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ESPDISK 5080CD
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Allen Lowe writes: "In the Dark is a commemoration (sic) of the worst time of my life -- a period during which, having been operated on to remove a cancerous tumor in my sinus, I slept for only brief periods of time. Sometimes I made it as long as two hours continuously, but most often I dozed off for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, maybe an hour -- encamped as I was on my couch, trying not to wake my wife as I wandered in the dark contemplating the long night ahead. Sometimes I turned the television set on and slept fitfully to the sound of the late news shows. Most often I slept most peacefully at about 5 am, only to be awakened an hour or two later by the light that flooded my living room, even with the curtains closed. I could barely breathe through my nose, or any other place; my face had been carved up by the surgeons who saved my life, and I sometimes did mad circles in the dark to see if I could exercise and avoid collisions with inanimate objects like chairs, doors, stairways, tables, etc. I have never before (or since) felt that desperate about anything. For a little while, in the late stages, I was able to breathe better, but then something called neuropathy set in, as what felt like a low-level electric current seething through my left foot. So -- at this point I would go to bed at 11PM, and at 1AM, like clockwork, that left foot began to vibrate, which it would continue to do for five or six hours, leaving me, at 6 or 7AM, with the very temporary relief of sleep -- all the while trying to ignore the sunlight that tormented me like a celestial alarm clock that never stopped ringing. At some point during this ordeal, I started composing again. To my surprise -- because I felt blank and near-death -- the music poured out of me, and the result is this recording (and its ESP companion, America: The Rough Cut (ESPDISK 5082CD)). I don't why it all happened like this, but I am reasonably sure that I will never be this prolific again, that I will never again produce this much good music this quickly. The music is sometimes structured, sometimes free-improvised, sometimes blues and American song form; Ken Peplowski is let loose to play free jazz on some tracks; Aaron Johnson shows himself to be one of the best and most creative saxophonists playing today; Lewis Porter is a phenomenal pianist, adept at all forms and musical structures. Anthony Braxton has said 'Allen Lowe is the tradition,' and I am honored to accept his recognition."
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ESPDISK 5058LP
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Normal Street is another salvo in ESP-Disk's drive to revive weird rock! Writer/musician/film maker Chris Shields says: "Near the DIY venue, cooperative, and punk/freak haven, The Firehouse, in Worcester, Mass, there's a street ironically named 'Normal St.' I was lucky enough to be playing a gig with Painted Faces there a few years back. Driving up the steep, labyrinthine roads we spotted the green sign, had a laugh owing to some solid riffing by all present, and then, moved on. The gig was good, the people great, and the memories, the stuff that makes time on earth meaningful. Little did I know Normal Street would return. Considering David Drucker's body of work and his unique brand of free form expression and clever pastiche, I shouldn't have been surprised. When you listen to Painted Faces what you're hearing is a mind at work. When Drucker begins to write and record, every dumb sign, bad horror movie, seemingly innocuous turn of phrase, petty embarrassment, transcendent joke, and musical influence are drawn together like iron filings to a magnet. What results is a document of a particular point in time for the artist. There are infectiously haunting hooks and raw atonal passages, cheap synths (and as time goes on less cheap ones), simple but effective chords, ramshackle percussion (a plastic toy maraca passed among audience members that refuses to die), and a host of other elements that all add up to something very special and deeply personal. It's a portrait of the artist as a freak . . . Normal Street is a fractured collection of songs, sounds, ideas, sometimes brief and other times delicately sustained; its stream of consciousness mischievousness bringing to mind Zappa and the Mothers filtered through the angst of bedroom pop and tape label minimalism. Many artists hope to embody Drucker's "Outback Steakhouse" approach ("No rules. Just right") but few have achieved such consistently fun results..."
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ESPDISK 5082CD
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Allen Lowe writes: "America: The Rough Cut is my statement not only on American music and American song, but also my commentary on the way American musicians of all styles handle that old-time music and those old song forms . . . The old things -- not just the blues, but gospel music and pre-blues shouts and language, plus hillbilly/minstrel song and medicine show irony -- reflect a disinterest in the polite trappings of (primarily but not only white) society, an implicit rejection of basic tonal, sonic, and harmonic rules. 'Noise' has, over a long time, come to be an accepted creative strategy for many musicians, with diminishing results. What is missing is...funk? Maybe, but not in that slick, drum machine, '80s way (the 1950s and 1960s, not to mention the 1920s, are another matter). What is missing is the funk from Funky Butt Hall of New Orleans, the sweat of the churchgoing gyrations of white and black Holy Rollers and the eccentric movements and sounds of attendants of the Pentecostal Church; not to mention the religious screams of white and black folk in the throes of post-rational bursts of tongues and trembling worship; or the ecstatic eternal protest of the Church of God in Christ . . . I live in a musical world (mostly in my head) in which the sacred and the profane are two sides of the same coin, and in which the blues is more effect than cause. As for most revivalists and folkies, well, they tend to sound (like most but not only jazz musicians) overqualified; there are some very satisfying exceptions to these rules, and I have tried to reflect that in America: The Rough Cut. So here we have gospel formulations ('Damned Nation'), pre-blues ruminations ('Full Moon Moan'), a little bit of Hank Williams-directed honky tonk ('Cheatin' My Heart'), heavy metal ('Metallic Taste', 'Blues in Shreds'), 'Poor Mourner's Serenade' (hail, hail Jelly Roll Morton), 'Hymn for Her' (to my savior, and wife, Helen); a little bit of my own statement on the fallibility of free jazz, dedicated to a certain guitar player who shall remain nameless ('Blues for Unprepared Guitarist') in which, overdubbed on guitar, I make a personal appeal for a MacArthur, while daily sitting by the door, waiting for that envelope. There's also 'Old Country Rag,' an evocation of the old-time hillbilly rag; 'Eh Death,' a variation on an old fear; 'It's the End,' a bit of autobiography; 'Cold was the Night, Dark Was the Ground" (and I was the first, back in the 1990s, to reference Blind Willie Johnson in a jazz way; here is my update); and 'At a Baptist Meeting,' recorded in concert some years ago with the late, great, grievously missed Roswell Rudd.
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ESPDISK 5081CD
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Bára Gísladóttir is an Icelandic composer and double bassist based in Copenhagen. She is an active performer and regularly plays her own music, mostly solo or with her long-time collaborator Skúli Sverrisson. Additionally, she is the double bassist of Elja Ensemble. Occasionally, she performs as a soloist with ensembles or orchestras, most recently in her own double bass concert, "Hringla," with the Copenhagen Philharmonic. Every sound on SILVA is of the double bass, processed to various degrees (with MAX/Live) and layered into a mass of noise. Gísladóttir describes SILVA as "a work for processed double bass built on the idea of a downward growing forest, living its own secret life of underground raves and meditative cohesiveness." She continues: "I like to think of different movement and direction in the musical form and was intrigued by the thought of something that would otherwise naturally grow upwards, in reach for light and surrounded by air, rather being drawn in the opposite direction where darkness and solid form serve as the source of gleaming luminosity and breezy surroundings. Both in my compositional and instrumentalist work, in every nook and cranny I've been driven to dig as deep as I've been able, with SILVA perhaps quite literally so. Although growing up in classical music and predominantly working and living in an environment of classical contemporary/avant-garde music, I've been very much into other genres as well; alternative, experimental, heavy metal, noise, drone, techno, and electronica, and I believe SILVA is the byproduct of all of that." SILVA is a joint release by Sono Luminus and ESP Disk'. Personnel: Bára Gísladóttir - double bass, effects, composition.
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ESPDISK 1053LP
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Reissue, originally released in 1967. Frank Wright returned to the studio in May 1967 to make his second album using a quintet of players little-known at the time but now legends to free-jazz cognoscenti. Trumpeter Jacques Coursil, who almost made an album for ESP-Disk' himself, went on to the greatest fame of the players besides Wright; alto saxophonist Arthur Jones was not recorded nearly as often as his talents deserved; Steve Tintweis's stint playing with Albert Ayler raised the young bassist's profile; Muhammad Ali was Coltrane drummer Rashied Ali's brother. Together they raise the roof on a free-jazz marathon that still stands as Wright's magnum opus. "Your Prayer finds Wright refining the bag his solos come from, yet maintaining a firm hold on the ecstatic free-blues shout that makes up most of his solo language... Your Prayer is a rather lengthy slab of high-energy grit, but its unified forward and upward motion make for a firmly rooted sonic liberation." --Clifford Allen, All About Jazz "Rather intense at times, these emotional performances... still sound groundbreaking three decades later." --Scott Yanow, All Music Personnel: Frank Wright - tenor saxophone; Arthur Jones - alto saxophone; Jacques Coursil - trumpet; Steve Tintweis - bass; Muhammad Ali - drums.
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ESPDISK 1023LP
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Reissue, originally released on ESP Disk' in 1966. Frank "The Reverend" Wright was one of the most powerful saxophonists to pick up on Albert Ayler's freedom and ferocious playing. Born in Mississippi and raised in Memphis, TN and then Cleveland, OH, he started in music as a bassist in blues bands but switched to tenor sax under the influence of his Cleveland friend Albert Ayler. Wright's "energy music" approach to tenor saxophone was influenced by Ayler but at the time in the '60s Wright's intensity was unmatched and utterly distinctive. He followed Ayler to New York City, arriving in 1964 and fitting into the scene right away John Coltrane offered him a spot on his album Ascension in early 1965, though Wright demurred. ESP Disk' owner Bernard Stollman signed Wright on the spot upon hearing him sit in with Coltrane, and on November 11, 1965, Wright went into a New York studio to record his debut album, considered a free jazz classic. Wright's influence can be traced down to Charles Gayle, Sabir Mateen, and other hard-blowing tenormen, but even so, he remains unique. Personnel: Frank Wright - tenor saxophone; Henry Grimes - bass; Tom Price - drums. "Wright was throwing together ideas in a spirit of jubilation." --Clifford Allen, All About Jazz "... easily recommended to open-eared listeners who enjoy hearing fiery sound explorations." --Scott Yanow, AllMusic
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ESPDISK 5074CD
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After paying his dues with bluesmen Albert King and Bobby "Blue" Bland and jazzman Jaki Byard, Michael Marcus had his first album released in 1991, when he was 39. He's been much more prolific since then, co-leading Cosmosamatics with Sonny Simmons, SaxEmble with Frank Lowe and James Carter, Blue Reality Quartet with Joe McPhee, Warren Smith, and Jay Rosen, and Duology with Ted Daniel as well as Marcus's many albums as sole leader. Frank Lacy moved to New York in 1981 and soon established himself (primarily as a trombonist) as Art Blakey's music director, a member of the Mingus Big Band, sideman with Lester Bowie, David Murray Big Band, McCoy Tyner, and Roy Hargrove among others, and a leader in his own right. Tarus Mateen has worked with artists ranging from Christina Aguilera and OutKast to Betty Carter, Jason Moran, Hargrove, Greg Osby, and Terence Blanchard, to name a few. Jay Rosen of Cosmosamatics is also a member of Trio X with McPhee and Dominic Duval and Resonance Impeders with Chris Dahlgren and Briggan Krauss and has played with Mark Whitecage, Ivo Perelman, Gebhard Ullmann, etc.
Personnel: Michael Marcus - soprano sax, tenor sax, alto tarogato, G clarinet, bass flute, gong; Frank Lacy - French horn; Tarus Mateen - Marcoustico acoustic bass; Jay Rosen - drums and percussion. Recorded, mixed, and mastered on November 26-27, 2021 by Jim Clouse at Parkwest Studios, Brooklyn.
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ESPDISK 5070CD
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The eighteenth duo album by Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp. "We believe it's our best effort so far," says Perelman. "Every rhythmic and melodic gesture [in 'Nine'] that tenor saxist and pianist feed each other in this remarkable duet is met with a musically and emotionally appropriate response from the other. And somehow or other, this entirely free jazz somehow coalesces and takes shape in a way that is absolutely perfect." And, "each track in this remarkable album is a highlight in itself and different from every other track. These two artists have played and recorded together so often that they do indeed almost seem to read each other's mind, and at this stage the psychic communication is so complete that it almost sounds as if we, the listeners, are eavesdropping in on a very personal and intimate conversation." --Lynn René Bayley "The music flows naturally from their fruitful exchanges, informed by mutual listening, skill and imagination. In the span of four minutes, ideas and images follow one after the other, become distinct then disappear, the players' energies converging into a single stream which one flees from as the other diverts it in a new and unforeseen direction; the passage from the known, what they have played in the past, to the unknown, instant creation. They propose forms, cadences, timbres, harmonic clusters, spirals of breath stretched to screaming heights, heartening melodies, curious ostinatos, elliptical flights, chords constantly shifting as new elements appear, by accident or by enchantment, compelled by the pair's instincts as improvisers. [...] Neither player is a soloist or accompanist; in their weightless, whirling ballads, both share the arduous, integral role of dialogist. The ego fades into the collective dimension, as the music demands." J-M Van Schouwburg (translated from French) Personnel: Ivo Perelman - tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp - piano. Recorded by Jim Clouse on June 25, 2021 at Park West Studios. Produced by Steve Holtje. Cover art by Yuko Otomo.
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ESPDISK 5073CD
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WeFreeStrings was founded in 2011. This is the group's second album. Leader Melanie Dyer (not to be confused with the Australian country pop songwriter of the same name) is a jazz viola player and composer based in New York City who currently performs with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Dead Lecturers, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, Baba Andrew Lamb, Gwen Laster's New Muse 4tet, William Parker, Tomeka Reid Stringtet, Janice Lowe/Tyehimbe Jess Millie & Christina project, and Patricia Nicholson's Women with an Axe to Grind. She's played and/or recorded with Henry Grimes, Makanda Ken McIntyre's Contemporary African American Composers' Orchestra, Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch, Nona Hendryx, Joe Bonner, Reggie Workman, Howard Johnson, David Haney, and many other notable musicians. She trained with William Lincer (principal violist, New York Philharmonic), Lee Yeingst (principal violist, Colorado Symphony Orchestra), John Jake Kella (NY Metropolitan Opera), and Naomi Fellows (Colorado Symphony Orchestra); and studied viola performance at the LaMont School of Music/University of Denver. "... an outstanding modernist violist" --Anthony Barnett, The Strad. Features Charles Burnham - violin; Gwen Laster - violin; Alexander Waterman - cello; Ken Filiano - bass; Michael Wimberly. Liner notes: William Parker. Mixing and Mastering: Alexander Waterman. Sound engineer: Jon Rosenberg. Recorded by Rene Pierre Allain on June 22 and 23, 2021 at Scholes Street Studio (Brooklyn, NY).
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ESPDISK 5072CD
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Jones Jones is a funny name for an all-star band. To grant such distinctive musicians so anonymous, Google-proof a moniker is whimsical in the extreme. But, given its members' long and distinguished work in the service of music, this group should not be taken lightly or treated as a lark. There is humor in their work but also gravitas and depth and magic. Larry Ochs says: "The newest and I think Jones Jones' best recording, sonically speaking, was specially recorded in-studio just before Covid struck in 2020 and features beautiful artwork by artist Roberto Harrison made specifically for the band."
"Each of the mature talents involved boasts an impressive history. Dresser was the bassist in Anthony Braxton's classic 1990s quartet, while Tarasov was part of the Ganelin Trio, hailed as 'arguably the world's greatest free jazz ensemble' in their 1980s heyday. Ochs has been one quarter of the Rova Saxophone Quartet since its inception in 1977. But as noteworthy as their illustrious track records is the fact that they still nurture an adventurous streak. All the nous derived from these various groundbreaking escapades finds its expression in their work together." --John Sharpe
Personnel: Larry Ochs - tenor and sopranino saxophones; Vladimir Tarasov - drums, percussion; Mark Dresser - basses. Recorded January 16, 2020 by Andrew Munsey at Studio B, UC San Diego. Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Lab, Oakland CA. Produced by Larry Ochs. All tracks collectively improvised by Ochs, Tarasov, and Dresser. Cover art by Roberto Harrison.
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ESPDISK 5059CD
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Matthew Shipp's new album is titled World Construct. It's a fitting title, for in his career of over three decades, he has constructed his own world of jazz. This press release could be entirely built from the raves of critics. "As Matthew Shipp's catalog expands, so does our understanding of the depth and breadth of his genius." "A gateway to higher improvisation that is practically without parallel. Matthew Shipp is the connection between that past, present and future for jazzheads of all ages." He "has produced a recording of great beauty and logic, creating distinct performances that are simultaneously shocking and beautiful, equally classic and daring. Shipp has been able to create pieces out of thin air that seem utterly worthy of composition. The music seems to be pulled directly from the realm where mathematics and magic collide. What Matthew Shipp has done is a profound achievement." "Unleashed with the kind of power imparted to them by his supple fingers, these notes and this music becomes something living and breathing, dancers indeed. Each title is seemingly a trigger which causes the hands and fingers of the pianist to leap and fly, and defy gravity not only with notes that ascend, light as air, as if to a rarefied realm. This is clearly the creation of a major composer whose pianism also suggests great cohesion of form and function, and above all, lyricism that sets Mr. Shipp apart in the same way that it did for musicians such as Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor." "Matthew Shipp confirms he is one of the best pianists of his generation. A monumental work that befits a place of choice in the jazz piano pantheon." You won't want to miss World Construct, recorded during the pandemic with his trio of five years. It will soon be seen as an important piece of the jazz edifice that is Mr. Shipp's magnificent career. Personnel: Matthew Shipp - piano; Michael Bisio - bass; Newman Taylor Baker -drums. Recorded by Jim Clouse 4/15/2021 at Park West Studios, Brooklyn NY. Cover art by Yuko Otomo.
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ESPDISK 5051LP
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In a two-decade career, Raymond Byron Magic Raposa has recorded six albums as Castanets, another as Raymond Byron and the White Freighter, and has worked with musicians ranging from Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent), and Sufjan Stevens, to Liz Janes, Jana Hunter, Nathan Hubbard (Trummerflora, Cosmologic), and John McCauley (Deer Tick). Over the course of that time, his music has been called part of the new weird America movement, freak-folk, psychedelic folk, and indie folk. Bond Wire Cur is as surreal and desolate and haunting as anything he's done. Collaborators on the album are many (Cory Gray, Erik Clampitt, Pony Domer, Jason Stinson, Lauren K. Newman, Kimba Kuzas, Ron Burns, Paula Barry, Coty Dolores Miranda, Josh Cole), yet the sound of the record is stripped-down and stark. It is a crucial chapter in his career and in ESP-Disk's drive to revive weird rock.
"Strong and weird. Using ancient ingredients these little vignettes grow sneakily large and become some new kind of food. It's beautiful and Ray's finest record yet." --Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent) on Bond Wire Cur.
"Raposa's skill as a singer and a lyricist are inextricably linked. His voice has a drifting, spectral quality that's perfectly suited to his overlapping images. Like John Ashbery, he's able to sustain pointed ambiguity for the duration of a composition, talking all around the thing without saying it." --Brian Howe on Castanets' First Light's Freeze for Pitchfork.
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ESPDISK 5054CD
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Gerhard Gschlössl, Gebhard Ullmann, Jan Leipnitz, and Johannes Fink improvise as composers would do. From scratch they create a holistic sound sculpture -- each time unique and unpredictable -- always with a formal approach. Michael Haves was invited to create with them using analog electronics. In the moment and without overdubbing he becomes the fifth element in GULFH of Berlin.
Personnel: Gebhard Ullmann - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Gerhard Gschlössl - trombone, sousaphone; Johannes Fink - double bass, cello; Jan Leipnitz - drums, objects; Michael Haves - live sound processing. Recorded March, 6th 2018 at Low Swing Studio, Berlin. Engineer: Guy Sternberg. Mixed and mastered 2019 by Michael Haves at The Cop Shop, Berlin. Photos by Cristina Marx. Produced by GULFH of Berlin for ESP-Disk'.
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ESPDISK 5048LP
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Extraordinary NYC trio Attitude! combine free jazz and post-punk with pointed commentary about issues of race, gender, the pandemic, and political autonomy. Rose Tang, a Mongol from Sichuan, sings/recites and plays guitar, piano, and percussion. Her album with Roses & Roaches, And Yet We Ain't Alone, was released by 577 earlier in 2021. Mentored by free jazz legend Daniel Carter, Tang plays in about 30 bands and ensembles in New York and Seattle. Her music, which she hates to be labeled, may be called punk rock, post-punk, free jazz, spoken word, experimental improv, avant garde, or Chinese rock and folk. Tang calls her music genre "weird shit". She is also a journalist and was a protestor at Tiananmen Square. Tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito, from Japan, plays in a plethora of bands along the jazz/rock spectrum. She spent three years studying performance and composition at Berklee, where her instructors included George Garzone, Hal Crook, and Frank Tiberi. In 2017, Ayumi joined Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, led by Marc Edwards, former drummer of Cecil Taylor's band. Currently, Ayumi is a regular member of The Jazz Thieves, GADADU, Eighty-pound Pug, Platypus Revenge, and Big Squid. Ayumi has released two albums of her original compositions, View from a Little Cave (2016) and Midnite Cinema (2019). Drummer, composer, and educator Wen-Ting Wu Wen-Ting Wu, from Taiwan, combines jazz drive and classical rigor. She was a member of Golden Melody Award-winning band Chang & Lee and Hello Nico in Taiwan before she moved to New York in 2016 and earned her Master of Jazz Performance Degree in Queens College. Besides being a member in Frank Lacy's Concert Jazz Ensemble currently, she leads her own band. The group came together to play one song at an event. ESP-Disk', already familiar with the separate work on the NYC scene of all three members, immediately invited them to make an album. After intensive rehearsals, the members recorded the album in a one-day session, then reunited during the pandemic to add words about its effect to an existing instrumental on "8 Steps/7 O'Clock". This album is simultaneously part of ESP-Disk's drive to revive weird rock and an extension of the label's famed free-jazz legacy.
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ESPDISK 5067CD
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William Parker's recording career began in 1973 on ESP-Disk' -- Frank Lowe's Black Beings (ESPDISK 3013CD) -- and he returned to ESP in 2017 as a member of Mat Walerian's group Toxic with This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People (ESPDISK 5011CD). Now ESP-Disk' present a new William Parker album in collaboration with his wife Patricia Nicholson. No Joke! is unapologetically political, facing down injustice and inequality and other "in"s with artistic integrity and "outside" music. Personnel: William Parker - bass; James Brandon Lewis - tenor sax; Devin Brahja Waldman - alto sax; Francesco Mela - drums, vocals: Patricia Nicholson - spoken word; Melanie Dyer - viola; Gerald Cleaver - drums. All music by William Parker, centering music. All words by Patricia Nicholson except "Little Black Kid with the Swollen Stomach" by William Parker. Recorded and mixed at Park West Studios by Jim Clouse.
"He stands now as one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz." --David French, DownBeat
"William Parker pursues spirituality through hard work. He plays bass as if reaching heaven is a matter of steadily, repeatedly knocking until someone opens the door; he's one of the avant-garde jazz players most dedicated to the pursuit of higher purpose and heightened awareness in music, and he approaches it with a heavy, elemental tone." --Chris Dahlen, Pitchfork
"Patricia Nicholson... is also an outstanding poet and dancer." --Chris Tart, DownBeat
"William Parker is a towering figure in 21st century avant-garde music, widely recognised as a crucial link to the heart of free jazz, and a true heavyweight of the double bass." --Daniel Spicer, BBC
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ESPDISK 5060LP
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ESP-Disk's drive to revive weird rock begun in 2019 with Painted Faces' Tales from the Skinny Apartment (ESPDISK 5032LP) and continued in 2020 with the OPTO S LP Human Indictive / Live (ESPDISK 5055LP), is furthered with the new studio album by this Massachusetts quartet, recorded in mid-2020. Formed in 2016, it has an LP on the great Feeding Tube imprint and a handful of cassettes and CD-Rs, most self-released. Although, yes, there's a distinct Velvet Underground influence to be heard, there's an underground/outsider feel thanks to the unique vision of singer/lyricist/guitarist/visual artist Jeffrey Gallagher ("a visionary and experimental musician" --Boston Hassle), who has a plethora of self-released material under a variety of pseudonyms (and ESP has plans to release some more).
Personnel: Jeff Gallagher - guitar, vocals; Jonathan Hanson - guitar, keyboards; Shane Bruno - bass; Chris Wojtkowski - drums. Produced by Barny Lanman and Bridge of Flowers. Recorded at Zen Den Studios in Fitchburg, MA.
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ESPDISK 5069CD
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The latest release from polymath and musical maximalist Gabriel Zucker is a sprawling and ambitious achievement that defies categorization, featuring complex mixed-meter jazz, virtuosic chamber music, electronic soundscapes, and indie art rock -- performed with emotion and urgency by Zucker's virtuoso large ensemble The Delegation. Written primarily between 2015 and 2018, during several stints Zucker spent living and performing in England and throughout Europe, the record reckons with time, and with the competing impulses of a backwards-looking nostalgia and a forwards-looking futurist belief in progress. Leftover Beats is built on a dialog between two different ensembles: Several movements are performed by a chamber ensemble, while the rest feature a larger ensemble of horns, rhythm section, and voices more firmly rooted in jazz. The work is split into four sections of three movements each. Past is manic and alive, culminating in contrapuntal chamber-music romanticism. Autumn 2016 focuses mainly on November; the night of the election is grotesquely illustrated. Present feels subdued and chastened in its aftermath. Future is a dreamscape of synthesizer and sound collage nightmares punctuated by a Mahler-esque climax in "Requiem III", before we close on Zucker's solo piano in "How to Know, Forever", drifting off into the sands of time. An album release show will take place at Roulette, located at 509 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, on Tuesday, October 5th at 8:00 PM.
Personnel: Gabriel Zucker - piano, compositions, lyrics, vocals, electronics; Adam O'Farrill - trumpet; Nolan Tsang - trumpet; Anna Webber - tenor saxophone; Eric Trudel - tenor saxophone; Yuma Uesaka - clarinet; Joanna Mattrey - viola; Mariel Roberts - cello; Artemisz Polonyi - vocals; Lorena Del Mar - vocals; Bam Rodriguez - bass; Mat Muntz - bass; Gabriel Globus-Hoenich - drums; Alex Goldberg - drums; Kate Gentile - drums; Matteo Liberatore - guitar; Tal Yahalom - guitar.
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ESPDISK 5061CD
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Despite the obvious obstacles, this singular San Francisco Bay Area band is staying on mission, moving forward. Over its four-plus decades the quartet has defined itself by applying an array of improvisational strategies to an ever-expanding body of new music. The Circumference of Reason includes six tracks composed or, in the case of "NC17", designed between 2011 and 2016; then -- in typical ROVA fashion -- the pieces were worked over and performed by the quartet in rehearsals and concerts until perceived to be ready for recording. They include an arrangement of a Glenn Spearman piece as well as a piece dedicated to Glenn; the playing on both inspired by late saxophonist's spirited personality and playing. As well, this recording features two distinctly different versions of "NC17", another in the series of ROVA's structured improvisations, all of which have been culled from an ever-expanding set of visual and aural cues that the quartet has invented, or borrowed and adapted. On its face, "NC17" is simply a limited set of conceptual options to cue in, in any order, to then explore, populating the series of cued events with immersive music/sounds/energies etc. All the while -- as a group -- intending to create a palpable sonic architecture for each new performance of the piece. The takes on this CD are unique; no one take of "NC17" can be exactly the same as any other take of "NC17". "ROVA performances can reach the soaring lyrical intensity of bel canto, the rough-and-tumble tumult of a garage rock band, or the insistently patterned matrix of a minimalist chamber work." So wrote Andrew Gilbert in 2018. The piece from which the CD's title comes, "The Circumference of Reason", is a good example of a minimalist piece when penned by a ROVA composer, in this case Steve Adams. Overall, this album offers an excellent cross-section of the multi-faceted ROVA. Personnel: Bruce Ackley - soprano and tenor saxophones; Steve Adams - alto and sopranino saxophones; Larry Ochs - tenor sax; Jon Raskin - baritone sax. Recorded on 6/22/18, 9/23/18 and 7/1/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner. Mixed on 1/16/19, 1/23/19 and 8/2/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner and Steve Adams. Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Labs. Produced by Steve Adams.
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ESPDISK 5068CD
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Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong is a game-changer. She's jazz from a different perspective. She's a pianist who doesn't sound like anyone else on the scene. In her liner notes for the release, Jeong writes, "I made my first solo piano recording under the name Chi-Da. Chi-Da and Nolda can both be translated as 'play.' While Chi-Da refers to physical motions that produce sounds by crashing together two objects, Nolda is more associated with playful activities. One may interpret this word as a fun, free-flowing action on the piano. That is partly true, but I dare ask: who can have fun and experience true freedom without 'knowing thyself'? Nolda means transcending the physical reality without abandoning it at all, which is made of body, mind, and the world. We music creators are artists who work with invisible and intangible energy forms as ingredients to create. Nolda, in this sense, is the magic of music-making." Credits: Eunhye Jeong - piano.
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ESPDISK 5064CD
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Allen Lowe says: "To me, free improvisation is another form of narrative, just as linear in terms of the consciousness of moving from one place to another, as any kind of storytelling. Yes, anyone can do it, you might say (and this is an old argument in jazz circles) but not everyone can do it with purpose and form and like they really mean it. This group is the epitome of all that has changed for the better in jazz in the past 50 years, and I am thrilled to be in it." Kevin Ray says: "This band is both exhilarating and terrifying to play with. You never know where the music will go, just that it's somewhere exciting, and you hope you can keep up. Allen has a wonderful sense of melody, Matt is an endless font of ideas, and this rhythm section is a dream to be in -- Gerald is tasteful, stunningly creative, and grooves like hell. I'm so glad to be a part of it." Matthew Shipp says: "I am always looking for new situations to renew who I am and the language I am involved with? this group has allowed me to reboot my brain. Allen is a unique figure, who is unlike anyone I play with in any other situation. Kevin has a delicious cross section of experience over several genres that gives him a different look than a bassist who might be seen as the usual in the idiom. Gerald -- who I have a history with -- is different now because he has had such a deep and cross section of experiences since then. The music this group makes is unique. I really enjoy playing with these gentlemen." Gerald Cleaver says: "To paraphrase Miles Davis, 'This is social music.' My take on free jazz is that it's not free at all, rather (in my mind) many, many contexts and frames of reference held at once. Playing this set with Matt, Allen, and Kevin took me through some really nice interactions and reaffirmed for me that the roots of this music are still strong."
Personnel: Matthew Shipp - piano; Allen Lowe - alto and tenor sax; Gerald Cleaver - drums; Kevin Ray - bass. Recorded, mixed, and mastered, by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, NY, August 9, 2020. Produced by East Axis and Steve Holtje.
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ESPDISK 5053CD
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This music is inspired by Robert Henri (June 24, 1865 - July 12, 1929) artist, teacher, writer and an organizer of the group known as The Eight, a loose association of artists who protested the restrictive exhibition practices of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design. Personnel: Michael Bisio - bass; Kirk Knuffke - cornet and soprano cornet; Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello/electronics. Recorded September 24, 2018 by Eli Winograd at Lone Pine Road, Kingston NY.
On the trio's last record, Requiem for a New York Slice (Iluso, 2019):
"It is hard to find three more expressive musicians. Bisio being one of just a few bassists that can match the energy of Matthew Shipp. Lonberg-Holm's cello can be heard on over 300 recordings, with heavyweights such as Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, and Joe McPhee, and Knuffke maybe (no, is) the most expressive cornetist working today. That expression is dialed to max on 'Sanctus' where the cornetist makes a joyful noise over a pair of bowing accompanists. ... 'In Paradisum' might be the saddest and most beautiful piece on this recording. Bisio opens with huge reverberating pulled notes while Knuffke squeezes upper register tones before Lonberg-Holm's cello slices skidding notes across the bandstand. Halfway through the music pauses as if to reflect on the loss, then bows are applied as tears are shed." --Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
"Jazz is the music of pure emotion, and it's the vehicle by which Bisio, Knuffke and Lonberg-Holm sorted out their feelings about this tragedy. As improvisation artists of the highest order, they already treat every performance as a requiem of some sort but there's an extra impetus this time, and it shows up masterfully in these five group improvised performances." --S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews
"... creative music that often sounds more indebted to hair-raising chamber music and Arnold Schoenberg than jazz improvisation." --Capitol Bop
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ESPDISK 5052CD
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Larry Ochs and Donald Robinson's second and definitive recording will be released on legendary free jazz label ESP-Disk'. Ochs is a founding member of the great ROVA Saxophone Quartet, one of the Bay Area's avant-garde treasures since 1978. Robinson -- "a percussive dervish", according to Coda -- was the drummer of choice for ROVA's revivification of John Coltrane's Ascension. The East Bay Express has said of the saxophonist's sound, "Ochs' full-bodied tenor is out of the John Coltrane/Albert Ayler 'free' tradition: forceful, passionate," while the Chicago Reader said about the drummer and his relationship with Ochs, "Robinson is neither flashy nor explosive, but his playing has heft and he covers lots of ground -- he can maintain a feeling of order while playing meter-less rhythms or transform the pulse of jagged post-bop until it's almost abstract. He's a good match for Ochs, and over the decades the two of them have developed a fine-tuned rapport." Although Ochs and Robinson have collaborated in various groups for more than 20 years -- including in the trio What We Live with bassist Lisle Ellis -- their duo is a recent phenomenon, having developed over the past couple of years. Ochs says, "Our playing together has evolved to a really special place, I think. We're definitely coming out of the tradition of horn-drum duos from John Coltrane and Rashied Ali to Wadada Leo Smith and Billy Higgins, but we've found our own space after a long stretch of shows together. Our set will include new, original material, with some high-energy playing and things that are more spatial, as well as some homages to more popular music. In a sparse setting like this, the music hits a listener right away -- nothing is obscured, everything is clear." Ochs and Robinson first performed together from 1991 to 1998 in The Glenn Spearman Double Trio. From 1994 to 2002, they worked in the trio What We Live. From 2000 until 2010 Robinson was part of the Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core featuring drummer Scott Amendola, as well as Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura from 2007 to 2010. Throughout all this time, Ochs and Robinson jammed and rehearsed in Robinson's studio, easily done as they live only 15 minutes apart. Thus it seemed inevitable that they would -- eventually -- create a special repertoire for this duo. Personnel: Larry Ochs - saxophones; Donald Robinson - drums.
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ESPDISK 5065CD
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In his five-decade career, finger-style acoustic guitarist Duck Baker has played in lots of styles, from folk (real folk, such as Scottish and Irish fiddle tunes) to blues to jazz, in the latter genre particularly focusing on bebop greats, with whole albums devoted to the music of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. But he has flashed an avant-garde side as well, and of course ESP-Disk' was interested in exposing more of the latter work. This album of duos and trios with an all-star roster of players, mostly British, collects recordings ranging from 1994 through 2017.
Personnel: Duck Baker - guitar; Derek Bailey - guitar on "Indie Pen Dance" (2002); Steve Beresford - piano on "Duo for 225 strings" (2009)' John Butcher - tenor saxophone on "The Missing Chandler" (2009); Mark Dresser bass on "Shenandoah" and "Pope Slark" (1994); Michael Moore - alto saxophone on "Imp Romp 2" (2008); Roswell Rudd - trombone on "East River Delta Blues" and "Signing Off" (2002); Alex Ward - clarinet and Joe Williamson - bass on "Ode to Jo" (2010); John Edwards - bass and Steve Noble - drums "Tourbillion Air" (2017).
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ESPDISK 1012LP
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Restocked. ESP-Disk' present a Lowell Davidson Trio's self-titled album, originally released in 1965. On Ornette Coleman's recommendation, ESP-Disk' owner Bernard Stollman signed up pianist Lowell Davidson (then majoring in biochemistry at Harvard) for this album without having heard him play. Davidson came to New York and got to work with the elite rhythm section of drummer Milford Graves and bassist Gary Peacock, both stalwarts of the ESP catalog. The interplay among the members of the trio is dazzling, but in all ways the pianist is the star of the album. His playing inevitably drew comparisons to Cecil Taylor (can't blame the critics too much, as there just weren't that many pianists going this far out in 1965, so there weren't many comparisons available), but he is his own man stylistically, and puts more space around his notes. He's equally likely to unleash complexly intertwining two-handed runs, spicy dissonances, shimmering Impressionism, or poignant lyricism. The only recording ever approved for release by Davidson, it remains fresh and exciting fifty years later. Personnel: Lowell Davidson - piano; Gary Peacock - bass; Milford Graves - percussion. Recorded July 27, 1965. Engineering by Art Crist. Photography by George Klabin. Original cover design by Baby Jerry. Tape transfer and mastering by Steven Walcott. Design and layout by Miles Bachman and Michael Sanzone.
"... The composition of the trio is also quite inspired. There appears to have been a symbiotic relationship between the other players -- bassist Gary Peacock, percussionist Milford Graves -- and the pianist. Davidson's superior harmonic sense is beautifully reflected in the manner in which Graves, for instance, employs dynamics to explore tonal colors and rhythmic textures. Although he displays this exquisite sensibility throughout very good examples of this are heard on 'L' and 'Stately.' Peacock achieves no less a state of rarified elegance playing both pizzicato and con arco, especially on 'Ad Hoc.' Note his and Graves' rumbling bass, punctuated by bright splashes on various cymbals, a perfect foil for Davidson's complex forays into the heart of the song's theme." -- Raul d'Gama Rose, All About Jazz
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ESPDISK 1083LP
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ESP-Disk' present a reissue of Free Music Quintet's Free Music 1 and 2, originally released in 1968. Dutch drummer Pierre Courbois, an early adaptor of free jazz, had previously appeared on ESP-Disk' with Gunter Hampel (Music from Europe) in 1968 and that same year recorded this album in a farmhouse (as shown on the front cover) in the village of Weslum, home of group member Erwin Somer. Personnel - Boy Raaymakers - trumpet, bugle, percussion; Peter Van Der Locht - soprano sax, tenor sax, piccolo flute, percussion; Erwin Somer - violin, vibraphone, percussion; Ferdinand Rikkers - bass, percussion; Pierre Courbois - percussion, leader; Onno Scholtze: producer, engineer; Recorded in Welsum, Netherlands on June 24 and 25, 1968.
"One of the most uncompromising free jazz records ever made, this one-off improvisation by a group of Dutch players, led by percussionist Pierre Courbois, is an archetype of the style. Free jazz doesn't just require a lot of unrestrained blowing and freeform noise, although there are passages of that here. The two lengthy improvs build from placid beginnings, as each member adds various percussion instruments to the growing cacophony, before reedsman Peter Van Der Locht (at times playing two saxes at once á la Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and trumpeter Boy Raaymakers let loose. All five players get their chances to lead the quintet, although there's a minimum of soloing. Courbois drives both improvs, and there's a five-minute stretch starting about seven minutes into 'Free Music Number One' where he simply explodes, bashing a trap kit and a variety of other objects like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil on a dozen espressos, armed with a pair of baseball bats. There's an impressive sense of dynamics to the improvs, both of which have sections of near-silence mixed in with the explosions, and there's a structural unity to each improv despite the lack of musical themes or other familiar signposts." --Stewart Mason
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