Category: Artist Profile

Source: Treble. Frank Zappa died 30 years ago. Zappa, one of music’s grandest iconoclasts, lost his multi-year battle with prostate cancer on December 4, 1993. Had he lived, the leader of The Mothers of Invention, who sang “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” made cult-classic film 200 Motels, and released over 60 albums would turn 83…

Source: Burning Ambulance. What if the Velvet Underground, the Grateful Dead, and Faust were all stages in the development of one group? Well, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, a collective of Swedish musicians underwent an evolutionary arc much like that, and their journey from Pärson Sound to Harvester/International Harvester to Träd, Gräs och…

Source: Bandcamp Daily. Zimpel found solace in minimalist, orderly structures inspired by Terry Riley and LaMonte Young. His new approach manifested in a trilogy of albums: solo debut Lines, Saagara’s 2, and a self-titled release from LAM (a trio of Zimpel, Hubert Zemler, and Krzysztof Dys), all released on influential alternative label Instant Classic. Each…

Source: Far Out. Moreover, Zappa’s discussions on music theory, composition techniques, and the creative process were insightful and engaging. He had a unique way of conveying complex musical ideas in a comprehensible manner, captivating audiences with his vast knowledge and passion for music. Zappa’s lectures provided entertainment and thought-provoking insights into the world of music…

Source: Guitar World. The Australian experimentalist – and Sunn O))) guest guitarist – uses gear typically found on the rock concert stage in unexpected ways, reflecting a deep connection to the avant-garde, free jazz and electronic music. Just don’t ask him to perform without a Leslie speaker.

Source: Burning Ambulance. Tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson was born March 22, 1929 (three days before Cecil Taylor). He spent his early childhood in Monroe, Louisiana, but his parents separated when he was ten and he moved to Evanston, Illinois with his mother. He began playing as a teenager, inspired by Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and…

Source: Apollo Magazine. Xenakis’s prime contribution to music was to introduce a wide variety of compositional techniques derived from mathematics. The ‘serialist’ approach that had been developed by Schoenberg was, to Xenakis, not nearly rigorous enough. Over his career, Xenakis used stochastic analysis (the modelling of processes that appear random), probability theory, game theory, group…

Source: Far Out. The band began after American singer and songwriter Lou Reed met kooky Welshman John Cale. The pair’s unique musical interests provided the perfect collection of influences to infuse into their own sound, cycling through a few different band names and members until they eventually became The Velvet Underground. However, the band’s history…

Source: Perfect Sound Forever. So much for Rudhyar’s theory of dissonant harmony. But how did it sound in practice? His suite Four Pentagrams for solo piano, originally composed in 1924-1926 and revised in 1971-1974, is an early example of his mature style and a good place to begin to find an answer. The first Pentagram,…

Source: NPR. This is FRESH AIR. Jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers was born a hundred years ago today in El Reno, Okla. Our jazz critic, Kevin Whitehead, says Rivers could play it all – blues, bebop, big band music and free jazz – and sometimes mix them. He also gave other musicians a place…

Source: Burning Ambulance. I’ve been a fan of Norwegian guitarist Hedvig Mollestad for more than a decade. A graduate of the Norwegian Academy of Music who was named Young Jazz Talent of the Year at 27, her music has more in common with 1970s hard rock players like Ted Nugent, Robin Trower and Tony Iommi…

Source: Bandcamp Daily. Jackson grew up in New Haven, Connecticut where he soaked up some of the jazz his father loved but was also captivated by rock guitar heroes like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. He followed multiple muses from the start, playing solo acoustic tunes in coffeehouses as a teen while working…

Source: Red Hook Star-Revue. Pianist Matthew Shipp has had such a consistent, sustained career, nearly 40 years as one of the foremost free jazz players, that it’s easy to lose sight of what he’s done as a musician. His built a grand discographical forest through his own albums and those on which he’s part of…

Source: burning ambulance. Gayle was often portrayed as a post-Ayler flamethrower, but he was a much more complex player than that. He started out on piano, and despite working in a mode of total improvisation (his pieces were titled after the fact, almost always with some reference to his deep Christian belief) there often seemed…