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Sirone: Live
by John Eyles
As Andrey Henkin pointed out last January, Sirone is under-represented on CD, particularly given his illustrious history. The 2005 release of the debut album from the Sirone Bang Ensemble has helped the situation; now comes this historic reissue. Dating from 1981, Live is both a valuable historical snapshot and a curate's egg of an ...
Last Exit: Koln
by John Eyles
A re-release such as this provides an opportunity to stand back, draw breath, and reassess. Many listeners may still remember the combination of shock and adrenalin-induced thrill you got when you first heard Last Exit. You may now also be shocked to learn that the group's debut was some twenty years ago. Koln features the foursome's ...
Anthony Braxton Quintet (London) 2004: Live at the Royal Festival Hall
by John Eyles
This concert was the undisputed high point of the 2004 London Jazz Festival. Braxton, appearing in the UK for the first time in years (decades?) played the first half of a double bill (the second half featured Cecil Taylor) and effortlessly stole the show. I was one of the 2,000-strong audience who cheered the quintet after ...
Jim McAuley: Gongfarmer 18
by John Eyles
My only previous experience of Jim McAuley's guitar playing was via an Acoustic Guitar Trio record on Incus. McAuley was the dominant voice in that trio. He showed himself to be adept at improvising melodic lines, and he frequently instigated lines that the other two members--Nels Cline and Rod Poole--picked up on. This (inexplicably ...
TriO & Sainkho: Forgotten Streets of St. Petersburg
by John Eyles
More than fifteen years have passed since Sainkho Namchylak first toured with TriO and started to cause a stir. Fifteen years also since Leo Records released her first recordings. Back then, her Tuvan vocals sounded extraordinary, alien, and strange. In the intervening years, Namchylak has played all over the world in a wide variety of contexts ...
Free Improvisation
by John Eyles
In Britain, in the mid-60s, free improvisation (often just called “improv") developed out of free jazz, eventually becoming a separate and distinct music. Free jazz gradually removed conventional structure -chords, melodic themes, regular rhythm--but free improvisation took their absence as its starting point. Essentially, free improvisation has no rules; in Derek Bailey's words, it is “playing ...
Free Base: The Ins and Outs
by John Eyles
Free Base consists of three of the most experienced and distinctive creative improvising musicians. Despite the fact that they have now been together as a trio for over a decade, this is their first CD release, although they can also be heard on one track of Freedom of the City 2003: Small Groups. In contrast to ...
Paul Rutherford: Iskra3
by John Eyles
"The music on this CD is rich and concentrated; it is not necessarily intended that it all be heard in one listening. We suggest that you take a break between Acts 1 and 2.Phew! When was the last time you came across something like that on an album? (Other than a parental warning about ...
Spontaneous Music Ensemble: A New Distance
by John Eyles
We all owe great thanks to Emanem, without whom there would be very little music available by the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. The archive of SME recordings on the label now numbers twelve, ranging from Challenge, recorded in 1966-7, when free improvisation was in its infancy, through to these recordings from 1993-4, not long before John Stevens' ...
Derek Bailey & Evan Parker: The London Concert
by John Eyles
"Historic" is a very overused word in many contexts, so much so that it is devalued and I am loath to use it here. Nonetheless, it fits this release perfectly. Consider the facts: Derek Bailey and Evan Parker are without doubt the two most prolific, influential, and renowned improv players in the history of the music. ...
