Republic of Jazz: Jul 28, 2016

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Cortex - Live in New York (2016) CLEAN FEED RECORDS

On Cortex second release with Clean Feed Records you’ll find them again in the best context possible: in concert. Considering that the band works in the tradition pioneered by Ornette Coleman, this concert recording has a special significance, because it took place in the world capital of jazz, New York.

The approach may be somewhat European, but the music registered here seemed (and seems) at home. Critics wrote at the occasion that Cortex is walking the same routes where we can find John Zorn’s Masada. This means the music is energetic and robust, with a frenetic rhythm section and a trumpet / sax frontline very exact when delivering unisons and counterpoints and free in the improvised solos. The music is simultaneously heavy and agile, flowing as a bird of prey in open air, and defying gravity. A must have, must listen!

1. Higgs 7:56

2. Fall 7:05

3. Ghost March / Ahead 20:25

Thomas Johansson trumpet

Kristoffer Alberts saxophones

Ola Høyer double bass

Gard Nilssen drums

All compositions by Thomas Johansson (TONO)

Recorded live by Randy Thaler at IBeam Brooklyn, September 18th 2015 | Mixed by Ingar Hunskaar, February 2016 | Mastered by Fridtjof Lindemann and Ingar Hunskaar at Strype Audio, April 2016

Produced by Cortex | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos

Steve Lehman Camouflage Trio - Interface (2016) CLEAN FEED RECORDS

When the re-edition of past works of an artist has no immediate commercial justification, the motivations of a particular label and the musician himself can only be one of two: to show from where he came from, in order for the listener to compare recent achievements with old developments, or to give a broad perspective of his path as a flux of equally considered ideas and performative realizations, if that same artist dedicated his life to an unified musical vision. This last context explains the re-release of “Interface”, the sold out album recorded live in Coimbra, Portugal, back in 2003, by the now inactive Steve Lehman’s Camouflage Trio. At that time, Lehman was far from the spectral jazz researches of “Travail, Transformation and Flow”, but he was already focused on the principles which brought him to record that masterpiece: to discover in history the premises for the construction of the future, but doing that very much in the “present”. “Interface” follows a still valid concept – it continues, taking it to other consequences, the formulas for the alto sax-double bass-drums trio debuted by the Ornette Coleman Trio and by a band of his special liking, Air (Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall). The enterprise was brilliantly accomplished , and in such a way that the New York saxophonist and composer wouldn’t be able to create something like “Dialectic Fluorescent”, his trio CD from 2012, without that first earthmoving action with Mark Dresser and Pheeroan akLaff. Haven’t you heard it yet? Well, don’t waste more time and get the entire picture…

1. Structural Fire 15:27

2. Hamlet 5:13

3. Complex C 7:07

4. Huis Clos 4:02

5. Rison 8:02

6. Motion 19:27

7. Interface 13:00

Steve Lehman alto and sopranino saxophones

Mark Dresser double bass

Pheeroan Aklaff drums

All Compositions by Steve Lehman (Density Music, BMI)

Recorded by Pedro Santos on May 7th, 2003 Live at Teatro Académico Gil Vicente, Coimbra, Portugal | Original mixing by Pedro Rego at Xangrilá Studios, Lisbon | Re-mixed by Liberty Ellman, New York | Original mastering by Fernando Rascão | Re-mastered by Luís Delgado

Produced by Steve Lehman | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul | Original design by Rui Garrido | Re-designed by Travassos |

BUY THIS ALBUM

Xabregas 10 - Lume (2016) CLEAN FEED RECORDS

A live recording of the concert presented by the very peculiar big band LUME (acronym of Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble) in the 2014 edition of the festival Jazz em Agosto, “Xabregas 10” documents a particularly successful gig with the participation of the recently deceased saxophonist Jorge Reis, to whom the CD is dedicated. And peculiar because, being a jazz orchestra, its leader and composer Marco Barroso comes from contemporary classical music and has a strong devotion for rock and funk, two factors immediately recognized in the groovy and heavy, but very complex, pieces here assembled – beginning immediately with “Astromassa”, a metal-like composition in which the 12 blowing instruments (four saxophones, a clarinet, a flute, three trumpets, three trombones) can be more powerful than a couple of over-amplified and distorted electric guitars. This same piece includes an alto sax solo by Ricardo Toscano, a young wonder player who recorded it in the post-production process: he was invited for the project after Reis death, and his inclusion here is somewhat symbolical. LUME has a post-modernist attitude, mixing elements from distinct origins in an unprejudiced way and doing it with a statement («we’re here and we’re not going anywhere; deal with us»), not very common before in the Portuguese jazz scene. And if the collective behaves with that mood, very affirmatively, it also defines the solos by Eduardo Lála (trombone), José Menezes (tenor saxophone) and Gonçalo Marques (trumpet). In one word: stratospheric.

1. Astromassa

2. Sandblast

3. Polén

4. LSW

Marco Barroso direction and piano

Manuel Luís Cochofel flute

Paulo Gaspar clarinet

Jorge Reis soprano saxophone

João Pedro Silva, Ricardo Toscano (on track 1) alto saxophone

José Menezes tenor saxophone

Elmano Coelho baritone saxophone

Sérgio Charrinho, Pedro Monteiro, Gonçalo Marques trumpets