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ESPDISK 5054CD
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Gerhard Gschlössl, Gebhard Ullmann, Jan Leipnitz, and Johannes Fink improvise as composers would do. From scratch they create a holistic sound sculpture -- each time unique and unpredictable -- always with a formal approach. Michael Haves was invited to create with them using analog electronics. In the moment and without overdubbing he becomes the fifth element in GULFH of Berlin.
Personnel: Gebhard Ullmann - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Gerhard Gschlössl - trombone, sousaphone; Johannes Fink - double bass, cello; Jan Leipnitz - drums, objects; Michael Haves - live sound processing. Recorded March, 6th 2018 at Low Swing Studio, Berlin. Engineer: Guy Sternberg. Mixed and mastered 2019 by Michael Haves at The Cop Shop, Berlin. Photos by Cristina Marx. Produced by GULFH of Berlin for ESP-Disk'.
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ESPDISK 5048LP
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Extraordinary NYC trio Attitude! combine free jazz and post-punk with pointed commentary about issues of race, gender, the pandemic, and political autonomy. Rose Tang, a Mongol from Sichuan, sings/recites and plays guitar, piano, and percussion. Her album with Roses & Roaches, And Yet We Ain't Alone, was released by 577 earlier in 2021. Mentored by free jazz legend Daniel Carter, Tang plays in about 30 bands and ensembles in New York and Seattle. Her music, which she hates to be labeled, may be called punk rock, post-punk, free jazz, spoken word, experimental improv, avant garde, or Chinese rock and folk. Tang calls her music genre "weird shit". She is also a journalist and was a protestor at Tiananmen Square. Tenor saxophonist Ayumi Ishito, from Japan, plays in a plethora of bands along the jazz/rock spectrum. She spent three years studying performance and composition at Berklee, where her instructors included George Garzone, Hal Crook, and Frank Tiberi. In 2017, Ayumi joined Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, led by Marc Edwards, former drummer of Cecil Taylor's band. Currently, Ayumi is a regular member of The Jazz Thieves, GADADU, Eighty-pound Pug, Platypus Revenge, and Big Squid. Ayumi has released two albums of her original compositions, View from a Little Cave (2016) and Midnite Cinema (2019). Drummer, composer, and educator Wen-Ting Wu Wen-Ting Wu, from Taiwan, combines jazz drive and classical rigor. She was a member of Golden Melody Award-winning band Chang & Lee and Hello Nico in Taiwan before she moved to New York in 2016 and earned her Master of Jazz Performance Degree in Queens College. Besides being a member in Frank Lacy's Concert Jazz Ensemble currently, she leads her own band. The group came together to play one song at an event. ESP-Disk', already familiar with the separate work on the NYC scene of all three members, immediately invited them to make an album. After intensive rehearsals, the members recorded the album in a one-day session, then reunited during the pandemic to add words about its effect to an existing instrumental on "8 Steps/7 O'Clock". This album is simultaneously part of ESP-Disk's drive to revive weird rock and an extension of the label's famed free-jazz legacy.
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ESPDISK 5067CD
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William Parker's recording career began in 1973 on ESP-Disk' -- Frank Lowe's Black Beings (ESPDISK 3013CD) -- and he returned to ESP in 2017 as a member of Mat Walerian's group Toxic with This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People (ESPDISK 5011CD). Now ESP-Disk' present a new William Parker album in collaboration with his wife Patricia Nicholson. No Joke! is unapologetically political, facing down injustice and inequality and other "in"s with artistic integrity and "outside" music. Personnel: William Parker - bass; James Brandon Lewis - tenor sax; Devin Brahja Waldman - alto sax; Francesco Mela - drums, vocals: Patricia Nicholson - spoken word; Melanie Dyer - viola; Gerald Cleaver - drums. All music by William Parker, centering music. All words by Patricia Nicholson except "Little Black Kid with the Swollen Stomach" by William Parker. Recorded and mixed at Park West Studios by Jim Clouse.
"He stands now as one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz." --David French, DownBeat
"William Parker pursues spirituality through hard work. He plays bass as if reaching heaven is a matter of steadily, repeatedly knocking until someone opens the door; he's one of the avant-garde jazz players most dedicated to the pursuit of higher purpose and heightened awareness in music, and he approaches it with a heavy, elemental tone." --Chris Dahlen, Pitchfork
"Patricia Nicholson... is also an outstanding poet and dancer." --Chris Tart, DownBeat
"William Parker is a towering figure in 21st century avant-garde music, widely recognised as a crucial link to the heart of free jazz, and a true heavyweight of the double bass." --Daniel Spicer, BBC
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ESPDISK 5060LP
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ESP-Disk's drive to revive weird rock begun in 2019 with Painted Faces' Tales from the Skinny Apartment (ESPDISK 5032LP) and continued in 2020 with the OPTO S LP Human Indictive / Live (ESPDISK 5055LP), is furthered with the new studio album by this Massachusetts quartet, recorded in mid-2020. Formed in 2016, it has an LP on the great Feeding Tube imprint and a handful of cassettes and CD-Rs, most self-released. Although, yes, there's a distinct Velvet Underground influence to be heard, there's an underground/outsider feel thanks to the unique vision of singer/lyricist/guitarist/visual artist Jeffrey Gallagher ("a visionary and experimental musician" --Boston Hassle), who has a plethora of self-released material under a variety of pseudonyms (and ESP has plans to release some more).
Personnel: Jeff Gallagher - guitar, vocals; Jonathan Hanson - guitar, keyboards; Shane Bruno - bass; Chris Wojtkowski - drums. Produced by Barny Lanman and Bridge of Flowers. Recorded at Zen Den Studios in Fitchburg, MA.
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ESPDISK 5069CD
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The latest release from polymath and musical maximalist Gabriel Zucker is a sprawling and ambitious achievement that defies categorization, featuring complex mixed-meter jazz, virtuosic chamber music, electronic soundscapes, and indie art rock -- performed with emotion and urgency by Zucker's virtuoso large ensemble The Delegation. Written primarily between 2015 and 2018, during several stints Zucker spent living and performing in England and throughout Europe, the record reckons with time, and with the competing impulses of a backwards-looking nostalgia and a forwards-looking futurist belief in progress. Leftover Beats is built on a dialog between two different ensembles: Several movements are performed by a chamber ensemble, while the rest feature a larger ensemble of horns, rhythm section, and voices more firmly rooted in jazz. The work is split into four sections of three movements each. Past is manic and alive, culminating in contrapuntal chamber-music romanticism. Autumn 2016 focuses mainly on November; the night of the election is grotesquely illustrated. Present feels subdued and chastened in its aftermath. Future is a dreamscape of synthesizer and sound collage nightmares punctuated by a Mahler-esque climax in "Requiem III", before we close on Zucker's solo piano in "How to Know, Forever", drifting off into the sands of time. An album release show will take place at Roulette, located at 509 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, on Tuesday, October 5th at 8:00 PM.
Personnel: Gabriel Zucker - piano, compositions, lyrics, vocals, electronics; Adam O'Farrill - trumpet; Nolan Tsang - trumpet; Anna Webber - tenor saxophone; Eric Trudel - tenor saxophone; Yuma Uesaka - clarinet; Joanna Mattrey - viola; Mariel Roberts - cello; Artemisz Polonyi - vocals; Lorena Del Mar - vocals; Bam Rodriguez - bass; Mat Muntz - bass; Gabriel Globus-Hoenich - drums; Alex Goldberg - drums; Kate Gentile - drums; Matteo Liberatore - guitar; Tal Yahalom - guitar.
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ESPDISK 5061CD
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Despite the obvious obstacles, this singular San Francisco Bay Area band is staying on mission, moving forward. Over its four-plus decades the quartet has defined itself by applying an array of improvisational strategies to an ever-expanding body of new music. The Circumference of Reason includes six tracks composed or, in the case of "NC17", designed between 2011 and 2016; then -- in typical ROVA fashion -- the pieces were worked over and performed by the quartet in rehearsals and concerts until perceived to be ready for recording. They include an arrangement of a Glenn Spearman piece as well as a piece dedicated to Glenn; the playing on both inspired by late saxophonist's spirited personality and playing. As well, this recording features two distinctly different versions of "NC17", another in the series of ROVA's structured improvisations, all of which have been culled from an ever-expanding set of visual and aural cues that the quartet has invented, or borrowed and adapted. On its face, "NC17" is simply a limited set of conceptual options to cue in, in any order, to then explore, populating the series of cued events with immersive music/sounds/energies etc. All the while -- as a group -- intending to create a palpable sonic architecture for each new performance of the piece. The takes on this CD are unique; no one take of "NC17" can be exactly the same as any other take of "NC17". "ROVA performances can reach the soaring lyrical intensity of bel canto, the rough-and-tumble tumult of a garage rock band, or the insistently patterned matrix of a minimalist chamber work." So wrote Andrew Gilbert in 2018. The piece from which the CD's title comes, "The Circumference of Reason", is a good example of a minimalist piece when penned by a ROVA composer, in this case Steve Adams. Overall, this album offers an excellent cross-section of the multi-faceted ROVA. Personnel: Bruce Ackley - soprano and tenor saxophones; Steve Adams - alto and sopranino saxophones; Larry Ochs - tenor sax; Jon Raskin - baritone sax. Recorded on 6/22/18, 9/23/18 and 7/1/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner. Mixed on 1/16/19, 1/23/19 and 8/2/19 at New Improved Recording by John Finkbeiner and Steve Adams. Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha Labs. Produced by Steve Adams.
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ESPDISK 5068CD
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Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong is a game-changer. She's jazz from a different perspective. She's a pianist who doesn't sound like anyone else on the scene. In her liner notes for the release, Jeong writes, "I made my first solo piano recording under the name Chi-Da. Chi-Da and Nolda can both be translated as 'play.' While Chi-Da refers to physical motions that produce sounds by crashing together two objects, Nolda is more associated with playful activities. One may interpret this word as a fun, free-flowing action on the piano. That is partly true, but I dare ask: who can have fun and experience true freedom without 'knowing thyself'? Nolda means transcending the physical reality without abandoning it at all, which is made of body, mind, and the world. We music creators are artists who work with invisible and intangible energy forms as ingredients to create. Nolda, in this sense, is the magic of music-making." Credits: Eunhye Jeong - piano.
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ESPDISK 5064CD
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Allen Lowe says: "To me, free improvisation is another form of narrative, just as linear in terms of the consciousness of moving from one place to another, as any kind of storytelling. Yes, anyone can do it, you might say (and this is an old argument in jazz circles) but not everyone can do it with purpose and form and like they really mean it. This group is the epitome of all that has changed for the better in jazz in the past 50 years, and I am thrilled to be in it." Kevin Ray says: "This band is both exhilarating and terrifying to play with. You never know where the music will go, just that it's somewhere exciting, and you hope you can keep up. Allen has a wonderful sense of melody, Matt is an endless font of ideas, and this rhythm section is a dream to be in -- Gerald is tasteful, stunningly creative, and grooves like hell. I'm so glad to be a part of it." Matthew Shipp says: "I am always looking for new situations to renew who I am and the language I am involved with? this group has allowed me to reboot my brain. Allen is a unique figure, who is unlike anyone I play with in any other situation. Kevin has a delicious cross section of experience over several genres that gives him a different look than a bassist who might be seen as the usual in the idiom. Gerald -- who I have a history with -- is different now because he has had such a deep and cross section of experiences since then. The music this group makes is unique. I really enjoy playing with these gentlemen." Gerald Cleaver says: "To paraphrase Miles Davis, 'This is social music.' My take on free jazz is that it's not free at all, rather (in my mind) many, many contexts and frames of reference held at once. Playing this set with Matt, Allen, and Kevin took me through some really nice interactions and reaffirmed for me that the roots of this music are still strong."
Personnel: Matthew Shipp - piano; Allen Lowe - alto and tenor sax; Gerald Cleaver - drums; Kevin Ray - bass. Recorded, mixed, and mastered, by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, NY, August 9, 2020. Produced by East Axis and Steve Holtje.
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ESPDISK 5053CD
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This music is inspired by Robert Henri (June 24, 1865 - July 12, 1929) artist, teacher, writer and an organizer of the group known as The Eight, a loose association of artists who protested the restrictive exhibition practices of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design. Personnel: Michael Bisio - bass; Kirk Knuffke - cornet and soprano cornet; Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello/electronics. Recorded September 24, 2018 by Eli Winograd at Lone Pine Road, Kingston NY.
On the trio's last record, Requiem for a New York Slice (Iluso, 2019):
"It is hard to find three more expressive musicians. Bisio being one of just a few bassists that can match the energy of Matthew Shipp. Lonberg-Holm's cello can be heard on over 300 recordings, with heavyweights such as Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, and Joe McPhee, and Knuffke maybe (no, is) the most expressive cornetist working today. That expression is dialed to max on 'Sanctus' where the cornetist makes a joyful noise over a pair of bowing accompanists. ... 'In Paradisum' might be the saddest and most beautiful piece on this recording. Bisio opens with huge reverberating pulled notes while Knuffke squeezes upper register tones before Lonberg-Holm's cello slices skidding notes across the bandstand. Halfway through the music pauses as if to reflect on the loss, then bows are applied as tears are shed." --Mark Corroto, All About Jazz
"Jazz is the music of pure emotion, and it's the vehicle by which Bisio, Knuffke and Lonberg-Holm sorted out their feelings about this tragedy. As improvisation artists of the highest order, they already treat every performance as a requiem of some sort but there's an extra impetus this time, and it shows up masterfully in these five group improvised performances." --S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews
"... creative music that often sounds more indebted to hair-raising chamber music and Arnold Schoenberg than jazz improvisation." --Capitol Bop
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ESPDISK 5052CD
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Larry Ochs and Donald Robinson's second and definitive recording will be released on legendary free jazz label ESP-Disk'. Ochs is a founding member of the great ROVA Saxophone Quartet, one of the Bay Area's avant-garde treasures since 1978. Robinson -- "a percussive dervish", according to Coda -- was the drummer of choice for ROVA's revivification of John Coltrane's Ascension. The East Bay Express has said of the saxophonist's sound, "Ochs' full-bodied tenor is out of the John Coltrane/Albert Ayler 'free' tradition: forceful, passionate," while the Chicago Reader said about the drummer and his relationship with Ochs, "Robinson is neither flashy nor explosive, but his playing has heft and he covers lots of ground -- he can maintain a feeling of order while playing meter-less rhythms or transform the pulse of jagged post-bop until it's almost abstract. He's a good match for Ochs, and over the decades the two of them have developed a fine-tuned rapport." Although Ochs and Robinson have collaborated in various groups for more than 20 years -- including in the trio What We Live with bassist Lisle Ellis -- their duo is a recent phenomenon, having developed over the past couple of years. Ochs says, "Our playing together has evolved to a really special place, I think. We're definitely coming out of the tradition of horn-drum duos from John Coltrane and Rashied Ali to Wadada Leo Smith and Billy Higgins, but we've found our own space after a long stretch of shows together. Our set will include new, original material, with some high-energy playing and things that are more spatial, as well as some homages to more popular music. In a sparse setting like this, the music hits a listener right away -- nothing is obscured, everything is clear." Ochs and Robinson first performed together from 1991 to 1998 in The Glenn Spearman Double Trio. From 1994 to 2002, they worked in the trio What We Live. From 2000 until 2010 Robinson was part of the Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core featuring drummer Scott Amendola, as well as Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura from 2007 to 2010. Throughout all this time, Ochs and Robinson jammed and rehearsed in Robinson's studio, easily done as they live only 15 minutes apart. Thus it seemed inevitable that they would -- eventually -- create a special repertoire for this duo. Personnel: Larry Ochs - saxophones; Donald Robinson - drums.
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ESPDISK 5065CD
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In his five-decade career, finger-style acoustic guitarist Duck Baker has played in lots of styles, from folk (real folk, such as Scottish and Irish fiddle tunes) to blues to jazz, in the latter genre particularly focusing on bebop greats, with whole albums devoted to the music of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. But he has flashed an avant-garde side as well, and of course ESP-Disk' was interested in exposing more of the latter work. This album of duos and trios with an all-star roster of players, mostly British, collects recordings ranging from 1994 through 2017.
Personnel: Duck Baker - guitar; Derek Bailey - guitar on "Indie Pen Dance" (2002); Steve Beresford - piano on "Duo for 225 strings" (2009)' John Butcher - tenor saxophone on "The Missing Chandler" (2009); Mark Dresser bass on "Shenandoah" and "Pope Slark" (1994); Michael Moore - alto saxophone on "Imp Romp 2" (2008); Roswell Rudd - trombone on "East River Delta Blues" and "Signing Off" (2002); Alex Ward - clarinet and Joe Williamson - bass on "Ode to Jo" (2010); John Edwards - bass and Steve Noble - drums "Tourbillion Air" (2017).
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ESPDISK 1012LP
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Restocked. ESP-Disk' present a Lowell Davidson Trio's self-titled album, originally released in 1965. On Ornette Coleman's recommendation, ESP-Disk' owner Bernard Stollman signed up pianist Lowell Davidson (then majoring in biochemistry at Harvard) for this album without having heard him play. Davidson came to New York and got to work with the elite rhythm section of drummer Milford Graves and bassist Gary Peacock, both stalwarts of the ESP catalog. The interplay among the members of the trio is dazzling, but in all ways the pianist is the star of the album. His playing inevitably drew comparisons to Cecil Taylor (can't blame the critics too much, as there just weren't that many pianists going this far out in 1965, so there weren't many comparisons available), but he is his own man stylistically, and puts more space around his notes. He's equally likely to unleash complexly intertwining two-handed runs, spicy dissonances, shimmering Impressionism, or poignant lyricism. The only recording ever approved for release by Davidson, it remains fresh and exciting fifty years later. Personnel: Lowell Davidson - piano; Gary Peacock - bass; Milford Graves - percussion. Recorded July 27, 1965. Engineering by Art Crist. Photography by George Klabin. Original cover design by Baby Jerry. Tape transfer and mastering by Steven Walcott. Design and layout by Miles Bachman and Michael Sanzone.
"... The composition of the trio is also quite inspired. There appears to have been a symbiotic relationship between the other players -- bassist Gary Peacock, percussionist Milford Graves -- and the pianist. Davidson's superior harmonic sense is beautifully reflected in the manner in which Graves, for instance, employs dynamics to explore tonal colors and rhythmic textures. Although he displays this exquisite sensibility throughout very good examples of this are heard on 'L' and 'Stately.' Peacock achieves no less a state of rarified elegance playing both pizzicato and con arco, especially on 'Ad Hoc.' Note his and Graves' rumbling bass, punctuated by bright splashes on various cymbals, a perfect foil for Davidson's complex forays into the heart of the song's theme." -- Raul d'Gama Rose, All About Jazz
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ESPDISK 1083LP
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ESP-Disk' present a reissue of Free Music Quintet's Free Music 1 and 2, originally released in 1968. Dutch drummer Pierre Courbois, an early adaptor of free jazz, had previously appeared on ESP-Disk' with Gunter Hampel (Music from Europe) in 1968 and that same year recorded this album in a farmhouse (as shown on the front cover) in the village of Weslum, home of group member Erwin Somer. Personnel - Boy Raaymakers - trumpet, bugle, percussion; Peter Van Der Locht - soprano sax, tenor sax, piccolo flute, percussion; Erwin Somer - violin, vibraphone, percussion; Ferdinand Rikkers - bass, percussion; Pierre Courbois - percussion, leader; Onno Scholtze: producer, engineer; Recorded in Welsum, Netherlands on June 24 and 25, 1968.
"One of the most uncompromising free jazz records ever made, this one-off improvisation by a group of Dutch players, led by percussionist Pierre Courbois, is an archetype of the style. Free jazz doesn't just require a lot of unrestrained blowing and freeform noise, although there are passages of that here. The two lengthy improvs build from placid beginnings, as each member adds various percussion instruments to the growing cacophony, before reedsman Peter Van Der Locht (at times playing two saxes at once á la Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and trumpeter Boy Raaymakers let loose. All five players get their chances to lead the quintet, although there's a minimum of soloing. Courbois drives both improvs, and there's a five-minute stretch starting about seven minutes into 'Free Music Number One' where he simply explodes, bashing a trap kit and a variety of other objects like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil on a dozen espressos, armed with a pair of baseball bats. There's an impressive sense of dynamics to the improvs, both of which have sections of near-silence mixed in with the explosions, and there's a structural unity to each improv despite the lack of musical themes or other familiar signposts." --Stewart Mason
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ESPDISK 5055LP
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OPTO S formed in early 2018 in Brooklyn, but the genesis was almost ten years in the making. Argelis Liriano (The Boonies, Last Ones, Ghost Beaters) and Diana K (Hamish Kilgour Band, Giggle The Ozone, Ghost Beaters) befriended each other at Brooklyn basement psych-punk shows and had already been jamming for eight years within the confines of various rehearsal spaces when Diana responded to a social media post by Charles Dodson (Pelvi$$, Ghost Beaters) putting out feelers for a synth-driven new band that would draw on influences such as Sun Ra, Suicide, Oneida, and Silver Apples, to name a few. Charles and Diana had met separately through shows, and all three later determined they had been to many of the same shows, whether they knew each other or not at the time. They found that they were all native New Yorkers. The chemistry was instantaneous and the first few shows were booked within months. Credits: Argelis Liriano - bass, vocals; Charles Dodson - synth, guitar, vocals; Diana K - drums, percussion; with Ben Jaffe - tenor saxophone on "Lucifer Crawl" and "Downlow". Recorded in concert at The Broadway on January 4, 2020 and The Footlight on February 12, 2020. Mastered by Scott Anthony at Storybook Sound in Maplewood, NJ Produced by OPTO S and Steve Holtje.
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ESPDISK 5040CD
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From the producer's liner notes: "It is an interesting question how old 'free jazz' is. At some point, even a theme and a plan became optional. In the ESP-Disk' catalog, 'Taneou' on the Giuseppi Logan Quartet's eponymous album sounds like this approach of complete freedom starting from scratch; it was recorded on November 11, 1964. Joe McPhee, in 1967, appeared on Clifford Thornton's album Freedom and Unity, so his recording career covers 53 of those 56 years, 95% of the approach's history. Each succeeding decade found another player on this album joining the confraternity: Downs in 1976, Morris in 1983, and Belogenis in 1993. By that method of counting, there are 159 years of collective experience being heard on this album. Credits: Joe McPhee - tenor saxophone; Louie Belogenis - tenor and soprano saxophones; Joe Morris - bass; Charles Downs - drums. Cover painting: "tree bark & berries (for c.h.) #5," 2004, by Yuko Otomo. Recorded on January 11, 2020 by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios, Brooklyn NY. Produced by Steve Holtje.
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ESPDISK 1026LP
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[sold out, repressed expected March 2022] ESP-Disk present a vinyl reissue of Henry Grimes Trio's The Call, originally released in 1966. It has occasionally been assumed that Henry Grimes got this December 28, 1965 recording date as a reward for his long service in the avant-garde of jazz. Having already honed his musical conception with a varied range of players, from Benny Goodman and Arnett Cobb to Lee Morgan, Gerry Mulligan, and Sonny Rollins to McCoy Tyner, Steve Lacy, Albert Ayler -- including Spirits Rejoice (ESPDISK 1020CD/LP)--, Don Cherry, and Cecil Taylor (to name just a few), the service was certainly there, but he got this gig fully on his merits. For The Call, Grimes teamed with highly original clarinetist Perry Robinson (as label owner Bernard Stollman has noted, "a virtuoso who merits far wider recognition...and this recording reflects both of their contributions, in equal measure") and stalwart drummer/ESP-Disk' regular Tom Price. As a bassist, Grimes's melodic style is well up to the task of being co-equal voice with a horn, resulting in a thoughtful and texturally rewarding LP with a level of quality far above the rote sideman session cliché, and far away from equally clichéd ideas of unrelentingly full-bore free jazz. It offers the sound of three excellent musicians listening to each other and responding superbly. The Juilliard-trained Grimes appeared on six other ESP LPs besides those already mentioned. He retired at some point after the last of them, 1967's Marzette Watts LP, and went so far off the scene that it was rumored that he had died. Happily, that was not the case, and he reemerged in 2003, moved back to New York, and returned to his prolific ways until illness slowed him down and then took him from us earlier this year (2020). Standard weight vinyl featuring original artwork.
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ESPDISK 3026LP
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Legendary Sun Ra bassist (Ronnie Boykins 1935-1980) stepped out on his own for his first and only release as a leader on The Will Come, Is Now. He was invited by ESP in 1964 to record his own album, and in February 1974, he told ESP that he was finally ready, and the session took place later that month. This recording not only features Boykins's solid abilities as a bassist, including his marvelous arco work, but also his talents as a composer and arranger. In addition, one is treated to an all-natural bass sound, a rare sound during this particular era of jazz history. In septet format, Boykins's six originals create a variety of moods and textures that not only evoke the music of Sun Ra but also reflect Boykins's own sensibilities as an artist. Original pressings, made just before ESP-Disk' went on hiatus for forty years and thus less common that other ESP LPs, often go for upwards of $150. 180 gram vinyl features original artwork; edition of 500.
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ESPDISK 5056CD
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No Love Is Sorrow is the third solo album by American singer-songwriter-guitarist Buck Curran. The album's primary influence draws upon personal experience, along with an idiosyncratic musical style developed over many years as a solo artist and member of the psych-folk duo Arborea. The album presents a body of soundscapes... acoustic and electric instrumentals, psychedelic poetic folk songs... compositions inspired by visions of the surreal landscapes of life: love, hope, loss, fear, transformation, the light of expecting a newborn child, dreams, the realization of impermanence with the recent losses of family members and friends. Further inspiration was drawn from music as wide-ranging as experimental music, '60s, and '70s folk and psychedelic blues-rock, jazz, Western classical music, and Indian classical music. "Ghost on the Hill", "Deep in the Lovin' Arms of My Babe", "Odissea", and "One Evening" are very personal songs that include lyrical themes of love, memories, and fear: "Ghost on the Hill" is a haunting and poetic memoir of life past, "One Evening" (in the poetic style of Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding") is a harrowing statement charged with scenes of contemporary life: love and hope, uncertainty and fear created by society, technology, and politics. "Blue Raga", "No Love Is Sorrow", "Marie", "For Adele", and "Chromaticle", and "Lucia" are experimental tone poems created through improvisation on acoustic guitar. "Django (New Years Day)" is Curran's debut on piano inspired by the music of Claude Debussy and Erik Satie. CD version includes six additional tracks; includes "Lucia", an experimental tone poem created through acoustic guitar improvisation, "War Behind the Sun", a searing psychedelic electric guitar instrumental, and four alternate versions.
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ESPDISK 5042CD
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The second album by this all-star quartet Far Victor's SoundNoiseFunk -- both on ESP-Disk' -- was recorded over two sets mixing planned and freely improvised music. It is a cry of frustration, but also determination and celebration. Frustration with the state of our country, determination to do something about it, and celebration of the power and joy of spontaneous creativity. There are so many things contributing to this album's joyousness in the face of adversity: the funky grooves that Joe Morris and Reggie Nicholson sometimes lock into; the sonic derring-do of Newsome; the breath-of-life singing of Faye Victor that balances radical and traditional, naturalness and craft. Most of all, the way the players' talents mesh into a greater whole. Recorded in concert at Firehouse 12 in New Haven on October 25, 2019. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Greg DiCrosta. Produced by Steve Holtje. Credits: Fay Victor - voice, texts, compositions; Sam Newsome - soprano saxophone; Joe Morris - electric guitar; Reggie Nicholson - drums. Design & layout by Jochem van Dijk. Liner notes by Fay Victor.
"Wet Robots is her debut record as a leader for ESP-Disk', and it's a doozy. The supergroup that the improviser/lyricist calls SoundNoiseFunk -- is entirely deserving of its name -- their red-hot chemistry is evident from the get-go. On Wet Robots, Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFunk sound extraordinarily alive indeed." --Brad Cohan (JazzTimes) on Wet Robots (ESPDISK 5025CD, 2018)
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LP
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ESPDISK 5056LP
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LP version. No Love Is Sorrow is the third solo album by American singer-songwriter-guitarist Buck Curran. The album's primary influence draws upon personal experience, along with an idiosyncratic musical style developed over many years as a solo artist and member of the psych-folk duo Arborea. The album presents a body of soundscapes... acoustic and electric instrumentals, psychedelic poetic folk songs... compositions inspired by visions of the surreal landscapes of life: love, hope, loss, fear, transformation, the light of expecting a newborn child, dreams, the realization of impermanence with the recent losses of family members and friends. Further inspiration was drawn from music as wide-ranging as experimental music, '60s, and '70s folk and psychedelic blues-rock, jazz, Western classical music, and Indian classical music. "Ghost on the Hill", "Deep in the Lovin' Arms of My Babe", "Odissea", and "One Evening" are very personal songs that include lyrical themes of love, memories, and fear: "Ghost on the Hill" is a haunting and poetic memoir of life past, "One Evening" (in the poetic style of Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding") is a harrowing statement charged with scenes of contemporary life: love and hope, uncertainty and fear created by society, technology, and politics. "Blue Raga", "No Love Is Sorrow", "Marie", "For Adele", and "Chromaticle", and "Lucia" are experimental tone poems created through improvisation on acoustic guitar. "Django (New Years Day)" is Curran's debut on piano inspired by the music of Claude Debussy and Erik Satie.
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ESPDISK 5049LP
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Recorded direct to lathe cut, this pair of spontaneous creations teams two Berlin-based horn players with two New Yorkers of broad-ranging vision. Talibam! (Matt Mottel and Kevin Shea) is a 14-year working unit based in New York City that can be described in various ways -- as a classic keyboards/drums expanded-jazz duo, as Dadaist provocateurs with an innate love for the history of music, as a Fluxus-informed theater troupe, as an electronic ensemble inspired by Stockhausen, or as a rhythm section at the cross hair of agility, speed, punctuation, and intention. Since their inception in 2003, Talibam!'s ultimate goal has been to wed disparate ideologies through proficiency, controversy, inquiry, and compassion. This is their fifth release on ESP-Disk'. Silke Eberhard is the recipient of the prestigious 2020 Jazzprize Berlin. Twice she has been awarded a spot in the "Rising Star Alto Saxophone" category in the Downbeat Critics poll. Leader of the Silke Eberhard Trio and the Dectett Potsa Lotsa XL, she has also played with Maggie Nicols, Aki Takase, Gerry Hemingway, Ulrich Gumpert, Dave Burrell, Wayne Horvitz, and more, and is a member of the collective trio I Am Three. Nikolaus Neuser, also in I Am Three, has played with Gebhard Ullmann, Matthias Schubert, Maggie Nicols, Matana Roberts, Matthew Herbert, Tyshawn Sorey, Nate Wooley, Satoko Fujii, Benny Bailey, Herb Geller, etc. His main interest lies in the border areas between jazz, free improvisation, and transdisciplinary projects. Furthermore, he has composed music for several plays, was a guest professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, and appears on more than 50 CDs. Personnel: Silke Eberhard - alto saxophone; Nikolaus Neuser - trumpet; Matt Mottel - piano, synthesizer, three-string guitar; Kevin Shea - drums. Artwork by the late New York poet/collage artist Steve Dalachinsky. Edition of 500.
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ESPDISK 5039CD
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Downbeat calls Matthew Shipp "an elder statesman on the free-jazz scene." Perhaps it is odd in a way to think of someone so energetic and prolific as "elder," or so outspoken as "statesman," yet Downbeat (Bill Milkowski) is right. Shipp turns 60 this December. When he speaks, people listen (the old E.F. Hutton commercials come to mind). With Andrew Hill, Mal Waldron, Cecil Taylor, Horace Tapscott, Randy Weston, and McCoy Tyner now gone, who are the elder jazz piano giants now living? Dave Burrell, Cooper-Moore, Richie Beirach, and Martial Solal come to mind among those still active. Solal is mainstream; Beirach more mainstream now than free though he's been on the edge at times; Burrell and Cooper-Moore still mighty forces as Vision Festival concerts in recent years have shown, but neither especially prolific in terms of recordings. All of them older than Shipp, so he stands alone in his generation. To look at it from a slightly different angle than Downbeat did, Matthew Shipp has established himself as the premier avant-garde jazz pianist of his generation. Shipp is not willing to be put in a stylistic box. And nowhere is that more apparent than in his trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. Starting in the bebop era, the piano-bass-drums lineup has been the most classic jazz format in which the piano is featured, accumulating the weight of history and critical expectations. In this setting, a non-mainstream player such as Shipp can infiltrate Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and other Establishment bastions in a familiar format and then unleash his ideas on audiences that might not normally be exposed to his style. Thanks to hearing it in the communal language of the piano trio, they can better understand the message the Matthew Shipp Trio has to deliver. Shipp, Bisio, and Baker convened at Shipp's favorite recording venue last year looking to pursue a new direction. The result is both distinctively Shippian yet a further evolution of the group's sound. Personnel: Matthew Shipp - piano; Michael Bisio - bass; Newman Taylor Baker - drums. Recorded October 10, 2019 at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, NY by Jim Clouse. Produced by Steve Holtje.
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2CD
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ESPDISK 5037CD
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This is Mr. Mat Walerian's fourth album as a leader, all on ESP-Disk'. He also appears in the Matthew Shipp Quartet on the album Sonic Fiction (ESPDISK 5018CD, 2018). Credits: Mat Walerian - alto saxophone, bass clarinet, soprano clarinet, flute; Matthew Shipp - piano; William Parker - double bass, shakuhachi; Hamid Drake - drums, percussion. Recorded May 21, 2018 at Parkwest Studios, Brooklyn, New York. Produced by Steve Holtje.
"Walerian is alternately introspective and fiery, and the passion of Jungle at times recalls David S. Ware's groups . . . They both soothe the soul and make the heart race . . . Walerian has obviously been studying Ware, Coltrane and their ilk . . . he's on his way to becoming a free-jazz force." --Steve Greenlee on the project Jungle, JazzTimes
"... jaunty and joyous, encapsulating the sound of two superior musicians for whom age and cultural differences mean nothing . . . At times they sound like youthful renegades breaking down barriers with the power of their sound. During others, they come across as wise elders..." -- Michael Roberts on The Uppercut, JAZZIZ
"Mat Walerian is one of those rare musicians whose approach seems to span several eras of jazz history, sometimes even within the same solo..." -- Mark Keresman on the project Jungle, The New York City Jazz Record
"Sort of the new sheriffs in town . . . The difficult task is to choose the highlights. There are so many..." --Mark Corroto on the project Jungle, All About Jazz
"The groans of Walerian's alto against the maelstrom of Drake's drums and Shipp's piano are like listening to a hurricane strain against the walls of an old wooden house . . . He evokes the mastery of John Coltrane in the epic 'One For,' as Shipp plays his most Tyner-esque block chords . . . Walerian interjects flute phrases that sound like tropical birds." --John Swenson, Stereophile
"Mr. Walerian's tone on alto sax is immensely mature sounding and closer to the way some of the elder statesmen of tenor play, lush and sublime . . . The music has a regal elegance, not too dark yet consistently enchanting. A true consistency of excellence!" --Bruce Lee Gallanter on the project The Uppercut, Downtown Music Gallery
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2CD
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ESPDISK 5026CD
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Whit Dickey has been a quiet but brilliant presence on the New York avant-jazz scene since his discographical debut in 1991 on the legendary Matthew Shipp Trio album, Circular Temple (1992). In concert and on recordings in groups led by Shipp, David S. Ware, Ivo Perelman, Joe Morris, and Rob Brown, he built a reputation for distinctively space-filled, subtle rhythmic support, even as he was perfectly capable of muscling up when the music called for it. For some of the people he plays with, three decades yield dozens of releases as a leader, but the present release -- his first on ESP-Disk' -- is just Dickey's 13th at the helm after one in the '90s, seven in the '00s (including groups The Nommonsemble and Trio Ahxoloxha), and four in the recently concluded decade. The musician Dickey has most frequently teamed with is Shipp, and here they are again in a pair of contexts, the first disc a duo, the second a trio with the addition of Nate Wooley. ESP-Disk' quickly understood why Dickey has released relatively few albums as a leader: he is incredibly demanding of himself. There were multiple sessions by each configuration heard here, not to mention a quartet as well; Dickey kept going back into the studio, pushing himself to greater heights until he was finally satisfied. ESP-Disk' got so confused about it that the recording date of the first disc is incorrectly listed in the physical album's packaging; the correct date is listed above.
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LP
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ESPDISK 5032LP
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Painted Faces is the long (strange/trip) running voyage of weirdo David Drucker, which began in Florida in 2009 and decamped to NYC in 2011. It has sometimes been a loose band in the past with a revolving line-up of outsiders and interlopers (known as The Freak Band), but is usually a solo endeavor, and the bulk of the recordings have been done as such. PF has always been a home recording solo project, one-man-band style heavy on psychOdelic/outsider folk/noise/experimental vibes. He started self-releasing CD-Rs in the early days and quickly jumped to tapes on a variety of labels including Already Dead, Lava Church, J&C, Null Zone, Tall Tapes. A "legendary" CD compilation on Gulcher Records and an LP from Already Dead and Almost Halloween Time in Italy brings us to the here and now. Tales from the Skinny Apartment is somewhere around the 20th or so Painted Faces release... he has long lost count. Drucker runs/curates gigs (and records at) the Skinny Apartment, his dwelling place in Ridgewood Queens, which some folks have called the "realest DIY zone in NYC". He also rips in Dead River Company, Big Hiatus, Shecky, Canyon River Blues, and countless other unknown subterranean improv zoner outfits. "Ripping" involves keeping it freaky and weird and ripping sets wherever/whenever, i.e. always being down to perform whether in a kitchen or a packed ballroom. Ridgewood Rippers are the crew of artists that populate Ridgewood and the loose "scene" around the Skinny Apartment. Much of it is in jest, a self-inflated mythology of nonsense which is pervasive in all rock and roll "scene" histories. As a student of rock/pop history, Drucker is fascinated by the loose associations that connect folks from various zones together... i.e. Miles Davis and The Grateful Dead... it's all the same though, the labels and genre distinctions are completely arbitrary. Drucker is known for falling apart on "stage", with performances heavy on humor, horror, stoned digressions, and cathartic bouts of therapy, part performance art/part standup comedy.
All music written and recorded by David Drucker at The Skinny Apartment in Ridgewood, Queens, 2017. Featuring Mike Green (Mezzanine Swimmers) on guitars on "I Took Too Much Acid in 7th Grade", Cop Funeral on electronics on "Seafood Special", Chris "Mr Transylvania" Shields on background vocals on "Massachusetts Is a Magical Place", Eva "Nighttime" Goodman on violin and backing vocals on "The Ridgewood Ripper".
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