KIDD JORDAN QUARTET – New Orleans Festival Suite 1999 (2000)

Label: Silkheart – SHCD 152
Format: CD, Album; Country: Sweden - Released: 2000
Style: Free Jazz; Packaging: Jewel Tray
Recorded May 2nd, 1999 during the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Dream Palace, New Orleans, Louisiana
Liner Notes: Marc Masters


Review:

Kidd Jordan has been a near-solitary champion of the new music in his hometown of New Orleans, which is noted for being the birthplace of jazz but certainly not noted for embracing the revolutionary aspects of the music. Although Mardi Gras ranks as the city's biggest party, the New Orleans Jazz Festival is right behind it in popularity. During this annual event, Jordan has often exposed the community to the delights inherent in creative improvised music, either as an official or maverick participant. He continues to fight a stiff battle against the staid forces of conservatism, although he hints at times he may be losing the fight. Change and New Orleans are not comfortable partners, but Jordan refuses to stop trying to enrich the resident minds with his sonic philosophy.

While the 1999 festival was happening, Jordan reassembled his dynamic quartet of Joel Futterman, William Parker, and Alvin Fielder. This group has had solid exposure in the European festival arena, where it is widely acclaimed for its inventiveness and take-no- prisoners policy. They really gave New Orleans a taste of what the rest of the world has been experiencing. Unassumingly, Jordan launches his solos by building them layer by dynamic layer until the intensity is overwhelming. He circles as a bird of prey, absorbing all the positives flowing from the band, and then he plunges into the heart of the tunes with an exhilarating display of creative genius. As would a phoenix, he rises again and reignites the atmosphere with an overwhelming abundance of innovation and musicality.

                                                                                         'Kidd' Jordan Quartet

The crack train on which Jordan speeds is propelled by three musicians who muster cyclonic swirls around him. Futterman plays with enormous passion. He astutely senses Jordan's direction and constructs intricate improvised phrases in synergistic concert. Futterman is committed to the concept of resolution. Nothing he plays is random. It is instantaneously constructed magic that is always resolved in a logical, musical manner. His piano playing sparkles on this date, but he also intuitively participates with his curved soprano or Indian flute to add yet another dimension of originality. His soprano duel with Jordan on the lengthy "Dream Palace" has enough thermal force to melt paint, but it evolves in an instinctively rational fashion.

Parker is bedrock on this date. He pours out a continuous avalanche of density from his bass. Parker is an untiring musician who maintains a pulsating, throbbing heartbeat while unrelentingly racing over the bass in a blur of activity. What he invents merges naturally and aesthetically with the collective output of the band. Fielder is an incredible, yet underrated drummer. He produces amazingly complex and interwoven percussion patterns, and he has been doing it for decades without receiving the star status his talent dictates. Fielder combines originality and vitality with a keen sense of rhythmic direction, and his bursts of spontaneity fan the inferno to make it blaze even brighter.

The Jordan quartet is a product of this age. The four listen, interrelate, interpret, and invent music with power and beauty. This is a muscular set of high artistic order guaranteed not to disappoint seekers of truth.

_ by Frank Rubolino, January 2002



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McPHEE, BRÖTZMANN, KESSLER, ZERANG – Guts - at Empty Bottle (2006)

Label: Okka Disk – OD12062
Format: CD, Album; Country: US - Released: Sep 2006
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded live by Malachi Ritscher at Empty Bottle, Chicago on 3 August 2005
Orig. Design: Brötzm. / K.Uniet; Executive Design: Louise Molnar
Photographs: Cesar Merino
New Re-Design (pages 2,3,4) by ART&JAZZ Studio - 2012
Artwork and Design by Vitko Salvarica
Mastered: Lou Malozzi at Experimental Sound Studio Chicago
Produced: Bruno Johnson & Brötzm.

Review:

When people die for what they believe in, their actions speak louder than words. At least for a moment. Repeat performances of their deaths are impossible. So it is up to those who survive them to revitalize the symbolism of their deaths. Creative people do this well in the form of a tribute, for they are lending their lives to the realm where they have invested their own spirits already.
The quartet of reedmen Joe McPhee and Peter Brotzmann, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Michael Zerang have come together in a recording called Guts (Okka, 2007) to honor Malachai Ritscher, who died of self-immolation on November 3, 2006, in protest of the war in Iraq. Ritscher was a musician, photographer, painter, philosopher and recording engineer. He recorded many of the gigs at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, including this session, in 2005.
Nearly an hour worth of music exists on only two cuts, "Guts" and "Rising Spirits". The first begins with a clear, open drum introduction replete with rapidly spun snare and bass drum interplay. An alto intercedes in long screaming arpeggiated lines to overlap the drums underpinnings. A tenor pumps accents throughout the alto stringency and eventually paints a series of raw abstractions. Bass pizzicati enter to round out the sharpness of the horns. The fervently agitated sounds of the tenor and the ceaselessly energetic and ofttimes piercing pressings of the alto stop and go and wind around each other. About halfway through, drums and bass drop out as the sax torrents subside into slow melodic phrasings. The fully shaped melody gradually picks up pace; the drums and the bass re-enter. The improvisation progresses into a full tilt, resolving into stretched out multiple choruses of the theme from both horns eventually to form a conclusive harmony.
A bowed bass and extra-terrestrial percussive sound start "Rising Spirits". The clarinet initiates a sprinkling of the atmosphere with an amoebic contouring of sonic emergence. A tight-lipped embouchure to a quickly fingered trumpet marks the arrival to full-blown instrumental involvement. The sporadic phrasings of the tarogato and the trumpet sparkle on top of the heaviness of the plucked bass and the lightness of touch to the cymbals and drums. An isolated bird-like litany from the tarogato complements repetitions of a sober melody from the trumpet. The bass and drums transform the music with a rhythmically driven surge. A tenor takes the lead and reconstructs abstractions with a series of sour and squeezed chords yielding to the alto, which continues to enhance the texture. The tenor and alto seesaw between high and low notes, melodic counterpoints and discordant and harmonic absorption to unite in a thematically strong coda.
Half the liner notes are comprised of a poem by McPhee. The poetry directs the reader to ponder the contents of the recording in the context of hope—a hope perhaps that the light will shine upon us as long as we remain committed to the contents of our lives.

— Lyn Horton (AAJ)



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DEREK BAILEY / EVAN PARKER – Arch Duo (1999) (Live at 1750 Arch Street Berkely, Ca. 1980)

Label: Rastascan Records – BRD 045
Format: CD, Album; Country: US - Released: 1999
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live Ocober 17, 1980 at 1750 Arch Street Berkely, Ca.
Recorded By – Robert Shumaker
Mastered by Myles Boisen/Headless Buddha Labs
Design and layout by Steve Norton/Red Notebook, with type by Michael Cina

This long-awaited release contains their entire 70+ minute 1980 duo performance at the legendary 1750 Arch Street in Berkeley, California. Bailey plays both electric and acoustic (and breaks a string mid-performance; see if you can tell where!) and Parker plays both soprano and tenor saxophones. This is their first duo release since 1985, and their first release by an American label. An important and historic recording.

Review:

This is a rather lengthy continuous improvisation from two of the most well-known and skilled British free improvisers. It's always interesting to hear Evan Parker before he began to stess circular breathing techniques as his primary mode. His lines are still longer than those of, say, Peter Brotzmann, but the shorter soprano spirals have a delightful way of doubling back as they dance about Bailey's spiky, angular instant edifices. I'll concede to the previous reviewer that Parker is playing circles around the guitarist for much of the disc, but this is characteristic of much of Bailey's "unresponsive" group playing. His frequent apparent obliviousness to other players can be chalked up to his stated preference for the unexpected quasi-Cageian juxtapositions that leaving the "jigsaw puzzle" incomplete can produce. However, there are many points on this cd where the two lock into a rapid tangle that turns into an exciting game where Bailey feints and parries while Parker uses his speed and fluidity to pre-emptively shadow the moves of one the most unpredictable improvisers of all time. Even when Bailey withdraws into disinterest, the saxophonist playfully darts about, attempting to prod him back into battle. Both players have much better cds available, but it's fascinating to hear these two pioneers going head to head before their falling out.

– By Phil Avetxori


Note:

Two different sets of artwork were prepared for the Arch Duo CD. One version was used (the cover of which can be seen here, up), but I thought that might like a look at the version that wasn't used. Sculptures, drawings, and cover lettering are all by Anthony Mostrom; layout and design was done by Steve Norton/Red Notebook.

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FLOW TRIO – Rejuvination (2009)

Label: ESP Disk – ESP 4052
Format: CD, Album; Country: US - Released: 2009
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at Context Studio, Brooklyn, October 4, 2008
Artwork By, Photography – MP Landis; Design, Layout – Fumi Tomita, Miles Bachmann
Engineer, Mixed By, Mastered By – Steven Walcott
Liner Notes – Bruce Lee Gallanter
Producer [Production Manager] – Tom Abbs

Note:

Over the past few months have been published in various references as bassist, Morris acts as leader or co-leader. In early 2009 published Rejuvenation ESP (ESP 4052) in the name of Flow Trio. This formation is composed of Louie Belongenis (tenor sax), Charles Downs (formerly known battery with Rashid Bakr) and Joe Morris (bass). In this, their second recording, made in October 2008, the three musicians raised an impromptu session of free jazz that fits perfectly into the historic tradition of the seal (the essential Spiritual Unity by Albert Ayler is one of its references), in being published. The 46 minutes are divided into six parts in a trio, plus the initial “ Reflection ” with Belongenis solo tenor. Along these musicians have not forgotten any time in the character of a melodic improvisations in the prevailing dialogue and spaces above the urgency to reach the pinnacle inherent in a certain way of understanding the free-jazz. Perhaps the only objection is that a great piece as “ Two Acts ” in the form of molten ends with silence.

                                                                                                 Louie Belogenis

Review:

If there is a way—and there most certainly is—to feel music with all the senses, then Flow Trio, comprising saxophonist Louie Belogenis, bassist Joe Morris and percussionist Charles Downs, show how completely spectacular this can feel when it all comes together on a record such as Rejuvenation.

The group, all seriously schooled in the poetics of sound, have literally mastered the way to fully explore the sound dynamic of saxophone, bass and drum, vertically- -for harmonic depth—and horizontally—to toy with the melodic elasticity. And if the central idea of Rejuvenation is to drain the senses' touchstones in music that are obvious, predictable and comfortably numbing, and refill them with an unexpected and refreshing, resonant and wholesome new sound, then it succeeds not only conceptually, but also in every real sense as well.

Flow Trio is not the first to explore this kind of musical space. Paul Bley had done this on several occasions decades ago, but probably the first to make such bold sojourns into spatial reading of music was Jimmy Giuffre, most notably on 7 Pieces (Jazz Beat, 1959).

Although it may seem antithetical to have a structured format to this record—the amorphousness of its musical progression from song to song is a delight—it would still appear as if the music is book-ended by the first and last tracks. From "Reflection" to "Rejuvenation," so to speak. But whether deliberately sequenced or not, "Reflection" seems a perfect place to start. A slow moody piece, it features a haunting solo by Belogenis and progresses perfectly into "Slow Cab," with its plucked triads, exploratory bass opening and skittish, stammering drumming that creates an open season on harmonics while the saxophonist weaves melodically in a circular and sometimes helical manner.

"Pick Up Sticks" is a vivid sonic tapestry, rich in harmony and rhythm. It is an interstellar excursion that rouses the spirit as it moves the body to dance. Downs drives hard, showing himself to be atop his game while exploration tone and time. "Two Acts" roams the stratosphere of sound and is a gripping piece that melds a walking bass and rebellious drums, creating a wonderful refracted vessel for the tenor sax to further explore its tonal landscape.

"Succor" is a spirit-moving, graceful work, featuring fine con arco work from Morris and highly evocative drums that follow the funerary saxophone, where all the musicians revel in a highly suggestive, conversational atmosphere. "Unfolding" takes the music into a space where it hangs with dynamic tension. It is the band working itself up to a conclusion, brightly stated in "Rejuvenation," which brings the music not just to a resolution, but also attempts to inhabit a new plane—a soaring, edifying glide into musical territory first laid bare by the opening track.

Rejuvenation is not simply a trio record. It is studied and deliberate, and a well thought out exercise in the realm of New Jazz Sound.

_ By Raul d'Gama Rose (AAJ)



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Jazz Masters Clinical Archives – Promotional Poster – Vol.9

Graphic Design:
Promotional Poster - Vol.9
JMRP.DVD/CD-2008
Jazz Masters Clinical Archives - Original Masters Series - PSYCHO / JAZZ 
CHINGUS in Belden 2008
Artwork and Complete Design by Vitko Salvarica
ART&JAZZ Studio SALVARICA – 2008


"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet".
(Franz Kafka)



Welcome to new prog-blog "Different Perspectives In My Room...!".
Enjoy the music, and please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.

Regards, Vitko

GEORG GRÄWE QUARTET – Melodie Und Rhythmus (1997)

 

Label : Okka Disc - OD12024

Produced by: Georg Gräwe; Executive Producer: Bruno Johnson 

Engineer: John McCortney

Format : CD, Album; Recording Date : 1997

Recorded at AirWave Recording Studios, Chicago, IL, May 1997

Style : Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Cover painting: Ben Portis
Graphic design: Louise Molnar; Inside photo: Bruce Carnevale

Linear Notes:

Georg Gräwe visits Chicago for the first time (1995), performing solo, recording a solo record for OkkaDisk, and collaborating with alto saxist/clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio. Gräwe quickly develops an affinity for the vibrant local scene and the city ’ s jazz and blues heritage. Buys a copy of Magic Sam ’ s West Side Soul (Delmark). Enjoys a Bookers at the Hopleaf. Late that year, he hears a group of Chicago improvisors in Germany at the Moers Festival. Bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Hamid Drake are among the six participants (later known as the Moers Six). At a certain point in three days of ad- hoc groupings, long-standing Gräwe accomplice Frank Gratkowski adds his alto sax and clarinet to the Chicagoans ’ music. The seeds for the group are sown in the ears of the listening pianist. In 1996, Gräwe is deeply impressed by Kessler ’ s playing on Steelwool Trio ’ s International Front (OkkaDisk), and he finally settles on the formation of a quartet, inviting Drake — with whom he had been eager to work since before his first visit to Chicago — and Kessler from the Windy City, and Gratkowski from Köln. Music Minus One: first concert (and studio session) in November of ’ 96, without Drake. Intensive trio interaction, clear connection forged between these three parts — big question-mark how it will work with the master percussionist in the mix. Inspired by the scene, and with a desire to rehearse (and eventually record) his new quartet, in April ’ 97, Gräwe moves to Chicago for the spring and summer. The full group makes its triumphant first appearance in May at the Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music, in Chicago, then plays again in July at Nickelsdorf Konfrontationen, in Austria. In between these two performances, both spectacularly rich and (for Gräwe followers especially) extremely surprising, the quartet storms the studios and produces the record you now hold in your hands. And as the group presently finishes its first European tour, the story continues...

- John Corbett, Chicago, November 1997

Review:

Melodie und Rhythmus captures the interplay of a fine and charismatic quartet of German and American jazz improvisers. Pianist Georg Gräwe is joined by reeds player Frank Gratkowski from Köln, Germany, and Chicago jazzmen, percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist Kent Kessler, for a recording date that reveals a strong likemindedness and communication between the musicians. The opening piece begins quiet and sparse, with staggered steps of high piano chords and ambient shadings provided by the others. As "Nodality" develops, the space gradually fills in with increased activity. The immediate contrast of a dark piano punctuation starts the next piece, "Imaginary Portrait I," which turns into quick streams of nightclub piano jazz fragments and runs. It's a testament to this group's skill that the fast- paced activity seems effortless, coming off with elegance. The album continues with the hot afternoon bustle of "Passing Scopes," which includes a solo by Gratkowski; the dark and stormy bombardment and impressive whirlwind that is "Trajectory"; "Fringe Factor," with a slowly building clarinet monologue that runs through the center of the quartet's playing, ultimately giving way to a beautiful solo from Gräwe; the more abstracted, single-note rounds of "Multiversum"; and, finally, the more traditional feel of the excellent "Memory of Wings II." The superb playing of drummer Hamid Drake, as well as the strong presence of Kessler's bass throughout this session need mentioning, as does the evocative and tight knit sound of this quartet.

_By Joslyn Layne (AMG)



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AUS - JOHANNES BAUER, CLAYTON THOMAS, TONY BUCK – Live in Nickelsdorf 2007 (2009)

Label: Jazzwerkstatt; Catalog#: jw051
Country: Germany; Format: CD, Album - Released: 2009
Style: avant-garde, free improvisation, Contemporary Jazz, Free Jazz 
Recorded live at Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf 2007 by SWR Baden Baden, July 14 2007
New Design (pages 2,3,4,5) by ART&JAZZ Studio - 2012
Photography By – Elvira Faltermeier
Producer – Reinhard Kager; Recorded By, Mixed By, Mastered By – Alfred Habelitz


Review:

Musicians of all stripes frequently relocate to make a better living and find a more sympathetic playing situation. But few literally travel as far as bassist Clayton Thomas, who a couple of years ago traded his home in Sydney, Australia for one in Berlin. It ’ s a testament to improvised music ’ s contemporary universality that Thomas ’ trek was to Europe rather than the United States and a tribute to the German capital ’ s burgeoning improv scene that the bassist from Oz is constantly busy in his adopted city.

Das Treffen (Axel Dörner, John Schröder, Clayton Thomas, Oliver Steidle – DPIMR, post Sept.11.2012) was recorded in Berlin, while AUS dates from a triumphant performance during 2007 ’ s Konfrontationen in Nickelsdof, Austria. Besides Thomas ’ slap bass thumps and staccato string-slices, the personnel on each CD are different as well. Peripatetic trombonist Johannes Bauer, who has played with everyone from bassist Barry Guy to saxophonist Peter Brötzmann is another-third of the Aus trio, while drummer Tony Buck – another Australian turned Berliner, best-known for his membership in The Necks, completes the triangle. Thomas ’ cohorts on the other CD are all German. Trumpeter Axel Dörner balances reductionism with straight-ahead jazz in bands like Monk ’ s Casino; while percussionist Oliver Steidle in the band Soko Steidle with two of Dörner ’ s colleagues from Monk ’ s Casino.

Evolving their interaction over the course of seven live performances, each AUS-er contributes his share to the outstanding performances. Polyphonic and polyrhythmic all the pieces connect instantly and remain sutured throughout each musical twist, turn and wiggle. Bauer, for instance, slurs in the bass clef, quivers higher-pitched timbres and is snakily discursive most of the time, slipping from one tone to another with a full complement of grace notes. Buck clips, clops, rumbles and cymbal squeals when necessary, but also bears down on the beat with bass drum pops. Furthermore, Bauer ’ s command of the ‘ bone is such that at times it appears as if he ’ s constructing palindromes that are both allegro and moderato.

Drawing out capillary lines in an elastic fashion, Bauer brays one minute and evacuates plunger textures from deep within his horn ’ s body tube the next. Sometimes he verbalizes at the same time as he blows, creating a secondary sound stream. Bauer ’ s grace notes can be so silvery and speedy that they ’ re almost as weightless as bell pings; at other points his triple tonguing and gutbucket smears wildly vibrate up to the stratosphere. While all this is happening Buck rolls his cymbals and uses opposite sticking on his drum tops, while his pacing encompasses drags, ruffs and scatter-shot pumps. Available with muscular slaps and string ratcheting from sharp objects, Thomas also doesn ’ t neglect walking when it ’ s needed to move the piece forward. Finally, when each improvisation decelerates to diminuendo, clockwork pacing falls into place as each player follows the other in timbral downsizing......

Overall these two CDs demonstrate not only the many unique tonal properties being explored on the Berlin scene, but also the improvisational skills of the six musicians featured. Considering these are only two of the many aggregations to which bassist Thomas lends his skills, his decision to trade shrimp on the barbie for curry wurst on the bun appears to have been a wise one.

-- By Ken Waxman (Review Archives)



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