James Chance & The Contortions - White Cannibal

James Chance & The Contortions
Guest: Joseph Bowie (on the two last tracks: Money to burn & Contort yourself)

Review

by Al Campbell

Originally released as a ROIR cassette-only, these brutal, yet danceable, live tracks were recorded in New York at the Peppermint Lounge and the '80s Club in 1980 and '81. James Chance and the Contortions mixed punk, free jazz, and funk that has yet to be matched, epitomizing the seedy underbelly of the New York no wave scene of the period. Unlike certain Lydia Lunch performance art projects of the time, Chance provides a timeless attack by combining screeching alto sax and vocal rants with a relentless disco beat. Ornette Coleman and Ronald Shannon Jackson guitarist Bern Nix and trombonist Joseph Bowie (brother of Lester) bring jazz credentials to this late edition of the Contortions while the background vocals of the Discolitas provide the sleazy stage pageantry Chance championed. The sound quality is not great, but that only adds to the original highly charged haze under which it was made. Three of the seven tracks are covers, "That Old Black Magic" and two from James Brown, "I Got You" and "King Heroin."

1981 WHITE CANNIBAL

Will Guthrie - Rose Coded

Will Guthrie: drums, percussion, home-made instruments

Debut release from Melbourne based drummer/percussionist. 2 improvised solos for drums, percussion and objects, recorded live at the 2002 What Is Music? festival and the Make It Up Club 4th anniversery festival. On this recording Will Guthrie plays drums, percussion, junk, found, home made and the incredible instruments musician/sculpture/instrument maker Rodney Cooper. The sound(s) range from abstact thematisim, scrapes and squeals to medatitive landscapes ... and back again.

2002 ROSE CODED

REUPLOAD

Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love - Milwaukee Volume (Part 1 & Part 2)

Michiyo Yagi, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love - LIVE! AT SUPERDELUXE

Mural - NECTAR OF EMERGENCES

Wade Matthews & Stéphane Rives

Stéphane Rives: soprano saxophone
Wade Matthews: software synthesis & manipulated field recordings

“Two new, or at least less known names for me, in the world of improvised music. Wade Matthews is credited with software synthesis & manipulated field recordings and Stephane Rives is credited with soprano saxophone. He is playing the soprano saxophone in an unconventional way, of course, very minimal, sublime, mostly producing hissing sounds... At the same time, the electronic sounds of Wade Matthews are making rumbles that intervene with the saxophone, also sublime and precise, dissolving into a hypnotic kind of atmosphere, putting you into a trance kind of mood, a primary state of being... 'Arethusa' is music in a state of becoming, desintegrated even before it achieves it's full form... At the edge of existence... At the edge of presence... A sheer minimalistic beauty... I would definitely like to see and listen to the both of these musicians play this at a concert... Excellent album!” - Boban Ristevski, Outlands

2010 ARETHUSA

Peter Brötzmann, Harry Miller, Louis Moholo - The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat

Many thanks to zuckerwurzel for this rarity

Peter Brötzmann: bass- e-flat & a-clarinets, soprano alto & tenor saxophones
Harry Miller: bass
Louis Moholo: drums

Saxophone terrorist Peter Brötzmann brought this group to the 1979 FMP Festival in Berlin and was promptly accused of retrenching; the sound of the trio hearkened back to the solid feel of black free jazz rather than splintering the brain with the seeming anarchy of the European free jazz scene of the time. The late bassist Harry Miller and drummer Louis Moholo both have South African roots and busily provided rhythm section support, together and in a variety of other combinations, for many different European players of a variety of persuasions. While listeners of the time might have felt Brötzmann was holding something back, the performance actually predicts the saxophonist's later activity, especially his '90s collaboration with players such as Hamid Drake and William Parker. While much of the European scene at the time veered toward inexplicable intensity, this performance is reminiscent of players such as Pharoah Sanders, with a slow, steady build toward a musical inferno guided by a similar feeling of intense spirituality. Live recording of the concert is quite good, with drummer Moholo perhaps a trifle under-miced, with highlights including the title piece and "Kucken Und Drucken," both extended performances. (Eugene Chadbourne, AMG)

1979 THE NEARER THE BONE, THE SWEETER THE MEAT

REUPLOAD

Evan Parker & Han Bennink - THE GRASS IS GREENER

Akosh S., Charlie O., erikM, Quentin Rollet -MOSQ

tell me which tracks are corrupted if there still is

Joëlle Léandre & Jean-Luc Cappozzo - Live aux Instants Chavirés

Joëlle Léandre: bass, voice
Jean-Luc Cappozzo: trumpet

2010 LIVE AUX INSTANTS CHAVIRES

Mural - Nectars Of Emergence

Jim Denley: alto saxophone, flute
Kim Myhr: acoustic guitars
Ingar Zach: percussion

That minimalism is not always a recipe for boring music, is wonderfully demonstrated by this fantastic album by Australian Jim Denley on alto saxophone and flutes, and Norwegians Kim Myhr on acoustic guitars, and Ingar Zach on percussion. The music is very pure in its unobtrusiveness, but keeps away from the exalted states of new age. Despite its lightness of texture and open-ended improvisations, there is a dark undertone, a menacing tension that gives the music its incredible power. Less is more, and these three artists deliver the goods. It is not always clear which instrument makes which sound, but that is totally irrelevant. What counts is the sound itself, how it's folded around the silence, how it makes the environment vibrate, how it builds substance out of the almost non-existent. On the longest piece, "Flash Expansion", a rhythmically and slowly strummed guitar chord forms the backdrop for a slow evolution of increasingly agonizing and gloomy sounds, which in turn develops into squeezed-out sax sounds over a dark rumbling. You do not know what is going on, or even how to possibly interpret it, but it is a fascinating listening experience. Denley's saxophones and flute reduce music back to its pristine original nature of vibrating air, Zach's use of percussion has a precision which is unequalled in building a sonic scene (just listen to his dark and hypnotic bells on the first track), and I have rarely heard a guitarist like Myhr, with a sound so sparse, so contained, yet equally telling more with a few chords than many others cannot create out of a zillion notes. Needless to say, this is highly recommended. (from freejazz)

2010 NECTARS OF EMERGENCE

Milford Graves Trio - Festival Sons D'hiver 2008

Posted in 2008 by Boromir from inconstant sol

Milford Graves Trio
Festival Sons d'Hiver
Salle Gérard Philipe,
Bonneuil-sur-Marne,
France
17 february 200872:55

Kidd Jordan (tenor sax)
William Parker (double bass)
Milford Graves (drums, percussion, voice)

1. Unknow 6:51
2. Unknow 16:28
3. Unknow 5:59
4. Unknow 7:43
5. Unknow 14:40
6. Unknow 7:23
7. Milford speak 4:41
8. Unknow 7:30
9. Milford speak 1:40

Looking through Graves's discography on the net, I was surprised how relatively few commercial recordings he's made, considering he was one of the pioneers of freejazz in the 60s, so has been around a long time. I see he's a teacher and healer so maybe they are his main interests. It was great then to come across one of his rare performances on dime.

Kidd Jordan was not a name I'd come across until recently. He's also a real veteran whose played with artists as diverse as Ray Charles and Cecil Taylor. Like Graves, he is also a teacher.

Not much to say about Parker that's hasn't already been said. You almost expect him to be present on these kind of gigs. He holds these pieces together brilliantly and has a few brief but inspired solos.

All the tracks are high-octane improvisational stuff. It's an audience recording (thanks to "cosmikd" for seeding), of resonable, but not excellent, quality, so I'll post MP3 version only.


2008 FESTIVAL SONS D'HIVER 2008 (bootleg)

Mick Flower & Chris Corsano - The Four Aims

Mick Flower: shamisen
Chris Corsano: drums

2009 THE FOUR AIMS

AALY Trio + Ken Vandermark - Hidden In The Stomach

AALY Trio:
Mats Gustafsson: tenor & baritone saxophones
Peter Janson: bass
Kjell Nordeson: drums, percussion
Ken Vandermark: tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass-clarinet

The AALY Trio, a Swedish band made up of reedmaster Mats Gustafsson, bassist Peter Janson, and percussionist Kjell Nordeson, are joined here by Chicagoan Ken Vandermark for a rich, muscular free jazz outing. The two covers included give a good idea of the sonic roots of this group: Charlie Haden's classic "Song for Che" and a medley of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts" and "Spirits." The playing is often turbulent and roiling, but never wanders so far afield as to become divorced from the structure of the compositions, which tends to be blues based or even noir-ish. Gustafsson limits himself to tenor and baritone saxes for this date: deep, and full-throated on his "Structure a la Malle" and moody and wistful on Vandermark's "Why I Don't Go Back." Vandermark, on tenor sax, clarinet, and bass clarinet, is an ideal foil, matching him in pure ferocity and inventiveness, but reining in the proceedings when need be. Special mention must be made of Peter Janson, an extraordinary bassist with a warm, thick tone who appears to have listened closely to Haden. The varied and sensitive support provided by Janson and Nordeson are crucial to the success of this fine recording. (AMG)

1997 HIDDEN IN THE STOMACH

Eddie Prevost, John Butcher, John Tilbury - On Air

Eddie Prevost: percussion
John Butcher: soprano saxophone
John Tilbury: piano

01 - London'07II119 - Excerpt from 'Pinewood' (34:19)

BOOTLEG

Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love - Seven

Ken Vandermark: tenor & baritone saxophones, Bb clarinet
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums, percussion

2006 SEVEN
Infos

Peter Brötzmann - one night in Sana'a

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Michael Zerang: drums
Abdul-Aziz Mokrid: violin
Khalid Barkosch: cello
Achmed Al-Khalidy: kanun
Ali Saleh: ney
Yasir Al-Absi: darbuka

Quoi ?? Brötzy qui donne dans la world ? Non t'as pas rêvé. Bon, c'est pas une franche réussite, la rencontre rate, mais ça vaut le coup d'oreille. Et pour une fois que papy ferme un peu sa gueule - bon, évidemment, quand il commence à l'ouvrir, on le sent passer... Ambitieux, raté, curieux.

ICI

Anthony Pateras, Sean Baxter, David Brown - Interference

Anthony Pateras: prepared piano
Sean Baxter: drums
David Brown: prepared guitar

2008 INTERFERENCE

Anthony Pateras, Sean Baxter, David Brown - Gauticle

Anthony Pateras: prepared piano
Sean Baxter: drums
David Brown: prepared guitar

2006 GAUTICLE
Review

Anthony Pateras, Sean Baxter, David Brown - Ataxia

Anthony Pateras: prepared piano
Sean Baxter: drums
David Brown: prepared guitar

Prepared piano, percussion and prepared guitar combine to formulate an impulse-based meta-instrument on this startling debut from Melbourne trio Pateras/Baxter/Brown. Consisting of composer/pianist Anthony Pateras, percussionist Sean Baxter and electroacoustic composer/guitarist David Brown, Ataxia (meaning the loss of muscular co-ordination) explores a distinctive sound world where timbres rebound and melt within an elastic performative framework.

Dynamically oscillating between delicacy & brutality, Ataxia contains everything from textural assault to contemplative explorations of space. On “Bulbous”, the trio create a constant, jerky stream of barely recognizable sounds. In “St/Chi”, silence is sliced by explosive microsonic gestures, eventually creating an acoustic mutant licking at the speaker cones. On the closing track “Hexadactlyly”, the listeners face is slammed against the piano strings, thrown into percussive chaos before sinking back into an ambiguous oubliette of spacial dialogue.

With the overall language falling somewhere between the structural integrity of Feldman and Xenakis, the texutral gymnastics of Hecker and Merzbow, and the dynamic fluidity of AMM and Polweschel, Ataxia will appeal to dot-heads, patch-monkeys and improv junkies alike.

2004 ATAXIA

Nmperign - Ommatidia

NMPERIGN:
Bhob Rainey: soprano saxophone
Greg Kelley: trumpet

2009 OMMATIDIA
Review

Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves, William Parker - Beyond Quantum

Anthony Braxton: saxophone
William Parker: bass
Milford Graves: percussion

2008 BEYOND QUANTUM
Review

AALY Trio & DKV Trio - Double or Nothing

AALY TRIO (left channel):
Mats Gustafsson: alto & tenor saxophones
Kjell Nordeson: drums
Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten: bass

DKV TRIO (right channel):
Ken Vandermark: Bb & bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
Kent Kessler: bass
Hamid Drake: drums

Double or Nothing documents a meeting that was bound to happen, as likeminded and closely connected as these groups are. The Swedish AALY and Chicago DKV are both fiery powerhouse trios with a penchant for covering Albert Ayler and Don Cherry when not playing tunes of their own. DKV member Ken Vandermark has also joined AALY on each of that group's four albums. The result is what fans would expect, but no more. With AALY heard in the left channel and DKV in the right, the album opens with a recording of Vandermark's "Left to Right," which predates the version found on AALY's 2000 release, I Wonder if I Was Screaming. This time around, it kicks off with a five-minute drum duo by Kjell Nordeson and Hamid Drake. The rest of the album consists of a particularly dynamic performance -- ranging from sparsely quiet to shredding -- of Ayler's "Angels," a Vandermark favorite, which leads without break into Cherry's "Awake Nu." Both Mats Gustafsson and DKV would separately revisit "Awake Nu" in the next couple of years; these versions can be heard on The Thing (Crazy Wisdom, 2001) and Trigonometry (Okkadisk, 2002). (AMG)

2002 DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Seijiro Murayama - Solos

Seijiro Murayama: one head snare drum (with microphone... without sound effects)

The man who played drums in ANP (a duo with KK Null) and Fushitsusha (with Keiji Haino) returns to playing solo here, 'using one head snare drum with microphones, without sound effects', as it says on the cover (although the press text mentions a cymbal too). I assume he plays the snare drum with something, objects, sticks, brushes? Two pieces do rather sound the same: 'Ssei' and 'Llott' (if I read that well, its handwritten and not easy to read): rubbing sticks over the head and producing trainlike sounds, rolling faster and faster. In 'Aug' he plays the most 'traditional' piece of improvised music, hectic, nervous, but with a great control of the instrument, making it sound entirely different throughout this piece. In 'Ejie', the final and longest piece on the CD is an entire drone like piece. Hard to imagine how he plays this, but it could be objects pressed hard to the surface or perhaps some sort of bowing technique. This is the best piece of these four, but through I thought
this was a pretty strong disc anyway. Excellent solo improvisation. (Vital Weekly - FdW)

2009 SOLOS

Seijiro Murayama - 4 pieces with a snare drum

Seijiro Murayama: snare drum

2010 4 PIECES WITH A SNARE DRUM

Rosa Luxemburg New Quintet - Topophonies

ROSA LUXEMBURG QUINTET:
Heddy Boubaker: alto saxophon
Fabien Duscombs: drums, percussion, objects
Françoise Guerlin: voice, text
Piero Pepin: Trumpet, melodica, objects
Marc Perrenoud: doublebass, electric guitare

Topophonies is another superative online album of totally improvised music. Rosa Luxemburg New Quintet consists of five talented musicians who respect no boundaries when it comes to creating music. The four tracks are live acoustic performances exhibiting an uncanny sense of interaction and control in what could easily turn into chaos.

The five musicians in this group all exhibit good talent for free jazz improvisation. I am especially impressed by alto saxophonist Heddy Brubaker whose sound hovers between the academics of Anthony Braxton and the more primordial sounds of a Marion Brown or Julius Hemphill. Piero Pepin’s trumpet growls and moans Lester Bowie style as it plays off the rest of the ensemble. Marc Perrenoud provides bass and electric guitar in a manner that adds rhythm and color rather than tonal asistance. Fabien Duscombs expertly uses a wide range of percussion instruments. Lastly, Françoise Guerlin’s voice is an improvisational instrument in its own right, usually wordlessly joining in the collective group conscienceness but contributing a strange speak-sing lyrical turn on “Schizophonie”. The best track is also the longest. “Territoires” is a 33 minute journey starting on a low simmer that boils and ebbs into a wide ranges of moods from reflective to raging. This is an exhilarating session of improvised art.

The albums is available as separate tracks or album zip in 256kbps. It is made available through the Insubordinations net label, home to some of the wildest improvised music you will find on the internet.

Download

Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, C. Spencer Yeh - Slow Blind Avalanche

Paul Flaherty: alto & tenor saxophones
Chris Corsano: drums
C. Spencer Yeh: violin, voice

2006 SLOW BLIND AVALANCHE (LP)

Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour & Andy Moor @ Circol Malda, Barcelona (14-03-2009)

Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour: alto saxophone
Andy Moor: electric guitar

2010 LIVE AT CIRCOL MALDA (Bootleg)
Thanks to rest in bits