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Results for "Mark Corroto"
Anthony Braxton: 12 COMP (ZIM) 2017
by Mark Corroto
James Joyce, Anthony Braxton, and a music fan walk into a bar. The bartender says, “what is this? Some kind of a joke?" Joyce (okay, he died in 1941 but stay tuned) indicates, “this is no joke, and please send over the sommelier." The three patrons have come to this establishment to discuss Braxton's latest project, ...
Anna Webber: Idiom
by Mark Corroto
Is Idiom, from composer, saxophonist, and flutist Anna Webber, new classical music or jazz? Yes. Is the music scored or improvised? Again, yes. Last question: Is it demanding or easy on the ears? Both. On the heels of two stellar releases, the septet Clockwise (Pi Recordings, 2019) and the Webber/Morris Big Band recording Both Are True ...
KORR: Tombé de la voûte
by Mark Corroto
Let's face the truth of free improvisation. It is a hit-and-miss endeavor. Three musicians starting from naught and trying to create something, something from nothing. If the musicians are seasoned, maybe they fall back on clichés and stock phrasings, that approach being the banal equivalent of nothing. When improvisers hit upon something fresh it ...
Eyevin Nonet: Thomas Chapin III: Unearthed
by Mark Corroto
Thomas Chapin was taken from us far too soon. The saxophonist passed in 1998 at age forty, just as he was hitting his stride as a composer. The now defunct Knitting Factory Records was the source of his last recordings. If the label hadn't been run on a shoestring, we might have heard Chapin's music for ...
Hans Koch & Paul Lovens: Nephlokokkygia 1992
by Mark Corroto
This live recording from a tour through Bulgaria in 1992 begs the questions: why Bulgaria? and, most importantly, why are there not more recordings from Hans Koch and Paul Lovens? Nephlokokkygia or “CloudCuckooLand" is seeing the light of day for the first time as, during the pandemic year of 2020, Koch edited tape recordings of the ...
Extrema Ratio: A Dangerous Method
by Mark Corroto
In 1989, John Zorn, in the liner notes of Spy Vs Spy (Elektra), a cover album of Ornette Coleman compositions, thanked (among many) the bands Napalm Death, Blind Idiot God, and The Accused, before finishing with “Fucking hardcore rules. Smash racism." Zorn's music comes slamming back to mind with A Dangerous Method from Extrema Ratio, because ...
Cecil Taylor Quintet: Lifting The Bandstand
by Mark Corroto
No other artist, except maybe Miles Davis, created the sort of event/happening that surrounded a Cecil Taylor performance. As Taylor's career advanced from the 1960s on, his presentation became an almost pure expression, one not limited by the terms 'jazz,' 'poetry,' and 'dance.' Of the many chapters his art held, for many fans ...
Flow Trio with Joe McPhee: Winter Garden
by Mark Corroto
The thing about free jazz is that it is very much like abstract expressionist painting. Many an inexperienced museum goer will spot a Jackson Pollock and say to herself, “I coulda done that." Actually, you couldn't. Same thing with free jazz. From a distance, it's all hubbub and din, but try your hand at it, and ...
James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon
by Mark Corroto
Most listeners have long since moved saxophonist James Brandon Lewis from the rising star category to one labeled virtuoso. But then, pianist Matthew Shipp signaled this status when he mentored Lewis early on and certainly bassist William Parker ordained his arrival by recording with the saxophonist on his major label debut, Divine Travels (Okeh, 2014). Parker ...
The Rempis Percussion Quartet: Sud Des Alpes
by Mark Corroto
Sometimes a band hits a stretch, much like an athlete with a hot hand, and produces a string of special recordings. Sud Des Alpes is The Rempis Percussion Quartet's tenth release and it follows Cochonnerie (Aerophonic, 2017). Like all the quartet's releases except Montreal Parade (482 Music, 2011), it captures a live performance. This at AMR ...
