Jazz Articles

Satoko Fujii Min-Yoh Ensemble: Fuijin Raijin

by Troy Collins
June 14, 2007

Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii's artistic restlessness is given full flower on Fujin Raijin, her first album of Min'yo compositions. Classically trained, Fujii is one of today's most eclectic jazz figures, leading ensembles that range from intimate chamber duos to full-sized big bands. Long fascinated by the emotional directness of Min'yo (traditional Japanese folk music), Fujii finally takes the plunge with a mix of traditional and original pieces.

Fujii is joined by her usual foil, husband and trumpeter Natsuki ...

Anthony Braxton & Fred Frith: Duo (Victoriaville)

by Kurt Gottschalk
December 10, 2006

Anthony Braxton and Fred Frith each have about as close a relationship to the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville as just about any non-Canadians. The first release on Victo, the label run by the producers of the annual Canadian festival, was a guitar duo with Frith and Rene Lussier; the second was a duet between Braxton and Derek Bailey. Until this year, each had released three discs on the label. But 2005 was the Year of Braxton and ...

Kazue Sawai / Michel Doneda / Kazuo Imai / L: Une Chance pour l'ombre

by AAJ Staff
April 30, 2006

By Ken WaxmanUne Chance pour l'ombre is a rare article--almost fifty minutes of musical sound that exists in its own time and place, informed only by the experiences, sensibilities and consultation of the five improvisers.During the course of two long improvisations recorded at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Quebec, the quintet members let their familiarity with one another's boundaries direct their interaction. In terms of ethnic musics, only Kazue Sawai's harp-like arpeggios ...

Barre Phillips/Joelle Leandre/William Parker/Tetsu Saitoh: After You Gone

by Rex Butters
February 14, 2005

Reverberations from bassist Peter Kowald's passing continue to be felt two years later. Last year, a long-time bass quartet with one sub gathered to bathe Kowald's spirit in a bass balm. Comprised of close associates or admirers of Kowald, this quartet represents a summit from across borders and generations, sharing only remarkable technique and a love of the unknown.

Barre Phillips helped legitimize improvised solo bass, as well as expanding its vocabulary with extended techniques. Joëlle Léandre boasts a resume ...

Jaap Blonk/Koichi Makigami/Paul Dutton/Phil Minton/David Moss: Five Men Singing

by Eyal Hareuveni
August 16, 2004

It was a match made in heaven, or rather on earth, at last year's 20th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. Five vocal artists on one stage--Dutch Jaap Blonk, Japanese Koichi Makigami, Canadian sound poet Paul Dutton, Englishman Phil Minton, and German new music singer David Moss--was indeed one of the highlights of the '03 Victoriaville Festival. Only mad vocalist Mike Patton was missing.

These five men had never performed together on one stage, though they have worked with ...

Rova Saxophone Quartet: Resistance

by Kurt Gottschalk
May 5, 2003

Two premiere saxophone quartets came out of the final quarter of the last century, and both continue to carry on (each having lost one original member along the way). Rova and the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ) are notable for having overcome the limitations posed by groupings of like instruments, each finding their way to distinct voices and full sounds. Where they differ is in tradition. WSQ are unabashedly a jazz group, recording an album of Duke Ellington material ...

Cecil Taylor/Bill Dixon/Tony Oxley: Cecil Taylor/Bill Dixon/Tony Oxley

by Kurt Gottschalk
October 1, 2002

I have a confession to make. One night at the Hotel Colibri in Victoriaville, Quebec, after a resoundingly disdained set by Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon and Tony Oxley, I rode up in the elevator with Oxley and Victo festival promoter Michel Levasseur. My room was on the first floor, but I wanted to hear what they had to say. At best, most people I spoke to called the set a disappointment. The trio went on over an ...

Evan Parker and Sainkho Namtchylak: Mars Song

by Robert Spencer
June 1, 1997

A few years ago I was teaching music appreciation classes when I happened upon a book called Tuva or Bust. It was an account of how the author was inspired by the renowned physics professor Richard Feynman to investigate (and eventually visit) the remote central Asian land known as Tannu Tuva. Tuva, as it is commonly known, had attracted international notice during a brief period of independence (before being swallowed by the Soviet Union) with its flamboyant postage stamps. It ...