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5
Album Review

Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March

Read "March" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This is the second release by drummer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara's unique double trio with himself and Gerald Cleaver on drums, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on brass, a group that can be configured as two trios, three pairs of instruments or something in between. The sound of the resulting combinations can come out ambient or raucous, but tends towards an angular prog-jazz fusion sound, that can pack the punch of ...

9
Album Review

Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March

Read "March" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Drummer, composer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara did not set out to rebut the saying “familiarity breeds contempt," but March from his sextet Triple Double does just that. His combination of three pairs of double instruments—guitarists Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, cornet/trumpets Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi, plus double drummers Gerald Cleaver and Tomas Fujiwara himself—creates respect, the opposite of contempt. The harmonious and organic nature of this music, first heard on their self-titled debut album Triple Double (Firehouse 12, ...

10
Album Review

Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March

Read "March" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Drummer Tomas Fujiwara's March, another offering from his Triple Double sextet, was recorded in December 2019, prior to the widespread racial unrest that followed the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others in 2020. But it feels completely of a piece with those protests, with an unsettled anger and impatience that animate every moment of this absorbing album. Creating music that seems perfectly suited for a tumultuous age, Fujiwara's compositional instincts are spot-on, and he once again marshals ...

3
Album Review

Anthony Braxton: 12 COMP (ZIM) 2017

Read "12 COMP (ZIM) 2017" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


There had been just a slow trickle of recordings from Anthony Braxton, but all at once he made up for lost time with two major releases. One is a 13 CD box set of performances of standards. The other is a collection of recordings of original compositions that form part of his latest musical concept, ZIM Music, twelve works that run for a total of more than 11 hours and are released on a single Blu-Ray disc. ZIM ...

12
Album Review

Anthony Braxton: 12 COMP (ZIM) 2017

Read "12 COMP (ZIM) 2017" reviewed by Mark Corroto


James Joyce, Anthony Braxton, and a music fan walk into a bar. The bartender says, “what is this? Some kind of a joke?" Joyce (okay, he died in 1941 but stay tuned) indicates, “this is no joke, and please send over the sommelier." The three patrons have come to this establishment to discuss Braxton's latest project, his House Of ZIM. Released as a sextet, septet, and nonet (save the quartets for another time) 12 COMP (ZIM) 2017 details eight performances ...

7
Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Guitarist Mary Halvorson has displayed her playing and composing talents in a number of settings, but this second release by her song-based band, Code Girl, is one of the most focused and intense things she has ever done. Halvorson and her quintet constructed music around eight of her own poems, each written in a specific poetic form. The results are fluid and improvisational art songs, in the manner of complex but catchy British art rock groups of the ...

7
Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by John Sharpe


Not content with having scaled the heights of the guitar pantheon, with the second release from Code Girl, Mary Halvorson also cements her place in a unique genre of her own design. As befits someone who has taken to heart Anthony Braxton's dictum to find her own musical voice, she presents something which is part art song, part indie rock, part mainstream jazz and part free form, but all Halvorson. Mirroring the progression of her trio, first to ...

9
Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner


Released by Mary Halvorson's Code Girl, Artlessly Falling presents eight new compositions, each of which is structured around a specific poetic form with accompanying lyrics/poems by Halvorson herself. The forms represent a significant diversity of cultural origins and eras, including Japanese Tanka, 12th century Sestina, French Villanelle, and Malay Pantoum. With each of the above sources arguably requiring deep study to become well-versed in, this central conceit might feel like a daring experiment, hubris, or a bit of ...

13
Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Aside from her most obvious musical talents, including her phenomenal guitar chops and her budding talent as a lyricist, Mary Halvorson has a special gift for understanding the abilities of her bandmates and drawing out their strengths to the fullest. Part of it is the way she tends to keep the same company in her assorted projects: bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara are the leading examples, having recorded extensively with her in their trio Thumbscrew, as heard on ...

19
Album Review

Anthony Braxton: Quartet (New Haven) 2014

Read "Quartet (New Haven) 2014" reviewed by Don Phipps


The shifting moods of Anthony Braxton's Quartet (New Haven) 2014 probably have to do with the song dedications. Each number reflects a famous and important popular musician and composer—-Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, James Brown and Merle Haggard. These four musicians would most certainly provide a strange but intoxicating mix if played at a party. Yet Hendrix's laid back and yet intense style, Joplin's unique blues passion, Brown's explosive showman funk and Haggard's homespun country songs serve as the inspiration for ...


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