Free Jazz Music

I had high hopes for this CD after enjoying Rob Mazurek's first Exploding Star Orchestra CD. Everyone on this CD was on the first - Nicole Mitchell on flute, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Jeff Parker on guitar, and nine others. The big exception is of Bill Dixon, who gets a leader credit on this CD. Bill Dixon is a noteworthy free jazz trumpet player. The first song, "Entrances/One" is very free. It doesn't have much of a pulse, and not too much melody. The second song is composed by Mazurek. The composed parts of it tie the song together better. The CD closes with "Entrances/Two", which has more of a pulse than the first one, but ultimately they're both a bit of a disappointment.

Everyone's reaction will depend on their love for the spacier parts of free jazz. From random Bill Dixon songs I've heard, this seems to be more in line with his work than a continuation of the Exploding Star Orchestra.

P.S. I meant to mark it as a 3-star CD, but accidentally hit 4, and you're not allowed to change your star rating.

I stated in my review of the first Exploding Star Orchestra CD that it did not really strike me as free jazz big band music. It struck me as a very creative and diverse largely composed through music. This CD however seems freer in its approach. Some of that can be attributed to Mazurek's dedication of this CD to an musician/magician he obviously admires, Bill Dixon. Dixon composed the first and third piece and is the dedicatee of the second piece, a composition by Mazurek. Dixon is perhaps the dominant solo voice as well.
The result is another superb contribution to creative orchestra music by Mazurek and his associates, all of whom deserve to be acknowledged:
Nicole Mitchell (flutes, voice)
Matt Bauder (bass clarinet, tenor sax)
Jeb Bishop (trombone)
Josh Berman (cornet)
Jeff Parker (guitar)
Jim Baker (piano)
Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone, tubular bells)
Matthew Lux (bass guitar)
Jason Ajemian (double bass)
Mike Reed (drums, timpani)
John Herndon (drums)
Damon Locks (voice)
Let me be clear about something- this is not totally free music. Both Dixon and Mazurek provide the ensemble with a complex shifting and sectional composed framework. It is just that the individual players play more freely than on the first CD. The sound samples that Amazon provides are useless for music like this (although the beginning of Entrances/One with the double drums of Herndon and Reed, combined w/Adasiewicz' vibes and Parker's brilliant stumbling guitar gives you a nice feel for what may lie ahead).
The samples don't allow you to hear the section about eight minutes into Entrances/One where the flute, the vibes and the piano are interacting or the delightful section 14 minutes or so into Constellations where the brass and the tubular bells provide a sweet little melodic phrase for the sax, flute and trombone to play around. This lasts until about the 17 minute mark when an ensemble statement shifts the composition into a darker and freer sonic world. Arguably the main delight is the frequent duet sections for the two composers. Mazurek and Dixon obviously respect each other and delight in the opportunity to play together.
In my review of the first Exploding Star Orchestra CD, I expressed the hope that this group would be able to stay together. Let us all hope that this group continues to have a long and productive life. I see some hope that Creative Orchestra Music is undergoing a small revival of sorts (I recently purchased a couple of Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra Live CDs and Mezei Szilard Ensemble's Bot that give me great hope for the future of the genre). Take a chance of this CD if you have open ears. These are great musicians being led by a composer/player of great talent all of whom are expanding their individual and collective abilites paying homage to a legend of the music. Great stuff. Let me know what you think.

There's something electrifying about this CD. It's the way Dixon's and Shepp's compositions reinvent the ethics of free-jazz. This kind of A.N.G.S.T. could only happen in NYC in the Fifties. Get the CD, and teleport yourself into some other, exciting time...

I have no idea if Bill is still among the living. I owe him. He ended up at Bennington College teaching wealthy kids who generally were only familiar with guitars, a source of eternal frustration for a guy trying to make coherent student jazz ensembles.

He was born on Nantucket Island and fought in World War Two in the reclamation of the Phillipines.

This recording was actually done in March of 1964 and not in the 50's as some tailwagger claimed. It was a masterful work bursting with rigor and imagination with an exceptional ensemble.

Howard Johnson and Ken McIntyre sparkle throughout and it is one of the few recordings of David Izenzon, a bass master who also worked with Ornette only to die of a heart attack in some stupid altercation.

Bill is the classic thinking man's trumpeter pushing the boundaries ever forward and the advanced embodiement of that oft oer looked thing, the Black Intellect, in a nation prone to the assumption that such is a chimera.

This release finds him in the full flush of his vigorous rigourous youth and the Shepp stuff is comparably impressive, in its way. Archie was young then, too.

Bill's work is gifted with a spare sly brilliance and rarely met mastery of the properties of this demanding bit of brass tubing.

I dearly love this early work and will eventually get the rest of his impressive oeuvre. I hope he is well. Viscera and cerebra meet well in the well thought works of this master.

As a former student and friend of the late Will Parker, I can say that without a doubt the re-release of this recording is a fitting tribute to his skills as an interpreter of American song. The intensity with which he approached every work he sang is most definitely in evidence here. The rarely-heard "Mourning Scene" of Rorem alone makes this recording worth the investment.

There are many ways to explore musical genres with which you are unfamiliar. One of my favorite ways is to follow the musical ethic of an artist or group that I respect. A long time ago, liner notes by Charles Mingus led me Fats Waller, Honey Bear Cedric and Baby Dodds. Frank Zappa led me to Varese. The Arditti String Quartet has taught me about Ferneyhough and many many others.
One of the genres that I love the most has been that of the saxophone quartet. And one of my surest guides to that genre has been the four characters who make up ROVA. In its early days, ROVA was Jon Raskin (baritone and other saxs), Larry Ochs (tenor and other saxs), Andrew Voigt (alto sax etc.) and Bruce Ackley (soprano sax, etc.). By this 1996 CD, Andrew Voigt had been replaced by Steve Adams.
Back in 1985, the ROVA collective had the smarts to make themselves a non-profit which allowed them to commission many works from composers they admire and to promote new music of all kinds. They were one of the first jazz groups to tour Russia (see their Saxophone Diplomacy and This Time We Are Both CDs) and to promote Russian free jazz groups.
I have wanted to review this particular CD of theirs for a while because it is simply one to their best. This CD is made up of two pieces composed by Lindsay Cooper, two by Barry Guy, one by Fred Frith and one by Larry Ochs.
What makes this CD so special is that these various compositions play to all of the strengths of the group. These guys have insane skills both as a group and as individual players. Witch Gong Game by Guy allows us to appreciate some of the individual voices. Water Under the Bridge by Frith is in many ways the most traditional and accessible piece. From soft lovely chordal voices by the group as a whole, Adams (I think) emerges with lovely alto tone exploring a very melodic and traditional solo.
Och's Initials features a driving rhythmic riff that emerges from a formless mass and then disintegrates seemlessly into choas. Great stuff.
But for me the glory of this CD are the Cooper compositions. The woman is a wonder of endless wit and variation, of total understanding of the possibilities of the instruments being used (she played basson and sax) and ultimately just plain old genius. These pieces romp (I would love to see someone choreograph these pieces), surprise, delight, engross and inspire.
Ms. Cooper has retired from composing due to illness but (praise God) we have these pieces and other CDs like Oh Moscow.
If you are new to the glories of the saxophone quartet, to ROVA or to the genius that is Lindsay Cooper this is a great place to start. Some of the pieces (the pieces by Guy and Ochs) are demanding and not for everyone but the whole CD repays frequent listening. This is a masterwork, people. It has my highest recommendation.

This is your chance. You'll feel like you've been transported to the middle of the club, the band tearing through a hot set, the crowd murmuring around you. Playing this CD makes me want to dance and shout encouragement at the band. It's a transcendant performance that you'll never grow tired of listening to.

Amid the background noise of a club, some of the most melodic and fascinating solos that Bird ever laid down in wax. You will wish that you had been there.