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Album Review

Steve Beresford & John Butcher: Old Paradise Airs

Read "Old Paradise Airs" reviewed by John Eyles


Recorded in May 2019, at London's Iklectik venue (which is located in Old Paradise Yard), Old Paradise Airs pairs Steve Beresford on piano, objects or electronics with John Butcher on tenor or soprano saxophone, a duo which dates back to 1988 when Beresford and Butcher (plus trombonist Alan Tomlinson) recorded a five-minute track for a compilation on the nato label, the rather unspectacular start to a long relationship. Since then, recordings featuring Beresford and Butcher together have been comparatively scarce, ...

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Album Review

Frode Gjerstad / Fred Lonberg-Holm / Matthew Shipp: Season of Sadness

Read "Season of Sadness" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Norwegian multi-reedist/composer Frode Gjerstad has been active in free jazz and avant-garde music across five decades. Among his collaborators are Paal Nilssen-Love, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, William Parker, Sabir Mateen and Johnny Dyani. Gjerstad has toured and played festivals extensively, in Europe and North America, and composed commissioned work for the historic Moldejazz festival. For Season of Sadness he is teamed with long-time associate and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and celebrated pianist Matthew Shipp. A staple of ...

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Album Review

Michael Bisio / Kirk Knuffke / Fred Lonberg-Holm: Requiem for a New York Slice

Read "Requiem for a New York Slice" reviewed by Mark Corroto


This remembrance of Mike Panico, the owner, producer, and partner with Kevin Reilly of Relative Pitch Records was recored just three days after his death. Kudos to Iluso Records for honoring their fallen colleague with this very special recording. The trio heard here are bassist Michael Bisio, cornetist Kirk Knuffke, and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. Knuffke and Bisio recorded the stellar duo Row For William O. (Relative Pitch, 2016) for Panico and an additional seven other sessions in total.

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Album Review

Josh Sinton's Predicate Trio: Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically

Read "Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Bass clarinetist and baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton (Ideal Bread, Nate Wooley Quintet, Adam Hopkins' Crickets) has always been a tenacious improviser, and with his new trio bridges the gap between post-modernism, raw experimentalism and core jazz fundamentals. Featuring all-universe drummer Tom Rainey and cellist Chris Hoffman--admired for his work with cutting-edge music acolyte Henry Threadgill and other notables--this band dances and darts through undulating improv segments, and tangles with various metrics and structural facets amid a democratic group focus.

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Album Review

Josh Sinton's Predicate Trio: Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically

Read "Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Josh Sinton is a member of the Brooklyn jazz community who has been making a name for himself with his baritone sax, playing in contexts like his Steve Lacy repertoire band, Ideal Bread. His free-wheeling Predicate Trio with cellist Christopher Hoffman and drummer Tom Rainey is a combustible unit that showcases his more improvisational side. Seven of the nine tracks here are written by Sinton and feel like old-school, fire-breathing free jazz. “Bell-ell-ell-ell-ells" establishes the loosely aggressive nature ...

3
Album Review

Anker / Thomas / Flaten / Solberg: His Flight's At Ten

Read "His Flight's At Ten" reviewed by John Sharpe


Perhaps the title refers to British pianist Pat Thomas' travel schedule. If so it will be a situation that he is all too familiar with, as strangely his reputation appears greater in Europe than at home, in spite of an extensive discography and collaborations with a who's who of contemporary experimental music. His Flight's At Ten presents him in the company of three stellar Scandinavian improvisers on a set recorded at the 2016 edition of Oslo's Blow Out! ...

3
Album Review

Josh Sinton's Predicate Trio: Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically

Read "Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Considerate isn't an adjective you generally apply to creative new jazz recordings these days. Vanguard musicians are accustomed to employing the shock and awe required to get attention and satisfy their constituents. Maybe that is why Making Bones, Taking Draughts, Bearing Unstable Millstones Pridefully, Idiotically, Prosaically is such a breath of fresh air. Josh Sinton's Predicate Trio delivers an exceedingly empathic recording. Sinton is a veteran of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Large Ensemble, Nate Wooley's Quintet, Anthony ...

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Album Review

Stray: Into Darkness

Read "Into Darkness" reviewed by John Sharpe


Two old masters and two younger pretenders unite to produce Into Darkness. Saxophonist John Butcher and guitarist John Russell were both part of the so-called second generation of improvisers, following in the wake of progenitors such as Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and John Stevens. Joining them in a continuous 51-minute live performance from London's Iklektic in December 2015 are bassist Dominic Lash and Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg. In coming together under the moniker Stray, they decisively upend some stereotypical ...

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Album Review

Musicianer: Slow Learner

Read "Slow Learner" reviewed by John Sharpe


With Musicianer reedman Josh Sinton adroitly shows how to combine the abstract and the earthy. It helps that he has enlisted long time associates drummer Chad Taylor and bassist Jason Ajemian to realize the eleven compositions on the group's debut Slow Learner. Taylor, who first garnered international attention in the Chicago Underground Duo (etc) with cornetist Rob Mazurek, confirms why he has become an in demand accomplice since moving to New York, while Windy City denizen Ajemian has also entered ...

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Album Review

Mike Caratti / Rachel Musson / Steve Beresford: Hesitantly Pleasant

Read "Hesitantly Pleasant" reviewed by John Sharpe


After completing his studies at Middlesex University in London, Australian-born drummer Mike Caratti relocated to Perth, but he still makes occasional return visits to the UK. The seven improvised cuts which make up Hesitantly Pleasant were recorded during one such instance in January 2017 and have made it to release in double quick time. Joining Caratti are the British pairing of saxophonist Rachel Musson and pianist Steve Beresford. Their spontaneous outpourings recall a wide array of musics in a flowing ...


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