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Uwe Oberg - Frank Paul Schubert - Wilbert de Joode - Mark Sanders: Rope
by Glenn Astarita
These upper-echelon European improvisers offer a grab bag of tasty treats in front of an audience at the Festival Just Music in Wiesbaden, Germany. This 2015 performance consists of three works, but the 35-minute opener “Drifter," is a tour de force amid a macrocosm of delicate phrasings, succinct shadings, ethereal background treatments and scorching, climactically driven buildups. Essentially, they keep you on the edge. Frank Paul Schubert's darting and weaving soprano sax lines and pianist Uwe Oberg's multifaceted ...
read moreEvan Parker - Paul Dunmall - Tony Bianco: Extremes
by Glenn Astarita
In the album notes, eminent drummer Tony Bianco advises that the various discourses of this program “were about the times we live in." It's a fitting correlation to the album moniker, featuring two legendary British improvisers, saxophonists Paul Dunmall and Evan Parker engaging in kinetic and at times, calamitous dialogues. Moreover, the Canadian label Red Toucan Records celebrates 20-years in business with its 50th release, fittingly provided by this powerhouse trio. The program sort of encapsulates the label's daring and ...
read moreMatthias Schubert: 9 Compositions for The Multiple Joy[ce] Ensemble
![Read "9 Compositions for The Multiple Joy[ce] Ensemble" reviewed by Glenn Astarita](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/9compositionsforthemultiplejoyceensemble_matthiasschubert_ga.jpg)
by Glenn Astarita
Featuring an international cast, Matthias Schubert conducts a program that snugly resides in the avant-garde space. Each track is outlined in the liners, citing connotations, inspirations and homages, where it's up to the listener to connect the dots via his or her interpretations. It's a hybrid offering engineered with asymmetrical parts of classical, jazz improvisation, John Cage-like indeterminacy and neo-minimalism. “Conlon Zoubeck" features pianist Phillip Zoubeck's off- center manipulations that could be categorized as a song-form designed on ...
read moreAlbert Braida/Giancarlo Locatelli: Nel Margine
by Jerry D'Souza
Alberto Braida and Giancarlo Locatelli recorded this album as part of the concert series In Viaggio #9 bis at Sala Vallaperti in Melzo, Italy. The two have played together in the past and have developed an understanding and chemistry that elevates their music. Each is credited with five compositions on this record with “Del Margine" being improvised. The written note may be the signpost for their journeys, but the spark that lights their path is the undefined. Coming into play ...
read moreJan Klare's 1000: (Shoe)
by Jerry D'Souza
Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. For reed player Jan Klare, it sprung from the words of a musician who churned in him the desire to create music that was as palpable as an object made of leather or wood. Palpability can be physical as well as organic and if Klare was looking for the latter, he has accomplished it splendidly on this recording.In keeping with his desire and his vision, Klare moulds a tangible portrait of a ...
read moreDuh: In Just
by Nic Jones
The method of free improvisation kind of guarantees the sound of surprise in a way that few other musical strains do. While the primacy of the moment and the players' responses in it and to it are the prime motivations for the music this will always be the case. This makes the idea of trying to define just what governs the success of the resulting music a slippery notion, but however it might be pinned down, In Just falls very ...
read moreDuh: In Just
by Nic Jones
Free improvisation guarantees the sound of surprise in a way that few other musical strains do. While the primacy of the moment and the players' responses in it and to it are the prime motivations for the music, this will always be the case. This makes the idea of trying to define just what governs the success of the resulting music a slippery notion but, however it might be pinned down, In Just falls very much on the positive side. ...
read moreJoe Hertenstein / Thomas Heberer / Joachim Badenhorst / Pascal Niggenkemper: Polylemma
by Glenn Astarita
German drummer Joe Hertenstein currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, where he ingratiates his wares into the pulsating jazz-improvisation climate. His trio HNH, featuring quarter-tone trumpet ace Thomas Heberer and drummer Pascal Niggenkemper, receives a shrewdly devised uplift with the addition of bass clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst on Polylemma; a term that indicates a difficult predicament. Keeping in line with the title, the band executes a fluent sequence of decision-making processes throughout the program. It's an open-world montage of semi-structured themes and ...
read moreFrank Gratkowski / Jacob Anderskov: Ardent Grass
by Nic Jones
The reeds-piano duo is hardly overdone within the recorded canon, but then neither has it been as rare or unusual as some lineups. This particular duo is apparently not unaware of this, and there's a personality to its work that's entirely its own.There's a little of Anthony Braxton about Frank Gratkowski's alto sax playing on the opening “Narrative" but not enough to distract the ear from the profundity of the music-making. Pianist Jacob Anderskov's touch is, by turns, ...
read moreFrank Gratkowski / Jacob Anderskov: Ardent Grass
by Jerry D'Souza
Over the years, reed/woodwind multi-instrumentalist Frank Gratkowski has formed a series of potent combinations with other musicians. His first was with Georg Graewe in 1992 before he went on to fruitful collaborations with Gerry Hemingway, Wilbert DeJoode, Michael Vatcher and Herb Robertson, among others. Gratkowski has the ingrained ability to turn the presence of his musical partners into a creative force that exemplifies the art of improvisation, and does it once more with pianist Jacob Anderskov on Ardent Grass, which ...
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