Seikatsu Kojo Iinkai Orchestra - This Is Music Is This!? (1979)

Seikatsu Kojo Iinkai Orchestra - This Is Music Is This!? (Union Records, 1979)

Personnel:
Umezu Kazutoki - Clarinet (Bass), Japanese Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano)
Yoshida Tetsuji - Trumpet
Yasuda Shinji - Trumpet
Sato Haruki - Trombone
Itaya Hiroshi - Trombone
Numagami Tsutomu- Bass
Mori Junji - Sax
Masami Shinoda - Sax
KatayamaHiroaki - Baritone & Tenor Saxes
Hayakawa Takeharu - Cello
Harada Yoriyuki - Conga, Piano, Whistle
Kikuchi Takashi - Drums, Percussion
Kameyama Kenichi - Drums

Tracklisting:
01 - Yasudabushi (11:14)
02 - Take the "A" Train (9:14)
03 - Aketaketa March (6:41)
04 - African Elephant (8:59)
05 - Youngmen Insist (4:59)

Wow, actually this is THE BEST (Japanese) FREE JAZZ RECORD (according to me of course) out there. It's elegant, fun (free jazz SHOULD be fun), confident and nicely recorded (much better produced than their first effort); the rhythm section is mesmerizing. Even the cover is amazing.
Notably, it was my first personal experience with mad pianist Yoriyuki Harada ; he's got an immediate new fan. His rendition of Take the "A" Train (Billy Strayhorn) is piano playing like you've never heard before (though it is sometimes reminiscent of Fred Van Hove's piano skills).
Plus, it features the late great sax player Masami Shinoda. [by rotkappchen]

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Mostly Other People Do The Killing - The Coimbra Concert (Clean Feed, 2011)

Mostly Other People Do The Killing - The Coimbra Concert (Clean Feed, 2011)

Personnel:
Moppa Elliott - Double Bass
Kevin Shea - Drums, Electronics
Jon Irabagon - Tenor & Alto Saxophones
Peter Evans - Trumpet

Tracklisting:
CD1:
01 - Drainlick
02 - Evans city
03 - Round Bottom, Square Top
04 - Blue Ball

CD2:
01 - Pen Argyl
02 - Burning Well
03 - Factoryville
04 - St. Mary's Proctor
05 - Elliott Mills

Mostly Other People Do the Killing is proud to release their new live double-album on Clean Feed records. The two discs, made up of material culled from a three night stint at the Jazz ao Centro Festival in Coimbra, provide an excellent perspective on the way this quartet performs live. Unlike the previous four studio albums, all on Hot Cup Records, MOPDtK's live performances vary between short renditions of bassist Moppa Elliott's compositions, and sweeping suites encompassing many compositions. This free-association style of performing has developed over the seven years that the quartet has been performing and recording together.
The four members, Peter Evans, Jon Irabagon, Moppa Elliott, and Kevin Shea, have developed a style of performance in which each member is free to steer the group in any way they choose. The other members may or may not follow suit, creating a type of group interplay that often pits the individuals against each other. Within any given performance, an individual may try to cue a new composition, a return to the original melody, or other structural device, only to be vetoed, creating music that often features multiple chains of association simultaneously. In addition, the members of MOPDtK are not afraid to lay out and allow each other ample solo space. [clean feed]

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Grey Ghost - How To Create Words (2003)

Grey Ghost - How To Create Words (428 Music, 2003)

Personnel:
Aram Shelton - Saxophone, Computer, Clarinet, Trumpet
Johnathan Crawford - Synthesizer, Percussion, Melodica

Tracklisting:

01 - Spitzacoll
02 - Splendo
03 - Horns And Organ
04 - Hand Down
05 - When You Say Go, Leave
06 - Command Control
07 - Unheard, Other Bands Practice
08 - Spoo
09 - Keep On

We're now five years or so into the laptop era of improvised music, during which ever greater numbers of players have attempted to incorporate electronic elements into their improv work. Some use a computer as an extra tone source, setting a preprogrammed pattern of notes in motion, then picking up another instrument and playing along; some perform in teams in which one player's output is electronically augmented or manipulated by another. Since forming the duo Grey Ghost in early 2002, reedist-laptopper Aram Shelton and drummer-keyboardist Johnathan Crawford have been developing their own methodology; listening to their debut album, How to Create Words (482 Music), it's clear they're onto something. Through his work in groups like Dragons 1976, Arrive, and Rapid Croche, Shelton has established himself as one of the finest young saxophonists in town--his tart alto tone and melodic generosity show strong signs of Ornette Coleman's influence--and the organic-feeling synthesis of horn and laptop he's created here is testament to his abilities as both composer and improviser. While Shelton occasionally uses computer-generated bass lines as structural nuggets to improvise around, a la Chicago Underground Duo, most of the sonic elements in play come from terse samples of his own saxophone. On a track like "Spitzacolli" he starts with a succession of breathy alto licks, samples them in real time, and tweaks the samples on his computer until they fit together in an endless self-reflecting grid; then Crawford snaps out of a gentle cymbal wash into a hard-hitting circular groove and Shelton solos over the hall-of-mirrors framework. The sax samples on "Hand Down" are percussive pops and harmonic squeaks repeated ad infinitum while Crawford taps out a spare, stuttering beat, giving Shelton plenty of room for a moody solo, while "Unheard, Other Bands Practice" is a loose assemblage of percussive clatter, dyspeptic melodica puffs, striated columns of breath, and bell-like electronic tones.

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You can also download their next album for free here.