The Necessary Blues

I ended part one of my August album roundup by talking about how much I love the new release on NoBusiness Records, Dave Burrell / Sam Woodyard —The Lost Session, Paris 1979. Repeated listening to that album inspired me to check out more Dave Burrell records I had not heard before, and I discovered that NoBusiness has released several notable Dave Burrell albums I want to share with you.

First, let me tell you about NoBusiness Records, founded by Danas Mikailionis and Valerij Anosov in 2008. The roots of NoBusiness are in a jazz record store named Thelonious in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. From there, Mikailionis and Anosov started putting on concerts featuring jazz players, among them Mats Gustafsson. Gustafsson suggested they start a record label, and since then, they’ve released over 230 titles, Gustafsson’s Vilnius Explosion being their first.

NoBusiness’s back catalogue contains a compelling mix of archival releases, and they keep an active calendar of new albums out every year. I first came to know of NoBusiness from their fantastic series of Sam Rivers archival records, which are highly recommended. Their albums have excellent artwork and informative liner notes. Spend some time at the label’s Bandcamp page; I recently enjoyed the better part of an afternoon just browsing, and it felt wonderfully like checking out titles in a record store! So check out my last post for thoughts on the great Burrell/Sam Woodyard release, one of the year’s albums (it easily made my Francis Davis’ mid-year ballot for archival albums). Now here are the other NoBusiness albums featuring the great Dave Burrell:

Marion Brown / Dave Burrell – Live at the Black Musicians’ Conference, 1981
(released November 10, 2018; Recorded at the Black Musicians’ Conference, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts, April 10, 1981)

Marion Brown – alto saxophone
Dave Burrell – piano

I love every Marion Brown record I’ve ever heard. To me, Marion Brown, along with Miles Davis and only a few other musicians, does something akin to magic—Brown can convey raw emotion with the subtle command of phrasing, timbre, and vulnerability, a kind of fragility conveyed through sound. When I hear Marion Brown, no matter what I’m doing, I need to stop and just listen.

So I was quite excited to see NoBusiness released this date, a duet set of Brown with Dave Burrell, recorded live at the Black Musicians’ Conference in 1981. When they recorded this set, Burrell and Brown already had a long-standing musical partnership. Burrell was there when Brown recorded his first album, Juba-Lee, in 1966, and his Impulse! debut, Three for Shepp. I also highly recommend the Brown DWI album Live In Japan (also called 79118 Live), where Burrell lifts up every tune.

This 1981 set does not have the greatest audio, but that does not interfere with the power of the music. What’s remarkable to me is that a set of music that includes originals by Brown, like “La Placita,” by Burrell (such as “Punaluu Peter”), and two covers of Billy Strayhorn (“My Little Brown Book” and “Lush Life”) feels so much of a piece, like a unified artistic and conceptual whole. I think it’s a testament to two musicians whose aesthetic reaches deeply into jazz experimentalism and is equally grounded in jazz history, and they bring that all together here.

Dave Burrell, Bob Stewart – The Crave
(Recorded live at the Kölner Stadtgarten, Cologne, Germany on June 13, 1994)

Dave Burrell – piano
Bob Stewart – tuba

Next, we jump to 1994, and the unusual meeting of Burrell’s piano with tuba, played by Bob Stewart. One of the joys of the 1979 duets with Sam Woodyard is how Burrell’s music, composed for the opera Windward Passages, embodies the rollicking joy of ragtime and early jazz. So it’s unsurprising that Burrell embraces the music of Jelly Roll Morton here. The program is half Morton originals and half tunes by Burrell, but the music is seamlessly blended into a wonderfully relistenable program. For me, the highlight is the opening tune, where we hear what makes Burrell’s keyboard sound so special – his playing is rhythmically assured, with crisply articulated lines, and the potential at any moment for the music can go anywhere in jazz history. With Stewart’s sly tuba in support, The Crave is a simmering delight.

Dave Burrell, Steve Swell – Turning Point
(released May 1, 2014; Recorded live at the Rosenbach Museum and Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, PA, on January 19, 2013, by Steve Swell)

Dave Burrell – piano
Steve Swell – trombone

Finally, we have another album of duets, here with Burrell’s piano joined by Steve Swell’s trombone. One thing I never knew about Dave Burrell was the wealth of material he composed related to his research on the Civil War. In this interview published in JazzTimes in 2012, Burrell explains that growing up in Hawaii, he didn’t have much connection to the the history of the Civil War, and researching those stories in Philadelphia’s Rosenbach archives inspired the composition of five books of songs devoted to that subject. A year after that interview, Burrell recorded the third collection in this series before a live audience at the Rosenbach, released in 2014 by NoBusiness as Turning Point. The whole album is terrific, and what’s more, it does not sound like anything I’ve ever heard before with its intermingling of 19th-century melodic strains and modern harmonies. The absolute highlight is placed in the middle of the album, the solo piano performance, “Paradox of Freedom.” When music reaches these heights, its power is essentially indescribable, but what you’ll hear is a tune built on the formation of a simple blues riff that builds to a devastating climax at 6:20, where Burrell plays monolithic block chords over and over that hit with the power of a sledgehammer. It’s one of the most powerful solo performances I’ve ever heard – listen.

OK, that’s a primer of just a few records from the magnificent Dave Burrell. Also, take note that he’s very much still active (I regret missing him in Poughkeepsie last year), so if you have the chance to see him live, go!

Finally, if you have the chance tune into my radio show, Where Is Brooklyn?, I’ll be playing tracks all of these Dave Burrell records – it airs this Saturday 8/30/25, 2AM Eastern time, at WVKR Vassar College, 91.3FM in the Hudson Valley and wvkr.org on the web.

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!

One of the happy signs of summer in New York City is its wealth of music – both indoors and out – and for fans of free, improvised, and “avant-garde” jazz, the Vision Festival is the flagship and stalwart festival. This year’s Vision Festival – the 29th one, opened with a night of the great Roscoe Mitchell (on June 2) and over six nights was full of other standouts like David Murray’s “Francesca” Quartet, Marilyn Crispell’s solo piano, Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble and many more. I had a chance to go on June 5, which was the fourth night of the festival. It was a fabulous start to my summer, and I’d like to tell you about the night. Art moves us into a new place, and while the music has, as Eric Dolphy said, gone “into the air,”  we can still tell stories.

Davalois Fearon’s Up/Right

(L-R – Davalois Fearon, Marýa Wethers (other dancers obscured), Adriel Vincent-Brown (d), Mike Mcginnis (ts), Peter Applebaum (p) out of frame; photo – James Koblin)

The evening started with Up/Right, a multi-disciplinary performance created by Davalois Fearon that featured four dancers (Davalois Fearon, Jalisa Wallerson, Marýa Wethers, and Myssi Robinson), pre-recorded poetry by Patricia Smith, and music by the trio of Mike McGinnis on multiple reeds, Peter Applebaum on piano and Adriel Vincent-Brown on drums. This piece was the premiere of Up/Right, which Fearon’s website describes as integrating “research on non-Western African diasporic forms” which “explores how cross-cultural movements, mainly stemming from the African diaspora, have shaped the development of contemporary dance and celebrates the forms that helped build American dance.”

Of course, reporting on dance performances is not what this blog is about, but Up/Right struck me as bold and engaging. Fearon began the performance at the front edge of the stage, her back to the audience, arms raised. The dance, and simultaneously the music, were cued by Fearon in the style of a concert conductor. It was clever and thought-provoking to reverse the narrative roles of the dancer and the music, which, to me, played as a riff on the Eurocentric idea of music direction. Soon, the dance and music settled into a more African (and jazz) paradigm of dialogue, the highlight for me being Jalisa Wallerson’s kinetic movements set to energetic snare drumming by Adriel Vincent-Brown.

Up/Right also incorporated an abstract visual element, where the dancers took turns drawing on paper spread across the floor, which eventually became visual art hung across the stage. McGinnis was credited as music director, and the music fluidly morphed from abstraction to more genre-specific ideas (memorably a dance hall/Rocksteady portion) and then into a fantastic Sons of Kemet-like groove. McGinnis is a very talented multi-instrumentalist, and he transitioned from tenor to bass clarinet and ultimately to soprano sax, playing with a glowing tone that I don’t often hear on the straight horn. I certainly hope Fearon’s Up/Right will receive the support it needs to be performed in other venues so that audiences can experience this multimedia feast live.

Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio

(L-R – Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Ivo Perelman, Mat Maneri; photo – James Koblin)

Matthew Shipp was clearly excited to present this long-time-in-the-making group. Earlier, Shipp had been greeting attendees to Vision in Roulette’s lobby as they entered, and he could be seen darting here and there before the set, a bundle of energy ready to take the stage. Before the set, emcee Patricia Nicholson Parker introduced Shipp and his band, saying, “Matthew Shipp would like to say a few words.” Shipp took the mic and shared why he was so animated. Shipp explained that as the Matthew Shipp String Trio, he, bassist William Parker, and violinist/violist Mat Maneri had recorded two albums for the Swiss Hat Hut label – Expansion, Power, Release (2001) and By The Law Of Music (2002), but the group has not recorded together since. Enter the prolific Ivo Perelman, who has recorded many times with Parker, with Maneri, and especially with Shipp (Shipp said of Perelman, “We’ve recorded maybe 40-50 albums, I’ve lost track at this point’). However, before the new album Armageddon Flower (recorded last year and released June 20 of this year), these four musicians had never played together as a group. After questioning why this had never happened before, Shipp slipped behind the piano, and the music started.

During the following 45 minutes, Shipp and this group drew on themes and ideas from Armageddon Flower, yet the set stood apart as a distinct and spontaneous performance, which the group played as continuous music without interruption. A recent (and excellent) review of Armageddon Flower asserts that Perelman is the leader of this group, but that was not what I was hearing. Not only did Shipp introduce the ensemble, but his stormy block chords and unmistakable chromatic patterns cued each transition and dynamic change. For much of the set, the quartet played simultaneously, developing thick overlapping lines that gave the music a dense feel. A pleasurable kind of density for sure! But after fifteen minutes, either Perelman or Shipp would periodically lay out and turn the music over to the strings – Parker (usually on arco) and Maneri’s violin. In one particularly memorable passage, Maneri jumped out as the lead voice with a solo of fractured melody that sounded ancient and modern at the same time, prompting spontaneous applause even while the music went on. Maneri’s great solo was a moment of quiet beauty at the center of the stormy set.

Like Shipp, my excitement and expectations were sky-high. Having heard Armageddon Flower before the show, I can tell you it’s a highlight from the discographies of all its esteemed players. It’s also a record built around subtle dynamic shifts and exquisite interactions that made me wonder how such introspective music was translating. At one point, an attendee on my left was visibly having a cathartic experience while to my right, somebody else was impassively munching on a bag of Kettle chips (so rude!). I can tell you for myself I’m looking forward to the chance to hear this remarkable ensemble again and spend some time pulling apart the intricacies of the music. In the meantime – the album has my highest recommendation.

Oliver Lake Poetry Set

(L-R Jahi Sundance Lake, Oliver Lake; photo – James Koblin)

In an abrupt change from the heavy communion of the Shipp group, Jahi Sundance Lake stamped his turntable cases down on a table on stage right and set up his DJ gear to accompany his father, saxophonist, visual artist, and, as I’ve now discovered – poet – Oliver Lake. In her opening remarks, Patricia Nicholson Parker stated it’s so rare to have someone good at all these things. I miss hearing Lake’s beautifully acerbic sax, but it seems Lake – who’s 82 years old – is not satisfied with his chops and opts not to play alto publicly any more. Lake’s poetry set reminded me a lot of fellow sax player Joe McPhee, who sometimes lays aside the sax for poetry.

I have to concur that Lake’s poetry was a lot of fun. Lake performed several poems he’s recorded in the past, such as the political and still timely “Shock & Ave” and “Land Line” from the 2011 album Lakes at the Stone, and “Ain’t Nothin’ Real BUT Love” and “Lucky One” from Justice – The Vocal Works of Oliver Lake (2022). His poetry is a mixture of observations on life’s hardships, political references, and often humorous allusions to pop culture. My wife and I particularly enjoyed a poem with a funny refrain from the chorus of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” I came in a bit of a skeptic, but I wouldn’t mind hearing more Oliver Lake poetry.

Michael Wimberly’s Spritworld

(L-R – Lisa Sokolov, William Parker, JD Parran, Michael Wimberley, Oluyemi Thomas; photo – James Koblin)

I don’t really know drummer Michael Wimberley, and the only album of his I’ve heard before is the R&B-influenced Afrofuturism, which doesn’t sound much like the music he presented here, which he calls “Spiritworld.” This group played a continuous set of music (an approach shared with every group on June 5 except the last), and the conception was drawn in equal parts from African musical (and visual) concepts and jazz improvisation in the style of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The music was always quite rhythm-based, and Wimberly’s drums powerfully filled the role of a drum choir.

Apparently, the “Spiritworld” ensemble was a group that performed in a museum space about 15 years ago, playing among visual works painted by Jeff Schlanger. For Roulette on night 4, the reconvened “Spiritworld” group played with a backdrop of video footage from the original art installation, which featured the group members captured at their inaugural performance. The reunion was almost complete – unfortunately, Joe McPhee couldn’t make it (Nicholson said something about him being in London), but he was ably replaced by multi-reed virtuoso JD Parran. Also on multiple reeds was Oluyemi Thomas, and one of the delights of this set was seeing them break out all of their hardware as the music developed. Every few minutes, Thomas and Parran were playing some new clarinet, saxophone, or flute in a display that was as visually compelling as it was musically adventurous. Not to be outdone, William Parker accompanied on at least three instruments – a guembri (a three-string guitar of Gnawa music), a colorfully painted giant double reed instrument, and a trumpet-like horn with a wide rubato sound that cut through the music.

While the instrumentalists were all great, for me the star was vocalist Lisa Sokolov, who alternated between wordless singing and lyrics that often incorporated poetry or referred to jazz musicians. Sokolov’s voice has been called “stealthy, restive, forceful and fearless,” or an instrument that can “lull you to blissful sleep” and then “sweeps and crashes you further along the rocky coastline.” I quoted those so I don’t have to stretch metaphors – I’ll say at Roulette on June 5, Sokolov’s voice often jumped out of the ensemble with a bright energy and captivating rhythmic complexity that created needed movement in music that relied on static vamps. She was (for me) the main point of interest in a set that reached back to ancient modes and made connections from the ancient to the future.

Mary Halvorson’s “Canis Major”

(L-R – Mary Halvorson, Henry Fraser, Tomas Fujiwara, Dave Adewumi; photo – James Koblin)

It’s great when an evening of music builds to a natural and inevitable endpoint, which, in this case, was undoubtedly the new band of the doyenne of creative music, Mary Halvorson. Halvorson’s main band since 2021 has been the “Amaryllis” sextet, a wonderful vehicle for Halvorson’s rich writing, but where her guitar playing takes something of a back seat. With the “Canis Major” group which debuted at The Jazz Gallery in March and headlined this night at Roulette, Halvorson gives herself and her more than able bandmates a lot more solo space. Why “Canis Major?” I’m not sure, and I could not find any interviews with Halvorson about this yet-to-be-recorded group. However, the name means “greater dog” in Latin, and (more likely Halvorson’s reference point) is the constellation in the southern sky that contains Sirius, the brightest star. Halvorson and her music burn just as brightly in the world of creative music, and a new band like this is something to celebrate (and go see when you can).

So, back to the music. The opening tune, a dynamic fanfare (I don’t have song names, but Halvorson seems to have written new tunes for this band), gave an opportunity to really appreciate the playing of Halvorson, who took the first solo, and the new (to me, at least) trumpet player Dave Adewumi. Halvorson has always been one of the most dynamic and unique guitarists in music, and her playing only gets more sophisticated, expressive, and just plain fun. On June 5, her fierce rhythms, sculpting of melodic phrases, delightful logic, and idiosyncratic originality were all utterly compelling, and the immediacy of live performance only heightened the experience. I was totally enthralled.

Adewumi was terrific as well – I want to avoid the clichés often used to describe the sound of the trumpet, but I’ll say that he has the chops to play dynamic and strong phrases, and I was super excited to hear such a wonderful trumpet player with the good sound and focused presentation that Roulette provides. If you want to listen to this rising talent now, you can check him out with trumpeter Dave Douglas on the 2020 album Dizzy Atmosphere – Dizzy Gillespie At Zero Gravity and on Douglas’ forthcoming Alloy, out September 5. I also loved the bass playing of Henry Fraser, who sounds like he’s from the Charlie Haden mold; a long and melodic bass intro to one of the tunes really stood out. Not least in scenery-chewing was drummer Tomas Fujiwara, who played detailed and exciting lines on his cymbals and snare throughout the night and, on the penultimate tune, incorporated a squeaky drum stool and a long false start into the structure of an irreverent and funny drum solo. There’s a lot to be excited about with “Canis Major,” and while I can’t get enough of the “Amaryllis” band, I need to hear a more of this one too. There’s more than enough room in this world for two brilliant bands lead by Mary Halvorson.

What an evening of music! Vision Fest has been a key supporter of New York City’s arts and live music for 27 years and is better than ever. Music from evenings like this builds on each other cumulatively and leaves you with a content, joyful feeling. While Vision Fest 2025 is in the books, every night across NYC and around the world, there’s glorious and exciting music being played. Right now, on a bandstand somewhere, some incredible musicians are just killing it! If you have the chance to go to see and hear live music – art created right in front of you – GO!

One symptom of the torrent of new releases in creative music is that you rarely have time to look back. There’s always too many new releases to ever stay current, which is doubly true when you look at the discography of a prolific musician like Ivo Perelman. I’m frankly not sure how many albums Ivo Perelman has released in total, but as of 2021, it was over a hundred. Who can keep up? Personally, my connection to Perelman has mostly been limited to his excellent (and frequent) collaborations with Matthew Shipp. I can always listen to another album by these two (for example don’t miss the most recent, May 2024’s Magical Incantation). But frankly, I’ve never spent much time with Perelman’s non-Shipp records, even though I remember buying 1991’s The Children of Ibeji at Tower Records when the album was new and being aware of Perelman since. Maybe the ever-present glut of new music is to blame for me not keeping up with Perelman, but whatever the cause, it’s long overdue for me to do a deeper exploration of the music of this great tenor saxophonist.

So I was very excited to learn that as part of Burning Ambulance’s reissue campaign of the huge Leo Records catalog, all 68 (!) of Perelman’s albums recorded for Leo are being rereleased, with the first 20 already having come out on April 4. The plan is to release another 20 on May 2, then another 20 in June, and the last 8 in July. If you go to https://ivoperelmanleo.bandcamp.com/music, you can track the progress of this project and preview the albums before you decide to buy. Exciting stuff!

So this was the perfect excuse for me to see what I’ve been missing. The first crop of 20 starts with Sad Life, a burning free jazz trio of Perelman with Rashied Ali and William Parker, released in 1997. The last of this first round of 20 is from 2012 with a classic Perelman/Shipp outing with drummer Whit Dickey, The Clairvoyant. The Perelman albums released on Leo (from these first 20) range from experiments with string writing, duets with drummers, trios with drums and guitar or bass, and even an album where Perelman plays cello instead of sax. What jumps out first while listening through this bounty is sheer variety – for example, none of these albums uses the same configuration twice. Even the one pair with the same personnel – the trio of Perelman with Gerald Cleaver and Joe Morris on both Family Ties and Living Jelly – sound vastly different from one another just by moving Joe Morris from bass to guitar for Living Jelly (more on this below).

The variety of settings is matched by the variety in Perelman’s playing itself. I think the key lies in at least two factors – first there’s Perelman’s command of his instrument. Perelman’s virtuosity takes his sound and ideas to wherever the music and his imagination lead – to me; it’s the real meaning of virtuosity – getting to the place where there’s no barrier between idea and execution. As a consequence, I don’t really hear Perelman repeating himself, which is another remarkable achievement when you document yourself so much. Also, Perelman shows throughout these records that he’s a great listener who treats music as a collaborative exercise – and I think that affects his sound too; sometimes his playing will go far “out” and stay there if that’s where his bandmates are at. Other times, there may be a setting that makes Perelman play in a melodic and sonorous zone, and all of a sudden, the tenor sound can be surprisingly reminiscent of Sonny Rollins. In many ways, I’m a new listener to Perelman, and these are just my subjective impressions, but I’m hearing both an authoritative command of his materials and the humility to let the music come first and put listening and collaboration before ego. That’s a mix that produces a lot of good music, and I have not heard a clunker in this bunch of Leo releases so far!

I admitted above that I didn’t know a lot of the non-Shipp Perelman material, and it turns out I had never heard any of these first 20 albums before, until now. I’m still listening, but I would like to share with you the ones that particularly impressed me and that I think you need to check out:

Ivo Perelman – Brazilian Watercolour
(Recorded at Systems Two Studio, Brooklyn, NY [duos with Matthew Shipp recorded 1/1996; balance recorded 1999; released 1999)

 

Ivo Perelman – Sad Life
(Recorded live to two-track June 18, 1996 at Systems Two, Brooklyn, NY, released 1996)

These two releases are classics, but there is no need for me to re-invent the wheel when Burning Ambulance head honcho Phil Freeman covered these in his Substack page. It’s remarkable how different these two albums are: Sad Life is roaring, flat-out free jazz, while Brazilian Watercolour is a fascinating hybrid that takes Brazilian songs and sounds and carries them to a new place of experimentation and free improvisation. Both are very highly recommended.

 

Ivo Perelman/Joe Morris/Gerald Cleaver – Family Ties
(Recorded at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY, November 2011, Released January 2012)

One of the biggest surprises for me was this date with drummer Gerald Cleaver and underrated guitarist/bassist (he plays bass here) Joe Morris. I’d never heard of this title before, but it’s killer. The first thing to do is set aside 25 minutes and listen to the tour-de-force track “Love.” Here, the sound of Perelman’s sax is just a bit more inside, all the better for inviting the listener into interactions where Perelman, Cleaver, and Morris share equal space and creative input. Over the course of close to a half hour, the material is generated and then developed spontaneously, though there’s nothing haphazard: the playing is both razor-sharp and open and loose, a place you only get to at the highest level. Words can’t depict this trio’s ever-changing and kaleidoscopic shifts and turns on “Love” – you’ll just have to hit play, but I guarantee by the last notes you’ll know you’re in a different place. While the rest of Family Ties does not quite hit the heights of “Love,” there’s consistently top-notch playing by three of the great avant-gardists of that time and ours.

 

Ivo Perelman/Joe Morris/Gerald Cleaver – Living Jelly
(Recorded at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY, December 2011, Released October 2012)

If you don’t know Joe Morris, after you’ve listened to Family Ties, it’s time to dive into Living Jelly. Sorry for the pun, but Morris’s guitar playing is the difference maker here, and the sound of Living Jelly is built around Morris’ clean but intricate lines. Morris gets plenty of room to stretch out, and this is a great place to appreciate one of the great guitar stylists of creative music. Each of the tracks takes a different approach with contrasting rhythmic and thematic approaches. My favorite is the closing title track, where Cleaver builds swelling polyrhythms on the whole kit, Morris locks into the web of percussion with bubbling intensity, and Perelman soars over the top. A rousing end to an effective and unique album.

 

The Ivo Perelman Quartet – Sieiro
(Recorded at Hillside Studio, March 1998; Released Nov. 1999)

Some of the most fascinating albums out of this first crop of 20 feature Perelman with strings. Phil Freeman also wrote a post spotlighting Perelman’s collaboration with the C.T. String Quartet called The Alexander Suite and The Passion According To G.H. with the Sirius Quartet. Those are both terrific for all the reasons that Freeman says, but I was especially taken with Sieiro, which has Perelman digging into his expressive middle range against Tomas Ulrich’s cello and stalwart bassist Dominic Duval mostly sticking to arco. Jay Rosen complements the higher-range sound palette by concentrating on cymbals. On standout tracks like “Rush Hour” and “The Link” the strings aggressively clash with Perelman’s high tenor, creating a vicious pent-up energy. Some of Sieiro sounds like the meetings of Julius Hemphill and Abdul Wadud, with sax against strings that are both bluesy and surreal. I’m not sure Sieiro is acknowledged as a late 90’s jazz masterpiece, but this is one I’ll be returning to often.

 

Ivo Perelman – Introspection
(Recorded at Systems Two Studio, Brooklyn, NY, July 2005)

Another big surprise in going through Perelman’s Leo discography from this period is some of the surprising gaps. While Perelman recorded 10 albums for Leo from June 1996 to June 2001, that outpouring is followed by a sudden pause; the next album for Leo comes four years later with Introspection, recorded July 2005. Then the next recordings for Leo are three years after that. Perelman did record a couple of albums for other labels in this period, but not much. A very unusual break from such a prolific artist! A clue as to why comes from a 2006 review for All About Jazz, which notes that Perelman was concentrating on painting (he’s also a visual artist, and the Leo albums largely feature his paintings on the covers).

Whatever the reason, the album Introspection is a fascinating document of a time when Perelman was recording a lot less. This album also continues the theme of strings because the album’s highlight is the interactions with violinist and vocalist Rosie Hertlein. She’s new to me and is fantastic here – the main draw is the creative language of the sax and violin – sometimes Perelman will introduce an idea, sometimes Hertlein will, and each time they will shape, echo, and transform those ideas in real-time, each time sending the music into another direction. All the tracks of this album are dominated by this sort of active listening, and again Perelman’s process of centering dialogue and collaboration is very apparent. Introspection is a great one that you might overlook. I’d be remiss not to mention that the always-wonderful Dominic Duval is once again the bassist, and Newman Taylor Baker plays drums on a few of the tracks.

 

Ivo Perelman Quartet – The Hour Of The Star
(Recorded at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY, September 20, 2010)

Maybe I saved the best for last. I mentioned above the Perelman/Shipp discography is one of the glories of modern improvisation, but there’s actually no Perelman with Shipp recorded for Leo until 2010’s The Hour Of The Star (the Shipp tracks on Brazilian Watercolor were extra material recorded for the 1996 Cadence Jazz release Bendito of Santa Cruz but not issued at the time). A contemporaneous review calls this a “newly formed quartet,” and everything that makes Perelman and Shipp special when they’re together is in place on the four tracks where Shipp plays. The other two tracks are the same trio as Family Ties – Joe Morris on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums. If anything, these bandmates sound even more definitive here. The music is amped up and intense throughout – everybody is active and interactive, and all of the musicians, whether in trio or as a quartet, contribute to the well of sound and ideas at a breathtaking pace. Naturally I’m keen on the tracks with Shipp – the title track has Shipp contributing his trademark rumbling block chords (he sounds like he’s just taking this piano apart), and it drives Perelman to an absolute fever pitch, with Morris and Cleaver stoking a fire underneath. “The Right to Protest” and “Whisting In the Dark” are quieter but no less distinctive, with Perelman and Shipp probing and listening, taking asides and circling back around, and constantly in dialogue. It’s simply iconic music and an incredible date.

Of course, that’s just seven of the first twenty Perelman Leo albums to be rereleased, and we’re on the eve of another twenty to come – Burning Ambulance has announced the following twenty Perelman/Shipp titles available for pre-order on Bandcamp. I hope you find great music here, and like I said, that’s just the beginning to a whole lot of listening.

While you’re absorbing these great albums recorded a couple decades ago, keep in mind that Perelman continues to be on a tear of putting out new and fascinating music. One release to note out June 20, 2025, on TAO Forms is Armageddon Flower, which is Perelman with the Matthew Shipp String Trio (Mat Maneri and William Parker). I can’t wait for this one – Shipp has made some of my favorite music ever with his String Trio (the group debut on Hat Hut is a classic), and the addition of Perelman is sure to be great. I plan to cover Armageddon Flower, other recent Perelman albums, and more of the Leo rereleases soon. I hope you’ll evaluate, re-appraise, or simply enjoy some great modern music from the fabulous improviser and collaborator – Ivo Perelman!

Listen to Ivo Perelman on the Radio!

On my WVKR Vassar College radio show, “Where Is Brooklyn?” I’ll be playing the music I discussed in this post and more, which I plan to do over three shows. So tune in if you can – I know it’s a bit challenging at Eastern Standard Time because the show airs in the early AM on Tuesday morning (5AM) and Saturday morning (2AM). If you can join me, WVKR is 91.3 FM on the radio in the Hudson Valley near Poughkeepsie, or wvkr.org everywhere else. Here are the shows I have planned and when they will air:

1) Ivo Perelman on Leo Records, Part 1: Saturday, May 3, 2025, at 2AM.

2) Ivo Perelman on Leo Records, Part 2: Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at 5AM.

3) Recent music by Ivo Perelman: Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 2AM.

If you can’t make it, I’m looking into a way of archiving these shows for listening in the future. Thanks for reading and listening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(L-R: Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, Seymour Wright; Image James Koblin)

At the end of the electrifying March 25th set played by [Ahmed] at Brooklyn’s Roulette, and after a boisterous standing ovation, group bassist Joel Grip made a few brief comments to the audience. The March 25th Roulette show was (remarkably) [Ahmed]’s first performance in the United States, and Grip observed that just down the street on Atlantic Avenue was the childhood home of the group’s namesake and inspiration, Ahmed Abdul-Malik. The unique US visit was a chance to come close to the spirit of Abdul-Malik, and Grip said the group had a “very good chat” with the musician, philosopher, and educator. Abdul-Malik died in 1993, but of course, Grip was describing the significance of this group continuing its project of re-imagining Abdul-Malik’s “cross-cultural innovations,” only a short walk from his home.

The connections Grip described are fitting for a band with obvious chemistry and commitment to a specific vision. [Ahmed] came together after English pianist Pat Thomas met and played in Paris with drummer Antonin Gerbal and Berlin-based Grip twelve years ago. They formed the piano trio [Ism], initially documented on their album Nature in its Inscrutability Strikes Back, recorded in 2014.  That album set revealed a unit “connecting different cultural and imaginary worlds” with a “continuous flow of high voltage charges.” Shortly afterward, London-based saxophonist Seymour Wright was added to the trio to create [Ahmed], a group with a particular purpose. As more fully described in Wright’s 2022 essay for The Quietus, [Ahmed] uses the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik as

“a radical, experimental and political practice of investigating, questioning the orthodox systems of our times . . . [Ahmed] is about making space for this investigation, too . . . through the (re-)imagining and (re-)interpretation integral to investigation.”

In practice and performance, [Ahmed] uses Abdul-Malik’s compositions as a springboard to reach a space of collective group dialogue and spontaneous creation. The music embodies a heady mix of intellectual and philosophical underpinnings (please read the rest of Wright’s fascinating  piece in The Quietus), but remarkably, that all supports rather than diminishes this group’s overwhelming visceral impact.

Until March 25th, the only way of experiencing [Ahmed] here in the US has been through their albums. Fortunately, most of those have captured live performances, and on albums like 2021’s Nights on Saturn (communication) and especially last year’s Wood Blues, the album listener could hear performances where minds being blown as [Ahmed] was in action. The experience of these recordings only fuels the excitement of seeing and hearing this music in the room where it’s created and realizing the potential of live music to levitate the audience. At Roulette, you could feel this excitement even before the show started – a packed house buzzed with anticipation, clearly an audience that knew the significance of this group and this concert.

Then, the band took the stage, and a hush fell over the audience. [Ahmed] quickly started playing the opening notes of Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s composition “El Haris (Anxious),” which Abdul-Malik recorded on his debut album Jazz Sahara (1958) as part of a groundbreaking hybrid of Eastern and Western ideas and sonorities (a wonderful appreciation was written by none other than Pat Thomas!). The music started with a menacing tone that befits a piece called “Anxious”: Thomas struck chords inside the box of the piano while Wright produced intense percussive clucks from his horn. Then Grip and Gerbal joined the tune, and the drums pushed the energy and urgency forward as Wright’s phases moved toward insistent, repeated slashing tones. As this concert-length piece evolved, a pattern developed where the band would settle into articulating an idea based on a riff, which would hold in place until either Thomas or Wright played an extension or counterline, moving the band collectively into another area of the music. Meanwhile, Grip and Gerbal would feed the propulsive intensity that sometimes simmered, sometimes burned, and always mesmerized. This band does not play solos, dispensing with the most elemental aspect of ordinary jazz. Instead, live, you could see and experience the band’s careful listening and patient music-making that is integral to the concept of [Ahmed] – incrementally and as an organic group concept of instant composition, they built “El Haris (Anxious)” out to a 45-minute performance. When you’ve heard [Ahmed]’s discography on albums like the ones I mentioned above, and especially last year’s massive Giant Beauty, you know that each performance follows these contours. Yet, each is a unique and spontaneous event.

Seeing this band also confronts some misunderstandings of so-called “free music.” While the music of [Ahmed] proceeds without chordal information or solos, it is music very much built around rules. First, there’s the knowledge and respect for the goals of this group and the patient way this band develops the performance around ideas built in real-time as the set develops. Then, there is the role of dissonance and melody. While the strident fire of “the cry of jazz” dominates this aesthetic, both Wright and Thomas build blocks of sound around insistent, repeated melodic kernels. Occasionally, and at surprising moments, these insistent fragments would be forged into something else, such as mid-set when Wright switched from a run of two repeated notes to developing a series of bent tones that revealed a set of glorious chromatic overtones. Later in the performance and at the end of the set pianist Thomas switched to a lilting, melodic figure that sounded like a nursery rhyme over the burning rhythms. These uncanny moments stuck out against the constant fire of the evening’s playing – with [Ahmed], beauty is hidden, and then suddenly appears. And then there’s swing: it’s often observed how ferociously this band swings, but to experience this live is overwhelming. Maybe they don’t produce a pulse to dance to, but the coiled energy of [Ahmed] is ferocious all the same, and you could feel the audience release that energy as the last notes ended, in the form of a collective exclamation that made people jump to their feet and cheer.

I don’t know if [Ahmed] usually plays encores or not, but they did for the Roulette audience – while clapping and whops still belted out, the band huddling at the side of the stage, and returned to play Monk’s “Epistrophy.” After the bass iconic bass intro played by Grip, Thomas stated the see-saw theme, and then the band quickly moved into playing based on rhythmic and dynamic manipulation, ending in the thunderous drum solo from Gerbal. It was fascinating hearing [Ahmed] covering material other than that written by the band’s namesake – while the creativity of these musicians on their chosen ground shows no end in sight, it’s exciting to think what they would do playing different composers or their own material.

I can only say that if you have the opportunity, go see [Ahmed]. While the records are great, experiencing the full visceral impact of this music and getting a better understanding of its structural and intellectual complexity demands that you experience [Ahmed] in person. Live, you also see and hear the way [Ahmed] connects worlds – Ahmed Abdul-Malik’s world and ours, and the vision of four extraordinary musicians with an audience that on March 25th at Roulette, got to participate in a remarkable meditation on the power of music.

More links:

See the Livestream and hear the audio!
Roulette has to be one of the most generous arts venues anywhere – while most clubs keep access to their content carefully gated, Roulette lets you stream almost all their shows for free if you can’t make it there, and keeps an archive – which goes back years – of their shows. Free to watch – you may (and I have) spent hours just soaking all their incredible shows. So here’s the page where you can watch the [Ahmed] performance you just read about. Like I said, it’s not the same as being there – make sure you go out and support the arts! – but a magnificent resource nonetheless.

Give the Drummer Some
I didn’t spend much time discussing the individual musicians of [Ahmed], each one an outstanding genius of music. If you read this blog, you know I could talk about Pat Thomas all day. But right here, I want to give props to the incredible drummer Antonin Gerbal. I don’t know if there’s a group anywhere that is propelled the way [Ahmed] is by Gerbal’s assertive polyrhythms, singing cymbals, massive beat, and sheer endurance. If you were not there, check out Gerbal’s powerful solo on “Epistrohy” (at 1:04:30 in the Roulette archive video). Everybody in [Ahmed] is essential – but those drums! I can’t say it better than Peter Magarask, who dubbed Gerbal “a goddamned bulldozer, albeit one with the agility of a dancer.”

“A Good Theme of the Day”
I didn’t want to empathize our sorry political state in a space where I would prefer to rhapsodize about my favorite band in the world, but I can’t end this without observing that [Ahmed] chose “El Harris (Anxious)” for their American live debut during the most retrograde federal government in over a century. Grip made the point briefly when he took the mic, calling “Anxious” “a good theme of the day.” We are celebrating the spirit and artistic vision of Ahmed Abdul Malik, a Black Muslim who was born at a time when lynchings were still common; it’s important to remember that the art we are celebrating on this blog lies at the margins, created by geniuses that our current government wants to destroy. An “anxious” time, indeed. Help your friends and neighbors, support the disenfranchised, and the arts that give are one of the few outlets for their voices.

More Thomas, More Monk!
While I was getting ready for the show and checking out more Pat Thomas (a not-infrequent hobby for me), I landed on a new album (out 3/7/25) featuring Pat Thomas, released by bassist Luke Stewart. As an aside, I’m sure I saw Stewart in the audience at Roulette; also make sure you note the upcoming 4/25/25 release of Stewart’s Silt Remembrance Ensemble album The Order – it sounds incredible. As I was saying, Pat Thomas is featured on another Luke Stewart album that does not have any press or coverage that I can find, called Blacks’ Myths meets Pat Thomas – The Mythstory School. Here, Stewart and Thomas are joined by drummer Trae Crudup in a live recording from London’s Vortex, and they sound wonderful. Thomas is especially exuberant in this setting, nowhere more than the two tunes devoted to Monk – “Goodbye Monk,” which is a reharmonization of “Trinkle Tinkle,” and “No More Work” which plays with “Misterioso.” It is a fantastic and unheralded release; make sure you listen at Bandcamp and get your (digital) copy.

Jon Irabagon – tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone, effects
Mazz Swift – violin, vocals
Peter Evans – trumpet, flugelhorn
Miles Okazaki – guitar
Wendy Eisenberg – guitar
Matt Mitchell – piano, Fender Rhodes, Prophet-6
Michael Formanek – acoustic bass
Chris Lightcap – electric bass
Dan Weiss – drums
Levy Lorenzo – kulintang, laptop, electronics, vibraphone

Even in jazz music, which has always drawn individuals and iconoclasts, Jon Irabagon stands out. Irabagon has the unique ability to play in every style and virtually every saxophone, having recorded on alto, tenor, sopranino, soprano, and recently a solo recital on the tiny soprillo (Survivalism), all with astounding virtuosity. Irabagon has a personal sound and approach that makes you feel as a listener that you know who he is. When you hear Irabagon, you hear the jazz tradition even while he’s irreverently tweaking it. Irabagon’s sound and playing show an open-minded love of collaboration and a comic’s wit that manifests as the boldness to “go for it” when he lights into his next solo.

That’s what I hear when I listen to Jon Irabagon. When I found out he was releasing a new album with a 10-piece band comprising some of the greatest musicians around, I knew this would be music made for me. That album, Server Farm, was released on February 21st and is Irabagen’s most sophisticated and accomplished work yet. Server Farm successfully integrates ideas that have long percolated through Irabagon’s previous work, and this new release reveals a high level of compositional prowess from one of today’s most exciting musicians.

Irabagon organizes the music on Server Farm around the idea of artificial intelligence, making the disruption of AI and its potential antagonism to humans the narrative that informs the music. The press release frames Server Farm as a “single narrative that progresses from the natural and human to the artificial and hybrid throughout its five extended tracks.” That theme is conveyed through increasing elements of dissonance and even with an Irabagon-penned poem sung by violinist Mazz Swift, about tech-driven paranoia on the album closing “Spy.”

Although Server Farm ends on a dark note, there’s lots of joyous and irrelevant fun along the way, and with such ambitious writing, the music is the main thing and is consistently compelling. As I noted above, the album is a performed by a decet that Irabagon says he conceived as a double quintet, pairing the lead voices of Irabagon’s saxes (tenor and sopranino) against Peter Evan’s trumpet, and thickening the texture with dual guitarists (Miles Okazaki and Wendy Eisenberg), duel bassists (Michael Formanek on acoustic and Chris Lightcap playing electric), and dual choral/electronics (Matt Mitchell on piano/keyboards and Levy Lorenzo on laptop, electronics and vibraphone). The group is completed by Mazz Swift’s violin and propelled by Dan Weiss’ drums. These long-time colleagues of Irabagon each have strong individual identities, but their voices are largely woven into the dense ensemble sound rather than organized around individual solos. Jumping out from these settings are Irabagon himself, who sometimes adds electronic effects to his horn, and Peter Evans, who is given space for several bristling trumpet solos. Maybe most prominent are Dan Weiss’ drums, which organize the flow of the music in a way that reminded me of the role Ed Blackwell plays in Don Cherry’s classic 1960s Blue Notes (while sounding nothing like Blackwell – like the rest of this group Weiss sounds like nobody but himself).

In at least two ways, Irabagon has created an album that represents a new chapter in his discography. First, the seamless blending of “inside” and “outside” elements in the music serves Irabagon’s AI concept. One of the delightful pleasures of Irabogen’s past work has been the ease with which he moves back and forth between more conventional post-bop settings and the free-form avant-garde. But in the past, this was often demonstrated through contrasting albums, nowhere more provocatively than on the simultaneous 2016 release of a sophisticated album with Tom Harrell (Behind The Sky) at the same time as Inaction is an Action, a bracingly noisy workout on sopranino sax. Look anywhere in Irabagon’s work, and you’ll see a lively dialogue between jazz history and experimentalism.

With Server Farm, the AI narrative has inspired Irabagon to incorporate many of these prior directions in one album, creating a playground of contrasting ideas set against each other. For example, on “Colocation,” after a percussion intro from Levy Lorenzo’s kulintang (a row of small melodic gongs), the music launches into a groovy ’70s-sounding prog rock theme reminiscent of Hatfield and the North. But that does not last long – the music quickly evolves into dissonant ensemble passages of “suspended time” effects that could be in a new music program, and then abruptly back into the a rock-fusion vamp over which Peter Evans takes a hot solo. The retro sounds and textures are juxtaposed against more contemporary ideas to create a post-modern context; it’s a joyful romp but without a hint of irony. Irabagon deploys a similar see-saw of contrasts throughout Server Farm, mixing pleasing genre-specific themes next to more acerbic sounds. The friction of melody vs. noise and old vs. new is thrilling.

The other new vista here is the large ensemble writing. I’ve seen comparisons to the music of Carla Bley or Charlie Haden, which are great touchstones and reflect the ambition and accomplishment here, but I keep thinking of Charles Mingus. Like Mingus, Irabagon is a surrealist who bends conventions toward his aesthetic and programmatic needs and has an irrepressible desire to put his stamp on jazz history. Also, like Mingus, Irabagon addresses big themes and has incorporated innovations with composition and his poetry into this project. With this accomplished music, Irabagon flexes his muscles as an important conceptualist – he’s one to watch for what he does next. Server Farm will have me coming back over and over to appreciate its striking complexity and ambition – make sure you listen and enjoy one of the great ones of 2025!

More Links!

Jon Irabagon on the Radio at WVKR
I announced in a previous post that I’ve started a new radio show on 91.3 FM Vassar College radio, called “Where is Brooklyn?” If you want to hear more of Irabagon’s work from over the last year on the radio, including listening to some of Server Farm, tune in Tuesday morning March 4th at 5 AM, at wvkr.org.

Irabagon on Server Farm
I would love to see more interviews with Irabagon about his ideas for this album, conceptually and especially musically. At the time I’m writing this, you can read his interview with Post Genre and a review with commentary from Irabagon at Arts Fuse. Read this interview at The Rhythm of Study for an in- depth discussion his approach to music and about two of Irabagon’s excellent 2024 releases (the solo soprillo Survivalism and the quintet Recharge the Blade).

Check out Irabagon’s Label
Server Farm and many of Irabagon’s essential releases are on his label, Irabbagast Records. You can check out those records here at Bandcamp. Make sure you support this outstanding artist!

(Jon Irabagon – Image from the artist’s website)

It’s that time of year – end-of-the-year lists! It was recently my privilege to again submit picks for the Francis Davis Jazz Poll, where ballots are limited to ten new albums, five archival/reissues, and three each for vocals and debut albums (I abstained from voting on the Latin album category). I’ll link to that poll when it’s published in a few days. Because this blog focuses on new music, I’ve limited this list to just new albums and expanded the list to my top 50. There’s so much great new music; it’s no problem at all listing 50 great albums from the last 12 months!

For consistency, I’ve retained the same top ten I submitted for the Francis Davis Jazz Poll. The order of my “rankings” roughly reflects my personal connection to these albums – but they are all great, and I unreservedly recommend them all.

One of the revelations from this list-making is to appreciate the incredible strength of music today and the boundless talent of the musicians who created it. We are truly blessed to have this art and these artists who deserve and need your support. I hope that you make some discoveries here or rediscoveries, perhaps. Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

1-Patricia Brennan – Breaking Stretch

2024 was the breakthrough year for vibraphonist and composer Patricia Brennan. Brennan was everywhere this year – a key component of Mary Halvorson’s Cloudward at the start of the year, and her vibes elevated every album she appeared on, from Stephan Crump’s Slow Waters to Alan Braufman’s Infinite Love Infinite Tears. And that was all before the September release of Brennan’s spectacular Breaking Stretch. With Brennan’s vibrant new album, every element was remarkable – the original compositions are advanced but direct, and she has found a way of combining the rhythmic complexity of her two prior albums (the solo vibes Maquishti and the percussion quartet More Touch) with expanded horn writing and explosive playing. Brennan has quickly become a key figure in today’s music – where will she go next? Here’s the full review at TNB.

2-[Ahmed] – Giant Beauty

2024 was also the breakout year for English piano great Pat Thomas. In 2024, Thomas was as prolific as usual, releasing a solo piano album, several interesting electronic experiments, and two outstanding piano trio records (I put one at #39 on this list). Still, Thomas’ most significant statement in 2024 was from his band [Ahmed]. With this band – a quartet with drummer Antonin Gerbal, bassist Joel Grip, and saxophonist Seymour Wright – the focus is on interpreting the music of legendary bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik. Once you know [Ahmed] you know what to expect – each tune is stretched live into an almost hour-long performance that moves in waves of energy and noise, cathartic even on a record. In March, Thomas and [Ahmed] released two documents of that catharsis – the single disc Wood Blues on Astral Spirits and the expansive five CD Giant Beauty on Fönstret. With the Francis Davis mid-year poll, I went with Wood Blues on my list, which is the best primer for [Ahmed]. Once you’ve heard that, the deep dive of Giant Beauty, with its fascinating set of interpretations and trajectories over five one-tune sets, will keep you coming back. The second run of CDs is almost sold out, so get yours now. If you can make it to Big Ears in March, [Ahmed] will be there — their first visit to America — and you can experience this live.

3-David Leon – Bird’s Eye

No other album sounds like this, and after nine months of listening, David Leon’s Bird’s Eye has lost none of its magic. The unique sound of this album is due mainly to DoYeon Kim’s gayageum, a zither-like string instrument that sometimes sounds like a harp, sometimes a guitar, but is always striking and new. Leon has the wisdom to let that captivating sound occupy center stage, but the leader’s ideas and playing also quietly capture your imagination. Other albums did come and go from my rotation through 2024, but this music, with its beauty and wit, never left.

4-Tomeka Reid Quartet – 3+3

Tomeka Reid’s 3+3 is strong from start to finish, a three-movement suite that dances over Reid’s cello, with strong contributions from a rhythm section of drummer Tomas Fujiwara and bassist Jason Roebke. But the real magic is the locked-in chemistry between Reid and guitarist Mary Halvorson, two voices that sound like one. Take a listen to the album centerpiece, “Sauntering With Mr. Brown,” where you can hear this synergy as the cellist and guitarist build an interconnected web of phrases to a thrilling climax.

5-Immanuel Wilkins – Blues Blood

Link to purchase from Blue Note
Link to Apple Music

Wilkins’ Blues Blood is an ambitious document of a multi-genre, multi-media work that meditates on the “legacies of our ancestors and the bloodlines connecting us,” according to the press notes. What really got to me is the integration of Wilkins’ quicksilver sax with the voices of Ganavya, June McDoom, Yaw Agyeman, and a guest vocal by Cécile McLorin Salvant. The affecting melancholy is perfect late-night music.

6-Matt Mitchell – Illimitable

Over two CDs, Mitchell’s far-ranging mind and fingers take us on a trip through four expansive tracks (the longest is alone album length) that explore fascinating ideas not beholden to any one set of influences. Mitchell says, “All this music is 100% improvised, one take, no edits.”

7-Anna Webber – simpletrio2000

Webber’s Idiom was the most impressive album of 2021, a magnum opus of woodwind techniques and coiled small-group dynamics. Simpletrio2000 continues where Idiom left off, exploring more jaw-dropping rhythms played by a trio that is anything but “simple.”

8-David Murray Quartet – Francesca

Francesca was my go-to disc of 2024 to bask in Murray’s giant sound and inviting, warm melodies; every spin was like a reunion with an old friend. I also keep coming back for the luminescent piano of Marta Sanchez, Murray’s best foil since his salad days with John Hicks or Don Pullen.

9-AALY TRIO – Mats Gustafsson, Peter Janson, Kjell Nordeson – Sustain

Celebrating the vitality of free jazz repertoire stimulated some of this year’s most exciting music, like João Lencastre’s Free Celebration, (#33 below) Nexus Plays Dolphy (#36), the Henry Kaiser-associated cooperative that released Two Views of Steve Lacy’s The Wire (#50), Ohad Talmor’s Back To The Land, and especially this stunning album by the AALY Trio. As usual, Gustafsson’s saxes and flute are commanding, and interactive playing by bassist Janson and drummer Nordeson is there every step of the way. The liner notes outline a history of this group that is a bit too nuanced for me to follow, but suffice it to say this group has a lot of history and plays at the highest level here.

10-Carlos Bica – 11​:​11

It was tough rounding out a top ten in a strong year where many albums could have made the cut. I went with Bica’s 11:11 because it reminded me of Charlie Haden’s Revolutionary Music Ensemble and simply for the album’s arresting beauty. Every time I listen, I need to remind myself this is only a quartet – the rich colors created by José Soares’ alto sax, Eduardo Cardinho’s vibraphone, and Gonçalo Neto’s guitar and banjo over Bica’s bass were the most calming and enveloping music of the year. I also loved Bica’s Playing With Beethoven from last year – I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for what’s next.

11-Rafael Toral – Spectral Evolution

Toral’s incredible one-movement of warm guitar and modulating tones was the best ambient album of the year. I excluded it from the Francis Davis Poll because it’s not Jazz, so I’m placing Spectral Evolution at #11 on this list just to be consistent. But don’t miss this one—it’s a true tour-de-force.

12-Tyshawn Sorey Trio – The Susceptible Now

I’ve admired the previous Tyshawn Sorey Trio albums, where his ever-flexible drumming and Aaron Diehl’s perfect piano struck me as an update of Ahmad Jamal for the 21st century. This one wowed me with its marvelous dynamics and sleight-of-hand transitions from one theme to the next, and it confirmed for me that pianist Diehl is among the greatest today.

13-Kit Downes – Reflex: Dr. Snap

A live album recorded at Amsterdam’s BIMHAUS in 2022, Reflex: Dr. Snap captures an incredible band in flight over Downes’ catchy compositions. I didn’t see any hype for this one, but I’m sure it will grab you right away with its spirited fun and incredible virtuosity.

14-Tarbaby – You Think This America

Another great piano trio in a year full of them. I’ll defer to Hank Shteamer, who listed this as his album of the year for The New York Times.

15-[Ahmed] – Wood Blues

Mid-year, this was second on my list, but I’ve swapped in the more epic five discs of [Ahmed’s] Giant Beauty in its place. Wood Blues is still the best introduction to this band—listen and imagine you’re there, soaking in the waves of cathartic noise.

16-Christopher Hoffman – Vision Is The Identity

TNB covered Hoffman’s great Vision Is The Identity twice – here and here. I found Hoffman’s approach to electro-acoustic music and amplification of his instrument amazing, and said this album is  “wall-to-wall avant-bangers” that “expand the expressive range of the cello.”

17-Mary Halvorson – Cloudward

Mary Halvorson set the template for a great year with Cloudward; Halvorson and her band members were central to this year’s music. Here’s TNB’s album review.

18-Nick Dunston – Colla Voce

Nothing sounds like the innovative Colla Voce. TNB covered it in our string roundup, where I said that Colla Voce is “dense and hallucinatory” and that its string writing has a physicality that “makes sound tactile.”

19-Rob Mazurek – Milan

In 2024, I really discovered Mazurek – he’s prolific and put out a lot of great music this year. Milan was my favorite, a solo tour-de-force where Mazurek’s trumpet and prepared piano comment on each other, with an assist from extended percussion and a “magic yellow bucket.” Mazurek plays em’ all, no overdubs.

20-Jonas Cambien – Maca Conu

Oslo-based pianist (and notably here, organist) Jonas Cambien is a new name to me, and this swirling music reminds me of Don Cherry. It’s an exploratory and exciting album. Here’s a nice review at Dusted.

21-Marco Collana – Fabrizio Sperra – Children of This Land

I discovered bass clarinet virtuoso Marco Collana in 2024. He’s incredibly prolific, with at least 20 releases this year. I picked this one for its interactive and patient playing and listening.

22-Darius Jones – Legend of e’Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye)

Chapter seven of Jones Man’ish Boy epic lets you revel in his giant sound on alto sax and admire his terrific trio (Gerald Cleaver on drums and Chris Lightcap on bass) . Read this excellent review by Lee Rice Epstein at The Free Jazz Collective.

23-Adam O’Farrill – HUESO

Adam O’Farrill’s trumpet sounded spectacular this year on Patricia Brennan’s Breaking Stretch, Mary Halvorson’s Cloudward, and O’Farrill’s excellent HUESO. He also leads a band whose chemistry is palpable and writes excellent material. Peter Margasak is a fan.

24-Fuubutsushi – Meridians

Link to purchase from Catched Media

Link to Apple Music

Fuubutsushi’s new double LP is as beautiful as you’d expect, and they have expanded their sound since their legendary quartet of seasonally themed ambient albums. Here’s a good review at I Care If You Listen.

25-Vinnie Sperrazza – Sunday

Here, I reviewed both Sperrazza’s Saturday and Sunday, which are different but connected. A highlight of this tuneful but adventurous release, “Caffeine Dream,” has been one of my favorite songs of the year.

26-Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones – New Monuments

In the liner notes to New Monuments, Amirtha Kidambi talks about making music where “hierarchies are eliminated and individuals come together to assert their voices communally.” New Monuments captures that sound, and was the most politically aware album of the moment in a very challenging year. Read the review by TNB co-founder Jesse Koblin at the Vassar Miscellany News.

27-Alan Braufman – Infinite Love Infinite Tears

A joyous free jazz romp with great sax and flute by Braufman with support from James Brandon Lewis and Patricia Brennan. Thom Jurek wrote an excellent review for AllMusic.

28-Amanda Gardier – Auteur: Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson

Gardier has a flair for colorful compositions, and the emotional world of Wes Anderson is a good match – Auteur is Gardier’s best album yet. Here’s the TNB album review.

29-Miguel Zenón – Golden City

The release of a new Miguel Zenón album is always a cause for celebration, and Golden City features Zenón’s ambitious writing for a terrific nonet. JazzTrail says it’s a “visceral work inspired by the rich history of San Francisco and its surrounding areas, specifically from the perspective of its immigrants.”

30-Phillip Golub – Abiding Memory

From the first note, I knew Phillip Golub’s Abiding Memory would be on this list—I love the Andrew Hill-like aesthetic. Ethan Iverson wrote a definitive post on the “New Brooklyn Complexity,” which discusses in detail what’s special about Abiding Memory.

31-Nick Millevoi – Moon Pulses

Philly-based guitarist Nick Millevoi uses simple methods (only one guitar for rhythm and one for melody, played only with the thumb) to make expansive sounds. The result is an ambient gem and another great release by boutique label Island House. I’ve been playing “Moon Pulses 1” quite a lot on my new radio show, “Where Is Brooklyn?” on WVKR.org. Here’s the review of Moon Pulses at The Third Eye.

32-Ivanna Cuesta – A Letter to the Earth

Ivanna Cuesta’s A Letter to the Earth was my pick for the Francis Davis Jazz Poll’s debut album of the year. Cuesta’s original compositions are great, and so are her side people—Kris Davis and Ben Solomon enliven the music with every solo.

33-João Lencastre – Free Celebration

Listen to João Lencastre’s Free Celebration for proof that the compositions of Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, and Herbie Nichols can fuel a free jazz party—something to celebrate! Read Jazz Music Archives for more on this compelling album.

34-Brad Mehldau – After Bach II

Another celebration that I’m 100% behind is Brad Mehldau’s exploration of Bach. Skip right to Mehldau’s glorious reharmonizations of The Goldberg Variations, programmed near the end of this album, to get right to why Mehldau’s After Bach II is so great. Read TNB’s review here.

35-Maria Reich – INTERDEPENDENZEN

This album features 11 solo violin and viola improvisations developed during iPhone field recordings. The range of techniques, ideas, and emotions is impressive, and Reich’s talent and creativity are obvious. I reviewed this album as part of my roundup of string recordings.

36-Nexus – Nexus Plays Dolphy

Another ‘free celebration’, this time of Eric Dolpy’s transcendent legacy. Nexus—a band led by Milan-based tenor saxophonist Daniele Cavallanti and percussionist Tiziano Tononi, who apparently has been playing free jazz for decades—does justice to this material and produces an album that is by turns ferocious and exuberant.

37-James Diaz feat. Julia Jung Un Suh – [speaking in a foreign language]

[speaking in a foreign language] is the debut of composer James Diaz, who has found a unique way of combining analog sounds from the beautiful violin of Julia Jung Un Suh and electronic manipulation done both in real time and in post production.  Read the TNB review here.

38-John Surman – Words Unspoken

Link to purchase from ECM

Link to Apple Music

The only ECM entry on my list, saxophone player John Surman’s Words Unspoken was a refuge of beauty to return to again and again during a tumultuous year. Here’s the Free Jazz Blog review, which says it “feels like lying prone on a raft floating down a winding river.”

39-[Ism] – Maua

More Pat Thomas! Here he’s playing a Bösendorfer, and this album could not be more different than the [Ahmed] records at #2 and #15 on this list. Over the course of a 40-minute performance, Thomas explores piano language with far-ranging and surprising quotes while he also engages in the piano trio dynamics we expect with drummer Gerbal and bassist Grip. The Free Jazz Blog paints a picture.

40-Matthew Shipp – New Concepts in Piano Jazz

Bizarrely, I overlooked Matthew Shipp’s New Concepts in Piano Jazz until the very end of the year. I’m not sure what the “new concepts” are here – it sounds like a Matthew Shipp album, and a very good one at that. What other recommendation do you need?

41-C6Fe2RN6 – C6Fe2RN6

The mysteriously tilted C6Fe2RN6 (it refers to part of the color spectrum) is another Rob Mazurek album—including two from Exploding Star Orchestra, Mazurek released at least six albums in 2024. Here, Mazurek creates ambient soundscapes with guitarist Nick Terry, and it’s absolutely lovely trumpet music over electroacoustic settings for you to soak into.

42-Kris Davis – Run the Gauntlet

Kris Davis is another artist who releases one compelling album after another. Run the Gauntlet is the first recording of her new trio with Jonathan Blake on drums and Robert Hurst on bass – it’s been such an excellent year for piano trios! This new album is a great place to appreciate Davis’s compositional and piano language, which runs from catchy and melodic themes to impressive ‘outside’ techniques with prepared piano and Cecil Taylor-like giant chords. I could have (and did on the Francis Davis mid-year poll) put Rewilder by Borderlands Trio in here, a cooperative trio of which Davis is a member. The double-disc Rewinder is more expansive and experimental, and I recommend you check that out, too, for even more great Kris Davis.

43-Brad Shepik – Human Activity: Dream of the Possible

Dream of the Possible is an excellent title for this album about climate change, which captures guitarist Brad Shepik’s hopeful and affecting writing and playing. I especially love the use of Layale Chaker’s violin, which sounded great on her excellent Radio Aflout and is even better here. Here’s the review by Filipe Freitas at JazzTrail, who says it’s “brimming with emotion and heart.”

44-John Hollenbeck & NDR Bigband – Colouring Hockets

John Hollenbeck & NDR Bigband’s Colouring Hockets is built around a percussion quartet, and those percussionists are Hollenbeck joined by NDR percussionist Marcio Doctor along with Matt Moran and Patricia Brennan (yes, here she is again, what a year!). The combination of trap drums, extended percussion, vibraphone, marimba, and timpani is both adventurous and accessible, reminding me of Max Roach’s percussion experiments. Here’s a review at Making A Scene, which says that the imaginative percussion and writing make it “unlike any big band or even large ensemble effort you’ve heard.”

45-Meshell Ndegeocello – No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin

Link to purchase from Blue Note
Link to Apple Music

Meshell Ndegeocello’s wildly ambitious tribute to James Baldwin is a genre-blind mix of poetry and protest songs. Often, Ndegeocello will create an infectious groove, and they intentionally bend or usurp it in a brazenly experimental way – it’s brave and sometimes challenging music. Here’s the review at The Guardian.

46-The Rempis Percussion Quartet – Cochonnerie

I discovered saxophonist Dave Rempis from this album, where he and a band of bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and two drummers (Frank Rosaly and Tim Daisy) patiently build fiery and propulsive riffs. I keep reading that I need to listen to Rempis’ Ballister—I’ll get to that soon. I’m not really in a rush; I’m enjoying this one so much.

47-Erik Friedlander – Dirty Boxing

I can’t think of any more spirited and simply fun album than cellist Friedlander’s Dirty Boxing, which sports uplifting and melodic themes played with swagger. Quite a band, too – Friedlander is supported by Uri Caine on piano, Mark Helias on bass and drummer Ches Smith

48-Elsa Nilsson – Atlas Of Sound – Quila Quina – -40​°​17​’​38​.​21​”​N, -71​°​45​’​68​.​48​”​S

I was a big fan of Nilsson’s Atlas of Sound Coast Redwoods (2022), which is patient, beautiful music. Quila Quina continues with more of the same—some of the most healing music and playing imaginable. TNB covered the album release concert in NYC that kicked off Elsa Nilsson’s tour.

49-Modney – Ascending Primes

Modney’s fascinating double-disc opus inspired my mid-year roundup of albums with strings. I feel like we’re entering a new era of cross-pollination between the “classical,” “new music,” and “jazz” worlds, where composed material and improvisation come together to pursue a similar aesthetic. Modney is at the vanguard of this revolution. Read my review here.

50-Ackley-Chen-Centazzo-DeGruttola-Kaiser-Manring – Two Views of Steve Lacy​’​s The Wire

Although I’m a massive Steve Lacy fan (check out my big Lacy-Mal Waldron post), I had never heard Lacy’s legendary album The Wire until this release made me seek it out. You can listen to the original on YouTube or at Inconstant SOL, where you can still get a download. After that, check out this cooperative album putatively led by guitarist (here on bass) Henry Kaiser. It takes inspiration from The Wire and interprets the material twice (hence, Two Views of The Wire).

(a Vintage Hitachi 3-band “Hiphonic” Transistor Radio – but any radio will do! Image Wikipedia Commons)

Readers of this blog will notice that I have not made any posts in over a month, which is the longest break in some time. Apologies, dear readers! However, I have been busy with another music-related project that will work into this blog and fuel more written content – I’ve started a new radio show! This show is called “Where is Brooklyn?” and is broadcast on WVKR, 91.3 FM Vassar Collage radio, broadcasting from Poughkeepsie throughout Duchess County, New York, and streaming worldwide at wvkr.org. The show broadcasts twice weekly for an hour, at 5 AM on Tuesday and 2 AM on Saturday. Yes, both are early in the morning in the eastern USA, but if you’re up, I’d love the company! And for our international readers, my show may fall right into your schedule and time zone.

Of course, the show’s name is inspired by Don Cherry’s classic album, recorded in 1966. Ornette Coleman wrote the liner notes to Where Is Brooklyn? and my show follows the advice of that oracle of the avant-garde: “the most rewarding state of today’s music is its newness, whatever its categories.”

The goals for my radio show are pretty similar to those of this blog – to explore improvisational music at the intersection of folkloric and “art” traditions, music that blurs genre distinctions, pushing expression into new forms. The show just hit episode ten, and I’ve been playing music that I loved in 2024, often — but not always — grouped around a theme. Recent shows explored electroacoustic music in 2024, the incredible releases this year on Clean Feed records, and new albums by indie-jazz pacesetter Kris Davis and multidisciplinary artist Rob Mazurek. Over the next few weeks, I plan on playing some of my favorite releases of 2024. On December 24th, you know I’ll be playing from An Ayler Xmas and paying tribute to the much-missed Mars Williams.  After that, I’m not sure where we’ll go next, but that’s all part of the fun. With this show, we’re on a quest for the new, the unexpected, the “sound of surprise” that only jazz can bring. I hope you’ll join me for the ride!.

As for The Necessary Blues, you’ll see much more content here very soon, starting with my year-end list for 2024 jazz and experimental music. After that, I plan to post on albums by the prolific Satoko Fujii, new ambient records, an update on my ongoing obsession with Pat Thomas’s music, more gig journals, and a much-delayed post on The Blue Notes. Stay tuned, both on the airwaves and at The Necessary Blues.

(a happy family tuning into Where Is Brooklyn? Won’t you join us?; Image Wikipedia Commons)

(Image from cover of Jazz Gallery flyer)

At the start of the second set at New York’s Jazz Gallery on October 16th, guitarist Miles Okazaki told the audience that for what they like in his playing, they should credit composer Thelonious Monk, “and what you don’t like,” Okazaki said, “you can blame me.” This humble comment set the tone for an evening-long meditation on Monk, whom Okazaki asserted is the greatest of all composers. For over five hours, broken into four sold-out sets, Okazaki played every one of Monk’s compositions, alone on solo guitar, from memory.

Just making it through everything felt like an incredible accomplishment. Okazaki, who also posts on Instagram about running, has himself made the analogy between a marathon and the act of surveying all 66 Monk compositions in one sitting. But while Okazaki’s Jazz Gallery concert was devoted to Monk, it also fully displayed all his strengths – the studied inventiveness with which he translates Monk’s music to guitar, his truly fertile imagination, and the sheer brilliance of his playing. By the time Okazaki finished the last chords of “Round Midnight” (at about 12:15 AM), I had both Monk’s themes and the sound of Okazaki’s guitar dancing in my head, a deep dive that was, for me, a singular experience.

To appreciate this accomplishment, it’s best to go back to Okazaki’s landmark 2018 recording of all the Monk tunes, Work. As Okazaki has stated in interviews and in that album’s excellent liner notes (which he wrote), the genesis of this six-disc recording came from discussions with fellow guitarist Steve Cardenas during Monk’s 2017 centennial year about how to translate Monk to guitar. Inspired to record all of Monk’s oeuvre on solo guitar, Okazaki developed rules for the project that kept the focus on Monk. He used just one guitar (an amplified 1978 Gibson ES-175 Charlie Christian), used no pedals, no overdubs, avoided reharmonizing Monk’s tunes, and focused his improvisations on the material provided by the compositions. Work is unlike any other Monk tribute album, an immersive experience that brings the listener into Monk’s sound world. The process for Work is integral to the result. The album was recorded over months and at home, where Okazaki would take just one of Monk’s tunes at a time, work on it until he was satisfied, and put it on tape. Work took the better part of a year to finish, and one of its charms is that each performance is a thorough and unique interpretation of the material.

Shortly after Work was released, Okazaki gave a podcast interview with Fretboard Journal and was asked if he had thought about performing the whole discography live in a concert. Sounding a little surprised by such a daunting challenge, he replied, “Maybe. . . if somebody gets me a gig, I’ll do it.” The Jazz Gallery must have been listening, because not many venues would have taken a chance on this type of concert. On October 16th, you could feel the anticipation in the air – the audience was unusually attentive, shying away from distracting iced drinks, not popping beer cans open, and not even sneaking a snapshot out of respect for the fact Frank Heath was filming the whole thing for future release. Jazz royalty was also in the house to bear witness – on the 16th, I saw Mary Halvorson, Tomas Fujiwara, and Caroline Davis in the audience for the first set, and Jacob Garchick sat right next to me for the last set. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an audience so raptly attentive: breaking the silence at the end of the first set, a woman remarked, “This show is intense!”

As you can imagine, there’s a lot to say about five hours of such heady and substantial music, so I’ll comment on the most singular things for me. Okazaki’s sound continuously struck me and felt like an ideal vehicle for presenting Monk. Okazaki has a rounded tone that is rhythmically assertive whether he plays with a pick or fingers, which allows the listener to appreciate Monk’s percussive and precise structures. My attention never flagged for a minute over four sets, something I can attribute as much to Monk’s durable music as Okazaki’s playing. The details of the interpretations were always fascinating, and when we get to see Frank Heath’s concert film, I’ll be interested to do back-to-back comparisons with the interpretations from the 2018 Work. To my ears, I heard a lot of changes that Okazaki has made with his approach to the material, a sign of his constant engagement, creativity, and/or willingness to give himself more license with this music. During the first set, Okazaki stretched out by playing the gloriously knotty “Skippy” with an extended intro of “Tea For Two,” a connection between the two songs that was only hinted at during Okazaki’s improvisation on the 2018 album version. Monk, who included a performance of a jazz standard on virtually every one of his albums, would surely have approved.

The confidence of Okazaki’s playing came through on the tunes that, to me (a non-guitarist, non-musician), seem especially formidable. The tricky double lines of “Epistrophy” bounced around authoritatively, and the demonic vamp of “I Mean You,” that comes from the big band version (and from Monk’s comping on the original recording), sounded electrifying. On Monk’s ultimate throwdown, “Brilliant Corners,” Okazaki played the repeat of the theme (in double time in the 1957 recording) at an impossibly fast tempo (triple time?). All these daring feats thrilled me, but the slower performances were just as commanding because you could soak in Monk’s connection to folkloric forms. Okazaki has made the point that the blues is essential to Monks’ language, ending each disc of Work with a Monk blues. Live, Okazaki’s performance of the blues – specifically “Bolivar Blues” – settled into a relaxed tempo with a lovely feel that had the crowd roaring applause. In a similar groove, Okazaki showed a subtle command of dynamics and tone with Freddy Green-like strumming on “Misterioso.” Other highlights were the evocative “extended” techniques that created ghostly harmonic effects on tunes like “Little Rootie Tootie,” “Pannonica,” and the exquisite “Ugly Beauty.” Okazaki’s range of approaches allowed me to soak in the enormous variety in Monk’s discography and to better see this music as a whole.

The fourth and last set on October 16 was especially magical, one of the most impressive performances I’ve ever seen, and one which I hope we’ll get to see in the future as it was filmed. The set started with an under-appreciated gem recorded only once by Monk, “Oska T.” Live at The Jazz Gallery, Okazaki brought a tone that convincingly replicated the blare of a big band on Monk’s live recording. With “Played Twice,” Okazaki said more with less, playing only the contours of the melody in a fascinating arrangement that made great use of dynamic contrasts. The angularity of “Boo Boo’s Birthday” was a nature fit for guitar. With each tune, the audience’s applause became more immediate, and Okazaki would cut right away into the next performance, building momentum through the set.

In an evening of music that loosely followed the eras Monk recorded his tunes, Okazaki saved six of his favorites for last, and the guitarist’s love of this music was more than evident. “Work” got an extended treatment, which suggested endless possibilities with the tune. “Nutty” featured a call and response between Monk’s singable melody and impressive interjections from Okazaki at the end of each phrase. The evening ended about a quarter after midnight, as I stated above, with “Round Midnight.” Okazaki told the audience, “you made it,” and after five hours, I felt as if we had completed a fascinating journey together. Okazaki interpolated several of Monk’s themes on the coda of Monk’s most famous tune, reminding the listener that this incredible body of work is interconnected and contains so many classic themes.

Since the concert, I have (delightfully) had little other than Monk melodies on my mind. One realization from an evening steeped in this music is that while Monk is famous for innovations in harmonics and gem-like compositions, Monk’s melodies are just as central to his genius. Part of the reason Monk is so loved is that each composition delivers every aspect of music at its optimum – composition stripped down to its essential elements, generative harmonic suggestions for improvising, structures that are both accessible and profound, and a rare element in modern music — pure singability. Monk has it all, as did the audience who had the privilege of experiencing Miles Okazaki play it all in one fabulous night. If you have the chance to see Okazaki play this material, don’t miss it!

(At The Jazz Gallery, Okazaki displayed copies of all his Monk LP’s that are his reference source and inspiration; photo James Koblin)

More Notes on Okazaki and Monk

The Monk Discography
There is some dispute about how many tunes Monk wrote. Okazaki recorded 70 of them on Work based on Steve Cardenas and Don Sickler, who published transcriptions of all of Monk for the first time in one place in their fake book. In a recent radio interview with Dave Lake on Evening Eclectic (WRUU 107.5 Savannah, GA), Okazaki said for The Jazz Gallery gigs he’s playing the 66 Monk tunes that have all the hallmarks of a composition, including repeated heads, rather than improvisations on the blues that pushed the Cardenas/Sickler transcriptions to 70 tunes. The interview with Lake is also an excellent review of Okazaki’s journey with Monk’s music and features live performances during the interview that you should check out. Highly recommend.

Keep Up With Okazaki
Okazaki has an excellent website that summarizes what he’s done and where he’s going. It also looks really great, not surprising given the emphasis Okazaki puts on visual art and its interaction with music.

Listen to Miniature America
Although the October 16th and 18th Jazz Gallery concerts and Work express Okazaki’s connection to Monk, it’s only one side of this artist’s creativity. For a completely different view of Okazaki, I recommend the recent album Miniature America, inspired by the “remarkable and mysterious” sculptures of Ken Price that Okazaki encountered on the trip to the West Coast. Okazaki is very much an interdisciplinary thinker, and he was inspired to create an album that would “relinquish the form of the final work to unpredictable variables.” There’s so much to say about this album, and I recommend reading Okazaki’s liner notes on his website, which I’ve briefly quoted above. I’ll simply say that these evocative miniatures remind me of the pleasure of discovering pebbles or shells at the beach, each one contrasting from the next, surprising and often delightful.

(Elsa Nilsson and the Band of Pulses in performance at Rizzoli; photo by James Koblin)

Sustaining performance spaces for creative music in New York City has always been challenging work, so it’s great to celebrate a new place to see live music. How perfect, then, to enjoy a well-attended concert of top-flight music at the beautiful Rizzoli Bookstore. On September 29th I had the pleasure of hearing Elsa Nilsson and her quartet, Band of Pulses, amidst the store’s glossy art books and high ceilings as part of the “Music Aperitivo” series hosted by Rizzoli in conjunction with Mondo Jazz. The early hit time on a Sunday (5 PM) and a complimentary glass of wine with a reasonable cover price make attendance here an easy sell. That seemed to have been the case at last Sunday’s concert, where a full house came out in spite of the rainy afternoon.

In his opening remarks at the concert, Mondo Jazz radio host and concert emcee Luigi Granvassu observed how Nilsson’s music fits well in the surroundings because of its connection to poetry. Nilsson and her band play music that explicitly incorporates poetry into composition and performance, not to mention the poetry of Nilsson’s sound itself. During the concert, she switched back and forth between a concert C flute and a larger bass flute, always with a rounded and complex sound and the resonant overtones that make the flute so naturally evocative. It’s an aesthetic that’s a pleasure to hear live.

My entry point for Nilsson’s music comes from her 2022 release with the geographically specific title Atlas Of Sound – Coast Redwoods – 41​°​32’09​.​8″N 124​°​04’35​.​5″W. I stumbled across this album on Bandcamp in mid-2022 without knowing anything about Nilsson. Seeing its “pay what you wish” price, I bought it and listened with no particular expectations. I remember being really moved by the quiet beauty of the music, which is based on improvisations Nilsson recorded during a post-pandemic trip to the Pacific Northeast. Coast Redwoods is the first of a planned series that creates “a long-form musical exploration of humanity’s connection to place.” It’s an album I can easily recommend because of the eloquence of the compositions and flute playing, as well as the strong connection between Nilsson’s flute playing and Jon Cowherd’s piano.

In concert at Rizzoli, Nilsson didn’t play anything from Coast Redwoods, but instead, she and her band performed the first half of the forthcoming second edition of the “Atlas Of Sound” series, out on October 11, 2024. Based on what I heard performed from Quila Quina – -40​°​17​’​38​.​21​”​N, -71​°​45​’​68​.​48​”​S, there’s just as much haunting beauty as its predecessor. During the concert, Nilsson explained that the continuing inspiration of this music is in the sounds and rhythms of nature, this time from her trip to the Patagonian region of Argentina. The four compositions she and her band played from this album find inspiration in bird songs, the medicinal properties of plants, and the calm, serene lake where Nilsson stayed. I’m pretty excited about this new release. Check it out next Friday!

But the revelation for me during the Rizzoli set was Nilsson’s ambitious long-form composition Pulses, a forty-minute piece that comprised the majority of the concert. Nilsson built the composition  Pulses around the voice of Maya Angelou in her poem “On The Pulse of Morning,” which Dr. Angelou famously read at President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration. Introducing Pulses to the audience, Nilsson said she was able to purchase the rights to use Angelou’s poem, and together with her band, she developed music based on the pitches of Dr. Angelou’s voice. During the performance of this work, Nilsson would periodically use a pedal to trigger a sample of Dr. Angelou reading “On The Pulse of Morning,” over which the band would play unison parts that highlighted the rich musicality and still-relevant meaning of a poem about how America can find a hopeful future despite the “wrenching pain” of history. Pulses brought out an exciting side of Nilsson’s playing; while on the “Atlas of Sound” material, her playing is attractive and melodic, on Pulses, her flutes were much more aggressive, with an often thrilling attack.

There was also plenty of space for the band to shine, and everyone made great solo statements. Santiago Leibson plays the piano in the recording of Pulses and the new “Atlas of Sound,” but as Rizzoli doesn’t have a piano, he played keyboards at the concert. Nothing felt amiss, however, and in his playing, I heard kernels of melody that he would develop into convincing solo statements. The bassist, Marty Kenney, and drummer, Rodrigo Recabarren, also played wonderfully (I liked the bass solo Kenny played in mid-set), but the band’s togetherness was the real star. This band developed and composed the Pulses material together and played the unison parts with the authoritativeness that comes from a deep connection to the material, and also moved easily between the written and improvised sections. It’s a great band. For a sample from the concert, check out this video, which captures one of Nilsson’s solos. If you have the chance to see Nilsson and her band perform Pulses, don’t miss the opportunity; it’s a remarkable work that is just extraordinary live. You can also purchase the recording from Bandcamp. Nilsson and her Band of Pulses are on tour right now, with stops in the next month in California, Arizona, and back in New York on 10/23 at ShapeShifter Lab (in a double bill with Brad Shepik), and next month on 11/23 at Lydia’s Jazz Cafe in Stone Ridge.

After the show, I spoke to Nilsson about Pulses, and she told me that the inspiration was from the musical quality of Angelou’s voice, whose phrasing reminded her of Ornette Coleman’s melodies. Nilsson also mentioned John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, one of the definitive examples of connecting the voice and jazz playing in a suite form. In both the “Atlas” volumes and Pulses, Nilsson’s music emphasizes interconnectedness – between nature and humanity and between the voice, the word, and her playing. This music acts as an agent to bond, heal, and make the universe a little bigger. At Rizzoli Bookstore, these were connections that the audience could hear, participate in, and feel the power of music to heighten feeling and awareness of the world.

Nilsson Notes, More Mondo Jazz and Maya Angelou

Elsa Nilsson on the Web
Nilsson has a very complete website where you can keep up with everything she’s doing. Her albums are available on Bandcamp for extremely reasonable prices, showing how much she wants to share this music with you. As I mentioned above, but will repeat here – Nilsson has a new album coming out this Friday, October 11 – Quila Quina – -40​°​17​’​38​.​21​”​N, -71​°​45​’​68​.​48​”​S. Based on the portion of the music she played at Rizzoli, I can tell you it’s gorgeous.

Catch the next “Music Aperitivo”
I again recommend checking out this excellent series of concerts at Rizzoli. The next one will be on October 20, a tribute to Federico Fellini and Nino Rota as well as the 60th anniversary of Rizzoli. The link for the concert is here.

Listen to Mondo Jazz
“Music Aperitivo” is the brainchild of Luigi Granvassu, who also hosts the Mondo Jazz radio show on internet station Radio Free Brooklyn. Mondo Jazz airs every Wednesday from 10 PM to Midnight, where Granvassu plays new and recent jazz albums. His show is especially invaluable for its focus on European jazz, which otherwise does not get much notice in the United States, and Granvassu is an expert on that scene. I can’t tell you how many artists and albums I’ve discovered through his show – you should listen. If you can’t catch Mondo Jazz live, the shows are posted in podcast form a week later (usually how I listen). Here is the link to Mondo Jazz on Apple Podcasts.

More Maya Angelou
I only vaguely remember Dr. Angelou reading “On The Pulse of Morning” at the 1993 Clinton inauguration, so it was a blast to revisit this moment in history. Angelou was the first African American and first woman to read a poem at a Presidential inauguration, and her style of clear declarative oration is remarkable – I’ve watched this clip several times. Here’s a link to the poem’s full text, a valuable aid to enjoying Nilsson’s masterful Pulses. I’m no expert on Angelou’s work, which makes me really grateful to Nilsson for her multidisciplinary creation – it opens doors for the listener that may have not been opened before.