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Alex Ward Item 4: Furthered
by John Sharpe
Is there anyone else who doubles on clarinet and electric guitar? Multi-instrumentalist Eliot Sharp perhaps, but it is an otherwise fairly exclusive arena, one which Alex Ward has occupied since 1989 when he was already performing with Derek Bailey's Company at age 15. While the guitar remains his axe of choice for the rockier end of ...
ALATI: Ascending The Morning
by John Sharpe
Although combining poetry and jazz can sometimes be as thankless as mixing oil and water, ALATI has come up with a near perfect formulation. On Ascending The Morning, the three piece band, led by Norwich-based trumpeter Chris Dowding and completed by vocalist Brigitte Beraha and pianist Dave O'Brien, sets to music eight nature-inspired poems by Oxford ...
William Parker: Universal Tonality
by John Sharpe
Bassist William Parker has originated a personal philosophy which he calls Universal Tonality. He expresses his idea thus: “all sounds, like human beings, come from the same place. They have different bodies and faces, but the soul of each sound comes from the same perfect 'creation.'" The near two-hour double album which bears the same name ...
Joe McPhee & Evan Parker: Sweet Nothings For Milford Graves
by John Sharpe
Two soprano saxophones loosely harmonize. They finish each other's lines, languidly intertwine, pause for air at the same moment. And simultaneously end on a dime. Musical twins. In the wrong hands such empathy might become soporific; but with two of the planet's foremost improvisers on hand in the persons of Evan Parker and Joe McPhee, instead ...
Francisco Mela: Music Frees Our Souls Vol. 2
by John Sharpe
The three protagonists gaze out from the cover, variously smiling, appearing wryly amused, and looking stern. The image suggests a will to tackle things head on, without artifice or adornment. To tell it like it is. And that is the result: a thrilling no-nonsense representation of the combined artistry of drummer Francisco Mela, pianist Cooper-Moore and ...
Cory Smythe: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
by John Sharpe
The startling molten sounds which open pianist Cory Smythe's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes signal that this will be no ordinary journey. On the first four cuts he draws on a stellar 11-strong squad which matches leading cutting edge figures such as saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, trumpeter Peter Evans and cellist Tomeka Reid, with colleagues from the ...
Dominic Lash, Alex Ward: Antonyms
by John Sharpe
Can an album's contents be any less summed up by its title? While Antonyms suggests opposition, the collaboration between bassist Dominic Lash and clarinetist & guitarist Alex Ward evidences rather more empathy than contradiction. That is unsurprising given regular appearances in each other's bands as well as collective arenas going back at least to Barkingside (FMR, ...
Chad Fowler: Alien Skin
by John Sharpe
Although the group responsible for Alien Skin might be a one-off, unlikely to meet again in this exact configuration, it contains sufficient prior connections to vouchsafe cohesion, to go with the undoubted quality. Bassist William Parker furnishes the common denominator, having previously recorded with all of the participants, even relative newcomer, reed player Zoh Amba, while ...
Gebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell / Hilliard Greene / Barry Altschul: We're Playing In Here?
by John Sharpe
For musicians, one consolatory by-product of lockdown was the chance to reappraise the archives, which led to a subsequent bonanza of deserving material reaching the marketplace. Whether that was the genesis of the limited edition LP We're Playing In Here? is a moot point, but this 2007 studio recording by the Gebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell ...
The Attic—Rodrigo Amado / Gonçalo Almeida / Onno Govaert: Love Ghosts
by John Sharpe
Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado has steadily become one of the premier players in the European free jazz arena, having banked the experience that comes through working with the likes of multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, trumpeter Peter Evans and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, reaping a rich dividend. Just how can be readily heard on Love Ghosts, the ...
