Magg Zelma Ritual Trio

The diminutive but mighty acoustic bassist Malachi Favors was a charter member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, and since his passing both groups have suffered. This recording for El'Zabar and his revamped trio including longtime member saxophonist Ari Brown and guest violinist Billy Bang is the first offering with bassist Yosef Ben Israel filling the chair of the late Favors…

The full quintet had been together for a decade when it made this 1980 recording in a New York studio. The major work is Malachi Favors Maghostus's "Magg Zelma," nearly 20 minutes in length. It begins as a percussive soundscape with the most delicate sounds of resonating scraped metal, then moves through a shifting sequence of textures: a profound tenor lament by Joseph Jarman, a heated trumpet solo by Lester Bowie against an expanding rhythmic backdrop, and an unusual bassoon solo by Roscoe Mitchell. In contrast, Mitchell's "Care Free" is a buoyant, almost dancelike melody that lasts a mere 46 seconds.

Alone among the first eight albums of the ECM Rarum series, the Art Ensemble of Chicago edition is a group effort, with surviving members Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, and Don Moye offering only a brief greeting in the booklet. There were only four Art Ensemble of Chicago albums over only a half-dozen years (1978-1984), so listeners get two tracks from the initial offering, "Nice Guys" and "Full Force," and one apiece from Urban Bushmen and The Third Decade.

The previous Art Ensemble of Chicago ECM album Nice Guys vaulted them to the top of improvised music groups in the U.S. and worldwide, paving the way for similar bands to be more accepted into the mainstream of modern music. Where "Full Force" generally lives up to the title, there's also a palpable diverse approach, producing more than enough potent music brimming from the sinews of these brilliant musicians to uphold their burgeoning cache.

On the album Opening, Tord Gustavsen reveals a fresh angle to his particularly unique trio investigations into Scandinavian folk hymns, gospel, chorale and jazz, as he introduces a different voice on bass. With a new fellow-traveller on board and its recording premiere in Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo, the trio discovers inspired new ways to interact with each other, using innovative approaches to sound and technique in the process. Made up in equal parts of intricately textured improvisations and understated melodic hooks, the group’s conversations bring an enticing unfamiliarity to the language the Norwegian pianist has developed over almost two decades of collaboration with ECM.

Various Artists - Delmark: 55 Years Of Jazz (2008) [CD+DVD] {Delmark}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 463 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 170 Mb
All Regions | NTSC 4:3 | LinearPCM, 2 ch / Dolby AC3, 6 ch / DTS, 6 ch | DVD5 -> 3.68 Gb
~ 01h 17m | ISO Image | 5% repair rar | Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 43 Mb
© 2008 Delmark Records | DE 914
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Contains one CD and one DVD! After wearing out Delmark's 2003 set celebrating 50 years of great jazz you probably thought you were going tohave to wait at least until 2013 for another such anniversary collection but when you've got a rich catalog like Delmark's and a label head like Bob Koester who is committed to keep expanding that catalog, why not seize every opportunity to throw a party for your enterprise-and all the great artists behind the candles on the cake? CD features Coleman Hawkins, Sun Ra, George Lewis, Curtis Fuller, Deep Blue Organ Trio, Francine Griffin and more. DVD features Nicole Mitchell, Ari Brown, Fred Anderson, Chicago Underground Trio and more.

Steve Coleman and Five Elements - Weaving Symbolics (2006) {2CD+2DVD Label Bleu LBLC 6692/93}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.00 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 293 Mb
2xDVD5 -> 2.69 Gb | All Regions | PAL 4:3 | Dolby AC3, 2 ch | ~ 50 min | ISO Images
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 135 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 Label Bleu | LBLC 6692/93
Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Modern Jazz / M-Base / Free Funk / Saxophone

The music on this CD is part of the Ritual of Motion that we have been participating in for some time now. This music atttempts to answer the question ‘Why’. Maybe ‘answer’ is not the correct word, ‘investigate’ may be a better term. The entrance into various Rites of Passage and Initiation are also a part of this investigation of ‘Why’. The symbolism of Weaving and Circles refers both to style of the music, with its interlaced rhythmic, and sonance cyclic structures, and to the continuous creation of the Cycle of Life is represented by the constant interplay of the warp (yarn arranged lengthways on a loom) and weft (yarn woven across the warp yarn) repectively symbolic of the yang and yin, binding and unbinding, male and female forces. Much of the music is symbolic of this type of thinking.

As brilliant as their previous album "Enter" is, with "Ritual" they have outdone themselves and produced a beast of beauty and power, extremely well executed, beautifully recorded and produced from only two days in the studio. Free improvisations, spontaneous horns, keyboard frenzy, abstract electronics, guitar mayhem and not to forget; those glorious twin voices of Mariam Wallentin and Sofia Jernberg. It´s about mysteries and rituals; in music and in life.