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Stephen Gauci Pandemic Duets
by John Sharpe
When everything shut down in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, New York City native tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci initiated what he thought would be a set of five duet recordings in a refusal to be cowed by the lack of performance opportunities. In fact the collection has run to some 19 entries over that ...
Tim Berne's Snakeoil: The Deceptive 4 - Live
by John Sharpe
With the sixth entry in their discography, alto saxophonist Tim Berne offers a progress report of sorts on his band Snakeoil. The Deceptive 4 Live collects together two cracking sets, one from a brace of appearances in NYC in 2009/2010 before Berne had even settled on the group name, and the other a latter-day outing from ...
Joëlle Léandre / Evan Parker / Agustí Fernández / Zlatko Kaučič: A Uiš?
by John Sharpe
Though the instrumentation on A Uiš evokes the classic jazz quartet, the outcome resides a world away from that tradition. To celebrate 40 years as a professional musician, Slovenian drummer Zlatko Kaučič assembled a quartet of top drawer improvisers for a 45-minute collectively navigated journey, recorded live at the jazz festival in his home town of ...
Francois Carrier: Japan Suite
by John Sharpe
Canadian alto saxophonist François Carrier frequently travels light. Even more so on this occasion as his regular peripatetic partner drummer Michel Lambert was not on board for a 2019 tour of Japan. This 78-minute album presents a first-time meeting with a group of Japanese improvisers, comprising bassist Daisuke Fuwa founder of the Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra, with ...
Alexander von Schlippenbach: Slow Pieces For Aki - Piano Solo
by John Sharpe
At the behest of his wife Aki Takase, fellow pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach presents 21 short unaccompanied tracks on Slow Pieces For Aki. It is only his fourth solo record in a career spanning over 50 years, during which he has blazed trails with both large ensembles, notably Globe Unity Orchestra, and small groups, in particular ...
Satoko Fujii / Ramon Lopez / Natsuki Tamura: Mantle
by John Sharpe
Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii rarely stands still. When she and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez toured Japan in 2019 on the back of their duo album Confluence (Libra, 2019), they took the opportunity to add Fujii's partner trumpeter Natsuki Tamura to the line up. To make things fresher still, they set themselves a challenge: to each write ...
John Sharpe's Best Releases of 2020
by John Sharpe
With so few performance opportunities since March, and musicians in continuing limbo, the continued stream of new releases has been a surprise, but a welcome one. For me, and many others, music has been a source of solace in an otherwise dreadful year. That makes it all the more invidious to pick and choose between honest ...
Steve Swell: The Center Will Hold
by John Sharpe
Unusual instrumentation inspires NYC-based trombonist Steve Swell to ever greater heights on the six compositions comprising The Center Will Hold. Pride of place goes to veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille, who certainly deserves the extra billing he receives on the cover. Beside him are a mixture of long time colleagues of the trombonist, violinist Jason Kao Hwang ...
John Butcher / Thomas Lehn / Matthew Shipp: The Clawed Stone
by John Sharpe
The unlikely conjunction of American pianist Matthew Shipp, most strongly associated with New York avant jazz, and British saxophonist John Butcher and German electronicist Thomas Lehn, two leading exponents of the European free improvisation scene, works like a dream on The Clawed Stone. It's not a one off. The genesis of this 2017 Paris studio session ...
Mars Williams / Vasco Trilla: Spiracle
by John Sharpe
Both American reedman Mars Williams and Spanish percussionist Vasco Trilla show themselves well grounded in the duet configuration, although this appears to be only Williams' second documented encounter in the sole company of a drummer. For Trilla, the situation is more normal. His track record embraces pairings with a wide array of wind instrumentalists (as well ...
