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Results for "John Sharpe"
Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera
by John Sharpe
Even though pianist Sylvie Courvoisier has bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen on hand for Chimaera, the six-piece band is a long way from being merely the storied threesome, which made Double Windsor (Tzadik, 2014), D'Agala (Intakt, 2018) and Free Hoops (Intakt, 2020), plus added guests. As she explains in the liners, ...
Olie Brice / Rachel Musson / Mark Sanders: Immense Blue
by John Sharpe
Even given today's abundance of new issues in whatever genre, there are still bands which travel beneath the radar. One such is the trio of established UK improvisers comprising bassist Olie Brice, saxophonist Rachel Musson and drummer Mark Sanders which releases Immense Blue as its debut album. As a unit it has been around for a ...
Ism: Maua
by John Sharpe
What would a free jazz group sound like if it stayed within conventional rhythmic and melodic parameters? One possible answer was given by pianist Lennie Tristano's pioneering sides such as “Intuition" and “Digression," extemporized by a sextet including Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. Ism, the cosmopolitan threesome of British pianist Pat Thomas, Swedish bassist Joel Grip ...
Myra Melford's Fire And Water Quintet: Hear The Light Singing
by John Sharpe
Pianist Myra Melford's blue chip Fire And Water quintet assuredly sidesteps second album syndrome. Hear The Light Singing stands very much the equal of the band's superlative eponymous debut. The only change is that Lesley Mok takes Susie Ibarra's place behind the trapset, otherwise the triumvirate completing the starry squad remains Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, Tomeka ...
Anna Webber: Shimmer Wince
by John Sharpe
There is often an underlying rigor to the work of Canadian saxophonist and flautist Anna Webber, be that inspiration from the digital world on Binary (Skirl, 2016), her investigation of multiphonic intervals on Idiom (Pi, 2021) or contemporary classical percussion repertoire on Clockwise (Pi, 2020). On Shimmer Wince, she derives her compositions from ...
Stephen Gauci: Live At Sowieso, Berlin
by John Sharpe
Tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci cuts a busy figure in his native New York City. But with Live At Sowieso, Berlin he brings his brand of unbridled energy to the hotbed of free improv which is the titular German city with striking results. He retains one familiar face for the journey in the shape of drummer Kevin ...
Simon Nabatov 3 + 2: Verbs
by John Sharpe
What constitutes a composition? German-based Russian-born pianist Simon Nabatov makes a convincing case that a simple verbal instruction can suffice on Verbs. It is not a claim he makes himself, but the six supposed improvisations each mines such a distinctive seam that, although spontaneously conceived without melody or other formal arrangement, the initial proposition proves enough. ...
Trespass Trio featuring Susana Santos Silva: Live In Oslo
by John Sharpe
Although Swedish saxophonist Martin Küchen is the toast of festival-goers across Europe for the variously sized Angles ensembles he fronts, which revel in sometimes exuberant, sometimes heart-rending riff-fuelled anthems, he also pursues somewhat more somber strands of expression. One involves the sort of adventurous sonic explorations heard on Animal Quotes (Relative Pitch, 2022). But ...
Evan Parker - Barry Guy: So It Goes
by John Sharpe
Two masters who have invented a (the?) lexicon for their instruments meet on So It Goes. British saxophonist Evan Parker and his compatriot bassist Barry Guy should need no introduction to anyone interested in European free improvisation. Both active since the 1970s, they remain vital forces even with as they both move into their eighth decade. ...
Roy Campbell: Visitation Of Spirits
by John Sharpe
A former stalwart of the New York avant jazz scene, which finds expression at the annual Vision Festival, trumpeter Roy Campbell died in January 2014, aged 61. While not quite forgotten, his name does not spring readily to the lips a decade on. Perhaps Visitation Of Spirits, an archival live recording from 1985, will help redress ...
