A source for news on music that is challenging, interesting, different, progressive, introspective, or just plain weird

Tag: Jazz

  • All About Jazz Reviews

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    From All About Jazz: Tyshawn Sorey Koan (482 Music) Reviewed by Mark Corroto Taylor Ho Bynum / Spider Monkey Strings Madeleine Dreams (Firehouse 12 Records) Reviewed by John Sharpe Gordon Grdina’s East Van Strings The Breathing of Statues (Songlines Recordings) Reviewed by Matt Marshall Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Collective Creativity (3 Sixteen Records) Reviewed by Lyn…

  • Interview with Gordon Beeferman

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    Roulette NYC offers this interview. GORDON BEEFERMAN is a composer and pianist whose work spans opera, orchestral and chamber music, improvisation, and collaborations with dance and other arts. On Tuesday, September 22nd Gordon presents “Music for an IMAGINARY BAND” – a (real) 7-piece group comprised of some of New York’s most uniquely creative musicians. The…

  • Clean Feed Fest and the New Languages Festival Reviewed

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    NYTimes.com writes about both of these festivals. By default and by design, there is no firm center of avant-garde jazz culture. Its music can be freely improvised or densely plotted, ecstatic or brooding, concussive or tranquil. So on some level it was fitting that an accident of timing brought an overlap of the New Languages…

  • Firehouse 12 To Present The Gretchen Parlato Band October 16th

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    From Improvised Communications: On Friday, October 16th, Firehouse 12’s fifth annual Fall Jazz Series will present a two-set performance by the Gretchen Parlato Band. Led by New York-based vocalist/composer Gretchen Parlato, the most recent winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, this quartet, featuring pianist Fabian Almazan, bassist Alan Hampton and drummer…

  • Upcoming Wayward Music Shows

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    From Seattle’s Wayward Music: SAT. 9/12, 8 PM – Danse Perdue, butoh performance based on Reinaldo Arenas‘ novel El Asalto (The Assault) FRI. 9/18 – David Haney & Julian Priester + friends, new jazz SAT. 9/19, 8 PM – Bill Horist, guitar improvisations and new pieces from his upcoming release, Covalent Lodge: one set acoustic,…

  • DMG Newsletter September 11th, 2009

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    From DMG: Anthony Braxton Creative Orchestra 1978! Ken Vandermark/Barry Guy/Mark Sanders! Laswell-Kondo Method of Defiance! Stephan Kerecki/Tony Malaby! Death Cube K! Jim O’Rourke! Dunmall/Park/Smith/Sanders! Weightless: Butcher/Braida/Edwards/Spera! Sylvian/Parker/Rowe/Fennesz! John Blum/William Parker/Sunny Murray! Borah Bergman & Stefano Pastor! Jennifer Choi Solo! Frank Gratkowski! Fay Victor! Earle Brown-Contemporary/Mainstream Box! Sainkho Namchylak! ..and so much more …as well as…

  • Chicago Jazz Festival Coverage

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    Below are a handful of links and articles on the avant goings-on at this past weekend’s Chicago Jazz Festival. Muhal Richard Abrams returns for Chicago Jazz Festival A review of the Abrams / Lewis / Mitchell performance Fred Anderson profile 10 moments from the Chicago Jazz Festival Related articles by Zemanta AAJ-NY: KLANG’s Tea Music…

  • Firehouse 12 To Present Mauger October 2nd

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    Rudresh Mahanthappa via last.fm From Improvised Communications: On Friday, October 2nd, New Haven’s Firehouse 12 will present the third event in its ongoing fifth anniversary Fall Jazz Series, a two-set performance by the all-star trio, Mauger. The group brings together acclaimed saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the “Rising Star Jazz…

  • Dave Holland Leads With Collectivist Spirit

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    From NYTimes.com: There are few musicians in jazz with a more untroubled sense of leadership than the bassist Dave Holland. Since the first recordings made under his name, in the early 1970s, Mr. Holland has expressed his point of view with gracious clarity, drawing out the best from his partners while keeping a firm hand…

  • The Electric Ascension Film Project is Looking for a Grant Writer

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    John Rogers is making a film about ROVA and is looking for some help. Contact him if you have experience and time to work on grants. The Electric Ascension film project is looking for a grant writer with experience in the avant-garde art and music world. A documentary is underway about the Rova Saxophone Quartet‘s…

  • Firehouse 12 To Present The Steve Lehman Trio October 9th

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    From Improvised Communications: On Friday, October 9th, New Haven’s Firehouse 12 will present innovative saxophonist / composer Steve Lehman’s only area performance this year as part its fifth annual Fall Jazz Series. Lehman, who grew up in Hartford before earning two degrees at Wesleyan University during studies with Anthony Braxton and Jackie McLean, will be…

  • DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET Photos

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    Eric Revis via last.fm From DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET: August 29, 2009 Eric Revis Quartet, The Jazz Gallery Jason Moran, Eric Revis, Ken Vandermark, Nasheet Waits August 26, 2009 Tartar Lamb, Barbes David Bodie, Tim Byrnes, Toby Driver, Mia Matsumiya Related articles by Zemanta Peter Brötzmann, Nasheet Waits and Eric Revis Trio [Victory Grill] (austinist.com) Jazz Listings (nytimes.com)

  • Darcy James Argue To Host Brooklyn Big Band Bonanza October 19th

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    Image by Nicken05 via Flickr From Improvised Communications: On Monday, October 19th, SearchAndRestore.com will present Brooklyn Big Band Bonanza, a celebration of innovative big bands organized by acclaimed composer Darcy James Argue, at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY. Performers will include Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, Andrew Durkin’s Industrial Jazz Group and Argue’s own acclaimed 18-piece…

  • Marc Ribot’s Sun Ship

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    Marc Ribot via last.fm Marc Ribot‘s take on Coltrane is reviewed. The dauntless, combustible energies of jazz’s 1960s avant-garde have long held a deep attraction for the guitarist Marc Ribot. His public profile may involve a great deal of tact and concision — he works widely as a gun for hire, often infusing low-gloss pop…

  • AccuJazz Previews the Chicago Jazz Festival

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    The Chicago Reader has the scoop: This year AccuJazz, which is programmed by local jazz drummer Lucas Gillan, is being clearer about what it’s doing. Under the auspices of ChicagoJazz.com it’s created ChicagoJazz.com Radio, which includes a special channel for the Chicago Jazz Festival. The channel consists of more than 400 songs, all of them…

  • Musique Machine Reviews

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    Merzbow via last.fm From Musique Machine: Habsyll – MMVIII Habsyll are a doomed drone collective and this is their extremely weighted, crushing and horrifying début album which spews forth tow painful, long and skull grindingly heavy tracks of that recall the long form doom tortures of the likes of Moss and at times Khanate; through…

  • Tribute builds on innovations of a jazz giant

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    chicagotribune.com reviews the recent Fred Anderson celebration. Eightieth birthday parties don’t get much better — or more artistically inspired — than this concert, presented as part of the “Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz” series. And though Chicago celebrated saxophonist Fred Anderson’s milestone earlier this year in his landmark South Side club, the Velvet Lounge,…

  • Angel City Jazz Festival

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    The Angel City Jazz Festival takes place on Labor Day Weekend in LA, and features Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Dave Douglas, Bennie Maupin, Billy Childs, Larry Goldings, Satoko Fujii, Wayne Horvitz, and many more.

  • Free Jazz Blog Reviews

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    From Free Jazz: Saturday, August 15, 2009 David Sait – Postage Paid Duets, Vol. 2 (aPRISe, 2009) ****½ Josh Berman – Old Idea (Delmark, 2009) Azar Lawrence – Prayer For My Ancestors (Furthermore, 2008) Tom Hamilton & Bruce Eisenbeil – Shadow Machine (Pogus, 2009) Yoni Kretzmer’s New Dilemma (Earsay, 2009) Jerry Granelli V16 – Vancouver…

  • All About Jazz Reviews

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    Image via Wikipedia From All About Jazz: 18-Aug-09 Dave Holland / Gonzalo Rubalcaba / Chris Potter / Eric Harland The Monterey Quartet: Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey Jazz Festival Records) Reviewed by Mark F. Turner 18-Aug-09 Tom Abbs & Frequency Response Lost & Found (Engine Studios) Reviewed by Jerry D’Souza 17-Aug-09 Horace…

  • Ken Vandermark in the Belly of the Beast

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    Ken Vandermark via last.fm The Chicago Reader discusses Ken Vandermark‘s increased nationwide prominence. “In North America the only thing that’s happened with festivals have been in Canada—Vancouver, Victoriaville,” he told me. “I’m invisible in the mainstream jazz world in the U.S. I’m generally never covered in mainstream American publications devoted to jazz.” While Vandermark has…

  • Jazz History Scrambled, With Love and Respect, at Zebulon in Brooklyn

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    NYTimes.com reviews Mostly Other People Do the Killing. There’s a bustling, ostentatious impiety in the music of Mostly Other People Do the Killing. Led by the bassist Moppa Elliott, it’s a jazz quartet with a diligent grasp of history but an anarchic take on convention. At Zebulon in Brooklyn late on Thursday night, the group…

  • Moraine’s Manifest Density out on Moon June Records

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    From Moon June Records: You could describe the output of this towering electric string quartet-plus-drums as “heavy chamber music.” With its several writers and full complement of ace instrumentalists, arrayed in striking combination, Moraine achieves a coherent sound while drawing on forms ranging from math-rock to fractured bebop to Chinese folk music to unleashed, plugged-in…

  • AMN Picks of the Week

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    John Zorn via last.fm Here is where I post, at a frequency of about once a week, a list of the new music that has caught my attention that week. All of the releases listed below I’ve heard for the first time this week and come recommended. Don’t take the categories too seriously. Thank You…