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10

Article: Book Review

In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor

Read "In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor" reviewed by Jack Kenny


In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil TaylorPhilip Freeman 344 Pages ISBN: # ISBN 978-3-9553-261-9 Wolke Verlag 2024 The sign over the nightclub says it all: Cecil Taylor starts where Thelonious Monk leaves off. Jazz has never really come to terms with Cecil Taylor. Comparisons with ...

8

Article: Multiple Reviews

Food For Thought

Read "Food For Thought" reviewed by John Eyles


Where is the boundary between composed and improvised music? How many renowned improvisers use tried and trusted phrases that they have turned to so often that they have become cliches? How many classically-trained players are able to freely improvise despite never having been taught to do so? These and other similar questions are sure to be ...

1

Video

Imagine the Sound

Featuring the music of Cecil Taylor
Duration: 06:25

Those exploring the evolution of jazz need to appreciate the genius of pianist Cecil Taylor. From the '60s to the '90s, he invented treatments of free jazz that demonstrated it could be liberated from traditional forms of harmony and melody while retaining a classical composition’s structure. Pounding out flurries of sound, he also reminded us that a piano is both a string and a percussive instrument. This segment, from the 1981 free jazz documentary Imagine the Sound, presents Taylor’s solo performance powers at their pinnacle. For further study of free jazz, the entire documentary can be searched for by title on YouTube.
7

Article: Album Review

Hirsh / Swell / Clouse / Parker: Out On A Limb

Read "Out On A Limb" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Can déjà vu be contagious? Or at least a particular quality or disposition that is communicable? This might be the question to ask after sitting down with Out On A Limb by the improvising quartet of Steve Hirsh, Steve Swell, Jim Clouse, and William Parker. The music this unit created spontaneously in April 2024 does not ...

15

Article: Album Review

Tony Oxley: Unreleased 1974 - 2016

Read "Unreleased 1974 - 2016" reviewed by Chris May


The British drummer and bandleader Tony Oxley passed in 2023, aged 85, after a career which began in the mid 1960s as the drummer in the house band at Ronnie Scott's club. From this prestigious but relatively codified platform, Oxley soon steered into less travelled waters. In 1969 he was in the quartet which recorded John ...

3

Article: Interview

My Conversation with Anthony Braxton

Read "My Conversation with Anthony Braxton" reviewed by AAJ Staff


This article first appeared on All About Jazz in September 2001. In Puccini's Tosca, the lead heroine sings “Vissi d'arte" in the second act. It is with passion and anguish then that the audience understands the opera singer Floria Tosca is asking the heavens why she has suffered so much for her art when ...

12

Article: Album Review

Greg Reitan: Bounding Line

Read "Bounding Line" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Los Angeles-based pianist/composer Greg Reitan jumped into the scene with an elegant splash in 2009 with his debut recording, Some Other Time (Sunnyside Records). He followed this up in 2010 with Antibes (Sunnyside Records). Both recordings were critically lauded, drawing comparisons to the work of legendary pianist Bill Evans. Reitan possesses a supple Evans-esque touch, with ...

3

Article: Album Review

Houtkamp / Tramontana / Beresford / Blume: Frush

Read "Frush" reviewed by John Eyles


The improvising trio comprising Netherlands tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Luc Houtkamp, British pianist and player of electronics and objects Steve Beresford, and German drummer and percussionist Martin Blume is well established, having recorded their first trio album Live in Prague 2017 (the pow ensemble, 2017) in November 2017 at the Alternativa Festival in Czechia, followed by ...

10

Article: Album Review

WHO Trio: Live At Jazz Festival Willisau 2023

Read "Live At Jazz Festival Willisau 2023" reviewed by Chris May


This jewel of an album was released just too late for inclusion in AAJ's Best Jazz Albums of 2024: All-Star Break Edition, where contributors were invited to name their three best albums released during the first half of the year (the article can be read here). But five gets you ten that it will be included ...

14

Article: Album Review

John Blum / David Murray / Chad Taylor: The Recursive Tree

Read "The Recursive Tree" reviewed by John Sharpe


Three equally potent partners combine in a spontaneous and intense outpouring on The Recursive Tree. Neither reedman David Murray or drummer Chad Taylor require much introduction. Murray has been a colossus on the scene ever since he first erupted onto the stages of lofts across Manhattan back in 1976. Taylor has become increasingly ubiquitous, recognized as ...


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