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Umlaut Chamber Orchestra: Zodiac Suite – Mary Lou Williams
by John Eyles
From 1942 until 1945, pianist Mary Lou William (1910-1981) wrote “Zodiac Suite," a twelve part composition in which each movement was named after a sign of the zodiac and was also dedicated to one or more renowned jazz musician born under that sign; for example, “Aries" was for Ben Webster and Billie Holiday, while “Libra" was for Art Tatum, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. In total the entire suite ran for about forty minutes. Although it was initially ...
read moreSbatax: Spires
by John Sharpe
On their third album the Swiss-French pairing of saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal dishes up a double helping of fiery free jazz. While Denzler revels in the exquisitely sparse detail of outfits such as the electro-acoustic Trio Sowari, he also has a track record in weightier realms--witness his contributions to Neuköllner Modelle with veteran drummer Sven-Åke Johansson and bassist Joel Grip-- which serves him well here. Gerbal too has a broad resume which includes Peeping Tom, Ism and ...
read moreSBATAX: Spires
by Mark Corroto
The current literature on training to improve one's physical fitness advises an 90/10 approach. Ninety percent of workouts, it is advised, you maintain zone 2 (elevated heart rate but with the ability to carry on a conversation) when say, running or cycling. The remaining ten percent of your workouts, you opt for HIIT (High Intensity Interval training). This entails intense or explosive anaerobic exercise with brief recovery periods until the point of exhaustion. If we correlate musicians with athletes, saxophonist ...
read moreElastic Bricks: Oùat
by Mark Corroto
The Berlin-based piano trio Oùat releases their first album with the seemingly paradoxical title Elastic Bricks. If you listen closely, there is nothing incongruent nor oxymoronic about the music. The studio recording from 2021 by pianist Simon Sieger, bassist Joel Grip, and drummer Michael Griener is an all acoustic instrumental affair with a twist. The vinyl edition comes with individual texts, paragraphs from writer Erin Honeycutt accompanying each of the nine compositions. Although no voice is heard, the written word ...
read moreCartographie de rythmes #1: Vitesses Approchantes
by Mark Corroto
Composer Karl Naegelen has in effect rewritten the lyrics to the Jerome Kern jazz standard “I Won't Dance," changing the last line from “I won't dance, don't ask me/I won't dance, don't ask me/I won't dance, madame with you/My heart won't let my feet do things that they want to do," to the more relevant “The music won't let my feet do things they might want to do." Not that there were lyrics written for the duo Cartographie ...
read moreUmlaut Big band: Mary's Ideas
by Mark Corroto
In the liner notes of Embraced (Pablo Live, 1978), Mary Lou Williams defends the late music of John Coltrane thus ..."the healing power comes from the deep feeling that is in jazz--the feeling of the Blues which is characteristic of all good jazz no matter what form it takes. Even John Coltrane's music was never without this feeling." Embraced was a duo recording Williams made with the avant garde champion Cecil Taylor. She goes on to write, “In the music ...
read moreاسم [Ism]: Japanese Flower
by Mark Corroto
The trio اسم [Ism] is comprised of pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Joel Grip and drummer Antonin Gerbal. Japanese Flower by the trio is the second release from a 2018 recording session from Knuttal House in Tokyo, Japan. It is the trio's third release and it follows Metaphor (2019) and إنتقام الطبيعة اسبب تعقدها = Nature In Its Inscrutability Strikes Back (2015), all three released on Umlaut Records. اسم in Arabic, translates to 'Ism" or in English, 'The Name.' For sure, ...
read moreBertrand Denzler / Antonin Gerbal: Sbatax
by Mark Corroto
With six and one-half minutes remaining in this single thirty-eight minute live tenor saxophone/drums recording, an audience member at a club in Berlin begins howling. Listeners to this recording will probably be saying to themselves, “where have you been? I've been shouting encouragement since I pressed play!" It's that kind of record. The two Parisians, tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal work regularly in Zoor with guitarist Jean-Sébastien Mariage, and as a pair released Le Ring ...
read moreUn Poco Loco: Ornithologie
by Mark Corroto
Somewhere Han Bennink is very jealous of the music making of the trio Un Poco Loco. The master of 'New Dutch Swing' hijinks would give his right crash cymbal to perform music in the manner this trio covers Charlie Parker on Ornithologie. The aptly designated Un Poco Loco ('a bit crazy') trio is trombonist Fidel Fourneyron, saxophonist and clarinetist Geoffroy Gesser, and bassist Sébastien Beliah. All three musicians are also members of the Umlaut Big Band, which focuses on 1920s ...
read moreسم [ISM]: Metaphor
by Mark Corroto
We are all becoming. Not “becoming" as in pretty or handsome, but, as in we are coming to be. You can relate this to the Dharma path, or maturity, maybe even the act of learning how to juggle. Becoming is also the theme of the trio سم [ISM]. Its follow up to Nature In Its Inscrutability Strikes Back (Umlaut Records, 2015) is aptly titled Metaphor. Pianist Pat Thomas (About Group, Black Top, Evan Parker, Tony Oxley, bassist Joel Grip ...
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