After a bit of a summer break, I’m going to work on putting up a lot more content, starting with a mid-summer (or late summer?) album roundup. I’ve divided this into two posts, which I hope will be a better way of getting this out—more frequent and shorter posts are a better balance for me, and maybe for you, too.
As usual, the recent releases in jazz and experimental music have been terrific, and here are just some albums that have recently been grabbing my attention. In a music that defines its center by in-the-moment spontaneity, there’s nothing like live music. So, let’s take a peek at some of the most superlative live recordings of the last couple of months.
Also, if you like this music, I’ll be playing much of it on my radio show, Where is Brooklyn?, which airs on Vassar College radio WVKR on Tuesdays at 5 AM and Saturdays at 2 AM. If you’re in the mid-Hudson Valley, tune in on the radio at 91.3 FM, and for the rest of the world, at wvkr.org. OK—here are the live albums that have been floating my boat. Enjoy!
Marco Colonna, Izumi Kimura, Stephen Davis – The Dublin Session
(released March 11, 2025, Recorded live at Kaleidoscope series, Dublin, March 2025)
Marco Colonna – bass clarinet
Izumi Kimura – upright piano
Stephen Davis – drums
One of the joys of music appreciation – and I hope this list – is to find hidden music of one of the world’s great virtuosos – hidden in plain sight on the internet (or in this case, on Bandcamp). This is the feeling I had when I stumbled upon the music of multireedist Marco Colonna, who has focused on bass clarinet for some time. Colonna has all the tools that define the bass clarinet in the hands of a great player – searing tone, a huge multi-octave range, and a fleet virtuosity that makes you feel the music can go anywhere. You can check Colonna’s deep and joyous discography at his Bandcamp page, and highlights abound. Out of recent Colonna albums, I also really like his moving meditation on eight decades of fascism, but I keep coming back to this absorbing live album. Recorded in Dublin earlier this year, we hear two sets – one a duet with excellent Japanese/Irish pianist Izumi Kimura, and in the second, they are joined by the trap drums of Steven Davis. I think I favor this recording because it embodies what makes live recording so great – on The Dublin Session, the room itself feels like an essential part of the music, and every space and pause feels alive with potential.
Pat Thomas – The Bliss Of Bliss
(Released May 29, 2025, Recorded live at Cave12 by Nadan Rojnic March 31, 2024)
Pat Thomas (piano)
OK, if you read this blog, you know I’m going to talk about the latest Pat Thomas here. Why my obsession? I think that although he’s a virtuoso, those chops take a back seat to creating new ideas and executing his unique vision of what music should be, one that connects jazz fundamentals with procedures of creative and “avant garde” music, and which employs a deeply creative approach to transforming the limits of musical forms and exploring the possibilities of the instrument (whether piano or electronics). As The Bliss Of Bliss makes clear, Thomas is willing to (fearlessly) see that vision through. On this recording, Thomas does not even touch the piano keys for the first 13 minutes of the 41-minute-long title track. Instead, he develops a succession of intense percussive overtones and ghostly effects inside the piano, on the strings. Of course, there’s nothing new about playing “inside” the piano, but the clarity of vision and commitment to a singular approach in this recital are exceptional. For vision alone, I keep comparing this to Roscoe Mitchell’s performance of “Nonaah” at the 1976 Willisau festival, where Mitchell brazenly repeated the same phrase 96 times, provoking jeers from the audience and inducing ecstasy, in equal measure. Two and a half hours south of Willisau and almost 50 years later, the audience at Cave12 in Geneva listens to Thomas’s flights with respectful attention, leaving no barrier to music that demands your attention, and is so stunning.
Fuubutsushi (live) – Columbia Deluxe
(released July 11, 2025)
Chris Jusell – Violin, Voice, Bells
Chaz Prymek – Guitar, Bass, Electronics
Matthew Sage – Piano, Synthesizer, Voice, Electronics
Patrick Shiroishi – Saxophones, Field Recordings, Bells
Like Pat Thomas, the ambient supergroup Fuubutsushi has been a frequent favorite at this blog. Fuubutsushi’s quartet of seasonally themed albums was a cornerstone of my music listening during the pandemic, which I wrote about here. Last year, Fuubutsushi demonstrated that this is not just a pandemic-era project by releasing a new double album, Meridians. That was a welcome continuation of this group’s edifying sound, but this new live album, recording in 2021, is even better. Remarkably, Columbia Deluxe documents the first and only time the musicians of Fuubutsushi, spread out among all four time zones of the continental US, have performed together in the same space. The concert was recorded live at the 2021 Columbia Experimental Music Festival in
Columbia, Missouri, and favorites from their studio albums like “Bolted Orange” and “Shepard’s Stroll” sound even more poetic and moving in live performance. Word is out that Fuubutsushi has another new studio project in the works, but I really hope I’ll have the chance to see this group in person someday. Until then, we have this album.
Practically Married with Tobias Delius and Han Bennink – Live in Berlin
(released May 2, 2025)
Practically Married is:
Declan Forde – Piano
James Banner – Double Bass
Plus:
Tobias Delius – Tenor Saxophone + Clarinet
Han Bennink – Drums
It seems the members of the duo Practically Married, pianist Declan Forde and bassist James Banner, have collaborated with “many hundreds of artists from the Berlin jazz and improvised music scene, of which they have become a regular fixture,” but this is my first interaction with their music. Performed before a delightfully vocal audience at Kunstfabrik Schlot, Berlin, in May 2024, this is another live album documenting musicians in their element. Here, Forde and Banner are augmented by two great guests – versatile saxophonist and clarinetist Tobias Delius and legendary drummer Han Bennink. About half of the set is Herbie Nichols covers, which are done with a strong rhythmic drive and an irreverent sense of play that’s very true to what Nichols is all about. The originals written by the band members are great too, with the highlight for me being “Luftlucht,” which builds from a whimsical melody to an eruption of Delius’ tenor responding to vocal exhortations – from Bennick, I think – while the drummer builds tension with his trademark press rolls. It’s a fantastic moment in a lively and engaging set.
Jimmy Lyons / Karen Borca / Hayes Burnett / Henry Letcher / Syd Smart – Rivbea Live! Series, Volume 3
(released May 2, 2025, Track 1 recorded May 21, 1976 at the Wildflowers festival
Track 2 recorded June 20, 1974)
Jimmy Lyons – alto saxophone
Karen Borca – bassoon
Hayes Burnett – bass
Henry Letcher – drums
Syd Smart – drums
I want to end this roundup of live albums with two incredible dates released by the Lithuanian NoBusiness Records, which continues their great job of finding treasures from the past. The world can’t have enough of sax player Jimmy Lyons, so here’s to NoBusiness for putting out this important 70s live date at fabled loft space Studio Rivbea. Lyons is the most important collaborator of Cecil Taylor, to whom he brought an authoritative mix of quicksilver bebop phrasing combined with free explorations of noise and timbre that were a perfect match for the great pianist. On these newly released archival tapes, we get two extended performances from 1974 and 1976, and hear more of what made Lyons so special. My favorite moment is on the first track, “After You Left,” a tune previously issued on the super-rare Hat Hut LP Push Pull. Lyons takes two solos, the first featuring many of his blistering bop-fluid runs. Then bassoonist Karen Borca builds a solo with her distinct approach to phrasing and timbre, itself a wonderful contrast to Lyons. Lyons comes back for a second solo, this time with more openly melodic and whimsical ideas that quickly have him quoting “He’s A Jolly Good Fellow,” and using that unlikely material to build a satisfying statement. It’s an idea you might hear from Dexter Gordon, but here it’s used in a much different context and toward different ends, where Lyons makes a connection between melody, dissonance, and the freedom to explore any materials and a personal statement. It’s a shame we have so little Lyons to listen to, a neglected master whom I strongly encourage you to check out. If you want to hear more Lyons after this, he released several essential albums as a leader, and the saxophonist was on virtually every non-solo piano Taylor recorded from 1961 until Lyons’ death in 1986. What I did first was listen again to Lyons’ epic solo on the alternate take of “Lena” from Cafe Montmartre, November 23, 1962. Enjoy!
Dave Burrell / Sam Woodyard – The Lost Session, Paris 1979
(released May 2, 2025, Recorded August 22, 1979 at Campagne Premiere, Paris, France)
Dave Burrell – piano
Sam Woodyard – drums
We’ve listened to several live albums that capture a place and time, but maybe the most evocative is another release from NoBusiness, The Lost Session, Paris 1979, which features the fascinating pairing of great pianist Dave Burrell and Duke Ellington alum drummer Sam Woodyard.
Captured here at a small club in Paris in 1979, Dave Burrell was workshopping the tunes he debuted on his landmark album Windward Passages, recorded in 1980, only a few months after this live date. This album starts with “On A Saturday Night,” a blues so redolent of a late hang that you can imagine smoke rings hanging in the air. Then Burrell and Woodyard launch into “AM Blues,” a super up-tempo boogie woogie, where Woodyard matches Burrell’s energy with a crackling shuffle beat. Arguably, the album highlight is Burrell and Woodyard’s reading of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.” The duo gives a stately reading to the head of the long-form composition, then on the bridge, Burrell’s suspended legato notes ring out magically. When the theme is repeated, Woodward brings up the volume and drama with playing that would feel over the top if it were not so well-earned. It’s a remarkable and poignant performance, one of many highlights on a great album. Music thought lost, now brought back to life.
If you like this album and have not heard much of Burrell, make sure you check out Windward Passages, which is available on streaming. If you’re as moved by the music as I am, you might hunt down the original Hat Hut vinyl. Here’s a pic of my recently acquired copy below!
OK, those are a few of the live albums that have been catching my ear! In a few days, I’ll post part 2 of my roundup of new albums, this time focused on some of the many studio albums that I think deserve your attention!