Guerino Mazzola & Joomi Park - Passionate Message (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

Silkheart Records has previously released two CDs presenting the dynamics of Guerino Mazzola on grand piano and Heinz Geisser on percussion – Folia/The UNAM Concert and Someday respectively. This time we have decided to invest in a new type of dynamics – the one between two improvisional pianists – Guerino Mazzola and Joomi Park. Our decision was based on a concept presented to us by Mazzola and Park to consider: 

« The principal idea for this CD was to set up a profound dialogue of two completely different styles – Joomi’s contemporary music approach to composition and improvisation, versus Guerino’s free jazz improvisation with previously prepared basic materials – and then synthesizing these styles in a shared improvisation on two pianos. 
Our general strategy was to investigate composition by improvisation and also to integrate composition in the improvisational approach. So it was not general free jazz, but the integration of compositional material in improvisation by Guerino and also a synthesis of Joomi’s and Guerino’s soli in a shared improvisation. Here the new music and the free jazz idioms were confronted and merged. Joomi’ and Guerino’s contributions were developed in a prolific discussion in the construction of these musics, meaning that none was an isolated creation but resulted from an intense musical exchange of ideas and performances. »

1. Black Summer (Park) 03:13

2. Black Summer (Mazzola) 03:57

3. Black Summer (Mazzola & Park) 01:44

4. Yesterday (Lennon & McCartney) 04:01

5. Yesterday (Park) 04:32

6. Yesterday (Mazzola & Park) 04:01

7. American Carnival (Park) 06:12

8. American Carnival (Mazzola) 04:58

9. American Carnival (Mazzola & Park) 04:38

10. Joomi's Dance (Park) 04:09

11. Guerino's Dance (Mazzola) 02:10

12. Our Dance (Mazzola & Park) 05:16

Guerino Mazzola grand piano

Joomi Park grand piano

Steve Swell - Music for Six Musicians: Hommage à Olivier Messiaen (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

From Stephen Rush's liner notes:

« What we have here is new music. Free music. Ellington and Armstrong were right in not wanting to call it anything else but Music. Why put it in a sub-category? This belongs with the best of any new music, period. And this new music is created (with the assistance of Swell’s scores and direction) by an ensemble that knows how to both play and listen geometric and mystical constructions: some preconceived by the skillful pen of Steve Swell and some spontaneously shaped and formed. Lean in. Listen again. And swim upstream and down with the band – it’s completely worth it. » 

Ann Arbor, July 2017

1. Opening 24:41

2. Sextet for the End of Democracy 12:26

3. Vautour Fauve 14:53

4. Joy and the Remarkable Behavior of Time 14:50

5. Exit the Labyrinth 09:27

Rob Brown alto saxophone

Steve Swell trombone, aerophone

Jason Kao Hwang violin, viola, electronics

Robert Boston piano, organ

Tomas Ulrich cello

Jim Pugliese drums, percussion

Steve Swell's Kende Dreams - Hommage à Bartók (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

From John Corbett's liner notes: 

« Trombonist Steve Swell's approach to a Bartók homage on Kende Dreams is a synthesis and it advisably leaves the encounter with the Hungarian a relatively loose and oblique affair, with specific points of convergence but an end product that feels more like it was inspired by the composer than obliged to adopt his methods. The seven tracks are creative music pitched at the highest level; as is that music's unalienable right, it absorbs and transforms things that it comes into contact with. So, unlike Milhaud's attempts to quote or characterize jazz, this is jazz eating and fully digesting modern classical music, turning it into something else completely. » 

Chicago, April 2015

1. Roswellian Folk Song 07:57

2. For Will Connell Jr. 07:51

3. After SQ4 09:59

4. Attack of the Mikrokosmos 08:12

5. Bartók Screams 13:40

6. Lent-Oh! 14:09

7. Ultima 08:34

Rob Brown alto saxophone

Steve Swell trombone

Connie Crothers piano

William Parker bass

Chad Taylor drums

Charles Gayle Quartet - Blue Shadows (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

When Keith Knox and I founded Silkheart Records in 1984, our main objective was to present the “new American jazz”, but also to record the lesser-known, under-recorded heroes of the seventies loft scene époque.

We got off to a brisk start with the latter category by recording Charles Brackeen, Booker T., Ahmed Abdullah, The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Charles Tyler et al.

About 1985 I had heard a tenorist playing in two separate locations in Manhattan, at the Times Square subway station and around Grand Central. His playing was challenging to say the least, but I didn’t pay too much attention at that time, unlike bassist Hilliard Greene whose attention was grabbed immediately (see his interview in Cadence, August 2006).

A year or so later a friend sent Keith a tape of a tenor player, which he passed over to me. The sound quality was terrible and I didn’t think much of the music. I was told that the tenorist’s name was Charles Gayle and that he was homeless. I did not immediately drop the project and for some reason I was curious, so that when I visited NYC at some time in 1986 and learned that Charles was to play in a small apartment in Soho, I went there to hear him and realized...  more

1. Inside the Sun 03:00

2. Blue Shadows 11:30

3. Eternity Promised 1 17:13

4. Eternity Promised 2 02:08

5. Hearts to Jesus 17:49

6. Soul’s Time 03:09

7. In Sorrow 13:38

8. Snap 01:51

Charles Gayle tenor saxophone, viola

William Parker bass, cello, half-size violin

Vattel Cherry bass, kalimba, bells

Michael Wimberly drums

Matt Lavelle Trio - Spiritual Power (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

Over the years I've seen a lot of "new talent" come and go. Some are very young, some already over-the-hill. All eager to make it and to make the "SCENE." To be hip. Cool. It. Then there are those who come to play the music and to seek mentors and try to make it in the toughest possible scene there is. That being the world of so-called "avant-garde" or "free" jazz, where nothing is free but the music and even that comes at a high cost. No money. Few gigs. Lots of people to impress in a very small though widening community. Self sacrifice. Discipline. And above all finding one's own voice. 

Multi-instrumentalist Matt Lavelle (adept on both trumpet and bass clarinet) is the latter. He arrived in New York, to challenge and be challenged. To learn and take and give. And give he does with all his heart, soul, guts to the music and people he loves and...  more

1. Spiritual Power 08:48

2. Stars Like Fleas 07:12

3. Sí Se Puede (Yes We Can) 07:52

4. End Times 08:37

5. I Will Have Love in my Life 13:22

6. Hey Liduva 05:19

7. Seth Speaks 11:08

Matt Lavelle trumpet (3), flugelhorn (1), (5), (7), bass-clarinet (2), (4), (6)

Hilliard Greene bass

Mike T.A. Thompson drums

Heinz Geisser - Guerino Mazzola Duo: Someday (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"Someday" by percussionist Heinz Geisser and pianist Guerino Mazzola is a companion album to "Folia/The UNAM Concert" by the same duo. These recordings were made at the Someday Club in Tokyo and at Sala Carlos Chávez in Mexico City during their autumn 2000 tour of Korea, Japan and Mexico. It is by comparing the "Someday" performances with each other, and with those on "Folia", that the extraordinary beauty of the duo's extemporising becomes clear. This is music of great sensitivity and shared, instinctively attuned responsiveness, with details rich in information and highly nuanced. Only the third CD by the duo from its remarkable ten years of existence, "Someday" is a tremendous listening experience. One to be savoured. 

Contemporary free jazz and improvised music are afflicted - to comparably ruinous degrees - by a malaise of overproduction. Musicians of questionable repute are happy for their names to appear on four or five albums per calendar year; musicians of more established renown see nothing amiss in releasing as many as nine or ten. In the context of such heedless profligacy, the Swiss duo of Heinz Geisser and Guerino Mazzola are a refreshing anomaly. 

Now heading into their tenth year of collaboration...  more

1. Someday 36:34

2. Tormenta de tiempos 36:57

Guerino Mazzola grand piano

Heinz Geisser percussion

Heinz Geisser - Guerino Mazzola Duo: Folia / The Unam Concert (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

Swiss drummer Heinz Geisser and pianist Guerino Mazzola have worked together since 1994, dovetailing their considerable creative energies into an ever-closer musical symbiosis. This recording was made in Mexico City in October 2000 under the best possible circumstances. A CD was played in the limousine which drove the duo to this concert of Rachmaninoff’s 'Corelli Variations', a reworking of a theme that had appeared earlier in Corelli’s 12th Violin Sonata in D minor. Even at that time it was a found theme originating in the 'Folia' madness, a fertility dance from the late 15th century. Rachmaninoff’s 'Folia' theme became a crucial agent in the Mexico City performance. As Mazzola reported, 'You can in fact hear this short theme all over the concert and it turned out that it fits incredibly well in my own harmonic, melodic and rhythmic strategies.' Geisser and Mazzola decided to call this CD Folia for its spontaneous mixture of madness and control. 

Their musical and improvisational abilities as a duo are nothing short of sensational throughout this exciting session. 

Time's Ecstasy 

Folía: the UNAM Concert is a recording in which two accomplished improvisers, already deeply familiar with one another's work, fold chance and circumstance into their developed dialogue to...  more

1. The Man of the Sun 27:12

2. Sacrifice of the Dancer 25:27

3. Fiery Mirror 09:25

Guerino Mazzola Boesendorfer grand piano

Heinz Geisser percussion

'Kidd' Jordan Quartet - New Orleans Festival Suite (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

This live recording was made in May 1999 at the Dream Palace in New Orleans during the annual jazz festival. The session was improvisationally interactive to an explosive degree, even for these four musicians, and the recording had become legendary a while before it was released. 'Kidd' Jordan is from New Orleans and that is where he’s mostly played, but lately he’s been in demand in New York and Chicago, and Europe too.

Pianist Joel Futterman is a Chicagoan now based in Virginia and before he became a cohort of 'Kidd' Jordan he was a cohort of the late Jimmy Lyons. Alvin Fielder held the drum chair for the Roscoe Mitchell Sextet album, 'Sound' (Delmark DECD-408) when, in 1966, it signalled the appearance of new jazz activity in Chicago. He’s been on innumerable sessions since, including a number for Silkheart Records.

Bassist William Parker is just about the most central, and creative, figure on the New York new jazz scene and has been for twenty years or thereabouts. The quartet’s 'New Orleans Festival Suite' confirms what may or may not be common knowledge, namely that the 'Kidd' Jordan Quartet is not only the senior improvising jazz group on the scene but also the hottest and the most excitingly...  more

1. Decateur Street 28:10

2. Dream Palace 32:49

3. Ole Miss Lovesong 11:56

Edward 'Kidd' Jordan tenor saxophone

Joel Futterman piano, soprano saxophone, indian flute

William Parker bass

Alvin Fielder drums

Borgmann / Morris / Charles Trio - The Last Concert - Dankeschön (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

German born saxophonist Thomas Borgmann was the last of a long line of hornmen to perform to the accompaniment of the famous rhythm team of Wilber Morris and Denis Charles. Earlier hornmen fired and inspired by Wilber and Denis have included David Murray, Charles Tyler, Claude Lawrence, Booker T. Williams, Bob Ackerman and Marco Eneidi. The Borgman/Morris/Charles Trio appeared at the Jazz auf Reisen Festival in Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Germany on March 6th, 1998, and this became the very final date for Denis Charles who died very shortly thereafter. The CD is released in memory of Denis Charles, who played fabulously well on this his final engagement.

I was not present in Weiden in der Oberpfalz during the Jazz auf Reisen concert by the Borgmann/Morris/Charles Trio in Max Reger Hall on March 6th, 1998, on what I'm told was a very rainy day. There were two sets and the music for each set was quite different. The audience was extraordinarily quiet and attentive and evidently quite close to the musicians on stage. The improvisations were trancelike in their intensity, and it speaks wonders for the fine German engineering of the Bavarian Radio sound team that they were able to capture the music so well. When applause broke out it immediately became clear how big the hall was and how many people were there to...  more

1. Nasty & Sweet 35:05

2. Bird Bath 31:11

3. Dankeschön 07:12

Thomas Borgmann tenor / soprano / sopranino saxes, egyptian double flute

Wilber Morris bass

Denis Charles drums

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Ka​-​Real (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

Recorded nine months after Ernest Dawkins replaced Edward Wilkerson as featured reed artist, this session was recorded in fine sound at Delmark Studio in Chicago. The sound of the group has changed and developed somewhat, but the Ethnics still produce their own special kind of excitement when they perform. Previous Ethnic Heritage Ensemble CDs were Silkheart 108 and 142, this latest addition continues a worthy tradition.

"The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble's music will not only get under one's skin, it will seep deeply inside one's soul." 

Frank Rubolino, One Final Note, May 2002

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble are minimalists. But their slow-burning mix of cycling African rhythms, somnambulistic patience, restrained intensity, and whispery near-silence is a strain of minimalism they invented. As leader/visionary Kahil El'Zabar says, "People are just starting to really understand what we're doing. Earlier, people talked about the music as some kind of primitive groove. They didn't understand the rhythmic complexities, the confluences, and how the harmonies that we write make it sound much bigger than it really is.

Now there are many people attempting to stretch the possibilities within a minimalist approach. We've been doing it for over...  more

1. Great Black Music 11:33

2. Sweet Meat 05:52

3. Ka-Real 07:49

4. Hang Tough 09:42

5. Kampfumo Shuffle 09:15

6. The Christening 07:33

7. Jam for the Babas 10:34

Joseph Bowie trombone, conga, drums, djembe, miscellaneous percussion

Ernest Dawkins soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, flute, miscellaneous percussion

Kahil El'Zabar earth drums, sanza, trap drums, miscellaneous percussion

Atu Harold Murray earth drums, flutes, dun-dun drum

AALY Trio + Ken Vandermark - Hidden in the Stomach (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

Recorded in an excellent Stockholm studio during December 1996, AALY TRIO + KEN VANDERMARK features Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark on reeds, together with bassist Peter Janson and drummer Kjell Nordeson. AALY TRIO has been in existence for a number of years, consistently playing exciting music. This is their debut on disc and it is quite a major event, particularly since they are joined by another significant contributor to new jazz improvisation in the shape of Ken Vandermark. The music played by the quartet is free improvisation but their control is no empathic and cohesive that the music almost sounds arranged. Extraordinary. 

"Paul Valéry said poetry is hidden in the stomach, you're obsessed by it, never quite sure of it, but know it's there and want to bring it out." 
William Baziotes 

In a debate with a friend over the relative qualities of Chaim Soutine and Piet Mondrian, William Baziotes argued that "...looseness of execution [is] no virtue in itself...." This statement actually says a good bit about Baziotes, a painter often grouped with the abstract expressionists, but out of step with them, preferring orderly forms - never straying completely from figuration - over the drizzled, slashed and flung pigments of action-painters like Jackson...  more

1. Structure à la Mallé 13:34

2. Why I Don't Go Back 10:14

3. Song for Che 09:00

4. Unknown Title 08:27

5. Albumblatt Again 01:47

6. Ghosts / Spirits 11:56

Mats Gustafsson tenor sax, baritone sax (right channel)

Ken Vandermark tenor sax, clarinet, bass-clarinet (left channel)

Peter Janson bass

Kjell Nordeson drums, percussion

Assif Tsahar Trio - Ein Sof (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

The Assif Tsahar Trio has recently been causing a stir in downtown New York music circles and at one or other summer jazz festival, as for example the one held in central Massachusets - at Amhurst - on July 27th, 1996. "The afternoon segment ended with a trio led by young tenor player Assif Tsahar. Joined by bassist William Parker and drummer Susie Ibarra, the three delivered a set of graceful muscularity. Tsahar is clearly influenced by players like David Ware and Charles Gayle, his full throaty tenor spilling out roiling waves and driving torrents. He is clearly developing his own voice on the horn, combining an energetic exhuberance and full command of the extended vocabulary of overblowing and harmonics with a sense of vocalized phrasing and open dynamics.

The combination of Parker and Ibarra was simply breathtaking. Parker has established himself as the pre-eminent bassist of Free Jazz. Building upon his tenure with Cecil Taylor, he has a potent command of shaping group interactions, slipping effortlessly between scorching arco and pummelling plucked lines. Having spent time studying with Milford Graves, Ibarra is quickly becoming a drummer of choice, working in ensembles such as those led by both Parker and David Ware. She masterfully drove the pulse of the music with circling...  more

1. Is Here Tomorrow Will 10:32

2. Ephemeral Symbiosis: III. 01:59

3. Ephemeral Symbiosis: II. 01:34

4. Through Forgotten Ancestors 12:31

5. Sun Drops 07:56

6. Ein Sof 07:12

7. Ephemeral Symbiosis: V. 02:37

8. Ephemeral Symbiosis: I. 01:34

9. Shadow Puppets 10:36

10. Internal Dialogue 11:38

11. Ephemeral Symbiosis: IV. 01:53

12. Ephemeral Symbiosis: VI. 01:43

Assif Tsahar tenor saxophone

William Parker bass

Susie Ibarra drums / percussion

William Hooker / Billy Bang Duo - Joy (Within​)​! (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

This CD comprises live recordings of sessions by this exciting duo, from both the 1994 and 1995 "What Is Jazz Festival(s)?" at the Knitting Factory in New York City. The ambience is consistently supportive and the duo improvisations by drummer William Hooker and violinist Billy Bang are of a uniformly high order. Here is a rare opportunity to share in the excitement of two superlative artists performing in a splendid, well recorded setting.

Tense passionate dancing. Like air currents… Crossing. Songs that rotate the body. 

This concert, part of the 'What Is Jazz Festival', and recorded live in 1994 at the "old" Knitting Factory during its final weeks of operation, afforded Hooker and Bang another rare opportunity to show their "stuff". The two just opened the valves and let the Steam of summer pour out over the crowded room. 

The set starts with an almost mischievous, military-like march by Hooker that flows into soft yet powerlul rolls. He then alternates between these two mixing and separating them again. Back to the march and a loud vocal call summoning Bang's arrival. Bang's first string of melodic notes seems to blend with, as well as perfectly extend, Hooker's opening statement while slowly lifting off...  more

1. Sweating Brain 17:06

2. Hawk 02:29

3. Electro / Magnetic 05:13

4. Unknown Island 02:43

5. Righteous 07:36

6. Blood and Coffee (Surviving) 07:45

7. Etheric Redemption 10:25

8. Joy (Within)! 09:39

9. Armed 06:32

Billy Bang violin, flute

William Hooker drums, percussion, voice

Andrew Cyrille / Richard Teitelbaum Duo: Double Clutch (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

This historic session was recorded at Soundscape on Valentine's Day 1981 and was the duo's only American appearance. Kevin Whitehead, in his album note points out that: "The success of free-improvised depends to a great extent on something independent of equipment or technique, the ability to listen and respond... The choices Cyrille and Teitelbaum make, improvising in the moment, acknowledge the big picture, showing their concern with broad arcs of rhythm, dynamics, density and changing timbre. Richard takes these good old Milton Babbit blurps and whooshes and hisses and makes them flow like nobody else. The proof is everywhere. And the flow is oxygen for Cyrille, as it is for all swingers." This CD is an extraordinarily fascinating and exciting exposition of rare synthesizer and percussion artistry. 

Impressions of a piece on this CD, via a letter from Andrew Cyrille: "Imagine one sliding on a fragile, somewhat slippery, delicate, wafting bubble moving through the air. One is sliding to and fro, side to side. However, one is somehow attached to the bubble and not able to be released from it. One experiences an aeronautical traveling adventure prompted by the caprices of a mildly blowing wind. Not being able to navigate, one observes what is taking place around one...  more

1. Dance Astral 09:07

2. San Andreas Fault 13:04

3. Cluck Cluck Clock 11:13

4. Double Clutch 15:52

5. Sliding on a Bubble 09:58

6. Driving Pistons 12:36

Andrew Cyrille Ludwig drums, Zildijan cymbals, LP percussion instruments

Richard Teitelbaum PolyMoog synthesizer, modified MicroMoog synthesizer, Zannini custom random generator, SYM-1 single board computer

David S. Ware Quartet - Oblations and Blessings (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

This session, recorded in a superb midtown studio in New York during September 1995, shows the David S. Ware Quartet at the height of its powers. This is one of the foremost groups playing today and their performance here is captured by engineer Nick Prout with extraordinary clarity. The development of David S. Ware's music is one of the more significant histories in today's jazz and earlier examples from the Silkheart catalogue are 113, 127, and 128. 

To say that David Spencer Ware is an enigma is to say that the 46-year old tenor saxophonist has been blessed. Nowadays the quest to create anything that seems in any way out of step with what generally passes for creative expression is an exceedingly uncomfortable enterprise. Especially when one considers the many mundane matters that converge on an artist in order to thwart such pursuits. But those of us who think art should bridge the widening gap between the uplifting and the uninspired need only listen to Ware and his mordacious quartet for an idea what music can become when it is perceived as - to borrow a phrase an open sky. That the tenorman has been able to both retain his vision in the current climate and translate it into statements that capture the hearts and minds of attentive listeners everywhere is indeed evidence that he possesses a...  more

1. Oblations and Blessings 17:06

2. Riff Unknown 10:53

3. Of Shambhala 11:05

4. Fire Within 11:07

5. Manu's Ideal 10:13

6. Serpents and Visions 08:37

David S. Ware tenor saxophone

Matthew Shipp piano

William Parker bass

Whit Dickey drums

Steve Lacy - 5 x Monk, 5 x Lacy (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"And the entirety of Lacy's art is to be found in compacted form in solo concerts like 5 x Monk, 5 x Lacy." 

Bill Shoemaker, Jazz Times, October 1997 

Steve Lacy's evocative program of solo soprano saxophone expositions was recorded live at the Stockholm Kulturhuset in March 1994, during the improvisation festival, "I Öronblicket". It was clearly an extraordinary performance at the time and this is abundantly confirmed by the CD of the appearance. The front cover of the CD features a pen and ink illustration of Steve Lacy made in the early sixties in Rome by the late black American artist, Bob Thompson. 

SHUFFLE BOIL I like to begin solo concerts with this piece, because of its low register, medium tempo, and the generous use of silent space. It has a very simple melody, but it is also a subtle polyphonic structure with interesting harmonic implications. Of course, all of Thelonious Monk's music is about play and dance. 

ERONEL is a good vehicle from the late '40s; bebop for blowing on and a charming melodic portrait of somebody's old flame, (Lenore spelled backwards). 

EVIDENCE Since I've been studying, practising, and performing (and teaching) this composition for 40 years, the evidence...  more

1. Shuffle Boil 03:48

2. Eronel 03:49

3. Evidence 03:37

4. Pannonica 05:24

5. Who Knows 03:12

6. The Crust 04:31

7. Blues for Aida 05:51

8. Revenue 05:27

9. Naked Lunch 04:13

10. Deadline 05:15

Steve Lacy soprano saxophone

Joel Futterman - 'Kidd' Jordan Quintet: Nickelsdorf Konfrontation (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"For lovers of this music, here is a disc with a definitive place reserved for it, a very lofty place." 

Gustave Cerutti, Improjazz, October 1996 

"(Futterman) can zip out those tone clusters, which have given him a reputation as a Taylorite, but there is much variation in density – sometimes on this CD the clusters metamorphose into quiet little sprinkles in the top octave of the piano. His ability to move from keys to strings and back again continues to impress. Co-leader Edward 'Kidd' Jordan's duet with Futterman on Soul Mates is an excellent sample of his art; he always counterbalances his harshest outpourings with heartfelt lyricism. Elsewhere the music fares best when Jordan is setting the tone, as in the balladic first half of Nickelsdorf Summit, Part Two. Even when the proceedings begin to babble in tongues à la late-period Coltrane, his line is readily discernable and always coherent. Alvin Fielder contributes mobile drumming in the tradition of Ed Blackwell; just check out what he does on the tom-toms, and savor the solo that opens his piece in honor of Vernell Fournier (another key member of the New Orleans drumming fraternity). 

Robert L. Campbell, Cadence, April 1997 

Nat Hentoff wrote the following in his liner notes for...  more

1. Hear with You 01:23

2. Soul Mates 09:03

3. Meeting Place 06:43

4. Nickelsdorf Summit: I. 07:55

5. Nickelsdorf Summit: II. 07:58

6. Nickelsdorf Summit: III. 03:17

7. Nickelsdorf Summit: IV. 06:48

8. Nickelsdorf Summit: V. 05:24

9. Nickelsdorf Summit: VI. 05:55

10. Nickelsdorf Summit: VII. 06:51

11. Fournier 05:18

12. Going with You 01:53

Joel Futterman piano, curved soprano saxophone, Indian flute

Edward 'Kidd' Jordan tenor saxophone

Mats Gustafsson tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone

Barry Guy acoustic bass

Alvin Fielder drums

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble - 21st Century Union March (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has been "breaking the habit of boredom and pushing beyond nostalgia into the present" for almost 20 years. Their music fuses traditional African rhythmic and melodic sensibilities with popular African American musical forms. The Ensemble's unique instrumentation – trap drums, African and Latin hand-percussion, saxophone, trombone, digeridoo, bass clarinet and kalimba – endow their music with a warm textural richness and depth. Within a framework of organic, understated compositions, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble imparts an ancestral wisdom and conjures an energy and sparks rarely encountered in contem-porary music.

In 1976, Kahil El'Zabar, having just graduated from the school of Chicago's legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, teamed up with tenor saxophonist Edward Wilkerson, Jr. Wilkerson has been called "one of the most thoughtful minds in modern experimental music", and is himself the leader of the premier Windy City Octet Eight Bold Souls and the big band Shadow Vignettes. Kahil El'Zabar is an accomplished trap drummer, having worked with acclaimed soul blues and R&B artist Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, and jazz greats from Cannonball Adderley to David Murray. El'Zabar is also a virtuoso kalimba player...  more

1. Crumb Puck You Let Slide 06:51

2. Fanfare 09:00

3. Lover Man 03:25

4. How the Cow See Cirrus 11:45

5. Missing Miles 05:03

6. Burundi 10:08

7. Love Outside of Dreams 06:28

8. Unlisted 07:41

9. Dear Albert 09:04

10. Procession 03:14

Joseph Bowie trombone, miscellaneous percussion

Edward Wilkerson tenor saxophone, alto clarinet, miscellaneous percussion

Kahil El'Zabar earth drums, sanza, miscellaneous percussion, vocals

Ernest Dawkins New Horizons Ensemble: Chicago Now - Thirty Years of Great Black Music, Vol​.​2 (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"The music on Chicago Now! is dedicated to the 30th Anniversary of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians)." There was a sharp sense of pride in the voice of reedist-composer Ernest 'Khabeer' Dawkins. Leaders of one of the most exciting and adventurous working groups today; the New Horizons Ensemble, Dawkins has much to be proud of The accolades of media and audiences worldwide attest to its new found success.

Builders of new parameters in modern black music, the AACM'ers have placed a valued importance on capturing the social essence of history, its meaning and purpose. Hence the guiding credo of the grassroots organisation: Great Black Music Ancient To The Future. This is particularly fitting when discussing artists known for framing their social/political visions through their art. Ernest Dawkins and New Horizons are no exception.

They are a marvelous example of just how the music has richly absorbed the impact of history, events and the moment. These are men who could capture the passion and glory of an era - in just a fragment, in just a second of artistic virtue. 

This vision of tradition runs deep within the mind, heart and soul of Dawkins. The music has baptized and cleansed him. Part of a new generation of AACM'ers; among them Kahil El'Zabar's...  more

1. Monk's Temptation 10:58

2. Running from the Rain (alt) 09:35

3. Planet East 10:38

4. Zera (alt) 12:56

5. Improvisation #3 11:04

6. Looking for Ninny 04:34

7. Many Flavors 13:04

Ernest Dawkins alto sax, tenor sax, flute, percussion, vocals

Steve Berry trombone, percussion

Ameen Muhammad trumpet, percussion, vocals

Jeffery Parker electric guitar

Yosef Ben Israel bass

Reggie Nicholson drums, percussion

Ernest Dawkins New Horizons Ensemble: Chicago Now - Thirty Years of Great Black Music, Vol​.​1 (SILKHEART RECORDS 2018)

"Ernest Dawkins' Chicago Now (vol 1) is definitely in the category of lively, colorful music and is full of surprises and unpredictable music. He and his versatile sidemen perform a wide variety of originals. Improvisation #1 evolves from sound explorations to a riff section and back while Improvisation #2 is a lowdown but spacey blues. The longer pieces tend to be episodic and a little reminiscent of Charles Mingus in the way they reinvent the past a bit to form a new and uncertain future. Dawkins' fiery alto playing on Dream For Rahsaan is a tribute to Roland Kirk. The final three numbers are consistently exciting, trumpeter Ameen Muhammad adds power to the group, trombonist Steve Berry blends well with Dawkins' alto and the pianoless rhythm section is alert and driving. This is a highly recommended disc that keeps alive the Chicago AACM tradition." 

Scott Yanow, Cadence, December 1996 

Surprise. Of the three albums on which Ernest Dawkins has led his New Horizons Ensemble, this one presents the group at their most exciting, their most accessible and yes, their most surprising. In fact, "Chicago Now" may startle all but the most loyal fans of this truly contemporary sextet. With this outing, the level of their musicianship seems to have risen yet again. The musical and...  more

1. Improvisation #1 06:25

2. The Time Has Come 14:37

3. Improvisation #2 (My Baby Blues) 03:37

4. Bold Souls 07:44

5. Dream For Rahsaan 10:20

6. Zera 10:53

7. Flowers for the Soul 12:20

8. Runnin' from the Rain 06:04

Ernest Dawkins alto sax, tenor sax, flute, percussion, vocals

Steve Berry trombone, percussion

Ameen Muhammad trumpet, percussion, vocals

Jeffery Parker electric guitar

Yosef Ben Israel bass

Reggie Nicholson drums, percussion