FIRE! Work Song For a Scattered Past
Free Jazz
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20h ago
Appearing on Friday this past week, FIRE! released a video for their new release "Work Song For a Scattered Past." First listens suggest that the trio of Mats Gustafsson (sax), Johan Berthling (bass) and Andreas Werlin (drums) apply their lugubrious magic to devastating effect. FIRE! and it's bigger sibling FIRE! Orchestra and their influences have graced the pages of the Free Jazz Blog quite a few times over the years: Free Jazz Collective's Top Albums of 2024 Arashi with Takeo Moriyama - Tokuzo (Trost, 2024) Jazz em Agosto 2024 (Part 3/3) A L`armé! XII Finale (Day 2) Ballister - Smash and ..read more
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Butterfly Mushrooms and a Hungry Ghost
Free Jazz
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2d ago
By Ken Blanchard  Peter Brötzmann/Paal Nilssen-Love- Butterfly Mushroom (Trost Records 2024)   Somehow I missed the earlier review of Butterfly Mushroom by Eyal Hareuveni at this venue. Having written it, I went ahead and sent it in. Apologies to Eyal. There are no surprises here for anyone who has listened to more than the first few minutes of almost any Brötzmann recording. Well, maybe one, especially if you enjoy his trios and duets as much as I do. I find the synergetic pacing of those recordings to be woven together as seamlessly as if a four or six handed demigod were pla ..read more
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Nate Wooley - Henry House (Ideologic Organ, 2024)
Free Jazz
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3d ago
  By Sarah "FLAKE" Grosser For those who fear that the concept behind Nate Wooley’s 80 minute five-piece epic might be a little hard to get your head around, let me start by breaking it down into simple terms for you: Firstly – and most notably – for this record, Wooley has abandoned his trumpet. He does not perform at all. Instead, Henry House is composed of five pieces, all based around poetry that he spliced together based on four core texts: The words are collaged together with additional subtle changes. There are two main literary themes: These are tracks one and two. The la ..read more
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Ivo Perelman & Nate Wooley – Polarity 3 (Burning Ambulance Records, 2024)
Free Jazz
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4d ago
By Don Phipps No matter how free or abstract the playing, Ivo Perelman (on tenor sax) and Nate Wooley (on trumpet) are always in control. Polarity 3, their latest collaboration, is a clever and at times striking conversation of musical thought, not unlike professors at a university working out complex problems of ethics, logic, and math, in a probing, delicate, and introspective manner. What is notable about Perelman’s duets with a wide range of collaborators [over the last year, Perelman has recorded duets with Ingrid Laubrock,Tom Rainey, Matthew Shipp, Fay Victor, Gabby Fluke-Mogul, and eve ..read more
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Schick, Håker Flaten, Steidle - The Cliffhanger Session (Zarek, 2024)
Free Jazz
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5d ago
By Paul Acquaro Berlin's Ignaz Schick's work with electronics and turntables seems to get a bit more attention than his saxophone playing. This is understandable, finding a good electronics player is a bit trickier than finding good saxophonist, but fortunately The Cliffhanger Session with Schick exclusively on his first instrument, the alto & baritone saxophones, helps to re-balance this possibly misperceived injustice. The musicians fleshing out the trio on The Cliffhanger Session are none other than bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Oliver Steidle. Both have working relationsh ..read more
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Bittolo Bon / Grillini – Spell/Hunger (Hora Records, 2025)
Free Jazz
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6d ago
By Guido Montegrandi Spell/Hunger is a new chapter in Bittolo Bon's (augmented sax, feedback and electronics) search for a sound that develops and thrives at the intersection between acoustic and electronic sources. This time, he plays in duo with Andrea Grillini on drums, percussion and electronics; a musician with whom he shares a long history of collaborations (Bread&Fox, Youruba, Rex Kramer Trio, Tower Jazz Composer Orchestra). On the album, the sound of the acoustic instruments is often augmented with electronic effects but most of all the electronics provide a grounding, a sort of b ..read more
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Spaces Unfolding + Pierre Alexandre Tremblay – Shadow Figures (Bead Records, 2024)
Free Jazz
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1w ago
By Fotis Nikolakopoulos The trio of Spaces Unfolding (Emil Karlsen on drums, Neil Metcalfe on flute, Philipp Wachsmann on violin) has been reviewed here on this site before and was, still is, a main feature on the resurrection of the great Bead Records. This trio channels the very essence of the experimental ethos in music, using improvisational techniques and practices as a means to a collective feeling about music. It’s not an easy task and they make it even more difficult for themselves by adding the complex electronics of Pierre Alexandre Tremblay. To clarify things, by more difficult I m ..read more
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Columbia Icefield with Susan Alcorn
Free Jazz
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1w ago
The news of pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn's passing came as quite a shock yesterday. Today's video features Susan in Nate Wooley's Columbia Icefield project. Susan was also in the trumpeter's thunderous Seven Storey Mountain VI. In 2021, Alcorn appeared at Jazzfest Berlin performing Columbia Icefield. Of it, I wrote: ...The mournful, charged, amplified breath blew a cold breeze across the stage. It was musical dawn, and guitarist Ava Mendoza provided the first rays of light breaking through the tonal darkness. Deep, thick droning tones hovered in the background, emanating from Susan Alcor ..read more
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Kelly bray + caleb duval - BRAY/DUVAL (F.I.M. Records, 2024)
Free Jazz
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1w ago
By Jury Kobayashi Bray/Duval is an incredible duo album by Kelly Bray (trumpet) and Caleb Duval (double bass). It was released by the relatively new record label F.I.M. Records, out of New Haven Connecticut, which also hosts a concert series by the same name. This record is easily one of my favourite releases of 2024. The album is quite short (roughly 35 minutes in length), and I find I often listen to it twice in a row because of the sheer amount of amazing playing packed into a beautifully succinct album. In Perpetual Frontier: Properties of Free Music, Joe Morris outlines that there are 5 ..read more
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Susan Alcorn (1953 - 2025)
Free Jazz
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1w ago
Photo by Peter Gannushkin By Martin Schray Some news simply comes out of nowhere, it catches us unprepared and on the wrong foot. The news of Susan Alcorn’s sudden death is such news. Nobody expected it; she had recently played concerts in Europe- in front of euphoric audiences. There was no one like her who managed to combine country and western elements with free improvisation so elegantly. Anyone who spoke to her found an incredibly friendly person who could talk about her instrument with a unique enthusiasm. The musical (and human) loss is just immense. Susan Alcorn was born in Cl ..read more
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