In 1985 Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer, the free-jazz legend who played on Manfred Schoof’s seismic 1969 album European Echoes, spent six months soaking up the atmosphere and haunting the jazz clubs of New York. This stunning live performance, recorded in Zürich on Feb. 21, 1986, captures how her stateside stay energized and inspired her. Two lengthy improvised pieces open the album, sizzling with vitality, as she toggles between familiar gambits — refracted boogie-woogie patterns, lightning-fast runs riddled with turbulence, galloping motifs — leapfrogging between ideas with palpable confidence. Her propulsion, including some sly stride flourishes, easily supports her most abstract digressions, whether she’s tooling around inside of her instrument or banging on the lid as a spontaneous extension of her unceasing momentum, seamlessly weaving it all together without a hint of latency.

The title of the charged “Dancing On The Bowery” may reference New York, but the content reminds the listener of Schweizer’s decades-long connection to and ardor for the music of South African jazz expats Abdullah Ibrahim and the Blue Notes, filtered through her own steely aesthetic. That is, until she interpolates a bit of Ornette Coleman’s “Ramblin’,” putting the focus back on New York. As the performance winds down, the pianist essays Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington, on the later while playing a recording of a then-recent New York radio concert calendar, imparting some local flavor. It’s shocking that this remained in the vault for so long, but few documents so directly transmit her love for jazz and her refusal to baldly imitate it.

Zur angenehmen Überraschungen im ziemlich ausgereizten Piano-Solo-Bereich verblüfft eine Künstlerin mit einem phantastischen Konzert aus ihrem Nachlass. Von der eidgenössischen Pianistin und Aktivistin Irène Schweizer (1941-2024) war man bislang überwiegend kompromisslose avantgardistische Klänge gewohnt, doch bei ihrem vor 40 Jahren in Zürich aufgezeichneten Livemitschnitt ist vieles anders. Die Free-Jazz-Ikone begeistert außer starken Eigenkompositionen wie „Dancing On The Bowery“ mit magischen Interpretationen von Klassikern aus der Feder von Jazzgiganten wie Ellington, Coleman und Monk.

According to some, creation is not without loss; when something new is born, energy is taken from somewhere else. The birth of the album minwi is an unquestionable gain. Recorded live at Nublu in 2023, collaborators Candice Hoyes (vocals, sampling), Val Jeanty (percussion, turntables) and Mimi Jones (bass) establish a foundation of awareness, grounding the listener in a new world in what is the trio’s sophomore album. The knowledge invoked seems to arise from sisterhood, both ancestral and present, underscoring the music’s themes of connection and legacy.

From the opening “Ode to Octavia” (in which we are traveling, cycling in sound, echoing in outer space, charting distance with breath) to the sense of both birth and loss in album closer “Wombfire”, which features flutist Nicole Mitchell (who contributes centrally to the piece’s low pulse and breathing), this recording crawls through memories of love and taking hold of the collective imagination of women building together in vision and reality. The theme of creation again arises in “Burf Myself”, which asks the fundamental question: “What do I need?” The answer comes through cyclical rhythms, handclaps and swirling discoveries that give insight into the process of this renewal. Hoyes’ vocals transcendentally soar, calling us back to a deeper past. “You heard me,” she does not ask but rather proclaims, encouraging a need to go inward, to rest and emerge rejuvenated. “Blaxk Mermaids” tells a story of possibility, accompanied by the regal presence of guest trumpeter Milena Casado. Lyrically the tune is a tribute to ancestors who chose the ocean over the certainty of enslavement during the Middle Passage. “Chefchauen Blu” activates all the senses with its percussion, imagining friends together seeing this so-named blue city in Morocco. The refrain, “everywhere we go we will feel…,” trails off in laughter and circles back to “everywhere we go, shawty, will feel like home.” Holding its spiritual depth in the lineage of blues is “Hijas”, the third eye of the album. The rhythm naturally catches the body, involving the listener in its mesmerizing simplicity.

Dreams, birth, imaginings, relationships: these are all journeys that Nite Bjuti braves together. Losing yourself in this emotional and beautiful album is easy to do. Finding yourself in it invites the question: who might hold you in creating new worlds like these musicians hold each other?

NYC native Alexis Marcelo makes up for lost time with the maximum exposure afforded by Solo Piano, his first unaccompanied recording. Although he has been a fixture on the music scene for many years, his sparse discography under his own name doesn’t do justice to someone who studied and performed with legendary multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef and has appeared alongside luminaries such as David Murray, James Brandon Lewis and Craig Harris. Perhaps that stems from having a broad stylistic range that encompasses hip-hop and experimental rock (which can be heard in his duo Lexiglass with drummer Will Glass) as well as the left-leaning improvisations heard here.

Marcelo astutely treads the delicious borderline between form and freedom on a program of eight originals and two covers, captured in a studio session in January 2025. A strong sense of rhythm, allied to a love of pursuing patterns to see where they will lead and a willingness to employ tunefulness and consonance, give his playing its distinctive character. At times he recalls Stanley Cowell in his drive and Amina Claudine Myers in his gospel inflections, the latter especially audible in the churchy contours of “Break Bread”.

The opening “Boogieminish Bop” establishes a fiercely rolling beat and a series of recurrent well-turned motifs, interspersed with out-of-time cascading digressions. That same infectious momentum distinguishes “Dance Around the Sun”, this time with sparks flying from the confluence of dark staccato and treble register eruptions. He displays a more measured demeanour on “Have Mercy”, a delicate chiaroscuro heightened by a stream of vibrant accents, and “Amargado”, where a wistful melody soars and sparkles before swelling into a richly-voiced rubato, all set off by a festive coda that channels his Latino heritage.

Occasional passages of chiming dissonance betray Marcelo’s love of Thelonious Monk, which emerges fully on the closing reading of “Eronel”. He initially plays it straight, before being overtaken by a ragtime impulse at the same time that he plays fast and loose with tonality. The homage provides a fitting conclusion to an album that should put Marcelo firmly on the map.

EN:
In 1985 Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer, the freejazz legend who played on Manfred Schoof’sseismic 1969 album European Echoes, spent six months soaking up the atmosphere and haunting the jazz clubs of New York. This stunning live performance, recorded in Zürich on Feb.21, 1986, captures how her stateside stay energized and inspired her. Two lengthy improvisedpieces open the album, sizzling withvitality, as she toggles between familiar gambits — refracted boogie-woogie patterns, lightningfast runs riddled with turbulence, galloping motifs — leapfrogging between ideas withpalpable confidence. Her propulsion, including some sly stride flourishes, easily supports her most abstract digressions, whether she’s tooling around inside of her instrument or banging on the lid as a spontaneous extension of her unceasing momentum, seamlessly weaving it all together without a hint of latency.The title of the charged “Dancing On TheBowery” may reference New York, but the content reminds the listener of Schweizer’s decadeslong connection to and ardor for the music ofSouth African jazz expats Abdullah Ibrahim and the Blue Notes, filtered through her own steely aesthetic. That is, until she interpolates a bit of Ornette Coleman’s “Ramblin’,” putting the focus back on New York. As the performance winds down, the pianist essays Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington, on the later while playing a recording of a then-recent New York radio concert calendar, imparting some local flavor. It’s shocking that this remained in the vault for so long, but few documents so directly transmit her love for jazz and her refusal to baldly imitate it.

DE:
1985 verbrachte die Schweizer Pianistin Irène Schweizer, die Free-JazzLegende, die auf Manfred Schoofsbahnbrechendem Album „European Echoes“ aus dem Jahr 1969 mitwirkte, sechs Monate damit, die Atmosphäre zu genießen unddie Jazzclubs von New York zu durchstreifen. Dieser atemberaubende Live-Auftritt, der am 21. Februar21. Februar 1986 aufgenommen wurde, fängt ein, wie ihr Aufenthalt in den USA ihr neue Energie und Inspiration verlieh. Zwei lange improvisierte Stücke eröffnen das Album, sprühend vorLebenskraft, während sie zwischen vertrauten Stilmitteln wechselt – gebrochene Boogie-Woogie-Muster, blitzschnelleLäufe voller Turbulenzen, galoppierendeMotive – und mitspürbarer Selbstsicherheit von einer Idee zur nächsten springt. Ihr Vorwärtsdrang, einschließlich einiger raffinierter Stride-Verzierungen, trägt mühelos auch ihre abstraktesten Exkurse, ganz gleich, ob siein ihrem Instrument herumtollt oderauf den Deckel schlägt – als spontane Erweiterung ihres unaufhörlichen Schwungs –, und verwebt alles nahtlos miteinander, ohne den geringsten Anflug von Verzögerung.Der Titel des energiegeladenen „Dancing On TheBowery“ mag zwar auf New York verweisen, doch der Inhalt erinnert den Zuhörer an Schweizers jahrzehntelange Verbindung zu und Begeisterung für die Musik dersüdafrikanischen Jazz-Exilanten Abdullah Ibrahimund der Blue Notes, gefiltert durch ihre eigenestählerne Ästhetik. Das heißt, bis sie einStückchen von Ornette Colemans „Ramblin’“ einfließen lässt und den Fokus wieder auf New York richtet. Während sich die Darbietung dem Ende zuneigt, widmet sich die Pianistin Thelonious Monk und Duke Ellington, wobei sie bei Letzterem eineAufnahme eines damals aktuellen New Yorker Konzertkalenders abspielt und so einen Hauch von Lokal kolorit vermittelt. Es ist schockierend, dass diese Aufnahme so lange im Archiv geschlummert hat, denn nur wenige Dokumente vermitteln so direkt ihre Liebe zum Jazz und ihre Weigerung, ihn plump zu imitieren.

A departure
for UK pianist
Alexander Hawkins
who usually
plays acoustically,
No Nation
But Imagination
expands his
compositional and
international direction with electronic instruments
and more associates. Hawkins uses
synthesizer and sampler as well as piano;
fellow Brit Matthew Wright turntables and
live sampling; while additional textures are
contributed by Welsh harpist Rhodri Davies
plus Americans, flutist Nicole Mitchell and
drummer Hamid Drake.
Wave form crackles and static are omnipresent
as are heightened synthesized aural
colors, while Coda Over The Fence is dominated
by turntable-mutated instrumental
samples. However acoustic and electric
textures are balanced throughout.
Tracks are introduced or expanded with
Mitchell’s transverse trills and Davies’
sweeping multi-string strums or singular
stops. A track like Each And Every combines
the harpist’s pizzicato plucks with darkened
flute trills, surmounted by sampler
wave forms and underlined by Drake’s
drum rumbles.
While some sequences are near pastoral
the best indications of how Hawkins melds
contradiction are Lullaby Much Further and
Hocket Fierce Peaceful. Between Wright’s
dial-twisting jiggles or descending drones
which begin and end the first, drum clanks
and piano comping create a distorted theme.
Wavering flute variables, harp patterns and
Carnatic sound samples initially dominate the
other tune, with pauses leading to a distorted
interchange from electric keyboard ripples
and speedy flute peeps. The result is linear
and limitless.
Hawkins has demonstrated his skill in
other configurations. Pivots to electricity with
an augmented cast suggest further exploration
continues to be rewarding.

Something in the Air

Expanding The Sonic Palate With The Flexibility From A Little Big Band’s Broad But Not Overpowering Instrumentation

Although they were the ensemble of choice for configurations like Count Basie’s Kansas City Seven, Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool sessions, Carla Bley’s groups and Ulrich Gumpert’sWorkshop Band, the little big band of seven or eight musicians has a curious jazz history. Although infrequently on the road, in the studio the group is both bare bones and fleshed out, giving composers and arrangers the maximum amount of sonic colours created by the minimum number of musicians.
One method of using this is demonstratedby American bassist Michael Formanek whonow lives in Portugal. On New Digs (IntaktRecords CD 457 intaktrec.ch michaelformanekintakt.bandcamp.com/album/newdigs-dolby-atmos), he augments his statesideThumbscrew trio of drummer Tomas Fujiwaraand guitarist Mary Halvorson with Portuguesetrumpeter João Almeida and US alto saxophonistJohn O’Gallagher, who lives in Lisbon, plus Canadian tenor saxophonist/ clarinetist Chet Doxas and UK organist Alexander Hawkins.Despite the soul jazz implications suggested by guitar and organ only one of Formanek’s nine compositions – Aka The Stinger – with Hawkins’ organ slides and stops, Halvorson’s rhythmic strokes and Doxas’ slurs and quickened double tonguing, is overtly funky. Otherwise, Hawkins, who usually works as a pianist, uses his dual keyboards for ghostly resonations and pinpointed reverberations on tunes such as Prequel and Quinze. In tandem with guitar frails and double bass stops on the first, he extends the exposition until his ostinato meets contrapuntal drum thumps.Quinze on the other hand balances on speedy organ pulses as three horn vamps splinter with Almeida proffering triplets and swift puffs to both saxophonists’ honks and snarls. Emphasizing timbral accords, instrumental subsets ensure that lyrical story telling is emphasized as much as dissonant variations. At points O’Gallagher builds solos from upwards moans and bites intensified by guitar string tweaks and a bouncing bass line. But shifts in the narratives introduce tougher responses such as portamento brass breaths and string sweeps before initial themes are recapped.
Formanek doesn’t stud the tracks with multiple bass solos. But on Gone Home/Interlude For Susan Alcorn, a threnody for a steel guitarist, he takes advantage of the subsequent multiple sonic colours depicted by other bands members. Initially solo, he then directs his mordant and moving extended bass line towards a full band response that combines harmonized reed patterns and muted brass grace notes. These tender group undulations avoid being maudlin when Halvorson unleashes a coda of a jarring Hawaiian-guitar like twangs.

The album starts with a saxophone taking a few tentative first steps and is soon joined by other instruments conjuring large lumbering animals across a silver apples moonscape. And the album goes on from there, with seemingly infinite variations/permutations of nine ensemble members expressing the panapoly of human experience.

Ches Smith drives the ensemble with a steady pulse, the groove celebrating the European tradition (I was reminded of Bartok’s string quartets, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Magma). The rhythms are multidirectional, but not in the African diaspora sense that Billy Hart describes in Oceans of Time. My understanding is that Webber’s large ensemble albums are through-composed, and to my ears they step close to the contemporary classical line, but register as jazz.

Where does Anna Webber get all these compositional ideas? How does she compose all these fresh and precise instrumental arrangements while mapping out engrossing dynamics over the length of a piece? Webber gives us a glimpse into her process in an interview on the Close Enough For Jazz podcast. When she’s ready for a new project she’ll write for a few hours each morning. Webber says that she also needs to feel like there’s enough time to get into her writing, but also have enough time that it’s OK if she doesn’t make something happen by the end of the day. Webber spent 2 years working on It’s easier to imagine the end of the world… That mix of drifting divination and intense focus helps explain where her stream of ideas comes from.

At 90 minutes, the release is a lot, but rewarding. It took multiple listening sessions to absorb (iPod & bluetooth headphones with house and yardwork, blasting from stereo while on stationary bike in basement, and sitting at the PC).

The album’s official release date is this Friday.

https://jonmgreenbaum.substack.com/p/the-latest-from-anna-webber-camila

Seit 2010 schon hat Sylvie Courvoisier ihr Trio mit Drew Gress (Bass) und Kenny Wollesen (Drums) am Laufen. Anfang 2025 war die Band einmal wieder auf Europatour. Aus drei der Konzerte (Essen, Paris, München) sind hier Mitschnitte kombiniert, klingen aber wie ein einziger zusammenhängender Auftritt. Das ästhetische Konzept des Trios – zwischen Tempo und freier Time – begeistert dabei immer wieder. Kapriziöse Themen und groovende Strecken wechseln sich überfallartig ab mit experimentellen Passagen oder insistierenden Zwischenteilen. Die brüchige Struktur, die unberechenbaren Manöver wirken live noch souveräner als im Studio – man spürt die Freiheit der Erfahrung, die Explosivität der Konzertsituation. Das Trio agiert wie ein einziger Organismus. Nicht genug bewundern kann man Courvoisiers mutiges Klavierspiel, diese knotigen, dichten, dynamischen, mit Neue-Musik-Techniken durchsetzten, oft aggressiven oder dissonanten Figurierungen. Vier der neun Stücke im Programm kommen übrigens vom letzten Studioalbum, „Free Hoops“ (2020).

https://www.jazzthing.de/review/sylvie-courvoisier-trio-eclats-live-in-europe/

Punkt.Vrt.Plastik has spent nearly a decade demonstrating that the piano trio need not behave like a piano trio. Pianist Kaja Draksler, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Christian Lillinger established their peculiar chemistry on the excellent Punkt.Vrt.Plastik (Intakt, 2018), pushed it into more intricately constructed territory with Somit (Intakt, 2021) and documented its live potency on Zurich Concert (Intakt, 2022). Kompress continues the group's unconventional methods while tightening them into relatively concise pieces.

Calling this outside jazz only gets partway there. Punkt.Vrt.Plastik essentially dismantles the traditional piano-bass-drums hierarchy. Draksler is not the designated soloist supported by a rhythm section, nor do Eldh and Lillinger settle into conventional accompanist roles. All three operate as composers, colorists and rhythmic provocateurs. Patterns emerge, collide and disappear; grooves briefly establish themselves before another idea intervenes. Yet beneath the fractured surfaces lies a precise collective logic.

"Yogen" makes the point immediately, combining Draksler's dark, staggered piano figures with a nervous rhythmic undertow. "Trip" inhabits a similarly compressed landscape, where Eldh's bass functions as much as a melodic and percussive device as a conventional low-end anchor. He delves into odd-metered unison lines with Draksler as Lillinger stays on top of the pulse. On "Granular Navigation," the drummer splinters time into sharply defined fragments, joining the bassist for a brisk bop groove while Draksler counters with clipped phrases, clusters and strategically placed silences. At times the trio can sound almost electronically manipulated even when working from acoustic sources.

There are quieter turns as well. "For Sibylle" exchanges some of the group's customary velocity for space and abstraction, while "Mariatorget 87" develops through small gestures rather than a conventional melodic arc. "For A / Kompress" encapsulates much of the trio's approach: dense but controlled, rhythmically elusive and tightly coordinated. Elsewhere, abrupt transitions, fractured pulses and fleeting melodic shapes keep the music in near-constant motion.

What continues to distinguish Punkt.Vrt.Plastik is the absence of fixed roles. Eldh and Lillinger can generate formidable rhythmic machinery only for Draksler to puncture or redirect it; moments later the relationship may reverse entirely. There is tension, humor and the occasional structured groove, though Kompress's densely packed language can also feel somewhat hermetic over the course of the program.

The album does not radically reinvent a vocabulary the trio has already developed across several strong recordings, but it reinforces just how distinctive that vocabulary remains. Moreover, many of these pieces contain memorable primary and secondary themes amid the abstraction. This may still be a piano trio by instrumentation, but little else about Punkt.Vrt.Plastik operates according to the usual rules.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/kompress-punktvrtplastik-intakt-recordss

It might be a touch of hyperbole to say the world wasn’t ready for Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer’s 1986 recording Piano Solo: Prelude To A Kiss And More. Yet listening to it some 40 years later, that may well be your first thought. Schweizer (1941–2024) had already established herself as a formidable improviser through recordings such as Wilde Señoritas (FMP, 1977) and Hexensabbat (FMP, 1978), both later remastered and reissued as a double CD by Intakt Records in 2002. She also recorded several solo projects, although most appeared after she had achieved the international recognition she deserved. Had listeners heard this live performance, recorded in Zürich on February 1, 1986, that recognition might have arrived much sooner.

Schweizer’s music was remarkably fluent, bridging American jazz, European improvisation and African musical traditions. Her collaborations with South African musicians Abdullah Ibrahim and Louis Moholo-Moholo and European innovators Manfred Schoof and Gunter Sommer helped shape a musical language that was both expansive and deeply rooted. In 1984, she traveled to New York to immerse herself in the music surrounding the pre-and post-New Thing, absorbing the city’s history while adding her own perspective. By the time of this Zurich performance, she had returned home as a fully formed artist, one whose music was thoroughly contemporary without severing its connection to jazz tradition.

The performance begins with two extended tour-de-force compositions/improvisations, “IAX—Been to America” and “Struggle on the V.G. Terrace.” Schweizer moves effortlessly between dancing chamber music, passages resembling a highly organized Cecil Taylor, and echoes of George Gershwin. Throughout, fragments of Thelonious Monk surface like familiar landmarks. Monk is more than a reference point here; he is a musical interlocutor. Schweizer quotes, reshapes and challenges his language, sometimes with the piano prepared from within, sometimes while whistling along with her playing.

That dialogue becomes explicit in “Serious Fun,” where Monk’s fingerprints are scattered throughout Schweizer’s own vocabulary. She then turns directly toward her source material with a luminous rendition of Monk’s “Reflections.” On “Once Again Thelonious,” she combines “Work” and “Friday the 13th,” transforming the compositions into a spirited conversation between her own improvisational language and Monk’s unmistakable architecture.

“Dancing on the Bowery” similarly takes inspiration from Ornette Coleman’s “Ramblin.’” Schweizer deconstructs Coleman’s melody and rhythm, rebuilding it as a propulsive piece of chamber jazz. The music seems to carry the energy of New York without attempting to reproduce it, a memory of the city translated through Schweizer’s own hands.

That idea reaches its most playful expression in the title piece, Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss.” Schweizer brings New York to Zürich in an ingenious collision of past and present, performing Ellington’s elegant ballad while a boombox plays a radio broadcast filled with announcements from the Big Apple. The effect is simultaneously humorous, poignant and revealing: the pianist is not merely playing American jazz; she is placing herself inside its history, listening across geography and time.

‘Piano Solo: Prelude to a Kiss’ and More ultimately sounds less like a document from 1986 than a message that somehow arrived early. Schweizer understood that jazz history was not a museum but a living conversation, one in which Monk, Ellington, Coleman, Taylor and others could be quoted, dismantled and reinvented. With extraordinary technique, humor and curiosity, she made that history her own. Forty years on, this performance doesn’t sound like music the world wasn’t ready for, it sounds like music that was waiting for the world to catch up.

Mark Corroto, JazzBlog

Depuis son décès à l’été 2024, Irène Schweizer a laissé un vide palpable, non seulement au sein de la scène helvète où elle avait son ancrage, mais dans bien d’autres recoins du monde qu’elle visita et fit vibrer. Pour autant, la pianiste n’a pas dit son dernier mot. Des enregistrements anciens sont exhumés, redécouverts, et certains sont voués à être publiés. Ainsi de ce concert saisi sur le vif au Volkshaus de Zürich, un lieu accueillant à l’époque à la fois des réunions syndicales et des événements culturels, un 1er février 1986, juste après un séjour de plusieurs mois à New York. Schweizer officie ici en solo comme souligné par la signature patronymique de l’album. La première pièce « Iax – Been To America » qui s’étale sur une douzaine de minutes intenses et complètement libérées relate, par le biais d’un titre au jeu de mots empruntant à une expression typiquement suisse, cet exode temporaire de ceux qui s’en sont allés vers le « Nouveau Monde ». « Struggle On the V.G. Terrace » poursuit sur la même dynamique pendant plus d’un quart d’heure, épilant les cordes de son piano et n’hésitant pas à frapper son couvercle. Ce n’est qu’après qu’elle revient à des pièces plus courtes, donnant des accolades au blues (« Serious Fun »), à Ornette Coleman (« Dancing On The Bowery »), à Monk (« Reflections », « Once Again Thelonious ») pour enfin reprendre en finale « Prelude To A Kiss », la célèbre ballade de Duke Ellington. Un moment en suspension où Irène place un radiocassette sur son piano duquel s’échappe les voix de présentateurs radio faisant l’article de concerts jazz dans la Big Apple. Elle se révèle à travers son jeu unique et généreux, donnant le meilleur d’elle-même devant un public qui allait aller grandissant au cours des quatre décennies qui suivirent.

https://jazzmania.be/irene-schweizer-piano-solo-prelude-to-a-kiss-and-more/

The album’s opening track certainly shifts the Overton window of musical acceptability. After those first fifteen minutes, the rest of the album—abrupt though it may be—unfolds more peacefully by comparison, letting us appreciate the compositions in a different light.

By employing the very stylistic codes it critiques, the music highlights how the unacceptable becomes normalized. The resulting movement toward a different world, one to be invented together, is thrilling. And while the compositions are powerful, striking, and almost oppressive, they remain deeply spellbinding. Ultimately, this album is exceptional.

It’s easy for me to get dark and stay dark right now – to imagine the worst possible ending to everything. But in my reading, I found inspiration from people who helped me imagine a different kind of future, a future where we help each other out and ensure everyone’s basic rights; one in which we take care of each other and the planet.”
–Anna Webber

Anna Webber: tenor, soprano sax, flute; Ryan Easter: trumpet; Yuma Uesaka: clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano sax; Ingrid Laubrock: tenor, soprano sax; DoYeon Kim: 25-string gayageum; Mary Halvorson: guitar; David Virelles: piano; Chris Tordini: bass; Ches Smith: drums, chimes

https://bestofjazz.org/jazz-october-2026/#Anna-Webber-it-s-easier-to-imagine-the-end-of-the-worldd

"In Circles—Yellow Crane" joins two pieces, Co Streiff's "In Circles," which also gave the quartet's 2012 debut its title, and Russ Johnson's "Yellow Crane." At 16 minutes, 27 seconds it is the longest track on Oracle, taken from the group's 2023 European tour. The band has been together on and off since the early 2010s, with Gerry Hemingway on drums since 2019 and Christian Weber on bass.

Sixteen minutes is a lot of room for a quartet with no chordal instrument, and this is where that setup pays off. Streiff and Johnson can stretch out and change direction without anyone reharmonizing under them, while Weber and Hemingway decide how much pressure to apply. Pairing a Streiff tune with a Johnson tune also means the piece keeps changing character, which helps it over the long haul. It is the one track on the album that feels built for a live audience, and it is easy to see why the band would give it this much space.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/oracle-co-streiff-russ-johnson-quartet-intakt-records__320744