FREE JAZZ - recommendations & reviews

[Rubby]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Paul Flaherty, so I will. Paul Motherfucking Flaherty! He has several duo albums with drummer Chris Corsano that give Brotzmann a run for his money. "The Hated Music" is a good starting point. To hear the breadth of his abilities, not just saw intensity, seek out any of his recordings with drummer Randall Colbourne. Easily my favorite free jazz saxist.

[Bruitiste]

Paul's a good one and another great drummer he's associated with is Weasel Walter, probably my favorite torch-bearer of high-intensity, skronking free jazz in these modern times.
Most people know him for his band The Flying Luttenbachers, but he's led a ton of fantastic improvisation dates, like "Ominous Telepathic Mayhem", "Mechanical Malfunction" with Mary Halvorson and Peter Evans, "Plane Crash" with Henry Kaiser, "Flayed" with Alex Ward and Jed Bishop, and "Idiomatic" with Sandy Ewen. 

[PuddysJacket]

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.

Saw brotzmann play a trio set w milford graves and william parker in 2000 or 2001. To this day probably the best musical experience of my life. Graves wasn't even using drumsticks most of the time. I remember reading somewhere that graves used to jam w hendrix back in the day...it's a nice thought to consider there may be tapes buried somewhere.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

I've never worked through Archie Shepp's discography before today, and really enjoying the variety of sounds across albums. I love the balance between more traditional soul music and freak out free jazz. Particularly like these so far:

Four for Trane - more straight ahead bop but reaches out at moments, solid.
Fire Music - I know this one is already considered a classic and I see why. Will be re-spinning this frequently.
Magic of Ju-Ju - Great cover and equally good music. The percussion on the opening track is mesmerizing, great long form song with direction.
Blase - blues based jazz with harmonica and vocals. Description sounds exactly like something I would hate but it works so well here. Dark and brooding sounding, sometimes melancholic. Excellent vision and execution.

Also been listening to Marion Brown who I'm not familiar enough with yet to discuss, but I'm digging it.

[impulse manslaughter]

Today i visited a friend and we talked about the works of Charlie Nothing from the late 60's/70's. Free jazz and psychedelic stuff that might be of interest to those posting in this topic. 2nd lp was reissued a few years ago.

[magnus]

Yeah, Charlie Nothing... I also have a tape from him, it´s something about a "Dingulator" - i believe this is the name of some kind of homemade instrument, possibly made out of old car parts... Recorded in 85 apparently, so much later than the lps. Been years since i listened to any of them, but thanks to this reminder it may be something for the weekend!

I can also recommend the new LP from Joe McPhee And Lasse Marhaug - "Harmonia Macrocosmica", really nice!

[Zeno Marx]

Andrew Hill - Judgement! 1964

This guy has become an obsession.  What a fantastic piano player.  I'd like to hear Steffen Schleiermacher play this album.*  But yeah, this a nice bridge, at least from my perspective, from free to avant-garde jazz.  This isn't noisy in the least, but it is jagged and very interesting.  Accompanied by vibraphone, bass, and drums.  I don't much care from the vibraphone, but with Hill's percussive style, the tones play off each other in a stunning way.  Not overly dense, so there's a lot of room for everything to breathe.  Power and elegance.  Really impressive to my inexperienced jazz ears.

*If you want to hear Cage, or really anyone he touches, played in the most amazing way, give Steffen Schleiermacher a go.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Andrew Hill - Judgement! 1964

This guy has become an obsession.  What a fantastic piano player.  I'd like to hear Steffen Schleiermacher play this album.*  But yeah, this a nice bridge, at least from my perspective, from free to avant-garde jazz.  This isn't noisy in the least, but it is jagged and very interesting.  Accompanied by vibraphone, bass, and drums.  I don't much care from the vibraphone, but with Hill's percussive style, the tones play off each other in a stunning way.  Not overly dense, so there's a lot of room for everything to breathe.  Power and elegance.  Really impressive to my inexperienced jazz ears.

*If you want to hear Cage, or really anyone he touches, played in the most amazing way, give Steffen Schleiermacher a go.

Went back and listened this morning. It had been awhile since I've listened to Hill. The vibraphones absolutely add a beautiful depth, Hutcherson was the master. I was very surprised to see it was Elvin Jones on drums as the playing style was a lighter touch than his usual playing, I thought it was Roy Haynes.

Agreed that Hill is a good in-between for the bop to free jazz genres. The early-to-mid 60s albums lean heavier on the traditional side which I actually love. Not always in the mood for a the extreme. Black Fire, Judgment!, and Point of Departure are all great. Then Compulsion comes out and it's his most forceful and free statement to date. Stacked group as well with John Gilmore of Art Blakey and Sun Ra fame, Freddie Hubbard, Cecil McBee, and Joe Chambers.

[absurdexposition]

Joe McPhee with the Bill Smith Ensemble - Visitation (1985)

After flipping through a pile of jazz magazines we had at work, and reading a bunch of interviews with Mile Davis, I came across one from 1984 or 1985 with Bill Smith interviewing Joe McPhee in Toronto when McPhee was in town to collaborate on this record. I'd known Joe McPhee by name for a while and quite enjoyed his recent album with Lasse Marhaug ( https://joemcpheelassemarhaug.bandcamp.com/track/harmonia-macrocosmica ) as well as his album with Konstrukt from a couple years back ( https://omlott.bandcamp.com/album/if-you-have-time ). His style is full of colour, life and soul and his collaborations always sound very natural, especially on Visitation, which also has the added bonus of them tackling Albert Ayler's classic 'Ghosts'.

https://youtu.be/IphD9bi-j_A - this might just link to the first track, but the whole album appears to be on YouTube.

The reissue has an ugly cover, the original is much better: https://www.discogs.com/Joe-McPhee-With-The-Bill-Smith-Ensemble-Visitation/release/2482788

[queloide]

For this kind of stuff, anything by Kaoru Abe and Borbetomagus' Snuff Jazz and Barbed Wire Maggots is all I really need. Joe McPhee is also great, The Open Door cd with Dominic Duval is pretty good.

[deviated_septum]

Funny enough, picked up Paul Flaherty, Randall Colbourne, and Richard Downs' Primal Burn at a record store this weekend on a whim. An absolute heater I'm surprised goes for so cheap.

[Aldous]

Sensor

https://sensor3.bandcamp.com/album/crossfade-frequencies

[Zeno Marx]

I first heard material from The Process of Weeding Out MLP on the Live '84 tape, which was cassette-only at the time.  Unexpected from Black Flag and sort of blew my mind.  I'd been listening to Black Flag for a few years, but I knew nothing of Greg Ginn or really, anything about the band.  Next to Slip It In and that live tape, it's my most listened-to Black Flag.  For me, it's aged as well as anything they've done.  Having read about it since, I still don't fully understand what "12-tone structure" means, but when I try to understand Harry Partch, I don't get that analysis either.  I haven't found Gone to be nearly as satisfying, so it seems like there was this small pocket in time when Ginn was at his freest and most interesting.  Many BF fans would love to enter a time machine and see them in the 1979-1980, pre-Rollins era, but I think I'd tap late 1984, or early 1985, into the machine so I could see one of their few instrumental sets.  These are both very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NA5cW2nXfo

https://youtu.be/-Loq5OPsnaQ

[holy ghost]

Many BF fans would love to enter a time machine and see them in the 1979-1980, pre-Rollins era, but I think I'd tap late 1984, or early 1985, into the machine so I could see one of their few instrumental sets.  These are both very good.

Same here - gym shorts Rollins/free jazz Ginn was the best era of BF.

[Bleak Existence]

same for me too about Black Flag best period period