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.
London served as the home of many magnificent South African musicians, and it is safe to say that pianist Chris McGregor and his band, the Brotherhood of Breath, was the linchpin of the expat community. This particular album was released in 1979 and originally reissued in 2012 with bonus material. This is a shiny, well-remastered digital version, and as the material is all solo, McGregor is in fine form on his piano.
Twelve Improvisations For Piano Solo is a solo piano album by Spanish pianist Javi Cánovas from 2016. It’s an elegant listening experience comfortably sitting on a corner where contemporary classical, jazz and new age congregate.
Gleb Kolyadin is the pianist of Russian progressive rock band iamthemorning, but in this release, he has no problem mixing prog rock with jazz fusion. The album is full of guests, but perhaps the biggest one is King Crimson’s legendary bassist and Chapman stick player Tony Levin playing upright bass. Solid.
Odessa is a city that both Ukraine and Russia, as well as its many Jewish and even Tatar inhabitants, claim to be its own. Never mind the political hideousness of today, and let me present you with one of the most fascinating releases I’ve heard in contemporary classical and jazz scenes.
Vadim Neselovskyi is a pianist who hails from Ukraine, and has collaborated with giants such as Gary Burton, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and John Scofield, among others. This paean to the city of his birth is a magnificent blend of modern classical music and the sort of jazz which would fit well in the ECM Records catalog. Choice listening.
First, a debt of thanks goes to my friend, the “Last American Poet,” Shane Beck, for reminding me what a sublime album this is from Cousin Silas, who was a friend of my previous blog, and an artist whose work I respect immensely. This album is filled with wispy rhythms that let you relax and get lost in thought, something like melding George Winston with the Durutti Column, but with more of an edge to it. Our dear Cousin delivers yet again.
Going through Twitter contacts on my account (which will be changed soon, as I want an account that will only concentrate on music and not any other of my pursuits), I came across the name of a label whose work always left me impressed, but whom I had forgotten about, Erstwhile Records. Jon Abbey and Yuko Zama have run this label for years, but it looks like Yuko is branching out and running a new label called elsehwere music.
Perusing the catalog, I found a release by Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt which left me suitably impressed. From the release’s Bandcamp site:
“Where ‘drift nowhere past’ is a collection of journal entries and focuses on whatever is entering into the mind on a specific day each month, the new piece ‘the adventure of sleep’ concentrates on situations that recur every day: realizing the passing of time, hearing the sounds of neighbors, the moment of falling asleep, the moment of waking up. Like ‘drift nowhere past’, ‘the adventure of sleep’ spans a six-month period and again the material simply came from what was already there, accessible, happening, remembered, imagined or otherwise.”
I have to say I really like this label. I’m quite happy to hear more from them!
Dirk Fock was a Dutch-American pianist with a very interesting musical history, including working with Richard Strauss. From the Bandcamp site:
Dirk Fock (1886-1973) In 1945 the Dutch-born conductor and composer Dirk Fock (also: Foch) became an American citizen. Before that – during the interwar years – he conducted many orchestras all over Europe. Living in New York from 1919-1924 he was first conductor to the New York City Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor to the New York Philharmonic. He also was co-founder and first conductor of the American Orchestral Society. In 1924 Richard Strauss requested him to work as first director of the Wiener Konzertverein, where he performed with Igor Strawinsky. From the thirties – while living in Paris – he focused on composing.
In 1939 Fock moved back to New York. His patriotic song cycle Songs of Glory (1945) on texts by Joseph Auslander – then Poet Laureate of the United States – is inspired by the events of World War II. This cycle had several performances in the United States with Todd Duncan, the first Afro-American opera singer of the New York City Opera. Fock died in 1973 while living in Switzerland; he left behind a small but extraordinary body of work which expresses his love of the human voice.
Within the next few weeks, I will conduct an interview with pianist Alessandra Celletti, a dear friend and one of Italy’s most colorful musicians. This one is her latest, and its centerpiece is based on the Lemhi Shoshone teenager who not only led the American explorers Lewis & Clarke in their exploration of the Louisiana Territory but also became a symbol of women’s suffrage in the United States.
What a strangely beautiful album…
From the duo’s Bandcamp site:
Berlin and Reunion based duo, Amine Mesnaoui and Labelle are set to release their debut album on revered London independent imprint Lo Recordings on the 1st of April 2022.‘African Prayers’ is a collection of seven new compositions, which includes lead single ‘Bleu Noir’, that aims to bring a contemporary and fresh interpretation to the Lila Ritual of the Moroccan Gnawa masters – also known as the Ritual of the Seven Colors.
With a firm belief they can deliver a sound that finds its anchor in heritage and yet escape folkloric clichés and stereotypes,
the two musicians have strived to make something that is rich in meanings, minimal but complex, simple but deep. This is a record that is universal and invites the listener to the depth of meditation, to the dance, even to the spiritual state of trance.Mesnaoui plays a prepared piano that is modified by different objects, which are inserted into its strings while Labelle simultaneously plays electronic instruments and further processes the piano sound. These instruments are not native to the traditional context and their choice allows for a new perspective on the Lila Ritual. By pushing the boundaries of what those tools usually offer, the sound explores yet untapped territories. Each piece on the record refers to a specific color and its associated symbolic realm in the ritual.