Art Ensemble of Chicago - Chi-Congo

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - Chi-Congo (Paula Records, 1973)

Lester Bowie: trumpet, flugelhorn, steer horn, bass drum
Roscoe Mitchell: saxophone, clarinet, flute, percussion
Joseph Jarman: saxophone, clarinet, oboe, flute, guitar, percussion
Malachi Favors: bass, banjo, percussion
Famoudou Don Moye: percussion

1. Chi-Congo
2. Enlorfe Part 1
3. Enlorfe Part 2
4. Hippparippp

You either love or hate these guys. If you believe that jazz is the sound of surprise, then these fellows occupy a special place in your heart. If, like others, you believe jazz is to be taken seriously and played only by men in suits, then this record will drive you batty. True to form, the tunes here have the loose kinetic swing that drives their early records, Ornette-ish funk and Miles-ish bop fractured by the hoots of whistles and the occasional yelp. Beyond everything else, though, is the undeniable fact that these gentlemen are sterling musicians and everything is done for a purpose, exactly when they want it to happen. A wonderful record by a bunch of really great guys.

HERE

CINC (Paul Lytton, Ken Vandermark, Philipp Wachsmann)

CINC (Okkadisk, 2007)

Ken Vandermark: reeds
Philipp Wachsmann: violin, viola, electronics
Paul Lytton: drums

1. Poitiers 3
2. Ljubljana 2
3. Ljubljana 3
4. Ljubljana 4
5. Ljubljana 6

Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark is about as well known as a jazz fan as he is a jazz musician. With a breakneck release schedule (two discs is a slow year for him), he has found time to compose and lead his own bands while paying respect to his elders: tribute albums to Sonny Rollins, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Joe Harriot, a band organized around Peter Brötzmann, and bonus discs filled with live versions of “jazz classics” that accompanied some of his quintet releases.
But he’s a fiery blower, and one area he’s spent less time exploring is the particularly British quietude. His English Suites with percussionist Paul Lytton was an admirable attempt, but this new trio disc with Lytton and violinist Philipp Wachsmann finds him squarely in the middle of territory that has been occupied by the likes of Evan Parker, Barry Guy and John Edwards. The trio is touring and has laid down five tracks (recorded at concerts in France and Slovenia in 2004) for a limited edition release initially only available at performances.

While it’s a bit of a departure for Vandermark, he easily finds his place amid two innovative improvisers each some twenty years his senior. Lytton and Wachsmann have both played in the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, the King Ubü Orchestrü and Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. They are proficient in English extended improv of a school perhaps more fluid but no more idiomatic than Derek Bailey’s playing. Vandermark is anything but bashful in his projects, and this would seem to be another sink-or-swim proposition for him, which as usual he pulls off swimmingly.

The disc begins in quiet abstraction with the players circling each other, not quite soloing but shifting to and from the forefront. By the midpoint, however, Vandermark is pushing through, blowing hard lines with Lytton keeping pace on a controlled snare. But the one to listen to here is Wachsmann. Against the brittle horn and drums, he tends to fall toward the back much of the time. His electronic washes and thoughtful violin lines push this well beyond an English Suites sequel.

On record, the trio tends to blur: reeds and strings rub against Lytton’s seemingly almost accidental drumming until he switches to sheets of metal and the triangle again shifts. But at Tonic on June 12, it was easier to discern them as three pieces (it’s the sort of band where visuals help). Even on baritone sax, Vandermark found a place in the upper registers of his bandmates. But whether heard as a triad or something more singular, Cinc builds sparse yet protean and quite nice sound spaces.

If there’s one criticism to be made about Vandermark, it’s that his tribute projects are often efforts of respect that don’t add much to the originals. But when he approaches a style rather than specific compositions—as with the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet—he throws himself in headlong. Cinc is, with hope, just a preview of another Vandermark dedication. (from AAJ)

HERE

Ustad Bismillah Khan & Bageshwari Qamar - Shehnai Jugalbandi

Bismillah Khan & Bageshwari Qamar - Shehnai Jugalbandi (TIPS, 1994)

Ustad Bismillah Khan: shehnai
Bageshwari Qamar: shehnai
Nazim Hussain: tabla
Basharat Hussain: khurdak
Nayyar Hussain: shehnai
Mumtaz Hussain: shehnai
Nahne Hussain: shehnai

1. Raga Todi
2. Raga Madhuwanti
3. Raga Yaman

HERE

1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground

1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground (Sublime Frequencies, 2008)

1. Bellemou & Benfissa - Li Maandouche L'Auto
2. Groupe El Azhar - Mazal Nesker Mazal
3. Groupe El Azhar - Touedar Aakli
4. Bellemou & Benfissa - Lah Lah Ya S'habi
5. Boutaiba Sghir - Dayha Oulabes
6. Boutaiba Sghir - Malgré Tout
7. Boutaiba Sghir - El Fermlia
8. Cheb Zergui - Ana Dellali

HERE
Thanks to miskov from exp etc

Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, Günter Sommer - Touch The Earth

Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, Günter Sommer - Touch The Earth (Amiga, 1979)

Leo Smith: trumpet, flugelhorn, mbira
Peter Kowald: bass
Günter Sommer: drums, percussion, organpipes

1. Gebr. Loesch
2. Touch The Earth
3. Wind Song in a Dance of Unity
4. In Light
5. Ein Stuck Uber Dem Boden
6. Radepur Im Februar

HERE

Peter Brötzmann, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Peter Friis Nielsen & Johannes Bauer - The Wild Mans Band

Peter Brötzmann, Peter Ole Jørgensen, Peter Friis Nielsen & Johannes Bauer - The Wild Mans Band (Ninth World, 1997)

Peter Brötzmann: clarinet, tenor saxophone, tárogató
Peter Friis Nielsen: bass
Peter Ole Jørgensen: drums
Johannes Bauer: trombone

1-DT 104
2-Nymphalis Antiopa
3-Dead Mans Camp
4-Unfaithful Ant
5-Towers
6-Omnibus
7-Mad Cow Disease

Recorded in Copenhagen in 1997, this quartet is truly a group of wild men. The three Peters on reeds, bass, and drums, respectively, and trombonist Johannes Bauer create a new European improvisation music that is full of humor, rage, abstraction, and even perversion. Playing through a brief introduction of sequence variations, the disc really opens with "Nymphalis Antipoa," a six-minute tonal study that features Bauer exploring the nether regions of his instrument while Brötzmann plays through a restrained dark melody before giving way to a fragmental bass solo by Jørgensen on electric bass. Nothing rises above a whisper and no statement is played for more than a note or three on the way to tonal equity. This is short-lived, however, as the entire record explodes into a war-zone free for all on "Dead Man's Camp." This is the kind of music one would expect from this bunch and it never stops from here on out. Brötzmann is the gang leader and his wailing skeins of cascading scalar fury infect the rest of the band. Bauer answers his lines in a free kind of counterpoint and then extends the broken harmonic into a timbral circus. Friis Neilsen is the one who is most on his own though, as the short, clipped basslines give him little to go on except for the "texture" of rhythm. But on he goes, digging deep into his cymbals for ballast and pushing forth great heaving sighs of tom-tom thrumming atop the scattered rim shots that punctuate both saxophone and trombone. This is an exhaustive and exhausting exercise in free jazz tomfoolery of the best and wildest kind. (from AMG)

HERE

Kalyani Roy & Ali Ahmed Hussain - Soul of India

Kalyani Roy & Ali Ahmed Hussain - Soul of India (ABC, 1968)

Kalyani Roy: sitar
Ali Ahmed Hussain: shehnai

1. Raga: Jaunpuri: Alap; Jod; Gat; Taal:Teental
2. Raga: Kedara – Alap; Gat Taal:Teental
3. Dhun

HERE

Yusuf Omar & Ensemble al-Tchalghi al-Baghdadi - Iraqi Maqâm / Baghdad Tradition

Yusuf Omar & Ensemble al-Tchalghi al-Baghdadi - Iraqi Maqâm, Baghdad Tradition (Inédit, 1972)

Yusuf Omar: vocalist
Ensemble al-Tchalghi al-Baghdadi
Abdallah Ali: santûr
Shaoubi Ibrahim, Hassan Ali al-Nakib: djôzé
Abdul Razzak Madjid: tabla
Kan’an Mohammad Salih: reqq
Dia Mahmoud Ahmad: zindjâri
Ali al-Dabbou, Abdul Wahid Zeidan, Falih Djawhar, Abdul Kadir: choir

Compact Disc I
1. Maqâm Rest......................21’39”
2. Maqâm Bayât....................18’58”
3. Maqâm Nawâ .................. 17’46”
Compact Disc II
1. Maqâm Hidjâz Diwân.......19’31”
2. Maqâm cAdjam .................15’27”
3. Maqâm Mansûri ...............22’55”

Six Maqâm (vocal and instrumental suites) performed by one of the greatest Iraki singers of this century, accompanied by a tchalghi baghdadi traditional group (santûr zither, djozé bowed lute, and percussions).

CD1
CD2

Ali Akbar Moradi - Fire of Passion

ALI AKBAR MORADI - FIRE OF PASSION (7/8 Music Productions, 1999)

Ali Akbar Moradi: tanbur
Pejman Hadadi: daf

01-Introduction (Prayer)
02-Songs of Nostalgia
03-Magham Allahwaisy And Hejrani
04-Sema Of Tanbur
05-Continuation Of Magham Allahwaisy
06-Intimate Dialog
07-The Caravan
08-Magham Of Ghatar And Tarz
09-Sejar
10-Gallop

“Teheran-based Ali-Akbar Moradi is considered a virtuoso on the tanbur, a plucked string instrument with a pear–shaped belly fashioned from a single piece of mulberry wood. The tanbur has always been considered a sacred instrument associated with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran. Moradi is accompanied by Pejman Hadadi, the finest Irnanian percussionist living in America, who plays the daf, a large frame drum covered with goat skin with rows of metal rings jangling about on the inside. He also plays the tombak, which is similar to a dumbek but made also from solid mulberry wood. Its warm tone complements the rapid strumming and plucking on the banjo-like tanbur. This recording was made during a 1999 U.S. tour and, in a word, these duets are extraordinary. Having performed together only three times previously, Moradi and Hadadi play entirely improvisational Kurdish music on this date, presenting their amazing skills as one triumphant spirit. Together they soar into wild molten riffs, and then return to earth to deppict the sad reality of a people without an independent state of their own.”

William Bloomhuff, “Rhythm”, May 2001

HERE

Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Akbar Moradi - In the Mirror of the Sky

Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Akbar Moradi - In the Mirror of the Sky (World Village, 2004)

Kayhan Kalhor: kamanchech
Ali Akbar Moradi: tanbur, vocal
Pejman Hadadi: tombak

01-Sar Aghaz (Introduction)
02-Showgh (Joyful Anticipation)
03-Maqam-E Gel-E Wa Darreh-Avaz (Brings Him Back Maqam-Vocal)
04-Gol Wa Khuk-Mogadameh (Flower and Earth-Introduction)
05-Maqam-E Gol Wa Khuk (Flower and Earth Maqam)
06-Gel-E Wa Darreh-Foroud (Brings Him Back-Landing)
07-Majnooni-Bedaah-E Bar Asaas-E Naghmeh Panj Zarbi
08-Maqam-E Alwand-Avaz (Alwand Maqam-Vocal)
09-Foroud (Landing)
10-Choopi (Dance)

The Persian and Kurdish musical traditions are neighbors, but rarely meet. But in this case they've come together spectacularly in the hands of two Iranians. Kayhan Kalhor (Ghazal, Master of Persian Music) is a remarkable performer on the kamancheh, or traditional spike fiddle, while Ali Akbar Moradi is a master of the lute-like tanbur. While the tanbur has long been associated with the Yarsan people of Western Iran, and its Ahl-e Haqq faith, Moradi has given it secular exposure. Here, in fact, with Kalhor, he explores the traditional tanbur repertoire of the Yarsan, the two (along with drummer Pejman Hadadi) fashioning wonderful improvisations on Yanbur themes. There's an instinctive communication between the musicians that creates a tension and a palpable magic (just listen to the filigree that's "Gel-e Darreh-foroud," for example). Both have the technique and imagination to carry this off in style. It's more than full of Eastern promise; it's an absolute delight to the ears to hear these two playing off each other, or tackling pieces like "Maqam-eAlwand-Avaz," where Kalhor plays around Moradi's vocal before they take off for the instrumental stratosphere. Essentially, there's nothing exotic about this except the sound of the instruments themselves. It's simply a gorgeous piece of work, very accessible, the sound of two virtuosos collaborating. (from AMG)

HERE

Rob Brown Ensemble - Crown Trunk Root Funk

Rob Brown Ensemble - Crown Trunk Root Funk (AUM Fidelity, 2008)

Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Craig Taborn: piano, electronics
William Parker: bass
Gerald Cleaver: drums

01-Rocking Horse
02-Clearly Speaking
03-Sonic Ecosystem
04-Ghost Dog
05-Exuberance
06-Lifeboat
07-Worlds Spinning

After its successful premier at the 2006 Vision Festival, alto saxophonist Rob Brown took his newest ensemble into the studio to record Crown Trunk Root Funk, his first recording as a leader for AUM Fidelity. A formidable blend of funky abstraction, angular post-bop and dark impressionism, it offers an expansive view of Brown's adventurous aesthetic.

A two decade plus veteran of New York City's Downtown scene, Brown employs three of today's most in-demand sidemen in this quartet. Bandleader, composer and bassist William Parker shares a performing history with Brown dating back twenty years. Drummer Gerald Cleaver has been a regular collaborator of Brown's recently, while pianist Craig Taborn is relatively new to Brown's oeuvre, playing with him for the first time in 2006.

Brown's acerbic alto takes center stage over the course of these roiling, intensely rhythmic tunes, with Taborn's jagged cadences offering reliable support. Eschewing token traditionalism, Taborn avoids conventional comping, liberally unspooling brittle linear phrases under Brown's circuitous salvos, as on the thorny "Lifeboat." Working in tandem, Brown and Taborn meander through the shadowy "Ghost Dog," weaving through labyrinthine passages driven by a percolating groove and sinewy bass ostinato.

Longstanding partners, Taborn and Cleaver unveil their intuitive rapport on "Sonic Ecosystem," the album's sole electronic piece. Glitchy hums emanate from lo-fi electronics as Taborn accents undulating sine waves with pointillist piano phrases, while Cleaver quietly responds with scintillating tones. Sporadically interrupted by a plangent unison theme from Brown's plaintive alto and Parker's bowed bass, their conversation continues unabated.

Clocking countless studio hours together, Taborn, Parker and Cleaver are frequent rhythm section companions. Whether locking into the slow burn vamp of "Rocking Horse" or navigating shifting meters on the knotty post-bop of "Clearly Speaking," they demonstrate their affable interplay with fluid invention.

Eclipsing structural traditions, Brown spars with Cleaver on the first half of "Exuberance," discharging pithy, fragmentary spirals as Cleaver throttles his kit with unfettered abandon before the entire group reconvenes.

Despite the album's overall focus on rhythm, Brown reveals a soulful, impressionistic side on "World's Spinning," closing the record with stark, yearning lyricism.

With over a dozen albums to his credit, Crown Trunk Root Funk is one of Brown's most engaging. (from AAJ)

HERE

Free Jazz Quartet - Premonitions

Paul Rutherford: trombone
Harrison Smith: soprano & tenor saxophones, bass clarinet
Tony Moore: cello
Eddie Prevost: drums

1989 PREMONITIONS (Matchless Recordings) mediafire/rapidshare

Thomas Lehn & Paul Lovens - Achtung

Thomas Lehn: analogue synthesizer
Paul Lovens: selected & unselected drums and cymbals, singing saw

This special duo constellation rests in this freedom of cliches. Although the music is occasionally incredibly dense and present, it can hardly be fixed. Is it energy powerplay? Finely linked sound research? Post Free Jazz? English School? Is that a kind of duet for percussion instruments? Or electro-acoustic music par excellence? Is it what one expects? Or something completely different?
Lehn and Lovens know, in any case, how to surprise us-in the logical sense of the word! Because, when someone suddenly calls out "Achtung!" [Look out!] that doesn't mean by a long shot that we are prepared for what will come.

2000 ACHTUNG (GROB) mediafire/rapidshare

Hamiet Bluiett, Marcello Melis, Don Moye - Bars

Hamiet Bluiett: baritone saxophone
Marcello Melis: bass
Don Moye: drums

Trois musiciens, mais une seule voix. Les trois individualités se distinguent clairement autant qu'elles se confondent en UNE seule et unique voix. Les genres se succèdent pour qu'un axe commun à tous les titres apparaisse au fur et à mesure. Les genres et les personnes, ce sont le swing post-bop de Bluiett, les appels à l'insurrection pizzicato et l'archet aux accents parfois furieux de Melis, et enfin la fluctuation de Famoudou: du jazz au rythmes bantous, from ancient to future. 1977: la période bop est définitivement close mais Bluiett ne veut pas réellement en sortir, l'improvisation collective héritée d'Ornette sert alors d'exutoire comme la Great Black Music chère aux membres de l'AACM, le phrasé bop se transforme petit à petit pour finir en cri, le CRI cher aux coltraniens. Mais ce qui permet à Bluiett de se surpasser ici, c'est certainement cette rythmique de taré, ce duo du méconnu Melis avec le fameux batteur de l'AEOC: Don Moye. Le baryton se retrouve en paysage parfois inexploré: la scène européenne surgit avec Melis mais se retrouve écrasée par le continent africain suggéré et invoqué par Famoudou. Et nous, qu'est-ce qu'on a dans l'oreille? des marches insurrectionnelles, des invocations d'esprits, une énergie typique du bop qui n'exprime rien d'autre qu'une puissance vitale prête à exploser (l'explosion sera le free). Mais l'explosion est maîtrisé, ce n'est pas le foutoir comme dans certains AEOC ou dans les premiers enregistrements européens, Bars, c'est le condensé de 15 ans de pratique d'improvisation, l'histoire de l'improvisation entre 65 et 75: un équilibre magnifique qui longe le fil du bop à l'improvisation libre nourrie de la musique noire. C'est cet équilibre qui alimente alors un dialogue magnifique entre nos trois maîtres, dialogue qui n'est pas polyphonique mais laisse quand même une grande place à l'expression de la singularité de chacun, même si ces singularités se fondent finalement en une seule voix, en un seul cri. (from ImprovSphere)

1977 BARS (Musica Records) rapidshare/mediafire

Frank Lowe - Fresh

Frank Lowe: tenor saxophone
Lester Bowie: trumpet
Joseph Bowie: trombone
Abdul Wadud: cello
Steve Reid: drums
Charles Bobo Shaw: drums
+ The Memphis Four

The emphasis is on color and sound on this spirited avant-garde album. Four of the five selections feature the adventurous tenor of Frank Lowe with trumpeter Lester Bowie, trombonist Joseph Bowie, cellist Abdul Wadud and either Steve Reid or Bob Shaw on drums. They perform two Lowe originals and two pieces by Thelonious Monk; these renditions are full of surprises and contrasts. In addition, Lowe is heard with an unknown group of local musicians called "the Memphis Four" on "Chu's Blues" in 1974. Open-eared listeners should find this set to be quite stimulating. (from AMG)

1974 FRESH (Freedom) rapidshare/mediafire

Mawja - Live One

Michael T. Bullock: contrabass, feedback
Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet
Vic Rawlings: cello, surface electronics

“Mary Staubitz emailed me asking, 'do you and Vic want to play with this guy from Lebanon?' Mary was booking a series of noise shows at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA, and had been contacted, apparently out of the blue, by 'this trumpet player from Beirut.' She wanted to help him out but wasn`t sure what to do, since none of us in Boston really knew anything about him. Vic and I have had a duo established since 2000, so I knew at least I wouldn`t be totally out to sea with this new guy. I agreed and so did Vic: we would meet Mazen for the first time at the gig. We did just that. I walked into the Midway the night of the gig and saw a tall Middle Eastern man standing in the middle. The Midway is a very rowdy, noisy joint even when the music is not playing, so conversation was limited to pleasantries, and 30 minutes later the three of us were on “stage” (actually the middle of the floor in front of the tiny stage, the only place we could fit two large string instruments, two amps, and Mazen`s table crowded with trumpet preparations). Then something happened - music came tumbling out. Immediately, and for the entire set, we were in that state of mind that most groups work for months or years to achieve; the music played itself. Harsh, mild, tense, limber, awkward in the best ways, and above all, effortless. After it was over we knew we had to play again, soon, and often. We set about booking a tour for the next time Mazen could come to the US. This disc, along with “Studio One” on Al Maslakh, is the products of that intensely creative week.” Michael Bullock - Troy, June 2007

2007 LIVE ONE (Chloë) rapidshare/mediafire

Mawja - Studio One

Michael T. Bullock: contrabass, feedback
Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet
Vic Rawlings: cello, surface electronics

CD LINER NOTES

ONE STRIKE ISN'T ENOUGH

This album struck me like a big wave, a wave that makes you lose your consciousness and equilibrium for several minutes, leaving you wondering what just happened to you during this elusive lapse of time. Probably this is exactly the purpose of this trio, where as their music draws rust from your very skin, suburban rust, from those big suburbs where the individual melts, and all individuality is melted by the heavy burden that eats all. The sound ate the self, ate the collective, ate time, and invaded space.
I wasn’t expecting such a radical treatment of sound. The music here goes out of time, depriving it of its value despite the usual ties that link time and music as an art form. What we hear is rather a strong binding with space, using it as a compositional tool. This music does not move, but it wanders like blocks of colours or shapes in the empty.
The reunion of Bullock, Rawlings and Kerbaj for this recording leaves no possibilities for any future; it is a meeting of the here and now, like the musical result that is released with this recording. The Present time is simultaneously constructed and deconstructed, making the “now quality” predominant on the atmosphere of this record. The unified sound of the trio fills the air like a short-wave radio signal, carrying its usual load of small marginal details; a sound that resembles music or walks by it without remorse, not stopping at any station along the way.
Three musicians, both friends and enemies, yet above all partners of this same game, where there are no rules for improvising; one erases the other, without regret, for the sake of unity in sound.

Raed Yassin
Beirut, March 2007

2005 STUDIO ONE (Al Maslakh) rapidshare/mediafire

The Rob Brown Trio - Live at Firehouse 12

Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Daniel Levin: cello
Satoshi Takeishi: percussion

Many years before I started this blog, I already had a kind of bookkeeping file of all my records, with pretty much the same evaluation system, also with a star notation. Of the seven albums that I have of alto saxophonist Rob Brown as a leader (and I know he released more than that), all of them have a four star rating, which demonstrates that, over the years, he not only managed to keep the same high quality of the performances itself, but also that he is sufficiently creative to keep things interesting and new to listeners. On this nice album, recorded live a the Firehouse in November of last year, Brown is accompanied by Daniel Levin on cello and Satoshi Takeishi on drums, the same band that released the great "Sounds" in 2007. Just like on that album, the music is very open, slow, disciplined and almost meditative at moments. The first piece "Quick Be Nimble" starts with an Ornette Coleman-like theme, and with the same stop-and-go kind of feeling, but then it shifts into a more impressionistic mode, letting go of all rhythm and melody, for some beautiful sound coloring, and a nice cello solo, then switching back to the theme, gentle and soft. The second composition is a real treat, with a plucked intro by Levin, the percussion slowly joining with nice bell-like sounds, and a beautiful melody by Brown, lightly dancing, joyful and sweet, but then the tune gets boppish in the middle, gathering tempo and volume, only to get slower again at the end. "On A Lark" is more in the free idiom, sounding totally improvised, but according to the liner notes it was composed. The last piece, "Stray(horn)", is a tribute to Billy Strayhorn (or what did you think?), played with possibly the slowest tempo possible, with alto phrasings by Brown that could fit the jazz of the fifties, but then never for long, because his true art lies of course in free expression and emotional expressivity, restrained yet intense, clear in tone yet powerful too, lamenting and singing at the same time. Brown is a great aloist, no doubt about it. He's a great composer too. And in Levin and Takeishi he found the perfect soulmates to deliver his delicate and free musical vision. The only thing lacking is the audience, where is it? (from Free Jazz)

2009 LIVE AT FIREHOUSE 12 (Not Two Records) rapidshare/mediafire

Bismillah Khan & Party - Sarang / Dadra / Chandra Kauns / Kajaree

Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1969 SARANG-DADRA-CHANDRA KAUNS-KAJAREE (EMI) mediafire
thanks to Mr Fear from Snap, Crackle & Pop

L. Subramaniam with Ustad Bismillah Khan - Live in Geneva

L. Subramaniam: violin
Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1988 LIVE IN GENEVA (CBS) mediafire

Ustad Bismillah Khan - The Soul of Shahnai

Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1979 THE SOUL OF SHAHNAI (EMI) mediafire
thanks to bolingo69 from Anthems for the Nation of Luobaniya 罗巴尼亚国歌

Ustad Bismillah Khan - Master Musicians of India

Bismillah Khan: shehnai

MASTER MUSICIANS OF INDIA (Saregama) rapidshare/mediafire
thanks to owlqaeda from holywarbles

Ehnahre - Taming the cannibals

Ryan McGuire - Bass, Double Bass, Vocals, Percussion (Kayo Dot)
John Carchia - Guitar, Vocals (Kayo Dot)
Ricardo Donoso - Drums

Other contributors :

Jonah Jenkins - Vocals (Only Living Witness, Raw Radar War, Milligram, Miltown)
Forbes Graham - Trumpet (Kayo Dot, XthoughtstreamsX)
Greg Kelley - Trumpet (Nmperign, Heathen Shame)
Greg Massi - Guitar (Baliset, Maudlin of the Well/Kayo Dot)
Noell Dorsey - Vocals
C. Spencer Yeh - Violin


Hey, it's written "others", no ? Ehnahre is other. Ok, metal, brutal, but other.

Here

Bismillah Khan - Shehnai Nawaz

Ustad Bismillah Khan: shehnai

1971 SHEHNAI NAWAZ (His Master's Voice) rapidshare/mediafire

Ustad Bismillah Khan - First LP Record

Ustad Bismillah Khan: shehnai

FIRST LP RECORD rapidshare/mediafire

Frank Lowe - Black Beings

Frank Lowe: tenor saxophone
Joseph Jarman: soprano & alto saxophones
The Wizard (Raymond Lee Chang OR Leroy Jenkins?): violin
William Parker: bass
Rashid Sinan: drums

The age of the LP was often one of compromise for jazz musicians. Given the restrictions on playing time, recordings had to be edited to fit. This meant a loss of ideas and of development with the truncated versions being shadows of the whole. The emergence of the CD has seen the revival of music with the whole performance included. Sometimes the edits were better, but many times the complete picture brings in a deeper dimension and impact. The latter sensibility grabs this recording which has fifteen minutes added to "In Trane's Name" and "Thulani."

Recorded in 1973, Frank Lowe (tenor saxophone) pulled in Joseph Jarman (soprano and alto saxophones) and William Parker (bass) to fly into the eye of free jazz. Lowe was into the music after John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1965), and the influence and impact can be felt right through. Lowe went out on a musical limb here; the genre was not a long-term residence for him.

It all opens quietly enough with "In Trane's Name." Lowe plays with control, giving the melody its due, but when the tune erupts, the power and the force are incendiary. Both Lowe and Jarman propel and edge the music onwards, fermenting and brewing ideas on the go. There is howl and yell and intensely volatile notes shooting into the stratosphere. Jarman hits the high squiggles, squeezing out the notes, the torque tight. Lowe swipes a broader swath as he gets into a conversation with Jarman, if that's what the charged atmosphere can be called. Give the band credit though for not letting the tune spiral out of control, they bring it down, cooling the pace for the mid-section.

"Thulani" is another agitated progression, with Lowe and Jarman moving on different planes; the former is steady on the beat and the melody, the later unfurls a whorl of free motifs. But it is not long before Lowe dives into the pith and tears form apart.

Parker and Rashid Sinan (drums) are an energetic and propulsive rhythm section. As for The Wizard on violin, it is Raymond Lee Chang and not Leroy Jenkins, whose playing informs Chang through a few shimmering lines on his solo outing during "Thulani," a waft of freshness in the heat. But he, too, is caught in the turmoil most of the way.

Black Beings serves as an historical document and stopping-off point in the musical legacy of Lowe, showing a rare side of the musician.

1973 BLACK BEINGS (ESP) rapidshare/mediafire

Christine Sehnaoui, Dragos Tara, d'incise - At

Christine Sehnaoui: alto saxophone
Dragos Tara: doublebass, radio
d'incise: laptop, objects, cymbals

2010 AT .EP (conv)

Heddy Boubaker - Not Smooth, Never

Heddy Boubaker: alto & bass saxophones

2010 NOT SMOOTH, NEVER .EP (conv)

Christine Sehnaoui & Sven-Åke Johansson - La Vase / Slikke

Christine Sehnaoui: alto saxophone
Sven-Åke Johansson: percussion, crackle box

2010 LA VASE/SLIKKE (SÅJ Records) rapidshare/mediafire
Review by Elliott Sharp

Johannes Bauer / Thomas Lehn / Jon Rose - Futch

Johannes Bauer: trombone
Thomas Lehn: analogue synthesizer
Jon Rose: violin, electronics

There are several things that seem impossible about the Fucht trio. Their mesh of instruments — Conrad Bauer's trombone, Thomas Lehn's analogue synthesizer, Rose's violin and electronics — is an unlikely amalgamation, fat in the midrange and, with neither frets nor valves, ripe with slippery indeterminacy. The players, too, are an unlikely combination: Rose is a tireless conceptualist, making music out of political borders and rewriting economics and history like a viol-centric Marco Polo. While Bauer played previously with Rose in the Slawterhouse quartet, he is better known in adventurous jazz realms, having played with Peter Brötzmann, Barry Guy, Ken Vandermark and Alan Silva. Lehn can usually be found in the hotter end of less idiomatic free improv with John Butcher, Cor Fuehler and the group Konk Pack. The name they've chosen for themselves, German for "gone" or "spoiled" suggests something about their group work, although it might just as much be misleading.

But what is most unlikely about their disc, recorded over two sessions in 2006, is how impossibly close all the sounds are. The album drills maddeningly into the brain from the first moments. There is no background here, no comping or accompaniment, no division of duties. They could almost have been a proper trio: Lehn's ever mutating pops and whistles are generally percussive; Bauer could have fallen easily into a bass register; Rose might have chosen to play the melody lead like a voice or saxophone. But that, presumably, would have been going too easy on the unsuspecting listener.

Instead they frenetically circle and burrow, creating a new sonic situation every few seconds, working, it seems, inches from the listener's ears. They are working together, constantly picking up on suggestions from each other but never falling into formation. They create musical fragments only to ignore or destroy them. Futch is restless, relentless, occasionally hilarious and always commanding of attention. The bold will use headphones.(from TheSquid'sEar)

2006 FUTCH (Jazwerkstatt) rapidshare/mediafire

Brainbombs - Anne Frank

Keith Rowe / Axel Dörner / Franz Hautzinger - A View From The Window

Keith Rowe - guitars, electronics
Franz Hautzinger - slide trumpet
Axel Dörner - quatertone trumpet

Press release from Erstwhile: April 2004

Trumpeters Axel Dörner and Franz Hautzinger transcend many of the aesthetic and geographical factions that have evolved over four decades of European free improv, contributing their gorgeous tones to a wide variety of contexts. On A View From The Window, they join forces with the intensely focused Keith Rowe, one of the sceneÕs founding fathers, and explore the abstract limits of their respective palettes.

RoweÕs history should be familiar to anyone following this area of music. Having mostly performed within AMM until the late nineties, heÕs since been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of the most prominent Erstwhile releases. HeÕs the cornerstone musician for the label, and is co-curating the upcoming AMPLIFY festival in Cologne and Berlin, AMPLIFY 2004: addition.

Dörner hails from Cologne, and has been living in Berlin since 1994. He is one of the busiest musicians in the European improv scene, working in projects ranging from free improv ensembles like the Territory Band and The Electrics to more abstract ensembles such as Phosphor and Lines. He recently put out a superb trio disc on Creative Sources with Boris Baltschun and Kai Fagaschinski. This is his second project for Erstwhile, following the self-titled duos with Kevin Drumm, released in 2001.

Hautzinger, based in Vienna, has recorded numerous projects for Grob, including the solo Gomberg, a duo with Derek Bailey, and Absinth (a quartet with Werner Dafeldecker, Sachiko M, and John Tilbury). He has worked with an impressive diversity of musicians, including Gil Evans, John Cale, Christian Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Butch Morris, Phill Niblock, Lou Reed, and the Temptations. This is his first project for Erstwhile.

A View From The Window was recorded in a single day in Vienna in November 2003 by Christoph Amann, superbly as always. The CD captures these three musicians paring their signature sounds down to their essences, with the occasional plaintive trumpet cry or subtle radio snippet emerging from the delicate intertwining. Photojournalist Yuko Zama was in attendance for the sessions, and became drawn to the glimpse of sky visible through one of the studioÕs windows. She took dozens of pictures from different angles, and her fascination inspired Rowe to title the record after the Cardew quote (see below), and to paint a more 'optimistic' version of one of her photos for the front cover.

"...it is impossible to record with any fidelity a kind of music that is actually derived from the room in which it is taking place - its size, shape, acoustical properties, even the view from the window..." - Cornelius Cardew, Towards an Ethic of Improvisation

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