Genre Archives
Lina Allemano Four. Live at the Tranzac.
The “Four” in Lina Allemano’s band’s moniker is apt. Live at the Tranzac starts with a geometric four-note figure on “Flummox,” and throughout the album, the Toronto trumpeter demonstrates a penchant for rectangular shapes in her cool contemporary post-bop. To “flummox” means to perplex or bewilder, and that title is perhaps less apt, as theseContinue reading “Lina Allemano Four. Live at the Tranzac.”
Kyle Brenders Quartet. Offset.
Toronto-based saxophonist Kyle Brenders has studied and played extensively with Anthony Braxton, and he’s also a member of The Rent, a group dedicated to playing the compositions of Steve Lacy. The influences of both these American saxophonist-composers are evident in the debut recording of Brenders’ quartet, but what is more apparent is the extent toContinue reading “Kyle Brenders Quartet. Offset.”
Peter Brötzmann. Solo + Trio Roma.
This two-CD set chronicles Brötzmann’s solo and Trio Roma concerts at 2011’s FIMAV on the approach of his seventieth birthday, a momentous occasion for an artist whose work combines titanic stamina and anarchic expressionism. The solo concert might stage existence, a musical performance as naked as a late Beckett play, Brötzmann roaring, braying, wailing, andContinue reading “Peter Brötzmann. Solo + Trio Roma.”
Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Stones
Stones showcases Gustafsson doing one of the things he does best: locking horns with another saxophonist. It also sees Stetson plunging into the loosest, freest material he’s yet committed to disc. This is, in fact, a recording of the pair’s very first meeting, at the Vancouver Jazz Festival in 2011. The twelve-minute opener is theContinue reading “Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson. Stones”
The Ratchet Orchestra
In 1961, a virtually unknown African-American band was stranded in Montreal before going on to more promising territory. During their months in Montreal they would build up a local following, mostly musicians, who could hear that something different was going on. It’s a slight and unpromising story, but the band, Sun Ra and his SolarContinue reading “The Ratchet Orchestra”
Pheeroan akLaff
Pheeroan akLaff believes in drums first, rather than last. He can drive an ensemble forward with the machine-gun attack of his snare and the rolling thunder of his bass and toms, compounding and enriching the music with dense polyrhythms, or using the metallic shimmer of his cymbals to surmount it all with a luminous, celebratoryContinue reading “Pheeroan akLaff”
Spring 2013
Pharoah Sanders. In The Beginning: 1963–1964.
This four-CD set features unreleased recordings of tenor horn player Pharoah Sanders as he plays sets with Paul Bley and Don Cherry, plus two sets of Sanders with Sun Ra at Judson Hall, December 30 and New Year’s Eve, 1964. Also included in this set are recorded interviews with the players, in which Sanders recallsContinue reading “Pharoah Sanders. In The Beginning: 1963–1964.”
Joe Morris Quartet. Graffiti in Two Parts.
Graffiti in Two Parts documents an exceptional moment in improvised music—a one-time performance by a loosely assembled band in 1985. In 1981 Boston guitarist Joe Morris met Lowell Davidson, an elusive figure in the history of free jazz, who had recorded a single CD as a pianist for the ESP label in 1965. The youthfulContinue reading “Joe Morris Quartet. Graffiti in Two Parts.”