Stuart Broomer
Susanna Hood, Scott Thomson. The Muted Note: Songs Based on Poems by P. K. Page. The songs on The Muted Note are an outgrowth of work made by trombonist Scott Thomson and singer-dancer Susanna Hood as part of The Rent, a Toronto quintet that was initially dedicated to performing the music of the late saxophonist and composer Steve Lacy—including his extensive[...] Read more
GGRIL. Combines. The GGRIL (Grand Groupe Régional d'Improvisation Libérée) is one of Canada’s few large improvising ensembles, a feat made more improbable by their location in relatively isolated Rimouski. From a population of 46,000, bassist Éric Normand has managed to[...] Read more
Jazz em Agosto, 30th edition. Jazz em Agosto’s thirtieth edition added a few more performances than usual, but stuck to what it’s done so well for so long. The festival is presented by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, sponsor of a symphony, a concert hall, a major museum, and a modern art gallery, all in[...] Read more
Bruno Heinen Sextet. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Tierkreis. Tierkreis (German for zodiac) is Stockhausen’s most accessible, most adapted, and likely best-known work. It may also be the most symmetrical, its twelve movements conforming to the zodiac’s twelve signs, each melody based on a twelve-tone row, the pieces arranged in the sequence[...] Read more
Anthony Braxton. Echo Echo Mirror House. At the 2011 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton led a septet in his Composition No. 347+. That “+” in a Braxton title will usually be followed by a series of numbers indicating interpolated compositions, but in No. 347[...] Read more
Insubordinations The shifting technological terrain that has brought about the decline of the CD, the rise of the download, and the return of the LP, invites inventive solutions from musicians who want to get their music heard. In this spirit, the Swiss netlabel Insubordinations combines free downloads along[...] Read more
Yang Jing and Christy Doran. No. 9. One of the more striking recent developments in improvised music has been the entry of several musicians trained in Chinese traditional music. There’s Min Xiaofen, a pipa player and singer residing in New York, who worked with the late Derek Bailey (the usually adversarial guitarist[...] Read more
John Butcher. Winter Gardens. John Butcher is one of the world’s most resourceful solo improvisers, a musician who has extended his saxophones in uncanny ways, creating waves of complex continuous sound with overtones arising and disappearing to the accompaniment of sudden percussive explosions. This LP contains[...] Read more
Kyle Brenders Quartet. Offset. Toronto-based saxophonist Kyle Brenders has studied and played extensively with Anthony Braxton, and he’s also a member of The Rent, a group dedicated to playing the compositions of Steve Lacy. The influences of both these American saxophonist-composers are evident in the debut recording[...] Read more
Le Grand Grouped Régional d’Improvisation Libérée & Evan Parker. Vivaces. At a time when it’s possible to find cadres of improvisers almost everywhere, it comes as something of a surprise to learn that there are enough improvising musicians in Rimouski, Quebec to form an eleven-member ensemble, and more of a surprise still when one hears the group’s[...] Read more
Peter Van Huffel’s Gorilla Mask. Howl! Originally from Kingston, Ontario, saxophonist Peter van Huffel has been creating a growing body of work in New York and Berlin, much of it integrating improvised music, expanded jazz harmonies, and sometimes chamber music dynamics, like the subtle HuffLiGNoN with the Belgian singer Sophie[...] Read more
Peter Brötzmann. Solo + Trio Roma. This two-CD set chronicles Brötzmann’s solo and Trio Roma concerts at 2011’s FIMAV on the approach of his seventieth birthday, a momentous occasion for an artist whose work combines titanic stamina and anarchic expressionism. The solo concert might stage[...] Read more
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