Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis, two great standard-bearers for improvisation and experimentation, have enjoyed a long partnership. A 1975 Mitchell quartet recording from Toronto’s A Space introduced Lewis as trombonist and as composer of Music for Trombone and B Flat Soprano; Mitchell appeared on Lewis’s 1993 recording of his interactive computer program Voyager; the associationContinue reading “George Lewis & Roscoe Mitchell. Voyage and Homecoming.”
Genre Archives
Ingrid Laubrock. Contemporary Chaos Practices.
Born in Germany and based in Brooklyn since 2009, Ingrid Laubrock is widely known as an improvising saxophonist and a composer for and leader of small ensembles. On this CD she expands her creative palette by writing contemporary music for large orchestra. The usual definition of chaos describes a state of great disorder or confusion,Continue reading “Ingrid Laubrock. Contemporary Chaos Practices.”
François Carrier / Michel Lambert / John Edwards. Elements.
Montreal alto saxophonist François Carrier continues to expose his universalist free jazz as widely as possible, recording the extended tracks on Elements at concerts in London and Krakow. While the sonic flow appears almost unstoppable in intensity and inspiration, Carrier is no musical cynosure: the inventive Quebec percussionist Michel Lambert (who has long played RobinContinue reading “François Carrier / Michel Lambert / John Edwards. Elements.”
New Hermitage. Obey Convention XI.
Chamber jazz is an intriguing subgenre; programmatic chamber jazz even more so. Halifax-based quartet New Hermitage weaves gently undulating textures out of a unique instrumentation consisting of woodwinds (Andrew MacKelvie), harp (Ellen Gibling), guitar (Ross Burns), and cello (India Gailey). Not exactly your standard jazz combo, and the music is similarly sui generis, positioned betweenContinue reading “New Hermitage. Obey Convention XI.”
HAVN Records: Fronting Art Music in ‘The Hammer’
First came the band, then the space, then the label. The band is Haolin Munk, a jazz and hip-hop quartet formed in the early 2010s by drummer Aaron Hutchinson, tenor saxophonist Connor Bennett, alto saxophonist Chris Ferguson, and bassist Josh Wiener. The space is HAVN—Hamilton Audio Visual Node—a gallery and performance space just off JamesContinue reading “HAVN Records: Fronting Art Music in ‘The Hammer’”
The Musical Colours of Dominique Fils-Aimé
On the 2004 live-concert recording Tour de Force, the renowned American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron introduces his 1981 song “Is That Jazz?”: “Go to your record store . . . look at the bottom shelf, you will find a box called miscellaneous. We are miscellaneous. We did not mean to be miscellaneous. Somehow itContinue reading “The Musical Colours of Dominique Fils-Aimé”
Wadada Leo Smith and the Possibilities of Dreaming
Think of this as a sketch. We’re not going to get into a complete report on the doings of Wadada Leo Smith here, his more than fifty recordings, his dozens of collaborations with luminaries from all over the globe, his long engagement with creative music. No, we’re merely orbiting the beautiful planet that is hisContinue reading “Wadada Leo Smith and the Possibilities of Dreaming”
Bob Bell. Necropolis.
Since its release in 1978, Bob Bell’s Necropolis has grown in stature to become one of Canada’s most highly sought after private-press LPs. The glassy-eyed Vancouver longhair gazing out from the album’s cover photo—strikingly shot from an ant’s eye view pointing up at his denim crotch—doesn’t welcome listeners into his musical world as much asContinue reading “Bob Bell. Necropolis.”
Amirtha Kidambi & the Elder Ones. From Untruth.
“Eat the rich or die starving.” Repeated mantra-like at the end of the first song on Amirtha Kidambi’s impressive new record with her band the Elder Ones, From Untruth, that sentiment somehow lands less as provocation than as simple statement of fact, a moment of clarity that throws the sonic maelstrom preceding it into relief.Continue reading “Amirtha Kidambi & the Elder Ones. From Untruth.”
The Oakland Elementary School Arkestra. The Saga of Padani.
In the 1990s, a progressive California music teacher named Randy Porter instituted a program with his grades 4, 5, and 6 students that was centred on combining improvisational and composed music. The results would have been interesting on their own, but with the participation of notable visionary guest instructors—including player-composers Sun Ra, Terry Riley, FredContinue reading “The Oakland Elementary School Arkestra. The Saga of Padani.”