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Michael Bisio / MMBC: MMBC Terma
by Karl Ackermann
Among the side effects of the 2020-2021 pandemic has been the rediscovery of misplaced resources. The trio MMBC dug up the fourteen-year-old recording MMBC Terma, a collection of nine group compositions and improvisations. MMBC is an acronym condensing the initials of the players. Tenor saxophonist (and psychoanalyst) Michael Monhart and drummer Ben Chadabe are lightly-recorded; acclaimed ...
From Aimless to Activist, Bassist Kevin Ray Lands on Higher Ground
by Karl Ackermann
Bassist Kevin Ray has recorded or played with John Stubblefield, Oliver Lake, Greg Osby, Andrew Hill, Marty Ehrlich, Elliott Sharp, John Hicks, Hamiet Bluiett and Nels Cline. Ray has performed in the premieres of works by Joe McPhee, Leroy Jenkins and others. The bassist co-leads the adventurous trio 10³²K's with trombonist/trumpeter Frank Lacy, percussionist Andrew Drury ...
Mario Pavone / Dialect Trio +1: Blue Vertical
by Karl Ackermann
Bassist and composer Mario Pavone died on May 15, 2021, after a seventeen-year battle with cancer. The Connecticut native had many interests and earned a degree in engineering, a Doris Duke Foundation grant and, for a quarter-century, shared his wisdom and talent with kids at the Litchfield Performing Arts Jazz Camp, where he also served as ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Trumpet
by Karl Ackermann
In a half-century of recording, he has never stopped exploring the parameters of the form and instrument. Listening to composer/trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith is demanding but rewarding. His inspirations are classical in the small 'c' sense: the AACM, Persian music, August Wilson, Stravinsky, spirituals, and so on. Before the masses woke, Smith's music had incorporated political, ...
A Different Drummer, Part 3: Pino Basile & Mizuki Wildenhahn
by Karl Ackermann
The Swish Knocker, And More Early on in his career, the late Milford Graves abandoned the snare drum, substituting the resonance of the toms for the snare parts. He believed music of the drum reverberated from within the drummer and the listener without the need for extraneous instrumentation. Tyshawn Sorey's approach to music speaks to contempt ...
Ches Smith / We All Break: Path of Seven Colors
by Karl Ackermann
For some time, drummer/composer Ches Smith kept his interest in the Voudou music of Haiti at bay. Recognizing himself as an outsider in that world, he researched, listened, studied, and after years brought a project to fruition. Smith's group We All Break released their self-titled, self-produced debut in 2017 and received less attention than deserved. Now ...
Wadada Leo Smith with Milford Graves and Bill Laswell: Sacred Ceremonies
by Karl Ackermann
As he approached his eightieth birthday, Wadada Leo Smith could have been content to sit out the year of nothingness that Covid-19 brought in 2020 and beyond. With his 2013 Pulitzer Prize nomination, a 2016 Doris Duke Award, and nearly one-hundred recording credits, the trumpeter & multi-instrumentalist has landed at the top of countless polls throughout ...
Billy Bang: Lucky Man
by Karl Ackermann
When he performed in Germany, they called him the “black devil violinist," his frenetic playing wrapped in a gyrating, trance-like state. For Billy Bang, who believed he had schizophrenia, the epithet bore a resemblance to his inner turmoil. He was born William Walker in Mobile, Alabama but grew up in the South Bronx. He studied violin ...
Instrumental Duos
by Karl Ackermann
The early days of jazz were not always harmonious. Converted dance orchestras often sounded like unbalanced acoustic junkyards; a single violin, cornet, trombone, clarinet, tuba, drums, banjo, and piano, all fighting for attention. The piano was meant to be the glue holding the shrill and boisterous elements together. In 1921 a prodigy pianist named Zez Confrey ...
Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp: Special Edition: Procedural Language
by Karl Ackermann
The art of the duo has been all but perfected in the virtuosic recordings of saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp. The two composer-improvisers have recorded a dozen duo albums and more than twenty other collections in larger formations. Special Edition Box is art on several levels with audio, a Blue-Ray DVD, and a book, ...
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