Search Result for Artist Mars Williams
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CVSD 105CD
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At the tail end of 1996, saxophonist Mars Williams and drummer Hamid Drake took the tall corner stage at Chicago's Empty Bottle for two sets of duets. The rock club had just started a weekly Jazz & Improvised Music Series, curated by Ken Vandemark and John Corbett, which would run for nearly a decade. This rare pairing brought together two pivotal figures in the city's creative music scene, both of whom had extensive experience in diverse areas of music, from the free jazz focus of this intimate encounter to Mars's stints in rock with the Waitresses and the Psychedelic Furs and Hamid's work in Mandingo Griot Society, playing in reggae house bands, and lending rhythms to hits by Herbie Hancock. As eclectic as these inputs were, in the deep souls of Williams and Drake they added to the players' burgeoning inventive resources, rather than urging the players to pastichery. In the venerable dialogical lineage of saxophone and drum kit, these two contemporary ninjas indeed invented their own approach, very different, for instance, from other such duo settings for Drake, like those with Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, or Ken Vandermark. Here, the fiery reed-work of Williams lends the concert a special urgency and punch, Drake's funk trap imbued with G-force, his cymbals ringing with nuance, his toms speaking like a whole West African drum choir. Williams responds to this positive energy with one of his most commanding performances, starting with his composition "The Worm" (written for Dennis Rodman of the Bulls), and continuing through a series of phenomenal improvisations. Released by CvsD as part of a series of archival Mars Williams CDs, hand selected by Williams shortly before his untimely death in 2023, I Know You Are But What Am I? goes on the record proclaiming the lasting power of Mars Williams, especially in the company of a master like Hamid Drake.
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CVSD 107CD
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When Mars Williams dove into his vault to excavate several recordings for a Mars Archive series on Corbett vs. Dempsey, he immediately landed on a concert date from a decade earlier. The event, recorded at Chicago's Elastic Arts Foundation in 2012, featured a trio with Williams on reed instruments, Darin Gray on bass, and Chris Corsano on drums. This configuration had already been highly enough estimated by Williams that he'd posted one set on Bandcamp, but he saved the other set for future release, and selected it to be the third CD in CvsD's archival suite. Gray is of course well known to creative music insiders for his work with Jim O'Rourke and Akira Sakata, and as half of On Fillmore (with Glenn Kotche, of Wilco fame); he's a massively resourceful player with keen ears. Corsano is one of the hardest working percussionists in improvised music who has played with everyone under the sun, among them Joe McPhee and Okkyung Lee. In this freely improvised context, the threesome works almost as a single organism, spinning sounds that develop organically and patiently. Dave Zuchowski documented the date in a gorgeous recording. This is creative music at an exceptionally high level, with no gimmicks or compromises. Taken together with the other episodes in the Mars Archive series, it helps paint a full some picture of the restless creativity that was embodied in Mars Williams.
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ESPDISK 5030CD
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A product of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians who studied with AACM founders Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, saxophonist Mars Williams is most famous as a member of The Psychedelic Furs but has proven his jazz bona fides with Peter Brötzmann and Ken Vandermark and while guiding Liquid Soul and Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble, to name just a few. His rock CV is also varied, including many years in Akron new wave band The Waitresses and work with Billy Idol, Ministry, Massacre, and many more. He also leads the Albert Ayler tribute band Witches & Devils, and out of their holiday concerts grew a unique tradition. One look at this album's track titles and you'll understand the concept here. One listen and you'll hear that, as odd as that concept may seem, it's brilliantly effective, with the disparate melodies working together in their common projection of joy and celebration. And it's worth noting that Williams's worlds collide on track three here, featuring The Waitresses's biggest hit, "Christmas Wrapping", as he played on their original recording. After enjoying An Ayler Xmas Vol. 1 (2017) last year, ESP-Disk' invited him to make Vol. 2 a co-release of Williams's Soul What Records and ESP-Disk', the top Ayler label. Personnel: Mars Williams - saxes, toy instruments; Josh Berman - cornet; Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello; Jim Baker - piano, ARP synthesizer, viola; Kent Kessler - bass; Brian Sandstrom - bass, guitar, trumpet; Steve Hunt - drums, percussion; Jeb Bishop - trombone; Thomas Berghammer - trumpet; Hermann Stangassinger - bass; Didi Kern - drums, percussion; Christof Kurzmann - lloopp, vocals.
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