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Freddie Redd Reconnects
by Rex Butters
At the second annual Jazz Journalists Association award show at the Jazz Bakery, West Coast Edition, a small dapper man sits watching in the back. After an energy bath by the Vinny Golia Quintet, he strolls to the stage and without waiting for an introduction, Blue Note legend Freddie Redd beams a radiant smile beneath a ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Lake Biwa
by Rex Butters
Lake Biwa presents Wadada Leo Smith's Silver Orchestra in four pieces that showcase the composer's startling originality and lofty inspiration. Peopled by some of New York's finest, including Anthony Coleman, Susie Ibarra, Marc Ribot, Craig Taborn, and John Zorn, the Orchestra moves through Smith's bright landscapes with grace and color, the soloists outright shredding when the ...
Sam Rivers/Ben Street/Kresten Osgood/Bryan Carrott: Purple Violets
by Rex Butters
Sam Rivers has the energy of an old Taoist master. On his infrequent trips to Los Angeles, he's relaxed after gigs by mixing it up with local musicians all night long. One such after hours session resulted in Vista, with Adam Rudolph and Harris Eisenstadt. A night in Denmark resulted in Purple Violets, a collection of ...
Gebhard Ullmann: The Big Band Project
by Rex Butters
Brooklyn/Berlin resident Gebhard Ullmann takes time off from his seven working ensembles to run six of his compositions through the venerable NDR Big Band. With heavyweights like Satoko Fujii, Andy Emler, Chris Dahlgren, and Guenter Lenz handling the arranging chores, the band roils and boils, simmers and sighs. The Fujii-arranged “Think Tank" churns in ...
Kneebody Arrives
by Rex Butters
The next major quake to hit LA may have less to do with shifting tectonic plates than with a crackling quintet thundering up the jazz charts with a powerhouse collection, at once challenging and accessible. Kneebody's eponymous album floats like an iron butterfly and stings like a diesel. “It's got a lot of testosterone. It's a ...
Cooper-Moore and Assif Tsahar: Tells Untold
by Rex Butters
Cooper-Moore and Assif Tsahar's follow up to last year's blistering America finds them sounding a mellower tone, with no loss of passion or imagination. Tsahar's improvisational intensity navigates the unique aural worlds created by Cooper-Moore, whether on conventional or invented instruments. Cooper-Moore plays the marimba-like ashimba while Tsahar simmers on bass clarinet to open “The Eight. ...
William Roper: If I Ran the Circus
by Rex Butters
William Roper makes an auspicious launch of his Tomato Sage Consortium Records with If I Ran the Circus, a collection of solos and small ensembles composed by Roper and featuring improvisations by veterans of the EAR Unit, the Terry sisters, Alex Cline, and of course Roper himself, among others. The compositions reflect the tuba player's unique ...
Vijay Iyer: Reimagining
by Rex Butters
Vijay Iyer inhabits a musical universe like no other. Juxtaposing deceptively familiar jazz structures with scales and modes more intimate with Indian and classical musics, Iyer has successfully reinvented jazz syntax while remaining unmistakably a jazz artist. He illuminates his reimaginings with a vicious virtuosity usually corroborated by the equally remarkable Rudresh Mahanthappa on saxophone. Mahanthappa's ...
Kris Tiner and Mike Baggetta: There, Just As You Look For It
by Rex Butters
East meets west with this collaboration between California's Kris Tiner and New York's Mike Baggetta. With various trumpets and prepared acoustic guitar, they explore a variety of compositional models while leaving plenty of room for showcasing improvisational prowess. Tiner plays through a spectrum of tones and approaches, well matched by Baggetta's inventive, wiry guitar inventions. Both ...
Albert Ayler Trio: Spiritual Unity
by Rex Butters
1964 proved to be a watershed year for Albert Ayler, who recorded enough material for ten albums, three for ESP alone. With drummer Sunny Murray a lone constant, Ayler exchanged Henry Grimes for Gary Peacock on bass midyear, briefly adding Don Cherry for some of the most memorable excursions he would commit to tape, including the ...
