{"id":759,"date":"2019-01-26T10:02:46","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T16:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/?page_id=759"},"modified":"2019-10-25T13:25:48","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T18:25:48","slug":"jazz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"feedzy-rss\"><div class=\"rss_header\"><h2><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/\" class=\"rss_title\">The Free Jazz Collective<\/a> <span class=\"rss_description\"> Reviews of Free Jazz and Improvised Music<\/span><\/h2><\/div><ul>\n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/nabelose-haar-trost-2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Nabel\u00f3se \u2013 Haar (Trost, 2026)\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhDEenJeMYxf9OfGCg9xH3OpK9nMwKNgY8D6Wf5vZpB9Nqorc8MPtUsd52JizXe_10WA5YwrMsTz6X8Zfi-H_V4iY0JSR3zOIq0x40NstyN0Y9SEk8zmt0TFcYApd-Ea_WFJWAKO5x6qsRN8AfmRJKSfjf3GzUILV85XeeI_qGbM8CorjiFj5Ix9vh33xnn\/s72-c\/Haar.jpg');\" title=\"Nabel\u00f3se \u2013 Haar (Trost, 2026)\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/nabelose-haar-trost-2026.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNabel\u00f3se \u2013 Haar (Trost, 2026)\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on April 9, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>By Dan Sorrells\n\n    \n\n\n    Haar\u00a0rolls in like a fog or a dream. Nabel\u00f3se\u2014the duo of Ingrid\n    Schmoliner and Elena Kakaliagou\u2014finally return with their third album,\n    recorded in 2022 in a studio perched on the edge of the Norwegian Sea. This\n    locale\u2014ocean spreading outward, mountains rising above\u2014saturates the music.\n    The music, in turn, has a way of seeping in. Both disorienting and soothing,\n    Haar can be as intimate or uncanny as a whisper in the ear (quite\n    literally in \"Hinter Meinen D\u00fcnen\"). At other times, it fully envelops you\n    and you are held weightlessly in its allure.\n\n\n    Nabel\u00f3se has long had a talent for opening enchanted spaces with prepared\n    piano, French horn, and increasingly, both women's voices. As with their\n    earlier work, Schmoliner and Kakaliagou channel techniques honed through\n    years as performers of improvised and contemporary music into the hoary\n    realm of folklore and myth. Poems and old songs in multiple tongues are\n    suspended within the duo's intricate sound fields. These are further\n    extended on Haar\u00a0through studio shaping and with the addition of\n    guest musicians Bilgehan Ozis and Elys Vanderwyer on \"Perfume\" and \"To Ke,\"\n    respectively. Each song is an invocation, a rift that opens into a\n    dreamspace where the unreal mingles with the perennial comforts of varied\n    folk traditions. Crossing the threshold into one of these small worlds is,\n    to borrow from one of the duo's earlier songs, \"to be given up,\" if only for\n    a few moments.\n\n\n    There's a playful, almost figurative sense to many of the tracks on\n    \n        Haar, even when the mood can be ambiguous. The album's three shorter tracks are\n    intense\u2014disquieting, even. \"Niriides\" layers dampened arpeggios beneath a\n    recitation of the many daughters of Nereus from The Iliad, the\n    turbulent piano like the vaporous bubbles of sea nymphs arriving from all\n    directions. The stabbing martial chords and blatting horns of \"Blue\n    Mountains\" depict the hubris of its protagonist, who, fooled by the birds\n    about his immortality (we hear the cackling nightingales between verses\n    hissed through the French horn), builds his house to tower over nature, only\n    to see Death riding in from across the green plains.\n\n\n    For me, it's the two longer tracks that have soaked in the deepest. On\n    \"Perfume\" and \"To Ke,\" the duo create an atmosphere, a charged air that I\n    imagine must share some quality with the enigmatic and animate world that\n    kindled the allegories and ancestral folksongs that inspire them. \"Perfume\"\n    could not conjure any more vividly the longing of its heartbroken narrator,\n    perhaps sitting by the shore as the sun sets, caught in that pensive\n    crossing of the great beauty of nature and a great pain of heart, Kakaliagou\n    evoking the sounds of surf with her horn, her voice nearly breaking as she\n    sings over Schmoliner's patient and melancholic chord progression. I do not\n    need to understand the words\u2014and in the case of lyrics in imagined languages\n    like those in \"To Ke,\" can never literally understand\u2014to be moved by this\n    music, to feel that affective pull, which is a set of sensibilities and\n    intensities that Nabel\u00f3se ritually enact in their music-making. I feel my\n    whole self humming along with it all: the hollowed ring of Vanderwyer's\n    measured vibraphone; the buzz and thrum of Schmoliner's eBow-excited strings\n    and the spectral partials in her overtone singing; the solemn force of\n    Kakaliagou's wavering tones.\n\n\n    HAAR by Elena Kakaliagou &amp; Ingrid Schmoliner \n\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/three-with-daniel-thompson.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Three with Daniel Thompson\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhdC9HHafuCS34cO-da7UwP3gP7g8NirMPLQMYKZWITnZ0FBD5slJ6Md0aJNqOXJUkkZsAzJKBeEE8TZ_DOC6LK7JKX1x8cpF-5P0exyJg3-NXNQy8DBHVYrAoF011qrNjurVj5KTI9EXh_dM76vc0AH61RrSZr0mVGbMQr4pnZHLIzvcTwbCa3T0BupduN\/s72-c\/a1646679178_10.jpg');\" title=\"Three with Daniel Thompson\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/three-with-daniel-thompson.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThree with Daniel Thompson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on April 7, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>By Stuart Broomer\n\n    British Guitarist Daniel Thompson works in a direct line from Derek Bailey\n    and John Russell, somehow mediating the spikiness of the former and the\n    warmth of the latter in a richly distinctive personal art, simultaneously\n    touching traditions that stretch from historical acoustic archtop artistry\n    (e.g., Eddie Lang, George Van Eps, et al.) to engaging an instrument of\n    multiple voices from strummed and picked and plucked to massaged and scraped\n    strings, tapped-upon bodies and traditional chordal vocabularies\n    surrendering to dense clusters, sometimes rich in dissonant harmonics. In\n    his work, Thompson embraces both the tradition and the instrument as\n    invitation to random material speculation, the body as drum, the string as\n    longitudinal invitation to scratch, tuning keys as material assists, and all\n    the other things about the instrument that arise upon material inspection\n    beyond any initial impression. His label Empty Birdcage Records is rich in\n    varied materials, though here he turns up on other labels as well.\n\n\n    Daniel Thompson - Violet (Empty Birdcage Records, 2025)\n\n\n\n    To enter the solo CD Violet is to immediately find oneself in a\n    transcendent state, one in which time is simultaneously suspended and\n    insistent, a musical language of startling intimacy, attenuated gestures and\n    under-voiced reflections. Tracks are simply numbered from \u201cImprovisation\n    One\u201d to \u201cImprovisation Five\u201d; their lengths vary from relative brevity,\n    4\u201931\u201d for \u201cThree\u201d, to the near epic \u201cFour\u201d at 13\u2019 26\u201d. \u201cOne\u201d begins as a\n    series of evenly strummed dissonant clusters eventually following a series\n    of distinct evolutions. \u201cNo. 2\u201d shadows a ground between intimacy and\n    invisibility, sparse gestures on a sea of silence, each new shape as\n    immediate as thought, each minute gesture a kind of micro-composition,\n    bright, isolated harmonics poised against strummed dissonances, sometimes\n    slowing, micro-gestures laid further apart amid a presence that suggests the\n    guitar might be breathing. There\u2019s an exalted level of attention paid to\n    series of micro-gestures \u2013 a buzz, a harmonic, paired notes, a 10-minute\n    reverie stretching toward its own disappearance. It\u2019s followed by \u201cNo. 3\u201d\u2019s\n    (relatively) loud, fast, chaotic and insistent pace, characterized by sudden\n    shifts in density. \u201cFour\u201d is a master class in diverse approaches shaped\n    into a single work, including an extended passage of high-speed scratched\n    tones. \u201cFive\u201d begins as perfect reverie, with a couple of expansive\n    high-speed bursts, before it returns to a delicate placidity and an ultimate\n    embrace of silence. Like every work here, its evolution feels as natural as\n    breathing. The numbering system is abandoned for the final title track:\n    \u201cViolet\u201d is an eight second burst of insistence that suggests a looped\n    electric guitar.\n\nviolet by Daniel Thompson\n\nJohn Edwards\/Daniel Thompson - Where the Butterflies Go (Earshots\n    Recordings, 2025)\n\n\n\n\n    This string duo recording chooses the most traditional of string\n    compositions as its model, a Four Seasons with its tracks named\n    from \u201cSummer\u201d to \u201cAutumn\u201d to \u201cWinter\u201d to end speculatively and positively\n    with a brief \u201cSpring\u201d of thrumming to suggest new and future life. Like the\n    other life here, it\u2019s the sense of the closely shared space that gives it\n    its special character.\n\n\n    That opening \u201cSummer\u201d is a genuine hive of sound, brooking scant distinction\n    for its opening minutes, densely plucked acoustic guitar and plucked or\n    bowed bass presenting as a single instrument, the bass replicating the\n    pitches of the lower four strings of the guitar and dropping them an octave,\n    even picking, plucking and spiccato bowing acting as a singular continuum.\n    When the notion of individuation asserts itself, what had been singular\n    simply asserts itself as dialogue, retaining a strong sense of cooperation.\n\n\n    At nearly 21 minutes playing time, \u201cAutumn\u201d represents roughly half the\n    year. It\u2019s a dense dialogue consisting of arco bass and scraped\/\n    wiped high-pitched guitar (they can still overlap in frequency and density),\n    the delicate maelstrom reducing to silence only to gradually rise again with\n    a developing hive of potential. Instruments can usually be distinguished,\n    but that almost seems beside the point of this exalted, telepathic\n    improvising. In the concluding moments, the instruments grow increasingly\n    distinct, the bass insistently bowed, the guitar chorded tunefully,\n    suggesting another evolution is imminent.\n\n\n    \u201cWinter\u201d is a whimper and a scrape, a jangle of disconnected elements\n    slipping toward meaning, a haunted echo of a prepared instrument suddenly\n    given to dizzying chording and lightening-fast picking, some body drumming\n    and the storm is unleashed with the liveliest and least comforting season\n    demanding and overwhelming attention before breaking into an almost\n    pointillist duo of eliding bass tones and rapid guitar strumming, then\n    slipping into a zone of microscopically detailed, evanescent figures, all\n    together grinding toward life\u2019s refresher course called \u201cSpring\u201d.\n\nwhere the butterflies go by John Edwards &amp; Daniel Thompson\n\nTom Jackson\/ Daniel Thompson - Dark Kitchen (Confront Recordings 2025)\n\n\n\n\n    Dedicated to Derek Bailey and Tony Coe, this is another series of duo free\n    improvisations, a format in which Thompson excels and in which his fitting\n    partners, here the clarinetist Tom Jackson whose recordings encompass work\n    with a range of improvisers, are similarly versed in cooperative creation,\n    in an intensive attention to detail, to finding mystery, to unravelling it\n    and to refolding it into another mystery. The longest work here is the\n    functionally titled \u201cImprovisation One\u201d, a 20-minute piece in which Jackson\n    presents as polyvocal, virtuosic and injured songbird, rapid-fire runs\n    sometimes stretching toward dissolution, before some pastoral re-launch of\n    bell-toned and dissonant guitar harmonics gradually restores the clarinet.\n\n\n    Three shorter tracks are more concentrated, less free ranging.\n    \u201cImprovisation Two\u201d begins with a densely expressionistic clarinet solo,\n    eventually matched by a subtly complex guitar accompaniment that becomes an\n    increasingly significant subtext to Jackson\u2019s compounding bird calls.\n    \u201cThree\u201d, highlighting the duo\u2019s interactive facility, is a high-speed, up\n    and down, back and forth dialogue; \u201cFour\u201d foregrounds Jackson\u2019s lyricism\n    while Thompson creates a quietly unpredictable and abstract soundscape, each\n    gradually becoming more actively conversational.\n\nDark Kitchen by Tom Jackson \/ Daniel Thompson\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/ivo-perelman-with-marc-ribot-elliot.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Ivo Perelman with Marc Ribot, Elliot Sharp and Joe Morris - Trifecta (Mahakala, 2026)\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiJi7xtqVi2SAGsYsOfJvxektkTB4mRW2Lp0IQLxJra3FAadt7zXpxM8hua0TSonoZAWzaeJAac-Tns1fRJbR4I6vTZV7iKbvPQx1AwNI-tr5ts_vHk4UFejXEaa9WVsRKQmQ213jFNk228hW-oMF7e-Y8QFQJlAS63AaVE_eKJC60x-yCo-wq7621gMo1C\/s72-c\/a3115560827_10.jpg');\" title=\"Ivo Perelman with Marc Ribot, Elliot Sharp and Joe Morris - Trifecta (Mahakala, 2026)\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/ivo-perelman-with-marc-ribot-elliot.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIvo Perelman with Marc Ribot, Elliot Sharp and Joe Morris - Trifecta (Mahakala, 2026)\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on April 6, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>By Sammy Stein\n\n    Ivo Perelman has teamed up not with one, or two, but three guitarists on\n    Trifecta. Guitarists Marc Ribot (Disc One), Elliott Sharp (Disc Two), and\n    Joe Morris (Disc Three) pair with Perelman in a release that showcases the\n    guitar as an instrument and the individual playing styles of each musician.\n\n\n    Ivo says of the recordings, \u201cI was a guitar player ever since I was a young\n    boy. I studied for many years, but the reason I quit was that I couldn't\n    find a personal, differentiated, unique voice. The guitar is a difficult\n    instrument for that purpose. It doesn't lend itself, like the saxophone, for\n    instance, to a different way of responding to each player. With woodwind\n    instruments, factors like embouchure, mouthpiece, lung size, and height\n    immediately affect the sound; they are flexible and responsive to sound\n    imagination. Whatever you think comes out, you make the sound. \n    \n    The guitar, with its geometric fingerboard, can lead musicians to merely\n    recreate patterns. Therefore, I deeply admire the musicians featured in\n    Trifecta because I know how individual their voices are on an instrument\n    that is otherwise often oblivious to individuality. \n    \n    Because they are all so different from each other, our interaction was very\n    different. Although it is the same instrument, each project sounds unique.\n    It made sense to me to group them in a CD box format to offer the listener a\n    panoramic view of contemporary guitar as played by three of its major\n    voices.\u201d \n    \n    While one might argue with Ivo (and who does?) about the guitar being\n    oblivious to individuality (think Sonny Sharrock, as an example), it is\n    definitely true that each of the three guitarists featured plays in a\n    distinctive style.\n\n\n    Disc One \u2013 Marc Ribot and Ivo Perelman. Track one is a gentle preamble with\n    both players offering subtle, contrasting phrases, passing discussive\n    musical musings back and forth. There is a sense of familiarity in the\n    pre-emptive chord inserts of Ribot and the declarations of intent in the sax\n    lines. Perelman is restrained and, at times, takes the tenor sax on a\n    journey of screeches and wails, but Ribot grounds the track, maintaining the\n    gentle pace and delicate chord placements. The track is over twelve minutes\n    in length, during which Ribot introduces rhythm changes and punchy\n    percussive elements, to which Perelman intuitively responds. In turn,\n    Perelman takes the music into realms of contrapuntal changes, and Ribot\n    reacts. Track two sees Perelman taking wild walks with airs and melodies,\n    which Ribot echoes at times and develops at others. The final part of the\n    track is a beautiful exchange of delicacies between the two musicians, which\n    they, in turn, try out, and either discard or savour and develop. Track\n    three is intense, lively, with fiery salvos passing between the musicians\n    like hot cakes. Perelman introduces some gorgeous lower register lines in\n    the second half, over which Ribot\u2019s strings writhe like a cobra, creating\n    dense, colourful phrases. Somehow, by the time the track ends, it is softer,\n    the lines malleable, and flowing. Track four opens with a Celtic-sounding\n    harmony which both players introduce before each diverges on a line of their\n    own, Perelman\u2019s tenor taking a more melodic tone, while Ribot inserts\n    delicate chords and lines. Perelman rises into the top register, soaring and\n    dipping back to pipping lower notes. Track five is bonkers \u2013 wholesale\n    improvisation, with Ribot and Perelman vying for who can outwit whom. Yet\n    there are still the intuitive reactions and challenges that make the track a\n    standout example of communicative playing. Ribot\u2019s mastery of styles is\n    apparent, as he weaves seamlessly between free improvisation and snippets of\n    different playing styles. Between them, Perelman and Ribot even go briefly\n    into swing mode, though not for more than a few bars. Perelman\u2019s delectation\n    for taking a style and introducing free playing into it comes to the fore,\n    and Ribot seems to delight in taking him up on his offer and following.\n\n\n    Disc Two \u2013 Elliott Sharp and Ivo Perelman. Track one is explorative,\n    tentative almost, with Perlman initially taking the long melodic line and\n    Sharp inserting quick, sharp chords, alongside some gentler extended ones,\n    until the track unravels itself with both musicians diverging and coming\n    together in a series of intricate phrases. Track two finds Perlman\n    meandering along melodic inventions, into which eventually Sharp inserts\n    delicate, then increasingly noisesome lines. There is a beautiful section\n    where the melody is reversed with Sharp playing deep, resonant lines, over\n    which Perelman flies, finding nuanced tones in the gaps of the music as only\n    he can. Track three is delicate, each musician introducing lines of sound\n    like threads, which weave themselves around each other to create a sonic\n    tapestry of colourful sound waves. Track four is busy, buzzy, electronically\n    enhanced, and atmospheric, while track five is just as atmospheric but with\n    more guitar \u2018twangs\u2019 and warps, with Perelman retreating a little to allow\n    the guitar to come to the fore in all its weirdness in the hands of Sharp.\n    Sharp finds tones and nuances in the guitar with detuned strings and\n    tightened chords that showcase the range of his instrument. Track six starts\n    as if it is going to go into a blues number, but the two musicians quickly\n    put a stop to that notion with a glorious development of rhythm changes and\n    improvised lines. Sharp makes impressive use of the percussive elements of\n    the guitar and its dexterity as an instrument. On track seven, this is\n    demonstrated, alongside chords and singular lines that mesh and meld with\n    the sax of Perelman intuitively.\n\n\n    Disc Three - Joe Morris and Ivo Perelman. On track one, the difference in\n    the style of Morris compared to Sharp and Ribot is apparent; his guitar\u2019s\n    melodic voice is heard from the start. Track two is a conversation between\n    guitar and saxophone with both musicians playing without pause, yet they\n    intuitively diminish and crescendo in their dialogue, as each listen and\n    responds. On track three, Morris\u2019s guitar is busy, the notes intricately\n    placed, and he finds ways to fill any gaps, however small, that Perelman\n    leaves. Perelman, meanwhile, rises and falls, riffs, and meanders along\n    musical pathways his brain creates, and his fingers bring into reality. On\n    this track, the intuition of both musicians is palpable. Track four is a\n    delightful back and forth between the instruments, and Morris\u2019s responses to\n    Perelman\u2019s pips and riffles create the texture of this track.\n\n\n    Across the CDs, Perelman remains intuitive and perceptive as ever, but also\n    adaptive, as his instincts and reactions to the guitarists vary. He is the\n    constant in these recordings, yet there remains the steadfast dedication to\n    musical improvisation and response to fellow musicians that Perelman has\n    developed so well. Each guitarist brings their style and interpretation of\n    Perelman\u2019s unique musicality and playing characteristics.\n\n\n    Three individualist guitar players, paired with one of the most individual\n    saxophone players, is, in theory, something to cherish and enjoy. In\n    reality, it does not disappoint.\n\nTrifecta by Ivo Perelman\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/sunday-video-earscratcher.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Sunday Video - Earscratcher\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/C6KlJT1fkc8\/default.jpg');\" title=\"Sunday Video - Earscratcher\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/sunday-video-earscratcher.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSunday Video - Earscratcher\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on April 5, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>We've been on a bit of a Dave Rempis roll lately ... Brian reviewed Dial Up from Rempis, Jason Adasiewicz and Chris Corsano in January, Charlie just reviewed Orbital, featuring the saxophonist with Frank Rosaly, Ingebrigt H\u00e5ker Flaten plus Marta Warelis, and reader Klaus Kitzinger shared a recent picture, which is currently in our homepage rotation, of Earscracther's show at in Munich. So why not a video too? Special thanks to Jazz Explorer, we don't know who you are but your videos from the Artacts Festival in Tirol are much appreciated, thank you!\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\nEARSCRATCHER - Artacts 2026, Alte Gerberei, St. Johann in Tyrol, Austria, 2026-03-08\u00a0\nDave Rempis - saxophones\u00a0\nElisabeth Harnik - piano\u00a0\nFred Lonberg-Holm - cello\u00a0\nTim Daisy - drums https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C6KlJT1fkc8\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/mark-turner-patternmaster-ecm-2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Mark Turner - Patternmaster (ECM, 2026)\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEg7JNJANL28Be8DmsERYxVPDnxmpTIeDNR-FGEiguouB7KMHdCjkLc9itJFPAYJQX85j8WFsHH2PSTBRhR_OneDnok2js74CUCg-yKhZc8axuwtgEGYQ26RMLPGKw0Va-FHjuKGtnuyypntNySjUpx1lEbpcJq_8Yn-YeXzsNBdRqmkbPH_zKNvtMWE8NbI\/s72-c\/0602488081245.jpg');\" title=\"Mark Turner - Patternmaster (ECM, 2026)\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/mark-turner-patternmaster-ecm-2026.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMark Turner - Patternmaster (ECM, 2026)\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on April 3, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>By Charlie Watkins\n\n    Reviewing Patternmaster for the Free Jazz Collective is an\n    interesting task. Although Mark Turner\u2019s quartet follows the free jazz\n    tradition of having no instrument playing chords, Joe Martin\u2019s bass playing\n    and the horn players\u2019 improvisations provide more than enough harmonic\n    information to keep us firmly grounded in \u2018mainstream\u2019 jazz. The\n    compositions too, though inventive, are hardly avant-garde. But at the same\n    time, this album has a strong sense of freedom that makes it very\n    appropriate to review here.\n\n\n    Turner describes the connection between his bandmates as \u2018psycho-spiritual\u2019,\n    a sense of shared, mystical intuition that allows them to think as one mind.\n    On a handful of occasions I\u2019ve experienced this connection in my\n    performances, and can attest that there is no feeling more liberating:\n    freedom from the weight of decision-making into the realm of pure intuition.\n    This is the sense in which Turner\u2019s band should be considered \u2018free\u2019 jazz.\n    It\u2019s also where the title comes from: the Patternmaster is the master\n    telepath in Octavia Butler\u2019s novel of the same name. Surely this title\n    indicates Turner\u2019s desire for that Holy Grail of music: pure intuition, pure\n    telepathy.\n\n\n    Not that Turner sets himself an easy task. The knotty compositions,\n    irregular time signatures and lack of chordal accompaniment would drive a\n    lesser musician to insanity simply trying to follow the changes. Not for\n    these musicians: they don\u2019t miss a beat, somehow seeming to float straight\n    through the hurdles, and in the process their individual voices shine\n    through. Never once does it feel like they are simply going through the\n    motions or playing the changes, they are opening up new dimensions of the\n    music even as they remain perfectly within the complex structures.\n\n\n    Like most of Turner\u2019s output, the album remains within a relatively modest\n    space: they are not interested in the extremes, they are interested in\n    purity. So on this record you won\u2019t find \u2018explosive\u2019 solos, but rather the\n    absolute precision that can only come through years of honing a craft.\n    Admittedly, this will not be to everyone\u2019s tastes; and I\u2019m not sure how wide\n    the appeal of this album will be for audiences of this site.\n\n\n    The compositions themselves are wonderful. I especially enjoyed the\n    playfulness of It Very Well May Be, which bounces with energy whilst it\n    drags the metre forward and backwards, and for me was easily the standout\n    track of the album. It reminded me of the music of Dewey Redman\u2019s quartet\n    Old and New Dreams, which of course is the same instrumentation (and who\n    also released two of their albums on ECM).  Some of the other tracks really\n    swing \u2013 Turner\u2019s bounces in with a great energy on Trece Ocho \u2013 and there\n    certainly is a lot of variety in the tunes offered, although perhaps some\n    shorter compositions might have helped the album to move with a little more\n    momentum.\n\n\n    As with much of Turner\u2019s oeuvre, I expect the reception to this album will\n    be mixed. There were points I enjoyed, and the ensemble\u2019s tight connection\n    is certainly to be praised. But I found it a little lacking in soul for my\n    tastes, a little too formulaic and tightly controlled. Other reviews online\n    seem to be more positive, so I expect this will be an opinion splitter and I\n    can only suggest you try it for yourselves!\n\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/the-tomeka-reid-quartet-dance-skip-hop.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"The Tomeka Reid Quartet - dance! skip! hop! (Out of Your Head, 2026) *****\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhRkISZbjJ8WiUpAR8lf5X6IAForh0oibPWxMz-stFWKQAQZg4B4YAhrUu7qWgIGRSPeO1UIyqV4KirsdXnJ__pEIGoOn4iv4jGTYz7k4AfWGI0Ukp0_caAcwbF8b-VpI2EfWncTCVzpl-bGqOrWdV-trbtg-cPNq_I9r2YmGTZXX4DLmsX6s_zR_i9KhqH\/s72-c\/a0215445957_10.jpg');\" title=\"The Tomeka Reid Quartet - dance! skip! hop! (Out of Your Head, 2026) *****\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/the-tomeka-reid-quartet-dance-skip-hop.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Tomeka Reid Quartet - dance! skip! hop! (Out of Your Head, 2026) *****\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on April 2, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>By Gary Chapin\n\n    Every once in a while I\u2019m reminded that I have a sweet spot in music and\n    when that spot \u2014 that spot of sonic, cosmic equilibrium \u2014 is hit, then\n    things in my head are just, in a profound way, going to be okay. The spot is\n    defined by a deep groove, reckless composition, and a romance with the\n    outside. Think of records by Eric Dolphy, Air, the Jazz Passengers, or Mike\n    Formanek. My point (and I do have one) is that the Tomeka Reid Quartet\n    (featuring Reid, cello; Mary Halvorsen, guitar; Jason Roebke, bass and\n    cassette; Tomas Fujiwara, percussion) hits that spot dead on, and I am five\n    stars happier than before I listened.\n\n    I wasn\u2019t surprised that this was so. Reid comes out of an org (the AACM)\n    that pioneered groove outre music, and she\u2019s part of a group \u2026 or movement?\n    school? tribe? \u201cgroup of people who play all the time on each others\u2019\n    records\u201d \u2026 for whom this sort of Hemphilian tomfoolery is bread and butter.\n    I\u2019m talking about the nexus that includes (but is not limited to) Reid,\n    Halvorsen, Fujiwara, Nick Dunston, Patricia Brennan, Adam O\u2019Farrill, and the\n    late, wonderful, Susan Alcorn.\n\n    This particular record telegraphs its intentions with its title, \u201cdance!\n    skip! jump!\u201d It\u2019s a string ensemble with percussion, and the title track\n    timbrally evokes Black string bands. It\u2019s got the lightness and ebullience\n    (both necessary if you are going to \u201cskip!\u201d) Fujiwara\u2019s brushes do a lot of\n    the levitating. The second track, \u201ca(ways) For CC and CeCe,\u201d starts in a\n    knotty place with the drums and bass giving attitude. When Reid enters on\n    cello, It becomes an ode, loving well. \u201cOo long!\u201d sets a hip and sinister\n    groove. I am charmed by the pun title and want to know what it has to do\n    with the apparently hip and sinister tea. \u201cUnder the Aurora Sky\u201d enters a\n    balladic or pastoral space, introspective. \u201cSilver String Fig Tree\u201d is a\n    freer, more expansive conversation between the players with some interesting\n    structures supporting it \u2014 for example, a section were Reid repeats a five\n    note riff with a lot of space, and the others live on top of that.\n\n\n\n    Best of 2026 so far.\n\ndance! skip! hop! by Tomeka Reid\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/beatrice-arrigoni-maddalena-ghezzi.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Beatrice Arrigoni, Maddalena Ghezzi, Francesca Naibo - Monologo Addosso (Habitable Records, 2026)\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEioIiFhHomZ8yG9xBPG7gzBZbY63oGV8MrTsQqtmodHXMscc-3hwhsVzzaDqhou5WxXMHyZ5Cegd2m86PnOFxenlMlh-IznwFgoDMYDFetPWLmMsOlAz58Sg3hLKnC4HfNc1g52nVoQuez2ktFy2tOHOdts9xsf1z1ja7T0r9KwbKCV6reYNZlhJIxeSlvg\/s72-c\/a0990141421_10.jpg');\" title=\"Beatrice Arrigoni, Maddalena Ghezzi, Francesca Naibo - Monologo Addosso (Habitable Records, 2026)\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/04\/beatrice-arrigoni-maddalena-ghezzi.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBeatrice Arrigoni, Maddalena Ghezzi, Francesca Naibo - Monologo Addosso (Habitable Records, 2026)\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on April 1, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>By Sammy Stein\nMonologo Addosso comprises Beatrice Arrigoni (vocals), Maddalena Ghezzi\n    (vocals), and Francesca Naibo (vocals, guitar). It is produced by Luca\n    Martegani. Beatrice Arrigoni is a singer, improviser, composer, and\n    performer with a range of projects under her belt. She participated in the\n    2023 \u201cimprovisation voice and electronics\u201d workshop led by Val\u00e8rie Philippin\n    at IRCAM in Paris and studied improvisation with Stefano Battaglia and vocal\n    technique with Renaissance and Baroque singer Elena Carzaniga. She has\n    performed at many festivals and events.\n\n    Maddalena Ghezzi is an Italian singer, composer, and improviser who settled\n    in London in 2009 and now works in London and Milan in the fields of jazz,\n    improvised music, and vocal and creative experimentation. As a leader, she\n    has released five EPs, all part of her Minerals series: Amethyst (with\n    Thodoris Ziarkas), Halite (with Ed Blunt), Opal (with Francesca Naibo),\n    Emerald (with Maria Chiara Argir\u00f2), and Dolomite (with Ruth Goller), and two\n    albums with her band FUWAH. She has performed at the London and Milan Jazz\n    Festivals and many venues.\n\n\n    Francesca Naibo is a guitarist from Vittorio Veneto but Milanese by\n    adoption, who plays many genres, including classical, electric, fretless,\n    and pedal steel. Having spent years researching solo performance, she\n    focuses on exploring the fields of free improvisation and contemporary\n    music. Her interest is particularly focused on using both the acoustic and\n    electric nature of her instrument, venturing from roaring drones to\n    microscopic vibrations. She studied in Venice, Milan, Bern, and Basel,\n    graduating in classical guitar and free improvisation, and collaborated with\n    various European musicians, especially in Central and Northern Europe. She\n    has worked with many composers and musicians, and her album Namatoulee,\n    received critical acclaim\n\n\n    Monologo Addosso is a sonic work which work that reworks and transfigures\n    the poetry of Elena Cornaggia in order to fully convey its expressive depth.\n    The result is nine \u2018sound paintings\u2019 with great dramatic power, in which\n    electronic inserts, the use of extended techniques, polyphonic and\n    contrapuntal writing interact to compose an evocative and expressive mosaic\n    of colours.\n\n\n    It is very much an \u2018out of the box\u2019 concept with the interaction between\n    poetry, sonic effects, and vocals creating a merging of the arts. The\n    imagery the music creates is powerful and incredibly profound.\n\n\n    The music and interpretation of words and pictures create an intersection\n    where poetry, music, and electronic effects come together to create\n    something unique. Different styles are linked, with the vocals creating\n    beautiful harmonies, explorative diversions, and snippets of spoken\n    conversation to weave a landscape of colour and evocative sonic portraits.\n\n\n    The purity of sound, created by vocals, guitar, or electronics, is presented\n    sometimes as a raw, material element, or a primordial essence, a lyrical and\n    ecstatic evocation, abstraction, idiom: the work's sonic journey invites the\n    listener into profound contemplation, expressing the urgency of an internal\u2019\n    monologue capable of releasing energy and revealing the essence of all\n    things.\n\n\n    What this album is also is intensely feminine. That might sound like a\n    strange thing to say as a reviewer, but there is a sense of power and deep\n    connection between the women who created this recording that is palpable and\n    creates a deep sense of sisterhood.\n\n'A Mani Aperte' opens the recording, and this is sensual, where the women\n    produce short vocal sounds, including \u2018dings,\u2019 intakes of breath, and sighs.\n    It sounds mad, and it is, but it is also very effective at engaging the\n    listener. The final third comprises atmospheric electronics topped by a\n    beautiful melody, gorgeously worked harmonies that contrast and provide a\n    grounding, before the short trills and whispered effects complete it and act\n    as a reminder that the track began in this tone.\n\n'Tra il sonno e la parole' features harmonies backed by warping, echoing\n    electronics that fade, allowing the electronic effects to come to the fore,\n    but gently and with the guitar adding definition in a melody. The harmonies\n    are beautiful, with deep contralto and sweet soprano melding to become as a\n    single unit with many parts.\n\n\n    Throughout the album, the vocals adapt to the soundscape, either enhancing\n    the effects, or contrasting with purity and beautiful harmonies. From the\n    rickety tickety effects on 'Dentro Alle Squadro' to the standout 'Mi\n    raccogliesse,' which features harmonies that break into a variety of sounds,\n    from clucks to melodic inserts and explosive effects, portraying the variety\n    of essences that womankind encompass perhaps.\n\n\n    There are echoes of ecclesiastic harmonies and madrigal singing, alongside\n    improvisation and imaginative electronic effects on some tracks. 'Paessagio\n    mentale' is intense and deeply emotive, while Implodo esplodo is held\n    together by a madcap, chattering spoken harmony line, the voices performing\n    as percussive instruments before the slow build-up of electronic effects\n    overpowers the vocals, which retreat into a deep hum that develops a regular\n    rhythm akin to breathing, and whispered inserts and snippets of voice.\n\n\n    The closing track, 'Quando il cervello prude' showcases each musician and is a\n    beautiful, atmospheric way to end the album \u2013 and go back to the start.\n\n\n    A powerful, beautifully worked project, this is for listening again and\n    again.\n\n\n    Monologo addosso by Beatrice Arrigoni, Maddalena Ghezzi, Francesca Naibo\n\n\n\n\n    .\n\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/03\/two-by-outskirtssort-of-orbitalthe_01454022083.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Two by The Outskirts\u2013Sort Of: Orbital,The Outskirts and Marta Warelis (2\/2)\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgYCozv27z-YWyMCCVmUp-48SBdkaL9OYQ5XGImT76PqIZDCVp7jDwENlrnsGDQn_0UzBcobRegcm2pBnB0tQtGWJfMujNqT3U33rY5F9nJmY2oBpdusjwvj06zbABVj7zpg17nP_qgtT6a6lJcbfRd_iI1szDlqc_5-e8Q25XilWqgDk7tUY5a2VaAFgOQ\/s72-c\/orbital.jpg');\" title=\"Two by The Outskirts\u2013Sort Of: Orbital,The Outskirts and Marta Warelis (2\/2)\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/03\/two-by-outskirtssort-of-orbitalthe_01454022083.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTwo by The Outskirts\u2013Sort Of: Orbital,The Outskirts and Marta Warelis (2\/2)\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on March 31, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>\u00a0\n\n\nBy Brian Earley\n\n\n\n\n\n    Disc Two\n\n\n\n\n\n    Friends, there is just so much music on Orbital that I needed to\n    write two reviews to cover all its beauty.  Seriously,  I was listening to a\n    new release by a fairly popular band this morning  that clocks in around 40\n    total minutes of music. The first song on Disc  Two of Orbital,\n    \u201cSpherical Harmonics,\u201d contains more than 41 minutes of improvised  mayhem\n    by itself.  The second improvisation, \u201cAngular Momentum\u201d runs  nearly a\n    half-hour.  That\u2019s an hour and ten minutes of music on just  disc two!  Disc\n    one is over 70 minutes long.  Damn! Ingo Frank, and Dave  have some serious\n    stamina.\n\n\n\n\n\n    What makes disc two of Orbital really special is the addition of\n    pianist Marta Warelis. Recorded in  Antwerp nine days before disc one, this\n    version presents H\u00e5ker Flaten,  Rosaly, and Rempis in an entirely disparate\n    context.  If disc one was a  propulsive trio romp, the addition of the\n    Polish born pianist results in  a thunderstorm where the lighting is hunks\n    of lava.\n\n\n\n\n\n    Everything is big on this disc.  The  song lengths are big.  Dave\u2019s\n    saxophone is big and bluesy and sultry;  just listen to the 13.00 minute\n    mark on \u201cSpherical Harmonics\u201d or, hell,  check out Dave near the beginning\n    of \u201cAngular Momentum\u201d where his big,  fat vibrato and breathy tone evoke Ben\n    Webster or even Johnny Hodges.  The first nine minutes (nine minutes!) of\n    \u201cSpherical\u201d is nonstop  energy-power music where Warelis swipes violently\n    upward in glissandos,  thunder smacks the lower octaves of the keys, or\n    tumbles piano notes  like a waterfall made of glass where everything breaks\n    but the momentum  of the music. Ingo rams forward driving, chunks of bass\n    plucking, and  Frank hisses, smashes, and makes the cymbals scream.\n\n\n\n\n\n    To be fair, \u201cAngular Momentum\u201d is  filled with moments of quiet reflection,\n    intelligent space, and subtle  interplay. In fact, I really admire Rosaly\u2019s\n    discipline and restraint on  this piece.  He often holds back, drops out, or\n    plays softly, and the  result is pure beauty, as it offers a chance for\n    listeners to hear  Rempis and Warelis interact.  Listen, for example, from\n    roughly 4:00 to  7:00 on this work.  Warelis plays sustained midrange single\n    notes and a  prepared piano that sounds like a stopped mbira or harpsichord\n    while  engaging with Dave in a stunning and varied call and response\n    sequence  (one of many on this disc).\n\n\n\n\n\n    The second work blows softly to a  close.  Warelis slows her pace, Frank\n    softens his thwacking and shaking,  Ingo opens up sonic room in a near\n    ostinatto formation, and the music  ends with the sound of only Dave\u2019s\n    breath.\n\n\n\n\n\n    I couldn\u2019t recommend this album more  to both long time listeners of these\n    artists and to those finding  themselves, like the rest of us, hearing Dave,\n    Ingo, and Frank play with  Marta Warelis for the first time.  The delight of\n    the trio making new  of things past, and in its forking of lighting with\n    Warelis, both make  this a valuable listening experience and an angular\n    tapestry of  harmonics for our time.\u00a0\n\u00a0\nOrbital by The Outskirts - Rempis\/Flaten\/Rosaly + Marta Warelis\u00a0\n\n    Orbital can be purchased artist direct at\n    \n        https:\/\/www.aerophonicrecords.com\/catalog.\u00a0\n\nRead part 1.\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/03\/two-by-outskirtssort-of-orbitalthe.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Two by The Outskirts\u2013Sort Of: Orbital,The Outskirts and Marta Warelis (1\/2)\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjHW5jnwsg4D7fjKo8l0SdAkr1NoA2WQgKM3GX9fgSmdejrB3psksTb88aWNiybZtHf5BsOYNRWLu899sD6ltep6jkpQmXRpiCMAikSAw-ripDbnT1i-7vdPFdf_K6J7SPONk1nLhzd4p-mlCt2hszcchBksaFeLLWfRVV6nb4jAkgXplDcNSQgSLMtduka\/s72-c\/orbital.jpg');\" title=\"Two by The Outskirts\u2013Sort Of: Orbital,The Outskirts and Marta Warelis (1\/2)\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/03\/two-by-outskirtssort-of-orbitalthe.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTwo by The Outskirts\u2013Sort Of: Orbital,The Outskirts and Marta Warelis (1\/2)\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Paul Acquaro)<\/a> on March 30, 2026 at 4:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>By Brian Earley\n\n\n\n\n\n    Disc One\n\n\n\n\n\n    I remember sitting in the audience  with my wife at the Philadelphia Art\n    Alliance in the spring of 2013.  We  were listening to The Engines, it was a\n    cool April evening, and the  band\u2019s signature combination of spontaneity and\n    precision was sharp that  night.\n\n\n\n\n\n    I don\u2019t wish to descend into  nostalgia here, but I find myself thinking\n    frequently about Dave  Rempis\u2019s old band recently as I have acquainted\n    myself with his latest  album for Aerophonic Records: Orbital. \n    Orbital is not a new album by The Engines, but it\n    isnew  material from saxophonist Rempis, drummer Frank Rosaly, and\n    bassist  Ingebrigt H\u00e5ker Flaten, a band that titled themselves The\n    Outskirts, and  played together from 2007-2009, smack in the middle of the\n    years the  Engines were active. While The Engines released a handful of\n    recordings,  The Outskirts released exactly zero.  In fact, if it weren\u2019t\n    for  Rempis\u2019s now legendary COVID era 15-week, 15-livestream, 15-album\n    release series we would not have access to any recorded evidence of The\n    Outskirts at all.\n\n\n\n\n\n    \n        On July 1, 2020\n    \n    Dave took to the internet to perform solo and announce the release of the\n    album You Deserve To Dance by the Outskirts, a recording he tells\n    the audience that \u201cnever saw the  light of day\u201d because the original\n    \u201cmultitrack files that allow you to  mix a record were lost in a terrible\n    hard drive accident.\u201d  The band,  however, was given a rough stereo mix that\n    allowed Rempis, over a decade  later, to release the music.  That night on\n    the livestream, Dave did  not perform any songs by The Outskirts, but he did\n    play \u201cFour Feet of  Slush,\u201d song four on The Engines album\n    \n        Wire and Brass\n    \n    reviewed at the time by\n    \n        The Free Jazz Collective.\n    \n\n\n\n\n\n    \u201cFour Feet of Slush,\u201d it turns out, is the very first song on\n    \n        Orbital\n    \n    .  Followers of Dave Rempis\u2019s music will likely find this shocking as,\n    first, Rempis, who pushes so urgently forward in the moment, performs  songs\n    from his past, and second, a Dave Rempis album contains\n    songs,written-out songs. I mean, Dave never does\n    this.  His bands collaborate spontaneously, improvise live,  sometimes for\n    hours, and these works get recorded and Dave releases some  of them on\n    Aerophonic Records, often with the help of engineer Dave  Zuchowski, artist\n    Lasse Marhaug and others.\n\n\n\n\n\n    And The Engines songs do not stop  there.  Listeners will recognize\n    \u201cCascades,\u201d \u201cHover,\u201d \u201cStrafe,\u201d and  while it is not listed among the track\n    titles, \u201cGoing Dutch,\u201d a deep  track from a 2015 digital only Engines album\n    titled Green Knights.   \u201cGoing Dutch,\u201d found here on \u201cStrafe-Glass\n    Part 1\u201d however, reminds me  of early Ornette Coleman albums, if Sonny\n    Rollins were the front man  with the flexible time and forward swinging of\n    Billy Higgins and Charlie  Haden. Or, more aptly, the tune reminds me of the\n    playing of still  another Rempis band from the early aughts: Triage.  In\n    fact, the one  non-Engines song on this performance is \u201cGlass,\u201d a tune\n    recorded by  Triage on 2003\u2019s twenty minute cliff.\n\n\n\n\n\n    Orbital is far from reactive or sentimental, however.  The trio\n    takes these  songs and makes something new and strange out of them. See, for\n    example,  the 8:25 mark of \u201cStrafe,\u201d when Dave and Frank explore improvised\n    atmospheric sounds, more searching than swinging.  But Ingo, Rosaly, and\n    Rempis honestly sound like they are having a blast on this record and,\n    given a thematic basis for mood and timbre, the group launches ahead,\n    driving, laughing, and transforming these old tunes.\n\n\n\n\n\n    If you are anything like me, you would probably rather forget all about\n    2020, and on the Outskirts release stream from that July, before\n    playing \u201cFour Feet of Slush,\u201d  Dave quips the song applies to the time:\n    \u201cLet\u2019s call it \u2018Four Feet of  Shit,\u2019 how about that?\u201d  But those livestreams\n    and the accompanying  releases raised thousands of dollars for working\n    musicians, and honestly  helped me to stay afloat during that period of\n    uncertainty.  The past,  even without nostalgia, can light up the present,\n    as do my fond memories  of the April concert in Philadelphia. So, although\n    we may be walking  through four feet of shit again in 2026, The Outskirts\n    have arrived to  provide the soundtrack one more time and to gift us a\n    little warmth  where there was none before.\n\n\n\n\n\n    Orbital can be purchased artist direct at\n    \n        https:\/\/www.aerophonicrecords.com\/catalog.\u00a0\n\u00a0\nOrbital by The Outskirts - Rempis\/Flaten\/Rosaly + Marta Warelis\nRead part two.\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li  style=\"padding: 15px 0 25px\" class=\"rss_item\">\n                \n                <div class=\"rss_image\" style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/03\/peter-evans-being-becoming-live-at.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Peter Evans Being &amp; Becoming - Live At Bimhuis\"   style=\"width:150px; height:150px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"fetched\" style=\"background-image:  url('https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/vyQkQZi8Hjc\/default.jpg');\" title=\"Peter Evans Being &amp; Becoming - Live At Bimhuis\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\/2026\/03\/peter-evans-being-becoming-live-at.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPeter Evans Being &amp; Becoming - Live At Bimhuis\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"rss_content\" style=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<small>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tby <a href=\"\/\/www.freejazzblog.org\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.freejazzblog.org\" >noreply@blogger.com (Stef Gijssels)<\/a> on March 29, 2026 at 7:00 am\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>This is a treat - the full concert of Peter Evans' Being &amp; Becoming at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam in 2023, with Peter Evans on trumpet, Joel Ross on vibraphone, Nick Jozwiak on bass and Michael Ode on drums. The quality of the recording and the editing are - as usual with Bimhuis TV - excellent.\u00a0\nReviews of the band can be found here: Ars Ludica (2025), Ars Memoria (2023), and their original \"Being &amp; Becoming\" (2020). The music is tightly composed with lots of room for improvisation. Some of the soloing and interplay are absolutely spectacular.\u00a0One of our Sunday Interviews with Peter Evans can be found here.\u00a0\n\n\n\u00a0Subscrib [\u2026]<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            <\/ul> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-759","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3132,"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759\/revisions\/3132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/music2121.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}