Free Jazz / Avante Garde - CD Reviews (1158)
The title of Ross Bolleter’s 2010 release designates that these solo performances on ruined pianos were performed simultaneously in his kitchen, largely during the eveni…
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One of two recent releases on Motema by Geri Allen, Geri Allen & Timeline Live is not your usual live recording of a quartet date. Geri, a renowned contemporary pianist, is…
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On this solo CD, Geri Allen doesn’t hide her influences. The cover proclaims it "inspired by Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock." It definitely is. Yet this ether…
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The gap between free-form or semi-structured song forms and the art of melody making are generally two distinct entities, drawing upon numerous contrasts. Many artists m…
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Decoy is the British free jazz trio of Hammond B-3 organist Alexander Hawkins, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble. 49 year-old Hawkins has played with free jaz…
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Who says that three musicians from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) playing "shaved-face music" the term given by Dizzy Gillespie for pia…
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So often, 2 CD sets are rife with 'for rabid fans only' musical filler and so-so material, maybe containing one CD's worth of music that garners a listener's repeated atten…
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I'd have a hard time thinking of a more unlikely musical combination than a horn-based jazz band performing instrumental, but more-or-less true-to-the-source versions of Ca…
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This CD bears one of the most ironic titles I've seen in quite some time - Lundbom and his group do more than "Accomplish Jazz" they find a nice sunny spot in it, an…
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The CD is titled "Dissonance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder", but I have to tell you that you must have a place in your heart for that kind of dissonance. That pla…
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Portuguese trumpeter Sei Miguel’s Esfingico - Suite For A Jazz Combo might initially suggest a hybrid classical-jazz score, but it’s largely entrenched within ava…
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Chad Taylor and Rob Mazurek are two prominent ambassadors of Chicago’s progressive-jazz and improvisational scene. Among numerous side projects and band affiliations, th…
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Around 1993, I turned on KUSF, the San Francisco iconoclastic radio station located at the University of San Francisco, and found myself in the middle of an interview with …
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When Giuseppi Logan resurfaced just over a year ago, after having been absent from the jazz scene for nearly forty years, a comeback seemed unlikely. Homeless at the tim…
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EA Silence, EA stands for electro acoustic, crosses boundaries of tradition, defying any standard free jazz trio setting. The set up for trios, classical, jazz, rock, blues…
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Gordon Grdina is a Vancouver based Oud/Guitarist whose sound is a combination of his interests in mainstream jazz, free-form improvisation and Arabic classical music. East …
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Reedman and Rabbi Greg Wall was the co-leader, with trumpeter Frank London, of one of my favorite fusion bands of all time - Hasidic New Wave. His new band, The Later Proph…
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Though I hadn't heard of Timucin Sahin when his latest recording, "Bafa," arrived in my mailbox, the personnel in his backing band certainly made me sit up and take …
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It's no coincidence, perhaps, that John Hollenbeck refers to his 20+ member orchestra as a Large Ensemble. The terms 'Big Band' and 'Orchestra' are rife with all sorts of c…
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This reissue of saxophonist and ethnomusicologist Marion Brown’s 1968 quartet date, and second outing for ESP, highlights his unique fusion of cutting-edge avant-improv …
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