Stars Like Grains of Sand

Hard Rubber Orchestra Kenny Wheeler: Suite for Hard Rubber Orchestra featuring Norma Winstone ★★★½  Kenny Wheeler's output as an artist is one that should be greatly admired. He collaborated with nearly everyone; from members of the jazz avant-garde to artists like David Sylvian. He remained busy playing and composing until the last year of his life, and even then his legacy remains forever in works such as this. The Vancouver based Hard Rubber Orchestra is a jazz orchestra that mostly tours Canada, playing original compositions a few times per year. This recording from 2016 is material that Wheeler composed for the group along with singer, and longtime Wheeler collaborator, Norma Winstone. My experience with Wheeler's music has been mostly centered around his ECM recordings, a label in which his music has served to support and expand its aesthetic. The 1976 album  Gnu High  served as my entry point into the ECM and Wheeler catalogs; it's an important record ...

Best Albums of 2018 List Soon A lot's been going on recently. Been busy but hoping to cover some albums from 2018 I really enjoyed, excluding those I reviewed already. Also find me at http://www.freejazzblog.org/ . I'm writing there now too

"A" Trio & AMM  AAMM ★★★★ I always see an album cover as an extension of the album itself; the artists intentionally chose a visual component that they wanted to represent their music. When I look at this cover I think of the moon, cave paintings, and plants cells all packed together. All of these images are ancient, organic and an important part of our humanity. The Lebanese "A" Trio and now AMM duo team up in a release that channels that long-lasting energy. The "A" Trio is a group that is composed of Mazen Kerbaj on trumpet, Sharif Sehnaoui on acoustic guitar, and Raed Yassin on double bass. The AMM, now being sustained by veterans Eddie Prévost and John Tilbury, serve as partial mentors to the young improvisers. But thankfully this live recording is not just an example of a master-apprentice relationship, rather it's the joining of two different worlds through the power of improvised music. Tilbury and  Prévost  serve as a sort o...

Carl Stone Electronic Music from the Eighties and Nineties ★ ★ ★★ A release from this year; I really underestimate the quality of releases that come out every year that goes by and in return I seem to be missing out on a lot of exciting listens. To be fair this isn't really new music, although most of it is hitting the audience's ears for the first time. And not to really get ahead of myself, but all of the music here could've easily been created in this day and age without seeming out of place. Comparing this to the previous archival release, I think the music presented here goes beyond most of which Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties  could provide. While some elements are homologous and constants in both releases, I think the experience and work that went into these two periods of Stone's creative output led to great improvements in the latter. The invariable themes throughout these two releases are regarding the use of Baroque orchestral...

Joe Talia Tint ★★★★ I guess this became a once a month sort of deal. Wish I spent my time more wisely, or just had more of it. It's been a while since I've really delved into recently released music and I figured why not just go with one of the more obscure and less talked about albums. I've never heard of Joe Talia but he's worked with Oren Ambarchi, Jim O'Rourke, and many others from the electroacoustic scene. This is a pretty simple record, with minimal design and a very low-key release that didn't try to whip itself into the ears of potential listeners. It is a big release for Talia though as he hasn't released anything in over a decade, and this album has only been recorded over the past two years. He's been busy helping others but this album gives you reason to pay a little more attention to what Talia has to offer. It's just two tracks, originally released on vinyl, on the blossoming Black Truffle record label. He's usually w...