FREE JAZZ - recommendations & reviews

[brutalist_tapes]

i would say:

peter brötsmann - machine gun
derek bailey - solo guitar
anthrony braxton - for alto

these three are close to being noise, actually. i also like ornette colemans "the shape of jazz to come", but while it's dissonant, it's not as wild as the three mentioned above. there is also a danish guy still working called jørgen teller, apparently trying to combine stooges-like punk rock guitar and free jazz

[holy ghost]

there is also a danish guy still working called jørgen teller, apparently trying to combine stooges-like punk rock guitar and free jazz

I'd love to hear this - will have to do some digging.

The recent Derek Bailey reissues I'm Honest Johns have been fantastic. The Bailey/Han Bennink one in particular is so far removed from "jazz" and is a real treat. A lot of yelling and screaming etc. The Solo Guitar DLP is just such a needed reissue.

Bill Orcutt takes a lot from Bailey - I've been listening to a lot of Harry Pussy lately and he's got a real great chaotic vibe.

[Thor]

I have a lot of SUN RA material. I'm listening to 'Hidden Fire' right now which inspired me to start this thread. Any noise freak will find things to love in the chaotic and dissonant live material of the early 1970s where he sometimes did twenty minute synthesiser solos which sound more like they fit on Come Org or Broken Flag ten years later than in the world of jazz. In the enormous discography there is everything from angular free blowing to silly sci-fi chanting to swing era standards to a full album of cover versions from Walt Disney films. Discovering Sun Ra is like entering another dimension and I would compare its impact on me to discovering Throbbing Gristle at a young age. Sharing a dressing room and a bill once with Marshall Allen who still keeps the Arkestra alive despite approaching the age of 90 was like a dream for me - doubly so as he's an extremely bright, pleasant, amusing and shockingly down to earth man.

Sun ra is god

[holy ghost]

I was really huge into Zu for a hot minute and kind of forgot about them. Been jamming "How To Raise an Ox" with them and Mats Gustafson and "The Way of The Animal Powers" and they're both excellent. I will have to look out for their newer albums. That's gotten me back into stuff like 16-17, Painkiller.... this sort of stuff with a wild drummer and electric bass fucking rips so hard when the "mood is right".

I have been really into the Braxton "In The Tradition" LPs as of late -  raxton with a bunch of Scandinavian jazzers skronking through the classics. Really exciting stuff. I need to track down the 6 Monks Co positions LP as well.

[victoraalvarez]

Globe Unity 67 by Globe Unity Orchestra
and
European Echoes by Manfred Schoof

Both are extremely dense and as dense as I've heard free jazz wise.

[ricjaff]

masayuki takayanagi -- this album is a beast

https://youtu.be/k8eIXTJKrlU

[Zeno Marx]

I was really huge into Zu for a hot minute and kind of forgot about them. Been jamming "How To Raise an Ox" with them and Mats Gustafson and "The Way of The Animal Powers" and they're both excellent. I will have to look out for their newer albums. That's gotten me back into stuff like 16-17, Painkiller.... this sort of stuff with a wild drummer and electric bass fucking rips so hard when the "mood is right".

Yes, I remember the bass being particularly good with Zu.  I hope that is correct.

I started listening to this the other day and haven't finished.

Akira Sakata: alto saxophone, Bb clarinet, voice
Kiko Dinucci:electric guitar
Kohei Gomi: electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums
Toshiji Mikawa: electronics

https://pnlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-japanese-noise

[magnus]

I have been really into the Braxton "In The Tradition" LPs as of late -  raxton with a bunch of Scandinavian jazzers skronking through the classics. Really exciting stuff. I need to track down the 6 Monks Co positions LP as well.

I saw Braxton in concert last Friday here in Stockholm, he played with his octett. I´ve never been that much of a fan, he is too academic and calculated for my taste, and allthough nice it didn´t really grab me all that much. He still had plenty of very nice long, flowing solos and looked in very good shape indeed.

[dodecaphonic]

Abe Kaoru

[coinbender]

I was really huge into Zu for a hot minute and kind of forgot about them. Been jamming "How To Raise an Ox" with them and Mats Gustafson and "The Way of The Animal Powers" and they're both excellent. I will have to look out for their newer albums. That's gotten me back into stuff like 16-17, Painkiller.... this sort of stuff with a wild drummer and electric bass fucking rips so hard when the "mood is right".

Yes, I remember the bass being particularly good with Zu.  I hope that is correct.

I started listening to this the other day and haven't finished.

Akira Sakata: alto saxophone, Bb clarinet, voice
Kiko Dinucci:electric guitar
Kohei Gomi: electronics
Paal Nilssen-Love: drums
Toshiji Mikawa: electronics

https://pnlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-japanese-noise

this is raw

[holy ghost]

I have been really into the Braxton "In The Tradition" LPs as of late -  raxton with a bunch of Scandinavian jazzers skronking through the classics. Really exciting stuff. I need to track down the 6 Monks Co positions LP as well.

I saw Braxton in concert last Friday here in Stockholm, he played with his octett. I´ve never been that much of a fan, he is too academic and calculated for my taste, and allthough nice it didn´t really grab me all that much. He still had plenty of very nice long, flowing solos and looked in very good shape indeed.

I mean this is different strokes but I saw him and his band in 2017, went to Montreal for the weekend to see him and Roscoe Mitchell and it was absolutely grand. The band was 'out' even for me with what, two harp players and a tuba but it was just unreal to see a living legend perform. I think about that show as a top 10 life experience.

In comparison to say, Ornette Coleman who saw a few years before he passed it was totally different energies. Ornette was great but played "the classics" where Braxton is never afraid of really just cutting the fuck loose and going so out there with young players and a fresh juicy attitude.

[Haare]

Globe Unity 67 by Globe Unity Orchestra
and
European Echoes by Manfred Schoof

Both are extremely dense and as dense as I've heard free jazz wise.

European Echoes is awesome.
I recommend Milford Graves "Bäbi" and "Nommo" too. No sax skronk but great albums. Bäbi was recently re-issued on cd, Nommo is damn hard to find & expensive.

[holy ghost]

Babi rips hard!! I got the CD reissue recently and it's great. It's a vinyl rip but very well done. Arthur Doyle shreds on this one.

I recently found Cecil Taylor's "Conquistador!" - original Blue Note press for $25 in a shop. I've had the CD and then a reissue LP but to clamp down on an OG is a huge one. Bill Dixon is seriously on point for this one.

I've been really into Frank Wright, I found the Italian reissue of the Frank Wright Trio LP from 1965 - great listen. I've had Your Prayer for a while and that one even more fierce. I have "Unity" on CD which is live in '74 and a full hour of skronk.

[PuddysJacket]

Blue Humans - Live in NY 1980


unbelievable record.

[holy ghost]

Picked up the reissue 12" of the Brötzmann/Van Hove/Bennink LP "Free Jazz Und Kinder" from Total Black - not known to me before now and wow - a free jazz workshop with a bunch of 8-10 year olds recorded in 1972. It's fucking insane. Wow. As chaotic as any other Brötzmann stuff but also, mostly made by kids? This record is just out to lunch and has received my HIGHEST possible recommendation!