On this show variety is the name of the game with a selection of new releases from Matt Greenwood, Nicholas Brust, Astroturf Noise, The Necks, Falkner Evans, Alex Weiss, Tomer Cohen, and Diego Rivera
Show Intro 00:00
Matt Greenwood “Dehyah” from Atlas (Self Released) 00:43
Nicholas Brust “The Absence of You” from Daybreak (Outside In Music) 06:57
Astroturf Noise “Medium Lonely Blues (ft. Stash Wyslouch)” from Blazing/Freezing (577 Records) 13:28
The Necks “Imprinting” from Travel (Northern Spy) 16:43
Falkner Evans “Soul Witness” from Through The Lens (Consolidated Artists Productions) 34:05
Alex Weiss “Homage to Elijah Cummings” from Most Don’t Have Enough (ears&eyes) 45:01
Tomer Cohen “Connecting Dots” from Not The Same River (Hypnote) 53:34
Diego Rivera “Lively” from Love & Peace (Posi-tone) 1:00:00
Matt Greenwood “Atlas” from Atlas (Self Released) 1:04:41
Nicholas Brust “Mind’s Eye” from Daybreak (Outside In Music) 1:08:41
Astroturf Noise “Historic Western Ghost Town Engulfed in Fire (ft. Walter Thompson)” from Blazing/Freezing (577 Records) 1:18:54
Falkner Evans “Closeness…Desire” from Through The Lens (Consolidated Artists Productions) 1:25:29
Alex Weiss “Humpty Dumpty” from Most Don’t Have Enough (ears&eyes) 1:34:52
Tomer Cohen “Hithadshut (Regeneration)” from Not The Same River (Hypnote) 1:42:04
Diego Rivera “Simón” from Love & Peace (Posi-tone) 1:48:37
Astroturf Noise “Midnight on the Ice (ft. Susan Alcorn)” from Blazing/Freezing (577 Records) 1:55:25
MATT GREENWOOD
Matt Greenwood – Guitar, Compositions
Joshua Stanberry – Piano
Mike Downes – Acoustic Bass
Dhaivat Jani – Drums, Percussion
Originally from Harare, Zimbabwe, guitarist and composer Matt Greenwood is carving out a new
sound in Toronto’s Jazz scene with his debut album Atlas. With a diverse musical upbringing, including performances as a teenager with Zimbabwean legends such as Oliver Mtukudzi and Forward Kwenda, Greenwood’s music is unhindered by geographical genre confines.
The cinematic musical world of Atlas combines jazz improvisation with modern production aesthetics and a compositional approach that borders on contemporary classical music. The album consists entirely of Greenwood’s original compositions, brought to life by multiple combinations of
musicians including Juno Award winning upright bassist Mike Downes, renowned drummer Mark
Kelso and a long list of innovative up-and-coming Toronto and Montreal based musicians: Joshua
Stanberry, Dhaivat Jani, Matt McCormack, Matt Dicker, Peter Holbrook, James Griffith, and Steve
Carson.
While most of the music was recorded live off the floor in studio, many of the tracks are augmented by an otherworldly landscape of overdubbed atmospheric guitar textures. Greenwood mixed the album himself to allow for a unique workflow where the lines could blur between composition, arrangement, and post-production. The main tracking sessions were engineered by Matthew Manifould and the album was mastered by Reuben Ghose.
Atlas was released worldwide on Friday, January 20th 2023.
NICHOLAS BRUST
Nicholas Brust releases his sophomore recording Daybreak on February 17, 2023 on Outside In Music.
Heralded as one of the premiere saxophonists of his generation, Boston-based Brust has established his voice, both as an instrumentalist and a composer, in the world of modern instrumental music. He has found his niche as a bandleader and composer, taking advantage of the numerous textures and combinations available in small-group improvised music, evident on his new recording, Daybreak, featuring Brust with guitarist Lage Lund, pianist Julia Chen, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Gary Kerkezou.
Daybreak is the follow up recording to Brust’s debut full-length album, Frozen in Time, released on Fresh Sound in 2020. He has brought together a completely new set of musicians for this release.
There is impressive playing from all the band members and the recording is pristine. The compositions are best described as modernistic with an element of accessible melodic content
ASTROTURF NOISE
Astroturf Noise returns with their second album for 577 Records, Blazing/Freezing. Since forming in 2017, the trio of Sam Day Harmet (mandolin/electronics), Sana Nagano (violin/effects), and Zachary Swanson (upright bass) has carved out a distinctive sonic space. Here, American roots music coexists with electronics-spiked free improv, Downtown skronk, and on the new album, manipulated samples sourced from Tennessee, Wisconsin, and their home city of Brooklyn, NY. They are also assisted with guest appearances from pedal steel master Susan Alcorn, avant-bluegrass guitarist Stash Wyslouch, and on piano, Soundpainting maestro Walter Thompson.
Written and recorded over the pandemic, Blazing/Freezing reflects the anxiety of our moment: blazing and freezing from the effects of climate change, the anger of our chaotic political environment (which seems to have crossed the Atlantic to these shores), the fear of whatever new insanity will come next. But it also reflects an unmistakable joy and playfulness throughout, an excitement for new sounds and musical collaboration. As hyphenated Americans (Jewish-American, Japanese-American, Mexican-American respectively), Astroturf Noise look to American music with mischievous instincts for deconstruction as they try to make sense of a deeply strange America.
There is certainly a lot going on and whilst their are echoes of Laswell or Zorn experimentation from 35 years back there is also a fresh soundscape to investigate.
The album is released on February 15th
THE NECKS
Their 19th studio album documents their recent practice of starting each day in the studio with a 20-minute trio improvisation. The recordings offer some of their most ecstatic and captivating music cut to tape.As bassist Lloyd Swanton puts it: “It’s a really nice communal activity to bring us together in focus each day, and some lovely music has resulted from it.” Although a straight “live” improvisation has never been recorded in the studio by the band, these tracks (save for some light overdubs and post-production) feel closest to their 30 years of celebrated live performances. In 2017 Stephen O’Malley’s Ideologic Organ label released the band’s lauded Unfold, which first offered up this uncharacteristic studio work: four sub-20-minute pieces – instead of the typical 60+ minute arc for which the band is known – along with an obfuscated track list which leaves play order to the listener’s hand. The album quickly sold out, and persists as a treasure in collections or as a high-priced ‘Want’ on Discogs. Travel marks a return to this double-LP format,
FALKNER EVANS
Pianist and composer Falkner Evans charts his personal evolution through a set of improvised music on his new album “Through the Lens”, due out January 20, 2023 via Consolidated Artists Productions (CAP). The album explores memory, grief, discovery and growth through solo piano improvisations
In the two and a half years that have elapsed since his wife Linda took her own life, Evans has sought every means available to understand and interpret his new reality. He’s learned to treasure moments – those vibrant memories from the past like the snapshot, that graces the cover of the album, of an antique camera unattended in the rain. The image was captured on a trip that Evans and Linda took to Venice.
“Through the Lens” is the direct follow-up to Evans’ solo debut, “Invisible Words”. Where that album featured a set of new compositions dedicated to Linda, the new album is significant in both Evans’ personal and professional lives at it sees him venturing into the realm of free improvisation. This is not an avant-garde experiment, however, the album is rich with lyricism and emotion, so much so it feels like written music.
Despite the risk inherent in approaching the piano without a single sheet of music, Evans felt confident when the date of the session arrived. In part that was helped by familiarity, as he was once again recording at Samurai Studio in Queens with his long time collaborator, Grammy-winning engineer Michael Marciano, behind the boards.
There is, to be expected, a melancholy feel to the album, but this is tempered with what appears to be a yearning for change and improvement.
ALEX WEISS
Alex Weiss – tenor saxophone & compositions
Dan Blake – soprano saxophone
Yana Davydova – guitar
Dmitry Ishenko – bass
Ches Smith – drums
(guest) Marta Sanchez – piano (track 1 & 3)
Says Weiss, “at a time when attention spans are fractured by information overload and the
importance of satisfying our immediate desires competes with the ability to sustain our
focus, listening to an entire album from start to finish is a tall order to ask of anyone. The art
of creating an entire album is in fact, archaic; the word album itself is outdated. However,
when we come to the end of our lives, if we’ve created some beauty during our stay, then we
can rest content. This body of music is a gesture in that direction however old-fashioned. I
hope it touches everyone who hears it in a meaningful way and satisfies you even for a
fleeting moment.
This project started before the pandemic. So this music has been developing and shaping for
quite some time now. I started to write again after a bit of a hiatus as my life became
extraordinarily busy with a new baby boy, Akira. But the time he was born and the time the
music was born is the same. The time of Trump as president and a new era of brutality that
he brought forth. This compounded by the pandemic really informed the compositions that
make this album; Most Don’t have Enough.
Initially, I had wanted to write again with composition being the centerpiece of the music.
Yes, improvisation from the original melody plays out in the music but I really wanted to
write music with preconceived stories to tell. Developed compositions that turn, unfold, and
reveal while providing improvisation and spontaneous communication.”
Homage to Elijah Cummings
The track, Homage to Elijah Cummings was written shortly after Cummings’ passing. Acclaimed pianist Marta Sanchez is the featured soloist (along with Weiss) on the two most epic compositions,
“Akira: Sun and Moon,” and “Homage to Elijah Cummings.” The latter is an expansive
closely knit piece replete with a whole spectrum of emotion propelled by meter changes and
ostinato bass lines that lend themselves for the improvisers to explore freely. It is a tribute
inspired by what the composer calls “the love for life and humanity.” It is directly inspired
by the late and lamented U.S. Representative as well as the recently departed Pharoah
Sanders, whose rebellious spirit inhabits the song.
Humpty Dumpty
The next track is one of the covers on the album, Humpty Dumpty by Ornette Coleman.
Coleman’s playing and writing have influenced Weiss from an early age. So playing his
music and keeping his spirit directly alive is important for Weiss personally as well as for
the idiom.
TOMER COHEN
A new face on the New York jazz scene, 25-year-old guitarist-composer Tomer Cohen makes his auspicious debut as a leader with Not the Same River. Accompanied by the highly interactive rhythm tandem of drummer Obed Calvaire (a ubiquitous figure on the NYC scene and currently a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis) and stalwart bassist Matt Penman (formerly with the SFJAZZ Collective and sideman on over 100 recordings), Cohen demonstrates his unique fingerstyle-and-pick technique on eight thoughtful compositions that reflect his pastoral upbringing.
The album title, Cohen explained, relates to an expression by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. “That’s the sentence that encompasses all the compositions on the album,” he said. “We are constantly in motion, we’re always changing, and we just need to accept that. This record connects some stories, images and my life philosophies into one thing.”
Cohen is an accomplished player and his deft technique adds further layers of complexity to an already busy rhythm section. On the face of it this is pastoral music but the delivery has much more going on. The album is released via Hypnote Records on February 17th
DIEGO RIVERA
Bandleader, composer, educator and saxophonist extraordinaire Diego Rivera aspires to greater
heights and unleashes the transcendent power of “Love and Peace” on his fourth release for PosiTone Records. With a program of exciting original compositions and a few heart-felt covers, the session swings swiftly into action and shines with bright moments from the get go. Also on the date is an all-star rhythm section of pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Rudy Royston. With the deep emotionality of this musical offering, Rivera has noticeably advanced his intention and expression up onto another level and the poignancy of these performances will entreat jazz enthusiasts everywhere to dig deeper into his message of “Love and Peace” with amazement and delight.
Different Noises 