Kris Davis is working on setting a routine. It’s not an unusual task. It’s one that new mothers all over Brooklyn who work odd hours have to contend with. But it’s a challenge. She’s up at six a.m. every day with her son, who turned one in July 2014. While on new-mother duty, Davis isContinue reading “Kris Davis nurtures new shapes in jazz”
Genre Archives
Sarah Peebles. Delicate Paths.
The thin, luminous sound of the shô, a Japanese mouth organ, is very particular and very beautiful—presenting a pleasant and impossibly clear glassy tonal surface. Sarah Peebles’ new shô-centred disc Delicate Paths demonstrates a thorough, painterly understanding of this instrument’s saturated astringency in solo, small ensemble, and electroacoustic contexts. There’s a contemplative austerity to theContinue reading “Sarah Peebles. Delicate Paths.”
Gorilla Mask. Bite My Blues.
With a program built around his rugged compositions, Canadian expatriate alto saxophonist Peter Van Huffel and his Gorilla Mask trio mine the seam of improvised music with implements forged equally from effervescent melodies reminiscent of Ornette Coleman’s electric bands and the obdurate rhythms of punk rock. At the same time, the Berlin-based saxophonist and hisContinue reading “Gorilla Mask. Bite My Blues.”
Isaiah Ceccarelli
“I know it may sound crazy, but I am interested in making beautiful music—music that sounds good. I’m not saying this just to be different, and it might not be in line with a lot of the reasons that people make music today, but I am actually not very involved with, or worrying so muchContinue reading “Isaiah Ceccarelli”
Digital Primitives. Lipsomuch & Soul Searchin’…
This two-disc release features a trio of free-jazz stalwarts who do not engage in your standard squawk session. Instead, they slice ninety-four minutes into nineteen funky cuts, as much influenced by country blues, rock, and various world musics as by modern strains of jazz. Digital Primitives is Assif Tsahar (tenor sax, bass clarinet, and mbira),Continue reading “Digital Primitives. Lipsomuch & Soul Searchin’…”
Jean Derome, Malcolm Goldstein, Rainer Wiens. 6 improvisations.
Saxophonist Jean Derome, violinist Malcolm Goldstein, and guitarist Rainer Wiens are pillars of Montreal’s improvised music community who retain their sense of whimsy and their willingness to test the limits. Frequent associates in varied contexts, they meet for the first time as a trio on 6 improvisations, where one finds a genuine playfulness. The unpredictabilityContinue reading “Jean Derome, Malcolm Goldstein, Rainer Wiens. 6 improvisations.”
Erin Sexton
Erin Sexton is in awe of the universe. By situating her creative practice in relation to the stars and the planets, the Montreal sound artist seeks to engage in conversations with the cosmos. Her work is grounded in the hard materials we know as nature, electricity, and the elements. She employs matter, energy, space, andContinue reading “Erin Sexton”
Quatuor Bozzini
Quatuor Bozzini is poetry, sweat, talent, idealism, determination, love, survival, fate, and a wonderful wild dance with the spirits. For fifteen years, the Montreal ensemble has steadfastly explored the notion of what contemporary music means today. The players are irrepressible creators and innovators, whether working in the far lands of experimental sound art, the closeContinue reading “Quatuor Bozzini”
GGRIL. Combines.
The GGRIL (Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libérée) is one of Canada’s few large improvising ensembles, a feat made more improbable by their location in relatively isolated Rimouski. From a population of 46,000, bassist Éric Normand has managed to assemble a group of up to fourteen people that has begun to cultivate its own identity, evidentlyContinue reading “GGRIL. Combines.”
Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain
Jump into an early version of Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain, and you land in dark and turbulent, almost infernal terrain. Sounds are dense and blur into one another: trumpet amplified to distortion levels; prerecorded tape of unidentifiable noises; dense, rapid drumming of indecipherable rhythms. Later versions add more orderly elements: passages of stable pitchContinue reading “Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain”