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Frode Gjerstad Trio + Steve Swell: Bop Stop
by John Sharpe
The bones of Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad's Trio go back a long way. He first co-opted drummer Paal Nilssen-Love into his Circulasione Totale Orchestra when he was still a teenager. Although bassist Jon Rune Strøm is a more recent recruit, he has still been on board since 2011. As such the consistently high quality interplay they ...
Louis Moholo-Moholo's Five Blokes: Uplift The People
by John Sharpe
At last an album which captures some of the intense excitement, wayward adventure and sheer joy of a group which has wowed audiences at festivals and clubs across Europe and North America. Uplift The People by South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo's prosaically-named Five Blokes was recorded live at London's Cafe Oto in April 2017 and represents ...
Joe McPhee / Pascal Niggenkemper / Ståle Liavik Solberg: Imaginary Numbers
by John Sharpe
Veteran multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee always seems open to encounters with like-minded spirits wherever he finds them. Some of his finest albums have stemmed from his collaborations with groups of younger musicians, such as Spontaneous Combustion (Otoroku, 2015) with Decoy and Skullduggery (Clean Feed, 2015) with Universal Indians. On Imaginary Numbers he teams up with two high-profile ...
Kang Tae Hwan: Live At Cafe Amores
by John Sharpe
South Korean reedman Kang Tae Hwan is one of the foremost exponents of solo saxophone in the Far East. While he has featured in groups, notably Ton Klami who can be heard on Prophecy Of Nue (NoBusiness, 2017), his conception is so singular that it may be best appreciated in undiluted form. Which makes Live At ...
Larry Ochs Sax And Drumming Core: Wild Red Yellow
by John Sharpe
Reedman Larry Ochs' Sax And Drumming Core was famously once threatened by a punter calling the police because they weren't conforming to his narrow definition of jazz. Wild Red Yellow constitutes the second outing by the augmented version of the band responsible for that misdemeanor, following as it does from Stone Shift (Rogue Art, 2009), which ...
Gard Nilssen's Acoustic Unity: Live In Europe
by John Sharpe
Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen formed Acoustic Unity back in 2014 to assuage his desire to compose and lead in a pure jazz setting. The initial get together with saxophonist André Roligheten and bassist Petter Eldh was so successful that it yielded the well-received Firehouse (Clean Feed, 2015). That achievement gives rise to an audacious gambit for ...
Vision Festival 2018
by John Sharpe
23rd Annual Vision Festival Roulette New York, NY May 23-28, 2018 Introduction The Vision Festival somewhat surprisingly but reassuringly stands proud as the longest-lived annually produced jazz festival in New York. While the central plank remains what the Festival terms avant jazz, it's interspersed with poetry, dance, art, and ...
Barre Phillips / Motoharu Yoshizawa: Oh My, Those Boys!
by John Sharpe
Expatriate American bassist Barre Phillips is the banner name on another in the Chap Chap series of improvised encounters from Japan issued by the NoBusiness imprint. He boasts an illustrious back-story. His Journal Violone (Opus One,1968) is reputed to be the first solo bass album, while Music From Two Basses (ECM, 1971) with Dave Holland was ...
Matthew Shipp: Invisible Touch At Taktlos Zurich
by John Sharpe
On Invisible Touch At Taktlos Zurich, echoes of the jazz and classical traditions rub shoulders in a bewitching amalgam of insistent phrases, left hand tumult, undulating abstractions and gossamer melody. No change there then," you might say when considering this installment of Matthew Shipp's solo oeuvre from May 2016. By this stage in his career the ...
Aruán Ortiz Trio: Live in Zürich
by John Sharpe
Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz just goes from strength to strength on his third release on the Intakt imprint, although it is his twelfth overall. While most of the repertoire on Live In Zurich appears on previous albums, what he does with it here, through dramatically extending and mashing pieces together, is nothing short of remarkable. This ...


