On this show a mix of new releases and selections from the World of Jazz Archive including Ivo Perelman Ray Anderson Joe Morris & Reggie Nicholson, The Necks, Trevor Tomkins Sextant, Anemic Cinema, Marc Ducret, Nate Wooley Scott R. Looney Damon Smith & Weasel Walter, Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra, and, Sam Rivers Dave Holland & Barry Altschul.
Ivo Perelman, Ray Anderson, Joe Morris, Reggie Nicholson – Liquid – Molten Gold (Fundacha Sluchaj)
Ivo Perelman, Ray Anderson, Joe Morris, Reggie Nicholson
Four absolute masters in their respective instrumental fields! Ivo Perelman on tenor saxophone, the great trombonist and jazz legend Ray Anderson, the well-known Joe Morris this time with double bass in his hands, and the long-time companion of Henry Threadgill’s musical journeys, drummer Reggie Nicholson! The quartet’s latest studio recording was made in mid-November last year at Brooklyn’s excellent ParkWest Studio recording studio by the invaluable Jim Clouse.
The Necks – Signal – Travel (Northern Spy)
The 19th studio album by Australian improvisational trio The Necks, 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.
Trevor Tomkins Sextant – Ugetsu/’Smatter – For Future Reference (Jazz In Britain)
Never-before-released early 1980s sessions by a band of top British players and composers which never released an album, led by drummer Trevor Tomkins. This is, in effect, the late Trevor Tomkins debut album release as leader, as well as his memorial. We were working on this with Trevor when he died last last year and it’s now released with the help and support of his family.
releases March 15, 2023
Track 1 – Recorded May 1980
Track 2 – Recorded May 1981
Jimmy Hastings – soprano & tenor sax
Chris Pyne – trombone & valve trombone
Phil Lee – electric guitar
John Horler – piano & electric piano
Paul Bridge – bass
Trevor Tomkins – drums
Anemic Cinema – Iconoclasts Pt 1 & 2, Business In Front Party In The Back – Iconoclasts (Ramble Records)
Belgium based avant-jazz-metal collective.
The band name is taken from a short film by über-Dadaist Marcel Duchamp. Iconoclasts draws on avant-jazz and improv and combines metal riffage on baritone guitar with experimental-avant-garde jazz to produce wonderful sonic textures.
released February 24, 2022
Artan Buleshkaj (baritone guitar, compositions)
Rob Banken (alto saxophone, clarinet)
Steven Delannoye (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet)
Matthias de Waele (drums)
Marc Ducret – Fanfare – News From The Front (JMT)
As auteur Stefan Winter finally gets around to re-releasing his back catalog (his JMT sides were issued in the U.S. during the 1990s and distributed by Polygram, but sadly are no longer), certain forgotten gems creep to the surface. This set by guitarist Marc Ducret is just such an item. Trumpet and flügelhorn boss Herb Robertson, trombonist Yves Robert, and percussionist (organic and drum machine) François Verly join with Ducret to play through a series of loose, wiry compositions by the guitarist where harmonic and dissonant interplay are given weight and equal consideration with textural, dynamic, and spacious elements that are structured, tempered, and finally juxtaposed. Ducret plays both electric and acoustic guitars on these knotty sides, and his melodic sensibility is here more evident and striated than anywhere else in his catalog. The beautiful “Can I Call You Wren?” features strummed acoustics and edgy electrics, which are layered on top of a drum machine and dissimilar contrapuntal melodies by Robertson and Verly. Or there’s the swampy bottleneck intro on the title track that gives way to a minor-key investigation of short linear phrases that gradually open up onto an entire new harmonic precipice before exploding into an array of noise guitar and drums. These are just two examples of one of the most engaging recordings from his shelf. This is provocative music to be sure, but it is refined and restrained, elegant even.
Recorded June 23-26 and July 24-25, 1991 at Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg
Nate Wooley, Scott R. Looney, Damon Smith, Weasel Walter – Anglewise Blind – Scowl (ugEXPLODE Records)
Released August 01, 2011
Recorded October 19, 2008, Studio 1510, Oakland, California
Rob Mazurek – Exploding Star Orchestra – Future Shaman – Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem)
Lightning Dreamers is new work by composer, trumpeter, interdisciplinary abstractivist and modern music mogul Rob Mazurek, who wrote the music for a compacted version of his long-running Exploding Star Orchestra. A follow-up to the acclaimed 2020 Mazurek/ESO release Dimensional Stardust, the album features guitarist Jeff Parker, vocalist Damon Locks, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and pianists Angelica Sanchez and Craig Taborn, among others. It was recorded mostly at the remote Sonic Ranch studios in West Texas, not far from Mazurek’s current home in Marfa, in the days leading up to a debut of the music at Trans Pecos festival in September 2021. Mixing and post-production was headed by Dave Vettraino from IARC studios in Chicago across 2022.
Sam Rivers, Dave Holland, Barry Altschul – Set One Part Three – Reunion Live In New York 2007 (Pi Recordings)
This May, 2007 date at Columbia University capped off a week-long celebration of Rivers by WKCR radio and reunited the three, who hadn’t played together in over 25 years. The nearly one-and-a-half hours of music on two discs was recorded over two lengthy sets of improvised music. The trio glides effortlessly between bebop passages, tonal and atonal breaks and some passionate soloing. Rivers switches between tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and piano, each with its own personality. His tenor paints wide splotches of sound, while his soprano cuts more precise channels. On flute he pops and floats, and his piano sound is informed by a more charming Cecil Taylor. Where Holland’s current ensembles featured his organization, here he is freed up to explore without a map. He takes several solos, passages unexpected yet built like a hurricane-proofed structure.
Different Noises 