It seems impossible, given the breadth and depth of his output, but it’s true: Tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has only been “on the scene” for a little over a decade. He’s made more than 20 albums under his own name in that time, and that’s not even counting the work of Heroes Are Gang Leaders, the large, Burnt Sugar-esque ensemble he co-led with poet Thomas Sayers Ellis. Lewis is extremely prolific, and the quality of his work is never less than impressive despite — maybe because of — its variety. In this piece, though, I want to focus on just one of his groups: the quartet he’s been leading since 2020 with pianist Aruán Ortiz, bassist Brad Jones, and drummer Chad Taylor.

The group seems to have arisen out of a Lewis/Taylor duo project. “I first saw Chad Taylor playing with Cooper-Moore in maybe 2014”, Lewis recalled in a 2021 interview with Troy Collins. “Anyway, we began collaborating after I did arrangements of Coltrane tunes for a solo saxophone marathon in Philly some time ago, and then decided to use those arrangements for our duo, which we recorded as our first album Radiant Imprints.”

That album, recorded in January 2017 at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, was released the following year. In its wake, the two performed in Austria, recording the album Live In Willisau, which included a version of “Willisee”, a piece from the Dewey Redman/Ed Blackwell album Red And Black In Willisau.

“My love for the duo recording Red And Black by Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell, as well as Chad Taylor’s love for that recording, sparked our own duo and further cemented our dedication to the depth of exploration of the duo format”, Lewis told Collins. He added, “Chad has a high level of melodic lines via the drums and it inspires me. Also, his use of mbira adds to his overall artistry in very dynamic ways. His versatility in knowing many musical genres allows me to draw from multiple influences within my own experience, giving me ultimate freedom.”

The first James Brandon Lewis Quartet album, Molecular, was recorded in January 2020 and released later that year. His previous working group had been a trio with bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Warren Trae Crudup III, which expanded to include guitarist Anthony Pirog and trumpeter Jaimie Branch. With those collaborators, Lewis swirled hard bop, post-harmolodic funk, and rock into a loud, cathartic sound, jazz you could pump your fist to. This, though, was something very different.

The tenor saxophone is the beating heart of jazz. The lineage of jazz tenor saxophone, from the 1920s to the present day, represents a legacy that living musicians must grapple with, night after night, on stages and in recording studios around the globe. Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Don Byas, Jimmy Heath, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Johnny Griffin, Charlie Rouse, Gene Ammons, Hank Mobley, Fred Anderson, Archie Shepp… the list goes on and on.

The modern tenor saxophone quartet, though, exists in the shadow of John Coltrane. It’s that simple. Obviously, he wasn’t the first tenor saxophonist to record and perform with that combination of musicians, but his work in quartet format from 1962 to early 1965 has become paradigmatic. Since Coltrane’s death, saxophonists — even legends like Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson, never mind (chronologically if not stylistically) post-Coltrane players like David Murray and David S. Ware — have often seemed to approach their quartet albums with a certain obligation toward gravitas. And that’s definitely true of the work of the James Brandon Lewis Quartet. The compositions on Molecular have a stateliness and grace that he sidesteps in much of his other music.

That’s partly because they’re written according to a set of principles Lewis refers to as Molecular Systematic Music, which he explained in a 2020 essay. Fundamentally, his concept is that the sum of what a musician has heard in their life is the DNA of what they will play on their chosen instrument. “MSM offers musicians a way to discover their own musical DNA by examining their prior musical experiences, yielding a chart in the form of a ‘molecule’ which may then be used to generate ideas for composition and improvisation.”

Of course, a group’s sound is created by all of its players, and that’s certainly true here. Pianist Aruán Ortiz is adept at blurring jazz, the music of his native Cuba, and avant-garde/modern classical composition into one unique sound. Bassist Brad Jones is a subtle, calming presence, existing at the center of the music, not so much an anchor as a celestial body everything else orbits. And drummer Chad Taylor has a rolling, tom-heavy style that blends swing with diasporic grooves. And the three of them were playing together before Lewis came on board; they have a trio album from 2018, Live In Zurich, that’s very different from the quartet’s music. The performance consists of a 34-minute medley of two pieces, followed by an 18-minute one, and ends ...

The vibe-focused songs of Apple Cores are an appropriate precursor to Abstraction Is Deliverance, the fifth album attributed to Lewis’ quartet of Taylor, pianist Aruán Ortiz, and bassist Brad Jones. While songs like “Ware” (dedicated to late saxophonist, composer, and bandleader David S. Ware) and “Remember Rosalind” are sonic journeys, the majority of the tunes here play as vignettes, despite their length. “Per 7” features a charming call and response between Lewis and Ortiz while the rhythm section lurks, off-kilter. “Even the Sparrow” seems to get quieter and calmer as it sways along. “Mr. Crick” and “Polaris” exemplify Lewis’ lyrical playing, like he’s narrating a prologue to the stories of Jones’ bass solo and Ortiz’s funk groove, respectively.

Abstraction Is Deliverance is also the more emotional of Lewis’ two albums this year, with no small thanks to its centerpiece, a stunning version of Mal Waldron’s “Left Alone”. It’s a fitting tribute not just to the composition but to Waldron’s life itself. Waldron started out playing with legends Charles Mingus and John Coltrane, became Billie Holiday’s regular accompanist until her death, overdosed and was left unable to remember music, and then gradually regained his skills. He would record, either as leader or sideman, hundreds of albums before his death in 2002 at 77. The quartet’s “Left Alone” juxtaposes Ortiz’s sprinkled piano with Jones’ foreboding bowed bass and Taylor’s trotting drums, ultimately giving way to Ortiz’ dexterous piano solo. It’s a 9-and-a-half minute piece whose sheer weight feels like it encompasses Waldron’s story more than a biopic ever could. It’s also, perhaps, the best manifestation so far of Lewis’ ever-burgeoning ethos, one in constant conversation with the past while remaining firmly rooted in deep appreciation of the collaborative process.

https://sinceileftyoublog.tumblr.com/post/785334641415667712/james-brandon-lewis-album-review-apple-cores

Splash is a new trio led by pianist and composer Myra Melford, featuring bassist Michael Formanek and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith. The project is the latest installment of Melford’s work inspired by post-abstract expressionist painter Cy Twombly. The sudden action implied by the trio’s name reflects the kinetic energy in Twombly’s paintings, making Splash a truly exciting debut; one can easily hear that without having seen Twombly’s art – although the painting from the Lepanto cycle on the album cover certainly suggests the vibrant abstractions within.

Melford has studied Twombly’s work since witnessing a major retrospective of his at the Museum of Modern Art three decades ago. Over the last several years, Melford has explored this interest with her quintet Fire and Water (named after a series of Twombly paintings); composed a set of Twombly-related music for MZM (a trio with harpist Zeena Parkins and koto player Miya Masaoka); and plans to investigate similar ideas with bassist Joëlle Léandre. Splash is Melford’s latest response to this artistic legacy, starting a new chapter in her august career as a bandleader.

Recalling her 1990s work with the collective Trio M (with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Matt Wilson), Formanek and Smith are also renowned improvisers, composers, and bandleaders. Together with Melford, they evoke the dynamic volatility of Twombly’s work, but as alert listeners and adept accompanists their versatile range also facilitates chamberlike options, especially when Formanek plays arco and Smith switches to vibraphone. These occasional diversions yield a delicate beauty, flush with impressionistic filigrees and pointillist asides. Beyond such relief, Melford’s expansive compositions for this trio strike a balance between formal design and vivacious spontaneity.

Jagged lyricism contrasts with steady grooves on the opener, “Drift,” where Melford’s flinty cadences careen over the rhythm section’s driving momentum before a pneumatic unaccompanied bass interlude is complemented by luminous vibraphone and piano, followed by fervent improvisations on vibes and then drums over a mesmerizing piano vamp. The more experimental “The Wayward Line” follows with frenzied collective abstraction passing through reflective tonalities, culminating in a probing piano passage at a frantic tempo. “Freewheeler” similarly surges with unflagging force, before suddenly downshifting to highlight Smith’s dulcet vibraphone, which contrasts with the leader’s propulsive determination. “Streaming” kicks off with more rambunctious drumming and funky bass, while pirouetting piano melodies dance above, eventually joined by bowed bass and scintillating vibraphone.

Working in tandem, “A Line with a Mind of Its Own” finds bass and piano performing in parallel, while Smith plays drums with lock-step precision until a pliant piano solo unifies with a melodic line. Conversely, Formanek alternates between Melford and Smith on “Dryprint,” partnering with one then the other to contrast with the odd trio-mate out – it’s as striking an approach as Twombly’s brushwork. Likewise, three untitled “Interludes” scattered about the program each feature a different soloist, while the other two musicians work from a score. Providing final respite, “Chalk” closes the album with shimmering, neo-classical modality. Melford loops repeated pitch sets in repetitive patterns that change speeds, emulating a specific painting – “Untitled, 1970” – that features three coiled lines scrawled across a canvas.

As part of Melford’s continued investigation of Twombly’s work, her sonic interpretations of his visual art come not out of literal transposition, but through implied action. The relationship between Melford’s current music and Twombly’s oeuvre doesn’t need to be fully understood to appreciate it, but it wouldn’t exist in its current form without it. Melford gives her trio-mates ample interpretive freedom on Splash, and together they demonstrate expansive sonic palettes that are as searching and expressive as Twombly’s art.

https://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD91/PoD91MoreMoments4.html

Working through a series of tenor saxophonist Christoph Irniger’s compositions, the Swiss Pilgrim quintet uses this live session to personify its variant on contemporary improvisation. Well played with just a touch of extended techniques, the program is substantive, but not as daring as the audience – and possibly the musicians – considered. With the straight-ahead stance rarely breeched, forays into Rock-styled flanges from guitarist Dave Gisler and a few intense squeaks and split tones from Irniger appear to be carefully controlled departures, which underscore the linear nature of the tunes, Bassist Raffaele Bossard’s pizzicato variables usually take the form of low-key thumps, while pianist Stefan Aeby mostly concentrates on disciplined comping and coloring, with the same intent from drummer Michael Stulz’s smacks and thumps.

That means most tunes are propelled like “Emergency Exit”. Forward motion is emphasized, with moderated piano expressions widening into the melody, only slightly interrupted later on with reed honks, doubled drum pumps and expanded guitar licks. Only bisected with a few short interludes, this policy is followed pretty much throughout the set. Irniger’s reed flutters and expressive variations frequently fasten onto keyboard slides, which when joined by one or another of the players evolves with multiple counterpoint.

Intensity and emphasis are more extrusive when band members stretch out a little further as they do on “Calling the Spirits” and “Seven Down Eight Up”. The first is atmospheric enough to echo 1970s spiritual Jazz with piano syncopation and double bass buzzes preserving the broken octave evolution. This surface gives the saxophonist a base on which to express doits and honks while Gisler seems to alternate between chamber patterns and charged projections.

This seeming unwillingness to go beyond the limits of decorum affects the entire session even when as on “Seven Down Eight Up” it appears the five are prepared to go further. Effervescent with a stop-time exposition propelled by the pianist’s light-fingered groove and Bossard’s pizzicato variable, the pace picks up as intermittent bass thumps back Irniger’s note-bending ascends to intense double tonguing and near screeches seconded by the guitar’s blurred fingering flanges and Stefan Aeby’s double speed comping, The saxophonist though soon relaxes his outpourings joining with the pianist to repeat theme variations.

An adept night’s work for an appreciative audience, Human Intelligence clearly shows what this group of pilgrims offer in a live setting. A wish that this pilgrimage had been more challenging and move into unfamiliar territory exists however.

https://www.jazzword.com/reviews/christoph-irniger-pilgrim/

Irène Schweizer Lives On!
Last July the remarkable Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer died at the age of 83. She was a titan, a musician of serious depth and interests who ended up an invaluable feminist voice in the creative music world. I wrote a post looking at her work last year, but I’m delighted to share some additional words about her again, as last month Intakt released the first in a series of archival recordings featuring her playing. Irène’s Hot Four is a searing live album taped at the 1981 edition of Jazzfestival Zürich featuring a manifestation of her long-time partnership with reedist/accordionist Rüdiger Carl. The band is rounded out by drummer Han Bennink and double bassist Johnny Dyani, a founding member of South Africa’s Blue Notes. The group existed for about a year-and-a-half, playing only a handful of shows, including one the following night of this performance at Berlin Jazztage. In 2019 she met with the folks who founded the association the Friends of Irène Schweizer, which is devoted to her legacy and has partnered with Intakt to make some previously unreleased recordings available. If this stunning new release is any indication of what we can expect then we should all buckle in and welcome the ride. When the pianist heard this recording at that first 2019 meeting she said, “Nobody plays like this today,” but I think that’s more of a reflection on the individualism and vast experience of the four participants than a comment on the approach here, which is fully improvised.

Her comment certainly doesn’t mean this music sounds like it’s from the past. The four spontaneous tracks here are as electrifying, deep, and inspired as anything I’ve heard this year. It reflects the notion of a total music celebrated in Europe during the 1970s, where any style, approach, or ethos seemed fair game. The music is staunchly modern, but there’s an audible love and respect for tradition ripping underneath everything. The four musicians here engage in a thrilling exchange, routinely going against the prevalent grain one moment only to form a dazzling union the next. There are indelible Schwèizer trademarks, such as the rollicking left-handed figures that featuring heavily in the opening salvo “Reise,” a breathless 23-minute romp of give-and-take and ebb-and-flow endlessly powered by Bennink’s manic energy and the driving percussive for Dyani could unleash with his bass. Check it out below. Still, even though the sonic landscape here is constantly evolving, the band is incredibly locked-in and focused, not simply responding to the unceasing flow of ideas in real-time, but also straddling multiple themes or motifs at once. And although the performances are marked by serious heat and intensity, there’s also a palpable sense of ease and familiarity among the musicians, who all display a willingness to try different things, whether it’s Bennink delivering an exegesis on drumsticks-as-instrument in the opening minutes of “Freizeit” or the spontaneously soulful singing Dyani imparts on “All Inclusive.” Each improvisation is stuffed with contrasting ideas, radically changing timbres—as Carl switches between instruments and the pianist uses preparations—and internal challenges to one another. I don’t know if I’d agree with Schwèizer’s assessment that nobody plays like this today, but I sure wish more people would try! On the horizon in the series is a late 1980s solo performance and recordings from the Feminist Improvising Group—the radical ensemble formed by Maggie Nicols and Lindsay Cooper, which included the pianist for most of its history—the first officially released document of the ensemble’s work.

https://petermargasak.substack.com/p/insideoutside?r=3bsno&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

Described as innovative and as “constructing a new sound world”, Hawkins has been making albums since 2009 both as a pianist and Hammond organist. There are thirteen compact solo instrumental pieces where the pianist explores “the expressive possibilities of the piano”; Adam Shatz in the liner notes refers to “marvels of compressed exploration”. Early on he idolised Art Tatum (Lots of technical prolificity need then!), also absorbing the music and moves of the likes of Monk, Bud Powell, Elmo Hope and Cecil Taylor.

My impression is that this is a great album for putting on in the background, but also for serious piano aficionados for appreciation and study; perhaps as a listener best appreciated selectively to appreciate the intricacies and nuances of each piece. ‘Polyphonic Song’ is an impressive opener, as Hawkins ingenuously builds towards a repetitive and haunting piano motif with astute variations before a ‘winding down’ diminuendo. The next piece is more complex, but perhaps not as arresting, to be appreciated in a different kind of way perhaps. I detected classical influences on ‘Song of Infinite Variations’ (Some of the titles are giveaways!); ‘Song Symmetrical’ is a grand reverie with beguiling serpentine piano runs. The refined obtuseness of Cecil Taylor’s pianistic style is reflected on pieces like ‘Crinkle, Crinkle’ and ‘Song of Interdependence’ while the closing two pieces use an uncustomary number of chords and less extrapolation in a satisfyingly atmospheric conclusion to an artist whose subtle sonic piano explorations has won the admiration of reviewers, audiences and fellow musicians such as saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings who made a surprise appearance on stage with Hawkins in December, 2023.

https://www.Dimensions in Sound and Space.com/post/alexander-hawkins-song-unconditional-intakt-records-2025

The nine original tracks in 64 minutes as performed in 2023 Germany by Switzerland’s resident genius sax man, Christoph Irniger, and his amazing Pilgrim quintet, make Human Intelligence Live (Intakt) an adventure. With some tracks freely improvised – spontaneous composition! – and others notated, the journey starts with “Hendrix.” (Check out guitarist Dave Gisler’s spiraling solo.) These guys have been playing together for the last 15 years, thus their chemistry is as intuitive as it is second-nature. “The Kraken,” is under two minutes and “Calling The Spirits” is over 14 minutes. This is an album to lose one’s self within. There’s new things to discover with each new listen.

https://www.theaquarian.com/2025/04/16/rant-n-roll-five-discoveries/

Myra Melford Splash is a damned exciting piano trio record. You can know that without immersing yourself in the paintings of Cy Twombly, whose work inspires the music — although the piece on the album cover (part of Twombly’s famed Lepanto cycle) certainly suggests the bright contrast, odd shapes and ordered abstraction within.

What’s more important is that those elements make Splash a blast to listen to. Pianist Melford’s expressionistic squiggles really pop against bassist Michael Formanek and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith’s deceptively steady grooves on “Drift.” Inversely, it’s they who stand out against her determined propulsion on “Freewheeler.” “A Line With A Mind Of Its Own” finds all three players somehow in relief against each other, each playing their own version of the idea expressed in the title while also working in tandem. One never knows where any or all of them will go, but it sure is fun to find out.

A powerful sense of kinesis drives the entire album (not unlike the graffitiesque forms in Twombly’s art, but, again, that’s a minor point). In the first two of Splash’s three “interludes,” that kinesis functions ironically; frantic or pointed piano, bass and vibes figures converge into placid, meditative wholes. (The closing “Chalk,” though not an interlude, does the same.) The third accomplishes a more daunting task as a tranquil whole deconstructs itself into oblong shards — without sacrificing the tranquility.

It’s “Drypaint,” however, that best showcases the motion at work in this music. Formanek transitions back and forth between Melford and Smith, partnering with one then the other to draw angular, segmented lines that aggressively clash with whoever is the odd trio-mate out at any given moment. It’s as striking and fresh an approach as Twombly’s.

https://downbeat.com/reviews/editorspicks/april-2025#15465

"The one thing I concluded was not to try and reproduce a live event—I thought, live goals are different. There might be more improvisation, more risk," Christoph Irniger reflects in the liner notes to Pilgrim's 2023 studio album Ghost Cat (Intakt). The saxophonist and composer reinforces the idea with this electrifying live recording, captured at Red Horn District in Bad Meinberg, Germany, in November 2023.

For 14 years, Irniger's quintet—pianist Stefan Aeby, guitarist Dave Gisler, bassist Raffaele Bossard and drummer Michael Stulz —have been refining their chemistry, releasing half a dozen albums along the way. Here, they embrace unpredictability, performing without a set list and allowing composed material to flow seamlessly into group improvisations. The result is a performance that feels both risky and deeply intuitive—in the best possible way.

The quintet's synergy is evident from the start. The concert opens with "Hendrix," where Stulz's meditative touch on pads and cymbals draws the ensemble in before Gisler launches into a blues-soaked homage to Jimi Hendrix. "Calling the Spirits" sustains the introspective mood with bowed strings, plucked piano insides, bells, and airy saxophone, gradually building into soaring solos reminiscent of Wayne Shorter's final ensemble. Irniger knows exactly when to shout and when to whisper, skillfully balancing power with restraint.

Elsewhere, "Secret Level" evokes the percussive chants of Kahil El'Zabar, while "Seven Down Eight Up" playfully stutters with glitch-like bursts of notes. The quintet constructs complexity through continuous deconstruction and reinvention, a feat made possible by their deep musical connection.

By the time the concert reaches its closing piece, "Back in the Game," the journey has come full circle. Irniger's final notes serve as both a reflective farewell and a musical remedy—an uplifting conclusion to an exhilarating, boundless performance.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/human-intelligence-live-christoph-irnigers-pilgrim-intakt-records

Christoph Irniger’s Quintet returns with a groundbreaking live album, Pilgrim: Human Intelligence Live, set for release on March 21, 2025, via Intakt Records. The album captures the quintet’s gorgeously intricate yet improvisationally free approach to jazz, recorded live at Red Horn District in Bad Meinberg, Germany, on November 29, 2023.

Led by Zurich-based tenor saxophonist Christoph Irniger, the quintet has become one of the most dynamic and innovative forces in contemporary European jazz. On Human Intelligence Live, Irniger and his bandmates—Stefan Aeby (piano), Dave Gisler (guitar), Raffaele Bossard (bass), and Michael Stulz (drums)—deliver an electrifying performance that blends spontaneous improvisation with meticulously composed moments.

About the Album
Pilgrim: Human Intelligence Live showcases the quintet’s unique ability to balance structure with freedom, with a blend of fully notated compositions and free improvisation. The music effortlessly shifts between reflective moods and wild, energetic outbursts. Irniger describes the album as a journey for listeners who enjoy taking their time to immerse themselves in evolving music. The album captures the quintet's chemistry, which can be heard in real time as the musicians make spontaneous decisions, take risks, and find their way together.

Irniger explains in the liner notes: “The music develops through stages of emotion—there are doubts, questions, resolutions. It's like living together in society, and how I’d wish it to be.”

The Quintet’s Evolution
Since its formation in 2010, Christoph Irniger’s Pilgrim has been a leader in European jazz, constantly evolving and incorporating influences from across the jazz world. The quintet’s sound is at once cohesive and imaginative, combining fluid improvisations with tight ensemble playing. The album’s tracks explore a wide range of moods and complexities, from the meditative to the intense, and everything in between.

Track Highlights
Hendrix (5:31)
A slow-burning tribute to Jimi Hendrix, this track features a stellar guitar solo from Dave Gisler and combines simplicity with complexity, drawing inspiration from both Hendrix and Thelonious Monk.

Calling the Spirits (14:27)
A deeply spiritual piece celebrating the power of music to unite communities. It was originally released on the studio album Ghost Cat and reflects Irniger's belief in the transformative power of music.

Secret Level (3:38)
This track, originally released as a ghost track on Ghost Cat, explores the idea of a "secret level" in video games, but here, the level is easy to find but hard to escape from, creating a metaphor for life’s challenges.

Human Intelligence (Interlude) (2:18)
A brief but powerful reflection piece, where the complexity of the music takes a step back, leaving space for thought and personal reflection.

Seven Down Eight Up (13:06)
Inspired by Aikido principles, this track delves into the idea of resilience and overcoming obstacles, written during a time of personal recovery for Irniger.

The Kraken (1:48)
A Wayne Shorter tribute piece that evokes the imagery of the legendary saxophonist's ability to embrace an entire concert hall with his presence and musical energy.

Human Intelligence (6:14)
A full version of the interlude track, this piece represents the quintet’s collective ability to engage in mindful evolution and the growth that arises from reflection and resolution.

Emergency Exit (12:25)
A complex suite built around the theme of finding one’s way out of difficult situations, symbolizing the different emotions one experiences during life’s challenges.

Back In The Game (5:23)
Closing with a track from the first quintet album Italian Circus Story, this piece evokes the feeling of a film’s exit music, reflecting the cyclical nature of life and the confidence that things will come together.

Recording Details
Pilgrim: Human Intelligence Live was recorded live on November 29, 2023, at Red Horn District in Bad Meinberg, Germany. The album was mixed in September 2024 by Christoph Utzinger in Bern and mastered in November 2024 by Alex Huber in Zug. The album features artwork by Jamie Breiwick and graphic design by Paul Bieri, with liner notes by Kevin Le Gendre and photos by Markus Ecker.

https://jazzchill.blogspot.com/2025/03/christoph-irnigers-quintet-releases.html

In Postmodern Theory, hyperreality is defined as a state where the domain of reality has become so heavily mediated by signs as to become inaccessible in itself, leaving us entirely where reality is a simulation that simulates itself, what French semiotician Jean Baudrillard calls the simulacra, texts that bear no relation to anything outside of themselves. Baudrillard argued that social production has shifted from creating real objects to instead producing signs and symbols. This system of symbolic exchange, detached from the real, constitutes hyperreality.

An example of this is any attempt to create a vegan version of an animal product like eggs and cheese. A better example is the music piped into the majority of our commercial establishments. It is no longer that created by the original musicians, but the same music made by nameless, often inferior cover bands, adding a cultural layer between the real and synthesized. The supreme example is the band Mostly Other People Do The Killing and their recording, Blue (Hot Cup Records, 2014) where the band reproduces, note-for-note Miles Davis’ pivotal Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959), to what ends, anyone can guess.

All of this in introduction to Christoph Irniger and his Pilgrim Quintet. There is a sacred place in jazz after Ornette Coleman’s 1959 The Shape Of Jazz To Come (Atlantic) where jazz artists attempted to float a sound that was at the triple point of free jazz, advant garde, and the mainstream, creating a tension between the traditional chordal paradigms and freely express chaos. In the area of vocal jazz Emilia Vancini’s sublime And If You Fall, You Fall (Espira, 2020) provides a similar meeting of approaches as does Martial Solal’s Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love (CAM Jazz, 2010) and his recordings with alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, e.g., Star Eyes, Hamburg 1983 (HatOLOGY, 1998).

Tenor saxophonist Irniger takes this spirit a step further with a live collection of songs, some freely improvised, with other meticulously notated, but the majority living in between these creative extremes. It is an artisitic highwire act that Irniger and company put on and build upon. Human Intelligence Live, is Irniger’s sixth recording and was recorded at the Red Horn District in Ban Meinberg, Germany in November 2023. the Pilgrim Quintet consists of Irniger, pianist Stefan Aeby, guitarist Dave Gisler, bassist Raffaele Bossard, and drummer Michael Stulz. the recording’s nine selections run a gambit between the lengthy rumination of “Calling All Spirts” and the Tony Williams Lifetime-inspired “Emergency Exit.”

This is anxious, often bombastic music not intended for casual listening. Irniger demands the listener’s attention, drawing them in gradually and then hold them captive. The opening track, “Hendrix,” is a study in gradual evolution, starting slowing and all the while building into a noisy and ecxtatic climax. It is the very definition of cresendo. the piece begins with Stulz’s muted toms and cymbals overwhich Irniger’s throaty tenor and Aeby’s careful chording evolves into a plush chordal bed for Gisler’s electric exposition recalling Eddie Hazel’s ergot-inspired guitar orgy on Funkadelic’s 1971 release, “Maggot Brain.” A tacit homage to Jimi Hendrix, it could just as easily include Thelonious Monk as a target.

In another lengthy exposition, “Seven Down Eight,” the ensemble produces a noisy and arbitrary cityscape, like a wild Monday morning in Manhattan. This music hums with excitement and anticipation, demonstrating that its performance requires every bit the musicianship of a band leader calling a tune on the bandstand without imforming the rest of the band what it is and every member knowing their role. This is free music that makes internal sense readily accessible by even novice listeners. Compelling and authoritative, as well as measured and thoughtful, Irnger and his quintet produce a wholey organic brand of music that is real and not some abstract copy of itself or other’s music. There is no simulacra here, only the genuine article.

https://www.wildmercuryrhythm.com/p/christoph-irniger-and-pilgrim-human

Incorporating multimedia elements from the visual arts, literature, poetry and architectures into the music, innovative pianist Myra Melford presents her debut trio album, inspired mostly by the work of American post abstract expressionistic painter Cy Twombly (It would be interesting to know how she goes about this).

Opener ‘Drift’ quickly introduces drummer Smith with some ‘adjacent’ (counterpoint even) piano, ‘chiming’ percussion, and a bass solo from Formanek (who employs arco acoustic bass in the music). I loved the xylophone-rich (Smith again) ending with its inventive drum break. The opening ‘free for all’ of ‘The Wayward Line’ gives way to some intricate interplay. ‘Freewheeler’ ends in ambience as a piano/ xylophone’ melody shines through. ‘Streaming’ is a thunderous piece with another drum break and some avant-garde piano, while ‘A Line with a Mind of its Own’ lives up to its title, like a wayward musical study without ever straying too far. ‘Dryprint’ shows the physicality mentioned in the liner notes, a marvellous exposé of musical agility that sees Melford rippling up and down her piano at breathtaking speeds and some octopoidal drumming from Smith. ‘Chalk’ has some nice reflective moments to conclude an album which is punctuated by three interludes, the first with a scraped bass sounding like a cello), piano and xylophone combining on some ingenuous arpeggios that create the impression of a chiming clock, confirming the music as not only expressionist but impressionist.

https://www.Dimensions in Sound and Space.com/post/myra-melford-splash-with-michael-formanek-and-ches-smith-intakt-cd-2025