I conducted this interview with saxophonist Marcus Elliot and pianist Michael Malis, while they were on a U.S. tour in Washington, DC with their duo, Balance. They are both native to Detroit and are some of the most interesting players from the next generation of creative musicians in the city. We talked about their creative process, their collaborative approach, and Detroit’s community of musicians from which they grew. The original interview was conducted on July 18, 2023. The duo released Live at the Congregation in April. Cisco Bradley (CB): I’d love to hear about how you guys first m ..read more

Ground rules I am not a jazz professor or jazz musician, nor do I hold myself out as an expert or a jazz illuminato. I have never taken a class in jazz or its history. And, honestly, I do my best to avoid the intellectual side of jazz – I am simply a fan and I know what I like. Through osmosis, I am aware of the politics of the word “jazz” and how its meaning is ever evolving with so many different personal interpretations. But, I define it very simply and will be using the word here with this definition in mind. “Jazz” is a musical artform that is always moving forward. Madison, Wisconsin, si ..read more

One can scarcely think of another performer, composer or conceptualist that is as consistently diverse, expansive and experienced as pedal steel guitarist, Susan Alcorn. Her latest recording, as well as her fifth feature for Relative Pitch, is entitled Canto and evinces this brilliant quality of her work perhaps more than any of her albums to date. While Alcorn’s resume boasts of solo recordings, numerous collaborations with world-renowned creative minds Mary Halvorson, Pauline Oliveros and Evan Parker, there have been far too few documents of her written compositions and chamber ensembles. C ..read more

Saxophonist and composer Devin Brahja Waldman has been working in New York for about a decade and has led bands, contributed to projects such as Heroes Are Gang Leaders, and had numerous collaborations including Radical Reversal, with poet Randall Horton. In July, I interviewed Waldman about the release of the record, Kadef. CB: How did the band Kadef come together? Did it come out of a common spiritual commitment to the ideas that you outline in your notes? How did you meet these musicians and what led up to the recording? Could you tell me a bit about each of them and what they brought to th ..read more

The world needs people like Dave Treut. A powerful presence as a multi-instrumentalist/composer, he creates resolutely eccentric music that shows a sincere appreciation of life and its many absurdities. Treut (often credited as D.Treut) is a larger-than-life character and a force of positivity, and this all comes shining through in his music. But to date, his recorded output is comparatively small – we could always use more. The release of Squid, recorded back in 2004, is a welcome addition to his discography and an important document of an earlier period in his career. This album shows that e ..read more

New England has long been a breeding ground for avant-garde jazz and other creative music, but it seems like right now the region – especially Connecticut – is having its moment in the spotlight of skronk. The local collective behind the record label firstname lastname has been busily releasing music throughout 2022; Dancing is the latest issue from this label as of early January 2023. It’s a free improv trio album featuring Caleb Duval on electric bass (a member of the firstname lastname collective), James McKain on tenor sax and James Paul Nadien on drums. All three are becoming increasingly ..read more

There has always been a dearth of quality writing on free jazz. Many mainstream jazz critics fundamentally have not understood the music and have distorted its reception, while in academia the music has often been shunned by conservative music programs. But in recent years, there have been a number of important books addressing some of the music’s chief architects such as Lawrence Kumpf’s Organic Music Societies (2021) on multi-instrumentalists Don Cherry and Moki Karlsson, Henry Threadgill’s autobiographic, Easily Slip into Another World (2023), various books put out by the press Blank F ..read more

For years, I have been meaning to attend the Big Ears Festival which is held annually in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is one of the premier music festivals in the United States featuring cutting-edge, thought-provoking, and experimental music. This year was my first time at the festival and I was impressed by the range of music featured. At most times there were as many as a dozen events happening simultaneously so I had to make some very difficult choices. I discuss below the acts that really stood out. Ava Mendoza Nobody who has been paying attention should be surprised by guitarist Ava Mendoza ..read more

I listened to “ghostly.ridiculous” the night before getting my first COVID vaccine shot. It was – somehow – the perfect situation to take in this album. The title is an apt summation of the unsettling reality of both this work and the absurd, spectral nature of the 2020s so far. ghostly.ridiculous is a (mostly) solo self-release by composer and multi-instrumentalist Mat Muntz, who has become particularly known for his 2022 album “The Vex Collection.” This latter work is a magnificent collaboration with composer/percussionist Vicente Hansen Atria that brings together an unlikely menagerie of tr ..read more

After time spent visiting the estate of Harriet Tubman in Auburn, New York, Viktor Le Givens and Angel Bat Dawid presented a new work, Suite Harriet, on the main stage of BRIC Jazzfest in Brooklyn on the 21st of October. Le Givens’ work seeks to deepen and broaden our contact with the “etheric realm” through installation, performance and ritual. Chicago based clarinetist, composer and DJ  Angel Bat Dawid’s work and practice fuses Black music and improvisation. Together they called forth Tubman’s spirit on stage and created a space for collective improvisation, healing, and joy.  The ..read more