Stuart Broomer

Rasmussen / Flaherty / Rowden / Corsano. Crying in Space Mette Rasmussen is a Danish alto saxophonist who has worked in diverse and distinguished contexts, including Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra and the all-star multinational quartet Hearth. Here she joins Connecticut-based saxophonist Paul Flaherty, a free-jazz warrior whose wily name for[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 145

Joëlle Léandre. Zurich Concert During her long career, Joëlle Léandre has been a constant explorer of the possibilities of her string bass and of exploratory musical languages, moving from creative collaborations with composers John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi to a devotion to free improvisation. This June, L[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 145

Ingrid Laubrock. The Last Quiet Place In recent decades, tenor and soprano saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has moved from her native Germany to an extended stay in England to her current American residency. Through the process she has become one of the most inventive members of the international improvising community, a central[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 145

Pauline Oliveros, IONE, Christopher Willes, and others. Resonance Gathering Resonance Gathering is a thoughtful package that documents and celebrates a recent two-year project to perform a Pauline Oliveros work from 1970: To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of their Desperation. The title itself suggests mantra, meditation, and healing ceremony,[...] Read more

Books Stuart Broomer Issue 146

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, 39th edition FIMAV, or Victo, is a unique institution: a festival in farm country 160 kilometres east of Montreal that presents a range of outside musics—avant-jazz and rock, electroacoustic and noise, etc.—from multiple cultures. Having weathered the COVID-19 years to return to its full[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Stuart Broomer Issue 146

Susan Alcorn, José Lencastre, Hernâni Faustino. Manifesto One of the joys of improvised music is its openness to unusual instruments and novel sounds. The pedal steel guitar, largely restricted to country music, has found new life in the creative vision of Susan Alcorn, whose practice extends to the works of Olivier Messiaen and Astor Piazzolla as[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 146

Yves Charuest, Michel Ratté, and Peter Kowald. Montréal, 1985 In the past decade, Montreal-based alto saxophonist Yves Charuest has re-emerged as one of Canada’s most significant improvisers. The LP Montréal, 1985 documents a brilliant moment in Canadian jazz when bassist Peter Kowald, a founding figure of the German jazz avant garde,[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 144

2022 Guelph Jazz Festival. The 2022 edition of the Guelph Jazz Festival marked a singular recovery from the rigours of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more presentation venues engaged than at any time in its twenty-eight-year history.   Following the cancellation of the 2020 season, the festival’s[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Stuart Broomer

Nick Storring. Music from Wéi 成为. In 2017, choreographer Yvonne Ng commissioned Nick Storring to compose music for a piece with five dancers to be performed at the Banff Centre, a circumstance requiring Storring to depart from his characteristically dense works with multiple layered instruments. His solution was a tape piece[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 143

Derek Bailey. Domestic Jungle. In the ’90s, London guitarist Derek Bailey would sit at home and improvise along with jungle and drum-and-bass music playing on underground radio stations. The DJs would repeat music, then suddenly drop off and talk aimlessly—it was all fodder for the anarchic genius of Bailey,[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 143

Women From Space, 2022 edition Women From Space usually takes place on International Women’s Day Weekend to celebrate the varied dimensions of contemporary music practiced by women. First launched in 2019 and organized by saxophonists Bea Labikova and Kayla Milmine, this rich, wide-ranging Toronto-based festival[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Stuart Broomer

Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Kaiser, Alex Varty. Pacifica Koral Reef. Trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith might be best known for his expansive celebrations of civil rights, Ten Freedom Summers and Rosa Parks: Pure Love; guitarist Henry Kaiser for his soundtracks for Werner Herzog films and underwater musical journeys to polar ice caps; and Alex Varty is[...] Read more

Recordings Stuart Broomer Issue 141