Making sure that country-blues starts the 21st century off on the right foot, Guy Davis' Butt Naked Free, whose title was inspired by the comments of Davis' young son, is one of the most accomplished statements the genre has offered in a few years. Picking up where 1998's You Don't Know My Mind left off, Davis once again has decided to fill out his sound, but this time adding touches of mandolin, organ and accordion, with the results being altogether more satisfying and never sounding even slightly overproduced. Where Davis on his previous album sounded, at times, unsure of his new direction, Butt Naked Free rocks with a loose liveliness, still allowing Davis' derivative yet idiosyncratic sound to shine through. "Waiting on the Cards to Fall" and "Never Met No Woman Treats Me Like You Do," the latter with Levon Helm contributing drums and mandolin, showcase how well Davis' sound fills out and offers the unique experience of hearing what it might have sounded like if Mance Lipscomb or Reverend Gary Davis had ever recorded with full-band accompaniment.
Live duo recording of two revered figures on the British free jazz and improv scene - saxophonist Evan Parker and bassist Barry Guy - from February 2023.
The composer and bassist Barry Guy presents here an extensive work with a new orchestra: The Barry Guy New Orchestra: Inscape -Tableaux. Like few other musicians, Barry Guy taps the current centers of improvised music, new classical music and jazz. The numerous works for the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, compositions for the strings of the City of London Sinfonia, for the Kronos Quartet or for the voices of the Hilliard Ensemble reveal Guy’s immense musical cosmos.
Parker, Guy, and Lytton are no strangers to one another. According to a quick and dirty count, this is their 17th release as a trio since 1983. And even with nearly four decades of collaboration, they still have new statements to make as a group. Recorded in October 2017 at the Vilnius Jazz Festival, the aptly titled Concert in Vilnius is about 55 minutes in length and spans four tracks. Parker plays the tenor and soprano sax, Guy the double bass, and Lytton drums and percussion. (But that instrumentation probably goes without saying, right?)