15 for 2015

15 for 2015

1)  Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee – Matana Roberts

2)  For Ed Blackwell – Hamid Drake/Michael Zerang

3)  Site Specific – Ken Vandermark

4)  This Is Not Art – Double Basse (The Craftsman Part 1)

5)  Divers – Joanna Newsom

6)  You Can Be Mine- Fred Lonberg-Holm & Paal Nilssen-Love (The Pleasure Principle)

7)  A Magnetic Center – Jon Mueller

8)  Experiments With A Leaf – John Butcher & Andy Moor (Joy Is the Headlight)

9)  Warsaw Improvisers Orchestra (Split Cassette) – WIO (This…That…And The Other)

10) Alone Together – Joe McPhee

11)  Double Arc – The Resonance Ensemble (Arc Two, Section A/Arc Two Section D)

12)  Full Bleed – Thurston Moore / John Moloney Caught On Tape

13)  The Bridge – Hervé Perez & André Darius (Couleurs Primaires)

14)  Pool Blunt – Marriage (Church Of The Horny Goat)

15)  Show Us The Fire – Zelienople (Uptown/Blue Sands)

Off the top of my head a few other things that while not released in 2015 helped make my year and made me smile:  DKV’s blistering Milwaukee 2013 set on the Motion In Sound box set (2014), the positively gorgeous Ville Vesten from Moskus (2006), Neil Hagerty’s syrupy pop classic Out Of Reach (2003), The Swell Maps’ deliciously hectic Big Maz In The Desert, and last but not least John Carter & Booby Bradford…and Fred Anderson.

BB 2013

1)

Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile (live set: here)

The second installment of Matana’s documentation of her personal ancestry.

I have nothing to add to the clip above. Seriously, take the time.

 2)

Fire! Orchestra – Exit (live set: here)

Fire! – (without noticing) – (Tonight More. Much More)

The clips above speak for themselves…especially the first.

 3)

Anthony Braxton – Echo Echo Mirror House

Composition No. 347 + Recorded @ Musique Actuelle Festival 2011

“The “Echo Echo Mirror House” music is a trans-temporal music state that connects the past, present, and future as one thought component” – Anthony Braxton (liner notes)

Septet w/iPods…Braxton pushing the envelope…out…further…out…

 4)

Ballister – Mi Casa Es En Fuego (live set: here and here)

Dave Rempis, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Paal Nilssen-Love

Three Masters…Free Jazz…Monstrous.

 5)

Kaze – Tornado (Wao)

Pianist Satoko Fujii lead me here and is in especially prime form…however the dual trumpet attack of Christian Pruvost & Natsuki Tamura drives this ensemble over the edge.

 6)

The Resonance Ensemble – Head Above Water (live set: here)

Magnus Broo, Per-Ake Holmlander, Steve Swell, Tim Daisy, Michael Zerang, Dave Rempis, Mikokaj Traska, Ken Vandermark, Waclaw Zimpel, Devin Hoff, Mark Tokar.

No small feat assembling the above musicians to lay down these Vandermark compositions.

Clip above is taken a few days before the second disc in this set was recorded.

 7)

Keefe Jackson’s Likely So – A Round Goal

Mars Williams, Waclaw Zimpel, Keefe Jackson, Marc Stucki, Dave Rempis, Peter Schmid, Thomas Mejer.

Mars Williams is in especially inspired form!

Fans of World Saxophone Quartet & Rova Saxophone Quartet should adore…this is out of this world!

 8)

DKV+ Gustafsson, Nilssen-Love, Pupillo – SCHL8HOF

Double Trio – Drake/Kessler/Vandermark & Nilssen-Love/Pupillo/Gustafsson

These folks know how to play together…they also know how to stand their ground.

Powerful, heavy, and heady stuff here.

 9)

Tim Berne’s Snake Oil – Shadow Man (Cornered, OC/DC)

Tim Berne, Oscar Noriega, Matt Mitchell, Ches Smith

Berne’s 2^nd Snakeoil outing. Very…Very Good!

 10)

Califone – Stitches

Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Gerald Cleaver – Serendipity (Perelman/Shipp)

Single 40+ minute improvised meeting of the minds here…very imaginative, playful stuff.