Modern/Avant New Releases: A running thread

[BFrank]

Peter Evans Ensemble

New album “Horizons” available on vinyl and digital formats, late summer 2020

-Features new compositions for quartet with Mazz Swift (violin & voice), Ron Stabinsky (piano & synths), Levy Lorenzo (percussion & electronics)

[Steve Reynolds]

The Dave Rempis releases on his Aerophonic label are all very good to incredible 

currently listening to ICOCI which is Dave with Jasper Stadhouders & Frank Rosaly 

pretty incredible how consistently great these recordings are. I’m sure Rempis is a good curator picking the best shows but the creativity of all the various small groups along with Rempis’ saxophone playing (as good a technical virtuosic player as exists in this idiom) is really astounding. 

[sonnyhill]

1 hour ago, Steve Reynolds said:

The Dave Rempis releases on his Aerophonic label are all very good to incredible 

currently listening to ICOCI which is Dave with Jasper Stadhouders & Frank Rosaly 

pretty incredible how consistently great these recordings are. I’m sure Rempis is a good curator picking the best shows but the creativity of all the various small groups along with Rempis’ saxophone playing (as good a technical virtuosic player as exists in this idiom) is really astounding. 

Aerophonic is currently running a sale offering 7 titles on cd for $70 (or 5 cds and a t-shirt) or 10 downloads for $70. 

[Face of the Bass]

I used to be heavily into this scene about 10-15 years ago but lost track of it since about 2010 or so. I unfortunately don't live near where these performers can be seen live (when there are live performances, that is). What are the best avant-free jazz recordings of the last 5-10 years? I want to get back into it.  

[NIS]

14 hours ago, Face of the Bass said:

I used to be heavily into this scene about 10-15 years ago but lost track of it since about 2010 or so. I unfortunately don't live near where these performers can be seen live (when there are live performances, that is). What are the best avant-free jazz recordings of the last 5-10 years? I want to get back into it.  

I haven't followed the forum much for a while, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. The best things I've heard recently:

Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash & Tony Orrell - “BleySchool”

Tyshawn Sorey & Marilyn Crispell - “The Adornment of Time”

Evan Parker - “As The Wind”

MMM Quartet - “Metz Arsenal” This one is a little older but I only heard it recently.

I think the above would be considered free.

Not sure if “Fly Or Die” by Jamie Branch is exactly free jazz but it is absolutely one of the best pieces of music I've heard for a long time.

I will be interested to see what responses you get here.

[Rabshakeh]

1 hour ago, NIS said:

Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash & Tony Orrell - “BleySchool”

Interesting. What's this like? I've seen Pat Thomas gigging around North London quite a few times and I really like his playing, but I don't know him as a leader at all.

[Д.Д.]

Today only Ayler records gives a 20% discount on all bandcamp purchases (both downloads and CDs) with a discount code 65bcf20  

I bought a couple of albums:

https://ayler-records.bandcamp.com/album/garden-s

https://ayler-records.bandcamp.com/album/tower-vol-4 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Д.Д.

[Д.Д.]

17 hours ago, Face of the Bass said:

I used to be heavily into this scene about 10-15 years ago but lost track of it since about 2010 or so. I unfortunately don't live near where these performers can be seen live (when there are live performances, that is). What are the best avant-free jazz recordings of the last 5-10 years? I want to get back into it.  

Not sure about "the best", but I like these a lot. All of them are not exactly jazz, though. 

https://mikroton.bandcamp.com/album/fracture-mechanics 

 

https://f-a-t-a-k-a.bandcamp.com/album/prediction-and-warning

And just released:

 

Sorry the images are so small. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Д.Д.

[NIS]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

Interesting. What's this like? I've seen Pat Thomas gigging around North London quite a few times and I really like his playing, but I don't know him as a leader at all.

My skills at putting what I hear into words are limited.  I bought it from Bandcamp, https://577records.bandcamp.com/album/bleyschool .  You could listen to a couple tracks.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by NIS

[colinmce]

19 hours ago, Face of the Bass said:

I used to be heavily into this scene about 10-15 years ago but lost track of it since about 2010 or so. I unfortunately don't live near where these performers can be seen live (when there are live performances, that is). What are the best avant-free jazz recordings of the last 5-10 years? I want to get back into it.  

You may have seen this when I posted on fb a while back, but if not these are my favorite jazz recordings of the last decade. Not all are free jazz but most are:

[Face of the Bass]

3 hours ago, colinmce said:

You may have seen this when I posted on fb a while back, but if not these are my favorite jazz recordings of the last decade. Not all are free jazz but most are:

Thanks! This is helpful. The only ones of these I've heard are the Leandre and the Dixon. I will check these out. 

[Steve Reynolds]

Nice list from Colin

as I wrote in a PM to FOTB I posted some of my ear worms of the past decade plus in detail on another board as often here it isn’t really of interest to the large majority. But maybe I’ll be inspired

today revisiting one of the 4 tremendous Barry Guy Small Formation box sets on Not Two Records - Mad Dogs on The Loose 

with mostly more old school improvisors - mostly the same players as are on the original (and sadly way out of print and hard to come by - Mad Dogs)

4 CD set with great slabs of fairly typical yet often overwhelmingly munificence care of the grand masters of the idiom. These are the members of The Barry Guy New Orchestra of the early 2010’s - Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Johannes Bauer, Herb Robertson, Raymond Strid, Paul Lytton, Per Ake Holmlander, Hans Koch, Trevor Watts, Augusti Fernandez & Maya Homberger 

maybe my real intro to the wide world of the *great* Agusti Fernandez 

 

[Steve Reynolds]

Memories of a Tunicate

Peter Brotzmann & Fred Lonberg-Holm

recorded in Studio on 6/12/2019

on Relative Pitch records 

[Steve Reynolds]

Random great recording 

Spinning Jenny

Daniel Levin

Ingebrigt Haker Flaten

Chris Corsano

Trost records 

recorded @ Firehouse in New Haven, CT on 8/21 & 22, 2015

[Steve Reynolds]

On 6/5/2020 at 9:48 PM, Face of the Bass said:

I used to be heavily into this scene about 10-15 years ago but lost track of it since about 2010 or so. I unfortunately don't live near where these performers can be seen live (when there are live performances, that is). What are the best avant-free jazz recordings of the last 5-10 years? I want to get back into it.  

I hate music site is back on line

thread is Free Jazz/improv albums 2005-2015. I think I have a bunch of posts there. If I can figure it out, I’ll try to copy some of that information for here.

[Rabshakeh]

Thank you.
 

And I second Face of the Bass’ request - Its not that easy to track down this music. I’ve been picking through the Funny Rat thread for some time now (it replays close archeological attention), but that still leaves a decade of music unspoken for.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Rabshakeh

[Steve Reynolds]

6 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Thank you.
 

And I second Face of the Bass’ request - Its not that easy to track down this music. I’ve been picking through the Funny Rat thread for some time now (it replays close archeological attention), but that still leaves a decade of music unspoken for.

Free jazz blog is a good resource

labels:

Not Two Records

No Business Records

Intakt 

Relative Pitch

Trost

look up Catalytic Sound

AUM Fidelity for more traditional downtown sounds 

Pi recordings 

Ogun

look up Cafe Oto for related labels 

Joe McPhee alone has released at least 20 or 25 great recordings over the past 10 to 15 years

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by Steve Reynolds

[Rabshakeh]

Thanks!

Also, I notice that the Free Jazz Collective also has an albums of the decade list which would be another good place to start: https://www.freejazzblog.org/p/the-free-jazz-collectives-top-101.html

[Steve Reynolds]

Random do not miss recording 

Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host

Life in the Sugar Candle Mines

with 

Cooper-Moore, Darius Jones, Brandon Seabrook & Pascal Niggenkemper 

Northern Spy Records 

I saw them twice (including their first concert in December 2010 @ Cornelia Street Cafe) and they were unbelievably great both times. This recording captures a good amount of that live energy/power which is very hard to replicate on disc being these shows were experienced from less than 10 feet from Cleaver’s drum kit.

[Rabshakeh]

 

41 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Random do not miss recording 

Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host

Life in the Sugar Candle Mines

with 

Cooper-Moore, Darius Jones, Brandon Seabrook & Pascal Niggenkemper 

Northern Spy Records 

I saw them twice (including their first concert in December 2010 @ Cornelia Street Cafe) and they were unbelievably great both times. This recording captures a good amount of that live energy/power which is very hard to replicate on disc being these shows were experienced from less than 10 feet from Cleaver’s drum kit.

I’ll definitely be checking that out. I’ve been enjoying his playing on the new Daniel Carter / Matthew Shipp.

Thanks for the recommendation.

[jcam_44]

53 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Random do not miss recording 

Gerald Cleaver’s Black Host

Life in the Sugar Candle Mines

with 

Cooper-Moore, Darius Jones, Brandon Seabrook & Pascal Niggenkemper 

Northern Spy Records 

I saw them twice (including their first concert in December 2010 @ Cornelia Street Cafe) and they were unbelievably great both times. This recording captures a good amount of that live energy/power which is very hard to replicate on disc being these shows were experienced from less than 10 feet from Cleaver’s drum kit.

This is an incredible album. Speaking of Darius Jones, Big Girl (smell my dream) is fantastic 

[Rabshakeh]

45 minutes ago, jcam_44 said:

Speaking of Darius Jones, Big Girl (smell my dream) is fantastic 

I'd never heard of him before. I had a look and the cover art is... pretty heavy. 

Definitely going on the list too.

[Steve Reynolds]

8 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I'd never heard of him before. I had a look and the cover art is... pretty heavy. 

Definitely going on the list too.

Darius is one of the best saxophonists on the NYC scene

Cleaver is certainly one of the best 4 or 5 drummers of the current amazing crop of avant-garde leaning drummers(Ches Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Randy Peterson, Nasheet Waits, Tom Rainey, etc). 

[Д.Д.]

11 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Cleaver is certainly one of the best 4 or 5 drummers of the current amazing crop of avant-garde leaning drummers(Ches Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Randy Peterson, Nasheet Waits, Tom Rainey, etc). 

Could it be that you meant "one of the 4 or 5 decent drummers from NYC" by chance ?   

 

 

[Steve Reynolds]

1 minute ago, Д.Д. said:

Could it be that you meant "one of the 4 or 5 decent drummers from NYC" by chance ?   

 

 

I wouldn’t think so:)

the top tier guys are really something. Very hard to duplicate what they do on records/recordings. With some of them I’ve never heard anything close to what they sound like live on record. Rainey and especially Nasheet Waits.

I’ve seen 3 or 4 shows/sets with Nasheet (usually with Tony Malaby) that I still almost cannot believe what I heard. As great as Sorey, Smith and Peterson have come across on some recordings, their *sound* live in a small space is beyond belief if you’ve never experienced it. Specially at either the original Stone (new location at New School to a slightly lesser extent) but at the since closed Cornelia Street Cafe I’ve heard all these guys in that narrow room seemingly get inside my body. Nasheet one night with Formanek & Malaby was like a hurricane. Randy Peterson once @ Firehouse 12 in New Haven with Daniel Levin & Malaby was so powerful no recording could ever capture his energy/force.

11 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

Could it be that you meant "one of the 4 or 5 decent drummers from NYC" by chance ?   

 

 

Also the above being said, what I would give to hear Lucas Niggli, Steve Noble, Paul Lovens (if healthy) or Mark Sanders in one of those rooms.

Right now though I’d settle for the NY guys as I’m really feeling the missed shows - though the great creative avant leaning musicians missing out is obviously a much larger loss for the musicians themselves