Free Jazz Music

This album is such a great concept! This album conatins duets with Jeb Bishop and a lot of the great improvising musicans working in Chicago like Ken Vandermark and Hamid Drake.

For those of you that don't know Jeb Bishop is a Chicago area trombonist. I believe he studied Trombone at Northwestern, then while in his 20s didn't play much trombone and played guitar and bass in punk bands! He has done a lot of work with Ken Vandermark (who also appears on this album) playing Tombone and some guitar with The Vandermark 5.

In the first few duets not much structure is improvised, they deal more with sound/soundscapes than anything else. I still can't really comprhend the duets with Lonberg-Holm! (who plays cello) - and I think that's ok it may not need to be comprhended in a typical musical way - which is what is so great about improvisation making one think in fantastic ways about music.
Many of these duets must be listened to more than once. To me anyway, one can't simply 'get' all there is to get on a casual listening.

Bishop's tone on trombone throughout is round and dark, and his use of mutes and manipulating his tone is, as always, very creative, inventive and above all musical. This really comes through on the second duet with Josh Abrams (bass). The duet with Hamid Drake (percussion) is really great, and of course the most rhythmic.

I highly recomend this album to all living humans. 3.75 stars. If you've read this far you owe it to yourself to check out this album. And I strongly recommend checking out all the musicians here in concert. If you live in Chicago this is a must as they all play here all the time.

_Abaton_ is a wonder. Sylvie Courvoisier has always impressed me, but all my previous exposure to her was her massive catelogue of work in improvisation amongst the downtown NYC scene. She has worked with great figures on the scene like John Zorn, Ikue Mori, and of course her husband Mark Feldman. Of all the projects she has graced with her talent, _Abaton_ is the greatest -- a two-disc set, comprised of long composed pieces and short improvised pieces. Composed for piano trio with Mark Feldman (violin) and Eric Friedlander (cello), disc 1 is heavily informed by the European modernist tradition, leaning towards atonality. Yet it is equally informed by Courvoisier's jazz studie, with four pieces around 10-20 minutes in length. Disc 2 is fully improvised, consisting of 19 short pieces that range from quiet, dissonant meditations to exquisite bursts of expression. Whether this group demonstrates its empathy for composition or their telepathic interplay on through spontaneous improv, this is one of the most unique albums in ECM's wonderful catalogue. either of these discs would make a masterful album on its own -- together, it is unbeatable. of course it is gorgeously recorded so you really have no reason not to hear this. best ECM of the 21st century so far? wouldn't be surprising.

. . . and wonderful to listen to, to boot. Which, it must be admitted, is not always the case.

Sylvie Courvoisier, pianist extraordinaire, composer of sublime substance and wide-ranging influence, bandleader of note, has produced one of the landmark discs of the new millennium. With a trio comprising herself (piano), Mark Feldman (violin), and Erik Friedlander (cello), she ventures into perilous territory--Third Stream, chamber jazz, whatever--and comes back having procured the Grail.

Working in precincts that might be regarded as on the borders of New Music, chamber jazz, and free improvisation, she crafts a delicious sonic palette, a soundscape of both ravishingly beautiful and wholly unexpected glory. Yes, it helps to have bandmates fully on board with her musical vision, especially the altogether remarkable Mark Feldman, who's so tuned in to this music that it almost sounds as if he was born to play it. And Erik Friedlander, himself one of the premier innovators on cello, adds his own singular and distinct colorations and timbres.

But it's the leader who shines brightest. A master of imbuing her compositions with spatial genius and sophisticated chordal, harmonic, and temporal voicings, she has created a music of glorious contradiction, music that is at once glacial and warm, distant and intimate, cerebral and emotional, secular and sacral, mundane and mysterious.

With this disc, Sylvie Courvoisier emerges as a musical voice of huge munificence, of magisterial scope, of uncommon weight and consequence. That her music is also eminently approachable makes it all the more remarkable.

Absolutely not to be missed.

Sylvie Courvoisier's Abaton can only be understood and appreciated by trained musical geniuses or pretentious bores. What most fans of European chamber jazz would recognize as melody is non-existent on this double (and double-priced)CD.

Courvoisier's piano is background on all of the 22 tracks in this collection almost serving as a base line for the violin and cello. However, that would imply that these tracks follow some sort of structure and they don't. The piano here just bangs out an occasional thumping cord as a counter-point to the wailing strings.

Even ECM can't bat 1000 but Abaton is a joyless dirge of noise that is occasionally punctuated by a silence that may make you hope it's over and you can get on with your life.

This one's not my cup of tea. I listened to the complete CD, and I have no desire to listen again. I need some structure in music, and this was completely without what I need.

Paul Bley is one of my favourite piano players. He is a totally original voice who refuses to give in to Father Time. This is a really great CD.

JWJ said it better than I did..

Paul Bley's music is not for everyone but for those for whom it is for - nothing else rings as true. Bley is one of the Greats among improvisational musicians. Over the years he has developed a deeply poetic dialect within the language of jazz that is all his own and is profoundly rewarding for those who take the time to learn it. Now in his 70's, his playing continues to open up new territory at a time when most players have long-since begun to stick with what they know. Listening to Paul Bley requires one to drop all preconceived notions and open up to to the music as it happens. It is definitely not music for someone who wants the security of hearing what they already know.

todd nicholson begins silent observation with a walking bass for a real cool blues with soaring solos played with the rest of the quintet and he doesn't let up until his own very somber solo bowing setting a mood altering conclusion by the entire quintet.

andrew bemkey leads the way on nothing but love, billy bang on violin and frank lowe on tenor sax harmonize a calypso beat evocative of sonny rollins. lowe, truly a warrior, takes over extending the piece with his marvelous tone.

on dark silhouette bemkey gets things off again, opening with an introspective nod toward monk, taking his time in developing the song until you almost believe the piece is a solo for him--he's five minutes into his solo when you hear a non-intrusive plash by drummer, tatsuya nakatani, and the applause of an appreciative audience. bang's playing on this one is nothing less than, for a better phrase, asian magic blended with free jazz speaking in tongues violin. lowe follows bang. nakatani, and i believe, nicholson follow, it's difficult to tell the buildup is so inaudible that i wonder if that was intentional, a matter of having to be there, or the recording equipment being at fault.

at play in the fields of the lord is a spirited romp. billy bang, not above and beyond wit, breaks out with fly in the buttermilk, shoo fly, shoo.

This was recorded in 2003 with a rhythm section unknown to me and Frank Lowe. It is a beautiful record; Frank Lowe is playing with one lung (he was dying of cancer). This is very modern music, not out; simply great music. If you like/love modern jazz add this to your collection.

An exceptional recording. The improvising is coherent and especially in the first 2 numbers quite wonderful, paticularly Andrew Bemkey's comping and soloing on piano on Nothing But Love. The opener, Silent Observation, has a groove reminiscent of classic blue note of the 60's but with the group interplay much more interesting and satisfying. Sound quality is superior. Smokin'!