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John Coltrane: Interstellar Space
by Derek Taylor
Arguments abound as to when John Coltrane reached his creative zenith. There are listeners who look upon his Giant Steps period, documented through a string of recordings on the Altantic label as his most fertile period. Others with freer leanings point to his so-called Late Period as the source of the most musical promise and joy. ...
Ella Fitzgerald: In The Groove
by Derek Taylor
There’s no scarcity of Ella Fitzgerald on record. From her precocious work with Chick Webb’s Orchestra to her twilight albums on Norman Granz’s Pablo imprint her discography numbers easily into the triple digits. So why the need for this recent Buddah compilation? The answer lies in the nature of the selections themselves. Culled from three shows ...
John Coltrane: Impressions
by Derek Taylor
For a cross-section of Coltrane’s muse circa the early 1960s few albums are as representative as Impressions. The disc gathers performances from both concert and studio dates and offers an assortment of compositions that together illustrate just how multifaceted the master could be. Though none of the material on this most recent edition is unissued and ...
Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures: Contemplations
by Derek Taylor
Though Jazz remains one of the preeminent forms of improvised music in the West it's sometimes easy to forget that improvisation as an art form and musical technique actually far predates it. Numerous Non-Western cultures have incorporated improvisational techniques into their musical forms for thousands of years. Percussionist Adam Rudolph is dedicated to demonstrating and celebrating ...
Kali Fasteau: Comraderie
by Derek Taylor
With this new offering Kali Fasteau continues the winning streak advanced on her earlier Flying Note releases. Though she may not be a household name in the world of creative improvised music, her comparitive anonymity is not the outcome of a relatively recent entry onto the scene. In fact she’s been playing and performing for decades ...
Ornette Coleman: Complete Science Fiction Sessions
by Derek Taylor
Before the arrival of this recent reissue Ornette Coleman's brief, but fertile stint for Columbia Records was spread across a hopelessly convoluted morass of LPs and CDs, import and domestic. The folks at Columbia, who have over the past few years re-hipped themselves to the wealth of music bursting the seams in their vaults, targeted their ...
John Coltrane: Ascension
by Derek Taylor
There are a number of pivotal recordings that fostered the early development of free jazz but Coltrane's Ascension remains at the apex. Building on precepts first posited through Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz Coltrane constructed an edifice of unfettered collective expression that still manages to confound as many listeners as it convinces. My first experience with this ...
Sonny Simmons: Manhattan Egos
by Derek Taylor
This long-overdue reissue is surprising and satisfying on a number of levels. First of all there’s the fact that it’s on Arhoolie, an imprint far better known for its preeminent Roots and Blues music releases by the likes of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Clifton Chenier and Flaco Jimenez, than as a purveyor of Avant-Garde jazz. Fortunately label owner ...
Zusaan Kali Fasteau / Donald Rafael Garrett: Memoirs of a Dream
by Derek Taylor
Zusaan Kali Fasteau and Donald Rafael Garrett lived a life together that most couples only dream about. Sharing the vagabond existence of itinerant musicians for the better part of fourteen years they traversed the globe touching down in locales as varied as Senegal, Congo, Morocco, Haiti, France, Holland, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Yugoslavia. ...
John Coltrane / Archie Shepp: New Thing At Newport
by Derek Taylor
What better place than the Newport Jazz Festival, a historically tight-laced and conservative jazz forum, for the quartets of Coltrane and Shepp to pour out their soulful selves as libations for the masses? Prior to this 1963 concert the festival’s track record with adventurous jazz fare was checkered at best. Monk and Giuffre had played there ...
