Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

ALBUM REVIEW February 17, 2021

Sabu Toyozumi / Mats Gustafsson: Hokusai

This tantalizing duo between Mats Gustafsson and Sabu Toyozumi was recorded at two live concerts in Chiba, Japan in 2018. Probably most listeners are familiar with the Swedish saxophonist from his avant--garage trio The Thing with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love and dozens of other ensembles including Fire! Orchestra, The End, and Cuts with Masami Akita aka Merzbow, and Balazs Pandí, to name but a few. This recording may be an introduction to Japanese drummer/percussionist Toyozumi. He ...

ALBUM REVIEW February 10, 2021

Juozas Milašius / Tomas Kutavičius / Dalius Naujokaitis and Lithuanian Young Composers Orchestra: Live at Willisau, 1993

By Vitalijus Gailius

Juozas Milašius, Dalius Naujokaitis-Naujo and Tomas Kutavičius were the most provocative figures on the Lithuanian scene in the 1990s. Playing bebop or following the Ganelin Trio tradition was not the their thing back then (and it is not in 2021 either). They played passionately and intensely and beyond genre boundaries. Stories about destroyed pianos and audiences running away from venues are still alive. Live at Willisau, 1993 was recorded during the Willisau Jazz festival in Switzerland. The concert ...

ALBUM REVIEW January 11, 2021

Modern Jazz Quintet Karlsruhe / Four Men Only: Complete Recordings

By John Sharpe

It's not often that something comes along which upends accepted wisdom, but that's what the Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint has accomplished with the reissue of four albums in a three-CD box set by the now unremembered Modern Jazz Quintet Karlsruhe (MJQK) and its successor FourMenOnly (FMO). The group, comprised of Herbert Joos, reedman Wilfried Eichorn, bassist Klaus Bühler, pianist Helmuth Zimmer and drummer Rudi Theilmann, barely merits a footnote in the current accounts of European free jazz. But ...

ALBUM REVIEW December 27, 2020

Francois Carrier: Japan Suite

By John Sharpe

Canadian alto saxophonist François Carrier frequently travels light. Even more so on this occasion as his regular peripatetic partner drummer Michel Lambert was not on board for a 2019 tour of Japan. This 78-minute album presents a first-time meeting with a group of Japanese improvisers, comprising bassist Daisuke Fuwa founder of the Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra, with a discography of 18 releases, fellow alto saxophonist Masayo Koketsu, also an alum of Fuwa's outfit, and drummer Takashi Itani, who has appeared alongside ...

ALBUM REVIEW November 27, 2020

Agustí Fernández / Liudas Mockūnas: Improdimensions

By John Sharpe

As one of Lithuania's premier improvisers, reedman Liudas Mockūnas has partnered an enormous array of visiting luminaries over the years. The duet is a favored format which has seen the multi-instrumentalist in tandem with bassist Barry Guy, drummer William Hooker and guitarist Marc Ducret, just to name those documented on NoBusiness Records. Here the accomplished Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández acts as the foil. The limited edition LP (also available as a download) comprises two three-part encounters recorded ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 30, 2020

DUX Orchestra: Duck Walks Dog (With Mixed Results)

By John Sharpe

The cover of the 1994 archival recording Duck Walks Dog (With Mixed Results) by the DUX Orchestra presents an intriguing line up which combines American free jazzers with Swedish baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Even within the New York City contingent there is diversity, as veteran stickman Walter Perkins (who played with Sonny Rollins, Roland Kirk and Charles Mingus among many others) rubs shoulders with young drummer Susie Ibarra (in her pre-David S. Ware days), stalwart reedmen Dave Sewelson and Will ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 8, 2020

Vincent Chancey Trio: The Spell

By John Sharpe

It's not everyone who gets to be name-checked in the title of an album by Sun Ra, but Chicago-native Vincent Chancey inhabits a select club thanks to Taking A Chance On Chances (Saturn, 1977), (mis-)named after an improvised duet between his French horn and Ra's piano. As well as the Arkestra, Chancey's French horn has also featured in the bands of Carla Bley, Lester Bowie, David Murray and Dave Douglas among over 300 sideman dates. But in spite of such ...