When one thinks of free improvisations, it is often of high-energy barrages of sound or esoteric sound explorations. The Lisbon Improvisation Players, a quartet/quintet (cellist Ulrich Mitzlaff is on the final two of the six selections) whose best-known member is trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez, plays a different type of free jazz. Not shying away from melodies, tonality and rhythms, the group develops all three as the music progresses. The results are consistently fascinating as the musicians literally create music out of thin air…
Strange as it sounds, this is a somewhat typical date by avant-garde master Cecil Taylor. Recorded live at a Minneapolis concert, the performance consists of three improvisations (two of which are quite lengthy) that have Taylor in mostly thunderous form, leavened by a few brief lyrical moments. Bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jackson Krall do their best to keep up with Taylor but there is no doubt who the leader is. Taylor's remarkable technique and endurance are in evidence, as is his ability to build on the most abstract ideas and somehow have it all make musical sense…
A monumental 85-minute organ improvisation for the music for the film-documentary "Congo Safari" by Marcel Isy-Schwart.
The pianist, two days in the studio, alone at the piano. A retreat in Zurich. Focus is on the now, the recording is running. Preparation time for the new compositions: about a year. Getting attuned to the music: a lifetime. Alexander von Schlippenbach, Slow Pieces For Aki, the emphasis being on the word “slow,” not on rediscovering slowness but discovering slowness anew - dedicated to his wife Aki Takase. with slow pieces, short pieces, compositions in which every single note demands the highest degree of attention, virtuosity shifts from the purely technical to the actual notes themselves, avoiding all irrel - evancies. Sounds that are able to glow in the dark and form themselves into star signs. it is not only Jazz and new Music that appear from far away, but also classical and romantic music, always reflected by the personality, the life and playing experience of Alexander von Schlippenbach. From my subjective point of view, dare i suggest, there is a certain serious lyricism. Slow, full of passion and filled with dedication to the music.
To hear bassist Kent Carter on this '84 recording is to hear the bassist in an entirely different context than anything his work with Steve Lacy and Paul Bley would belie. Always an artist with a penchant for strengthening an ensemble and its collective voice, Carter has comprised his ostensibly "solo" work of exercises and experiments documenting his search for a unified string conception in a group context. The use of overdubbed parts on everything from Ligeti-esque soundmasses to Eastern European folk explorations on his '74 Emanem recording, Beauvais Cathedral, point directly to Carter as something more than a sideman. Of late featuring Albrecht Maurer and Emmanuelle Roch on violin and viola, respectively, the Trio in this early incarnation consists of Carter, Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro (who has since become a mainstay of the Lisbon free music scene), and French violist Francois Dreno. One of the most noticeable things about this string configuration is the replacement of the usual cello with the bass (and Carter is an accomplished cellist as well).
Recorded live in Burghausen, Germany in 2007, Far Side features journeyman avant-garde saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and his ensemble the Note Factory performing in a concert. Joining Mitchell here are trumpeter Corey Wilkes, pianists Craig Taborn and Vijay Iyer, bassists Jaribu Shahid and Harrison Bankhead, and drummers Tani Tabbal and Vincent Davis. Beginning with the epic three-part 30-minute suite "Far Side/Cards/Far Side," the concert is an atmospheric and cinematic mix of Mitchell's longstanding musical touchstones including free jazz, European classical music, and modern creative group improvisation. Tracks such as the fragmented and atonal "Quintet 2007 A for Eight" and the similarly inclined "Trio Four for Eight" have the feel of composed classical music while evincing a more freely improvised aesthetic. This is often achieved by juxtaposing bowed cello and bass parts against improvised piano and sections where each musician seems to interject a melodic idea into an overall harmonic theme. There are moments of layered percussion, expansive atonal soundscapes, and fiery and combative moments between Mitchell and Wilkes as well as windy, drawn-out passages that tilt upon silence. If you're a hardcore Mitchell aficionado and/or fan of ECM's cerebral jazz catalog, Far Side would be a stellar addition to your library.