Albatre - A Descent in the Maelstrom [Shhpuma]

Albatre:
Hugo Costa - alto sax, loops
Goncalo Almeida - bass, effects
Philipp Ernsting - drums, electronics


Shhpuma 2013

Goncalo Almeida has appeared on the blog previously with the LAMA trio and "Oneiros" on which he was responsible for most of the compositions. Do you remember the oniric landscapes he painted with the help of Susana Santos Silva (trumpet) and Greg Smith (drums)? If yes, do not expect them again. Albatre is a different sort of animal alltogether. A slightly brutal one.

Andreas Willers, Meinrad Kneer, Christian Marien - Nulli Secundus [Creative Sources]

Andreas Willers - electric and acoustic guitars
Meinrad Kneer - double bass
Christian Marien - drums, percussion







Creative Sources 2012

"Nulli Secundus" is one of the not too common proves that free improvisation, on the record, can make sense. That not all it's magic, created in-the--exact-moment and in-the--exact-space is gone transferred onto the digital disc (or other medium). 

Free improvi is this peculiar non-genre that makes it particularly difficult to write about, after all, it is a music that tries to escapy any musical language. Human mind though likes to hang onto the the known and sometimes such become integral parts of the improvised puzzle. Noise, jazz, rock echoes are presented in many forms on the session, but such are suspened in the unknown sonic landscape, bizzarre, eerie and suprising. There's lot of strange sounds, screams, screeches, rumbles, distortions and so far. What I find the most thrilling is the sense of suspense, of controlled chaos that resides within those sounds. Be it high pitch guitar screams in "Ubersturz" or the introvertic hushed, white-noise tones at the beginning of the "Fellatmung", or the long suspended echo of guitar tones, countered by the fast tones of arco strings and the bowed plates near the end of the piece. All three musicians implore a wire range of unorthodox techniques and the lack of visuals makes it even more intriguing at times. "Wurfblech", the final track of the album is just one example, with on-point pizzicato, broken rhythms and scorching guitar.

"Nulli Secundus" is played with immagination and gutts. It's raw, unpolished even at the most silent moments. It is also very cohesive in the search for colour and means of expression and, most of all, sense of dramatic narration. Each piece is like a short story, and the way the trio complements each others' musical ideas is a great example of what we love about spontanous improvisation. A flow of musical ideas, free of preconception but filled with actual thought. Not your everyday listen, but nonetheless very rewarding.

Fire! - (without noticing) [Rune Grammofon]

Fire!
Mats Gustafsson - tenor and baritone saxophones, organ, fender rhodes and electronics
Johan Berthling - bass and piano
Andreas Werliin - drums



Rune Grammofon 2013

The complexity and diversity of Gustafsson's artistic oeuvre is quite astonishing, driven by deep passion he creates music that can be both elaborated as insanely wild, pure abstract, energetic rock'n'roll or tear-drenching ballad. After a whole week with Nu Ensemble, Mats comes back tonight for one evening with the group that played recent summer at the indie music festival OFF in Katowice. Fire! is a project that lives on the fringes of rock, with little focus on jazz or free improvisation.

Nu Ensemble at 8th Krakow Jazz Autumn - day IV (11.10)

The fourth and the final of the Alchemia evenings was so packed that it seems impossible to me to fit the whole in a single post but I'll try to do a telegraphic one.

Set I 

Once again a solo + duo + solo formula. Dieb13 appears on stage behind 5 (!) turntables, the music is a mirage of loops, electronic noises, acoustic samples. A marriage of analogue sounds in a digital world. Impressive sense of drama and tension and technical mastery in managing the five different sources contemporaneously.

Peter Evans and Per-Ake Holmlander

Peter Evans and Per-Ake Holmlander started off with a series of burps on the horns but this time the real pleasure was to hear Peter Evans playing in the more "traditional" free-jazz vein, with wild runs trumpet flights (l had an immage of a hunter playing his bugle, with the steadier tuba walkig by heavily).

Wovoka - Trees Against The Sky [Lado ABC]

Wovoka:
Mewa Chabiera - vocal
Raphael Roginski - guitar, bass guitar, oud
Ola Rzepka - keyboards, piano
Pawel Szpura - drums

guests:
Ola Bilinska - backing vocal; Michal Gorczynski - bass clarinet, saxophone; Piotr Zabrodzki - moog, synth, frozen finger organ; Hubert Zemler - percussions

Lado ABC 2013

Even to the ones familiar with Raphael Roginski's musical output Wovoka's debut cd must come as a surprise. Roginski is a center figure of modern jewish music in Poland, reinventing the tradition and its expression with bands like Shofar, Cukunft, Alte Zachen, Yemen.

The band is named after the religious leader of Norther Paiute tribe, founder of Ghost Dance movement, also known as Jack Wilson. "Trees Against the Sky" is a tribute to the musical traditions of North America, lost in the river of time.

Stefan Pasborg - Free The Moby Dick [ILK]

Mikko Innanen - baritone saxophone
Liudas Mockunas - tenor saxophone
Nicolai Munch-Hansen - electric and double bass
Stefan Pasborg - drums and percussion


ILK Records 2012

If the title "Free Moby Dick" doesn't explain itself clearly enough there's a tiny print below : interpretating six standards from the history book of rock 'n' roll. If that doesn't sound like fun that I don't know what does.

Stefan Pasborg gathers together three friends of his, Mikko Innanen from Finlad, Liudas Mockunas from Lituania and Nicolai Munch-Hansen to perform together such rock'n'roll classics like "Black Dog" as well as "Out In The Tiles" by Led Zeppelin, "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, "Paint It Black" by Rolling Stones, the modern rock anthem "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes" and the lushfull ballad "Johnsburg Illinois" by Tom Waits. 

Swedish Mobilia - Knife, Fork and Spoon [Leo Records]

Swedish Mobilia:
Andrea Bolzoni - guitar + live electronics
Dario Miranda - bass + live electronics
Daniele Frati - drums + percussions





Leo Records 2012

It's a funny world where to get to know what's going on with Italian jazz scene one need to follow a british label but so it seems to me recently. I've had a distinct pleasure of writing about

Apart from my personal interest in Italy (I'm an almost pd in italian philology) what caught my interest about the cd is the band's name and cd's title. Swedish Mobilia? Knife, fork and spoon? Just for this kind of "and now for something completely different" you've got to get some credit. But there's much more to give the credit for.

Pink Freud - Horse & Power [Universal]

Pink Freud:
Wojtek Mazolewski - bass guitar
Tomasz Duda - baritone sax, bas clarinet
Adam Milwiw-Baron - trumpet, trombone, vocal, electronics
Rafal Klimczuk - dr

Universal Music Polska 2012

(A first review in the long time, and after this weekend they should be much more frequent. Also the radio programs.)

I have recently written about this bands' concert and now I have pleasure of listening to the same material again. More studio-polished but still remaining it's horse & power vigour.

Wojtek Mazolewski, the leader of the band,  is a public figure in Poland, one of the few jazz(y) musicians that made it to the mainstream, that get played in the national radio and Pink Freud's music explains well why it is so.

Pink Freud at Lizard King (25.04)

Pink Freud is an example of a band that manages to exist on the fringes of jazz, alternative rock, electronics. Started as a trio a couple of years back, only the band's leader - Wojtek Mazolewski, remains from the original line-up but the group is coming back strong with another album - Horse and Power, and the concert in Krakow was part of the promotional tour.

Aram Bajakian's Kef - Kef [Tzadik]

Kef:
Aram Bajakian - acoustic and electric guitars
Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz - acoustic bass
Tom Swafford - violin

Tzadik 2011

Although he's been playing with the likes of Yusef Lateef, Mike Pride, Darius Jomes, Mat Maneri and others "Kef" is Aram Bajakian's debut official recording as a leader, and the 3rd installment of new Tzadik's Spotlight Series that aims to present young and promising talents (and a blessing from label's owner and avant-guarde's guru John Zorn is definitely a strong encouragament to get to know those bands). "Kef" surprises with it's unusual line-up of a string trio and the fresh and authentic blend of armenian folk heritage, rock expression and jazz improvisation.

Kazutoki Umezu KIKI Band at Manggha (20.09) Krakow Autumn Jazz Festival begins!

KIKI Band

It has begun! And by 'it' I mean the long-awaited Autumn Jazz Festival in Krakow where I hope to see you all in the next two months.

And it started with a heavy kick provided by the Kazutoki Umezu KIKI Band, a group well known and always welcomed by Krakow audience (as they have played here before).

I admit it is a relatively easy task to write about this group's concert since you know exactly what to expect from this band and the band fulfills those (high) expectations. Plus you can support your words with a selection of decent quality vids easily find on the web.
(polish readers can also find the text published on jazzarium.pl)

KIKI's music is a well shaken cocktail: swiss precision, a doze of (typical to japanese music scene) madness, catchy melodies, massive rock sound, heavy riffs, crazy speed rhythms and some ass-kicking soloing to go with it. All of that within a strict form of a rock song (verse-chorus-bridge; with the exception of multi-themathic, extended prog-rock piece that opened the 2nd set). The instumental prowess is also enhanced by musical showmanship as the melodic bass solos bring to mind Victor Wooten, under the rusty free-jazz sounds made by Kazutoki his sound is clear and sweet like that of David Sanborn's alto (and I mean it as a compliment), Natsuki Kido could be an incarnation of Gary Moore (or another guitar-shredder) and the drummer doesn't slack off either, proud to defend's the rock honor of USA.

Joey Baron, Bruno Chevillon, Elliott Sharp, Franck Vigroux - Venice, dal vivo [D'autres cordes]

Franck Vigroux - turntables, guitar
Elliott Sharp - reeds, guitar
Bruno Chevillon - doublebass, electronics
Joey Baron - drums

D'autres cordes 2010

I put the 'jazz that rocks' label on this one but it is misleading as there's no jazz to find in here. Starting with a mesh of electronic squeaks this one surely brings an odd palette of sound in the game and joined early enough by the powerhouse, muscular drumming by Baron goes way deep into the rock grounds.
"Acqua Alta", after the electronic intro, gets off with a metal mayhem of guitar arpeggios, fuzzy bass (the acoustic bass sounds electronic throughout the most part of the album thanks to some filters) and trance drums patterns relying heavily on the bass pedal kick. Things slow  down with a thoughtfull drums solo just to explode with "Cannareggio" again. Distorted sax versus shimmering electronics battle brings forward a psychodelic guitar, then again hushed and somewhat creepy exploration of small noises, echoes, feedbacks, pulsations and textures.

Vth Tzadik Poznan Festival day 2 - Daktari / Jewish Surf

The 2nd day of the Tzadik Poznań Festival

1. Daktari

A young band that could easily fit into the New York 90's downtown scene and record for Knitting Factory label. With tight rock rhythms, heavy bass riffs and dynamic melodies. Kind of a new Hasidic New Wave yet more rock oriented and updated by the influences of the modern indie and alternative rock scene.

Good energy level and fine musicianship (great melodic interplay between trumpet and sax; some noisy guitar solos with a nice experimental edge) yet I felt dissapointed when each time they really got the things going heavy instead of switching into the hypnotic full-crazy mode they would stop abruptly in the middle of the line. I guess the strategy is to mantain the compact rock-song form but I'd like them to get loose and play possible longer takes than more tracks (especially since the short solos by Olgierd Dokalski hinted at something more extended and exciting). A solid concert though I felt that there's was potential for more.

Daktari :

Olgierd Dokalski - trumpet

Mateusz Franczak - tenor saxophone

Miron Grzegorkiewicz - guitar

Maciej Szczepanski - bass guitar

Robert Alabrudzinski - drums

Klub Meskalina. Poznan. 23.07.2011

2. Żydowski Surf (Jewish Surf)

Raphael Roginski, already the leader of Shofar (with Trzaska and Moretti on drums) and Cukunft, created this band to play 'jewish surf religious music' and that promises fun.

And fun it is indeed as he brings to this quartet Macio Moretti and Bartlomiej Tycinski from the absolutely brilliant and absolutely non-serious Mitch & Mitch group, while Ola Rzepka (playng with The Complainer & The Complainers among others) provides some steady rock beat.

To those who know the polish scene it's enough to say : immagine mixing together the Mitch & Mitch (fun and retro feeling mixed with joyfull punk attitude) and Shofar (Raphael Roginski's guitar is unmistakable). Otherwise I'll try to put it like this: if Beach Boys were a guitar group born in a punk era and playing klezmer music they might have sounded like this quartet. Or maybe the unfortunately short clip below will render a slight idea of how much fun this concert was.

Rapahel Roginski - guitar
Bartlomiej Tycinski - guitar
Macio Moretti - bass guitar
Ola Rzepka - drums

Klub Meskalina. Poznan. 23.07.2011

Tfaruk Love Communication [Multikulti]

TFARUK LOVE COMMUNICATION:

Tomasz Ballaun - percussion, electronics

Michał Fetler - saxophones

Piotr Mełech - bass clarinet

Krzysztof Kaliski - bass guitar

Daniel Karpiński - drums

guests:

Kuba Jankowiak - trumpet

Franiu Frank - rhodes, rattle

Tymon Tymański - bass guitar (only on "Dla Taty")

Wojtek Mazolewski - bass guitar (only on "Miłość zwycięża kiełbasę")

Multikulti 2011

Polish listener will smile just from seeing the name of this band ("Tfaruk" being as incorrect as possible way of spelling "cottage cheese") and I guess this form of anarchic absurd humour (that shows up also in the titles) is easily associated with the yass scene - polish jazz revolution movement of the 90's. Both Tomasz Ballau, the founder of the band, and one of the guests - Tymon Tymanski are strongly connected with yass movement indeed (Tymon being in fact its spiritus movens). Still there's a lot of music fun for non-polish listeners here too.

Alexey Kruglov & Jaak Sooaar Trio - Karate [Leo]

Alexey Kruglov - alto sax, soprano sax, bassethorn, recorder, declamation
Jaak Sooaar - guitar, live electronics
Mihkel Malgand - double bass
Tanel Ruben - drums

Leo Records 2011

Could be simply the fact that I didn't follow the subject close enough, but a lot of very promising new music is coming our way from Eastern Europe, often via polish jazz-soil as a bridge (Mark Tokar, Ilia Belorukov). Obviously it's no news to Leo Feign as Leo Records introduced western audiences to a considerable number of artists coming from post Soviet Union countries, starting a long time ago with the famous Ganellin Trio. Alexey Kruglov is a mojor discovery (it's his third cd for Leo in just a year) and not only a continuator of Ganellin Trio tradition (he has played with all three members of the trio) but also one of the main figures of Moscow improvising scene.

Gordon Grdina Trio with Mats Gustafsson - Barrel Fire [Drip Audio]

Barrel Fire

Gordon Grdina - guitar, oud

Mats Gustafsson - saxophone

Tommy Babin - bass

Kenton Loewen - drums

Drip Audio 2010

Here's another one for those amongst You who like it when free jazz rocks. And it rocks hard. With music getting pretty crazy, but always driving forward thanks to the relentless work of rhythm section.

This is pretty simple and fun, always very sincere (punk is not dead :). Gordon shredds his guitar strings a lot, gritty bass and drums chase each other and saxophone sharpens the raw edges. "Burning Bright" features a great theme that somehow reminds me of Ayler's march, and it serves well as driving vehicle for the ensemble improvisation. "229" after a short percussion intro and a fast, rhythmic, punk guitar-riff turns to sax trio setting, with the rhythmic section providing a hard swinging like hell backbone! (check the crazy pace of bass walking), riff comes back again and Mats backs off leaving space for Gordon and a fiery solo. His sound on guitar is quite intriguing, bit like classic swing guitar with a lot of distortion to it and he puts some nice twists into speeding lines. Track ends with bass solo (nice drive to it), which ends up suddenly, quite inconclusive*.

Liudas Mockunas, Eugenijus Kanevicius and Dalius Naujokaitis - Kablys. Live at 11:20 [NoBusiness]

Kablys. Live at 11:20

Liudas Mockunas - tenor, baritone and soprano saxophones

Eugenijus Kanevicius - bass and electronics

Dalius Naujokaitis – drums

NoBusiness Records 2010

Had the decision to start this blog came just one day earlier the first post would be about Liudas Mockunas, Rafal Mazur, Raymond Strid concert. To make up for it I'd like to present You this release. Liudas Mockunas comes to, what I hope is, international attention of free-jazz lovers, thanks to recent releases of NoBusiness and this one makes his case even stronger.