Bird is the Worm
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I'm Dave Sumner. I’m obsessively focused on jazz in the present tense. Every week, I scour the jazz new releases listings for anything that sounds interesting. I’m all over the self-produced and small-label releases. There is nothing that’s too obscure for me.
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
This is less an album and more a sonic event. Aaron Novik brought together five different ensembles and countless inspirations to capture the essence of his travels in France, Italy, Rotterdam, Berlin, and New York City. The sounds range from sparse and introspective to joyful and bountiful to dissonant and transitory, and they are ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
The meeting point of history and mythology is as much collision as it is convergence, and there’s no better musical representation of this dichotomy than the “panoramic sound quilting” of Matana Roberts. The compositions of Coin Coin are as likely to be cryptic as they are to be clearly focused. On Memphis, it trends ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
In 2019, the recorded output of Haftor Medbøe was incomparable. Different ensembles and different sounds and different environments kept listeners on their toes and their expectations in check. The gentle exhalation of a melody and deep dive into serene waters was just as likely to manifest as a combustible attitude and quick burn of ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
It would’ve been so easy to do the same thing. It wouldn’t even have been a bad thing. Had Jaimie Branch made the second installment of her Fly or Die series the same as the first, it would’ve been more of the good stuff, and that would’ve been quite all right. But she didn’t ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
So, when are we gonna hear another Bird, are we ever going to see another Miles, is anyone ever gonna rise up to the heights of Coltrane? These are questions I field with no little frequency, and my answer is always the same: They’re already here. The giants walk amongst us. Guillermo Klein is ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
With 2016’s Otis Was A Polar Bear, Allison Miller opened a new door. The drummer’s career to that point was not constricted to just one sound, or solely one territory. A machine-gun style of post-bop or a conversant chatter of pop music accompaniment or a straight-ahead swing were all part of her repertoire, and ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
Not all recordings are finished products. Some albums intentionally capture the beginning stages of a concept, where the musicians are fleshing out new compositions in the studio. Some albums capture a transition phase, where recent works are given new perspectives in a live setting, or while on tour. Other albums reflect other stages of ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
Goran Kajfeš doesn’t fuse together different music forms so much as view them all as interconnected motions in one, long intricate dance. The trumpeter waltzes, foxtrots and tangos with the folk musics of Turkey, Sweden, the Balakans, Africa, and America with no change in dance partner, and with a fluidity that sees old-school psychedelic ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
This is an album that’ll get into your blood is how I began my write-up of Odron Ritual Orchestra for The Bandcamp Daily. The Skopje, Macedonia 11-piece ensemble Светлост, or Svetlost, is a throwback to the avant-garde big bands of the ‘70s, where chaos and raging intensity amplified sweet melodicism and a thundering groove ..read more
Bird is the Worm
4y ago
When I originally wrote about Stepping Back, Jumping In for The Bandcamp Daily, I talked about how Laura Jurd has hopscotched around the modern jazz landscape, from the chamber jazz of her debut Landing Ground, to the intoxicating mix of brass harmonies and indie-rock tunefulness on Human Spirit, and the electronic fusion she explores with ..read more