati, pur entro una formula--un abbinamento--sempre piuttosto esclusiva, alla fin fine alquanto rara. Tornano sull'argomento Kirk Knuffke, trentanovenne trombettista di Denver da tempo di stanza a New York, e Whit Dickey, di professione batterista, che nella Big Apple è nato sessantacinque anni or sono, per ...
Continue ReadingWhit Dickey/Kirk Knuffke: Drone Dream
by Mark Corroto
If the duo of drummer Whit Dickey and cornetist Kirk Knuffke were a baseball team, their signature style would be small ball, the opposite of towering home runs and 100 mph fast balls. They would win games like they sound here with tight efficient playing. They lay down perfect bunts and easily turn the double play with these improvisations. Opening with “Soaring," the sounds hesitates without being reluctant. Neither party, both of whom have the ability, attempts to overwhelm the ...
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