Reviews that mention Mats Gustafsson
May 8, 2022
Hokusai
NoBusiness NBCD 134
Giuseppe Doronzo/Pino Basile
Aterraterr
Tora Records Tora 002
Paulina Owczarek & Peter Orins
You Never Know
Microcid 025
Liudas Mockūnas/Christian Windfeld
Pacemaker
NoBusiness NBLP 147
Creating perceptive creative music programs with only reeds and percussion calls on the realized skills of sophisticated improvisers. Younger and veteran players, the duos on these discs put together astute sessions by expanding the parameters by emphasizing varied approaches. MORE
January 8, 2022
El Intruso 14th Annual International Critics Poll
2021 Ballot
Ken Waxman JazzWord Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Choices
Album of the year: Julius Hemphill, The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony (New World)
Musician of the year Kris Davis, Ivo Perelman
Newcomer Musician: Charlotte Keefe (trumpet)
Group of the year: Umlaut Big Band
Newcomer group: Square Peg: Gordon Grdina, Shazad Ismall, Christain Lillinger
Composer: David Sanford, Elliott Sharp, Michael Formanek
Drums: Günter Baby Sommer, Carlo Costa, Peter Orins
Acoustic Bass: Barry Guy, Joëlle Léandre MORE
May 28, 2021
She Knows …
ezz-thetics 1128
When Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson organized The Thing band with Norwegians, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love at the turn of the century the idea was play Don Cherry compositions. The idea widened by this 2001 second disc to play composed by Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Frank Lowe, James Blood Ulmer and McPhee, creating a Free Jazz repertory group. The session also began the trio’s long association with American trumpeter/saxophonist Joe McPhee.
Respectful and resourceful but also rugged, the quartet proves positively that Energy Music has a life beyond its first performance. Considering track one is a P.J. Harvey tune reconstituted with trumpet smears and baritone saxophone split tones, the disc also shows that almost any tune can be reconstituted with stirring improvisation. This is true too when playing “Going Home”, a hymn favored by Albert Ayler. Backed by Håker Flaten’s col legno bounces, McPhee’s tenor saxophone slurps low tones that presents the theme at midpoint, but begins and ends by deconstructing it into abstract fragments. MORE
May 13, 2021
Not Two …but Twenty Festival
NotTwo MW 1000-2
Julius Hemphill The Boyé Multi-national Crusade for Harmony
Archive Recordings 1997-2007
NewWorld Records 80825-2:
Something in the Air: Sophisticatedly Curated Box Sets Collate and Disseminate Important Music
By Ken Waxman
Assembled since the first significant 78s were collected in one package, the boxed set has traditionally been used to celebrate important anniversaries or extensive projects. CD collections are the same with these improvised music sets aurally illuminating various programs. MORE
April 13, 2021
Free Improvised Music
Corbett vs Dempsey CD 073
Rubicon Quartet
Crosscurrents
New Wave of Jazz nwoj0038
Tonal cross fertilization with collaborative strategies of several generations of European improvisers means that these session hold interest throughout. The main difference is between following a mix and match among countries and ensembles or seeing how quartet members from one country but different ages, articulate particular intonation.
The 25th iteration of Vario 34-3 concerts was organized by trombonist/cellist Günter Christmann who has worked in a duo with bassist Alexander Frangenheim, also featured here, and the King Übü Orchestrü. Besides the bassist, also known for his collaboration with dancers; other German players featured who are also involved in many free music permutations are percussionist Paul Lovens, a long-time member of the Schlippenbach trio and live electronics master Thomas Lehn. Outlier of the quintet is Swedish soprano saxophonist Mats Gustafssonm who leads The Fire Orchestra. Along with five group improvisations the five play in duos and trios. MORE
February 21, 2021
Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson, Balázs Pándi
Cuts Open
RareNoiseRecords RNR 0122
Although a meeting of three specialists in noise music from the electronic, improvised and Rock territories may promise an exercise in blasting cacophony. But given the extended length of the four tracks spread over two CDs here, a variety of inventive timbres is actually on tap.
Not that anyone would confuse Cuts Open for a baroque recital or an experiment in microtones, but it is an instance of genre stretching. Japanese electronic noisemaker Masami Akita known as Merzbow had previously fused his brutal sounds to sessions with Jamie Saft, but this is his first protracted interaction with players he’s traded licks with since 2013. Hungarian drummer Balázs Pándi is a product of the Rock world, but he has expanded his scope since he first recorded with Ivo Perelman. As for Swedish multi-reedist Mats Gustafsson, he’s moved confidentially into more ferocious sounds over the years, especially with The Thing Punk-Jazz unit. MORE
January 11, 2021
El Intruso 13th Annual International Critics Poll 2020
Spanish Website
Ken Waxman’s ballot
Ken Waxman
(Periodista canadiense, editor de JazzWord. Durante muchos años ha escrito para los principales periódicos canadienses e internacionales y realiza comentarios sobre música en diferentes programas de radio) www.jazzword.com
Músico: “Covid 19”
Músico Revelación: “Covid 19”
Grupo: Leimgruber/Demierre/Phillips
Grupo Revelación: Tonus
Álbum: Various Artists – New Improvised Music from Buenos Aires (ESP Disk)
MORE
October 1, 2020
David Grubbs/Mats Gustafsson/Rob Mazurek
The Underflow
Corbett vs Dempsey CD 0063
Chicago Underground Quartet
Good Days
Astral Spirits AS 125
Returning to familiar territory with a twist and exploring new avenues, Rob Mazurek continues to demonstrate his capacity for constant musical change on these releases. Now Texas-based, Mazurek reconvened a quartet version of the long-running Chicago Underground (CU) group. Good Days features not only Mazurek, but also New York percussionist Chad Taylor, his associate of two decades, plus frequent CU member guitarist Jeff Parker and brand new affiliate keyboardist Josh Johnson, who is also part of Parker’s Los Angeles-based band. A change of pace, The Underflow finds the brass player’s outpouring in an original configuration alongside American guitarist David Grubbs and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, both of whom have been involved in as many affiliations as Mazurek. MORE
July 11, 2020
Krysztof Penderecki Actions
Rune Grammofon RCD 2212
Webber/Morris Big Band
Both Are True
Greenleaf Music GRE CD 1075
Vladimir Tarasov & Krugly Band Orchestra
Sound Tapestries
SoLyd Records SLR 0440
Martin Archer
Anthropology Band
Discus 90 CD
Gard Nilssen Supersonic Orchestra
If You Listen Carefully the Music Is Yours
ODIN CD 9572
Something in the air Novel Large Ensemble Strategies are expressed by Bands All over the World
MORE
February 8, 2020
12th Annual International Critics Poll
Ken Waxman’s 2019 ballot
Musician of the year: Joe McPhee
Newcomer Musician: Timothée Quost, Gaspard Beck
Group of the year: Roots Magic, Tonus, Joe McPhee Trio
Newcomer group: MétamOrphée
Album of the year: Quatuor de Jazz Libre Du Québec, Musique Politique Anthologie 1971-1974 (Tour de Bras) Uri Caine, The Passion of Octavius Catto (816 Music)
Composer: Roscoe Mitchell, Uri Caine, Harris Eisenstad
Drums; Gerald Cleaver, Steve Noble, Tim Daisy
Acoustic Bass Joëlle Léandre, Barry Guy, Barre Phillips MORE
January 26, 2019
Mats Gustafsson & Jason Adasiewicz
Timeless
Corbett vs. Dempsey CvsD CD043
This duet session could literally have been marketed with one of those platitudinous 20th Century titles such as Another Side of Mats Gustafsson. Yet while this languid CD confirms that the Swedish saxophonist actually has a softer side and doesn’t have to stud all his improvisations with strident, astringent tones at a frenetic pace, this is no ballad album. For while Gustafsson and Chicago vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz may detail these seven tracks with a phlegmatic indolence they don’t relax the rigor they bring to more spirited sessions. MORE
October 16, 2018
Svårmod Och Vemod Är Värdesinnen
RareNoise RNR 097
Unlike many sessions by Swedish tenor and, baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, even with his Punk-Jazz trio, The Thing, Svårmod Och Vemod Är Värdesinnen moves him firmly away from Jazz contours during six tracks that call more on Hard Rock and Heavy Metal than the improvised tradition. Instrumentally the weight is even heftier, since his associates in The End, Norwegian tenor and, baritone saxophonist Kjetil Møster, whose low-pitched outbursts have, even when playing with Jazzers, always listed closet to Rock than Jazz; fellow Norwegian noise guitarist Anders Hana; Deerhoof’s American drummer Greg Saunier; and Swedish-Ethiopian singer Sofia Jernberg, with whom Gustafsson frequently work elsewhere. MORE
August 1, 2018
Volume 1: Inhale
Omlott MLR 021
This CD should more properly be titled Exhale, since the six duo tracks here are almost textbook definitions of a quintessential blowing session. That is blowing session is the exploratory rather than the jamming variety, for the two participants calling their duo Luft are sound seekers in the most fundamental sense. On one hand there is Swedish reedist Mats Gustafsson, known for his work with everyone from Joe McPhee to the Ex and from musical leaps from Free Music to noise, often during the same session. On Inhale he plays French flageolet, G clarinet, alto flutephone, soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones. His partner, armed with only the blowstick, bag, drones and chanter of a bagpipe, is Breton Erwan Keravec. However the bagpiper often propels his instrument out of its folk context to collaborate with dancers and improvisers such as Beñat Achiary and Jean-Luc Cappozzo. MORE
July 16, 2018
James Blood Ulmer with The Thing
Baby Talk
Trost TR006 CD
Fire!
The Hands
Rune Grammofon RCD 2197
Should there ever be an Olympic contest for most ferocious Jazz saxophonist, then Swedish tenor, baritone and bass saxophonist Mats Gustafsson would certainly be a contender for the gold medal. A generation younger than Peter Brötzmann, but just as clamorous, the now- Austrian domiciled Gustafsson has spent the past two decades propelling strident tones in settings ranging from large acoustic ensembles to smaller bands which flirt with electronics and electric instruments. Two of the saxophonist’s most frequent affiliations are with two trios: Fire, filled out with Fellow Swedes bassist Johan Berthling and percussionist Andreas Werliin; and The Thing, where he hooks up with two Norwegians, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love. MORE
July 16, 2018
The Hands
Rune Grammofon RCD 2197
James Blood Ulmer with The Thing
Baby Talk
Trost TR006 CD
Should there ever be an Olympic contest for most ferocious Jazz saxophonist, then Swedish tenor, baritone and bass saxophonist Mats Gustafsson would certainly be a contender for the gold medal. A generation younger than Peter Brötzmann, but just as clamorous, the now- Austrian domiciled Gustafsson has spent the past two decades propelling strident tones in settings ranging from large acoustic ensembles to smaller bands which flirt with electronics and electric instruments. Two of the saxophonist’s most frequent affiliations are with two trios: Fire, filled out with Fellow Swedes bassist Johan Berthling and percussionist Andreas Werliin; and The Thing, where he hooks up with two Norwegians, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love. MORE
January 20, 2018
MusikKultur St, Johann in Tirol December 9 and 10
By Ken Waxman
One of Austria’s most forward-looking cultural series takes place every week in an Alpine valley market town half-way between Innsbruck and Salzburg. St. Johann in Tirol has only about 9,000 residents but for 25 years Musik Kultur St. Johann (MuKu) has hosted a variety of exceptional activities, including at least 20 concerts of improvised music each year as well as the annual Artacts Festival in March.
In early December, MuKu threw itself a two-day silver anniversary party in the Alte Gerberei, a converted tannery, a 20-minute walk from the main town square and the nearby busy ski hill. Showcased were groups featuring British bassist Barry Guy, whose influence extended serendipitously to a club in nearby Munich a few days later. MORE
October 26, 2017
Celebration Ensemble
Fundacja Sluchaj FSR 04/2017
Albert Cirera/Hernâni Fustino/Gabriel Ferrandi/Agustí Fernández
Before the Silence
No Business Records NBCD 96
Having passed the venerable age of 60, Barcelona-area-based pianist Agustí Fernández has been fêted for his prominence on the broadening international improvised music scene. It’s a tribute to his sophisticated musical adroitness that his playing partners now range from Parker (William) to Parker (Evan), without causing a fissure in any situation. Like a director of foreign films who makes the transition to mainstream Hollywood fare, the Catalan pianist has been acclaimed for his adaptability. But like partisan film maker who imports foreign expertise and actors to shore up the local industry, Fernández’s home town concerts often include international partners. Besides confirming his playing and compositional talents, these Fernández discs demonstrate that ideal. MORE
October 21, 2017
Blow + Beat
Boomslang BOOM 0491
Evans/Fernández/Gustafsson
A Quietness of Water
NotTwo MW 952-2
Transmogrifying poetics onto music is a discriminating task on the same level as creating a painting whose title describes concepts that may not be obvious. But Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson has conspired with his confreres here to use titles inspired by two widely different American poets. The five selections on A Quietness of Water, recorded with American trumpeter Peter Evans and Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández take their inspiration from Robert Creeley (1926-2005), who was associated with The Black Mountain School and who combined an academic career with tough poetics. Like a cultivated rose compared to a wild flower, Blow + Beat, seven duets with Austrian drummer Alfred Vogel, takes as its influence Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), the quintessential Beat, know as much for his lifestyle as his verse. MORE
October 21, 2017
A Quietness of Water
NotTwo MW 952-2
Mats Gustafsson/Alfred Vogel
Blow + Beat
Boomslang BOOM 0491
Transmogrifying poetics onto music is a discriminating task on the same level as creating a painting whose title describes concepts that may not be obvious. But Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson has conspired with his confreres here to use titles inspired by two widely different American poets. The five selections on A Quietness of Water, recorded with American trumpeter Peter Evans and Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández take their inspiration from Robert Creeley (1926-2005), who was associated with The Black Mountain School and who combined an academic career with tough poetics. Like a cultivated rose compared to a wild flower, Blow + Beat, seven duets with Austrian drummer Alfred Vogel, takes as its influence Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), the quintessential Beat, know as much for his lifestyle as his verse. MORE
January 7, 2017
Collider
NotTwo MW 930-2
Arashi
Semikujira
Trost TR 146
By Ken Waxman
Seemingly more ubiquitous than a smart phone, Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love appears to be everywhere at once, especially when advanced improvised music is involved. Not only does the percussionist lead his own large unit and smaller aggregations, but he also turns up in groups led by players ranging from Frode Gjerstad to Peter Brötzmann. These recent sessions are particularly notable for a couple of reasons. Semikujira is the newest chapter in the history of an on-again/off-again trio made up of Nilssen-Love, Swedish bassist Johan Berthling and veteran Japanese alto saxophonist/clarinetist Akira Sakata. Ratcheting the intensity level up into the red zone, Collider solders together The Thing, the drummer’s punk-jazz trio with Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten with its U.S. counterpoint, the DKV trio of reedist Ken Vandermark, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Hamid Drake. MORE
November 11, 2016
At Porgy & Bess
Trost Records TR 140
Keith Rowe/John Tilbury
enough still not to know
SOFA 548
Mopomoso Tour 2013
Making Rooms
Weekertoft 1-4
Barry Guy Blue Shroud Band Small Formations
Tensegrity
NotTwo MW938-2
Something In The Air: Multi-Disc Box Sets Offer Depth As Well As Quantity
By Ken Waxman
When a CD box of improvised music appears it customarily marks a critical occasion. So it is with these recent four-disc sets. One celebrates an anniversary tour by nine of London’s most accomplished improvisers. Another collects small group interactions in Krakow by musicians gathered to perform as an orchestra. A third is a souvenir of concerts celebrating Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s 50th birthday. Finally enough still not to know captures extended improvisations by pianist John Tilbury and table-top guitarist Keith Rowe, who have worked with one another on-and-off for 40 years. MORE
June 6, 2016
She Sleeps, She Sleeps
Rune Grammofon RCD 2178
By Ken Waxman
Specializing in blending basement timbres, so all of their gradations are audible, the Swedish trio of drummer Andreas Werliin, double bassist Johan Berthling and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson welcomes a couple of guests here to add additional textures. But the auxiliary tones simply intensify the trio’s characteristically powerful stance.
Cellist Leo Svensson’s intermittent string plucks and swipes are permeable enough so like a youngster mimicking an adult’s movements, he merely strengthens Werliin’s thick power stops. On the other hand Gustafsson’s foundation-shaking bass saxophone gusts not only provide a bonding continuum throughout, but also showcase multiphonics encompassing glossolalia, split tones and concentrated overblowing. Most notably, that ad hoc foursome’s more-than-18½-minute “She Penetrates The Distant Silence Slowly” never plods, but is invested with rhythmic swing, even as it plays out at a tortoise-like gait. MORE
May 22, 2016
The March
Konvoj Records Kor 005
The Thing
Shake
TROST TTR 005 CD
More than a quarter century after he almost literally blew into public consciousness as a Swedish augmentation of the corybantic Peter Brötzmann-Albert Ayler saxophone tradition, multi-reedman Mats Gustafsson has continued to develop manifold playing styles. Like the comic actor who scores in dramatic parts while retaining a commitment to comedy, Gustafsson bounces from intense, atonal improvisations to other settings where burly rhythm is as much a construct as atonal scrutiny. MORE
May 22, 2016
Shake
TROST TTR 005 CD
Gush
The March
Konvoj Records Kor 005
More than a quarter century after he almost literally blew into public consciousness as a Swedish augmentation of the corybantic Peter Brötzmann-Albert Ayler saxophone tradition, multi-reedman Mats Gustafsson has continued to develop manifold playing styles. Like the comic actor who scores in dramatic parts while retaining a commitment to comedy, Gustafsson bounces from intense, atonal improvisations to other settings where burly rhythm is as much a construct as atonal scrutiny. MORE
March 7, 2016
Corbett vs. Dempsey
By Ken Waxman
As commerce continues to be divided between mass and class, the music business has followed suit. On one side are the remaining major record companies turning out “product” as cheaply and quickly as they can, and on the other so-called boutique labels whose releases are selected and manufactured with the utmost care. One of the quirkiest of the latter is Corbett vs. Dempsey (CvD), a decade-old Chicago-based imprint that along with a publishing outlet is a division of an art gallery co-owned by John Corbett and Jim Dempsey. CvD has so far put out 25 discs, ranging from reissues of major LPs by Joe McPhee and Peter Brötzmann to obscurities by the likes of George Davis and Staffan Harde to brand-new CDs by Thurston Moore and Mats Gustaffsson. MORE
January 11, 2016
Merzbow/Balás Pándi/Mats Gustafsson/Thurston Moore
Cuts of Guilt, Cut Deeper
RareNoise Records RNRPR 052
Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke with Chikamorachi & Merzbow
Flying Basket
Family Vineyard FV88
On of the defining indicators of distinctive 21st Century improvised music is how it`s now being built on more than a Free Jazz or possibly aleatory so-called classical music tropes. Rock rhythms, electronic extensions and the acceptance of so-called noise as ends in themselves often characterize these performances and separate them from earlier avant-garde strategies. These sets, featuring Jazz-identified saxophones, Rock-wedded guitarist and the doming electronic pulses of Japan`s Masami Akita, known as Merzbow are distant example of these concepts. However one allows the noise to dominate the CD’s improvisational character, while the other subordinates the non-Free Jazz elements so that like detailing on an auto with a powerful motor, they complement rather than engulf graceful free music. MORE
April 7, 2015
Trost
By Ken Waxman
Vienna’s punk-noise scene of the’90s with underground clubs, fanzines and tape labels did more than advance the career of avant-rock bands. Trost Records was nurtured in that DIY atmosphere so that nearly a quarter-century later it has become a major presence in jazz, releasing discs by the likes of Mats Gustafsson, Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark. This happened because a university student/journalist, working part time at one club, plus a couple of friends, felt the city’s musicians needed more exposure. “There were so many great young bands but basically only two labels in Vienna put out punk hardcore or gothic/rock. No one released weird things, noise, mixed genres,” recalls Konstantin Drobil, Trost’s owner. “But I wanted to put out music that touched me in a certain way, no matter what genre.” MORE
March 18, 2015
Rune Grammofon
By Ken Waxman
Helping to define and preserve sometimes uncategorizable improvised music was one of the goals of Norwegian Rune Kristoffersen when he started his Oslo-based Rune Grammofon (RG) label in 1997. “A new scene was forming with young artists doing exciting music,” he recalls. “But they had nowhere to release the music since the majors weren’t interested.” Kristoffersen decided to fill the gap, and by the end of this year RG will have released 176 sessions that touch on aspects of folk, jazz, ambient, electronic and rock. Artists include Supersilent, Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen’s trio and Mats Gustafsson’s Fire big band, with some popular discs like Supersilent’s repressed many times; and with most of the catalogue still in print. That’s a pretty impressive indication of support for novel Nordic sounds from someone who in the ‘80s released six albums as one-half of the fashionable Norwegian pop duo Fra Lippo Lippi. MORE
March 13, 2015
Hidros 6 - Knockin’
Not Two MW 915
Yves Charuest and Ellwood Epps
La Passe
Small Scale Music SM 005
Pierre Yves Martel/Phillippe Lauzier
Sainct Laurens Volume 2
E-tron Records ETRC 019
Barry Guy
Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett
NoBusiness Records NBEP 2
Something In The Air: Unusual Formats for New Music
By Ken Waxman
Everything old is new again doesn’t go quite far enough in describing formats now available for disseminating music. Not only are downloads and streaming becoming preferred options, but CDs are still being pressed at the same time as musicians experiment with DVDs, vinyl variants and even tape cassettes. Happily the significance of the musical messages outweighs the media multiplicity. MORE
January 16, 2015
Torturing the Saxophone
Corbett vs, Dempsey CvsDCD012
Jean-Luc Petit
Matière des Souffles
Improvising Beings ib27
Achim Escher
“an W. Lüdi”
veto-records 015
With improvisational freedom now time-honored more than half a century after the sonic parameters of Free Jazz and Free Music were first demarcated, the idea of a solo saxophone disc isn’t as transgressive as it was when Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker were initially breaching conventions. However the more liberal climate, at least in certain circles, also means that more reedists – young and old – are challenging themselves in this setting. Each of the discs here deals with a solo wind in a different fashion and each has something to offer. MORE
December 16, 2014
Agustí Fernández/Mats Gustafsson
Constellations
Clamshell CR23
Raymond MacDonald & Marilyn Crispell
Parallel Moments
Babel BDV 13125
Despite their perceptible differences – a Scott and an American recorded in a 2010 concert; a Swede and a Catalan recorded in a studio in 2013 – these superlative saxophone-piano duos have more in common throughout their 10-track CDs than the fact that none of the four players accept Jazz’s contemporary status quo.
For despite Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s reputation as an untamed reed explorer as opposed to Glasgow’s Raymond MacDonald as a more classicist Free stylist, when either plays soprano saxophone here, the results are as sensitive as could be from men whose vocabulary long ago internalized the advances of saxophonist as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann. Elsewhere, Gustafsson is suitably bellicose on baritone; and McDonald more abrasive on alto. The other point of congruence is that while American pianist Marilyn Crispell was first known for her rugged style, which aimed to translate Coltrane’s expanded vibrations to the keyboard, she’s quite subdued at the beginning of her duos on this disc; only become more rigorously experimental and percussive as the recital unrolls. In contrast, Catalan Agustí Fernández, who brings matchless so-called classical technique as well as cooperative strategies from working in larger and smaller ensembles, is the soundboard roughneck here. While the American only tries out preparation on her strings in the CD’s penultimate minute, Fernández’s strings and keys are prepped for musical combat from the first. His strokes, plucks, echoes and thrusts not only demand tough ripostes from Gustafsson, but also sonically introduce electronics insinuations. MORE
March 28, 2014
(without noticing)
Rune grammofon RCD 2146
Some years ago, probably tongue in cheek, an astute Jazz critic opined that if teenagers would only realize that playing Free Jazz records would piss their parents off as much as Heavy Metal does, than experimental improvised sounds would become widely popular. With the mass media’s feeble grasp of non-mainstream music that hasn’t happened of course. But if the possibility still exists than Sweden’s Fire is the perfect band to make the breakthrough.
As in many of his other projects with everyone from pianist Sten Sandell to guitarist Thurston Moore, saxophonist Mats Gustafsson has already demonstrated that he has the iron lungs and stamina to blow with the ferocity of any Metal guitarist. During the course of (without noticing)’s seven tracks he does so to the limits of his tenor and baritone saxophones’ range, further congealing the results with thickening patterns produced by organ, electric piano and electronics. Most of the pieces are propelled along rhythmically by the sluicing bass line of Johan Berthling who furthermore introduces so-called effects and piano chording to the nearly opaque narratives. Added to the weighty interface is the thumping backbeat of drummer Andreas Werliin, whose day job is as one-half of experimental pop duo, Wildbirds & Peacedrums. MORE
October 7, 2013
Swedish azz Volume 1 & Volume 2
NotTwo MW 901-1A/ NotTwo MW 901-1B
Various Artists
Just Not Cricket: Three Days of Improvised Music in Berlin
Ni-Vu-Ni-Connu nvnc lp001/004
Thomas Lehn, Michel F. Côté, Éric Normand
Invisible
Tour de Bras DL #1
Malcolm Goldstein/Thomas Lehn
Sources
Tour de Bras DL #2
Something In the Air: Good Music Comes In Many Forms and Formats
By Ken Waxman
Standardization is a thing of the past when it comes to recorded music and listeners who get too far ahead of or behind the curve are likely to miss interesting sounds. Just as the production of movies didn’t cease with the acceptance of television, so the manufacture of LPs continued even as the CD became the format of the moment. As artisans continue to craft fine furniture despite the availability of mass-produced items, so too LPs are being created in limited quantities. This situation appears tailor-made for experimental sounds. Similarly since advanced players are often as impecunious as they are inventive, the ubiquity of the Internet means that some music is only sold through the Web. The option of not having to create a physical product is a boon for non-mainstream performers. MORE
September 9, 2013
Concert for Fukushima Wels 2011
Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet (PanRec/Trost Records)
By Ken Waxman
Passion is an adjective often associated with German sax avatar Peter Brötzmann, especially as on this DVD, you can see as well as hear the efforts that go into producing his gut-busting sounds. Concert for Fukushima Wels 2011 is a valuable addition to the saxophonist’s cannon for not only focusing on the passion behind his playing and that of the other musicians featured in this 75-minute live concert from an Austrian festival. The DVD also highlights Brötzmann’s compassion as well. Always politically engaged the Wuppertal-based reedist asked four Japanese innovators to play with the Chicago Tentet that night with all proceeds from the gigs going to two organizations aiding the victims of the then recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
MORE
June 18, 2013
Exit!
Rune Grammofon RDCD 2138
Lean Left
Live at Café Oto
Unsounds 32U
Double Tandem
Cement
PNL Records PNL 013
The Resonance Ensemble
What Country is This?
NotTwo MW 885-2
Something in The Air: Modern Rhythms and New Jazz
By Ken Waxman
As the rhythmic base of jazz has changed over the past half century, adding emphases besides pure swing to improvisation, the role of the percussionist has changed as well. No longer just a time keeper the modern drummer must be conversant with varied beats from many genres of music. This familiarity with other cultures is also why many non-Americans have become prominent. Case in point is Norwegian percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, who plays with the Euro-American band Lean Left band at the Tranzac on June 15. Nilssen-Love, whose associates range from the most committed electronics dial-twister to free-form veterans is equally proficient laying down a hard rock-like beat as he is trading accents with experimental timbre-shatters. The two extended tracks on Live at Café Oto Unsounds 32U demonstrate not only Nilssen-Love’s cohesive skills amplifying the improvisations of Chicago-based tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Ken Vandermark as he does in many other contexts, but shows how both react to the power chords and violent string distortions which characterize the style of guitarists Andy Moor and Terrie Ex from Dutch punk band The Ex, who complete this quartet. In spite of Vandermark’s consistent overblowing which encompasses pumping altissimo honks and frenetic slurs; plus the guitarists’ constant crunches, smashes and frails, the drumming never degenerate into monotonous rock music-like banging. Instead, while the backbeat isn’t neglected, auxiliary clips, ruffs, ratamacues and smacks are used by Nilssen-Love to break up the rhythm, with carefully measured pulsations. This strategy is most obvious during the climatic sections of the more-than-37 minute Drevel. With all four Lean Lefters improvising in broken octaves, the narratives shakes to and fro between Vandermark’s collection of emphasized freak notes and dyspeptic stridency and the dual guitarists’ slurred fingering that leads to staccato twangs and jangling strums. Not only is the climax attained with a crescendo of volume and excitement, but the final theme variations are in contrast as stark and minimalist as the earlier ones are noisy. As guitars methodically clank as if reading a post-modern composition, and the clarinet lines emphasize atonal reed bites, intermittent stick strokes and toe-pedal pressure from the drummer concentrates the sound shards into the track’s calm finale. MORE
June 13, 2013
Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon
By Ken Waxman
Metaphorically and literally the 2013 edition of the Ulrichsberger Kaldeidophon moved further afield than usual for a festival that has taken place annually at the Jazzatelier in this Austrian alpine village of 3,000 inhabitants near Linz. Not only were improvisers from the UK, US, Eastern and Western Europe represented, but for the first time, a concert for clavichord by Japan’s Makiko Nishikaze took place in a restored 14th Century church in Glöckelberg/Zvonkonva, about 10 kilometres away in the Czech Republic. MORE
May 1, 2013
Mats Gustafsson/John Russell/Raymond Strid
Birds
Den 008
Natalio Sued/Gerri Jaeger/Rafael Vanoli
Opistor
Trytone TT559-046
Vinz Vonlanthen/Christophe Berthet/Cyril Bond
Silo
Leo Records CD LR 638
How to come up with a group sound that’s expansive yet compact is a challenge for committed musicians, especially when economics enter the picture. Stand-alone trios are pretty much a universal solution, especially when dealing with the financial vagaries of playing experimental music. Extra-musical considerations aside, the obvious reason the trios here use this combination of reeds, guitar and percussion is that it provides each with the necessary textures for a full program. That said none of the bands and CDs could be remotely confused with any other. MORE
March 10, 2013
Colin Stetson & Mats Gustafsson
Stones
Rue Grammofon RCD 2136 CD
Max Nagl
In Memory of Lol Coxhill
Rude Noises 021
Vladimir Tarasov/Garth Powell
Etudes
SoLyd SLR 0414
Hot and Cold
Hogwild Manifesto
Jungulous 003
Something In The Air: Identical Instruments: Different Sounds
By Ken Waxman
Demonstrating that accepted musical customs are often shibboleths – the equivalent of not wearing white after Labour Day – contemporary improvisers frequently express themselves unconventionally – even when it comes to instrumental choices. Take for example the fine duo sessions here. Unaccompanied by others, the players prove that there are enough textures available from nearly identical instruments to create full sound pictures. These sets show not only how much can be done with two guitars – a common combination – but also by two percussion sets, not to mention two saxophones of similar ranges and timbres. MORE
February 12, 2013
Café Oto/London
Trost TR 108
Hairybones
SnakeLust
Clean Feed 252CD
Peter Brötzmann
Solo +Trio Roma
Victo cd 122/123
Moriyama/Satoh/Brötzmann
Yatagarasu
NotTwo MW 894-2
Something In The Air: Peter Brötzmann’s Triumphant Seventh Decade
By Ken Waxman
Although the witticism that “free jazz keeps you young” has been repeated so often that’s it’s taken on cliché status, there’s enough evidence to give the statement veracity. Many improvisers in their eighties and seventies are still playing with the fire of performers in their twenties. Take German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, who celebrated his 70th birthday and nearly 50 years of recording a couple of years ago. Case in point is Solo +Trio Roma Victo cd 122/123, recorded at 2011’s Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) in Quebec. Not only does Brötzmann play with unabated intensity for almost 75 minutes, while fronting a bassist and a drummer about half his age on one CD; but on the other inventively plays unaccompanied, without a break, for another hour or so. The multi-reedist still blows with the same caterwauling intensity that characterized Machine Gun, 1968’s Free Jazz classic, plus a balladic sensitivity now spells his go-for-broke expositions. Solo, his overview is relentlessly linear mixing extended staccato cadenzas with passages of sweet romance that momentarily slow the narrative. Climatically the nearly 25-minute Frames of Motion is a pitch-sliding explosion of irregular textures and harsh glissandi that seems thick as stone, yet is malleable enough to squeeze the slightest nuance out of every tune. Slyly, Brötzmann concludes the piece with gargling split tones that gradually amalgamate into I Surrender Dear. Backed by Norwegian percussion Paal Nilssen-Love and Italian electric bassist Massimo Pupillo, Brötzmann adds lip-curling intensity and multiphonic glissandi to the other program. Centrepiece is Music Marries Room to Room that continues for more than 69½ minutes. Besides wounded bull-like cries tempered with spitting glissandi from the saxophonist, the piece includes jet-engine-like drones from the Pupillo as well as shattering ruffs and pounding shuffles from the drummer. Several times, just as it seems the playing can’t get any more ardent, it kicks up another notch. Indefatigable, the saxophonist spins out staccato screams and emphasized renal snorts in equal measures, with his stentorian output encompassing tongue slaps, tongue stops and flutter tonguing. Brief solos showcase Pupillo crunching shards of electronic friction with buzz-saw intensity, while Nilssen-Love exposes drags, paradiddles, rebounds, and smacks, without slowing the beat. There are even lyrical interludes among the overblowing as Brötzmann occasionally brings the proceedings to a halt for a capella sequences, which suggest everything from Taps to Better Git It in your Soul. Finally the broken-octave narrative reaches a point of no-return to wrap up in a circular fashion with yelping reed cries, blunt percussion smacks and dense electronic buzzes. Rapturous applause from the audience spurs the three to go at it again at the same elevated concentration for an additional five minutes. MORE
January 11, 2013
Agustí Fernández
By Ken Waxman
A complete pianist in every sense of the word who blends exquisite technique with innovative inspiration, Agustí Fernández is arguably Spain’s most accomplished contemporary improviser. This month he’s playing four nights in different configurations at the Stone, a rare series of American dates. “I like all kind of combinations, from duo to big ensembles because each one presents different challenges for a player,” he explains. “Listening, language, instruments, techniques, sound, volume, interplay, etc. will be different in every setting.” MORE
August 27, 2012
Metal!
No Business Records NBLP 47/48
With the Scandinavian trio The Thing having set itself up as improvised music’s version of the Rock power trio – albeit with a saxophone instead of a lead guitar – it’s instructive to note how well senior improvisers operate when entering into the band’s self-defined context.
Having established a mutually satisfying interchange with American saxophonist/trumpeter Joe McPhee, The Thing now uses this two-LP set to showcase the adaptations of British bassist Barry Guy to their sound. Guy, who founded the London Jazz Composer’s Orchestra in the 1970s, and is known for his collaborations with most top-rank European improvisers including tenor saxophonist Evan Parker, was involved in Free playing from around the time the Thing members were born. Since the early 1990s however, Swedish saxophonist and Thing member Mats Gustafsson has been playing with Guy in larger or smaller ensembles. Meanwhile on their own the other Thingers – Norwegians, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love – have racked up a history of affiliations with a cross-section of committed improvisers ranging from saxophonist Peter Brötzmann to guitarist Raoul Björkenheim. MORE
May 11, 2012
Paal Nilssen-Love, Mesele Asmamaw, Mats Gustafsson
Baro 101
Terp Records AIS-19
David Sait
History Ship
Apprise Records AP-05
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Samdhi
ACT Music ACT 9513-2
Amir ElSaffar’s Two Rivers Ensemble
Inana
PI Pi41
Something in the Air: Provocative Ethnic Blends
By Ken Waxman
Product of musical miscegenation, jazz has always been most welcome to sound influences. Meanwhile much of so-called ethnic music, especially from non-Western countries, features some variants of improvisation. Blending the freedom of jazz with aleatory additions from other cultures produces provocative sounds as these CDs attest. Yet all are noteworthy because, rather than using either music as mere exotica or rhythmic overlay, each is performed with the same respect. MORE
May 6, 2012
Maya Recordings
By Ken Waxman
As much as anything else, the birth of Maya Recordings, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, was born from impatience. Swiss violinist Maya Homburger, who operates the boutique label with her husband, British bassist/composer Barry Guy, recalls that since at that time another label was slow in putting out Arcus, a recording by Guy and bassist Barre Phillips, they decided to do so themselves. By 2012 29 Maya CDs have been released, improvised as well as baroque music.
The two were already veteran musician when Maya was created. Zürich-born Homburger, for instance, has worked with ensembles such as Trio Virtuoso and Camerata Kilkenny; while London-born Guy is part of many free jazz aggregations and is the founder/artistic director of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LCJO). Maya was envisioned as a different sort of imprint, Homburger recalls. “We wanted to create a label where music, cover art and writing were all related and on the highest level. We wanted to have control over the look as well as the sound.” MORE
July 7, 2011
Kopros Lithos
Multikulti Project MP 1013
Augustí Fernández/Barry Guy/Ramón López
Morning Glory
Maya Records MCD 1001
Joe Morris/Agustí Fernández
Ambrosia
Riti CD11
Agustí Fernández & Joan Saura
Vents
psi 11.01
By Ken Waxman
Over the past 15 years Catalan pianist Augustí Fernández has become the most celebrated pianist – if not complete improviser – from his part of the world. In many ways he’s the successor to pianist Tete Montoliu (1933-1997). But while Montoliu was a bopper, Fernández doesn’t limit himself to one style, as this quatrtet of memorable discs makes evident. MORE
May 11, 2011
Barrel Fire
Drip Audio DA00651
Isaiah Ceccarelli
Bréviare d'epuisements
Ambiances Magnétiques AM 199 CD
Wolter Wierbos
Deining
Dolfijn Records DolFinj 02
Axel Dörner/Diego Chamy
Super Axel Dörner
Absinth Records 018
Something in the Air:
Dutch Improvisers and Friends in Toronto
By Ken Waxman
Accommodating and adaptable improvising musicians from the Netherlands are as open to out-of-country influences as working with players from different countries in Holland or abroad. Confident in their own skills, they see non-local musicians’ participation as additions to their music, not competition. These beliefs characterize two ostensibly Dutch ensembles in concert in Toronto this month: The Ex with Brass Unbound is presented by the Music Gallery at Lee’s Palace on May 18; while Ig Henneman’s Kindred Spirits Sextet at Gallery 345 May 19. Violist Henneman’s combo includes two Canadians, pianist Marilyn Lerner and clarinettist Lori Freedman plus German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Meanwhile the Brass Unbound, working with the guitar-heavy, Dutch anarchistic punk-jazzers The Ex, is made up of Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, American saxophonist Ken Vandermark and Dutch trombonist Wolter Wierbos. A careful listen to some of these players own CDs demonstrates the sort of adaptability that characterizes these Dutch-centred combos in general. MORE
January 13, 2011
Quartet
BBBCD 12 & 13
How can a trio be a quartet? That Dadaist query is more serious than is initially evident. For adding another musician to a long-established triangular entity, doesn’t necessarily result in a quartet sound if the thought processes don’t mesh. However Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher here craftily avoids the phenomenon of merely creating music for three plus one. Using pieces from pianist Michel Braam’s “Q Book” as a basis, the three integrate guests’ sounds into their longstanding connection. MORE
December 9, 2010
Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet +1
3 Nights in Oslo
Smalltown Superjazz STSJ197CD
Anthony Braxton/Gerry Hemingway
Old Dogs (2007)
Mode Avant 9/12
Sun Ra
The Heliocentric Worlds
ESP-Disk 4062
Rivière Composers’ Pool
Summer Works 2009
Emanem 5301
Something in the Air
By Ken Waxman
Boxed sets of recorded music have long been a holiday gift. But sophisticated music fans won’t settle for slapped together “best of” collections. Boxes such as these, collecting multiple CDs for specific reasons, should impress any aware listener. MORE
October 6, 2010
Festival Météo, Mulhouse, France
August 24 to August 28
By Ken Waxman
Proving that varieties of improvised music can sound as different as the personalities of those who play it, the annual Météo festival offered a cornucopia of noteworthy sounds from the bombastic to the barely audible, solo or in groups.
Venues in this Upper Rhine French city, located 30 kilometres northwest of Basel, Switzerland, also reflected this sonic diversity. Performances take place in the hushed surroundings of a 12th Century chapel downtown, and on the city’s outskirts, a capacious night club usually used for rock shows; and, new this year, within the expanses of an abandoned 1930s’ thread manufacturing factory. MORE
March 28, 2009
Brugge, Belgium
October 2-October 5, 2008
Pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach’s German quartet rolled through a set of Thelonious Monk compositions; Sardinians, saxophonist Sandro Satta and keyboardist Antonello Salis liberally quoted Charles Mingus lines during their incendiary set; Berlin-based pianist Aki Takase and saxophonist Silke Eberhard recast Ornette Coleman’s tunes; and the French Trio de Clarinettes ended its set with harmonies reminiscent of Duke Ellington’s writing for his reed section.
All these sounds and many more were highlighted during the fourth edition of Jazz Brugge, which takes place every second year in this tourist-favored Belgium city, about 88 kilometres from Brussels. But sonic homage and musical interpolations were only notable when part of a broader interpretation of improvised music. Other players in this four-day festival came from Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Poland and Belgium. With strains of rock, New music and folklore informing the jazz presented at the festival’s three sonically impressive venues, music at the most notable concerts was completely unique or added to the tradition. The less-than-memorable sets were mired in past achievements or unworkable formulae MORE
February 13, 2009
Rød Planet
ILK Records 137 CD/IDCD0033
Mats Gustafsson
The Vilnius Explosion
No Business Records NBCD 1
With a profile so low on the international jazz scene that any knowledge of the country’s improvised music usually begins and ends with the now-defunct Ganelin Trio, Lithuania actually has its share of boundary-expanding musicians.
Not only is this truism demonstrated on these two significant CDs, but the sessions also show that Lithuanian improvisers are advancing by forging alliances with their Scandinavian neighbors. For example, although Swedish baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s name is most prominent on the cover, The Vilnius Explosion is in actuality a full-fledged group experience, with the reedist integrated into an ensemble of four Lithuanian natives – drummers Akadijus Gotesmanas and Marijus Aleska, bassist Eugenijus Kanevičus and saxophonist/clarinetist Liudas Mockŭnas. Mockŭnas also makes up one third – and one letter – of the RPM band, which recorded Rød Planet. His partners are both Danes, laptopist Jakob Riis and drummer Stefan Pasborg. MORE
February 13, 2009
The Vilnius Explosion
No Business Records NBCD 1
RPM
Rød Planet
ILK Records 137 CD/IDCD0033
With a profile so low on the international jazz scene that any knowledge of the country’s improvised music usually begins and ends with the now-defunct Ganelin Trio, Lithuania actually has its share of boundary-expanding musicians.
Not only is this truism demonstrated on these two significant CDs, but the sessions also show that Lithuanian improvisers are advancing by forging alliances with their Scandinavian neighbors. For example, although Swedish baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s name is most prominent on the cover, The Vilnius Explosion is in actuality a full-fledged group experience, with the reedist integrated into an ensemble of four Lithuanian natives – drummers Akadijus Gotesmanas and Marijus Aleska, bassist Eugenijus Kanevičus and saxophonist/clarinetist Liudas Mockŭnas. Mockŭnas also makes up one third – and one letter – of the RPM band, which recorded Rød Planet. His partners are both Danes, laptopist Jakob Riis and drummer Stefan Pasborg. MORE
October 8, 2008
Guelph Jazz Festival Musicians On Their Own
Extended Play
Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid
Tarfala
Maya MCD0801
Junk Box
Cloudy Then Sunny
Libra Records 203-019
John Zorn
News For Lulu
hatOLOGY 650
Matana Roberts
The Chicago Project
Central Control CC1006PR
Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet
Tabligh
Cuneiform Rune 270
AMMÜ Quartet
AMMÜ Quartet
MORE
February 19, 2008
Studio One
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 07
MAWJA
“Live One”
Chloë 008
Various Artists
Beirut-Ystad
Olof Bright Editions OBCD 16-17
Tom Chant/Sharif Sehnaoui
Cloister
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 05
Despite the political instability and sectarian violence that continues to disrupt the country, improbably enough the nascent Lebanese Free Music movement seems to progress from strength to strength.
Not only does Beirut’s annual festival of improvised music attract major Free Music stylists from overseas, but Lebanese improvisers are starting to travel and make an impression elsewhere. This situation is reflected in this set of impressive CDs. Just as importantly, it also confirms the universality of improvisation. Reductionist and electro-acoustic, the results heard from the locals are no more stereotypical Middle Eastern than others’ improvisations reflect Continental Europe or the United States. MORE
February 19, 2008
Beirut-Ystad
Olof Bright Editions OBCD 16-17
MAWJA
Studio One
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 07
MAWJA
“Live One”
Chloë 008
Tom Chant/Sharif Sehnaoui
Cloister
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 05
Despite the political instability and sectarian violence that continues to disrupt the country, improbably enough the nascent Lebanese Free Music movement seems to progress from strength to strength.
Not only does Beirut’s annual festival of improvised music attract major Free Music stylists from overseas, but Lebanese improvisers are starting to travel and make an impression elsewhere. This situation is reflected in this set of impressive CDs. Just as importantly, it also confirms the universality of improvisation. Reductionist and electro-acoustic, the results heard from the locals are no more stereotypical Middle Eastern than others’ improvisations reflect Continental Europe or the United States. MORE
February 19, 2008
“Live One”
Chloë 008
MAWJA
Studio One
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 07
Various Artists
Beirut-Ystad
Olof Bright Editions OBCD 16-17
Tom Chant/Sharif Sehnaoui
Cloister
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 05
Despite the political instability and sectarian violence that continues to disrupt the country, improbably enough the nascent Lebanese Free Music movement seems to progress from strength to strength.
Not only does Beirut’s annual festival of improvised music attract major Free Music stylists from overseas, but Lebanese improvisers are starting to travel and make an impression elsewhere. This situation is reflected in this set of impressive CDs. Just as importantly, it also confirms the universality of improvisation. Reductionist and electro-acoustic, the results heard from the locals are no more stereotypical Middle Eastern than others’ improvisations reflect Continental Europe or the United States. MORE
December 4, 2007
13 EFGHL
Ninth World Music NWM 035 CD
By Ken Waxman
More profondo than basso, the 13 tracks on this CD plumb the contrapuntal and polyrhythmic tones available from low-pitched instruments. But significantly, 13 EFGHL is concerned with more than that, since the musicians involved – baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and tubaist Per-Âke Holmlander from Sweden and electric bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and percussionist Peter Ole Jørgensen from Denmark – go further than wallow in mineshaft-deep pitches.
In the lineage of extroverted reedists like Albert Ayler and Peter Brötzmann, Gustafsson consistently plays altissimo for full expression of his tongue-slapping, multiphonic screams and metal-rattling timbres. His harsh, stuttering solos contain what could be wounded vulture cries as well as the occasional subterranean rumbles. Most of the low tones are left to Holmlander, whose burping extrusions coupled with Friis Nielsen’s palm-tapping string beats produce a steadying, adagio ostinato. Freed from time-keeping, Ole Jørgensen – who with the bassist has backed-up Brötzmann – further lightens the sound with bell-pealing cymbal shimmers, focused bass drum whacks and pitter-pattering press rolls. MORE
February 27, 2006
Agustí Fernández & Mats Gustafsson
Critical Mass
psi
Agustí Fernández
Camallera
G3 Records/Sirulita
Agustí Fernández Quartet
Lonely Woman
Taller de Músics/Sirulita
By Ken Waxman
February 27, 2006
Without trying to propose a rigid maxim, it’s evident that much of the best improvised music has come from individuals whose ethnic group was or is removed from the mainstream.
Jazz, of course, was invented by oppressed African Americans, and since that time its most accomplished practitioners have usually been players from Black, Jewish, Italian or other minority backgrounds. The situation is a little more muddled in Europe, but interestingly enough the first universally acknowledged non-American jazzer was a Roma, guitarist Django Reinhardt. While setting up a hierarchy of victimology is silly, it’s instructive to consider, for example, that the two most acclaimed Spanish pianists are Catalan, not majority Spaniards. Tete Montoliu (1933-1997) was a masterful pop-bopper as his many sessions with American sidemen attest; while today, Barcelona-resident Agustí Fernández is similarly accepted in so-called avant-garde jazz circles. MORE
February 20, 2006
How to Raise an Ox
Atavistic ALP 168 CD
Fancifully the product of some rough trade miscegenation between The Clash at their punkiest and 1940s R&B-jazz baritone saxophonist Leo “Mad Lad” Parker, the Italian post-rock trio Zu makes common cause with macho Swedish jazzer Mats Gustafsson on this CD. In sheer electric-fuelled power alone, the four could probably blow away the massed Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson and Buddy Rich bands – none of which were particularly known for their subtlety.
An antidote to the effete minimalism and microtonalism that affects many European Free Jazzers, HOW TO RAISE AN OX is raunchy improv of the highest order featuring uncomplicated song titles that would gladden the heart of any Death Metal fan and enough pulverizing riffs to make the CD a close cousin to grind core excesses. MORE
January 2, 2006
PETER BRÖTZMANN CHICAGO TENTET
Be Music, Night
OkkaDisk OD 12059
This CD may ruin saxophonist Peter Brötzmann’s long-held reputation as the ferocious, hard-hearted wild man of Free Jazz.
For the entire hour-plus CD by the German reedman’s mostly Chicago-based band is designed as homage to American poet Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972). Additionally, the longest – more than 42 minutes – of the three tracks features mellifluous-voiced Welsh poet Mike Pearson integrated into the ensemble reading selections from Patchen’s work that are, for all intents and purposes, love poems. MORE
November 7, 2005
Norrköping
Atavistic ALP 161CD
After more than 17 years together, the members of the Swedish-based GUSH now operates as three interlocking parts of one perpetual motion machine.
Occupied enough with other projects, the three – reedist Mats Gustafsson, pianist Sten Sandell and drummer Raymond Strid – bring a complementary desire for melded invention when they unite, as they did in Norrköping in 2003, for this, the band’s first-ever domestic release in North America.
Fully in command of all elements of its instruments, the trio elaborates its thoughts over the course of three long selections of almost 19 minutes, more than 13½ minutes and more than 26½ minutes each. Best known of the three is now Gustafsson, who plays soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones and fluteophone, alto fluteophone and French flageolet here. Veteran of large groups led by German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and British bassist Barry Guy, as well as smaller bands with American saxophonists Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark, Gustafsson is as easily at home in the United States as Europe. Inventive timekeeper Strid also works in Guy’s large groups as well as smaller bands. Sandell, not only improvises with Scandinavian players like saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist, but as a graduate of Stockholm’s Academy of Music nurtures a fascination for electro-acoustic and contemporary so-called serious music. MORE
September 12, 2005
Oort – Entropy
Intakt
Maya Homburger & Barry Guy with Pierre Favre
Dakryon
Maya
By Ken Waxman
September 11, 2005
Established as one of FreeImprov’s most accomplished composer/bandleaders as well as a major improvising double bassist, Barry Guy continues to extend his musical range.
Having slimmed down his main compositional tool, the 17-piece London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO) to the more compact 10 piece, all-star Barry Guy New Orchestra (BGO), Oort – Entropy shows how the group reconstitutes specific sounds. The idea is to expand musical elements initially conceived for Guy’s trio with American pianist Marilyn Crispell and British drummer Paul Lytton. MORE
December 6, 2004
PETER BRÖTZMANN CHICAGO TENTET
Signs
Okkadisk OD 12048
MS4
PETER BRÖTZMANN CHICAGO TENTET
Images
Okkadisk OD 12047
More than five years after it was first organized, German reedist Peter Brötzmann’s mostly Chicago-populated Tentet has become a welcomed presence on the international improv scene.
In the tradition of the Globe Unity Orchestra -- of which Brötzmann was also a member -- the reed-heavy band plays long, involved compositions more concerned with spur of the moment interpretation than elaborate arrangements. Yet, as this matched set of live and studio material demonstrates, the 10-piece band actually sounds best when organized patterns and section work are added to the massed firepower. MORE
November 15, 2004
New Oakland Burr
Ratascan BRD 051
PAAL NILSSEN LOVE/MATS GUSTAFSSON
I Love It When You Snore
Smalltown Supersound STS 063 CD
Stripping down to essentials, intrepid improvisers find solos and duos present unvarnished sounds with the fewest possible obstructions.
Especially popular are discs that match a single reedist with a single percussionist to see what sparks fly. Participants in these two short CDs recorded around the same time have frequently been involved in similar situations. While all four have the scope to display outstanding, extended techniques, nowhere is there a feeling that these aren’t just new notches in the players’ belt. They may be impressive to newbies, but they’re not near any of the player’s highest standard. MORE
June 3, 2003
DAVID GRUBBS & MATS GUSTAFSSON
Off-Road
Blue Chopsticks BC 11
KEITH ROWE/MICHEL DONEDA/URS LEIMGRUBER
The Difference Between a Fish
Potlatch P302
Differences between noise and resonance, silence and stillness are explored on these recent examples of EuroImprov. Coming from either side of the quiet/discord continuum, the CDs manage to prove that each auditory position is as legitimate as the other. It just depends how the sound atoms are manipulated.
On OFF-ROAD Swedish reedist Mats Gustafsson, a master of the post-Ayler shrieks hooks up with American post-rock instrumentalist David Grubbs and -- on three tracks -- countryman turntablist Henry Moore Selder to produce noise essays bisected with quiet paragraphs. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A FISH showcases degrees of stillness and freak intonation produced by British guitar and electronics manipulator Keith Rowe, French soprano saxophonist Michel Doneda and Swiss-born, Paris-domiciled Urs Leimgruber on soprano and tenor saxophones MORE
September 2, 2002
Double or Nothing
Okka Disc OD 12035
SCHOOL DAYS
In Our Time
Okka Disc OD 12041
SPACEWAYS INCORPORATED
Version Soul
Atavistic ALP 130 CD
Eventually Ken Vandermark is going to have to stop wearing his emotions --and influences -- on his sleeve and CD booklet.
Now that the Chicago-based reedman has established himself nationally and internationally as an extender and interpreter of free music, aren’t the dedications he appends to each of his original compositions getting to be a bit redundant? MORE
June 7, 2002
PETER BRÖTZMANN TENTET PLUS TWO
Short Visit To Nowhere
Okka Disk OD 12043
PETER BRÖTZMANN TENTET PLUS TWO
Broken English
Okka Disk OD 12044
Three years after it was first organized and a year after it first toured, Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet (Plus Two in this case) displays, in these 2000 recordings, that it has become an exemplary example of how to adopt free improv to large aggregations.
With a mixed cast of seven Chicagoans, three members from New York state, a Swede and Brötzmann, a German, it has all the firepower of a traditional big band with its eight horns. Plus, the three-man string section and two percussionists ensure that not only is its bottom covered -- so to speak -- but that the strings can alternately meld with the horns or shore up the rhythm section. Also, while the German reedman wrote two of the compositions, he’s democratic enough to make room for one piece each by Chicago multi-woodwind player Ken Vandermark, Swedish reedist Mats Gustafsson and Chicago cellist/violinist Fred Lonberg-Holm. MORE
October 4, 2000
Windows: The Music Of Steve Lacy
Blue Chopsticks 4
As the recorded tributes to Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane edge into the triple digits, with Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk appreciations running close behind, it's good to see a different jazzman being honored.
Considering the person is saxophonist Steve Lacy, who has been a spiky iconoclast for most of his almost 50 year career, and the honorer is another exploratory saxophonist, the appeal of this session mounts. Burnishing the salute, Gustafsson is resourceful enough to offer this solo tribute playing different horns then Lacy's signature soprano saxophone and to let loose on his own, as well as Lacy compositions.
MOREAugust 4, 2000
Frogging
Maya MCD 9702
As the economics of real jazz and improvised music continue to sag, a legion of trios and duos have become the preferred form for those who would have played in larger groups a few years ago. The trouble is that few of these mini-combos work as well as the one here because their conception is essentially reductive rather than augmentative. Conversely, experienced improvisers like Gustafsson and Guy don't see this grouping as playing without a drummer or pianist, but as adding together two separate sets of sounds to create a unified whole. There's so much going on here at all times from strings, tongues, throats, bows, fingers, wood, hands, mouthpieces, reeds, mouths and yards of tubing that the sophisticated listener certainly won't miss the phantom members of the combo. The two can also play this way, because they had worked together in similar situations for at least five years prior to this recording. Veteran Briton Guy has performed in every sort of gathering from the London Jazz Composers Orchestra -- which he leads -- to duos with the likes of Evan Parker. Gustafsson, a Swede, may be a few years younger, but that hasn't stopped him from joining up with manifold European and North America sonic explorers in bands of every size and shape. With an arsenal of five horns he also has enough ammunition to take on Guy, who often creates enough string sounds for another five people.
MOREJune 17, 2000
Stone/Water
Okka Disk OD 12032
Peter Brötzmann is no stranger to bombast.
The German multi-reedist first goose-stepped his way into world jazz consciousness in 1968 with MACHINE GUN on FMP. From its first extended blats of pure noise emanating from a (very) mixed platoon of Dutch, Flemish, British and German improvisers, it gave lusty notice that Continental jazzers had to be judged on their own merits rather than in comparison to North American musicians.
Over the years, except for the odd one/off project, economic necessity has forced Brötzmann to work with smaller bands -- usually trios and quartets and some commentators have even posited that the wildman has mellowed.
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