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Chris Kelsey's Ingenious Gentlemen Quartet: Situational Music
by Derek Taylor
From a purely financial perspective choosing improvised music as a profession has to rank among the most foolhardy and frustrating. Along with other artistic gigs like acting and writing improvised music is not widely regarded as a viable means of making ends meet. To take the argument further and generalize it a little, in the logical ...
Chris Kelsey's Unacknowledged Ensemble: Hear With Your Ear
by Derek Taylor
As Kelsey’s third offering in a threesome of inaugural titles on his own Saxophonis label Hear With Your Ears is arguably the most demanding both in terms of density and duration. Modeled loosely after Cecil Taylor’s now legendary unit with Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray the ensemble moves across the broad girth and breadth of two ...
Greg Kelley: Trumpet
by Derek Taylor
One of the most useful and elementary devices available to critics is the comparison of a given musical work to what has come before. But what if the music in question has no precedent in the critic’s knowledge base? The closest referent I can come up with for Trumpet is Side Two of Sun Ra’s My ...
Frank Gratkowski Trio: Quicksand
by Derek Taylor
The three Germans on this disc are dedicated to upholding the tradition of that expressionism in improvised music. Over the course of four lengthy compositions, which seem demarcated more in the interest of providing convenient entry points rather than delineating drastic shifts in direction, they do just that. Lovens is perhaps the best known among them. ...
Johnny "Hammond" Smith: The Soulful Blues
by Derek Taylor
Smith was one of many in a long line of second tier Soul Jazz organists that flourished during the instrument’s stratospheric ascendancy during the 1960s. Appropriately titled, this disc delves generously into two sides of Smith’s oeuvre. The first session focuses prominently on Soul and R&B hits from the era touching on the songbooks of Ben ...
Frank Wess: The Long Road
by Derek Taylor
Frank Wess was a busy man in the 1960s. Along with juggling roles as Count Basie’s chief tenor and sessions as a sideman he was also fortunate enough to secure plentiful dates as a leader. In each setting his tenor was allowed room to move, but it was on his own gigs where his powers were ...
Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio: Africa N'da Blues
by Derek Taylor
On this, their fifth album for Delmark, the Ritual Trio sticks to the formula that has served them well on past outings for the label, that of welcoming a legendary guest star into the fold. This time around Pharoah Sanders occupies the guest chair and his presence affects a wonderful series of alchemical changes both in ...
Nachtluft: Belle-View I-IV
by Derek Taylor
A caveat on this review- electronic music is neither my forte nor my passion. In fact, most of the time I can take it or leave it. Sound sculptors like Jim O’Rourke (who incidentally pens the liners on this disc) do next to nothing to excite my senses and the space explorations of Nachtluft drift into ...
Chicago Underground Trio: Flamethrower
by Derek Taylor
‘Chicago Underground’ is an overarching appellation for a myriad of projects under Rob Mazurek’s nominal leadership. Its various guises include Duo, Trio and Orchestra incarnations. Peripheral to these associations Mazurek and his partners also work together in a variety of other outfits including Isotope 217 and Tortoise. All of these groups demonstrate a penchant for electro-acoustic ...
Leo Cuypers: Heavy Days Are Here Again
by Derek Taylor
Originally issued on Breuker’s Bvhaast label the title of this disc has several permutations among them a reference to the realities of Reaganomics, and a putting to rest of past squabbles between the musicians. On a less allegorical level this disc delivers four of the guiding lights in Dutch jazz in synergistic collusion. Given the players’ ...
