Jazz Articles

Thollem / Parker / Cline: The Gowanus Sessions

by Glenn Astarita
May 21, 2012

Glaring expressionism coupled with rip-roaring layers of acoustic-electric sound-sculpting maneuvers yield the bountiful fruit on this manifold studio date. When guitarist Nels Cline isn't tearing it up with the popular alt-rock band Wilco, he's knee-deep in progressive-jazz, free-form experimental and jazz-rock formats. He's catapulted to the upper echelon of modern guitarists, paralleling the colossal faculties of bassist William Parker and pianist Thollem McDonas. Parker has been a perennial driving force behind the reshaping of jazz along with ...

The Lou Grassi Po Band with Marshall Allen: Live At The Knitting Factory Volume 1

by Glenn Astarita
February 22, 2011

Drummer Lou Grassi, with his progressive jazz and improvisational luminaries, slams matters into high gear during this gutsy 2000 recording, captured at New York City's Knitting Factory. Historically, Grassi is known for his driving passion and prominent leadership, while almost always engaging with superior musicians. Here, the frontline musicians lock horns, via intervallic spikes and scorching dialogues. “RePoZest" presents an evolving vista, commencing with introspective musings between trumpeter Paul Smoker's linear phrasings and flautist Marshall Allen's cosmological lines. ...

Matt Bauder: Paper Gardens

by Glenn Astarita
September 20, 2010

The album title, Paper Gardens, parallels saxophonist Matt Bauder's work for an architecture firm, concerning the design of a new garden for an elementary school. Upon his initial visit, he observed construction paper models of the proposed garden, which served as the basis for this curiously interesting, avant-garde, chamber-jazz foray. Here, Bauder forges a homogenous program, touching upon minimalism and sound-sculpting motifs to complement the improvisational opuses interspersed at key intervals. Partly constructed on horn- and string-based extended ...

Kyle Brenders: Ways

by Mark Corroto
April 3, 2010

Saxophonist Kyle Brenders writes in the accompanying notes to Ways, “I would never sincerely believe that the process of composition could actually inform one's own experience of music...please experience this music at will and interpret it as you can." That said, this thoroughly compelling set of sounds provide captivating music that figure beyond individual categories of modern composition, jazz, improvisation, and musical interaction.

Brenders, a Canadian saxophonist and composer, is a protege of Anthony Braxton. Their duo of ...

Khan Jamal: Cool

by Francis Lo Kee
July 10, 2009

Always interesting and quite different from one to the next, vibraphonist Khan Jamal's recordings have charted a unique course through the world of improvisational music, from trio recordings with bass and drums or guitar and drums to sessions with great horn players (eg. Grachan Moncur III, Byard Lancaster, Charles Tyler, et. al.) to the somewhat psychedelic (1972's Drum Dance To The Motherland). Cool, self-released minimally by Jamal in 2002, is no exception. Originally recorded in 1989, the ...

FAB Trio: Live in Amsterdam

by Terrell Kent Holmes
June 1, 2009

If three previous live albums weren't proof enough, Live in Amsterdam underscores how the FAB Trio thrives on the high-wire act of playing in front of an audience. Bassist Joe Fonda, drummer Barry Altschul and violinist Billy Bang treat the crowd at the Bimhuis Jazz Club to some excellent avant-garde virtuosity that, although lengthy and involved, is neither overlong nor self-indulgent. The trio, in various permutations, artfully blends free and straight-ahead elements to create ambitious, complex tunes. ...

Nu Band: Lower East Side Blues

by Robert Iannapollo
May 28, 2009

To those who thought The Nu Band was a one-shot group, witness Lower East Side Blues, its fourth album since 2003 and first recorded in a studio. With such busy schedules it seemed as if four musicians of this caliber--trumpeter Roy Campbell, alto saxophonist/ clarinetist Mark Whitecage, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Lou Grassi--couldn't stay together very long. That they now have several international tours behind them and have a burgeoning discography is an indication of their level of commitment. ...

Nate Wooley / Fred Lonberg-Holm / Jason Roebke: Throw Down Your Hammer And Sing

by Lyn Horton
April 3, 2009

Seemingly the most complicated music is really the most simple; complexity might stem only from the mindful choices the performers make when they play. Yet, when the vocabulary of each performer is so well attuned to the possibilities of an unusual instrumental setting, then the choices for improvising, even though they might sound oddly pressured, are instinctual. What the musicians give each other musically and how each responds, generates the music.

This concept holds true on Throw Down Your Hammer ...

Henry Grimes / Rashied Ali: Going To The Ritual

by Glenn Astarita
January 27, 2009

Bassist Henry Grimes was a seminal figure within progressive jazz and jazz-based improvisation back in the '50s and '60s. His relevance and resume contains stints with a who's who of jazz stalwarts. As Grimes' migration from Los Angeles to New York City in 2003 looms as one of the more heartening stories within this idiom, after disappearing from the scene for thirty-five years.

Grimes was rediscovered in Los Angeles by a Georgia social worker and ardent admirer back ...

Byard Lancaster: Live at Macalester College

by Hrayr Attarian
October 11, 2008

Sometimes the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and sometimes it is less. The latter is true for this reissue of Live at Macalester College by the Byard Lancaster unit. The music, deftly played and improvised by all the musicians, is avant-garde and free jazz in character during the leader's various horn solos, more traditional soul-jazz when the rhythm section is in the forefront, and has tinges of Afro-Cuban rhythms when the percussion is the dominant voice. ...