Jazz/Classical
Reviews
Alephg
One of the most striking jazz albums of the year, from the quintet let by Irreversible Entanglements double-bassist Luke Stewart. Shifting between groovy avant-garde jazz jams, fiery free jazz maelströms and moody chamber-like passages, the record calls to mind some of the best work from avant-garde figures such as Anthony Braxton, Anthony Davis, Tim Berne and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and is a must for enthusiasts of the scene.
Quetzal
Stewart is, for the most part, an up and coming bassist, with only a couple years of notable work to his name, and this is his first project that perked me up. He plays with four seasoned and exciting players and they make amazing music reminiscent of 60's free jazz.
Quetzal
A neural net playing percussive generative music and a percussionist following along with his own tools. If that concept doesn't excite you I don't think we can be friends.
Quetzal
A very modern sax/drums duo with fresh bebop sounds coupled with some wild free tendencies. It's intense, it's a rush, I love listening to it.
Alephg
“The way they make home a dream, a wish, anything but a human right..."" This line from the opener 'Working Machine' lies at the heart of the concerns the album explores, relating to the housing crisis in USA that every year disperses entire neighbourhoods and communities and leaves thousands without affordable homes. A dense, sombre and dire listen, the record paints a soundscape filled with despair through the relentless free jazz maelström, with traditionally leading instruments like saxes and trumpets blending into a sea of ethereal and echoing brass and electronics reminiscent to Robert Wyatt's 'Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road', all to provide an aural backdrop to Camae Ayewa's poignant and declamatory poetry. One of the sharpest and most urgent releases of the year, here is a vivid and striking call to ""reverse gentrification of the future now"".
diego martinez
Moor Mother has had an illustrious 2020, but none of her projects have quite the crackling energy that this free jazz-poetry masterpiece did. From Moor Mother’s impassioned vocal delivery to the blistering sonic catastrophe that her band creates, this record is one for the books.
Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra - If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours
[Rym] [BC] [Stream]
diego martinez
This live performance bursts at the seams with life and brilliance. Gard Nilssen’s big band perfectly blurs the line between swingin’ big band jazz and free improvisation, and they do it in such a way that evokes such phenomenal themes and solos. Accessible, yet great fun for a more adventurous listener too
ag (AWES0MEGUY)
This album really doesn't live up to its name cause it hits you like a ton of bricks regardless if you are listening carefully or not. Massive arrangements and a massive sound easily make this one of the most exciting big band releases in recent memory.
diego martinez
The King Shabaka himself brings us over an hour of mysteriously spiritual African-tinged jazz and it still manages to absolutely GROOVE track after track after track.
ag (AWES0MEGUY)
Thumbscrew show off their exceptional collective improv abilities by tackling several of Braxton's exotic compositions. A must-listen for fans of freeform and vibrant musicianship.
DoctorFS
Planet B expresses its environmentalist concept concisely and fluently with a few pointed passages of spoken word added to pure emotive melody. As expected from the bassist of Phronesis, the rhythm section is tightly constructed to carry the listener into reflective spaces and towards catharsis.
DoctorFS
Tim and Matt have collaborated over several years now, notably in Tim's group Snakeoil, and they have a cogent and responsive understanding of each other's musical language. This duo disc exemplifies their fluid motion from searching to ecstatic union.
DoctorFS
Upon first hearing Planet Battagon, I immediately likened their vibrant psychedelic electronic funk fusion to a continuation of Herbie Hancock's efforts in his Mwandishi period, specifically on Sextant.
DoctorFS
A 2h+ continuous piece (not all that rare by Sorey, from my knowledge/understanding) that channels some of the better sides of ECM-styled jazz, shifting smoothly and seamlessly between chamber-like and minimalist-inspired moods and soaring, bold crescendos filled with expression from the sextet's extended improvisations, culminating in an explosion of freeform colour in its last third.
Okuden - Every Dog Has Its Day but It Doesn't Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter
[Rym] [BC] [Stream]
Alephg
Clocking nearly two hours, it's hard to generalize about this record's ever-changing sound and style, ranging from oneiric freeform passages to searing free jazz jams to Thelonious Monk-esque angular bebop grooves... Yet the record carries with it a very cohesive sound and identity, in large part thanks to its moody, nocturnal and often muted atmosphere throughout, painting an imaginary not unlike a slickly photographed 60s new wave film.
Vinny Golia, John Hanrahan, Henry Kaiser, Wayne Peet & Mike Watt - A Love Supreme Electric
[Rym] [BC]
Alephg
All too often tribute and cover albums can feel gentrified, tawdry or purposeless, in how they remove a work from its context or original voice and re-render it merely as a shallow imitation or a purely formal exercise. Not here. Led by Henry Kaiser, this collaboration takes these two milestones of spiritual jazz and reforms them into a blistering continuous jazz fusion suite that captures, to use Kaiser's own words, a single expression of an ecstatic spiritual state.
DoctorFS
Kopat is one of my favorite violinists alive. She brings unparalleled fun and vibrance to repertoire old and new alike with her strong grounding in styles from folk to the avant-garde, and is particularly famous (perhaps infamous in some circles) for idiosyncratic and often irreverent interpretations of classics. Her new Vivaldi disc is no exception, nestling modern pieces and even snippets of rehearsal exercise amongst typically fiery renditions of Vivaldi's violin concerti. A necessary listen for anyone who associates the name Vivaldi with turgid renderings of Le Quattro Stagioni.
Honourable Mentions
Quetzal
Jeb Bishop Centrifugal Trio - Jeb Bishop Centrifugal Trio
Don Cherry - Om Shanti Om
Crazy Doberman - Illusory Expansion
Can't say much about these but all of them are wonderful, especially the Jeb Bishop album,
that one deserves a lot of affection.