Composer, scholar, computer wizard and trombonist extraordinaire George Lewis is one of the world’s most distinguished musicians, and Les Exercices Spirituels is one of his greatest and most ambitious CDs to date. Featuring three new chamber compositions (two from 2010) performed by three brilliant New Music ensembles the music blends composition, improvisation and electronic processing into a dynamic and compelling new aggregate.
George Lewis records so infrequently as a leader that any new release featuring him on trombone is itself an event. Here, he is featured on trombone in a series of duets with kotoist Miya Masaoka. (Masaoka's koto is a sort of modified Japanese zither.) The results, as expected, are superb, as Lewis and Masaoka negotiate twelve improvised pieces, swerving, interacting, bouncing, and complementing each other in spectacular ways…
Tenor sax and bass clarinet player's excellent series of Octet efforts for Black Saint in the 80s – a run of brilliant albums with lineups featuring Henry Threadgill, Olu Dara, Butch Morris, George Lewis, Anthony Davis, Bobby Bradford, Hugh Ragin, James Spaulding and other great players – 5 albums in a CD box set in the Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note series! It includes the Ming album from 1980, Home from '82, Murray's Steps (released in '83), New Life from '87 and Hope Scope from '91 – each in a cardboard sleeve with the original album art and each remastered. (All albums come in cardboard sleeve replicas of the original album covers!)
Recorded in a Chicago studio and feeling as if it were a live concert, despite his many solo saxophone recordings, the Chicago Solo by Evan Parker is very special. For one thing, this is a completely tenor saxophone set; the trademark soprano is nowhere in evidence. For another, Parker seems very interested in the extended tones of the horn rather than in the fiery creation of microtonal knots of sound. On "Chicago Solo 3," he pulls his tone right from the bell, rolling out notes along the physical properties of the horn itself, exploring each vibration and sub-tone as a color and of its own territory, worthy of exploration and he follows them into the bell and back.