MARSHALL ALLEN / HAMID DRAKE / KIDD JORDAN / WILLIAM PARKER / ALAN SILVA
All-Star Game
(Eremite) Used CD $17.00
“There’s much to celebrate about these two discs, classic encounters of the energy chapter of free jazz -- in each case two saxophones and rhythm section blowing toward some apocalyptic possibility; no theme in sight, with power and conviction that have too often seemed drained from American free jazz. What happens in each case is an explosion of impassioned utterance, soul-searing work in the rituals first defined by Ayler, Coltrane, Sanders, and the Sun Ra reed section of which Marshall Allen was a member. These may not, in any sense, be regular bands, but they’re bands without a weak link, whether ego-centric, technical or conceptual. The All-Star Game features what is unquestionably the senior ensemble. It’s a marvelous meeting in which Allen and Jordan dance across the pulsing maze of multiplying rhythms set up by Drake an\d the two basses of Parker and Silva (another early presence). While Jordan unquestionably belongs in the All-Star Game, he is among the most under-rated of musicians, a fountain of torrid energy and exalted invention who is entirely worthy of this rhythm section.” From 2000. Clipped corner
Getting Away With Murder
(Eremite - MTE007) Used CD $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
“Two musicians recorded down in New York’s subway [in February 1995],” explains Ben Watson, “And, surprise, surprise, they’re playing excellent jazz. Bruno uses brushes on his busker’s pared-down kit: a glorious, intricate waterfall of beats. Tenorist Mateen leaps in like a salmon, flashy and wise…. Mateen’s meditative, Lowe-like intimacy is just what is required [for this 45-minute improv]. When the sax lays out for nine minutes, Bruno’s fluid ebullience comes to the fore. Mateen’s concluding flourish lets in some subway ambience — train-door slams and commuter chatter — and the results are haunting…. Byron Coley’s sleevenote is, as usual, a gas.”
ROY CAMPBELL / DIE LIKE A DOG QUARTET
From Valley to Valley
(Eremite) Used CD $7.00
Peter Brötzmann, percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker with Campbell subbing for Toshinoro Kondo on trumpet. “From the perspective of free-style jazz, it does not get much better than this” live recording from the Fire In The Valley Festival, 1998, according to All Music Guide. “Campbell is a big plus, his clipped phrases, bold gestures, and confidant lines a welcome addition to the group sound. As to be expected, Brötzmann electrifies with never-ending torching, while Parker and Drake flow in and out with mesmerizing solidity.”
DENNIS CHARLES / JEMEEL MOONDOC
We Don’t
(Eremite) Used CD $10.00
“Moondoc is in powerhouse form” on this 2003 disc, notes Cadence, “Blowing hard but in control and shaping his sound even when playing free. The late Charles shows that he belongs in the pantheon of great modern drummers right beside Cyrille, Murray, Jones, Blackwell, and Shannon Jackson. The patterns he uses to set off Moondoc’s hellacious blasts and create a perpetual undercurrent of rhythm are remarkable…. This is exquisite stuff from two masters and very highly recommended.” Clipped corner.
Brothers Together
(Eremite) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
On “this reeds’n’traps free jazz duo workout” from 2002, “there are four long tracks, of which the first is superbly arresting, mixing hard bop with afro-funk in a way which makes it seem they always belonged together, while on the final track Mateen quotes from Carmen,” marvels Jazz Review, touching “all sorts of bases along the way…. A fine example of a rarified but highly rewarding area of music, this goes next to Roach/Braxton, Maslak/Moffett and indeed Coltrane/Ali, where it surely belongs.” Clipped corner
We Are Not at The Opera
(Eremite) Used CD $7.00
“The ebb and flow of these extended performances” from 1998, notes Jazz Times, “Allow Murray to organically connect delicately brushed cymbal figures and full-bore barrages within a single piece. His underappreciated sense of structure is very well represented by this program. Mateen more than holds his own, often prodding Murray in unexpected directions; his well developed voices on flute, alto and tenor saxophones, are as compelling as Murray’s.” Clipped corner
Tri-P-Let
(Eremite - MTE011) Used CD $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
“The thrill of this session is most conveyed through sheer grandeur of sound,” opines Boston Phoenix about this 1996 recording, “Moondoc’s alto sax, all sinewy, liquidy, and angular; John Voigt’s highly resonant and probing bass lines; Laurence Cook’s freewheeling drum colors. When the forceful beauties of their sounds combine to convey a surprisingly linear narrative … we’re presented with an overwhelming emotional drama…. [A] spectacular … aesthetic and spiritual adventure of high-level improvisation.”
Fire In The Valley
(Eremite - MTE008) Used CD $7.50 (Out-of-stock)
Recorded live in 1996, with Moondoc in the throes of impromptu divination best achieved in front of an appreciative audience, riding the crest of a spontaneously combusting gust of energy that makes the minutes melt away. Percussionist Laurence Cook and bassist John Voigt bustle between volcanic eruptions and quieter dispersions; Cook works his cymbals and snare like pinball flippers continually buffeting a gleaming ball into nooks and crannies, while Voigt’s method is a manic juggling of bow and fingers in a continuous rough caress of his strings.
Bob’s Pink Cadillac
(Eremite) Used 2xCD $18.00
“For those of you who agree that far too little of Perry Robinson’s colorful playing exists on record after his totally classic 1962 Savoy album Funk Dumpling & esp 1026 (Henry Grimes’s The Call (ESP 1966), your suffering has just been eased. The man is still the last word for all the clarinet’s possibilities in creative music. From 2001. Clipped corner