John Sharpe

A fantastic launch for a very good new album All It Was at the Vortex last night from the @oliebrice.bsky.social quartet. Having a band with the pedigree of Alexander Hawkins, Rachel Musson and Will Glaser meant that some wonderfully propulsive tunes became vehicles for blistering improvisations.

Smoke pouring from the adjacent building truncated a thrilling set from the incendiary quartet of saxophonists Camila Nebbia and Colin Webster, bassist Caius Williams and drummer Andrew Lisle downstairs at the Vortex last night. Fire music indeed!

Great concert from John Butcher, Chris Corsano and Florian Stoffner @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night. Butcher operates at a staggeringly consistent high level, but this must be one of the most potent settings for his timbral ingenuity and mastery of sound placement.

Today is the 101st arrival date of Sun Ra Arkestra Director Maestro Legend Marshall Belford Allen - 25th may 1924 Happy Birthday with space age celebrations

Anna Webber's Simple Trio with Matt Mitchell and John Hollenbeck really brought her intricate charts to bristling, pulsating life on her UK debut @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night, with much of the repertoire deriving from her excellent simpletrio2000 album on Intakt.

Magnificent show from the James Brandon Lewis Trio at the Vortex last night, with that sublime tenor sound riding in incantatory waves over bustling grooves crafted and polished by Josh Warner on electric bass and the great Gerald Cleaver on drums.

A splendid noise from Paul Dunmall's Double Quartet @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night. As someone said, more Ascension than Free Jazz, but actually less ordered than either, with roles merging into a single, impassioned, responsive organism rather than a cycle of solos.

Yes indeed! That set was a real ear-opener for me.

Saxophonist Camila Nebbia was very impressive @cafeotodalston.bsky.social on Sunday with her energy, timbral range and ability to forge a narrative, in a highly combustible trio completed by drummer Andrew Lisle and bassist Caius Williams, who was a worthy substitute for the missing Kit Downes.

Excellent article. I only have one Strata-East album, Stanley Cowell's solo Musa: Ancestral Streams, but it is a superb.

I've seen her at the Vision Festival a few times, but I think this was her first time in London for many years.

Lovely show from the wonderful Amina Claudine Myers @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night where for over 90 minutes she played her own inimitable mix of gospel, jazz, blues and episodes more tricky to label.

The last Soundhunt (for a while at least) went out with a bang in Cambridge on Sunday afternoon, with three short duos, from hosts Dominic Lash and N.O.Moore, a first time meeting between Tansy Spinks and Ben Jones, and an established duo from David Birchall and Alistair Zaldua, before all together.

I really enjoyed Alex Bonney's trio with Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders at the Vortex last night, especially his first set piece dedicated to late trumpeters Ron Miles and Herb Robertson, and then the improv set when both he and Dunmall were blowing freely and Sanders was brewing up a storm.

I got to review two excellent records for the March edition of Point Of Departure: Bone Bells by Mary Halvorson and Sylvie Courvoisier; and Rare by John Butcher and Sophie Agnel. Read about them, and lots of other great things here: www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD90/PoD90M...

Two superb sets from Craig Taborn and Peter Evans at the Vortex last night. I had a silly grin on my face from the first notes, marvelling at the dazzling interplay and constant weave in and out of their original charts, as well as one from Paul Motian.

Anthony Braxton reflects on six decades of exploration in music Ahead of a performance at the Library of Congress, Dr. Thomas Stanley sat down with the avant-garde legend to talk about notation, legacy and the AACM.

New long Anthony Braxton interview

YouTube video by Don Giller Cecil Taylor Unit Live at Antioch College, April 3, 1971

Cecil Taylor Unit

Live at Antioch College, April 3, 1971

Cecil Taylor (age 42), piano
Jimmy Lyons (39), alto saxophone
Sam Rivers (47), tenor and soprano saxophones, and flute
Andrew Cyrille (31), drums

youtu.be/wDB3_2QguNg?...

I see there are also a few duo and trio discs with Lacy. I'll start there and see where that leads....

By bizarre coincidence I was just listening to Steve Lacy's The Wire from 1975 on which Togashi plays as I saw your post, and thinking this was someone I need to hear more.

...and Maarten van Regeren Altena. Bill Shoemaker talks about the genesis in a chapter in his essential book Jazz In The 1970s.

Background research for an upcoming project is leading me down some wonderful rabbit holes. I've just relistened to the A side of Company 5 for the first time in some 30 years and realized what a wonderful piece it is: a septet with Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Leo Smith, Braxton, Lacy, Honsinger.....

I was so gripped by The Brutalist that I couldn't focus on the soundtrack, though I glimpsed bassist Joel Grip, pianist Simon Sieger and saxophonist Pierre Borel in the club scene, and picked out John Tilbury's piano, I couldn't distinguish Evan Parker, Seymour Wright or Axel Dorner et al.

Image taken at his Pizza Express duo concert with Keith Tippett on 9 March 2016 (later released as Journal Four by the wonderful NoBusiness imprint).

I was saddened to hear of Howard Riley's passing. His trio with Barry Guy was one of the seminal groups of the time, and though undersung, paved the way for many later improvising piano units. But if anyone wants to dive into his later work, I can't recommend the 6 CD Complete Short Stories enough.

Image from Tyshawn Sorey's website.

Fabulous set from Tyshawn Sorey's Trio @cafeotodalston.bsky.social last night. I thought the latest album was good, but here everything was dialled up and edgier: the individual contributions, the contrasts, the hypnotic intensity. And they played without pause for over 130 minutes. Incredible.

I enjoyed the new Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary, even though the band's heyday was slightly before my time. It was a real treat to see the extended live footage of complete songs, especially the excitement in the 1968 clip from Sweden, before they'd even taken on the name, which was tremendous.

In over an hour's worth of understated excellence, Tyshawn Sorey takes the vaunted piano trio and gives it a delicious tweak on the nose with The Susceptible Now. My thoughts on p17 here: nycjazzrecord.com/issues/tnycj.... I can't wait to see them live @cafeotodalston.bsky.social on Monday!

I've not thought about that Stan Tracey disc in a long time. I saw that quartet a few times back in the day, definitely one of his best. I'll have to dig it out and give it a spin later.