From The Squid’s Ear:

Ahleuchatistas – Heads Full Of Poison
(Cuneiform)

Joe McPhee – Glasses
(Corbett Vs. Dempsy)

Joe Morris / Agusti Fernandez / Nate Wooley – From the Discrete to the Particular
(Relative Pitch)

Yoshi Wada – Singing in Unison
(EM Records)

Paul Dunmall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From London’s Vortex Jazz Club:

FRI 24 • 20.00 • £10
STEVE NOBLE / ALEX WARD / COLIN WEBSTER + DEAD DAYS BEYOND HELP
Steve Noble studied with the Nigerian master-drummer Elkan Ogunde & his earliest professional playing was with Neneh Cherry‘s avant-garde jazz-pop group, Rip Rig And Panic. Since then he’s become one our great musical explorers, taking improvisation to new realms. Sax player Colin Webster is a fearless collaborator, working with musicians from Led Bib’s Mark Holub to Dutch free-metal pioneers Dead Neanderthals, to London electro-pop band Chik Budo. Joining them is one of the UK’s leading figures of the improv scene, reeds player Alex Ward.This threesome promises a night of raw and uncompromising music. Virtuoso drummer Jem Doulton is the other half of DEAD DAYS BEYOND HELP with Alex Ward (guitar / vocals) offering an unpredictable mix of complex composed instrumentals, free improv and cover versions for maximum emotional resonance

TUES 28 • 20.00 • £10
PAUL DUNMALL 60TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Super talented composer / reeds player Paul Dunmall celebrates his 60th. He is part of the free jazz and improvised music scene both home and abroad. He has performed with Alice Coltrane, Johnny Guitar Watson, Danny Thompson, LJCO, Mujician, Chris Corsano, Henry Grimes and Andrew Cyrille and many others. Paul will be joined by friends and special guests.

SAT 1 JUN • 20.00 • £12 • MD
PAUL ROGERS’ WHAHAY / DAN NICHOLLS’ MIRROR / FOFOULAH / DJs
A chance to hear some excellent new music into the small hours, curated by members of the Loop Collective.

Ellery Eskelin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the Clean Feed label:

Ellery Eskelin – Mirage
Eric Revis – City of Asylum
Harris Eisenstadt – The Destructive Element
LAMA + Chris Speed – Lamaçal (Live at Portalegre Jazzfest)
Made to Break – Lacerba LP
Made to Break – Provoke
Agnel / Edwards / Noble – Meteo

The keyboardist and composer Wayne Horvitz lived and worked in New York City for most of the ’80s, when combining jazz with other kinds of popular or experimental languages, American or otherwise seemed exciting and almost imperative. There was a lot of the shock-of-the-new going on back then, and a lot of deference and homage to the history of the early ’60s New York avant-garde.

But Mr. Horvitz stood apart. He had an evened-out, coherent composing voice that contained bebop and rock, gospel hymns and country, free jazz and funk and midcentury film music and Charles Ives. There was very little posturing or provocation or wackiness in it. It didn’t feel like a stretch.

Though featuring mainly the work of young, indie artists, most every piece has something of that Gershwinian Manhattan boogie-woogie about it, trains and taxis and caffeinated pedestrians swiftly weaving in and out of each other, trying to get somewhere on time. The tone is set with multi-boundary jumper Son Lux with his nervy title track, while “Proven Badlands” by Annie Clark (best known as St. Vincent) feels like a jaunt through the park, never quite far away from the traffic. Shara Wordon´s “A Whistle, A Tune, A Macaroon” is just a little thing, three minutes long, breathy and diaphanous as a New York butterfly, just long enough and just so.

The ensemble absolutely crests on “Daughter of the Waves” by by label co-founder Sarah Kirkland Snider, a gentle sightseeing tour that even the locals can enjoy. Wordon´s second entry “A Paper, A Pen, A Note to a Friend” is an even littler thing, two minutes long, and serves mostly to sluice us into Judd Greenstein´s ambitious “Clearing, Dawn, Dance”, horns and woodwinds bouncing like beach balls over a crowd of strings, a sunshiny day at a Coney Island of the mind. “Song” by Gabriel Kahane, with its moonlit cornet-electric guitar duets, draws the curtain and puts the collection gently to bed.

http://www.newamsterdamrecords.com/?portfolio=ymusic-beautiful-mechanical

Stephen Fruitman

Benoît Delbecq, synthetizers + computers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From JazzWrap:

Fred Hersch & Benoit Delbecq: Fun House
Nicole Mitchell: Aquarius

From igloomag.com:

Witxes :: A Fabric Of Beliefs (Denovali)
Kassel Jaeger :: Deltas (Editions Mego)
Rioteer / Urbanfailure / Gotharman / Axiomid :: Instant Satisfunction (Urbsounds)
Antikatechon :: Chrisma Crucifixorum (Rage in Eden)
Osmiroid :: Double review (Self-Released)
Loscil :: City Hospital (Wistrec)

English: Knoel Scott (left) and Danny Ray Thompson of the Sun Ra Arkestra (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Philadelphia’s Ars Nova Workshop:

Ars Nova Workshop (ANW), Philadelphia’s leading presenter of jazz and experimental music, is approaching the end of its 13th season. This season, ANW has already hosted nearly two dozen concerts at venues across the city, including the Philadelphia debuts of the Billy Hart Quartet and the Craig Taborn Trio, and the rare duo performance by Odean Pope and Andrew Cyrille. Now, ANW is pleased to announce six additional concerts happening through June, including a mini-festival celebrating the work of the iconic New York composer-performer John Zorn.

On May 25, at Johnny Brenda’s, ANW presents the Sun Ra Arkestra. Tonight we celebrate the 99th anniversary of Sun Ra’s arrival on Earth, and the 89th birthday of current Arkestra leader Marshall Allen. The Arkestra just returned to its hometown of Philadelphia after playing the FMX Festival in Mexico City, and is scheduled for a big European tour this summer. Opening for the Sun Ra Arkestra tonight is People, Places, and Things, led by the Chicago drummer Mike Reed (who celebrates his birthday May 26!). Last year, Reed’s large ensemble, Living By Lanterns, released an album of rare Sun Ra material arranged by Reed and bandmate Jason Adasiewicz. Reed, who is the producer of Chicago’s annual Pitchfork Music Festival, has also recently opened a performance arts center in the city called Constellation.

On June 5, ANW is thrilled to present the Philadelphia debut of a duo between two free jazz heavyweights, the German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and the American saxophonist and trumpeter Joe McPhee. This will be McPhee’s first appearance in Philly since ANW last presented him five years ago, when his Trio X was joined by Poland’s Mikolaj Trzaska. Brötzmann was here last September, to kick off ANW’s 13th season, and that night included his first ever collaboration with Jason Adasiewicz, Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano. It was recently announced that Brötzmann has disbanded his long-running Chicago Tentet, which included Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustasffson. This duo encounter between McPhee and Brötzmann is a special reunion in a unique format.

On June 22, Ars Nova Workshop presents the first Philadelphia performance by the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble, an all-Norwegian six-piece ensemble that has released four albums on ECM. The sextet has just completed a new album for ECM, which will be released later this year. Wallumrød was last in Philadelphia in 2010, when ANW presented his remarkable French-Norwegian quartet, Dans Les Arbres.

On three nights in June, in conjunction with the Hidden City Festival, ANW presents the Book Of Angels Mini-Festival celebrating the work of New York composer and musician John Zorn. Zorn, who has been a vital force for experimental music over the last several decades, celebrates his 60th birthday this year. In the final months of 2004, he wrote over 300 new compositions for his popular Masada project, resulting in “Masada Book Two: The Book of Angels.”

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Zorn had this to say about the material: “I describe it as a flow. Because the first Book was carved out of rock. The first Book took years, because a new language was created. And then I played those pieces for 10 years, and became proficient in that language, and it started to flow.”

For ANW’s Book Of Angels Mini-Fest, three different ensembles will engage with the “flow” of this mysterious material. All three performances will be held at Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel, a beautiful 19th Century synagogue in South Philadelphia. One of ANW’s goals is to bring music to peculiar spaces unique to Philadelphia’s heritage. Among ANW’s upcoming programs next season, are two projects funded by the Knight Foundation and the Philadelphia Music Project, both of which emphasize unique spaces, such as Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel. (Expect more information on these two projects in the near future.)

The Book of Angels Mini-Festival begins on June 3, with a quartet led by Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz. Drawing on his Sephardic roots, Shanir plays gimbri, thus giving the music a primeval Moroccan edge. Featuring the intense guitar pyrotechnics of Eyal Maoz and Aram Bajakian (a recent addition to Lou Reed’s new band), and the atavistic drumming of Kenny Grohowski, this is Ritualistic Jewish Rock for the 21st Century.

On June 12, prepare for an intimate and breathtaking recital by Erik Friedlander, one of the world’s most accomplished cellists. A vital member of the Masada family from the very beginning, Friedlander has hypnotized audiences both here and in Europe with his own bands Topaz, Broken Arm, and Grains of Paradise.

Finally, on June 24, Uri Caine will perform Zorn’s material solo on Fender Rhodes. Caine is a musician of astonishing virtuosity and versatility―coming out of the Philadelphia Jazz scene, his playing is an encyclopedia of styles, from Tatum to Evans and beyond. Virtuosic and soulful, expect his interpretations from Masada Book Two to be an absolute tour-de-force.

Related articles

• Peter Brötzmann’s “Long Story Short” Review (ericrevis.com)

With days to go on their quest to raise enough funds to record, produce and promote their 10th anniversary record, I caught up with ‘Led Bib‘s’ drummer and founding member Mark Holub to discuss the new album, photo shoots and the band that has shaped the last ten years of his life.

Thursday 23

PIPI PIAZZOLLA TRÍO ( Nu Jazz )
Daniel Pipi Piazzolla (drums)
Lucio Balduini (guitar)
Damián Fogiel tenor sax)
At Virasoro Bar , guatemala 4328 -21.30 hs

MARIANO SIVORI 5TET ( Nu Jazz )
sivori , contrabass
brandan, drums
fernandez , piano
musso & flores : saxophones
At Thelonius Bar , Salguero 1884- 21.30 hs

Friday 24

ENSAMBLE ARS NOVA ( classical contemporary )
Hommage to Poulenc
At colegio de escribanos-av corrientes 1441- 1er piso 18.00 hs

INSTANTES SONOROS ( experimental / free improv / mutimedia )
SET I : FERNANDO PERALES
SET II : DOLCINACHT
Darío Dolci (saxophones, soprano / sopranino)
Sam Nacht (trombone)
At Domus Artis , Av Triunvirato 4311 21.00 hs

JODOS / DOMINGUEZ / ZYPCE ( experimental / free improv).
ernesto jodos, piano
rodrigo domingues, saxophones
zypce , electronics
At thelonius bar , salguero 1884 21.30 hs

NORRIS TRIO ( free jazz ).
Enrique Norris (cornet & keys)
Maximiliano Kirszner (contrabass)
Pablo Díaz (drums)
At Virasoro Bar , Guatemala 4328 after midnight show 00.30 hs

Saturday 25

FOTO ( experimental post rock/ improv /multimedia ).
Wenchi Lazo – guitar
Diego Voloschin – drums.
Barbara Togander -voice.
Hernan Hayet – bass.
Visuals – Caro Andreetti , Azu Losan
short films – Diangiolillo
At Guatemala & Uriarte – 22.00 hs