A trio of musicians, Matthew Shipp on piano, Rob Brown on alto sax, flute, and clarinet, and Warren Smith on drums, excited the air on a stagnantly humid summer night at the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. The group played two sets. Although the ornamentation in each was different, particularly with the change in reeds, both manifested serious dedication to the pursuit of resolving musical ideas. The truth simply put is that these three musicians are relentless. Each member

The performance put on at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts by the group Bang on a Can manifested the pure meaning of the word synergy. This word came into use particularly during the period in the 60’s and 70’s when the design world of Bucky Fuller was in Biblical vogue. A word stemming from biology, "synergy", in the context in which I am applying it, addresses metaphorically how an idea can develop through a collection of elements which when put together create a larger idea or unit tha

On Friday night at the Meetinghouse in Amherst, every seat was filled by those who came to hear Sunny Murray at the helm playing the drums, Alan Silva on bass, Louis Belogenis on tenor, and Sabir Mateen on reeds with second set guest, Raphé Malik on trumpet. I went to this concert with a totally open mind: interested in listening to musicians I had never heard before in combination particularly aiming at being present for Sunny Murray whose performance frequency is small. Just as I had h

The third of the 2002 revival of Eremite Records’ Meetinghouse Concerts featured Joe McPhee on saxophones and Paul Hession on drums. The miracle of spring opens the doors for enlivening insights and feelings that lay deep inside me waiting to come out while the clouds and low pressure still hover. Last night’s concert opened those doors. It presented to me the ways in which McPhee is bringing to his playing the foundations which laid the groundwork for his evolution (as is exemplified in

The second in the Magic Triangle Concert Series out of UMass/Amherst brought to the stage the group BREW, featuring Miya Masaoka on Japanese koto and electronics, Reggie Workman on bass, and Gerry Hemingway on percussion. Ms. Masaoka definitely acted as the controlling mechanism for these two sets of music. Her selection of musicians to join her trio was in some ways academically arrogant. She represented contemporary creative improvised music; Workman was hand-picked to represent the ep