Dennis González / João Paulo

The Texas wiz Dennis González is meeting the Portuguese piano genius for a couple of concerts and a recording in Portugal in June. The recording will happen also on June 13th (what a great day to record for Clean Feed, huh ?).

Exploding Hearts are recording for Clean Feed

Exploding Hearts (Tony Malaby, William Parker and Nasheet Waits) are recording for Clean Feed on June 13th in New York. The CD will be released in 2008.

Upcoming release – Mário Laginha Trio “Espaço”

Mário Laginha Trio – Espaço (CF 090)
Commissioned by the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2007, “Espaço” is more than a wonderful jazz piano trio record. Architecture is the motive sustaining this geometric but organic music: the idea of regular and irregular structures, continuous and discontinuous lines, plane or distorted surfaces, space and absence of space is transferred to the sound world, resulting in a unique opus about form and its contradictions. The aspects are many: street configurations in a city (“Tráfico,” or “Traffic” in English), claustrophobe (“Paredes Que Nos Rodeiam,” or “Surrounding Walls”), and emptiness (“Vazio Urbano,” or “Urban Void,” the theme of this year’s triennale). Portuguese pianist and composer Mário Laginha believes that there are points of contact between the two domains, some conceptual coincidences and even mutual references. And he’s right: architect-engineer-composer Iannis Xenakis once called music “liquid architecture,” and who could better understand that than him. Following Xenakis’ lead, many classical contemporary composers have drawn on architecture to inspire their creative output. But the influence of architecture on jazz composers (with the exception of Argentine Guillermo Gregorio) has been slight. This is new terrain for Laginha, one of the most respected and applauded musicians in Portugal. “You can say the music of this album isn’t very different from what I did before, and I hope not. But I can guarantee that, if it wasn’t the impulse of the architectural subject, it wouldn’t be what it is,” says Mário. With him are bassist Bernardo Moreira and drummer Alexandre Frazão, two essential names in Lisbon’s jazz scene. You won’t regret listening to this.

The Jazz Review review by Glenn Astarita

Alvin Fielder Trio – A Measure of Vision (CF 071)
A co-founder of the AACM – the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, drummer Alvin Fielder has aligned with the crème de la crème of progressive jazz: A list too numerous in scope to cite here.  And it’s a bit hard to believe that this outing signifies the drummer’s inaugural solo release.  Yet, it’s never too late as they say.  Here, the drummer leads a trio that transforms into a quartet and quintet on selected pieces. 

Trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez has been on a spiraling upsurge via some irrefutably important recordings for this Portugal-based record label.  With a tone to die for, the artist has fashioned a signature style sound and scope of attack.  On this endeavor he summons the talents of his sons’ Aaron (bass) and Stefan (drums and vibes) — performing on various works while extending the trio format.

The band pursues staggered free-bop vamps with variable flows as Fielder serves as a colorist and accelerator.  More importantly, they fabricate a sense of continuity throughout, although no two works are distinctly alike.  On the piece titled “Camel,” Gonzalez’ big sound and ominous phrasings emit a counterbalancing effect, where he solos within an endearing melody medium-tempo swing pulse.  In other regions of this superfine outing, the band pursues an abundance of contrasting tones and sound-shaping exercises while using space as a vantage point. And they delve into the free-zone while occasionally bursting into modern-mainstream type dialogues. 

Gonzalez’ popping notes during “Ripe for Vision,” ride atop the buoyant horizontal plane set forth by his son Stefan’s rhythmic vibes work, to coincide with the group’s crash and burn gait.  Then on “Time No Time,” pianist Chris Parker and Fielder pursue a bustling free-bop groove with the trumpeter’s poignant lines and focused; no looking back, mode of attack. A top-10 pick for 2007, it is…
http://www.jazzreview.com/cd/review-18850.html

Seattle Weekly Review by Mark D. Fefer

Shoup/Burns/Radding/Campbell – The Levitation Shuffle (CF 074)
If “Seattle jazz” has a sound, it’s most often the kind of determinedly mainstream, round-edged modernism of Origin Records, Tula’s, and the like. Great stuff sometimes, but (as with Seattle politics) rather lacking in danger or surprise. But there’s long been another strain to Northwest jazz—one that doesn’t necessarily even affiliate with “jazz,” one marked by a fierceness you get elsewhere in Seattle music. Wally Shoup is a longtime leader in this subterranean Seattle workforce, and his new disc of free improvisation is maybe his most arresting yet. I’ve often felt like Shoup’s intensity got lost when he was competing, as he so often does, with the power of an electric guitar—nature’s breath is always going to lose out to a Marshall stack and pedal-pushing shrieks. But when kindled, as here, by a strictly acoustic quartet, Shoup’s dragonfire cuts a more awesome path than ever. Rarely in the Seattle free scene will you hear a session that is so assured from beginning to end, that never gets lost and never bails out through the overblowing escape hatch. In this 2003 session, just released on an adventurous Portuguese label, pianist Gust Burns and drummer Greg Campbell provide a restless, muscular undergirding, punchy and excitable for the full hour. Even more striking is the interplay between Shoup and onetime Seattle bassist Reuben Radding, who mimic and goad each other, reed to bow. It’s no surprise that Shoup’s a painter because he plays his alto sax in brush strokes—a thick slab, some spattered dabs, twisted lines, a crisscross repeated over and over. Then sometimes he’ll just chuck the whole bucket against the canvas. As with paint, there’s a strong surface, textural quality, and it’s part of what differentiates Shoup from so many improvisers who are carving out melodies and songs, or following more of a Trane-like “questing” motion. This session does what free jazz should do—take you on a trip, destination unknown, where returning to the bridge or the chorus isn’t going to happen, and yet you’re just as sure, at the end of each cut, that you’ve arrived exactly where you’re supposed to be.
http://seattleweekly.com:80/2007-05-23/music/new-music-from-chris-garneau-calvin-johnson-shoup-burns-radding-campbell.php

Paal Nilssen-Love/John Butcher @ Cave 12

New Clean Feed Release available May 31st

Raymond MacDonald / Gunter Baby Sommer – “Delphinus & Lyra” CF 086
Here it is, naked to the bone, free jazz in all its glory, loose, intense and furious, not in hanger but with “joie de vivre.” A sax-drums duo like this, in which one of the performers is Gunter “Baby” Sommer, a hallowed name in European improvised music, makes you anticipate an essentialist approach to the communicative powers of improvisation. This is an encounter of generations, German percussionist and free-jazz pioneer Sommer meets a new presence on the international scene, Scottish saxophonist (and a psychologist, who uses sounds as a therapy for the mentally handicapped) MacDonald. We are all musical, the Glasgow-based MacDonald has lectured. From this universal musicality grow infra-music and hyper-music, music before and after music, nuclear and at the same time cosmic, on the path blazed by John Coltrane and Rashied Ali. The Sommer-MacDonald duo isn’t as spiritual, but the celebration of life is the same. Back in the 60s and 70s Sommer was part of the gang that included Peter Brotzmann, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Peter Kowald, Evan Parker, Leo Smith, and Cecil Taylor when the world was challenged by a new music that rejected both traditional jazz and academic classical composition. He, with his unusual drum kit and literary collaborations, is a living monument. MacDonald is far from being mesmerized by the personal history of his partner: he himself gained the status of one of the most important reedmen in the United Kingdom, with the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and gigs with Keith Tippett, Maggie Nicols, Lol Coxhill, Harry Beckett, and other notables. You can’t ignore the energy and fresh perspectives in this joint venture.

New Clean Feed Release available May 31st

Evan Parker/John Edwards/Chris Corsano – “A Glancing Blow” CF 085
Gee! An Evan Parker album with a new star of the drum kit, Chris Corsano, and one of the most intriguing bassists to emerge in the last few years, John Edwards? This is a record you can’t miss! “A Glancing Blow” is destined to make history. The instruments are the same of Evan’s “classical” trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton, but the approach is quite different. The master saxophonist uses his trademark multiphonics and circular breathing techniques in a surprising, new context that only such resourceful musicians could provide. Although Edwards is now a central figure in the improvised music scene in London, playing with the likes of Phil Minton, Tony Bevan, Eddie Prévost and Lol Coxhill, among many others, he has other musical adventures that have little or nothing to do with the improv philosophy, ranging from the metal-noise-jazz band GOD to the “remixers” project Spring Heel Jack. Corsano established his name as a hardcore free player and an expert in sax-drums duos with the likes of Paul Flaherty. Neo-psychedelic rock and folk fans worship him due to his collaborations with the groups Sunburned Hand of the Man, Six Organs of Admittance, and Vibracathedral Orchestra. And noise freaks applaud his work with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, and Nels Cline of Wilco. Prepare yourself: the music here is rough and raw and it takes no prisoners.

New Clean Feed release available May 31st

Martin Speicher/Georg Wolf/Lou Grassi – “Shapes and Shadows” CF084
Much has been said about the art of the improvising trio since the triangular interaction between Ornette Coleman, David Izenzon, and Charles Moffett. Now Martin Speicher, Georg Wolf, and Lou Grassi contribute another chapter to that long tradition. “Shapes and Shadows” is a wonder of musical integration of three diverse personalities investing all their energy in a common purpose. It is proof that real collective music is possible. This is structured improvisation, explorative, agitated, surprising, and yet always maintaining focus. German alto saxophonist / clarinetist Speicher has a composer’s sensibility throughout that injects a “classical” contemporary feel in these tracks, even in the freest moments, at times resembling Peter Brotzmann’s excursions. There’s some sort of telepathy between Speicher and bassist Wolf, the fruit of their long-time collaboration in several settings. But Grassi isn’t left on his own. It’s remarkable how the American drummer sustains motion and makes himself a fundamental part in everything. He acts and reacts, and you can sense the two Europeans keeping an ear turned to his every move. Expressionist and abstract, this is music of the first order, as dense as a lava river and as complex as a mathematical equation, yet inviting us to come a board with the seduction of a natural phenomenon.

New Clean Feed release available May 31st

Joe Morris / Ken Vandermark / Luther Gray – “Rebus” CF 083
Joe Morris plays guitar on this record, and that is good news. He certainly is one of the best players in that music called “free jazz” that traces its roots to the sixties and seventies. And if on recent records you have longed for Ken Vandermark’s tenor saxophone sound, here it is. After a period of focus on bass and soprano clarinets and on baritone sax, he returns to his first instrument. Only two other titles joining Morris and Vandermark exist, “Like Rays” and “Joe Morris with DKV Trio.” That’s a shame because they function seamlessly together. This third opus makes us believe that this partnership demands a future. And if you have ever wondered why the guitarist is so fond of drummer Luther Gray, “Rebus” explains it all: what a fantastic musician! You’ll find plenty to pick from here: hard-driven, furious music, but also some quiet moments; from sax solos packed with overblowing to almost mainstream finger-picking guitar figures. One moment will have you holding your breath and the next will spur you to relax and slowly let your breath go. These three players never choose the highways when there are other roads to travel; you never know in which direction they’re going to turn. When the trio arrive at its destination, you’ll want to make the journey again: back to the first track. Another listening, another impression of this detailed recording’s nuances.