★Rogueart
No Side Effects
Roscoe Mitchell is of course one of the figureheads of free jazz, a long time member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and nowadays productive in smaller settings, duets and trios. On this double CD he is accompanied by Harrison Bankhead (bass, cello) …
Blissful
The music improvised by Drake, Abrams, Alexander, Morris, Parker and Parker is getting close. The music improvised by the second incarnation of Bindu is also a trance music: so is its rhythm of growth, the crossroad. The music can only grow, propagat…
Turn
The most exciting of the label's inaugural issues is a new title from Art Ensemble of Chicago founder Roscoe Mitchell. In itself that is always a notable event, but this new group (with Mitchell's longtime rhythm section Jaribu Shahid and Tani Tabal …
Radiant Pools
Rob Brown has a sound of his own, one that you instantly identify, and it’s a wonder why his unique way of playing alto saxophone still hasn’t found the recognition it deserves. With “Radiant Pools”, not only does he confirm what a great musician he …
We Were The Phliks
Guitarist Scott Fields points out in the liner notes to his latest record We Were The Philks: “It is my habit to set myself some rules for each project I compose. Otherwise the world is just too big for me. For my contributions to The Phliks book I m…
Bindu
Drummer Hamid Drake has been a major voice in the generation of Chicagoans following the explosion of Mitchell and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He’s most known for a long association with saxophonist Fred Anderson and …
Kuntu
Flutists' albums, in jazz, do not clutter up record stores. Michel Edelin is one of the (very) few jazz musicians, French on top of that, to have chosen the flute, in all its forms, as his exclusive instrument. For ages, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Eric Dop…
Un Piano
Un Piano is the meeting of a pianist with a piano. It gives to Matthew Shipp the opportunity not only to synthesize 20 years of music exploration, but also to go far beyond.
Spiller Alley
Since 1978 saxophonist Larry Ochs' activities have been primarily centered on the Rova Saxophone Quartet, but increasingly, survival in the jazz world demands the pursuit of parallel projects. Consequently Ochs participates in groups as diverse as th…
off the road
Awesome release, beautifully packaged: 1 CD + two DVDs with two documentaries by the anthropologist Laurence Petit-Jouvet tracing the 2000 US tour by German bassist Peter Kowald. The film finds Kowald performing with many of free improvisation's most…