Check out the final track and you'll hear why Toronto's Rich Brown is hailed as one of the finest electric bassists on the planet. His new solo album, Nyaeba, is filled with over-the-moon technique and electronic wizardry. English bassist Neil Charles' debut, Dark Days , is fueled by the words of James Baldwin, while guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi continues to explore his fascination with the compositions of Tim Berne. Another solo exploration comes from pianist Aruán Ortiz, continuing to dig deep into the heart of Afro-Cuban music. Argentinians Fabio Rodríguez Piñas. Lucas Albarracín & Matías Formica blaze through their first-meeting free jazz session while Dave Sewelson, bearded master of the baritone sax, is in familiar company on the new Muscle Memory. I think you'll find something you will like in this edition of One Man's Jazz.

Playlist

Linda May Han Oh "Living Proof" from Strange Heavens (Biophilia) 00:00
host speaks 04:12
Dave Sewelson "Muscle Memory" from Muscle Memory (Mahakala Music) 06:25
Smooth Elevator "Slow Mover" from Moving Target (Losen) 23:19
host speaks 31:00
Neil Charles "They Do Not See" from Dark Days (Jazz Now) 32:47
Satoko Fujii Quartet "Low" from Dog Days Of Summer (Libra) 39:43
Tim Berne "Yikes" from Yikes Too (Out Of Your Head) 46:22
host speaks 53:00
Gregg Belisle-Chi "Yikes" from Slow Crawl—Performing The Music Of Tim Berne (Intakt) 54:47
Olie Brice Quartet "And We Dance On The Firm Earth" from All It Was (Westhill) 1:00:28
Irreversible Entanglements "Fireworks" from Irreversible Entanglements (International Anthem) 1:06:39
host speaks 1:15:51
Sifter "Chant" from Flake/Fracture (Queen Bee) 1:17:36
Felix Henkelhausen Quintet "Particle One: For Emac" from Deranged Particles (Enja) 1:25:30
Juán Chiavassa "To Michael Brecker" from Fourth Generation (Whirlwind) 1:31:32
host speaks 1:39:49
Aruan Ortiz "From The Distance Of My Freedom" from Creole Renaiisance—Piano Solo (Intakt) 1:42:48
Lily Finnegan's Heat On "RSJ" from Heat On (Cuneiform) 1:50:26
Miguel Angelo Trio "God And Einstein" from Distopia (+Records) 1:56:06
host speaks 2:01:17
Fabio Rodríguez Piñas.: Lucas Albarracín & Matías Formica "Mandala Del Guerrero" from Esfera (dForma Discos) 2:03:29
Dan Rosenboom "Coordinate 1: Many Worlds, Many Dances" from Coordinates (Orenda) 2:11:20
host speaks 2:15:44
Rich Brown "Heart Of A Lonely Woman" from Nyaeba (Whirlwind) 2:17:55

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/dave-sewelson-aruan-ortiz-neil-charles-and-rich-brown

Guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi’s longtime attachment to the singularly modern jazz of saxophonist Tim Berne led him to make a record of all Berne songs. Koi: Performing the Music of Tim Berne (2021) kicked off a mini-wave of overdue Berne tribute albums and Belisle-Chi himself had ended up playing in Berne-led ensembles, mostly as a duo or trio. But that close collaboration with his musical hero hadn’t quenched his thirst to cover Berne songs apart from Berne in his own voice.

Thus, the Brooklyn based-guitarist is offering a whole new set of Berne covers. Performed again solely on acoustic guitar, Slow Crawl: Performing the Music of Tim Berne, Vol. 2 (August 15, 2025) can be regarded as a straight continuation of the stunning Koi collection, and also like that earlier album, it’s loaded with Berne songs not previously heard anywhere else.

“Yikes” is one from the Berne-led trio that includes Belisle-Chi and drummer Tom Rainey. This rendition follows the blueprint Berne carried out for this band’s Yikes Too album that came out at the beginning of 2025, yet, Belisle-Chi makes it possible to untangle this tightly packed, seemingly polyharmonic composition. “Sorry” strips down the “Sorry Variations” (also from Yikes Too) down to its core pattern, revealing that when the improv parts are removed, Berne songs are often not nearly as knotted as they can seem to be.

Belisle-Chi could have easily drawn more tunes from that record, as he’s so familiar with them from regular club dates with the trio, but he wasn’t so interested in an ‘easy’ way out. “Cluster” is drawn from Berne’s only unaccompanied album Sacred Vowels (2020), so Belisle-Chi is able to portray the chords Berne could only imply, and does so at an unhurried pace as to allow the song to fully breathe and unfold.

As far as I can tell, the rest of the fare can’t be found on any Tim Berne recording, thus it’s assumed that Berne wrote them for this certain project, as indicated by Belisle-Chi’s own liner notes.

https://somethingelsereviews.com/2025/08/14/gregg-belisle-chi-slow-crawl-performing-the-music-of-tim-berne-vol-2-2025-aug-15/