Jamaaladeen Tacuma With Basso Nouveau – The Night Of Chamber Music (1993)

Jamaaladeen Tacuma With Basso Nouveau – The Night Of Chamber Music (Moers Music, 1993)

Personnel:
Jamaaladeen Tacuma: 4-string electric bass
Gerald Veasley: 6-string electric bass
Jerome Hunter: acoustic bass (played with bow)
Juan Pablo Nahar: acoustic bass (pizzacato)
Edgar Bateman: drums

Tracklisting:
01. What's Mine Is Yours (10:43)
02. All Praises Due (22:11)
03. The String Has Popped! (2:38)
04. Boney Blues (11:01)
05. Black Pearls (6:37)
06. Ovations (2:41)

The bass is an instrument of equal status with any instrument know in the world today. it is compositional, melodic, and rhythmic in its very nature. Over the years very few have tried to expose the bass instrument in its entire concept. many have settled for the back up role and have not really covered new ground musically with this instrument. With this in mind , once again Jamaaladeen has set out to revolutionize the bass role. Basso Nouveau is his bass quartet of four premier Philadelphia bassists and a drummer/percussionist in which the bassists act as a total quartet utilizing every aspect of the bass.
Recorded live at Moers Festival, Moers, 29th May 1993. [buy it here]

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Jim Black Trio - Somatic (2011)

Jim Black Trio - Somatic (Winter&Winter, 2011)

Personnel:
Jim Black - drums
Elias Stemeseder - piano
Thomas Morgan - bass

Tracklisting:
01. Tahre
02. Terrotow
03. Hestbak
04. Sure Are You
05. Willbee
06. Beariere
07. Somatic
08. Protection
09. Chibi Jones
10. Uglysnug

After 12 years of leading his singer-less-songwriting-post-rock-improv band AlasNoAxis, Jim Black goes in the absolute opposite musical direction by forming a new piano trio featuring one of the most in demand New York musicians, Thomas Morgan on bass, and the young Austrian pianist to watch out for, Elias Stemeseder.

Jim Black has been playing drums for twenty three years. Born in 1967, he grew up in Seattle, WA, playing music ranging from garage rock to big band swing. In 1985 he went to Boston, MA to attend the Berklee College of Music. In 1991 he moved to Brooklyn, NY, and has since become one of the most in demand drummers in the jazz/new music scene today.

"A complete musician and wonderfully fertile composer... Black has produced a masterpiece of future jazz." (Andy Hamilton, The Wire) [buy it here]

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Oscar Noriega's Play Party - Luciano's Dream (2000)

Oscar Noriega's Play Party - Luciano's Dream (OmniTone, 2000)

Personnel:
Oscar Noriega: bass clarinet, alto saxophone
Cuong Vu: trumpet
Brad Shepik: guitar
Tom Rainey: drums

Tracklisting:
1. Funky Number 5 (5:45)
2. 7 of 9 (8:33)
3. The Z (4:59)
4. Back to Back (9:05)
5. Skimcoat (6:21)
6. Luciano's Dream (8:06)
7. Kashikoi Hito (Wise Old Man) (5:05)
8. Cancion para Cecila (Song for Cecilia) (2:28)

Luciano's Dream is the long overdue debut recording from the fiercely talented young reedman Oscar Noriega. Like many downtown jazz players, Noriega's musical vision is very wide in scope, encompassing, from the sounds of this record, the rich history of jazz, myriad folk musics, as well as 20th century classical sounds. Thankfully, the album does not read like a hodgepodge of disparate musical influences, but rather a wide-ranging and satisfying musical document. Of course, this is due in no small part to his capable partners in crime: trumpeter Cuong Vu, guitarist Brad Shepik, and drummer Tom Rainey. This dexterous, bass-less quartet navigates Noriega's complicated charts with ease, from throwing down odd-meter grooves in "Funky Number 5" to displaying unearthly restrain with the delicate gypsy beauty of "The Z." Shepik is especially impressive; though the album does touch upon the jazz-inflected Balkan styles that have become his calling card, he is clearly more than capable of operating in just about any idiom he chooses. His whimsical solo on "Kashiko Hito" is among the album's highlights. Noriega's alto saxophone seems completely effortless, darting and weaving in and out of the dense musical landscape, while his bass clarinet breathes stark melancholy. His impressive sideman credentials have already proven him an able player, here he asserts himself as a skillful composer and bandleader.[allmusic]

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Swedish Azz - Azz Appeal (2011)

Swedish Azz - Azz Appeal (Not Two Records, 2011)

Personnel:
Mats Gustafsson - alto, baritone, slide saxophones, live-electronic
Per- Ake Holmlander - tuba, cimbasso
Kjell Nordeson - vibes
Dieb13 - grammophone, live-electronic
Erik Carlsson - drums

Tracklisting:
1. opus 3 - Fånerier, nr 8 - Full opus 4 / PH Wallin (08:30)
2. Karl- Bertil Jonsson 14 år / G Svensson (02:30)
3. Lidingö Airport / B Nilsson + Visa från Utanmyra / trad-Jan Johansson (10:30)
4. Hugin och Munin / G Riedel + Fedja / L Gullin (16:05)
5. Elysium / L Werner (06:08)

New group by Mats Gustafsson and Per Åke Holmlander, consisting of five European improvisers loving, respecting, and playing the swedish jazz masterpieces from the 50´s and 60´s.
The Golden Age of Swedish Jazz happened in the mid 50´s, as we were told, and was represented by some very distinct and personal voices that were all taking their main inspiration from the American West Coast Jazz, but transforming it into a swedish colour and language, also including elements of traditional Swedish Folk Music.
Lars Gullin, Jan Johansson, Bernt Rosengren, Georg Riedel, Lars Werner, Berndt Egerbladh and later Per Henrik Wallin were all part of this movement and we just LOVE this music!
Swedish Azz wants to explore the possibities to use these wonderful and strongly lyrical melodies and put them in a contemporary structure and soundscape. We want to find out, or at least try out, what will happen when you put these melodic lines in connection with a.o. live electronics and experimentation in form, using the freedom of improvising freely.[NotTwo Records]

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Vermilion Sands – Reverb Overdub (2007)

Vermilion Sands – Reverb Overdub (Tearbridge Records, 2007)

Personnel:
Shoji Imakita, Yoichi Moriyama - Drums, Percussion
Katsumi Sugahara - Bass
Masahiko Ohno - Electric Guitar
Yutaka Hosokawa - Electric Guitar, Trumpet
Polnareff - Voice
Kyoji Honjo - Keyboards
Ikuo Taketani - Vocals, Trumpet, Saxophone
Noriya Maekawa - Engineer

Tracklisting:
1 - Jacob's Elevator
2 - Brimstone And Fire
3 - Ignorance Is Innocent
4 - Nada
5 - Un-T

Best music ever made!

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Les Rhinocéros - Les Rhinocéros (2011)

Les Rhinocéros - Les Rhinocéros (Tzadik, 2011)

Personnel:
Michael Coltun: Basses, Effects, Loops, Noise, Toys, Acoustic And Electric Guitars, Percussion, Vocals, Sampling, Keys
David Coltun: Violin
Kenneth Congmon: Saxophone
Kevin Downing: Trombone
Tom Klecker: Drums, Percussion
Andrew Landau: Saxophone
Joey Pappas: Double Bass
Leo Svirsky: Piano
Peter Tran: Electric Guitars, Effects, Loops, Noise, Vocals

Hailing from the Washington, DC area, the young band Les Rhinocéros delivers a crazy world in sound, blending aspects of rock, world music, noise, ambient and jazz. The trio of teenagers was formed in 2008 while the players were still in high school, and has developed since then into an intense and wildly imaginative group that takes music to its extremes. Emotional, minimalistic, intense and grooving, this is music that goes beyond imagination to the edges of sanity. The group continues their sonic experiments by adding unusual instruments into the traditional rock band setting.

Tracklisting:
01. Intro/Whispering
02. Beeps and Boops
03. Up
04. Les Rhinocéros
05. Tuml
06. Moon
07. Scenic 1
08. Choo Choo! (4 On The Door)
09. I Too Once Bought A Bicycle
10. Scenic 2
11. Johnway
12. Mark It 8

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Hardly recomended!

Griot Galaxy - Live At the D.I.A. (2003)

Griot Galaxy - Live At the D.I.A. (Entropy Stereo Recordings, 2003)

Personnel:
Faruq Z. Bey – tenor, alto, soprano saxophone
Anthony Holland – alto, soprano saxophone
David McMurray – tenor, alto, soprano saxophone
Jaribu Shahid – bass
Tani Tabbal – drums, percussion
MARZ Society:
Sadiq Bey – dance, percussion
Fahali Igbo – djimbe
Tani Tabbal - doundoune

Tracklisting:
Disc 1:
1. Z-Series A) Zinji Lebarb B) Zenelog C) Aintro D) Find It
2. Necrophilia
Disc 2:
1. After Death
2. Fosters
3. Marz Society
4. Spectrum
5. Shadow World

For nearly two decades Griot Galaxy was at the vanguard of the Detroit Music scene. Members of the band performed and recorded with Roscoe Mitchell, Sun Ra, Abdullah Ibrahim and Phil Cohran. The fact that there were only two releases of the band under their own name during this period seems criminal. Entropy Stereo is pleased to present this complete concert performance at the Detroit Institute of Arts from 1983. Beautifully recorded, this is Griot Galaxy at their peak. Griot Galaxy was Faruq Z. Bey, Tani Tabbal, Jaribu Shahid, Tony Holland and David McMurray.

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