Articles by Glenn Astarita
Jason Kao Hwang / Human Rites Trio: Second Life
by Glenn Astarita
Violinist and composer Jason Kao Hwang has spent much of his career moving between jazz, contemporary composition, and free improvisation, often blurring the distinctions between them. His Human Rites Trio with bassist Ken Filiano and drummer/percussionist Andrew Drury first recorded together on Human Rites Trio (True Sound Recordings, 2020), though the three have worked together in other settings over the years. Their follow-up, Second Life, contains four extended Hwang compositions that leave plenty of room for improvisation while still giving ...
Continue Reading...Tim Morse: The Fourth Crossing
by Glenn Astarita
Multi-instrumentalist Tim Morse has long operated in the progressive-rock sphere, both as a solo artist and through various band projects, while his more recent recordings have increasingly emphasized keyboards, synthesizers and electronic textures. The Fourth Crossing continues along that path, with Morse again building much of the music around layered keyboards, analog synth colors and atmospheric arrangements. Rather than representing a major stylistic shift, the album feels like another chapter in his ongoing exploration of electronic and progressive music, favoring ...
Continue Reading...Bushman's Revenge: Ah, Les Vaches
by Glenn Astarita
Norway's Bushman's Revenge has long occupied its own corner of the Scandinavian progressive music scene, where jazz improvisation, psychedelic rock and heavy guitar music regularly cross paths. Guitarist Even Helte Hermansen, drummer Gard Nilssen and new bassist Tor Egil Kreken retain the power-trio format, but brute force is only part of the equation. What distinguishes the band is its ability to turn open-ended improvisation and prog-rock architecture into something unusually organic, moving from atmospheric restraint to near-chaos without sounding as ...
Continue Reading...Punkt.Vrt.Plastik: Kompress
by Glenn Astarita
Punkt.Vrt.Plastik has spent nearly a decade demonstrating that the piano trio need not behave like a piano trio. Pianist Kaja Draksler, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Christian Lillinger established their peculiar chemistry on the excellent Punkt.Vrt.Plastik (Intakt, 2018), pushed it into more intricately constructed territory with Somit (Intakt, 2021) and documented its live potency on Zurich Concert (Intakt, 2022). Kompress continues the group's unconventional methods while tightening them into relatively concise pieces. Calling this outside jazz only gets ...
Continue Reading...Brand X: Theory of Nothing: Record Live in 1977
by Glenn Astarita
Every so often an archival release arrives that makes you wonder how such music remained unheard for so long. Theory of Nothing: Recorded Live 1977 is one of those releases. Drawn from reel-to-reel tapes discovered in the collection of Brand X keyboardist Robin Lumley, this two-CD set captures the British progressive rock / jazz fusion band during its 1977 U.S. tour, offering a vivid glimpse of the group at its best. The first disc sounds astonishingly fresh, with ...
Continue Reading...Co Streiff - Russ Johnson Quartet: Oracle
by Glenn Astarita
"In Circles--Yellow Crane" joins two pieces, Co Streiff's “In Circles," which also gave the quartet's 2012 debut its title, and Russ Johnson's “Yellow Crane." At 16 minutes, 27 seconds it is the longest track on Oracle, taken from the group's 2023 European tour. The band has been together on and off since the early 2010s, with Gerry Hemingway on drums since 2019 and Christian Weber on bass. Sixteen minutes is a lot of room for a quartet with ...
Continue Reading...Henry Grimes & Marzette Watts: The Call
by Glenn Astarita
Long before Henry Grimes became known as jazz's great Lazarus story, he was simply one of the most technically astonishing bassists working in New York City's' free jazz underground. Recorded on December 28, 1965, and issued by ESP-Disk in 1966, The Call stands as his debut as a leader, and it remains a document of quiet audacity rather than the raw energy so often associated with the label's catalog. Teaming with clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price, Grimes assembled ...
Continue Reading...Jason Kruk: Beyond the Veil
by Glenn Astarita
Veteran New York City-based drummer and composer Jason Kruk leverages decades of technical precision and international touring into a major leap forward on Sun Goose Records. Rather than a standard rhythm showcase, his latest release is an ambitious, collaborative suite bridging structured composition and open improvisation. The album unfolds as a deeply conceptual journey through tracks named after natural elements and archetypes. Kruk anchors complex polyrhythms with a muscular yet nuanced touch, swinging seamlessly between aggressive fusion workouts ...
Continue Reading...Frank London: Touzle Your Kurchy
by Glenn Astarita
Trumpeter Frank London has never been one to color neatly inside the historical lines. Known for his groundbreaking work with the Klezmer Conservatory Band and The Klezmatics, the restless downtown maestro has spent decades detonating cultural boundaries. With the Loisaida Fife and Drum Corps, he turns his sights toward eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Americana, dragging dusty martial traditions into a sweaty, musical block party. The album borrows its title from an antique Scots-English fife-and-drum tune--a flirtatious dare to rumple someone's kerchief--and that ...
Continue Reading...Andres Thor: Relocate
by Glenn Astarita
Icelandic guitarist Andres Thor has spent the better part of two decades quietly building a catalog that swings between Nordic chamber-jazz and something closer to countrified twang, and on Relocate the splits the difference again, this time with a jazz trio featuring French bassist Nico Moreaux and Icelandic drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen. The record follows the trio's 2022 debut, Hereby on Losen Records. Nine tracks, forty minutes, not a wasted motion--this is a band that has clearly done its homework ...
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