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James Fei: Solo Works
by Robert Spencer
James Fei is an associate of Anthony Braxton, and has appeared in some of Braxton's large ensembles. This disc of his solo works is an extension of Braxton's ground-breaking work for solo reeds. The story goes that in the late Sixties Braxton was playing a solo concert wherein he ran out of ideas within ten minutes, ...
Chamaeleo Vulgaris: Ouverture Facile
by Robert Spencer
You better strap in for this one: it's a relentlessly post-modern excursion into the possibilities of noise, of static, of crossed expectations. Tenor saxophonist Bertrand Denzler is on hand, and he is a fine musician with a raw intensity and a fiery attack. He is surrounded here by wild and unusual sounds, courtesy Bertrand Perrin (sampler), ...
Pago Libre: Wake Up Call: Live in Italy
by Robert Spencer
Pago Libre is a highly accomplished quartet consisting of the master pianist John Wolf Brennan with Arkady Shilkloper (french horn, flugelhorn), Tscho Theissing (violin, voice), and Daniele Patumi (double bass). As may be expected from the instrumentation, there is a good bit of classicism in the sound of this group. Take “Toccattacca," for example. Although Brennan ...
Misha Feigin: Both Kinds of Music
by Robert Spencer
Misha Feigin plays a balalaika, which may be only a word from the Beatles' “Back in the USSR" to many people, but becomes here an excellent vehicle for improvisation. He also plays a classical guitar on four of these seven duos (and balalaika on four as well: he plays both on “A Meter Violation"). All seven ...
Glen Hall: Hallucinations
by Robert Spencer
Glen Hall plays tenor sax, soprano sax, bass flute, bass clarinet, as well as chipping in with electronics, samples, processing, and vocals. He is heard most clearly on tenor sax on this disc, and his is a strong voice, more bop-inflected than the environment of this disc might lead a listener to expect. For this is ...
Eugene Chadbourne and the Insect and Western Party: Beauty and the Bloodsucker
by Robert Spencer
Eugene Chadbourne is an American original: consummate improviser, rockabilly jazz guitarist, genre crosser, bug enthusiast, certifiable madman. This disc is a worthy addition to his oeuvre, as it features some notable collaborators: Ellery Eskelin, Gino Robair, and others. As usual, it is full of irony and all over the stylistic map. As usual, it is full ...
The Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab: In Egypt
by Robert Spencer
Sun Ra enthusiasts take note: there are 36 minutes of the Man from Saturn and his Arkestra on this disc - the length of a good LP in the old days. Plus, how can any Saturnian resist the lure of a Ra disc recorded in the shadow of the Sphinx herself, right in Cairo? Top it ...
Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 94 for Three Instrumentalists
by Robert Spencer
This trio outing is one of Mr. Braxton's ambitious early projects, and we owe a debt of gratitude to Leo Feigin for bringing it to light. Braxton, trombonist Ray Anderson and guitarist James Emery present Composition No. 94 for Three Instrumentalists, the score of which features graphic notation. These symbols, according to the liner notes by ...
Various Artists: The Prestige Records Story
by Robert Spencer
This is much more than the history of just one label: this is a primer of modern jazz. The sweep of Bob Weinstock and Prestige Records, particularly in the Fifties and early Sixties, was so broad that this collection encompasses a large part of the jazz that mattered in those days. There is a stunning roster ...
Rahsaan Roland Kirk / Yusef Lateef: Separate But Equal
by Robert Spencer
Back in the days when Joel Dorn, the 32 Jazz majordomo, walked the hallowed hall of Atlantic Records, he nourished the hope someday to bring two of the most luminous exponents of Great Black Music, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Yusef Lateef, together in the studio. Alas, Kirk took ill and ultimately died before Dorn's vision could ...
