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Music

Samo Salamon, Emanuele Parrini & Vasco Trilla – Eating Poetry

Another dear friend of the blog, Samo Salamon from Slovenia, brings along a few friends for a well-done, gorgeously recorded improvisational album.  Joining Salamon on this disc are Emanuele Parrini on violin and Vasco Trilla on drums and percussion.  From Samo’s Bandcamp site:
“A great improvising trio session of three fantastic improvisers from three different European countries. Samo Salamon (Slovenia) has this time played exclusively acoustic guitars – 6 and 12-string string. Especially the 12-string guitar is a hugely underrated instrument in the improvising context. Naturally, names such as Ralph Towner or Marc Ducret come to mind, but still Salamon has quite a unique approach to the instrument. Salamon has teamed this time with two incredible musicians – Vasco Trilla (Spain), who is one of the most active improvising drummers, and Emanuele Parrini (Italy), who is a monster violin player with an amazing sound and technique. The music is incredibly intense, yet also very quiet and emotional, at times almost lyrical. All three players listen to each other with open years and create a wonderful sound world. Also the unique combination of violin, acoustic guitars and percussion/drums helps to achieve this.”
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Music

Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley – Being Astral And All Registers – Power Of Two

I’m not sure if one can rightly call this a free-improv classic, but it’s hard to find two musicians who gel together as well as Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley do.  The piano playing is fierce and powerful, matched stroke-for-stroke by Oxley’s percussion and drumming.  A fine live disc.

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Music

Florian Arbenz, Hermon Mehari, Nelson Veras – Conversation #1: Condensed

Swiss drummer and percussionist Florian Arbenz was featured on our previous website, A Miscellany of Tasteful Music, some time in 2020 on a record he did with American saxophonist Greg Osby.  This album is equally as engaging.

This slightly unusual line up of guitar, trumpet & drums might, at first glance, miss a bass instrument. But despite the challenges, the creativity of the musicians involved, as well as Florian’s addition of custom percussion instruments covering this range, make for a fascinating listen which moves from hard-swinging soloing to dreaming soundscapes.
Imagine making an album which swings, yet has no bass in it.  Arbenz and company pulled off quite a stunt with this disc.
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Music Youtube

Charlie Watts – If It Ain’t Got That Swing

Charlie Watts, the legendary bedrock of the Rolling Stones, has passed away today at the age of 80.  He speaks about his experiences drumming in this video.  Rest in peace, Charlie.

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Music

Ikuro Takahashi – しりえないものとずっと

An’archives, a French experimental music record label, has released しりえないものとずっと (Forever With The Incomprehensible) by legendary drummer and percussionist Ikuro TakahashiTakahashi has worked with the likes of Keiji Haino’s power-trio Fushitsusha, Seishokki, High Rise, Ché-Shizu, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Kousokuya, LSD March and Nagisa Ni Te.  This kind of pedigree is unmatched in the Japanese improvisational music scene.  The album is volcanic in its power, full of thundering percussion which would equal, and in some parts surpass, many percussion based free-jazz albums.