Mark Lanegan

Mark Lanegan, the solo artist, has written music with his feet planted firmly in aged American soil. Over the course of four solo albums since 1990, his gritty blues, country and folk has become progressively more roots-oriented, not to mention more sophisticated. Lanegan's determination to hone his sound culminated with 1998's I'll Take Care of You, a covers album that ranged from Buck Owens- to Jeffrey Lee Pierce-penned songs, yet managed to unify all of them.Field Songs is, fortunately for us, more of the same, except that Lanegan's back to writing original material. This is sub-pop in the truest sense: it's music made in the pop/rock era with influences from before the era was even conceived. But his sonic palette has also widened. Just seconds into the opener, "One Way Track," after the snare-heavy percussion and soft electric and acoustic guitars shuffle in, the ears are pricked by low-decibel dissonance: echoing guitar scratches like high-pitched thunder or machine-gun fire; a twinkling piano like rain on a corrugated tin roof; buzzing like a recalcitrant computer. But none of it invades the space needed for his husky voice and lines like, "The stars and the moon aren't where they're supposed to be/ But a strange electric light falls so close to me."The next track, "No Easy Action," opens with female ahhh's before breaking into a whir- and acoustic-fueled tear through blues romps, gospel choirs, and rock psychedelics. As always, Lanegan's voice is as compellingly loud and high-pitched as it is low and smoky; but accompanied, as he is during this moment, by the almost tribal voices of the women, his music reaches an uplifting epiphany. And then there's the utterly different epiphany reached on "Field Song," where soft, reverberated chords give way to nearly a minute of crashing guitars. But on most of these tracks, the touches are very subtle: rain in the background of the beautiful, understated instrumental, "Blues for D"; distant guitars crackling like falling timbers on "Fix"; buzzing tolls ringing over the hills on "She's Done Too Much."While these additions have prevented Lanegan from being straight-jacketed by his roots influences, as some fans and critics feared, those addicted to Lanegan's dark sound need not worry. When you distill Field Songs, what's left is the same haunted man singing folk, blues, and country numbers for the depressed and downtrodden. Even with deep, yet restrained atmospherics at work-- as on "One Way Street"-- he's singing lines like, "I drink so much sour whiskey, I can hardly see." Furthermore, the majority of these tracks are still the full-sounding, yet bare-boned affairs that Lanegan has made his trademark. If any album is capable of delivering roots music's last gasp of popularity, Field Songs is it.

Morphine

With their cult following growing, Morphine expanded their audience even further with their exceptional 1994 sophomore effort, Cure for Pain. Whereas their debut, Good, was intriguing yet not entirely consistent, Cure for Pain more than delivered. The songwriting was stronger and more succinct this time around, while new drummer Billy Conway made his recording debut with the trio (replacing Jerome Deupree). Like the debut, most of the material shifts between depressed and upbeat, with a few cacophonic rockers thrown in between. Such selections as "Buena," "I'm Free Now," "All Wrong," "Candy," "Thursday," "In Spite of Me" (one of the few tracks to contain six-string guitar), "Let's Take a Trip Together," "Sheila," and the title track are all certifiable Morphine classics. And again, Mark Sandman's two-string slide bass and Dana Colley's sax work help create impressive atmospherics throughout the album. Cure for Pain was unquestionably one of the best and most cutting-edge rock releases of the '90s.

Medeski Martin & Wood

You'll hear such moody, united rythym that breaks right out of tangents to follow straight, hard, funk grooves or drum and bass jams. I love the play between the members. The focus of the album is that: loose tangents and avant-garde, dark sounds bursting into tight grooves. Some of the sounds are so touching they'll make you want to cry. John Medeski's reverb piano solo in "Last Chance to Dance Trance" makes me feel like I'm waltzing at a royal ball with the most beautiful woman ever touched. "Chinoiserie" has a loose jazz sound until the trio snaps into a united climax and Billy Martin takes a solo on drums. Fans of trio's, the ultimate setting for quality musicians, will immeaditely see the beauty in this recording. missing it would be a real goddamn shame. This is a testiment to the beauty of the Jamband scene. Imagine the strongest jazz rhythm section you can (bass, drums, keys), get rid of all the superfluous stuff that usually hides them (vocals, guitars, and light shows), and then let 'em get nice and funky. MMW are only about advancing their groove, with an egoless melding that baffles the mind. Each of the plays so loosely, yet together they offer something that's incredibly well structured. Friday Afternoon In The Universe is one of the most catchy, funky jazz release I know. Instead of touching your mind, this music moves your body. The music is complex and easy to listen at the same time. Highly recommended to curious listeners and jazz enthusiast as well

Charles Mingus

Besides the masterfully sloppy music within, this 1961 recording offers two noteworthy elements to the Mingus discography: the presence of Roland Kirk blowing his usual assortment of horn-like oddities, and the presence of Mingus himself on piano (Doug Watkins replaces Mingus on bass). The loose (even for Mingus) environment brings Mingus's vibrant but tense sense of humor to the fore. As usual, his compositions borrow heavily from blues and gospel sources. His quirky, devilish piano work adds a new dimension to his music while Kirk, Booker Ervin, and Jimmy Knepper all contribute solos that are alternately pithy and passionate. Mingus even sings his own idiosyncratic lyrics in a number of spots. The CD reissue adds a long but at times insightful interview with Atlantic head Neshui Ertegun. Not a Mingus essential, but rewarding for its peek into Mingus's complex personality and its compelling blend of bitterness and jocularity. While Mingus Ah Um and The Black Saint & the Sinner Lady get the most attention (and hey, they're great), Oh Yeah is my favorite Mingus album.

Gavin Bryars

Stepping into the territory of Gavin Bryars is like coming home, so familiar are the morphemes with which he composes his musical language. One of the most significant recordings in the Bryars catalogue, this disc offers a fine condensation of his spirited and nostalgic sensibilities.After the Requiem dates from 1990 and follows his Cadman Requiem of the previous year. After completing the latter, which was written for the Hilliard Ensemble in memory of Bryars’s friend Bill Cadman, Manfred Eicher suggested that Bryars spin an instrumental postlude from the requiem’s latent fibers, thus giving us the title piece of this brooding and gorgeous album. Scored for two violas, cello, and electric guitar, After the Requiem offers a distinct take on the state of mourning it so affectionately recreates. Like the gravelly strings that open the piece, the mood is raw and unbounded. Frisell’s guitar sears the darkness like the northern lights with a slow and lustrous fire, bleeding spectral life force into the evening sky. The strings gather momentum, as if to coax the guitar toward the horizon, chasing the memory of an afternoon that can no longer be recovered. Frisell plays as if he were bowing the guitar, drawing out an amplified sustenance that nourishes the vocal hunger of his accompaniment. Where the strings seem to mimic voices, the guitar mimics the strings, ad infinitum. The piece slows about midway through, burrowing even deeper into contemplative soil, at which point Frisell wrenches out some grinding low tones from the lower register of his axe. What would be but one voice lost in a power chord more forcefully played rings here with the humility of supplication. Before long the guitar lets out more substantial tones and shifts to an aerial shot of the same landscape. The earth recedes, leading into the most beautiful moment of the piece, during which the guitar drops from a soaring high note. One can hear, indeed almost taste, the meticulous care that went into this performance. The music fades, as if sending off a spirit to a realm where life continues of its own accord. The continuity between instruments here is such that there are almost no audible gaps between them. And while all the musicians play with consummate grace, Frisell is nothing short of astonishing. Despite the polished feel of the piece it was the result, as Bryars makes clear in his recording diary, of much refinement and experimentation on Frisell’s part, working closely with the composer to achieve the ideal effect.From ECM Records.

Miles Davis

Electrifying performance by half a dozwn of the finest and most gifted musicians to ever play any of the involved instruments - Herbie Hancock on Hammond Organ, Billy Cobham on Drums, John McLaughlin on that eectrifying Lead Guitar and The Don himself the one and only 'Mr. Cool' Miles Davis in a session as energetic as anyting ever released. i am usually not the guy to use headphones to listen to great music, since i have the possibility to play my music LOUD at home. But this music cries for a volume that you simply cannot play out in a normal residential aerea. The whole theme cruises around a Documetary movie about the Life of a black Boxer, Miles admired. The Producer was the experienced Teo Macero and the whole recording process only took an hour . The Band was already improvising ; John McLaughlin playing a guitar riff when Miles joined in at 2:13 minutes, checked the vibe and basically explodes on one of his longest, meanest , finest and most energetic Solos ever. This set the tone for the rest of the session. It was the era of Jazz moving away from the Clubs and Hipster circles and becoming Pppualar , the enetgy was all around and Rock was leading the movement in music. Miles was ready to join in and had already sold millions of records to both his Jazzz Fans from the beginning and to the Rock Youth. Anyway. after 25 minutes of this powerful stuff you are not tired , but eager to hear more 1 Flip the baby over and get more of the same, in a less overwhelming haste, but as innovative, swinging and rocking. By chance Herbie Hancock, who wasn't a part of the Miles Davis Quintet by that time was in the Studio building and atracted by these enormous gooves joined in for the latter 15 minuts of Side B. The start of Side B is based loosely on James Brown's "Say It Loud, I Am Black And I'm Proud", later moving over to more mellow downbeats from the former Miles Davis Record Bitches Brew. Anyway- Most people wouldn't recognize these anyway (i read that on allmusic.com) .

Tarkovsky Quartet

The unique band founded by François Couturier continues to draw inspiration from the films of Andrey Tarkovsky as its frame of reference expands. Allusions to Pergolesi, Bach and Shostakovich are to be found in the compositions here, as are compelling group improvisations. As the Irish Times wrote of the earlier “Nostalghia - Song for Tarkovsky” album (recorded 2005): “Mixing classical rigour with improvisation both formal and free, what emerges is austerely beautiful, etched in sombre hues and redolent of an unslakeable thirst to connect with a deeper well of the spirit.”

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Neil Young's second solo album, released only four months after his first, was nearly a total rejection of that polished effort. Though a couple of songs, "Round Round (It Won't Be Long)" and "The Losing End (When You're On)," shared that album's country-folk style, they were altogether livelier and more assured. The difference was that, while Neil Young was a solo effort, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere marked the beginning of Young's recording association with Crazy Horse, the trio of Danny Whitten (guitar), Ralph Molina (drums), and Billy Talbot (bass) that Young had drawn from the struggling local Los Angeles group the Rockets. With them, Young quickly cut a set of loose, guitar-heavy rock songs -- "Cinnamon Girl," "Down by the River," and "Cowgirl in the Sand" -- that redefined him as a rock & roll artist. The songs were deliberately underwritten and sketchy as compositions, their lyrics more suggestive than complete, but that made them useful as frames on which to hang the extended improvisations ("River" and "Cowgirl" were each in the nine-to-ten-minute range) Young played with Crazy Horse and to reflect the ominous tone of his singing. Young lowered his voice from the near-falsetto employed on his debut to a more expressive range, and he sang with greater confidence, accompanied by Whitten and, on "Round Round," by Robin Lane. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was breathtakingly different when it appeared in May 1969, both for Young and for rock in general, and it reversed his commercial fortunes, becoming a moderate hit. (Young's joining Crosby, Stills & Nash the month after its release didn't hurt his profile, of course.) A year and a half after its release, it became a gold album, and it has since gone platinum. And it set a musical pattern Young and his many musical descendants have followed ever since; almost 30 years later, he was still playing this sort of music with Crazy Horse, and a lot of contemporary bands were playing music clearly influenced by it.

Meredith Monk

“Songs of Ascension” is a major new recording from composer Meredith Monk and her vocal ensemble from 2008. Written originally in 2008, it is conceived as a continuous composition, a departure from Monk’s earlier collaged or episodic extended works. In recent years Meredith Monk’s been expanding into the worlds of orchestra and string quartet. On “Songs of Ascension” she teams up with a string quartet of New York players well versed in new music. With winds, percussion and two vocal groups added to her already extraordinary singers, this is one of Monk’s most musically ambitious ventures. Voices and instruments are paired and balanced against each other to an extent rare in her music. Inspirations for the work included the Song of Ascents, a group of psalms said to have been sung during pilgrimages, and a timely invitation to perform at an 8-story tower designed by visual artist Ann Hamilton. “Songs of Ascension” finds Monk playing with the musical, sonic, metaphysical and literal connotations of upward movement.

Jozef Van Wissen & Jim Jarmusch

The Mystery of Heaven is the second collaborative album between lute revivalist and innovator Jozef Van Wissemand guitarist Jim Jarmusch to appear in 2012. The first, Concerning the Entrance Into Eternity, appeared on Important in the spring. It showcased a seemingly natural intimacy and near instinctive rapport between the pair. This date on Sacred Bones is very much a continuation of the dialogue begun on the earlier album, but also stands on its own with a few key differences. The brief "Etimasia" opens with Van Wissem using an alternate tuning to execute a minor-key progression on his swan neck lute. As Jarmusch answers and paints the margins with reverb and droning distortion, an element of tension and drama are articulated. They are resolved in yet another tuning in a shorter reprise near the end of the album. In "Flowing the Light of the Godhead," Van Wissem duets with Jarmusch directly by playing a 12-string electric guitar. Eleven minutes in length, it's a long, spacious, psych drone where feedback and distortion are melodic devices. The interplay is not unlike Spacemen 3's on Dreamweapon, though it's far more musically adventurous. Its textures, use of space, and restraint spiral out from the center into the unknown. The digital version of the set contains a bonus cut: a very different version entitled "Flowing Light of the Godhead (Eternal Sun)." The addition of actress Tilda Swinton's narration in the first half of "The More She Burns the More Beautifully She Glows" (based on a text by medieval mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg circa 1260 AD) sets up a gorgeous interplay where Jarmusch's feedback offers both support for Swinton and an introduction to Van Wissem's repetitive, nearly hypnotic lyricism on the lute. The guitarist then spins off, swirling and flowing in and out of the lutist's fingerpicked chord voicings, into an extremely colorful ether of single notes and skeletal yet expansive melodic lines of his own. Certainly The Mystery of Heaven is a standalone recording and is to be enjoyed on its own. That said, knowledge of Concerning the Entrance Into Eternity is edifying, because taken together, these two albums offer listeners a more complex portrait of a unique dialogue, where all elements spacial, sonic, lyrical, and textural create a profoundly beautiful musical language.Thom Jurek.

Phish

Junta is strongly based on jamming, definatley more so than any other Phish album. The album also gives off a very real sound, similar to how a bands first album usually is. Mainly because at this time, their were simply a couple of Vermont dorm room pals who just liked to jam. Money really wasn't a must, cathing fame (Especially from a Jam Band) were very unrealilistic. But luckily Phish managed to break into the mainstream and put a scar into it, unlike anyone has really done before. Junta is the first official studio release from the American rock band Phish. The album was independently recorded at Euphoria Sound Studio, now known as Sound & Vision Media, in Revere, MA by engineer Gordon Hookailo. Some of the recording was documented on video tape by studio owner Howard Cook. The recording was released on tape in 1988, and did not appear in stores officially until May 8, 1989. The album was re-released by Elektra Records on October 26, 1992.In addition to a few more traditionally structured songs, Junta contains symphonic-like epics, large-scale improvisation and multi-partprogressive rock suites.

Explosions in the Sky

What takes us so long between albums? It's a fair question. One of us got married. One of us has had two kids since the last album. One of us has panic attacks. One of us took classical guitar lessons. One of us restored a piano from 1888. One of us had a serious illness in the family (and a recovery). One of us attempted, but did not complete, the P90X program. One of us was obsessed with this new album having 17 shorter songs. One was obsessed with the album sounding like a dream. Two of us can't get to sleep most nights. Two of us wake up early in the morning and can't get back to sleep. No joke, it's a challenge schedule-wise. We had a weekend shut-in sleepover at one of our houses, in which we wrote music and watched movies and threw around ideas. It was productive and come to think of it, we should probably do that more often. We made at least 50 demos, and that's probably a conservative estimate. And ended up with six songs. At one point during these four years we got pretty frustrated and took a hiatus from music. We called it a sabbatical. It lasted a couple months. When 2010 showed up, with the sabbatical safely behind us, we looked around at all the demos, all the instruments, and tried to see some sort of sense, or theme, or anything in it all. And slowly, we found it was already there. One part became two parts, a new guitar line made one part come alive, an added tambourine made another sing. Things started to fit together in ways we couldn't have planned. One song was finished, and less than a week or two later another song was finished. The rest followed over the next six months. All of the songs came from the demos that we had worked on in the previous three years, demos that we had gone away from, and then come back to, and then expanded. In september of 2010, we drove out to a studio called sonic ranch, 20 miles east of el paso. We spent almost two weeks out there with our friend John Congleton, who recorded the album. It is a pretty great place, with five studios and a pet raccoon on a huge pecan ranch. When that was finished, we went back home to Austin and mixed the album at a studio called public hi-fi. and finally we mastered the album in New York CIty with Greg Galbi. We are pretty ecstatic with how it turned out. The album is called "Take Care, Take Care, Take Care." And even though that title sounds like a sign-off from us, it is far from it. Explosions in the Sky.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

Joe Strummer's first solo album in a decade, Rock Art and the X-Ray Style abandoned the straight-forward rock-n-roll of his 1989 effort, Earthquake Weather, to seemingly pick up where Combat Rock left off ("Ghetto Defendant," for example, could have been dropped in the middle of this album with no questions asked). Depending on how you felt about Combat Rock, this could be a welcome or a warning. On Rock Art you will hear reggae, afro-beat, hip-hop, and, of course, a little rock. But gone are the days where the rock outweighs the weird in Joe's catalog (though he came close on his final effort, Streetcore). Lyrically, Joe turns in his most cerebral and downright mysterious lyrics yet. Nine years later, I still have very little idea as to what some of these songs are about. But when I am in the dark, the obscure imagery of his lyrics cut the mustard well enough. A remastered version of the album along with Strummer's other two Hellcat released albums was released as a special 57 song digital download titled Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros, The Hellcat Years on 21 August 2012 to celebrate what would have been Strummer's 60th birthday. Hellcat will also release each remastered album individually on CD and vinyl on 25 September 2012.

Extremoduro

La ley innata es el título del noveno álbum de estudio del grupo extremeño de rock Extremoduro, producido por Iñaki “Uoho” Anton y publicado por DRO el 9 de septiembre de 2008. En la portada dice en latín. "Est enim iudices haec non scripta sed nata lex quam non didicimus accepimus legimus uerum ex natura ipsa arripuimus hausimus expressimus ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumus" frase atribuida a Cicerón. En castellano áspero diría algo así "Existe, de hecho, jueces, una ley no escrita, sino innata, la cual no hemos aprendido, heredado, leído, sino que de la misma naturaleza la hemos agarrado, exprimido, apurado, ley para la que no hemos sido educados, sino hechos; y en la que no hemos sido instruidos, sino empapados". Un disco de rock básico de la banda y uno de mis favoritos de su carrera. Cuarenta y cinco minutos increíblemente bellos, emocionantes e impactantes de buen rock. Cicerón acabaría diciendo después de escucharlo "Si nadie se sirve de nosotros, escribiremos y leeremos sobre la constitución del Estado, y si no pudiéramos en la Curia y el Foro trataremos de servir a la patria con nuestros escritos y en nuestros libros".Veleyo Patérculo Historia Romana L.II, 45.

Food

The Food team of Norwegian drummer Strønen and British saxophonist Ballamy continues to invite guests to bring something to the table. The form-and-texture conscious improvisations here are drawn from live performances in Norway, England and Germany and studio sessions at Oslo’s Rainbow. To the latter group belong tracks on which Indian slide guitarist and singer Prakash Sontakke is partnered by Eivind Aarset’s atmospheric guitar and electronics. The first half of the album finds Food augmented by Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz, taking further the experiments with layers of sound begun on Quiet Inlet. Nils Petter Molvær joins Strønen, Ballamy and Fennesz for a track recorded at Mannheim’s Enjoy Jazz Festival.

Ketil Bjørnstad

Ketil Bjørnstad previously explored the life of Edvard Munch in his acclaimed 1993 novel Historien om Edvard Munch. When invited to compose music for choir in 2011 his thoughts turned once again to Munch and to the writings, still not widely known, of the proto-Expressionist Norwegian painter. With these as his guide, Bjørnstad shaped Soloppgang (“Sunrise”) subtitled “A cantata on texts by Edvard Munch”. In his liner notes, Bjørnstad observes that “the texts written by Munch can be compared to his paintings in their power and intensity. He wanted to be a writer as well as a painter... texts from different periods in Munch’s life have been used in Sunrise. They all portray existentialist dilemmas: surviving or being destroyed, believing or observing.” The changing moods of the writings inspire very different musical settings. Sunrise was released first in Norway in November 2013 – in connection with the 150th anniversary of Munch’s birth – and met with a most positive critical reception

Bruce Springsteen

High Hopes es el decimooctavo álbum de estudio del músico estadounidense Bruce Springsteen, publicado por la compañía discográfica Columbia Records el 14 de enero de 2014. El álbum, que contó con la producción musical de Ron Aniello y Brendan O'Brien, incluye versiones de otros músicos, como «High Hopes» y«Just Like Fire Would», descartes de sesiones de grabación de anteriores trabajos, como «The Wall» y «Harry's Place», y regrabaciones de canciones antiguas como «The Ghost of Tom Joad» y «American Skin (41 Shots)». Además, y de forma similar a Wrecking Ball, incluye colaboraciones de Clarence Clemons y Danny Federici mediante grabaciones anteriores a sus respectivos fallecimientos. High Hopes es el primer trabajo de estudio de Bruce Springsteen en incluir una mezcla de nuevas canciones, descartes de sesiones de grabación anteriores y versiones de otros artistas. Según el propio músico: «La mejor manera de describir este disco es que es un poco anormal pero no mucho. Realmente no trabajo de forma lineal como otra gente hace».Morello también inspiró a Springsteen a versionar dos canciones: «Just Like Fire Would», de la banda australiana The Saints originalmente publicada como sencillo en 1986, y «Dream Baby Dream», un tema del grupo Suicide. Una versión de «Dream Baby Dream» fue publicada en septiembre de 2013 como tributo a los seguidores de Springsteen que acudieron a conciertos de la gira Wrecking Ball Tour.

The Doors

An American Prayer es el noveno y último álbum de estudio de la banda The Doors. En 1978, seis años después de que la agrupación se separara, los miembros que seguían vivos se reunieron y grabaron música para acompañar los poemas de Jim Morrison, que habían sido registrados anteriormente en una sesión de 1970.Las letras son semi-autobiográficas y a veces proféticas, incluyendo desde críticas de la época hasta visiones de la vida después de la muerte.Su único sencillo fue una versión en concierto del clásico Roadhouse Blues, hasta entonces inédita. Fue lanzado a principios de 1979.

Lovage

Nathaniel Merriweather Presents... Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By is the 2001 debut and so far only album of Lovage. Lovage is a studio supergroup featuring Dan the Automator producing, Mike Patton and Jennifer Charles on vocals, Kid Koala on the turntables, Brandon Arnovick (as Astacio the Nudist) on guitar, Daniels Spills on keyboards and SweetP on harpsichord & noseflute. Dan the Automator provides trip hop beats while the vocals mostly consist of Mike Patton and Jennifer Charles engaging in sultry and provocative dialogue. Nevertheless, the overall tone of the album is tongue-in-cheek. The album cover is an homage to Serge Gainsbourg's second album. The song "Sex (I'm A)" was originally written and performed by 1980s New Wave band Berlin. The Lovage version differs significantly from the original. The album features many references to Alfred Hitchcock, most notably the titles of the songs "To Catch a Thief", "Lifeboat", and "Strangers on a Train", which were all named after the movies, and contain re-dubbed excerpts. The album title itself also refers to an album Hitchcock appeared on in 1956 titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Music to Be Murdered By. An instrumental version of the album has also been published.

Sonny Rollins

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on October 5, 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7095). Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.Digitally remastered by JVC using XRCD (Extended Resolution Compact Disc) technology.Recorded in 1956, the year after Charlie Parker's death, ROLLINS PLAYS FOR BIRD consists primarily of a seven-song medley of tunes associated with Bird's post-1950 period. In the course of referencing this repertoire, Rollins succeeds in paying tribute to a great artist without descending into mere mockery. Bird's playing was the definition of bebop phrasing and Rollins has moments here that are clearly quotations of the altoist's rhythmic sensibilities. This is a carefully titled album, however: it's not "Rollins Plays Bird," but "Rollins Plays 'For' Bird."Anyone who wants reassurances of authenticity need only look to the sidemen credits. Trumpeter Kenny Dorham was on many of Bird's own recordings, as was drummer Max Roach. Pianist Wade Legge and bassist George Morrow, while not Parker alumni, were working with Rollins, Roach, and Dorham in the Max Roach Quintet at the time of this session. "I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face" is a ballad feature for Rollins, while his original "Kids Know," a cooking quintet tune in 3/4 time, provides conclusive proof that the tenorist was in full possession of his own voice on this date.

The Dodos

Visiter is the second album released by The Dodos. A special edition is being put together to include a DVD of live footage from the last show of their most recent tour. In an April 2008 interview in the L.A. Record, band member Meric Long revealed the origin of the name of Visiter. "The reason it’s misspelled is because it’s from a drawing this kid gave us. We played a show for a bunch of kids in South Central L.A.—Dorsey High. A friend’s sister [Barbara Lempel] is a special-ed teacher there, so we went down there to her class and we played for the kids and it was super fun. Then it came to the kids asking us questions and then one of the kids came up to us and he gave us a drawing with that written on it. The drawing is the cover actually of the album, and just—I dunno we liked it. Actually we used all of the drawings that the kids made in the artwork on the album. It was definitely a fun, interesting venture for us. We’d never played for kids before—we didn’t know what to expect but they were clapping and dancing." Phares, Heather. "Visiter - The Dodos | AllMusic". allmusic.com.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Godspeed You! Black Emperor, grupo catalizador del crecimiento, asentamiento y maduración del paradigma de experimentación post-rockera. La razón de ello es su reciente vuelta al ruedo fonográfico con su álbum “Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!” a fines de 2012, tras un largo hiato de 10 años desde la publicación del trabajo anterior “Yanqui U.X.O.”. Ahora, de la mano de David Bryant [guitarra, dulcémele, Portsound, kemençe], Efrim Manuel Menuck [guitarra, hurdy-gurdy], Michael Moya [guitarra], Sophie Trudeau [violín, sintetizador Casio SK5], Thierry Amar [bajo, contrabajo, teclados], Mauro Pezzente [bajo], Aidan Girt [batería] y Bruce Cawdron [batería, vibráfono, marimba, glockenspiel], GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR! reconstruye su visionaria mirada musical para orientarla hacia este catálogo de nuevos paisajes sónicos. Cabe destacar, de entrada, la manera tan decidida en que el ensamble ha remodelado sus propias raíces tal como se plasmaron en clásicos como “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven” y “F#F#∞” para insuflarles un vigor fresco que varias veces roza con la pura polenta rockera: el resultado se traduce en una amalgama sonora donde la exaltación de la energía y la celebración de las dimensiones más oscuras del orden del universo se conjugan a la perfección. Pasemos al repertorio mismo del álbum para penetrar en los detalles de los cuatro temas que conforman su repertorio. “Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!” resulta, en el balance final, una nueva cátedra fenomenal de cómo se hace y rehace el discurso del post-rock a través de las conjugadas labores del refinamiento intelectual, la neurosis emocional y la ansiedad moral. Cesar Inca.

Ornette Coleman

La crítica se tomó este trabajo como una ofensa. The Shape of Jazz to Come, es otro de esos trabajos de la ya conocida Generación del 59. En este album de Ornette Coleman, ofrecía un avance de su This is Our Music, repitiendo exactamente la misma formación. Aquí intervienen varios factores que hacen de este disco una grabación historica. A su vez fue el primer disco del saxofonista Ornette Coleman para la Atlantic, puede entenderse como el inicio del Free Jazz, este último un estilo en el cual la improvisación se libera de la estructura armónica y el género alcanza el mayor grado de libertad.El trabajo se compone de estructuras muy afines a This is our Music, pero cambiando frecuentemente los tiempos, dejando que las percusiones coloreen los fraseos e improvisaciones de Coleman. La interacción entre ellos es única y la sección rítmica corre a cargo de Charlie Haden y Billy Higgins los cuales tocan de un modo absolutamente vanguardista,para una época donde donde el contrabajo y la batería tenían una contribución inusual.Pasados unos años Haden convertiría el tema Lonely Woman casí en un himno propio en su album Etudes un trabajo realizado para la Blue Label Italiana en los 80, grabado junto a Geri Allen y Paul Motian. El sonido del saxo alto de plástico es seco, crudo y agudo, sus frases son fluidas y el efecto creado junto a la trompeta de bolsillo de Don Cherry es descomunal. Un disco de jazz esencial.

Dave Brubeck

Este Time Out, ha enganchado a generaciones al jazz. Es otro de esos discos de la Generación del 59, una grabación ya histórica y cargada de anécdotas. En este album Brubeck propuso cambiar los tiempos predominantes en percusión de 4/4 o 3/2 a 5/4 variando con ello la estructura predominante en los 50. A lo largo de el album, encontramos temas ya clásicos y versionados hasta en rock por Emerson, Lake & Palmer como Blue Rondo a la Turk o el icono del álbum compuesto por Paul Desmond Take Five. Este tema casi acaba con la formación del cuarteto. Brubeck el cual tenia una gran relación con el batería Joe Morello, le propuso un solo de batería a lo largo de la grabación durante la finalización y contestación al solo de Paul Desmond, el cuál apareció finalmente en la grabación final. Morello realiza con ello uno de los primeros grandes fraseos de batería de la historia del jazz, hasta esos momentos un instrumento bastante arrinconado y centrado en la meramente en la labor rítmica por standares del swing de esos años. Paul Desmond discutió con Brubeck al final de la grabación,siendo este el motivo por el cual el disco fue grabado en tres días diferentes, con márgenes casi de meses entre ellos. Un buen recuerdo que ha vuelto después de mucho tiempo. El album fue grabado para la Columbia entre junio y agosto de 1959. Un disco magnífico.

Johnny Griffin

1959 año en el cual se dice que hubo un giro drástico en cuanto a la estética que ofrecía el jazz. Del swing al bop, bebop y los cañonazos de los últimos cincuenta con el hardbop. The Little Giant es el comienzo o el principio de algo en constante evolución. Este disco pasó prácticamente sin pena ni gloria, por aquel año. Eclipsado por The Kind of Blue de Miles Davis, Ah Um de Charlie Mingus o por The Shape the Jazz to Come de Ornette Coleman. Pero esto también es un buen trabajo, sin la mas mínima pretensión de Griffin que la de hacer música, buena música. Destaco el tercer corte, Lonely me, en el que ensalzo la absoluta comunicación entre Albert Heath, Sam Jones y el propio Griffin. La formación se compone de Johnny Griffin al saxo tenor, Blue Mitchell a la trompeta, Julian Priester al trombón, Wynton Kelly al piano, Sam Jones al bajo y Albert "Tootie" Heath a la batería. El album fue una producción para la Riverside records.

Charlie Haden

Puedo decir abiertamente que este disco me enamoró desde el primer tema hasta el último. La comunicación entre los tres maestros se demuestra desde los primeros acordes por parte del contrabajo de Charlie Haden en el primer corte, Lonely Woman. Tema compuesto por Ornette Coleman, pero con una interpretación y ejecución por parte de este trio descomunal. Geri Allen vuela alto a lo largo de todo este álbum de estudio, pareciendo un trabajo grabado en vivo, respecto a la intensidad con la que ha sido realizado. Todo el disco se compone de temas de Paul Motian, Charlie Haden y Herbie Nichols. Etudes está mucho mas arriba dentro de la carrera de estos genios, de lo que el tiempo ha mostrado. Creo que es de justicia sacar de cajón del olvido este enorme trabajo. Etudes fue una producción de la casa italiana Blue Label, grabada entre el 14 y 15 de septiembre de 1987.

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis & Johnny Griffin

Battle Stations es considerado un trabajo menor dentro de la amplia obra de Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis y Johnny Griffin . Ese menor impuesto por la moda del absurdo y por sobretodo este revisionismo que nos atrapa a los seguidores de esta música, no debe de hacer sombra a ese seguir descubriendo, a ese seguir conociendo. Este trabajo al fin y al cabo es otra sorpresa. Un álbum que arranca con un clamoroso hard bop, en el corte de entrada What's happening, pero se vuelve a ubicar en las raices del swing de los 50. Ese sonido que se mezcla con las sensaciones, con todo aquello que va mas allá de la palabra. Pura mágia reducida en casi 55 minutos de música. Por parte de Davis y de Griffin poco mas puedo decir de sus batallas, este disco es otra pieza de colección. Junto a ellos Norman Simmons al piano, Victor Sproles al contrabajo y Ben Riley a la batería. Un disco grabado para la casa Prestige en 1960.

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins perteneció a la generación del swing de los primeros años 50, pero siempre mantuvo a su música cercana al bebop, pero siempre fue Hawkins. Desde este The Hawk Flies High hasta su último album llamado Sirius. Hasta cuando fue sideman de músicos afines a su estilo como Sonny Rollins o Kenny Burrell, hasta autores que poco tenían que ver con la música que Hawkins escribía. como Abbey Lincoln en Straight Ahead o su ya reconocido We Insist, en el cual aparece también la incursión Max Roach. Este The Hank flies Hight, es una de las primeras grabaciones como lider de Hawkins. El swing lo envuelve todo, pero sin llegar a ser cargante. Un álbum perfecto para entender la mejor faceta del jazz de los años 50. El equipo de Coleman se compone de J.J. Johnson al trombón, Idrees Sulieman a la trompeta, Hank Jones al piano , Oscar Pettiford al contrabajo, Barry Galbraith a la guitarra y Jo Jones a la batería. El disco fue una producción de la Riverside del año 1957.

Ornette Coleman

Preparados para los ritmos del bebop y del free jazz. En este discazo de Ornette Coleman todo es obligatoriamente improvisado, en esa obligatoriedad de no seguir los cánones marcados por un jazz mas primitivo, Coleman mueve a su equipo por parajes que se adelantan treinta años a su música. Donde el movimiento del Free Jazz se encontraba buscando su hueco aparecían músicos que hacían emerger al jazz de nuevo con sus propuestas como este This is our music. Este disco acompaño a trabajos de Coltrane como Avant Garde o Impresions editados ese mismo 1961. Y tiene una particularidad especial es la única grabación de la Atlantic Records que no contiene ningún standar, todo son improvisaciones a excepción de Embraceable You. Coleman no dudo tampoco en recurrir a un conjunto de maestros como Don Cherry a la trompeta, Ed Blackwell a la batería y Charlie Haden al contrabajo.

Sam Rivers

Este Fuschia Swing Song es el debut como líder del saxofonista Sam Rivers en 1964 para la afamada Blue Note. Entre otras peculiaridades su portada, la original en color rojizo es de la copia original del año 64, en el año 2005 se realizó una remasterización del album en la cual se eligió el color azul para su edición en cd. En este disco se muestran claramente las influencias de John Coltrane o del Free Jazz de Ornette Colleman. Después de haber escuchado grabaciones como sideman junto a Bill Frisell, Miles Davis, Barry Altschul, Bobby Timmons, Larry Young o Dave Holland, puedo decir que este disco es absolutamente distinto en cuanto estilo, no encuentro parecidos ni en forma ni en ejecución en el resto de sus albums, siendo este una pequeña joya distinta a la música que nos tiene acostumbrados rivers, un disco que se mueve entre el free jazz y el hard bop, pero sin ser los momentos mas intensos de la grabación fraseos forzados.El disco original se compone de seis temas, pero en la reedición se añadieron cuatro temas extra que quedaron descartados en el album original. Junto a Rivers, aparece un terceto de lujo compuesto por Jaki Byard al piano, Ron Carter al contrabajo y Toni Williams a la batería. El disco fue grabado en los Van Gelder Studios en un único día, el 11 de diciembre de ese mismo 1964.

Elvin Jones & Richard Davis

Heavy Sounds es uno de los primeros trabajos como líder del batería de jazz norteamericano Elin Jones junto al bajista Richard Davis. En este disco se juntaron, para interpretar temas de Frank Foster, George Gershwin o Johnny Bourke. Este disco se acerca a las raices del Hard Bop, pero sin adentrarse el vértigo y la velocidad que a veces impera en el estilo. El disco se compone de seis cortes,entre los cuales encuentro una curiosidad como es el Elvin's Guitar Blues interpretado por el propio Elvin Jones, pero esta vez dejando la batería y pasándose por unos minutos a la guitarra . Junto a Elvin Jones y a Richard Davis, aparecen Frank Foster al saxo y Billy Greene al piano. El disco fue grabado entre el 19 y 20 de junio de 1967 en los Rudy Van Gelder Studios de Nueva Jersey para la Impulse Records.

Charles Mingus

Un disco grabado en vivo durante la actuación de Charlie Mingus y su sexteto, durante el Newport in Europe Festival celebrado en Rotterdam el 1 de noviembre de 1970. Mingus abre la grabación haciendo un enorme homenaje al público holandés, con su conocido Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, en el cual se advierte lo que viene después. Fraseos e intercambios entre el piano de Jaki Byard y el saxo alto de Charles McPherson y el disco avanza tema a tema haciendose cada vez mas versátil. Giros drásticos, ritmos incansables,improvisaciones y unos destellos de genialidad por parte de Mingus que rozan en ser una de las mejores grabaciones en vivo que se conservan durante sus tours europeos. La formación se conservó hasta el North Sea del siguente año. Desapareciendo con esta grabación el sexteto original formado por Mingus al contrabajo, Jackie Byard al piano, Charles MacPherson al saxo, Bobby Jones al clarinete,Eddie Preston a la trompeta y Dannie Richmond a la batería. El disco fue una producción de la Cross Roads Records.

John Abercrombie

Within A Song es el título del nuevo trabajo de John Abercrombie, desde la anterior grabación como líder en el año 2009 con Wait till you see here, ha aparecido acompañando trabajos de John Surman o John Patitucci. Y tres años después nos presenta esta sorprendente propuesta, alejada de los canones marcados en Cat n Mouse o Tactics. Esto es otro album, un homenaje extenso a los clásicos basandose en standars de Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Colleman o Bill Evans. Abercrombie nos entrega un disco tierno y melancólico, donde no falta fuerza y calor, un trabajo con cargado de influecias y detalles a esa generación de su juventud. Compone un tema llamado ‘Easy Rider’, recrea una composición que en su momento toco Sonny Rollins y Jim Hall: ‘Without a Song’ mezclándola con otra suya ‘Withing a Song’, y además revisa ‘Flamenco Sketches’ de Miles Davis, ‘Blues Connotation’ de Ornette Coleman, ‘Wise One’ de John Coltrane e ‘Interplay’ de Bill Evans. Este disco es otra tremenda producción de la ECM para este 2012, pero grabada en septiembre del 2011. En el nuevo cuarteto de John Abercrombie lo forman el mago Joe Lovano al saxo, Joey Baron a la batería y Drew Gress al contrabajo.

Art Ensemble of Chicago

Full Force es un trabajo del año 1980 de uno de los padres del Free Jazz, como es Art Ensemble of Chicago. A lo largo de los cinco temas de mas de diez minutos cada uno, escuchamos adaptaciones de Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut y Don Moye. El grupo surge en el seno de la Asociación para el Avance de los Músicos Creativos, a finales de los años 1960. Se formó inicialmente por el saxofonista Roscoe Mitchell para un concierto ofrecido en Chicago, en diciembre de 1966, bajo el nombre de Roscoe Mitchell's Art Ensemble. Sería en 1969, y en París, al registrarse la primera grabación de la banda, cuando adoptaron el nombre de Chicago Art Ensemble. Este grupo de músicos innovadores estaba formado originalmente por Mitchell, el trompetista Lester Bowie, el contrabajista Malachi Favors y el batería Philip Wilson. Este disco ha pasado ya a ser considerado un clásico, siendo una de las formaciones donde los estilos de Ornette Colleman y Art Taylor, se muestran como claras influencias de la banda. Un tema a destacar de todo el album, puede ser el enorme Charlie M, clara referencia al enorme Charlie Mingus. El disco fue una de las grabaciones, con las que la ECM abrió los años 80. Siendo este una de las producciones mas aclamadas de ese año. Un disco excepcional de Free Jazz.

Jim Hall

This 1988 studio date is one of the overlooked treasures in the considerable discography of Jim Hall, possibly due to the label's low-key promotion and less than eye-catching cover art. It is easy why to understand why artists like Art Farmer and Paul Desmond omitted a pianist after hearing a release such as this one, because it would only clutter Hall's soft yet complete accompaniment. Joined by Tom Harrell (heard mostly on fluegelhorn), bassist Steve LaSpina, and drummer Joey Baron, this CD is a delight from start to finish. The interaction of the musicians in the opener, a lively, waltzing "With a Song in My Heart," makes it sound like they have been a working unit for years. The well-conceived arrangement of "Where or When," which Hall dedicated to Basie guitarist Freddie Green (who died the year prior to the sessions), proves to be the most captivating track, with its understated yet consummately swinging air. Hall contributed the tense "Cross Court," a smoking post-bop vehicle, a pulsing calypso written originally for his 1985 Montreux concert with Michel Petrucciani and Wayne Shorter, as well as the haunting ballad "These Rooms," which opens with Harrell's melancholy unaccompanied trumpet solo, and has an abstract solo by the leader. "Something Tells Me" is a lovely bittersweet ballad by Jane Hall (Jim's wife, a talented composer whose work he has often recorded), featuring Hall and Harrell. Hall's unaccompanied take of Duke Ellington's "All Too Soon" makes one wonder why he has never recorded a entire CD of guitar solos. To allmusic.

Dave Douglas

Ahora una banda de viento en homenaje a Lester Bowie. Ocho temas propios y tres versiones de gente como Otis Redding, Hank Williams y Rufus Wainwright completan este nuevo disco que no deja indiferente al oyente. Douglas, que ya había realizado antes un homenaje a Don Cherry, se adentra en el mundo de la Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy un conjunto de nueve músicos que tocaban solo instrumentos de viento con paso fuerte; reduce la formación a cuarteto y se hace acompañar por una batería para marcar bien los ritmos.En “Spirit Moves” además de Lester, que tiene su homenaje en el tema “Bowie”, podemos encontrar el espíritu de Enrico Rava en “Rava”, el de Fast Waller en “Fast” y las versiones del “Soulero”, “Mister Pitiful” de Otis Redding o ese “This Love Affair” de Rufus Wainwright que traspasa al mundo de la brass band con su saber. El disco ha sido producido por el propio Douglas y grabado entre el 15 y 16 de noviembre del 2008 en Nueva York, para la Green Leaf Music.